Scott Benner 8/29/22 Scott Benner 8/29/22

#744 Shots Fired

Stephen has type 1 diabetes and he's made some major improvemtns to his health.

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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 744 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's episode we'll be speaking with Stephen who is an adult living with type one diabetes and Stephen made a major adjustment in his life. And he's going to tell us about it today. While you're listening to Stephen, tell me about the thing in his life that I then recorded and gave to you. Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan, or becoming bold with insulin. You ask a resident who has type one diabetes, or is the caregiver of someone type one is that you are you one of those people. If you are please go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. Join the registry. Take the survey, complete the survey. Help people living with type one diabetes, help yourselves and help the podcast it's that easy, takes fewer than 10 minutes. Super simple, easy survey to do. T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. Thank you for considering it. And now I take you into the podcast to speak with Steve.

This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries. G voc hypo Penn. Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash juicebox. The episode is also sponsored by Ian Penn from Medtronic diabetes. Please go to in pen today.com To learn about the insulin pen that does much more than you might think.

Stephen 2:00
Hi, I'm Steven. I've been diabetic since 14. I'm now 3420 years.

Scott Benner 2:07
Yeah. Stephen. What I mean they just blew my bandit right out like it was nothing. He didn't even like didn't even act excited for me. It's okay. Don't worry. I'm sorry. Yeah, he's got 20 years. You were you were? See I you know, I just did there. I talked myself right, right out of listening. Just do it again. Sorry. Just do the intro. No, no, no, just tell me how old you are again.

Stephen 2:36
I'm 3434 and I was diagnosed at 14. Okay. easy math.

Scott Benner 2:41
easy math. It was really super easy. I'm going to be honest. What? Looking back now anybody in your family have type one or other autoimmune diseases?

Stephen 2:52
Yes, um, some grandparents have had diabetes, either in type one or type two. My mom has type two. And my sister has thyroid problems.

Scott Benner 3:04
Okay. Do you happen to know if her thyroid is called? Do they call it hypothyroid? Or they call it Hashimotos?

Stephen 3:10
It's neither of those. It's she had Greg don't know how to explain it. It's something else.

Scott Benner 3:16
Oh, okay. All right.

Stephen 3:18
Don't worry about that. I just has tons of thyroid brat.

Scott Benner 3:21
There's a lot of thyroid problems. Okay, nothing, nothing simple to put into a box. All right, right. What do you remember about being diagnosed?

Stephen 3:30
Um, so that I used to be really big into paintball. And we were going with our church group to a PayPal event. And everybody knew I was the guy that played PayPal. So I was really tired and lethargic that day. I was drinking a whole bunch of water couldn't figure out peeing a lot. In the middle of one of the games, I just couldn't stand it. And I shot myself in the foot to get out. I was like, I've got to get off the field. So I shot myself. I was like, Hey, we're off. I got hit. We left the field and my parents were like, oh, there's something wrong. We need to take care of him. We didn't know what was going on. It had been going on for days. But my sister picked me up from paintball. And we went to her work. She worked at Chucky Cheese at the time. And I got a coke because I needed a drink. So suck it down a coke and you know still not feeling good and went home and took a nap and just peed all night all night all night.

Scott Benner 4:32
They ended up taking you to the hospital or how did it go?

Stephen 4:34
Yeah. So that the that night grandpa was in town and he was like, why is that kid going to the bathroom so much. And so my dad went to 24 hour Walmart got some ketone test strips because mom was diabetic but didn't take care of herself. So he had me pee on a ketone strip and I didn't know what it was. And he was like, Yeah, we got to take you to the doctor tomorrow. No clue, still not telling me what's going on. We went to the doctor And they said, Yeah, he needs he needs to go to the Children's Hospital. So okay, we we pack up and we go get gas and I again, they're not telling me what's going on. So we stop at the gas station and I get a coke and a candy bar. Nobody's telling me that anything we get to Children's Hospital and they finally get my blood sugar. Tell me kind of what's going on. My blood sugar was at like, 749.

Scott Benner 5:24
Wow. How long? How long? Do you remember what you're able to see was?

Stephen 5:28
No, that's, that's before I knew or they probably told my mom. But

Scott Benner 5:34
yeah, I was just wondering how long? I mean, how long did you think it was going on? Like severely?

Stephen 5:40
Um, it had at least been weeks because I knew I came home from school one day, the nurse thought I was sick. And I couldn't like, stand up straight. I was acting kind of the drunk. And my sister just kind of told me Hey, go to bed, you'll be okay. But I like physically couldn't. So I was like pacing around the house and I got a coke. Because that's what we had in the house at the time, I drank a coke and felt fine. And looking back, I could see all the signs, like put it together. But then it was just like, Oh, I just needed to drink and I was fine.

Scott Benner 6:11
So the thirst. The thirst thirst was the driving force the whole time. Yeah. And I have to ask you, soda a big part of your life now. Are we done with it?

