#282 Ask Scott and Jenny: Chapter Seven

Answers to Your Diabetes Questions…

Ask Scott and Jenny, Answers to Your Diabetes Questions

• Are growth spurts a gradual increase or all at once? Strategies for evening spikes.

• Any tips for being bold with insulin with the Medtronic 670G pump in auto mode?

• Let’s talk about tricks for Loop, being flexible and learning from your experience.

• Let’s talk and compare Control IQ, Basal IQ, Medtronic 670G and Loop.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Pandora - Spotify - Amazon Alexa - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio Public 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
This episode of Ask Scott and Jenny on the Juicebox Podcast is brought to you by companion medical makers of the in pen. To learn more about in pen, go to companion medical.com or click on the links in your show notes, or Juicebox podcast.com. Are you wondering why I want you to visit companion medical.com? Well, that's simple, because in pen is America's only FDA cleared smart insulin pen and app system. When you get to companion medical.com, you'll discover that in pen combines an innovative diabetes management app with a Bluetooth enabled pen injector. This will simplify the constant tracking monitoring and calculating required for insulin therapy within Penn MDI users are able to live life less complicated. Welcome to Ask Scott and Jenny. These are the episodes where Jenny Smith from integrated diabetes services. Now Jenny, you may know has had diabetes for decades. She's a pump trainer. She's a CDE. She's I think once she went to the moon, I don't remember exactly, but she's done a lot of different things, right? She's also a nutritionist. Listen, she's everything you want. Why are you arguing with me? No, you're not arguing me. And anyway, Jenny and I. We answer questions from you guys. They're left on the boat with Vince on Facebook page. I asked for them every once in a while. I do it real slick. I go like this. Yo, does anybody have any questions for me and Jenny? And then people leave questions and then we answer them. Anyway, today we're going to talk about growth spurts, the 670 g from Medtronic loop tips and a little bit about control IQ. What do you think of that? Hmm? Okay, then. Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. And always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. or becoming bold with insulin.

Laura says kids and growth spurts Is it a gradual increase or an all at once change? Is that something that you notice they need more of all the sudden that she gives her example toddlers for him was five, still close to some still close to the same ratios? ISF and bazel. From when he came out of honeymooning. I know he's gonna hit a growth spurt soon. And I guess she's looking for like, How do I know when it happens? And what do I do? And I think this falls under the auspice of those of the idea that I just want somebody to tell me how much or when, like, you know, do you mean like, give me a number or an idea? And I don't know that there's a specific answer. I have a general answer. But I wonder what you think about and what you see.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:59
Yeah, and my answer is probably similar to your general answer, honestly, there's not a, there's not going to be a specific like, you're always going to see 25% more insulin needed, right. I mean, it could be over several growth spurts that you notice, gosh, he always need like an extra point one added or an extra 25% or whatnot. But it's, it's not that cut and dry by any means. one specific time though, that most parents with kids with diabetes, and parents of teens with diabetes will notice the heaviest impact of growth. With a surge for only, you know, a short amount of time is evening, where their kids go to bed, they've had things really nicely contained. And all of a sudden they get these like spikes. Almost as soon as the kid is snoring, like their head hits the pillow, they're snoring, and up it goes they've been at this beautiful 111. And up it goes and they fight it and fight it and fight it. And it could be an all night fight depending on how strong the growth surge is. And in those instances, it's okay, let's try it. I usually encourage people to try first a temporary bazel increase rather than shooting it with like a dose of three units of insulin and then chasing the drop down. Attempt bazel increase, you know, that might be significant. Maybe it's 50%. Maybe it's 100% more for a time period. See where it levels off? When does it start coming down? You can always shut off attempt it is all right. So and then if you learn from that, let's say two nights in a row, you start to see this surge on the second night when it gets going. You hit that Temp Basal again, similar to the night before if it controlled Well, if it wasn't quite enough, and you still fought a high pump it up even more. But then once that growth spurt is sort of reversed They may need not as much like as the Temp Basal you are giving to offset the rise. But their overnight needs may definitely go up, you know, they were at point to their growth spurt needed a 50% increase overnight for that time period. And now instead of being at point two an hour, now they're at point three or point three, five. And that might be where they sit for a time period until another growth spurt happens is

Scott Benner 5:28
that going to be because there's more body mass, like you've actually grown? There's more of you, or

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:34
potentially or just the changes that right? I mean, in little kids, especially little kids, I sometimes, you know, with mine, especially my almost three year old, sometimes he wakes up in the morning, and I'm like, you grew right? You just like, all of a sudden, he just let you look bigger, you look like your cheeks are slimmer, or you know, he just looks bigger. And, you know, so sure it can I mean, it wasn't technically overnight that he just shot off. But those, you can suddenly kind of see it and people who are attuned to their kids, especially parents, with little kids who you're following so many more things than just which truck they want to play with, you know, staring at them constantly. And, you know, I mean, with diabetes, you pay attention to so many things. So you could like I said, you could see a tremendous need in a spur period, and then it levels off, but it doesn't come back down to where they were before the growth spurt. Right?

Scott Benner 6:32
I have to say, I think the idea of looking for physical clues is brilliant, because I know our son, his calves would get thicker. Like all of a sudden, you'd look at him and his calves would be out of proportion with the rest of his body larger. And then sure enough, he would get taller. It was almost like his body was like, okay, we're getting ready to do this. You know, like, and it would store things in certain places or something would get bigger sooner. It was just really it never failed as he was growing and I have to say to door jamb that you don't mind drawing on with a pencil is great as you have children, a few people have younger kids. I'm sure you're doing this, but it gets really fun. A decade later, when you're like stand there for a second, you know, and and you get to see how they move up. I would say the answer to this question to me, is the core of the of the podcast, right? Oh, hold on a second. Arden needs a little help with their balls for a second.

Unknown Speaker 7:26
That's okay.

Unknown Speaker 7:29
What is six times

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:30
we don't use the door jamb we use a my mother in law when our first was born bought us this like measurement tree, and you put it on the wall and kind of pop it in. And same thing, same idea, you just push the hash marks on to the tree as the child grows. But the nice thing is that we've used one side of the tree for Oscar and the other side of the tree for Conan. So we can see where they both are. And it's kind of fun to now be able to see where was Oscar? And is Conan meted out the same? Or is he getting bigger faster? Or are they growing about the same? It's kind of fun? It really

Scott Benner 8:08
is. I have to say my wife has told me without a doubt if we ever sell this house, she's like, you have to pry that board off the wall and replace it for the new owner because I'm taking it with me. And I was like, Okay, yeah. So anyway, what I was going to say is that I think this is one of those questions that if you just caught me, if you texted me real quickly and asked me this question, I would say to you, this is why the podcast is terrific. Because you are running into an insulin need. And it's saying to you, I need more insulin, give it more insulin. Try not to worry about why just it does. And when's it gonna start? When's it gonna stop? I don't know. It does kind of suck. I'll tell you like, you know, because after four or five nights of this, and it goes away on that six night when you're finally like, I trust this is going to happen, jacking up bagels and bolusing and everything. And then it turns out, the growth spurts over now you're waking up somebody at one of the morning going, hi, would you like a chicken sandwich in the banana? It's a it sucks. But it works well for those six days. And in my opinion, it's better than being high for six days and just saying, oh, it'll come back again. Right. You know, I just think that's how I would handle it.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:15
Correct. And anything, you know, you bring in a good point, in just the comment of when it comes back again, because it will little kids grow and grow and grow and grow and even teens, you know, up to a certain point, girls grow for less time than teen boys do. I mean, teen boys can grow up and into even like 18 to 20 years, some boys. I mean, most often majority is done by like 18 years. But most girls are pretty done growing up by about 16 years old. You know, they look

Scott Benner 9:53
so much older than the boys even when they're 1314 like in that range toe,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:57
right. So you know know that In the nature of all the testing and the things that we've talked about in the other podcasts and the figure out the bazel, and figure out the ratios and all that kind of stuff, it's it's not a number that's gonna sit there until they're well into their adulthood, when maybe a variable component of their lifestyle changes, where they will need to make an adjustment. Kids needs change. That's the simplest way to say kids needs change. So don't think you're crazy. If you go for a couple of weeks, you're like, I got this. It looks like it's working magically. And then, like, professionally, I get these emails. They're like, I thought we had this all figured out. It was all working beautifully. And now the last three nights, this is happening again. I'm like, Okay, well, we need to adjust. Right.

Scott Benner 10:47
So Jenny answers those emails by how do you think we stay in business? It's gonna keep it's gonna keep changing. But But no, I genuinely think that's a great answer for that. Okay. Richard says, any tips for being bold with insulin while using Medtronic 670 gene auto mode, you basically can't adjust the bazel other than temporarily turning on the target of 150 bg instead of 120. And it auto calculates bolus based on carbs, BG or a combination of both. It won't do a correction bolus, unless you tell it your BG is above 150. It adds up to great time and range stats for me range being 70 to 180. But I'm spending a lot of time at the upper end of that range. And I'd like to be closer to the 120. I know Arden and Jenny are Potter's but I think Jenny's colleague, Gary uses 670 g maybe? Well, Richard, I don't know how comfortable I am with everyone knowing so much about our lives. But But I am going to have, I finally have some insight into this automated pumping thing. My brain is starting to almost get all around it. But Jenny is going to go first because I've never seen the 670 g before.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:03
Yeah, so the 670 G. M. I said it's hard to sit too long, if it is a long pause, because I have to, I have to be kind of, you know, good in the way that I explain it. Because the 670 g can be phenomenal for some people knock the majority of people. But for some people, it does work quite well. Who does it work quite well for? If you have a pretty structured life, if you have a pretty typical breakfast, lunch dinner, you always go to the gym between four and 5pm. You know, it can be a really good system for holding you a lot more stable, it does do a really nice job, for the most part, again, in those in that type of a life for the overnights, similar to the other, you know systems that do something like this with the augmentation to the bazel and how it goes up and down. But I can see that the 670 for a good majority of people with the variability of today's lifestyle. It doesn't meet need. And for run really specific group. Women in pregnancy it doesn't meet need because it doesn't target the right blood sugar, at least not right now. Nothing Medtronic isn't working on that, from what I understand future iterations will have lower targets and different things to it. But the current 670 You know, it targets the 120. I would say for most people who are having success with it. They're typically getting an average blood sugar of about like 130 ish, not really 120 even though technically it's targeting that. And this question kind of alludes to that piece is that it's really not allowing any corrections unless you're above a higher number than you really want to be at anyway. Right. Right. And it's only correcting you down

Unknown Speaker 14:07
to 150.

Scott Benner 14:08
Yeah. Okay. So it's

Jennifer Smith, CDE 14:10
never really getting you too that that technical target. The other component to the system is that it's, it's not using your current manually set bazel profile to work off of with its increasing and decreasing of insulin dosing through the course of the day based on glucose change. It's I we kind of call it the secret sauce of whatever Medtronic has figured out in their algorithm. The system a couple of days of manual mode use gets an idea of your average of insulin need and kind of like a sensitivity and your sensitivity to insulin and what it does, then use it Essentially doses your insulin along the course of time in a day, based on what it is seeing your sensitivity look like. So really the only factor that in auto mode 670 is using is your insulin to carb ratio. If you've got it set at a one to 10, you're going to get dosed off of a one to 10 along with where your blood sugar is, and that kind of stuff. But even your ISF or your sensitivity correction factor, that is not what auto mode is using. So, you know, it's kind of a long,

Scott Benner 15:40
but it's a limit. It's, I mean, I guess you'd call it a limitation of the system. But not a limitation. I guess it's how it was designed to work. It's not working the way and I see the problem. If you're at that top end of that range, or 175, and you're heading up. And without intervention, you're going to get to 240. But it only intervenes enough to try to get you from 175 back to 150, then that's where it won't work, right. Don't forget what companion medical wants you to know, they want you to know about the in pen. The pen is not just this beautiful Bluetooth enabled insulin pen. It's also an app that works in Congress in Symphony in think of another word that means like all together between your app, the pen, and your dexcom continuous glucose monitor. The app is going to give you an at a glance, look at your current status, from last dose to active insulin to recent doses. It has a dosing calculator to help take the guesswork out of dosing. That's a huge help for MDI, right. You'll be able to enter your blood glucose and what you intend to eat. And the correct dose will be recommended to you by the Impact app. I come on. If you're MDI, you got to admit this seems it seems like a leap, right? Here's dosing, reminders and reports and temperature alerts, there's a whole bunch of stuff but you'll learn all about it when you get there. When you get to companion medical comm so for those of you looking to take a pump break, for those of you who are already doing injections, and just wish you had a little more judge get out I mean, in pencil way to go. I want to thank them, of course for sponsoring this episode of the Juicebox Podcast. And I will thank them by reminding you to go to companion medical comm to find out more. Oh, there's extra time in pen is terrific. Why are you not trying the in pen, go get in pen today. companion medicals.com or on the links to wait hold on a second get even deeper. Check it out today at companion medical.com.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 17:55
Many people who will complain in auto mode about getting what we call kicked out of auto mode and kicked back to manual. What two scenarios one in the example you give as blood sugar is rising, and the system is micro bolusing. Along the way, they don't call it temp increase, they just call it this micro like bolusing along the way that the system will only micro dose for a set amount of time. Yeah. Before it says Nope, can't help you anymore. And out of auto mode, you get kicked back into manual mode. Okay. So on the opposite end of that if you're like low, and it can only adjust so much in a low time period. So you could get kicked out of auto mode as well.

