#686 Cheese and Carrots
Lorie has type 1 diabetes and was diagnosed as an adult.
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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 686 of the Juicebox Podcast
so today's episode is with Laurie she was diagnosed later in life, very much a surprise to her. But I have a little egg on my face today. This episode was recorded in April of 2021. For context you are currently listening to episodes recorded in, I think November of 2021. So, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, nine months, late and over. Ooh, geez, I'm so sorry, Laurie 13 months after she recorded this. Laurie is terrific. It's a great episode, she's got an engineers mind. And it's interesting to hear her think through her diagnosis as an adult who did not expect to get diabetes in any way. 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. For clarity, I just moved Lori's file into the wrong folder. And just like that, it was out of sight and out of mind, I apologize to everyone involved. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by one of our newest advertisers in pen from Medtronic diabetes. Maybe you don't want an insulin pump, but you'd like some of the functionality that they offer in pen is probably for you. Head over to in pen today.com To find out more. The podcast is also sponsored today, by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter, you're going to learn more at contour next one.com forward slash juicebox. There are links to impending contour in the show notes of your podcast player. And at juicebox podcast.com. If you can't remember, contour next.com forward slash juicebox and in pen today.com. So no you don't want your for sure. My I'm recording already and I shouldn't say this probably but my wife's been working from home now for 13 months. And my kids and I just stare at each other because she's just she yells and we tell her you're talking too loud. And she's like, am I am I like yeah, she's just much too loud. And she goes, okay. And five minutes later, she's yelling you know, you know, you know, you know back before the world was a real place and people would talk louder to somebody who spoke a different language like you know that ridiculous like thing you have. My wife appears to do that with Zoom. She just yells like it can't hear. So we've given up now we just snicker behind her back.
Lorie 3:07
I I totally understand that. Because my family tells me that I talk way too loud on the phone that I yell at zoom, I yell at WebEx. I mean, I'm super loud all the time,
Scott Benner 3:19
I have to say that I'm a little. I'm probably spoiled because it is my inclination to be loud. But I'm miked pretty well. So I can't be too loud because the microphone is doing a lot of the work. So kind of calmly but yeah, she's my wife is busy, making sure that your COVID vaccine is safe and at the same time does not appear to know how to talk to people over a computer. So
Lorie 3:44
well, let me know if I get too loud on this, you're
Scott Benner 3:46
fine, you're absolutely fine. But if you yell I will say, I will say okay, great. You go ahead and introduce yourself any way you want to be known. And we'll just start off.
Lorie 3:56
Okay, um, well, my name is Laurie. I have had type one diabetes for about a year, almost two years, actually now. I was diagnosed at 49. So clearly, you can do the math. And I'm 51. And I, it's been very interesting the past few years, I've really had to try to you know, just like everyone who gets diagnosed has to come up the learning curve and figure out oh, my God, you know, how am I going to manage this? And I guess I don't know, maybe that's probably the best introduction. I guess the thing that's interesting, that makes I guess my story a little bit interesting is that I you know, I guess a lot of people that come on the show have lots of reasons for not believing or not understanding that they were developing I diabetes, and that they had all the symptoms. I guess mine was that I thought it was menopause, which, now looking back seems utterly ridiculous. And I should have known but I just kept. I just kept, you know, thinking, Oh, well, it's this, it's that
Scott Benner 5:19
it's, well.
Lorie 5:23
It's menopause symptoms.
Scott Benner 5:25
I've recorded about 500 of these, and you are going to hold the distinction of being the first person who thought that their type one diabetes was menopause, congratulations. Oh, well, there's no truth maybe. But
Lorie 5:36
maybe it's not that common of a rationalization, then.
Scott Benner 5:42
You just it's first of all, it's interesting to hear why you think you're going to be interesting on the show, because the thing that you thought is not what I thought when I read your email. Oh, really? Okay. Well, what did you say? So first of all, you feel you feel a real need, which is somebody who has been diagnosed later in life, because I get a ton of emails about can you please have people on who are diagnosed later in life, too. And I respond to each one of those emails. And I say, I will if you know, I find people who have been diagnosed later in life who want to talk on a podcast about it's not that easy. I think people are starting to believe that I can just stand up and point at people and make them come on the podcast. So that's great. But also, that you're an engineer is Oh, that's fantastic. Because that thing that makes you good at your job. I'm wondering if it makes you bad at diabetes, and I can't wait to find out. Don't laugh. Yeah, cuz I think you don't, don't give away. Let's get to it. We'll build slowly. Also, Laurie, I know we're not I guess we're not saying and it's fine that we're not. But you know, well, first, let me ask you, if you're comfortable doing this, right, you're not nervous or anything like that.
Lorie 6:48
Oh, well, I'm a little bit nervous. But I also kind of feel like I know you because I've listened to so many podcasts. So I'm kind of like, oh, Scott Benner. You know, he's my, he's in my ears a lot.
Scott Benner 6:58
But I'm just saying, I google everybody that comes on the show at some point, and you speak in front of people I know, we're probably not going to maybe maybe that'll come up or it won't, but there's just no reason for you to be nervous. Being on a podcast, I think, Oh, okay. That helps. Thank you. Seems like you've, you've spoken in front of people before so. Okay, so let's figure out let's go slow. How about lifelong any, and really think about it any medical issues throughout your life?
Lorie 7:27
Not you know, not really, I mean, I, when I was a kid, I did have terrible environmental allergies, like, you know, dust, pollen. You know, I that was terrible. And, you know, back in the Dark Ages, when I was a kid, you know, we, you know, there were a couple I had allergy shots, like three times. And then, you know, I had a lot of ear infections, I had tubes in my ears three times also. So there was a lot of struggle with allergies until I kind of I kind of grew out of it. Um, it got I don't know, exactly why this happens. So, you know, I mean, a doctor would probably be able to tell you, but you know, I, I had, um, you know, I kind of outgrew it around 13 or 14, it all got a whole lot better. I just really didn't have problems with allergies anymore. And then, you know, through my 20s and 30s. And most of my 40s I was like super healthy, you know, because,
Scott Benner 8:33
well, a couple of things. It's really a couple things that are interesting. First of all, if you Google pollen allergies, auto immune, you're going to get a return back that says in autoimmunity there are different types of T cell T cells involved them excuse me, in autoimmunity, there is a different type of T cell involved than in allergies. In an autoimmune response, tissues deconstructed. But with allergies, the immune system overreacts to harmless allergens. So while it's not the exact same thing, it is your body overreacting to something because there are plenty of people who walk around in the summer day and whose eyes are not running and they're not banging themselves on the side of the head because of their itchy eyes and stuff like that. So I've always kind of thought of that as an immune response. That's not quite right. Yeah, you know, which I think is is interesting. And you mentioned that they just went away. Absolutely happened to me. When I was young, the worst allergies, like I couldn't go outside. Sometimes my whole family would be outdoors, I'd have to sit inside the air conditioning, you know, stuff like that. And then one day, it just stopped. It just stopped. And it just never happened again. It was absolutely amazing. And I watched it happen to my son very recently. He was fine until he's about 15 had terrible allergies for about three or four years. They just went away out of nowhere. And then a year or so later, he started having trouble with his thyroid. Oh, not crazy. So yeah, I I wonder that's what I wonder because you have a long life in front of you before type one. Any other people in your family line with any autoimmune stuff? Um,
Lorie 10:11
not that I know of. There's been some celiac disease. But really, I mean, not not. There wasn't even that, you know, anywhere, you know, not close relatives. Nobody close has had any of this stuff. There's been some and there's been allergies, there's allergies, but you know, but this, you know, nothing terrible. You know, it's not like you eat a peanut and you almost die. You know, there's nothing, none of our allergies are that bad.
Scott Benner 10:40
Yeah. But it is interesting that you, you know, I said, are there any autoimmune just said no, just celiac. Celiac is autoimmune.
Lorie 10:47
Yeah, well, I guess I forgot.
Scott Benner 10:51
It's not even that it's that it's not it's, it's, I think it's outside of the way. People think about it. Like, once you have type one diabetes, you have in your mind, the worst autoimmune thing, like the only mean, like, this is the bad one. But I think other ones for some people, celiac is terrible for some people. And you know, that kind of stuff, too. So there's a tiny bit of celiac, it's not right. It's not like your mom or your dad have it something like that. You live your whole I mean, let's Can I be honest with you first, I can't like you'd be honest with me, Laurie? I mean, 49 You thought you made it? Right?
Lorie 11:26
Well, you know, I gotta say, you know, getting type one diabetes at 49 did not cross my mind. Ever as something that I, you know, skated past? I mean, you know, I, yeah, I mean, it never occurred to me that this would happen, because, you know, like I said, nobody in my family has ever had type one that I know of, um, you know, and I, I just didn't even it never crossed my mind. Nobody even has type two. Nobody's got any kind
Scott Benner 12:03
and you're an active fit person on top of all that, is that right?
Lorie 12:06
Yeah. So I've been doing, you know, marathons triathlons, you know, I'm just generally, I just like to move around. I like to hike, you know, I like to do go on walks around the neighborhood, even, you know, whatever swim, there's just, uh, I'm busy. So, you know, I mean, I'm, I'm not, I'm not overweight, I was, I've never been overweight, I've never had any other real health problems at all. So, you know, this came as a shocker. I believe,
Scott Benner 12:43
and I'm gonna be 50 this summer. And if I'm being completely honest, I'm down to worrying about, I don't want to have a heart attack, right. I want to dodge cancer if I can. And then I you know, not a slip and fall and then go as long as I can like that. I don't listen, maybe I'm weird. But I've always thought about this stuff. As I was getting older. Like, you know, in your 20s, this generally happens to people in your 30s this generally happens to people I'm even one of those people. It's like, Oh, your kids turning 13 I hope they don't become bipolar. That's about the year when that happens. Like I very strange feelings about like, so I just as so as you ascend the years, it just feels like well, am I going to be one of the people who just gets old and dies? Like, that's so cool. Like, I can't believe I made it. Like, that's how it feels to me. But I don't know, 49. If I were to get type one diabetes right now, I'd be like, Mother, You must have it.
Lorie 13:40
Yeah, that's kind of, well, when I got over the shock of it, that I was, you know, I'm like, Oh, well, I mean, it's better than getting cancer. You know, I did kind of, I did kind of go down that path, then. You know, I was kind of like, Oh, wow. Okay, at least not cancer. And, you know, I guess there's a whole lot worse things I could get that are not treatable. You know, this is manageable. I can manage this, you know, I'm not going to die. I just have a chronic disease I'm going to have to deal with. Okay, you know,
Scott Benner 14:17
well, what did you look like when it started? When it started happening? What were you what was the first sign? And how did you write it off? Well,
Lorie 14:27
there were a lot, I looked back and there were tons of signs. I just, I just blew it off. Well, I mean, when I was 47, I, you know, I was I was dying, well diagnosed or I don't know if you get diagnosed with this, but they know I had the blood work and I met with my OB GYN and she's like, Oh, well, you know, you're having hot flashes because you're in menopause. And, you know, I went through that for several years and I, you know, I thought, Oh, well, that's early. But you know, I just didn't, you know, I was just sort of like, okay, well, I guess I'll just deal with this. And, you know, everybody does that. So it wasn't a surprise, and it didn't feel like a health issue. It's not a health issue. It's just something you're supposed to go through. But I thought I wouldn't do that at 47. I thought I would do it at 55. But apparently, it's not even all that early, but you, you know, 40 sevens on the early Earth side of normal. So, I, you know, I had that. So, you know, everything was fine for a while, and, you know, all of a sudden, you know, I'm kind of 49 and I'm like, Well, you know, I'm drinking a lot of water, and I'm peeing. I'm having to get up every night and pee. And I thought, well, you know, maybe, um, you know, God, I must be true what they say, you know, you get old, you dry up old and cannot really and I'm old. I'm 49 Hmm. And so, I kind of wrote off the water and painting thing is, well, I'm, I'm somehow drying up. I'm needing more water now. And then the peeing thing. I was like, Oh, well, maybe my my uterus is prolapsing. I'm just, I'm just old.
Scott Benner 16:24
So wait, wait, was that happening? Or you just imagine that would be the reason.
Lorie 16:28
That's what I was imagining? That was not happening. Everything is fine. But I I mean, I was there was a little piece of me that was a little bit relieved. Like, oh, okay, it's not a prolapse. I'm not have any actual problems, like gynecological ly, so that's good. But I Yeah, so I was kind of writing that started to happen a little bit. Maybe I noticed it probably in maybe December, November or December. When I was I was still 48. Then kind of around that time, I kind of snuck out I'm drinking a lot of water. I'm pee and I have to get up in the middle of night and pee. And I thought, God, you know, it is it's true. What they say, you know, getting old is not for wimps.
Scott Benner 17:18
That's a boy thing, though, mon. Right, like the ping in the middle of the night. Isn't that a prostate thing?
Lorie 17:24
Well, I wasn't sure. No, I was like, well, maybe it happens to everybody. I don't know. I was. I was like, I'm fine. Don't be wrong with me. Basically. I was like, what could be wrong with me? I am. I am really unfit. I eat healthy. I'm not overweight. You know. And the doctors tell you all the time, you know, well, you know, these are things you need to do to live a nice, long, healthy life. And I was doing all those things. And so what could be wrong with me? That's kind of what I was thinking.
Scott Benner 17:59
Yeah, I Well, I mean, I kind of enjoy hearing the story. Because it's, it's demonstrative that everybody else listening that no matter what age this happens to you, most people are going to try to relate it to something else to write it off. They it's just it's just, it's it's very human and very common. I mean, because you went all the way to maybe I have a prolapsed uterus, which by the way, unless you say something more interesting in the next 45 minutes, Lori's uterus is on the inside might be the title of your episodes. And I don't think you want that. But again, congratulations on that one. But I just yay, I implore everyone who doesn't know what that means to google it later.
Lorie 18:44
I mean, it's a thing it does, you know, these things do happen. And, you know, I've had friends that that has happened to so I was, you know, I like, I don't know, my head.
Scott Benner 18:55
But at what point do you get it out of your head to come up with a reason and start thinking, I don't know what this is, but it needs to be attended to?
Lorie 19:04
Well, there were two things that made me kind of start to get a little bit scared about this.
Scott Benner 19:14
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Lorie 23:15
I was on vacation with my family. I have two husband and two kids and their their teenagers. So we were on vacation and we were driving. We had like a I don't know we were driving from one place to another on this vacation. And before we got in the car, I had a cheeseburger fries and a Dr Pepper and it wasn't like supersized any of those things. I just I just regular size, had lunch. And in the car we got in the car and then we were driving and I realized I am so thirsty. I drink my water bottle I drink my husband's water bottle and I took the water balls away from both of my kids. So I drank a gallon of water to follow up that it was literally a gallon of water I'm sorry I have to
Scott Benner 24:17
fight off a burglar
Lorie 24:18
say I have to fight off I'm depending low. Let me go ahead get let me have a couple of skittles here. Take
Scott Benner 24:25
your time. What's your blood sugar? Well
Lorie 24:31
it's 91 but I am doubled down. So
Scott Benner 24:35
is this adrenaline this adrenaline hit you like this? Some people it gets backwards. It doesn't drive them down. No.
Lorie 24:43
Probably not. I usually go up when I'm nervous. But what happened was I would just had breakfast and I may have missed my Bolus i over bolused Maybe a little bit
Scott Benner 24:54
for it. I have to tell you while you're chewing on your Skittles that I've come to realize that the older type, like the adult type ones that come on, and even some of the kids, they don't want their blood sugars to be high when they're on the podcast. I didn't realize that until a couple of people started mentioning it over and over again. Did you have any pressure like that? Like, I don't want my blood sugar to be out of range while I'm talking about my diabetes?
Lorie 25:18
I did not want it to Yes, I did not want my alarm to go off during Yes, for sure. Because of
Scott Benner 25:25
the beeping because you didn't want me to think that your weren't in range.
Lorie 25:29
Yeah, I didn't want you to think that I didn't have things under control after having listened to 300 episodes of the podcast.
Scott Benner 25:37
Laurie there 460. You better keep moving. Oh, they're saying while Lori's again, eating her Skittles. Please stop doing that. You guys come on the show you really don't. One time somebody's just gonna pass out. Like I was very aggressive before I was on the podcast. I don't. That is not necessary. But I appreciate everyone's feelings. But you don't have to do that. They take care. Let's stop your double hours down first. And how well the Skittles work for you.
Lorie 26:04
Oh, yeah. Skittles are the best. Like you feel
Scott Benner 26:07
very comfortable about the treatment you just made for even for 91 to down.
Lorie 26:13
Yeah, I have like, I have I had about seven. So I usually do that to get it to flatten out and then see what happens. Because if I eat 10 or 15 sometimes it's too much. So Gotcha. Cool. See, double down is not a good place. But oh, now I'm Oh, yeah. Now I'm starting. Okay. So yeah, I'm actually now I'm at four and diagonal down. So I probably ate about the right amount. So it was going to slow down anyway. So all right. Are you
Scott Benner 26:49
okay? I'm good. How did you figure out how to do that? Did the podcast help you figure that out?
Lorie 26:55
Oh, of course. Well, yeah, I mean, I Well, yeah, I mean, I am yeah. You know, you don't have to stick to this stuff. They tell you like, oh, you know, you gotta have 15 And wait 15 minutes. And you know, you don't have to stick to any the podcast helped me kind of relax and be like, hey, you know, it doesn't have to, you don't have to follow these rules. You can you can figure it out for yourself. And then, you know, now sometimes I screw it up real bad. No, don't get me wrong. Oh, of
Scott Benner 27:33
course. Of course. Everyone messes it up. That's, that's, you know, that just happens. I've had, I've gotten Arden through pasta the last couple of days really well. And I was like, wow, I was even, like, just happy when it was over. Like, I wouldn't want people to think that. It's just like, oh, okay, this this one. I mean, she ate something difficult. And I thought I hope I get this right. And it's worked. And it worked out. And I was like, hey, you know, it's it's not easy. But so you're basically even though you're two hours down, you're using like bumping techniques, like you're just trying to bump yourself back up. You've given yourself enough of something to stop the arrows. Without over treating yourself. That's the goal right here.
Lorie 28:13
Oh, yeah, that's and that's always the challenge. Yeah. So yeah, yeah. I mean, I, I've had enough, I guess I've messed it up enough to, to, to know not to over treat. Because then you end up kind of going up and down. And it's just awful.
Scott Benner 28:31
Yeah. Chasing though I think chasing is the worst thing that you can do. Because you just you can never win when you're chasing, unless you're just, like really so good at it that you can, I mean, there's a way to stop those bounces. But it's not easy to do if you don't understand the whole thing. And it comes in time. Like in time everybody can figure out how to do it. But in the beginning, if you're chasing, you'll chase forever, and I see it happen, there are some people who will get caught in that loop and never get out of it their whole life. Just this is diabetes, I'm always out flying up or I'm always flying down. I'm always scared. Or I'm or I always don't feel good. So it's it doesn't need to be that way. So I'm sorry. So the question, you know, this was listen, if you can't have a low blood sugar on this podcast, there's nowhere in the world for you to do it. So this
Lorie 29:21
story, I mean, everybody's gonna understand this. Yeah.
Scott Benner 29:23
One person judging you right now. Everybody's just like, oh, Laurie, slow. Well wait for the answer to that question. That's fine. Yeah, so the question really is, is what what pushed you to actually go to a doctor to hey, I don't know what's happened to me.
Lorie 29:35
Yeah. Okay. So so one part of the story was, you know, I, I realized that day, I was sitting in the car, and I drank everybody's water. I took water away from my children. That
Scott Benner 29:48
was thirsty, mommy's thirsty. You are
Lorie 29:51
not certain you're not as thirsty as me. So and then, of course, we had to stop three times so that I could pee Of course, you know, that was the So then I was kind of like, man, that's weird. You know, that is weird. You know, but I kept thinking, wow, that's weird. And because it was so dramatic that time. You know, I was like, wow, that's dramatic. Okay, the second thing that happened was that when we were on that same vacation, I was like, Man, my jeans are loose. What is with this? You know, I, you know, am I losing weight? Right? So in my husband was kind of like, yeah, you know, maybe you are losing weight, you do seem a little thin. But, you know, we don't have a scale. We don't have a scale, because we're active. We've I just my weight has been really, really stable for a really long time. And I we just don't have to scale the house. So I never weigh myself. But we're on vacation. The gym at the hotel had a scale, and I'm like, you know, I'm gonna step on the scale and see what my weight is, right? So I started on a scale and I'm like, Ah, you know, so I'm five, five, and my normal weight is about 125 130. So, you know, I mean, I'm thin, but I'm not super skinny. And so I get on this scale, and it reads 115. So I'm like, oh, wait a bit, lost some weight. That's why my jeans don't fit, you know, or, you know,
Scott Benner 31:36
pounds on your frame would be would be obvious. I would think it's just tough when you're around people all the time. It's hard to see. You don't I mean, doing you see somebody every day, you don't notice it like art and look like I look back now. And I didn't look like a two year old runway model. You know, like, you could see our ribs and it just it was it was shocking to look back on it afterwards. But I couldn't somehow see it coming.
Lorie 32:01
Yeah, yeah. I well, I you know, and I think my husband didn't notice either because it was just gradual. It was a No Okay, time or whatever. And my kids, of course, didn't notice they're teenagers, they they have better things to worry about. And then, you know, I didn't notice until my jeans were loose and my clothing not fitting is a big, noticeable thing. Right.
Scott Benner 32:25
So but then does that make you think I have cancer?
Lorie 32:30
Well, it made me think that, you know, that is not a symptom of menopause. I'm like, I don't think weight loss is part of something that happens in menopause, or age or whatever. I'm like, everybody that I know that has gone through menopause. They got heavier, not less heavy, you know, they didn't lose weight.
Scott Benner 32:55
This is your engineer brain way you realize that right? That you're not leaping you're walking through step by step but it's, it's you're lucky you didn't kill yourself going through the 9000 steps that were possible before you got to what you do what you like, Okay, check that off. That didn't work. Now we're going to turn screw number 367 1000 to see what happens there. Like you really are going through it so slowly, but I imagine that's what makes you good at your job. But, yeah, so Okay, so menopause. No weight loss doesn't come with menopause. I'm gonna go to the doctor.
Lorie 33:30
Yeah, so I'm eating six more Skittles. Hey, listen, make sure that this flattens out. I want
Scott Benner 33:38
to tell you no one's ever passed out on the show. But I do believe it would be a ratings grabber so I but I don't want you to do are you okay? Do you need like
Lorie 33:50
yeah, I'm just still dialed down. And are you are you 74 Now I'm 78 diagnose anyone really?
