Scott Benner 6/2/21 Scott Benner 6/2/21

#487 From Russia With Sarcasm

Sophia is my favorite listener.

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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 friends, and welcome to Episode 487 of the Juicebox Podcast.

If by the time this episode is over, you have not fallen in love with Sophia. There may be something wrong with you. big challenge, but just I, I love this episode so much. I just had the greatest time talking to Sophia, I'm so excited, I just want to get to it. So nothing here on the Juicebox Podcast will be considered advice, medical or otherwise, please always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. Whether you hear this, you are going to have such a good this is going to be the best. I don't know how long this one is, but however long it is, it's gonna be the best part of your day. And if it's not your money back, what do you think of that in money back guarantee on today's episode

when I rush through all that there's so much music left. We're not really getting to it any quicker. I messed that up. Oh, here comes this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. And by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. Learn more about dexcom@dexcom.com forward slash juice box you can get started with the G six or learn more at that address. And to find out about the Contour Next One blood glucose meter, you need to go to Contour Next one.com Ford slash juice box it is the best meter I've ever used. That's it there's I could say a lot of other things about it and I will in the ad later. But for now best meter ever used contour next comm forward slash juicebox Okay, so the recordings running to see you know are you by yourself? Are you Is there a parent with you? Or What's the situation?

Sophia 2:24
I'm by myself but the parent is in the house.

Scott Benner 2:27
Okay. Well, I'm really excited to do this with you. Are you nervous?

Sophia 2:33
A little. And that's certainly reflected in my blood sugar's today, but I think I'm calmer now that we've started Good,

Scott Benner 2:41
good. Well, there's no reason to be nervous. We're just gonna talk that won't be trouble. But what happened to your Well, I'll ask you in a second. Introduce yourself first. You can tell them just tell me your name.

Sophia 2:53
Hello, my name is Sofia. I'm from Russia and I was diagnosed in 2018 2018.

Scott Benner 2:59
So how old are you now?

Sophia 3:01
I'm 14.

Scott Benner 3:02
were you diagnosed? And you were 11? Yes. Okay. And you're in Russia right now. That's where you live? That's where you were born? Yes. Okay. How did you find the podcast?

Sophia 3:14
I, I joined a lot of groups. When I was first diagnosed, I looked at Reddit and beyond type one. And I saw a lot of people mentioned it, but it took me like a year and a half to actually find it. I go, I searched it on YouTube. But some other podcasts kind of showed up. And I just gave up after their first dry. Oh, I'm

Scott Benner 3:37
sorry. I don't do a very good job with YouTube. Should I try harder? Do you think?

Sophia 3:42
I think it was the only social media I was really acquainted with. So that's the only place I knew where to search.

Scott Benner 3:49
Gotcha. All right. Well, maybe I'll put some more effort into YouTube one day, we'll see. Okay, so you're diagnosed? Do you know anyone? Like who has type one diabetes besides you?

Sophia 4:03
I didn't know that existed in that's funny, because I had the person who sat next to me in class for a year and a half was type one. But I didn't know that they were type one. They just had this weird device on them constantly that beeped and nobody knew what it was because they didn't tell anybody.

Scott Benner 4:26
No kidding. So Oh, so you you don't feel like you know anybody in the world with type one. But the kid who sits next to you in class has it but doesn't tell anybody that they have it.

Sophia 4:35
Exactly. And I watched like accidentally six videos a year before I was diagnosed with people with type one and they said it but I never paid attention to it

Scott Benner 4:45
because you didn't know what it was and had never heard of it before. Yeah, that's interesting. And strange. What was it? Well, I never got back to my original question. I'm gonna forget it. If I don't ask Hold on a second. I might have forgotten it. We were talking, and I wanted to ask you if it'll come back up. I lost my question already. Darn it.

Sophia 5:06
I think it was about today's blood sugar's Oh my god,

Scott Benner 5:09
Sophia. You should host this podcast instead of me. Okay, let's start over again. Where were your blood sugar's? Because it's afternoon for you, right? Like it's like five o'clock your time?

Sophia 5:24
Yes.

Scott Benner 5:24
Okay. And for me it's 10 o'clock in the morning, Arden's actually taking her sh t right now. And oh, I'm kind of watching it with my, the corner of my eye, making sure that her blood sugar doesn't get out of hand, but it's doing really well. Anyway, um, so you have you eaten dinner already today? Or have you not done that yet?

Sophia 5:43
No, I kind of wait usually.

Scott Benner 5:45
Okay, so where was your blood sugar? And then when did you start getting nervous and what happened to it?

Sophia 5:52
So when I woke up, I did everything I usually do I Pre-Bolus a the same lower glycemic index food. But where usually would have gone to 131 20 maybe I saw my first 220 and like, a few months. That's my father's interesting.

Scott Benner 6:12
So Oh, so your whole day? You've been thinking about this?

Sophia 6:15
Yeah, I actually I think like a few weeks.

Scott Benner 6:19
Oh my gosh, I'm

Unknown Speaker 6:20
so well, I'm

Scott Benner 6:21
sorry. I messed up your blood sugar. Is that coming back down now?

Sophia 6:24
Is 112 right now. So yeah,

Scott Benner 6:27
doing good. Okay, ours is actually 115. Right now she was 99 for a while in the like for the first 90 minutes of the test. And then it started to move. And so I texted her and had her make a couple of changes. And it looks like it's gonna hold here at 115 while she which is terrific while she's taking her LSAT. But okay, so well, first of all, I'm sorry, if you were nervous, like there's genuinely nothing to be nervous about. But I do have a lot of questions. I don't get a lot of emails from 14 year olds.

Unknown Speaker 6:59
So yeah.

Sophia 7:02
Well, I saw I actually listened to I think most of your episodes, and the ones I was most interested about were with people around my age. And I saw that from your 400 and something episodes, you only had 25. Maybe if that with people in the teens. And I thought that maybe it will be interesting to add on to that.

Scott Benner 7:28
Well, it definitely would be and I'm grateful it is I feel a little critiqued. Are you saying I don't do enough with kids?

Sophia 7:34
I don't think you should. I'm not particularly targeted at kids, because most of the controlling of the tape one is done by parents.

Scott Benner 7:45
You are incredibly mature. Why is that?

Sophia 7:48
I think it has something to do with the type one. I did everything practically myself because I wanted to.

Scott Benner 7:57
But in general, are you kind of a more? Have you always been like this like, like a little more mature than your age?

Sophia 8:05
I don't think I can say that. But I think I don't know. Probably not. I was kind of a weird child.

Unknown Speaker 8:17
Why were you weird.

Sophia 8:19
I was the kid in the back corner of the class. Kind of drawing on the desk instead of paying attention and throwing paper notes to people in the front.

Scott Benner 8:33
I'm just telling you that we've only been talking for a few minutes, but you feel like you're like 25 years old to me. Actually, I interviewed a 24 year old the other day, you're way more mature than she was. So I think that's it's just very interesting that you you know found something you're managing this yourself your parents don't help you with your blood sugar's it's mostly you.

Sophia 8:56
My mom actually has during the night because I will not wake up at all from anything other than probably an earthquake. Other than that, I just sleep through everything. Except if my blood sugars are higher than 200 then I will not get any sleep at all. For some reason.

Scott Benner 9:16
I have to tell you before Arden had diabetes, I could sleep through anything too. I'm not as good at it. Now. Although as I'm getting older, it's getting harder to wake up at night. So I understand how you feel about not wanting to wake up. Tell your mom I know. I know what she's going through being awake during the night but how are you? I

Sophia 9:33
feel bad. I feel bad about that since I can totally do it by myself. Except for that I don't wake up in seven nights. She doesn't get a lot of sleep because of that. And I do I always get it laughs

Scott Benner 9:46
you're still fresh in the morning and she's looks like she's gonna fall over.

Unknown Speaker 9:49
Yeah,

Scott Benner 9:51
well, what um, I guess let's try to figure out a little bit first about being diagnosed. So how did you first notice that If something was wrong,

Sophia 10:02
we didn't until the day when the doctor said I was an hour or two away from a coma. Oh,

Scott Benner 10:10
he took it right to the end. Hmm. So you wrote

Sophia 10:14
in an ambulance barely being able to read.

Scott Benner 10:17
While you were How do you know what your blood sugar was? Did they ever tell you?

Sophia 10:21
It was not that bad. Interestingly enough, it was 450 I think. But, um, I was laying in bed for a whole day I couldn't get up except for the one time I asked my mom for some water. And she brought me a sugary likes. I think it was soda. And for some reason, I just didn't want to drink that sugary soda. So I, for the first time, that day, got up and got myself a glass of water.

Scott Benner 10:51
The desire not to drink the sugary drink was the only thing that could get you out of bed. Yes. I wonder about that. I guess very few people will know about it. But that, that drive to drink water. When you're in DK a, it sounds really powerful. You know, it's just the everyone's description of it is always like they're just, they'll do anything to get water. And so yeah, so you're, you're basically just about dead, and then your parents figure it out and call an ambulance.

Sophia 11:25
Well, looking back, I actually had symptoms for a year and a half or so years, I would drink maybe three or four liters of water. And interestingly enough, I was so nauseous. Every time after drinking regular water, the only thing I could drink was carbonated water. And well, that was hard to get rid of to get a hold off. Sorry. And I just didn't drink Sundays because I was nauseous from water. But I was very thirsty.

Scott Benner 11:56
And the bubbly water is hard to find where you live?

Sophia 12:01
No, it's not. It's just once I drink it all, which was twice as fast as we thought we had to go to the store and get up more potent. We always underestimated how much how fast I can drink.

Scott Benner 12:13
I understand it was always difficult to find because you had already drank it. Yeah. Wow, that's crazy. And for a year or so. And so what were early symptoms, like did you lose weight? Were you like, what was happening during that time?

Sophia 12:27
I think it was so slow to develop that we didn't notice I had lost any weight. But it turned out I had lost around four kilograms or five, which is quite a lot.

Scott Benner 12:40
I would have to take your word for it because I didn't learn the metric system. But hold on. What's

Sophia 12:44
that? I'm not sure how many pounds that is sorry.

Scott Benner 12:47
Don't worry. I'm gonna find out right now. In pounds. I'll just ask the magic machine. Well, you lost almost nine pounds. Yeah. And how much did you weigh at that point? Do you remember?

Sophia 12:59
I don't know in bounds, but it was 28 kilograms. 29 kilograms. All right. I

Scott Benner 13:06
have the thing up now. It's you. Oh, wow. So you weighed 63 and lost 824. That's a big person. I'm

Sophia 13:14
sorry. Um, no, at the end point. I was.

Scott Benner 13:19
Oh, okay. I see. So you were 29 you came down from like, 37 kilograms. Yes,

Sophia 13:27
I didn't weigh myself so often. So that's probably it, but I'm not 100% Sure. Okay. Yeah, don't

Scott Benner 13:33
worry. You're not on trial. You don't have to answer exactly right. If you're wrong about something. No one's gonna come get you don't worry. I'm, uh, I won't show up at your house and be like, you know, when you're on the podcast, you said you wait 37 kilograms last eight, but it was really 39. And now I'm upset. Nothing like that. Wow.

Unknown Speaker 13:49
I hope not. All right. Could

Scott Benner 13:50
you imagine if that's what I wasted my first trip to Russia on?

Sophia 13:54
Yeah, there's so much to see not in the winter.

Scott Benner 13:57
Not in the winter. Is it a really harsh place in the winter?

Sophia 14:01
Well, this winter was really weird. It was almost minus 30 degrees Celsius, which is more than it was last year. And I stayed indoors the whole time. I would

Scott Benner 14:13
say so we have what's it like to go outside when it's that cold? Like, are you in like a giant jacket with a hood That only leaves like a little hole by your eyes? Or how do you do that?

Sophia 14:22
Well, I underestimated the weather. And so I didn't. I wore my regular jacket. And actually my own call failed after I came back inside. And once when I took it off, there were there was so much blood. And the only thing that changed was me going outside into the very cold weather.

Scott Benner 14:45
They had to test it at minus 30 your sign for you? How did you how did you how did you get a hold of the Omnipod in Russia?

Sophia 14:53
Oh, well. Give me for start for diagnosis. It's all kind of an open pill battle for sure. Let's,

Scott Benner 15:01
let's take your fight together. All right, I see you don't like the way I jumped around. That's fine. We'll start there.

Sophia 15:06
No, it's not that it's just there's there's a series of events leading up to that moment.

Scott Benner 15:11
I definitely want to hear them. Okay, so you ride the ambulance, you get to the hospital. What happens next?

Sophia 15:17
Oh, before I wrote in the ambulance, my mom was about to, like, make me go to bed. But she had her friend over. And her friends like saw me walking into the kitchen. And she said, This isn't normal. I think you should go to the hospital. You're not breathing enough. I was hyperventilating. So I couldn't take a regular breath. And all I remember was being Gary to the ambulance and then waking up in a cold hospital. Oh, my gosh, that sucks. Arden was panting to at the end right before we took her to the hospital. Like I've never heard anyone, like, except me had doing that before diagnosis. And that's interesting.

Scott Benner 15:58
Yeah, she was she was panting in her sleep. And like she was asleep and like, like, like a puppy. Almost. And there is an answer for why that happens. It's your body tries

Sophia 16:09
not enough oxygen to the brain. Right?

Scott Benner 16:12
Yeah, yeah. And your body's just trying, like desperately to like it's trying to stay alive. So you get to the hospital. And how long were you there?

Sophia 16:22
in the emergency room, I think it was 22 hours. And then I wrote in the ambulance to a regular Children's Hospital and they stayed there for 10 days, I

Scott Benner 16:35
think they figured out pretty quickly at the emergency room. What was wrong?

Sophia 16:39
Oh, then you immediately when they came over, they said, Alright, let's test your blood sugar really quick. And they tested it and was like 450? And they said, Yeah, you're going to the emergency room? No. So they did that very quickly, actually.

Scott Benner 16:54
So did you feel much better by the time they moved to the children's hospital or not yet.

Sophia 17:02
I was kind of in a state where I just laid in bed. And the first few days, I just passed so quickly, I was just sitting in bed not doing anything. But I have company. So the way the hospitals here work, they're just large rooms, and with six or seven patients in them. So they're like six or seven beds in one room. And there was an annoying seven year old, constantly ran around, trying to make friends with everybody. And then there were a couple of older kids there too.

Scott Benner 17:40
No kidding. Do you remember what any of them? Were there? Four or no?

Sophia 17:44
Um, all of them. Were there for type one other than one who was there for I think, a high blood pressure.

Scott Benner 17:54
Oh, wow. So you and a number of other children were all diagnosed kind of on the same day?

Sophia 17:58
Well, it was the end, it was the endocrinal logical floors. So the only undue issues there

Scott Benner 18:09
right now. But still, that's kind of crazy. I remember being taught how to count carbs at the hospital with eight other families that whose children were all diagnosed in that that couple of day period that Arden was,

Sophia 18:22
that's the same way. It was. They had diabetes school like they call them. And so with four or five days, it was held in one room, and like two or three hours long, and all of the parents would go and spend that time and write notes. And it was all pretty basic stuff. And they had a really weird way of teaching that I demanded to be in the room to, for them to also teach me and they had such a weird way of teaching carb counting

Scott Benner 18:57
didn't make sense to you.

Sophia 18:59
They didn't count carbs, they counted bread units, if I'm translating correctly. So every 12 carbs was one bread unit or something.

Unknown Speaker 19:11
Right unit. Now

Scott Benner 19:11
I am going to tell you that I can't completely remember where but I've heard that phrase before. Yeah, and I don't

Sophia 19:22
think nobody has ever heard it before.

Scott Benner 19:24
I feel like oh, it's part of the glycaemic. So how much bread Can I wait? I'm internetting 2013 somebody got a presentation bread exchange unit, a guide for diabetics. Ready. People who suffer from diabetes and therefore require insulin can use this measurement unit to compare the blood sugar effective effectiveness of carbohydrates and different foods. But this is why the podcast is popular because when people write about diabetes, they make it very confused. Using IKEA according to a German dietary regulation, one bread exchange unit, or one b e u corresponds to a quantity of food that contains 12 grams of digestible and then therefore blood sugar effective carbs, that's what they thought you.

Sophia 20:16
Yes. And it was so confusing, it was more confusing than using regular carbohydrates. And also they said, Every six spoons of porridge translates to 40 grams of carbs. And that's the way we did things. There are the people who brought their own scales and measured their food, which, and they had much better blood sugars.

Scott Benner 20:41
Well, yeah, because this is convoluted. And I just read it. And I, if you ask me right now, like under penalty of death, if you said to me, Scott, you have to explain to me what you just read. I don't know that I would understand that enough to say it. There's some I

Sophia 20:57
mean, me and my mom immediately threw that idea out and started counting carbs. Yeah, because he read a lot about it. And he figured out that that's probably not the best way to do things. Good. So

Scott Benner 21:09
your mom helped. So do you get insulin pens? Do you get needles? How do you manage in the beginning?

Sophia 21:19
You have a choice? Well, in the later times, when I visited my underwear, I had a choice. But first, they gave me a noble rapid pen, and to learn to spin.

Scott Benner 21:31
So you were just you were MDI, you were just shooting some lantis and covering your meals? Did you correct blood sugars? Or did you just give yourself insulin at mealtimes?

Sophia 21:41
And in the hospital, or after

Scott Benner 21:43
just moving forward? Like as you got home and got settled?

Sophia 21:48
Well, nobody explained to me the concept of correcting highs. And also, not lows. So my mom thought that, since regular people's blood sugar went down to 60, sometimes thought that is completely normal for boys also. And so I didn't correct to loans to 60 or 555.

