#614 Charlie Won't Bite

Megan's husband and child have type 1 diabetes.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 614 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On this episode of The Juicebox Podcast, I'll be speaking with Megan, who is the mother and wife of a person with type one diabetes. Today on the program, she and I make the chit chat for your amusement and pleasure. Please remember while you're listening, 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 healthcare plan. Or becoming bold with insulin. US resident who has type one, or is the caregiver of someone with type one, please head over to t one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box. Join the registry, take a quick survey, help the podcast help people living with type one diabetes. You can do it while you're on the toilet. Like, I mean, it's that easy. You could quite simply make a do do and help people with type one at the same time. Go test yourself. See if you're up to the challenge. Can you poop and take a survey? T Wendy exchange.org forward slash juice box. Don't forget to turn on the fame

this show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries. G voc hypo Penn Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash juicebox. This most exceptional episode of The Juicebox Podcast is also brought to you by touch by type one, head over to touched by type one.org. To find out more about my favorite diabetes organization. They're also on Facebook and Instagram. You're looking for touched by type one. You can do it type it another browser touched by type one.org. The one is a number. You must have bought this a while ago, huh?

Megan Kenney 2:15
It's been a very long time ago. Yes.

Scott Benner 2:18
The reason I say that is because it's an upgraded way I do it now that that includes, you know, a couple of sentences from the person about like, you know, the main overview of why I might want to come on the show. I can't find emails from you. I can't find anything like I

Megan Kenney 2:34
we talked on Instagram, but we never like yeah,

Scott Benner 2:39
when I do it through Instagram. I'm always like, I don't know. So. So I'm sure that's yeah,

Megan Kenney 2:46
I'm sure I think we chatted a bit like very, uh, I don't know, I mean, I think it was just like, I gave my, the synopsis of whatever. And then you were like, oh, okay, cool.

Scott Benner 2:58
I'm not changing my mind. I'm just saying that. Might see my boss for the first time.

Megan Kenney 3:03
I'm not that interesting. Would you?

Scott Benner 3:04
Imagine if, if five minutes into this, I was like, huh, we're done.

Megan Kenney 3:10
I was actually thinking about that. Before this. I was like, Oh, I'm actually not very interesting. I don't really know what I'm doing. And this could be a big flop.

Scott Benner 3:19
No, it's gonna be great. I, you are being recorded now. Just so you know. Okay. But no, I listen, I won't lie. Right? There's been a time or two where someone starts talking. And either their speech pattern rubs me the wrong way. Or they're Yeah, they're a little slow to their answers. And I just take it as a challenge. I'm like, I can still make this good. I know, I can make this good. I know, there's a good episode in here. I'm gonna find it.

Megan Kenney 3:46
Anyway, yeah, I'll find the nugget of, of goodness. It's all this garbage.

Scott Benner 3:50
In truth. It doesn't happen often. Like it's just there's once in a while where you're like, oh, boy, I don't know what to do about this. There's, like three times in my memory. I've thought maybe I should talk to people before I do this.

Megan Kenney 4:02
Right. Right. Let me vet this before it happens. But

Scott Benner 4:06
I find that people don't reach out if they're not fairly confident that they're good communicators and things like that. So

Megan Kenney 4:15
yeah, well, I could be the first who really, you know, drops the ball. So there's always perfect. Well,

Scott Benner 4:21
let's find out. Go ahead and introduce.

Megan Kenney 4:25
I'm Megan Kenny. I live in Baltimore with my husband Mike, my daughter, Charlotte. We call her Charlie and my son Jack. We, my daughter was diagnosed March of this year, last year 2020. And my husband was diagnosed when he turned 30, so seven years ago in January. Okay, okay. Okay, so I have two type ones.

Scott Benner 4:53
Wow. All right. Okay, give it to me one more time to type ones are Yeah.

Megan Kenney 4:59
So my husband might He is type one. He is 37. He was diagnosed at 30. And my daughter Charlotte, we call her Charlie was diagnosed at the age of five in March of 2020. So right before COVID

Scott Benner 5:13
Okay, so, Mike is 3037. Now that's seven years, Charlie. Just a couple of not even

Megan Kenney 5:23
like a year and a half. Yeah, a year and a half. Not even. Yeah.

Scott Benner 5:26
How old? Is she again? She's six, six. Wow. Okay. Well, I guess your husband, I guess your husband can't give you crap about anything ever again. Right? Like,

Unknown Speaker 5:38
I mean, he would think right. You think I have a free pass for life,

Scott Benner 5:42
but just staring? I got the I gave the kids blonde hair. What did you do?

Megan Kenney 5:49
Exactly. And you brought to the table. Autoimmune Disease.

Scott Benner 5:54
Isn't that interesting, too? Yeah, it really is. It is a crazy thing. Like can't blame anybody. Right? Like, did he know that it was in his family line.

Megan Kenney 6:03
So interestingly enough, his mother also had type one, diagnosed at 42. So obviously, a very strong genetic predisposition. Right. But before, so we had started trying to have kids, right, right around the time he was diagnosed, one of my good friends from college, also married a type one. And they had done like, talk to geneticist and done a bunch of research before they started trying to have kids. So I kind of like, you know, tailed off her information, we actually went to see a genetic counselor, I guess, before, just to sort of see what we were looking at. And basically, they were like, we can't give you any quantifiable information. That would say, your chances are this much higher, right, which I now believe to be absolute garbage. But, um, you know, that was what we were told not that that would have ever changed our decision to have kids. But I just kind of wanted to see what we were looking at. Because there's also autoimmune stuff in my family. My dad has MS. So, you know, we knew obviously, our risks were higher, but in my mind, because Mike was dying. His mom was diagnosed late. Mike was diagnosed so late. I was like, well, if our kids get it, at least they'll get through college. And

Scott Benner 7:21
I might be dead by the time it happens to get me out of this. Yeah. Right. I was

Megan Kenney 7:25
like, yeah, the odds are in my favor that you know, at least, it won't be a little kid situation. But

Scott Benner 7:31
wow. So how long? Yeah, so his mom was in her early 40s. How old? Was he at that point? Yeah, no.

Megan Kenney 7:40
Under 10 Math is not my strong

Scott Benner 7:42
suit. That's okay. But he was. Yeah,

Megan Kenney 7:45
yeah. Yeah. Like he remembers her diagnosis. He remembers her losing a bunch of weight. But she always dealt with, like, I knew nothing about diabetes, based on her treatment of her diabetes. Like, she up until she actually passed away six years ago. But like, I knew nothing like she did vials and syringes. She was very secretive about it. You know, it was very like hush hush. So I think Mike knew that it was something that was manageable, and that you could easily function and live with and, you know, have a normal life. But he didn't know the ins and outs because they kept it very quiet.

Scott Benner 8:28
Interesting. It's not uncommon.

Megan Kenney 8:32
Yeah, either. And I think it's generational. I mean, they were definitely like, older for their age group. They, you know, they seemed older, they acted older. So I just think that that was sort of the how they did things. And you know, it was more of like, a we'll deal with this. Don't worry about it. You know, we got this but um, then, you know, Mike, obviously had to deal with it on his own. And it was a totally different, a totally different story.

Scott Benner 8:57
Isn't that interesting? How so quickly through a couple of generations, it shifted to where? I mean, I turned 50 the other day. And I'm not happy birthday. No, no, I wasn't fishing, but thank you very much. That's lovely. Trying to give context for people who are listening, but I don't look 50 I don't write I don't look 30 But I don't look 50 and right. I just as I look back, I think my life is just easier than people's used to be. Like, you know what I mean? Like,

Megan Kenney 9:30
really? I mean, it's a totally different I even think about my dad who is 71 and then I think about my grandparents when they were 71 And it's like, not even in the same realm of you know, it's it's just so different. Yeah, age is so different

Scott Benner 9:49
now. It's, it's lovely. But yeah, that whole thing about, like a lady hiding her medical stuff and that kind of thing. I don't know if that's true. I don't know if that's gender, probably not. Like I think a lot of people hide their diabetes stuff. But yeah, I definitely

Megan Kenney 10:08
I mean, even my husband. Yeah, even my husband, he was, I mean, we're under 1437 or 37. He is still kind of quiet about it. You know, he wears a Dexcom he got when Charlie was diagnosed, but he does his MDI does injections in private, he, he's just not all about, like, you know, putting it out there. Like, I always, whenever he starts, he started a new job a couple years ago, and I was like, can you just make sure that someone in your office knows that you're diabetic? Like, just someone I you know, you don't need to like where have, you know, a cat on your shirt, but like, just, you know, just in case, whatever, but make me feel better. And he's just very close to himself about it. Which Yeah,

Scott Benner 10:53
Megan, I have to figure out where there's a little noise coming through your phone before we keep going. Are you doing this to a computer or a cell phone? Computer? I'm gonna switch. Can you move your phone away from the computer? Yes. That better? We'll find out when you start talking again. Okay. Well, listen, things are way different now. Because I've seen my daughter with her friends. And if one of them needs like a pad or something like that, they'll like walk through a restaurant and be like, hey, I need a pad and like 10 feet and walk back with it in their hand like that. You know what I mean? Like, I do think that's a newer, a newer kind of freedom, which is lovely. But oh, yeah, yeah, but I feel I feel like your husband's a good example. Like, of the being, it's not secretive, right? It's just private. Yeah. Is that the?

Megan Kenney 11:41
He doesn't? Yeah, he doesn't keep it like, you know, under lock and key, but he's definitely not. It he, I think, really what it is, and he doesn't want it to be his identity. He doesn't want it to be the forefront of people meeting and being like, oh, Mike, the type one diabetic, like, I think that he's worked really hard to just kind of make it a part of his life and not the entirety of his life. So the way he deals with it is just sort of, as you know, a lower level element to who he is and who his identity is. And we've worked really hard at, in a short time Charlie's been diagnosed, making that a similar situation for her like, I just, I want it to be Charlie first, and then you know, the other stuff that comes along with her.

Scott Benner 12:30
I think that's a good idea. Okay, we do have to figure out your noise, though. So when you're talking, it's getting

Megan Kenney 12:36
on air pods? Do you want me to take them off? Do

Scott Benner 12:39
you have a different kind of headphone? Or can you just take them off and see what happens? You sound terrific. But there's this electronic popping while you're talking. Like that disconnect. Okay, let's see if that's better. That's horrendous. Okay, so this is horrendous. This will. This will make me jump out of window. Can we try? What else can we try?

Megan Kenney 13:09
Oh, I can also go to my other computer. I'm on my laptop.

Scott Benner 13:15
Well, I don't know. I can't tell at the moment if it's the headphones or if it's the computer I'm not sure. Like sometimes when your cell phones nearby, your cell phone pings things and it creates interference. I thought it might be that but you move the phone and that didn't do it.

Megan Kenney 13:30
Okay, what farther away from my phone? I live in an actual shoe box. So being far away from my home is or my phone is not that far away. I go upstairs.

Scott Benner 13:39
Just throw your phone out the window.

Megan Kenney 13:43
I literally might have to go put it in my car. Wait,

Scott Benner 13:45
you're wearing your headphones again? Do you have the air pods back?

Megan Kenney 13:52
Yeah, is that good or bad?

Scott Benner 13:53
No. I mean, it sounds better now. So maybe your phone just wasn't quite far enough away? We'll find out.

Megan Kenney 13:59
Okay, I put it I put it even farther. And I moved my actual physical body to a chair.

Scott Benner 14:04
Okay, were you standing?

Megan Kenney 14:07
I was sitting at the table, but then I moved to the chair very, very close to the table. But, you know, maybe a change of scenery.

Scott Benner 14:15
Very nice. Well, I appreciate the effort. Okay. I seriously don't like there's, there's just a part of me that knows if I was listening to a podcast and there was popping while someone was talking. I'm like, I'm out of this. So you could start being like, I know how to be rich. I'm going to tell you where to find gold right now. And I'd be like, I can't listen. Not if it's gonna pop like that. But anyway, such a first world problem. I got a audio and it just wasn't perfect. But anyway, that's all I think about it. I had to turn it off. You're good. I think that right? Yeah. Yeah. So you I got an interview that just went up the other week with a guy who's like, you know, out in the in like a really cold state in the middle of winter. And I'm like, What's that? Noise nice like it's my furnace. And there was a split second or I thought to myself that okay, or should he after freeze to do this?

Megan Kenney 15:10
Yeah, I don't think we can handle you're not to be cold.

Scott Benner 15:13
Yeah, I need audio nice and clean. You go outside.

Megan Kenney 15:18
And yeah, exactly. Well, so it does make a difference.

Scott Benner 15:21
Yeah. Well, you see you're in an interesting situation, aren't you? How long have you been married?

Megan Kenney 15:28
10 years this year, I lived together for 17.

Scott Benner 15:32
Okay, I love the pause as like the shiana.

Megan Kenney 15:34
Together. Let me wrack my brain. No, you got we were we got together my junior year of college. So we've been together for a long time. But over time,

Scott Benner 15:47
what I like the roundness of the numbers. So you met him when he was like, 20. You've been with him for 17 years, 10 of those last 10 of those years you've been married. He gets he gets diagnosed when he's 30. And so you're with him for 10 solid years before he's diagnosed. So I want to know first what that's like. Because you were married for what? Three years then?

Megan Kenney 16:11
Yeah, so 30 points out. Yep. Exactly three years. So it was, it was shocking, honestly, it it was very. I mean, I think we kind of since you kind of grew up together, you know, we, before your college, you don't really know you are we're figuring it out. We we kind of, you know, started our careers together move, you know, bought our first house, it was all this stuff were his diagnosis as much as now looking back on it, it's just was just a blip. Really, it felt like a big deal. Like I and I think unless he hit it really well, I think I almost took it harder than he did. I think I did like a flash forward of like, but kids but you know, life but travel, but I didn't. I didn't realize sort of that it would just become part of day to day, I think it you know, it felt like such a bigger challenge in the moment, then it would eventually become okay. Not to discredit that it's no, no, no. Yeah, you know, it felt it felt massive in in the diagnosis, and then, you know, it sort of just becomes part of life.

Scott Benner 17:27
So if he is staying private about it, is it possible that you're not seeing the full impact of it?

Megan Kenney 17:35
It's funny, because I think before my daughter's diagnosis, I saw 25% of it, I did not understand the constant calculation, the constant planning the you know, what it really entailed. Because he did keep it to himself. And I honestly, it, he was not a great diabetic before Charlie was diagnosed, like, they once he was high. He, he just, he, it's almost like he didn't have time for it. He didn't want to bother with it. He wanted to just work on his career and have his friends and you know, do our own thing and not let that, you know, curtail his good time. And then I think Charlie's diagnosis really jolted him and his care for his own health.

Scott Benner 18:27
Well, here's why I really appreciate your answer, because it's honest, first of all, but also because it highlights a thing that I'm a little focused on. And that is people saying, No, it was great. It went fine. Or yeah, everything's good. How's everyone see? It's great. Did I just lose? You? May not hear you're there. I can't hear myself suddenly. Hold on a second. Oh, really? I'm freaking out. I'm having a stroke. This is it. This could be Oh, hold on a second.

Megan Kenney 18:58
I told you this is gonna be a real

Scott Benner 19:01
could just be this settings. No, that's right. Where did my headphones go? I'm still being Oh, I know what happened. Don't you worry. Hold on one second. Everybody cut me a break here. All right. Technical difficulties. I'm about to tell a story is gonna make you feel bad for me. So just chill out. All right. I use the wrong template for your episode. And it had weird volumes. I had weird volume, adjustments set up but that freaked me out. I just disappeared in my ears. Like my, my voice comes through my ears at just enough of a level that I'm subconsciously aware of it. But I can't. I wouldn't know that I'm hearing myself. But the minute it goes, right, it feels like I'm in a vacuum talking right? My mouth is moving and nothing's coming. So hey, really Sorry, what is happening? See if I can go back to my thought? Which is that I think that too often people say things are okay when they're not. Like they just do like I asked you like, how was it? You know, with your husband being diagnosed, married for three years been together with probably for a decade, you're like, I wasn't bad. And then we talked for three seconds, and I probably only knew about 25% of the impact. And if I'm being fair, it's possible he's hiding some of it. So you don't you don't know. But it is your default to answer. It's going good. And I think what that means is, it's going good, no one's dead. The house isn't on fire, like that. And we have to all stop measuring our health by the fact that we're not dead right now. Like, that's such an I generally mean like, well, it's yeah, it's a weird way to think about things. You know, if I, if I told you there was an Army coming from four miles away, and their goal was to decimate your town, and you couldn't see them, and I said, How are things right now you guys are fine. Instead of saying, Oh, no, we got a bug out of here. Like there's problems, you know it? So it's a very common answer that people give, which is why you have to really interview them. Because you have to get to like, How's everyone see, it's good, then you talk for a little longer? And it's like 7.9, or 8.5? And it's like, What do you mean, it's good? Well, it's better than it used to be. Okay, it's better than it used to be. It's not good. Like, that's the that's the context. I like to have these conversations. And so just to go to your husband for a second, and I obviously don't know him, I'm not speaking to him. But I can tell you that somebody close to me has been having a problem for a couple of weeks. And I am as close to devastated by it, as you can imagine. And I don't think anyone around me knows that.

Megan Kenney 21:51
Right? Right, because you put on a face and you deal with it. And you know, you got other stuff to deal with. And yeah, it's, it's, it's hard to I mean, it's hard. And it's easy to compartmentalize, you know, what's really going on. But I do agree with, you know, wholeheartedly with what you said about people hiding what's really going on, because, you know, it's, it also makes the people that you're speaking to when you say, Oh, it's fine, it's good, everything's great. It makes them feel like they're doing something wrong, because it's not good. And it's great. And it's not fine. You know, there are days and moments where, yeah, it really does feel okay. But there are plenty of moments where it does not feel like it's going how it should be going. So, I mean, I think in every person I've met and through diabetes, and they're, you know, both of their diagnosis, diagnosis, diagnosis. Oh, that's fun.

Scott Benner 22:45
Some other variations of the world diagnosis.

Megan Kenney 22:49
Diagnosis,

Scott Benner 22:51
I believe, diagnoses?

Megan Kenney 22:52
diagnoses? Yeah, I think so. You were I mean, I was a journalism major, and I can barely write a sentence anymore. Like, truly, it is

Scott Benner 23:00
horrifying. Would you like to shout out your college so people don't go there?

Megan Kenney 23:04
Yes, shout out University of Maryland do not get your degree will last in your brain for three years. Um, but yeah, I just think you're doing a disservice to the people around you by saying, you know, it's all good when, you know, a little bit of transparency might help them think, okay, you know, it can be a struggle. And yeah, I think that was just so important. And learning from experiencing it from such a different side. Like, I really do feel like I learned very, very little, when Mike was diagnosed, up until Charlie's diagnosis. And I think that I myself about about it now, even though it's, it's, it's truly not my responsibility. But I wish I would have known more, because I think there could have been several years in there where we were, you know, working as a team, if you will, to sort of figure it out and lowers agency and, and make him feel more in control of it. And, and, you know, it took Charlie's diagnosis to really get us there. As a family.

Scott Benner 24:14
Yeah. I always wonder, when people aren't candid with each other. If, if it isn't a little bit of like the fear of what's going to get mirrored back to you. When you tell somebody like when you look at your wife, and you're like, hey, I I don't feel in control right now. Or I'm scared. If you don't want your wife to know you're scared. Or if you if you don't want your husband to know you're scared, I guess like that kind of thing. If you don't want a stranger, right? It's an open a can of worms. Well, so in the context of a relationship. Yes. Like imagine if in a perfect scenario, life going pretty well. Nobody gets sick. You know, we've got a couple dollars to pay our bills. You live a whole life and it's very nice. But suddenly you get stressed, like put a stressor in there and you learn that one of you isn't as good of a person as you see. Think they were like, right, like all the sudden you're like, oh, under pressure. Megan's kind of not nice to me. Like, what if that's what your husband was worried about? Like, what if I tell her I'm weak? Basically, that's how it's gonna feel to him. And instead of you going, It's okay, honey, I'll help you. You go. I did want a stronger guy. Like, like, that's the fear, right? Like in your heart. Like when you're going to tell somebody something? So yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So relationships are horrible mistake. Is that what you're saying? Because happen now just

Megan Kenney 25:28
what I'm saying is yes, never get married. And yeah,

Scott Benner 25:32
live alone in a hole by yourself. Yeah.

Megan Kenney 25:34
And live alone. You'll figure your own stuff out by yourself. You know, that's it.

Scott Benner 25:39
Well, that's it. That's why it's a two way street. Because everybody has to give a little bit so that everybody can feel comfortable giving the rest. But how do you make that happen? Yeah, I

Megan Kenney 25:55
mean, hard. It's it's a challenge. Definitely different. It is a challenge. Difficult. Yes.

Scott Benner 26:02
So you lifted this whole bit with your husband at this point now? You mean? Seemed like a bright lady. His mom's got it. He's got it. You're like, Oh, yeah.

Megan Kenney 26:17
I got you there. No, but yes, I in my head. I knew because of clearly there was a, you know, line of type one diabetics, I was not blind to the fact that it was a possibility. But I think I was totally in denial. That it was that it was a possibility.

Scott Benner 26:40
This is gonna be okay. Whistle happy to keep going. That's sort of right.

Megan Kenney 26:44
Yeah. Right. And I was like, you know, what, I did all the right things. I had a healthy pregnancy, I nursed my kid for a long time, all the things that they said to do to, you know, lower your risk of, you know, diabetes, or autoimmune or whatever it is. I was like, I'm doing the thing. So like, we're gonna be good at

Scott Benner 27:05
everything Kathleen, told you.

Megan Kenney 27:08
I mean, if no one else, Kathie Lee and Hoda. But yeah, I just thought that it was gonna be good. And little did I know, no, but it was definitely It surprised me, but it didn't shock me.

Scott Benner 27:25
Right? Well, this is where you have to start wrapping your head around more existential ideas, which is, if you really stop and think about all of the families that you know, just break it down into the families that you know, pick the one out where everything's perfect for everybody. I don't

Megan Kenney 27:43
know one, right. There's none. Yeah.

Scott Benner 27:46
And there are some people where you're like, oh, they have, you know, medical issues, or they have financial issues, or, Hey, that kid seems to set houses on fire, or, you know, like, like, whatever, like, you know, you know, you know, everyone's got like, just a little bit of arson Yeah, where you're like, my kid is definitely going to start killing birds soon, like, you have that feeling when you're like, right, right. So, but everyone's got something. The real tragedy is when they get all of them, when a financially disenfranchised person is also being abused by a spouse, and gets type one diabetes, and then thyroid disease and celiac and, like, that's, that those are the people who, who I think we need to have the most compassion for. And I think it's valuable to remember that no one's getting out of this alive. And very few people get through it unscathed. But totally

Megan Kenney 28:43
and that's honestly, that's one of the first things I thought about when when Charlie's diagnosed, I was like, we have the financial means to get the technology we need. We have great health insurance, we will be okay. In my head immediately went to what about all of these other people who face the same disease without the benefit of, you know, the things you need? The things you need? Yeah, it's it that that really, like crushed me a little bit.

Scott Benner 29:13
It's hard to resolve inside of you when you have insurance and you know about people who don't or when, you know, X, you know, on and on those things.

Megan Kenney 29:24
Yeah, I mean, I had a conversation with another type one mom who had recently been diagnosed and, and she said something like, she must have said it on a forum or something that well, why don't you just get a CGM? You know, if you're having all this trouble, just, you know, just get a CDN and the, you know, the person was like, well, we don't have insurance, our insurance isn't covered or whatever. And it's like, putting that in perspective of how easy and you know, quotation marks our life is in comparison to all these other people who have the same stuff we deal with but don't have all the added you know, benefits of All the things we have to make our lives easier. Yeah,

Scott Benner 30:02
no, it's, um, it's incredibly difficult to have perspective when you don't have perspective. You know, right, you know, yeah, there's plenty of other, it's a silly thing. It's not silly. It's it's trite because your mom said it to you, when you were literally like feed that they're poor people somewhere that are starving, you know, just eat finish your food, it's hard to recognize that, you know, for all the things you might hope for, for civilized society to get better at. Places that are in that situation, are hundreds of times better off than some other places that exist right now on the planet, like right now. Right? And it's, it's, listen, you getting diabetes, your son getting your daughter getting it, your husband getting it, that is a huge impact it is it should not be minimized. And when I say you need to find perspective, that perspective shouldn't come on day one, like you don't sit in the hospital. Well, you know, it takes time to see it. And if your blood sugar's constantly low, and then rising up, and you feel horrible and crashing down, and you're calling the ambulance all over the you know, because you're passing out and falling out of bed and all these other things are happening. Well, then, you know, what, you probably don't have a lot of time to search for perspective. And then it becomes it becomes irritating to hear from somebody. And so, you know, there's a lot of steps that have to get you to the point where you can find some clarity and try to step back and see a bigger picture. A lot of people don't even get to that point. And I think that's right,

Megan Kenney 31:34
I think 100% And I think that we had so many things on our side when Charlie was diagnosed, not only the experience of Mike's diabetes, so you know, we're in the hospital, and we were there for 24 hours, they let us leave because they knew we knew what we were doing.