Stephen 6:24
I am drinking a Diet Mountain Dew as we speak. But I do do a lot more water right now. And green tea.

Scott Benner 6:31
Okay. Yeah. Wow, it was just a staple in your house on Coca Cola. Yeah, round is

Stephen 6:36
just Coke was there. I mean, balm had Diet Coke, but it didn't taste the same at the time. So

Scott Benner 6:42
20 year old Diet Coke. I don't even remember it anymore. Right? I do remember it coming out and people trying it and be like, ah, like, like it like it was fire on their tongue. But some people I knew who were older or had diabetes would drink it. That's such a it's such an interesting thing. We think about soda so much differently now than even 20 years ago. So what So what's it like? I mean, you're 14 like you're right in the middle of puberty and everything else. What did they give you to manage with? Was it? Did you get needles? Or were you doing? How far go? Tony

Stephen 7:13
I got needles at a test strip and they in the hospital they IV me and brought what my hydration levels back to normal. And then they they kind of told me I got carb counting. And then they sent me on my way.

Scott Benner 7:30
How long do you think in the hospital? Um, four or five days? Okay.

Stephen 7:35
And that was not long

Scott Benner 7:36
transition to home. Do your parents help you? Or do they just leave it to you?

Stephen 7:43
For a while they helped me. But it's more like nagging Hey, test your blood sugar. Hey, take a shot. Did you take your shot this morning? I love my parents, but they were not really into the diabetes early. And that'll probably come out later in my story. Because I was uncontrolled for years. But it probably started there was it was like, Hey, take your shot. So you don't die tissue blood sugar, so you don't die. But the those things didn't sink in the so you don't die didn't sink in until probably last year.

Scott Benner 8:21
No kidding. Yeah. Wow. Okay, so the extent of the again, I don't mean to cut down on your parents either. But the extent of the the direction from them is they told us at the hospital that if you don't do this, you're gonna die. So just do it. Like, yeah, so mom's

Stephen 8:38
type two. So it was test your blood sugar, and II take your Metformin, or whatever she had at the time, but taking a shot for me and like counting carbs and finding the ratio, and it just wasn't a thing tracking numbers. It was like, Oh, it's a good number. I can eat her. Oh, it's a bad number. I should take a shot and then eat.

Scott Benner 9:02
And that was it. That just wasn't that simple. Yeah, I listen. I don't think the technology existed. And the understanding definitely didn't exist. I mean, it doesn't sound like it. I mean, your mom didn't understand her type two, you know, and to be perfectly honest, 20 years later, I don't know how many people understand their type two still. You know, it's it's becoming more and more understood, but I talked to people and they just don't seem to have the first idea about their diabetes. I think type one. You know, they can fall into one or two categories where they get it because it's so immediate, that they have to get it or they'll maybe do what a lot of people do, which is just keep their blood sugar high, but not so high that it's not going to cause them like a significant issue in the moment. And then just sort of try to, you know, hope that tomorrow never comes I guess.

Stephen 9:54
Yeah, that's that second way is is how I live or lived up until like Honestly, I found your podcast, then realized I had to get my life under control. I was gonna die.

Scott Benner 10:06
Oh no kidding. Wow. Well I'm glad you found it. That's great. Oh, what kind of E onesies did you have over the last 19 years?

Stephen 10:15
Um didn't check very much. We not going to get there regularly. Not going to the doctor got got an endocrinologist and the guy was fantastic. But he was like, You got to get this under control diet and exercise. Have a good day. Six months later, well, your diet and exercise you you're not taking care of this. Get it? Okay. So we finally does introduce me to Dexcom my first year of college. This is like the Dexcom two or whatever, the thing where you manually inserted it. And then it came with its own little thing that looked like a teardrop that beeped at you all the time.

Scott Benner 10:56
Was that was that the four? How did they? Arden Hi, I don't remember how the with the designation seven, seven plus that I don't remember the the numbering system started out oddly.

Stephen 11:09
Yeah, it was it was way early though this thing was big and clunky and loud and unwieldy during class. When when it wanted to go off. It went

Scott Benner 11:19
off. It was the it was the one where you push down the plunger?

Stephen 11:24
Yes. If you had to remove the safety and manually push down the plunger? Yep. Then pinch it and peel it off.

Scott Benner 11:31
That's the G four. And then the the receiver was like an egg shape? Almost. Yes. Arden had this. Yeah. I remember staring at that thing for a long time. Dexcom is current available? Yeah. On a wait seven plus the new gen four sensor. You know, I have my timeline? Well, I think it was seven plus then G four. If I'm gonna have to check into that. But a long time ago, you had one of the very first ones. Yeah, it

Stephen 12:01
was still experimental. Like they, it was expensive. And they were like this, this is gonna change your life. But they didn't like explain how to use it. It was like, Oh, you'll get your numbers like, Oh, great. I don't have to test anymore. But then you had to calibrate it like four times a day. And yeah, I think I think you're right. I think it's the GE for now that I'm looking at it.