Scott Benner 22:16
How did that? Did? Did you feel okay at that number or no? Not mentioned to your mom, you thought she might be wrong.

Sophia 22:26
I said, I said, Are you sure this is the way this works? And she said, Well, no, that's honest.

Scott Benner 22:35
I would take an honest answer, you know. So you guys figured out that was a little too low. And where did you start correcting?

Sophia 22:43
We asked the endo. And she said that's so not the way to do things. No. And

Scott Benner 22:51
she started telling you about bread units again.

Sophia 22:54
She didn't even know they taught us regular carbs. She just took all of my insulin carb ratios and basil rates. And she just said, Okay, well, you seem to be doing fine. Go on.

Scott Benner 23:10
Good luck. Oh, that's, well, it sounds like your mom was trying to figure things out in the beginning. And she's using the internet, which was ended up being helpful, I guess, overall. In that first year. What were your a onesies? Like?

Sophia 23:25
I think since I was not correcting the lows. Mine was 6.5. But it was not because of good control. I was still having high blood sugars regularly is just because a lot of the time I was low and didn't do anything about it.

Scott Benner 23:42
How did you know that? That's like, did you learn that from the podcast?

Sophia 23:48
No, I just kind of I knew that they would see is the average blood sugar of three months. Right? So I kind of thought that well, since I was having a lot of lows. That's probably why Sophia,

Scott Benner 24:02
let's Are you really smart? Like forget that you drew on the desk in school. Do you understand math?

Sophia 24:10
I would say yes. But don't follow up with my teachers. Okay, well, listen,

Scott Benner 24:15
I had a problem in school as well. I did not like school very much. But I was uh, I was okay smart. I just didn't like what was going on. The reason I ask is because you you I just assumed you heard on the podcast that variable blood sugars weren't good for you Even if you got a lower a one c but you figured that out by yourself. When I talked to a lot of adults who just tell me well the a one c 6.5 were good and I'm like no Look, you're like 350 here for an hour or two and then you know your your crash down to, you know, to 60 and you said you were 60 for an hour. You're just you're you're just confusing the test. You're not you know you don't need you do have to say 6.5 but you didn't come to it kind of authentically. And it's definitely not good for your for your overall health. But you just figure that out when you were 11

Sophia 25:09
Oh, probably. Well, I was diagnosed a month before I turned 12. So 12

Scott Benner 25:17
so I'll say it again. So you finished that you figured that out when you were 12?

Sophia 25:20
Oh, me and my endocrine No. So I told her I was having a lot of lows. And she said, What are you when she seems good? But I said, what I'm having a lot of lows. She said, Well, don't sorry.

Scott Benner 25:35
So So via your your endo didn't really get it. But you got it. And you just made this change in Iran. So how do you make a change like that when you're completely by yourself? Like, how do you figure out how to stop high blood sugars and, and not have rebound lows and things like that? What did you do?

Sophia 25:51
Well, when I was an MD, I thought everything was great. I thought EA my blood sugar is so good. I met I'm measuring it three times, and C is really good. I guess I'm doing a great job. But two weeks after I came from the hospital, my mom surprised me with a freestyle Libra. And now looking back on the graphs, I was at a roller coaster, it was okay, you from a period of two hours for me to go from 260 to 50, to an urgent low to 100. And up and down and up and down. And there was also a thing where once I asked my mom, after I was diagnosed, how many carbs Can I eat without insulin? She said, Hmm, I don't know. 10. And so I started eating 10 carbs regularly without taking any insulin. And my blood sugars are going up because of that. And it was very confusing.

Scott Benner 26:55
Sophia, I mean this in a really good way. So I don't want this to get lost in translation at all. But right now people are listening to this adults. And they're thinking, Oh my God, this kid figured all this out when she was 12 years old. And I'm over here struggling. You're making people are just like, Ah, what am I doing? I can hear you all thinking right now, by the way, just the the like, how did this kid just get but you're you're not what it's fascinating. Like, it really is fascinating listening to you talk about seeing something that can appear to be so complicated to people. But maybe because of your age, you just looked at it in a simple way. Like you you sit. Is that why you like the podcast? Like because I'm, you know, I'm 50? Right? And I live in another country and I'm talking about something I don't have that you have. But you like this show enough to listen to every episode of it. So what is it? Well, hey, hey, listen, there's no reason to tell people that just say you listen to ramp. Yeah, we'll try again. So you listen to every episode, say Yes, I did. Yes. Exactly. Sophia, thank you. And but my point is, what is there about? I want to understand what it is about how I'm talking about diabetes that resonates with you. And and and jives with how you think about it, because I'm trying to figure out how you think about it because you're very clear minded about it.

Sophia 28:23
Oh, so obviously because of your charming personality. And okay, so

Scott Benner 28:32
don't be sorry. lean into that. sarcasm. I'm good with it. Don't worry about it.

Sophia 28:38
I think it just because something made sense. Finally. Nothing made sense. Previously to that in diabetes also, always second. I when I was in school, I would just know. Okay, I have a sandwich for lunch. Let's just Bolus to units. Oh no, I have 300. Mom says t Bolus, another three units that make sense. We just move on. And finally something made sense or maybe just Bolus a little bit earlier. Maybe don't eat sugar and not Bolus for it because it's under 10 carbs.

Scott Benner 29:18
So the common sense stuff just started to resonate a little bit and the timing idea. And you think of that now on your own like you Pre-Bolus I imagine but what is your Awan see now?

Sophia 29:30
I will we haven't measured it since August. It was 5.7. But I my clarity says it'll, it's probably around 6.6 right now because I hit a big Grossberg and my blood sugar's Well, I had to adapt really quickly because I needed twice the amount of basil and way more insulin and I was still being high. So that was a little hard. But other than that, I think I know the basic The principles of it. Yeah,

Scott Benner 30:01
well, so when that's how long did it take you to recognize that you needed a significant amount more?

Sophia 30:09
Probably since one one day my blood sugar's were perfectly stable with 15 units of basil. And the next I needed a seven extra correction bonuses and I thought that this is normal. Let's do a Temp Basal. Next day that Temp Basal didn't work. Let's do another Temp Basal. And at some point, I realized, yeah, this is not going to go away should probably just change the regular Basal.

Scott Benner 30:37
I'm so happy for you.

And I'm happy for you as well, because you're about to find out about the best Darren diabetes told that I've ever seen in my life. That's right. I said best on the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. Why don't you have one? Why have you not at least looked into it? I mean, it shows the blood sugar. Constantly. Speed, direction. And number. That's live. Look, understand. I'm saying like you are looking like, never hear that. On the news. They're like you're looking live over but you're looking live over your blood sugar. It's 117 and stable. That's Arden's blood sugar right now, two and a half hours after Chinese food. Actually, it's about to update again. Hold on a second. Let's see if it changed. And it has 115 which doesn't surprise me. Why doesn't it surprise me? Because let's see, about 20 minutes ago, I noticed that the blood sugar looked a little sticky, meaning I didn't think it was gonna break off that line it was at around the 121 117 mark. So I asked Arden send a little text and I said I think we have to Bolus a little more for this food. And she did. And now we're starting to see it move. Now I know the number only move to from 117 to 115. But I can see on the graph that it's beginning to trend down, I can see the Bolus working. It's fascinating. And it's available to everyone who has a Dexcom g six, find out more@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. And don't overlook that I'm looking at don't overlook that I'm looking Don't think like that. Let's try again, don't overlook that I can see Arden's blood sugar on my iPhone, and you can to where your Android phone. As a matter of fact, 10 people can 10 people of your choosing can follow blood sugars, if that's what you want. And if that's not what you want, don't do that. Just keep the data for yourself. dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. links in the show notes links at Juicebox Podcast comm get started right now. What do you think the most overlooked diabetes item is like the thing that you just don't take that seriously, that seriously is wrong word, the thing that you don't pay close enough attention to when you're purchasing. Right? In my opinion, it's your blood glucose meter. A lot of people just take the one the doctor gives you where your endo writes a script for one or your nurse practitioners like here, there's one in the drawer take this one, or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. How often do we actually look like would you buy a car that way? No. Would you buy a house that way? No. Would you rent an apartment that way? You would not? Would you even buy of avocado without squeezing it first? Yeah, wouldn't. But for some reason, he just took the meter they gave and you're like I guess this is good. But you know what could be better. The Contour Next One blood glucose meter. Right? It's a ripe avocado in a world full of lemons. Contour Next one.com forward slash Juicebox. Podcast, incredibly accurate meter. I'm sorry, my voice just broke an incredibly accurate meter with second chance test trips, meaning you can touch some blood not get enough, go back get more without messing up the test or ruining the strip. It's got a super bright light for nighttime viewing as well as a nice big, visible screen. Except you know what the meter is not that big fish in your pocket, your purse, your bag, wherever you carry your gear. It won't be in your way. It'll just do what you need it to do. Contour. Next One is the meter we use. It's fantastic. It is the most accurate one I've ever seen. Contour Next one.com forward slash juicebox. It may even be cheaper than you imagine. Go check it out. I really am that. I don't know you well enough to tell you. I'm proud of you. But I felt proud while you were saying that like it is absolutely astonishing that you figured all of that out. And I think again that my astonishment comes from the number Have adults who I've spoken to who can't be that intellectually agile when something's happening, they get so stuck in the baseless 15 it Okay, maybe it needs to go up, but I'll try 16 that didn't work? Well, we'll try that for a week and see what happens. Like you just pushed it up seven, you went from, from 15 to 22 a day.

Sophia 35:26
Yeah, but it wasn't in the course of a couple of months. So it wasn't

Scott Benner 35:30
immediately. So it took me a couple of months to I understand, by the way, that's it's a huge jump, it's 50% more. And so, but you did it by yourself, you made that decision.

Sophia 35:42
I, my mom knows a lot about my diabetes, and she helps me a lot. I do most of the I do a lot, all of the meals and corrections by myself. But like once a week who I will tell her my problems, then she'll say, well just adjust this. And so then that makes sense. I love it.

Scott Benner 36:03
I love how simplified in a simplified way you think about the whole thing,

Sophia 36:07
I get very stuck in an idea that my insulin to carb ratio was always this, I can't change it now because it was always this. And then when I tell my mom a week later the problem she said, Well, obviously you need to change it. It's not working.

Scott Benner 36:22
That's amazing. I'm so happy. I really am like this is I you understand the beyond the short email correspondence that we had, like in my mind, I'm sitting down this morning to talk to a 14 year old, I don't know who you're going to be like, I don't know how this conversation is going to go when we start talking. And it took me a couple of minutes in the beginning to adjust myself because I feel like I'm talking to like a younger, less experienced version of Jenny right now. Not like I'm talking to a 14. Do you know Jenny? Do you listen to the episodes with her?

Sophia 36:58
Yeah, I listened to all of them. See you were getting so good at this pregnancy ones.

Scott Benner 37:04
Really? Do you ever think you'll have kids?

Sophia 37:07
I don't want to think about that right now. But it was interesting to see how people are just in new situations.

Scott Benner 37:14
You are my favorite listener, Sophia, if there was a T shirt that said favorite listener, I would send it to you there is not one. But if there was you'd get it. That is I'd even make an award up. And then if you one day, we're not my favorite listener anymore. I'd have to make you mail it to somebody else. But let's not get involved in all that awards things. But you're seriously my favorite person. So but I don't want to take you off your path because you wanted to talk about things like that. So you came out of the hospital with your MDI and and how did that go? What happened next?

Sophia 37:45
Well, my mom got me the freestyle Libra. And I thought, well, why doesn't it tell me when my blood sugar goes low? I don't want to keep checking. So I started Googling what else is out there. And I saw that Dexcom exists and people like it. And I started telling Mom, I need to Dexcom. Mom, let's find a way to get it. And we found a store online that sells them. And there's a way to get it. It's not covered here. But we found a way to get it delivered. And I got the G five then I started doing more research and I saw that there are things that make you not inject seven times a day. And that was interesting to me because the because the Omni pod seem so much better than other pumps, because I don't like being tied to something. And I have a cat. And that's probably something that played a major factor. The cat said, Yeah, she likes to chew stuff and she loves playing with strings. So the obvious conclusion was this set a good idea.

Scott Benner 39:03
I'm thinking Are you gonna be like Ilan musk one day or something like that? Well, you remember me when you're famous and rich, please, Sophia.

Sophia 39:12
Yes, send your check and remind I

Scott Benner 39:14
don't need to hold. Well, listen, I don't want to say no to the check. But I I just meant like, just, you know, throw me an email like, you know, when you're banging around the world doing amazing things. Like I want to be able to say like, Oh, I know Sofia, because I was I'm trying to imagine myself at 14 years old. I think I was just like a like a barely alive idiot. Do you know what I mean? Like just barely moving around like a blob. Basically.

Sophia 39:47
Who you ask my teachers will agree with you.

Scott Benner 39:49
Oh, really? Well, they don't get to hear you talk about this. Are you? Are you saying that when I was 14 that was something I might have been good at, but nobody bothered to find out.

Unknown Speaker 39:59
Exactly.

Scott Benner 40:00
I'm gonna accept that from you. Also, you might be my therapist now, too. So. So you're just Are you good at diabetes? Because it's coming naturally to you? Where is it because you're trying to take care of

Sophia 40:15
yourselves and come naturally at all. It took a lot of work to reroute my ideas since my endo and the hospital was telling me one thing, I check every two hours, if you're high Bolus check in two hours again, adjust basil, if it's three days in a row, the same thing. And it was they make it sound like such an exact science. But there's so many factors that play into it. If I know that I'm having a stressful day, the next day, I need to make it Temp Basal, but they won't tell me to do that since they will be scared that I will go low because I'm not 100% sure that they're my blood sugar's will go up. And I had to reroute a lot, and my mom, and make my mom listen to your podcast,

Scott Benner 41:04
as well. So you had to that's interesting. So you found that a side of her, started figuring out things you wanted to do. And then you said to your mom, this must be interesting. You went to your mom, a Russian woman and said, there's a guy in America with a podcast, and I want you to listen to it so we can learn how to take care of my blood sugar better, and then she grounded you what happened next?

Sophia 41:29
No, I said, there's a guy with no medical degree that's telling me he knows better than my endocrinologist. I spent a lot of years in medical school, and I'm gonna listen to him. No.

Unknown Speaker 41:43
And this one, okay with your mom?

Sophia 41:47
She said, Yeah, sure. If that makes you happy.

Scott Benner 41:53
I don't know why I just I love everything about this conversation. It's absolutely fascinating. So she's like, she didn't ask, she didn't say like, Well, I'd like to listen to it before you do that.

Sophia 42:04
Oh, no, she listened to it. She said, Well, he sounds like he really knows what he's talking about.

Scott Benner 42:10
You tell her I'm very good at pretending that I know what I'm talking. Just tell her my confidence comes from. I don't know where? Well, that's not true around diabetes, my confidence comes from experience and seeing it happen over and over again. And being able to break free of kind of old ideas about that management of diabetes, kind of like you were talking about, like, you know, there's this one thing that you wouldn't know, because you're young, and you haven't been involved in the space. But people used to say all the time that you know, your diabetes may vary, you know, like, it's what happened

Sophia 42:48
to him in the hospital.

Scott Benner 42:50
Right? Right. What so what happens to you, Sophia, won't happen to my daughter or won't happen to a 50 year old guy who's listening right now who has type one. And I understood the kind of overarching sentiment, which was, variables are different for you than they are to somebody else. And so it's going to be different, but I just kept thinking, if you boil it down far enough, it is all happening the same way for everybody, right? Like, like, let's find common ground for everybody with Type One Diabetes. And to me that common ground is that if you have the right amount of insulin, and you put it in the right place, that you can keep your blood sugar stable and low. Now, it's not as simple as that as as that makes it sound. But it is true, then there are a couple of outliers, right? There are some people, for instance, who have gastroparesis. You know, they have a stomach emptying problem. So they can't kind of count on when their blood their foods going to be digested. But taking those sort of outliers outside out of the equation, everyone else using insulin is, is experiencing the same core experiences, right? And if you're basil is right, and if you Pre-Bolus meals, meaning if you line up the, you know, the action of the insulin with the impact of the carbs that you're eating, you won't have spikes at meal times. It just it's just true. Like, there's no, there's no scenario where if you do it, right, your blood sugar will spike as

Sophia 44:29
well, except for the case where you're very stressed, or you had too much exercise and didn't account for that.

Scott Benner 44:39
Right? No 100% there's going to be variables that impact your blood sugar. But if you go back to what I said, even if you're very stressed, or you had exercise that you didn't account for that was going to make your blood sugar go up. The truth is, and this would be difficult to do but if you knew the stress was coming, and you Bolus for it, or if you knew you could to impact it like it's not easy. I'm not saying it's easy. But Arden's blood sugar right now during the, the sap testing is a good example of that, you know, leading into the test, I assume that test was going to be at least burdensome may be stressful, I wasn't sure. So we increased the power of Arden's insulin going into the test, so that she wouldn't spike. And, and so had she magically not experienced any kind of like outside influence, we could have just taken that insulin away. But we we looked at it and got ahead of it. And I think at that core, whether it's you, Sophia, 14 years old, freezing your butt off in Russia, or, you know, some guy named Bill living in Florida right now, like, that is the truth for everybody. And I can I feel very comfortable standing behind that. So I'm just super happy that you that you found this and that it's been so helpful for you so far. So okay, so you've

Sophia 46:07
also got a problem? Yeah, moving on. Right?

Unknown Speaker 46:09
Yeah, please.

Sophia 46:11
Be on the board. For some reason, my mom thought that pumps don't work, and that they always inject more than you want them to inject and they are bad, for there is just the stereotype of pumps being bad in your head. So it was very, very hard to convince my mom.