Scott Benner 32:01
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Let me just remind you, before we head back to Meghan, to check out T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. And take that survey. podcast is over 30 minutes old by now, you could have made your poopy and done the survey by now while you're listening to the podcast. If you haven't, there's still time do you have to go you feel any rumbles? Anything happening? Huh? Are you regular, you go every day, don't you, if you don't go every day, you might want to look into that. That's a sign of what I'm talking about, though. T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. I also want to remind you to head over to touched by type one, it's a great organization doing wonderful things for people with type one diabetes, and you should know more about them. And you can add touch by type one.org.

Megan Kenney 33:43
They knew we knew how to carb count, we knew what insulin was and how it worked. We knew you know, all these things that people come in out of the blue with no experience of this of diabetes. And they, you know, are basically starting a crash course from you know, page one. And we had that on our side. So I think that we had that and then we had immediately got connected with people who were incredible. And you know, I had this woman, Lauren, who I got connected with through a mutual friend from work and I think we went home from the hospital for 24 hours. She called me to check down on me every day she let me cry to her. She let me ask her every single question. She texted me like she was like, truly my guardian angel and all of this and was like there to support me and just help me figure it out. She gave us your podcast immediately. I started listening. I mean we weren't even a week diagnosed. i i truly credit the fact that we're a year and a half in and I have her a one C at a 6.2 and I sort of feel like some days I know what I'm doing because we had this kickstart. And I think that like, that's one thing that I just feel so strongly about pushing forward is like having that community of people around you and reaching out to the newly diagnosed family and putting yourself out there to really be that support person, if you have the capacity to just even share those little bits of information. Like, I mean, I think three families since Charlie's been diagnosed, I've, I've started, you know, speaking to the moms and helping them just with little things like that. You don't necessarily need a 15 carb correction, you know, for that low that, you know, you're freaking out that why are they spiking after, you know, a low correction, because the hospital tells you, you need to be 15 carbs, like little things that you would eventually figure out course, but to have that information up front is just, it just saved me so much angst,

Scott Benner 35:55
right? And I'm assuming it showed you a world where you thought, oh, maybe my husband needs help, too.

Megan Kenney 36:04
Yeah, and I think, I think that came on his own, like that realization came on his own. And I think it almost scared him straight, like, well, first of all, he got a little competitive. He was like, Charlie can have a better agency than me like, this is you know, this isn't fair of yours. I should I should know what I'm doing. But I think he also wanted to be a positive role model. He wanted to you know, they were their ducks comms and they have the matching pump heals. And it's like it, it made this like, scary, weird thing for a five year old to have so much less scary and weird, because she had a family member in her own house who was going through the same stuff, like when she started to figure out her low symptoms. And Mike was like, Oh, he's your belly feel really empty, like really hollow? Like, you're really sweaty? He's like, Oh, yeah, I have that, too. Like, they had that connection. And they were already super tight. But it just, like, super glued them together, which has been the bright light in this absolute, you know, garbage storm

Scott Benner 37:07
can ask you questions that it's possible, you won't want to answer? Yeah. Was he a good dad before diabetes?

Megan Kenney 37:15
Oh, amazing. Yeah. And this just upped his game? Yes. I mean, I think it also just put so much perspective in it. Like, I think, I don't want to put words in his mouth, but I think he partially felt responsible. I mean, I, you know, I wish I understand. And I would feel the same way. And, you know, I, I don't discredit that feeling. But I think that he just, he felt like he owed it to her to make it normal, you know, make it feel like, just, you know, we're, we're, we figure it out, like, you know, we're just not going to make it the end all and be all of our lives. And I think that the way that he came at diabetes is a little more, I don't wanna say lacks, because it's not the right word, but just not as it doesn't overwhelm his life in in a positive way. I think he's tried really hard to kind of show Charlie that, like, you can do everything you want to do, you can be totally normal, you can act however, you know, you can do the sports, you can, what literally whatever you want to do, it can still happen. So I think that that perspective, played a huge role in in just like how we sort of settled into it.

Scott Benner 38:36
The most interesting aspect of that to me, is that is that without this without Charlie, right? Without her diagnosis, your husband, I would assume likely goes on the path he was on until something else either knocks him off of it, or forever. And I'm, I'm in a man's scary thought. Yeah, man, I'm not that I'm endlessly interested by the idea that people have a hard time doing a thing that obviously he could do for himself, but a very easy time doing it for someone else. Absolutely. Never gonna not be fascinated by

Megan Kenney 39:15
that. It is amazing. Because he, I mean, I think any parent could say that about anything like, you know, I just, I think that he made it a bigger he put in perspective that if he doesn't take care of himself, and if he doesn't model positive diabetes behavior, he's he's doing a disservice to his daughter and to his his entire family. So I think that it scared him straight a

Scott Benner 39:43
little bit. Yeah. Which oddly means that he didn't see what he was doing as okay for his daughter. It was okay for him but not okay for her. Right. And I think to take that a step farther for people who are listening who are adults who have type one and don't have haven't bumped into the thing yet that shocked them or scared them straight how you put it like, whatever, you don't really need that that's a false thing, you don't really need a thing to shock you into, you could just quite literally just decide to do it. And, and do it. I mean, that's that. Did your husband use the podcast at all? How did that go?

Megan Kenney 40:21
No, I don't think my husband's ever listened to an episode ever. So he is so disconnected from the diabetes community intentionally, I think. Whereas I've taken the total opposite, you know, direction, I immediately jumped in and make connections and started listening. And you know, all of that. He's just done his own thing.

Scott Benner 40:45
I'm so interested in that. I, yeah, yeah. I, there's part of me that believes that sometimes, people want to think like, Listen, I have diabetes, I'm gonna keep it quiet, I'm not going to make a big deal out of it. He didn't get to get me to where it gets. Those other people are sick. I'm like, You don't mean like putting it on him for a second like or not taking it away from him? Just anyway, I am different than the rest of you. And if I don't go find the similarities between us, I can continue to pretend that I'm different. Like, that's the psychological thing. I feel like I see sometimes. I can completely wrong, of course, again, no. I'm the guy sitting here that doesn't have diabetes pontificating about what people with diabetes think it's, it's just from my perspective, from talking to so many people.

Megan Kenney 41:32
Exactly. And I do the same thing. And this is why I get on followed on Dexcom share about a husband because I don't shut my mouth. And I give little like, you know, what if we raised your Tracy Barb, you know, unit or two? And he's like, all right, um, follow up. Like, I just,

Scott Benner 41:51
that's interesting, though. What Why would he? Why would he? I mean, listen, are you managing your daughter?

Megan Kenney 41:59
98%.

Scott Benner 42:00
Sorry, you You disappeared for a second? Do you said 98% 98%? Yes. So and she's doing well? Does she have more stability than he does?

Megan Kenney 42:12
I, I would say she heard her her numbers are typically lower. But she's more up and down than he is. I think that has to maybe do with her age and her activity level. And, you know, I'm still trying to figure out like, how aggressive I can be, because sometimes I overdo it. And we're definitely still I mean, we're only a year and a half in. So I'm, I'm really still trying to find that sweet spot where, you know, like, she still rises at night. Like she still has those things where like, I think sometimes because of our experience in our family with having, you know, an adult diabetes, and then people expect me to know what I'm doing. A lot of the time are people like people that I've met have come to me asking for what would you do in this? How would you Bolus for this? Or did it I'm like, truly have no idea because I'm still trying to figure it out myself.

Scott Benner 43:10
Yeah. Um, my thought kind of danced away from me a little bit there. But I mean, he

Megan Kenney 43:16
is. He's not like, control.

Scott Benner 43:18
He has a desk job, right? Yeah, he works in an office. So he could probably handle a little more Basal, because he's not that active during the day.

Megan Kenney 43:27
Exactly. Yeah. So that's when I give little my little, you know, my podcast inspired suggestions. And I think, you know, he, his eyes just rolls so far back into his head that I wonder if they will stay there. But, um, it's, you know, I think I, it's all for the greater good. I'm not saying you know, I don't give suggestions and do these things to be annoying. I know, I,

Scott Benner 43:55
you're right. You're just

Megan Kenney 43:57
No, no, no, not at all. Not like, oh, did you Pre-Bolus For that bowl of pasta, you know, I'm not doing that. But I think I just have seen what little tricks and, you know, tips has done for Charlie, that I'm like, Well, you can parlay that into your own, you know, tear and you might be able to see a market difference in a lower agency and more time in range and all of that but I also need to learn when to just like, stop talking because I can under I can flip it and see from his perspective, like, alright, nondiabetic like you keep giving me all your all your advice. So it's definitely like a i, i got, yeah, it's,

Scott Benner 44:45
listen, I completely understand that sentiment you just outlined Okay, nondiabetic Thank you, and I completely I completely understand it. And at the same time, I don't understand that at all. Like, who cares who gives you good information? Like, why does that matter where it comes from? Exactly like, as long as it's good information it is. And that's that, like, I, I'm fascinated by that, that wanting like, it's, like Think, think about what you're saying, really. He doesn't want to talk to other people about their diabetes, but he won't listen to somebody who doesn't have it, who might have an idea about it. Like it's an it's an isolationist, like, he's taken an isolationist footing, he's gonna He's gonna stay unto himself about it.

Megan Kenney 45:29
And right, it's like, if it doesn't come from the endo it, it doesn't work. Like he was the person. And I think also because mom handled her diabetes, and it was very much the same way. I think that that's definitely taken some. It's he's unlearning a behavior that is not working in his favor. So you know, I think, no, he's not totally closed off to it. And I feel like I'm making him sound like he's like, you know, a hermit like, no. Those were

Scott Benner 46:03
Dicers. No, no, we are dissecting a very small conversation, like tell him first of all right? Never gonna hear this, that doesn't matter. And it's, I'm sure he's a lovely man. I've seen a picture of money or Instagram, I'd marry him. And, you know, like, he seems like a good dad. So I, you know, I'm not I'm not, he's clearly not a monster. I'm, we're just we're nitpicking through psychology right now. Not him, you know, I'm using him to talk to everybody, basically.

Megan Kenney 46:32
I totally agree. And, and, you know, it is just, it's, it's this very interesting place where, I think because I manage Charlie so closely, you know, I think that I've, I just want to share what I'm learning through that and say, this, this could help this could really help you or really, you know, change your situation. And I mean, like, he's not on a pump. But he has said, like, once, maybe like, once horizon comes out, or, or is out, it is

Scott Benner 47:05
gonna be on the part five, they started to call it horizon. Oh, five, Saamy? Pot five. Yeah.

Megan Kenney 47:09
Okay. Well, when that he's like, I would really consider that, you know, three is that closed off to, to furthering his, you know, management and his his knowledge, I think it circles back truly to the fact that he wants to be healthy, and he wants to be in control, and he wants to be in good shape. But he also doesn't want it to take over his life, which I can understand. Like, in a weird way, no, I

Scott Benner 47:38
do, too. I, I completely understand I'm having these conversations, so that we can find the balance for people listening, not because there's a right or wrong answer. But because there are so many people listening, they're all going to have different perspectives, they're all going to have different stressors, they're all going to have you know, different ideas of what success is. And through these conversations, I just want them to find the path of the best thing that's for them. Like, I do wonder sometimes begging if people listening understand that I'm not an app solutionist at all, like I'm not saying anything's the right thing to do. I'm saying here are all of your options here are things to consider that you may not have considered about how your brain works, your psychology, the interplay you're having with other people, and and hopefully those conversations, bring something out of someone like I'm not silly, I don't think I can just say something and it's going to happen, because if I did, right, if I thought that Megan, a couple of minutes ago, when you alluded to not Pre-Bolus thing for pasta, I would have gone on a seven minute rant about that.

Megan Kenney 48:39
I mean, that was just an example. And he does now Pre-Bolus for pasta, I will say that he's he's gotten a truly sense Charlie's diagnosis gotten, I mean, exponentially better. But like his mom never Pre-Bolus for anything ever. Like she I remember vividly going out to a restaurant with her and she would eat her meal. And then she would go to the bathroom. And she would Bolus and I was like, thinking back on it now I'm like, that is in FINITY insanity. Like, I just can't, I can't imagine. But you know, I think it's just I've taken such a different approach. And I I feel like there's so much more information out there that people without the help of an endocrinologist can with obviously, working also with the Endo, but you know, outside of that you can you can learn so much and it's just amazing how different things maybe could have been for her care than they are for my daughter.

Scott Benner 49:45
Yeah, no, I understand. All right. Listen, I I appreciate the conversation. I appreciate him. I mean, letting you talk about it, although I don't know if he's letting you talk. But one day he'll listen You should not tell me yeah, I'll just make the title. It'll be something where he won't although I really want to call it Charlie Bit something. I'm like dying for you to say that Charlie is bit something in the next 20 minutes or so.

Megan Kenney 50:10
Bit. All of our fingers. Yeah, but she Charlie's pancreas

Scott Benner 50:16
does

Megan Kenney 50:19
that. Oh, that so winner?

Scott Benner 50:22
I think I have it all right. I just don't, I don't want it to be too convoluted. Alright, so tell me tell me a little bit about like, let's go back. You know you get done your friend Lauren you said right? Yes, thank you Lauren. But yeah, of course I didn't know we were gonna start personal shout outs during the podcast, but whatever. Well, she did. And I appreciate it. She gives you the stuff, you kind of get fast forwarded a little bit. How does Charlie manage who's your husband's MDI with Dexcom? So how was how was Charlie doing it?

Megan Kenney 50:56
So she's on Omni pod from the hospital. I started not really like a week after I immediately I got you know, the what is it the trial Omnipod I was already talking to insurance about Dexcom the endocrinologist was pretty open to to pumping early. Because I think, again, the fact that we kind of had an idea of what we were doing helped, but I think within six weeks, she was on Dexcom at Omni pod. Oh, wow. Okay, those were some terrible six weeks, I'm not gonna lie. She hated injections. It was some meltdowns. Like I have a very even keeled like, go with the flow kid for the most part. And I mean, behavior came out of her that I had never seen before. And I don't I fully understand why her world was absolutely rocked. But it was as a parent. I mean, I'm sure every parent who has gone through holding, you know, holding down a kid for an injection or, you know, it's it is heartbreaking.

Scott Benner 52:02
Yeah, I did not enjoy that.

Megan Kenney 52:04
No, and, and you had a two year old. Yeah,

Scott Benner 52:07
I used to sometimes I have to run after like, I'd have the needle in my hand. Like, you know, I just, I just had a needle so the needle in my hand, it's got insulin, she'd said, she'd look at me, she usually a big smile, but she just you'd see or feet or feet would plant and then she'd take off. Like, my God. Yeah, yeah, get out some big I'm like Arden, it's not gonna be that bad. It'll be over in a second, blah, blah, blah, come over here sit down for a second. And then she'd sit down. And, you know, the only thing I can relate it to is I've recently seen a couple of videos on YouTube, where this guy's giving these deep tissue massages. And the people he's doing it to are like squirming off the table to get away from it. He's reaching out and grabbing their limbs and bringing them back. And, and that's I used to, I used to have to like in the very beginning until she got accustomed to it. And she never loved it. But until she got accustomed to it, like you'd have to kind of lay over her. And you know, while you're doing it. This is not a good idea, like long term psychologically. Yes. It's not a good idea. And I'm gonna be scarred from this. To this day. Arden hates getting an injection. Yeah, if it has to happen. She's like, wait, wait, wait,

Megan Kenney 53:17
wait, we're not fun. Yeah. And I remember, like speaking, you know, and you said, it's not that bad. It'll be over soon, which is exactly the mindset you have to take in order to not cry have a mental breakdown every time you give a kid. Yeah. But in the hospital, I remember. She was she was so upset to get her fingerprints. And I mean, I was like, how bad can it be? I was like, alright, mommy, I'll do it first. You know, I put my finger. That thing was like, like a bayonet, like,

Scott Benner 53:46
as much fun as you were hoping.

Megan Kenney 53:48
I was like, oh, it's not that bad. My finger was bruised for like, three days, I was like, was throbbing. I said, I was like, you know, and I'm telling my five year old, you'll be fine. It is okay. But yeah, I mean, you do what's best for your child, and no matter the circumstance, but it is definitely one of those situations where I'm like, you know, I'm not living in your body. So I'm just gonna tell you that it's not that bad. But you might miss might actually really hurt

Scott Benner 54:17
making lesser of evil decisions, when it's for your kids is difficult. Because you're always in your mind imagining perfection or what, what a quality decision is maybe, and every time you kind of go below it a little bit, you feel like I'm not doing them. This is a disservice like the trade off between I know I shouldn't have like, I know it was wrong to pin down a two year old and give him an injection. But those were my options in the moment. Like this thing

Megan Kenney 54:47
that you got to do. And you know, she gets a little she needed the insulin

Scott Benner 54:52
right now. Yeah, she's gonna still eat I still need to put this insulin in. And by the way, using you know, for other context, I didn't know what I was doing back then either. They're like, on your worst day, with 10 minutes worth of listening to this podcast, you were a million times better at that than I was back then.

Megan Kenney 55:09
So I go, Yeah, and I'm like fully aware of that. Like, I again, think the fact that I am not currently in like a mental institution would be because I had this kickstart like, I think that the ease in which we've sort of absorbed diabetes into our lives is truly because of the people I met the podcast, and I think probably just sheer will, that we would make it work. But it's, I cannot imagine a parent who is in an isolated situation where they don't know anyone where they don't have the information at their fingertips, like, you know, just, it can be an isolating scary thing where and you know, thinking, I don't know what I'm doing and it has to do with my child's you know, health and well being is pretty terrifying.

Scott Benner 56:01
No, I I agree with you that it would be very easy to just crumble. And that's why I've never once made a judgment about anybody who has in, in any of these situations, whether you're talking about an adult who just can't hack it or children, parents, like it's, it's not everybody wasn't meant to fight a fight like this, you know? Or maybe you you could have been if you had more time or more experience or more maturity or whatever, like, you know, you know, different experiences leading up to it. I just think that my life right, my life was just so difficult that I was like, Oh, wow, yeah, this makes sense. That more difficult. Thanks.

Megan Kenney 56:41
Right. Yeah, absolutely. Add this to the pile.

Scott Benner 56:45
I guess. That's why I yeah, I'm sorry. I was just gonna say like, when they when you hear me on the podcast, say like, if the zombies come Come find me because I'm gonna be alive, but it's over. I just mean, like, you can take it. Yeah, zombies are not the hardest, like, the worst thing I've thought of like, it just, I've seen some, I've seen some stuff, you know?

Megan Kenney 57:03
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I mean, I think, yeah, it definitely hard to do quick, a little bit, you know, you have to be willing to be in some difficult, uncomfortable that you're not willing to, it's just the hand you're dealt, but, you know, there will be some difficult on, you know, uncomfortable situations. And, you know, I think so, my, my I have one sister, and she has a developmental disability, similar to Down syndrome. So, you know, we had a little adversity in our home growing up, and I remember my mom saying, you know, she still says it to this day, but people would like, give you advice and be like, Well, how do you handle this situation this way? Or why don't you just try this or, you know, and I never really understood, like, what that could do to you, and to like your brain, but then living with it and having people say stuff, you know, with, even just like when Charlie was diagnosed and being like, it's okay, like, she'll feel better soon. Or like, you guys will get through this. Like, you're, you know, you're really strong. People saying, Oh, I'm like, you're, you're, you're kidding. I guess are we not allowed to swear? Um, I just now that I've been in the situation. I'm like, How did? How could anybody ever say anything like that to anyone ever? They think they're helping you walk today. It's pressure. Yeah.

Scott Benner 58:24
You feel pressured to say something? Oh, what are you going to say? Hey, your kids got Down syndrome. That sucks. Like, you know what? I mean? Like, although I do think, yeah, perfectly honest. I think that would be better. Right? Like, wow, that sucks. I just think that

Megan Kenney 58:38
right? Yeah, a little bit of honesty and truth. Instead of like, you know, oh, my favorite is when people say like, oh, like, we're not religious people. So I don't know if whatever. But people, God only gives you what you can handle that kind of thing. And just say that to someone who is dealing with a situation. And not even diabetes, necessarily because you know, but any any life altering situation where you're struggling, and you're figuring it out, like I just don't, don't tell me that. Really hard.

Scott Benner 59:12
I love the opposite side. People never flip around what they say. So they can really feel the the intent of it. But so what you're telling me is that if I was a big dummy, my kid wouldn't get diabetes. Like that can't be true, can it? And exactly. I mean, if it can, are you trying to make me feel bad for the way my brain works? Like, I don't understand, like, I get the like, you can step back from it and see the idea. The idea is this. You can handle this. That's the idea. When it comes from a religious bend. It's Don't worry. God wouldn't give this to you if you couldn't handle it. Like I understand. I understand it. But in the moment, in the moment you're saying it, you've just told a mother whose child has been diagnosed with an incurable disease. Hey, you got this because you You were the right one for the job. It's like, Are you out of your mind?

Megan Kenney 1:00:03
I don't want the job. I want the job.

Scott Benner 1:00:05
Yeah. And yeah, yeah. Because the context of the rest of it is like, this isn't going to go away, you know, like the the pathway that I imagined that the possibilities that were held for my children feel at this moment, gone. Now, you'll learn later with diabetes, that that's not true. But you don't know that in the moment. You think it's over? You think the life you expected is on fire and you're watching it burn.

Megan Kenney 1:00:34
And that was the, in the hospital. We're sitting at Hopkins. You know, we have wonderful nurse and everybody's so great, and whatever. And Charlie goes to bed and I laid in her bed with her and wept the whole night. Like, inconsolable, just weeping, crying, and the nurse kept coming in and checking on me. Like, she was like, Charlie's fine, you know, like, she kept coming. All I could think I was like, Googling, like, when's the cure? Like what's happening? You know, I mean, this just pity party that I was, I was a mess. And, you know, I, I didn't know. I was thinking so far ahead that it was so not helpful in this situation. I was, you know, what I what I would have said to my former self was, let's just get through tomorrow. Let's just get through the next meal. Let's just get you know, but I'm like, she'll never have a sleepover. How will she you know, will she be able to Will you see her CGM in her wedding dress like, truly insane? Mind talk that I wish now in retrospect, like I could have had talked myself down from because it got me nowhere, except for just like a rash on my face, I'm crying. But I, I think that that is exactly what you just said, like, you know, if you think in the moment that life is over, that life is just there is what will you do next? And, you know, two weeks out three weeks out a month out, you know, six months out, you realize like, it'll be okay, she'll have a sleepover. Maybe it'll be at our house. But you know, she'll do all the things like, she went back to playing sports pretty much immediately. It wasn't. But in that moment, it is. It is gut wrenching.

Scott Benner 1:02:25
Well, we walked out of a carb counting class at the hospital, and my wife who's not an overtly emotional person outwardly looks at me, she's broken up inside and she goes, is Arden going to be able to have kids? And I'm like, My daughter, too. I wasn't ready to think about whether my daughter was gonna have kids or not. She's two. And I'm like, I and then you're in that moment, like, I don't know, what am I gonna say? Do I say something comforting? Or do I say something honest. And so I just went for comforting. I was like, Yeah, of course. But I was like, I don't know. Like, I have no idea about any of this.

Megan Kenney 1:03:02
But it's crazy how your mind goes there so quickly. Oh, yeah. It's like, this opposite defense mechanism where you know, you're, instead of taking one step in front of the other, your brain is just like, down this path of future situations that

Scott Benner 1:03:22
you've got her with retina. retinopathy already. In your mind. Listen, I had someone tell me, I think, again, something they thought was going to be comforting. I said, long term complications from diabetes don't come for like at least 30 years. Well, first of all, that's not true. Right. Right. And but but still, here's why it wasn't comforting, because my kid was two. And 30 is 32. Yeah, 30 plus two is 32. So what, like don't say anything like I get I get the I get the idea. I know what they were going for, they picked a number that seemed like it was so far in the future. And if you told me that when I was 50, I don't think that's good, either. Because what I might think is, oh, I won't really live to see bad complications. So I don't have to take care of this. But you know, like, there's, there's a lot of important about how you speak to people. And, and not only a lot of people think about it,

Megan Kenney 1:04:18
no, absolutely not, but I was on the Facebook group. Maybe yesterday, and which, by the way, the only reason I will go on Facebook, otherwise it is a cesspool. But, um, I was on the Facebook group and somebody had said something about, what do you sort of look forward to what do you what do you think about or research about to sort of look forward to for the future of diabetes and like, sometimes I'll let myself go there and be you know, sort of swept away by oh, maybe by the time Charlie's in college, you know, she'll be on an artificial pancreas or it'll be something where like, she you know, doesn't have Have the carb count and it's more of a a rote, you know, underlying Care Procedure and those kinds of things. I'll let myself go too sometimes. But other than that, it's just, it can just send you down a bad, bad hole.

Scott Benner 1:05:21
Yeah, no, no, it's not a good idea.