Scott Benner 18:47
On purpose,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 18:49
you can you can choose to turn auto mode off going back to manual mode, which is I've got a couple of people that I work with who've been using 670 for a number of years already. And they've figured out the tweaks and the tricks and the things which we actually have on our website. I've got a lot of little tips for you if you are using the 670 These are some of the little nuances and this is how to like do it better essentially. But some of the people I work with just when they see a higher blood sugar and they know that this system isn't gonna adjust it as well. They just go back to manual mode, they add a corrective and they take care of it and then they go back to auto mode once the cyst once you're brought back to where you kind of want to be. Yeah,

Scott Benner 19:36
I see with what I see with lupus. I now have figured out two things when it looks like it isn't going to stop arise and how to get out of opening the loop. So as soon as I see that up, then I go Hmm, that's not working. For some reason. I bolus what I think is a significant amount I bolus an hour's worth of her bazel Plus, whatever I think the rise needs to correct. So it'll be sometimes sometimes I'll be like, open the loop and bolus four units, which is, which is a lot of insulin to try to stop. Because what you're really looking at is a 135, diagonal up, which doesn't make any sense to put in for it. But it does if you understand what the algorithm is going to do next. So you're going to open the loop, it's going to go back down to your base, you know, base, I'm going to try to stop the rise anymore, it's just going to go too far. Now, I think it's like 2.4, something like that an hour. So it'll go to that. So I've put in enough insulin to stop the stop the arrow, stop the momentum, bring it back. And then when I get momentum coming back down, I figured out and I can't obviously pass this on to any of you. But I can look at the Dexcom graph and go close know when the court follows it now, right? And so you close it now. And it's almost like, it's almost like flying or landing an airplane without your, without your gauges, I guess like you just look at the ground and you go, I gotta start pulling up right now this is it. And, and it works. I can't believe I can't believe I figured something out about looping, to be perfectly honest, you know, a workaround for it. And it's a workaround, that doesn't cause a problem later. The only way you can get messed up coming out of open loop is if you're if you close the loop, and then go right into a meal again. Because then right, then you'll put in, and this just happened while we were doing this, you'll put in art and just put an ad carbs for a large lunch and had a bagel involved in it. And she said, it didn't give me any insulin because we just came out of open loop. And I was like, That's alright, because I wanted this to be 11 units. So still put in the car absorption is 40 over two hours, 40 over three hours, which by the way, spreading out your carb absorptions stop multiple different stops, it stops it from shutting off bazel because it thinks oh I have to stay on for a long time you trick it. You're smarter than the loop, damn it. And then so you get up 40 and 40. And then I just told her Bolus all 11 units. So now it has the 11 units to work with. It has the absorption times in and then it will make decisions about bazel based off of those other two things. And more importantly, I win Jenny.

Unknown Speaker 22:25
Important. Right? Oh, wait, yeah, Arden wins because she's healthy.

Scott Benner 22:32
I defeated that damn thing. I feel like I beat a robot in a sci fi movie. You know, like, like, it came at me with like a spitting action a torch. And I was like, I'm gonna die. And then it was over. I won.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 22:42
I was just like, I can't move on. Yeah, but that was I know. And why why are you winning? You're winning, because you've watched and you've learned?

Scott Benner 22:49
Absolutely, it took me a while. I am telling you this in October. And when did Arden go on loop? It's got to be like six months ago a while right? And, and people at that time were like, oh my god the boat with insolent guys looping. We'll all have great directions for looping in just three days. And then you all emailed me for months. Like tell me what to do with looping. I was like, I am still. And so when I tell people, it, they're never mistakes. It's always a learning situation. I that's exactly what I did. I hate to say it because I think it sounds a little douchey. But when I don't know what to do with diabetes, I go back to what we talked about in the podcast, I just, I revert back to the basics. And I go, okay, what's happening to me here, and then I apply one of those protip episodes until I know, it's, it's a little strange, because I'm the one that said it the first time but it's a great example of how in the middle of life, you can forget things you know, you know, like just because it comes at you from a slightly different angle all of a sudden, and it doesn't look the same as you expect it to you panic and you go different thing don't know what to do, and it's over. But I just kept applying the tenants of the podcast until I figured out the loop thing. So I am so close to us doing that.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 24:01
You know the same thing. I mean, I learned I've learned a lot over now two years Actually, today is my two year anniversary of using loop.

Unknown Speaker 24:10
This is your loop version started

Unknown Speaker 24:11
on Halloween.

Unknown Speaker 24:14
Yeah, by the way,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 24:17
it was what actually you know, to be quite honest, as most people do, you know, I actually I started in closed loop the evening of October 30. And by like the morning of the 31st I was like

Unknown Speaker 24:31
coupon open loop like

Jennifer Smith, CDE 24:35
so I closed it and it was it was actually really great. I mean, I got a chance to trick or treating with my boys and whatnot. That evening. It was was really cool to be able to watch the system and I would have usually applied like some type of temporary bazel or just plan to like steal candy out of there like buckets as We are treated along the way. And it was really fun that Halloween because I didn't feel the need to pay attention, nor did I get any alerts while we were trick or treating, because Luke was doing a great job. And so I don't I think it was kind of a fun day to have started it. So

Scott Benner 25:23
don't test yourself a little bit, right? Don't Don't

Jennifer Smith, CDE 25:25
Yeah. But again, learning, you know, I learned, you know, like my coffee in the morning, I typically found pre loop I had they have a half a unit of insulin to cover. Well, that wasn't based on carbs. It was just what I had learned to utilize. Right? Well, now in loop, I had to actually go back and figure out how much does that equate to as far as like a carb entry for loop to really cover this? Yep, the right way to offset that like caffeine rise and everything. So there is there's relearning to using these hybrid closed systems, whether it's the six, seven dg or loop or open APS or whatever, there are pieces of things to learn that you weren't applying before. Or maybe you were you just have to learn them in a new way with the system. I

Scott Benner 26:18
think that's that's it. Arden right now is at lunch. She's 75 her blood sugar 75. Here's how the morning when she got up in the morning with a pod that only had a couple of units left in it. So we swapped it running out the door, swap it as she's getting that little bit of a rise from the morning, right. So I see like a 120 is starting to creep up. She was one on one while she was getting dressed all sudden, she's 120. I threw in a unit from the old pod because I didn't want to waste it took off the old pod put on the new pod, looked at what insulin was pending for lube, bolus pending insulin. Then she started we drive into school and I just noticed that I felt the number jumped too much. And I was like open the loop and Bolus two units. So now I'm thinking about pod change insulin right. So we Pre-Bolus two units I comes in perfectly forget to close the loop this morning, I'm running around doing a bunch of stuff we forget to close the loop. So then something hits her where she needs more bazel loops, not closed doesn't work, she starts going back up again. 134 diagonal up at 9am. Now I'm like Oh, she's got to eat an hour and a half. reopen the loop Bolus more 91 diagonal down when she wants to eat. And then you heard the rest. We closed the loop tried to do 80 carbs, it didn't want to it didn't want to give it to her. So I gave him the sweet we set up the the absorption times and gave the insulin anyway. And now she's eating and she 75. And I'm telling you two months ago I don't even know where her blood sugar would be with loop right now it would have been a disaster. But I needed that disaster to happen. So I could wrap my brain around the whole thing really. So I'm very, I'm doing very well with it now. Like I can't wait to see what hurry once he ends up with being three full months of this kind of new space. Alright.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 28:06
And it kind of goes along with I think one of the last times we did a we did a chat like this there was we kind of both talked about like taking a hit. Right. And so I actually for our newsletter for October newsletter, I actually did an article about what you can gain like taking a step back in order to take two steps forward. You can learn from the hits that you end up taking Well, my blood sugar did do great for, you know, this five mile run that I planned. Okay, well, what did you do? What didn't work and plan accordingly for next time you you can learn from taking some steps back

Scott Benner 28:47
hundred percent you have to stop every once in a while you just have to broaden your scope and stand back and see the whole picture. Because you're just telling the fight. You know, it's funny. The it's a completely strange, I thought but I think in my mind, it's the same thing. Phillies hired a new manager the other day, Joe Girardi he was really successful manager with the Yankees for a decade, you know, left there. And it's been out of baseball for a couple of years. And he said, I heard him in an interview. He goes sometimes when you're in it, it's hard to see it. You know, he's like you're in this fight. And you're so focused on winning, or I guess in this situation, you're so focused on your blood sugar being where you want to be, you don't see how it is you're losing or winning. You don't know why anything is working or not working. You're just swinging hands, you know. And so I think that's a perfect scenario. I think you got to step back and just look at the big picture sometimes. All of these things that have been on T shirts for the last 50 years have been there for a good reason. It had everything we just said about 670 G and looping. does it apply to basal IQ as well?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 29:55
I think it probably will apply more to control IQ. Okay. Which is basically like you really is only a predictive low glucose suspend, right? So the system is looking for glucose to be less than 80 within the next 30 minutes. And if the trend in glucose is happening such that that's going to be the case, then it predictively suspends the insulin delivery on a basal level. But the interesting thing about it is that it actually doesn't do only bazel suspension. It also suspends an extended bolus. So if you are using bazel, like you, and you have a trend happening, and basal IQ kicks in, and you've got an extended bolus, your extended bolus will be stopped. And so once these like you kick things back on, you have to remember to go back in and either resume an extension of what was missed, or just Bolus for the rest of what was missed, depending on how long bazel iq was kicked off. So that's a kind of a nuance to that system and control IQ will be, I would say, closest in similarity to 670 G. Neither of those systems are by any means close to looping in any sense, you know, loop open APS, Android APS, I, the the current approved, hike, sort of hybrid clothes are just not, I mean, from the basic information about the research of the control, like you, and the people who have used it in the trials, it seems to do a good job. Again, it's conservative, similar to the six, seven dg in what it does, but some of the factors that it uses to adjust. From what I understand it does use your set bazel in the background to adjust off of rather than its own secret sauce of applying a bazel does use your current sensitivity factor as well as your carb ratio. So that, in my opinion clinically, and like if I was going to use it personally, I think that those are big steps beyond 670. Because it's using some things that is, as we've talked about, if you know that your settings are good, why wouldn't you want a system to work off of what you already know, is working to a degree, right?

Scott Benner 32:27
It seems like these systems are, are set up. I'm sure there are people who have been living their lives in the two hundreds and the three hundreds who are on these systems and think this is amazing, right? It's just not the next level of what can be done. Okay, and I'm assuming they were set up on purpose like that. That's what they were made for. And they're probably doing a really good job for the people that are working for.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 32:46
Correct. Yeah.