Scott Benner 34:00
Any no one's Laura urine in an emergency situation so you don't have time to be impressed that I knew your blood sugar even though we don't know you just scenario but the people listening right now like god damn Scott newer blood sugar.
Lorie 34:14
I know that's pretty good. And if you're dialed down, we can calculate in the new amount of time we've been talking how what her blood sugar probably is at this point.
Scott Benner 34:26
That's fascinating between you and I didn't calculate anything. I'm unaware of the time. I just have a feeling for it. Like when I when you said when you were doing you were stopping double down arrow double arrows down with that many Skittles. I thought that's probably not going to work. And then you leveled out and I was like, Alright, maybe she knows better than I did. But then when you said you were going for another Skittle? I was like, yeah, she's got to be 2020 points lower now. Like maybe 50 points lower now and it's a diagonal. It's a diagonal down arrow B Because you did take the, the ass out of those arrows a little bit like you took, took some of the momentum out of it, but you didn't, you didn't squash it. So you still have if you did seven, and maybe seven more, do you know your carb ratio off the top of your head?
Lorie 35:16
Um, at this time of day, we'll see it's 930 this time of day, I'm six to one. So it's but um,
Scott Benner 35:28
so I'm gonna say you probably used to units too much in your meal or you didn't Bolus eat in Pre-Bolus. Enough, and you use the little too much. Which do you think? Well,
Lorie 35:40
I was high at the start of my meal. So I was like, so I went up. So yeah, so it was complicated morning for me, which is why this is happening. Sure. So I swam this morning. And then and when I and I was a short swim, but it was still 30 minutes with insulin off. And then when I and what happens always immediately after I plug back in and then I Bolus because you have to Bolus the mist in the mist basil. And then that I miss a lot. And then I was nervous about the show. So there was a little adrenaline so that that drove it a little higher after the swim. And then I saw I was about to I was to 40. So then I
Scott Benner 36:33
you Bolus. You and I started talking and you got more comfortable and the adrenaline part went away and you started the insulin leftover plus the meal Bolus.
Lorie 36:43
Yeah, that totally makes sense. Yeah. It's probably
Scott Benner 36:48
just saying no, if it's not okay, but can I say where I think you work?
Lorie 36:54
Oh, of course. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I was gonna mention that later. But
Scott Benner 36:57
let's get to it now, because it's insane that you're nervous. Do you work at NASA?
Lorie 37:01
Yeah. So I well, I work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is a NASA laboratories.
Scott Benner 37:07
JPL? Yes. Yeah. Right. Is that that's where you're at? Yeah, that
Lorie 37:10
Yeah. The Jet Propulsion Lab. So it's in Pasadena. Yeah. And so yeah, we I worked on, I actually work with people from all over NASA. And so you know, I, I do contribute to the human spaceflight aspects. And then also, the stuff that JPL does in house, which is the Mars missions and all the robotic missions that that JPL does, that you often hear about on the news and stuff. So it's, it's it's fun. It's a fun job.
Scott Benner 37:46
But you were but you were nervous about coming on my rinky dink podcast about type one diabetes.
Lorie 37:52
Yes, because, yes, because I'm like, Well, you know, I'm new to diabetes. I'm like, that's doing I've been doing engineering for a long time for NASA. And that's just you know, a day at the office.
Scott Benner 38:06
But but was new. But engineering about rockets that shoot people into space. Not like not like engineering about whether my, my my door unseats when I crack the door handle on my car, like real like, you see what I'm getting at, don't you? Okay, yeah. How did this
Lorie 38:26
require some much more precision? Yes,
Scott Benner 38:28
you would imagine. How did I do with my interview with April? Did you hear it?
Lorie 38:35
Yeah, she was she the one that was at Johnson Space Center. She's the one in Houston.
Scott Benner 38:40
Yeah, she's she was the advocate here that was not on control officer. Yeah. Yeah, it was I too geeky about space there. Do you think
Lorie 38:49
it was fine. I thought that it was fine. It was really it wasn't really interesting. Podcast actually. The area in which she works, the mission control aspects. I don't know anything about that, that so that all of that stuff was it was really interesting how she got into that. And you know, her work, I thought, yeah, that was a great. That was a great one. I did hear that.
Scott Benner 39:13
I just want I just wanted to know if like you were just like, it was terrible. He did such a bad job asked all the wrong questions. But your again, your engineering brain is so obvious here. So it really is. And the the part that's fascinating to me is I don't understand why you like the podcast if that's how your brain works. How are you and I jiving together. This is the thing I'm really interested in?
Lorie 39:38
Oh, um I Oh, I don't know. Actually. I haven't ever thought about that. You don't
Scott Benner 39:45
think in pictures right?
Lorie 39:50
I don't think in pictures i It depends. Well, graphs. Yeah. Um,
Scott Benner 39:57
so is there a part of me that's totally cool enough that you Do you see what I'm saying? Like I talked about like, I don't know, use more insulin, pump it back this way, nudge it over there. Like none of that is how your brain works for for engineering and it seems in your personal life because we kind of listened to you try to figure out that you had diabetes, the way an engineer would try to figure something out. And so then you bumped into a podcast, where a fast talking guy who doesn't have type one diabetes, is saying things like, oh, just trust that you know, what's going to happen is gonna happen. And you're like, right on. Like, I don't like I don't understand how you didn't go, No, this isn't for me. I gotta go.
Lorie 40:32
Well, I guess I don't think your show is not technical. I think it is technical, I think. I mean, well, I, I'll tell you what, I don't like the end, your show doesn't do this. What I don't like is, you know, the minimal to zero information that I got from my endocrine from the medical establishment, I guess. I, I, you know, oh, you know, give it take 15 grams of carbs to get over your low and wait 15 minutes? Well, you know, I did that at first. And that's terrible. I'm like, that doesn't work at all, you know, your way sometimes. Sometimes it's not enough. Sometimes it's enough. Right? Or, and sometimes it's way too much. And so I guess what I feel like I learned from the podcast is really the, the, the idea that no, no, go and figure out what is working for you and what's not, and pay attention to? What happens when you take more car, you know, when you are when you when you're watching your Dexcom data, you're watching yourself drop. Look at you know, how fast are you dropping? And you know, what has happened in the past and try to figure out, okay, what makes sense for me to do in the next 10 minutes to fix this, either go up or go down or whatever, but don't just be static about it. So I guess that idea is not in the medical establishment. I mean, they want to give you a formula, which, you know, when you're first diagnosed, yeah, a formula makes sense, and is easy to understand, and people can connect with it. But really, you know, there's a lot more sophistication. And, you know, even if it is a experiential sophistication that you get by, you know, just just testing things out with yourself. I mean, that's much more engineering than a cut and dried formula that you would learn in maybe the ninth grade.
Scott Benner 43:08
So when you when somebody hands you a formula, and it doesn't prove, then you don't trust it anymore. You know, it's it doesn't work. Right. And that's it. How are you? How are you? How's your blood sugar by the way?
Lorie 43:19
All right. Oh, yes. Funny, because gosh, I was like, Wow, can you see me swiping my phone to get my
Scott Benner 43:25
No I can. I can hear your concern. And you stammered a couple of times, which you didn't do in the first 20 minutes. So that's why I'm asking if you're alright.
Lorie 43:32
Oh, I am fine. Well, what do you think it is? Let me ask you.
Scott Benner 43:36
Maybe you can well, so how many how many skills did you have the second time?
Lorie 43:40
Um, I had, I think I had five or six.
Scott Benner 43:46
I'm gonna guess your 85 to 89 and stable.
Lorie 43:53
Okay, I am stable. But um, I leveled out at 77 or
Scott Benner 43:57
- Still, okay, let's see what oh, I'm
Lorie 44:00
on level at 77 which is good. But no, I
Scott Benner 44:03
did you check with a meter? Or do you do a lot of
Lorie 44:06
hesitating in my speech anyway, so that may not be related to a lower
Scott Benner 44:11
Do you Do you want to check with a meter? Are you comfortable?
Lorie 44:14
Oh, no. The Dex is always accurate. So like
Scott Benner 44:18
it you love it? Excellent. Dex. comm.com forward slash.
Lorie 44:24
Well, if they need if they need me to talk them up, I will.
Scott Benner 44:28
Well, well then. So okay, so you go to the hospital, you get diagnosed, they don't give you great information you leave with needles and a meter?
Lorie 44:36
Oh, no, it was nothing like that. Actually, I called my general doctor and said, You know, I need to come in. They were like, Okay, you can have an appointment in two weeks. So in two weeks I went in. And then the rest then what happened from that point forward was extremely similar to another guest that you had on that was diagnosed is it 44 I think her name was Carrie. That was, I think that episode just came out a couple days ago or last week. But anyway, um, I went in, they were like, Oh, you're you know, you're really healthy. You look great, you know, you're not overweight, they checked me for all the same stuff I had been thinking about, you know, that I knew we're good. You know, you're, you know, you look great. You know, why are you here? And I'm like, Well, you know, I've been paying a lot. And I also drink a lot of water, which, you know, maybe I'm just hold I tried to want I, when I was sitting there, I kind of wanted to poopoo it because it sounds so ridiculous, saying I have a lot and I'm pregnant, a lot of water. But and I said, But you know, but then, you know, I started I realized I had lost about 15 pounds. And the doctor got up and ran out of the room and yelled at the nurse, can you bring a blood meter in here? came and took my blood sugar. Oh, it's 413. So he looks at me and he says, Well, you have diabetes, and I'm like, what?
Scott Benner 46:16
But But I didn't do the stuff they said not to do.
Lorie 46:20
What the hell? Yeah, I. So I
Scott Benner 46:24
would imagine that's how a nonsmoker feels when they get lung cancer. They're just like, Wait, are you kidding me? Like I didn't do the thing that supposed to make this happen? And God, how was it in that moment? He says those words, how do you feel?
Lorie 46:39
I was I wanted to tell him that that was ridiculous. I was like, There's no way that I have diabetes, because I didn't know anything about diabetes. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, Well, I ran a marathon three months ago. And I, you know, I, you know, I'm swim I bike. I you know, triathlons. I'm active. I'm not overweight. You know, I'm thinking, I was I was like, I there's no way I have diabetes. And I'm not. And so what I actually said to him was, well, isn't there more to this diagnosis? I mean, you just check my blood sugar with a meter. Isn't there more you need to do to diagnose it. And he was like, nope.
Scott Benner 47:25
Sorry, lady, you have diabetes. Great.
Lorie 47:28
I mean, I was like, Well, that can't be right. And he looked at me and he goes, You know, I really don't think you have type two. But I don't know. And I'm going to have enum like, type, type two, type one. You know, I was confused. I had never researched this. I kind of vaguely heard about this and but diabetes
Scott Benner 47:52
Wilford Brimley, that's what you know. Yeah. Right, right. The guy kind of looks like a walrus with a big mustache. He has diabetes. That's diabetes. I don't know what the hell the rest of this is. That's interesting. Yeah. So he, what he do, he went looked for?
Lorie 48:07
Well, he. He didn't say anything. He goes, Well, look, come back. Tomorrow, we do bloodwork here in the office, come back in the office, and we'll do a blood draw, make it a fasting blood draw. So I'm like, okay, and then I'm like, How can you check my cholesterol to you know, while you're at it, because, you know, 49? So, he's like, Yeah, of course. So, um, so I go in, I get my blood draw. And he's like, Okay, two days later, he calls me and he says, You need to come back in. I go back in. He's like, Well, you're a one C is 13.1. So your blood sugar has been real high for a really long time. So you are pretty sick. Do you feel okay? And I'm like, you know, I'm like, Yeah, you know, I guess, you know, when you he's like, are you tired? You know, do you feel nauseated? Do you feel anything? You know?
Scott Benner 49:08
I feel irritated. You didn't ask me this two days ago, like I tell you that much.
Lorie 49:12
Well, I Well, and then then there was a beat, you know, there's like a pause in the conversation. He's just looking at me and I'm like, you know, I, I feel okay, you know, whatever. I gotta go pick up my kids. So, you know, is there something I should do? And he looks at me and he says, I'm trying to decide if I should send you to the hospital or not. Right? And I'm like, the hospital. That's ridiculous. I'm, you know, I walked in, I drove over here, walked in the office. Why would I need to go to the hospital? Well, so he's like, he just said, Okay, I need you to contact. Here's an endocrinologist. You know, I know this. You know, he talked about this. He knew he knew this endocrinologist. So Call them see if you can get appointment as soon as humanly possible. And I want to see you in three days. Okay? And don't eat any carbs at all. Eat no carbs, you're gonna have no sugar and no carbs. I'm like, Okay, so, you know, does that just leave me with bacon or?
Scott Benner 50:22
Exactly, so it's already in ham. I'm eating like, what? Could you be more specific? Yeah, especially you just asked about your cholesterol too. He's like, go home and have a cheeseburger. Don't put it on a roll.
Lorie 50:33
Yeah, actually, my cholesterol was fine. So he goes, Yeah, your cholesterol fine. So you know, we're gonna have you can have the meat part of the burger. I'm like, the meat part. What's going to hold the mustard, you know, kind of. So I call the endocrinologist. I radically changed my diet. So then, of course, I felt terrible, right? I mean, because I'm eating only meat and cheese.
Scott Benner 51:00
Yeah, your stomach. I'm sorry, did your stomach not do okay with that?
Lorie 51:08
No, my energy level just tanked. But you know, I got you know, he, he hooked me up with a meter. So I take Metformin, and here's a meter. So I start taking the Metformin. I call the endocrinologist. And now I'm checking my blood sugar with a meter, you know, you know, twice a day, three times a day. So I'm religiously three times a day checking my blood sugar, and it's 300 to 50. I'm like, Oh, it's 250. That's great. It's low.
Scott Benner 51:39
Coming down. I'm fascinated that he was pretty certain you didn't have type two diabetes, but gave you Metformin. And didn't know that if he sent you to the hospital, you'd leave the hospital with insulin. It's like he knew some of it, but not enough of it.
Lorie 51:54
Right? I think he just really did not want to. Well, he really wanted me to go to this endocrinologist. And I'm like, Why call the inter endocrinologist and they say, I can have an they said they have an appointment available in six weeks. So I called him back and I'm like, Can this wait six weeks? You know, I was kind of at this point. I was scared, right? Because I'm like, Oh, God. I don't know what this is. I don't know what to do. I've read stuff on the internet. I've watched the YouTube videos, I'm like, What am I gonna, you know, what does this mean? So he, so he calls the endocrinologist and gets me an appointment for a week later, and he goes, come back to my office, I went back and then he gives me Lantis. So he's like, I, I, the blood tests that I ran show that you have autoimmune diabetes. So that's type one. And he talked about the blood tests and told me what it was and but you know, he and so he said, Okay, so take a shot, take 10 units of this once a day at bedtime, which is the same thing that they told your other guests carry, which is funny, because when I heard her story, I was like, wow, that is super similar.
Scott Benner 53:16
Why? And also, oddly, why not in the morning? Like, why tell you to take insulin that you're not 100% sure how it's gonna work on somebody and then tell them to go to sleep. That seems weird to me, too.
Lorie 53:27
Yeah. It's super scary now. And there's another super scary thing about this that happened, which is, I asked him, I said, you know, I've heard that people on insulin have kin go low and they're exercising, you know, is that possible? And he said, No, this is such a low amount of insulin that you cannot go low on this. So I'm like, Oh, okay. And I should have said, You know what, hold my beer.
Scott Benner 53:54
Are you certain? Cuz I bet you I can tell me something. Now, what's your Basal rate now that you're on a pump
Lorie 54:05
what is my Basal rate? Oh, my Basal rate. I'm I'm a half a unit an hour,
Scott Benner 54:10
half an hour. So you're getting about 12 units of basil a day? Yeah. All right. Oh, he might not have been far off. But still, it's not the point. Like you know, when somebody gets diagnosed and they go to the hospital, you put on an insulin drip you get brought down very slowly. You know, they get your level and then they start working on insulin. You just don't throw it in and you know, I don't know. It sounds like your doctor knew enough to be dangerous and not enough to help you. It's interesting and not that's not uncommon. It's not even a dig on him but just his or her just this how it it's how it goes. Really. So did you get low off your 10 of Lana's? I imagine you did because now you're right away. Yeah. So I eat low carb too, right?
Lorie 54:52
Well, yeah, so I'm eating no carbs. Now I'm eating no carbs. And you know, my pancreas is still kind of wet. Looking a little bit, you know, and mine was still kind of honeymooning kind of period. And I, you know, so I'm eating no carbs. I'm trying to run. So what happened was I got like, I think I had been on it one or two days. And I am I get I run, I managed to run about a mile and a half away from the house. And I, you know, I'm feeling bad. So I get my meter out. I have my meter with me, I get my meter out just blood. I'm like, Oh, crap, it says 55.
Scott Benner 55:38
That's lower than 250.
Lorie 55:43
Okay, so I didn't know what to do. I'm like, I don't think I can make it back to the house. And I of course, I didn't have any sugar with me, of course. Didn't know what you're doing. Yeah, I didn't know what I was doing. And he told me I couldn't get low. So
Scott Benner 56:00
it was like he said, he's like, he hands you a 22 and goes, it's just a 22. You copy can't kill yourself with this. Good luck. And you were like, oh, yeah, watch this. What did you do? Did you call an Uber? Or did you
Lorie 56:11
call my husband I call my husband to come get me. You know, come get me. I'm telling him where it was. The game got me. And I'm like and bring like, so I again, didn't think I could eat carbs. So I was like, bring bacon or I can't aren't cheese? I don't know. I can't tell you to bring some kind of thing with no carbs in it. Right? So,
Scott Benner 56:32
you know, this is not funny. And yet I can picture your husband rummaging around for a cheese stick or something in the in the refrigerator. Before he goes to pick you up probably thinking to myself, like what is happening? You're just scared. And did he come with cheese? Please help me I
Lorie 56:49
did. He did. He brought he brought cheese and like, like a carrot or something. So
I now I look back on that because now you know when I run or swim or bike or do anything I am
Scott Benner 57:09
you know, I'm don't bring a cart with you. Why don't we
Lorie 57:12
uh, Karen, you know, I bring my Skittles I bring my goo I bring you know, Gatorade. I mean, you know, I would never, you know, do this. I mean, oh my god. So yeah, so it was super. You know, it was I just didn't know what I was doing.
Scott Benner 57:30
I just laughed so hard my nose ran I'm sorry. I just I don't know why like the the vision of this poor guy like, you know, you're sitting on the sidewalk and he's digging around frantically for probably the last thing in the world. That's gonna help you bring it like it's the it's the Messiah lifesaver for you. Here here's cheese, which doesn't even have meat in it. So it's not like you could eat it and like later, turn it into glucose. It would just, it would just go in there forever and sit there. I mean, it's just fat.
Lorie 58:00
Yeah, I know. I mean, I think he brought it he might have brought it carrot or something. But like it was like something else that would take a long time. A lot of fiber Have you ever have neither?
Scott Benner 58:09
Have you ever seen a movie where somebody gets loveless? That's
Lorie 58:14
always Steel Magnolias. Right?
Scott Benner 58:17
Like, he didn't bring your own shoes or something like that. Alright, so Okay, well, that's insane. How do you make it to the endocrinologist then?
Lorie 58:26
Yeah, so I get to the endocrinologist and they're like, and they were great. You know, they were like, okay, so yes, we're gonna keep you on the Lantus they gave me you know, so I'm on the pins, right. So they're like, but no, no mention was made of bolusing. Right. I mean, nothing. They didn't say Bolus. They didn't say honeymoon, I had to find out about honeymoon on my own. But they did you know, a real thorough checkup and, you know, check my blood sugar at that time. And I don't know, I mean, I guess, you know, they, they helped me in some ways, but in other ways, they didn't. So one thing they did tell me right away, which, of course, by this point, I already knew is they're like, Oh, you need if you get low, you know, eat sugar, eat fast sugar. You know, and then they explained to me what that was. But, you know, I still meet with a diabetes educator. I've never met with a diabetes educator, which is just everything I've learned I had to learn on my own. So I went home, I watched YouTube videos. I read stuff online. I started listening to your podcast, which I accidentally found because I don't have any friends. I nobody I knew had this right. I
Scott Benner 59:53
accidentally find the podcast real quick, just so I know how to make other people accidentally find it.
Lorie 59:57
Oh, um, well, I I found it online. I saw I was doing an online search. And then I found Arden's de Juicebox Podcast website. Good. And then I'm like, oh, there's a podcast.
Scott Benner 1:00:08
Gotcha. I'm just I'm just, I'm just okay. I'm just reminding myself to keep my search engine optimization up. Because that's how you found it. That's how you googled it and found it because it has the site has strong SEO. So it pops up earlier in, in searches like that. That that's simply you live in California, right? You said? Yeah. You're not from there, though. Are you?
Lorie 1:00:36
Know, can you tell where I'm from? From my
Scott Benner 1:00:40
I want to say you're from somewhere between Texas and North Carolina in that space?
Lorie 1:00:48
Yeah, that's good. Guess and south? Yeah, I'm actually I'm from Texas originally. Yeah, I'm from Dallas.
Scott Benner 1:00:55
And so you don't you don't speak like you're from California? I mean, you do a little bit, it seems like it feels like you took Texas and ran it through like a scrubber a couple of times is how it feels. But, but also also you don't speak the people who are from California talk quickly, like people from the East Coast. And you don't have that as much. That's like, that's not where she's from. But I don't know why I care about that. Just I probably just didn't make myself feel like oh, wow, you are right, Scott.
Lorie 1:01:26
Yeah, you can people ask me about that a lot. Actually. I mean, I've lived here for 25 years, but I actually I'm originally but I didn't, I came here as an adult to California. So
Scott Benner 1:01:40
you're just the blend? And I would say I would have guessed you have lived in California for a long time. But yeah, that's but my point is that you're not going to like a free clinic on the same street with like a methadone clinic, right? Like you're going to a doctor's office that you would imagine you'd be getting some sort of valuable information from.
Lorie 1:02:01
I really wish that now, you know, I of course, I have great insurance. So you know, I really wish that they had sent me to the hospital. Because if they had if my original my my general doctor, if he had just sent me to the hospital that day that he was thinking about that, that would help a lot, I would have gotten a ton of information and help.
Scott Benner 1:02:27
And how much time passed between that moment. And when you started getting it together.