Scott Benner 46:34
So what does she hear like a new story where someone's insulin pump, like went crazy and wrap the cord around their neck and choke them or killed him? Yeah.

Sophia 46:45
And maybe it's I'm not sure how older pumps were. But now they seem just very stable. Yeah.

Scott Benner 46:53
No, I agree with you. It would be like hearing. There was this news story once, where they said somebody's brakes didn't work. And they just like, drove off a cliff. And if you heard that news story, and then said, Okay, well, then we can't drive cars anymore. Right? Like, it's, you know, yeah, so it's a weird leap to make, but I understand it as well. Like, I understand her if she heard that. And thought that was true, then I would, I would understand her being concerned about so how did you talk her into that?

Sophia 47:25
I took me going to the Enzo, and making viendo tell my mom that pumps are perfectly safe.

Scott Benner 47:33
You put the endo in charge of it? Yeah.

Sophia 47:36
So and also, there's the bonus, if anything went wrong, we could always blame the endo.

Scott Benner 47:42
Get you setting up ways to get out of this scenario if you need to? Like, are you good at manipulating your mother and other parts of life? I know she's gonna hear this. And you might not want to give up your best secrets, but you have her doing things that she doesn't realize she's doing?

Unknown Speaker 48:00
Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 48:01
You don't want to admit to them out loud.

Unknown Speaker 48:03
No. Good for you. Yeah,

Scott Benner 48:05
keep keep your game going. Don't Don't give it up for me. But that's really even that's a next level idea. to like, you know, my mom has a problem with this. I'll end around her to the endocrinologist explain this, the endocrinologist get her on my side. And so she can impact my mom, my mama, listen to the endo, where she might not listen to me. Serious. Yeah.

Sophia 48:26
And the endo after hearing us talk about pumps told us if you want a free pump, go on this waiting list that usually takes around three years for people to get a pump. And the pump is a couple of years old. And it was the very old Medtronic pumps, I think. And then she gave us a manual in case we wanted to buy your own pump. But the pumps were all Medtronic pumps and also very old. So I said, Yeah, that's not going to work. And I'm going to, and then I went and I did research and on the site where we bought the Dexcom. The Avenue board was there. And I decided this looks way better than my cat chewing through a tube or me not being able to shower without disconnecting everything. Right.

Scott Benner 49:20
Sophia, you promise me something? If I asked you nicely. When you mature to a full adult, please don't use your superpowers for evil. Okay. I want you to use them for good, because you found out how to get like an insulin pump in a Dexcom into a country where they're not sold. So I get emails all the time. A lot of them from Saudi Arabia actually, where people want to buy stuff like that and can't find it anywhere. I know a gentleman Oh,

Sophia 49:50
it was so it was a very quick google search.

Scott Benner 49:55
You tell me old old heads don't know how to use the internet.

Sophia 50:00
I wouldn't say that directly to your face.

Scott Benner 50:03
But you mean it? I understand. Yeah, yeah, I actually, I believe I know a family who flies from the Middle East to America to buy supplies and goes back with them.

Sophia 50:13
Just interesting. Yeah. Why wouldn't they like, find a friend who lives in that place? Make the friend buy it and ship it with MIT to their post office and save money on a plane ticket.

Scott Benner 50:27
Sofia, what would you think if a couple of times a year I took life questions from the audience, and just got you on to answer their problems for them? We'll call it common sense with Sophia. And they'll ask big long convoluted questions, and you'll just give them one sentence. You could be my child, I think, the way you think about the diabetes and everything, and and even, like, just kind of like life stuff. Are your parents similar to you in thought? Or do you find yourself thinking differently than them?

Sophia 51:04
Um, well, I think I think I kind of took something from the both of them. My dad has a very logical brain. My mom is very artistic. And I love art. And I did music for a long time. But I also love math. And I want to become a biophysicist. I think that's happening. What is your

Scott Benner 51:33
looselay? Not I got my asking where he works. But what kind of work does your dad do? Is he an engineer?

Sophia 51:40
I'm not currently but he does something with logic.

Scott Benner 51:46
Yeah, something was said something you can't say, Sofia, do you realize that I only understand Russia through movies that are made in America.

Sophia 51:55
All the movies are either Russia's drinking vodka in some apartment, or them being a mass murderers, or these mafia leaders, which is very not true.

Scott Benner 52:13
So you're telling me that you're not wearing a giant, like mink hat right now with big earflaps.

Sophia 52:22
We have one of those. And because it is very warm in the winter,

Scott Benner 52:28
can I tell you something? I have one. I'm such a baby when it comes to the cold that if I go outside, I have one I wear for like shoveling snow or doing stuff like that. And it is the it's I think mines made out of rabbit if I'm not mistaken. If you put it on in the house and don't immediately go out in the cold, you start to overheat. Like it's so warm, it's

Sophia 52:54
warm, and it's practical. Like you don't have to wear a hood, then wear another hat. You can just put that on. It's ugly, and

Scott Benner 53:02
it looks terrible on me. It looks like my head is trapped in a fuzzy box. But but it's so warm. I would never make fun of it. But in my mind, like you're wearing one of those right now with the front of it folded up. And when you said it was minus 30 degrees outside, I didn't even want to tell you but if you told me I had to go outside it was minus 30 degrees. I would cry. Just please not

Sophia 53:26
minus 30 currently, but it was a month or two ago.

Scott Benner 53:31
Well, if you if I was there with you that day, and you said we have to go outside, I would probably just cry a little bit like you'd see a tear in my eye and you'd be like, Oh my god, that guy's 50 and he's crying. And

Sophia 53:40
the snow was up to my shoulders, I think really? Well because it was well, I think part of it was shovel to be that way. So the past will clear up but the sentiment is still there.

Scott Benner 53:53
Yeah, no kidding. Yeah. So you're so this is not what's going on right now. You are not No, no, you don't make extra money. But you don't make extra money by like, taking apart declassified nuclear materials and selling them on the black market. Like that's not your after school job or anything like that.

Sophia 54:13
No, definitely not.

Scott Benner 54:16
Sophia, I love how long you pause. And then we're sarcastic. Thank you so much. Really appreciate that. Where did you learn English? so well? Is that just something you do in school?

Sophia 54:27
It is something Did you know that we do in school, but I think mostly because my mom made me since I was a baby learner as a second language. Does she really want she thinks that it is the only language that is close to being universal? And she wanted me to have that skill.

Scott Benner 54:47
That's really cool. And Does your mom speak it or did she have to teach?

Sophia 54:51
Oh, she does. She does and my brother doesn't my father does.

Scott Benner 54:54
Oh, you have a you have siblings that is there any other autoimmune stuff going on in your family? anybody's thyroid Weird have celiac disease, anything like that?

Sophia 55:02
No, I'm the first one. As far as I know that you have any problems. Wow,

Scott Benner 55:09
wow, you're doing such an amazing job. Like, are you aware of how well you're doing?

Sophia 55:14
Um, well, my blood sugar started going out. So that means I'm still nervous. But I think he's going down. No.

Scott Benner 55:25
Well, I don't mean doing well now on the podcast, but you are doing well now on the podcast. But I mean, in general, like, in your life with diabetes, like are you aware that you're doing well for yourself?

Sophia 55:36
I'm, I'm really hoping that I will prevent any complications, because I already have to wear glasses since birth. So I do not want any other problems.

Scott Benner 55:50
Like I don't need another thing to wear. So in your mind, controlling your blood sugar's keeping them stable, keeping them within a reasonable range. That's about longevity. For you. That's about living well.

Sophia 56:07
Well, yes. Because the only thing I knew about diabetics was type two diabetics had their toes cut off.

Unknown Speaker 56:15
Did you know is the first

Sophia 56:16
thing I thought of when they said diabetes? Really? Yeah. And so I, that was kind of that's still in the back of my mind somewhere, even though I know it's irrational. I still think about that. And I think that fuels my anger,

Scott Benner 56:35
holding on to your toes keeps you motivated. Yes, it's a pretty good motivation. I have to be honest, if somebody told me right, now they were gonna cut off my toes. If I didn't vacuum the carpet, I'd get that carpet really clean. So I don't know if there's a real correlation. But it's interesting, because you were younger. And that's that was your scope of understanding for diabetes, like you had heard somewhere that people with diabetes can lose their toes. And that's how it struck you when somebody told you I type one diabetes? Yeah, yeah, that makes sense to me. Okay, so you somehow like, I don't know how to say this. I want to try to be delicate, but financially, your family's okay. Right? Like, this isn't cheap to get these devices for you.

Sophia 57:19
It's not in there was a factor to consider. But we thought that it would be way better for my health. Because whilst I couldn't correct ties, because my insulin correction ratio is not that big for me to Bolus a unit at 180. So I and I did have the pen that was half a unit. But it just, it barely worked. For some reason. I think I got a broken one. So we just considered it and we thought that, well, this is we're saving money on further complications and treatments. It's kind of pays off.

Scott Benner 58:03
That's it, and your parents are able to do it. So is it a Is it a bit of a struggle for them financially? Or is it just like art? Is the house made of gold? And it's not a big deal?

Sophia 58:13
I it's probably a struggle. I it's one of the factors that I hadn't really thought about that much. I probably should have

Scott Benner 58:24
no, I don't want you to please let me I want you to understand why I asked. I didn't ask because of you. I asked for the podcast I wanted. I don't want it. I don't want people I want people to understand, because not everybody can afford this stuff. Like Is this something that your mom and dad said to themselves? Alright, this is going to be a bit of a burden for us, but there's a lot of value in it. So we're going to cut back in other places.

Sophia 58:49
I think that's kind of more in the direction leading into the direction that happened because it was my insulin correction ratio. I know I'm probably not supposed to say numbers, because it's different for everybody.

Scott Benner 59:05
You just say numbers

Sophia 59:08
is surround one unit to 100 for you.

Scott Benner 59:12
Yeah. Okay. And so you were trying to correct numbers that the pen wasn't allowing you to do properly. And your parents decided, you know, your long term health is, is a priority, and so they're going to eliminate so your brother's not wearing shoes right now. And you evidence on that, right?

Sophia 59:32
Yeah, we just go barefoot in the snow, but worth it. Well, I

Scott Benner 59:36
mean, honestly, you can't go outside anyway, so who cares?

Sophia 59:40
I'm homeschooled. So that helps.

Scott Benner 59:42
Are you homeschool? Because that's what you are because of COVID.

Sophia 59:46
Um, I think that's what I prefer. Okay. Yeah,

Scott Benner 59:51
can I ask it has COVID been a big deal in Russia? How are you guys? Yeah,

Sophia 59:55
actually, yeah. Everything close down, and well, we had to announce us going to the store.

Scott Benner 1:00:06
You have to tell somebody you're leaving the house to go somewhere.

Sophia 1:00:09
Yeah, and I only one person I thought who was allowed some. But it kind of cooled down. And I think there's no system everybody wears masks, holds in there coughs and everything's okay.

Scott Benner 1:00:25
You know if you cough or sneeze in public now people look at you like you set fire to a school bus. They look at you

Sophia 1:00:34
when I was outside once, and I forgot my mask. So I stood very far away from everybody at the ENTER, like, had the front of the store while my mom was checking out, and an old lady came and she yelled at me for not having a mask. And she brought the people who work there. And she made such a big deal. But I was standing in the corner near the exit. Not near everybody. That's that was very mad.

Scott Benner 1:01:08
Were you was it upsetting?

Sophia 1:01:11
Well, it was kind of scary. Because I'm a real biter. I don't like to do anything wrong. I that type of person. So I think it was a bit uncomfortable.

Scott Benner 1:01:25
Yeah. You can't use like, you might be a tough kid.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:30
Well,

Scott Benner 1:01:31
I mean, in your, at least in your mind. Do you agree? Like are you mentally tough?

Sophia 1:01:38
Um, I think I told myself I had to be when I just was just diagnosed.

Scott Benner 1:01:43
Okay. Do you miss it? Can I ask you a question? I don't want to make you sad. But do you miss not having diabetes,

Sophia 1:01:50
I think I would have been much healthier if I hadn't. Because now, I kind of, since I'm homeschooled, I don't have a reason to go outside. So I push exercising to the back of my to do list. And I probably would have considered exercising more often, if I didn't have type one. But I tried to put it into the regular routine now.

Scott Benner 1:02:18
Because why? Because your blood sugar goes up when you exercise.

Sophia 1:02:22
No, it goes down goes down. And if I do anything, if I if I eat 15 carbs, it goes down Still, if I 20 carbs, it goes up. If I turn down basil beforehand, it goes down and then it goes to 300. And that was very, very hard to get a routine down. So I just said, Well, this isn't the most important thing right now. So I think I was just not

Scott Benner 1:02:48
gonna try to figure it, you should be able to figure it out, though. So if you're Temp Basal linkback working out getting low and then getting high later. Then your Temp Basal is happening too late, prior to the exercise

Sophia 1:03:07
thought so I started doing it a half hour earlier, only a half hour. But then I started going up very quickly. So me during the exercise,

Scott Benner 1:03:19
so maybe, so let's just make up numbers for a second. Okay. Let's pretend that you were doing a Temp Basal decrease an hour before you worked out. And you were then getting low and then getting high. I would try doing it two hours before you work out, but only for an hour. So four o'clock Temp Basal to five o'clock. And then work out at six o'clock. So that does that make sense? So that

Sophia 1:03:52
Yeah, I didn't think about that. I didn't know makes a lot of sense.

Scott Benner 1:03:57
So have you ever heard me talk about creating like a like a black hole with basil?

Unknown Speaker 1:04:03
Yeah, I think I

Scott Benner 1:04:07
didn't, it's hard to it's a weird, it's a weird concept because it's there's a little bit of time traveling and it feels like but but if you take away your basil from four to five, that won't really go into effect until maybe six. Yeah. And so if you take it away from four to five and then work out, then the workout overwhelms the still active basil and you get low. And then just as you get low, you hit that black hole of basil and the workout and then your blood sugar jumps up. So if you just shift the basil back farther, then you can put the workout in the black hole so that as the workouts trying to drive your blood sugar down, there's no insulin there to help it. It should stay stable. And by the time you get to the impact part where blood sugar goes back up again, the Basal should have been back on and re engaged. Does that make sense? Because that's pretty cool.

Sophia 1:05:06
I will try that you do

Scott Benner 1:05:09
that and make that work. I'm going to make you a T shirt that says best listener insanity. That's all I'm saying. Okay, although I probably cost $9,000 to ship something to Russia, so don't hold me to this.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:22
Okay, okay.

Scott Benner 1:05:23
Plus, how would you even get to you think on, like the back of us, like a sled dog or something like that? or

Sophia 1:05:29
What does everybody think we lived in some kind of under some kind of rock?

Scott Benner 1:05:38
You have everything. You got a PlayStation? I don't like video games. You could have one if you wanted one.

Sophia 1:05:46
I mean, they are available here, I think. Right? Because I'm not into that

Scott Benner 1:05:52
yet into it. I understand. Okay. So you would say that besides a bunch of snow, there's no difference between living in Russia and living in New Jersey?

Sophia 1:06:02
Um, well, in New Jersey, I guess you can go straight to the hospital when Russia you would know which hospital to go to. So you need to call beforehand since? No, nobody just goes to the hospital. There's it's not a custom here. every hospital is designed for a different thing. Like one hospital is only for endocrinal logical issues. The other one is only for surgery surgery.

Scott Benner 1:06:29
I got you. So I got a call ahead and say hey, here's what's going on with me. I think this is where I need to go. Is that right? And then they'll tell me if I can go there or not.

Sophia 1:06:36
No, you just need to wait for the ambulance and we'll take you there. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:06:41
you get a ride. Yeah, that's not bad. Just to pay for the ride.

Sophia 1:06:45
No, there's free health care.

Scott Benner 1:06:48
Wait, stop for a second. It's all free. Like you went to the hospital. You don't have to pay anything.

Sophia 1:06:52
No. And they give insulin for free. And you have pens and they gave me a meter and they give me test strips and lancets and everything but they don't

Scott Benner 1:07:02
do tax coms are on the pods, but that's only because they don't. They're not for sale there. So you could have gotten a Medtronic pump, but there's a waiting list for that. Yeah, gotcha. And Medtronic saints like old junky pumps to Russia. They By the way, Medtronic send more pumps. What are you doing? Right?

Sophia 1:07:20
Oh, they have the 670 but if you want a free pump, they're not going to give me the 670

Scott Benner 1:07:27
Thank you so cheap my Gianna, come on. Right. Don't you want to help Sophia? Sophie, you don't want that Medtronic though you like?

Sophia 1:07:34
I like the Omnipod Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:07:36
I gotcha. So you went on the pod to sell on the pods in Russia is what you want.

Sophia 1:07:40
That would be way more convenient. Yeah. Do you

Scott Benner 1:07:42
want me to send this to somebody in on the pod? I can do that.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:46
Um, you want

Scott Benner 1:07:47
to tell them? Oh, have important this is too. Sure. Go at Dalam

Sophia 1:07:56
please, children are dying.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:00
Yeah, but Sophia. You made me chuckle I was like are you usually this sarcastic? Are you just doing this for me?

Sophia 1:08:08
I think that's just my personality.

Scott Benner 1:08:11
You really could be my Russian child. Do you think your parents would mind if I adopted you?

Sophia 1:08:19
I think they'd be grateful.

Scott Benner 1:08:24
Oh, Sofia, I am so happy that you reached seriously. This is lovely. Okay, um, is there anything about your story that we haven't gone over yet? I imagine there is.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:36
Um, I skydive.