Megan Kenney 1:05:22
Thinking about the future. Yeah, thinking about the future in that way. It's like, it's not, it's not worth the time or,

Scott Benner 1:05:31
well, the baggage that I could create, yeah, because you could spend, you could be spending that time on learning real actionable ideas that would help you never reach that future. Instead of just worrying about it coming. The truth is, if you spend that much time worrying about it coming, and don't do very much about today, it might come like, look, exactly, let's be honest with everybody, you have type one diabetes, it's not great news. something bad could happen to you. Right? It could happen to you in a couple of years, it could happen to you in a couple of decades, it could happen to you never, I don't know, you don't know, there's physiology that's different between all of you different impacts that are different in your lives, you can choose to eat differently, you're gonna choose to exercise differently, there's some of you're going to smoke, some of you're going to drink, some of you aren't going to, you know, somebody right now has type one diabetes and doing heroin. Like there's everyone's making a bevy of different decisions. But but the best you can do is lower your time and range, increase your variability, get your a one C as low as you safely can Pre-Bolus your meals, stay on top of fluctuations, change your Basal when it needs to be changed, do those few little things, and then go live your life. And some of you are going to make it to 120. And some of you going to make it to 100. And somebody's going to make it to 80 and somebody is going to make it to 60. And there are people listening to this episode right now, who I personally know are listening, who were in their 50s and wondering how much longer they have, because they were diagnosed 30 and 40 years ago, before anybody paid attention, any of this stuff. So you can worry all you want. But if I was you I'd do something and and give yourself the best shot that you have. That's all I'm doing for my daughter, you know, I could jump on this podcast one day and tell you Something terrible's happened. But all I would have a solace is that we did the right things. We did them as soon as we could figure them out. And and this is this is it. This is the life roll dice. And this is how they come up. Maybe she makes it Oh, no, forever. And I don't know, you're not going to get a guarantee if that's what you're looking for. So Exactly, yeah, it's

Megan Kenney 1:07:46
just one. And I think that that's the biggest takeaway from you know, back to the podcast is being had getting those tools as quickly as possible to lower your chances of to lower your chances of bad things happening in the mean, it you know, sort of in the interim, is massively important just to, to jump right in, and I understand there's a, you know, a period that you're going to grieve and you're gonna be upset, and you know, have a time where you're figuring it out. But to be able to sort of take the information that is there and just do something about it, just take little steps, make little changes, and you know, do the best you can do every day. It's just It's I think that's been like, the truly the coolest part about this is there are obviously a lot of things that I don't have control of that we don't have control of with Charlie's health, Mike's help with everything, really. But the fact that we've been gifted these tools to help make it a little bit better every day is gives me a sense of peace.

Scott Benner 1:08:58
Good. That's excellent. That's really all you can do. You can't control the world, you can't control disease, you can't control your body, you can do the best things that you can do. You listen, if you've got the money, maybe you'll do some blood tests one day and think about it more deeply learn that your vitamin D is a little off that your iron is a little off that your b 12 could be here and make these little adjustments for yourself. There are ways to help yourself, but they're not magical. You're not going to take B 12 and live to 300. You know, like it's it's you can do small things and you know, you can get a little bit of exercise. That's a big deal. When Arden is exercising, she uses significantly less insulin. It's just that that's that's a big deal. It all it'll all add up if you're lucky. And most of you will end up being lucky. Like we people who are diagnosed right now. You know, who have access to this technology. You got a really great shot. You know, I mean a really, really solid honest shot at living Healthy Life. And to be perfectly honest, some of the healthiest people I know have type one diabetes because they're so freakin focused on themselves, that they're like aware of something the second it goes wrong, where other people get a pain and three years later, they're like, I should probably do something about this. So, yeah, listen, yeah,

Megan Kenney 1:10:17
it's being diagnosed in this in today's age with the technology and the, you know, at our fingertips is unbelievable. Like, you know, even this morning last night, we had a sensor failure, and we had to, so she totally slept all night without a Dexcom on and I kept waking up and panicking a little bit, and being like, it's okay, you know, it'll be okay. But the fact that we have the amount of information and sort of sense of, of comfort, knowing you know, I'm watching her she's a camp right now. And I'm watching her blood sugar all day. And it's just we're giving she's a better shot a good health. Exactly what you just said. It's just it's that is very comforting.

Scott Benner 1:11:06
Yeah. Why? I mean, listen, if you think you can control the universe, good luck. But I'd let it go. If I was you, you know, anybody who's who's out there, like, oh, I wanted it to be perfect. It's not perfect. So we give up, or we throw it away. Like that's, that's just ridiculous. Like, listen, I understand. I was a young person at 1.2. I was making plans to have a family. I never once while I was making this plan, I thought, Oh, I'll also have to consider what happens when this happens. Or this bad thing happens or a lady rear ends me one day, or I get up in my back really hurts. Or I get plantar fasciitis in my 40s and have a hard time moving

Megan Kenney 1:11:44
around. That hurts though. Yeah, plantar fasciitis is hard. It's

Scott Benner 1:11:47
terrible, right? Like and when it was very painful. I didn't know what to do you know it and you go to a doctor, and the doctors are, let's just say less than helpful. So I got rid of my plantar fasciitis with YouTube, and a $20 insole on Amazon. Like like it's not Oh, yeah, yeah. But I had been going to doctors for a while. And I was like, and I had resolved myself at one point. I thought, well, I guess I'm a person who doesn't get to move quickly anymore, or stand on their feet for very long, like, and then when you when that comes to you, if you're really thinking the next thing I thought was, I guess I'm going to die sooner, because I can't exercise as much. You know, like, I guess I guess I'm not gonna have the life I thought because my feet. And then I was like, This is ridiculous. It's like, I got to be able to get rid of this somehow.

Megan Kenney 1:12:34
There's got to be a Reddit sub page for this.

Scott Benner 1:12:36
Yeah, somebody must know, we've had some sort of success. And let me go find out. And honestly, that's the way I think about the podcast. If you listen to this podcast, and you think, screw you, it's not that easy. You know, I can't do it. Listen, everybody's welcome to their own thoughts. I prefer to see it as aspirational. I think if someone can do it, then someone else could do it. And that's it to me. That's

Megan Kenney 1:13:03
it. I couldn't agree more. Yeah. Well, I

Scott Benner 1:13:05
appreciate it. And if you did disagree, would you tell me, but that'd be great. If you're like, Scott, that was Yeah.

Megan Kenney 1:13:09
Actually, that's asinine. They're wrong. No, but it is. And I think that that paired with a sense of community and feeling that, you know, you're not added alone. And you know, it's just very important. It makes it makes a big difference. It's so important.

Scott Benner 1:13:28
Yes, it does. And so that's why I think people who find themselves in the situation that we discussed earlier, and I think a lot of people do about being isolated. I think that's a mistake. I think that if it, if you get online and see a person living with diabetes, and they make you uncomfortable, you probably should look hard and see if that isn't how you feel about yourself. You know, like, that's not um, it's, listen, therapy's not rocket science. I'm not saying I could do it. And I'm not denigrating the people who do but you are doing it a lot of common sense mechanism saying getting it

Megan Kenney 1:14:08
done is basically a form of therapy. Is it not?

Scott Benner 1:14:11
I believe everyone should have to pay me $40 A week like a copay? Yes. Way more than that. Well, hold on a second. Let me just do. I'm gonna do some math real quick. Already. times. I'm not gonna tell you how many people I think are listening. I'm just gonna do the math here real quickly. Oh, wow. If you guys could just do that. Do that for you? Uh, I gotta be honest. If you all did it one week, I might be gone. Yeah.

Megan Kenney 1:14:42
Yeah, you know can Kuhn in your in your new house.

Scott Benner 1:14:45
Oh, Megan. You're, you're not thinking big enough. I know how many people are listening? Yeah, no, no. Okay. Yeah. Hey, listen, everyone sent me $40. Done. I'm out of here. Though I would have to be honest with you, that was a big number. I just use my calculator if that amount of money magically showed up here tomorrow, be serious for a second. If

Megan Kenney 1:15:08
you left the podcast, then I would be to blame for bringing this idea up. And I would probably get some hate.

Scott Benner 1:15:14
I would probably get your ripped up on Instagram pretty good. But that's not what I mean. Yeah, well, here's what I was gonna say. If the amount of money I just saw, which, by the way was staggering, showed up at my home tomorrow, if you all just were like, alright, I'll give the guy $40. Like, if that happened? I would. I will first I would giggle for a few minutes, probably, then and then. And then when that was over, I would do very responsible things. And I would just double down on the podcast. I'd hire Oh, yeah, I hire animators to animate the episodes so that people who are visual learners could could understand them, I get lighting and start doing more stuff live, I would talk to more people, I'd go to more hospitals and talk like, I would just see that as is like, I can imagine the things where I could lighten my load right now. Like I could actually afford to hire a person who could edit the show with my sensibility. I love this. Right? Like so like all that would happen

Megan Kenney 1:16:12
wouldn't be that hard. And you know that the majority of people who listen to this podcast because of the invaluable valuable information that we've all gotten, they would be happy to do it. So the you should up at 250 all get 10% And

Scott Benner 1:16:26
why are you getting paid but it's got a pittance tax. Why gotta pay the tax burden. What are you talking about? I think when you think like I have a buy me a coffee page, where by the way people are, I should tell you this is the first time I can say this in a recording. I am sitting in a really expensive chair right now. That is so good on my spent a

Megan Kenney 1:16:50
little money for your birthday. I hope it I forgot to send a note though. Well, I

Scott Benner 1:16:54
appreciate that very much. But my back is 1000 times better over the last 24 hours from this chair. And it's it's it's Listen, it's expensive. I'm not gonna say it's not. And it's something because I grew up really broke. That even if I was looking at the money, and I was like I can afford to take this money and buy this chair, I never would have done it. Like I would have sat here in pain. Look at me, I chastise your husband for this 45 minutes ago and circle full circle. Damn it. And now I'm admitting to it. If the money was here, I wouldn't have I wouldn't have done it, I would have found something more important to do with it. Even if you would have said Hey, Scott, let me give you a couple dollars for the podcast. I'd help the podcast I'd help my pay my mortgage I'd send my kids to college I would me would be the last Holy crap. Look at that stop me would be the last thing I would do. Yeah. But because you guys all it happened on the Facebook page, some lovely person put up a post and said like, let's buy Scott a cup of coffee for his birthday. And then I think in the course of the post, when it really started doubling up. And I mean, if I'm being honest, like 1000s of dollars were coming. And I said, somebody asked me what I would do with the money. And I said maybe I would buy a chair. Because my back hurts. I sit I you know to make you guys this podcast, I sit here about seven hours, like about six days a week, like doing work you'll never see right? And once I said it out loud. And once the people who were putting the money in were like, Yes, get yourself a chair that would make me happy. That easily allowed me to buy the chair. And I'm a person who if I buy anything, it takes me two weeks to get to do it. Like I'll think I do need to Yeah, I'm the same way research it then I feel bad about it for a while. Then there's little self flagellation that I research it right. I'm horrible. Like I shop in a horrible way. I got this money. And now as crazy as it sounds, it felt to me. Like this is what people wanted. And it was okay then. And so I would make the people happy. click click click. And four days later, the chair showed up at my house. And it's amazing. Yeah, it has these tiny adjustments that you would never consider. If you just bought a regular office chair, like you know, Staples or something. And you just turn a knob and like, Oh, that's great on my back. This is amazing. And it's it's, I just I can't thank everybody enough. And now I've learned a valuable lesson from talking it through with you so pass on

Megan Kenney 1:19:28
taking care of yourself. Yep, I guess Mike's now scot free.

Scott Benner 1:19:32
Yeah. Whoo. Was that on purpose?

Megan Kenney 1:19:36
No, but now I heard it out loud and it made perfect sense lovely.

Scott Benner 1:19:42
For Charlie's name in this title. I can tell you that much.

Megan Kenney 1:19:45
I clearly unless she's like low man on the totem pole here.

Scott Benner 1:19:49
Does she love tuna? Because if she did, I would totally call it Charlie Tuna.

Megan Kenney 1:19:53
No, no, she doesn't. She is an excellent eater does not eat tuna though.

Scott Benner 1:19:58
Charlie doesn't need to and it's not a Exactly, uh,

Megan Kenney 1:20:00
no, that doesn't have that ring. That ring to it. All right? Yeah. Oh, but her pancreas did buy stuff. And that was very ready. Yeah. All

Scott Benner 1:20:09
right. Well listen, when I get back to editing this in a couple of months. That's what sticks out to me. I'll be like done. Is there anything we didn't talk about a lot we're hoping to talk about?

Megan Kenney 1:20:20
Um, I don't think so. Um, yeah, I think that was pretty much everything we did. It was lovely.

Unknown Speaker 1:20:31
Thank you out.

Megan Kenney 1:20:32
Sorry. If it was like, diverted? I think I, you know, my mic brought up a lot of

Scott Benner 1:20:40
you. Are you a type a Mac guy? Just a little? Yeah. Do you feel like their roles and we didn't follow them? Is that making you upset?

Megan Kenney 1:20:48
No, not say. Just go with the flow. Thanks for my $40 therapy session.

Scott Benner 1:20:54
Yeah, this. Listen. Here's, here's here's a free a free piece of advice for all of you trying to rip off my podcast out there. I see you. So anyway, you're doing it wrong. And you're doing it poorly, because you're adhering to this like, stringent idea of what you think the episodes are supposed to be. And I'm guessing when you try to divert, you just don't have the personality to hold it up. So oh, well for you. But yeah, for me, yeah. That part probably gets cut out and again. I don't know. Maybe not. I'm so bad.

Megan Kenney 1:21:32
I don't have a lot of like biters right now. I say stuff happening.

Scott Benner 1:21:36
You see a lot of what excuse me.

Megan Kenney 1:21:39
People like biting off your podcast.

Scott Benner 1:21:41
They try and but they're not good. I know. That's what makes it. Yeah, that's why I'm comfortable here. I'm not comfortable. I'm by the way, if you knew me, personally, I'm incredibly incredibly, incredibly competitive. So Well, there you go. Yeah. With myself, mostly. And the podcast being serious. The podcast means a lot to me, because of what it means to people. And I have, I've mentioned this before, but in the past I've seen I was gonna say Johnny come lately, but that made me sound like I was 1000 years old. So I stopped that he a bit. What, that's why I believe the truth of what's happening is twofold. I have ads, and people think, ooh, I can make money on this. I'll try it. How hard could it be to make a podcast? Well, joke's on you is really hard. And the second thing is, there are so many people trying to make money coaching people. And they're trying and then they they put it up on Instagram or online. They're like, I'm a coat. Usually, it's people who have type one diabetes and great abs. They're like, Yeah, I've got abs and I have diabetes, wouldn't you like to be me, and you know, and for $600, I'll talk to you for the next three months, or whatever it is they do to people, right? To tell them about Pre-Bolus thing, you know, or like, just, I don't know it, to me, it feels weird taking money from people like that. The guy who earlier said, if you just send me $40, I could I do see it differently. Like I I can go down that rabbit hole with you if you want to. But but I so what they do is they start these businesses, which I'm making air quotes with. And then those businesses don't do anything. Because I don't know if you're understanding this or not, but Instagrams not a business. So you, you know, if you have 1000 followers, you're going to be lucky to find 10 people. So while they do get people to coach, and they're probably making us I'd say a significant amount of money off of it. It's not what they expect it to be, they want it to be more. And a lot of them try to start a podcast. So they want to give you a tiny bit of information in the podcast and drive you back to

Megan Kenney 1:23:50
the coaching, right, get you to sign up for the next thing.

Scott Benner 1:23:53
It is a very common practice nowadays. And so I'm fundamentally against that idea for me, not for them, people could do whatever they want. I don't think it works. I don't think it's I don't like taking money from patients for information like patients or listeners in this situation. Like I'm very comfortable with advertisers paying so you can hear the show. But I'm

Megan Kenney 1:24:17
also incredibly expensive, like the little I've seen of coaching and all of that. I mean, pretty unattainable for most people.

Scott Benner 1:24:27
Yeah, they want a lot of money. And in the end, in the end, they're going to stretch out telling you this, get your Basal right Pre-Bolus Your Meals understand the difference of different foods stay flexible. You know, stop your blood sugar from going bah bah bah fuse and a Dexcom set your high alarms a little lower all the stuff I'm happy to tell you for free here. And right. I will tell you that sometimes I watched there's this one person I have in mind. My episodes come out and seven to 10 days later their content mimics what my episode was previously and I always laugh. I and sometimes people send me notes No, like, this person speaking, it appears to be Jenny's voice in a different voice. And I'm like, Oh, they use a lot of words, Jenny's did they? So, oh, my God, but it's just what it is. It's fine. Like, I mean, I think that's, honestly, it's, it's not nice, but I mean, it's flattering

Megan Kenney 1:25:25
and that people want to mimic what you're doing and what you've done and what you've been successful with. And the community you, you know, developed. But at the same time, it's like, if you have no original content, you're basically the selling like, you're pretty Instagram page, like, what? What's the point?

Scott Benner 1:25:41
Well, the point is, they're probably making probably making a few 1000 to 10s of 1000s of dollars a year doing it. So if you live in the right part of the country, I mean, listen, how much did you see that? Some of that going for? The coaching?

Megan Kenney 1:25:58
Oh, like, forgot, I mean, maybe like 12 to $1,500 kind of thing, maybe more, maybe 25?

Scott Benner 1:26:06
So so we'll say 1500 For fun, and put that on you getting 50 people a year to do it puts $75,000 Yeah, right. That's a living. That is a yeah, good living. And so, you know, I don't think you should have to pay $1,500 To find out how insulin works. And I'm happy to take money from companies so that I can spend all this time putting this content together. I also think in fairness, this podcast is a repository at this point, it's not just a couple of ideas, like, you know what I mean, like, there's a lot of information in here. And it mostly comes from people's experiences, which I don't pay for, and I'm grateful for, you know, like, you're, I'm not paying you to be on the podcast, and I will make money on this episode. But it, it's gonna allow me to buy computers, and it's, in the end, it's my time that allows the most because I'm a person and I have a family and bills. And if I am, I can't spend all day making you a podcast if it doesn't make money, because I have a family and I have bills, so I would have to go get a different Yeah. So it's pretty common sense, I think.

Megan Kenney 1:27:15
Yeah, I think that's yeah, common sense. But

Scott Benner 1:27:17
all of that will be moot when everyone's listening sends me $40 tomorrow. And I'm a millionaire.

Megan Kenney 1:27:25
Gonna have 75 chairs and

Scott Benner 1:27:29
chairs. I'm going to pay people to stand behind me and hold me up. Like with a sling, and they'll stand on either side. Yeah. Well, you podcast, I would imagine there should be somebody rubbing my back during that once this happens. It really is. Listen, there was a moment where a company came to me and said, Put your podcast behind a paywall. And we'll charge $1 An episode. That's very reasonable. They said people can afford that. They said, if everybody you know, it would have cost somebody $500 To listen to all the episodes. That's very reasonable. I was like, I don't think that's right. And the person says, how many downloads Do you have? And at that time, I had 3 million. And they go, Well, that's $3 million dollars, you know? And I was like, No, don't say that. I was like, but I don't say that, because I don't think it is. Because I think the minute you charged for it. A lot of people would say oh, I'd rather not. Or a lot of people might see an episode called Charlie's pancreas bit the dust and gum, they're not that. But, but then think of all the stuff they'd have lost in here. Like I mean, not this last 20 minutes, where you and I are basically just having a conversation on the phone together. But like, you know, like the, the beginning part about the psychological, psychological stuff and the interpersonal stuff. That's important. And if I call an episode, the psychological import of type one diabetes in family, Baba, ain't nobody gonna listen that either. So right, there's a way to get people to listen. And I think that any amount of money is a barrier. What I like to have $4 million. I would, but that's not how this work right? In my mind.

Megan Kenney 1:29:15
And yeah, and I mean, not that not obviously, you have to make a living and, you know, I understand monetizing it to some capacity. But you also are like, doing a service to this community that, I mean, is invaluable. You're like, it's like for the greater good of, you know, type one and for those who are struggling, and, you know, again, not to, not to say you shouldn't make a living doing it, because it's it's incredibly, you know, time consuming, and it's a full time job, I'm sure, but 100% It's an incredible service to all of us.

Scott Benner 1:29:53
I was happy. Thank you. I thank you very much. I was happy to tell an advertiser the other day well We were talking about 2022 already and, and I said, Listen, I feel really fortunate I have a job that I really like that I think it makes my life better. It helps people. And I make a living from it. I said, That's me, if you could have found me when I was 18, and told me one day, you'll do something you enjoy. That helps people. I would be like, Wow, that seems impossible. Really? Sign me up. Yeah, I'll do that. Right. So I think then, the numbers get weird. Like, is there a number in your head? Where you'd be uncomfortable? If I made that much money doing this? No, no. So you you find the podcast valuable enough that if if for some reason? I for some reason, everybody gave me $40? Tomorrow, you'd be like, good, good for him?

Megan Kenney 1:30:50
Absolutely, because you have the wherewithal to start it, you. It's just, it takes a certain, you know, personality and certain go getter enough to even put it together and make it make it make sense, and then make it accessible to all these people in the way that it's formatted. It's just, it's not, it's just done in a way that's so accessible. And why would I say, because you're having conversations with people who aren't getting paid, who are, you know, sharing their experiences with type of diabetes, that you shouldn't make, you know, an excessive amount of money, because you had the idea, and you created this wonderful platform, like, go ahead, I appreciate that, that I'd be thrilled.

Scott Benner 1:31:33
I'm pretty sure I'm never gonna make that much money off of it. But I want to be able to pay my bills. And I'd like to drive the car, I want to drive and stuff like that. It's not crazy, right? Nothing wrong with that. I will, I'll tell you this. You made a point a minute ago, that's so spot on. And people who don't have a podcast or aren't trying to build something would not know. But in the last 20 minutes, I don't know what made me do it, I reset my I reset the downloads in front of me there on another screen. And so I saw the number, and we spoke for about 20 minutes, and I reset them again. And in that 20 minutes more people have downloaded the podcast and downloaded it the first month it was out. That's amazing. No, but of course this that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying why I'm saying that is when you're busy. Getting 1000 downloads a month, you go ahead and try to find the enthusiasm to make more podcasts in 2015 to grow something so that it's at scale in 2021. That's a long term investment. I had plenty of times along the way. Where if all there, it didn't make any money, or if it made money, it wasn't nearly enough to sustain me. And so there were plenty of times along the way, where if I didn't care about how much the podcast appeared to be helping people, I would have abandoned it if it was just about money. Right. Right. It's just become. I mean, it's been popular for probably, I think it's been popular for ever, in context of what else was available, but it is overtly popular now, based on what else is available right now. And that's only been maybe for the last three and a half years. But oh yeah, I

Megan Kenney 1:33:22
mean, of all the newly diagnosed people that I've spoken to, in the last even say six months, before I even say and make sure you're listening to Juicebox Podcast like oh, yeah, our our endo told us in the hospital or, you know, blah, blah, blah. It's like, it's it's becoming? Yeah, common, like common place with a diagnosis, which I think I mean, I would think you would be incredibly proud of because it's, it's really Yeah, it's it's really amazing. And just the amount of content and information for people is it's overwhelming in a

Scott Benner 1:33:59
positive way, one of the one of the advertisers that I mean, it's the summer now and 2021. And I'm already having conversations about, like 2022 because the advertisers are excited to come back. And one of them said the other day, how did they put it that even though the show is seven years old, it really is in kind of its infancy still. And it's just starting to kind of blossom like right now. Like it's really like it's doubling over itself. Like it's just it's just jumping and jumping and jumping. And so, because it's easy for me to think, oh, seven years, how long could I possibly, like keep this alive? Not how long would I want to do it? I'd want to do it forever. But how long can I keep it alive? Used to be a big concern of mind? Like, right, I mean, like trying to anyone

Megan Kenney 1:34:52
like that now.

Scott Benner 1:34:54
Right? Yeah. Now it's about how long

Megan Kenney 1:34:57
are you going to be interested in it? Yeah, how long are you going to Want to continue this, you know, work and maybe once you can bring on, you know, somebody that did it or whatever, maybe it, you know, makes it the elongates the longevity of it. But yeah, I mean, I'm a small business owner and my business, I mean very different. I'm a graphic designer, but it's just growing a business no matter what it is, is incredibly hard work and non stop, you're never not thinking about it. It's, it's all on you. I mean, it's 100, you are the only person to look at when you fail. Like, it's it's a lot of pressure, especially when, you know, you're looking to make money.

Scott Benner 1:35:37
And it never leaves like like it growth is so steady. It's frustrating, like you just like, I've got to stop before. Like, I just want to wake up one day, one day and go, Why do I have so many more downloads today than I ever have before. Like, I've never, I have constant growth, which is great. But like it's never just made a big leap. And I mean, don't get me wrong. month over month, I've seen leaps of sometimes 20,000 25,000, which trust me is a lot. But still, like, I'd still rather have 5000 More this month than I had last month. 5000 next month, versus like that kind of thing. I'd like to see the steadiness of growth is important. But it's hard to be excited by it sometimes. Because you're putting so much effort into it. You know? Yeah, let's turn into a completely Yeah, podcast about

Megan Kenney 1:36:30
it's weird. The longevity of pocket?

Scott Benner 1:36:32
Well, you're and if you're a small business owner, what did you say you're making?