Lorie 1:02:36
Pray a couple of weeks.
Scott Benner 1:02:37
Would you looking back? Would you describe that time as stressful, painful? Like how would you think of it?
Lorie 1:02:47
This price, it was pretty stressful. I was. I was scared. Because I didn't know, I knew I didn't know what I was doing. I knew I needed help. And I did not know the best way to get it. I did not know what I needed to insist on. So all I knew to do was to educate myself. So I actually read a couple of books in that time period to which helped. And then you know, I did stuff I you know, online, you always gotta be so careful. Because sometimes stuff is just stupid online, you know, or, but the YouTube videos helped, right? I mean, I was I was really stressed. I was kind of sad and scared that I had this. But you know, I'm like on YouTube, I go to YouTube, and I'm like, Oh, well, if diabetic Danica can be this cheerful and cute, and, you know, be informative. Well, I guess I could probably survive. You know, I had to kind of really, I just remember being hopelessly distracted. You know, I couldn't work. I really couldn't do much with the family. I was really focused on this for a couple of weeks. But at the end of it, I knew what I wanted. So when I got to the endocrinologist, you know, they were like, Yeah, you know, you have type one and a BA and they were explaining it and I'm like, I want to see I want a Dexcom Can I get the G six? And they were like, Oh, well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. And I'm like, No, we're getting ahead of ourselves. I want done, you know, if my insurance will pay for it, then I want this. And they were like okay, well since you're running and all that. Sure. So I got the decks calm right away. I mean, like, I think I was maybe six weeks in. I had a Dexcom real quick.
Scott Benner 1:04:51
That's excellent. Yeah. And because you educate yourself and you push for it, and you thought if there's a girl on YouTube that can be bubbly about this then like And I'd be happy to
Lorie 1:05:01
fish. Yeah, I was like, look at all these people on YouTube. They're like, living normal lives. They're fine, you know,
Scott Benner 1:05:10
a rocket flying slightly to the left right now because of the strategy where?
Lorie 1:05:15
Maybe? I don't know. So far, they haven't linked it to me.
Scott Benner 1:05:21
We were trying for Morrison, we hit Venus. That was weird. What happened? Laurie got the diabetes a couple of years ago. Oh, my gosh, well, that's Well, good for you. I mean, honestly, being serious, the amount of effort that you needed to put into it, like, listen, we could say everybody should put that kind of effort in, but everyone's not going to put that kind of effort in, you're a success story. And that moat, and you have to understand that most people don't end up having that success, they fall apart somewhere through, you know, you keep throwing Robox up in front of people. And telling them, you know, you're the doctor, you understand and things start going badly for them. They just imagine that's life. And, and then you lose those people. And, and maybe some of them never find their way out of it again, you were, you know, Europe, a studious person to begin with. So you just kind of turned that on to diabetes, and picked your way through it. But of all the things that you found. I'm the best thing, right.
Lorie 1:06:26
You're one of the best things, because I just like you have taught me is that, you know, it's it's timing and amount. That's a big one. And, you know, and also, you know, you might develop rules for yourself for different things, but always be questioning that and gathering data. And you can either write it down, if you can't remember or keep it in your head. But basically, you know, try to pull all of your experience together to help figure out what to do when you're low or high or when you're faced with a food that's difficult, right. And I, I, I still make a ton of mistakes, but it's a lot easier when you don't feel like well, the doctor said I can't correct for this correction. I mean, well, I'm 300. And I, because I overcorrected. My low. And now I've got I guess, according to Dr. I have to sit here for four hours, you know, before it'll slowly start to drop down by itself. Why do that to your you know, that? Why is that the rule don't make that the rule. So I yeah, I mean, not that's
Scott Benner 1:07:54
why I'm really thing. It shouldn't look like yesterday was Easter. The day before I got up in the morning. And I got an email from a woman about a week or so ago. And she's like, I have a four year old. You know, I'm in trouble here. I don't know what I'm doing. Can you help me? And I thought the issue hit all my heartstrings like you know, and I'm getting ready to say sure, like, send me your number. I'll call you. I can talk you through it. And instead I said, can I talk you through it while we record it? And she said, Yeah, sure. So Saturday morning, I talked to her for 45 minutes or an hour. And I tried really hard to just talk to her the way I would have spoken to her on the phone, not like him because when you're on the podcast, you you're trying to be polite. Because there are different people in the world. You're not trying to hurt anyone's feelings. But if I'm talking to you one on one, I'm I mean, incredibly Direct, which you may be thinking, Oh, gods, how are you not being direct on the podcast, there's more directly. I'm incredibly direct. And so I got on with her. I tried to pull out of my head that I was recording myself. I walked her through it. And I said, Alright, send me your CGM. I'm gonna watch it. And then we'll get back together in a couple days, which we're going to do, I think tomorrow the next day, and we'll record again just for 20 minutes to kind of button it up. Well, it turned out as I'm talking to her, that her son isn't just for and hasn't just not, you know, had diabetes for just a handful of months, but he's also autistic, and not that verbal. And you know, she's got a lot of other challenges going on. And I am going to tell you that I made a small adjustment to the kids, Basal insulin kids, MDI. I explained to her how to Pre-Bolus the meals because she's like, I can't Pre-Bolus And I was like, Yeah, you can and I told her how to do it. And the chart that I looked at this morning when I woke up versus the one I saw on Saturday is could you just could be two different people. And so if it can be explained to a tired exhausted scared mother of a four year old autistic kid is at diabetes for five months, by my dumbass in an hour. And then someone else ought to be able to accomplish that for a person like you 49 years old standing at a doctor's office. That's all I'm saying. If that's unreasonable, I'm, then I'm unreasonable. But I think it's just everyone's not trying hard enough. Seriously. I mean, how that, can I do it and your doctor can, Laurie, I missed 53 days in my senior year of high school, you understand what I'm talking about? Right? Like I'm we didn't get a space on me is what I'm saying. That isn't happening.
Lorie 1:10:32
You know it. I mean, I make my own fate. I am bold enough to I make my own Basal changes. I'll calculate it myself. My endocrinologist was like, Oh, you made your own changes. I'm like, Yeah, because here's what's happening. Here's my calculation. Here's what I figured out. You know, does that seem right to you? And she's like, oh, yeah, that's what I would have done. So yeah, we're good. But actually, I mean, anybody can do it. It's not even hard. But you have to know that you can that you that you should that you need to ask or push even for for it. You
Scott Benner 1:11:13
know, what else is hard? For people? It's the, it's the duplication of percentages. I'm saying, I'm not saying that wrong. But there's something about the multiplier that throws people off. So I'm helping a friend right now somebody I know personally, who's, you know, teenage kid hasn't. And kids about 130 pounds, and I'm talking to him, they got the Basal at point four or five. I'm like, that doesn't seem right to me. So kid in his teens growing 130 pounds, like, I don't understand how point four, five could be enough insulin, you know? And they were like, well, yeah, the, you know, the doctor said, we can move like, we tried to move it up a little bit. I was like, how far do you move it they move it like point one at a time. And I was like, I don't know, I'd make the basil of like, one unit an hour. And let's see what happens. Like I'm like, let's, let's just try it and see what happens this afternoon. And, yeah, it was because it was more than double it. I might as well I've said, you know, we should try. Let's hit him in the head with a sledgehammer and see if that fixes it. Like she was scared out of her mind when I said one unit. And I think it's something about the multiplier. Like if I would have said point six, I think that she could have handled, but I mean, but there's and that happens to a lot of people somehow, like oh, that's a that's twice as much. And I'm like, Yeah, but if he needs it, it's not twice as much as the amount of needs and, and lifelong, lifelong type ones. Fight with that, too. Like, I'm gonna find a way to have a conversation just about this. The idea of, I think of myself as a bad diabetic if I'm using too much insulin, but how much is too much, I don't know more than I more than this amount. So they use a little bit have higher blood sugars and higher a one C, but for some reason feel fulfilled because they didn't use much insulin. And then if you get them to use more insulin than they get, then they're like, Oh, this feels weird. There's a guy that was on the show long time ago, who I know won't mind me mentioning his name, who just went through this again, Donnie, he's fantastic, right? He said diabetes a long time. He's an adult. And he told me we were messaging privately. He's like, it seems like so much I have to get over that. It feels like I'm using too much insulin. You're using the amount that your body needs. That's that. Yeah. You know, I don't I don't, I'm not encumbered by that. But a lot of people are.
Lorie 1:13:30
Yeah, people have been scared to death, I guess. So this obviously didn't happen to me when my doctors like, oh, yeah, you know, here's some lamp says you're fine. Just here, just go run. But I guess I meet people who actually, you know, got educated and had help, you know, got scared out of their wits about it. And that's one of the things that I am not afraid of that. And I guess because I had to educate myself on this. Because I mean, I mean, I'm not I'm not all that afraid of it. I mean, I'm like, Well, if my you know, if my Basal is too high, I'm going to notice in the middle of the afternoon, when I'm drifting down for no particular reason. It's hours after I've eaten it's hours before I'm going to eat and I'm drifting down. Why would that be? Well, probably my Basal is too high. I mean, I'm not. Or I'm drifting down in the middle of the night, right? I mean, so you're going to know, but see, I guess. You know, I've never been so low. That because then maybe this because you know, I had a CGM so quick. You know.
Scott Benner 1:14:43
I have to say your low 91. Two arrows down. You've only had diabetes for a couple of years, right? Yeah. You were incredibly calm. Are you alone in your house right now?
Lorie 1:14:54
Um, no, because everybody's my son's still doing virtual school. So he's upstairs. So my husband's working from home too. So he's upstairs, but you were
Scott Benner 1:15:03
you're incredibly calm. Like, what is your blood sugar now? 90
Lorie 1:15:09
is 107.
Scott Benner 1:15:12
Good. I mean, 9095 100 Right there, you're perfect. Like you handled it really well. Most people would have eaten everything. Those arrows, they would have been like, yeah. And then they just would have, you know, most people would be in a situation right now their blood sugar would be 251 arrow up. You know, and then you can't get away from that. But But your point is good, which is that, you know, you got it as an adult, you understood the concepts quickly enough. And so you're not running and you haven't had a bad low, so you're not afraid. And that's not to disrespect people who've lived with this, prior to this technology, who are always just going to have that memory of I passed out in a restaurant. You know what I mean? Like, how are they going to get up? How are they going to shake that? I wouldn't know how.
Lorie 1:15:57
Yeah, I mean, you would have, you know, post traumatic stress disorder from that. I would think, you know, because that would just be Yeah, that would be pretty horrible. I mean, I've had low lows and I have eaten the kitchen before I've done that. It's just
Scott Benner 1:16:13
do you think the Bolus afterwards?
Lorie 1:16:16
Oh, yeah. You know, like, I'm like, Okay, I'm now diagonal arrow up. So now it's time to Bolus right away.
Scott Benner 1:16:23
That's a lot of people can't make that leap.
Lorie 1:16:26
But it is it you know, it's, yeah, it I, I mess it up. I make a lot of mistakes. So maybe that helps. But I don't know.
Scott Benner 1:16:39
You're not afraid to make the mistakes and try to figure it out the next time?
Lorie 1:16:42
Well, you can always I mean, with the CGM. It just gives you a lot of latitude. I mean, I just really feel like it's, that allows me, you know, I would not be doing all of this stuff without a CGM. at all I would, I would be a lot more conservative. So I'm, I don't have to be
Scott Benner 1:17:05
good for anybody who can afford it, or get their insurance to cover it or whatever. I mean, it would be my it would be my absolute advice to get a CGM. Like it just it makes everything a lot easier. Yeah, it really does. Is there anything that we have not talked about, that you were hoping to talk
Lorie 1:17:23
about? Um, you know, I guess the only thing you know, I still I, you know, so I'm, I don't know how this is gonna go. But I'm gonna I'm signed up for Ironman in November. So I'll be doing an Ironman this year. So I've started training for that. And so really, you know, they talked about how triathlon is three disciplines, right, you have the swim, the bike and the run, I got swim, bike and run. And now I have diabetes. So I really have four disciplines in this because I've got to be on top of it for the entire race. So if you're, if you're not familiar, Ironman is a 2.5 mile or 2.4 mile swim 112 mile bike ride, followed by a marathon. And you do that one day. So I have a lot of challenges ahead of me. So I have to try to I mean, people have done this with diabetes, so and some of them have done it successfully. And I am going to try to do it this year, hopefully.
Scott Benner 1:18:36
Have you ever done it before?
Lorie 1:18:37
I know not a full I've done half. I've done marathons and I've done half half Ironman races,
Scott Benner 1:18:45
why are you doing it? Like just to prove to yourself because you want the tattoo? Which is it? Exactly.
Lorie 1:18:52
I don't know I might get the tattoo. I'm actually I'm mostly because I just want to see if I can do it. It's an interesting physical challenge, you know, you know, other races are too, but this is even longer and harder. And it's going to be a really big challenge at diabetes. Hopefully, I won't have to curb sit, which that's, you know, which I have occasionally happens still where you have to sit down, you've had too much insulin on board. When you left the house, you're going to sit on the curb until your blood sugar comes back up and eat Skittles. But, you know,
Scott Benner 1:19:33
so using or using a T slim
Lorie 1:19:37
Yeah, I have a T slim and yeah, yep.
Scott Benner 1:19:43
Did you want to ask? Cuz you mentioned that you had to disconnect at one point. So I was like, okay, tube pump. And then I just thought, yeah, rocket lady, she's gonna have a T slim, not a Medtronic. That was that was my thought process.
Lorie 1:19:57
Yeah, yeah, I really I do like Pretty slim, but yeah, I do disconnect to swim. I've actually swam with it before, which they tell you not to do but it's it's no problem. Okay? They'll tell me you said that. Waterproof and
Scott Benner 1:20:13
people jump in a pool your T slim. And if that was working it's not my fault you call. That's not my fault either. Yeah, call call. I'm not saying that. I've never heard that before. Don't blame me. Thank you goodbye. No, I didn't know you. I said what did they call it? What are proof not what are or what? Oh, I forgot what the terms
Lorie 1:20:33
mean. Exactly. I mean, it's anyway, it's, it's more than splashproof I guess is what I want to say. submerge it. It's kind of be okay. Or mine was maybe it was accidentally okay. They
Scott Benner 1:20:45
call it anyway. They call it watertight IPX seven tested to a depth of three feet for up to 30 minutes. This is from support that tanam diabetes that
Lorie 1:20:57
well, I've tested it longer than that for deeper than that. So.
Scott Benner 1:21:00
Okay, well, they just they're just talking about like, it's peace of mind for their pomp in the event of an accidental submersion. So yeah, yeah. Laurie is just like, whatever. I shoot,
Lorie 1:21:12
I have not I've not dropped it in the toilet. But, you know, I'm sure that's what they were thinking of.
Scott Benner 1:21:17
That kind of an idea. Well, yeah, you know, you're right, that it probably is what they were thinking of, like, how do we how do we keep this thing safer when it takes a swim real quick. That's, that's, that's interesting. Okay. You did you I'm sorry. So you're gonna try this Ironman? How do you how do you practice for it? How do you try to see if you can? Well,
Lorie 1:21:39
I have a long training plan. So you know, the training plan is just like anybody else's training plan. There's nothing special. But you know, I need to be able, during the race to eat and Bolus because I can't, you know, I can't go the entire day. Even though it's intense exercise and long endurance exercise, I will have to eat you can't go all day without eating. And I'm also going to have to Bolus but the Bolus is really different. Right. So you know, it's so I have to I have a lot of things in my training plan that are extra that I put in there, for example, long hikes, I put a couple of long hikes that are you know, eart what I call urban hikes, because I live in near Los Angeles. So what's easier is just a walk out the door and walk down the street, walk a cup, you know, walk for five hours, but, you know, i The idea is that I can practice and figure out how much less Bolus to give myself to account for the exercise. With Basal by itself, I know what to do because I have on my pump I've programmed in reduced Basal for exercise that I do you know, that's shorter that's like on a regular daily basis. But I need to know what how I can Bolus when I have when I'm in the middle of activity. So that I don't over Bolus myself or under Bolus myself.
Scott Benner 1:23:15
Yeah, I would imagine to so that if you aren't going to have a situation where there's active insulin that it doesn't happen while you're in a body of water to
Lorie 1:23:25
well, for the swim. Yeah, so I kind of know what to do at the beginning of the swim because that's first luckily, that's first because I will have my pump with me. I will I'll have my decks calm. But you know, I can't get I won't get readings. So with the swim, I pretty much know I've done that swim distance before by itself. So I know what to do with that. But it's the what I am most worried about really is. I'm worried about you know, the really long bike ride, I'm going to eat like a sandwich. Maybe Maybe twice on the bike, like a small piece of a sandwich, not a big honkin hoagie or anything but like a little sandwich. And you know, I'm, I won't be, I'm gonna have to Bolus and I need to figure out well, how much is protein? Sugar?
Scott Benner 1:24:21
Yeah, it's gonna be interesting. So you're just gonna go out and go on like, kind of intensive hikes and try to test them there.
Lorie 1:24:29
Yeah, and the long bike rides. So there's training bikes and runs that are really long and I have done I did a like a 50k run once and for that. I just kind of snapped the whole time. And so I actually did have to Bolus a couple of times, just for I was just correcting. I was just responding instead of thinking ahead, so I wasn't Pre-Bolus thing I was eating Cheetos. Sorry. Like I can Eat, like I found out, okay, I can eat like eight or 10 Cheetos, you know, the crunchy ones, you know, I could pop those in eat those, and then, you know, maybe 30 minutes later, I could watch what's happening. And then I would correct a little bit, not what I would normally correct from sitting. So I've, you know, that I'm going to have to figure out on and so I've planned in hikes that will help me do that. I think also, the long bike rides, there's lots of long bike rides, where, you know, it's like three, between three and six hour bike rides, there's a lot of those in a training plan. So for those I'll be eating and trying to experiment. And then there's also long runs in the training plans, I'll be training, you know, I'll be trying to figure out how to eat with those as well. And so it's, it's going to be kind of, you know, I don't know, you know, other people have kind of done something similar there. What I, I've learned from I've, one of my internet searches led to type one run. So some of the people that I know they're in on their Facebook page, I was able to kind of get a little bit more information about what other people do for long distance training and racing. And, you know, they're kind of doing the same thing. They're kind of, they're like, Well, I experimented with this or, you know, they may have had other people that said here tried to do this to this to this when you get out of the water from the swim. You know, Bolus, the mist Basal. If you don't, you're going to spike even though you're on the bike, even though you're, you know, you're Yeah, you know, adrenaline is cranking you're, you're and also you've been without Basal for that time. Put it right there Bolus,
Scott Benner 1:26:55
I would be interested to listen, I'm never doing an Ironman. I think you're insane. So keep that in mind. But But I would be inclined to talk about like, how do you tap the Basal back prior to the swim so that you create a black hole of Basal during the swim. So that when you come out of the water, the Basal is immediately back already? And there's a way to do that with timing. Does that make sense to you? So if you're gonna swim from 1pm to 3pm, I'm making up a number. Okay, yeah, for two hours, then I would turn the basil back at 12pm. So that it has time to titrate back so that by the time 1pm comes, you don't have any impact from the basil. And then I'd let that run that Temp Basal, I'd let it run from 12 to one to maybe two or 230, and then have it come back on so that by the time it hydrates back up again, you're out of the water three. Like that's how it would occur to me, I have no idea if that's right or not. But if you asked me to, to make a plan for that, that's how I would think about it.
Lorie 1:28:06
Yeah, I hadn't thought of that. But that would be maybe a good thing to do. I don't, you know, yeah, there might be a better way to do it so that you don't get a spike,
Scott Benner 1:28:15
you're not doing the rob Peter to pay Paul thing, you're just right, you're just kind of you. So I think of doing that as creating a like a pothole or a black hole in the future. So you take the basil away now, so that it's completely gone in the future, when the expected impact is coming. That way, you kind of just sort of float like in a suspension tank instead of dropping down. Yeah, because there's nothing there to there's no insulin there to pull down. So while your body's trying to, because the activity drop your blood sugar, there's no insulin there, so your blood sugar can't drop because there's just not there or can't drop as drastically, right? And then but you have to have it come back on. Because you know, when you set a Temp Basal increase at noon, even if you made it 150% increase, you're not going to start getting the impact from it for a half an hour or more, because it's still just builds up slowly. So you can take it away, slowly create the black hole, put it back in before the swim is over. So the black hole is gone by the time you come out of the water. That's how I think of it. Like I actually thought what you talked about with the swimming this morning. It sounded like you found a way to get through it, but that's not how I would have done it.
Lorie 1:29:29
Okay, yeah, that's true. Um, yeah, there's probably I mean, I'll have to think about how to get that how to do that about it,
Scott Benner 1:29:41
like Pre-Bolus thing. So right, so you Pre-Bolus A meal at 12 because the insulin is going to start working around 1215 And it's really going to start pulling around 1220 1225 And you're going to begin to eat it. I don't know, you know, 1215 So you put the insulin in are always The insulin gets a head start so that when the food starts impacting the insulin is already up to power. With a with a Bolus for activity like this, you take the Basal way so that the Basal is not there. So when the impact of the activity comes, there's nothing there to add to that to that drop. That makes sense.
Lorie 1:30:18
Yeah, that's yeah, that's good. I will. Yeah, let me figure out how to get that done. But yeah, yeah, I think could fire up like, I mean, I can swim with the pump, I can, I mean, I have a little like, waterproof bag thing. I can, I can swim with it. If I could swim it that I could probably get it to also
Scott Benner 1:30:45
don't necessarily need it during that time, either. Because if you temp down before, right, then you could mix then you could bastardize. These two ideas you could tempt down before, bag the pump when you swim, which is I'm assuming what you end up doing with it, and then swim with it off. And then get out, hook it up and do a Bolus instead of a Temp Basal instead of the Basal coming back on before the swim is over. Just put the Bolus in. You'll probably get a similar, you'd probably get a similar thing there. Yeah, I don't know. I'd be interested to hear what you figure out. That's for sure.
Lorie 1:31:21
Yeah, okay. I'll experiment with that. Because even the short swims, I always have a spike. And I know it's coming. So I always get the spike afterwards. Yeah, I get a spike afterwards. So
Scott Benner 1:31:31
coming away while you're swimming? Yeah. Yeah, I hear what you're saying. There's, there's a way Look, it won't be easy to figure out. But there's a way in there somehow. Because in the end, all you're trying to do is put the insulin you need in the places where you need it. Right. That's it. That's all you're trying to do. I kind of think like an engineer, Laurie? Is that what you're saying?