Scott Benner 1:08:39
You skydive recently.

Sophia 1:08:41
I yeah. I think it was last last summer.

Scott Benner 1:08:47
I'm sorry. I I'm you made me laugh so hard. I snorted ice up in my nose. And now it's

Sophia 1:08:54
a couple things actually. I'm good to bring dairy free. I guess I sky down and I had a couple of bad lows

Unknown Speaker 1:09:08
during skydiving?

Sophia 1:09:10
No. Okay. Yes, yes.

Scott Benner 1:09:14
Right. Let's pick through it for a second. Why do you eat gluten free if you're not celiac, but you just don't want the gluten.

Sophia 1:09:19
Um, I had really bad stomach issues for such a long time. They thought I had appendicitis once but I didn't. And my mom thought okay, let's try eating gluten free and since then I don't have any stomach issues

Scott Benner 1:09:37
they ever give you a celiac test.

Sophia 1:09:39
No I mean yes, they gave gave me the test but I didn't don't have celiac. So it's weird. I mean, it was on the higher end but it wasn't like anything that they said he definitely have it.

Scott Benner 1:09:52
So they call it like a like a gluten intolerance or something like that. Yeah,

Sophia 1:09:56
yeah. Also dairy free because I could never stomach dairy since my childhood, I was always very nauseous.

Scott Benner 1:10:05
Do you mean you fart?

Sophia 1:10:07
No, it just made my stomach hurt and very nauseous.

Scott Benner 1:10:10
Made you wish you could fart? I understand. So Alright, so we don't do gluten and we don't do dairy, Ali pod index calm and a couple of bad lows. So you have bad lows back on MDI or recently. How did that happen?

Sophia 1:10:25
Um, yeah, I never passed out before. But I boast for my morning oatmeal, and I started cooking it. And I forgot that I bolused and 40 minutes passed, and I see 72 hours down. I remember I boast I tried to eat the oatmeal, but I can't because I'm very nauseous. At the end my own just out at around 40 I couldn't because I couldn't eat a drink. So many units worth of juice. So we just gave me a bit of glucagon. And I laid in bed the rest of the day.

Scott Benner 1:11:08
Got the day off, huh? Yeah, the problem in that situation is the oatmeal just doesn't hit you like besides you being nauseous, because you're low the oatmeal is just not going to work fast enough at that point. You just you Pre-Bolus too long, which you know, but Tim, what are you doing that you got? You remember what got you sidetracked?

Sophia 1:11:28
I was listening to your podcast while making

Scott Benner 1:11:31
made you high today and low that day.

Sophia 1:11:35
I wouldn't blame it directly on you.

Scott Benner 1:11:37
Thank you. That's important not to blame it on me.

Sophia 1:11:40
Of course, because nothing here in the Juicebox Podcast is considered medical advice or otherwise,

Scott Benner 1:11:46
Sophia, you know, you're coming back on the show, like a year from now, right? Like I love.

Sophia 1:11:50
So I'm having a lot of fun. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:11:52
my God, I'm having a lot of fun. I don't even care if people like this or not. This is fantastic. This is the best episode we've ever made. You are just you're lovely. You really are. I am having such a good time talking to you. I really appreciate that you came on and told me all of this and told everyone all this. Because it's very hopeful to me that someone your age could be diagnosed, absorb the gravity of diabetes, find out what to do, even when they get kind of bad information, figure it out on their own, put it into practice and do such a good job of taking care of themselves in such a short period of time is really inspirational. And I don't I mean, you listen to the show. I don't use that word very often. So what you've done here is really amazing. I'm really excited for you. And I can't wait to see you figure it out when you like are you getting your period yet?

Sophia 1:12:55
Oh, yeah. A year already?

Scott Benner 1:12:58
Is it a pain with your blood sugar's Have you figured that out to

Unknown Speaker 1:13:01
such?

Unknown Speaker 1:13:04
But you've got

Sophia 1:13:05
no pattern at all? None. None? Well, not that I can see. Some weeks I'm just constantly how you week before and during then other times I'm normal, then I'm very low for some reason. And it's there's no pattern at all.

Scott Benner 1:13:23
But you're still keeping your Awan see where you are. So the will say you figured out the up your basil. And now you've got things back together again. So now you got to figure out how to be flexible. When these changes happen. Like you can't, I know it's hard for people to understand. But when you're managing a girl who's getting hit with hormones like this, you have to be able to on a day to day basis, look and say today is more basil. Doesn't matter why it just is this is the graph is telling me more basil here today or the graph is telling me to be more aggressive with meals. And you have to just do it. And as quickly as you turn it on. You have to be ready to a day later turn it off again, and just go Okay, let's go back to where we were or go halfway back. It's um, it takes a little while to get used to.

Unknown Speaker 1:14:16
Yeah, wow.

Scott Benner 1:14:17
I bet you didn't think we talked about your period, right?

Sophia 1:14:20
I mean, I listened to one episode with I think some other girl and I I was expecting it. Okay, boy. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:14:33
Can I ask a weird question when the girl was on from Czech Republic? Did you think like that's close to me.

Sophia 1:14:40
Um, she made it sound. So not like life here.

Scott Benner 1:14:46
Oh, it's different than you've been. you experience it?

Sophia 1:14:48
Yeah, it's I don't see anything really weird about I mean, maybe I'm just brainwashed. But

Unknown Speaker 1:14:57
I don't think you're brainwashed

Sophia 1:14:58
that we have Everything here I think,

Scott Benner 1:15:02
like I've got a light in my room and everything.

Sophia 1:15:06
Yeah, I have a chair and the desk.

Scott Benner 1:15:09
kit you fancy with your chair? Do you have any? You have a killer cat? That's nice.

Unknown Speaker 1:15:17
I have two killer cat. But

Scott Benner 1:15:18
it's not a Siberian tiger. It's just a regular house cat, right?

Sophia 1:15:21
Oh, no. She's a Panther. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:15:25
I didn't recognize them. Well, you, you know, I'm just trying to figure things out. I don't leave this country. So I don't know anything in my mind. You know, Canadians ride moose, and you're just

Sophia 1:15:37
drink vodka since

Scott Benner 1:15:38
I just, I just assume you're training to be like an assassin. That's all?

Sophia 1:15:43
Well, I didn't say I wasn't training to be an assassin.

Scott Benner 1:15:46
Well, that would be a weird thing to say. All right, well, so then, should we just call your episode Black Widow? Or what do you think we should do?

Sophia 1:15:58
Um, mafia leader sounds more. You just,

Scott Benner 1:16:04
you don't want me to draw attention to you like, because there is a Russian mob, right?

Sophia 1:16:11
I don't know. You're 14.

Scott Benner 1:16:14
And look at you. Even if you did know, you would say you didn't know.

Unknown Speaker 1:16:18
or would I? Wow.

Scott Benner 1:16:19
You're very cagey. Okay, Sophia. We're gonna stop here. Because I'm afraid that it's possible that a 49 year old guy and a 14 year old girl in Russia might become best friends if we talk much longer. So I'm going to and I don't know what we'd eventually would talk about. But I'm gonna say to you that I definitely want you to come back on sometime, like maybe a year or so from now. Like, I think I want to know what a 16 year old Sofia sounds like. So let's, let's, let's let's set up goals right now. Let's just let the advertisers know right now the show's got to go at least two or three more years. Because we got to figure out what happened

Sophia 1:16:55
in a couple of months, so maybe only a year. Ah, Sophia,

Scott Benner 1:16:59
please pay attention to what I'm doing here. Okay.

Sophia 1:17:02
Oh, yeah. The show has to go on for at least another 10 years. And I also want my future children to be on it.

Scott Benner 1:17:14
Don't want Have you tried to adopt Sophia. I have Dibs. If she ever needs adoption. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. I not kidding. I want to keep this podcast going forever, just so I can talk to that girl over and over again. I want to thank Sophia so much for coming on the show and being amazing. I want to thank the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor for being amazing. And for being available dexcom.com forward slash juice box. I'd also like to thank the most accurate blood glucose meter that I've ever touched with these hands, the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. Find out more at Contour Next one.com forward slash juicebox. It is an amazing website. There's a ton of information there, go check it out. There are links to the sponsors and all the sponsors in the show notes of your podcast player, or Juicebox podcast.com. We support the sponsors. You're supporting the show. Thank you very much. Continue to share the show with others. Download as many episodes as you can listen to them with your ears. And enjoy. I'll keep making them. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of the Juicebox Podcast. Sophie, if you're still listening, I want to make sure you understand without sarcasm that I so totally enjoyed talking to you on the podcast. I think you're terrific. And I really would like to speak with you again someday. I'm wishing you a lot of luck from over here in America. You made my day.

#486 How We Eat: FODMAP

A D-mom talks about parenting with a FODMAP diet.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to Episode 486 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Today's episode of features Meredith, and she's here to talk about being the mother of a child with type one, and about understanding, creating and cooking for a fodmap diet. That's a funny word, right? fodmap it's not actually a word, it's an acronym.

This episode is going to be ad free Memorial Day celebration, no ads. But it is part of the how we eat series. Now if you're not familiar with that, I'm going to spend 20 seconds explaining it before the episode starts. But it's going to happen after I tell you that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, please always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. We're becoming bold with insulin. All right, let the music finish up. I'll spend this couple of seconds talking about how we eat and then we get right into the episode with murder, by the way, is a super fan of the show. And I'm sure right now is shaking in our pants listening.

The how we eat series is building up a nice little repertoire. Is that the word I mean? It doesn't matter. So right now we have Episode 373. Vegan cat, which is not about a cat. Episode 400 carnivore. Episode 405 plant based Episode 439 gluten free Episode 453 low carb episode, episode in boy ready here we go again, Episode 480, Dr. Bernstein, and today's episode 486 fodmap. And there are many more coming. This has become a favorite for people. And I'm very much enjoying having these conversations. I hope you enjoy this one with Meredith, check out the others.

Meredith 2:21
Hi, my name is Meredith and I am a mom of three children, one of whom is a type one diabetic.

Scott Benner 2:28
Cool. And you're on today to talk about an eating style. Is that right?

Meredith 2:35
I am we have a lot of interesting food issues. The reason that I'm here is to talk about the low fodmap diet. But we actually eat not just low fodmap My daughter has lots of food allergies, as well. So that also interacts with diabetes and and low fodmap.

Scott Benner 3:00
Okay, so I assume that first you present with a food allergy? And then how does that how does that present itself the first time it happens

Unknown Speaker 3:11
with food allergy? Yeah,

Scott Benner 3:12
like what's the first like, what's the remembrance you have of like, Hey, does anybody notice she turns purple when we let us or something like that, like whatever happened, you

Meredith 3:20
know? Well, you know, it goes back for us. Before that my daughter that's diabetic is my second child. And so the food allergies go back to my first child. So really, we were prepared for so with my first daughter, my oldest is I've got a girl girl boy. And the oldest, was just presented with food allergies when she was two months old and had eczema and was fussy all the time. And so that was just from sort of, essentially birth. And we figured it out through what beyond is nursing and what I was eating. And then as we were introducing them I had to eliminate foods from my diet. And as we were introducing foods to her diet. She had some full blown reactions. By the time my second daughter who was like the type one diabetic by the time she was born, we were like assuming she had allergies we didn't know and it was also the way they treated allergies then is very different than what they do now. That's a whole it's changed a lot over the years now they introduce peanuts to kids practically from birth at like four months old. They want to give them peanut powder and based on the whole study in actually started in Israel but where they give kids bomba which is like this peanut snack anyway, and they found that kids had fewer peanut allergies. But when my kids were sort of in that sweet spot where they were preaching total avoidance, and they've since changed some of the recommendations but at any rate, when Eve was born, we ended up testing her for A lot of foods and avoiding a lot of foods initially, and she tested positive for a lot of food allergies. So some of a lot of her allergies are to things that she actually never even ate. So we didn't know for sure that how she would react. And then later, we would go to the food out, we'd go to the allergist yearly and have blood and skin tests. And she either had like a cache a couple of accidental exposures, but they were kind of minor because we were so careful all the time. So I never thankfully had really a full blown turning purple when she really horrible reactions, but I carry it with me all the time and, and everything else. But she did have several food challenges in the office, which is my kids laugh at this beam. But essentially, you go to the food, they go to the allergist office, and they give you a little bit of the food that you they think you might have outgrown, and then a little more and then a little more and then a little more and hope that you don't go back and turn purple and whatever anyway, and she had some that were successful, and some that were not. And some of those ended with epi pens. And yeah,

Scott Benner 6:19
well, let me let me go all the way back to your to your first child, and you're breastfeeding. So you figure out she has allergies to something, and you eliminate it from your diet. Yep, that's kind of fun. Like so what did you have to eliminate with your first daughter? Oh, wow.

Unknown Speaker 6:35
Well remember,

Meredith 6:36
when I was nursing, I eliminated dairy eggs, not sweet. Soy? I don't remember she's 19. Now,

Scott Benner 6:48
what were you eating? Would you just like styrofoam assault? or What did you have, by the, by the time you've learned everything?

Meredith 6:54
Well, there's, you know, we do a lot of meat and potatoes in our house. Um, and chicken and rice and a lot of race, which is, um, causes interaction of all of the fit issues, is I think one of the hardest things around with diabetes, too, because then, as each each condition sort of builds on the other. And then it becomes, because my daughter also has stomach issues. She's always had stomach aches, and even her allergies, which some of some of the things we didn't know, she would get a lot of stomach aches, and we didn't know whether she was alert, she said, you know, she didn't feel well after she ate things. And that's actually why it turns out, she's eating a low fodmap diet, which is something that is usually it's a treatment for IBS. And she didn't know whether she was allergic to every single thing she was eating, she kept getting these stomach eggs. And it turns out that she had to avoid foods for for that reason. And it turns out, like so then there were things that were good for her to eat on them, like to avoid for the low fodmap diet, but aren't good to eat. Because of her allergies or and then late then she was diagnosed with diabetes. But it's like, well, that's, you know, you should have these low carb things. And there's a whole list of low carb things. And she's allergic to half of them. You know, it's just, you know, we sort of had to like, look at the list and say, Well, she can't she can't, she can't have this and you just cross off half the thing. Wow.

Scott Benner 8:38
So there's basically three different things to consider.

Meredith 8:42
Oh, by the way, we keep kosher.

Scott Benner 8:44
Yeah, so four different things to keep considers you know, we're not just I mean, I mean, honestly, how many things could be left, right? So you remove the Well, okay, I saw I understand all that. What is fodmap stand for?

Meredith 8:58
Okay, so fodmap, which is a crazy diet when, um, fodmaps are and I'll read you this that I took off the internet. fodmaps are a collection of short chain carbohydrates, which are sugars that aren't absorbed properly in the gut, and can trigger symptoms in people with IBS. And they're naturally found in many foods and food additives. And there are four times and they're hard to pronounce, so I'll do my best but they're illegal saccharides, STI saccharides, monosaccharides and polyols. And so when we were advised by your doctor to avoid to go on the low fodmap diet, I said, Okay, you know, sure I can do this. I've done food allergies. All three of my kids and my husband have multiple food allergies. I said, I can do this. I've done this for years and like cook and all these crazy ways and they aren't all allergic to the same things. So I said sure. Tell me what she has to avoid. And then they gave me like the list. And it's not a category. It's like, some fruits are high in fodmaps, and some are low in fodmaps. And some are percentages, like with food allergies. If you can't have eggs, you can't have eggs. Like, that's it, and just a little bit can kill you, if you can't have peanuts, you know, it'll kill you, you know? Yeah, so I'm used to that. In with fodmaps, one of the things that you can have, depending they're also some people can tolerate certain amounts of certain things. But for example, um, what peaches, which is, you know, a favorite fruit of my daughter's, um, she could have like one peach or one nectarine, or if she had that a nectarine or a peach, today or tomorrow, she couldn't have a, you know, watermelon The next day, because then it would just it builds and it sort of the too much too many fodmaps together, will then affect her her stomach. So you can have things that impact not quite as hard. But if you stack them up too close to each other day after day, it's the same impact as having something that strikes her that hard. Exactly. And so what you usually do at the beginning is you do a total elimination diet. And then you add in a food from each of the different four categories or some of the foods from each that the four categories separately, and you add them back into your diet to see whether it's one of the categories or two or three that are affecting you. So for example, the all the illegal saccharides are fructans, and GLS, which are in foods like wheat, rye, onions, garlic, and Legos. So onion and garlic are completely out of our diet. Now, my husband always used to joke that I put black pepper and garlic salt on everything, you know, I made, that was just sort of our staple. And I now don't use all although, oddly, you can in a low fodmap diet, you can flavor things with garlic, you can flavor the oil with garlic, but apparently the garlic doesn't get absorbed into the actual oil. So you can infuse garlic with oil, and then remove the actual garlic. There are all these really weird tricks. And then like the scallions, you can use the green part of the skeleton but not the white part of the scallion. There's a whole Australian University called Monash that's devoted to this. I don't know if they're devoted to it. But they have a unit or division that focuses on fodmap. And they're really detailed and they have an app and everything that's talks all about low fodmap. And it's fascinating because this is very scientific. It sounds like complete Voodoo to me when I was reading the list. Like for example for the monosaccharides are fructose. So this is there's a lot of overlap. It's really interesting when you're talking about diabetes and how you eat and carbs. And when you were talking about the when I was listening to the episode on glycemic index, there's a lot that sort of overlaps. It's it's different. But it sort of comes in it comes at it from a different angle. But there's a lot of kind of overlapping interesting things. And so would it be a surprise, I'll just just tell you the fridge just as one so it's in honey and apples. And like she can't tell honey apples or high fructose corn syrup. But she can have maple syrup, for example.