Megan Kenney 1:36:36
Well, I am a graphic designer, but I mostly do like custom wedding invitations. So it's like a very niche in the wedding industry is, you know, an absolute, just hard place to be. So and it's and I've had the business since 2011. I've grown it very slowly. But

you know, I made a name for myself and whatever. But it's like, the end the burnout is real, like, you work so hard all the time. And, you know, for sometimes it feels like for peanuts. And it's like, what's the point? You know, there come the days where it's like, what's the point? And I'm sure when you're seeing those small growth months that it's in the beginning when you were like, is this sustainable? But

Scott Benner 1:37:17
I'm sure you sit down, you're like, Oh, good. I'm gonna make another wedding invitation. Yay. Yeah. And then I find that taking breaks for too long is bad. Because if I like one time, I got myself way ahead. And I was like, I'm gonna give myself a week off. And so I didn't record for a week and I didn't edit for a week. And then I got back and I sat down. I was like, okay, like, how do I like so I just now I've learned if I take a break, when I come back from a break, it should go into an interview, because I love talking to people. It should not go into editing, because if it goes into editing, I saw like, Oh, dear God, you know,

Megan Kenney 1:37:56
so I did I do this myself. Yeah, I mean, I do. I feel like once you've like, seen, you know the light where you're like, oh, man, I don't have to, like Hustle so hard every day. I mean, then you go right back into it. And it's it can be jarring. But yeah, I agree. Agree.

Scott Benner 1:38:13
You were terrific. I really appreciate you doing this. And Thanks, Scott. I got some therapy. I was having me. I gotta go barely appreciate it. No, no, it's my pleasure. I have to go back and take out the place where you said, Can I set it? And then first I did I

Megan Kenney 1:38:31
first so then I was like, Oh, we can say because I had to actively clean up my language to for the for the families. And this is my, my language is not good. Like the other day, my son is four, four, yeah, four. And he hasn't got a new car. And he kind of like, he was in the back with us. And he kind of like gunned it, you know, like, seeing how fast you know, the acceleration was. And Jack my four year old in the backseat just looks at Mike and goes What the fuck dad? Like, perfectly. Like, on this. Like, it was so perfect that we looked at each other. We're like we can't can't be mad, because it was so well used.

Scott Benner 1:39:14
But, and I imagine you're modeling it pretty well around the house to

Megan Kenney 1:39:17
modeling it. Yes. I'm just seeing a bottle of behavior. Well, I got my journalism degree coming back in.

Scott Benner 1:39:26
Yeah, no, I am. I definitely. Listen. There's part of me that wants to curse on the podcast. And it's funny, I wouldn't do it that much. It would just happen like naturally if it was gonna happen, but then I get comments. Well, it would just it would, it would eliminate some people from being able to listen, so I don't want to do that. Right. You know, no, I totally agree. Maybe in the last year of the show, like the very last year when I'm like, This is it. This is the last year I'm taking the safe, just let it go. I'm just gonna I'll put an explicit tag on it and we'll just talk about diabetes with a lot of bad words. Anyway, alright. Thank you. much would you hold on one sec. Thank

Megan Kenney 1:40:01
you, Scott. Yeah

Scott Benner 1:40:14
A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, GE voc glucagon, find out more about Chivo Kaipa pen at G Vogue glucagon.com Ford slash juicebox you spell that GVOKEGL You see ag o n.com forward slash juicebox. Thanks also to touch by type one for being a longtime sponsor of the Juicebox Podcast. By now you better have gone to the bathroom. And if not, I went in there right now. Do you need fiber

thanks very much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

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#613 Beautiful Chaos

Bella Krueger comes from a family with eight kids, six of them have type 1 diabetes.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 613 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Hey everybody, welcome back. Today on the podcast, I'll be speaking with Bella. Now Bella has type one diabetes. She has eight brothers and sisters and including her. Six of them have type one. I know what you're thinking. I was thinking that too. Please remember while you're listening to Bella's story, 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. Are you from the United States have type one diabetes or care for someone who does? Would you like to help people living with type one? Would you like to do that in a way that takes fewer than 10 minutes? That is accomplishable from your phone, your iPad, and your sofa? If that sounds like something you're interested in, please go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox and join the registry. Fill out the quick survey. It's completely HIPAA compliant and anonymous. Just like that. You've helped the podcast and people living with type one. I recorded that in one shot right up to the music I was pretty impressed with myself. That's why I told you. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Omni pod makers of the Omni pod dash and the Omni pod promise, which I'll tell you about just a little later. To get started with the Omni pod. Where To learn more, just go to Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox. We'd like to say hello to Dexcom you can@dexcom.com forward slash juice box. Go find out about the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor. You will not be sorry. It is better beds. Fantastic. The lift ticket. Okay. OSHA's I made a board there.

Bella Krueger 2:13
Hello, my name is Bella. I'm a type one diabetic. I'm 20 years old. I've been a type one diabetic for five years now. And I'm fortunate enough to come from a family of eight big kiddos and six of us have type one. So we've had the opportunity of sharing our journey with diabetes. And it's just been an awesome experience sharing our story and hearing the responses from it.

Scott Benner 2:41
So Bella, you have seven other siblings. It's yes, there's eight your okay. So your mother made eight children with her uterus, other lady parts? Yes, she she wrecked right now. Like, is she just sitting in a chair? Like on a stand up? Or is she okay? That's hilarious.

Bella Krueger 3:01
Because when she tells people that she gets the response all the time like, wow, well, you look great. And she's like, I don't know if that's a compliment or not. Yeah.

Scott Benner 3:13
I'm like, How old are your parents? Are they both live?

Bella Krueger 3:16
Um, they're just they're just you're on 50? Whoa,

Scott Benner 3:19
okay, stop. Are you calling me from Utah?

Bella Krueger 3:25
No, I'm not. You're not Utah.

Scott Benner 3:27
Hold on a second. Can I let me guess? Close. Close ish. Super Catholic.

Bella Krueger 3:37
I mean, Christian, I'd say okay.

Scott Benner 3:40
I mean, you're trying to build an army for the Lord, what's going on?

Bella Krueger 3:44
I mean, that might be their intentions honestly.

Scott Benner 3:47
Didn't work out.

Bella Krueger 3:50
I think we still have some work to do for sure.

Scott Benner 3:52
Okay. Wow. Your parents are in. I'm 50. You saying that I'm a contemporary of your parents. It sounds like it and they've raised. Alright, let's be fair. Did they raise your did they just like, release you into the backyard after they made you? How did it?

Bella Krueger 4:09
I mean, I have to. I have to say it's got to be a mix of both. I mean, we all raised each other.

Scott Benner 4:14
Yeah. Where are you in the pecking order? Would you say where are you in the pecking order? You first last in the middle?

Bella Krueger 4:21
Oh, I'm dead middle number 555.

Scott Benner 4:26
And you're 20? Yeah.

Bella Krueger 4:27
How? So? I'm writing the ackward. Like, I can hang out with my older siblings, but I can hang out with my little siblings. And it's great.

Scott Benner 4:36
Oh my gosh, well, how youngest, the youngest?

Bella Krueger 4:39
The youngest. She just turned 11. And the oldest just turned 30.

Scott Benner 4:45
Hang on a second. You're frying my mind.

Unknown Speaker 4:47
So I know. Sweet.

Scott Benner 4:49
I think if I'm doing this right, I take 30 and I subtract 11 And that's the span of time your mom made eight children. Right Yes, in 19 years she made eight babies. Yes. I'm gonna curse Bella. Hold on. Oh, get out of here seriously?

Bella Krueger 5:11
Yes. And like two of them are Irish twins. Two so they're like the nine months apart. So literally one came out right against she was pregnant Joe does

Scott Benner 5:20
your mom never heard of like hand stuff? Right? Yeah, like every once in a while she could be like, it's okay, Bill. I'm just gonna You stay there. I'm gonna handle it. You know?

Bella Krueger 5:32
Right. Like, come on. We didn't I mean, I guess once the if the diabetes would have came a little sooner, maybe it would have slowed her down.

Scott Benner 5:39
You might have. I'd like to talk to her. I actually talk to your mom.

Bella Krueger 5:44
Yes, she is a super woman herself.

Scott Benner 5:47
I might I might. If your mom could take 20 minutes of crass questioning about her sex life. I'd like to get to the part where when kids started like making diabetes, like she was making babies if she was like, Oh, my God. So you said something important a second ago. This because I'm kind of tracking people's genealogy a little bit Irish.

Bella Krueger 6:07
A little bit. A little mostly German,

Scott Benner 6:09
German, German, mostly.

Bella Krueger 6:11
Alright, I got the Irish with the fractals. And there's a lot of us with the freckles. Mostly my dad's like all German.

Scott Benner 6:18
You have curly hair. Nope. No. Cuz you got the raspy voice.

Bella Krueger 6:23
Yes, yes. I always get that like I that's the one and Sophia starting to get it to have the little one. Use the

Scott Benner 6:29
thyroid issue.

Bella Krueger 6:32
No, it's just it's just the way like our voice like it's always been like that even as growing up as a kid people would always say like, oh my gosh, do you have strep throat? I am overcoming a cold. So it's usually not this drastic.

Scott Benner 6:44
Yeah. To generalize you sound like the friend that gets us to steal a car.

Bella Krueger 6:50
Well, that cannot be a compliment. No, it was hilarious though. We like we're recording these videos for a company and they wanted us to do a voice voiceover for it. And I did it just because I just was had the video on my phone and was like, it'd be quick. And I sent it over and she was like No offense. But could we have someone else? Voice on the video?

Scott Benner 7:15
I don't know what. I don't know what the video was for like vaguely what kind of company is it?

Bella Krueger 7:20
Oh, it was just for like one a like a diabetes app like ad for our Instagram.

Scott Benner 7:27
Hilarious. Hello. Do you have

Bella Krueger 7:31
to like cute little Sofia's face and then Hello, welcome. Let me get the vibe. They want

Scott Benner 7:38
sisters from the sentence. It's like Hey, Mom. Suck on the cigarette. Right? And it's yeah. Wow, that's funny. Okay, all right. Well, okay, who was diagnosed first.

Bella Krueger 7:52
So all started with the old like the second oldest, who's his name's Ben. He's 28. He got diagnosed when he was six. Okay. Yeah, and then from there, it's just I mean it his was just normal, you know, T one D symptoms like that. My mom just kind of said to the doctor, and the doctor was like, Well, that sounds like diabetes. And then from there on, you know, Maddie got diagnosed at three, Nick got diagnosed at four. And I got diagnosed at six Sophia got diagnosed at seven all kind of the same. You know, my mom was just like, Oh, they're peeing a lot there. Yep. Oh, this is it. Let's start checking their blood sugar's up there. Hi. Let's take them in

Scott Benner 8:34
to the eye. abetik How old are the two that don't have diabetes?

Bella Krueger 8:38
So Chris is the oldest he's 30 now and he does not have type one. So it's looking pretty good for him. And then Harrison is 15 and he as of right now does not have type one but my mom is not thinking that'll last very long.

Scott Benner 8:57
He just he just he just my questions are does the young one just cower in a corner like with a ticking clock behind?

Bella Krueger 9:04
Yes, he genuinely does and like my parents are so I think we're also at this point hyper like, sensitive hyperactive to this, we want to like we're always like, check your blood sugar's now like, let's just see. And he's no, he's no, no. Get that away from me. Like, he just wants no business in it. He's like, I want to wait until as long as I can. And that's kind of I was the same way I didn't get diagnosed until I was 15 years old. Which was super real

Scott Benner 9:33
make it like what was the feeling like when you were growing up? You like it's gonna be me. It's not gonna.

Bella Krueger 9:39
It was I mean, yeah, that was it was earth shattering to me. It was It honestly was because I was I was petrified of needles. Because growing up, I'd seen all my siblings being chased around with insulin needles. Like, you know, I was like, this is the one thing if I don't get diabetes, I will do anything like I will do it all. But if I do, like it'll be the end of Me, and then I got it.

Scott Benner 10:03
I have a question about your oldest that doesn't have it like this he Yeah. Um, I guess I'm kind of being serious for a second, I was gonna make a joke, but I want a serious answer. So I want it. Do you think that he feels like badly that he didn't get it? So far?

Bella Krueger 10:22
I think that those feelings have started to come out a lot more. Just because we have been like sharing our story on social media and getting sent stuff from diabetic companies and getting that sort of recognition all of a sudden. But before that, I think we kind of never really noticed. Yeah. But now I would say for sure. And even Harrison, I would say feels a little left out sometimes, too. It's crazy. It really is just because it's like the majority, you know, it's all of us, except for just them too.

Scott Benner 10:56
Do you? Do your parents have any autoimmune issues? Are there any my dad

Bella Krueger 11:00
has psoriatic arthritis, but that's it. Not anything with my mom.

Scott Benner 11:05
Gotcha. Anybody have Alzheimer's going back?

Unknown Speaker 11:10
No. Not that we know of. Okay.

Scott Benner 11:13
Interesting. Wow. Do so, this all started around the around the 2000s. Right. Yeah. Okay, so, management. That's that's still 20 Some years ago. That's yeah, that's not terrific. Like that's meters and needles. Right? For your? Uh huh. Yeah. Okay. But is everybody managed similarly? Or do that? Like, are there like, six different insulin pumps and six different meters?

Bella Krueger 11:47
Yeah, so Well, the three girls use the tandem. I use an omni pod. And then the boys use injections. Interesting. Yeah, so the reason the reasoning with that is like, sort of this weird, you know, the doctors suspected me and Nick had Moti for a long time. And we got tested. And it was I mean, it was false. It was negative or whatever. And we're just on a such a, we're a lot more insulin sensitive. So Rita, I don't need this constant. You know, I the only thing that motivated me to get a pump was just because I was too lazy to do injections. Okay, but even like, with a continuous Basal rating, it has to be so low because I'm still so insulin sensitive. My carb ratio. So one unit to 20 carbs today, and I've been Yeah. Which is? Yeah, like it's an compared to Anna who's like, I want to say one unit to every 11 carbs. 10 carbs.

Scott Benner 12:52
Are you super active?

Bella Krueger 12:54
I mean, I would not say any more than I would say my sisters are more active than I am.

Scott Benner 12:59
Okay. All right. I was just wondering if you were just very athletic or something like that.

Bella Krueger 13:03
Yeah. No, see, like, that's the weird part. I'm not like, I mean, Nick. It's Nick was very, like, he was a varsity track athlete went to state for track, like, very, very active all the time. So it kind of made sense for him. But me, I think it's more just being like, just this little girl and like just going to not getting eating right. Like, I think that played a role in it a lot in the beginning of college. Okay. And that's what they kind of suspected too. But here I am still with that one to 20 ratio.

Scott Benner 13:39
Oh, no kidding. You're still in school, I imagine, right? Yeah, yeah. Are you away? Yes, sir. Yeah. Are you? Do you go from home?

Bella Krueger 13:48
I'm away. I'm like three hours away from home right now.

Scott Benner 13:52
How did your parents afford that? Or did they just they look at all they don't? I would imagine. You just you pull them all together at one time. And you go, Hey, listen, I don't know if you guys have figured this out or not. But you're paying.

Bella Krueger 14:05
Right. See that? Yeah, that was the thing that you guys should probably do that. Yeah. Not realizing, you know,

Unknown Speaker 14:13
what are you doing? Yeah,

Bella Krueger 14:14
I mean, they they helped me out freshman year, my first year. But other than that, I'm just doing loans.

Scott Benner 14:20
Yeah, you and your you guys are all on your parent's insurance, but the older ones aren't. But, but most of

Bella Krueger 14:26
yeah, all of the oh, I guess the last diabetic or the first diabetic just got moved off, but the rest of us are

Scott Benner 14:32
interesting.

Bella Krueger 14:34
Yeah, he's had problems with that too. Which is frustrating.

Scott Benner 14:38
I have to ask you a question. I'm not joking about like, Are your parents like broke? Like this thing financially just the diabetes, like ruin them? Or do they have such a like, are they make a decent living and it's not like,

Bella Krueger 14:50
um, I would say they have very good they have good jobs. Okay. Alright, so it's Yeah, pretty good.

Scott Benner 14:57
I would say you're not fighting in the corner for the last cleaning needle or something like that?

Bella Krueger 15:01
Yeah. Oh, no, no, no. Okay. Well, yeah. Oh yeah, my dad that we're I'm so grateful for that too. That's another thing. They're both my mom works in the medical field and my dad is like a computer sciences engineer. But they're both so on top of like the insulin stuff like it's crazy like to think like I I made some tic tac one saying we ran, I had to restart my Dexcom because we were out of Dexcom. And the comments were like, Oh my gosh, how often do we have like, never run out of insulin or anything before, which is so crazy until COVID. Like, it had never been a problem until like, the first time we ever started to actually have to think about that was just when COVID started. And then we actually had been like, oh, okay, we're actually running low now before we get our next month supply but usually had been just, he's there. So on top

Scott Benner 15:54
of it, are you guys all in varying kinds of insolence?

Bella Krueger 15:59
No, we we just switched over now. We kind of had been but now we're all on no blog.

Scott Benner 16:04
Alright, so they're everywhere. Okay, how many vials of Nova lager in the refrigerator.

Bella Krueger 16:13
I wish I had like, I wish I could just display a picture right now. 100 probably, like, Well, we still we have I mean, we still have some insulin pens too. So we'll have like our great assortment of like, probably seven insulin pens and are opening up the fridge. And then we have these like 3d printed by my brother like places you can put the vials and we probably have like their six in those and we probably have like three of those lined in there. So that's

Scott Benner 16:43
are they separated by person? Are they just in a big pile and you just pick out of it?

Bella Krueger 16:47
Big pile? It doesn't matter,

Scott Benner 16:49
Bella that's what I would do big pile look like Yeah, yeah, seriously, if that many people were using no vlog, I would just like put it is it in like the deli drawer wherever you put it something like that.

Bella Krueger 17:01
It's in like though we have like it open, you press a button and it like separates and opens the like milk kind of compartments for your fridge. And we have a kind of just like taking over that side of our fridge. We used to have our own separate fridge for all of it in the basement when we were all on Lantis too. Yeah, because we'd have just like, double the whole normal fridge full of old and like it was insane. It's crazy. Yeah, but then now with some of us moving out, we were able to condense a little bit.

Scott Benner 17:29
How many children did your parents have when the first person was diagnosed?

Bella Krueger 17:37
So Ben was diagnosed at slummy do some math, but Ben was diagnosed at six, so they must have had

Unknown Speaker 17:47
four.

Scott Benner 17:47
Wow. And they still did four more. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 17:54
Yeah. Wow.

Scott Benner 17:55
I almost said something really inappropriate. I really, like a sentence popped in my head. I was like, Well, I'm never gonna say that on the podcast, not even bleep out. in case somebody, like could even figure out what I was thinking. But no kidding. Alright. You've said a lot of crazy things already. I I need to absorb them for a second. So let me just ask about you for a little while. What was it? What was I can't think about the whole brood at the moment. It's overwhelming. I know. Right? But and somehow, you've it's like a rule of comedy somehow, like you've done something so many times. Like it's hard not to be amused by it even though it like you know what I mean? Like, I've lost the horrifying aspect of the idea that eight of six of your eight siblings have type one diabetes. It's it feels like, not comical. Do you know what I mean? Like it's ridiculous.

Bella Krueger 18:54
Yeah. And that was our whole idea was they were like, Why do people not know it was like, we need more people to know.

Scott Benner 19:01
Yeah, that's insane. Are you guys like turning it into like an influencer thing? Or like, how are you? Like, yeah, that's

Bella Krueger 19:07
kind of the direction we're planning on going with it. Yeah, right now we just have so we have like, just our Instagram page and our tic tock page. And we started it during COVID. And I mean, it's been going great. I'm really proud of the work we've done. We've we work for we contract. We're contracted and advertising work for three companies now. And it's just yeah, it's been a great experience. Just learning and being in the diabetic community socially is just, it's great.

Scott Benner 19:39
I have to see. Cuz I know you would think like Scott knows. I don't know, what's the Instagram account? I don't pay attention social media. So

Bella Krueger 19:47
Kriegers plus T one d.

Scott Benner 19:49
So it's okay. Or are

Bella Krueger 19:53
you EGRP s

Scott Benner 19:57
s? T one?

Bella Krueger 19:59
Yeah. yours and then plus P L u s t 1d.

Scott Benner 20:03
I typed it wrong. Hold on a second.

Unknown Speaker 20:07
I think we follow you,

Scott Benner 20:08
I'm sure. Listen, if you don't, first of all, and as I just said, I don't really use social media, then I'm like, I'm insulted if you don't. Wait, hold on. You spell it again. I'll type as you talk.

Bella Krueger 20:22
Okay, okay. Are you E G, E, R? S? PLUST. One D.

Scott Benner 20:33
Now I have it. Okay. All right. Hold up a second. All right. I have one here. It's well lit. You're in a park. There's a small girl flexing in front. Are you the girl on the right?

Bella Krueger 20:49
Way? Let me look.

Scott Benner 20:52
Give you a little red your hair.

Bella Krueger 20:54
Um, maybe if you call that right. Oh, no, I'm the left. I'm the littler one.

Scott Benner 20:58
You're all the way on the left and that one? Yeah. Oh, I see the Omnipod on your belly.

Bella Krueger 21:01
Okay. Yes. Yep. And then the middle one. So that's the youngest.

Scott Benner 21:06
Oh, it's so crazy. Bella, your voice? Won't. Let me think that that's you? Do you see what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. Cuz you sound like you're 35. And you've been divorced twice.

Bella Krueger 21:21
And you know, that's what my life kind of feels like.

Scott Benner 21:24
Yeah, it feels like you know, things because of your voice. Do you? Let's be serious for a second. Do you find that people take you very seriously, like when you talk to people stop and listen. Is that something

Bella Krueger 21:38
they see in firms?

Scott Benner 21:39
Well, yeah, I have the same problem. Like you hear me here. I do as much business as I can over the phone. Because yeah, I have like a commanding, like, vocal presence. But in real life. I'm an average hated, reasonably attractive, not attractive guy who should lose 20 pounds. And when you get in person, there's no, the gravitas is gone. Does you know what I'm saying by that?

Bella Krueger 22:07
Yes, yeah. No, no, that's the same thing with me. I mean, you see me I'm this tiny little girl. Yeah. What does she have to say? If I

Scott Benner 22:15
saw you? I'd ask if you were lost. And we know Yeah. Are you okay? Your mom? Honey, where's your mother?

Bella Krueger 22:25
Oh, I get that all the time. Like when I'm working at the bar, where I work at?

Scott Benner 22:29
That's gonna be a mind shift for people. You work at a bar?

Bella Krueger 22:34
Yeah, I do. I'm a bartender in the summer and then at school. I'm just a server.

Scott Benner 22:40
No kidding. Okay, yeah, that all flips me out. That's crazy.

Bella Krueger 22:44
My favorite is you're allowed to serve alcohol.

Scott Benner 22:47
Yeah, I wouldn't let you in the building. What do you think? Like if you had a boyfriend, it would make me upset. Oh, I

Unknown Speaker 22:54
do. Yeah. No, I

Scott Benner 22:56
mean, unless he was like this little wirey kid, and then I'd be like, alright, that's her boyfriend. You know what I mean? Yeah, you know, they're not that, like, you know, they're less masculine. You know, how you like, young girls do it sometimes. Right? They pick like kids who are not threatening at all. They're almost like girls, but with a mustache. And you know what I'm saying? Right? Yeah, okay. Yeah, I'm not making that up. Oh, for sure. Oh, my gosh. All right. Why do you all have diabetes? Alright, so have you been like, have you guys done any, like testing? If you all done? Like, it'd be super interesting if you did, um, trial net, for instance. Yeah,

Bella Krueger 23:36
I know. That's what we want to get into. It's something that we really, I mean, just since, since COVID, is really when we've been talking about it. So it's like when have we had the time, but we do want to do more. But the only testing I know, we got a certain testing done when we were younger. I was trying to get ahold of my mom before this to ask her about it. But we did get testing done. We went to Chicago for something as kids. I don't know what that really entailed. But then, in addition to that, when I was when I was 15, but right before I got diagnosed, I got my antibodies tested for diabetes. And the doctors called me literally I kid you not as I'm sitting in like, third three months later, or whatever. I'm sitting in the doctor's office getting my diagnosis for diabetes, and they call me and they're like, oh my gosh, like we have the best news ever. We got your antibody results, like you have a 13% chance of getting diabetes. Like you're not gonna get it.

Scott Benner 24:36
Like you should try and live it in my house. Yeah, I

Bella Krueger 24:39
was like, Oh, that's funny. I'm here in the day. The doctor's office with my diagnosis literally in hand.

Scott Benner 24:45
Dude, if you guys got a hamster it would get diabetes. What do you think of that? Oh, do

Bella Krueger 24:49
you want to hear something crazy? You're not gonna believe this. Go ahead. Oh, our dog.

Scott Benner 24:54
Of course he does. A boy or girl I'm sorry. It's a boy. Of course he does. Yeah. It might be floating in the air I know it's not generally something we think of is communicable but maybe in your house it is. Wow, your furniture might have type one Have you ever tested yourself? Just yeah, we might have to poke it and see what's up. No kidding your dog has to Does your dog get insulin? Yeah, dude, tell me your

Bella Krueger 25:21
I think Lantis oh no insulin Lantus at night insulin in the morning. Okay,

Scott Benner 25:26
all right. Listen, tell me your when the dog when did the dog get into the dog get diabetes?