Scott Benner 12:27
Yeah, right. Is a long time ago. Long time. 2006 2006. And that that was college age for you? Yes. 2006 was called. Wow, how am I with the years get past me, Stephen. Like I just when you said that was causing it. That's not possible. He's diagnosed me as 14. College would have been four years later. And then I couldn't Oh, boy. All right. Don't get old everybody. So you have that. But it's I mean, going back that far, it was better than anything that ever existed. I'll say that. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, it was absolutely amazing. In the end, I remember back then being more focused on just like the arrows of the important part. Like don't worry too much about the number test if you want the number, but the arrows are super important. Like it'll, it'll tell you if you're falling or rising. I remember using it like that. See you

Stephen 13:20
you have the wisdom beyond your years. I as the diabetic was like, Oh, my number is good. Okay, I can eat.

Scott Benner 13:28
So falling raw. So if you had an 85 blood sugar, and it was two arrows up, you'd be like, it's time for lunch? Right? Yeah,

Stephen 13:35
the arrow didn't matter to me. I didn't understand, you know, rising falling milligrams per second, whatever that calibration is. Yeah. Like, if I would have understood that I could have written a book back then and made made a lot of money.

Scott Benner 13:48
It would have been ahead of the curve, that's for sure. Yeah, well, okay. So, alright, so you have that, and you're in college. So what is college like?

Stephen 13:58
Horrible. That's all I had. I mean, that's what I kind of switched to buying insulin at Walmart. And because it was cheaper, I stopped going to the endocrinologist. I got this deck Psalm and every couple of months I'd have to call and get a refill prescription but that was the extent I'd wear it and then eventually after like a year, I got tired of wearing it. Because I'm a college student and I have to carry this thing around and you don't want to do it. I don't want to do it. So I stopped doing it.

Scott Benner 14:32
So you went back to like the Walmart insulin so you were you using a fast acting insulin and then you went then you went and use that OG Walmart stuff?

Stephen 14:42
Yeah, like I had the prescription for the the name brand, the slow acting and the long acting that you mix in the morning. And then you take the fast acting with your meals, but you know, I'm a college student mom gives me money for for my medicine. And so look, I've got all this money. I might as well get find a cheaper medicine and I can I don't understand my diabetes. Yes. Isn't that a thing?

Scott Benner 15:08
Yeah, yeah. So you see you were you had a Basal insulin, a slow acting Basal insulin, you had a fast acting mealtime and so on. But for clarity, for everyone listening, Walmart now sells, basically its NovaLogic rebranded, so you can get NovaLogic at Walmart now. But that's only in the last couple of months at that's existed prior to that. What were you getting? Like? Is it was it called Nova lint? What was it called?

Stephen 15:34
Yeah, rely on Nova Lin.

Scott Benner 15:38
And that's more like, just it's an older insulin. It's a it's like regular and mph kind of lifestyle?

Stephen 15:44
Yes, that's exactly like it has to be kept cold. It has to be kept. Like within its dates.

Scott Benner 15:51
And this was not directed to you by a physician. This was directed to you by your like, if I buy cheaper insulin, I'll have more cash left. Yes. And it didn't matter. You

Stephen 16:00
can even buy more, and it can last longer.

Scott Benner 16:04
And then oh, the mom sends more money and you don't even need to spend it on insulin the next time. Right? We get you almost the genius doing. So, so close to having that figured out. But you don't have any like direction from a doctor about switching back and forth between those answers, because they're completely different management's. No, no, you just did it.

Stephen 16:26
I just did it myself. My own college smartest person in the world itself was like, I get, I can just switch to this other thing without asking and it'll be

Scott Benner 16:35
fine. And you don't even know how it went because you weren't measuring your you weren't measuring a onesie. So what were your average blood sugar's like, like your best guess.

Stephen 16:46
Stayed the low end was probably two thirds to four days, and then ventured up. When I when I finally started going back, I'll jump ahead and then we'll come back here. And I got married and started going to the doctor again. My one C's were 1413 and then 12. Wow. So there was probably up there for the second year of college all the way until my third year of marriage. So probably good. Five years. Wow.

Scott Benner 17:13
And so when you think of your, like when I think of Arden's graph, when I think of like the low end, I think of 70. And when I think of the high real high end, I think of 180. But you know, mostly I think of 140 or 160. And when you were thinking about that, it was to 30 to 40 as your low end, and then as high as it would go to your high end.

Stephen 17:36
Yeah, like it would go off the off the chart, and I wouldn't even care be like, it'll come back down later. Or I'll go play water polo, I'll go play disc golf. It'll come down at some point, I'll take some insulin.