Lorie 1:31:54
Yeah, that's that's what I'm saying. Yeah,
Scott Benner 1:31:58
I'm taking that as a bonus, and we're stopping the episode right here. That's my trophy. What do you think of that? Anyway, I were having a nice time talking. So we're running in the fear of place of going on forever. We've been talking for an hour and a half. But But I want to thank you very much for for doing this. And I tell you that I that your stories is different than most people's. And I really appreciate your sharing, especially. And I know all the people who have had this happen to them, appreciate it as well, because the notes I get from them are they seem kind of desperate to hear from somebody that's in their situation. So thank you very much. Yes, well, thank you very
Lorie 1:32:37
much, too. It was my pleasure, for sure to talk on the on the podcast. I
Scott Benner 1:32:42
appreciate this. I really do. Plus now I'm basically to NASA people in I'm kicking ass on that. Yes, for sure. Doing great. I also think what you do is really cool. So I appreciate I love that there are people wondering about things that are that are so much bigger than than just that day to day stuff. So let's face it to No kidding, I think it's amazing.
Well, first, I have to thank Laurie for being very, very, very patient. 13 months later, this is Lori's episode. Thank you very much Laurie. I am very sorry. I'd also like to thank Ian pen from Medtronic diabetes and remind you to go to ink pen today.com To learn more about the ink pen to find out how much it could cost and to get started. After that you can go to contour next one.com forward slash juice box and get the best darn little blood glucose meter that I've ever used. Contour next one.com forward slash juice box. And if you get the chance and you're a US resident who has type one or cares for someone with type one, head over to t one D exchange.org Ford slash juicebox and take the survey. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.
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#685 Ask Scott And Jenny: Chapter Fifteen
Scott and Jenny Smith, CDE answer your diabetes questions.
Where does Jenny put her pods?
At what age do teenage years and having fluctuating blood sugars due to hormones get better?
How do you handle Dexcom sensor issues? How many times would you calibrate before giving up on a sensor?
Tips for breastfeeding a type 1 baby or toddler.
How can I reduce post meal spikes? Tips on MDI and pre bolusing.
How do you deal with fat and protein using Loop?
How do you help a college student who forgets to bolus before he eats at least once a day?
Let’s talk about nutrition labels, the impact of dietary fiber and the difference between soluble added fiber versus unprocessed fiber.
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.
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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 685 of the Juicebox Podcast
we're gonna do something today that we haven't done in a little bit. It's an ask Scott and Jenny episode. This episode is full of questions from you the listeners that Jenny and I sat around and mused about. 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 health care plan, or becoming bold with insulin. The T one D exchange is looking for US residents who are caregivers of someone with type one, or have type one diabetes themselves to fill out a short survey. It's AT T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. Your simple answers to simple questions will go a long way towards helping people living with type one diabetes, T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. I just looked and we haven't done an ask Scott and Jenny since 2020. But this one will be the 15th installment. I hope you enjoy it.
Today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by us med. US med is a supplier of diabetes supplies. And all you have to do to get a free benefits check from them is go to us med.com forward slash juicebox. Or call my number 888-721-1514. The podcast is also sponsored today by Ian Penn, from Medtronic diabetes. Do you wish you had some of the functionality of an insulin pump, but you like injecting, if that sounds like where you're at, you really might enjoy the in pen. Learn more and get started today at in pen today.com
Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:18
really wasn't what we talked about before we
Scott Benner 2:20
really get talking people are like what's happening? Well, they don't, you know, so we just chatted before we started recording. And I think that's important for people to kind of relax and get into a flow, which I think if you look at the episodes where I'm interviewing people, it's why the first 10 minutes are sort of like the way they are just trying to get calm and relaxed. And I know there's a world where you can edit all that out. But I think it's interesting to learn about people that way. So anyway, when I think
Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:47
when you're talking to somebody for the first time, honestly, right, you might have emailed with them or whatever to kind of get things set up. But you've probably never really talked to them before. And it's you have this sort of get to know somebody, you can't just really just start talking about a topic.
Scott Benner 3:05
The top I do not talk to people before I interview them, they fill out this very short form. It says What's your connection to type one? Have you been on another podcast in the last six months? What would you like to talk about? I understand that this is for entertainment purposes only. That's it and then they jump on and I meet them right in that moment. And we start talking so I love it like that. I wouldn't. I mean, I've interviewed people that I've known about, I interviewed Robin ORS on the other day, and the peloton, girl that has type one. And yeah, I mean, everybody loves her. I 100% That's what I tried to tell her. She didn't seem to know. But I, I had notes and you know, she had notes about me. And we had we had in I'd interviewed her for print years before she of course, with no reason to didn't remember me, but her people filled her in about it. And like I don't know, like I would have much rather us just felt like we were like grabbing a drink together, you know? So anyway, it still was a really nice conversation. But Alright, so here's what I did, Jennifer. Last night, I was up editing the show rather late. And about two o'clock in the morning as I was going to bed. I thought I don't want to do a defining diabetes tomorrow and Jenny calls. Oh, so I never know what we're going to talk to Scott brings to the table today. Let's see, I don't treat you much different than anybody else. So. So I put this little post in the Facebook group. And I'll tell you, it just shows how things have grown because you and I've done this before where I'll say Hey, Jenny, I got questions from people. We have eight 510 questions. So I put up a post eight hours ago in the middle of the night. That said, I'm thinking about recording and ask Scott and Jenny episode tomorrow, but it all depends on if there's questions here when I wake up in the morning. There are 100
Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:52
That's like putting something out into the universe, like expecting nothing to ever come back.
Scott Benner 4:57
I'm like, oh, we'll see what happens. Right? It's overnight. But anyway, there are 116 questions in this. It's I don't think we're gonna get to all of them. But now we have something to do for the next couple of times that we talked for sure. Because there's great question. So you want to just kick back and do this together? All right? Do you ever sleep? That's for me? I'll answer that later. Is a simple question. Someone said they'd like to know where you put your pods?
Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:23
Me personally, yeah. Oh, I get asked that an awful lot. So that's actually easy. My, I guess I don't really have favored locations, although they're the locations that I've rotate through, I'd say favored in terms of like one versus another that is better in terms of absorption, because I know some people do notice that. I use the backs and kind of the sides of my arms, and never use the tops of my arms or like the bicep area. I note that people do, I don't I use the front of my abdomen, either above or below my beltline. I use my lower back. Those are my go to places. I do not have luck on my legs. I don't love it on my upper but they just, it's almost like I'm not taking enough insulin there. It's an absorption thing. And I just prefer to not go to those places. So
Scott Benner 6:29
yeah, it's that's a lot of moving around, which makes me think what I wanted to say was Jenny takes her own advice. Like that's, you know, you know how some people give advice, but don't live it. You know, I rotate. Yeah, you really are rotating your sides. I don't know if you're doing it because you think it's right, or because you tell people to rotate. You don't want to be a hypocrite.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:49
I think it's probably both I and I've said before, I think it's really important to be a good example. And if you're not going to do the majority of what you're telling people to do, then why are you talking about right?
Scott Benner 7:03
No one asked, but Arden wears hers either side of her belly button, kind of in line with her belly button off to the side a little bit. She prefers the cannula face towards the belly button. But we will also turn it 180 degrees to face away. She uses her thighs, tops not so much more to the outside, she used to she overused the tops of her thighs. So she moved it sort of to the the the outside of the outer part of her legs. And I recently in the last year finally had luck getting her to put it back on her arms. So we now have the way I think of it as the legs are kind of there are a ton of spots because one spot on your thigh an inch over an inch higher an inch lower like becomes a lot of different spots, but her thighs, her abdomen and our her sides of her upper arms. She doesn't like it on the back. Okay, so I think it wiggles too much back there for
Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:02
like she's my I actually have a good friend years ago when I started wearing Omnipod. And it was probably a couple years after that, that I met somebody through like the diabetes community, who I've gotten to be good friends with now but she out of like swimsuit material, she actually made bands that I can put over almost as like a three inch sleeve kind of like a free arm, like a headband for my arm and like I've got my pump my pad on my arm now. And when I run longer, like longer than a 30 minute run, I will typically use one of those because kind of like Arden it it does it wiggles I mean, not enough that it's irritating in terms of the actual site. But just it's something you pay attention to. And it's like change jingling in your pocket, right? Just can't stand it after some time. So
Scott Benner 9:03
for Arden this goes all the way back to when she was young and she played softball, and she couldn't put it on her right arm because when she threw the pod would really kind of like torque around. And sure after that it was just, you know, the I think the funniest thing that happens with people, kids, maybe adults as well is they get rules in their head, like so after a while. She just thought, Oh, it doesn't go on my arms because we don't put it on my arms. And there was a reason that we stopped doing that. And then I had to show her one day I was like you're not throwing a softball anymore. So please,
Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:30
let's try the arm again. Yeah, I will say though, from a site rotation, those sites that I don't use for my pods or infusion from any pump, honestly, not just my pods, or when I when I've used a tube pump to but my upper thigh and my my upper but also they work really well for my sensors. So it's not that those sites don't get used. It's just that they don't use them for insulin. Okay, and Artem
Scott Benner 9:57
Arden puts her CGM on her hips, kind of on the side. So I was gonna say longitudinally and let but I don't, I'm not sure which is which anyway, sort of like, the top of her butt crack and you kind of draw a line around to the her sides and there's sort of like a flat spot in her sides and you can put it there. She just goes left, right, left, right. She's been doing it for years like that. So yeah. Okay. All right, next question. Thank you for that question. Blue. Next question is from Christine. And she said At what age do teenage years and and having fluctuating blood sugars due to hormones get better.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:38
So, this isn't like hormones relative to either male versus female. It sounds like it's just in general. I can say though, from female hormone standpoint, is that the cat is the cat that would like to be let out of my office. I'm gonna let the cat or the cat doesn't keep banging on the door
Scott Benner 11:13
you know what arrived at my house just the other day, the Omni pod five. It came to us directly from us men. Here's what I did. I contacted on the pod and I said I would like to get on the pod five. I did it just the same way you guys are gonna do it didn't get any special treatment. On the pod contacted us Med and said I have a customer here that would like to get there on the pod five supplies from you. Okay, not so tough. I think on the pod then contacted my doctor had a script sent and Bada bing bada boom, a box showed up at my house with the Omni pod five starter kit. And we're already set up for future deliveries of the pods that will need to continue with Omni pod five. It was in fact exactly that easy. They can do that for you as well. Maybe you're looking for libre to wear the Dexcom G six. How about the Omni pod dash? US med has it and so much more. At this point, you're thinking Scott, I'm in how do I try it? Well, you're in luck. You can either use the internet us med.com forward slash juice box to get your free benefits check. Or you can use this phone number that US Matt has provided just for Juicebox Podcast listeners. It is 888-721-1514 us met accepts Medicare nationwide and over 800 private insurers they always provide 90 days worth of supplies and they have fast and free shipping. I will now make a seamless transition to the in pen from Medtronic diabetes, are you using an insulin pen but wish it did more? The M pen is probably what you're looking for. Because the M pen is a reusable smart insulin pen that uses Bluetooth technology to send dose information to a mobile app. This offers us support with those calculations and tracking in pen helps take some of the mental math out of your diabetes management. You can get started with in pen today at See what I did there what you don't know yet, but you'll see the second you can get started within pen today at in pen today.com. Take the guesswork out of your dosing. Your in pen app will show you your current glucose levels, your dosing calculator, active insulin remaining meal history, dose history, glucose history, and an activity log. And other reports. The pen itself, it's just what you expect. It's a pen with a cap, an insulin needle, a dosing knob, a dosing window, and a button to do your injections with the implant is also surprisingly affordable. I hope you check it out in Penn today.com. All you have to do head over there right now. There are links in the show notes of the podcast player you're listening in right now to in Penn us Med and all of the sponsors. You can also find them at juicebox podcast.com. When you click on the links, you're supporting the show us med.com forward slash juicebox in pen today.com I'm now going to get you back to Jenny who by the way works at integrated diabetes.com If you'd like to hire her
Jennifer Smith, CDE 14:39
That's too funny. I totally thought that she was out of my office.
Scott Benner 14:42
I heard that noise and I thought hopefully that's Jenny's cat where she's she's abducted a neighborhood child and they're locked in the basement.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 14:51
Oh no, no, no. She thinks on my closet doors not the actual door to get out. She Bangs on the closet doors when she wants I don't know if she's
Scott Benner 14:58
good sound. Me Pay attention anyway. Sorry. So no, I
Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:02
was, I can't remember my thought. Now I was on a pattern. Say
Scott Benner 15:07
you started talking about when I guess we're not talking about hormones for gender specific. Right?
Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:13
Right, right. So hormones from a female hormone perspective, with monthly cycles, I've found that it's when the cycles tend to get a lot more regular, that things tend to get more stable girl or females also tend to stop growing sooner than men do. So from that perspective, when a growth phase for girls like they're no longer getting taller, you can tell visit after visit at the doctor, they're just not growing in height any longer, they might have a very regular cycle, that's when things do tend to even out more, there's not as much of that flux. If the cycle isn't very regular, then it could very well be that you've got a lot more ups and downs still, because those hormones are still so much on a rise and fall. That's not sort of a pattern, right? Guys tend to grow longer than girls do. In terms of the male hormone effect, and growth patterns, so you could have fluctuations, you know, through and up to about the age of 18, sometimes beyond, obviously, but again, some of it also has to do with have they finished growing? Are they more into a pattern of life, all of those kinds of things, because I think a lot of the variability in those teen years is just life as well. I mean, most teens don't have a very rigid schedule outside of a school schedule where you know, the typical pattern other than that sports come in, in the afternoon, extracurricular activities, weekends are completely different. You might have sleeping in compared to getting up early I there's just a lot of stuff in the teen years that I think causes a lot of fluctuation. That because we talk so much about growth, a lot of people think it's just growth. And some of it may just be the variables of
Scott Benner 17:20
the unexpected left turns, you take in the middle of an afternoon, like I'm gonna go run, jump on the trampoline now. Or, you know, my friends came over and we're gonna go play baseball in the backyard. When you're 37. You don't randomly get up at 330 in the afternoon. And go not usually, no, no, if you have kids. If you are, you're an Instagram influencer, and you're living an amazing life, because I just sit here and make this podcast and Jenny sits where she's sitting talking to people about their diabetes. So yes. So let's see. Next question is from Denise, I would love to hear about how you handle times when there are Dexcom sensor issues. How many times would you calibrate before giving up on a sensor? Do you calibrate? And if so, when Jenny and I did an entire episode about calibration, which you should definitely check out? But good. Um, to answer the question. Arden doesn't have a lot of problems with Dexcom it jives with her body chemistry pretty well. I would say that with GE six. It's interesting. I don't know this for certain, but they must make improvements to that device as they go. Like with the algorithm they must. I don't know they must. Because it's never the same. The products always better at the end of its product life. Like as they're getting ready to launch the new one than it is at the beginning. I feel like you sent it to you ever see that? Like it? Maybe I just get better at using it over time? Is that pi d? Right? That could be Yeah. Because I'll tell you like, Arden puts a sensor on. I wish we planned better, but we don't it usually happens like this. someone hears the noise that which is like the out of you know, there's no, there's been no data. And then everybody's head drops and goes oh, how long has it been since we put on a sensor you started thinking and when you can't remember you like this must be it. And you know, like, as an example, we put a new sensor otter at 130 in the morning, Friday, I would have been nice to do it. Put it on came on was pretty accurate, was happy with it. I have had them come on and be wildly off, you know, 8090 100 points sometimes. When that happens. I do what I talked about on the calibration episode is I just kind of I slow calibrate it back to where it needs to be if it's if her blood sugar's really 100 and the things that she's 200 I tell it, she's 170 and then it agrees with that you let it go a little longer that I tell it she's 150 and I calibrated. I kind of move it on my own. I don't know if that's right or not, but it works and we have a lot of success. As far as sensors just going bad. I hate to say this Arden's last ride out 10 days. I mean, constantly, you know, yeah, so
Jennifer Smith, CDE 20:07
I know I, and that's where I really do think that there's more about body chemistry, then there's any information about I think people get the sense that a sensor just doesn't work very well. And they may come from a previous brand to another brand and say, well, it's better, certainly better. But it's still not quite perfect. You know, I also, thankfully don't have a lot of sensor issues, at least not, not recently, the previous two g, six g, five G four in the seven series, I didn't really have much issues with those at all. In fact, my G fives, I could restart for three, three weeks and get like 21 days out of a sensor, and then it was like falling off. So I finally had to change it, right. But the G six, initially, I would almost like clockwork, eight days, I would get the three hour sensor error warning, it would start back up and get it again, I would call that I was calling Dexcom. almost weekly, because it literally was dying on day eight. And, and I don't know what shifted kind of goes along with, maybe they've changed something algorithm or the the sensor coating on the outside of that filament, I don't know. But I've not had that problem. And I can't say that my body chemistry is just decided to do like, you know, a 180 and sort of be completely different. And now it just works better. For me, I don't know, I'm mostly now get 10 days, I typically if I'm going to have a bad sensor, it's usually only bad for about eight to 12 hours after starting it up. And my trend is that it's not high, inaccurate, it's low inaccurate. If my sensors are going to be off, they're going to be off and they're going to tell me that my blood sugar's like 42. Consistently, even though it's in the 80s 90s, low 100. It'll just keep telling me I'm low. And I avoid calibrating at that point, right? Because I've had enough issue with trying to do it in that first kind of startup time that, then I've had sensor fail. So I just I leave it alone, I just opened my algorithm. And don't let my pump adjust off of those funny values. And just go ahead.
Scott Benner 22:34
So it's funny when you're you, you said something that really made me think when Ardennes is off for an extended amount of time. It's lower, when it's high off, I can bang it back down again. And it works. When it's low off. She's 5355 56. It just thinks that's what she is. You text her she's 85 Doesn't matter what she is, right? It does just sort of come online. And just it's kind of magical. And then works great after that, if you're using an algorithm like Arden is and like Jenny was just saying that I just made for this, I opened the loop. And we test. We test like every 90 minutes or so. And then through the health app on the iPhone, just enter it you enter her blood sugar on the health app, and the loop app pulls the number from there, and it's usually enough to get by until it straightens out. That is that concern from people who are new. Or even sometimes I see older people, the idea of I can never go on an algorithm because what if the sensor is wrong? It's gonna kill me. You know? Like, it just doesn't go that way.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 23:42
Yeah, unless there comes to be a system that doesn't allow you to go back to manual use mode. Quite honestly, you came from manual pumping or manual engine. I mean, you have something to go back to. If you know enough that something is inaccurate. Don't use it while it's inaccurate. Right? Do what you know how to do. Even if it means you have to go back to a little bit more old school. Don't use a system that's gonna adjust off of a blood sugar that's 42 When you're not sitting at 42 I
Scott Benner 24:16
think sometimes that people get stubborn. Meaning they have this feeling like this thing that I paid for supposed to do this and it's not doing it so I'm gonna be mad at it. You're like, cool. Yeah, of course, absolutely. I see it. I'm just like, open the loop and test every once in a while this thing will work in a little bit. We'll be fine. It sucks. If it happens overnight, because it's telling you you're low, you're low and you'd like you're not but even that's a mindset thing. I have to say. When Arden was really young, I met this person in the community who had an older child already. And they would tell me, you know, it's great that you guys have the CGM and I think they're amazing, but you know, my daughter never had one. And there she is. Isn't she's fine? And what that made me think was, Oh, okay. Like, it's alright if once in a while, Arden goes to sleep and her blood sugar's 135. And it climbs to 150 overnight, and I fix it at four in the morning or when we wake up or something like that, like, that's not the end of her life. If that happens, you know, but yeah, don't like it back then. When she was
Jennifer Smith, CDE 25:23
young, because you were used to having so much information to utilize to keep her where you really know, is a safe value long term to be sitting. Right. Yeah, but I mean, I, you know, and that's a point that I bring up with people all the time, too. I mean, I had, I had nothing fancy in technology growing up, right. Heck, I made it through college without anything fancy.
Scott Benner 25:47
But you're still paying attention to your health, right? Oh, of course. I
Jennifer Smith, CDE 25:50
mean, I use probably more more test strips in my life prior to a CGM, then yeah, probably was necessary. But I was a little bit OCD. Must Know What My blood sugar.
Scott Benner 26:06
Let's get to. Let's see, the next question just says it's not really formed as a question, but that's okay. It says breastfeeding a type one baby or toddler. So is that do you Bolus?
Jennifer Smith, CDE 26:20
I guess that's, that's a hard one. So talking about not the mother has type one, but the baby or the toddler actually has type one. Yeah, it's a it's a difficult scenario, honestly. Because unless you have a very rigid schedule of nursing, or even formula feeding, I mean, this kind of goes along. Because that age, that's a child's mean nutrition intake, it's either breast milk or formula, right. So unless you really have an idea of how much the child is eating, there's not really a way to carb count that per se. If you have a little bit more regularity, a lot of people tend to sort of coat with a Basal insulin. Knowing that nursing, especially an infant, typically is going to be nursing every three ish hours, until they get a little bit further out into post newborn stage, right. So sometimes there is a coding with a basil knowing that you have a regularity, to nursing or formula feeding. If you have a known amount more like formula, and you can gauge how many ounces the child is going to take at a time. You could base that on a dosing strategy then with rapid acting insulin. The big thing with that is we would usually, as much as we talk about Pre-Bolus ng for something like that. You just you don't Pre-Bolus There's no way to know how much a child who usually drinks, you know, three ounces at a feeding time. Today, for whatever reason, they're fussy, and they're only taking one ounce, but you can't Bolus or do anything for that until you know
Scott Benner 28:08
we're talking them into it if they need more. Right. And there is no more food. What are you gonna do with gummy bear? Yeah, right. Yeah, well, yeah,
Jennifer Smith, CDE 28:15
I mean, it's not really until that child is and I've worked with a couple of people, you know, more recently, who have littles who have either just weaned off of nursing, in that case, their Basal needs actually have gone down. Because what we were doing were We were coding the overall nursed milk intake with basil knowing that it was very regular night and day. And until they were weaned, and we had a little bit more in terms of a breakfast, a snack or lunch or snack and how to kind of coax that with bolused Insulin it and I know it's a difficult time. So
Scott Benner 28:53
it sounds like to me that you adapted that. So there's that. There's that old timey endo idea for people who they think don't Bolus for their meals, right? They jack them up on basil. And then they know they're going to eat. So they're feeding the insulin, they're not really feeding the insulin, they're feeding the drop before the drop happens because they're eating on a schedule. So you keep the baby's Basal at a spot where it's impactful of those every three hour feeding schedules. Correct, right. Yeah. And are you shooting for? What blood sugar are you shooting for?
