#199 Anthony Anderson Gets Real About Diabetes

Anthony Anderson Gets Real….

Anthony Anderson (ABC's Black-ish and To Tell The Truth) is on the show to talk about living with type 2 diabetes, his work on Black-ish and much more.

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 -  or their favorite podcast app.

You can Get Real About Diabetes on Facebook and the Web. 

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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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
Hello, everyone, welcome to Episode 199 of the Juicebox Podcast. I'm incredibly excited to tell you that today's guest is the star of blackish on ABC to tell the truth. You've seen him in the transformers. He's voices in your favorite cartoon, the man does everything. I was about to say that in his spare time he came on the podcast to talk about get real about diabetes, but then I realized, I think he was in a car being driven from one thing to another when I spoke to him, so it's possible he doesn't actually have any spare time. Before we get started, I want to thank the generous sponsors of the podcast Dexcom Omni pod and dancing for diabetes, you can go to dexcom.com Ford slash juice box, my omnipod.com forward slash juice box or dancing the number four diabetes.com to learn more. There's also links in your show notes at Juicebox podcast.com.

Anthony's on the show today to tell us about his life with type two diabetes and about his project with Novo Nordisk called get real about diabetes. And then I get to ask him some, like, you know, fan questions at the end, and I'll have some bonus audio as well. That'll be at the very, very end. I'll explain later. Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, and to always consult a physician before making changes to your health care plan.

Unknown Speaker 1:27
Anthony Hello, Hey, brother, how are you? Good, good.

Scott Benner 1:36
Can I start by just thanking you for doing this? I am. This shows usually focused on type one diabetes, but I think a lot about the need for a type two humanity. And it's just it's really good of you to add your name and your face to this, I really appreciate it.

Anthony Anderson 1:51
Oh, no problem, thank you for doing what you're doing.

Scott Benner 1:55
You know, I see all the time that people need good information. But they also need how, you know, they need to know how to put it into practice. And sometimes even that isn't enough for them until they can really look forward and see someone else accomplishing something that maybe they can't even imagine doing. It's it's an incredible benefit. And and sometimes people can't get started on their own. So it's, you know, especially with type two diabetes, with the stigma that sort of unfairly attached to it. It's, it's, it's really, it's amazing. So thank you very much. Can I start by asking you how long you've had type two? Going on 18

Anthony Anderson 2:29
years now? Did you tackle it immediately? or

Scott Benner 2:33
How did you how did you handle being told that you had diabetes? Was it something you expected to happen? Or did it kind of take you by surprise

Anthony Anderson 2:42
took me by surprise, I wasn't expecting this at all, I handled it as best I could with the with the limited information and knowledge that I had at the time and and then just over the years, getting more knowledgeable about the disease and how it affects the body, how it affects me, it only helped in my I shouldn't say aid but only helped in me dealing with it and maintaining a healthy lifestyle over these past 18 years hasn't always been the best, you know that there have been challenges just like anyone else who has this disease and just dealing with something new and how it affects the body, and lifestyle. But, you know, over the course of time, becoming more knowledgeable about, you know, how it affects me how the food that I eat, how that changes inside my body. And all of that, you know, and that and that that's what led me to this partnership with Novo Nordisk what we're about to say.

Scott Benner 3:42
I was just gonna say it's incredibly interesting. The human spirit is amazing, because even though there was type two in your family, it didn't occur to you like you never thought that it was going to happen to you. I think that's so common for everyone, you know, no one, it would be hard to live your life if you're always expecting something like that to happen.

Anthony Anderson 4:00
And what's crazy about that is yet it's in my family, but I was the first person that was diagnosed with it, you know, we made it which made it interesting, which made it interesting for me, you know, and once I was diagnosed with it, and and realizing what my symptoms were, and are and I realized that growing up, my father had the symptoms of a type two diabetic, but was never diagnosed because he never went to the doctor to to have that checked out. And, and years later, after my diagnosis, he was diagnosed as a type two diabetic. So yeah, it ran in the family, but I was the first one affected with it. That's crazy,

Scott Benner 4:45
did it in hindsight, Do you ever wonder if your father sort of was authentically who he would have been if he knew and was able to keep his blood sugar more under control?

Anthony Anderson 4:57
No, no, I mean, yeah, I do.

Scott Benner 4:59
I do know I do think that and no, I don't believe he was as authentic as he could have been bad. Now knowing how this disease can affect people, especially onset, my daughter has type one diabetes, she's had it since she was two, and she's 14 now. And I think that one of my main, I don't know, responsibilities is to keep her blood sugar in a place where she can be who she's meant to be, so that she doesn't spend time, too low or too high, just sort of, you know, going through life, as a shell of, you know, of who she'd be if she didn't have diabetes, it's just, it's incredibly interesting to me that he lived that long with it and just never know.

Anthony Anderson 5:37
Yeah, you know, and, and now that I know what the symptoms are, and what to look for, in a person that that, you know, has diabetes or whatnot. You know, I look at my father and I always thought he was just fatigued and tired because of the hard work that he did. My father worked in the steel mills of Los Angeles, and I was also a small business owner. And, you know, I thought that was just taking its toll on him, you know, there would be midday nap, you know, there would be fluctuation of weight I was like, you know, if my pops is, has always been a big Manny's and Little Rock, Arkansas six for, you know, 300 plus pounds, and then sometimes he would slim down and sometimes he would, you know, bulk up and, you know, they are okay, but but now I am having having those things happen to me. When when I left. When I just wasn't conscious, I'm not gonna say when I let my sugars go unchecked or the do disease go unchecked when I wasn't conscious of the things that I needed to be doing. You know, of a dammit, this is what my father was going through. And I know how it's made me feel in the past. And I can only imagine, you know, how it was affecting him.

Scott Benner 6:57
Can I ask you, when you really started to pay closer attention to your diet and your exercise and and everything you know, that's important for you, especially having tied to how much of your focus was on getting yourself healthy, and how much of it was about being a better role model maybe for your children. I'm going to handle the ads differently today. Because of the length of this episode, just let me briefly say that the podcast is sponsored by Omni pod makers of the tubeless insulin pump that my daughter has been using for a decade. It is sponsored by dexcom, makers of the G six continuous glucose monitor. And of course, by dancing for diabetes. At the end of this episode, I'm going to give you more information about all of them, links where you can check them out, learn more, maybe get a demo sent to you. How much of your focus was on getting yourself healthy, and how much of it was about being a better role model maybe for your children.

Anthony Anderson 7:53
I was a combination of both, you know, it was a few years into the disease Not that I never took it seriously or, or worked at my health. But as there's comes a time he was like, Okay, you know what, I have to kick this up to another level, I didn't want to, I didn't want to leave my family like my father left cuz I didn't want my children and my wife to have to deal with a premature death of me because of a disease that had gone unchecked. And if there was something that I could do, you know, to make this better, I'm pulling out all the stops. So it was a combination of all that combination of being healthy, not only for myself, but for my family.

Scott Benner 8:45
I think you make an incredibly good point too. I sort of said when you got serious about it, but there's plenty of effort and hard work that goes into diabetes. And when you don't have the right tools it doesn't make it doesn't mean your effort was any less just because you know when you start off and you don't quite understand what you should be doing or you don't understand the the scope of what's happening to you. You're still working hard the anxiety still there the day to day struggle is still there. So wait so I guess it's once you really put all the pieces together. And I guess that kind of leads me to what you're doing with Novo Nordisk you guys have built a community online to help people understand better their disease. Can you tell me a bit about it?

Anthony Anderson 9:27
Yeah, I you know, our Facebook page, get real about diabetes and our website get real about diabetes.com is all about, you know, getting the information, getting the tools that you need as a type two diabetic, you know, to maintain a healthy lifestyle after being diagnosed with this disease. You know, I myself included at one in the beginning I was like, Oh, I'm a diabetic, okay, I just cut out sugar, but it's more than just cutting out sugar. It's much bigger than that. And you know what? We've put together is a website and a page of information that helps someone who's been newly diagnosed with the disease or someone who's just curious about it, because there's a family member, or whatnot. And it's just information that we can all take from this.

Scott Benner 10:17
I will I'll put links in, you know, in all the show notes and everything so people can find it. Can I ask you a quick question I saw one time, Tracy Morgan was on a talk show, he lifted up his shirt to expose his belly as he is prone to do. And he was wearing a dexcom, continuous glucose monitor, do you use any technology to help you understand your type two?

Anthony Anderson 10:39
I do. Um, I use Dexcom years ago, in the beginning, when when my blood sugar was erratic, and all over the place. And eventually, I stopped using it. And I also used a new device, the Libra, I think I'm pronouncing it correctly. Yeah, just because, you know, certain times, sometimes, no matter what you do, no matter how great you think you are at battling this disease, it's sometimes it's bigger than, than what you're doing and who you are. And, you know, my sugars are out of whack. Again, you know, it and it's not due to any fault of my own. I'm a vegan again, you know, I'm in the gym. But my agency levels have been elevated. And, you know, I realized that night that, you know, my, my glucose levels spike, like I could do three miles on my treadmill, and my blood sugar, but my glucose level will be in at six before I go to bed. And I wake up in the morning, and it's dependent, you know, and I'm like, yo, what's going on? And so with, you know, modern technology, we're able to see, when it's spiking the levels, how they're working, and keeping a food journal and diaries, like, Okay, well, this is what I ate, this is what I drank. This is what I did. And this is the effect of that. So look around about answers, like, Yes, I've used x times, I've used the Libra and, and it can only help those of us, you know, monitor, you know, the crazy thing about this disease, we can't see this, we can't see how it's affecting us. You know, I the only way that I know my blood sugar is elevated, if I feel lightheaded or dizzy, or if I'm pricking my finger, so it only helps us use the technology that that's at hand today. To help us with this. To help us on this journey.

Scott Benner 12:47
I don't think many people would imagine that after exercise and and finger stick that told them their blood sugar was 86, around bedtime, that they would go to 200 overnight. That's, that's really, that's great information for everyone to have. Listen, I know I don't have you for very long. So I have to switch gears here for a second and kind of kiss your butt for a second. So in my house, in the fall, we have a ritual here, we yank out the Entertainment Weekly, and we go through the new stuff that's coming on television, and then we load up the TiVo with things we think we're going to be interested in. And a number of years ago, my wife Sarah, we're gonna try blackish. And I was like, What is it and she started telling me about it, my son who back then must have been about 15, he poked his head around the corner, and he goes, that's the guy from kangaroo jack. And, and I was like, he's funny, he's been a bunch of stuff, we started rattling off stuff you'd done. And so we we gave the show a chance since then, never missed an episode. It is. It's not just entertaining. And hilarious, it is definitely one of those shows where we have to pause so one of us can finish laughing so everybody can hear what's going on. But the social, the social aspect of it is, is really spectacular. And and I just wanted to know what that was like for you to be able to to deliver a message about, you know, about the black experience to an audience that probably wouldn't otherwise get to experience it.

Anthony Anderson 14:07
You know, it bears who created our show, who's my partner, we set out, you know, a little over six years ago now, and looked at the landscape of television and talked about what was missing. For us. You know, for DNI what we missed from television, growing up fun shows like All in the Family, you know, the Jeffersons good time, you know, mod Sanford and Son, you know, we missed a show that, that we're entertaining, that also had, you know, social commentary that also dealt with the individual's personal experience and the specificity in which they talked about those subject matters and how it affected them. And because of that specificity in how we were made aware of it and how it affected And, you know, we started talking about our family. And, you know, the stories that we wanted to tell in the same vein as the story that Norman Lear told with all of those shows. And, and that's how blackish was born. It's not like we feel a responsibility to talk about those things, to the masses, but we feel a responsibility to ourselves, to address certain things that are affecting us and our community, and deal with it in a humorous way. And, you know, we do it through laughter, because then we can bring everyone to the table. And once we start laughing at ourselves, and with ourselves, you know, we can infuse the message and have a dialogue, to see what changes we can make, if there needs to be change made.

Scott Benner 15:53
I'd like to share with you an impact that had on me, so my son, who's now a freshman in college, when he was coming into middle school, so I'm guessing around seventh grade, he came home one day and told us about the new people he was meeting, he made a new friend. And one of the friends he made is now a lifelong friend, and our families are close and everything. And that boy happened to be probably the one blackface in a in a fairly, you know, white neighborhood. We were recently at his graduation party, and I was with his family, his grandmother came over to me and she started explaining to me, he, she was thanking me, and I didn't quite understand why Anthony, she's like, you know, it's just, it was so great of your son to, to reach out and be friends back then when you know, when my grandson got to the school, and she kept going on and on. And it took me a moment to figure out that what she meant was that her entire family was incredibly worried that that boy would go to that school, and people would ignore him or shun him or treat him poorly. And that my son's friendship was a signal to the rest of the school that that, you know, it was it was, you know, it's okay to talk to this person. And I have to tell you that never in a million years, that I ever think that in the seven or eight years I've known this boy, he's like a son to me, I love him. And I never thought about that aspect of his life. And I genuinely think that I know, it's gonna maybe sound crazy, but had I not experienced your show. I don't think I would have heard what she was saying to me at that party, I think I would have just heard a thank you like a polite, thank you from somebody. But she meant so she meant so much more than that there was so much more than that, in her words. And, and I just I, I would have missed out on that had I not had your experience filtered through that show. So it really it meant a lot to me personally, and I'm sure it does a lot of other people but but I just I really can't tell you how much I appreciate that.

Anthony Anderson 17:43
Night, it warms my heart to hear you say that. Because those are the stories that are important to us. And that's why we do what we do, you know, to bring in, you know, that understanding, and that compassionate. At the end of the day. We're all human. You know, we're all human. We just want to be accepted and want to be loved for who we are. And we all have our own experiences and dealing with that.

Scott Benner 18:14
Yeah, yeah, that that kid is just he's one of my favorite people on the planet. It breaks my heart to think that he ever had that concern in his life. Listen, I know we're coming up on it. So let me just tell you this. Thank you so much for introducing Jennifer Lewis into my life, and Deon Cole, I found his stand up because of blackish. That man is hilarious. And I don't think I ever would have known about him without the show what he does with his eyes just it crumbles me I can't stop laughing. And and my last thing, my daughter's 14, and she made me promise this morning when I dropped her off to tell you that she would be an amazing liar on to tell the truth. And I don't know why I'm supposed to.

Anthony Anderson 18:55
I love it. I love it recruiting the new season. We've been we started the new season. On Sunday. I'm on hiatus from blackish right now. So we're doing the next installment of 13 shows as we speak, and I would love to have that little 14 year old liar on my show. Dude, I

Scott Benner 19:14
can't tell you like I was like, what should I be thinking that my 14 year old feels comfortable not only telling me that she thinks that she'd be a great liar, but that she thinks she could fool a bunch of people. I thought what else has she been? Like fooling me about so

Anthony Anderson 19:25
Exactly. You gotta watch that one. You

Scott Benner 19:27
better watch that one. Seriously. Anthony again, this is really terrific. I can't thank you enough for doing this. I'm gonna let you go. But But, uh, good luck with everything. And seriously, I you went from being the guy in kangaroo jack to Anthony Anderson in our lives. So. So great, great success, and I hope it continues for you.

Anthony Anderson 19:46
Oh, thank you very much. I appreciate that. Please give my love to your son, your daughter, your wife and the rest of the family.

Scott Benner 19:53
Thank you so much. Have a great day.

Anthony Anderson 19:55
YouTube.

Scott Benner 19:57
huge thank you to Anthony for coming on the podcast. To learn more about get real about diabetes, you can go to get real about diabetes.com. They also have an amazing Facebook page. And I'm gonna have links, of course in the show notes of your podcast app, as well as on Juicebox podcast.com. If type two diabetes is in your life, or in the life of a loved one, check out get real about diabetes.com. Okay, so I get done talking to Anthony, and ended up sending him a photograph of Arden, my son Cole and his friend Carney. And an hour or so later, Anthony sends back this video that he made for the kids. And he said, Please share this with your with your children and with your son's friend. So I'm going to play the audio from it. Just here, it's also going to be available on my Facebook page for Juicebox Podcast. So I'm teasing you a little bit to keep you through the ads. And at the end, I'm going to play what I think is a really powerful message from Anthony about getting real about diabetes. Already, you got a couple more minutes, episodes usually an hour long. I mean, at this point, you're thinking this guy better for 40 more minutes for me. Okay, here's how I'm gonna handle this. First, you'll hear the message from Anthony, then the ads, don't worry, there'll be truncated, shorter to understand. And then the audio from the video that Anthony sent to Cole Carney and our same fare. Here we go.