Scott Benner 17:50
And day after day after day, there was never one time where you're just like, I'm gonna just today I'm gonna get on top. Did you have concept that your blood sugar should be lower? No, no, not really.

Stephen 18:01
It was it was kind of keep it on the on the Palm Pilot Keep it keep it within breeding, if I took my blood sugar, and it said, Hi. My meter said hi to me. I was like, oh, I should probably take a shot.

Scott Benner 18:15
Wow. And, and you only started paying a little bit of attention because you got married somebody, like asked you to take better care of yourself, or how did that even happen?

Stephen 18:25
Oh, I kind of just knew something was off. And I'd been out of jobs with insurance. So kind of just got out of it and says so as soon as I got a job that I had insurance, I was like, Okay, I should get an endocrinologist and go talk to them and see and maybe get some guidance here. I still don't know what's going on. But maybe I should start talking to somebody did you found so we're in Memphis, Tennessee and i i Just one day just make an endocrinologist appointment. I'm like, Okay, this is, this is what I'm gonna do.

Scott Benner 19:01
Right? Was that hard? Was the hard to walk in there and be like, Listen, I've been doing this wrong for a really long time. Don't judge me just, I need to start over. Or?

Stephen 19:11
Yes. I would imagine it's very hard to walk in. Doctors are very judgy

Scott Benner 19:18
it was an embarrassed was it to the point where it was embarrassing. You just had to overcome it. Yeah, yeah.

Stephen 19:24
But then, like, I knew none of the technology. Like I told her I'd been on a Dexcom at one point and she's like, how long ago and I told her same thing. I told you I was like, I don't know how to plunger. She was like, holy cow. It's changed since then.

Scott Benner 19:39
And this is only just recently that you went and did this.

Stephen 19:44
That's about

Scott Benner 19:47
2000 12am I getting my days right

Stephen 19:52
18 Okay. 2018 2000 Because my, my daughter was born later that year,

Scott Benner 19:57
but you had that point had not heard the podcast. You just feel like I got no, I'm still I'm still flying blind. Gotcha. Okay. Go just the back for a second. Did you finish college? I did. Would you get a degree in?

Stephen 20:13
I have my degree in marketing and business management.

Scott Benner 20:17
Did you have trouble at school because your blood sugar being hired was your body used to it at that point,

Stephen 20:22
it was so used to it. Like, once I finally got my my stuff in shape, I'm now gaining a lot of weight back that I had lost because my body was extremely toxic.

Scott Benner 20:35
Yeah, no, you were if your blood sugar was that high, you must have been thin. Actually, I would imagine.

Stephen 20:40
I was. Yeah, I'm kind of jealous of how I looked, then it's kind of a body image thing right now. But

Scott Benner 20:46
well, listen, I'll say this. I know a lot of people think that insulin makes you gain weight. But calories make you gain weight. So you know, you can take your insulin in a healthy way. And, and not gain weight. It's just, you know, it's a matter of, it's a matter of like food choices, I think, you know, it's I just put up an episode about disordered eating. So it's in my head right now. It's such a weird thing to talk about, it's hard to understand how a person who has disordered eating, like how their mind even thinks about their body image and food. And it's a it's a weird world that I don't think a lot of people understand. And I'm still just, every time I have a conversation with somebody just wrapping my head around that a little farther and a little farther. Anyway, so Okay, so you're, I mean, Steven, we have to get to it. It's about time, right? Like, how do you how long? I mean, how do you get locked out what happened?

Stephen 21:46
Okay, so yeah, that's actually with this insurance I got, I got on an insulin pump, I got on the Medtronic. 770 or whatever was new at the time, and was going along life just fine. And I got caught in something with a regional manager of a company I was working for told me it was okay to do something. So he and I were doing it being the best salesman in the region. And then corporate calls, and they're like, this is this is theft, this is embezzlement. So we get, we get called in and my boss pins everything on me because we'd been using my code. So I get I get the full blunt of it, and they throw me in jail for it's not long, but it's long enough to really have an effect on you. I got thrown in jail for about a week and a half or two weeks. Okay.

Scott Benner 22:43
So then, do you think they were trying to make a point to you? Or do you think that that was just the extent of the punishment for what you did?

Stephen 22:51
Oh, they were they were trying to make a point. And an example, because I'd already agreed to pay back the part that was my fault. I'd already flipped on my boss and told them his part. And like, I had made deals. So you had it all in paperwork. I don't know why they wanted me arrested. But they, they called in the police and had me arrested and, you know, gave him back that gives you kids that gives you years and years and years of trouble. It's not just like when you get out, you're done. There's years of cleanup afterwards. It's not worth it sticks

Scott Benner 23:24
to you now. And like when you apply for jobs, like people know about it, that kind of stuff.