Bella Krueger 25:33
I want to say like, I think this is like an ongoing joke and I call my family like all the time and I'm like, so we actually diabetes like this isn't like any does like I watched my dad give him insulin shots all the time. But it just like happened like one day we just started checking his blood sugar's like when he was peeing a lot. And my dad was like, he has diabetes.

Scott Benner 25:55
Did your parents here's how I imagined this going down. We learned the dog has diabetes. Your parents walk into a private room. You hear screaming and banging and then they come out with a smile on their face is that I mean, I would be like there's no way I can't like why, like what would oh my god, do they feel cursed? Do you think?

Unknown Speaker 26:16
I would I? I would think they could like because I? I do. Do you? Interesting?

Bella Krueger 26:22
Yeah. Like even like, like our families joke would just sound like ongoing joke of all the baggage that happens to us. It's just like beautiful chaos. That's what we constantly call it. Yeah, that's what we are. Do you

Scott Benner 26:33
ever talk to your parents about how they feel? You're kind of young you probably don't?

Bella Krueger 26:39
I mean, I Yes. I think we're I'm very I'm very close with my mom. Okay, like, we're all super super close as a family. And I think it's just like, she always gets a little emotional, like, especially when we're struggling a lot. And it's like, even I remember like, cuz I got diagnosed the peak of teenage girl. So I was I was pissed. Yeah. And I think I took a lot of that out of my parents. And I think I didn't really think back to like, collect done that until like, one day when I was like a freshman in college. And I was kind of trying to figure out my iPod. And I was just so frustrated. I like called my mom one day and I was ranting about how like, you know, I couldn't my Omnipod died. And then the insulin, whatever, blah, blah, everything that goes wrong. And she just kind of like got really sad. And she was just like, you know, I could hear her crying on the other side of the line. And, and she's just like, if I could have it. And you know, if you did, I would if I could have diabetes, so bad, where and none of you had it, I would do that every day. Like, and I just, I mean, it makes me sad because it feels like I feel like she's in this point where she doesn't have it. She doesn't have any autoimmune diseases or any health problems. But here she is with six kids that she can't really do anything for except support.

Scott Benner 28:15
I think the unknown part of diabetes may be the thing that I dislike the most, when you can't be certain of what the blood sugar is or how fast it's moving, or if it's moving and what direction it's moving in. You know, when you just see that static number, and you don't know what else goes with it. Speed direction. Well, the Dexcom G six can help you with that. So why don't you say goodbye to that confusion, and hello to Dexcom. Without finger sticks, the Dexcom G six allows you to see your glucose readings right on your smart device, or the receiver that you can get with the Dexcom this is for Apple and iPhone. It offers completely customizable alerts and alarms. And you can share it with people up to 10 Actually, up to 10 people of your choosing if you like can also see your blood sugar. That means you could look at your sons or daughters or husbands or wives or just have a friend watching your back. You can get started today with dexcom@dexcom.com Ford slash juice box. When you have the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitoring system. diabetes treatments and diabetes management decisions become much more. I don't know in the background maybe I didn't want to say easier but it's definitely better. With just a quick look at your device. You can find out what your blood sugar is. As I was saying that I opened up my iPhone to see that my daughter's blood sugar is at three. I can actually look back with a swipe of my finger and see what it's been for the last 24 hours. The last 12 hours last six hours like That's three hours in the last three hours Arden's blood sugar has not been over 123 and it hasn't been under. Looks like yeah, it looks like 83 is about it right now. Had she left the zone that we marked off, we would have gotten a little alert, which I did because I have Arden's high alert set at 120. So way back about three hours ago when she was 123, I saw that we made a slight adjustment to her insulin, and now three hours later, nice and smooth. She's 83 dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. Do not wait another second. Go say hello to Dexcom. You know, I'm going to stop being so obtuse Hello. Dexcom is a free sample program that Dexcom has, when you go to that website. If you leave that site without requesting a Dexcom this little pop ups gonna come up in front of you. And it's gonna ask you if you'd like to request a sample, they call that sample case, hello Dexcom. It comes with everything you need to try Dexcom for 10 days, Terms and Conditions apply. But if I was you I'd head right now to dexcom.com Ford slash juice box. The Omni pod tubeless insulin pump provides nonstop instant delivery through a tubeless waterproof insulin pump called a pod, all with no multiple daily injections. With the Omni pod, you're going to get three days up to 72 hours of continuous insulin delivery and freedom. With these innovative features. The Omni pod is wearable, meaning you can place the pod almost anywhere you'd normally inject on the pod is waterproof. So you can take that pod anywhere life takes you like the swimming pool, the shower or a bathtub. How about you want to go jump in a lake and go jump in a lake with and I'll leave on. And it's tangled proof. So you can forget about those tubes that traditional pumps have getting caught on doorknobs, kitchen cabinet drawers, everywhere that that tubing gets caught. If you're wondering if the only pot is right for you, if you have type one, type two diabetes, if you're a parent and a caregiver, or if you're a young adult or an adult using insulin, I think Alibaba might be right for you. And Omni pod has a promise they like to make you if you're one of those people was like I don't want to do it now because I'm waiting for that next big thing from Omni pod. I'm gonna wait a little longer. You don't have to wait. Because with the Omni pod promise, Omni pod promises you that you can upgrade to the latest technology that they have as soon as you want. And it's available as long as it's covered by your insurance. Upgrade away baby Terms and Conditions apply. Head over now to Omni pod.com forward slash juice box to make yourself you know, familiar with everything that I'm talking about. See what you think. And then you can get started today my link AMI pod comm forward slash juice box xcom.com forward slash juice box links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com. I've got a tiny bit more music here. So let me remind you t one D exchange.org. Forward slash jukebox go take the survey the music's coming after me

let's get back to Bella, shall we Bella, let's get back to

I don't need everybody's personal details. Okay, but are you all reasonably good at diabetes? Or do people are there's some of you that struggle and some of the you don't like I'm trying to like trying to find out if there's a dichotomy where you know, your sister has a five three, a one C and your brother has a seven nine a one C or like you don't I mean? Like is it? Or do you guys just have a system that you just use and it works for everybody?

Bella Krueger 33:54
I would say it's very, my parents approach to it all I'd say we range I say there's a very, there's a little bit of a range. And all of us we all are different. We all manage a kind of different I think my mom and my dad, like have kind of learned that we have to figure it out as much as they're gonna nag us and they're gonna watch our sugar and they're gonna do this and do that. They figured out that if they do that, that's just gonna make us not want to do it. And I think I think now we all have a lot better relationships with diabetes. But I think it was a very long journey with a lot of struggle for everyone.

Scott Benner 34:39
Well, I would imagine that it's easy to be listening to this. And then it seems like a sitcom. You don't I mean, like a poorly written sitcom, or like we'll give, we'll give everyone diabetes, even the dog. And you know, and it could, it could be easy for people listening to sort of build a narrative in their head where you guys just it's a harmonious thing and everybody's used to it. But the truth is, is it's the same for Everybody, there's just six of you. Like, and by the same I mean, just like for the people listening it, you know, there's hard times and good times and sad times and that's happening for six people. And then the other two who are probably just scared shitless that they're going to get diabetes at any second. Yeah. Do you have any other? Oh, yeah. There anything other pets besides the dog?

Bella Krueger 35:21
We have another dog too.

Scott Benner 35:23
You should let it go. I know just open the door and let it run. We

Bella Krueger 35:27
tried but he's crazy, too. He's got his own problems got diabetes for probably close

Scott Benner 35:32
and no one has any other autoimmune issues. I

Bella Krueger 35:42
I wouldn't even say that. Oh, well,

Scott Benner 35:44
would you say Bella?

Bella Krueger 35:47
Well, I've had a lot of health issues, I got diagnosed with UV itis, which is a very rare autoimmune disease.

Scott Benner 35:54
I mean, do what I have to Google it, you're always in trouble UV itis,

Bella Krueger 35:58
right? No one knows what it is. It's like I'll even Google it right now. So I can get a better definition. But this is just I got all these autoimmune diseases leading up to my diagnosis, basically. But um, UTIs is the most common type is an inflammation of the iris. So it was the weirdest thing like I just woke up and broke out and lesions on the left side of my face, and my pupils dilated. And I was super sick and I had a horrible headache. And then I started to not feel the left side of my face. So I went into the ER, and I had UV itis

Scott Benner 36:39
when I'm reading makes it feel like that it's something caused by something else though. Like, do you give Crohn's? No, no.

Bella Krueger 36:49
tested negative. There's not celiacs nothing like I was brought. I probably have been seen by seven doctors and in all different types of fields, like going through the diagnosis of like, tell me what's wrong with me and no one knew. No one told me anything. The

Scott Benner 37:06
causes listed here are so crazy. Like there are a number of things that I can't pronounce. No, like, right let alone words I haven't seen

Bella Krueger 37:16
and the craziest thing is I got it again. And people like when I got it again. The doctor by my ophthalmologist was so like this never have like, I've never seen this. Even get it in the beginning but to get it again.

Scott Benner 37:31
Yeah. Lyme disease. Nope. tested negative syphilis. That's like, isn't that something that happened in the 1800s? That people still get? Yeah, that's

Bella Krueger 37:40
like something I remember from like, a show. Like she's, like old show. Yeah, don't

Scott Benner 37:44
touch boys. Syphilis. Yeah. Have you ever eaten cat poop? toxo plus, oh. You're funny. you've ever had TB? Zika.

Bella Krueger 37:57
No, not at like, I mean, I guess I don't think I mean, I don't think so. But I got tested for most of the stuff.

Scott Benner 38:04
No kidding. And you don't have juvenile idiopathic arthritis? No, who hears the word I know from Grey's Anatomy, sarcoidosis. sarcoidosis. Sir, could I damn now I'm saying oh my gosh.

Bella Krueger 38:15
That's why new syphilis from because Alex gets it. Did he? Give it to all the nurses? Are you kidding

Scott Benner 38:22
me? Oh, sagen. Alex Karev. Anyone who's laughing at me right now for knowing the last name of the character on Grey's Anatomy. I mean, did you think I was kidding when I said I knew stuff. I am not seeing anything with a wait. Yeah. Yeah. I'll be damned.

Bella Krueger 38:43
One of the earlier episodes.

Scott Benner 38:45
All right. I think syphilis, okay, you know, it makes people go blind. I think now I'm just talking about things I know from television. Hold on. Oh, by the way, Syphilis is not funny if anybody listening has it. I feel very badly. Okay, Bella, so you have that going on? And it's happened to you twice, but been cleared up twice. Do you start getting that feeling when things reoccur? You're like, Oh, yeah. Like I'm a person without like, I'm gonna have autoimmune problems. Like I'm gonna get sick. That does it make you feel that way when you get something that crazy?

Bella Krueger 39:23
Oh, I mean, yeah, I think that was my life senior year of high school. I just, I mean, so sophomore, senior year ever since like, since it started. It just didn't end.

Scott Benner 39:33
Yeah, you just feel really sick. Yeah,

Bella Krueger 39:37
I mean, I think it ended when I went away to school and fun there was like, I'm done with all the tests in the broken on the product and you guys aren't doing anything and I'm just gonna figure myself out. Yeah. But I mean, because then I got the UV itis. I was fine, whatever. And then I got diabetes, and then I was fine and then got super, super depressed Got uveitis again, and then I broke out and bruises like all over my body. They could not find a cause for that. I saw so many different doctors. No one could tell me like I wasn't anemic wasn't. Celiac wasn't anything. Finally, the doctor told me that she thought I wasn't eating enough vegetables. So

Scott Benner 40:24
I've given up. Yeah, broccoli.

Bella Krueger 40:28
Yeah. Okay. Like, as I'm like waking up with bruises, like, up and down my neck. Yeah, but, um,

Scott Benner 40:36
yeah, brothers and sisters have other stuff.

Bella Krueger 40:40
Not really, not really, the only thing I can really think of is like, Nick, I know has a little bit of like a heart problem.

Scott Benner 40:48
Just a little touch of the heart.

Bella Krueger 40:50
Yeah, going on there.

Scott Benner 40:53
Um, thing going on. But that's how you know that everybody in the house has something going on? Because you just my brother might have a thing with his heart. It's hard to recall.

Bella Krueger 41:04
It's like very, very minor. No, it's

Scott Benner 41:06
a small hard thing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's all fine. Don't worry about Well, I mean, I do think that goes to the what can happen to you when you're living in a situation like this all the time? Where Right? Like, I imagine your family's like one way or the other, either everyone panics every five seconds or the house is on fire. And you guys are just like water shows almost over? Like, why don't we stay in wants to till the end? Like, like, are you guys super chill? Or?

Bella Krueger 41:36
That was a perfect explanation. Yeah. We're just kind of I think we're all so used to this chaos that it doesn't even faze us anymore. Where but I wouldn't go as far to say as we're chill. We're all very, very opinionated, very strong personality. But I think we've kind of learned to handle it. Yeah. And I think a lot of it's coping with humor and like yeah, just taking it head on.

Scott Benner 42:12
Is anybody seeing Do you guys ever see like do talk therapy or psych psychiatrist or anything like that?

Bella Krueger 42:19
We saw a family therapist for a little while. But it didn't last very long. But others Yeah, I know

Scott Benner 42:31
because you didn't pay for it because you couldn't afford it with the charge.

Bella Krueger 42:36
We would go after we met our deductible obviously so you guys must meet it. We meet the deductible like February's

Scott Benner 42:43
I was gonna say you must meet your deductible on January 6.

Bella Krueger 42:47
No, yeah, I think we did one year, like I think one year we hit it before January was over.

Scott Benner 42:53
No. I would imagine I've Arden's Arden's go. There was a time before February she met her deductible one year.

Bella Krueger 43:01
Yeah. Yeah. So we must you guys.

Scott Benner 43:05
There must just be a bell that rings like after midnight that ball drops. And then around 1215 Your mom must have an app on her phone is like, Oh, we met our deductible or this lovely. You know, at least I'm drunk.

Bella Krueger 43:16
Yeah, we constantly have like, how stop though. Like, we're all like someone's always breaking an arm or something.

Scott Benner 43:24
I guess by the pure odds of it right? With eight, right? Yeah. But not your mom. Your mom's super healthy.

Bella Krueger 43:30
Yeah, she's gotten she's the lucky one.

Scott Benner 43:33
Interesting. Boy, it is super interesting. You know, your your story is so uncommon that I broke a rule to have you on the podcast, like I have a personal podcasting rule. And I, I broke it so that you can come on here like I don't usually like wow, it's um, you when you went through the questionnaire form you had been on another podcast already. And I don't know which one. I'm not asking you. It's not the point. But normally that's, that's a no for me. Like, just because I don't want to duplicate. So funny.

Bella Krueger 44:03
Because I thought that would like that you wanted people with experience? That was my mindset? No. Yeah. I don't know. I don't even know what I was hundreds of podcasts. To be honest.

Scott Benner 44:16
You don't know if what you were on was a podcast?

Bella Krueger 44:19
Yes. I don't know really what it was. It was like a talk but. And I was like, Well, what do I do? And I called my dad and my dad was like, well, it'll probably look good. I was like, okay, tell

Scott Benner 44:29
your dad. He got that backwards. Well, I will speaking of it, which if he got a couple of things backwards, he might have four kids. But that's not the point. Really. And if you got that joke, I love you. And I'd like to adopt you and I think I could help you. I will. I will raise you the rest of the one year until you're 20

Bella Krueger 44:50
Okay, you have the rest of it. You just take the credit.

Scott Benner 44:53
Yeah, that's all I'll be like, Look how well we did. It was really me at the end. I came in and and tidied everything up. But But no, seriously, I don't. I just don't want to duplicate conversations. And and generally speaking, if you listen to this podcast, you realize that the people who come on are not people who have Instagrams or tic TOCs. For the most part, they're just people like they're really regular people. And right, you can even tell, I think, in an endearing way, in the first 10 minutes of most episodes, most people are nervous, because this is not something that they're accustomed to doing. Oh, yeah, I actually don't like it when people are very practiced and show up. It's not, it's not as much fun and I don't think it's as listenable. Like for mine. Yeah, at least. But yeah, like I just didn't want, but I couldn't. I didn't know how to say no, like six out of eight of you. Like, yes, please come on the podcast and explain all the crazy things that happened in your life. How did you? Did you reach out to me? Or were you voted by the other five? To come on?

Bella Krueger 46:00
Oh, I reached out to you. Well, I guess bolts I reached out to you. Because I had her listen to one of your podcasts and or like I'd seen someone posted all about it. Listen, listen, listen, I forget which one it was I would have to look. But I just knew I was like, Wait, this is like the number one diabetes podcast guys. So then it was like during COVID. And me my dad, like went through and we're listening, listening. And I was like, how he saying would it be if we got on this? And my dad was like, Well, might as well just try. Yeah. And I was like, okay, like, Haha, like, thinking nothing would come of it. Right. Like, I didn't know how this all worked. It so then we just kind of set the email and then you responded, and I was like, guys, let's do it. Yeah, I mean, it's, it was kind of just between the girls right away, right? And then they just were like, Bella, you do it?

Scott Benner 47:01
Oh, no kidding. Well, listen, it's no less insane than the fact that your mom didn't start sleeping with a with a lacrosse stick after her third baby. Cuz I would have done that. I hadn't been like your dad even like, move towards me. After three kids. I would have like just punched him in the face. Right? How many kids were in your bedroom growing up?

Bella Krueger 47:25
We switched a lot. But, um, at one point I shared room there was three of us in a room. But that was the most I ever got to Okay. How was that I always shared a room until I had my own room. senior year of high school for like, a few months which was awesome. Fancy.

Scott Benner 47:43
Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night to your parents in a bedroom treating a low blood sugar for a sibling?

Bella Krueger 47:51
Oh, yeah. Every night.

Scott Benner 47:54
So do your parents like as your your kids are growing up? i My assumption is if you think about like one person who has type one, right, and you look at the ebbs and flows of a week or a month, going through, you know, just regular diabetes stuff or like hormonal stuff, that kind of thing. You know, growth hormones having high blood sugars overnight. So even if one of their kids was like, super stable, I mean, the odds of all all of them being stable at the same time. Like is your mom a vampire? How does she sleep?

Bella Krueger 48:27
She doesn't I swear. Like she really doesn't. Hmm. And your dad she worked third shift. Growing up like all when we were kids, she will always would work third shift and then, like, get home and be like, Okay, let's get ready for school. Like, I swear the woman. The woman doesn't sleep. It's possible.

Scott Benner 48:45
She's on party drugs of some kind. Yeah. I mean, like, just keep it rolling. I really do think I want to talk to your mom.

Bella Krueger 48:56
I'm sure she she she's a lot like me. I get my, my personality from her.

Scott Benner 49:02
Yeah, you tell her when we're done with this. If she's interested. She's on. Oh, I

Bella Krueger 49:06
will love to. She has lots of funny stories. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 49:10
don't want to talk to your dad. He's a sex addict. What you know what? That was sexist. Maybe it's your mom. Maybe? Yeah. Was your mom coming over that side of the bed? Your dad was like no, not

Bella Krueger 49:22
again. Funny dynamic.

Scott Benner 49:24
Oh, you might wait. Maybe I have it backwards.

Unknown Speaker 49:28
I don't know. I

Scott Benner 49:29
don't think about it. I can't wait to ask your mom that question. Like now I'm picturing your dad, like with his hands crossed over as you know, and he's like, I can't do it anymore. I'm not again. First of all, I'm still sore. And secondly, I can't afford this. You gotta stop. Oh my gosh. She says Do you think they had as many children as they wanted? Or do you think they stopped Because of the diabetes.

Bella Krueger 50:04
Um, no. Yeah, my mom we are actually my mom was pregnant with the ninth one. Oh, wow. But she actually had a miscarriage. Okay. I'm sorry. Yeah. No, I mean, yeah, but I think she had eight siblings too. I mean, she always says they never talked about how many kids they wanted ever. And never was. I was like, maybe you shut up.

Scott Benner 50:23
Yeah. Hey, how about being responsible?

Bella Krueger 50:27
Yeah, right. She always says that they never really talked about it. But she loved having a big family growing up. And it just happened. Yeah.

Scott Benner 50:36
I wonder if she loves it. Now. I know. That's a hard thing for you to think about. But I'm gonna ask her. Yeah, I there's part of me that thinks your mom's gonna get on here and just really get real quiet and go, I made a mistake.

Bella Krueger 50:51
I did the wrong thing.

Scott Benner 50:52
I love my children. But I clearly have made a mistake. Oh, my gosh, that is really crazy. Yeah. All right, seriously, it's your job now to get her on my podcast. I'm leaving. You admitted

Bella Krueger 51:05
to it. I'll make it happen. Okay, thank

Scott Benner 51:06
you. What, what about your life? Do I not understand? So I don't know to ask about? Like, what is there something like when you look at other people at diabetes, and you see them online, and you hear them talking about their lives, you hear people on here? Is there something that you guys have that we don't know about? That doesn't exist if you're not in this specific situation?

Bella Krueger 51:33
Oh, Mike, what do you mean, something just don't know. Right?

Scott Benner 51:36
Yeah. I mean, is there something you know about the world that I don't know? Because you live with six type ones? You don't I mean, like it might not be, but don't get me wrong. Like I just, I'm trying to decide you guys.

Bella Krueger 51:49
I mean, I would say that the biggest thing this is all taught me is that life isn't meant to go how its planned, because we don't know how it's planned. And there isn't a plan and there isn't a playbook and there. And I learned that it comes at you as fast as it's gone. And as much as it once and in life isn't really happening to you. You're just in life. And if you're gonna sit there and be like, well, this sucks. This happened. And then this happened. And then this happened. And then this happened to like, you know, it's just, that's not how we're done living life like that. Yeah, it sucks. We have eight kids, six of us have type one diabetes. But you know what that happened? And that's our life. And it's great. And I think that took us a very long time to learn is that life isn't against us. Life isn't doing this to us. Life isn't punishing us. Like, it was just our luck. And maybe it's not good, but it doesn't mean that our life is gonna forever be this battling of every bad thing that constantly happens to us. You know?

Scott Benner 52:57
Yeah, I, to me, it's just you the combination of your parents make babies with diabetes. It's just as right

Bella Krueger 53:04
as their genes. Yeah. Genetics?

Scott Benner 53:08
Well, I think I think that's really thoughtful because it does appear to me when I speak to people, and even in my own life and talking to people I know, personally, excuse me one second. I'm sorry, oh, wait, it might not be over. Dollar have fallen. The heat's on in here. It's wintertime, I'm dry. I'm sorry, it occurs to me that everyone sort of, you know, we lack the, like historical knowledge of the world. When we're born, which is reasonable, you wouldn't come out knowing that, you know, 400 years ago, something happened 2000 years ago, something happened, you know that people have been living lives billions of times over and over again, forever and ever. But when you come out, it all feels so possible. And and like you're going to, like there's no reason not to think you're not going to be the one. You know what I mean? Who just skate through life, and you're super handsome and money's falling out of the sky, and you can't decide which guy to go out with, because you're so terrific. And everyone that comes to you is so terrific. And life's gonna be wonderful. And you'll be super smart and probably be happy and probably own a home near a lake for the summertime. And like all that stuff that feels like it's gonna happen to you know, most people when they're born. And then when that doesn't happen, and it's around health. It's super shocking. Like, it's less shocking when you look in the mirror and you go, Well, I'm not the most handsome guy I've ever met in my life, like, alright, that's fine. And I guess I'm not going to get much taller than this. That's okay. And that guy's more athletic that may and that's fine. I'm good at this. Like you start like melting into yourself a little bit, which is how it goes but the health stuff is just, it just feels like it shouldn't happen. Right, you know what I mean? Like, it just, my daughter gets diabetes. And I think like, no way this doesn't. This doesn't make sense. Like, like, we, you know, my wife and I, we grew up pretty broke. And we were building the thing. And we had a little boy and he was, you know, cute and doing well. And he wasn't perfect. But, you know, like he was, he was pretty great. And we had a crappy house, and we were fixing it up and starting to make a little more money. And then you think, okay, we had another baby, and it was a grown up. Oh, wow, look, we have a boy and a girl, not like your parents. So I was pretty done. You know, I was a boy and a girl, we're good. You know. And then just, you know, she has a birthday party one year, and we're getting ready to go on vacation, which wasn't something we you didn't grow up doing. We didn't have, you know, we had finally made a little money. And we were going to take our little kids on vacation. And, and then the next thing you know, a week later, I'm sitting in a hospital somewhere. And there's like 1000 tubes coming out of Arden. And I was like, Wait, like what happened? Like I did all the things I was supposed to do. You know, I'm a good person, I worked hard. I pulled myself up by my bootstraps. And I made a family and now this and it's just It's unfathomable. You can't wrap your head around it. And

Bella Krueger 56:14
and I think that was just the perfect way to say it. Like, that's exactly where we have been for so long as a family in that mindset. Like, on top of diabetes, like diabetes is just the surface of everything. Like it is genuinely just the surface of our chaos, and having to deal with everything we dealt with every day. And then on top of that, get this chronic illness. We were just like, you know, we felt defeated for sure.