Unknown Speaker 21:23
Let me tell you something you probably already know. You need to get better control. You're not getting enough exercise, you should eat better, your blood sugar is too high. But you already knew that.

Anthony Anderson 21:36
You know how I know.

Unknown Speaker 21:38
I was once you I said right there and had the same exact thoughts as you regarding my type two diabetes.

Anthony Anderson 21:46
I thought I could do it on my own.

Unknown Speaker 21:47
I thought there was some miracle cure. I hope that one day, it was going to just reverse itself. I didn't want to get real.

Anthony Anderson 21:58
But that ain't you.

Unknown Speaker 22:00
You're better than that. Can you look yourself in the eye and say you're doing all you can?

Anthony Anderson 22:08
No.

Unknown Speaker 22:10
Be honest with yourself. It's time to get real and take control. Your numbers are your scoreboard Don't let them get the best of you. I'm not telling you it's going to be easy. Because it's not. It's got to be tough. But it will be so worth it. This is your chance, your call to get

Anthony Anderson 22:33
real.

Unknown Speaker 22:35
Maybe the disease won the first round, but we're still in this fight. You're not alone. We're in it together. Now tell me this. What are we going to do?

Scott Benner 22:51
Okay, now let's get to the ads. Right. I want to thank Omni pod for sponsoring the show. ami pod makes the tubal sense on pumping My daughter has been wearing for a decade, it is small, does not have any tubing whatsoever that is attached to you. Like you know how you see people with a pump and there's like a controller hanging from their belt or something the Omni pod does not have that everything about the on the pod is self contained inside of this little pod that you wear. Now there is a controller that you carry separately, it's not attached to you. So you know what the hook onto it could be in your pocket, it could be, you know, in your purse, it's not something you need frequently, it doesn't have the insulin in it. That's the problem with those other pumps is the insolence in that controller, it's being pumped through the tube. I don't know if you know that or not, without the pause of the insolence with you. That means you don't have to disconnect your electronic device, like with other pumps, to get a shower or to go swimming or to go in the ocean or to play sports. So you're always getting a constant flow of insulin. You don't have to take my word for it though, you can go to my omnipod.com forward slash juice box. And there you can request a free no obligation demo of the Omni pod. We'll actually just send one right to your house, and you can wear it and try. And if you like it, you keep going. And if you don't, no harm no foul took you five minutes. Next I'd like to remind you to go to dancing for diabetes.com dancing for diabetes is charity that helps children living with Type One Diabetes through dance. It's dancing the number four diabetes.com they have a great Instagram a great Facebook. Mostly you just going to see really cute kids having a great time dancing and dancing for diabetes wants no more or less from you. And for you to just know they exist to check them out. That's a simple ask dancing the number four diabetes.com. And last but certainly not least Dexcom makers of the G six continuous glucose monitor. Arden has been wearing a dexcom for ever. It gives us the information about what's going on her body that we can see you heard Anthony talked about it earlier. One of the hardest parts about diabetes is that something's happening in your body and you don't know what it is. But with Dexcom you can see it you See the direction and the speed that your blood sugar is moving. This is incredibly impactful. Not only that, but Dexcom offers a share and follow feature. So if you would like someone else to see your blood sugar, say a relative, a spouse, if you'd like to see your child's blood sugar, you can. It's amazing. It's available for Android and iPhone. And it is exactly how I always know what Arden's blood sugar is. As a matter of fact, I see right now she needs a bolus. So if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go. You can learn more about all these things at Juicebox podcast.com or by going to the links in your show notes. It's my Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox dexcom.com forward slash juicebox are dancing the number four diabetes.com. Don't forget Anthony would get real about diabetes, they really would love for you to go to their Facebook page. I'm going to link to their Facebook page through my Facebook page and hear in the show notes. Okay, before we go as promised, here's the audio from the video that Anthony sent to my kids was so nice of him to do and they got such a kick out of it. Check it out.

Unknown Speaker 26:06
Arden Cole and Carney. I will forever be known to you as uncle Anthony. So you can show that all your friends be my uncle and sent me a video. Hey, guys, love you. Thank you for being fans of the show. And I hear somebody who's the best liar in the family wants to be on to tell the truth. You got a personal invite to come live, but practicing your dad first.

Anthony Anderson 26:31
Alright guys love you.

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#198 Call Her Freddy

From Minnesota to Prague….

Michelle is from the Mid-West. Her entire family, including their young daughter with type 1, recently moved to Prague. This is what they've learned about living abroad with type 1 diabetes.

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 -  or their favorite podcast app.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

---

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
Hello, everyone, welcome to Episode 198 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's episode is sponsored by dexcom, makers of the G six continuous glucose monitor, and buy the only self contained tubeless insulin pump on the market on the pod, you can go to my omnipod.com forward slash juice box to get a free no obligation demo today. Or go to dexcom.com Ford slash juice box to learn more about getting started with the G six. Today, something kind of odd is going to happen on the podcast. It's small, but it's odd. I'll be speaking with Michelle, she's the mom of a type one diabetic. She's also part of a four person family, her her husband and two small children who moved from Minnesota to Prague to teach overseas. But in Prague, you know, the Czech Republic. And on last week's episode, we spoke with Alaina who was from the Czech Republic, I promise this was not on purpose. It is however, incredibly strange, as I don't know how I ended up with two people on the podcast and consecutive weeks who are either from or living in the Czech Republic. Anyway, I just found that really interesting. The odds must be pretty stacked against me, I can't imagine there are that many people in the Czech Republic listening to the podcast. But obviously, there are a few. And don't forget that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should ever be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before being bold with insulin. or making any changes to your health care plan. Go ahead and introduce yourself anyway you want to be known and we'll just jump right in.

Michelle 1:48
Okay, I'm Michelle ago, I'm the mother of a type one five year old. And we're originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota. And we travel the world and we are in Prague right now.

Scott Benner 2:00
Very nice time. Michelle's being she You see, I'm gonna leave in where I asked her to introduce herself because the little laugh afterwards cuz she was like, what are we going to talk about? You should send me some notes. And I'm like, man, it'll be okay. Don't worry. I know you're like what's gonna happen, but I hope it makes you feel better to know that I don't also know what's gonna happen. So it'll be it'll be good. So you're you reached out. Just because you have all this incredible experience with traveling with tight bond and being overseas, and having to use insurance and and get medical supplies and everything like that. And so I think that's a really cool topic. How did you end up leaving Minneapolis for the world?

Michelle 2:43
Well, we applied with a actually with a missionary organization in the summer of 2016, or I guess, in the spring, but we just felt like, this is where we're supposed to be right now. So I mean, for us, this was a very unique calling, I think within like, four months of applying. We had all the funding that we needed, and we were on a plane to Prague. So yeah, but we still our mission organization is based in the US. So the tricky thing is that we still have US based health insurance, but we're living here. So, so one hard thing is if we're getting equipment, or certain supplies, we still have to go through US companies, even though we're not located there. And we don't have an embassy mailbox here where they could ship to. So that would be like one caveat is if you are with the military, the embassy, and then those companies will ship to you. But otherwise you have to use a US mailing address. So that has made things a little bit tricky. But we've made it work for two years.

Scott Benner 3:50
And so somebody on the US side has to then get your supplies and then send them to you.

Michelle 3:55
Well, actually, before we left, we explained to our insurance what was happening and we were able to get two years worth of pump supplies to bring with us. So we put them we had like three suitcases full of stuff

Scott Benner 4:07
that we add stuff. That's okay, so let me make sure I understand everything. So it's you you're it's your daughter, right? Yeah. And she's five and and her husband, I'm assuming. Mm hmm. And the other kids.

Michelle 4:21
We have one other Yep. He's two and a half, two and a half.

Scott Benner 4:24
So. Oh, wow. Two and a half. So you were pregnant when you left?

Michelle 4:28
No, I was nine months old. Okay. maybe six months? I don't know. He was born in November. We left in August. Oh, math. Yeah,

Scott Benner 4:39
obviously this is something you guys wanted to do. You're on your way did you and you had the diabetes was in your life when you when you made this decision. He left How long? How long did did she have diabetes before you guys did this?

Michelle 4:53
Two years before he was diagnosed in August of 2014. She was 16 months old. And so we, you know, and we got the pump almost immediately, she only did injections for two months. And then we got the insulin pump. Because her doses that she needed were very, very small at the time. So the pump really allowed us to give her those minute doses, which was great. And so yeah, after two years, you know, I mean, and you know, if you live with something for 24 hours a day, and you're managing it that way all the time, you become familiar with it pretty quickly.

Unknown Speaker 5:27
Yeah. So

Michelle 5:27
after two years, I mean, we we still encounter new situations, even now. And we're almost, you know, I don't know how many how many years is that? A lot of years, four years in the duration. But yeah, after two years, we had seen a lot of things and we felt comfortable moving.

Scott Benner 5:47
So that's really cool. Yeah. Are you adventurous like this before? All this? We you always somebody who was like, let's just try this?

Michelle 5:56
Well, we Yeah, I mean, we moved to Minnesota The day after our wedding. So I guess you could call that adventurous, got in a car, and then we were gone. So

Scott Benner 6:06
it's a lot of effort to avoid writing. thank you notes. Michelle.

Unknown Speaker 6:08
Yeah.

Scott Benner 6:09
All right. Soccer is good. I, I imagined in my mind, your your daughter got diabetes, and you're like, I'm gonna go to Prague, you all stay here. And then they just glommed onto your idea and chased you over there? Because I felt like running away a couple of times.

Unknown Speaker 6:25
Of course, yeah.

Michelle 6:26
You know, we were actually thankful that that was the diagnosis at the time, because we had seen her get sick. And we asked the doctor, it actually I had asked point blank, could it be type one diabetes? And I was told no, because her weight was good. She had just had a 15 month checkup? And they said, Oh, no, her weight is good. And you know, type one is autoimmune. If she was autoimmune, she would have been sick with other things. And she'd never been sick. You know, she'd never even had a fever. And so they said, there's no way that she's type one. And so they just didn't even test her. That's an interesting. And she was Yeah, and she had a lot of diaper used at the time. And so at the 15 month checkup, the pediatrician had said, Oh, well, that can be a sign of autoimmune. But you're she's so healthy, that I don't think it's that at all. He said, You just need to change her diaper more. plump she is it's all fine.

Unknown Speaker 7:17
My medical diagnosis. That's,

Michelle 7:22
I think, kind of anti daycare, we both my husband and I worked full time at the time. And our daughter was in daycare four days a week. And I just got the feeling that our pediatrician didn't really agree with that choice. Because he was just kind of blaming the daycare saying, Oh, well, obviously, they're not changing her enough, you know, and we loved the ladies that took care of our daughter. And we did not feel that they were doing an enough job at all. And so we really fought with him on that. And then in the summer, we even like, let her go around without a diaper at all. And just with the dress on, you know, and even still, she had to have Neistat in or she would have the yeast infection. And that went on for a few months. And then after her 15 month checkup, I went online and thought, well, there has to be something else we can do, you know. And so then I read an article that said that this could be a symptom of type one diabetes, and I thought, well, it's not like call the National Guard. This is one thing, you know, so we'll wait. And we'll see if any other symptoms develop. But I said something to my husband at that time. I said, Well, do you think it could be type one? And he said, No, that would be so weird. And then then she started to really heavily wet her diapers. I mean, every one of them was just like 10 pounds heavy, just so have you like completely saturated hanging off her. And it was like every hour, and we were about to go on a trip, our wedding anniversary, and I and we were gonna take her with us and I called the Doctor again. And I said, Okay, well, now she also has like these really heavy diapers all the time. We're changing her. And I described how heavy and how often they said, well, it's summer, you know, she's just drinking a lot. And, and I said specifically like, could it be type one diabetes? She also has these diaper rashes. And they said, Oh, no, no, no, no, she we looked at her chart, her weight is good her she's very healthy. And nobody told me and I didn't look into it enough. Nobody told me the risks of her being undiagnosed and type one. And two, then when we came back from our trip over the weekend, then she got violently ill she was in decay. She ended up in PETA or contemplative care. And we switched pediatricians i was i was livid.

Scott Benner 9:36
You know, I never heard a doctor base everything on your weight being okay

Michelle 9:39
you with very, very small children. I don't know how old Arden was at diagnosis, but I've heard this from other parents too. If their child is still getting their, you know, like checkups during their first year or two years of life when they're really little and they go in all the time. They base a lot of their health on weight. You know, healthy weight means I A lot, and so that we went through any that was definitely true. They thought, you know, well, your weight is good. And then but then they also kind of paired that with the fact that I think they have this mis assumption that if you're type one, it's autoimmune. So you're gonna just be prone to all these illnesses, which, with our kids, that is not true at all. Our youngest is the one who really gets sick and is affected by colds and everything so much more. And Winnie like, has never still never had any kind of prescription for anything like no bronchitis, no pneumonia, nothing, right.

Scott Benner 10:33
I always see I always see with Arden, like, she's a sign of diabetes, is incredibly healthy and doesn't get saved almost at all. Yeah, probably because her immune system is probably too good, which is probably how it beat up and killed her pancreas. And, you know, like,

Unknown Speaker 10:48
that's the theory. Yeah.

Scott Benner 10:50
Yeah. And I'm, I'm very similar. Like, I, if I get sick, I'm sick for four hours. Like, like, I get, oh, I just happened to me. A week or so ago. Like I said to my wife, I'm like, I don't feel well. And I'm going to lay down now is like eight o'clock at night. And at midnight, I opened my eyes. I was like, Oh, I'm all better. And it just, you know, I don't know that. That's just, I don't know. That's a very, very strange.

Michelle 11:17
Anyway. So you were saying you're talking about running away a diagnosis or feeling that way. But so for us, we felt very thankful that, that this was her diagnosis, and that it was something that we could manage, because just in those last couple days, when she got really sick, and it happened very, very quickly, we didn't know what to do with her. And we were so worried about her. And then and when she was in decay, I mean, it was the scariest thing ever. And we were so thankful that, that we can manage type one, and that she can live a completely normal, healthy life apart, you know, apart from this one thing, you know, that she has to deal with. And it's not that it's easy, but it's doable, right. And so, and that's the blessing is that it's doable. And we were so glad that like, we could do a week of training at the hospital and do all these classes and go home and figure it out. And so

Scott Benner 12:06
we your mind must have really wandered when she ended up in the hospital, right? Like, like, before you have because everybody's been telling you it's not diabetes, every time you've brought up. Did you wonder what else it might be? Like? Were you did you let your imagination get the best of you that or did they give you? No, I didn't

Michelle 12:21
I just kept looking for more symptoms of type one thinking, well, it's, you know, I just kept watching, like for the list of symptoms that I'd read online. And then when something new would present itself? I was I would say, Oh, yeah, I don't know, I maybe they're awesome. And then the day that she threw up when I brought her into the pediatrician, I said, test her for test your blood sugar. I want it you know, like I want you to do if it's that is so I don't know, I still have kind of had that. I don't know idea. But like I said, I definitely didn't research it enough. And no one warned me. None of the nurses I talked to the pediatrician, nobody told me what would happen. If she was type one, her pancreas was shutting down, and it wasn't taking care of it. And nobody told me, you know that we could have just brought her to someone with a meter. Or we could have bought a meter at the pharmacy to check her. You know, and you know how insurance works. You don't always know what you're going to pay at the doctor. And if they tell you you don't need to come in, you're like, Okay, I guess I will. Like,

Scott Benner 13:21
it's very hard situation to be, like aggressive in

Michelle 13:25
well, and we didn't know what the test was. And so I was thinking I don't want to be one of those parents who ordered an unnecessary, like invasive tests for my kids. They didn't tell me it was just a finger prick. Nobody said like, well, it's so easy, you know, just bring her in, just to be sure, yeah. And we were not kind of parents who called wolf all the time. You know, we never came in unless it was a regular checkup. So I just I still can't believe that nobody looked into anything any further. You know, it's not like we had this history of calling in all the time for silly little things. You know, we had a concern, and we had reasons for our concern. And we kind of got brushed aside, because they had this chart that said she was healthy, you know, healthy based on her weight.