Stephen 23:30
I kind of tell people now just as a clarifier, but I have everything wiped, because it wasn't all my fault. And I did my community service and my time but jail is not fun. And for diabetics, it's just not because they they put me in cuffs and take me downtown. And I've got my insulin pump on me, I probably got a day's worth of insulin left in it. Go through holding an intake and I've I've still got my pump on me. They finally get me to like, take me upstairs and they're like, what's that was like, Oh, it's my insulin pump. Like you can't have that. Like, well, I got all the way through medical and all the way through intake. Like, they're like, well, we got to take it. Like but it keeps me alive again. I don't have a lot of knowledge about this. I know it gives me insulin, I take my blood sugar and I tell it how much and it gives me insulin right. But you're not I'm really dumb.

Scott Benner 24:26
You're not well, I don't think you're dumb. But you don't you don't have like a lot of like, you really don't like if you're having diabetes for as long as you did, like Did you know if they take that pump off you you're not going to have insulin and you actually would go into DKA you're aware

Stephen 24:42
that that is what I thought I knew. I knew at this point. If I went too high, I peed a lot. I drank a lot and I didn't feel good. I usually ended up throwing up and sleeping for a long time. Like I knew those things, but I hadn't made the correlation yet. Right. Wow, that those two so they They take my pump. And I was like, Well, how am I gonna get insulin? But it's like three in the morning. So they don't want to answer any questions. So go up, go to sleep. Breakfast comes the next morning and I'm like, Well, I can't eat. If I eat, it's going to drop my blood sugar up. But if I don't eat, it's a blood sugar's gonna go down, like,

Scott Benner 25:19
Well, yeah, I mean, listen, without insulin, your blood sugar was never going down. I would imagine that when you woke up that next morning, your blood sugar was probably five 600 Without basil for all those hours. Plus, you've been under a ton.

Stephen 25:32
Oh, I'll never know what it was then. But I know well, eventually, I decided I was going to eat some of the toast. Because that's all that was edible. And about two hours after after the meal, they call me and I was like, Oh, I'm getting out of here. And they're like, No, we're gonna test your blood sugar. Gonna give you a shot. I was like, Okay,

Scott Benner 25:52
how long? How long had it been since they took the pump off you at that point?

Stephen 25:57
3am to? Let's call it 9am Breakfast is at eight. Okay. 930. And so my blood sugar's at 635

Scott Benner 26:08
Yeah, well, my guess was right on. Um, so yeah, I'm so proud of myself. That's after a piece of toast. So it's true. I didn't know about the toast to my guests. Alright, Fair's fair. I was hard.

Stephen 26:19
And then they're like, Well, it's a sliding scale. We're just gonna give you this much insulin. I was like, Well, how do you know? I knew a little enough that my body. I'm I'm bigger guy. So I am a little tight to like my mom a little insulin resistant. I was like, how do you know that's going to be enough? They're like, well, this is just what we do. It's a sliding scale. There's no special treatments, though. Just this is what we this is what we did or thrown your throw with that point.

Scott Benner 26:47
So then you're there for how long? In how long have you in

Stephen 26:52
jail? That's the that's the week that's a week and a half of my life. 10 day about a 10 day constantly. There's see it's wake up breakfast, two hours later, insulin. There's there's a gym time. Then back for lunch time, two hours, insulin has some free time, two hours insulin.

Scott Benner 27:12
What are you at that point?

Stephen 27:14
Um, since just a short time 18 My daughter's three. I'm, I'm 3031

Scott Benner 27:25
by 31. So 2416 You've had diabetes for like, 17 years at that point. And you functionally don't really understand it still.

Stephen 27:36
Yeah, I still don't understand the ramifications at that point

Scott Benner 27:39
of any of your decisions, how they could impact your, your health or your life, your without, like knowledge of still, and you've missed doctors and endocrinologist and lived your life never looked online?

Stephen 27:52
No, not something I was super interested in. I'm gonna say it was like a constant state of denial for for 17 years? I don't know.

Scott Benner 28:02
No, I mean, I, I've heard other people say similar things. So I'm not surprised by that at all. So every day, 10 days, sliding scale. If you were to stay there for 20 days, 30 days, 10 years, this is how they would have managed you.

Stephen 28:20
Yeah, this is this is where some of those stories from my friends who actually work in other jails. They said there there are some inmates that they're allowed to bring their own insulin, their parents or their family can bring their insulin and they can be given doctor's orders. And if you're you're isolated in the medical wing, you can have your pump. But they watch you you're in isolation, because they've had people try to fully dump their pump into their system

Scott Benner 28:48
to kill cells. Yeah, yeah. So

Stephen 28:51
there's all these stories and they're like, well, they don't train us. They just, they just tell you if the blood sugar is this number, you give this much insulin.