Scott Benner 32:53
Huge thanks to em pen from companion medical for sponsoring today's show. And of course, the Jenny Smith from integrated diabetes. Did you know you can hire Jenny, you can go to integrated diabetes.com and then find Jenny. I don't know what you'll do it. You'll figure it out. And then you can email her also right there in the show notes. There's Jenny's email address. That's probably easier. You click on that you send an email. Here's the email says, excuse me. Hmm, I'm composing. Dear Jenny, I heard you on the Juicebox Podcast comma. I love you exclamation point. Can I please give you money to help me question mark, and then you sign your name and she'll get back to you

About Jenny Smith

Jennifer holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Nutrition and Biology from the University of Wisconsin. She is a Registered (and Licensed) Dietitian, Certified Diabetes Educator, and Certified Trainer on most makes/models of insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitoring systems. You can reach Jenny at jennifer@integrateddiabetes.com

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# 281 Alexi and her Little Red Wagon

Alexi ran the NY marathon with Type 1 Diabetes.…

Alexi Melvin is on the show to discuss living with type 1 diabetes and her recent running of the New York City Marathon.

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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, and welcome to Episode 281 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's show is sponsored by Dexcom Omni pod and dancing for diabetes, please go to my omnipod.com forward slash juice box dexcom.com forward slash juice box or dancing the number four diabetes.com. To find out more. There are also links in your show notes. And at Juicebox podcast.com. Today, Alexi Melvin is on the show. And there's a lot about Alexi to know. First and foremost, she's on the show today because she just ran in the New York City Marathon with Type One Diabetes. But she's also got like, so many things about her that are interesting. And I love her spirit and her soul. And I just thought of her right away. When I saw the marathon being run, I thought I want to have somebody on who ran the marathon with type one and Alexi lepta mind, this is going to be wonderful. The one thing I need to tell you about is like a major malfunction of my computer network. So around 18 minutes in, there'll be like a break in the conversation, we'll pick it back up again. But my voice is gonna sound a little different after that. And it's just, I mean, I'll tell you if you want there's only recorded my voice in moto so I had to take two mono tracks and meld them together to make a stereo track. So basically, you were only going to hear my voice out of your left earphone but I fixed it. So it'll also come out of the right but gave up a tiny bit of sound quality and make that happen. Anyway, I apologize. I don't know what maybe it's time for a new computer. I don't have enough money to buy a new computer, but maybe it's time anyway. Anyway, a couple things. Nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes y'all I tried to beat the music. Nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. are becoming bold with insulin. Alexi is going to unpack her life in the first bit of the podcast and then we'll get to the marathon at the end. There's a lot of interesting stuff about her. She's really, really a great person. I enjoy knowing her.

Alexi Melvin 2:14
I am Alexi Melvin. I am a writer, voice actress, many, many other things, many forms of art. I wear many hats, and I am also living with Type One Diabetes.

Unknown Speaker 2:30
When were you diagnosed?

Alexi Melvin 2:32
I was diagnosed when I was 14. So that would have been 2003.

Scott Benner 2:37
Wow. 2003 plus 14. Yeah, so then I know your age. Now if I wanted to

Alexi Melvin 2:44
eat well, hey, I'm 30 I'm almost 31. And, you know, I still feel like I'm 14 ish.

Scott Benner 2:49
I was gonna say if it makes you feel good. You look like you're 15. So

Alexi Melvin 2:54
I do hear that often. And it's so weird. Because when I was like, you know, 1716 I looked a lot older. And now I'm like Benjamin, buttoning, I don't know what's happening.

Scott Benner 3:04
Maybe you'll be one of those people who's like perpetually like 29 years old in their face. That would be nice.

Oh, be great. I would take that.

Unknown Speaker 3:12
Yeah.

Scott Benner 3:14
Let's see any other diabetes in your family? No, nothing, just a great surprise. Brothers, sisters, anything like that.

Alexi Melvin 3:23
I am an only child.

Scott Benner 3:25
Very nice. So you were just like a one in a million shot? And how did you how involved are now I know, it's been a long time now. But how involved or not involved were your parents. During the first years.

Alexi Melvin 3:40
I have always felt really supported. But pretty much right from the get go. My mom thought it would be best for me to do everything myself, she would help I remember we had those little old school like, you know, nutrition books where we would figure out the carbs because, you know, googling It was not really a thing back then yet. And she would always help me with stuff like that. But she never gave me a shot or anything. I started doing that myself. Right, right off the bat. But emotionally, you know, I always felt very, very supported.

Scott Benner 4:12
So can I tell you as a person who has never met you in person, but we have talked a little bit in the past. You seem on like, you know, your front facing social media being you seem very confident. And not in a bad way not know like, that girl seems full of herself by not like that, like in a way where you're like, this is me. And I like me and that's it like you have a real like air about you that you were raised well or that you have like mature healthy self confidence. So do you feel like that or are you just taking great selfies like which is it?

Alexi Melvin 4:48
No, that's awesome to hear. I was I mean if you ask anybody who went to school with me from you know middle school, high school, even probably college, they would say that I was very Mysterious would probably be the wrong word kinda, I mean, awkward, I was pretty socially awkward. And I didn't really talk to many people. You know, I just kind of like, Did my work and put my head down. But once I got involved with the type one community, it did kind of build my confidence a lot. You know, it's, I've lived with this thing for for many years, as I've said, and, you know, it's, it's great to see all these other people just putting it out there. And, and, you know, it's something that I like connecting to other people about, it's, it's something that, you know, it's not going away, right now at least. And it's, you know, it's something that's going to be it's going to be around, unfortunately, probably for another another few years, at least. But it's just, it's just nice. I don't know, it's just it does really build my confidence. And, you know, social media has its flaws. But, but in this case, it's, it's very cool. I've made a lot of friends, I've been able to get involved with a lot of really cool things for the community. And I really, I think that's what you're talking about. Honestly, I think like type one has really, it was the source of my my confidence. And that was sort of later in life. I would say

Scott Benner 6:24
when you found the connection with people do you think the connection the knowing they were there that part of it, the community park was what hit you? Well, or do you think maybe it's both? Do you think it was watching other people be kind of open about it that made you feel like I could do that too.

Alexi Melvin 6:41
It was a it was watching people be open about it. Um, it was also just the sense of feeling heard, you know, like, I, you know, I had I had two very, very successful, talkative, friendly, awesome parents that sort of always, you know, we're in the spotlight, and I kind of was never in the spotlight. No, I have this thing that people can connect to. And it kind of, it makes me feel like I have something to say. And that's, that's a good feeling. Because I definitely used to not feel that way.

Scott Benner 7:21
You have. So by the way, I'm gonna have to, like, buckle down here, you're gonna give good answers this whole hour. And then I'm gonna, I'm gonna look up for something else and be like, Oh, god, what did she say? And then try to fill something in. So like, and I'm like picking something on my desk to stare at while we're talking. So a couple of things you felt behind the scenes? Like, did you feel unseen as a child?

Alexi Melvin 7:42
Yeah, Yeah, I did. Um, yeah, the short answer is yes. So

Scott Benner 7:46
I know what your dad does for a living, and we'll share it with people in a second. You said your mom and your dad, what did your mom do?

Alexi Melvin 7:52
My mom, she was a model for a long time. And she's been in the fashion industry. She's really just a great mom. But she kind of stopped working when I was when I was born pretty much, but she's just always the life of the party. People adore her. She always had this natural ability to be social and win people over and I was kind of just, you know, hiding behind her.

Scott Benner 8:16
Okay, okay. I get that. I do. And I think that I think that you can have, like, I think everybody at first feels like that, right? Like that idea of like, I'm sort of just here. I'm the short person behind these taller people and they get to talk and I wait for my opening. But then I think about my mom like my mom was not like, like commanding space. You know what I mean? Like she wasn't walking in and people were like, Oh, my God, Bev's here. Let's all listen to what she has to say. Now, I get wasn't that person. I can imagine that happening because I see it sometimes. I'm just talkative. And sometimes I have to stop myself when my kids and I are on a setting together because I'm like, Oh, I'm sucking the air out of this moment. Do you know what I mean? Like, it's like, it's like, nobody sees anybody else because I'm talking. But you can't, but I can stop talking. Your mom can't stop being hot, I guess for the lack of a better term. And so the people that try and people get attracted to that too, like I you know, I do. I'm like, oh, but that person's handsome. And you're like, I wonder what they have to say. We do it all the time. We think British people are smart. And we think handsome people know something. Like it's just, yeah, it's how you're wired. You know? Now, how much time did you spend around your dad's business?

Alexi Melvin 9:33
I've never been, I'm not I I always say I'm not a baseball fan, but I'm supportive. So you know, I'll go to games here and there. I wouldn't say I go to a lot when I was little, you know, I probably thought it was a little more fun. But you know, definitely important games, playoff games, events, I'll definitely be there for but I always loved sort of being around it because I love traveling. So you know, whatever. He was in during the summer, we would always be there. We always had a home base in Arizona. But yeah, I loved it. It was fun. It allowed me to sort of discover my, you know, really my passions, like traveling and then you know, whatever city we would be in my mom would take me to some kind of, you know, arts and culture thing. And I, you know, that's where I discovered that I love Broadway musicals. And you know, it's so it really afforded me a lot.

Scott Benner 10:27
Yeah, I guess if you were just in Arizona, you might discover you love cactuses. And you know, things like that. So it's,

Alexi Melvin 10:35
yeah, that would have been a very different path.

Scott Benner 10:37
Yeah. But it's, it's really something like, you know, I hear people say it all the time. And someone just said it to me recently, like people who think that traveling with your children is a waste of time. It's really not. It's doing things for them that you probably are not getting paid back for in the moment, per se. But yeah, it's building them in great ways. And so I guess, you know, so you don't wake up in the morning. For people who don't have a connection like this. You don't wake up in the morning and think my dad coaches, the Oakland A's?

Alexi Melvin 11:07
No, I can't remember. I can't remember the last time that was my first thought in the morning.

Scott Benner 11:12
Exactly. But it's true. Like it's, I used to joke with people. I met somebody very famous one day, and we walked away. And I said, you know, in the morning, when that guy is given his kids like breakfast, and he's too slow. They don't think oh, my god, there's an all star shortstop feeding me breakfast they think. I think why is dad screwing this up? You know, and, but that doesn't change the impact around him. So was he so when he he so he traveled a lot? You were probably with your mom more than him? Mm hmm. Oh, hundred percent? Yeah, I was tied at the hip with my mom pretty much until I graduated high school. Gotcha. Gotcha. All right. So at what age do you say to yourself? Like, I'm gonna get more involved in the diabetes space? And how did that begin?

Alexi Melvin 12:02
Um, you know, I, I was involved, pretty much right away, there were just less opportunities. You know, I I remember seeing flyers for jdrf walks and stuff like that pretty, pretty early on. So I would do things like that. My mom and I would volunteer things, which felt great, but there was still not so much that sense of, you know, connecting, that there is now. So yeah, it was pretty much it was jdrf. You know, for a while, and then that was the first thing and I even at a certain point, kind of did some like volunteer recruitment stuff. And I felt good, I liked it. And then a certain point, beyond type one popped up. And they were kind of doing more of the rock and roll thing, like, you know, like, how does how does type one impact your sex life and they would be posting stuff like that? And I was like, Oh, this is interesting. Yeah. So I wound up just kind of reaching out to them and freelance writing for them. Nice. And yeah. And so from there, I got involved with more things. They're doing Leadership Council, stuff like that. Eventually, they sort of just I just kind of wore them down and they you know, hired me as a staff writer. And Lexi's on

Scott Benner 13:30
here. She Why don't we just let her do something?

Alexi Melvin 13:33
That is exactly yeah, that's exactly their inner monologue a

Scott Benner 13:37
viable way to get a job, by the way, if you can, if you can't get your first foot in the door, just be like, I'm not leaving. So I'm not leaving.

Alexi Melvin 13:43
Yeah. So um, yeah. And I'm the content committee chairperson, which is also cool. Um, yeah, I'm contributing. And that was? Yeah, I guess it was really, when when beyond type one kind of rolled around that I was like, Okay,

this is this is a thing. Yeah.

Scott Benner 14:02
Is it still is that is beyond type one a living? Or is it just a piece of how you support yourself?

Alexi Melvin 14:09
I would say it's the most consistent piece a, I get pretty steady work from them. It's not, you know, it's not a ton, but it's reliable, you know? And then otherwise, I do you know, the voice acting stuff and other freelance writing. And yeah,

Scott Benner 14:30
well, I remember when you and I were talking more in the past, it was right around the time where your voice was going to be in a Star Wars movie. And I was like, that's really cool. Yeah, it is. Which movie were you in?