Scott Benner 14:05
And it's only because you hadn't figured it out a couple of times to

Michelle 14:09
like you. We asked a couple of different people, and, you know, so anyway, but

Scott Benner 14:16
has that affected how you do things now? Like are you more aggressive, I guess in situations like that anymore?

Michelle 14:24
I don't know. I think I'm aggressive anyway. So I don't think I need to be more aggressive. I think I'm aggressive enough. But I think we're you know, we're more picky now about our pediatrician for sure. You know, we definitely like, like to be in someone's care who advocates for you know, like finger sticking or like blood testing or someone who will look and look into those things. And I think being here in Prague, we've noticed or at least I've noticed, I'm in a group for moms of type one kids here and I've met so many more people whose children are diagnosed young age than I ever met in Minneapolis, like so many more. It's really incredible. So I think we've seen there a lot more cautious here with health care. And testing is everything is so much cheaper. So you don't have these prices hanging over your head. If the doctor says like, Oh, I want to, you know, run this test or look into this thing for you, you know, you're not worried right away about I says

Scott Benner 15:26
Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitoring system is now FDA permitted for zero finger sticks. That means you can make treatment decisions based on your Dexcom. And if you don't believe the FDA, believe me, because I just did it five minutes ago with our Arden's been at school all day. As she left for school in the morning, her blood sugar was 120 and it was starting to rise. Then we gave her a Temp Basal increase and bolused the blood sugar actually went to 140 and hung there for about 30 minutes before we started to get it to come back down. Eight o'clock. 830 got it back down under 121 10. And eventually around 9am. It leveled out around 92 stayed there for an hour and a half. She's got an early lunch today. So about 1020 she texts me and says, Hey, I'm going to be going to lunch soon. I looked up saw the trend of the Dexcom graph saw whatever blood sugar was 92. And I said okay, let's do a Temp Basal increase of 40% for an hour and a half. And Bolus 14 units. We're going to extend it. Let's do 50% now, and 50% over the next hour. It's now 25 minutes later and Arden's eating, her blood sugar is 98. And it is stable. And if by chance we've made some sort of an error with her bolus, and it starts to go up or down, we'll be able to make adjustments on the fly because of the information coming back from her CGM. And how am I doing that? Because it has the share feature. And I can see it at home while I'm talking to you while Arden's off at school. Sharon follow is available for Android and Apple. These are our results. Yours may vary. Check out dexcom.com forward slash juice box with links in your show notes or Juicebox podcast.com to find out more. What was her blood sugar when she went to DK?

Michelle 17:17
It was over 500 on the meter that they had at the pediatricians office. But I don't I don't know. You know, like they don't think they told us at the hospital and yeah, I mean, that's fine. I

Scott Benner 17:30
was just I was just wondering how far it got because she was tiny, right? So

Michelle 17:34
yeah, yeah. So everything happened really rapidly. And I've read some studies too, like there's a study out of the UK, done on small children who are diagnosed with type one, and they talk about how rapidly the symptoms develop, you know, so for Winnie, when she started heavily wetting her diapers, it was maybe like, a week and a half. And then she was in the hospital DK, you know, so the diaper use was allowed around for quite a bit longer. But then then when she started had more of the classic symptoms that you would recognize in adults or other people, it was like less than two weeks.

Scott Benner 18:10
Yeah. So you know, it's funny you say that, because if you make me go through my timeline, and Arjun was definitely sick and not feeling well. She was having these intermittent bowel movements, like it was days in between, and they were they were rock hard, like there was no moisture to them whatsoever. But when the heavy urination started, it was only a couple days, we were in the hospital. Right? Like it. Yeah, like that. I felt like I guess now that you look back, if that was sort of like the, that was the last one, you know, yeah, it's really something. Um, so what I'm doing in Prague,

Michelle 18:46
we work for a Christian school. My husband and I both do and, and our kids go to school here while we're teaching. So that's been interesting. So our kids are like, in a, in a school run by these really nice Czech ladies. And so we've learned I've learned some of the the vocab for for diabetes in Czech, which has been interesting, but where Winnie is the director also speaks English and Winnie's teacher also knows she's proficient in English. She's not fluent, but, but she speaks well enough that we can communicate so. So that was important to us, especially in the beginning. We toyed around with the idea of putting her in a complete Lea check environment for next year. But you kind of run into the same issues that you do in the US with really little ones and type one where the schools aren't always prepared to take them. They don't have a system in place because your kid might be the first one they've ever seen. Yeah. So we didn't and we didn't know anybody in our immediate vicinity, who has a type one kid when he's age in school, so there wasn't anything recommended to us and I looked into a few and nothing really struck me social stay where she is for next year. But it's good. You know, she's she's still she's learning the language and doing really well. And they celebrate world diabetes day with her and November the whole school wears blue for her even the cook at the school. So it's, it's pretty fun. Yeah.

Scott Benner 20:19
So do you speak any? Did you speak any of the language coming in? Or did you? No, no? Are you picking it up at all?

Michelle 20:28
A little bit, I go, I sit in on one of the classes at the high school where we teach. And then I do the same assignments at the high school kids in the class. Um, so yeah, I do that when I'm and that's, that's fun. It's good.

Scott Benner 20:43
I can't imagine like making up a language as an adult, like, it seems.

Michelle 20:48
It's good, it's good for your brain, right? Keep learning new things. And you're, it's useful. A lot of the like, the government buildings that we go into, people don't always speak English. And so like, if I go to the post office, I probably have to speak to them in Czech, or I have to pick a very specific post office, you know, where they're going to be more likely to speak English, and then have to go the touristy areas that I don't want to go to.

Unknown Speaker 21:15
So

Unknown Speaker 21:16
is that isolating at all?

Michelle 21:18
Um, a little bit, but you know, I have a group of You mean, like, for like, a type one community?

Scott Benner 21:25
In general, like, do you you know, I mean, if I get incredibly bored, I can wander into my backyard and talk to my neighbor. Like, you know, but but like, do you? Is it like you and your husband and the kids and then

Michelle 21:36
you have to go to school where we teach, they speak English, you know, an English speaking school. So the people that coworkers speak English, even the ones who teach track, they speak English. Also, so So no, so in that way, we're kind of in this bubble. And yeah, it can be a little overwhelming sometimes to go out until like, like to go to the post office. For example, if I have to ask them for something new. I might have to, like, refuse a. I don't know if you can hear when is Dexcom is going on? Okay, yeah, I just heard it on my phone. But um, anyway, yeah, like to go to post office, I have to prepare myself, you know, for like, 30 minutes I'll spend that I need and like, you know, going with a picture of what I want.

Scott Benner 22:21
How long you spend it? Are you planning on staying? Is it indefinite? Or do you have a?

Michelle 22:26
I don't know, maybe like we'd like to stay for next year. We're coming back for a little bit this summer, because we need to fundraise for our third year. Okay.

Scott Benner 22:33
So do you have to come home and be like, Hey, listen, everybody. We're doing good work over here. Somebody needs to pay for it. And

Michelle 22:41
we, you know, we've been really fortunate that we have a pretty, pretty awesome support team behind us. So yeah, that's pretty good. It's

Scott Benner 22:49
actually very, it's amazing. It's a, it's, I don't know, a lot of people that would do something like that. So I'm a little overwhelmed with what you guys. Oh, wow. That's really great. Yeah.

Michelle 23:01
Yeah, it's totally doable, though. It's, it's really great. And it's just by God's grace, that we're here. And we're just happy to be here. So I'd have the opportunity, though. And, yeah, and I think it's important for people to know that you, they can do things like that they can move across the world with type one, and it's okay, it'll be fine. And actually, we were talking about when Winnie goes to college, if, if she's uninsured, at any point, we'll ship it to Europe, because you can buy insulin here at the pharmacy without insurance for like 40 bucks. So we're just like, we're gonna send her to Europe, if effer doesn't have insurance, and then, and we feel that they'll have what she needs, because that's one thing we've appreciated about the opportunity here is the price of some of the things so like, our durable medical equipment we sought to get through the US but like, we can pay for insulin out of pocket, and then our insurance will reimburse us and the insulin are so cheap, we can afford to do that. So I just go to the pharmacy and like glucagon we bought the other day, and it was like 20 bucks for glucagon, which is a vial

Scott Benner 24:05
of insulin last year.

Michelle 24:07
Well, I get it like a box. So like an entire box of five pen fills with $40 Oh,

Scott Benner 24:13
that's pretty reasonable.

Unknown Speaker 24:16
Yeah,

Scott Benner 24:17
that's like, yeah, that's, uh, I mean, I think that's about my copay. Maybe it is. Yeah, when when Arden's insulin pumps, I think we get more than five. But we probably have more insulin than that for that money. But still, it's

Michelle 24:30
right. Well, it depends on what your prescription is, right? Like for winning one box was her monthly need. And so for us, our copay was $40 for the one box, but then, you know, if we were the retail price on that I think I saw at our target pharmacy one time was like $450, you know, so I never could have walked into the target pharmacy and bought my insulin without insurance without the copay. But that's what we do here. I just walk in and I have to have a prescription from the doctor. So that's wonderful. Here, they don't keep your prescription on file at the pharmacy, the doctor will write you a paper slip, and then you go in with it. And then if you want more insulin, you have to go back to the doctor and get another slip. But they'll write you like a three month supply. And so we get enough to get us between appointments, and it works totally fine. And he also, in our doctor said, if we ever ran out, we just email him and he'll send us a prescription In the meantime, and our pediatrician here has written us a prescription for insulin, because when we first arrived, she was the first doctor that we met. And so it you don't even have to go to the endocrinologist. And it was really easy. I mean, I just showed them. I didn't even show them her paperwork from Minnesota had it with me. But I just said she's diabetic, I need her insulin. And they were like, Okay, what do you want?

Scott Benner 25:47
So when you say it's easy, is that more common Sensi? Like, like less, there's rules, and we have to like follow these paths and more like, boy, your kid has diabetes. So short take insulin, is it like that?

Michelle 25:59
Yeah, I mean, I think it's maybe less bureaucratic, I think in our situation might be a little different, because they know that we have like a US prescription. So Wendy Winnie's doctor here, she actually sees a diabetologist not an endocrinologist, they have like this subspecialty underneath endocrinology, like people who deal specifically with diabetes. So her diabetologist he sticks more to like what her prescription in the US was, but I mean, he doesn't try to rewrite it or recommend anything different. He's like, Okay, if this is what you're using, and it works for you, I'll just write you the same prescription is really great.

Scott Benner 26:35
Because any Yeah, any of that weight that can get lifted from you, honestly makes everything better, just not having to make these facts. I'll tell you that. You and I are talking in May, I don't know when this goes up, you know, it could be months from now. But we just had an I just we just had this, you know, Job Change in our life for my little my wife, my wife went from one place to another and our insurance changed. And so we're starting to get settled. And she's settling in at the job. And about a weekend I said, Okay, let's you know, let's see, let's like, let's get excited. Let's call the next comment on the pot and see if they accept this insurance because we had been buying through a third party called edge Park, which is, yep, which edge Park has gotten better over the years, but it's generally speaking your heart. And so people who just came into edge Park now might be like, it's not bad to you. I say, you should have tried doing it five years ago. But but but nevertheless, I called up Dexcom. They're like, yeah, we take your insurance. And I was like, Yay, I didn't like I just I felt elated. I was like, This is so exciting. And Omnipod just called me yesterday. And I know what you're thinking they sponsor the show. Shouldn't I get these pumps for free? No, that's not how it works. I pay for I'm like everybody else. And and so I called up and I was like, here's all my information. You know, please let me know. And they call me back in just a couple days and said, here's what we've learned. Your pumps are going to be 100% free. Do you want to order some now? I was like, really? Like no copay? No, I pay you a little bit. I get paid nothing. Just tell us what you want. And they're gonna come. Oh, wow. It was just such a relief. You know, just one less thing to think about to do to argue about the call about to get an email about like, I was just, I just was really grateful for that, to be perfectly honest. It's like, Wow, that's so now. That is really good. Yeah. So I said my wife got home from work. I was like, Kelly, you can never leave this job. This is the job. In case you're wondering. You have to keep forever.

Unknown Speaker 28:27
Yeah,

Scott Benner 28:28
just going to College Park again for No, sir.

Unknown Speaker 28:32
Yeah, yep. I've been there.

Scott Benner 28:35
I interviewed someone. Now I'm going to get this wrong. I know. I'll pick the wrong one is a checklist avakian ours, the Czech Republic, which is Czech Republic Republic, I interviewed a young girl who's in university in England, but who's from the Czech Republic. And she was talking about how she goes back and forth to get different things. And she wants to, you know, it was I was, but everything she spoke about was just, I wish I could just stay here in England because it's so easy. And everyone tells me that everybody I've ever spoken to from the UK tells me the same thing. Like it's just very easy to have diabetes here. So yeah, yep. Yeah. It makes you a little sad when they're saying it. Like. I'm actually on my way, in a couple days, to some meeting at Novo Nordisk where they want to talk about insulin pricing. And ah, like, I'm gonna be a rabble rouser a little bit when I'm when I'm in there. So let's see.

Michelle 29:32
Yeah, you can ask them why they why they charge double what most European countries?

Unknown Speaker 29:37
Yeah, yeah, I mentioned your 49 double bet. Well,

Michelle 29:39
I mean, at least at least more than that. I mean, here I think. Yeah, our price is like 10% of what it was in Minneapolis. But, you know, like you were saying, it depends on what your prescription is, though, to you know, like if you if here, they charge you by the box. It's not necessarily like your one month supply is this copay right now. And then, you know, so it's good that it's affordable. It's good. Yeah.

Scott Benner 30:07
Buy it. Now I know for us like whatever Arden's prescription for insulin is, that's what our copay covers. Like, right? And so if that if if the if the script says it's four boxes that its fourth script were to say same sex, it's still the same price, right?

Michelle 30:22
Yeah, exactly. So yeah, so your price per box can vary based on what your prescription is, right? Yeah.

Scott Benner 30:28
Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, very generally speaking in in my favor, the more we need, right?

Michelle 30:34
Yeah, the higher they write the prescription the letter, the farther that copay stretches, the retail price is still the same, you know, like, if you were to not have a prescription and have to go in and just buy a box, and you'd pay the retail price. So that's,

Scott Benner 30:48
I don't know, what's missing. Here, excuse me, for anybody, Michelle. And I almost didn't do this, because I almost don't have a voice. But excuse me, it and there's so many different levels and tiers of insurance here. Like, my wife works at a pharma company, and she has a really good insurance and so, but you can easily work at that same company and get a different level of that insurance or work in a different company and, and have a plan that doesn't come anywhere near, you know, 100% of your Durable Medical goods and stuff like that. So yeah, it is luck of the draw a lot

Michelle 31:22
it is. And it also just depends on what your employer has. And you know, you could be fortunate and get a job for Google, and I don't know how their insurances, but it's going to be different than somebody who works at a department store, you know, probably, yeah, oh, they're gonna offer different things. And

Scott Benner 31:39
with a big enough company who self ensures, then things get easier. And that is, that is definitely been my finding in the past. And

Unknown Speaker 31:47
right, I don't

Scott Benner 31:48
know how much people understand that when companies get so big. They really only use the insurance companies to service the insurance, they just ever, you know, the whatever it ends up being whatever the insurance company is, you know, you make a claim the insurance company pays and all the paperwork that happens is like that. But at the end of the year, or a couple of times a year, your company just writes one big check for every dollar that that insurance company has sent out they are they are financing your your health insurance 100% from the company, they just their service to the company. I don't know if people know that or not. But

Unknown Speaker 32:21
now they do.

Scott Benner 32:22
Yeah, no. And when you get big enough like that, when you get with a company like that, they generally are more generous, I found. If you're considering insulin pump therapy, the best way to understand the comfort and convenience of the Omni pod system is to try it firsthand. To try a free no obligation pod today. All you have to do, you can get a demo kit, which includes a sample nonfunctioning pod and see what you think there's absolutely no obligation to buy. You'll get to wear a nonfunctioning pod to see how it feels, you'll be able to find a spot on your body that works best for you. And then you can feel the freedom you could have with an omni pod. Try to imagine your I don't know. having lunch lunches a nice meal the day, don't you think the sun's out? The birds are chirping, and you're hungry. This lunch you're about to have is a little strange. It's a little carb heavy, but it's got some simple sugars in it. And you'd like to see the insulin, you're giving yourself stretched out through an extended bolus. How do you do that? With a push of a button, the same way you would give yourself a bolus or change your basal rates, or do any of the things that you need to do with your insulin pump all wirelessly from the personal diabetes manager. That's right, there is no big unit of thing stuck to you. You are not connected between the tube and this controlling device. This controlling device with Omni pod completely wireless with every other insulin pump tethered with a tube

Unknown Speaker 33:59
IU Eric.