Scott Benner 29:00
So So basically, what you're telling me is that going to jail is almost a forfeiture. A fourth. Where'd that word go? For Fitch? forfeiture forfeiture, I had a right thing. I set it right and I tricked myself. It's a it's just a release of of your medical care. Yeah, you're just you're,

Stephen 29:21
you're putting all your care into what what would be the equivalent of a middle school nurse. And I'm not knocking them but they don't know the complexities of, you know, my ratio is Don't freak out. Mine's one to four right now. Yeah, but the guy next to me might be you know, 118

Scott Benner 29:39
Yeah, you say Don't freak out because you're just one of the four. Yeah, artists. I think it's artists is one to four and a half. Really? Yeah.

Stephen 29:47
I thought I was I thought I was super.

Scott Benner 29:50
Now we just manage it probably differently. Like Arden's Basil is pretty stable at one. One number her Basil is like one unit one point 1.9 in that range. And then we do a lot of the management side with the meal insulin.

Stephen 30:09
I'm at 1.33 right now and carb ratio 1.1 to five,

Scott Benner 30:14
one to five 1.31 to five. That doesn't sound crazy.

Stephen 30:18
That's not it. I thought it was worse than that.

Scott Benner 30:20
Yeah, I don't even understand the concept of worse. You just you have a feeling in your head that the more insulin you use the worst you're doing. Yes. Yeah, I don't think that's right. Steven, I think you use the amount of insulin you need. That would be a I try to let go of that thought if I was you, okay. You know, I mean, that's just not I hear that so much from adults. About You know, I'm doing something wrong. I'm using too much insulin or you know, that kind of stuff. And you got to meet the need. Your body has a need for insulin. You're meeting it. That's it. I mean, I don't know your diet. I'm sure there's things that everybody could you know, eliminate from their day to day eating. That would make it easier. But, you know,

Stephen 30:59
if, if, if the diet is a person, I am probably the devil. I work. I'm a manager at a pizza restaurant.

Scott Benner 31:09
Oh my god. So a lot of days.

Stephen 31:11
I eat a lot of pizza.

Scott Benner 31:14
Do they have cheese steaks there? Could you have that without the roll? Maybe? They don't. Wow. You poor people who don't live in the Northeast. The pizza place? Listen, if you move here, your pizza place is gonna have cheese steaks, spaghetti, meatballs, pizza. You know, different pastas, salad, garlic knots. chicken parm, that kind of stuff. You guys got to, you know, I don't want to over on the place. But we're so you don't know what pizza is? It's not your fault. But I mean, a couple of states though. But for the most part, you guys are just, I mean, you're living like monsters with your pizza. So yeah, we don't want you to eat too much pizza. That how do we get around that? Could I get you to snack on the cheese and the sausage? Maybe?

Stephen 32:00
Oh, I do the pepperoni and the salads. I'll take some of our fajita chicken heated up and put it on a romaine. That's nice. I do eat salads. It's just not as prevalent. But it's

Scott Benner 32:13
also I'm guessing and tell me if I'm wrong. But it's a financial thing. You work there. You're getting the pizza cheaper or for free. And it's a it's a value to eat it like fine. Yes. Yeah, I would imagine

Stephen 32:24
and I can bring it home. If I don't eat my whole large pizza. I'm a manager. I can bring it home.

Scott Benner 32:30
And then it's still it's money saved. Right? Yeah. Gosh, all right. Well, Steven, we gotta We gotta do something about that, too. But let's find out. Well, I do I do want to ask first. Do you are you managing a pizza place now? Because the legal troubles kind of lead you in that direction? Because it sounds like before you were doing sales or something?

Stephen 32:51
Yeah. I was doing sales and firearms. And I was actually very good at it. But you can't sell guns with a felony. So yes, currently the job at the pizza place started as as I had this fella, Dr. My back. And then while I was getting it expunged, I kind of just moved up and knew the business. I've got a business management degree. I was like, well, I might as well

Scott Benner 33:19
use it. You're good at running the restaurant. Right? Yeah,

Stephen 33:22
I'm good. It's an easy business. I've got a couple of side things I do. I own another business doing laser engraving on firearms and knives and stuff, but it hasn't taken off. So I just kind of stayed at the pizza place. And it's a wonderful place. It's not what I wanted to do with my life. Hey,

Scott Benner 33:43
strong possibility for your title. You can't sell firearms with a felony. I'll tell you what, Steven, you're in the wrong secondary business, you should be making T shirts and say that because that's at least funny.

Stephen 33:59
I'll prove that. Just it's,

Scott Benner 34:01
it's an obvious thing. So okay, so you're, you're rolling along? You've I mean, it's, uh, I mean, you had a lot happened to you. I mean, if I'm looking at you from the outside in, you got zero chance when you're diagnosed. I mean, if your mom's not managing your own type two, or understanding it, and then come, nobody takes any time to figure out the type one you're not getting that kind of information from doctors, either. They're telling you things like diet and exercise. See in six months. Thanks. It's great. Yeah, you know, you don't you don't have a functional understanding of diabetes, right, or how insulin works or even what your goal should be. Right? It I mean, it's it's a deep hole, you're dug into a deep deep hole and and to be expected to get out of it on your own. I'll tell you right now, if I was your attorney, I would argue that your blood sugar was so high that you weren't in your right mind. And I probably would have got you out of jail on that one. You know, because you're altered and you don't even know it you know your brain is not is not at its best when your blood sugar's highlight that for such a long time. I'm wondering when you find the podcast is that about a year ago now?