Scott Benner 13:49
Okay. Do you know why? I guess there's no way to By the way, this sounds exhausting. It is no point to just like, oh god, I'm going to leave them at the mall. And that'll be the end of this because we're just like Mommy's going out and just never come back. And you guys are gonna have to fart your whole lives because I'm not doing this. Like what is it? You know? I mean, seriously, like, just so just thinking about an elimination diet. First of all to get your answers about what it is that you can and can't eat or should or shouldn't be eating. How do you start an elimination diet? Is it like with a piece of chicken that you boil, and then everyone eats it in horror? Terrible.

Meredith 14:32
And here's honestly like, I mean, that's the thing is it? It starts with total paralysis is what it starts with. Okay, um, and you kind of go, oh my god, what am I gonna feed the family, which is actually kind of the way I started with diabetes to like, Oh my god, how am I gonna feed my daughter? Um, but then slowly I did what I did with food allergies too, and I went to the internet and I looked for Facebook groups, I looked for recipes and I looked for resources. And essentially, I started with brand new recipes and I just looked, you know, you Google, you go to Pinterest, you go wherever and you find low fodmap recipes. And then what I would do is, I would modify them, because inevitably, it would have something in it that my kids were allergic to. And then or something they didn't like, or something that was an ingredient that, you know, I couldn't gather or whatever, but I tend to make a lot of different meals, which

Unknown Speaker 15:37
is,

Meredith 15:38
you know, one of the things that, um, you know, they say, Oh, you know, if your kids don't want your main meal that you make for dinner, like, just tell them they can have cereal tonight. When everybody's allergic to different things, and everyone has special diets, it's not really fair at some point to say, Well, too bad.

Scott Benner 15:56
Yeah. Wow, what's the reaction of I mean, you the children, everybody in the family, when you realize that this is the way you're gonna eat, I realized it was probably different for you because of the food allergy thing. But, but what I'm trying to imagine if I went to Arden tomorrow, and I said, Hey, we're going to eliminate everything from your diet to figure out why something happens, she probably would kill me in my sleep. So I'm trying to figure like, seriously, and or at least put up one hell of a fight about it, I can actually, I can envision her saying I'd rather my stomach hurt than do this. So

Meredith 16:31
I think that there are a couple of issues that you're there. As far as the food allergies, I actually think it was easier because my kids were diagnosed with them really from the get go. So they don't know what it's like to eat, whatever my oldest is, has now outgrown all her nut allergies. And the craziest thing is that she now eats, like, all Oh, nuts. I mean, it's just blows my mind when she's peanuts, and cashews and walnuts and talks about the differences. And, you know, I just is totally crazy. I'm used to thinking of them as poison. Um, but so they, they didn't know what it was like, they didn't know what they were missing. That's something that was almost easy. It was harder when they went to school and more of a social component, and going out with their friends and going to restaurants. And those kinds of things were the most difficult for the low fodmap diet, which came well. Diabetes came in, in the tween, and then the low fodmap diet came after. So in terms of timing, um, so with diabetes, we don't, we don't eat differently, really, for diabetes, there was only a very short period of time. When it was first diagnosed that they she was she didn't have one of those horrible diagnosis stories where she was admitted she wasn't NDK. Um, she had a whole variety of health issues for about a year where we were trying to figure out what the heck was wrong with her, which included a lot of stomach issues, which actually had been going on for much of her life, she'd had a lot of stomach discomfort, and went to one doctor for a second opinion, who did a whole battery of blood tests. And I got a call the next day and I was like, Where's your daughter? And I'm like, Well, she's at school. Like her blood sugar is really high. You need to come get her and redo her blood test. And I'm like, yeah, I'm going to pick her up for was actually some other tests for something else. Because like I said, she was having all these other issues. And I'm gonna get her in a couple hours and take her to the doctor for something. They're like, No, no, you need to go now. And I'm like, I don't like I don't know anything about blood. I don't know anything about diabetes. And I don't know what they're talking.

Scott Benner 19:00
We don't eat sugar in my house. There's no sugar in her blood.

Meredith 19:08
literally about to get on the subway. I'll talk to you later. And I got off the subway like three stops later. And the phone rang, like my cell phone rang and they're like, it's the doctor like, where are you? And I'm like, Oh,

Unknown Speaker 19:22
yeah, you're not getting it. Give me a sec order. And you need to

Meredith 19:27
have this checked. But anyway, I lost my train of thought and why I was.

Scott Benner 19:32
Well, while you're finding your train of thought I'm taking off my headphones to take off a sweatshirt home. how incredibly unprofessional of me was it to do that right in the middle of the episode. I would never forgive myself if I was you. But since we're taking the break, have you heard about the diabetes pro tip series that begins at Episode 210. If you haven't seen it, you can check it out at Juicebox Podcast comm where diabetes pro tip calm or just go back in your app. To Episode 210, I'd also like to recommend, as I said earlier, the how we eat series. If you're interested in algorithm based pumping, there's a whole series about that. We have defining diabetes, which I'm very proud of its terms about type one diabetes, that are explained, but not in a dry way. There are short episodes with Jenny Smith and I, we explained the term and then put it into some context for you. So sort of like, imagine if you saw a hammer didn't know what a hammer was. And someone just said, it's a hammer, you use it to strike a nail, that would be not very helpful. But if you said it's a hammer, you use it to strike a nail, and then explained what a nail was, and why you might want to use a nail, well, then that would be useful information. To me, that's what the finding diabetes is. I'm just gonna take this moment to let you know about another series that's coming up also with Jenny Smith, it's going to be called variables. super interesting. We had Lehman on like, it's super interesting, you now either have to believe me, or you don't talk to you went to the Facebook page, the private Facebook page for the podcast and asked for people to make a list of things that impacted their life with diabetes, and a list came back, I think over 150 things long. Jenny and I are going to do these very short kind of burst episodes, about variables. So you'll start seeing them soon. Here, that's where you're gonna start seeing them soon. That is so much better.

Meredith 21:28
Okay, good. Um, anyway, so she, um, so she then was diagnosed, and basically what they told us, so then we were, we had like, two days where she, they knew her blood sugar was high, we had an appointment The next day, one day, and they had an appointment the next day at the diabetes clinic, the goddess and right away, but they told us, we could go home, and then we, we went back in for training, like outpatient. And we came in, like two or three days in a row, for hours long sessions, to learn to use insulin and count carbs and all this stuff. But they basically told us for, you know, two or three days, like, just eat really low carb, like, don't eat any carbs for the next two days, was essentially what they told us. Um, so while while we went home, I mean, because their blood sugar wasn't crazy high, but they're like, you know, just, you know, have have protein and don't have any, any carbs. While while we're doing that you're

Scott Benner 22:24
like, just give me a list. I know how to eliminate things from a diet, this won't be any trouble whatsoever.

Meredith 22:30
Right. So so that was so in that case. So that was just a couple of like, days where we really ate very, like, she had a lot of cucumbers, and, and then, um, and then in general, with diabetes, we don't, we don't eliminate food from our diet all that often. Except for you know, sometimes, like, she had an important test. And I was like, you know, let's not have dessert tonight, let's try to have a really low, like a low carb dinner tonight. Or, you know, let's see what's going to not impact your blood sugar. Um, a lot. Um, she's a junior in high school. Yeah. Um, you know, those kinds of things. So, in that respect, I think about her diet with their diabetes, but I don't otherwise say you can't eat X, Y, or Z because of the diabetes. Although, when we had to figure then we had some big changes when we moved to low fodmap. Because for the elimination diet, it's not that you can't eat any foods. It's more that there, you pull a lot of things out of the diet, but it was one of the initial things was, well, she can't add apples. So one of the things she had she just was a staple for low blood sugars was apple juice. Okay, so I was like, oh, man, like, she has apple juice all the time. Right? Like, okay, well, what are we going to do now? So now we do grape juice, but like excited to get grape juice boxes? I think I still have juice boxes of apple juice somewhere in my back of my cabin. I

Unknown Speaker 24:05
don't know what to do with expired.

Meredith 24:05
I gotta, you know,

Unknown Speaker 24:07
what were

Scott Benner 24:08
what were the symptoms we're talking about, like, you know, because I'm obviously I'm looking online too. And cramping, diarrhea, constipation, stomach, bloating, gas and flash ones. Is that basically or is it just you're in pain? Is it hard to put the word

Meredith 24:23
stomach pain for years and years and years? And I think she's a, I think, well, let's leave it at that.

Scott Benner 24:32
Wait, that was fascinating. You started to say something and then you stopped yourself. And now I'm gonna wonder for the rest of my life. What you were going to say? You don't have to say, you know what, forget it. Say it. I'll bleep it out for you. What were you gonna say?

Unknown Speaker 24:47
I think we're gonna leave it at that.

Scott Benner 24:49
All right. Okay, so she had stomach pains for a long time.

Meredith 24:53
Yeah, I mean, really since she was since she was little and we see in lots of doctors and dentists. things and chess, you know, checked and well, there might be various medicines and this is one of the things that is has helped. And it does help. And unfortunately, it's doesn't help all the way for her. Okay, um, but it does help. And so when you say Is she willing to do it? Well? Yeah, because it helps, right? Um, but no, it's sometimes really socks. So she wants to eat things. I mean, like, licorice is like something she likes and she you know it has the Twizzlers have wheat in them and she now is on a gluten free diet. Well, as you know from other things, the gall the gluten free stuff has stays in your system longer and has probably has like a higher glycemic load. It's, it's, um, you know, has other other issues. Um, and cauliflower, you know, you could do a nice cauliflower pizza crust, well, she can't have dairy. So that's a whole other issue. But, you know, cauliflower instead of pasta, say, rice, cauliflower or something? Well, that's, that is a, that's high fodmap. So she could have caught cauliflower, but only in a small quantity. So there are a lot of interactions between the foods that cause problems, or, you know, it's just a balance. Yeah. between what you know, what do you want to what do you want to choose? You want to so she ends up often with higher carb choices that impact her blood sugar, and that we then have to figure out how to how to deal with

Unknown Speaker 26:46
Yeah, when did she when we should diagnosed how old again?

Meredith 26:49
She was diagnosed when she was almost 12 when she was 11. She was diagnosed in Yeah, in 2015. Right? November Actually, this is her anniversary mark.

Scott Benner 27:03
Come on. No kidding. We're here. Do you know all this off the top of your head? Like if I if I came to your house and I had a big bag of food, and I sat your daughter next to me and I started reaching out or with a banana would you know that's okay, or Oh my god, stop no banana? Like, Are there times when you have to stop yourself and say, I don't even know how to eat this. And I like when does it? You know,

Meredith 27:27
I can tell you which foods everybody in my house is allergic to? Well, I am. It's actually really funny. I have a joke that I want to make like a Venn diagram. Like a piece of art. It's a Venn diagram with like, was alerted to what and like sell them to people. But like, I just think it's funny that maybe I'm the only person in the world that thinks it's funny. But anyway,

Scott Benner 27:48
you realize now that you said that everyone listening who doesn't think it's funny is thinking in their head? Yeah. That was not funny. Although someone's laughing their head. Oh, my joke

Unknown Speaker 27:57
in my house. Yeah.

Scott Benner 28:01
You're screwed. So,

Meredith 28:03
um, for the fodmaps. It's interesting, I guess. You've started that when she was a little older. And also, it's so complicated. I know. We're on video, nobody else's. But this is a list of like, some of the low fodmap food. And like I said, brand categories. I have to look. I mean, I don't remember. And then there's this app. I mentioned the app I like literally go on the app and look. So I know a lot of them. But like for example, she can have as many strawberries as she wants, I think but not as many raspberries. So when I say it's arbitrary, like it's really arbitrary. Yeah, like, you know, she, you know, berries are mostly okay, but like strawberries are better than raspberries. And like really? I'm,

Scott Benner 28:53
I'm I'm fascinated by the way that your other daughter just magically is not allergic to nuts anymore.

Unknown Speaker 28:57
She's not magically Well, you

Scott Benner 28:59
don't I mean, you did something though. Like you introduce them slowly. Is that

Unknown Speaker 29:02
very Yeah.

Meredith 29:04
And you have a lot of food challenges and we spent years going to the doctor and having Yeah, crazy and actually, um, we've got some food challenges scheduled will and have been canceled given due to the pandemic Yes, canceled a couple times for Eve. So she actually has outgrown she out. She did outgrow almonds, she can have almonds, and she can have pecans and pine nuts. Of course, almonds are not low fodmap. And she has a couple food challenges scheduled but until she tries his foods in the office, we won't know for sure. So there are a few foods that she could potentially have outgrown. But we don't know for sure. And it's not safe to try them at home because there's really, unfortunately no way to know for sure Unless you eat the food, whether you really are grown it, because even though they do blood tests and skin tests, they're not foolproof. And there's really no real way to know. So yeah,

Scott Benner 30:10
until you know, I'm not I'm imagining the heart that would come if I my entire life, I wasn't allowed to have an almond. And then one day someone says, Oh, great, you're gonna have almonds again. But this intersects poorly with your other things. So you can't have on this or by the way, I pop an almond in my mouth, and I go, I don't like almonds. He's such a downer.

Meredith 30:31
When my oldest daughter had her peanut challenge. We I was really excited about it. And we get to the office, and she's got peanut butter in front of her. And it's on a spoon. And I'm like, okay, like, go for it. And she literally it was like a magnet repelling it from her mouth. She could not put it in her mouth. I mean, I understand because actually, I've literally been telling her was poisoned her whole life. But she was so it was like, she couldn't get it in her mouth. And finally she did. And then she was like, Oh, I like this. And the other ones were easier, but and then she was fine. It turned out but it was, she was understandably terrified. I mean, it wasn't even, it wasn't even terror. It was almost just like, an inability

Unknown Speaker 31:18
to put it in.

Scott Benner 31:20
Yeah, this would be perfect for me, I have to tell you, because I don't love food for some reason. Like, I don't that I can't think of one thing that I eat. I'm like, Oh, this is the thing I should eat every day for the rest of my life. I don't I'm so happy because I'm meeting whatever this is. I have never felt like that in my life. And as you know, I had Paul Saladino on a couple of weeks ago, and I prepped by not like basically eating very low carb more protein. The week leading up to him so I kind of would like have something to talk about with him if in case like it didn't go well, but and he ended up being terrific, but but I lost like seven pounds by the time I spoke to him. And now it's got to be like a week and a half later, like 13 pounds lighter. I'm not even hungry anymore. I just get over. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I just get up in the morning. I'm like food. Not really necessary, I guess. Yeah, you know, so I'll, I'll eat, I'll still have protein. Like yesterday, I had, I don't know, I had a piece of chicken. And a couple of fried eggs. At one point, I think my son had bacon lifestyle, like two pieces of bacon from him. And by nine o'clock last night, we were watching election returns, and everybody was like snacking, and I was just like, I'm not hungry. I just I'm not hungry anymore. Assuming that most of my hunger comes from, like, the interaction of carbs in my body, and I have a carb and then my body is like guilt. It's probably like crack to it. It's like, oh my god eat more of that, you know. But I've eliminated so much for now. Like, I think if you gave me four foods to eat, I could probably go on for quite some time like that.

Meredith 32:54
But I wish that were the case. For you, you know, there's always chocolate.

Scott Benner 33:03
Oh, you know what, I should be completely honest. The way I get through all this, is I take a small bag of Jordan, Ellie's chocolate chips, and I pick it them once or twice a day, I'll take like five or six chips, and I'll be like, there we go. And that as long as I kind of like whatever the sweet monster is as long as I give the sweet monster that but it has to be really good chocolate. Like if I had a Hershey's Kiss. It would make me nauseous. So there's something about like, like, like, quality. No, I'm actually not joking, because I've tried it because I'm cheap. I wanted to just do it with a Hershey Kiss. Because this bag of chips are like $3 I am really cheap. The bag of chips are like $3 and like that's very expensive. But that's that's how I've gotten through and there are days I don't go to the chocolate chip bag but but that's really it's fast. Like yesterday was one of those days I was just not hungry. I should I it never occurred to me to eat. I only ate this morning because I started getting tired. I was like, Am I shutting off so and I'm gonna eat something when I'm done speaking with you, but I it's fascinating what happens to me when you take away carbs, although that's not what you're doing. You're just it means that list you showed me is crazy. You know?

Unknown Speaker 34:21
Oh, it really is you have how

Scott Benner 34:24
many things that this so and it's it's funny when you say fodmap it obviously and you explained it earlier but there's so many big words that I just want to roll over it one more time again, right it's it's it's fodmap stands for fermentable all IG Sacra dotties whatever, doesn't

Meredith 34:43
amigo saccharine okay.

Unknown Speaker 34:45
decid char

Meredith 34:47
nice dry saccharine.

Scott Benner 34:49
I saccharides monosaccharides Look at me. I'm fallen boy, you're not gonna let me try the fourth one.

Unknown Speaker 34:55
Oh, yeah, go for it. polyols Yeah, go

Unknown Speaker 34:57
for it.

Scott Benner 34:58
Yeah.

What's your shortcut? carbohydrates, you shouldn't use that all that but, but the point is, is that when I heard fodmap in the past, I always just associated it with you have to eliminate things from your diet for some reason. I always thought of it is like, what am I trying to say? Not as a specific thing, but an idea. But it's a it's a specific idea. Incredibly specific, actually.

Meredith 35:25
It's very specific. And it's based in scientific, like the examination of the you know, the scientific like molecule like I can't think of the right word of the elements that are there make up the food, and it's really I don't know how you analyze it, but you they've got scientists breaking apart. What's in a watermelon and what's in a chick pea.