Scott Benner 34:02
I mean unless you like that sort of thing. And then really I don't care. I'm just add to that. Get it I mean, like I'm not judging, just try it on the pod, go to my omnipod.com forward slash juice box. Check it out today. The free no obligation demo seriously as simple as sign up for and I think you'll like it.

Michelle 34:22
But my name is diagnosed, we have my husband worked for a corporation, and they had they had good insurance. So you know, but she easily could have been diagnosed when we didn't have that policy. You know, and so, yeah, and actually, that's one of the reasons we still have the insurance in the US like, and we haven't switched over to check insurance as we think about what if we did move back someday, and we want to want to keep her insured and the glass because it's so it's a little bit chaotic. You know, I don't know if you've seen in the news. It's a little chaotic right now. So we do worry about these protections that are out there for people with pre existing conditions, pre existing conditions, and will they stay? You know, Will these protections stay? And would we have to worry about her either getting denied a policy? Or more likely would you know, she'd be charged so much that it would be a burden and be unaffordable for her? You know, which is the more likely scenario, right, like that's the most likely thing is that they would take away the protection for people with pre existing and that you'd have to pay so much that you couldn't afford, you could have insurance. You can't afford it, but you can have it right. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, that's why that's why we talk sometimes about anything go to Europe for coffee. Just anywhere, anywhere, where she can just walk into the pharmacy and and buyer insulin out of pocket.

Scott Benner 35:50
But it's so you said you found a community of people with type one. Hmm, in Prague. How did that? Would You Do? Is there a Prague Facebook? How'd you figure it out?

Michelle 36:01
Yeah, well, I mean, they're on Facebook, just like everybody else. I'm just kidding. But I understand. But, uh, well, so check is a really complex language, it's very difficult. And so. And I say that, because it makes it hard to find a group if you don't know exactly what the name of the group is, because the way that a word is written can change based on how it's used in a sentence. So like, even your name changes, based on the structure of the sentence. So like, nothing, nothing stays the same. Nothing is sacred, you know, your first name, the name of the city, everything. So you can't just type in the word diabetes in check, and then expect to find a group. So I contacted the doctor that we were seeing. I'm at the hospital here, for Winnie's diabetic checkups. And I asked him if he knew of anything, and he recommended a Facebook group to me. And so it's for moms with kids of type one, but there's some dads in there too. And, yeah, and I'm the only as far as I know, I'm the only American in the group. And I, as far as I know, also the only native English speaker, I don't ask for comments. I don't think it's a super common thing for people to like, relocate when their kid has type one, you know, or like, relocate this far at least to relocate to a different country? Yeah. So it's a little bit weird. And I think in our case, too, it's weird, because we still have our US insurance policy. And I think, yeah, for some reasons, it makes sense for us to switch to the check policy. And then for other reasons that we like keeping the US. I don't know, it's the system we know, like weed. And we know, like, I don't remember what the terms are for the measurements, but they measure blood sugar differently here, you know, so like, your, your blood sugar might be three or four or five. It's on a different scale. centimeters. Yeah, right. I don't know what else. So I don't, you'll have to look it up. And then you can add that into the podcast. I don't remember what the different all the different scales are. But

Scott Benner 38:08
I hear from so many people from outside of the US who told me that they listened to the podcast with the conversion charts so that when the numbers come in, they can they can follow along easier,

Michelle 38:17
right? Well, I like the US scale better. I think it's more precise, because there you have more numbers to work with, you know, like, I think, I think to convert you divide by 18, or something there abouts. But, you know, with the European chart, they're only measuring to the first decimal, you know, and so you might have numbers like one to 20. And that's what you're working with. And you might have like 1.1 1.2, all the way up to 20. But then in the US. So the equivalent would be numbers like 20 to 400. And so you have so many more numbers you're working with, and I just feel like that'd be more of a chat way at what I know that I know that system. That's what we've done for four years. So it's hard to want to switch. And then we think well, how long if we switched over to European equipment? How long would we have to like, are we committing to staying here forever, then or for four years? What are insurance? Let us get a new pump. If we move back? I know there's a big question.

Scott Benner 39:17
I'm starting the timer right now on somebody who's gonna email me to tell me that there's their their thing is precise to you just don't understand it, which I completely believe could be true. So

Michelle 39:26
I think it's not precise. I just think I just think that one way is maybe a little more precise. I don't understand why they have two scales. I mean, the whole thing is interesting. I don't I don't know insulin pumps aren't aren't technology. So like, why didn't they just make them all universal? I don't know. Do they want to keep the market separate? It's a ploy.

Scott Benner 39:51
Like, even for money.

Michelle 39:54
While you think about like how long have meters been around for why did they have to make two separate scales. It just Seems a little silly. I don't know,

Scott Benner 40:02
you're a bad math people and other things. I'm assuming the first email I get is from either I'm gonna say South Africa or Australia. That's kind of that's gonna be I my outlier is New Zealand. I'm thinking that's where they're like, you got so wrong about that. But I agree with you at least my interpretation of it, like I see like, somebody's like my blood sugar's 2.4. And then I look on the scale, and it's within like a 10 or 15 point range on our scale. And I was like, well, that's

Michelle 40:30
right. Exactly. Yeah. And I think that's where you get in into the preciseness factor and

Scott Benner 40:36
listen, maybe maybe what they said, was these meters aren't that accurate anyway, it's around 2.4. Deal with it, you'll be fine. Yeah, that's, that's very interesting. So okay, so I think the real story here is that you just sort of bravely stood up and like, we're gonna leave the country now with our little tiny diagnose kid, and it's going to be fine. And it has been fine, right? There's no like, you don't have some scary stories, or you didn't run out of insulin on a on a train from a 1958 black and white movie where some guys with Tommy guns tried to kill you or nothing like that bad has happened. It's all just been fine. Do you fly a lot? Like back in?

Michelle 41:19
I think I mean, I know more than anybody else. We we probably, I mean, here we take the train more than anything, you know, because it's, it's cheaper that way. We've flown it. I mean, a few times since being here, but whether

Scott Benner 41:33
it's alone? You don't you don't have any, you don't have any compunction about going on a trip to Taiwan?

Michelle 41:41
No, no, I don't think at all. We brought I mean, we brought a lot of insulin with us, we brought like, oh, at least like a three or six months supply to get us started. Because we were worried about like, how would we find a doctor, you know, like, we didn't even know who our doctor would be when we got here, because we didn't know where our flat would be, or any of those things. So we brought a pretty big supply with us. And we just put it in a cooler bag with ice packs and refrigerated it as soon as we got here. And all of it was fine. You know, like it, it lasted just fine. So yeah,

Scott Benner 42:17
I want to overlaid on what Michelle said, most of the things that you worry about, I'm talking to everybody listening now are not things you should be worrying about. Like it's not that shouldn't pay attention to it. If you're going to travel, you know, you're gonna have to keep the insulin cool. You're gonna have to make sure you have everything with the definitely don't I saw somebody online the other day that went on vacation, like I have everything except for and they forgot, like, I forget what it was. But it was like this one important component like in the, in the midst of making themselves crazy and gathering all this stuff together. They forgot, like the most obvious part of what they needed. You know, and I think sometimes we make ourselves mental about stuff like that. And I can tell you, I mean, we've traveled my family and I travel to the Caribbean. I don't want to say frequently, because it's not frequently, but periodically, that's where we vacation. And there is that thought in your head, like I do not want to get to this tiny little island and not have something, right. And so I do carry more than I need. You know, if we're going away for a week, I take 10 on the pods with me. And as I'm putting the 10 in there in the box, and I think that's not going to be enough. And then I go that's a month's worth of Army pods. How could that not be enough? Like what what one would have to go bed every day. And I'd still have three left when I got home. And that's never gonna happen. That's never happened in the, you know, five years old. 678-910-1112 13 that 10 years I've been using on the pod nothing like that's even remotely happened. But the minute you add the uncertainty and you're like, but it could, but the truth is, it's not going to right? And if it does, you have insulin with your needles. It's not like you couldn't figure it out if something crazy happened.

Michelle 43:56
Yeah, and I think that's the good thing that people in type one community, they're really good about helping each other and people are all about asking for help. You know, when we were on the plane right over our flight got delayed, or one of them did our second flight coming out of New York and that was our overseas flight got delayed and so my ice packs had started to like like they weren't and it was then I was thinking like, Oh, I don't know if they're gonna last as long as they thought they would. But we told the flight attendants you know, I have insulin in this bag and they brought me extra ice in like a bag to add to this cooler that I already had. Yeah, so and then with her diabetes supplies, we spread them out across different pieces of luggage in case something got lost. So like the pump supplies that we brought, I had like a mix of infusion sets and cartridges in each bag. You know, so it's not like I put only one item in each bag. Every every bag had an assortment of different items. So if one bag, a bag, they'll have what we needed, out of one of those bags, you know and then we always carry some in a carry on You know, yeah, you know, we don't usually we don't usually check bags, because we're not usually been gone that long. But definitely when we came here we had to check baggage. So, you know, that's where most of her stuff was, but some of it was with us on the plane just in case everything got lost for a period of time. You know, if you're traveling somewhere

Scott Benner 45:19
reasonably modern, you're gonna be okay. I Oh, yeah,

Michelle 45:23
that's the thing. Yeah. It just depends on though. Like, how long will it take them to get to you? And especially here, like a lot of things aren't open on the weekends, like, Oh, yeah, like the pharmacy is not open on the weekends. Yeah, if you want to go to the pharmacy on the weekend, you have to go out to the hospital. Or maybe there might be one in like a shopping mall. But like our neighborhood pharmacy did not have any week. hours. No, Saturday, no, Sunday. Yeah. Um,

Scott Benner 45:47
when I first met, when I first met my wife, she was leaving to go back to college, it was the summertime and she was gonna go and I remember, I met her at her job. And she's in his office, she's writing this like, massive list. And I was like, what, what is that? And she's like, Oh, these are the things I need to bring back to school. I was like, where do you go to school? Like on Mars? Like you wrote shampoo on this list? Like, do they not have shampoo where you go to school? And and it was interesting, like, you know, for the first couple moments of the conversation, I was like, is this girl freaked out about like crossing a state line without conditioner? Or like, what? And then she just, you know, at the end, she's like, Look, here's the truth. stuff I buy here, my mom pays for stuff I buy when I'm at school I have to pay for and I was like, oh, okay, you're just you're just trying to get this stuff for free. Before you leave. I'm like that I understand. But when I thought she was planning for this, like, excursion, I was like, you're going to Delaware not, you know, not an island in the middle of the Pacific. Like, like, it's, you know, you'll be okay, when you get there. And I think that's important to remember, almost anywhere you go. In a modern world, there'll be a pharmacy, they'll be something you can find. It's not like you're gonna be in an incredibly emergent in an emergent situation like, that you just can't get your way out of and if that happens to you. That's pretty random. You know, so yeah, it's the worry, I think that cripples most people and you don't have that, for whatever reason. I haven't figured it out yet, Misha, but you're, you're very carefree in your mind.

Michelle 47:16
It's not, you know, so we're not as carefree as you think we just work we plan carefully. Okay, like, when we applied with this mission organization to go overseas, we explained pretty clearly, like, our child has type one, we need to be near a hospital somewhere, like, we can't go just anywhere, you know, like, we would love to say that we would go to Africa, or we would go to some little village somewhere. But we can't do that, you know, so. But like you said, in a modern world, especially those of us who've grown up in a modern world, you'd then you feel more comfortable, you don't have to worry so much, you know how to find the things that you need. So we still stayed within that, that realm, like we were not ready to leave, or something like that. And I think if you're an adult with type one, and you want to do that, that's one thing. But if you're a parent of a child, I think you just you just feel this like really heavy weight to protect them. And to make sure that there's they're really super sick. You know, and, and so like, we're not going to go to this place that doesn't have refrigerators, you know, I've read online about villages where they don't have refrigerators to keep their insulin in. And so they make like clay pots to keep their insulin and to try to keep it cold. But isn't stay good long enough, because that's not a sufficient replacement for refrigerator, you know, so we weren't we were not willing to take our child into a situation like that. Because then we feel like we're putting her life at risk. Right. And that's not worth it. Yeah. So the

Scott Benner 48:40
comfort, the comfort you live with you helped create by putting yourself in the best situation. Yeah,

Michelle 48:46
we I mean, we specifically requested to be in a bigger city. And there were a couple of different options that they presented to us that they thought would be a good fit. And so in Prague was one of those. And so we're only like 30 minutes from the university hospital here. And there are lots of pharmacies, right in our neighborhood. So it's, there's an airport here, you know, like, it's your big city. So, yes, everything we have everything we need we have right here. So yes, it may seem carefree, because we're willing to go all this distance, but it was pretty pretty well thought out and planned and it took us we you know, we applied in April to come but we did not decide until the end of May that we for sure wanted to do this and we did a lot of checking with you know, like the insurance company in different places to make sure we could have all the supplies we needed an access to everything that we wanted. So, yeah, I don't know. They not everything worked out exactly the way that we thought it would, you know, but like I said, we came with like two years of infusion sets and cartridges and things so good.

Scott Benner 50:00
Jeff are alive. So you were done over there and come back again, with all the stuff that you bought so

Michelle 50:03
well. And this summer, we're switching to Omnipod. Because shout out to Omnipod. But we have the automatic pump right now, which as you know, will no longer be around. And so we had to switch to something new. And so this summer part of what we're doing is getting a bulk order Omni pad was amazing. That was one of the easiest transactions I've ever had. And they're giving, they're giving us one year's worth of pods to take back with us because we don't have an address here that they can ship to.

Scott Benner 50:32
So so cool. Yeah, they're working very hard on getting into like, they just sent a group of people to the UK to start work to start working. I know

Michelle 50:42
I heard that. Yeah, they tell me though, so maybe you can find this out for me, they couldn't tell me if the European Omni pod will be compatible with us in pod because, as we were saying, in Europe, and also in Canada, they measure blood sugar differently than in the US. And so, although we're coming with a one year supply of pods, I thought, what if something breaks? Or what if her or PDM breaks or something? And like, what if I just need a part? Is it possible I could go to the European army pod and just get apart if I need it. But they couldn't tell me if everything's going to be compatible or not? Well, um,

Scott Benner 51:19
I don't know the answer to that. But I can tell you that that new PDM, that's gonna be out pretty soon, as soon as the FDA is done fiddling with it and looking at it, it's gonna be really inexpensive. So I don't know that it would be cumbersome for you to have an extra one. Because it's really just gonna be an Android phone shell like you don't I mean, like, it's there. The reason they switched to it partly is so that they can make, you know, upgrades and move innovation along quicker. But it's also because the, you know, it's not gonna really cost anything. It's possible, Michelle, that by the time I come back to edit this episode, and put it out, I'll be able to say something at the end that people would really like to hear that.

Michelle 52:03
Yeah, it would just be interesting to know if the if they'll be compatible. I guess my my question would be, you know, if they measure blood sugar differently, do those pods talk differently to the Pdn? Right. Yeah, I don't know. It's something Gaucher. So nobody knew there. But anyway, it'd be Yeah, just be nice to know if they would be a resource for us it out here. But anyway, but that's why we come with a year's worth of stuff. So that if, if we, you know, start to run low on something, hopefully we can make a plan before we've run out, because we have the whole year. And then I know like we have Dexcom. And they also were able to help us get a year supply of stuff. We've done that with them twice. Now, that was not quite as smooth of a process, as with Omni pod, but I now have really nicely I won't say her name. But there's a really nice lady at Dexcom. Now who knows me very well, and who were I work with her exclusively now and doing our orders. Because when you want a whole year's worth of stuff, you just can't go through the normal channels, typically, with Omni pod that was surprising. I didn't have to ask per supervisor or talk to anybody in charge. See Am I ordered to go through. So that was awesome. Usually, though, it takes several weeks of calling. And finally finding someone at the top of the food chain, who knows the right overrides and can help me because our insurance is not the problem. They know we're overseas and they will help us navigate everything. The problem is usually the provider is not understanding this weird scenario that we're in and knowing that it will be okay. Your bill will be paid. Our insurance will work with you.