Stephen 35:18
Yeah. So a lady at church had her daughter diagnosed with diabetes. And so we just kind of connected. And she's like, Well, you gotta listen to this podcast. And I was like, Yeah, I'm okay. I'll, I'll look into it. I, you know, roll my eyes quietly. And then the next day, I'm like, Whoa, juicebox I'll look it up. And I started listening. And it was it was the first episode you did with Arden, where she was there. And I was like, Okay, this is kind of entertaining. And I started going backwards.

Scott Benner 35:56
Wait, you you heard meet Arden first? Yes. Uh, you haven't even like, you haven't been listening for that long at all. That might have only been like six months ago, right. Wow.

Stephen 36:12
I probably have it in my app, the first one I listened to I can look through. But then I went from there and just went back to the beginning. I mean, I went and started looking for your blog and looking for I was like this guy. He's, he's telling me things I didn't know he's telling me things. I'm not sure the doctors know.

Scott Benner 36:35
Wow, Steven, I got it. So first, let me tell you that Arden's episode called Meet Arden is episode 517. It went up on August 2, that's maybe six months ago. Wow. Not Not long at all. So did Arden save you? Like did her just like you know, if I said she'd be like,

Stephen 37:01
but I mean, I You could tell her that it was it was the entertainment. And then there was enough value in it that it made me go backwards. And just a few episodes, and I joined the Facebook group. And then after that, started asking questions and seeing people's numbers, and I was like, I gotta get back on the Dexcom. And good for you,

Scott Benner 37:22
man. You got a Dexcom G six now? Yes. Good for you. Oh, that's excellent. Are you pumping? Are you still shooting?

Stephen 37:29
I'm pumping. T slim.

Scott Benner 37:33
Are you I want to do what are you using control? IQ? I am good for you. It seriously, is your agency in the 60s Now are you? Where are you at?

Stephen 37:44
Ooh, you're close. Um, it's 7.43 weeks ago. Congratulations. That's and it was it was 7.16 months before that. And eight only went up because of the holidays. And I? Yeah,

Scott Benner 37:58
Steven, I tell you something very unexpected. Go for it. I feel like I'm gonna cry.

Stephen 38:04
I told myself if I made it through this without crying it was gonna be a thing. Because now if we jump back to that, right before then that episode, is when I almost died,

Scott Benner 38:17
though. Okay, hold on. I didn't mean to skip that guy.

Stephen 38:22
Before I found your podcast like right before. We're living where we're living now. And I have to go to work early in the morning I wake up. And I feel weird, but it's not like I don't know. It's not out of norm. I think it's just early morning, I go into my daughter's room. And I start telling her, Hey, have a good day. I'm gonna go to work. Be good for mommy. And this is all secondhand afterwards, kind of. I don't really know what I'm saying. My wife is telling me this story later. She said you weren't saying those things you were blabbering and unco here aren't and you weren't saying words. And Alyssa, my daughter was yelling for mom. She's like, What is Daddy saying? He's, he's going crazy. It was got out. You know, apparently I muttered the word work. And I tried to stand up and my wife pushes me down. And she's like, No, you're not going anywhere. And calls my mom and my parents and are really involved now, by the way, but he calls my mom and she's like, what, what do I do and she's like, test his blood sugar. And she finds a test kit somewhere in the house. And you know, I'm trying to leave for work. She pushes me down again and gets my blood sugar. I'm at 21 Oh, gosh. And she gets some honey under my tongue. And I was like, No, I gotta go to work and she's like, You don't know what's going on. You got to sit

Scott Benner 39:55
down. Right, right. We go back then Stephen. You No,

Stephen 40:00
yeah, yeah. So what happened was I got up in the middle of the night because I was feeling weird. I tested my blood sugar. And when I look at the history, it was 35. And without even thinking, I went, Oh, I'll be fine. And I fell back asleep.

Scott Benner 40:15
Wow. You weren't fine already. Yeah. And you slept all night and a blood sugar like that low?

Stephen 40:22
I think I think it was like 4am When I woke up at 35 and then I had to be to work I believe for work or I'm 630 to two hours later, is

Scott Benner 40:33
this on the control IQ?

Stephen 40:35
No, um, this is like right before literally right before I get the Dexcom in the pump. Okay, this was the final straw that it was like I'm hypoglycemic, unaware and I need something to wake me up. Wow, I'm like, I'm like shaking now.