Alexi Melvin 14:42
I was in Rogue One. And I was in last Jedi.

Scott Benner 14:45
And are you allowed to say if you're gonna be in the next one? I'm not allowed to. If you're no, go, Hey, I want to hear how you are around it.

Alexi Melvin 14:54
I will say that they're in within the Star Wars franchise. I might have Some things to announce soon. That's so yeah, I will tell you about it.

Scott Benner 15:05
And this really feeds into your passion too, because you're like a serious like Disney head. Like, I've probably texted you three times in my life. And you've been at Disney in one way or the other.

Alexi Melvin 15:18
Oh, hundred percent. Yeah, I have been a Disney enthusiast since I can remember. And, you know, the dream for me was always to be in a Disney movie. And now I am going to have them but I never in a million years thought it would be Star Wars because, you know, like, it wasn't like, it wasn't it just you know, fairly recently became a you know, officially Disney. Right? Um, it was. So it's just such a weird way that that actually wound up happening, but

Scott Benner 15:45
really cool. I honestly think it's strange that you and I are recording this on the morning that the Disney plus platform, no announces. I just thought like, Well, of course. That's what happened. But correct. Yeah,

Alexi Melvin 15:56
I consciously arranged it that way.

Scott Benner 16:00
You might have been like, let me pick a day in November. What's the best day in November? It's probably this day. Yeah. Well, do you travel when you go to Disney? Like, are you with friends? Do you go by yourself? Do you? I don't even know. Like, are you? You're not married? Do you date like, buddy? Who's with usually doing that stuff?

Alexi Melvin 16:18
Um, yeah, gosh, it varies. I mean, everybody who is close to me knows that Disney is a thing for me. And most of them support it. I think some of them get tired of it more than a little more than others. But my mom loves it. She comes with me a lot. Um, you know, I have maybe like, three really close friends that are all into it. So they'll either you know, meet me there. It's it's a good meeting place. You know, like, I have one friend that lives in New York who will meet me in Orlando to go to Disney World, or, you know, I have. I have several friends that live in. I'm in Northern California. So I have several friends that are in Southern California. And we'll meet there. So it's just, you know, I have options for sure.

Scott Benner 17:01
So, which is the better park?

Alexi Melvin 17:04
Oh, gosh. It's funny, because the first Park I went to was disney world because we, when I was two, we were living in Memphis, Tennessee. So that was way easier to get to. So like, my earliest memories of the parks was, you know, Disney World, and the Epcot ball and, you know, stuff like that. But But I do, you know, disneyland is the original. And you know, it has a little more history in that way. And I feel like it doesn't change quite as much. It's so it's so it's right. So I mean, if I had to pick one Park, I'd have to stay with the original gotcha. Yeah, but but there's a lot to be appreciated about well,

Scott Benner 17:48
so I bring it up. Because I want to understand there's something I see online all the time. It's sort of like fascinating to me. Actually, this the topic doesn't matter. The intent of the question is the same. Right? Do you ever hear people say, I've, you know, I've got diabetes figured out? But how do you do soccer? Or how do you do swimming? Or how do you do Disney? Disney is a big one. Like, I don't know, I'm about to go to Disney for the first time. What do I do when I get on an airplane? I always think like, I don't really think those things are different. But okay, like, if somebody does, like somebody's having that feeling like I'm about to go somewhere different? Is diabetes gonna change? Does your management from the date the way you're in your home, or when you're exercising or getting ready for, you know, for the New York Marathon? Is it any different than how you handle going to Disney for the day?

Unknown Speaker 18:35
Oh, gosh, what do you do things? Are

Scott Benner 18:37
there special plans in place? Do you have contingencies going? Or is it just you leave the house with yourself?

Alexi Melvin 18:44
I feel like you know, the more active I'm gonna be, I guess the more prepared I try to be you know, and I'm still a little bit old school. So I am on long acting and, and fast acting insulin pen. So I'll try to cut down on my long acting if I know I'm going to be walking all day, you know, just little things like that. But otherwise, that seems pretty, pretty routine,

Scott Benner 19:07
right? Yeah, I don't. I always just think of it as the need your body is going to have for the insulin you'll have less need. If you're active, it'll have more need if you're not, and yeah, if it's hot out, you might need a little less like it's just it's okay, that's about where my computer blew up and it's a good time to tell you about on the pod, the world's only tubeless insulin pump. It's very simple. If you're thinking of leaving shots where you want to change pumps, go to my Omni pod.com Ford slash juice box because on the pod is going to offer you a free no obligation demo of the Omni pod. All you do is fill out the tiniest bit of information about yourself. And on the pod will send a demo pod right to your home. There you can try it on and see what you think. You can shower with it exercise, run around the house, rough house with your kids. You know if you're gonna put On one of your kids, maybe you take them and like slide them across the, you know the floor a little bit. They don't hurt them. But I mean like a smooth floor like would you like a manoli some kind of a situation you put like a sweatshirt on, you can just slide on right across the floor. It's completely safe as long as they don't hit the wall on the other end. Anyway, you live your life with the with the pod on you can see what you think that if you like it, you contact on the pod and you say look, I want to keep going with this. I love this thing. Let's give it a whirl. My daughter has been using the on the pod since she was four years old artist 15. Right now, she has been wearing it on the pod every day for all of that time, having amazing success with our blood sugars. And I think you might like it as well check them out my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box or the links in your show notes or Juicebox podcast.com. Live your life untethered with on the pod right not connected to any tubes, not having to carry an insulin pen around that kind of stuff. Oh, also, one last thing, nothing I said about sliding your kid across the floor is endorsed by Omni pod or me to be honest with you, I really don't think it's a good idea. Just something I used to do with my son. And I thought I'd say it here. But then after I sent it, I realized, yeah, maybe I shouldn't have said that. I have an old cell phone video of him sliding across the floor. If I can find that I'll put it online. But I digress. And I jump right into the Dexcom ad Dexcom g six, the continuous glucose monitor from the gods that's passed right down from the stars to you. Here's what you get when you were a Dexcom g six continuous look at what your blood sugar is not just the number, but the speed and direction that it is moving. In valuable information to have when you're making decisions about using insulin, or eating food. The difference between a blood sugar that's 80 and 80. And falling is huge, you know touching an ad that's nice and stable. You looking at that thinking, ooh, I want but if it's falling, you might want a couple carbs Dexcom can make that an easier decision for you a much easier decision. Not only that, they can help you make that decision wherever you are in the world. And by that I mean if you're the parent or guardian of a loved one, even the friend of someone with Type One Diabetes, with an Apple or Android phone, right with any compatible Apple or Android phone you can see someone else's blood sugar no matter where they are. And that is just a comfort that is hard to put into words. So between the speed and the direction, not having to finger stick to find out what your blood sugar is. Being able to see a loved one's blood sugar no matter where in the world they are. I don't know how you argue with Dexcom you got to have it I think Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor, get it@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. Today, it is an absolutely set up before indispensable part of your life with Type One Diabetes. Last thing, I'm gonna put all the ads here today, dancing for diabetes, check them out dancing for diabetes.com that's dancing the number four diabetes.com they're also on Instagram and Facebook. Please give them a follow. They are a wonderful organization doing incredible things for people living with Type One Diabetes. And now as they used to say in the 50s back to our show. Okay, well that was incredibly weird.

Alexi Melvin 23:24
Sorry about that. The interview was just too powerful.

Scott Benner 23:28
I can't possibly be true, but we're just getting warmed up. So. So I I was about to say that, um, about to say I'm trying to go back to where I was in my head. It's not easy. Why don't we just start over again?

Alexi Melvin 23:43
Oh, god, no, say the park. Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Benner 23:48
I just so I, I feel like that people like unnecessarily get scared about you know, going somewhere. And yeah, and that's, I kind of find it sad a little bit. Like, I'm like, Oh, God, you know, just it's not that bad. You know?

Alexi Melvin 24:04
Yeah, I can understand from people who get really deep into routines. Because, you know, to a certain extent, you can, like you know, how your body's gonna respond to certain things during the day, you know, your blood sugar is going to kind of do a certain foods like I understand that, but it's no fun. You know, you have to sort of get out there and no, you can still have something of routine, you can still know you can still find things that work like, you know, dietary, you know, stuff around the park. It's not that hard. Like you can you can you can do it.

Scott Benner 24:36
Also, you said that you're called yourself old school. Oh, pens and long acting insulin, but you have to use Dexcom.

Alexi Melvin 24:46
Yes. Okay. I'm not a cave person. Yes. So you can use Dexcom.

Scott Benner 24:52
So that's interesting. So tell me about your decision to stay with MDI for all these years. Like it's obviously working for you. So why do you like it?

Alexi Melvin 25:00
I guess that's you just said it. I mean, it works for me. And I, it's not for lack of, you know, appreciation for what, how technology has progressed over the years. I think it's amazing. I mean, I have several friends that are now looping and stuff like that. And it's, it's fascinating.

Unknown Speaker 25:18
I,

Alexi Melvin 25:20
I'm somebody who tends to wait, you know, a year, two years, until something's really more perfected. That's just kind of how I roll. But it's, um, you know, I've tried pumps, and I can see the benefits.

I kind of got paranoid, I think about

you know, with with long acting insulin, you always have something working in you. And, you know, I had way too many instances where, you know, the I had a problem with my site, and I was just getting No, no insulin at all. Yeah, so my blood sugar would just be crazy high, probably more than it was in range. So, you know, I'm not, I would, I would try it again.

Scott Benner 26:09
I'm definitely automation. Is that do you think your next jumping in point? Like some sort of closed loop system or something like that?

Alexi Melvin 26:16
Yeah. If it was perfected, and people were, you know, having great experiences with it, then yeah, I feel like I would try that out.

Scott Benner 26:25
That's cool. I mean, I think you have to do whatever you're comfortable with. And then you know, absolutely. What's it like traveling with pens? Like, you have to keep them cool? And how do you handle all that?

Alexi Melvin 26:37
I mean, the pens you're currently using, you can just have them out in your purse, but you know, I definitely travel with a couple extras. You know, real cooling wallet, things those little, like, that's usually fine for shorter flights. You know, longer trips, I try to, you know, bring an ice pack or something. And I've never had an issue that well, the one the one tricky thing is, if hotel fridge. Hotel bridges are too cold, they can definitely freeze insulin. So that's, that's something for

Scott Benner 27:12
Yeah, there's a person that's listening to this show. It's just happened to them. They were in New York, and they were on social media, like I'm in New York and all my all my insulin got, you know, frozen in the hotel. They're like, yeah, it was very cool. Somebody brought them insulin, like a complete stranger. So

Alexi Melvin 27:29
yeah, I've heard of, Oh, my gosh, yeah, that's another cool thing about the community.

Scott Benner 27:33
That's just, it's just an amazing like, you know, there's, if you get on Facebook right now, you're like, I need an Advil, no one would, no one would bring you up. But if you're like, I needed some people like, Alright, I'll drive the first 50 miles, and then somebody else can pick it up and move it along. And it's very cool. How people jump in action. I Oh, absolutely. He's actually Alright, so let us not let it's not, you know, bury the lead anymore or less. I asked you to come on Aleksey, because you did something that in my mind is insane. And I want to understand why you did it. And I want to know about how it went and how you're prepared for it. So yeah, tell me about the day you thought to yourself, I'm gonna run in the New York Marathon.