Scott Benner 56:44
Yeah. Did a doctor do anything fun for your mom, like create a little punch card? Like a sandwich shop? Oh, no, every time she comes in,

Bella Krueger 56:55
I think doctors think she's insane.

Scott Benner 56:58
Why?

Bella Krueger 57:00
Because she'll cut like, for me when I was going through everything right with my health conditions. She told every doctor, she has type one. I know. She got like, I know this is all gonna be type one. Yeah. And they were like, No, nope, nope, You're crazy. You're crazy. It's not genetic. Just because all your kids have it, ma'am. Doesn't mean she's going to get it to like. And I know I don't know if she didn't want me to share this. But

Scott Benner 57:26
that's definitely the stuff we should tell me good.

Bella Krueger 57:29
Um, she Nick and Maddy got diagnosed when they were three and four years old. And she gave them a little bit of insulin. And notice they started to not really need it anymore and stopped giving them insulin. And they tried to call social social services on her who did like the doctors or something like I haven't really gotten the whole story. But Nick and Maddie went into a honeymoon phase. So Maddie was diagnosed at three Nick was diagnosed at four. Maddie didn't need insulin again until 11 or 12 years old. And then Nick didn't need insulin again until he was 18 years old.

Scott Benner 58:02
Oh, wow. Geez. Yeah.

Bella Krueger 58:06
And they were like, calling my mom crazy telling her like that we they were like withholding care from them. But like, my mom was just like, I have diabetics. I know that. They they don't need this insulin right now. And if I were to just decrease it and they make big they could extend their honeymoon phase, you know? Um, but yeah, so I think my mom that's another thing that she's really had to deal with is like, doctors never think she's educated enough to say anything

Scott Benner 58:39
crazy. I would think she would know. Do you guys all word CGM? Yes. Are they? Libre or Dexcom? Which are you? Dexcom. Everyone has a Dexcom on? Yes. Your mom is calling six people on Dexcom.

Bella Krueger 58:56
Yeah, are well the oldest direct diagnosed got just got kicked off our parent's insurance so he's had a few problems getting Dexcom but I know he just got some so you should have them.

Scott Benner 59:07
That's weird. That Oh, wow. Is your mama drinker? Does she like I'm not even kidding. Like, does she Yeah, self medicate or she like, like,

Bella Krueger 59:18
she gay. Every day did you say?

Scott Benner 59:22
No? Is she okay? Every day? Oh, she okay.

Bella Krueger 59:25
Not every day ever.

Scott Benner 59:26
Look at your mom and think like, my mom needs a hug.

Unknown Speaker 59:31
Oh, yeah. Yeah, she does. Okay.

Scott Benner 59:34
I would. I'm just saying if I was a very strong woman. Yeah. I mean, she probably has all of your health in her head.

Bella Krueger 59:43
And yeah. Oh, and more. Yeah. And

Scott Benner 59:46
I'm saying I'm imagining she stares at all of you wondering what's gonna happen next constantly.

Bella Krueger 59:51
Yeah. And I think even just like, with all of us, too, with each of us individually, it's like, oh, yeah, here's our diet. But then oh, here's all this other stuff too, that we, you know, so it's like, yeah, here's like, half of her brain is like our diabetes and then half of her other brain is everything else she has to worry about about us. So it's just like, yeah, the woman ever thinks about herself.

Scott Benner 1:00:14
You're still people too, right? Like she is. Yeah, even just taking her out of the equation for a second. Like you wanted to go to a prom? Probably you probably dated. You probably played sports, you probably struggled in school. Like all that stuff still happened? Yeah. And on top of that, all these kids have type one diabetes. Right? No kidding. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, she has to come on the podcast. If she doesn't, I'm gonna be disappointed. Personally.

Bella Krueger 1:00:41
I will make her I'll make it happen. I'm

Scott Benner 1:00:43
holding you responsible, actually. Oh, my God. Okay. So well, is there anything we didn't talk about that we should have talked about?

Unknown Speaker 1:00:56
Trying to think

Bella Krueger 1:00:58
any last minute power? I wouldn't say unless you have any questions that might spite something? Yeah, I

Scott Benner 1:01:08
have to tell you. Like, I don't think this has been a whirlwind for me. So I don't even I guess this is just usually the point in the conversation where I'm like, Hey, Did we miss anything? You know, and make sure that make sure that we didn't, I'm not even saying we're done talking yet. I just want to make sure that I'm not like, like glossing over something that you think people should know? Ah, what would you let me ask it in a question. Hold on a second. Let my brain work for a second. Let let Okay, hold on a second. Let it turn turn back up again. I got lost your mom's thing? In my mind. Okay. Are any of your siblings talking about not having children?

Bella Krueger 1:02:00
Not that I know of,

Scott Benner 1:02:02
have you ever had that thought?

Unknown Speaker 1:02:05
Yeah. Okay.

Bella Krueger 1:02:08
Um, I definitely want to be a mom. And I think the hardest thing that with with the thought of not having my own children, the only thing that I struggle with is just the idea of seeing my face and someone else like I obviously, and someone I love, like, that's just something I've always wanted, since I was a kid. But the idea of giving, putting someone through what I've gone through willingly, is also another thing. I don't know if that will sit as well. Yeah. But then I think a whole nother thing. You know, my mom, always my mom always shoots down those thoughts. is, I mean, type one is known to skip generations as well. Which is true. So there is that chance that our kids won't have diabetes, but I guess that also puts in the thought that well done, are their kids gonna have diabetes? But I don't know. And I also think that another thing that we have to think about with that thought is the technology that we have right now for diabetes compared to the technology that we had, even 10 years ago, even five years ago. Yeah. So where are we going to be when I'm thinking about having kids like I am, you know, yeah, so there'll be a cure.

Scott Benner 1:03:26
Are you are you thinking of using Omnipod? Five when it's available? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Are any of your siblings looping? Or

Bella Krueger 1:03:40
they do though, they have all that on the tandem IQ? Cuz they have the tandem.

Scott Benner 1:03:45
Okay. So they are doing control? I don't want them.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:50
Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:03:50
okay. Hmm.

Bella Krueger 1:03:53
They love that setting.

Scott Benner 1:03:54
Yeah, no kidding. You might like it too. We'll say. I know. Yeah, that's really great. Do you date? Yes, I have a boyfriend is that is that hard to like, when you're dating? Like when do you say to somebody I have diabetes?

Bella Krueger 1:04:11
That's a question I get so often. And I've been in same guys since I was a senior in high school. Wow. And I didn't really have to deal with that. Because my when I got diagnosed, I was super open about it. Cuz like my whole family had it. So I was just like, Yeah, I've diabetes blue. Like, this is funny. This is cool. Like, I'm just gonna make a big cool joke about this and everybody's gonna now know that I've diabetes. So it was a lot different for me because like, I never really had to deal with that. But I think now in college, like I've had to, you know, like tell my roommates I have it and tell like new friends and stuff, which is kind of been an experience but even yesterday, I was talking to this at my work, who said he was talking to this girl, and she texts him and they've been talking for a while now. And she was like, I need to talk to you. Like, I need to tell you something serious. And the guy was freaking out thinking like, she had an STD or something. And he goes over there, and she tells him, she has died. She has diabetes. And I guess the girl was so worked up like crying, like so nervous, and telling them like, yeah, like, I'm like, I'm so embarrassed to say this, like, I have diabetes. And I was like, that just made me so sad. I was like, That poor girl should not feel any shame. Like, she should not feel like she's telling this guy, something that's earth shattering. You know? Which is like something. I mean, I haven't really had to deal with it and all honesty, but you don't feel I think? No, I think that it's something that people should just be like, it's just like, as if you. You know, like you I know. You want to say like, if you were allergic if you were gluten free, like, you know, yeah. It's just hey, by the way, if I'm seeing on the floor, I need sugar. You know, like, it's something you the people you surround yourself with should know. Right? And I don't think it's something that people should be embarrassed about.

Scott Benner 1:06:16
And if the person you're telling isn't up for it, I mean, that's good to know. Honestly. Yeah. You know,

Bella Krueger 1:06:23
Oh, for sure. And I mean, I think that speaks violently to their characters well, and no shame. If you don't want to date someone who has a chronic illness. That's your business. Yeah. But, you know, then that means okay, clearly that person isn't cut out for you, because you are this in humane person who can deal with all this stuff? And if they that's not their life, that's not their life, but you'll find someone who is

Scott Benner 1:06:44
I agree with you. Yeah, I really do. I just, I was just wondering, like, what's the perspective was?

Bella Krueger 1:06:50
Yeah, I think it's, I mean, I think that's a big struggle, though. I think that is a very big question in type one diet, like for diabetics, especially girls, you know, you know, a

Scott Benner 1:07:00
lot of your story makes me want to stay alive another 50 years and keep making the podcast because I want to come back and find like, like, what happens to all of you after you get married and have your own kids and stuff like that? Right, you know? Wow. Oh, my gosh. Do you think you'll stay close to home or do you think you'll move away?

Bella Krueger 1:07:21
I always thought I'd move away. Okay, but I'm thinking I'll be home. They can stay close.

Scott Benner 1:07:29
Can you tell me like what state you're in?

Bella Krueger 1:07:31
Wisconsin? Oh, okay.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:33
Yeah. All right.

Bella Krueger 1:07:35
And I love it. We love Wisconsin.

Scott Benner 1:07:38
No kidding. Is it you don't mind?

Bella Krueger 1:07:43
I hate it. But I love the four seasons.

Scott Benner 1:07:45
You hate the cold. They love the four season. Yeah, I gotcha. My brother moved there a long time ago. He never came back.

Bella Krueger 1:07:51
Really? Yeah. See? I'm having a great community here.

Scott Benner 1:07:55
Yeah, he does seem to really enjoy it, actually. All right. Well, I appreciate you coming on and doing this. I appreciate you kind of like being the mouthpiece to kind of encapsulate everybody's dig generalized story. It's, it's a lot, even just to understand, do you do you feel overwhelmed, or do you feel okay,

Bella Krueger 1:08:18
I feel okay. After. That seemed like, I got a good amount out. I hope it wasn't too overwhelming. No, I feel like I got a good summary for us.

Scott Benner 1:08:29
Yeah, no, I do too. Actually. I just wanted to make sure you're like, it's a lot to recant. You know, I mean, like, and you're not upset while you're talking about it? Did you generally Yeah.

Bella Krueger 1:08:39
No, I mean, I think I'll emphasize it again, like diabetes is just the surface. So it's so easy for me to talk about, because it's something that we've been able to handle and deal with, versus other things in our lives that we've just kind of had to, you know, let boil out itself and fix along the way, diabetes is something that we have control over.

Scott Benner 1:09:03
Do you almost not see it? Is it almost invisible? Because it's so present? Like what, you know, you know, how you don't walk into your living room and like, acknowledge that your sofa is there? Because it's there. And you don't mean like, it's not? Yeah, it's diabetes like that.

Bella Krueger 1:09:20
Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I think I mean, even with that, with you saying that, I think that's where the problem with me caring for my diabetes almost comes in, because it's like, it's so normal. It's so you know, so it's almost like, I forget sometimes like, oh, wait, I need to actually do this though. Yeah, I know. It's like, I'm constantly talking about it, constantly talking about it, seeing it, whatever. It's just all comes so normal to me, like, I don't see an insulin pen right away and think, Oh, I probably need to give myself insulin.

Scott Benner 1:09:57
Let me which

Bella Krueger 1:09:57
has been hard.

Scott Benner 1:09:59
Well Tell me about that. I'm sorry.

Bella Krueger 1:10:02
No, just I mean, just getting diagnosed later go. I say, you know, Yeah, cuz

Scott Benner 1:10:06
you had enough of a life before you really do remember not having type one. Right? Yeah. Okay. Do you? Do you have? Has it ever happened that you're kind of ignoring your care and a sibling kind of comes in and picks you up? Or has it ever happened in reverse where you look over and somebody's like blood sugar's 220? And you're like, wow, they're not doing anything about it. And you go, Oh, yes,

Bella Krueger 1:10:31
yeah. Most of us share our decks comes with each other. Okay. So Maddie, the oldest sister constantly like texts in our little group chat like Sophia your blood sugars. Hi, Sophia, this Sophia that like, you know, always correcting our sugars. And like, whenever we're eating meals together, people are always like, Oh, I didn't see you do this. I didn't. I didn't see you give yourself insulin like, do you? So that's really nice, I think.

Scott Benner 1:11:01
Yeah. Do you sit at a meal and like, announce out loud what you think the carbs are? Hmm.

Bella Krueger 1:11:07
Um, sometimes, yes. And no. I think a lot of us are really. Like, we used to not talk about it. Like, it used to be like, it used to almost be a screen. Like, you know, we saw insulin everywhere. We knew everyone had diabetes, but we didn't really know much about it. No one really said anything. They just took their blood sugar did their insulin. Now it's like, it's like, oh, like, we lets everybody like show your insulin pens. Let's take a picture for the Instagram story. Like everybody had dinner like, so then it's like, then that's promoted the conversation of Oh, like, actually, how much are you dosing for this? Or like, are you That's very nice.

Scott Benner 1:11:47
Are you saying that sharing it with other people through social media is actually forced you guys to share it with each other?

Bella Krueger 1:11:53
Oh my gosh, yes. Like, we used to, like I genuinely, we used to just kind of live with it and not really let it bother us. Like, it wasn't. I don't know. And we it just wasn't it was normal. It was so normal that we didn't want to talk about it every day. Like, we were like, This is stupid. Like, whatever. Just do it. Who cares? Have you ever said now it's like, God, I'm

Scott Benner 1:12:15
sorry. Now it's like,

Bella Krueger 1:12:17
yeah, no, I mean, we're just now it's like, oh, my gosh, your sugar is so good. Like, just like, it's just a lot more like a supportive and environment. Like we have just really take it like we just started talking about it. I mean, that's really all it is.

Scott Benner 1:12:32
Yeah. See, I imagined, like you're sitting at a meal, and you look over someone's shoulder, and they're like, they've dialed up like, 45 carbs in your head. You're like, that's not enough. You know? And then you kind of wait, like, is there any sibling rivalry? Like, after a meal? If you're 120? And your sisters? 170? Is there any part of you? It's I one?

Bella Krueger 1:12:51
Oh, yes. Are you constantly canceling all the time? Like, it'll be like, Oh, well, my sugar is better than yours, or well, and I Oh, and we oh, the worst is when we go get coffee together, because we all get different coffees. And then we have to like carb, count them or whatever, you know, and then it's like, oh, well, who got the most unhealthy coffee, and then whose blood sugar is going to be the worst from it. And who has given themselves the most insulin for it? Like, it's all these? I hate that. I hate that about every like, you know, like, that's what is toxic about diabetes. And it's not talked about enough.

Scott Benner 1:13:27
So the part of it that is a little like, I guess just naturally competitive. You don't like that part. Like it's not fun to you. It's, it's

Bella Krueger 1:13:37
I think it's fun with sugars, like with our blood sugars, kind of, to a certain point where it's like, we're just having fun with it. But then I think a lot of like, especially if you people in my family, like are a little bit more sensitive. So I think I see the different person, like the carb counting can get a little sticky. Okay.

Scott Benner 1:14:01
Oh, that's interesting. So different personalities in the same situation. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Bella Krueger 1:14:06
That makes sense. And I think I mean, I think that's a whole I mean, problem with diabetes in general is like, especially with, like, eating disorders with girls who get type one, two, it's just like, the whole the whole carb County and I think brings in this bad connotation that needs just to be so positive. There's nothing bad about it. But

Scott Benner 1:14:33
if for some people it's that's just a whole nother thing. Yeah. All right. Well, I had a really good time talking to you. I hope you enjoyed this. I did good. Good, because it's it's kind of crazy. And I and I appreciate you sharing everything with me very much. Do you guys will you be able to get home for Thanksgiving?

Bella Krueger 1:14:53
Are you Yes, I'm actually I'm gonna head back today. Yes, this morning right after

Scott Benner 1:14:58
my son surprised this last night. We expected him today. And oh, and I walked downstairs last night. He was just standing in the foyer. I was like, Oh my God, oh, I cursed. I actually walked downstairs and it took me It shocked me. I was like I said, What are you doing here? And he's like, what? I was like, I thought you're coming home tomorrow. And I don't know, it just it was such a nice surprise. So that's so sweet. I bailed on all my plans last night and just sat in the living room with them and hung out with them. So Oh, yeah,

Bella Krueger 1:15:27
that's what I'm so excited for just like go home and sit and just talk for hours.

Scott Benner 1:15:32
But when you get home, tell everybody that I said, I think it's a it's really amazing story. And no kidding. Like, I tell your mom to email me.

Unknown Speaker 1:15:40
I will. I will.

Unknown Speaker 1:15:41
Yeah, that's, it's

Bella Krueger 1:15:42
really, this was a great opportunity. Thank you for letting me come on here.

Scott Benner 1:15:47
I really appreciate your time I really do.

First, let's thank Bella for coming on the show and sharing her family story. And then let's thank Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor. And don't forget about that Hello Dexcom program where you can try the Dexcom G six. No, for like 10 days. Go check it out. And that Omnipod promise you don't I didn't tell you about throwing the Omni pod today, you may be eligible for a free 30 day trial of the Omni pod dash. Now you're going to go look alibaba.com forward slash juicebox. Don't forget to take that T one D exchange survey T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. I would like to thank you very much for listening and remind you that I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast, the Juicebox Podcast. Yes. Thanks so much for listening. Oh waka waka waka Goodbye. Hey, now, neither of our nerves then do b Do not forget to stay out of debt. I just thought I'd throw a tiny bit of Hamlet in there for you at the end. Hark. What light through yonder window breaks? Actually, I think that's Romeo and Juliet. Right? Yeah. How what's the one with the like? The guy that screws over the guy, right? But a stab, stab, stab, stab, somebody stab at everybody for all right, I gotta go. This has gotten off the trail. You don't mean like I'm pretty far from where we started. In other words, I think something's rotten in the state of Denmark. Before I go, let me just say if this is your first episode, please subscribe and follow the podcast app. And if the last couple of seconds didn't make you want to listen because you think I might be unstable. I understand.

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#612 Diabetes Pro Tip: Female Hormones

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

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

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 612 of the Juicebox Podcast. This is also the next episode, the diabetes Pro Tip series.

On this episode of The Juicebox Podcast, Jenny Smith and I are going to be talking extensively about hormones, female hormones, about getting your period about riding the won't say that about shark week. You know that time of the month where your baby box is trying to kill you. And we're not going to just talk about your period, but we're going to talk about the lead up. And afterwards, the entire month really, and what you can expect as your hormones fluctuate and change. Please remember that nothing new here on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. We're becoming bold with insulin. Right now I'm considering putting a ton of euphemisms for a period at the end of this episode. Not sure if I will or not. It's all kind of up in the air. Hey, if you'd like to help out the podcast, head over to t one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. If you're a US resident who has type one, or is the caregiver of someone with type one, I'd love it if you'd fill out their survey. It'll help people with type one diabetes, and it supports the podcast. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast does not have a sponsor. Not that I don't have a sponsor I could put on the podcast that I certainly have. But I just wanted to take this opportunity to remind you about the other diabetes pro tip episodes and some of the other series within the podcast. Can I do that? Will you give me a second? Thank you. At this point, the diabetes Pro Tip series consists of 25 episodes. This one of course, is female hormones. But there's also honeymooning weight loss postpartum, glycemic index and load. Explaining type one diabetes, pregnancy bumping nudge one bump and nudge to long term health emergency room protocols glucagon and low Beegees. Illness injury and surgery fat and protein exercise setting your Basal insulin variables the perfect Bolus, mastering a CGM insulin pumping Temp Basal Pre-Bolus, all about insulin, all about MDI newly diagnosed starting over actually listed them in reverse there for you. But you can find them right now at diabetes pro tip.com. There are 1,000,000% free, they're not paywalled. You can get to them and start them and stop them or listen to them as you would like. I'm going to tell you that I think if you listen through those pro tips, they're a pathway to an A one C stably in the low sixes or even fives. Everything I know about type one diabetes management to be important is in those episodes. And along the way, I always have Jenny Smith, there with me having those conversations, I'm going to tell you at the end of the episode all about Jenny, but for now just know, she's had type one diabetes for a very long time. She's a CDE. And a lot more. So head on over to Juicebox Podcast comm or diabetes pro tip.com. Or you can just go back in your podcast player to Episode 210 and start right there. I really hope you do. There's a ton of information in these episodes. I think they're very easy to listen to and even easier to understand. I hope you take advantage of them. All right. Okay, give me a testing. Hello. Alright, you're there. I'm there. Okay. Yeah. All right. So I've spent, not my whole life, you know, but the last number of days and weeks looking into all of this, trying to get ready to make a pro tip episode about female hormones. And it's a very scary proposition. There's a lot going on. I'm not scared, scared, but I'm overwhelmed. And then the last kind of piece of it was that I went on to the Facebook page and you know, said to people look, you know, throw out your questions for this episode. I want to be clear, I almost didn't think I needed their questions so that we could talk. I wanted to see if there was repetitive need, like, what are people like same questions over and over. And my goodness, I mean, it's kind of obvious, right, like so. The questions ranged from like, just God, is there any rhyme or reason to this to what about menopause? What about Hurry menopause. What about the time where my kid isn't getting their period yet, but it's starting to exhibit, you know, symptoms and having hormone fluctuations, talking about puberty and then pregnancy and then and then

is your head spinning post pregnancy? It's it's listen nature. God, I don't care what you think this is there's got to be a better way to do this. Someone, someone, this was an afterthought, like like someone at the end was like, oh, you know, here's what we'll do, we'll throw some eggs in here and then you'll have to throw in some estrogen to get the eggs really roll and then one egg will come out. And if they don't get pregnant, the whole thing will just bleed out of their vagina. Perfect. Like, I don't know who what. Oh, my goodness, PCOS keeps coming up. Is that polycystic ovarian syndrome? PCOS? Yes. Now I know those words. So already, Jenny, I want you to tell me what you just said before we started recording about the inequities of diabetes management from men to men to women,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:11
or from an education standpoint to begin with. I mean, it was not something that was ever discussed in my presence, at least and I don't think my mom had outside of visit conversations with my peds and know at all about hormones. Right. So I learned all of this as I was having this like, typical cycle, you know, that should happen after a certain point in the sort of teen years. And education today. It focuses on diabetes, in general, right? Not on if you're a woman with diabetes, versus if you're a man with diabetes, these are the differences that you will definitely see. So you're a woman with diabetes, you've got all the female hormones pumping in your body. Let's discuss diabetes from the angle of being a woman. Right? I mean, especially for my like, I would even say, when I start working with somebody, if they're from about the age 1011, all the way into wellness, even the women they work with into the perimenopause and menopause age, that's something in an initial visit, I always ask about, because if even if it isn't yet visible, it will be at some point. And people need an idea that they need to like, see out into, if I see this and this and this, I'm clearly not a crazy person. This is body function.

Scott Benner 7:44
Well, I guess especially given that, you know, because we talk about things in general terms, like the cycles, 28 days, that's in general, it's not, it's not for everybody, and it might not be for you from month to month as well. So if you can imagine when you hear people talk about like diabetes, like just when I thought I had it, it changed or you know, those memes, there's meat is it memes? Oh, my God, I'm old, you know, where it's like Monday, two plus two is for Tuesday, two plus two is seven, you know, Wednesday, two plus two was zebra like that kind of stuff. If that's already how diabetes feels to people in general, and then you put this on top. I mean, you really are kind of creating two different spinning layers of confusion that can impact each other, or show up on their own. And I don't know how you're supposed to make sense that I actually after going through all this, I have an idea I'll share at the end about how to get a handle on this. But I just don't know. Well, I guess to give people some context, Arden 17. So this is the depth of my understanding of this. My understanding of this is I'm married, I've lived with a lady for a couple of decades, and, and my daughter has diabetes, and she's been getting her period for a while.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:06
And I bet you never paid as much attention as when it really was in reference to diabetes management.

Scott Benner 9:12
Only thing I used to pay attention to was there's this what I call the nice day, there's like this. There's this. There's this literally one day a month, where my wife is a 1950s. Like, I'm making quotes perfect mom wife, Glover. Like it's that day on that day. I feel taller, more handsome. Like, you know, like she is so incredibly

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:41
kind of like Leave It to Beaver mom, sort of at that age have an idea of what a Mom was right? Yeah.

Scott Benner 9:46
100% and I and I, I bask in that day because the day that comes after it. I can't even look her in the eye. Because if I do something wrong, she's the different like and then I Know that the the event is coming in about five to seven days. Like that's how it works for us paid enough

Unknown Speaker 10:07
attention to actually like I can tell you many, many spouses or partners.