Jennifer Smith, CDE 29:25
Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, most doctors are happy as long as they're not dropping usually below like 120. Honestly, most most parents find that littles like that will often drop very rapidly. If they get under about one to 101 20 ish. It's a very rapid drop and depending on then what they're able to tolerate in food intake, where they are in their intake of, you know, this kind of food versus that. It becomes really important to know how much does it take to turn that around and Um, yeah, it's a, it's a hard thing a corrections. Correction insulin often is very, very, very tiny. In fact, we often end up dealing with diluting insulin, so that you can actually get a larger dose because again, pens and pens and even syringes, the littlest that you can dose is about a half a unit. I mean, if you're really good on a syringe, you might be able to get, you know, a quarter unit kind of in there. But it's a little bit easier to see volume doses, if you dilute the insulin in a larger volume, you get the same dose. You know,
Scott Benner 30:40
I, there's two things that makes me think of the One is I, at some point, when Arden was super small, I took insulin, and I put it in a dish, and I colored it with food coloring, so I could see it. And then I practiced pulling on the syringe enough to get a drop in. So I could ah, and so it wasn't by eye anymore. It was like feel. So I taught myself how to just pull on it enough to get a drop of insulin out of it. And then I would I would try to correct her with a drop of insulin. That was not fun. I don't know. I don't remember any of that fondly. Yeah, okay, that's a that's good information. And I'm assuming if you can afford it, or have insurance, a CGM with a baby is probably going to be like the best thing you could do, right?
Jennifer Smith, CDE 31:23
A CGM above. I mean, above even a pump. A CGM is by far the best technology that you could possibly get. And even at that age pumps are not necessarily the greatest thing for some kiddos. either. It's a wearability issue, or it's a pull it and target and pick at it. And it's not worthwhile putting it on when it gets picked off by the end of the day anyway. And there's only so much hiding that you can do with a child's gonna
Scott Benner 31:55
find it. Yeah, yeah. All right. Well, that that makes sense. Thank you. Let's see, what does Monica say here? Oh, Monica is going to ask a question. And I'm going to answer by saying, You should listen to the Pro Tip series. But we'll go How can I reduce post meal spikes, my six year old is on an MDI. Hold on a second. This is it. I can't some water, water, a frequent tea I'm drinking alone. My six years, my six year old is on MDI, we always make sure to Pre-Bolus before food, she dips into hypo, but we almost always still spiked over 180. I listen to the podcast, I believe the Basal levels are good. Anything else we can improve or work on to reduce spikes? Also, this is not a question. But I want to say thank you to you and Jenny for all that you do. So that's very nice. Thank you very much.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 32:47
Yes. All right. Yes, you're welcome. Absolutely.
Scott Benner 32:49
So she's Pre-Bolus thing on MDI, dipping down dropping up. Pre-Bolus is too long,
Jennifer Smith, CDE 32:57
I would say either Pre-Bolus is too long. Or to get rid of a potential spike, you could Pre-Bolus the length of time on MDI, you could always do a split Bolus plan, especially if this is for a child that you don't necessarily know if they're actually going to finish everything, right. So you can Pre-Bolus the amount that they that you know that they'll definitely finish up eating. And then you know, by the end of the meal Bolus, the rest of it so you don't you kind of take care of getting rid of that ultimate dip that you end up having to treat. And there in may also be if you're treating a low, and then having a rise later, the rise actually might be going up higher, because you're having to treat the dip first, along with the food being there, right. So it's kind of a double whammy of, well, I have to take care of the lowest something quick because the food isn't obviously all hitting yet. But then the food does catch up. So it could be a double Bolus strategy still with Pre-Bolus or first thing may just be to decrease the Pre-Bolus time. Yeah,
Scott Benner 34:00
I mean, I would either. I mean that's how it occurs to me like just from this small description. Shorter Pre-Bolus Maybe maybe even shorter. Pre-Bolus a little heavier on the carb ratio maybe depending on what happens you know what you see next? Or split it I put some in gets a treat it like a baby, right? Like, baby it's funny, I think of babies and or young people and gastroparesis is the same thing. Put it in enough to get the insulin on your side. And if it starts happening the way you expect them putting the rest. That way you kind of stay out of a spike. Okay. Helen asks, How do you and Jenny deal with fat and protein using the loop? I'll tell you what, as I said it out loud. I thought to myself, does Jenny eat fat by the way now, just now for my description. People believe that you 86 pounds and you're just one muscle wrapped around a bone but no, no I just mean, you're a healthier eater, but you think have french fries? Sometimes I imagine. Oh, of course. Okay. Yeah. Sometimes, sometimes,
Jennifer Smith, CDE 35:09
not often,
Scott Benner 35:11
at the fair, Jenny, is that when you do it, maybe?
Jennifer Smith, CDE 35:18
Yeah, I mean fat and protein. And, again, I think this is where an individual nature of evaluation first needs to be done. How does it seem to impact you or your child or whoever you're caretaking for? Right? There are some sort of starting rules of when to start adding in extras for fats and proteins. And how much of each you should add in, in general, in a looping situation, since that's what the question is really asking about. Forward stamp damping, a fat or protein amount into the future, from the actual meal time. So let's say you have, you know, a whole pizza for dinner like many of my college students may definitely, right, there is a large amount of fat there, there may even be a very large amount of protein depending on what was on that pizza as an example. bolusing for the carbs right now is an important thing that has to get going. The absorption time is also really important here. So you're not going to put in one or two hours for pizza. Because despite the crust being a lot of carb, you're going to have a lengthy digestion of that, because of the slowing factor of fats and proteins right. Now fat and protein then can start to hit later in the aftermath. So one to three hours after a meal protein starts this climb, if you've eaten enough of it, somewhere between two to four hours after a meal is where fat climb typically starts to hit. So determining first how much you might need to cover, most often protein somewhere between 30 to 50% of the total amount of protein might need to be put in as if it were a carb entry, right. And then determine where into the future to timestamp. Let's see it's you know, 5pm, and you're having your pizza, expect protein to probably start hitting somewhere around, let's say seven o'clock, two hours later, give or take, whereas fat, large amount probably is going to take about three to four hours to kind of come into play. So again, how much fat 1020 30% of the fat to maybe get going again, grams of fat are important grams of protein. So this becomes less carb centric counting and more overall macro neural, knowing how much is in the actual portion that you're eating, which most people have never been taught, we are taught how to look at grams of carbs. So it's something new to learn about if you're planning to start using this strategy, but time stamping it into the future. So then loop has an idea in terms of the system loop will see that you stamped this coming forward into the hours ahead. And especially if you save without bolusing then loop will see missing insulin for the carbs that you've already entered. That it's it's watching for because remember, it's predictive glucose line is going out hours into the future beyond this point. Yeah, so it's looking for the impact of that. And if you can give it information about what may be coming into the picture to hit you
Scott Benner 38:50
should aggressively Bolus. It could either aggressively
Jennifer Smith, CDE 38:53
Bolus if you're using auto Bolus or aggressively increase basil if you're using it the basil branch right?
Scott Benner 38:59
I so I know what you do. So there's two ways that you can set up I have in the past set up exactly the way you think way that you just said that the other way, I just sort of think of it as this, that they're just different impacts. So there's an impact from the carbs, there's an impact from the protein, and there's an impact from the fat. They're basically just three different Pre-Bolus and opportunities in my mind. So you Pre-Bolus The meal around 80 minutes later I know the first rise is going to come then you Pre-Bolus That rise and then it's a waiting game. I either do it so well that I see this like 85 blood sugar and I'm like I done it I won this is over like others enough insulin there and the fats hitting at the same time and it's having this fight and we're winning. Or I start seeing the drift up. And then I I'll reevaluate and Bolus for the fat impact as well and add more Yeah, and I'm in my mind I'm thinking of this one specific difficult foods situation. It's this barf Whew that Arden has a number of times a year, she's basically getting a bowl of nachos with cheese steak on top of it. And like guacamole and sour cream, right? Everything it's hard to Bolus for all put together. And then there's french fries. So, you know, so it's fat from the fries. And then it's the french fries are processed. And you know, they're not like, it's not like we cut up a russet potato at home, baked it. Yeah, some frozen thing that shows up in a bag in a bar. You know. That's the I'll tell you what if you can Bolus for that. I'll give away a little bit of where the country I'm in if you can eat. If you can Bolus for cheese steak nachos and crab fries at Chickies. I think you're a ninja, because it's hard to do. But that to me, that's it, I just think of it as impacts. It doesn't matter to me that it's fat or that it's protein. It's a it's a known quantity that is going to happen. I know it's going to happen. I just Pre-Bolus it. Right. So
Jennifer Smith, CDE 40:55
and how much how do you know how much is a try? Right? Because that's that's really the behind the scenes question here. As I said, we're really carb centric. With diabetes and education. We don't talk about fats and proteins, I would say that the majority of people that I talked to, don't even know what a portion of protein is supposed to look like. Some people don't even know outside of butter, don't realize where fat is in the food that they're eating. So then taking the step further to say, well, how to how to add quantity, like what am i How much of this isn't my my eating? How many grams, now you're telling me I have to go back to school to learn again, right?
Scott Benner 41:35
I develop those ideas after you and I, you know, talk through, I have a list in front of me here, actually. And at the end of this episode. If I don't die. At the end of this episode, I'm gonna list other episodes that I think will help people with these questions. Awesome. But here, I'm going to tell you that you and I did a pro tip back at 263 fat and protein, then we defined it again at 360. I had a really great conversation. And in Episode 264, with the person who Bolus is for their keto diet that actually helped. That helped me a lot with the protein. And then in 471, we had a long conversation about the Warsaw method. And about bolusing for fat. It's all of these. Like, I take this question, and I know that how important this is right? And I want to talk about it. But to the person that asked this specific question, Helen, I'm good at this, because I've had 1000 conversations with people about it. And I tried it over and over again. Like it's not because someone walked up to me and said, Hey, fat impacts and protein impacts, you got a Bolus for like, I wouldn't know what to do with that information. You know, right. So
Jennifer Smith, CDE 42:46
Right. Well, and that's where I think even the information in the the Warsaw method, which is really well done in what does it waltzing thing, the dragon, right? I was gonna say dancing the dragon. I was like, That's not.
Scott Benner 43:03
That's the person I did that episode with.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 43:05
Yeah, they have a very good descriptive because they go through all of the calculations and protein and fat. And then at the very end, they kind of give real life and they say, Well, we found that if we cover all of this, as this method suggests, we end up with these issues. So we've found that we have to cover only this certain percent of, of protein, and not very much fat, and it ends up working best for us. So again, there are some starting places some tools to begin with. And then you really have to evaluate, how does it work for you. I mean, I myself have found the meals that I make, like I said, before I make homemade pizza, right? And I typically make like an almond flour crossed or a cauliflower almond flour across, which is almond flour. In general. It's high fat, because it's made from nuts, right? So it's not like I'm pouring in loads of butter and oil. It's just that the nature of what I'm using is high fat. So I've found with that particular meal, a certain strategy that definitely works. My pizzas are not terribly high in protein. They're just a lot higher in fat because of what they're made from. So it's more the fat effect that I ended up covering. Yeah, I don't really even worry about protein there.
Scott Benner 44:21
Right, Jenny? If this was just a regular episode, I would title it fatty nuts. A great title or Jenny has fatty nuts. I don't know.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 44:34
Jenny eats chatty.
Scott Benner 44:37
That's it. Yeah, we workshop that one right to the right when Jenny eats fatty nuts would have definitely been the episode title. Oh, that's funny. Because I'm a child of my mind. Okay, so I think we have we can do one more or you will have time? Yeah, I've got a little time Christina says. This is about her college age type 112 and 12 and a half years live with type one my 18 year old son forgets to Bolus before he eats at least once a day. And she's very clear. She said, this isn't a refusal to use insulin. It's not bad behavior. He just right out forgets. She's not a type one, but she gets frustrated. It makes her angry. She said that she realized the disease sucks. And despite being manageable, it's still not easy. And this is all coming from a place of love. She's just trying to get him through college. Sure. This is tough.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 45:30
So this is a college student.
Scott Benner 45:32
Yeah. Who's had diabetes? A good part of his life
Jennifer Smith, CDE 45:36
a long time. Okay. Is so my first starting things would be since it's not, because this adult child wants to forget, it's just there are a lot of things being a student in general, as well as a college student. There are a lot of there's clutter that gets in the way, there just is. So one, if it's a regular time of day that the Bolus is often forgotten, it doesn't sound like it's what it's every day or it's a couple days a week sounds
Scott Benner 46:07
like it's everyday like like once a day, once a day, the kid flakes and just doesn't Bolus Yeah, okay.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 46:13
Because I was gonna say if it's a regular meal of the day, then perhaps setting a timer. Around that time of day, just as a suggestive even on the phone just. It's noon, I usually eat somewhere between noon and one o'clock. Sometimes it can jog the brain enough to just remind you. Yeah, that's one thing. I mean, the other one that's
Scott Benner 46:39
right on your top of your hand.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 46:42
Oh, it's for food.
Scott Benner 46:45
Yeah, I'll tell you what, this has nothing to do with diabetes, but I'm gonna share this here. My son is 22. He is a senior in college at this moment, he is about to graduate. Yay. We're very excited not to send that college money anymore. And, and oh, for all of his success, etc, but mostly about. Here's something I've noticed over his four years of college. It's fascinating. We don't see him constantly, obviously, right. I talked to him. Every once in a while I text with them sometimes. Go see him here and again. He will tell me the same stories over and over again. He is not that person. He's never been that person when he comes home for the summer. It does not happen. And so I used to think at first I was like, Oh, this kid's doing smack.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 47:38
He's losing brain cells. Something is not right. Yeah.
Scott Benner 47:41
I had a drug thought from the mid 70s. No, but I realized it's not that it's that he is so busy. And so tired. He doesn't even remember having told me the story the last time. And I think this is probably part of this, like 18 years old. This kid sounds like a freshman. Right? It's a lot of adjustment. I think you I think if you want to come from a loving place you say to him, Look, this is going to become it'll become commonplace for you at some point. But until it does. Maybe we got to make up a code word for Bolus and need to write it on the top of a book or I don't know what are your fingernails read so that when you look at it, you think why is my one fingered? Oh, it's because I don't always remind me I don't know something you don't I mean, but that's why I said the
Jennifer Smith, CDE 48:26
alarm. As a reminder, if it is a typical time of day for it to happen within sometimes just that cue in to the brain can, like you said wake them up, in a way as a reminder. College is hard. It's hard. There's sleep patterns are disrupted, you know, at home, if he had been living at home, mom and dad or other caregivers were likely there and or in high school, maybe he was one that had to go by protocol to the school nurse. And it was this pattern of consistency that helped the Bolus always be put where it needed to be right. In college. They have to remember do everything. You have to remember to get food for one thing, actually remember to put themselves to bed, right? Do homework, do their laundry, I mean, all these things,
Scott Benner 49:20
my son plays a sport on top of that. I don't even know how he's staying alive. I'll tell you if he ever hears this or somebody he knows ever hears this in the future. I am going to tell him about this after he graduates. I have never brought it up to him. I just let him tell me the story. And I'm just happy to be with him. And he's just like, he's got a lot going on. You know, right. So yeah, it's just a lot.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 49:41
Yeah. So yeah, reminders, I think are the best little nudge that you can probably do.
Scott Benner 49:49
So about the getting frustrated and angry part. I understand that too. But I think earlier in this episode, we talked about something where I said I realized Is that a 140 blood sugar for a couple of hours isn't going to be the end of Arden. I think that's how you almost have to think of this too. Like, this is not a kid slipping off a slope. This is to me, and don't get me wrong. I've interviewed people. And there are people that are going to ask questions later, where they did fall off that, that edge, they just stopped paying attention and it got easier to ignore and stuff. But in this specific situation, I don't think this sounds like what's happening here. So no,
Jennifer Smith, CDE 50:27
it was she kind of states you know, he's, he takes care of himself. Typically, it's just and that's why I was wondering if it was a time of day because if it was an especially busy time of day, or the first thing in the morning, he's forgetting to Bolus for breakfast pretty regularly. It could very well be he's just like, like getting up. Oh, my goodness, I'm five minutes late. I have to get out the door and I'm going to grab you know, by Apple on the way out the door and Oh, I totally forgot to Bolus last
Scott Benner 50:55
time I went to my to see my son I drove with a bottle absorbtech with me, I took a bottle of Zyrtec 180 miles and a two and a half hour car drive. And I said to him, you know, there's a pharmacy up the street from your dorm, and you have a car, just drive there and by Desertec and he said to me, in all honesty, I would not know when to do that. And I was like, Okay, I got you, even when I take it, like I took them out to dinner the other day after a baseball game, like where do you want to go? Because I don't know this town. I was like, you've been here for four years. He goes, I play baseball. And I go to class, and I sit in my room and I do my homework and I pass out. He's like, I don't have time for any of this.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 51:32
I don't take Well, that's actually from a parental standpoint, you're like, great. All the local bars are local. Right?
Scott Benner 51:40
We walked into a little bar restaurant the other night, he goes, I've heard this is a good place. Let's try this for years. He'd never been there. I was a little happy. A little happier as a parent. Yeah. But can we roll through one more? Are you done? Absolutely. Are the card values you enter into loop usually close to the carbs listed on the nutrition labels? So it does, yeah,
Jennifer Smith, CDE 52:02
yes. Yeah. Yes, absolutely. Yes. And you also, obviously, I mean, we've talked about fiber before, you also have to take a peek at fiber amount, depending on the kind of food that you're eating. But again, all of that is nutrition information. That's it's yours for the picking. Right there. It's not an estimate, there is as much precision as there could possibly be in this carb count. Compared to just staring at the plate and wondering because you have no label. Yes, absolutely. So
Scott Benner 52:36
go into that fiber thing a little more you subtract for what do you do tracked
Jennifer Smith, CDE 52:41
for fiber? I do take it as a little step further, because there are there are added fibers to a lot of the foods in the grocery store today. Because companies kind of have latched on to that, well, gosh, if it's high in fiber, more people are gonna buy it, it's gonna be so much better for them, right? Well, those fibers oftentimes are very soluble added fibers that don't have the same slowing impact as unprocessed fibers, fiber in fruits and natural vegetables and lentils and beans, and some of your whole grains and oats and those types of things. sprouted grain breads, like, like the Ezekiel bread, I mean, the per slice has like five grams of fiber per slice, I think it is just an exorbitant amount. So in terms of subtraction, if you're going to subtract fiber, I recommend subtracting definitely from more of your unprocessed types of foods. Some of the ones that are more like your fiber one types of products or something like that, you'll likely find that if you subtract that fiber, you're going to end up with a higher blood sugar than you want. Because most of that fiber is more of a soluble type of fiber, it'll have a little slower impact. But it's very likely you're still going to need to cover it. There are some more of the like, keto, or those types of breads and grains that are out there that do have added fibres, they may be more like the word is going to escape me now. Like the unprocessed like corn starch, kind of where it has a slowing impact on blood sugar. And it doesn't really get digested if you will. So that's why they can consider it so low carb you know, they list the net carbs as like two grams per slice instead of eight or nine grams per slice. So because the fiber on those labels can definitely mean you would have to subtract it. The big thing is you kind of have to give it a try and see what it does for you.
Scott Benner 54:48
Actually you don't know this but Arden has been eating gluten free for five days now. And we all are doing it with her as a show of solidarity. It's one of the things that her Her doctor, actually Dr. BENITO asked her to try. So like we're debt, we've now like Arden's had a blood test for everything that exists on the planet for like joint pain and stuff like that. And it just, she just luckily keeps coming. You're, it's a happy day When someone says your kid does not appear to have RA, you know, you're like, that's great, but at the same time, you're like, could someone say something, find something helpful, please, you know, so we're giving this a whirl right now. And, and anyway, we'll see how that goes. Thank you for doing this. We there are a lot more here. I'm gonna, I'm gonna save them. And I'm going to tell you that I think the next number of times that we we do this, we're going to do this. So awesome. I like to thank in pen from Medtronic diabetes, for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast and remind you to go to in pen today.com To get started. I'd also like to thank us med head to us med.com forward slash juice box or call 888-721-1514 To get your free benefits check. US med has served over 1 million diabetes customers since 1996. Check them out online or give them a call. Jenny works at integrated diabetes.com. And don't forget to please consider taking that survey AT T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox.
If you enjoyed this and are looking for other ask Scott and Jenny episodes, I believe there are 14 previous ones. There's a great list in the private Facebook group. It's Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, you go to the feature tab at the top, there's lists and lists of the different series within the podcast. Ask Scott and Jenny is one of them. You'll see the episode numbers there and then you'll be able to go back into your podcast player and find them. There's tons of topics. I think somewhere Isabel's made a list of them with what's actually inside of them. But that's beyond my paygrade so I'm not sure what else Oh, if you're enjoying the podcast, please subscribe and follow in the app. You're listening and say you're an Amazon music or audible. Apple podcasts. Spotify doesn't matter what app you're using. Hit subscribe or follow, please. And if you're listening online, I'm glad for you if it works that way, I'm not trying to change you. But the cool kids would listen to the podcast that I'm just saying. You might be falling behind the times. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.
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#684 Susan's Therapy
Susan is the mother of a child with 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
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 684 of the Juicebox Podcast.
On today's episode I'm going to be speaking with Susan. She's the mom of two children, one of whom has type one diabetes. Eventually, this conversation turns into a therapy session for Susan. Please remember while you're listening in, that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. We're becoming bold with insulin. Those of you who are US residents and have type one diabetes, or are the caregiver of someone with type one. If you go to T one D exchange.org, forward slash juicebox. Join the registry, take the survey, it will take you fewer than 10 minutes. When you do this kind thing. You'll be helping people with type one diabetes. So you get to do something nice and not get off your sofa. It doesn't take much of your time. And it's helping people you care about what a win win win win win kind of a thing is this huh? T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. Hope you do it
this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. Everything you need to get started with a Contour. Next One is that contour next one.com forward slash juicebox. Today's show is also sponsored by Ooh, wait a minute, new sponsor drumroll. We don't have any money for sound effects. How long do you think I should do this? This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is also sponsored by Ian pen from Medtronic diabetes. To learn more and get started today with in pen you go to in pen today.com. Can you remember that in pen today.com. It's inpntoday.com. And while I have you here, I'd like to remind you about touched by type one, just head over to touched by type one.org. And check them out. That's all they want. You can find them at their website or on facebook or instagram touched by type one.org. I'm hitting record let me make sure I got your voice. Okay, so very quickly. Yes, you have headphones on.