Alexi Melvin 28:11
Yeah. Well, the type one has had a team for the New York City Marathon the past two years before now. So this was the third year. And they've done crazy stuff like this, they did, you know, like bike beyond they, you know, did bike to car across the friggin country, you know, and I've always just been, like, wow, more power to those people. But, you know, at a certain point, I, it kind of became clear to me that like, I wasn't really giving myself a shot in terms of athleticism. Ever since I was diagnosed, not that it was ever really that interesting to me. But I sort of realized that I I hadn't ever considered it. You know, partly probably because my dad is the athlete in the family. I'm like, okay, that's his thing. But that was, you know, third year beyond type one, you know, putting together this team, they're starting to sort of release, you know, flyers, calling for submissions and things like that. And I'm like, ah, might actually be kind of interesting. You know, I've always been athletic, I do yoga, I sort of I've been a power Walker my whole life. I've never really like been a runner. But um, you know, I get out there, I feel like I'm in good shape. And then but the thing that really sent it over the edge is that one of my best friends who also has type one, decided to do it. And once she said that, I was like, oh, okay, that might actually be a really cool experience to do this with somebody and you know, sort of hold each other accountable for training and you know, things like that. And I think I also had this kind of misconception that the people that would be on this team would all be kind of Like influencers, you know, like people that we're kind of known in the type one world I don't feel like I'm that, you know, like I'm involved but I feel like people would be like I don't really care about her. But I definitely I definitely realized that was not the case, pretty soon after being accepted onto the team, but

Scott Benner 30:19
regular people,

Alexi Melvin 30:20
a lot of regular people and a lot of really amazing athletes. I mean, there were people that were ultra marathoners and that had done Ironman, like Ironman races, and like, I had no idea. So it was definitely, it was definitely eye opening. But yeah, it was really my It was my friend who, who kind of convinced me in a number of ways to do it.

Scott Benner 30:44
I have to tell you, I find that the idea of influencers to be like, it's a little weird. Like, I wouldn't want someone calling me that. And I don't think of people that way. But I think there are, there are some people who start out thinking I'm going to help them, they get a little bit of notoriety. And they're like, I wonder if there's like money, I could make this or I wonder if I can push this further or help more like it's some people go the wrong way with it. And then they're just, they're just faces, then they're like, Oh, I know that person, I see them and you know, all this stuff. But there are so many more people that you don't know, who are actually involved in the events, actually handing out, you know, food at a jdrf walk like those people there they, you know, there's a million more of them. And there is a, you know, an Instagram model or something like that, who happens to have diabetes?

Alexi Melvin 31:31
Totally agree.

Scott Benner 31:32
And I think that's really the power of the space, honestly. Yeah, I think the influencers could go away. And the people would still exist. I don't I don't think they need, you know, I don't think they need a selfie deity to pray to them. I think they can do another round.

Alexi Melvin 31:49
I think I think probably Yeah,

Scott Benner 31:52
it's just very, I mean, I have nothing like, don't get me wrong, I have nothing against people who are doing that. I think that's it's fine. People do whatever they want, they can impact the space. You know, however they think is great.

Alexi Melvin 32:02
It's a way of being able to use your voice. And that's fine. But yeah, it can, it can get messy.

Scott Benner 32:09
It also has a finite life. You don't you don't realize that. But, you know, you can talk about any way you want. I think a running back has a life of two years in the NFL. You know what I mean? Like your dad, your dad played professional baseball for a really long time for. And still, I think he was busy in the league for maybe like nine years as a player, right? And you would think that's not like a long time. But it is it's a massively long time. Most people don't do that. And you know, even thinking about people who you think of is famous, like how quickly they're there, and then they're gone. And you think, oh, they'll be back? That guy's like a great actor, but you never see him again. It's so

Alexi Melvin 32:51
Yeah, exactly. The number of actors that have actual staying power are actually very few.

Unknown Speaker 32:56
Yeah, if you think about it,

Scott Benner 32:57
but if you look at like life like that, too, it's the same thing. Here. There's somebody on Instagram right now, just as an example, it could be anywhere Facebook, Instagram, like so like that, who you think of is like when you think of the diabetes community, think of that person? keep them in mind. And 18 months from now, you will know who they are. Yeah, yeah, it's you know, so I like to people are, it's the trench work like, right, like, it's the hard stuff. It's the actually being in the marathon thing. Not the not the Hey, guys, the marathon is coming up, or you're gonna get involved, because trust me, I'm not doing that. I thought about you this morning. And I thought if someone paid me to run to the end of my street, could I do it without stopping? It's like, not 100%. Certain. Right? But I'm sure I could one day, were you a person who on day one thought like, I can run a marathon? You weren't right?

Alexi Melvin 33:49
No, I up until even up until the day of the race. I wasn't that I was never 100% sure I could finish it. Because I didn't know what to expect. I mean, I've never, I think during my training, I only got up to like 12 miles. So I didn't know what was gonna happen past 12 miles. So I had no idea what my body was going to do. So the marathon, it's 26.2 miles

Scott Benner 34:12
make any sense? What you just said to me, but I appreciate that. How do you train for something like that? Like, just like, do you Google it? Or do you find somebody to help you? or How did you? How did you handle it?

Alexi Melvin 34:21
There are definitely training plans, you can just kind of, you know, loose training plans that tell you how many miles to run each day each week and how it comes sort of gradually goes up. I kind of followed one of those loosely. But the other. The other runners on the team were very helpful. And we all kind of had a Facebook group. We kind of followed each other on the Strava app, you know, so it was you could always ask somebody for help or guidance on in one way or another. But yeah, I just I didn't. I didn't follow any plan to strictly I just kind of my mom had actually run it in 2011. So she had a lot of she I kind of followed the same plan that she did, which was just kind of very basic. If you Google like, you know, training plan to run a marathon, they'll just be that

Scott Benner 35:15
you train. Do you have to change your nutrition? much? Did you have to?

Alexi Melvin 35:19
I, yes. I have been somewhat of a low carb person for you know, six, seven years now, I would say I'm not to where I'm like, on the keto level, but you know, relatively low carb

Scott Benner 35:37
eating a cupcake you just

Alexi Melvin 35:38
like, no, I, you know, I have fun, you know, every now and then, and I'll have carbs but I just kind of gotten to the routine and it kind of, you know, it worked, whatever. But once I started training, I was like, yeah, this isn't gonna work. So, I definitely had to do some, you know, experimenting and and find the carbs that I liked again, and that, you know, it was almost kind of like, nostalgic because I did love carbs before I was diagnosed. And so I was like, Okay, what did I used to love? Like, what did I? What made me feel good? What, what made me feel energized back when I was 1314, you know? So yeah, it was kind of he was frustrating at times, for sure. But also kind of fun.

Scott Benner 36:20
Especially because I guess if you try something, it's not right. You're just like, Oh, I wasted that. Like, I ate this thing that now I wish I didn't eat. And

Unknown Speaker 36:27
yeah,

Scott Benner 36:28
what did you land on? Like, what ended up being sort of a staple of how you feel your body for it?

Alexi Melvin 36:35
Um, I found out that I kind of needed more carbs for breakfast, and a little bit of a lighter lunch, oddly than I usually would, would eat before, but slightly more carbs. And then dinner didn't really change, but kind of like, yeah, breakfast and lunch, I kind of needed a little bit more. You know, I found like a brown rice cereal that I really like, that kind of helped.

Scott Benner 37:08
Yeah, and how long was the process of training?

Alexi Melvin 37:12
I started training. I want to say around. Well, actually, I know exactly it was. It was April, because that's when I got a stress fracture.

Scott Benner 37:23
So the first time your body sent you an email and said, Dear Alexi, we haven't been that active most of your life. I don't know if you've noticed, please stop doing this.

Alexi Melvin 37:31
Yeah, yeah, I definitely I, I didn't even think I was going too hard. But, you know, after it happened, I was like, Okay, I, you know, I always power walked, like I said, which is more, it's a different you're using different muscles, you know, like, you're exerting you know, around the same amount of energy, but it's different muscles. So out of the gate, I was like, oh, I'll just start running. Yeah, that was not good. So I wound up getting a stress, stress fracture in my heel when I did a five K. And so I was four weeks in a walking boot. So that was my first like, okay, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to actually do this.

Scott Benner 38:09
But if that happened in you got out of the walking boot, you're like, I'm gonna try it again.

Alexi Melvin 38:15
Yeah, why I I mean, I didn't put any pressure on myself. But I was like, Okay, I'm going to start you know, just start power walking it again and see, you know, make sure I don't reinjure myself and kind of ease and do it and and if it goes, Well, great. If it doesn't, I'll you know, I'll drop out and everybody will understand. But yeah, I you know, my my power walk winds up being that of like, the pace of like a slow run. So I was like, okay, at the very least I can just do this. Yeah, so I wound up being fine. I didn't get re injured. That was the important thing.

Unknown Speaker 38:52
So

Scott Benner 38:52
did your overall like physical health change? While you were getting ready? Did you find yourself stronger and better shape like just think Wow, this is great. Um, or do we suggest about building up those muscles that you would need for the endurance

Unknown Speaker 39:08
um,

Alexi Melvin 39:10
I did, it didn't change a little bit because I had, I had primarily done a lot of yoga and a little bit of walking before and now is, you know, obviously doing primarily running and walking. So I feel like my my upper body muscles actually kind of went down. And so I kind of had to pay extra attention to that too, because you do use it, you know, you draw from your upper body to when you're tired. So I had to do kind of like extra things to make sure I wasn't like ignoring that part of my body. But apart from that, I you know, I you know, it fluctuated like at certain times, I would feel like I was losing weight that I would have to adjust sort of accordingly with my diet. Because that's not good, you need to sort of like be at a good weight to, to maintain all that. So it was it was never really, there are ups and downs.

Scott Benner 40:09
But I think it's really interesting to talk to you a person who's not necessarily a runner or a distance runner that about doing the marathon because it's interesting while you're talking like to listen to you, you're sort of like, huh, yeah, that did happen. This is what happened after that, like, it's, I prefer talking to you over somebody who's like, I run this thing every year. And let me tell you how to do it. Because it just that's a job to them, then like, this is a thing that you just out of left field, no pun intended, I guess Did you don't mean like, you just sort of you were like, I'm gonna try this other thing now. And in the support of diabetes, like Was that your main goal? Because you were beyond type one, or because people you knew were doing it? Like, what was the? Did you just want to see if you could?

Alexi Melvin 40:53
I think it was all those things I definitely want. I've always wanted to inspire people to try different things and not let type one scare you like, kind of like what you're saying with like going traveling, going to Disney parks, like, you know, it's okay, if I if I am not able to do this thing. At least I tried. Now I know, you know, but it's obviously kind of on a bigger scale. And like I said before, I wanted to see if I was an athlete, like, what if I really did like doing marathons? What if I wanted to really explore running? That's, you know, let me let me give myself this shot. Um, I

Scott Benner 41:32
think about it all the time. I'm gonna cut you off for a second. I'm so sorry. Yeah, like, what if I'm a great piano player? And I don't know, because I've never tried to play the piano. Like, I don't think I am. But I mean, that's my point. Like, what if, right? Like, can I play guitar? And I just have never tried like that. I think you have to be, like, whimsical like that sometimes.

Alexi Melvin 41:53
Yes, exactly. I lost a little bit mad at myself, because I've always been so, you know, in the school of thought that, you know, people with type one should not limit themselves. But I was like, I think I was kind of limiting myself without even really thinking about in school. Like I never, you know, did I never tried to be on a sports team. I never, you know, I even got like a, you know, like a note to get out of PE altogether one year. Like, why did I do that? You know? So,

Scott Benner 42:22
you're like, I need a note that says something to the effect of lexy has a problem with something you fill in the blanks, and she cannot be in gym this year. Did that work? Did you get out of gym? I did. Do you remember a gap where it's a little bit of a sidebar? But do you remember why you wanted to? To get out just because you didn't enjoy it?

Alexi Melvin 42:44
I honestly I think my endocrinologist said like, Oh, hey, if you want to get out of gym, you can, like, oh, okay, well, why not? Then like I can, you know, I can use that time for another class that I really care about, you know,

Scott Benner 42:59
any other things that this diabetes will get me into her out of? Please let me

Alexi Melvin 43:03
right. Yeah, exactly. Because like, oh, sounds good. Awesome. Good plan.

Scott Benner 43:09
Well, that's fascinating. And, and shows a little bit of how far we've come. You know, naming that, that somebody I don't think someone got. I hope somebody wouldn't say that to somebody at this point.

Unknown Speaker 43:20
No, definitely not.

Scott Benner 43:22
Oh, my God, I've been looking at you. You were like, industrious, you're like, Yeah, sure. I'll get out of gym. I'll tell you. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 43:30
Exactly, where you can get Oh, it's so great.