Scott Benner 10:13
I thought I was gonna die. I was defending my own life, you know. And so for years, that's the only way I've ever thought about it. And then Arden starts to get her, you know, and then we're kind of rocking along taking care of Arden's blood sugar. Like, it ain't nothing some days, you know, it's just like, I do really have this all figured out. And then one day, she started getting her period. And it was all fine at first. It actually almost it got more difficult at some junctures. But it was, it was very structured. So I didn't have any trouble with it really. Right. And then all the sudden her periods got heavy. And you know, people listening will know that, you know, Arden went through a year or two of like us not understanding what was going on. She got anemic a number of times, she had to have iron infusions. This was all ended up being because of her period. Right? Yeah. So Arden would get her period for like, 11 days, like she'd have like a 11 day long cycle, and then only a couple of day break before she started to bleed again. It was just ridiculous. Which led us to put her on birth control, hoping, like, you know that she wouldn't bleed to death. Because she was, I mean, the impact on our life was insane. Sure, you know, and so first go round with the birth control they gave her it wasn't strong enough, didn't really do anything. But they still ask you to be on it for 90 days before they consider changing it. So you, you struggled all this time you think you have an answer, and then 90 more days struggling. And then they moved her up to another, I guess strength and that has, you know, straightened out her. Excuse me also, the first indication of that problem was nosebleeds. Oh, really bad out of nowhere. nosebleeds, right? That only happened once a month. And it took us a while to figure it out. It was literally happening on a cycle. I never was able to connect it to her periods. But the minute she went on the birth control and the second round of birth control, and it straightened out her periods. The nosebleeds never happened again.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:34
That's really interesting. Well, and I mean, again, a symptom that if you're paying enough attention to your body, there are lots of things that your body is trying to tell you. Yeah, right, if we just pay attention to.

Scott Benner 12:47
And it's why I bring it up, honestly, because part of what I figured out, Jenny, part of what I figured out being a man who doesn't get a period, and a person who doesn't have diabetes, as I considered talking about this with you today was was that you kind of have to, you got to kind of have to Jane Goodall it a little bit, right, like you got to take notes and step back and see things and keep wondering what's happening until you can build some some idea of like, I keep seeing this thing over and over again. And where does that fit on the calendar? And how does it work in relationship to, you know, bleeding or pain or insulin resistance, and then sort of start making sense of it, you have to track your period, maybe for six months before you'll be able to wrap your head around it a little bit,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 13:37
especially if your cycle is not regular. I would say for women who especially women who are considering maybe you're starting to track things and pay attention because you are planning a pregnancy, or maybe you're really trying to prevent a pregnancy. So then tracking things becomes just as important, right. But then along with the lines of even planning a pregnancy, the goal in diabetes is to have pretty optimized management prior to conception. So yes, I mean, you really should be tracking things for a fair amount of time, if you don't have them already nailed down because you've paid attention, right. And there are a number of really good period apps out there. I mean, there's some that are free that do just as well as some of the ones that have all the 1000s of bells and whistles for tracking everything else. But I think the ones that are the best actually have a place where you can keep notes. Because the tracking app that I like to use, I actually track month to month, how my insulin changes have looked this month. So I can go back last month, the month before and actually see, has it been consistent enough? Is it going along with what is normal for me? And that helps.

Scott Benner 14:52
Well, even very recently, in the last couple of months, Apple added a period tracker to their health app, which So interesting, robust, and it's free, and a lot of people use Apple phone. So I wanted to throw that out there.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:06
I didn't even know that was an option. So thanks. Yeah. So

Scott Benner 15:09
because Arden uses one that's third party, I don't even know what it's called now. But as I looked at people's questions, and I thought about Hold on a second. The gods are coming after me for talking about periods when I'm not a lady. That's right. As I thought about how I figured, like, like, step back and look at what we had to go through to try to figure this out for Arden. And then I looked at people's questions. The real fear, when you see fear is around the unknown portion of it. And all I could think over and over again, when I saw their questions like, How do I know if it's gonna fluctuate? When do I turn up my Basal insulin, if I can't be sure when it's gonna start? I kept thinking, you're gonna have to track it, you're going to have to pay attention, you're going to have to put like, work in. And I know, that sucks, because it feels like diabetes has already worked. But it really made me think about like, kind of what we talked about another pro tips, which is, you know, some upfront effort can save a lot of heartache, right, over and over again,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:13
or a lot more micromanagement than you really should need to be doing?

Scott Benner 16:17
Yeah, yeah, you get stuck in that situation where you're constantly constantly constantly adjusting your blood sugar. In the moment, which I'm, listen, I'm a fan of if you're lost, to stay flexible. But in this situation, where what was the number I saw the average woman's going to have how many periods like 400, and something or I was like, oh, like,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:40
hold on a lifetime? Well, I guess if you expect an average age of a period starting at the age of 12. And there are 12 months in a year, right? So you would have, let's say one cycle a year. And then the average time period of a cycle, completing would be about, let's say, age 12, all the way to maybe 55, let's say maybe even 60. And that's a good amount of time that you would be having cycle.

Scott Benner 17:15
I'm using your math 55 minus 12, is 43 times 12 months, is 516. There you go. So I'm saying

Unknown Speaker 17:24
that's a lot of tracking.

Scott Benner 17:28
I'm saying put in put some like real, like, it's gonna be honest effort, because you're gonna have to track you know, your insulin use every day. And, you know, just giving yourself I think, what helped me was just simple words. Difficult, easy. You know what I mean? Like, referring to my management, you know, meals were, what I expected, easier than I expected, harder than I expected. Yes. You know, my Basal seemed to work. Well, not Well, today, like just kind of keep it keep it like that. You make a little note for yourself. And I'll tell you to tracking your period is going to help you get better at taking care of your blood sugar, too, because you're gonna see all kinds all around. Yeah, yes, yeah, all kinds of things that you didn't, didn't see before. To begin with. You're

Jennifer Smith, CDE 18:13
gonna learn a lot of things too, in that time tracking for all of those other variables that we have to adjust around, right? Because I for one, know that my sensitivity, once I've gotten to about day three of my period, after that point, and until about ovulation is a really sensitive time. But it's more sensitive from day three to about like day seven ish. And in exercise, I have to be more aggressive and adjusting my insulin for exercise. Or I will go low. Despite my other tools and tweaks working outside of that. I will go low if I don't adjust more than I normally would, is that

Scott Benner 19:02
a progesterone period in there.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 19:05
So you're essentially when you're looking at progesterone that is typically like peaking at certain points, right? And then there's also the luteinizing hormone, there's follicle stimulating hormone and there's estrogen and a lot of hormones that are coming into play. So progesterone kind of starts to really kind of like, fall off essentially, once your period is started. It has really climbed in the time of you coming into potentially having a period and part of the reason for that is in the anticipation that you in sort of that Avi LaTorre time period, have actually conceived right. progesterone levels will stay high and continue to climb in pregnant See, when you don't have conception happen, and you start to have your period, that level falls, because there's no reason to have that elevated. I mean, again, other hormones at play here as well progesterone being one of them, but it doesn't need to remain where it was because you're not pregnant. Okay. And so then it fluxes

Scott Benner 20:21
right. And do do we let's try to think about this. Do we count the the beginning of the cycle is considered when the period starts, right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 20:32
Day one of your period is day one of your cycle.

Scott Benner 20:36
Okay. In that moment, estrogen at that point is lower. Is that right? And then it starts to,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 20:45
and then estrogen starts decline coming into ovulation. And then in that next phase around ovulation and potential like conception, again, progesterone is sort of like climbing into that time period. Right? So, you know, again, all these fun hormones doing different things. I mean, if you even looked up a simple like just Google, a graph of like, what your hormones should look like, you can tell why. One Basal for 30 days in a row, if you're a woman who has a monthly cycle, doesn't work. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 21:27
It doesn't,

Scott Benner 21:28
you know, what else I learned by digging into all this is that not that I wouldn't expect this because it's a physiological thing. But it's incredibly complicated what's happening. It's not just like, you know, your your eighth grade health understanding of it, which, you know, in my mind was, an egg gets released, you use it or you don't use it, if you don't use it, you know, the uterine lining and the egg come out in a period, which I know is high level what it is. But the idea of like the ramp up, right, like the gosh, like you start talking about like follicles, and like, there's this process that's happening in there, where your body's trying to locate the strongest egg to be released. It's not just like the next one on the assembly line. It's like it literally anyway, it's mind boggling. Even the TED talks on it are confusing. Even when even when nice girls sit in front of cameras in front of YouTube and try to talk to you right in your eyes, you're like, I don't understand, there's so much happening. But I think for the case of but for type one for using insulin, is it is it as easy as saying that there's a time when you're bleeding, there's a time when you're ovulating. And there's a time when your body is trying to make your body a hospitable place for sperm to live. So that the process of fertilization can happen well, is that basically like there's I mean,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 22:52
that's basically the simplified and I think, sort of along the same line of what you're getting at is, if you, if you're having a cycle, whether you're on birth control with a cycle or you're not on birth control with a cycle, you can expect the times of your period to show similarities for you in insulin need, right? One person may experience during this phase of, you know, hormone release, or this phase of their cycle, that they always have higher blood sugar's now that they've been tracking things, they can say yes, I'm always getting higher here. One of the first places that that commonly starts is the fasting blood sugar, or the overnight blood sugar. For whatever reason, in the hormone dance of the human body, that's the first place that commonly women see things are running higher. And if you start to pay attention to your calendar, it will most likely coincide with that's going to be somewhere about like, three to maybe seven days prior to your period, starting. Some women experience really short lived higher insulin needs. And whether they may have missed a slight nudge up maybe a week sooner. Most of them notice, gosh, the first you know, day and maybe the two days before my period, I'm just high I can't take enough insulin, I dump it all in and I still sit high. Well, next month, you know, if that's the case, and you start seeing higher blood sugars, and you do and you are maybe somebody who doesn't have a regular enough cycle would probably expect that this is what's probably on its way as long as your site isn't bad and you know, all the other variables that it could possibly be

Scott Benner 24:42
Yeah, so it's going to be incredibly important for you not to throw your hands up to the diabetes ferry and go it's just did diabetes. It's happening to me again, like after it happens a couple of times. You gotta say like Jenny saying, like, this is what happens. Whether or not I can tell you that it absolutely happens on day. I don't know 30 Have my cycle or not? It becomes unimportant like you, you sort of see, you know, it's not any different than like, as you're talking about all this and about when people see higher blood sugars, like Arden has this too, but because my mindset is, like more insulin push back, don't let it happen. I can't see it. Sometimes I can tell you that we're bolusing more or that I'm running a higher Basal like profile. But I'm so accustomed to just being in the fight and fighting the fight. I sometimes don't think about why it's happening. I just, I just adjust

Jennifer Smith, CDE 25:35
to get it back to target. Yeah. And I and I think that's, that's okay, as long as you're okay, adjusting that way. And if that works for you, then great. I think that more women especially again, those who are planning a potential pregnancy, are really wanting to track well enough because they're also in ensuring that their blood sugar's are really optimally managed for possible conception and that thereafter, you know, so if you really do want more consistency, rather than saying, Well, I know how to do more insulin, I do it all the time. I just, you know, adjusted here and take more, they're adjusted back here or whatever. But if you have even those that have irregular enough cycle, it could take some of the like headache out of the arm Hi again. I know I need more, I'll take more. But gosh, is this happening regularly enough that I could actually figure out how much more do I need on an average monthly change time? That is less guesswork in the moment that

Scott Benner 26:38
and the reason I brought it up is because the process of getting ready to make this episode with you made me realize I'm gonna set up three different profiles for Arden because she's gonna go to college. Yeah, know what to do her blood sugar's gonna go up and she's gonna be like, this never used to happen before. You know, and and she's, you know, not gonna realize the thing she's missing is me. Texting, texting or going yo Bolus, what are you doing? Cuz because for people who don't like really understand, I know it sounds like micromanaging to some like newer people but for people listening the podcast I don't imagine it does. Like, I don't like to see a blood sugar over 140. And I act like like, you know how some people might act when your blood sugar's 300 is about how I start feeling at 140. I'm like, yo, what are we doing here? Because in my mind, I'm targeting back to 80 in my mind, 140 60 points too high. Like, get it get it, but the the amount of insulin that it takes to get it has climbed since Arden's been on a birth control pill. So while yes, the birth control pill has regulated Arden's period, and she's not bleeding to death anymore, her diabetes has gotten more difficult. Yeah. Because and now if you go look at graphs about how insulin like listen, what I know about birth control is probably not enough. But you're getting you're getting a pretty regulated amount of these hormones every day. And and that birth control is literally tricking your body into not releasing an egg. I didn't realize that. That the bleeding

Jennifer Smith, CDE 28:16
keeping you on a one cycle of hormone akin to not needing ovulation.

Scott Benner 28:22
Yeah, right. And so you're not nothing's happening and ovulate. Like the whole process isn't happening. Actually. I think what confuses people? Is that the bleeding that happens when you're off the hormones and you're on the the placebo? CBOs is not your period. It's got it's actually got a name. It's, uh, hold on a second. I have so many browser windows open. It's called withdrawal bleeding. Yeah, yeah. It's not your it's not the same thing

Jennifer Smith, CDE 28:51
I never heard. I've never heard it called that before. Okay. Well,

Scott Benner 28:55
I was schooled, I recorded an episode about this with a different podcast. I'm gonna be on a vagina podcast pretty soon. And that's funny. Oh, it was hilarious. And as I was being asked, I was like, why is this happening to me, but um, but people who really take birth control? I don't mean seriously is the wrong word. But but see it as stuff that maybe, you know, there are people who think you shouldn't do it. There are people who think you shouldn't tell people how to live their lives. There's a lot of consternation around birth control in some circles. And it's important for those people for you to know you're not actually getting your period when you're on birth control. So and I have to be honest, I don't want Arden to be on birth control not because it's birth control, but because I don't want her to take anything she doesn't have to take right but she's she was going down. You don't I mean, like Yeah, we were looking at a real like, I guess this is it. Like you know the money with the money we save for college. We could buy a house with now or something Well, and

Jennifer Smith, CDE 29:56
that's I mean, those there are I think really there really good reasons to utilize birth control all around, there are. But in a case like this, it's almost a necessity in order to get containment of something. Now, the other thing is, you know, is this something that's just, it's just the way that her body is going to continue to work even into like adulthood, where she continued to have to have this level of birth control, you know, management, so that she doesn't have this problem. That question, you know, I

Scott Benner 30:29
had constantly like, when do we just like, stop at once and see what happens? You know what I mean? Like, right, but I don't understand any cause and effect reasons why using birth control for a while, would you know, quote, unquote, regulate things? And then you would need it anymore? Were? Or was this just a cycle of her life, and it was going to pass on its own. And we're never going to know, as long as she's on the birth control pill, right. I keep praying, I keep thinking maybe, you know, a few months before college, maybe we like, would try Bella bail on at one time and see what happens, because you've

Jennifer Smith, CDE 31:06
done enough work already to know. I mean, she's used several different types of it. So you also have an idea of what works, what really did nothing good. And what does actually work because there are so many kinds of birth control that are available, and so many mixes of hormones that you could use, or some are single, single hormone and some are a mix of hormones at different levels. They're taken different ways. I mean, there are

Scott Benner 31:39
one point are our pharmacy benefits changed or over to a generic things were going great. And then they change the generic a went right back to where it was again. Oh, and then we had to swap her back to another one.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 31:53
So funny, right? I mean, if it was the same thing, only a generic what's different, right?

Scott Benner 32:00
I have no idea. This is the this. Jenny in one way or another vaginas are the bane of my existence. Just there. They're torturing me from different angles and different perspectives all the time. And, and on Arden's period has been, I mean, a roller coaster, it has not been fun for her for the, you know, people trying to help her.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 32:24
Well, and I think you see it from a perspective of, you want the best for her, you want her to be healthy and enjoy life and everything. So you see it really as a it's problematic, not from a physiologic standpoint is problematic and what it brings into the picture of her management, you know, you may have a very different look on it. If she didn't have diabetes.

Scott Benner 32:50
Yeah. Yeah, I guess I there's so much about I wouldn't even understand or pay attention to her. Right, sir. So I, I'm basically having this conversation to tell people that I'm going to start doing what I think you should do, like I'm gonna, I'm gonna set up my own tracking app. And I'm gonna track Arden's like insulin inputs, just Jenny's making a face because I don't do

Unknown Speaker 33:13
I'm pretty yummy. Yes. Like, you don't do things like that, because I don't

Scott Benner 33:17
She's gonna leave for college and either bleed to death, or have a one see in the aids like one of the other. Like, it's just one of the others gonna happen. So And typically, I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 33:27
mean, that is, it's also another piece in the mix, too, because you brought a lot of things in that could be happening in periods that are mismanaged, right? Someone who has excessive bleeding can bring in a lot of other health risk problems that can also make the diabetes management piece even harder to figure out and manage around. So it's really important. I mean, on average, you know, quote me, but I think I read at one point, like the average woman with a normal healthy cycle length, and not excessive bleeding, really only loses about a quarter cup of blood through the whole period, which is it's a tiny amount, right? I mean, if you know what a quarter cup measuring cup looks like. So I mean, if you're saying gosh, excessive, clearly excessive is like, lots and lots that shouldn't be happening.

Scott Benner 34:22
Here's the one measuring stick for you. Arden's ferritin gets down to like the teens. She gets an infusion. They tested again, it pushes it into like the 130s. It gets pretty high when you get the infusion. Yeah, within three months of not being on the period. She was back in the teens again, teens again, yeah. So and just I mean, for people who don't know an email, low blood, low iron, whatever, you know, however you get to it. I mean, just can't hardly pick your head up. Oh, freezing feels horrible. You feel like you're dying, the whole time, shortness of breath. You can have heart palpitations. Like it's not good, you know, you get pain in your, like muscles and joints and like it's it's terrible. So Arden's gonna stay on this as long as she needs to but, but it's funny while she was home, Arden's chill at home, like when she was going to school from home, she needed less insulin. As soon as she went back to in person I knew her needs, were going to go up again. And I did the thing, where I was bolusing too much and didn't adjust settings for a little while to like, it happens to everybody, it's sure doesn't not happen to me, because it's my podcast, like, you know, like, you're so used to managing one way, and then this big piece of your life changes. And you don't even realize it for some reason. And that just made me sadder when I realized that thinking about this, because basically, on your period, your life is changing. Like every couple of weeks, you know, like there's this impact and the end, it might not happen to everybody, there are some women who will listen to this to go, oh, that doesn't happen to me. Or if this is, you know, just like, Oh, my God, well, in

Jennifer Smith, CDE 36:07
fact, I've got, you know, some women that I've worked with, you know, even outside of like preconception planning, just in terms of diabetes management. And obviously, the cycle is a piece that we talk through and talk about, and some women who actually have the higher blood sugar levels during their period. Not before. It's more really an onset while they're actually having their period, which is not the typical of what I've seen. But again, I've heard it enough that it's also not odd or rare.

Scott Benner 36:38
Yeah, no, no, in the questions that I sent to you that that I found online, it was almost like people were like, hey, during these days here, my blood sugar is incredibly easy. And then somebody would come along and say, well, in those same exact days, my blood sugar's incredibly difficult. And yeah, I'm sure if we could, you know, Doctor House, every person in the world you might find, but I don't think that's gonna love that show. I mean, right. sarcoidosis usually. Right? And I don't even know what that means. But, but so did you see anything in these questions that you definitely wanted to go over?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 37:16
I was just gonna go back to because

Scott Benner 37:21
because at some point, too, there were a number of questions about menopause to, and some women are asking about what about when they take hormone replacement? Is it going to happen, then? And I don't know. But it seems like the same as taking birth control to me, right? You're, you're adding hormones to your daily intake.

For the longest time, I believe that one of the sticking points of getting people good information about managing insulin was that it was hard to put it in one place, or to hold people's attention or for them to realize it was there so they could keep coming back. You know, there might be an article here or there or a story that would be helpful to you. But how do you condense it all into one place. And it turns out that this podcast is the perfect way to accomplish that, I would notice that even if somebody understood Temp Basal was really well, they might not have thought about pregnancy, or if they understood, you know, extended boluses, they might not have talked about how to use your Basal well, and that you were going to be lost if you didn't have all of this information in one place. But most importantly, this information needs to be easy to digest and easy to understand and listen to. Right, like you have to want to listen. And I think that we I think we've done that with this podcast. Well, now in my eighth year, with over 600 episodes, there is a ton of information inside of this podcast. It's a it's a compendium, it really is of how to manage your your insulin and live well. So I need you to look for the defining diabetes series. It might seem overly simplistic, but it takes the terms that you're going to be using every day and boils them down into easy to understand explanations. They're not long, they're fun to listen to. And you'll leave with a real understanding of what the terms mean. The podcast also has these diabetes pro tips, which I think are absolutely I think there's they're amazing, honestly, like it's not just because I made them. I see feedback from people every day about them. And I'll actually leave some at the end of the podcast for you. But listen to the diabetes protests, but you need the tools, right? You can't just you can't just look at the instructions to build a bridge not understand what a wrench is. So listen to the defining diabetes and then move on to the pro tips. Now there's also things like how we eat where people come on and talk about all the different ways they V carnivore, gluten free Bernstein FODMAP keto intermittent fasting ton of them, because I think that everyone's eating style should be represented. I don't care how you eat, I care that you know how to use insulin. That's all it matters to me. Once you know how to use insulin, you go ahead and eat any way you want. I just want you to be able to do it doesn't matter what you do. It matters that you can. That's how I feel. There are special episodes, me and Jenny Smith answering questions from the, from the audience, you know, they're called ask Scott and Jenny. In those episodes, we talk oh my god, we talked about so much how to combat the morning rise. How does carb absorption work? How to handle a high blood sugar? What is standard deviation advice for using Basal IQ, just so many different things. There's entire episodes that are just about mental health and type one diabetes, I have afterdark episodes that handle everything from heroin addiction to being a sex worker and having type one diabetes to smoking weed and everything in between stuff that other people don't talk about. But we talk about it here on the Juicebox Podcast. I also have over 10 episodes about pregnancy, an entire series just about the variables that may pop up while you're managing your insulin. You want to learn about algorithm pumping, we've got that covered to the Juicebox Podcast is much more than the diabetes Pro Tip series. I hope you take time to check it out. There's something in there for everybody. And there is a path to the A one C and the stability that you want. So whether you're looking for community or answers, check out the Juicebox Podcast, subscribe now, in an audio app, it's always free.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 41:49
And hormone replacement therapy is usually for the most part centered around like the menopause kind of time perimenopause, menopause kind of time, it's supposed to help to ease much of the hormonal transition that's creating some of the symptoms, things like the hot flashes, and the energy swings and the insomnia and the, I guess, level of irritation one woman may experience versus another. Right? So that's supposed to technically, even things out more. And it's a good question to actually ask, if you haven't, and you're considering are already taking the hormone replacement therapy, you know, asking your physician if they know anything, really about that piece in terms of what they should expect. My expectation would be that with the replacement therapy, if it's going well, then dose is well managed. Technically, you should have actually more stability, then in how you're feeling, which should also bring more stability to your glucose management,

Scott Benner 43:01
right? Well, I guess while we're in this area, what about somebody who's had a hysterectomy? Do they lose all of those, that the cycle is just gone? Right? So that is, but is all the horror or all the hormones gone to?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 43:15
So although I mean, there's a good question, because quite honestly, you could have a partial or you could have a like a total hysterectomy, right? I mean, so there are hormonal imbalances that can definitely happen with partial hysterectomy. It does, for the most part, from what I know causes less dramatic change in hormone levels than a full hysterectomy does. So in terms of that, you know, your hormones definitely shift because obviously there's nothing there to cause that trend of hormones change, right, there's a period right disappears. So, you know, overall, while there may be some initial management that needs to be done, I wouldn't expect that there would be as much I haven't worked with many women who have had hysterectomy. But I wouldn't expect that there to be as much fluctuation as they probably usually had. I mean, when the menopause obviously is kind of similar in that when that happens, obviously your ovaries stop producing enough hormones to continue the menstrual cycle. Right? So if you've had a hysterectomy, which includes removing the ovaries, you would then be essentially moved into sort of like a premature menopause kind of time. Right. So

Scott Benner 44:45
all right. Well, you know what, there's one person that asked such as a detailed question that I think yeah, the way they broke it down might be valuable for us. So her first question was, why does the body become more insulin resistant during different phases of the mess? cycle just laid out for you. And not that I think we haven't. But is the answer just simply there's more hormones at different parts?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 45:09
Right? And so that's, you know, initially when we're talking like what is the surge of the different hormones through the course of pregnancy or through the course of a menstrual cycle, right? So in terms of that rise up in insulin need, you know, there are a couple points of time for different hormones, one of them progesterone, as its kind of rising, in terms of, are you going to find out you're pregnant? Or are you now you don't know that you're pregnant, or you're not going to be pregnant, so you end up having a cycle. So then that climb in progesterone is, again, that typical time period before your cycle starts, that you would have insulin resistance creep into the picture. It may creep slowly, like seven days before you start to notice you've got that rise in blood sugar, okay, maybe you change up your overnight settings, or, you know, whatever it might be, as you get closer to your expected first day of cycle, you're going to see a lot more resistance. I mean, many women find 20 to even 40% more insulin need in that time period of climb in hormone. And then that most women experienced the most significant and resistance the day before their cycle starts

Scott Benner 46:21
the day before the cycle starts, which is the day Yes, leading to

Jennifer Smith, CDE 46:25
day before there, yes, there before their period starts. There's they're bleeding the event here, but in the event, there you go. Um, so you know, that could be, you know, a visual point of saying, Well, I'm not crazy, I didn't need to change my pump site and change to new insulin or nothing was really wrong. I see that this is the pattern and this is what's always happening. So how high did my blood sugars go? How much more insulin did it look like I continually used in the past two or even three months, so that you can expect it now. And you can make a I guess, a wiser shift in your insulin rather than just sort of like completely guessing. Right? Oh, I'm gonna take three units today because clearly two and a half yesterday did work well. Okay. But if you have some back knowledge, you can say okay, this is definitely how much more I needed. And I can adjust better here. Now,

Scott Benner 47:19
do you know there are months that Ardennes period doesn't begin on the first day of the placebo, it happens sooner. Which doesn't make any sense at all. She's definitely kooky and her belly, like like something's, something's going like when that happens. So is yet two days ago. I saw as much resistance from her as I as I had in the month. And I said to her, like something, you're going to get your period. Soon. She goes, I have like four pills left. And I was like, okay, so then yesterday, do all day. Like we had to cut her insulin back. Crazy yesterday. So when she got home from school, I was like, did you get your period? Because No, I still have a couple of days left. But her body acted like her period started yesterday starting and I'm like, I wonder if the bleedings now adjusting back to where it's supposed to be. I also wonder sometimes like Kelly's, you know, still still match traits, my wife still fertile.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 48:19
That's a good thing. The longer you actually have your cycle, the healthier for you. It reduces a lot of the risk of female related cancers. The longer you have your cycle, and the length of the cycle matters to not that this is diabetes specific, but it's a piece in the mix of bad cycle regular cycle and the longer you have it in the life the better for you. Yeah,

Scott Benner 48:43
well, that's good news. But what I was wondering was is you know how you kind of sync up the people? Yeah, like I I've often wondered if Arden and Kelly even being near each other is messing with Arden.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 48:55
Very likely because in college I had three other roommates. And at that point, we we all within a week had our periods at the same time. Yeah, like it was not a house

Scott Benner 49:14
buying a bigger trashcan. Okay, so this person's next question was, do insulin needs change? Only when premenstrual or does it happen around ovulation as well? I think yes. We've pretty much gone over that right.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 49:29
Yeah. And ovulation for some just in clarification, some women notice more significant insulin resistance around ovulation than they do in the pre cycle or like period start time, and it's often much shorter lived have a is a swing up, more noticeable rise. Post meals often tend to be impacted more if you're going to notice a change around ovulation, but it's only going to be like 24% 72 ish hours around that ovulation that you're going to notice such significant resistance. So again, we've got this like roller coaster of hormones going on. Making people feel

Scott Benner 50:14
crazy. Also, I watched a video about how to know when you're ovulating getting ready for this. And there's a lot that you can watch. Oh, geez, I learned a lot about discharge and cervix ripening and feeling sexual, and that it sometimes happens. And sometimes, to some people doesn't happen to others. Some people get many of the symptoms, some people get fewer none. You know, it, I love it when something spelled out to you like this. Here's what could happen, unless it doesn't. Or maybe it won't. But it could and you're like, This is not helpful, like, say something concrete or stop making videos. But it was really, I don't know, it was interesting. Anyway,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 50:59
here's a really good book I got actually years ago, before we even plan to start trying. It's called taking charge of your fertility. And it goes through, it's really, I think, I think that it should be given to women in general. Because even if you never plan to have children, it gives you a really good idea of how the female body works. Yeah. And it can, from just that standpoint, make you feel less like. Like, I've always kind of hated when people are like, Ah, she's getting her period. Like, that's the reason for all of these mood swings and whatever. Well. I mean, that's, quite honestly, it could be true. I mean, it's somebody meaning it in kind of like, not a very nice way. Yeah, but it is true that hormones change and flux a lot. But for you to know that as the person living with it, you don't feel silly about that. That's your body. It's supposed to be doing that.