Susan 2:52
I have air pods.
Scott Benner 2:54
Alright, they sound pretty clear. Using a phone as you're using my phone. You're not holding it though. Put it down. For me. It's down. air pods are a little, sometimes overly sensitive. Just try not to fuss too much or touch things too much or that kind of stuff.
Susan 3:10
Okay. I will stay still for an hour.
Scott Benner 3:14
Now you're getting a Susan, I like that. You You seem to understand how this show works. You don't
Susan 3:19
move I will not. I will not move. I will not I will not breathe. Okay. Only breathe
Scott Benner 3:23
in half breaths and look right. Find a point. Okay. Very small. Yeah, I don't want you to be that conscious of it. Okay, so, because this is how this is starting. Introduce yourself, and then tell me what you said and say it again.
Susan 3:42
Okay, well, Hi. I'm Susan. I'm from New York. I am a mom of two kids. I have an 18 year old son and a 14 year old daughter who is typing. Okay.
Scott Benner 3:55
And we just jumped on the call. Hopefully,
Susan 4:00
after after I fixed my microphone because I didn't couldn't figure that out. Full disclosure.
Scott Benner 4:03
My mom is not feeling well right now. So my life is stretched very thin. I know.
Susan 4:10
I know. She's not. Okay.
Scott Benner 4:12
Thank you. My point in saying that is that I woke up like 15 minutes ago, so that it's not uncommon for me. I am probably not fully functioning yet. I'm hydrating as quickly as I can to get my brain off. So whatever I say in this episode doesn't count.
Susan 4:31
It's all good. It's all good. Meanwhile, I was up at like six I've had my juicebox shirt on I went and I walked that I listened to you. And yeah, okay, that was all good.
Scott Benner 4:41
Okay, well, all right. I'm glad that I could, um, sort of awaken the world. But you said that I like you said this picture. Okay.
Susan 4:48
So Right. So when when you when you log on you have your zoom and your cute little picture there. And I was like, Oh, I love this picture of you. I said you look very pensive,
Scott Benner 4:56
this picture. So now I know what pensive means Even though I didn't go to school for very long, and I didn't know that, so let's break it down together. Well, I'm gonna guess is alright, so I went to Seattle with my son for a week. And I and I got settled in with him. And then he spent another four weeks there baseball training. I stayed with the family who listens to the podcast, which is a story, I remember you saying that. It's so cool, wonderful people that I've told the story before, please, the rest of you do not send me an email. I'm not coming to your house. And so although, let's say this season, one time, with stories join and jump around right away, I got an email recently, from a person who offered me a large sum of money to come live with them for a week and teach them how to do diabetes. Stop it right now, which I turned down. Because I am not a healthcare professional. And that would not be reasonable. And, but it was way more money than you would guess. I can't even imagine. Yes. So. So okay, so you think of a number in your head? Like, how would you please your things?
Susan 6:05
I am horrible at this. I'm so bad at this. My husband is always like, we'll go into a room or to a concert. He'll always say, how many people? Do you think we're here? I'm like, I don't know. 10 500? I have no idea. So I'm really bad at this. So
Scott Benner 6:18
your preface? Did you ruin this part? But go ahead. Just pick a number. Scott. Come to my house live here for a week? I'll give you for a week? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 6:27
I'll pay you
Scott Benner 6:28
$5,000 $25,000
Susan 6:31
Oh, shut up. Yep.
Scott Benner 6:31
And I said, No, thank you. That's lovely. But mainly, I appreciate your, your, I don't know, hope or whatever. You're right.
Susan 6:43
I do have faith in me.
Scott Benner 6:45
Yeah. That's That's not necessary. I don't take money from people for diabetes stuff. I'm not a doctor. And if you guys I realize you're not a doctor, I said. I said I also don't think that the questions you're asking need a week I could just do so I just jumped on the phone and answer. Questions for them real quickly, did not take their 25,000. Also, by the way, they didn't just randomly send me the 25 Grand. So I don't know how serious they were. But I'm
Susan 7:13
like stuck. Scott, could you imagine though, like if you started doing that, like if you put yourself out there you're like, Listen, I got called come live with you for a week. And I'll fix all your, your diabetes problems. And that could be like your thing you could do like a word like a tribe like a world tour. You could just like travel around, it'd
Scott Benner 7:27
be perfectly honest. It was hard to think about it after he said that number. Like because I thought I could do this four times a year and I'd be like, yeah, we'll just pay whatever my least favorite month is. I'll just, you know, do it that month.
Susan 7:47
Save all your problems for like, July and that's when I'm gonna
Scott Benner 7:51
be late. Kelly listen, I'm gonna I'm gonna jump out of here on June 30. I'll be back July 31. I have 100 kid I'm changing lives. But anyway, that's not the story. So you want to know about the picture? Okay, you
Susan 8:04
know the picture. I love the picture. Very, it's also very I don't know if this angle but you're having like a really big print. But I think that's real desert. Isn't that right though. The big like,
Scott Benner 8:12
the hats got a slightly unbend brim. Which is crazy, because my head is huge. So that's a weird thing. So what you're seeing in that picture? I don't think it's pensive. I was take so first of all these people in Seattle where I was they talk endlessly about this mountain. Okay, sorry, I'm still hydrating. Yeah, Hank, it's Mount Rainier. Oh my god. I Yeah, I've heard of that. Honestly, it might not be Mike. You should.
Susan 8:43
You might want to get that right.
Scott Benner 8:45
Right, because I but you know, you get there. They say oh, wait till the mountain comes out. The mountain comes out. Like first of all, I must be a colloquialism. Because the mountains always out. It's it will wait them out. That's, you know what they mean? Wait till you can see the mountain. Because you see it right. We can overcast but they just keep saying wait till the mountain comes out the mountains right over there. You look, you're like, I don't see a mountain to tell you. Well, one day, the mountain came out. And it's freaking shocking. Susan.
Susan 9:14
She came, she came and she Well, clearly. I mean, I'm
Scott Benner 9:17
telling you right now, like try imagining going out in your backyard. I don't know It's staring at the house behind you. And there's a giant mountain there but you don't see it for four days in a row. And then one day you walk outside. There's a freakin mountain there. It's odd, right?
Susan 9:35
That's, that's crazy. Really. That's the beauty of our country. That's, you know, look at you.
Scott Benner 9:40
Listen, it was insane. So now here's the other thing. I had been living with these people for about a week. They don't drink anything but water in their house. So okay, my face is like as thin as it had been in like two years. So I was like, Holy hell I can get a selfie with myself in this free Can mountain. And then I got the camera up and what you're seeing on my face is me going wow, you can really see my jaw on this
Susan 10:09
I look really good in this picture.
Scott Benner 10:11
I gotta take like 20 of these so that I'm sure one of these comes out. Because if you fantastic so excited. So it's not pensive, it's me holding the phone really still. And trying to hold my face in a way where I think I'll actually because now I'm gonna use this picture for years to come If someone needs to. Yeah, because and you see how like, sort of like, you know, like that spot between the corner of your mouth and your tip of your jaw. Like it sort of goes in like a lady's waist. You see it? You're looking at the picture, right?
Susan 10:41
I totally I'm I'm staring at it. Yes, don't normally do that.
Scott Benner 10:44
So I say in that moment, I was like, Oh, I gotta drink more water. And I must be holding this phone at the exact right place. And it's so
Susan 10:54
perfect. And you're like a teenager, you figured out how to get that perfect selfie.
Scott Benner 10:59
Somebody said, somebody said, Should your son get the picture with you? And I was like, no, no. I don't care. And he was busy. cool about it. Like I said, take a picture with the mountain and send it to mom. And he's like, Oh my God. All right, hold on, you know. So that's the story of that picture. Yes, it is not. It is not pensive. It's just me try not to move the camera because I have a jawline.
Susan 11:24
I got it. No, listen. Regardless, it's a great picture. Thank you. And that's it.
Scott Benner 11:29
Are you amused at how like, I actually could make that take nine minutes and it was entertaining. So
Susan 11:34
I will listen to you long enough. I
Scott Benner 11:35
know you can do I could do an extra 10 minutes on your episode. Okay, so you're the mother of a child with type one. Is that right?
Susan 11:45
I am. Yes.
Scott Benner 11:46
I'm sorry, boy or girl. I sound like you have two of them.
Susan 11:49
I have two children. My oldest son is 18. But my type one child is a 14 year old
Scott Benner 11:55
girl. 14 and 18. Okay, I didn't see him on purpose. Let's just dig in that for half a second. You guys. Oh, please. You guys were fighting. I thought a baby would help. What happened? What's going on there? What do you mean? I guess it's not a bad gap. 14. No, you're fine. Nevermind. Alright, fine. Yeah, I was reaching Susan. Fine. Do you think the people listening right now we're like, oh my god, this lady's from New York and Scott shut out of a cannon. I'm not even gonna have to speed this episode. It's gonna go really quick.
Susan 12:25
I'm actually 100% and I the whole, like 20 minutes before I signed out. I was breathing saying to myself, talk slow.
Scott Benner 12:34
I talk really fast. You're not doing it. But I wonder why we speak so quickly. I don't know. The true though. Yeah, yeah. We hammer through words. I always assume that other people couldn't think of them as quickly. But I don't imagine now that I'm older that that's actually why it happened.
Susan 12:54
Yeah, I don't think so. I don't know.
Scott Benner 12:56
Yeah. Do you think we were not comfortable with ourselves?
Susan 13:01
I just think everybody is in a rush. Yeah, I see. Right?
Scott Benner 13:08
I'm not asking you to say out loud, but you're Italian.
Susan 13:12
By marriage.
Scott Benner 13:14
So those those so you're by marriage. So that side of your family? Is that talking over each other being loud? Is that pretty common?
Susan 13:24
Yes. And no. You know. I grew up in an Italian household as well. My dad was a little bit of Italian. So we were around a lot of Italian family as well. And they were Yeah, they were no. They were a fun group.
Scott Benner 13:39
Yeah. It might just be Yeah. I don't know if it's geographical or what it is. But I if you got me going. I can I can speak so quickly. And still make sense. It's, it's ridiculous. See?
Susan 13:53
See I I will start speaking so quickly and not make sense. That's a problem. That's why I said to myself, slow it down. Is I think my words I just can't keep up with them. Like I'm like, you know, somewhere else. And
Scott Benner 14:08
anyway, and your kids are old enough. They correct you when you say something wrong, right? Oh, sure. Yeah, that's a big fun part of having kids.
Susan 14:16
They will listen to this and they will probably rip it apart.
Scott Benner 14:25
Kelly Kelly's Kelly's at a disadvantage in our house because Arden has my sense of humor. And calling oh she does actually has enough of it. He's just generally quieter. But that kind of like direct like this that my wife has, like my wife's more direct than I am only among like, in general public she's very polite and kind. But so my son can be direct and funny. It's not as funny as Arden and i It's not his fault. And so if my if my wife Miss speaks they'll it So people will say out loud, like, are you having a stroke? That's usually how it starts. And then they just Oh, stop. And she's like, why am I the butt of the joke? Relentless? Your fault? Did you hear what you said? And then it just keeps going, you know, keeps going when they get me on the ropes. I start, like, they think they say I get defensive, but I just start going, like what you're saying is not making any sense. And like, that's not what happened. And then they won't stop. Like, if they see me devolve a little bit, then they push me until, you know, it looks like I'm gonna die. Like, oh, he's on the floor. Keep going, you know, keep going is the guy, you know? Anyway, he's fine. So your your 14 year old, was diagnosed?
Susan 15:45
She was diagnosed when she was 11. And April of 2019. She was in sixth grade.
Scott Benner 15:53
That seems like an unpleasant time to have that. Yeah. Well,
Susan 15:57
yeah, I know. And where we live, sixth grade, was like a graduating year. You know, the next year you go on to middle school. So a lot was happening, you know?
Scott Benner 16:10
Oh, that sucks. Was it unexpected?
Susan 16:14
Well, unexpected in the back that nobody, you know, has no family history. So unexpected. Yes. So to answer your question, yes, it was. But that being said, I know the signs. I knew the signs. And I knew pretty quickly. What was going on? Okay. i Yeah. So I,
Scott Benner 16:40
how did you know she didn't.
Susan 16:42
So my grandfather on my mom's father had type two diabetes. And my mother always, she would always say to me, back up, my next door neighbor growing up. So I was born in 72. So a early 80s, she was diagnosed with type one, which back then was, you know, not as common obviously, as today. So I know my mom and her mom were very good friends. So I'm sure she implanted these thoughts into my mom as well. But my mom always said to me, if you're very thirsty, if you're going to the bathroom a lot, you need to tell me, you need to let me know. So growing up, I always associated those things with diabetes. Didn't really know what diabetes was, but I just associated those things. So that was, those were the first signs of my daughter. That's such
Scott Benner 17:36
a good look into what just the generation that go without the internet, how they thought about things. And like, somebody told your mom like, Oh, this is what happened. Here's how I knew. And she's like, okay, Susan, listen to me up more than four times a day I want to hear about
Susan 17:54
no. And she, she clearly said it to me enough, right. But it stuck with me. And I was so afraid. Again, not knowing anything about diabetes. I just thought if you were a diabetic, you could eat sugar, and I love cookies and cake. So I, I just was so afraid that I was going to get it. And then those were the signs my daughter, and then of course, including the weight loss and the appetite. But she was not admitted. She was not admitted in DKA. So I you know, I feel like, I don't know how long it was, you know, growing but you know, what's that?
Scott Benner 18:35
You feel good about that? You gotta
Susan 18:37
know? Sure. You know, I mean, I remember. You know, we we were shopping it was a Monday it was the day after Easter. And so the kids had no school and we were going shopping for clothes and I remember thinking oh my god, everything is like so big on her. I don't but you know, I don't know. Oh, she's growing you know, you say those things to yourself. Right? And then we went for lunch. And she had like three pieces of pizza. And let me tell you she was probably about 50 pounds very, very small. You know, cute little thing. And and then we were waiting in line to check out from somewhere and she's like, Mom, I just have to go the bathroom.
I'm so thirsty. Like, oh, that was gonna happen. Like grandma said
Scott Benner 19:27
your mom never said anything valuable like hey, if they find a way to shrink down those computers that they sent the rocket to space and make them fatter house buy some stock. Nothing like that happened ever.
Susan 19:37
No, no, no insight into any of that.
Scott Benner 19:41
Anything really, really helpful. That would have been helpful. Don't get a credit card, honey, anything at all? Nothing. Anything. Pick a boy said your father's side of the family was is Italian any chance your mom side is Irish or something like that.
Susan 20:03
My mom's side is a little bit of everything. There's no Irish, but there's German, there's English. I'm a
Scott Benner 20:09
bunch of things. I'm always looking for
Susan 20:12
as my husband. You know, I was just saying my husband's like, half half, like so like, you know, straightforward. I'm just a mishmash.
Scott Benner 20:18
Yeah, I'm always looking for that part of the world for diabetes. Diagnosis is England. Ireland, that hole right Celtic space there. Interesting. Okay, so, tell me a little bit about what happened coming out of the hospital? Um, three years ago? I mean, you left with
Susan 20:42
so yeah, so maybe something. Okay. We Yeah, first of all,
I love you know, I love our doctors, I love our hospital.
Scott Benner 20:51
Susan, hold on. I love it when people preface their statements with that, because you're about to say something horrible about your doctor.
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Susan 25:13
Great experience, you know, but now, you know, now that looking back and hearing all the people that have been on your podcast, our experience was pretty, you know, normal, I guess. They, you know, the the training two days, like ours, you know, I remember my sister, I have a sister who's 10 years younger than me. And she was so sweet. She said she works in the schools. So she was off that week, because it was a break. And she's like, I'm going to come in, I'm going to come I want to listen to everything. I'm going to learn the if someone else I was like, so thankful for that. So she came and she sat with us and listened. But um, but yeah, so we left with, with pens with pens.
Scott Benner 25:53
Okay. Yeah, no, no sense of CGM or anything like that. Nothing like that was talked about. I didn't even know what that was never heard of it. No. Do you have one now? Oh, yes. All right. How long did it take you to get that? And what
Susan 26:09
she was, she was diagnosed in April. And at the next. I'm sure I saw the doctor pretty soon after that. And then probably the next visit, which maybe was like May, May, June, maybe. I remember going to the doctor when I was showing her. My logs of her blood sugar. And Scott, I would. I was crazy. I would test her like, every two hours through the night. I was testing her like, she was like a pin cushion, you know? And the doctor looked at me and she was like, What are you doing? I said, I'm testing my blood sugar. I'm making sure she's okay. And she's like, Oh, no, she goes, we get we get we got to help you out here. So that's when she was like, we're getting you the Dexcom. And I was like, what is that? So yeah, so she got it pretty soon after I'm gonna say June, she got the Dexcom. What was
Scott Benner 26:59
the impetus for the frequent testing? What were you? Which voice in your head? Were you calming down with that?
Susan 27:07
The one that was saying like, I was just so anxious and so nervous. And so you know, I'm a very anxious person. Yeah, I've. Yeah. So that's that was it?
Scott Benner 27:22
Were you thinking she was going to get low? Or that she was getting high? Or? Or did it make you anxious? Just to not know what the number was at all?
Susan 27:30
It's a really good question. And I don't think I've ever thought of that. But looking back, probably just the not knowing what she was. And, you know, it's just funny Scott, as I, I pulled out these papers, in preparation for this just kind of like, look back. And I still have all the papers of all the blood sugars, and I highlighted the ones that were low. If I tell you how many 80s 77 were highlighted, like back then I thought that was low. So you know, I
Scott Benner 28:00
thought that was a problem. Well, you feeding now seven lady?
Susan 28:03
Oh my gosh. Yes. You know, it's it's, yeah. Because I was told to. I was told below, think it was below 90 At that time, you would correct. Wait 15 minutes, and then give a 15 gram, which Holy crap, if I did that now. Forget it.
Scott Benner 28:24
Well, 15 grams, that 90 would probably make her like 180. Right.
Susan 28:28
I know. Yeah. It's crazy, right?
Scott Benner 28:32
Well, at least she wasn't low. Better high, though.
Susan 28:36
I know. Right?
Scott Benner 28:37
Yeah. Let's kill her tomorrow. Not today, then. Exactly. What a plan.
Susan 28:45
Great plan. Good plan.
Scott Benner 28:47
I'm so fascinated. You know, I don't think I've gone down this road on the podcast. And well, I find it fascinating that that could be the answer. Just the I don't do you know, I'm saying like, we're gonna, every day we crossed the road with our eyes closed. Instead of doing it, we just won't cross the road today. We'll do it tomorrow, right? And then tomorrow, and tomorrow, we'll get there gonna and maybe the next day, maybe the next day. But on the other side of the road is our life that we can't get to. Yeah, no, no, can't avoid that. Yeah, let's just not instead of living will stand here and in stasis, not really do anything. We'll just eating snacks every time our blood sugar gets the 90. And one day in our 30s we can start you know, working on those on those horrible things that have happened to us it's a really an odd, an odd fix. You ever
Susan 29:45
it really is because now obviously her management is million times better and I go in and the doctors you know, she's like, I love her. She's like, you don't need my help. You know you're doing And, you know, which makes me feel good. I don't always agree with her. But if if I if she thinks everything's so great and she sees her numbers, then why is why are the other thing? What? I don't know? Is it because she was so newly diagnosed? And there? You don't want to? I don't know. Just why was that acceptable? Right? I don't know.
Scott Benner 30:20
Alright, so pulling back the curtain, bigger picture, I get it. Like I get them not wanting to Yeah, have your kid have a seizure? Right, like, right? Below budget. But, but why not explain it so that maybe you might use for carbs instead of 15? Right,
Susan 30:39
right. It's the rules are so there's like, so set in stone these rules? And I Oh, my gosh, you tell me a rule. I mean, I'm gonna follow it. I'm a true rule follower. So I'm not going to deviate. Right? So yeah, you're
Scott Benner 30:56
not gonna, it's going to be 15 carbs. And then you get caught in that weirdness of and now all of a sudden, your kid might as well have diabetes in 1985. Again, because because we're not taking advantage of any of the advancements or new understandings. We're just we're back to eat these 15 carbs. How many times have you given your kid food they didn't want? And then you look back and think, Oh, God, she didn't even need this.
Susan 31:19
She may need it. Right, right. I know. Oh, my gosh, do you think
Scott Benner 31:23
that's okay, how long did it take you to figure it out? That it was not the way that
Susan 31:29
longer longer than I'm proud to say? I don't know. Her diagnosis was, was very hard on obviously hard on everybody. It was hard on me. As a mom, I, you know, I went through a lot with that. So I just was trying to keep her sounds very dramatic, trying to keep her alive. Just trying to keep her you know, functioning. And, you know, and doing the things she loved to do like that summer, she went to camp. Oh, my gosh, that was crazy. You know, and she's doing all. And then Nerissa camp was said to me, we like to keep them no lower than 150. I was like, that's why it's like, you know, she's like, we they're always running and they're doing this. And I just at that time, I said, Okay, if that's your role, okay. You know, so I don't know. And then then she started middle middle school, middle school was very rough. Start with her diabetes.
Scott Benner 32:37
It will be fun for her before you tell me about middle school. You just said a bunch of big things and then skipped right over. I'm like, we weren't gonna talk about them so well, that I do that. Sorry. Sorry. Her diagnosis was really hard on you. How?
Susan 32:50
Yeah, I cried a lot. I, I couldn't. I couldn't look at pictures of her. Prior to that. I I, my husband and I were, you know, we're a great team, great team. At that time, I'm sure I was really difficult to live with. Because I he was helping, but I would say he wasn't, you know, or it was hard. And then I had, you know, I had a son. And at the time, he was in high school, and he was playing baseball. And I said, I have to get to all of his games. I can't make him feel any, you know, less loved or less, you know, less attention. That was hard.
Scott Benner 33:48
Did you ever? Did you ever use your son's activities as an excuse to get away from diabetes? not consciously, but like, I have to go to this baseball game now. So you're right. I'll live here with diabetes while I go.