Scott Benner 43:34
Okay, so I, I'm fascinated by something you said earlier. And I'm like, it's keeps popping up in my head, you'd only ever run about 12 miles in practice, the the, you know, the race itself is over twice that distance. When you're standing at the starting line, what's going through your head.

Alexi Melvin 43:53
When I was at the starting line, I really just wanted to get running, to be honest with you. Because the worst part of that whole thing was the start village where you had to go wait for four hours before you could actually start and it was freezing. So I guess in a way that kind of helped, because I was like, okay, just just just friggin get this thing going. I have to get my battery temperature up. I have to start running. Um, so I wasn't really thinking about it at the time.

Scott Benner 44:19
So it was like anywhere is better than where we are right now.

Alexi Melvin 44:22
Yeah, yeah. I wonder if that's actually like a strategy. They I don't really know. But it did. Yeah, it did help.

Scott Benner 44:30
It reminded me of something that's just so sad. I can't even bring it up. But you know, I just Alright, I'm gonna just say it anyway. You know, you know, when you're seeing it's such a sad thought, but you know, every once in a while, like every 20 years, you'll see like a apartment fire. And it's so bad that people jump at the end and you're like, Wow, that's amazing. Like, I am in a place that's so terrible. That something else that's terrible is preferable because at least I can buy myself a little bit of time before. I imagine you in that like, like village I know. It's not an apples to apples thing, but it's popped into my head like going like, I'm freezing. I don't know if I can do this race, I really feel like this is gonna go poorly. Why don't I just start running? So I don't freeze to death? Like I have to try something. Good. Exactly. That's interesting. Maybe they do that on purpose. Okay, so once you're moving in your warm up is your expectation you're going to finish? I mean, does it have to be, I guess, in your mind when you like, you wouldn't have shown up that day if you didn't think you could do it, right. Or No. Yeah.

Alexi Melvin 45:27
I mean, it was I would say, I was like, 60% sure that I could I could finish based on based on knowing my body and just being confident that I would sort of listen to it. And if if you know, something was wrong, I could stop and you know, and really just the excitement to I felt like I had a good amount of energy to carry me through.

Scott Benner 45:53
Adrenaline excited for Lexi, I don't think it would make me run 26 miles. But

Unknown Speaker 45:57
yeah.

Alexi Melvin 45:59
I was surprised that I had that mindset.

Scott Benner 46:02
But was there a point in the race where you thought, I'm gonna do this? Or this isn't gonna work out? What was that? Yeah.

Alexi Melvin 46:10
Oh, several? Yeah, there were so many ups and downs. There are so many. I mean, like, I remember miles, 15, maybe 14 and 15. I was I remember actually calling my mom and going, I don't I don't know if I could do this. This is This sucks. This really sucks. And she was like, I know, I know. It's horrible. But you know, just do what you can do. Don't you know, I think the main thing for me was I didn't pressure myself mentally at all. I was like, I always kind of gave I'd kind of gave myself an out. I was like, if I need to, if I need to stop. If I need to get out. I can get out. There's no, there's nobody pressuring me. Everybody will understand, you know, so that was failure feeling for you. You're just

Scott Benner 46:49
like, Look, I got as far as I could. And,

Alexi Melvin 46:51
yeah. So yeah, like mile 1415 was horrible. And then for some reason, I got this huge jolt of energy, probably around miles 17, I knew that some of my friends were gonna be around a mile 18. And I was really excited to see them. And you know, there are certain parts of the race where people were cheering really loud. So it's, it's the smallest thing can give you a second wind.

Scott Benner 47:16
So I joke about this a lot like the idea of a marathon and not being something I do. But if you really listen to what Alexia is saying, right now, she's talking about life. Like this marathon is just a microcosmos of life. Like, you know, things are hard sometimes. Then somebody comes along and picks you up. You know, sometimes you have energy, you don't know why sometimes you're bummed out. You don't know why keep going. Right? Like just just keep going. And it it can work out now I saw a picture of you towards the end. You did look like you were gonna die. did what was it? Like, first of all, I do want to know, like, what was was there a feeling? Like, did you have enough in you to feel the emotional rush of finishing?

Alexi Melvin 47:59
I do you remember crying a little bit when I was at? I want to say mile 23? Because at that point, I was like, I could oh my gosh, I'm gonna do that. Yeah, um, but yeah, I'm actually going to do this. Um, other you know, other than that, I don't feel like I, you know, I was just so on autopilot. And it was cold. And I was, you know, like, I don't think I had, you know, the capacity to really feel the emotions on that level until that point, but

Scott Benner 48:33
yeah, it's like a survival thing, right?

Alexi Melvin 48:36
Yeah, your, your body definitely goes into survival mode, especially. Especially when you stop like to go to the bathroom, or to check your blood sugar or something like, your body at I can't even explain to you It feels like it feels like I'm gonna die. Like, there's like room spins and like it that's kind of like, Alright, I'm gonna I'm gonna not stop then like, I'm just gonna keep going. I mean, I still I don't feel like this. Yeah, exactly. There was definitely there's definitely that, um,

Scott Benner 49:05
what was the management like, for your diabetes through the, through the race and prior? Like, how did you get ready?

Alexi Melvin 49:12
Um, that was, the worst part is because with all the nerves and the adrenaline, pretty much all of us on the team were spiking, like crazy, like right before the race. And so I kind of had to make a decision to either take more insulin or not, and kind of see, you know, see how it goes. So I decided not to, which is good for me, at least because, you know, I had some long acting in my system. And once I started going, I immediately started dropping and so I never want to see another like shell or energy to for the rest of my life. And luckily, I had a ton of them in my little running belt. So I think I ate all of them that I had. Like, I think I had, maybe like three pretty significant blood sugar crashes over the whole thing, which isn't terrible. Considering how many miles it is, but, uh Yeah, I never had to take any insulin.

Scott Benner 50:12
If ardent gets into one of those, you know, those days where sometimes you're just low and it won't, it won't come back. You don't I mean, like, it's that that this 56 blood sugars and you feed in it turns into a 59 bucks or you're like, wait, no, that's not right. You're like that kind of stuff. There's a moment where if she grabbed like, if you reached out into a new another juice box, she'd be like, I can't. Like there's like it's a sickening feeling the way she describes it of, uh huh. Let's see. So you're choking these down? Because you have to, I guess. Yeah, that's terrible. And so there was also there was Gatorade at like, every every two miles, there's water and little cups of Gatorade. So that helped. It was like just enough, you know, it was just enough like, electrolytes and carbs to kind of like, you know, keep Yeah, keep me going. And I did stop at the medical tent one time to get a bag of pretzels. Because I just could not have another like, gelatinous thing in my body. I'm not gonna suck in another one that whatever the hell this thing is. And I need I need something for my firm to sit in your stomach. Like just want to. Yeah, like sense. Um, how about afterwards effects on your blood sugar? How long did the race impact you?

Alexi Melvin 51:25
Um, that is an interesting question. Because we were all all of us on the team were kind of you know, corresponding about that none of us had the same experience. I was fine. The Night of the night of the race. I I think I had one low in the middle of the night, which wasn't terrible. But it was kind of like a delayed low. You know, ate dinner. I didn't have a spike. I didn't have a crash. It was fine. I think my body is just like in shock.

Scott Benner 51:54
Well, I can't not only that you didn't use insulin.

Alexi Melvin 51:58
So now you got the whole day. Yeah. So

Scott Benner 52:00
you were basically feeding the activity. Yeah, yeah. And and for someone who might have seen that anxiety spike from the adrenaline and bolus that they're still going to have that activity and they have that that insulin active in there. And you know, you so you weren't using a lot of when you think the first time was you gave yourself insulin so you had a pretty normal reaction. Did you go eat afterwards or

Alexi Melvin 52:23
I had dinner after I just I went straight back to the hotel. I didn't go like out or anything. I just needed to like, stop moving. So I had my friend go just grab, you know, something for me at the at the deli across the street, and I just ate I ate it in bed. And after a shower, and I took insulin for dinner. That was the first that was the first time I'd taken insulin.

Scott Benner 52:45
It's really interesting. It's a it's a interesting experience you had for sure

Alexi Melvin 52:50
it is yeah. And so in the days following. I feel like even now it's so it's been it's been over a week. And still I feel like I'm a little higher than I should be. Um, your blood. My blood sugar's Yeah, um, I am still kind of experiencing a little bit of resistance. Not not terrible, though. I was expecting much worse. I was expecting my body to like really rebel against what had just happened. But um, yeah, everybody had a different experience, though.

Scott Benner 53:22
Yeah, did did people who had done it prior tell you that you might have like higher blood sugar's after the race for days.

Unknown Speaker 53:29
Yeah, yeah.

Scott Benner 53:32
I was warned. That's something that's all crazy. And now here's the real question. Would you do it again?

Alexi Melvin 53:40
Yes, that is the craziest part of all this. I you know, as I said, mile 14 mile 15. I was going What am I do? I never again, I am going to be vehemently like telling people to never do this because it's horrible. But now after the fact. I yeah, I would I would limit it like once, once a year, like a full one. But if that maybe once every couple years, but I know this will surprise you. But I'm actually doing the Walt Disney World half marathon in January. And I had I had planned that even before this before I had done the full. Yeah. But now I know I want to do it. So.

Scott Benner 54:23
Yeah. Plus, you can do it like IRS probably. And would you so what would you change? What are you going to change for your next one wrapped around diabetes that you learn from this one?

Unknown Speaker 54:34
Um,

Alexi Melvin 54:37
that's funny. I don't know if there's much I would change to like,

Scott Benner 54:42
yeah, I'm gonna say like, just if you were, if you were a person I was talking to the first The only thing that really hits me is that, you know, a bar like some sort of like oat or not, or something heavy that would sit in your system for a long I don't know how that would be while you're running. But if you

Alexi Melvin 55:00
know what I, yeah, you know what I did have?

I had like one because I remember my my friend who met me at my late team was like, What do you want? I have this and this and this. And I did I had like a kind bar.

Scott Benner 55:13
Right? That's what I was thinking. Yeah,

Alexi Melvin 55:15
yeah, it did help. So I would definitely make sure to have maybe two of those in my in my running belt.

Scott Benner 55:22
It's it's just the job. I mean, it worked out well for you like, you seem happy with how it went, honestly.

Alexi Melvin 55:28
I am. Yeah. Like, when you just ask them that question. I really can't think of that much that I would do differently. Because you really can't, you can't plan that much that like one of the things I really kind of ended up strangely liking about it was that it's, it's freeing in the sense that you can't really plan you can't over analyze, like, I've always been a person that probably is over prepared, you know, like, I, you know, have like a million things in my purse, in case I'm low or I have extra pins or as backup sensors. I definitely am always prepared. But with this, it's almost like, well, this is all I can do. You know, I can fit this much in my running belts. My actually my, my meter stopped working at one point. And I've again, I'm old school. So occasionally I tend to test for accuracy for the CG CGM. It stopped working because it was too cold.

Scott Benner 56:25
So why don't we go inside?

Alexi Melvin 56:27
Yeah, exactly. So like things like that. You can't, you can't plan for and you can't control. And you know, if you want to finish the race, you have to just keep going with what you have. Yeah. So

it was cool. It was a cool feeling.

Scott Benner 56:41
Now, it's just like I said, it's jumping off a cliff, right? You're just like, I'm going and hopefully I'll hit water. And I'll pop back. Yeah. And we'll see. I think, do you think it? Do you think the experience is going to inform how you manage day to day like, do you think you'll be a little looser about it? Or?

Alexi Melvin 57:00
Yes, I definitely think it will impact how I manage just routine things like I do. I feel changed. I don't you know, I? I don't feel as anxious about things that I would have felt anxious about before. I feel like, you know, I just just things I might not have considered before, like, you know, traveling certain places are like, I'm like, Yeah, oh my god, why can't I do that? I can do that. It's I have to my mindset is a little bit shifted.

Scott Benner 57:32
That's excellent. I mean, it sounds like it was a big, that was like a big moment for you. Honestly.

Alexi Melvin 57:38
It was, I think it was for every anybody who does a marathon. It's, it's it's a big thing.