Unknown Speaker 53:38
I got you. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 53:39
that's interesting. Well,

Unknown Speaker 53:40
yeah.

Scott Benner 53:41
Is there anything? Is there anything because you had some pretty? I think I feel like you had specific thoughts. And I know, I held you back by not giving you things that I wanted to talk about. But this was a really good conversation. I think it was because we left it loose like that. So I am sorry.

Michelle 53:57
I was just wondering, I just like to really be prepared. I

Unknown Speaker 54:01
know.

Scott Benner 54:02
And I like you not to be prepared. So

Unknown Speaker 54:04
we can chat.

Scott Benner 54:06
I think it worked out really well, actually. But so No, I just want to I want to make sure that if you have any nuggets about being overseas or about travel in general that I didn't ask you about or we didn't get to that I don't I don't want to leave them out. You know, is there is there anything that you've learned along the way that you think people would really benefit from knowing?

Michelle 54:28
I don't know. I mean, that's a that's a pretty big question. I think Don't be afraid to travel. You know, don't be afraid to go somewhere. We we certainly were not ready to even like drive to Michigan for my cousin's wedding after when our winning was diagnosed our daughter. So because she got diagnosed in August, and there was a wedding I think in October, but we got Winnie's pump in September, right. So we had the diagnosis in August. Then we got a pump in like it was September, October, something like that. And then this wedding was happening and I October and we were not ready at all for a long road trip. At that point, we just didn't feel comfortable. And then you're also dealing with cake, and dessert. And all these things, you know that that can feel really overwhelming when you don't have a package in front of you. And you're newly diagnosed, you know, and you're trying to guess, and you're like, I don't even know how my kid's body reacts to these things. So. So, I mean, yeah, just being comfortable to travel once, once you're ready to, and that's different for everybody. But, but I think, you know, you can't be afraid to go somewhere. I know, I have friends here who are from the Czech Republic, who will not go anywhere with their kid on a plane, because they're too afraid that but they will go places by car, but they will not fly anywhere. And so I'm hoping they will change their minds someday, because I think they're going to they're going to miss out on so much. If they limit themselves that way. We know what

Scott Benner 55:53
are their fears about the plane? I don't like crashing the side of a mountain fears or

Michelle 56:01
no, no, no, no, I think it has to do more with access to supplies and going to places that are so far away, that they feel like they couldn't go to the pharmacy and get what they needed. And honestly, I don't know. Like, if you were to be someone who was like, from Europe with European insurance and like to travel to the US, for example. I think I would be kind of scared. You know, I was if you ran out of insulin, and you didn't have an insurance policy that someone took there,

Unknown Speaker 56:31
I kind of screwed. No one would know,

Michelle 56:36
it is easier to go the other way. It's easier to have us insurance and go into Europe. Yeah, because things are cheaper. So I think I think for them, it's just they traveled to places, you know, really close by where, where they know that how the game works. And they know that they can still get supplies easily. Yeah,

Scott Benner 56:54
I just imagine the the very fear of like, being somewhere being being a foreigner. And being in America and just having this lucky. Having someone from America looking good, you're not American, this doesn't count go away. And having that fear of like somebody can just discount you just because you're not speaking English, or from America or whatever it ends up being. But I don't know if that's an unreal, fear, I would I would feel that and I have to say to in the reverse being American, I totally feel like it's probably a completely pompous and Unreal thing, but I feel like I could just go anywhere and be me. And it'll be fine. And, and I don't know that other people get to feel that way all the time. And that's

Michelle 57:34
pompous and unreal. Yeah,

Scott Benner 57:36
I know it is.

Michelle 57:37
But you keep a low profile, or we are we don't want to call attention to our American

Unknown Speaker 57:42
American mess.

Michelle 57:44
We try to keep a pretty low profile, and we try to blend in and be respectful of the culture here. Yeah, but

Scott Benner 57:49
I'm saying generally speaking, I was kind of putting it on me for funny, but like, yeah, I think generally speaking, Americans have that feeling like it's everything works for us, usually. So when I go somewhere else, I want it to work for me. I mean, we've all been on vacation and seen somebody like stomping and going nuts and you're like, what's wrong? I asked for a drink 10 minutes ago, when it's not back yet. I'm like, really, that's what's going wrong. And but you know, like, you have that feeling like, everything's so automatic, and it just works here. You don't I mean, you want something you get it. It's it's within reach of you normally, you know, if you have a problem, there's someone to complain to. There's a system that, you know, there's a system in place that makes your complaint, something they have to listen to. And you know, it's just our lives are set up really well here. I don't know how much people could appreciate that there's other places in the world where that might not be the case.

Michelle 58:40
I think they are set up? Well, I just think it's really expensive.

Unknown Speaker 58:43
Yeah. Oh, no,

Michelle 58:45
the hard part is the expense of it. Because I think, you know, in Minneapolis, when we go to the endocrinologist, our appointments go relatively quickly, quickly, we have a scheduled time, and we get in usually on time, and it's pretty fast. But here you know, it's you kind of are like, it's like a cattle call almost, I guess a little bit. But, but it's like the flip side, it's so affordable. And if you have an emergency, you know, they'll see you more quickly. But if it's just like a regular, you know, diabetes checkup. It's very different takes a lot more time. You know, so I think we interact with, oh, maybe like four different people when we go to a diabetes appointment. So there will be someone who takes Winifred tighten weights. And then we go to a different area where someone downloads all the information from her pump and from her Dexcom and then we go to a different area where someone picks her finger and does her agency and we don't get the agency immediately. We don't get the results for like two weeks. And also it's not just like a little drop on a test strip. They take like a vial of Blood. So they do a big finger stick and take a lot of blood, and then you don't get the results right away. So it's not even really gratifying that, oh, you stuck my finger and look at all that blood, you know, then you have to wait to find out what they did with all that blood. And then then you go to meet with the diet pathologist.

Scott Benner 1:00:17
So he's got here, she has all that information, and then you kind of can pile it there and make decisions and talk.

Michelle 1:00:24
Yeah, like he gets all the data from the Dexcom in the pump, and he doesn't get the winsy right away. You know, he he finds out when we find out what they went see is that

Scott Benner 1:00:32
if my onesies come in the room before I'm five minutes into the the actual visit on like, this is taking forever.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:40
But you know what, yeah, but it but it's

Michelle 1:00:42
different than that's how I think that's like, part of the reason that they that the cost is so much lower. And and I appreciate that, you know, I think it's it's hard coming from a system where we get everything. So immediately, like you said, but but I think I really appreciate the fact that people can afford to take care of themselves. And

Scott Benner 1:01:01
no matter what, and when you're what you're really describing is pace of life and expectation like here. Yeah, right. I work really hard. Most of the hours of my life, I come home, I clean something, eat something pass out, get up and do it. Again, when I go to the doctor, I needed to go quick, quick, quick, because I got to get back to my fast paced life in progress. Imagining life's not as fast paced, it's okay, if something takes longer. And if it eats up a little more of my time, it doesn't matter because I don't have to run back to my rat race job to make enough money to pay for it to begin with. So yeah, it is an expectation about what like life balance, I guess.

Michelle 1:01:36
It is. And I think it's also an understanding of how the system works. And being prepared for it. You know, like the first appointment we went to, we weren't prepared for the wait time. So now I bring a coloring book for winnifred. Or I bring something for myself to do and my

Unknown Speaker 1:01:48
coloring book for you broke his

Michelle 1:01:50
elbow while he was here in our first year and head of surgery here. And that was a really interesting experience. And he had some of the same kind of wait times and his appointments and the first appointment he went to, he didn't know how long the wait time would be. And so he had to go to the bathroom. And he waited and he waited, he waited because he was afraid that he was going to leave the restroom, and they would call his name. And but now he will go with a book if he has to go, you know, for an appointment like like that. Because he knows that there'll be a wait. So I think it's also you need to understand how the system works. And it took us a little while to learn that because we definitely were frustrated in the beginning, you know, not understanding because they don't they don't tell you things that for them are given they don't explain to Okay, your appointment is at 915. But you're probably going to wait 30 minutes before they call your name. Right. Yeah, and you're expected to know that this is the system, you know, they give you the same rundown that they give to anybody else. Yeah. So, yeah, this takes a little while, I think to figure it out. But um, but it's okay. And you only go to the endocrinologist hopefully, you know, like three or four times a year. You're not having to go there every week. So it's okay. You can you can wait a couple times a year,

Scott Benner 1:03:04
you'll be alright. Oh, no, I feel that's a great thing. Actually. I like the idea of being a little slower paced and not rushing constantly. So I have one last question been wondering. Okay. The entire our winner. Yeah. Is it like from

Unknown Speaker 1:03:21
Winifred? Yeah, where

Scott Benner 1:03:22
did you get the name?

Michelle 1:03:24
Oh, um, she's named after my grandpa Frederick. Dhoni. If we were if we had had a boy, he would have been Frederick. But she was a girl. And so

Scott Benner 1:03:35
it's not it's not when aford It's when a Fred

Unknown Speaker 1:03:39
when a Fred

Scott Benner 1:03:39
right. Okay. And then yeah, cuz I was thinking, Wonder Years. Every time you said wow, like is this thing? It's like, Did this poor kid get her name through Netflix? Like that's what I was wondering if, if you were just a big fan of a television show or not. But you have a more thoughtful reason. Yeah. Which is more satisfying, by the way.

Michelle 1:03:59
Yeah, it's got some family family ties to

Scott Benner 1:04:02
it. Because a boy wouldn't have been Freddie for short.

Michelle 1:04:05
I don't know. Maybe as when he's when he have friends now who call her Fred. You know, our friend Jake. He calls her Fred. He thinks it's really funny. That she might be Freddie, you know, she can be shouted up at the front house doesn't mean she can't be Freddie.

Scott Benner 1:04:23
You are doing amazing things. You put your family in a in a really unique situation, and then you shared it here. I really appreciate you taking the time to this. People should know that. Michelle did not have Skype, she had to go to quite some distance to figure out how we could talk. We are in a major time difference. It's late in the afternoon where you are and it's early in the morning where I am. And so this really worked out well. And then just as we were getting ready to do it, I kind of lost my voice to what I think is allergies. But But I was really concerned I wouldn't talk and so I didn't talk as much this episode which for you, those of you who write me to tell me I talk too much, you must have been thrilled. And so this all worked out very well. But it had a lot of roadblocks. And I, I'm genuinely pleased that we got this one recorded. And I appreciate all the effort you put it on your side.

Michelle 1:05:13
Oh, it was nothing. No, thank you for the opportunity. I hope that there are people out there who are inspired to go travel or to go live somewhere new or to go, you know, do something crazy, adventurous, you know,

Scott Benner 1:05:27
diabetes really doesn't need to in any way impede you from doing any of the things that you can imagine.

Michelle 1:05:32
No, absolutely not. You need to plan more. But I think once you have your planning done, you're good to go. Ready for takeoff.

Scott Benner 1:05:40
So thank you so much for coming on and doing this. Huge thanks to Michelle for coming on the show all the way from Prague to tell us about her life with Type One Diabetes and all the traveling she does. Get out there people. Just go ahead, go somewhere. She went to Prague, you can go anywhere. Thank you dex comment on the pod for sponsoring the show, please go to dexcom.com forward slash juice box, or my omnipod.com forward slash juice box for more information. Those links are also available at Juicebox podcast.com. Or in the links of your podcast app. There are our show notes in there, push some buttons, try to figure it out. A quick thank you also to dancing for diabetes, though their ad run is over for 2018. I sincerely appreciate everything they did for the podcast. And I hope that you all got a chance to check out dancing for diabetes. If you didn't, here's a freebie dancing for diabetes, go to dancing the number four diabetes.com to check it out. Elizabeth is doing amazing things there. It is totally worth checking into. Hey, you want to talk about what's coming up for the rest of December? Let's do that real quick, shall we? I actually have it written down in front of me. And for those of you who know me, you might know that me writing anything down is a fairly incredible act. On December 18, you'll be hearing from Anthony Anderson from ABCs blackish. And to tell the truth, on December 20. You'll be hearing a q&a with Brett Christianson, the new CEO of Omni pod. He'll be responding to all of my questions, as well as the ones you left on Facebook and Instagram for me to pass on to on the pod. That's fun, right? It's gonna be a long one. Nice, good, really get in there and ask a bunch of questions left right answer him. It's gonna be good times. And then on the 27th. I'll be speaking with Chris Rutan about exercise, how insulin works, how insulin works around weight gain, weight loss, all that kind of like stuff that you know, you wish you understood a little better. Chris really understands it. And he's going to be on to tell us more. Then after the first of the year, season five of the Juicebox Podcast will begin. Last thing that I'd like to remind you about, if the podcast is helpful to you, please help it to grow by sharing it with someone else. It really is incredibly difficult. I can't afford advertising for the show. And so it is very word of mouth. You are the ones who help it grow. I really appreciate that you do that. And I just want to remind you to keep going because, you know I love it. And I want to keep doing it and I want you to keep getting it. So share, share, share

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#197 Working Holiday

Czeching in with Alena….

Alena is from Czech Republic but is going to school in the UK. She lives with type 1 diabetes and is on the podcast to tell us here story. 

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 -  or their favorite podcast app.

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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
Hello, and welcome to Episode 197 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today we go over the ocean to talk to a lenna. This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Dexcom on the pod and dancing for diabetes, you can go to dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. My omnipod.com forward slash juice box, we're dancing, the number for diabetes.com. All these links are in your show notes at Juicebox podcast.com.

Alena 0:31
Hi, I'm Elena. I'm from Czech Republic, but I live in United Kingdom and I'm a type one diabetic from since I was 15.

Scott Benner 0:40
To How old are you now?

Alena 0:41
I'm 22. Now

Scott Benner 0:43

22. So you're, that's easy. How easy is that? And so I'm seven years with type one since you're 15. Now you were How long? We were born in the Czech Republic? How long did you live? Until school? Oh, well, no, like,

Alena 0:59
until I was 21. So I moved to the UK to do uni. Which I'm still doing now. Right?

Scott Benner 1:07
So you've only been the UK for a year going to school?

Alena 1:09
Me is free? Yeah, three years? Oh, no. Oh, well, yeah, let's let's forget the mouse. Oh, I'm in England.

Scott Benner 1:19
We should definitely forget the math. That's a great idea, actually, because diabetes goes much better when you forget the math. Here's one thing you don't want to forget. Nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making changes to your medical plan.

You were in Czechoslovakia when you were diagnosed?

Alena 1:47
Sorry, not Czechoslovakia. It's late. Yes. Just call it check. Cho, I know you're you're from America and probably mainly the people from America. So Czech Republic is a small country in the center of Europe, and it's next to Germany, which you all probably know.

Scott Benner 2:04
You are assuming a lot but I appreciate your confidence. Okay, so you're diagnosed there? What was it like being diagnosed there? Right.

Alena 2:13
So my diagnosis was at the beginning of school. Yeah. And, and because it was like that. It was in September, and I will go into a lot. I'm very thirsty. I definitely lost weight. But I didn't notice I was definitely tired. But I was blaming going to school again. And so me and my mom when she was just a practitioner. So we thought it may be some kind of infection, or something like that. And we went without a breakfast because you know, you should do that if you're getting blood tests done sometimes. So we expected that and the doctor checked my blood sugar. And it was Wait, I've got a table here so I can speak in your unit. It was around 206 7270 and what

Unknown Speaker 3:07
what what is it your measurement? 15

Alena 3:11
Okay. Yeah, let me see, like the point something is not that important around 270. Yeah. 15 plus something

Unknown Speaker 3:17
really high. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 3:19
yeah. Yeah.

Alena 3:19
I mean, it's, it's not that high. But it's high for a healthy person. Sure. And so I was sent to the hospital without the doctor actually telling us what's wrong with me. And yeah, yeah, it's not there are

Scott Benner 3:36
so you go to the doctor feeling pretty horrible. He

Alena 3:41
feel that fat. So I was an MBA. So like, yeah, we associate go to Tata. Okay. Okay. So you've got,

Scott Benner 3:47
you've got all these weird things going on. You can't quite put your finger on. And the doctor tests your blood, gives you a blood test. And then without giving you any other information says, Hey, I think you should go to the hospital now.

Unknown Speaker 3:59
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Unknown Speaker 4:01
Did you drive yourself?