Susan 34:01
Good question. I'm gonna say no, because she always came with me. So that was another thing too. I feel like, you know, I didn't want to go anywhere. Without her. I didn't want to leave her. I didn't want to. And I like she's a bit She's. She's a competitive dancer. So I would, I was that in a soccer player. I was back to sitting at practices for two hours or sitting at her rehearsals in the car when I used to just drop her off. So I felt very, I felt like my life was never going to get back to normal, I guess. Maybe Can I
Scott Benner 34:33
ask you? In those times you were sitting outside of things? How often did you have to spring into action and do something? Like what partly ever Yeah. How come you
Susan 34:43
isn't that funny? Like looking back? Hardly ever. I
Scott Benner 34:46
knew that was gonna be your answer as my mascot is right? You know, it's the drama part is you said, you said like this is going to sound dramatic and you made me think of every once in a while. I'll see somebody be online say, I saved my daughter's life with a cookie or something like that. And I'm like, right, right. Right. Right. Do you mean that? Are you just trying to like, right, make the point, right. Like, I hope you're just trying to make the point that the carbs, yes. I wonder where this is that you know what I mean? And not to say that there haven't been times that people's blood sugars are falling, you know, and they're really, and you really are maybe saving their life. But how many? How many people are saying that when their kids blood sugar's 90 Because of the direction they were given by their doctor? Like, how many people is blood sugar's not falling reaches 90. And they're like, I just saved my daughter's life with an Oreo cookie. Like, actually, you just wish their blood sugar back up again.
Susan 35:40
But I actually actually might have pushed it back up, but okay,
Scott Benner 35:43
we'll go in that could be an opposite thing of what you're saying here. I'm not certain, you know, that drama is so real. I'm gonna be honest with you. I, you know, I know what you're talking about. I would say,
Susan 35:55
you know, when you asked me that, when you asked me that, like, how many times I had to jump in and help her. I never thought about that. And honestly, I Yeah.
Scott Benner 36:09
At what point you could have been like, hey, you know, I keep staying here because I think you're gonna die, but you're not dying. So. Oh, I guess I'll just go home, get out of this car and do something else. Yeah, is it at
Susan 36:21
least obviously.
It's comfortable. But listen, obviously, I did get to that point. And you know, and I leave her she she sleeps over she you know, I we're obviously in a great spot now with a lot of that, but so that was part of it, too, was hard. And then, like, I I would just anytime she was very high. was more the highs, I would just, I would just play myself. And what did I do wrong? And I can't hear the beeping anymore. I'm going to go crazy. And you know that kind of stuff
Scott Benner 36:59
overnight. Yeah, you couldn't hear the CGM anymore?
Susan 37:04
Well, not that I couldn't hear it. I did hear it. And I wanted to throw it out the window. You know, it just this. It was, was driving me crazy. And I didn't know how to fix it. I really didn't. And so let's and then you came along.
Scott Benner 37:19
Let's not get to where the Messiah comes just yet. Let's talk about the rest of it. God, I hope people No, I'm kidding about that. That's not the point. Here we go. No, I don't know. Some of them don't beep. So you're getting to a point where you're getting an alarm? And you're resentful of it?
Susan 37:36
Oh, my gosh, that wasn't percent. Yes. Because I would look at and be like, be like, shut up. What do you do?
Scott Benner 37:45
Well, you're, you're my age. And yes, you're like just a year younger than I am. And I, you know, I couldn't keep going forever the way I was going. Like, like, it was like the sleep part is really detrimental in a way that you don't imagine it's going to be at first at first you almost think you're doing it. You're like, all right. Other people need sleep apparently not me. I'm must have a special constitution. And then you start snapping at people and being not yourself. And you're working at a percentage less than what you usually are in your mind. And then you're laying there one day, you're like, I can't get up and that thing, and you were like, what, like, I'm gonna burn law, just lock all the doors on Windows and set the house on fire. Like how?
Susan 38:35
Maybe No, yeah, it was it for me. It was like, I just can't cry all day. I can't, like I can't do this anymore. Because I would I would be crying just because I was tired. Like, you know, like, I've got to stop. I gotta stop. Yeah. And I would definitely seek advice from our diabetes educator at my doctor, and they definitely did hell, but just know, nobody explains it the way you do? I don't. I don't understand. I don't understand.
Scott Benner 39:11
I don't know. Well, I mean, we've had enough conversations on the show with doctors and they don't talk about why they think that it doesn't happen. And you know, I've had people on, and I've never pushed them. And I think that in the course of the conversation, you can hear that they don't understand it well enough to explain it. Or that right. Sometimes they're caught in this like, the cycle of right. Yeah, their job is just get you in check this thing hit all the checklists they need for insurance, you know, and then and then, you know, I don't know show me one of your lows. tried turning this dial here. I'll see in three months, right, like that whole thing, right. And I do think that they're just, they're throwing darts a lot of times in the dark and just hoping they hit something and that That's just not a real reasonable way to take care of all this. I so I have a lot of empathy for the situation that they're in.
Susan 40:07
And I understand I agree.
Scott Benner 40:11
I still want to try it myself. I still want to like, you know, almost like, almost like speed dating for diabetes. I would love to sit in the room for a whole day and see if 20 minutes at a time I could figure things out or not like,
Susan 40:24
oh, I have no doubt you could I would like that. I would be exhausted. Yes, over though. You've already done that. So you know, you could do that.
Scott Benner 40:31
Yeah, but it would still be fun, like a little exercise. You don't I mean, like, like diabetes Olympics, kind of for me. I love it. Like a mathlete situation, almost where you would just give me questions. And I'd be like this, that this that. But I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. Like, maybe I would maybe I would do that. And then think, Oh, she's people are doing the best they can. It's a horrible situation. But then again, I don't understand. I don't understand then why you wouldn't stop it. Like, why do you keep saying, well, we'll go back and try to cross the street tomorrow. Like, why wouldn't just say this thing we're doing doesn't work. But it would just seem obvious to go to the head of the practice and say, hey, you know, we're not really helping anybody. Right? Like, I went to medical school. And now I'm wasting my life in this florescent box. Sort of pseudo helping people. Like, we're all here. I had to get up in the morning. Why don't we do it better than this? You know, like, it would strike,
Susan 41:30
right? I know. Yeah. So like her, I think are able to seize we're probably in the eights for a long time. And they were fine with that.
Scott Benner 41:40
The doctors were okay with it.
Susan 41:43
Yeah, they were. They know, they were they weren't you know, they, they? They were more like, it's, you know, it's good. We'll try to, you know, try and do better, I guess. Actually, no, I feel like they were like, Oh, you're good. And again, I don't know, maybe it was because it's like the first year or so. And I don't know.
Scott Benner 42:06
But even that's just ambiguous. Like, it's just I know, I agree. Yeah. Especially when you can google. What's the a one C of a person who doesn't have diabetes, and it tells you and you go, Oh, that's C might be significantly different. But what we have over here, you know, I remember the first time I realized that at Ardennes appointments, they'll find a low blood sugar to to warn you about. And I realized that that's a liability thing now. Yes, I'm sure it didn't strike me. I mean, no one's told me this. This is my, my concept is that they go Oh, I see a low here. What happened here? And I've now learned to answer like a robot. Like I go, Oh, let me see that. And I lean over and I go, that's a compression low. That's not real. That's not real, right? Or I'll lean over and I'll go, oh, that's 65 at 11 o'clock. Yeah. I know what that is. You see the Bolus here at 10pm. Right, right, and see how the blood sugar was 140 We had a sticky blood sugar, it broke loose, blah, blah, blah. And then I stopped. I don't over explain it. I just explained it. And they don't go. The next answer isn't well, I think you should do this or change that. They just go okay. And then they make some notes. And I'm like, Oh, this is just for insurance. Okay, interesting. Yeah. Can I get the insurance? Can I just get the prescription now for the insolence on go? Yeah, can we just, we just move on? We're gonna go to lunch. Actually, we're gonna leave here. Waffles and and. Right, yeah, we're gonna Bolus an insane amount of insulin and eat it.
Susan 43:45
And it's gonna work. It's
Scott Benner 43:47
definitely gonna work. Yeah, I gotta go. Like I really I want to get out of here. But I understand, right? If that's the it's almost all this. It's the thing about life. I hate the most like, I hate that unspoken dance part. Like, you know, when you're lying to someone, and they know you're lying. And you know that they know you're lying. And you know that they know that you're lying. And yet for some reason, we're still doing it.
Susan 44:14
It's still still going on.
Scott Benner 44:16
It's maddening to me. I really, I really just find it distasteful, but okay. All right, Susan, Fair's fair. How do you find the podcast?
Susan 44:28
I love the podcast, how do I find it? So I found it on a Facebook group. Definitely a Facebook group. I knew you're gonna ask me this question. I really don't remember when I first started listening, but I do remember when I really listened religiously, was during the pandemic. Like when that first so her. Her one year anniversary was April of 2000. Which is right. When? Yeah, right when everything Started, right? Yeah. So I walk, I walk, I always lose used to, you know, I always like to walk anyway. But I would walk and I will listen to you, every every day. And like every day,
Scott Benner 45:14
that's important. Everybody should be listening to me every day. That's what I think
Susan 45:18
everyday, like to the point that this is to the point that when I go to the track, if I don't listen to it feels weird. Like, I feel like I'm
Scott Benner 45:27
over there, that experience has been ruined, because I'm not there.
Susan 45:31
And I feel like I'm doing I'm being rude to you.
Scott Benner 45:35
That, listen, that's an important feeling. Don't let go of that one. All of you. If you're, you know, you should be less if you could be listening and you're not, you're letting me down directly. That's important to know. Just so you know, also listen, and listen to the end. Okay, there's some important metrics
Susan 45:52
and invariants. Thank you.
I just listened to your your one this morning with Patrick in California. Oh my God, I want to meet him. He's hysterical.
Scott Benner 46:00
I don't even think he was funny on purpose. I think. Exactly. It was amazing. Yeah. Money. That's excellent. I'm glad you like it. There's times where I'll record episodes. And I'd be like, people aren't gonna like this. And that was one of them. I was like, worried. And then I when I really listened, and I did the edit. I was like, What was I thinking about? Was like, he was terrific. You know?
Susan 46:22
Oh, no, he was so honest. And so he was great. Yeah. Yeah. That's very
Scott Benner 46:25
cool. It makes me feel good that you listen, I also want to say, we're beyond this far enough. Now. It's October 2021. When we when the pandemic hit, initially, there was this idea amongst a lot of people who made podcasts that will we're going to scale back now, because people aren't gonna listen as much. And I don't want to, I don't want to waste my content. And I want you all to know that when you thought that I started putting out an extra episode every week, because I was like, This is not how this is gonna go. People are gonna listen to more podcasts. And yeah.
Susan 47:05
I wonder why they would think that,
Scott Benner 47:07
Susan, I think it's because they're morons, and they don't know what they're talking about. And they don't have a vibe for what's happening. But I just go with that. I'm taking full credit for this. I was I saw that moment. I was like, No, this is not the right idea. We should be leaning into this with content, not leaning away from it.
Susan 47:24
No, yeah. I listen to you every day. Ya know,
Scott Benner 47:27
a lot of people picked up the show during Coronavirus, which I'm not Yeah, celebrating, I would rather have fewer listeners all not have COVID. But,
Susan 47:36
but that, you know, I, I found it before that. I just it was just so much more time. Right. So I guess that's what it was. I found it before that. But I listened more religiously during that time.
Scott Benner 47:49
While you're Yeah. While you were figuring out that you wanted to listen to the podcasts with your free time. I was learning how to smoke meat. So we were all did something different that we didn't have previously. Yes. You know, fantastic. Yeah, I do a little smoke every week. And I leave something refrigerator. And I just take little slices from it throughout my days and take little pieces. Lovely. That sounds lovely. It was really a little pink.
Susan 48:14
By the way. My kids tell me the word lovely is an old person's word. Well, they can go to hell. You just said it. And I said it
Scott Benner 48:21
didn't go to hell tell what do you think of that them in the podcast is just thought they shouldn't put out podcaster and COVID. Right. You're all wrong. What do you think of that? Lovely is a wonderful word. It is it invoke some. It evokes a softness and a concern. It is exciting. And it means you know that something is exceptional and kind of very good. If people don't use it.
Susan 48:48
I agree. I agree. Your kids
Scott Benner 48:50
are wonderful. When the new Drake album is coming out they don't know
Susan 48:53
anything. Oh, absolutely.
Scott Benner 48:57
You live on the island or no?
Susan 48:59
I do. I live on the island. Yep, I was born here. I live here. My husband said he'd never lived here but he's lived here for 25 years so
Scott Benner 49:08
would you do wear bikini? Would you ask them if you want to go to Long Island? How did that work out?
Susan 49:11
I don't know. Maybe I don't know how to get him out.
Scott Benner 49:13
You know how you did it. Don't act like you don't know now that we're older.
Susan 49:17
Don't be so coy with the island so it makes it makes me wonder if people listening to this might. I don't know. I don't think I have an accent but I'm sure many people are gonna think I do.
Scott Benner 49:34
Yes is pretty light. years is pretty light. I just interviewed a Mother Son combination who lives on Long Island as well. And hers is very hers is more severe than yours is. Yeah,
Susan 49:49
I'm not too severe.
Scott Benner 49:50
No, you know what I mean? Severe is in.
Susan 49:52
I know. I know. I know.
Scott Benner 49:53
Are you gonna give me crap to Susan. Well, listen, I'm already married. Okay. plenty people over here that have that covered. You don't need to give me crap. If you're worried that I'm living my whole life just free and happy, okay, then I'm the guy. Yeah, don't worry, I'm about to leave this room be told what I'm doing wrong today. Not even over and over again. I'm assuming there's a list of things I've already done wrong. And I have not laid eyes on my wife yet today. So,
Susan 50:24
but it's funny.
Scott Benner 50:26
So so. Okay, so you find the podcast? That's fine. Does that make you feel like? Like, what happens next? Do you start thinking, Oh, those things I was thinking? Maybe they're real? Or did you? Did you think I've never heard any of this stuff before? I've never even had these thoughts before.
Susan 50:43
I've never heard any of these things before. More at the time, so she got a pump. We're on the Omnipod. She got the pump in January. So a little, almost less than a year, I guess. Right. Okay, that she was diagnosed. So no listening to the podcast, like you would say words that I remember I had heard them but didn't know what they meant. Even the word Bolus, I didn't know what that meant. I was I was still under the impression. Like the rules, they tell you, you could only correct every three hours. You You know you all those little rules. So I, I would sit and look at a 300 blood sugar. Because I had to wait three hours, you know? So. So yeah, it was it was more things I hadn't heard before. And it just it really blew my mind.
Scott Benner 51:46
How do you make the leap? Then? Like, how do you? How do you get to the edge of the road and go no, my Sherpa told me we'll try again tomorrow. We've been doing it for three years like this, but I'm very confident that tomorrow is gonna come and then you're you're you're indoctrinated. And then someone comes along and says, the exact opposite of what what you've been totally? How do you break free? Is it that you're not seeing success? And so it seems worth the effort or
Susan 52:12
risk? I look like I just couldn't I didn't want to do this anymore. And the the one of the things that stuck with me. So I think our our Dexcom was set for 80 as a low, and you're ready for this 300 of the high 300.
Scott Benner 52:29
Perfect. That's excellent.
Susan 52:30
That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.
Scott Benner 52:31
I mean, it's so weird.
Susan 52:34
Right? So I didn't know that that's
Scott Benner 52:37
not uncommon, just weird.
Susan 52:40
You know? So
when you
one of the things that you said, in trying to lower your blood sugar, one of the tips, obviously, we know if you listen is to tighten your range, because if your range is tighter, it'll just, it's eventually going to get there. So that's the first thing I did. I I tightened the range on the Dexcom. And then I don't know, I think I just said to myself, No, I'm just going to try something different. Yeah, I'm just going to try something different, I'm going to and because she was on a pump, it's just much easier to you know, add some insulin here, add some there. The array around with things. Yeah, the range.
Scott Benner 53:27
Now super important, because it really is. It's tricking you into doing what you need to do to begin with. So if you, if you let the range be 300, then obviously the blood sugar you can not Pre-Bolus You can miss miss on your carb count for your meal, and ignore the rise and still feel like well, it's doing what I expect, because I expect you're gonna go to 300. And so that's, that's all Okay, once you start seeing yourself, I can't let this get over 150 Now suddenly, you have to start using insulin differently. And you have to start being more aggressive. If it tries to go up you then it forces you to start thinking about well, why is it going up to begin with, I mean, I'm trying to stop it from getting to 150. And it makes you then believe in trying to Pre-Bolus or being flexible around meals and understanding the different impacts of different foods so that you can make a better Bolus and, and then all that stuff. It just tricks you into I mean it you know, you can hear the the Pro Tip series, and it'll make sense to you, I hope and it'll help you. But setting that expectation down is a real is a real big part of that. And then you start getting what you expect. And then you can say, Well, I always get what I expect. I expect one ad I wonder what would happen if I expected 150 And then I wonder what will happen etc, etc. Until you can just like do that. Yeah,
Susan 54:56
no huge, huge and you Yeah 100%
Scott Benner 55:02
So not hard. You didn't struggle to figure it out like it just worked.
Susan 55:06
No, no. And I it just worked. There is still, I mean, I still have room for improvement. I really don't. Do you happen to episode coming out about fatty foods? I just don't quite. I haven't quite gotten a hold of that, like the effect that certain foods.
Scott Benner 55:28
Yeah, there's one have one out now. Okay, no, no, it was me and a Canadian lady named Michelle. Michelle. Okay. I'll find the name for you while you're talking.
Susan 55:39
But yeah, that that's, you know, on my list to really understand. And then obviously, I I'd like to do the new when the new Omnipod comes out and connects with your Dexcom obviously, I'd like to get your the DIY looping completely intimidates me. I, I've looked at I read about it. I've listened. It's almost like a different language to me. I don't know if I just don't have that mind. I don't know. It's very overwhelming. I understand that as much as I'd like to do it. So it's okay. Oh,
Scott Benner 56:22
I like oh, wait, when the real tech savvy people go. It's all written right out there. I'm like, Oh, my gosh, I don't know. But okay. Yeah, yeah.
Susan 56:31
And the other challenge I have, and it's a big one is school for her. She her num. Put it this way. I know when she has a test. I could look I can look at her graph and like, oh, yeah, she had a chest right now. You know, and I don't know how to handle that. I don't know. Sometimes it goes up and comes right back down. Sometimes it goes up and then it just stays there. But then I'm afraid to give her insulin because what if then she crashes. It's like this whole, and she's a freshman in high school. So we're just you know, we're just starting out with all of that. So that's my that's my challenge right now. It is because I feel like every day is kind of different sometimes. You know, and that's a little exhausting. I don't know. Yeah.
Scott Benner 57:18
So you're so first of all, you want episode 471. It's called bolusing insulin for fat.
Susan 57:25
Oh, perfect for 71. Okay, I wrote it down.
Scott Benner 57:27
Thank you. It's really, it's really, really super helpful. You know, okay, good in a sentence. The fat, the grams of fat in some foods that you eat, like french fries, or like stuff that you can there's a formula to figure out how much insulin those grams need and need extra Okay, and about when to put them in?
Susan 57:51
That feel akin to the timing of it, right? Yeah, okay. Yeah.
Scott Benner 57:54
That's that the thing for school is tough. Because, I mean, what are you gonna do? You're gonna, you're gonna have your daughter write down a list of winter tests happen? I mean,
Susan 58:05
I know. So
I think I don't know. I'm increasing her Basal, like, increase your Basal every morning when she goes to school, right? I don't know.
Scott Benner 58:13
Is that helping?
Susan 58:15
Um, yeah, somebody's it helps. Sure. But also, breakfast is also a very big challenge here. Do you know that I have to dose her. I get up at six o'clock and I number one, increase her Basal for the day, and then I dose her for breakfast. She doesn't eat breakfast till probably close to seven. Because her blood sugar will just stay there was just so stubborn. What's
Scott Benner 58:38
your number? At six o'clock when you're putting in the insulin? What's the number then?
Susan 58:42
Like this morning? It was 120 I think
Scott Benner 58:46
it takes an hour to get to what?
Susan 58:49
I mean, I'd love to wait till it's like arrow down somewhere like in the 90s 80s. But we don't have time sometimes to do that. So I think she ate today. It was like 101 Maybe
Scott Benner 59:00
it took it took an hour for blood sugar. almost an hour? Yes. Is there a reason you don't just upper Basal at like 530 to try to accomplish without you having to wake up?
Susan 59:15
That's a good see, I'm so glad I came on this podcast. That's smart. Because that that would do it. So I would only need that during the week. But that's fine, because I can have to dip Okay, yeah, that would make sense right weekend
Scott Benner 59:30
and a weekday, right? Isn't profile. And just think about like, you know, if it's five o'clock or 530 in the morning or whatever, and you up the Basal to the daytime rate ahead of time. So you're making that really, you're doing what everybody does, right? You think she doesn't wake her or what time does she wake up in the morning?
Susan 59:52
Well, when I go in there at six, she's usually kind of like starting to get up and then you know, she gets up within the next 10 minutes or so. When I'm ready or whatever.
Scott Benner 59:59
When does her daytime Basal rates start right now.
Susan 1:00:03
I add some. I don't
Scott Benner 1:00:09
know. Okay, well, whenever it starts, I don't know just just make mean habit start a little sooner and then you can get some insulin active extra insulin active through that six, seven o'clock period, which then should make your bed your Bolus for the meal more instantly. You should see its impact more quickly because right now, you're putting in a Bolus that is being eaten up by that correction Bolus at six is being eaten up by the unmet Basal need from overnight.
Susan 1:00:43
Of course it is. You told me that why didn't I?
Scott Benner 1:00:47
I don't know. I'm just okay. I'm just used to talking about this stuff. It just pops into my head. If you think that spreadsheet right now that says if no, I know. Trust me, you guys, if I bumped my head one time, this podcast has gone. Oh, Scott forgot everything. Record. Go back and listen to the old ones. And but yeah, no, I would do that. I would. Yeah, that makes sense. I don't know when I would start it. You might have to. Right. Let's figure that out. Yeah. So be aggressive through there. Probably then you'll be able to, I'm gonna guess you're gonna be able to make your, your meal Bolus more like 630 or so.
Susan 1:01:24
Right? You could usually like,
Scott Benner 1:01:26
half hours usually good. Okay. And then you're on your right, so that
Susan 1:01:29
I'm gonna try that. Thank you.
Scott Benner 1:01:31
What else? Can I affects anything else? Um, I don't know the thing with a test at school.