Scott Benner 57:43
Yeah. I'm not gonna do it. Just so you know. You are, I was just, I'm a lot older than you first of all. Really? Yeah. I'm like, 112. And so I just felt like, I'm like, Oh my gosh, like maybe that Windows has, but it did make me feel like there are other things that I should be trying like, like listening to music. There's stuff I could be doing that I'm making excuses about that. I that that I definitely could do. You know, and maybe that doesn't need to be a marathon, right? It could be something any kind of elite for you.

Alexi Melvin 58:16
Yeah, I like Exactly.

Scott Benner 58:18
What I did have one weird question that I didn't ask about the running. Were there glucagon. Was glucagon everywhere. Like, Did everyone have one who was running with type one? or How did they? I'm assuming nobody needed one. But

Alexi Melvin 58:30
no, nobody needed one.

Scott Benner 58:34
Was there What? Like it was there was it there? Did you prepare for the eventuality?

Unknown Speaker 58:40
I mean, there was

Alexi Melvin 58:42
there were medical tents, probably every I've met four or five miles there. So there. I mean, I never I didn't bring any like, you know, obviously I had sugar but I didn't bring emergency glucagon because I my mom had told me and other people who had run it had told me that there are medics at around every corner. So I definitely felt safe.

Scott Benner 59:07
Cool. That's excellent. And you don't, I'm assuming you're trying to be streamline as you're doing this. You're not looking at not looking to run with your iPad.

Alexi Melvin 59:16
No, no, there's a whole bunch of stuff with you. What is that? Is she pulling a wagon? So right? That would have been me like probably five years ago, I would have had my wagon

Scott Benner 59:28
Lexi's little red wagon. Yeah, very well could end up being the title of this episode. Just so that you know.

Alexi Melvin 59:35
Oh, I like it. Okay.

Scott Benner 59:38
I really appreciate doing this. I feel like I've kept you longer than I told I told you. I was

Unknown Speaker 59:42
no sorry for that. Totally fine. It's been great. Yeah.

Scott Benner 59:46
Did I not ask about anything that you're like, Oh, you should be asking about this about what I did during this. Um,

Alexi Melvin 59:56
you know, I guess the only thing I kind of wanted to say was As as a type one, you have to know your body on such on such a level that other people just don't know what that's like, it's almost like having a sixth sense, you know, but I never realized until running the marathon that there's a whole new level. It's you know, you have there's, there's a, there's a, there's like the line between knowing when to stop and knowing when you can push yourself further. is so real. Like, it's you know, so I just that that was just eye opening to me that as much as I already thought I knew my body. There's there's something beyond that. So

Scott Benner 1:00:45
I think what I took most from what you said today is that the there's a decision you can make, like, you can err on the side of caution, or you can err on the side of being bold, you know, anything? Yeah, I think that you'll, you'll get farther, you'll learn more, you'll probably break free of a lot of chains, if you just, you know, kind of move. Yeah, you know,

Alexi Melvin 1:01:04
yeah, I've always that's what I've always respected about you and your mindset and the podcast, and you know, how you are with your daughter, your that's Wait, that's your thing. You're bold. And you know, I feel like I could, I could be bolder and after after the marathon I think I am. So

Scott Benner 1:01:21
that's really cool. Yeah, I just like, as you were talking about the things you didn't bring with you. I always made me consider because Arden's at school right now. And it made me consider at the beginning of every school year, somebody gets online, and there's photos of like, Alright, um, you know, I have a diabetic kid, and this is how we're going to prep and they're, they're taking all of this stuff to the school, like you could keep like, for kids with diabetes alive for five years with the stuff they're taking it. And again, and you know, it's just, it's all pre packaged, and it's labeled, it's all this stuff. And I think my daughter has a juice in her purse.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:55
Yeah. And

Scott Benner 1:01:57
the, and there's some gummy candies in her purse, and then there's juice sprinkled around the building, but not a case of it. There's like one or two in each classroom. And it's really just there. In case the Wonder purse gets used to wherever she is, she can like snatch another one up real quick and put it back in her purse. Right? It's that is the extent of the preparation we do. Yeah, the nurse doesn't have 1000 things. There's not like, it's just, I don't, I don't know, like, there's something about that I get the wanting to feel that way, like protected and safe. But you got to live a whole life with diabetes, and you're not going to spend your whole life, you know, driving out ahead of your kid stashing juices along the way. Yeah. And so you kind of have to, you got to figure out how to exist in the body you have in the situation you have, I think, yeah,

Alexi Melvin 1:02:50
that was I would say my number one takeaway from all this.

Scott Benner 1:02:53
Cool. That's really great. Well, thank you so much. Um, if you hold on for one second, I have a question for you. I don't want to record. Okay, cool. All right. Thank you. Are you wondering what I asked to like, see when I shut out the microphone, I can't tell you. But you might find out one day, if everything works out. Well. Thanks so much to Dexcom on the pod and dancing for diabetes for sponsoring the show. Huge appreciation dexcom.com Ford slash juice box, Miami pod.com Ford slash juice box and dancing the number four diabetes.com. That's where you find out about the sponsors. One more thing. I'm sorry about the audio. It broke my heart. But I love the interview. And I didn't want to scrap it. And I'm so sorry. You may not have even cared after I got going. But I I take a lot of pride in how the show sounds and made me sad. Anyway, we'll be back on Friday with ask Scott and Jenny I think. And then right on to the end of the year. I have some very cool stuff planned for 2020 that's already underway. Can't wait to get that to you. But first we have to live through these weeks and months. I can't fast forward through life. Hey, I want to shout out everybody at the jdrf Kansas City chapter that had me out to speak this past weekend had a fantastic time was wonderful meeting every one of you. And for somebody who left a review on Canadian iTunes just because they wanted a shout out. I happen to see it I don't usually see Canadian iTunes but anyway. Yo, here's your shout out even though I don't remember your name. I'm sorry. But you know, it's you. So you keep that pride in your heart. You let somebody listen this right now go this guy right here. He's talking about me, because I am I'm talking about you.

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#280 Billy Gardell Hearts Health

Billy Gardell from Mike & Molly, Bob Hearts Abishola & Young Sheldon…

Billy Gardell (Mike & Molly, Bob Hearts Abishola, Young Sheldon) shares how it felt to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.

Scott Benner 0:00
Welcome to Episode 280 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's show is sponsored by companion medical makers of the in pen. In pen is a smart insulin pen that talks to your Dexcom and its own app, giving you the functionality of an insulin pump. It'll keep track of things like insulin on board, the temperature of your insulin, all kinds of cool stuff, you really have to check it out. There are links in your show notes that Juicebox Podcast COMM But you can always go to companion medical comm to find out more. All right, we have a treat today. A special guest. I think I remember Billy gardell first from Bad Santa. I very much enjoyed Billy's work again on my name is are all a television show with Jason Lee from I think back in 2007 that I adored. After that I saw Billy again where we all did his hit television show Mike and Molly where he and Melissa McCarthy played a married couple. More recently, Billy has been on young Sheldon and today he is again starring in his own show, Bob hearts abishola, which will tell you a little bit about later. But first I'm going to talk to Billy about what it was like to be diagnosed with type two diabetes.

Billy Gardell 1:15
Everyone's always talking about the differences between type one and type two diabetes. But the one thing that's absolutely the same is how it feels to be diagnosed with a disease have to adjust your life and come to terms with what's going on. And that's what Billy is here to talk to us about today. Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan.

Unknown Speaker 1:59
Okay, man, it's a billy I'm not

Unknown Speaker 2:00
gonna waste time introducing, I'll do that when you're not on the clock.

Unknown Speaker 2:03
Sure.

Billy Gardell 2:05
So I have four questions. And my first one, my first one is this. I had a health scare this year where I had some symptoms that mimic type two. And right when a doctor just put it in my head, I got home and I couldn't bring myself to eat. And and yeah, just because of the fear. And I was wondering how how that diagnosis initially impacted you? Well, it was it was really scary. You know, I've been lucky, you know, my whole life, I've really never had any trouble. And the way I found out mine was the way a lot of people would type to find out, you know, a lot of people are walking around undiagnosed. And I had gotten my checkup and my physical and we did a battery of blood tests. And my a one c came back. I think it was seven, two. And so that sent off all the alarms and whistles and I had the same exact effect man, I because I was like when I got home, I was scared to eat something. Because once they inform you, you know what type two can do to you if it's untreated. And if you let it go Can you know can really cause a lot of damage to your body. And it does scare you into thinking oh my god, I have to learn how to manage this thing. And in the meantime, you do have a panic about everything you put in your mouth at the same exact reaction. Yeah, mine was really inflamed because my daughter has type one diabetes. It's why I have this podcast. Oh, okay. I understand the impact of food on blood sugar. And I just stood in my kitchen, those my wife said she doesn't think I ate for a day and a half. Yeah, I think I think I about felt the same way. And then I got into this obsessive thing about taking a walk the minute I ate anything, you know, just trying to burn it. So my body would you know, except for the right way.

Unknown Speaker 3:51
See, I'm glad you're talking about it like this, because people have

Billy Gardell 3:54
note with type two don't usually speak really honestly about it. And I think this is what people need to hear. It's just a completely misunderstood thing. Yeah, and I think it's important to to say it and one of the reasons I joined the my type two Transformation Program was because I couldn't if I committed to that I wasn't able to deny it. Yeah, you know what I mean? The one of the reasons I got on board was not only one it's changed everything for me and really improved everything. But the other side of it was if you put a spotlight on it, you can't hide from it. And I figured, you know if I if I can do it, maybe other people will see that and they'll try to take care of it too. Because you know, I've been a big guy my whole life. I know how to play the denial game with food. You know? I can I can still waddle by a mirror and go Alex All right. A shadow that you know and and by putting the spotlight on it. I think that's what's helped me start to treat it. Yeah. Would you call that accountability? Or is it just the idea that you know, I find even this podcast which is now five years old and has like well over a million downloads and it's doing something. Thank you very much. But my point is, is that when I put it out the first time, I had this idea. And I thought, let me just say it out loud, so I can't back out of it. Yeah, that was my that was exactly how I felt. Man, I felt the same way when I decided to do this, because I just I needed to pull the curtain back, you know, so there was no place to hide from it. Because I don't think you can change or overcome anything until you first accept it. And I think that kind of helped me accept it. How long

Unknown Speaker 5:28
ago? Did this happen to you? How long ago? were you diagnosed?

Billy Gardell 5:31
I want to say it was about 15 months, about 15 months ago, I found out it's really new for you, then well, yeah, I mean, but I don't know how long they once he was, you know, out of control. Before that, it just, that's when I got the blood tests back and realized it was seven, two. So I don't know how long I've been walking around with it beforehand, you know, but I gotta say, since doing the my tape to transformation stuff, you know, the combination of exercise, diet and medication, that I feel a lot completely different. Like, I used to be way more lethargic. And, you know, sometimes my vision would be a little bit blurry. And you know, or sometimes you just find yourself, you know, falling half asleep midday. And so that stuff has gone away. And I'm very grateful for that. You know, I interviewed Anthony Anderson once and his he spoke about when he was growing up how his father had problems like that, and they just really didn't do anything about it like something like blurred vision that you would think would make stand you up and go, I gotta go to a doctor and find out what this is. Yeah, well, I think your first reaction is just I must be tired. That's not it, you know, there's something much more heavy going on. Absolutely. So I guess the next thing I want to understand is, once you're acclimated to the idea, I have type two diabetes, what were the first number of steps you took to try to improve things for yourself? Well, the first step I took was, you know, making a plan with my doctor, and, and deciding which medication was going to be right for me, and how did you start changing diet and exercise. And then I was through my agent and a friend, they told me about this program that might try to transformation and we were contacted by them and and once I understood what they were trying to do, and research the program a little bit found out it was right for me, man, I just I dived in. And then you know, I'm a big believer that I'm one of those guys that if I can do it, anybody can do it. Yeah. You know what I mean? If I can, if I can try to pull this together, then I think anybody can and, you know, if you can inspire someone to change something for the better in their life, you know, that's a good thing. I believe you will I I've seen just what the podcast does for people living with type one. And I think that that one of the first things people need is a sense of community, and an idea that somebody else understands what's happening. Like it's not just happening to you. Right and and, and, and I think opening your mouth and talking about it, it cuts the fear down, because then you're able to address it.