Scott Benner 35:57
Oh my god, it's so funny. You said that my daughter's friend a baby two years ago. They're like they couldn't find her everybody's like we're sorry, I can't find Sasha haven't heard from Sandra cup we so they're texting her texts. And finally, she's like, I'm in the hospital chick p incident. And she was doing an adding, like, they were re adding things. You know, she had some allergies too. And they've been having a lot of success. And I think somehow the the counting got off with the chickpeas and she just had too many chickpeas trying to and the whole time I'm hearing the story. I'm like, just don't eat chickpeas. Like who was it?

Unknown Speaker 36:36
Was this a fun number? This

Unknown Speaker 36:37
was an allergy. It was an allergy. And they were my my,

Meredith 36:40
my kids are allergic to chickpeas also. Okay,

Scott Benner 36:43
so listen, what's going on here? Did you marry your brother or something like that? How come? How come nobody can eat anything in here? Is it just is it in the extended family at all?

Meredith 36:53
Good allergies in the extended family. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Actually, both sides of the family have allergies. I like to think that we gave them a lot of other benefits and really great genes in other ways. But no, the the allergies were pretty much a perfect storm. Well.

Scott Benner 37:09
So here's a question. I've been dying to know, the whole time everybody's weight average. Like this eating like this lead to a slenderness is I guess my question?

Meredith 37:20
Um, yeah, I mean, pretty much. We're, I mean, I'm eating Ed was really skinny before she was diagnosed. Um,

Scott Benner 37:30
but, um, you consider them to be like, average, but like, you are like, average bill. Like, I'm trying to decide like this eating like this make me super skinny. Or not necessarily, or even like with that gluten free stuff. I've seen people put weight on with gluten free because

Unknown Speaker 37:46
Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah.

Meredith 37:48
No, I think that it's actually very easy to, um, it's actually easy to overeat and to eat too much or the wrong things. Because you end up I mean, anyone can justify eating too much, except for you. Because you don't like food.

Scott Benner 38:07
Oh, no, I can definitely eat too much. But you have to give, like I said, it's got to be crack. It's got to be like, oh, cookie, and then my brain goes cookie.

Unknown Speaker 38:15
And then I'm done.

Meredith 38:16
I think sometimes, if you can't choose what you want, exactly. You might eat too much of something else. Because it's available or because I mean, I've seen my kids, like, eat things that are like, they got a dessert. They don't they you know, and they don't know if they're gonna get it again. Or there's, you know, some and so they'll they'll want you know, it's special. But they'll you know, it's sort of this like, Oh my god, I got this amazing cake. And who knows if I'll ever get this cool, amazing cake again, because it's really hard to get and then they'll want to eat more than you would otherwise. But No, they're not. They're not overweight and underweight. They're pretty much

Scott Benner 38:56
you understand your kids basically have a depression mentality about about Yeah, I see. Okay.

Meredith 39:03
And I don't know that they have it. I just think that that I've seen I've seen it. I mean, when it was interesting when my my oldest was little she had no snack, you know, no snacks. She had no treats, she had no anything. And then when I found things she could have that like I didn't make myself that were store bought that were safe for her. And now there are so many allergy friendly, available treats, and even low fodmap treats you find there's no like low fodmap logo that you can find on some foods now. But anyway, but now you find things in this guy would find something in the store and I'm like, Oh my gosh, I can buy a store bought packaged cupcake or whatever it is. And I'm like, wow, and then I would of course buy it because it exists. Yeah. Right. Like, not because we needed it. But I'm like, Oh my God, we have to try it.

Scott Benner 39:53
Oh sure. I understand that. Like, nobody wants a cupcake but it says fodmap on it. Just take it

Unknown Speaker 40:01
Is it an expensive way

Meredith 40:01
to have free, dairy free, nut free? How can we not get it?

Scott Benner 40:06
How is by the way? Is it flavor free? Or do they know? How did they figure that out? Problem?

Meredith 40:12
You guys?

Scott Benner 40:13
I'm wondering

Meredith 40:14
that no, we make really delicious food.

Scott Benner 40:18
Cool. That's excellent. How do you say you just, you just kind of, I was gonna say pepper it but you, you, you, um, you just use different spices that you're able to use?

Meredith 40:29
Yeah. And And honestly, what I really tried to do is I really tried to make food that everyone in my house can eat, for the most part. So that's the thing about I think, I think low fodmap for us was actually kind of the, the death knell to that a little bit, if you will, with the allergies, I mostly am able to do that. Like even for example, like my husband is allergic to wheat. So he was eating not not exclusively gluten free, but allergic to just wheat. So if, for example, I made spaghetti and meat sauce or whatever, I'd make two pots of pasta. So that was one thing that I would do separately, like I'd make him gluten free pasta, and I would make everybody else wheat pasta. Yeah, um, and I mean, now Eve also is gluten free pasta for because of fodmap. But for most other things, I would try to make a main course and most of the food that everybody would eat. with some exceptions, I think the low fodmap somehow has, there are some things that I do that way and a lot of things that I do that way. But I do tend to make a little bit more, I'll make two things or, or I'll make, like, I'll make two main courses where it's the same main course but I'll separate it out where half of it doesn't have garlic and half of it does cause but there's all kinds of other spices that i've you know, started to use as alternatives that I make spice mixtures, I just make a new I make I make a mix up my own spices. So I mix now, you know I didn't used to, but I'll mix up curry powder without garlic, or onion, and I'll mix up a taco seasoning that doesn't have garlic and onion ended and I mix up. And you can find, you know, recipes for all these things online. But you know, they're all kinds of different spice mixtures that I'll just make. And I use a lot of oregano and basil and I use a ton of tumeric and, you know, Indian type spices, a lot of them don't even, you know necessarily call for garlic or if they do I just leave it out. Right? Wow.

Scott Benner 42:37
I i Geez, you're so at ease with it and comfortable, which is comforting. And no, seriously, like, because I easily could have come on here and been like, Oh, we have to eat like this. Scott, it's a drudgery. Every day we consider ending it. You know what I mean? But you're just you're you don't feel that way. I'm assuming it's because you can make a lot of different things. And you put some effort into figuring out what those things are and people have been amenable. But I guess it's hard not to be amenable if you're allergic to something. Yeah, but did you ever run into fights with the kids? Like, did they ever tell you like, Look, I don't care what you say I'm meeting this or does that you just got them at the right age.

Meredith 43:18
I don't think that's ever been an issue. I think it's more that they won't. They might not like something that I make. So I get I get into a lot of like, I don't want to eat that. Or I get a lot of dinner fatigue. And whether the dinner fatigue is coming from me or from them is not always consistent. Yeah. But I mean, I'm sick of making dinner because sometimes because either I feel like I'll make something that people don't want to eat. You know, I it's not it, you know, there's that, oh, you I went to all this trouble, and I made this elaborate thing. And then people don't eat it. There's that a little bit, but it's even just like, I don't care when I make I'll make anything, right, just tell me what it is that you'll all eat. So, um, there's a little bit of that my son eats you know, meat and rice, like, you know, sauteed meat, you know, just that plain grounding and rice for you know, it's default for like most meals and he's very happy. And then I'll go through this phase where I'm like, that's really just not okay, like, I

Unknown Speaker 44:22
have to do some

Meredith 44:23
diet. Yeah. And, and then he's not happy and then I'm frustrated. I'm happy. It's not that bad.

Scott Benner 44:30
Yeah. How old is he? He's 12 Oh, yeah. By placement Cole was 12 I gave him chicken every day. So wonder we can't fly and lay an egg. I have to be honest, I've gone through it took me years not to have my feelings hurt when I made a meal and everybody's like, it's fine. I'm like, fine. Like you like

Unknown Speaker 44:53
I've been in the kitchen since 230. What do you mean It's fine. It's amazing. And if it's not you shut up and eat it and smile and then just like Hey, Dad don't make that again. But while I'm still hot, Don't tell me it's not. Like I'm standing here. I'm like, Alright, here you go. What is this on it? Yes, sons, the

Meredith 45:14
best thing I did actually is I made a Google Doc, where I wrote down like I listed the title of, of different recipes with the link to where I found them. And then I made a couple of notes. So because the problem is I was saving things and that people were like, Oh, I really liked that chili you made. And I knew that if I made it, I either printed or saved it in printers or saved it somewhere or whatever. But I was like, which chili? Cuz I tried two or three. And they're like, you know, the one we had whenever? And I'm like, so then I'll make the chili that I think it is. And they're like, that one. That one was gross. And I'm like, I don't know which chili it was and I can't figure it out.

Scott Benner 45:58
I am so horrible. I know. I know I that that happens to they're like make this again. It was good. He make it you know, I got that wasn't the right recipe. Apparently. It really so you must hate cooking shows, right? Because it's just the view of things you can't do.

Unknown Speaker 46:13
Yeah, I don't watch cooking.

Scott Benner 46:15
The whole time. I was like, there's no way Meredith watches cooking shows they must be

Meredith 46:19
home decorating shows. And that's just aspirational. Yeah, it doesn't look like any of them.

Scott Benner 46:24
I so like, I like I said, I haven't had anything except protein. And you know, for I gotta be coming up on like, three weeks now. But on Sunday, I got Hey, Dad, can you make that pizza again? And so it's like homemade pizza like, so I'm going to make the dough from scratch. I'm going to do the whole thing, right? And I'm like, Am I really not going to have pizza? seems unlikely. You know, it seems unlikely. But I'm worried I'm worried that my body's gonna not be like, Oh, why are you having flour? Like, what are you doing? You? We haven't had that in four weeks by the time I eat it. And there'll be some sort of revolt? But I don't know.

Meredith 47:07
We don't do is sort of like, I don't I guess we eat all these specialized diets. But I don't do like a no, you know, no flour? No, whatever. I guess I do. I

mean, I do know gluten for some of the people I know. But it doesn't I don't, there's a pretty wide mixture of

Scott Benner 47:26
concepts in your eating style. It's just

Meredith 47:28
there's so many things. We don't eat that I feel like I can't restrict

Unknown Speaker 47:31
other things, right. So

Meredith 47:32
like, for example, a lot of what we eat, for at least for two of the kids overlaps with vegan, but there's no way we're vegans, because we eat so much meat, but they don't. But my daughter's don't eat are allergic to dairy and eggs. So I don't have any eggs in the house. Literally, they are not in the house. I have not ever had an egg in the house. And there's been no product that has eggs in it in the house. Which is of course a great low carb food.

Scott Benner 48:05
Yeah, well, so how does this all? Alright, I'll tell you what, I want to know how this intersects with type one. But I want to take a detour for a second first. And you don't have to talk too much about this if you don't want to, but you are helping me with something. And I want to thank you where other people can hear me. Thank you. Oh, seriously. So I mean, everybody who listens knows that. I like I just got done editing a show that's gonna go up tomorrow. And at one point in the show, the guy said FOMO, and he was hiking, and he went on this trail somewhere. And I'm gonna call the episode hiking the FOMO trail, which has almost nothing to do with anything that we spoke about, right. And then I'm gonna write a two sentence description that says, This guy has type one diabetes was was diagnosed as an adult, and teaches overseas. That's what I'm gonna write because by the time I found him, booked him, interviewed him, edited it, put it back together, I've got seven, eight hours into his episode. And I'm gone. Like at that point, like, I can't sit down and like, you'd be surprised that I just got done editing his show. And if you asked me to write a synopsis about it, I don't 100% know that I could, because I'm not listening to it for that as much during the editing process. And during the conversation. I'm just trying to keep the conversation moving. I'm trying to listen and ask questions that I imagine people want to know the answers to. So I'm never in conversation. The way human being is, while I'm making this podcast, right? So people complain to me a lot about there and the more popular the podcast gets, the more frequently I get complaints. They're always very kind complaints like Oh, I wish there was a better description of this show. And I always See that somewhere and think, yeah, I wish there was two, but I'm only one person. So this is pretty much what I have. And it was I on the private Facebook page, it came up again, pretty recently. And I just said, like, Look, if you guys want to do this, that'd be terrific. And you really took like control of it. And you were you were you were very nice about it, you weren't, you were eating soup, and you're like, I'll handle this I was, you were like, I can be a little helpful. I think I messaged you privately. And I'm like, just do this, if you want to do it, like just, but leave me the hell out of it. Like I can't, I can't really think about it too much. And, and you guys are doing like you put together like a group, right? There's 1516 people

Meredith 50:42
a great group of I think it's about 16 people. And, um, everyone is really, really invested and have great ideas about how to tag the episodes and summarize the episodes and give them different, you know, information that's will be helpful and more searchable for so that if people are looking for something specific that they can, and will still have all of your great fun titles, and people that want to listen from the beginning like I did, we'll do that. But if you have a kid that is going through puberty, and you really want to find something about that, or you're really struggling right now with your cow, you know, basil, Basil testing, and you want to look for that and not just find the defining diabetes episode about it, but you want to hear other people talking about it, you'll be able to search for that

Scott Benner 51:48
is very, I am genuinely excited. I used you the sample synopsis of Alyssa Wyler Stein's episode and I use the I

Unknown Speaker 51:56
did not know your cello and and

Scott Benner 51:59
I loved it. And so when I put it up, I was like, This is what these should look like. I found myself fairly disappointed in myself as I use it. I was like, Yeah, I should have been doing this. But at the same time, it's hard to it's a nice in my mind, it's a really, it's not just a nice have. It's an amazing have. But I know how well the podcast is doing. And it did that well without descriptions of the episodes too. So I'm not like, you know,

Meredith 52:25
I think the reason that it's so necessary, is because the podcast has done so well. And there are so many episodes now. Yeah, I think the more episodes there are, the more necessary it is. Because when there were only 20 or 50 or 80 or even 100, then it's fun to find out the Terry lives on a boat. But when they're 400 or 600, or hopefully 1000. Maybe you kind of want to search for something specific. And I think that the people that are interested in doing this LP Scott, are really interested because we've all found your podcasts so helpful for us. And it's a way for us to first of all, make it even more user friendly for us and other people, but also to say thanks cuz, you know, it's been great for us and for our kids. And for all the people that you've been helping,

Scott Benner 53:21
I really I very much appreciate that I seriously do it. This is and it's a pretty big departure for me because I was just like I met Meredith like, I listen, I know, as many of you as I can through like avatars and you know, things people say like, I can't really keep up with everybody, obviously. But you're, I remember your avatar, and I associate your avatar with reasonable things being said, Isn't that amazing? Like, that's how my brain works, right? And so you jumped in, I'm like, oh, reasonable lady with the curly hair in the picture, once the help. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 53:59
So

Scott Benner 54:00
I'm like, that makes sense to me. Because there are crazy people I can think of, and if they would have popped in, I would have been like, oh, stay quiet and pretend you don't see that. So I would have handled it a different way. But it really is amazing. You guys developed a list, like like basically, this form to fill out while somebody listens back to an episode and fills the form out so that the information can be put in. And I tried to I tried to give to the to the whole project on my end as much as I could to and I, I somebody donated some money through the blog. I use the money to pay for a service to do transcripts of the podcasts. And so very slowly, I've added transcripts online. I haven't told anybody yet they're there. If you find them, they're there, but I'm just I don't, I don't. I'm not correcting them. Meaning like I don't do a transcript and then go through and go we've made juicebox two words, you know Basil is with an eye like, you know, you'll get the idea if you're reading. But I've been adding them slowly because that is another thing people ask for that. They don't ask for a lot, but I'm like, Okay, well, that seems reasonable to do. So I've been doing that it's a ton of work. I swear to you, as I started doing it, I was like eight episodes into it. I was like, why did I do this? Should I continue to ignore people's desire for a transcript? But, but I am doing that. And I and I have heard back from a couple of people who found them on their own. I was like, Hey, I just read Episode 11. And I'm like, wow. And you have to understand that, from my perspective, I love the podcast, like I could listen to the podcast on my own. But it's still when you hear somebody say they read a transcript of a 45 minute conversation you had. It's, it's overwhelming to hear somebody say that, you know, they mean, you're just like, no, come on. Because I start talking in the kitchen. And halfway through my sentence, my wife walks out and I'm like, Oh, my God, like she, I like, sometimes I'll be like the other, like, a lot of people waiting to hear what I have to say. And she's like, I'm not one of them. And she like rolls out of the room. Like, Oh, Jesus, that was harsh, you know. But But anyway, my

Meredith 56:07
family's pretty sick of you, too. I talked about you a little too much.

Scott Benner 56:10
You tell them to screw off too. I don't care. If they are not careful. I'll feed them a blueberry.

Meredith 56:17
I think blueberries are okay, but only in maybe limited quantities.

Scott Benner 56:22
I did my best to guess. Like I have an app on my phone here. I can tell you right now, if

Meredith 56:29
you do, I'm gonna tell you, I think you can actually blueberries in almost in in a lot. We're gonna see if I can figure it out, anyway.

Scott Benner 56:39
Well, anyway, I really appreciate that you took the lead on this. I appreciate everyone who's doing it. I am trying to I'm figuring something out to say thank you to you all with because the truth is, is that once you get through the backlog of 400 of them, I'm going to need you to keep going because because a new ones gonna come out and then where are we gonna be?

Meredith 56:59
I think there are people there. We'll keep going. Troy nice to have a cup of them.

Scott Benner 57:05
A couple of blueberries.

Meredith 57:07
A cup of blueberries are green, I think well, they have fructans. They're green for fructose and lactose and Amazon service, all NGOs. But they're, they have fructans in them. So I know, okay, they're low in the quarter cup. But then they're yellow at a third of a cup. And they're red. If you have,

Scott Benner 57:30
oh, I see like severity. A whole cup of a quarter

Meredith 57:34
cup, you can have a quarter cup with no problem. And it starts to get problematic,

Scott Benner 57:40
then that sounds like something I did when I was younger.