Susan 1:01:38
Yes, I don't know what to do about that. Because it like I said, it's like, I never know,
Scott Benner 1:01:44
how would you say sometimes it goes up and it comes back how long until it comes back?
Susan 1:01:51
When it does, that it's not long at all. That's how I know that that was definitely like a quiz or a quick test. Or you know, I also feel I don't know if it's my imagination, but I feel like as soon as that bell rings, I could look at her blood sugar at 215 Low all sudden, that arrow is going down already. Yeah.
Scott Benner 1:02:09
It's so Susan.
Susan 1:02:10
I know. It's school.
Scott Benner 1:02:12
Yeah, it's the it's the adrenaline slash stress, slash, whatever life impact, right. And you're meeting it probably with a heavier Basal. Which is, which is great, because during those hours, it's working. And then as soon as that it's like falling asleep, like, like Martin's blood sugar yesterday. Oh, my God Arden's been sick for a while now. She's got. Oh, you said that on Facebook. Yeah, I'm calling affectionately calling it kennel cough because they all got back together at school, and now they're all coughing. It's like when you take your dog to a kennel and then it comes home. So I'm calling it kennel cough. I don't know that she's thrilled with my estimation of what's wrong with her but skewer, I'm trying to amuse myself to get an immune so Gotcha. She's, for the beginning of it. Really not very sick. Just like this cough. And now a little more head pressure like Arden is taking like Advil cold and sinus in the evening. Right? Arden's not a medicine person. So you know when when you hand Arden a pill and she takes it without complaining she doesn't feel well. Right? Right. Right she's taking that her blood sugar's have been difficult through this. On top of that, we're switching from one birth control pill to a different kind of pill. So right that's challenging in the middle of like, you know, three weeks of like, right no bleeding while this pill like makes sense in her body and we don't even know if it's gonna work it's yeah, anyway. Oh, girl. Yeah, that's hard. It's tough. All this is happening. I'm we're being as artists also trying to learn how to take care of herself better as college is getting closer. So letting her see this part. So and we were doing okay, yesterday, I was like, Oh, this is good. Like it's getting better and I actually made some of her settings weaker because I'm like, maybe this code is changing but I'm not seeing I'm not seeing the you know, the blood sugar's aren't fighting the way they were. It was the last couple of days. And I said to my wife, I was like, I just figured out the turn the settings back at like, 10pm she's gonna get low when she falls asleep. She fell asleep and her blood sugar went right to 60. And I was like, come on, and the I'm trying to go to bed too. So I was like, here, I gave her a banana. She had half a banana. And it helped her blood sugar went from 60 to 63 and back to 60 again. And at this point, she's got no basil going because I'm trying to, you know, make the adjustment from the one to the other. I gave her some juice 6068 60 and 63 Okay, 60 seems to be the number. And so I was like, Oh, let me wait a little bit because the last thing I want is for this food to catch up and be a pro. Yeah, it didn't happen. She's like sitting at like, 6364. Now 45 minutes later, I'm like, Alright, more banana. Now she's been asleep for a while. She wakes up and I'm like, aren't he to take two bites of this banana and a sip of juice? And in a complete blackout sleep she goes, those flavors are not gonna go together. Well. I was like, Yeah, Laurie. I was like, things are tough all over here at Banana, banana. And then I gave her the juice and she sips the juice, you know? No. And I was like, one more big one. Just knock it down real quick. And she does it. And I shake the box. And I'm like, I need her to drink a little more. I said one more time. She goes, nope.
Susan 1:05:49
Oh my gosh.
Scott Benner 1:05:51
So about an hour later, she was 77. And moving on. And I was like, I'm gonna. So yeah, so I fell asleep. And then I heard a little beeping, which indicated to me on my wife's phone that she had gotten back to 70 again. And then I stayed there for a second with my eyes closed five more minutes, and my phone didn't beep My phone's at 65. So I thought, Oh, she's gonna find stability at 70. I'm like, great. And then I alright. And then I then I went to sleep. And then that took a number of hours out of my life last night, which is why I woke up and ran right in here to talk to you. I think I'm awake now. You are what? You think so I'm not certain Yeah. I'm hungry. But a minute fasting. So I have another hour to go before I can eat.
Susan 1:06:41
All right. It's lunchtime.
Scott Benner 1:06:42
Yeah, I'm getting there. I'm getting close. So the thing is school. So I mean, if she pops up and pops right back, I wouldn't think twice about that. Honest.
Susan 1:06:50
Right? No, but because that was happening a lot in middle school. Now. I feel like she'll do that. And it kind of sticks. And it's like, annoying.
Scott Benner 1:06:58
Yeah. Well, when it sticks I Bolus it. Right. Do you guys during the day?
Susan 1:07:04
That's all we do. Yeah.
Excellent. Yeah.
Scott Benner 1:07:09
Are, are just about triggers a little sticky before you and I started talking at like, 135. And it felt like it was going to come down to me, I was like, oh, it's gonna come down. And I had it my heart to try this one Bolus. And then I said to her, and I'm like, no, just do this instead. And then it didn't work. I should have done what I was thinking I wanted to do. I wanted to do a unit and a half and I ended up doing like point nine. And I was like, I messed this up. So I'm like, you know, I was just awaking, and worried about you. I was like, I gotta go do that thing. Now. This thing? Yeah, I was gonna have a conversation about her being the you know, in your note, you called yourself. Do you remember what
Susan 1:07:53
I say? It was just the way you I just remember. I remember the subject was Pick Me Pick Me Pick Me.
Scott Benner 1:08:01
Just on the podcast, if you're not alone, I just said, you said that. You had trouble forgiving yourself for not being perfect. Yeah, so I want to know about that before we're done.
Susan 1:08:15
I'm probably where my daughter gets it from. Although my husband's a little bit like that, too.
I don't know why. I don't know. I am a rule follower. I like to. I like acceptance. I like pleasing people. I like everything to be a certain way.
Scott Benner 1:08:53
I want Why do you like them to be?
Susan 1:08:56
Whatever the case is just like in the house, it's gotta be this has to go here. And I found like, a little crazy, but I'm really not. I'm not. Like, for example, I used to be, I'm not. I used to be a teacher. I was a teacher before I had my children. I taught sixth grade. And you know how when they're, you know, they're young like that. You give out like class jobs. Right. And I didn't like doing that. Because I wanted
to do everything. Like you're a control freak.
A little bit. Right. So that's part of it to a little bit like that as well. But I feel I yeah, I felt like,
Scott Benner 1:09:41
well, how far do you want to try to go into understanding this?
Susan 1:09:44
Yeah, cuz I feel like I'm really not making any sense right now.
Scott Benner 1:09:47
You made a lot of sense. I'm just I'm wondering if you really want to talk about it or not. Did your parents your parents? Did your parents openly fight a lot?
Susan 1:09:57
Oh, no, no, but when they did know my parents married 50 plus years they're, they're awesome. They're, you know, that's great parents. Awesome. So now
Scott Benner 1:10:08
you didn't. Yeah, was there any your family members have illness? There's just something that turns your life upside down when you were younger?
Susan 1:10:18
No, thank you gonna ask me those questions and I'm probably gonna say no to everything and then you're gonna be say, what's wrong with?
Scott Benner 1:10:24
No, I'm not. I'm just I'm looking for a reason why you would want right. I know it's orderly. Yeah, I don't know. I've been happen to get lost once in a mall, like anything traumatic when you were younger? No, is your mom like this? Well, your dad well, that. Yeah. I mean, she was she was planning for your daughter's diabetes in the 80s.
Susan 1:10:50
When I was like, 12
Scott Benner 1:10:51
Yeah, when you were 12. She's like, one day, you're gonna have a dog and you're gonna need to know about this ping thing. Please listen to me closely. And carefully. Were you allowed to make decisions as a child? Or were you overridden by your family a lot. Huh?
Susan 1:11:07
I was allowed to make decisions. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'm one to four. Yeah.
Scott Benner 1:11:13
Oh, are you the youngest or the oldest?
Susan 1:11:18
I feel I'm number three. I have two older brothers. And then I have a younger sister.
Scott Benner 1:11:24
Did you feel responsible for them when they when you were younger?
Susan 1:11:28
Oh, now you're getting somewhere? Yes. Figure it out. Don't worry. My sister is 10 years younger than me. So I was 10. When she was born, my brothers were older. One is three years old and four years older than another three years older than that. So yes. And when my sister was born, we were just talking about this. She was just over there the night and we're talking about this. I yeah, I she was a large responsibility for me when I was younger. Yeah.
Scott Benner 1:11:53
So she was more of like your ward than your sister. And your parent was little Yeah, parents had done this with three kids already. And they were like that one probably won't die and they didn't pay much attention to her. Maybe you felt responsible for?
Susan 1:12:08
I did though I did, in many ways feel responsible for her. I did. And I almost in a very strange way still do. Like I remember on her wedding day. I felt like it was my child getting married was weird. So yeah,
Scott Benner 1:12:21
yeah, we're getting to it. You want to keep going? I have time.
Susan 1:12:25
Sure. And I love her. She's my best friend. I love her. Garcia. Yeah. But yeah, that's interesting.
Scott Benner 1:12:31
Look how proud you are. Let's look at do you feel a little like that, that her successes are yours a little bit.
Susan 1:12:42
She's a great mom. She has two little babies. cutest things in the world. And she's so kind. And she always says, you know, that she looks up to me and that, you know, I'm a great mom. You know, those kinds of things. So I do feel good about that. I do.
Scott Benner 1:12:57
Did you really? are crazy like you? Are she more laid back? She's going to be more.
Susan 1:13:02
So much more laid back.
Scott Benner 1:13:03
Do you know why?
Susan 1:13:04
Oh my gosh,
Scott Benner 1:13:06
why she had you to worry about things. Yeah, there you go. How come? Nobody was worried? She thinks for us isn't?
Susan 1:13:13
I don't know when she gets my brothers. They should have
Scott Benner 1:13:16
their boys. Yeah, true. You needed your parents to do it. But they couldn't because they grew up in a time where that's not how they parented. Right? Sure, right. Super simple. Understand. Our psychologies are like almost like I mean, like I'm not taking anything away from you therapists but I mean, look, I just do a podcast and I'm figuring it out. So I know. So okay, so, but yeah, you pass this on to your daughter.
Susan 1:13:41
Um, yes. And I think she's she's a very good combination of both of my husband and I, but my husband is also very Oh, he's He's so good. He's so organized. He's so I'm like, I don't want to say seeks perfection. But I would say the small part kind of does like he's very you know, he's very good at what he does. He only does the best. You've only put out his best work. He only. Yeah,
yeah. So yeah,
Scott Benner 1:14:09
where's your daughter feel responsible for?
Susan 1:14:13
She's got a guinea pig. So maybe your guinea pig.
Scott Benner 1:14:15
It's either you or your husband? Which is?
Susan 1:14:21
Me probably.
Scott Benner 1:14:22
Do you think you could help her to not have to feel responsible for you? Were like three answers away from you having a granddaughter who's carefree like your sister. So just keep thinking.
Susan 1:14:36
That's a, you know, got us a really good question. Yes, she probably does feel that way.
Right. Right. Yeah.
Scott Benner 1:14:41
So what do we do?
Susan 1:14:43
I don't know. What do we do, Scott? Before it's too late. Yeah.
Scott Benner 1:14:47
You got a couple of years here before she's talking to boys and that's gonna be the end of it. So I know. Yeah. And then she's going to try to control their life and make them miserable. Hmm, yeah. Well, I don't know. Like, I mean, you know your own life like what, what? What could you? It's not what you could do. It's what you could, generally speaking, it's going to be what you have to stop doing like, so I don't know what those things are right? You're right. There's something about you, that makes her feel if we're right about all this, that makes her feel like you need her and not in a way where like, on my mom's like, you know, my mom and I are on the same wavelength. And I can see when she's right. There's something specific that she needs that you need, that you aren't getting. And it's obvious that other people so interesting. If it's sexism, we can fail to fix that very easily. Just tell your husband All right, yeah, just stop it. Just stop. All you remember is your kids are gonna hear this, aren't you? Now I'm blushing. Do you think they've ever heard you have sex? Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Oh, my gosh, I you know, I thought that during this control conversation, a question that I that I didn't ask you. You're welcome. Yeah. Thank you very much. I should start making you know, questions. I don't ask and just read them at the end of the end of the episode. That'd be fantastic. Alright, good. So yeah, listen,
Susan 1:16:19
we're complicated beings. You really are. Right. And I'm in my mind, you know, I, I, you know, you think you're doing everything? Right. Right. You think you're doing all the things you're supposed to do? And in the right way? Here's not that I not that I didn't know that. I don't think I know. I'm not perfect, obviously. But you know, you're just trying your best, right? It's trying to do with us.
Scott Benner 1:16:42
I'm not saying you're doing a bad job.
Susan 1:16:43
I know. I know. I know. I know that. I know.
Scott Benner 1:16:47
I'll tell you know, I know that. For some insight. I assume I'm doing most of the things wrong. But I think I'm doing I assume I assume everything I'm doing is probably could be better, but not in a way that makes me crazy. Just in a way that makes me keep wondering about what, what else is there?
Susan 1:17:09
Does that make sense? Yeah. And I liked that. Yeah, my
Scott Benner 1:17:12
my favorite, my favorite thought exercise is to, is to take a subject that I don't know any, you know, that I don't have a full grasp of think about it up until the ceiling of my understanding. And then just to kind of wonder what's on the other side of it, because there's more, I just don't know what it is. Right. And I like to wonder what it is. And I it's a pretty useless exercise. But I enjoy doing that I enjoy wondering what I don't know about things. And part of that has led me to believe that even when I'm appear to be doing a good job, even when things appear to be going right, there's more that I don't know about that very well may have made things better, better. But I'm not bothered by the idea. I'm intrigued by it.
Susan 1:17:59
You're intrigued.
Scott Benner 1:18:00
Yeah. That's all like I know, very intriguing. I know, I'm doing a good job. Like you said, like, I know I'm doing my best. When I know I'm not doing my best. I try to write that ship pretty quickly. And like you said, people are complicated. There's times when you just you're doing things and you're like, I shouldn't be saying this, and it just comes out anyway. So there's all that, but anyway, it's not too late for you to keep your daughter and help her mellow out a little bit. Is she not mellow?
Susan 1:18:31
No, she's she's mellow. She's good. I could be completely wrong about all this, by the way. No, I
don't know. But but it also made me think a little bit.
Scott Benner 1:18:42
Yeah, just keep in mind that while we're doing this, I just received a note from a listener while we're talking. That congratulated me on how I spoke to a person in a recent episode. And she's like, Wow, you really help that person? That was like, Oh, that's nice. I might have gotten all that stuff. I saw that pop up in front of me. I was like, I can just help Susan to Robin right now.
Susan 1:19:02
I want me to
Scott Benner 1:19:07
can you imagine? That's great. Well, I think you listen, it sounds like you have a nice setup. I do want to ask you about like, what's the division of care between you and your daughter? Like, where do you think her? Like,
Susan 1:19:19
okay, that's a good question. Disappeared. Okay.
I deficient of care. So here's, here's a good story. We went over by this, by the way, wow, look at the time. Okay,
here's just here's a good story. I went away. I went away for three nights with my best friend. And I was like, you know, I need this. Get away. I have to, you know, do something for myself. And we had a great trip and all that. And she did great all the time. And I say that surprising that I shouldn't be surprised. She's awesome. She really is. She's incredible. She's an incredible kid. But she did great. She did great when I was away. So my best friend said to me, she was like, well, then, when you go back, she goes, I want you to pull back, my best friend telling me, and I said, All right, yeah, yeah. But then I get back and I go right back into what I'm back into the way. So, so she could do it. But I think I think we're at a point where she just knows that I'm going to do it, or I'm going to text her and say, hey, you know, dose half a unit dose this? You know, so I'm thinking she probably thinks that way. Oh, you know, Mom, mom, you know, mom, she's on it. So. Right. So, you know, well, you know,
Scott Benner 1:20:48
listen, that's, I think, a reasonable first step. Sounds like it went well. I mean, based on what we just said, we could say that maybe your daughter just realized you needed a break. And so she kind of gave it to you as a gift, which means it's something she has to give, and you understand that she's still 14, and she might not always, they might not always be present in her mind. But how can I? How did you ever did you say to her when you got back? Hey, you did such a good job. Oh, yeah. Maybe we can, you know, do this more frequently. It's a good learning experience for you.
Susan 1:21:25
Okay, ever said those exact words. But there are definitely times where, like, my husband and I were away in the city a couple of weekends ago, she was staying at my mom's and my niece was here. They were staying i i laid back I you know, I did. Good. So yeah, there's definitely instances where I let her do it. Take over.
Scott Benner 1:21:49
Excellent. Let me ask you a question. You went away with your friend, you came back? Was it more gratifying to you that she could take care of herself? Or was it more gratifying to you to take the control back?
Susan 1:22:07
Probably that she could do it herself.
Scott Benner 1:22:10
Good. But did it? Did it feel good when you took the control back? Oh, it
Susan 1:22:14
felt good. It just felt like this is what I do.
Unknown Speaker 1:22:16
Right? Yeah.
Scott Benner 1:22:18
Cool. Well, yeah. Try to make it feel right that the other way to that were you nervous the whole time you were gone? No, you actually were able to just drink a lot. How did you handle that? Nervousness?
Susan 1:22:34
Well, it was a yoga
retreat. Oh, you're smoking? Well. Scott, stop it. So it was
it was very relaxing.
Scott Benner 1:22:45
Oh, wait, were you really doing yoga? Or I thought that was code? I'm sorry. No,
Susan 1:22:49
we were really doing yoga. Hiking in yoga is very relaxing. So no, it was yeah, it was a great, great time.
Scott Benner 1:22:58
But yeah. Oh, there you go. We fixed all your problems. Everything's good. How much do I owe you? I $40. Just to Kobe. Insurance handles the rest. Sorry.
Susan 1:23:10
By the way, I caught your little video you put up very briefly last night of your little cartoon. Are you kidding me? That's the cutest thing ever. So Oh, isn't
Scott Benner 1:23:16
that great?
Susan 1:23:18
Oh, my gosh, I
Scott Benner 1:23:19
love it. So hopefully, by the time this comes out, it'll just be thing, but pretty cool. A mom who listens to the show has a young daughter with type one. Her older daughter is a budding animator. And I must have said something at some point somewhere. I said, I really want to animate the defining diabetes episodes, and put them like on YouTube and make them more accessible to like people like that. And she's like, my daughter could do that. Now. Susan, the amount of people who very kindly offered to do things for me is, is it's a big number. I'm really great. Can't imagine very great. Yeah, very nice. Many people don't have a stick to itiveness that stuff like eggs. So a lot of times people like I'm gonna do this thing for you. And I'm like, that sounds great. I would really appreciate that. And then three weeks later, I'm like, do you have that thing? And like, Oh, I gotta kind of go. And it's fine. I have no animosity. People who really genuinely want to help and I think that's lovely. And, but, so I'm like, Oh, this is a big undertaking. You know, there's a lot to do here. I think you know, our daughter's I think she's 19 Maggie. And I'm like, Okay, I'm like well prove it to me, like do it, you know, and she started doing it and building like physical assets and everything and I was very clear about the animation I was like it should basically just be a modern like Punch and Judy. Like I don't I almost wanted to marry that standing there just doing this thing. And right and she's doing great. So last night, we had a conversation and I said, where are we at with this? When can we actually start putting them up? So she's still working. But I don't, I don't want to put them up and then have a gap. I want to be able to put one up every Friday. And she's like, I think I'm close. I think we can get going pretty soon. And then we talked about what we're going to do next. And I think she's gonna make me sort of, like almost like little like 62nd clips from episodes like, we'll find a 62nd clip in your episode, and she'll animate it. That's so cute. Yeah, we use them on social media and stuff is a way to kind of draw people back to the podcast. And then if all goes well, she's going to automate the process. And we're gonna lay it over top of like the Pro Tip series and stuff like that. Oh, I love it. Yeah. So that's awesome. The problem right now is that I'm financing it out of pocket. And the videos need to make enough money that I can afford to pay her. So we're trying to go slow and find that balance. But she did a really, I thought she did a really amazing job.
Susan 1:26:05
Oh, my God, I loved it. I thought it was fantastic. She's,
Scott Benner 1:26:09
she's really talented, and doing such a good job. So thank you. I'm glad that's so great. That's so great. After the conversation, I sit around, like, I'm gonna throw the first one on Facebook in the private group. And I'm gonna take it down to like two hours just so people can see it for a minute. And funny, the reaction was good. And a couple 1000 views in there in in about an hour and a half. And then I just yanked it back down again. So that's great. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. I'm trying very hard to
Susan 1:26:36
say no, no, you're trying to help. Doing a great job.
Scott Benner 1:26:39
So far. So good. Knock on wood. I haven't done anything super stupid yet.
Susan 1:26:43
Nope. Fix some people one at a time.
Scott Benner 1:26:47
One of the times I need 10s of 1000s at a time, or I start, I start feeling like I'm not doing enough. It gets a second weird. I haven't had that feeling in a couple of years. You know, talking about feeling responsible for people. And right. Why I might know you well is basically how I feel. But I haven't had that feeling in a while. Like I'm not doing enough. It used to feel like that. But I don't anymore. Okay. So that's great. Yeah, I think it's because the podcast reaches so many people at this point. It would just be silly for me to feel like it'd
Susan 1:27:22
be silly. Exactly. be silly feet, right.
Scott Benner 1:27:24
I'm feeling good. All right. Anything left, right, that you want to talk about that we didn't talk about? No,
Susan 1:27:30
I just I'm so happy to get the chance to talk to you. I really enjoyed this. You're awesome. And I hope everybody's okay, on your end, your family and all that.
Scott Benner 1:27:38
Okay. I'm going to ask my question. I appreciate that very much. And same to you. I'm going to ask my question of you when we're not being recorded. Okay. My the question that I had Alright, so when you and your husband are having
First, I'd like to thank Susan for coming on the show and sharing so honestly and openly. Thank you very much, Susan. I also want to thank touched by type one and remind you to go to touched by type one.org. Don't forget to look into the Contour Next One blood glucose meter at contour next one.com forward slash juice box. And if you want some of the functionality that you can get with a pump, without pumping you want in pen from Medtronic diabetes. Head over right now to in pen today.com. To find out more about the pen. It's INP E M in pen. You hear me saying that right? Like I'm not weird new out of my accent Am I pretty long episode so just let me say thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.
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