Scott Benner 8:08
Well, I'm a huge proponent of what you're doing. Because as somebody who's been no of course is I've been in the diabetes me for so long. What I've seen is, like I said, community helps people with type one, there's a huge community around type one, but it's hard to get a type two community going. And sometimes I think that's just because people don't want to put the label on themselves that they have type two diabetes, did you think about that before us started?

Billy Gardell 8:31
You know, man, I I'm at a place in my life where I just want to be around as long as I can be here for my son, and as long as I can annoy my wife. So that was that was motivating enough for me to go, you know, I gotta, I gotta accept that this is real. I think you know, the things you don't accept is the things that kill you. And I imagine you don't have to worry about work because you're like a Chuck Lorre player now at this point. So it's like old time along the way, man. I tell you, man, I the fact that I'm in another Chuck Lorre show is, I mean, one time is hitting the lottery. I don't know what you would call this. I'm starting to feel like that Irish guy goes out in the woods and gets hit by lightning every time. I said to my wife, I was like, you know, Billy's gonna come on the podcast. And she's like, Oh, he's on mom. I'm like, No, I think you're thinking of another show. And she goes, No, I think he's a mom to

Unknown Speaker 9:22
know they're just film right across the street from us.

Unknown Speaker 9:24
So then this went through a whole conversation where I'm like, I think you're thinking of the guy from The Three Stooges movie and

Scott Benner 9:32
right, so we're going back and forth the living room and having this like conversation. I'm like, Kelly, you're wrong. So we whip it up and we look and she goes, Oh, you're right. I was like, I know it. Is. It made me think of if you ever heard Kevin Smith speak he's like everyone always calls me Kevin James it mean it gave me the same feeling.

Unknown Speaker 9:51
Anyway,

Unknown Speaker 9:53
I so I want to understand the the web series a little bit is it Where can I watch it First of all, and what's its intent You can go to my type two transformation calm. And it lays out an option for you to have a tool for every part of treating diabetes, type two diabetes, there's an exercise program that's specifically designed and it has three levels, there's an easy, intermediate and hard, you kind of work your way up through that. So you can start anywhere, you don't have to be an athlete to start, you know what I mean, you can, there's simple exercises that get you moving and to get you into you build your strength, and then you move to the next level. There, we have a chef on there showing different kinds of diabetes friendly recipes that actually taste good, because, you know, when when you think you got to eat healthy, everything's chicken and broccoli, and then you snap it. So this is a bunch of wonderful options on how to cook flavorful, healthy foods, that, that help keep your type two diabetes under control, then there's the medication aspect of it, all the information is on the mind type two transformation website. And then we even had life coaches come in about shifting that thinking about accepting this thing, and about understanding that this is something it's a disease and has to be managed and the acceptance of that. So showing that journey, I think, like I said, My hopes are, that someone will watch it and go, who was who was thinking, you know what, I'm just going to ignore this, someone sees me doing it and goes, you know, what, if he put himself out there, then I can go investigate this with with with my physician.

Scott Benner 11:29
So let's hit on a couple of those things. Because food habits are huge, right? Like, sometimes you think you know what I mean? Like, you figure it Look, type two, part of it has to be, you know, I'm sure it's genetic, and, but it's also exercise, and it's food, and it's all that stuff that got you there. So the point is, your brain works one way around food, and then all of a sudden, somebody tells you, they can't do this anymore. That doesn't mean you just flip a switch. And because you would have done that 30 years ago, if that was possible.

Unknown Speaker 11:55
Absolutely. You know, I you know, I've gotten away with being a big guy my whole life, you know, but you cannot run a fact, and you cannot run a number. And, and the shift in food, you know, I came from a house where it was like, you know, we had a bad day, let's see, we had a good day. Let's see. So, you know, and I'm also from that generation where it was like finish your plate, right? people starving and other parts of the world, finish your plate. And, and that's, you know, that's wiring, you can't undo, you know, 30 years of wiring and two weeks. So it's a gradual progression, I still don't do it perfectly, but I'm getting better at it every day. Because, again, accepting it and dealing with it. And like I said, The thing I like about this program is you go online, and anything you need is there the tools for cooking tools for exercising information about medication, and and then about, you know, the shift in your brain that you have to make because I have always had an unhealthy relationship with food. You know, I've got you know, pizza is not a reward and Apple is and it takes time to learn that when you're a big guy, you know, people who have never struggled with their weight, don't quite understand that. They just want to tell you this data, seaweed chip, what doesn't work that way, how long? How long did it take you before eating in that way didn't leave you hungry? You know, I'm still not perfect at it. But I would say probably the better part of the year, you know, and I still mess up once in a while. And again, it's it's about progress, not perfection. So, you know, I know to get right back on my horse, like whereas before, you know, if I was trying to watch my food, and I had a bad meal, well, then I was having a bad meal for three months, and then finally getting started again. And now I've just kind of learned that if you do mess up, okay, you know, you lose one game, but you maybe win the series, so you get back on it for the rest of the week. You know,

Scott Benner 13:45
I taught myself um, I'm not a lean person. And I taught myself I used the baked potato fast at Penn jillette talks about sometimes. I don't know if you've ever worked on it. So he just you just eat these baked potatoes, as many as you want. It doesn't matter and what you learn over the first couple days or what I learned was first of all, I don't really like baked potatoes. I like butter and salt.

Unknown Speaker 14:07
And the the mass

Unknown Speaker 14:08
of potatoes with nothing on it

Billy Gardell 14:11
yet. Yeah, nothing. It's terrible. And so, so you eat it. I'm Irish and that doesn't sound good. fills you up. And it's got enough nutrients in it. So I do this thing one time and I lose 15 pounds in like seven days. Wow, it was insane. And I and but I I walked away from it thinking, you know, by the third day, you're like, I don't want a potato. And I'm not really that hungry. Yeah. And it rewired sort of my taste buds. It was really interesting. I found when I really cut out eating sugar and white flour and stuff like that, like once you get off it takes a week or two to really adjust to that. But once you get off and you start to feel better, you don't feel as bloated. You don't feel as swollen or lethargic. And then you you realize what that stuff's done to your body. Yeah, it's And then once once you have that moment, I think it helps put a little wind in your sails. I agree. How was it? Or I guess, how often do you test your blood sugar? And are you considering a continuous glucose monitor? I do I do every day just because I like to see where my number is and make sure that I'm, you know, that's a that's a, that's a wonderful thing to be able to check your blood sugar every day. Because you can, you can realize, okay, well, what did I yes, should have made it go up like, and it's funny, because everybody's different, everybody's gonna have a different reaction to everything, like, pasta doesn't really mess with me, but I just stay off of it. Because I don't want it to trigger another kind of carb. But like, you know, you learn, okay, I can have an apple and not too much happens. But if I have a banana, my numbers go up. So you kind of It's a neat way to learn how to track what it is that affects your blood. And that way you can try to keep your numbers consistent. Yep, I'll tell you, if you ever interested there's something called the Dexcom g six. It's a continuous glucose monitor, you'd wear it and you would see your blood sugar direction and speed. Constant. Oh, wow. It's really cool. You'll see it on your phone, what they call Dexcom g six, it's a continuous glucose monitor. My daughter wears one. It's how we manage her insulin. It's fantastic. So important, man. And and like I said, being able to check those numbers every day is it's vital. You know, it's like checking the temperature gauge in your car.

Scott Benner 16:19
Yeah. So I have one last question for you. And then yeah, I know you're on a short timeframe here. The idea of sharing with your spouse. So I know a person who was diagnosed with type two diabetes, and didn't tell their spouse for a decade, thought him thought it made him look weak, was embarrassed that this whole kind of thing. And sometimes people want the support of a spouse and sometimes they don't. I was wondering how you're integrating your family into what you're doing?

Unknown Speaker 16:48
Well, you know, I immediately told my wife, you know, we've been to we've been together 20 years from now I've been married 18. So there's nothing we don't talk about. You know, but I can understand that kind of mentality where you think, Oh, it's weak. But you know, what I've found is I've gotten a little bit older is, you know, being tough and hiding something that's wrong with you does not make you tough, it makes you suffer. I think that real strength is saying, you know, I need help. I don't know how to do this. Can you help me? I agree. And and my wife was incredibly responsive. She got rid of everything that tasted good in the house the next day. I said to my wife one day, I was like, I know you think that candy looks nice in that bowl at Christmas time. But could you please not put it in there? There's more Hershey's Kisses. You can put a hand chopping machine in front of it. I'm still going Oh, see, you and I might be the same person. Just like I'm looking at it. I'm like, I'll take one. Look how small it is. I've never even one of anything. It's like when you see on the side of a package of cookies serving size Three, two weeks, three, three cookies. You don't deserve to have.

Unknown Speaker 17:56
Those cookies aren't meant for you damn it.

Unknown Speaker 18:00
Oh my gosh.

Unknown Speaker 18:02
If I can take one more second from her. Yeah, you have a new TV show. And I was wondering if you could take Tell me a little bit about it. Sure. It's called Bob hearts abishola. It's on CBS Monday nights at 837 30 Central. And Chuck Lorre show. And it's very kind show, which I think people are thirsty for these days. And it's a sweet little story about a guy who owns a compression sock factory and a business and has a heart attack because of the stress of his own business. And when he wakes up, there's a nurse there abishola and she's Nigerian descent. He's got this strong kind presence that Bob has kind of taken by and he decides in that moment, even though they're very different that you know what, I'm just going to see if this woman will give me a chance. And I think it's something we can read for nice. Do you do you chase after her with the same stuff you bug your wife with?

Unknown Speaker 18:58
Now, you

Billy Gardell 19:00
know, I think all the married writers kind of contribute to that. So I think we all kind of have that collaboration as writers, the writing is so good on this shows, you don't really have to add anything you know, you just wait for the scripts to come really cool. Well, congratulations. It's a It's amazing. Thank you, man. I've seen a recent picture of you. You obviously are on the right track. Would you mind sharing with people? How much weight Have you lost since you were diagnosed? You know what, man, I haven't been watching the scale. So I know that I've taken a chunk down. I used to be the guy that was on the scale every single day and I haven't looked in about seven months. That's amazing. I gotta tell you, it's kind of freeing. I'm just looking and I'm moving better and my clothes are fitting better. And that's what I've been going on. I'm almost at the point now where I'm superstitious to do it. Look at that. Yeah, I mean, just as a person who just sees you obviously through a screen, and it's obvious to me. Yeah, and that's, I like seeing it that way rather than going I went up to I went down three, I went up four I went down. So I kind of got away from that and just started doing what I was supposed to do. seeing the results, like you said, seeing it on camera or seeing it in the mirror, you're like, Okay, alright, that feels better. That looks better. Let me just keep going. It's a healthy attitude. Would you say your mindset is completely changed around your health in the last year? I would say it's on its way. And I'm really glad because I, I'm a stubborn guy, you know. So it's, it's been nice to have this change happened. Very cool. Give me the web address one more time for the series. It's my type two transformation.com.

Unknown Speaker 20:28
Really, thank you so much for coming on and doing this. I really appreciate you taking

Scott Benner 20:30
Thank you, my man, keep doing what you're doing and my best your daughter and I appreciate it. Take care. Okay. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, that was televisions Billy gardell. Billy, by the way, also does a lot of stand up. You can find out more about his tour schedule at Billy gardella.com. It's ga r d e Ll Billy gardella.com. And to find out more about my type two transformation, just go to my type two transformation. com Please remember that the podcast does not exist without the sponsors. And today's episode was sponsored by companion medical makers of the in pen. Those of you using multiple daily injections or just one of those regular old dumb pens, you should upgrade to a smart pen. I think you'll find that in pen is very affordable and will add a level of control to your life. That is probably so far alluded to companion medical comm check out the pen.

You know I have a little music left here. So let me say I really enjoyed hearing someone's perspective about type two diabetes today. I genuinely believe that type two does not have a bright enough light shined on it. And that there are so many people living with it or living undiagnosed. The information really needs to get out there. So if you know somebody with type two diabetes, share this episode with them. Maybe hearing Billy share so openly about what it's like to have tight to will help someone else to not be so scared to share to ask a doctor to ask a friend or family member for help something to reach out to feel like a sense of community where there may be isn't one

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Links

Billy Gardell online

Mytype2transformation

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