Scott Benner 52:00
I'm 20% more feminist than I was before I started paying attention to this. And I was already on the lady side. And so I mean, listen, I've never once been given medical direction that began with start with a clean finger. But I've heard those words a lot. Now since I've been paying attention to this. And I just thought like pork girls, like you don't even like cheeses and seeing it happen to my daughter, like firsthand. It really does. I mean, if you're if you're not moved by it. I mean, I don't tease my daughter or my wife about like, Oh, your periods come in, you're acting. But I tell you when I was younger, I probably said it. But now, now that I've lived around it, I'm like, it's not. I mean, they should just say you should you should be thanking them, not telling them. Yes, sir. You know,

Unknown Speaker 52:45
I know, to some degree, and I'm very happy that I have two boys. Like, you're gonna go to your dad. This is Dan's department.

Scott Benner 52:54
You go to your father, whatever he says it's not gonna start with begin with a clean finger. I can tell you, nobody asked Bobby about that. And you you're lucky too, because you're not gonna ever be in this situation that Arden and Kelly are in where your periods are like, No, it just jerking you back and forth. On timing. Right? You know what I mean? Right, right.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 53:12
Because I have like I said, I have experienced that like in college. But I don't think at that point, I was even while I did a really good job of management as well as I could. I that technology at that point was not I mean, there was no CGM. I was still doing, you know, a lot of darn finger sticks a day to see where things were going. But I don't think I was as a two and two even wanting to pay attention to why something I was just like, Oh, I didn't even at that point. I was like, oh, it looks like I just need a little bit more. I

Scott Benner 53:48
mean, maybe we're a decade into having the technology where you can break this stuff down. Versus next question. I really want to thank them for this and I don't have her name here, I apologize. Is you know, she brings up what are ways to track it. Um, you can track it on a paper calendar, you can track it in an app. It's my intention to just like I said earlier, to in a quick, easy way, maybe even colors would work. Honestly, you know, green, yellow red for insulin. I would track insulin needs I would track when the period starting I would try to figure out as much about ovulation as I could. So you can kind of find that window in there about where it is. And I'll tell you to like it sucks but you could track your mood. You could track your you know, your sexual desire, like you can make all those little like clicks there. It's like yeah, you don't I found thinking sucked for women the whole time, is that things that from an outsider's perspective seem like choice can be driven so harshly by hormones, which could make you feel like you're not doing things purposefully like it's your body. Doing it

Jennifer Smith, CDE 55:00
telling you to do you telling you to do

Scott Benner 55:03
Yeah. Like, like, I would hate the idea of, I'm on a date, and I'm open to having sex tonight. Not because I want to have sex or because I like this person, but because my hormones are in a state where it's telling me

Jennifer Smith, CDE 55:17
they're kind of telling you to feel this way. Yeah,

Scott Benner 55:20
do this now. Because sperm will live in you for five days, and then we can get you fertilized and give you a good chance to, you know, bring in this egg along. That's, I mean, it's kind of which brings

Jennifer Smith, CDE 55:33
in a lot of interesting fact, especially for the teenage. Right? Yeah, where I mean, the majority of teenagers, this point are not considering conception. They're not they're beyond that, you know, for many reasons, but those are some of the things that your body is supposed to be telling you to do. And, you know, what's the reason? Well, eons ago, people were getting married when they were 1415 years ago, old and having kids at that point, in fact, you know, if you weren't married by the time you were like, 25 was like, over four

Scott Benner 56:15
are window. Yeah, right. We're five years away from dying, probably it's. Well, I mean, I listen, it's beautiful, like, you know, in a nature kind of naturalistic way. Like, it's amazing. I just found myself feeling badly that you could be having feelings or thoughts that aren't the ones that you decided to have. But then I kind of brought it out larger. And I thought, when my iron was lower, I wasn't who I was. Right? I mean, we're all just, you know, some dialed up level of different chemicals and hormones and impacts and everything. And, and I yeah, I think that I hate to say that I think this episode could have been like, Hey, you should track your period, and then make better decisions about your insulin. Like, I really think that could have been the end of it. And it Well, I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 57:03
think there's other I checked, there were a couple other questions in here that I think that do go. I mean, they they kind of go into, yes, that's the base, track your insulin, see what you need, and then make the decision on how to make your insulin delivery system. Do what you want it to do for you, right, but there were a couple of questions. One of them was on MDI changed my Basal in a certain point of my cycle to deal with increased or decreased physician resistance. And I should I also focus on adjusting my boluses I can say that, absolutely, you'll need to adjust at least your Basal insulin, even on MDI. I mean, when I was MDI, and had caught on to the fact of needing more, based on what my blood sugar was doing, I knew that I needed a certain dose, that was three units, I still remember it was three units higher than my baseline dose for the time period of resistance that I needed. So you know, in terms of that, I could always adjust and unless something shifted and changed, you know, I would have maybe used a little bit more, or a little bit less. But overall, it was, it's funny that I still remember, three units, four was always what I used when I had my period. So yes, you could use more. And if your doctor isn't directing you to do that. Our doctors don't direct us to do many things that we end up doing. This is not advice or recommendation to do that, but discuss it with them. But it definitely and bring in maybe some of the logs that you've kept and say, Hey, I'm noticing this, would you agree? I'm thinking I need this much more insulin, right? I mean, always check with somebody, obviously, if you feel that you need to Bolus is could they need to adjust? Absolutely, they could.

Scott Benner 58:58
Well, you know, I just did the math real quick three units is only like point 125 an hour if you're on a on a Basal program for a pump, so right, but but, but it might have been significant for you. Do you remember what your Basal was back then?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 59:14
Yeah, I do my Basal and overall was sitting at 12. And I needed 15.

Scott Benner 59:22
Okay, yes. Okay. So it's a big jump, even though it doesn't look like a big jump per hour. It is a big jump percentage wise,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 59:29
it was a big jump percentage wise and it was a bit I mean, it looks like a big jump like Gosh, going from 12 all the way up to 15. Oh my gosh, like, that's a lot more insulin right, especially when you talk about like adjusting things. Okay, we're going to add one unit more of your Basal insulin and we'll see how this manages things over the course of that whole 24 hour time period. Right. Um, I the other one that I thought was good to focus on would be using algorithm driven pumping systems as a female, the algorithm was not it wasn't built for this to deal with hormones. It was not it wasn't built for hormones, it wasn't built for pregnancy, you can successfully use it. If you know how to manipulate settings, right? I, I personally find that it's better for me to just adjust my baseline profile in my system. And then on the months that I am more resistant on top of that, then a temporary adjustment up using a temporary Basal or an override or, you know, whatever your adjustment is for the algorithm that you're using. I adjust up using that. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:00:48
Is this whole conversation really similar to what you would have if you were talking about like, a teenage boy who's going through a lot of growth and hormone changes and stuff like that, like just it's just not on a cycle that you can see as well? Right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:01:05
It's not on a cycle. That's as I mean, it doesn't seem to be from the team guys that I've worked with, it doesn't seem to be as cyclic.

Scott Benner 1:01:13
Yeah, predictable, right? It Right, right. This really is predictable, though, within reason,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:01:19
within reason, yes. And I can even say, if you're the person with the irregular cycle, let's say 25 days, one month, 29 days, another month, back to 30 days, and then back down to 25 days. Despite that, the things that you're seeing happen to your blood sugar, in that time period, will continue to happen for you. Yeah. Right. So even if your cycle length isn't about the same, if you start to see those in a time period, that could be soon enough to be close enough to like an early cycle. Or maybe you're gone back beyond that. You haven't seen changes yet. And up now I see changes.

Scott Benner 1:02:03
Okay, right. Yeah. Well, I was just thinking that you're talking about like variables and inside of variables inside of variables. You can, you know, you know, food, food cravings are not uncommon, right around hormone changes. So you could you could have forever thought, why is it sometimes I'm really good at nachos. And other times, I'm not really good at nachos. And maybe it's because once in a while you have nachos when you want them? And sometimes you want nachos? Because your hormones want them. And you're already in a situation that's more difficult. And then you add in food, because what was the question here is like, should I eat differently or exercise differently through different phases of my cycle? Which is a great question. And it may be think, you know, I'm not into telling people how to eat. But there are definitely foods that are easier on you that take less insulin that you might want to try eating, while you're having an increased need for another reason, because now otherwise, you have to increase needs correct difficult food and your hormones at the same time.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:03:05
Right? And the hormones are driving a desire for things that otherwise you may have very, you may have very easy management around, right. You may love nachos, but your typical serving of nachos is appropriate and and find. And if it's a hormone driven time, you know, you might eat much more

Scott Benner 1:03:24
of your doctor. You know, while we were adjusting Arden's birth control pills and getting it right, she couldn't stomach meat. Hmm, she was not a vegetarian kind of person. And for a while she couldn't stomach meat, like just getting away from me. She couldn't smell it, she definitely couldn't even think about eating it. And then as her as the pill, we found the right pill. And it got kind of like set in stone. Now that's come back a little bit.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:03:51
It must be something to do with the hormone levels in the birth control she's using because it's actually not uncommon for just thinking about hormones in general. Many women have some aversion to meet during pregnancy. Yeah, many women can't stomach red meat specifically. So I wonder if it's something hormonally? Well, similar. That was weird happening for her before it got regulated.

Scott Benner 1:04:18
I'm running around the house pointing to that my wife's like, that's crazy. Arden's like you don't think Arden just thinks I paid too much attention to her. So she's like, stop paying, like caring I brought up to the OB the OB is like, I don't know, I'm like, god dammit, I'm right about this. Like, no one's watching these people more than me. You know what I mean? Like, um, they trust me they don't be dead without me, Jenny. Like, in one way or another? My wife like, you know, like with the thyroid stuff like I'm the one who's kind of like stepped back like you guys hear me talk about on the podcast like being micro and macro. Like on my family on macro. Like I step back, I look for big picture stuff. And I don't worry, but when I start seeing stuff over and over again, I don't know. It's just who I am the guy just don't know, I worry about people. So

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:05:03
that's not a bad thing necessarily bad

Scott Benner 1:05:05
for me. It's great for them. You've ever noticed me worrying about myself? But

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:05:12
was this I think this kind of me answers some of the question I see and hear about age. Do How old was Arden when she had her first cycle? Do you remember? Of course you remember?

Scott Benner 1:05:23
No, I don't know if I do. It was a little later than her friends. Okay, maybe,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:05:31
as was, as was I? And a couple of questions here, you know, just relative to, like, when should I expect this in my daughter? Honestly, could be as early as age 10. Wow. Honest. And it could be I mean, I was, I was definitely late. I was definitely late and getting my cycle comparative to all of my friends. But I also think, in terms of that, my, my management wasn't then what it could have been if I were diagnosed in today's age, right. So I think that the management style that I had at that point was not managing well enough to allow my body to actually be consistent enough to start my cycle at the time that it technically should have started. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:06:24
this is Jenny's third attempt to let you all know to go back and listen to all of the pro tip episodes. You can do a really great job of getting your settings right understanding how to make changes for yourself, how to Bolus for meals, how to keep high blood sugars from happening, like she is very artfully telling you, that's the ability and understanding is the is the firm foundation of living with diabetes. She says she's so nice about it when she says I'll just say what Jenny's saying y'all aren't doing a good enough job. You got to get in there and try a little harder. You know, it's funny, I think Artem was 14 Having just turned 15. And I don't remember the date. I remember the situation we we, along with a number of her friends. Were on our way to go swimming. And this was Arden's first time swimming with a period. And a bunch of little girls disappeared upstairs in my house, and came back 20 minutes later, disheveled, sweaty, rocked, and the end, the one girl goes, we couldn't get it in. And apparently, this is apparently at one point like a mechanic

Unknown Speaker 1:07:34
and how funny that they actually like. I mean, well enough with you that they actually announced it to like a guy. Oh, my God, I would have been like mortified, telling my dad something Oh,

Scott Benner 1:07:45
no, no, no, he was described to me as Arden was a car on a lift, and the girls took turns trying to change your oil and couldn't figure out how to do it. So.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:07:56
Oh, that's interesting.

Scott Benner 1:07:58
So that's about what happens around here usually. And well. Actually, I gotta say that's not usual. But but it didn't work out. And so I'm thinking it was the end of her 14 right around her 15th birthday. If I'm okay, I'm guessing right? If I'm wrong about that, then it's end. It's not 1516 She's been at this for a while. I think it's 14 to 15. But yeah, like this could you could have kids getting their periods, all kinds of crazy ages. Like what what they used to hear like the hormones and cow's milk or making girls develop sooner or something like I don't know if any of that's true. But you know, there are girls walking around sometimes where you're like, are they 20 or 10? Or like what he can't tell? Yeah,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:08:36
I know. Yeah. The I mean, I think that that's like a rabbit hole of we could dive in there. But it would be a long, long discussion.

Scott Benner 1:08:45
We should make euphemisms about holes while we're talking about periods. So. So I mean, do you think, let's see, do you think there's anything else like I mean, I feel like this is a good conversation, I mean, perimenopause, people are asking about different kinds of birth controls, like there are non hormonal birth control, like, ways, right. So, I mean, there's, I'll tell you, more than two people asked about Plan B. Whether as an whether or not that would have an impact on blood sugar's and I wasn't able to find that out.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:09:21
You know, I that is a really good one. I can actually ask my, my or my, my MFM. I can actually ask them if they have any reference to that having worked with enough women with type one. I don't know. I mean, the goal of that, obviously, is to not conceive. So it has some level of hormone shift to prevent pregnancy.

Scott Benner 1:09:49
You would think it's an overwhelming of hormones to kind of stop

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:09:53
whether it has an impact on blood sugar. I don't know that's it's a really good question.

Scott Benner 1:09:59
I don't know enough about how that works. works? How about IUDs? Do they impact blood sugar's that I'm sure you've seen in practice, right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:10:06
Right, those more they seem smoother than other birth control methods from what I have seen. So do they have impact? They probably have an impact in terms of initially having one. And then the outcome of what now your sort of monthly cycle if there is still one remaining, what does that look like? Do you see any shifts? I've, I've seen women who don't actually have any visible cycle whatsoever, right? Who have noticed a minor shift that appears to be cyclic, but most of them tell me that they don't even adjust around it. They just end up taking like a little more corrective at the next mealtime the correction seems to work well enough, kind of gets them, you know, back to where they want to be. And they never make any shifts in their insulin at all.

Scott Benner 1:11:03
I have to say that Ardens OB was pushing, pushing, she was pushing, she was saying if we don't find some stability with blood with birth control pills, she wanted Arden to consider an IUD now Arden's like a little young, like we walked out, she's like, the first thing she said to me is like, I'm not doing that. And I was like, gotcha. But it was, you know, she's like, you know, in the future, we might have to keep this in mind. Yeah, I don't I you know, that is another thing I don't know much about. But you look like you have something you want to say. What did you find?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:11:32
No, I was actually just looking up a little bit about whether I could find anything on the plan B and blood sugar specific to type one, but I don't really see anything at all that documents that

Scott Benner 1:11:48
Okay, how about so is PCOS somehow related to diabetes? And or no? Like, why is it just because I only apparently at this point in my life, I only talk to people who have diabetes that I I start thinking things are more common or

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:12:03
right PCOS is more common in those with other metabolic shifts that include insulin resistance and PCOS can bring more resistance into the picture, right? Other metabolic things being have more difficulty with weight management, they have higher cholesterol levels may already have higher blood pressure, despite potentially doing all of the healthy lifestyle things to manage those. But PCOS is more common with the type two. But interesting. In the past, I would say five years, I have had more women more normal, like healthy body weight and healthy lifestyle who have actually been diagnosed with PCOS. And part of the part of the reasoning in terms of like sending them to their back to their doctor to say, hey, I don't understand I am doing everything in the picture of management. And I need so much insulin to keep things where they are. Something else has to be in the picture. So a mine is always Why don't we look for PCOS, because if that is in the picture, one of the long term even in women without diabetes with PCOS is a medication that's very common and uses Metformin. Okay, it helps to dial down the resistance and from the PCOS level, it helps with some of that cystic nature in the ovaries and it helps with evening some of that out in terms of hormones and everything. So Metformin is definitely a heavily used additional medication that could be you know, beneficial.

Scott Benner 1:14:02
Yeah, somebody mentioned Metformin in in one of those I forget where it was. I didn't bring that question over for some reason, because they were like, because they were talking about like, can I could I just use Metformin during certain times of resistance around my you can't stop and start it right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:14:22
That's no that's not the way that Metformin is meant you know, if you're going to use it, we started a low dose, evaluate tolerance I mean, it's one of the older oral medications it typically for most people is well tolerated after you get over some initial like first week or so of like some stomach upset and as long as you're tolerating it, it increases to like more of a therapeutic level. And then you continue use of it you

Scott Benner 1:14:48
don't stop at use Advil during one section of your Yeah, I only got I brought it up here because if somebody was thinking maybe somebody else was thinking, I did not think that was a good idea. So okay, I don't know, like, there's this moment where I go, Are we good Johnny that I do we do it or?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:15:08
Yeah, I think, you know, I was looking at more of the questions just to make sure that P A mean in terms of talking specific like cycle, I think yes. Um, I mean, I think discussion around things like menopause and that kind of stuff are it's such a transitory time in terms of

Scott Benner 1:15:37
that ever, right? Like menopause can go on for years.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:15:41
It can go on from very long time. Absolutely. I mean, and that's really perimenopause. Right. Once you're fully in menopause, you have no longer had a cycle for a year's time. Right, then are you are menopausal. perimenopause starts with many women notice a shift in their cycle. Let's say you have had a regular 30 day cycle consistently, you kind of getting into the age of and what age in general about 50 ish, but women with diabetes have from research sort of proven to start earlier than the typical like age of 50, let's say. So any shifts in your cycle, without any lifestyle changes or anything like that, you know, now you're having 25 day, the next month, it's 30. Day, this month, you have three days and a really light cycle next month. It's really, really heavy and painful. And it's just not your typical, it could be very likely that perimenopause is kind of in the picture and there aren't any many women would say, Well, can I you know, get hormone testing levels done to see in this point of perimenopause, it's not typically recommended. It really isn't until menopause, that they would recommend doing testing of hormones to actually sort of prove the case that they have come to a level without a cycle, you're no longer ovulating. And some women actually haven't done the testing to make sure that they're actually not ovulating. From just like a sexual standpoint, they're just ensuring that they can't get pregnant any longer.

Scott Benner 1:17:19
Yeah. Oh, god help you imagine having a baby when you're 50. I'd be so tired.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:17:24
I personally i can't i

Scott Benner 1:17:27
i would be so tired. That's all I can think of.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:17:31
Yes, I mean, from an age No, I can't.

Scott Benner 1:17:35
So no, my God. Last night, Kelly was like, can you imagine if we had had three kids? And one of them was just a couple years younger than Arden. Wouldn't that be nice? And I was like, No, I don't think so. It's it's 930 and I want to go to bed. How would that be a good thing? That child would end up being feral? I'd be like, just try not to die. And I don't know if I'd have the energy to take care of it. I really don't. I don't know. I mean, good for you. If you do. I don't think I could. That it. We're

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:18:01
good. I think that's it. We should be good.

Scott Benner 1:18:04
Alright, so thanks. On the whole that's everything. I'm

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:18:09
probably not everything but you know, it's

Scott Benner 1:18:12
alright, cool. Awesome, Jenny. I really appreciate this. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yeah, you're very welcome. My friend Jenny Smith has had type one diabetes for over 33 years. Jenny holds a bachelor's degree in Human Nutrition and biology from the University of Wisconsin. She is a registered and licensed dietitian and certified diabetes educator and certified trainer on most makes and models of insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitoring systems. She is also all over this podcast so if you like her check out the finding diabetes es has gotten Jenny the rest of the Pro Tips and so much more. Jenny does this for a living by the way you can hire her at Integrated diabetes calm Okay, I promise you euphemisms for periods so let's do it

Okay, some of these are going to be in delicate so stop listening now if you don't want to hear them. Alright, what do we got here? Strawberry week. Red and Red Army. Red wave. Red Ant is visiting men's which is short for menstruation. Riding the red wave code red. The red plague Aunt Rose is visiting red Castle entering the Red Sea tomato juice ketchup week. Ketchup week. That's not good. I don't I don't like that one. That makes me upset. What else we got here? Oh my god, that one's horrible. This is from in French. Fare do boo dime. I mean I don't think Big French but cooking black pudding. The hell's wrong with you people? The small little elves Niagara Falls. I have my things. The marquee red see? I feel sick red light red balloon. I have a flood lady days that time of the month, painters in the stairway what else we have here? special situation. These are Chinese special situation. Apple bread. Bloody Mary. That thing that comes in Japanese a Girl's Day. Blood festival once a month. Arrival of Matthew Perry. I do not understand that one at all. The Spanish say indisposed girl stuff. The frosting the steak. The frosting the steak. That's terrible. Little Red Riding Hood. Your devils the red cousin the vampire. I'm not even gonna say that one. What do you think of that? There's one I won't say that one's that one's terrible red tide. I prefer lady time. That's my favorite one. I'm also a fan of my baby box is trying to kill me. Here is another list. I painting the garage door. Moon time cranberry woman the Curse Girl flu. Girl flu is funny. Checking into the red roof in lady business Bloody Mary. Oh, i Ooh. I'll say it. Ready? Hold on. 123 the blob on the rag. I find that to be vile Crimson Tide. It's nice. I like that movie. Alright, I mean, listen, there's more than one of these obviously, you probably have a favorite. I just told you my favorites are girl time. My baby box is trying to kill me. And I did find girl flu very, very entertaining for some reason. Okay, if you're still listening, I really appreciate it. Thanks so much. I'll be back soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Make sure you check out those pro tips from the beginning. Listen through it'll be well worth your time.

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