Alena 4:02
No. So I was with my mom. So but we can drive from the age of 18. So my mom was driving. And then I think they took my blood and the doctor. I remember her she wasn't nice or comforting at all. He was like, dude, your daughter has diabetes. And that's it. It's forever. Yeah, and my mom was really upset and sharp. But her so we don't have diabetes in my family, but a dark type two diabetes. So she thought, Oh, no, she'll have to take pills and be on a diet for the rest of her life. She didn't even imagine injections.

Scott Benner 4:45
Yeah, how great would it have been if it was just pills a diet actually right.

Alena 4:49
Um, I have issues to be consistent when taking pills here like some supplements. I mean,

Scott Benner 4:59
I'm so interested in In the car ride from the doctor to the hospital. Did you guys remember that? Let's say it must have, like frazzling. Right? Like, yeah, yeah. Why are they making me go to the hospital? Like that

Alena 5:10
was I mean, I don't think I was questioning, I was just like wanting to know what's going on. Okay. But I'm not sure how it how it goes in America. But for me, I had to be in the hospital for five days. Even though I was in MDK, it was the transition from dorm life to taking injections.

Scott Benner 5:33
So it's sort of like a, it's like, it's like a diabetes, diagnosis vacation, you get to hang around the hospital. While they let you know how everything's gonna work out. So when you leave there at 15 years old, are you what kind of technology or what did they give you do? Oh,

Alena 5:49
so it's not going that? Well. I was given pens. So at that point, it was that you fit change the pencil with insulin. So it's like the one that you can disable two to two bits and just change the pedophile. And basically, because I was, well, it was a month before my 15th birthday. I was actually born. But yes, was close to that. I was, even though my parents about that, for a lot of explaining, I was the one who was going to be managing my diabetes. And my parents actually never gave me an injection.

Scott Benner 6:32
That must have been strange, right? Like, did they just make an announcement? They were like, Okay, this is yours. You're gonna take care of this.

Alena 6:39
condo? Yeah. So in the I remember, it was the syringes of plastic one first, and then we transition in Japan. And then they originally plan that I can't leave hospital without my parents in check to me at least one. Okay. But somehow, that didn't happen. And no, no, it wasn't like they mentioned it, but then no one really cared that much. And then my, so for my mom, it's like injecting the child. So was never keen on that. And she's quite sensitive. And for my dad, he never was interested in injecting me. And I never asked him to, because I feel like, you know, my dad's got big hands. And yeah,

Unknown Speaker 7:29
it's gonna be clumsy with it.

Alena 7:31
Yeah, yeah. So I left with two pens, due dates with insulin and with leukemia. That was there. And so the insulin, I'm still actually on the same insulin levels. And it's, so it's London for the long acting. And and I just forgotten the name of the daily one. Let me

Scott Benner 7:58
absolutely do not worry. The other day I I searched for a word during a conversation, and just could never find it and had to eventually bail on it and just say to people, I'll think of it later and walk away, which was incredibly embarrassing.

Alena 8:10
But so the other one is actually x rapid, which something you've probably never heard of. And it's not the fast acting one, but as a regular one, which I found out about quite recently. So for those who don't know, and it's last up to like, seven to eight hours. And it takes about seven minutes to start working.

Unknown Speaker 8:33
And you're still using? Yeah, Can you spell it for me?

Alena 8:38
Yeah. Oh, hello. So it's AC t. r a p. d. Accurate? Yeah. I'm googling. I'm sorry.

Scott Benner 8:55
So yeah, everyone agrees googling on a podcast is very, very exciting. Okay. So yeah, UK unit solution, human

Alena 9:04
action. So it's more complicated, because you cannot. So I still had the pen. I got seven years ago, I changed the pedophile. I mean, it's quite a good one. Um, and I still get my income from Czech Republic, right. Oh, that I'll get to that later. Okay. Well, let

Scott Benner 9:23
me just jump in for people who are on on the not European side. When Linda says pen fill she means she's talking about the cartridge that goes in. Oh, yeah. Right, which is called Don't worry. I just want to make sure everybody's following along. And, and you get your insulin from the chair from fun. Okay. All right. So do you live by yourself in the UK now? Because

Alena 9:48
I'm listening to them with three girls.

Scott Benner 9:51
Okay, that sounds I don't know how that sounds. Is that any good?

Alena 9:55
All right, because I've got my own room. Okay.

Scott Benner 9:58
That sounds okay. Then. So why do you Why do you? Alright, hold on, let's slow down for a second because my mom was my mind just raced ahead of the story. Okay, so you you've got this insulin, you've got the glucose, you know, the glucose meter. And, and your, your parents are not really getting too involved I would imagine law to count carbs, or were you just oh

Alena 10:19
yeah, so I will say, oh, that we call them exchangeable units, or cops, that one unit is 12 grams of carbs. And so you have this meal plan, for example, that for breakfast, you have four units, which is 48 grams of carbs, and you can theoretically eat whatever as long it's 48. Breakfast.

Scott Benner 10:45
So you shoot the insulin, eat the food, when do you ever check your blood sugar after that?

Alena 10:51
So what also was to check my blood sugar just before main meals, and then before sleeping? So four or five times a day? How did that?

Scott Benner 11:02
How did that how did that end up working out? Like? Do you get your a one c checked on a regular basis?

Alena 11:08
It will look complicated not to.

Unknown Speaker 11:11
Okay.

Scott Benner 11:13
So good. Well, how did you find that process of checking four or five times a day and just shooting and then in then doing the car?

Alena 11:21
I was taking a choir. Right? So I'm quite sensitive to high blood sugar levels. I don't really get any symptoms. Not that I know. And even though I was told to in the Pre-Bolus. I never seen it about we will get to by that time I've never seen it sounds like oh, well, whatever. And and I wouldn't Pre-Bolus really which I understand is not ideal. I was doing it and for and I thought it's working. But my parents didn't have any real input. But there and by the end of when we call them something else up. My endo was. So she was looking in like a paper diary. Well, right, my blood sugar levels. And but so it says I was filling it as I was going. But eventually I would fill it the night before the appointment of

Scott Benner 12:21
making up some numbers, or did you actually get the numbers from your meter?

Alena 12:24
Oh, the plan was to get them from the meter. But there was one more issue. And so but even though my parents were not really involved in like the decisions of how much insulin and so on. And so there was a situation when I was home, and I were getting lunch, and my dad asked me what my blood sugar level is. And sadly often I mean, certainly from my point of view now, it was around 200 to 50. And sometimes it would be my fault that I was like snacking or something like that. But often it wasn't Oh, no that was ever with us. It'd be my fault.

Scott Benner 13:07
You were doing what you expected was working. Your blood sugar's still going.

Alena 13:10
Yeah. And my dad would say, oh, that high with like a very specific reaction. And that was causing me some kind of anxiety. So I went in in such situations, I would be like, No, it's all right. And I wouldn't tell it to him. And then my dad was the one who was driving me to my endo, and was still in the room. Okay, so to avoid the this is reaction, I was lying to my endo about my numbers. And that went for a few years. And so I can't really recall any agency numbers. But I was always so mad. Alright, I like and until recently, I never cared what the number was exactly. But as long as I said, Yeah, it's still good. I was fine with it.

Scott Benner 14:06
The holidays are here. And it's the time of year when you're thinking about other people, but you can't let that get in the way of caring for yourself. So if you've been thinking about taking better care of yourself, thinking about making an upgrade to your diabetes care plan, don't let this holiday season slow you down. It really will only take a moment today to go to dexcom.com forward slash juice box to find out more about the continuous glucose monitor that Arden has been using forever. We talked about it here all the time. But ardens a one C has been between 5.2 and 6.2 for five years with zero food restrictions. Much of how we accomplish that is with the data and the information that comes back from ardens Dexcom g six. Now you're going to love the arrows that tell you what direction your blood sugar is moving and you're gonna love that those arrows tell you how fast your blood sugar is moving. You're gonna love seeing the trends and how insulin and foods affect you. You're going to take all that information, and you're going to make better decisions tomorrow than you made today. Those decisions are going to keep your blood sugar in a more stable range. Before you know it, you're going to have that agency as well. Do yourself a great favor, go to dexcom.com forward slash juice box or click on the links in the show notes or Juicebox podcast.com. Go find that freedom. Go find that confidence. Back comfort, make this a wonderful holiday season. Make it the time you decided to make a change. I know you feel busy right now, but you're never too busy for this dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. Results mentioned are ours. Yours may vary. Those visits for you weren't so much about like figuring things out or fine tuning your health. It was just about going in and having somebody not be completely disappointed. And if they weren't, if they were like hey, right on, it's not so bad, then you'd leave and go, Oh, it's not so bad. I'm good. Right? Okay.

Alena 16:12
Remember the numbers, but I think it was some somewhere around eight, which is like, not so bad, but not what you want.

Scott Benner 16:21
And I hear what you're saying. I do understand that.

Alena 16:24
So that was one point where they started downloading the numbers from the meter. And I had a discussion with one diabetic nurse because she was diabetic too. And she was like, hey, these numbers don't match up. So I had to phase it.

Scott Benner 16:42
Did you go? Did you go? Oh, they don't that's crazy.

Alena 16:45
So So I panicked. And I was like, I want to speak to the nurse in the room without my dad.

Scott Benner 16:53
Okay, so yeah, you can fast you were like, I'm gonna confess. My dad. I gotcha.

Alena 16:58
Yeah, yeah. And then, so and then something else happening. I was low in iron. And so as far as like, my usual blood test, doctor would check for both all the markers that are for the celiac disease. And I was told there are people with celiac disease has like numbers around the hundreds or even thousands and minds were like 30. So she wanted me to go to the thing when you swallow a tube and they look inside. That's one, you know what I mean? Um,

Scott Benner 17:37
Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Alena 17:42
The name is not important. And I was like, I'm not doing it. I'm fine. I don't have any problems. I'll take iron supplements. And then when I turned 18, I change the doctor. And they were like, Hey, you need to get this checked. And I went to that horrible experience. It takes five minutes feels like five years. And they found out I've got celiac disease. And so they also take a biopsy sample off, I feel. But I think it's got a lot show a bit of terminology. Sorry.

Scott Benner 18:19
Take something inside of you.

Alena 18:24
And then it takes two weeks. So I was like, Okay, cool. I'll go two weeks to have pizza, pasta, whatever I want to say goodbye. Okay. If

Scott Benner 18:35
you want to break up tour with food.

Alena 18:39
I didn't get that though. My parents are meaner. And we were walking back to the car and we got called back from the office. They're like you have to come back. And they because there is a camera and they seen that it's definitely a celiac disease and they were like you have to start eating gluten free immediately. even make it to the parking lot. Okay. So for about six months, maybe longer than that. I was eating gluten free and I will pain India and sorry, but

Scott Benner 19:18
with your accent nobody will hear it. It's fine. I completely understood you actually once in a while you sound like Adele to me. Isn't that interesting? Cool. Yeah, I think No, no, I've seen a demo Live in Concert and once in a while there's a couple of words where it sounds like that to me but I have a fairly I don't my ears not great for accent but it is it I can understand. I can absolutely understand you don't work? Yeah, I'm just saying we can we can like later I could lie and say she didn't say

Alena 19:52
okay, okay, so, um, so yeah, it was really annoying and there was nothing changed. I didn't feel worse either. through there. And I was like, I can't deal with this. And so then this is why, one of the reasons why I want to come to the podcast because I wouldn't tell people not to do it.

Scott Benner 20:13
I am proud to be sponsored today by dancing for diabetes, until a cure is found dancing for diabetes will be there for all of us good at dancing, the number for diabetes.com.

Alena 20:25
And if they get diagnosed with celiac disease, please eat gluten free. And so after about six months or so, for pizza, I didn't die. Sounds like yeah, let's let's not do this animal. Eating normally again, she just gave you just gave up

Scott Benner 20:43
and went right back to and what also what happens? What happens when you eat using pizza as an example, when you eat pizza, and you have to see like, what what happens? What, but

Alena 20:52
me personally, I've got the type of celiac disease that I don't have any symptoms other than lower iron. But basically no. So in your gut, you're it's autoimmune disease. And basically, your body is reacting to the gluten in inflammatory response. So not only it's bad for your body that you are in it, but it's inflamed all the time. But so in your gut, it sat inside, it's wrinkled, I don't know if you know that I didn't know that inside, it's wrinkled. So the surface is bigger, and you absorb more nutrition. However, if you have celiac disease, and you eat gluten, and how is your body fighting with it, that it gets moved, and you don't absorb nutrition and nutrients?

Scott Benner 21:49
So So what's happening to you is while you're eating and not having any symptoms, like like, say like, you know, stomach, and other people do have, you're still not absorbing the correct amount of nutrition. So when you eat foods your body can deal with, you're hurting yourself in other ways.

Alena 22:04
Yeah, yeah. So I don't know about it. And it's, and it takes a lot of time for it to heal. So it's not like weed without gluten will help. Okay. And so for a couple of years, I was normally eating gluten until last summer. So I went to the I went to Greece for this thing, body and stuff. Details Allah important power sake. And I will throw it up and diarrhea. I was like, I'm not letting anything ruin this. However, I've got quite strong stomach. So I was like, wait, I'm throwing up. This is. This is not like what my body does, whenever I'm sick. And here I would also like to say that I was naive, and I saw the decay is only for newly diagnosed people. So I didn't really care about DK. That's interesting. Okay. Yeah, yes. Yeah. No, no.

Scott Benner 23:08
So you're at a, an extra let's call it a party in Greece.

Alena 23:15
Working Holiday. Yeah.

Scott Benner 23:17
Working Holiday, right, which might be the name of this episode. So you're, you're on a working holiday and and things are ingested. And you and so you get very sick. You're now sick in a way that you're not accustomed to with your celiac.

Alena 23:36
Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, definitely.

Scott Benner 23:38
But because of the trip, I want to make sure I understand and the fun that was trying to be had. And you're feeling that you have like a strong stomach. You were going to persist and just keep doing what you were doing.

Alena 23:49
No, no, you gave up. I like generally have a strong stomach. So it was suspicious down throw it up. I see. Yeah. So I was meant to be there for four weeks. And after like two and a half star was that it started getting sick. But in Greece on the islands, you are not allowed to drink the water because I don't know. It's just not drinkable. Okay, so I thought maybe in the tricks I was getting, they made the eyes from the top water to save money. I see. So it could be that yes. So when I was that I went to like two doctors there. I was on a trip for like two hours because I was obviously dehydrated. And I did it so it's just that water bug or whatever it is. And I was like, I don't see well. I've got antibiotics from her which I can't be on somewhere. And I was recommended to eat just plain food potatoes, pasta, bread, and he and I was like I can't have this here. There is no point so Aaron just like to go home and I was already feeling weak. So I would get slightly dizzy or I would have to like, slow down. And I got home and my mom told me I looked terrible. And never like, do you want to go to the doctor? I was like, No, that's all right. Today, we'll go tomorrow to just do practitioner. And so I spent one night at home. And I went to my practitioner, she sent me to the hospital again, she was like, This is not looking good. And they kept me at ICU for two weeks.

Scott Benner 25:29
So what had happened? Were you just was your situation, just grading because you weren't taking nutrients?

Alena 25:36
No. So I was in the UK. And because I was eating gluten, even though I knew I shouldn't be. My body was holding up for a long time, but still wasn't getting the nutritions. It needed. It was holding up, hold it up. And then I went to Greece, and the change of conditions was like the last thing. And it all went down very quickly. And I was very, very lucky that I didn't end up with any consequences out of that.

Scott Benner 26:09
Yeah. Yes. Because you're away from home and out of the country. And but yeah,

Alena 26:14
you're like, I got to the hospital, and they took my blood and addicted. Look was looking at the paper and he was like, I'm surprised that kidneys heaven. St. Louis. Oh,

Scott Benner 26:24
that's fun to hear. What were you were you testing your blood sugar during this time on your own?

Alena 26:30
Yeah, but like, until last summer, my approach to diabetes was like test, inject whatever. And I didn't really care much. I was like, yeah, this is working. I mean, yeah, I'm high. By working.

Scott Benner 26:42
You meant I haven't fallen over yet.