Unknown Speaker 57:43
See, there you go.

Scott Benner 57:44
Yeah. Anyway, thank you very much. I really I genuinely appreciate it. It's it's been it's a very, like you guys, you obviously keep me in the loop. And it's like a very professional undertaking. I feel like a project manager. When I get it. I'm like, Wow, my people are working well together.

Unknown Speaker 58:00
They're good people. They're good people. I

Scott Benner 58:02
genuinely believe that everyone listening to this podcast is good. And I'll tell you that I come to that from that private Facebook group, because I because once it got to 7000 people, when it's still such a kind, gentle, lovely place to be. I was like, wow, there's something about this podcast that that you must pull in people like this or something, but it's just I don't know, I don't know how to quantify it, but it's absolutely It's lovely. So, alright, so before we finish like to finish up, I'd like to understand somebody is having an allergic reaction or a physical reaction, they can't figure out what it is they're pretty sure it's food. They try a fodmap diet, which is basic is very simply broken down is a three step process, stop eating high fodmap foods, slowly reintroduce them to see which ones are troublesome, once you identify them, that that cause symptoms you can avoid or limit them while enjoying everything else where you're free, unless you're your family, which is

Meredith 59:02
and you're really supposed to do with a dietitian for fodmaps I'd really recommend you do that with a dietitian but yes, get

Scott Benner 59:06
a doctor. And and so so that's the process. But what happens when you're low fodmap and type one, is it a more insulin situation? Or not? So

Meredith 59:19
not specifically really you eat the same way you otherwise would eat but there are certain things that we switched a little bit So for us it was just I know I looked at the low fodmap list and then I said okay, these are things that are issues for us because of diabetes. So for example, um, like I said, we were using apple juice for Lowe's, we switched to grape juice. Honey was a sweetener that we were using. I don't know whether that's really for diabetes, but whatever we switched to maple syrup. Artificial sweeteners are not good on a fodmap diet so that's, that's an issue. So, um, because artificial sweeteners are better if you're diabetic than using, you know, too much. Um,

Scott Benner 1:00:10
yeah. So that's just something less than death to think about, you know, what the, you know, the argument around artificial sweeteners are is they make you hungry, so you don't eat sugar, but you eat something else, and it might be a toss up anyway.

Meredith 1:00:23
Right, but in terms of just like drinking and stuff, so you don't want to have like one of those, you know, some kind of a drink with an artificial sweetener, or whatever else, you actually need sugar, but then you're going to have to dose for that or whatever. Um, you can't have high fructose corn syrup. That's something a lot. So lots of candies, and things don't work for for low. So a lot of it was really like, what are we going to use for Lowe's? more immediate,

Scott Benner 1:00:50
right? Like, like, when you need something to work right away, your brain goes to simple sugar. So what do you do in a panic situation?

Meredith 1:00:57
So that's so that that was the issue that was I was really interested in the question, the index thing was saying that, like, um, fructose, like the I was, I was listening to that, and some of the things that work faster are actually high and fodmap. So maybe that's why some of our things don't work as well. But we use grape juice, or it uses chocolate, which doesn't work as fast, but that just happens to be something that she uses. So she has allergy friendly chocolate bars that she keeps with her. And she's a bad she does use glucose tabs, um, now, but she didn't use too. Um, and then other things that were sort of relevant, that's not really low fodmap so much, but um, is sort of goes along with stomach issues, a lot of you really shouldn't have too much ibuprofen, so she was taking Tylenol, and she has migraines too, so. So Tylenol then would affect the G five. Now at least she's on the Dexcom g six, so she can have more Tylenol, but not too much Tylenol, because energy six will still go wonky if you get too much. So that's an issue. Um, gluten free pasta is something that you need to have are gluten free, and you know, you eat gluten free on the low fodmap diet. So that's higher carb than some of the other grains. So that's kind of an issue and a lot of the low carb foods also don't work with low fodmap because insulin in them, okay, um, which is a problem. So there's just this like, interaction of things, and I would say that that low fodmap interacts fine with diabetes. I think you just make some substitutions, I think and I would say you especially make substitutions for Lowe's. I would say the hardest thing is really probably the allergies and the diabetes because a lot of the low carb things that would be great go twos are things that my daughter's allergic to but that doesn't mean that everyone's allergic to sure um Wow Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:03:15
Well you you may if you're not tired then I don't be tired

Unknown Speaker 1:03:22
Are you allergic to anything?

Meredith 1:03:24
I I don't eat soy because it gives me migraines. But ironically you know my everyone else in the house can eat soy. But no, I'm just allergic to like dogs and cats and environmental stuff but

Unknown Speaker 1:03:37
don't choose Wow, Jesus Alright,

Meredith 1:03:41
but it won't kill me. You know,

Scott Benner 1:03:42
are your children gonna disclose this during dating? I think I think if they do they're limiting themselves they shouldn't they should keep it free

Meredith 1:03:51
my kids are real catches on just

Scott Benner 1:03:54
Hey, you know if we get married you won't be able to eat you know anything. I hope you enjoy fish and rice

Unknown Speaker 1:04:04
no fish sorry.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:08
Actually,

Meredith 1:04:08
the girl is gonna fish my son Camembert attention to who? You know you got to think about like crack me up No

Unknown Speaker 1:04:16
no no.

Scott Benner 1:04:18
Anyway, I'm sure they have other I just I'm telling them just that they want to be earners. You know what I mean? Like, like wage earners, like so people are like, you know, we can only eat five things, but she makes a good living.

Meredith 1:04:31
Works, you know? Yeah, they do. They need to make a good living because they really like steak. steak and potatoes. No kidding.

Scott Benner 1:04:37
Yeah, I was gonna ask you. Is it more expensive to eat this way? Probably.

Meredith 1:04:40
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, our food bells are like nuts.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:45
Well, no, well, no pun intended.

Scott Benner 1:04:49
Our food bills are like nuts. Well, I'm just glad that you ate the nuts slowly to get rid of the nut allergies and didn't rub them on you because I was like, as you were saying, and I'm like, is Murdock gonna say we had to rub nuts on our kids then she didn't. And I was like, thank god anywho you were really kind of do this. I am trying really hard to get all people's styles of eating included in the podcast. I had been having Paul on recently talking about carnivore, I only got one half, like kind of sideways pushback online from somebody was like that's, you know, I forget what they said that fad eating and I was like, Listen, it's fat. He Call it whatever you want. I was like, the guy's got one of the most popular podcasts on Apple like it can't because it's a fad. Like, it must be because a lot of people are doing it. I don't know if it's right or wrong or not. I'm not I'm not making a judgement about it. I'm just trying to find out how other people eat and talk about it. So I really appreciate you doing this one because this one's specific. And you jumped right up and you're like, I can talk about fodmap. And I was like,

Meredith 1:05:54
get out of here. All right. And then you know how many people it'll it'll will be relevant for but I you know, I think it'll be

Oh, and I want to say one thing though. I did not cover is with all of our crazy eating things on. A one C is now down. The last time we had an appointment was down to 5.1. Wow.

Scott Benner 1:06:17
Well, that's because of me though. Yeah, I'm just I was joking. Stop.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:23
You know, let me make the joke, though. It is? Absolutely.

Scott Benner 1:06:27
That's very cool. Good for you. I'm, any of the other kids have markers for type one.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:33
The yellow one does,

Scott Benner 1:06:34
yeah, do we? Do we tell which one it is? Or we just tell them? It's one of you.

Meredith 1:06:38
I know at the end and my child knows. But I don't need to

Scott Benner 1:06:41
know I wouldn't ask you to tell everybody else. I was just wondering if you were like, hey, if you got on both tests, and you said, Hey, one of us got it. But I'm not gonna tell you which one?

Meredith 1:06:48
No, I don't think I would do that the child does No.

Scott Benner 1:06:51
Oh, okay. Well, I'm glad you know, how long good you look. Did you use trial that

Meredith 1:06:56
did trial net, and it was fairly soon after diagnosis.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:03
So a couple years ago? Well, and follow you something to look forward to?

Unknown Speaker 1:07:09
We're not. Thanks, God.

Scott Benner 1:07:12
Berta. Thank you very, very much. So that was Meredith and this was another episode of how we eat here on the Juicebox Podcast. Look, for more coming soon. I'm gonna ask you, what am I gonna say to you? Yeah, there's nothing to say. There's no ads. I'll tell you what, though. If you've been thinking about checking out the T one D exchange, because you've heard me talking about it. I'm gonna just put the information right here after the music. And if you haven't been thinking about doing that, just let me remind you that the show grows, when you share with others. Please subscribe in your podcast player, we're following your podcast player. If you're not listening in a podcast player, consider it. And that's it. I really appreciate your listening, the show's doing fantastic. It's all because you guys and I couldn't be more grateful. Last thing, the T one D exchange. The T one D exchange is looking for adult type ones and caregivers of type ones who are us residents to participate in a quick survey that can be completed in just a few minutes from your computer, or your phone. Right from your home. Like on your sofa, you could do it. After you finish the questions. I took the let's say I did it in about seven or eight minutes. I didn't find the questions to be deeply probing. They were actually kind of basic questions about type one diabetes, but they need the data. They need the answers to these questions from many, many people. So I was happy to throw into them. Anyway, when you're done, that's it. You're done. You know, it's 100% anonymous, it's HIPAA compliant. You don't have to go to a doctor or a remote site. And you're still helping people think you might get an email from them like once a year where they'll be like, hey, there's another opportunity here for you. And if you are interested, you do it. And if not, don't do it. It's just you. Putting your answers into a registry that allows them to take that data and make decisions. They influence things that happen in the world for people to type ones. For example, test trip coverage, Medicare coverage for CGM ada guidelines for pediatric a one c goals, that kind of stuff. They've impacted, even labeling for CGM to include fingerstick replacements that data helped with that. This is super simple to do an incredibly valuable T one d exchange.org. forward slash juice box you get there. Click on join our registry now, answer the simple survey and you're done. If you do it, you're helping other people with type one diabetes and you're helping the podcast. I hope you check it out. T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox

#485 Altered Minds

Scott and Jenny Smith, CDE share insights on type 1 diabetes care.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello, and welcome to Episode 485 of the Juicebox Podcast. Guess who's on the show today.

Today on the podcast, I'm joined by Jenny Smith. Jenny, of course, is from all the defining diabetes episodes, and the pro tip series. And today she's here to talk about how people can be altered in their, in their minds when their blood sugars are high or low. Right. So if you're looking for an understanding of what high and low might make someone feel like or could make you feel like this is the episode for you. During this conversation, 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, or becoming bold with insulin.

Jenny holds a bachelor's degree in human nutrition and biology from the University of Wisconsin. She's a registered and licensed dietitian, a certified diabetes educator and a certified trainer on most makes and models of insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors. One day when I grow up, I hope to be just like Jenny.

The T one D exchange needs 6000 people to join the registry. And I have to keep saying this to you until you do it. So the D one D exchange is looking for T one D adults and T one D caregivers who are us residents. They want you to participate in a quick survey that can be completed in just a few minutes from your phone or computer after you finish the questions. And they are very simple. I completed the survey in about seven minutes. You may be contacted annually to update your information. And they may even ask you a couple more questions. But this is 100% anonymous, it is completely HIPAA compliant. And it does not require you to ever visit a doctor or go to a remote site. See, this is interesting. This is a way for you in just a few minutes to help other people living with Type One Diabetes. Past participants have helped bring increased coverage for test trips, Medicare coverage for CGM, and changes in the ADA guideline for pediatric a one c goals. These are important behind the scenes things that people with type one diabetes need, and you have a unique opportunity to help them. These are not deep probing personal questions. They're pretty simple basic surface diabetes stuff, but they just need the data. Help them at T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. And at the very least, if 6000 of you go right now, but I don't have to say this again. Do it for me.

Unknown Speaker 3:06
I'm kidding. Do it for the other people living with Type One Diabetes. But I mean, if you want to think of me while you're doing it, it's fine. This one's weird. But I will say

Unknown Speaker 3:18
it means it came from

Unknown Speaker 3:19
somebody came from somebody, but it's not

Unknown Speaker 3:21
from somebody.

Scott Benner 3:23
But it but it made a lot of sense to me when they said it. And then I left it on my list for a long time. And every time I look at the list, I'm like, yeah, we're gonna have to talk about that. I think so. Hopefully, I

Unknown Speaker 3:34
have something.

Scott Benner 3:37
So I'm posing this next question to you, Jenny. Because you have diabetes, and you would have you would have a real feeling for what this is? Maybe? We'll see. We'll see. Hopefully, I think you will. So I hear this from either parents or spouses usually. And it's something we make light of in communities and joke about, like I've said before, to my daughter, you know, when she was little, I'm gonna test your blood sugar. And if it's not high or low, you're in trouble. Right? You know, like, because you kind of can't, you can't tell, like, Is somebody acting a certain way because they're altered? Or are they acting a certain way? Because they're, you know, right a pain in the ass. So like, you know, which isn't, but that always makes me feel like what is the person with diabetes hearing when they're altered? And so that's what I want to understand. And when I'm we're gonna do both, but let's start with higher blood sugar. So I know there's no Mendoza line that you can point to perfectly, but I will. I've always said in the past that as ardent as active if her blood sugar starts to creep above 161 80. I could see her slow down, her reactions get slower, things like that. We know that people get cloudier. We've talked about on the podcast a million times as you get higher and higher, but what's it like to be in your head when your blood sugar's higher. Like, like, what if your kids are acting up? Or your husband's being unreasonable? Or you have to make dinner? Like and like, what does that feel like to you?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:14
Yeah, I think it to me, it feels one I'm just annoyed. Right? And it's not annoyance with them, it's annoyance for the number for why ever it is where it is, right? And it could be even worse, if it was like a bad site. Right that now, you know, like, fiddling with for a while actually get it. And I think then it the mental piece of that then comes when you're trying to manage this number that you're not happy with. And somebody interrupts that train of thought in that interrupt by, they're not like doing it intentionally to ask you, you know, can we have applesauce for dinner Mom, you know, like, it's just a piece in the mix. So I think mine is more like, it's just a mental struggle at that point. And I do also tend to, I get kind of headachy not so much when I have lows, but more so when I am higher, it's that like, mental that foggy kind of piece. And it makes me feel headachy I'm not the kind that's like a throbbing, but it's like that cloudy kind of headache that you get. Um, and again, that's just an irritating factor in and of itself, too.

Scott Benner 6:36
So there's a mechanical portion of it where it is, you know, for whatever reason, either you may be missed on a Bolus, or like you said, your site went wrong or something. So there's, there's a mechanical thing, I need to fix this thing, which becomes irritating as it would to any person, like, like, if I walked into a doorframe, I'd be like, I cannot believe I just walked into a doorframe like that. So you've got that going on. And then you have the actual act of having to fix it. And then you're focused on that someone else comes in. So this is still all mechanical, like, but then the headache happens. And that's not something like a like a, like a warning light on your palm doesn't go off and say Jenny's got a headache now, right? So when a five year old comes at you, you you can't say to yourself, I'm, I feel a pain in my head that I'm not even aware of yet. I'm going to react it you don't have like, that's not how thinking works. So then you're just level of irritation is, does it? Here's how I just went, here's how my wife puts it. around her period, she'll tell me, I'm not being unreasonable, I just have less space for bullshit is how she puts it.

Unknown Speaker 7:48
That's really great.

Scott Benner 7:52
I don't I think she's covering for herself, but I understand the intent of what she's saying. So there's a there's a ceiling in people before they get upset. Right. And there's all kinds of, of outside irritants that can limit that ceiling. But just your blood sugar being higher physically, can take away from your ability to, to abide both, basically, I guess, correct.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:16
And, you know, from my standpoint, too, you know, with the work that I do, and all of the data management that I do and interpreting things for people. I mean, the majority of my management is just because I want to be healthy, right? But the other piece of it is it also leads into my work. Can I get worked on really well, if I'm sitting really high, or if I'm sitting really low? My brain isn't functioning well on either level. So that management piece is always also there to benefit people.

Unknown Speaker 8:51
So I'm not typing out a message that's like, you know, I don't know why your blood sugar.

Scott Benner 8:58
Mary, why don't you just figure it out yourself? I paid this lady to help me with my blood sugar. And she yelled at me. Yeah, that wouldn't be great. No, but but I want people to understand that whether and I think they do. But if I do, I think they do understand that a higher blood sugar could be an issue. But the problem is, again, that you don't walk around as a person with diabetes with your blood sugar across your forehead. So what I come up to you, you're just Jenny to me. I don't know if your blood sugar's to Swanee, and you have a headache. And so how, what I guess what should those people be looking for so that they can back up and go, Oh, you know what, this could be that because even if I understand that your budget, say I come up to you, you react oddly. And I immediately understand it's your blood sugar that's high. If I say to you, oh, your blood sugar is high. I'm sorry. That's just gonna make it worse. Right? That's the, that's the diabetes equivalent of me saying, Oh, you have your period. I won't bring up the car payment right now. Right. Okay. Okay.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:58
Yeah, yeah, kind of and I think it does bring up a good. A good point, though, especially for I think this is goes more for adults who have a spouse or a significant other or partner or whatever. Because like Nathan, he follows he's got Dexcom follow, you know if it's got my stuff, but I mean, he doesn't keep it open and follow me all day, he's got the alarm set, and all of that for like, high and low. But other than that, I mean, he just, he lets me alone, honestly, which I'm very thankful for outside of counting carbs for me if he's like done dinner or something, you know, which is awesome. But in that regard, I think it also means that as the person with diabetes, you kind of also have to share more at times. Because as I do more often with my kids, I share with them, you know, this is what I feel like right now and go color in your color book for like 10 minutes while mommy changes her bad pod, or whatever it is, no, but I think it means that you have to express a little bit in order to decrease the chance that somebody is going to interpret your reaction to something in the wrong way. Because certainly, I mean, that's happened if the married a long time. And there's definitely been like blood sugar reasons for reactions that didn't really come out as response that I meant it to come out kind of sounding like. So I think sometimes you have to be open enough to be able to say, Hey, you know, I need this, like 15 minutes to manage around this, come back and like, ask me in a bit, but that's

Scott Benner 11:38
gonna come out as I wish I would have dated your brother and said, there you go. So I have a little context around this, which I've mentioned off and on in the podcast over like, the last year or so. And it's just that my, my iron level got really low. And I completely understand what you're saying, like saying words, not having the intention behind them that the words have, and also not being able to see that it's happening. Like, that's the interesting thing, like when you're saying something to somebody, even if it's a tone, you know, just the wrong tone. And you don't know what's the wrong tone, while you're saying it. Like when you're being sarcastic with somebody when you're, you know, when you're in an argument, you're like, I'm gonna ramp this up, right now, you're aware, you're going to do like, I'm going to say something now that's going to make you upset, but it's happening. And not only do you not know what's happening, but you don't think it's happening. And that's the that's the real fascinating part like is that you're doing this, it feels like it's you're doing it but it's just that there's a level of a trace element or something in your body. For me, it was iron, you know, for you, it's gonna be not enough insulin, and you're just you're not yourself. And it's, um, it's tough, because you're asking, you're getting you're an adult who's ultra where their blood sugar's, like really like your, you know, you do an amazing job for yourself. So maybe you can see it. We're all trying, right, one way or the other. But, but my point is that maybe you've been able to teach yourself over time to go my numbers up, like I won't get involved in an important conversation right now. Or I'll send my kids off the color for a second so that I don't tell them I wish I didn't have children. But But you know, when your kids 16, or you're 24, and you've had diabetes for a year and a half, and you're at work, you don't you're not gonna see that comment like that.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 13:38
No. And mine's more so in terms of like, like, spit out of things that I don't even know that I've like said the way that I've said is more so even when I'm low,

Unknown Speaker 13:50
honestly, yeah,

Scott Benner 13:51
let's switch to that idea. Now.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 13:52
It's, there's much more like the it's like a fragment of like thought in your brain. You're trying to manage how you're feeling with this low while you're probably waiting for the low to not be low anymore. And in that come the things of life. I mean, unless you're a single person and not interacting with kids or adults or other people around you. There's always someone you're interacting with. And that interaction, then in that time period where your brain isn't really firing off, right away. It doesn't you don't interpret it coming out in sort of the jagad way that it does. And then Aftermath is often Well, I'm really sorry, or, you know, I didn't mean that or I've Whoa, I felt like crap. And does it bother me?

Scott Benner 14:45
Does it feel like that afterwards, like after it's over and you're okay. Do you have the guilt that you did something wrong? Because it's not true. Right, you know,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 14:57
right. I mean, I'm only in the scenario that You know, we may have been potentially discussing something or whatnot. And that was the case during that discussion. Yeah, I mean that obviously every time by any means do I feel bad about, you know? Yeah. But yeah, it's a hard, it's a hard thing. And sometimes even with Lowe's, I think that I will have responded to something. And it's been in my head that I've actually and my husband will be like, Did you hear what I asked you? And I'll be like, I told you, whatever. And he's like, No, really,

Unknown Speaker 15:34
he didn't say it out loud.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:39
It's just like that muddiness that I think commented about before when I feel like I'm like, sort of like,

Scott Benner 15:45
that's the real low. There's a slide in there. There in the beginning, right. And numbers wise, doesn't really matter. But you know, if you're, the way I think of it with Arden is maybe between, I would say at 65, Arden maintains herself. Hey, Dad, I feel dizzy. You know, like, she's just like that. She's a little kind of jokey about it right there. It's almost like you could be like, hey, let's not do anything and see if you die. And she'd be like, Okay. Yeah. Yeah, right. She's elated for some reason, right there. Okay. And then it goes down and her energy drops away. But if you were to catch her there, somehow she got past the elated part into that part. And that's where you first intersected her. She'd be snappy, like L'Oreal short and nasty, right? And then I think after the nasty is what you were just talking about where the last, the last fragments or thoughts are, right? Yeah. Okay. It's almost like a and then there's, you know, falling over and not being able to help yourself. But as it's happening, are you able to consciously think, hey, my brain is trying to shut off and I'm the only one who's going to stop it. Right? Or does it turn into just a physical like, eat something feeling?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 17:02
I think it's probably a little bit of both. I mean, in my I can remember a specific time. Soon after my first was born, we had gone. I think it was to Kohl's, actually. And I was standing in, and I was nursing obvious at that point. So all the fluxes that can kind of come with blood sugar, and whatnot, mostly like lows, and my husband had gone off looking for something in like the men's department and I was standing like, in the toy department, we are looking for something specific for our little guy. And I can remember feeling low. And like, you can determine like those dropping lows. I was dropping. And so I sat down with my baby on the floor,

Unknown Speaker 17:48
the baby.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 17:50
And I get out, you know, my glucose tablets, and I'm eating my glucose tablets. And I, I had my husband found me, I mean, I was fine. But I was sitting there just like waiting for the load to fix itself, because I knew that I had taken care of it. But in that I had also gotten my phone out. And I was texting him to come to the kids department. Because I was low. Only I never hit send. Okay, I was just like, that's kind of that like, broken, like thought kind of that can happen. Well, do

Scott Benner 18:25
you ever get in a moment like that? is are you Cognizant enough to think don't fall forward on the baby? Like, do you? Like do you have those feelings? Like all the reason

Jennifer Smith, CDE 18:33
that I sat down? I mean, from my back thought to what I was doing, I would have thought, you know, I need to sit down. I've got a baby who clearly can't stand on his own yet, you know, I mean, it was I think he was probably like six months old or something. Yeah. And it's a sit down, treat your low blood sugar. I mean, I've always been able to treat so I've never had an issue with not being able to help myself. Outside of like, when I was a teen with my parents. So yeah, but it's, it is I mean, in those instances, sometimes there's not enough to like even like, be angry, you just can't even communicate

Scott Benner 19:10
quite right. It's interesting. It's super interesting to me the way that first of all, the way your body handles falling blood sugar, it's, it's when you start losing faculties, your it's your body shutting down, it's basically services. It's like, Oh, we don't need that one, like and it just, it just it has this finite amount of sugar in your blood. And its goal is to keep your brain running. Correct, right. And so it starts shutting. Right, stop sending sugar to this idea and this idea and so you're like, going down and it's your body going like, it really is it's like let's try to see how long we can stay alive until something intervenes. But you describe the, the actual actions you take very similarly. Like are like okay, I'm not okay, I'll sit down. I'll start taking these things down. It's more important than telling someone right now it's important to tell like you're doing the same thing. You're making these like,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 20:06
it's just that you're not like consciously. It's almost like your brain like those, like files in the back that were like, do this now, right? They take over, even though you're not really like, consciously aware that you're like sitting down and like drinking your juice box or whatever it is you do it because it's a habit. And you know what, that that's what you need to do with with the symptom?

Scott Benner 20:31
would, would you looking back on it a scenario like that, if that if the Jeeva hypo pan existed, then would you being with your baby, would that have been enough for you to be like, I'm not going to take tablets, I'm going to hit myself with glucagon. Or no, you still would have handled it that way.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 20:50
You know, possibly, with, with what I remember about that being such a quick drop in my blood sugar, I mean, it's not like we're running around the story. It's just like, I'd probably nurse before we went in the store to keep him happy. And like, there was enough to feed into the store. But,

Unknown Speaker 21:11
I mean, maybe,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 21:12
I mean, I certainly I've got like an extra bag Sydney, that I typically take out, especially when we're like traipsing around the neighborhood to the parks, and whatever. I mean, my eight year old knows about it. So I possibly I might have done that.

Scott Benner 21:29
Just because me with the back semi and like fit g vote now being like ready to go. But prior to that I only ever thought of glucagon is like, You passed out and somebody came upon you and gave it to you. Like that's how it felt. But now all of a sudden, like it's there, and it's easy to use. And like, I wondered about that, like how you would think about it?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 21:49
Yeah, yeah, you could, I mean, it's certainly not a bad thought by any means. Especially I've worked with a couple of women post well through pregnancy, and then postpartum who have had spouses who've been military. And so they have after a certain amount of time, postpartum, you know, their spouse goes back, you know, might be deployed again, someplace completely away from where they are, they're pretty much on their own. With a baby, they might have the support of friends or family coming in once in a while, but that's not at two o'clock in the morning. So you know, in a case like that, where you're dropping a really low and you're really worried about it not sure. That's what a product like that is therefore it's also the benefit potentially, of, you know, like mini dosing that age old red Lily glucagon.

Scott Benner 22:38
So, here's the question then, because I came at this from the idea of the people who are going to interact with a person who's either too high or too low. I have to be honest, when Arden in the past has been too low, where she's refusing I just go with like, a forceful because I think like, I've tried talking or like, you know, I've gone with the Come on Sweetie, drink it. It's really important. Like that stuff. That doesn't go it's almost like you're not talking to the complete her. Now, you know, and so you just you make these declarative, forceful statement, drink the juice, drink it, drink the juice, drink the juice drink, and I'm talking I remember I know, people say to me all the time, you know, you must know what it's like to raise a little kid with diabetes back before all the technology and I don't talk about it very much, but it's really bad. And so you know, like back before CGM and all that. There's, it's three o'clock in the morning. You're there with a six year old and you're like art and drink the juice, like drink the goddamn juice right now, you know, and because there also was no CGM, like at some point. So what's happening? Yeah, I'm like, you know, and you don't, you're not yelling, you're gonna die. But you're, it's how it feels in your head when you're talking to them. And I think that's much easier to figure out with a low blood sugar, right? Like, that's obvious to people, but it's the, it's always the high ones that make me I feel badly, like, I feel badly when I hear I've used this example over and over again, but it sticks with me, like right in the center of my heart so much that a woman found the podcast, it helped her daughter. And when she sent me a note, months later to thank me, she said, I really just thought my daughter was a bitch her words, and that we weren't going to get along for our whole life. And it turns out, my daughter's a lovely person. And I didn't know because her blood sugar was always high. And that makes me want to cry. And, you know, and and the, the idea that that could happen. Either at the beginning, right, you'll hear people say, Oh, I didn't realize you know, that that stuff happened, or I helped somebody recently with a baby, a young kid who has autism. And he end up talking, I said, Hey, you might see a difference in you know, just how reality personally and stuff. And that person was so sure that that wasn't going to happen. And then three days later said to me, you know, he is happier. And I said, Yeah, like you don't, you don't know. And then that's a sadder situation, because then the poor kid couldn't tell, you know, isn't right verbal to begin with very much. And but I just think about that for everybody else. Like, if you're running around with blood sugars that are 170, all the time your body gets used to it. So physically, you think you're okay, but you're not like you're not the person, you were going to be. Right without diabetes, you know. And so, there's just

Jennifer Smith, CDE 25:35
not even from a mental standpoint to even from performance, right? You may not be, you may not be putting out everything you possibly could putting things together, whether it's in school, or college, or job or whatever. Because your brain is really not working at the level of glucose that is healthy for it to work at

Scott Benner 26:02
this conversation is at the core, why I initially years ago, brusque, so hard at the idea of better high than low. I was like, I don't think that's right. Yeah. You know, like, I think that that that does not seem right to me, I've known people who through a lifetime, we're not who they were supposed to be, I just know it and it, you lose your you know, it's it every day you lose, it's gone, every hour you lose is gone. And then days turn into months to turn into yours. And before you know what people just think you're a prick. And you know, and that's just not,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 26:35
and you may not be at all.

Scott Benner 26:38
Yeah, maybe with another two units of basil all day long, you would have been an absolutely delightful person. And that, and, and then I think about the people on the other side who have to deal with you who love you. And then think, Oh, I love a guy who's just a jerk, but maybe isn't, or you know, vice versa, or your kids or I don't know, I just I want people to be very aware that outside of a normal range, that the lack of or addition of sugar in your blood is having a real big impact on your personality and your ability to live and make decisions and everything right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 27:11
I mean, I've even had parents who have asked me, you know, how do you? How do you discipline your child with diabetes? When you're like, Do you always refer back to the blood sugar to begin with? Or, you know, do you just discipline them as if they don't have diabetes? And quite honestly, think if they require discipline, because they threw the stone through the front window? Because they were aiming and wanted to do it? I mean, really, unless their blood sugar's like 12 really loud are really high. Obviously, that was a that was like a decision on their part. They deserve to be punished right? away that your, if your blood

Scott Benner 27:52
sugar is 150, and you're breaking windows, you're just get Yeah, but but but I mean, but if you're a bunch of just been to 20 for your whole life, and you can't do well in math. It might not be because you're not good at math. Right. And you got to make that decision. Yeah, I mean, listen, I there are times there's been one or two times that Arden's been so low, that she has said horrible things to me. And I just I bear down and I think that's the blood sugar, and I just let it go. But you really have to be ready for it like because it's hard not to react. You know, I mean, Jenny, I'll bleep this out later. But when an eight year old calls your mother, you're, you know, you're like, whoa, hold on. Please drink the juice. I wasn't looking for this. I did. And, you know, I've heard adults talk about it too, in a married situation where one person is physically stronger than the other person. And you know, can get low and then get, you know, right, violent, like, not on purpose, right. And now you're, you know, a much different situation. Yeah,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 29:05
I actually had that when I was working in DC, a couple, an older couple had actually come into our diabetes clinic. And the man was complaining, he's like, sometimes I'm scared. I think she had gone to the bathroom or something. And they were just chatting. And I think it was on the topic of like, hypose. And he brought up he's like, sometimes I'm kind of scared of her. He's like, one day she threw a coffee cup and Okay, well, that wasn't really your wife. That was a low blood sugar.

Scott Benner 29:38
So I will tell you for blood sugars every 95 and she throws something at you. I don't think she likes you.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 29:44
Then there was something you did really nasty wrong

Scott Benner 29:46
to her so well. That's okay. I appreciate you talking about me. That was really good.

Could you just not talk to Jenny every day? I know I could. I wish I could actually just doesn't work out like that. Anyway, Jenny does this for a living it integrated diabetes comm and you can check her out there, there's a link in the show notes. What comes next is about the T one D exchange. If you heard it in the last episode with Johnny, and you haven't done it, let's get to it. But if you haven't, the T one D exchange needs your help. And the help they need is super simple to give. You just go to T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. That's my link, use that link. And then when you get there, click on join our registering now. And after that you complete this simple, quick survey. It's for us residents only. But it's so easy. Like right now, if you did it right now look at your watch. Or you probably want to watch to pick up your phone, touch the face of it. If you did it right now, you'd be done in less than 10 minutes. It took me three hours to bring you this episode. And this is all I'm asking in return. One day exchange.org forward slash juice box. I mean, seriously, I the book Jenny, record the thing, edited it. I mean, you notice how there's no like pops and clicks and noises and nothing distracting while you're listening. You're welcome. That was me. Scott, click click click with the mouse. I fixed the whole thing for you. hours it took like you're just like, Oh, it was a quick 25 minute episode. It was nice. God said insulins important, blah, blah, no, no, there's more than that. It's deep. It's deep. It's building a narrative in your life about type one diabetes, giving you the tools and the access to information for the free. And all I ask is that you go to T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. I only need 6000 of you to do it. I mean, there were hundreds of 1000s of downloads last month, I just need six of you. And I'm saying of the hundreds of 1000s of downloads. I need 6000 I'm tired of saying it too. I know you're tired of hearing it. I'm tired of saying it. But I mean, at some point one of us has got to pick up the manual and do their part. I can only do this I filled out the survey is easy. Alright, I'm gonna stop. I apologize. That was I that was too much, too much. I should just say T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. You need to be a US resident who has type one or is the caregiver of someone with type one. Please go fill it out if you have the chance. I mean, that's that's how I should say it. But I mean, come on this podcast is amazing. And it's free. Free. And what do I say to you? You know, if you want to try out an omni pod, go to Omni pod comm forward slash juice box I say if you want to check out a Dexcom go to dexcom.com forward slash juice box I say want to get a great meter Contour. Next One comm forward slash juice box I say hey, my daughter's got this G Volk. hypo pen, you should check it out. That's it. I mean, you don't have to check it out. I'm not telling you to buy an ami. But it's not like if you don't buy an ami pad and I love to listen anymore. I'm just saying if you're going to go check it out. But this T one D exchange thing. I mean, you're on the internet constantly. I see the people in my life. I know you don't put the phone down. And I'm not judging you. I'm just saying while you're doing it. You don't I mean, p one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. Help a guy out a little bit. Make me beg you. It's embarrassing. I'll tell you what, if the T one D exchange contacts me at the end of the month, next month, the end of June and says we've added 1000 new people to the registry. Thanks to you. If they say that. What will I do? I will do an online talk about using insulin. Once a week, in July, once a week. Okay, I'll come on. I'll do it on zoom. It'll be free, obviously, because you helped me out with the D one D exchange thing. And I will answer everyone's questions as long as I can. If we reach 1000. Now if we reach 1500 I'll get Jenny on one of those calls. If you do 2000 I'll do the call. Right? Every day every what I say every week in July, Jenny wants and what else will I do? I'll do something else. That's cool. I don't know what yet, but trust me, I'll come through T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. Use the link. complete the survey. That's it.