Alena 26:44
So I didn't feel bad. Yeah. Because I don't know. Maybe it's because I was, I often I lose my symptoms for symptoms for being high. And by high I mean, like, around 200. And I was like, yeah, this is fine. I mean, I didn't see it as an issue. And then, yeah, it wasn't really bad. But I thought it's working. But something changed in hospital, and I can't say what, but I thought I'd been interested in diabetes. And then I joined some Facebook groups. And then I found your podcast. And yeah, so my main message is, please if you got diagnosed with celiac disease, and even free even though it's horrible, and some of the tape is, is tasteless, it's it's important, really, I mean, I was really lucky. And I was also in the UK so you know, if I would test it so what and no one told me that one time if

Scott Benner 27:48
you are not a good salesperson for gluten free, you're like, free even though it's horrible. That's not a good sales, I would not look

Alena 27:59
that many more options. And it Czech Republic and Czech Republic. A lot of that food is in boxes, make. Make your own bread, make your own muffins, which is something I'm really not interested in. Is it 22 year old person?

Scott Benner 28:14
Yeah, looking to be baking while you're at school.

Alena 28:19
But yeah, I mean, it's totally doable. All right with it. Now I'd pet some kind of like rebellion

Scott Benner 28:25
block. No, no, Tommy, let's look. Let's look back for a second though. You're in the hospital after Greece. And you said you don't really know what happened. You just started being more interested? Can you dig deeper into yourself for that? Like you You really don't know what about that situation that just made you say, two weeks from now on the pod is going to be back on the show. And we're going to be interviewing them about what's coming up with their new dash, PDM horizon, artificial pancreas and everything that's coming in the near future. Two weeks should be enough time for you to get a free no obligation demo pod from Omni pod right now. So you can have that experience tucked away in your hip pocket. When you hear them talking about what's coming up. By then you'll know how simple and easy it is to put on and on the pod and how while you're wearing it, you don't even notice that it's there, you'll start to really think, wow, I can get an insulin delivery without injections. And I don't have to be connected to any tubing. I don't have to have a thing clipped to my belt or stuffed in my pocket jammed in my bra. This controller is connected by this long piece of tubing that goes into infusion set like every other insulin pump. I don't need to do that with on the pod because it is absolutely tubeless you're going to understand all of that and they're going to come in they're going to tell you what's coming up really soon. Your excitement level is going to go boom through the roof. And you're very quickly very quickly going to be like Bobby but hurry up Get me out the enemy pots. I gotta get involved, baby. This is my time. That's what you'll say. I mean or something like that in your own voice. Maybe you'll just go hey, you know what I really like this and sometimes I'm gonna get it. Maybe it won't be all fireworks and flowers, but I'll tell you what it will be. It'll be tubeless. And you'll have the ability to change your basal rates have extended boluses go swimming, and shower while you're getting your insulin, play all kinds of sports, and never have to disconnect my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box with the links in your show notes. Do it right now. Get long before they come back on the show.

Alena 30:30
So I was told by the doctors I could have died, which is something I have processed completely yet. I said when when the doctors were getting my button. Hold on. I was seriously seriously malnourished. The word? Nurse Yeah, yes. Yes, Mother, we're sorry. That was a thing. So for the first few days there, I wasn't even getting food. All the food was coming to me through through drip. And I'm also listening to your podcast and talking about hospitals. And like after after that I was doing a podcast and looking back, they don't know what they are doing with diabetes either. They wouldn't Pre-Bolus they wouldn't check between meals. Um, but yes, something really change. And I'm grateful for it. Because some Facebook groups are browsing, it's just coming up to America. No. Monitor.

Scott Benner 31:37
Give me a second. You broke up there for a minute and I'm gonna I'm gonna disconnect the Skype and call you right back. You're in the hospital and you found something that I couldn't hear what you said.

Unknown Speaker 31:47
Like, oh,

Alena 31:48
yeah, I'll say I'll follow found. flaws. People monitor a freestyle Libra freestyle Libra.

Scott Benner 31:53
Okay, so you like a glucose ma?

Unknown Speaker 31:58
flash glucose monitor.

Scott Benner 31:59
Okay. Okay. And so is this a finger stick one or the one you hold up and get a reading from?

Alena 32:07
But it doesn't have a lot. You have to swipe it.

Scott Benner 32:10
Okay. Okay. So it's, I guess they we call a dexcom, a continuous glucose monitor. Then this one is a glucose monitor. Yeah, you have to hold something up to it. And then it gets a reading from it. But you don't have to do finger stick. So you found that it's not what do they call it the? Is it Libra Libra or something.

Unknown Speaker 32:30
I don't know what they call Libra. Okay,

Alena 32:32
I'm not sure. Yeah.

Scott Benner 32:34
So it's a glucose monitor. But it's not continuous. You have to take, like you said, swipe something past the install, and then it gives you the number so you get a hold of that. And how does that change things for you?

Alena 32:46
I think it's life changing. So I'm from listening for you. I would love to have Dexcom. But we are already both my parents are helping me with money because some final year and I don't have time to work right now. So, um, but we are paying for it ourselves. And so Dexcom is more expensive. So I mean, I would welcome the alarm. But this is already life changing enough.

Scott Benner 33:11
It's It's It's a good step up. It's it's Yeah, it's not the whole thing, but it's a lot more than you had before.

Alena 33:18
In insane. It's incomparable because like, when I when I got it, I think I had like a flu or something or holes. So my blood sugar was all over the place. And my insulin sensitivity was very low that needed more insulin. Okay, yeah. And so that will start but when I first got that, like bright line, overnight, I was over the moon. And it somehow motivates me more, because I see the number when before I checked my just finger steak. I'll see the number put it in my back in my back. But now I see all the time.

Scott Benner 34:02
So you being able to see the your blood sugar in in more real time situations. You feel like hey, it's going good. And it motivates you to keep continue and then when it's when it's not going the way you want. It doesn't it doesn't get you down. It just motivates you to get back to the other space.

Alena 34:21
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, like I just my, my approach to my blood sugar levels changed because I want to see that bright line four. I wanted to see it in in my range. I've got set that and also so I had a couple of things a day or two without live with a last like five months. And I was like yes, I want to be late. I'll pull up my tables with with your numbers are about to be at about 70 to 90 at least overnight. But I can't do that. Finger sticks because what I'm 70 to 85 I don't know where it's heading. And I can't be hanging out around that when I when I don't know where it's heading right

Scott Benner 35:11
if you don't see the information coming back to you. Yeah. 85 could be 85 and falling. You can't just walk away and go.

Alena 35:17
Exactly.

Scott Benner 35:18
It's funny you say that I just look, you made me look up. Arden's blood sugar's 84 right now.

Alena 35:23
Yeah. It's amazing. And I'm happy with that when I when I see what's going on.

Scott Benner 35:29
Yeah, it is a cool, I You're making me look now. So I'm looking at Arden's last three hours on her Dexcom. And she's been, she's been right at 84 between 90 and 84 for like, three hours now. It's just it is it is really comforting in a way that's hard to put into words really get you know, because then you feel like you can be more aggressive or, you know, sit at a lower number, because you feel like, well, if it falls, I'll you know, I mean, you don't have alarms with yours. But so how do you handle not having alarms? You just kind of swipe it more frequently?

Alena 36:03
Yeah, so I think I might be around 50 times a day, it was, it was hundred when I got it, okay. Because I Pre-Bolus. And if I have time to wait as I swipe it until I see the number changing number i'd heading down or heading down and until it's where I want it to be. So as you are describing the arrows for Dexcom. We've got just diagnosed dogma up dogma down, right? Or right up straight down.

Scott Benner 36:38
I see. It's, so is it if Okay, so if you were in a different financial situation, you you would want to see it be able to say constantly without the swiping.

Alena 36:49
So this my thing is not that. I don't mind swiping, but I would prefer alone. Because sometimes when my blood sugar like goes up overnight, and I, I see it at the morning, and I'm like, Oh, wow. But I wish I could rap to it faster.

Scott Benner 37:06
Okay, so so I've always kind of contended the LIBOR for me is like testing your blood sugar with a finger stick without the finger stick. Because you can say to yourself, I want to know what my blood sugar is and pick something up and No. And but you don't have to poke your finger bleed or anything like that, which is an amazing. It's an amazing leap from from finger sticks for certain. Do you still use finger sticks, though?

Alena 37:33
Well, if I don't feel so in UK, I think you are allowed to doze off of Libra, which I would do, even if it wasn't allowed to be honest. But it's accurate. It's accurate enough, because you know, as you discussed already many times, there is still some allowed error in both monitoring and fingerstick. So I think I think only when I feel different than the number sir. And that's about it. I didn't. Yeah, I didn't put my finger for a couple days now.

Scott Benner 38:11
So well, no kidding. I would say that I'm pretty much right there with you. I was I've been dosing off of Dexcom. Before the FDA, you know, before the government said it was okay. So, you know, once it's once I trusted I you know, you can trust it that you know, it's interesting. And then like you said, when you're not sure, or you don't feel right, then test and figure it out. Well, that's all so how many months? Have you been into this new way of thinking? It's not long, right?

Alena 38:38
Oh, yeah, it seems like last August, I started looking around and, and I've got a Libra in November. And I don't want to be without it anymore. It Yeah,

Scott Benner 38:50
it was interesting. You were all those years with just sort of like, Okay, I'm you know, I feel okay, and whatever the numbers are, I don't really mind. Then you have this one moment. Do you think it's a little bit about maturity? Or do you think like, you don't even like because the age where you hit you? I always wonder about that. Like, is it just do you think about life differently now that you're older than you did when you were younger?

Alena 39:16
Yeah, I think it was because diabetes got into my life. When you are like rebellious. I feel that play the path that I had to find my own way to thing. And now I'm finding that more and more what my mom told me to do. And I was like, No, I'm doing it my way and then now coming to the five that was right.

Scott Benner 39:42
There's not many stories in the world is their children, children not listening to their parents is definitely one of them. It is a you do I find myself all the time looking at my children thinking that one of the only things I have for you that is a very real value is the benefit of my experience. You know, it's hard to find a way to in just regular life, to say something to your kids in a way that they'll pick up and accept and find important. But when it comes to this medical stuff, and it's so constant and annoying and irritating like diabetes is, I don't know, it isn't. It just seems like a really difficult thing. There are times that I think, I wish Arden wasn't diagnosed when she was so young. Because, you know, it's more time for her to live without hopefully getting complications later. But at the same time, there's part of me that thinks it is really great that she doesn't remember not having diabetes, because then some of the things we do that are really irritating. They don't strike her the same as they would if she if she was diagnosed when she was Yeah, Yeah,

Alena 40:47
Yeah, I agree. Yeah. And then I would like to get to why I'm getting my insulin from Czech Republic,

Scott Benner 40:53
I would love to know why you're getting an amazon.com there, that works better. Oh,

Alena 40:58
no, no. So because I've got here for my unit. And then the first time I went home was after three months, which was just about right. And I went to my check, and I got insulin. And so but in Czech Republic, insulin is fully covered by the insurance. However, it's different with stripe. So once you turn 18, you get only 1000 stripes per year from from the insurance and rest you have to paypal. Okay.

Scott Benner 41:33
I don't understand the free stripes. But is that Oh, no, like fingerstick fingers. Okay. Okay, so you get like 1000, you get 1000 test strips. That's good. Yeah. Right. And then over the overtop of that you'd have to pay cash. Are they expensive?

Alena 41:48
Um, bye. Sorry. I think it's about $20 or 50. Okay. Ah,

Scott Benner 42:01
that's under the cost here, I would say. But it's still it's still a lot if you're using a lot. But you're not really using many fingers. At this point.

Alena 42:10
No, well, yeah. But before that, I was still using just five a day. So it wasn't that expensive. So unless they she was allowed to prescribe me insulin for like a longer period of time. And so yeah, I mean, I pick up with insulin, return from home, basically. But so recently, because you were talking about insolence, and I was thinking about which insulin I'm using, I found out that no one's using the engine. And I am and I was like, wait a minute. So I will want to change that soon. Because what's annoying about this one is not only the load stuff, like half an hour until it starts working. But also, there is like a second, a second, like a lot of detail, I think about two or three hours in it. Like it catches a second breath and came swaying again. Yeah. So. So that's, I feel like that's why my diet will set around that around the unit. So that was like I was like compulsory snack. I think that was like, up until now, I feel my endo asked me how many units I'm taking for like my meals. And I'm like, I don't know exactly, because it changes by the meal, right? Like, I'm okay. You're

Scott Benner 43:37
starting to move towards that idea. But you are going to get slowed down by the way your insulin works. Like if you want to continue kind of trying to embrace the stuff I guess that we talked about here on the podcast, you are going to need insulin to doing that.

Unknown Speaker 43:51
Yeah, right.

Scott Benner 43:52
Yeah. Be different insulin.

Alena 43:55
Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I'll be looking into that. And when it comes to pumps, so what, on my last endo appointment? It was midsommer he brought it up. Oh, have you been thinking about it? Um, but I was like, I was actually Bob not to be entitled by the insurance. And he was like, Yeah, yeah, it's just a matter of sending a letter somewhere. And I would definitely and but it takes three days in house. I think she needs to, like adjust your, um, they they keep you in the hospital to uh, to make adjustments to like your insulin to carb ratios, your basal rates and all that stuff. They don't just give it they know what carb ratios are. They're asking me how much

Scott Benner 44:46
Oh, no. Yeah, I guess so. Right. Well, listen, I I'll tell you right now, if they would give you a pump. I think you could figure it out on your own pretty easily.

Unknown Speaker 44:55
Oh, sure about it. Yeah.

Scott Benner 45:02
Don't forget to go to dancing for diabetes.com dancing the number four diabetes.com. Just type it into your browser, you type in dancing, then the number four, then diabetes, and then dot, which is a period, and then calm. Is it a funny we call a period a dot? But it's a period, why isn't it dancing for diabetes period calm? I guess because that sounds stupid. Okay, so just calm that the doctor mentioned a pump. And you were like, yeah, right on. I'm thinking about a pump, too. But what are the impediments?

Alena 45:38
Last December I went, I went back to UK and I've been that allow for four months. And so I want to stay in England and work here. Which would mean I would lose it, like automatic insurance in Czech Republic. So there is an option, I will have paid out of my own pocket the insurance. And then the pump will come with that. And then I'll have to be flying there for my supplies. Literally flying.

Scott Benner 46:07
Wow. So if you stay so if you stay in the UK, you're not a citizen there.

Alena 46:12
Oh, no. So because it's in the European Union still, I mean, Dad leaving boss that's still in progress. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 46:19
I see.

Alena 46:21
So I'll get coverage, like my insolent and probably even test. Drive. Right. So I they are different requirements for pumps. And as

Unknown Speaker 46:35
much as I get it,

Scott Benner 46:39
I feel like I'm remembering back to an episode I did a while ago, for somebody who lives in the UK and that their stuff is free. If you're

Alena 46:48
well, yeah, that's free. But you have to comply within some requirements to get palm. So maybe you. So sometimes your agency has to be certain thing. Like, yeah, there are some requirements for it.

Scott Benner 47:04
Yeah, that's interesting. So you are interested in getting a pump?

Alena 47:08
Yeah. And then actually, even before I started listening to your podcast, from the Facebook quiz, I came across your insulin pump and I can't remember the name though. I thought, yeah. And I was like, excited. Like, there's a tubeless insulin pump on the market. I can't believe it. But it's not in Czech Republic yet. Because the thing with it's not like we are behind. But when these devices come from, like English speaking countries, they have to go through like check pan of FDA, and they need to comply with the rules. And they have to be translated. So that's, that's the main thing. It's not like, yes, it works for your face.

Scott Benner 47:56
One of the people I know it on the pod, probably. Gosh, it's got to be six or nine months ago. Now he moved from from America to the UK because they're doing more work there. So you should you guys should see that stuff coming around, I would think sooner than later they are working on on making things available more completely around the globe.

Alena 48:21
I mean, I hope one day I get a full time job that I'll be able to pay for it myself.

Scott Benner 48:28
How long till I mean, how much more University do you have left till you graduate?

Alena 48:32
Is it worth two months ahead?

Unknown Speaker 48:36
Just two months? Yeah, I've

Alena 48:38
got my dissertation deadline. Next month. No, this one, the one after that. So fingers crossed.

Scott Benner 48:45
What are you hoping to do? Are you hoping to work in a pharma company or?

Alena 48:48
Yeah, yeah, so I'm doing biopharmaceutical science degree. So I will. I have experience in law and I hope to be working in love in like quality control and chemistry and stuff like that.

Scott Benner 49:00
You gotta get a job with somebody who makes insulin, then it will be free through your job.

Alena 49:06
I don't think it will.

Scott Benner 49:08
Because here, that's how it works. If you work for a pharmaceutical company that makes the drug. When your doctor prescribes that drug, you just get it for free.

Alena 49:18
Okay, oh, have a look into that. I'm not interested in another biologic stuff. I may have a look into that but

Scott Benner 49:27
maybe maybe on the pod has something over there. You can work with them to get your pumps for free instead, that would be cool.

Alena 49:32
Well, I'm not you know, I'm not an engineer. I feel like it engineers who are looking into

Scott Benner 49:40
what got you interested, like, how did you make the decision that this is what you would study?

Alena 49:45
So I wanted to do pharmacy at first, because I was interested in biology and chemistry. I mean, I enjoy that. Yeah. For me, I don't enjoy it right now. And trust me. So that's why For fun, let's see, I know I didn't get the marks for it and my final. So the idea was to stop this and do either one term or just the full first year to get high marks and then transfer to pharmacy. I liked it.

Scott Benner 50:14
But you just found something you liked. That's really good. Yeah, it's

Alena 50:17
different. Yeah,

Scott Benner 50:18
that's excellent is an RNN text real quick. I was like, I'm going to ask you to turn her bazel off for a half hour. She's been more on the low side the last couple of days. I don't think she would mind me saying but she started getting your period a few months ago. And I'm still figuring out those days. Yeah, I'm still figuring I'm still figuring those out. Last night was one of the nights I was like, I think I could have taken her pump off for six hours, it felt like and she just she didn't seem to need insulin for a while. So we were we returning it way down and stuff like that. But it, it's going fine. It's just an adjustment, you know, it's not too bad.

Unknown Speaker 51:04
Well,

Scott Benner 51:04
how are you finding? How are you finding the change in your approach to diabetes? Is it working for you in a way that's comfortable? Or do you struggle with it sometimes? Are you still figuring No,

Alena 51:18
I'm arriving? I've talked about it a lot to people around me feel like they might be bothered. Um, but yeah, I'm kind of surprised by it. Because I was never like interested in diabetes, and I am now I am. And it's, like, unusual to me. But um, yeah, I'm happy with it. And I inject myself a lot. Like, I don't, I should actually call him one day, but I do a lot of smaller color corrections. And so I think I could do with the pump because of that. But, yeah, I feel like it's going really well. And I'm so glad to finish came in and didn't have any consequences for my decisions about about my diet, because that could have ended up badly as I was, I was really lucky. And I hope someone that is like, they like me. Yeah, it doesn't do anything to me at all. Dude. I'll be just one day in pain. I'll be bloated, but then I'll be fine. It's fallen.

Scott Benner 52:25
Yeah. No kidding. And so you really are just using, you're just being more aggressive with your insulin. Really?

Alena 52:33
Yeah, definitely. And then just caring about my sugar blood sugar levels. I'm way more

Scott Benner 52:40
right. And so you're reacting to elevated blood sugars get insulin from you much sooner than it ever did in the past?

Alena 52:47
Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely.

Scott Benner 52:50
Oh, and this is just from having an experience getting a little scared going out and finding community and then seeing that there's another way to handle things and, and giving it a try.

Alena 53:02
Yeah, I don't think it's good. Like, I don't know, what was the 10 you probably

Scott Benner 53:07
saw I said you you could you're lucky you didn't like because I think that some point they said, like you could have had some really serious complications from what Yeah, so it didn't that's interesting. So you didn't get you weren't afraid. You were just like, I'm gonna do this differently now.

Alena 53:24
Actually, no, it wasn't like that. So in the hospital, because our that was the fact Okay, I'm not feeling well. And I feel weak, which is something that I never experienced before. So these are new things for me. And they were like, yeah, it's really serious and unneeded, I was close to needing and transfusion because of how low my error levels last. And so it was very serious. But to me it didn't feel fear it serious. I didn't feel like dying. So it and it's quite hard to process that so I think it started when I was looking for like some gluten free food or something that would be edible. Because my first experience gluten free diet wasn't wasn't really amazing. I mean, it's good now it's doable and and because of the hits the fans we are in and people going gluten free even though they help don't have to. There is a lot of options now and coming more and more so looking good.

Scott Benner 54:31
So So is the food is it something you get accustomed to the flavor or do you just not bother either doesn't take

Alena 54:41
and then my issue was bread because I found this really really tasting bread. That was a nice and in UK you can buy like so much sleep loaf of toast bread. And if you can't tell the difference. So what's bothering me now, the most is I have to prepare the meal mainly myself, I

Scott Benner 55:03
don't want to cook.

Alena 55:06
I never wanted to cook. And here I am.

Scott Benner 55:08
I do believe that that's I as watching my son, as he turns 18 preparing food seems to be one of the the horrors of his life if he ever has to do it. So I get you plus you're in school, right? It's not it's not real conducive to you making food on your own, I guess.

Alena 55:26
And this is in September, I lifted minutes from from uni. So my lunch break, I just go home and made something quick or hit me up because

Scott Benner 55:38
I gotcha. Yeah, no, I understand. All right. Well, I feel like I got to the bottom of most of what I was interested in, like I am super interested in in the, the transfer that happened to you. It's, it's but it's, I guess it's really interesting to hear you say that you're not 100% sure what happened, just it just happened. And you changed, because maybe it would help people to hear that it doesn't have to be a thing, or there doesn't have to be this understanding or this, you know, wow moment that you would see in a movie. It was just you just one day, you were like, I'm just gonna do this differently. And, and I think that's kind of as I was kind of struggling to understand it. Now. I'm looking back and I think maybe it's not important to understand maybe it's just happy to know that it can happen, you know,

Unknown Speaker 56:25
well, yes.

Scott Benner 56:26
Please, for you that it did happen, obviously. Oh, yeah. No kidding. I guess I have one last question. Cuz you said something that I just threw me off for a second. But you you actually have to get on the airplane to go get your diabetes supplies.

Alena 56:40
I mean, I get to come here as well.

Scott Benner 56:43
Okay. But you get them there for you get them Czech Republic for free?

Alena 56:47
Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I would, I would get them here for free as well. But, I mean, I just got used to it that way. It was. Yeah, it's not. It's not a big deal.

Scott Benner 56:59
And you'd go home once in a while you imagine to see your parents and things like that, right?

Alena 57:02
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if I if I'm going to work here, and that will, I'll have to make some kind of transition. And I don't want to change my insulin, at least even even saying with injections. And I need to change that. So but I'm really busy. So that will have to come after me. Because they're gonna make you sit in the hospital to change your insulin. Well, I would have to fly home and be home and then out of that time planet in the hospital. Yes. A lot of planning. And I'm applying for jobs right now. And so they're like, yeah, you could start at the beginning of June and I'm like, okay, so I can't plan anything What if I get it all?

Scott Benner 57:44
I do think you're right though. And I don't know how obviously I don't know your schedule or in your life is different than mine is but I think you're 100% correct about looking for a faster acting insulin. I think that

Alena 57:57
goes you know, you and a lot of people who are using similar into like you do the fast acting ones are looking to the super fast acting well, like, Yes. Is he caught pronounced via fax? Oh,

Scott Benner 58:11
yeah. I think

Alena 58:12
Yeah. But I'm like, behind. So in this one group, someone was asking about who is using this insulin and in the comments, I was like, is anyone using mine? And there was a lady who said, I got taken off the insulin 1995 Yeah, I was born. Like, a need to make changes. This is

Scott Benner 58:35
we definitely want to get you off of that insulin that I think so. Yeah, let's go with that. Let's cuz I just googled like diabetes, UK insulin, and you can get Arden's insulin, they're a piece of pizza, you can get there, and novo rapid, which is you know, novalogic but, you know, under a slightly different name and human logs there. Yeah, it's there. Uh, you're, you'll, I think you should do it. I'm just I wanted, I would encourage you to do it. That's all.

Unknown Speaker 59:03
Yeah. Well, I'm

Alena 59:04
definitely it's funny that I think I got offered two changes in the land like, oh, years ago, five years ago. But I was not interested in diabetes. And also what I'm doing is working. If it's, if it's working, why fix it? If it's not broken? I was like, so I don't need it now. So maybe I had the chance to change an insulin and then I missed it.

Scott Benner 59:31
I got you by now. And now you look back and you think, oh, it wasn't working at all. I really wish I would have done that. That's, that's interesting.

Alena 59:38
I don't think so. I'm here right now with the experience I had. Um, so because I was lucky and I don't have any consequences, out of my decisions. I will do it again. Not like I'm going to repeat it. But I wouldn't take it back. Okay, because eating a normal diet, not gluten free was allowed me to move to England because maybe that would be would be putting me back like, not only have to take care of myself my diabetes, but I also have a special dietary requirements that will complicate everything more, or I couldn't go so I always do this work and holiday and that there was no gluten free food that was available to us as I can remember right now,

Scott Benner 1:00:33
you have an incredibly good attitude. I don't know if anybody's ever mentioned that to you before, but you really do like you see the high side of of everything. It's it's really nice like like you, you definitely you're definitely I don't know, I don't know what I guess I'm not as hopeful as you are. But you are incredibly hope like you're I love how hopeful you are, I guess is what I like I really do. Like because everything that happened to you like to see a silver lining in that one thing that you just said is really kind of magical. Like you were like, Look, had I adopted my gluten free lifestyle earlier than I wouldn't have done this and this wouldn't have happened and this wouldn't have happened. Like that's really, you are young, that is a joy in being young that I may have left me.

Alena 1:01:16
So thank you. So I think I apply it to rest of my life as well. So I'll go by I'm not regretting anything. And when it comes to you like relationships, and dating and stuff like that, because Okay, maybe I was foolish when I like that guy. And I don't know why No, but I am not ashamed of it. I don't regret it. It was an experience. And it made me who I am now. And

Scott Benner 1:01:48
yeah, it's just excellent. Elena really, that was really excellent. That's amazing. Your story is incredible. Like it really, I mean, from Czech Republic to go into the UK and your parents not you know, that your parents being like, Hey, here's these needles, good luck, kiddo. And, you know, like from and like, from everything in between. I'm really glad we talked it's Oh, I really appreciate you reaching out and, and wanting to do this and taking time out in what sounds like the the last two very busy months of your of your education. So

Alena 1:02:20
I actually didn't realize that. But when I was looking cold at you today, I was like, Okay, well, yeah, sometimes in April, that's fine by me. And then I have 10 days to finish my dissertation out. I mean, this one hour is fine. Don't worry about

Scott Benner 1:02:35
that. Thank you. What time is it? There? Were you right now?

Alena 1:02:38
Oh, so it's gonna be going to be 4pm now.

Scott Benner 1:02:43
Alright. See ya. You're, you're about 505 hours ahead of me then. Wow, I seriously, thank you. Is there anything we didn't cover that you wanted to get out?

Alena 1:02:55
No, not really. I just, I mean, I'm glad I with you. Because I don't have practically any diabetics around me even though you're not diabetic yourself. So it's so nice to share with someone who can relate.

Scott Benner 1:03:11
It's so true, right? Like you can't have like, Can you imagine trying to have a conversation even a little like this with anybody who didn't understand diabetes?

Alena 1:03:19
Yeah, now I have to repeat like, yeah, follow? You don't inject me within, like 10

Scott Benner 1:03:26
times. They're either they either be just bored out of their mind or confused or, you know, or whatever. It's, they would just pick out this is stupid. Like, I can't listen to this. And I don't understand you wouldn't? You wouldn't blame them honestly. Like, how can you understand something that that's so far into? You know, it really is? It really is interesting. Well, maybe? Listen, I have five downloads in the Czech Republic. This week. Maybe your mom and dad will listen.

Alena 1:03:53
My mom doesn't speak English. But, you know, they know I'm going to going to be speaking with you today. So

Scott Benner 1:04:00
okay, and so they they're not they're not good with English.

Alena 1:04:03
My mom doesn't speak my dad, though. So my dad will listen to this. And today.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:07
Wow, that's really interesting.

Alena 1:04:08
Well, but one more thing I wanted to mention. So I know you are like that people shouldn't be fixed on the cure for that, like, yeah, how to make the life better with. Yeah. So from my point of view, where I have different view of the pharmaceutical industry, and you are very right, and even though this is just my assumption, I'm pretty sure no one is looking for a cure for diabetes. Not only it's like incredibly complicated, it's like super hard, but also we are cash flow. And so yeah, they are trying to make our lives better with you know, CGM insulin parlons. artificial pancreas soon hopefully, but I don't think that They are not interested in cure, even though even though if they want to help us, because Tesla would stop.

Scott Benner 1:05:09
And I just said, you were such a hopeful person. And then you switch gears, I mean, went the other way, you know,

Unknown Speaker 1:05:14
like, we're, like the

Scott Benner 1:05:16
fans keeping us down to make our money. You're trying to get our paper, like you're about to break into like a rap song or something.

Alena 1:05:25
Just it's still a business, even though I feel well,

Scott Benner 1:05:32
let me try to make you feel a little better. I know, I know, for certain that there are people whose entire life is working on a cure for disease and diabetes being one of them. I don't when I say I don't live like I expected, I think it's just, it's a distance of time. That's, I think, maybe bigger than my lifespan. Like I don't know that it won't happen at some point. But I don't have a ton of hope that it's going to happen anytime soon. And if it does, it might be something that people just stumble upon more, more so because it's just so much I'm now having said like that a company like Dexcom is an example. You just said like they're working on glucose monitoring technology, that company is not trying to cure diabetes. And so right there, that's not even their shots. But I don't want you to feel like there's a conspiracy, because I don't I don't believe that there is I don't think that people are sitting somewhere in a room with the cure for type one diabetes. And

Alena 1:06:29
I don't think that's all. I think that the resources, the money they have for research, going into research of something like cancer, because cancer is super complex and fast and important to be treated. But diabetes with things we've got now like great insulin, and then I feel like there was a development in the treatment, but not cure.

Scott Benner 1:06:58
I understand. All right. Well, I am going to, I'm going to take the other side and say that I am very hopeful that people are looking for a cure. I'm just not incredibly hopeful that's going to happen tomorrow. And my point is, is that you can't sit back and not take good care of yourself thinking Oh, it doesn't matter, because they'll fix this soon anyway, and it won't matter. You need to treat your diabetes, like a cure is never coming. But I still I am hopeful about it, though. I'll be I will be hopeful for you to. You're very welcome. And will be helpful for me for all the other stuff. I really did enjoy talking to you. I really can't thank you enough for taking the time in this busy part of your life and talking. I really appreciate it.

Alena 1:07:43
Well, I enjoyed it too. I mean, I would do it even without the podcast.

Scott Benner 1:07:49
Thank you so much. I need more friends. So we'll talk.

Alena 1:07:53
I'm not for that, you know, like check up if I got a pump or not.

Scott Benner 1:07:57
Absolutely. Absolutely keep in touch. I would love to know how things are going.

Alena 1:08:01
Right. Okay, thank you very much.

Scott Benner 1:08:05
It really was Thank you Have a great day.

Alena 1:08:07
Okay, by

Scott Benner 1:08:09
the Juicebox Podcast is available everywhere all over the globe, but you get to listen to it in the comfort of your home. Thanks to Omni pod Dexcom and dancing for diabetes, go to dancing for diabetes.com my omnipod.com forward slash juice box, or dexcom.com forward slash juice box to find out more about the sponsors. Thank you very much for doing that. Thank you very much for all the great reviews that you guys left recently on iTunes. I much appreciate that. December is going to finish up strong. We're gonna be talking about exercise and insulin and how weight is gained because of insulin. How to avoid it with Chris Rutan. We're gonna be talking with Brett from Omni pod. And of course, Anthony Anderson from ABC blackish. We're going to finish up 2018 strong and jump right into 2019 even stronger. So you have not been listening to the podcast for very long have you?

Alena 1:09:09
Oh, not really. So I think I messaged you sometime in January. Um, and I've been pinched it everything from 50 always said no, he added the episodes and all of them on Spotify. Yes, I started with 50. And then, as you already mentioned, you kind of developed as we were recording it. were more confident and so I got used to you being more confident. So

Scott Benner 1:09:39
I went back and I was less confident.

Alena 1:09:42
Yeah, it sounds like weird. You're listening it to it like in the opposite order. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 1:09:50
that's a thing. I

Scott Benner 1:09:50
never really considered that but that's very interesting. Yeah, I, you when you start something like this, you don't really know what you're doing and then feel your way through it. And then it's does get better so oh that's that is really cool.

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