Scott Benner 40:54
Wow, that's, that's Gosh, you're lucky

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Stephen 43:55
I was on my way to death's door.

Scott Benner 43:57
Yeah. You didn't have a seizure though. No. Well,

Stephen 44:01
not that I could recognize. It's probably the closest thing I've understood. Because most of my, my experience had been high. It was pee a lot. Drink a lot throw up, take a warm shower, drink a lot of water and take a nap and be fine.

Scott Benner 44:16
Your life has changed completely in the last six months, hasn't

Stephen 44:18
it? Oh, yeah, come? Absolutely.

Scott Benner 44:21
If I if I even got you on here a year ago. And I said tell me about your diabetes. You wouldn't even know to tell the stories that you've told. No, no, you would just be like I like Can you can you put into words what you would have said a year ago about diabetes. Like before you knew all this and knew to pay attention to what you're paying attention paying attention to now, if I said to you, oh, you have diabetes. What's that? Like? What would you have said

Stephen 44:47
i i Sometimes test my blood sugar. I take a daily shot every morning and I eat when I want and I try to count and shoot for it.

Scott Benner 44:56
That's it. That's the That's it?

Stephen 44:58
No Wow. And look, looking back. It's the worst thing in the world. And I, I would really rather my episode be a cautionary tale.

Scott Benner 45:08
Oh, I think like Steven, don't

Stephen 45:09
worry education.

Scott Benner 45:10
Oh, don't worry, I think you're covering all the bases on that one I think people are right now like I need to understand when something works, and I definitely don't want to do whatever got Stephen thrown in jail. So which by the way I know you probably can't talk about but you've teased around that enough. It's fascinating that it's about guns and sales. I'm i i So

Stephen 45:29
we were we were giving unapproved discounts for guns, which turns into embezzlement. And because it was firearms having to deal with the ATF, it turns into a felony even for as low as $10. So the amount is unimportant, it was embezzlement of a federally controlled firearm, so it was a felony.

Scott Benner 45:51
Wow. So so if you said, I know nothing about guns, even you know, I've never shot a gun.

Stephen 45:56
Oh, you should come down to the south state. So I'll let you shoot someone. Let's

Scott Benner 46:00
make sure your budget is nice and stable, and then I'll come so what 114

Stephen 46:04
right now are perfect. There

Scott Benner 46:06
we go. Um, and yeah, I, I live in New Jersey. So it's even hard to find like a range to even like even if you wanted to just learn how to shoot a firearm like it's hard to do around here. I think getting a license in New Jersey is next to impossible.

Stephen 46:22
It's one of the it's one of the harder ones. from Illinois, New York, California and New Jersey. Yeah, they're all the top.

Scott Benner 46:30
They're the one offenders the difficult. Yeah. So because I've I've said in the past to my wife, I was like, you know, what would it hurt if we went to a range and learned how to shoot a handgun, right? They might be like, a nice experience, like fun, you know? And then we looked into it. I was like, I can't find anywhere to even do this. So we just kind of let it go strange because I have a lot of friends who are cops. So I think I am the only one. But

Stephen 46:54
usually you can go to a cops range. You should ask them. We can talk later if you want to.

Scott Benner 46:59
That's interesting. So okay, so yeah, so back to the the part where you're a cautionary tale you definitely are. Don't worry. You're doing your part today for everybody. But I'm just like, I'm fascinated that you're like a new diabetic. Really? Yeah, right now. So you had a scare. And then that scare made you like, say, I got to pull myself together here a little bit.

Stephen 47:22
Yeah, like, I've got two kids now this. I literally could have died in my daughter's bed just trying to tell her Hey, have a good day. I have to go to work.

Scott Benner 47:33
And that that really is my point. Is that That's That's it? Right. That's the tipping point. It wasn't. That was yeah, it was very it was having kids. Yeah, yeah. That you feel very responsible towards. Yeah. And that pushed you through the the, what did you call it earlier? The denial about diabetes?

Stephen 47:57
Yeah, it was this. This is not going away. I mean, I've seen the trials for possible solutions, but until those become, you know, prevalent, this, this is my life and I have to take control of it. It can't just wait.

Scott Benner 48:16
Were you waiting for somebody to cure it? Yeah. You just thought it was gonna happen and then this would be over? Yeah,

Stephen 48:22
I you know, pill a shot. Even a once daily shot. You know, I took I took some insulin at one point that it was like, it's pre mixed. You take this and just go about your day.

Scott Benner 48:37
Right. Regular an MPH. Yeah. Yeah.

Stephen 48:40
I don't even remember anything about it. It was super thick. It was clear and it came in a grey pen. I don't know what your day was like you took it once a day.

Scott Benner 48:50
It's interesting. I don't even know what that is.

Stephen 48:54
It could have been lied to it. I could have not understood it. I mean, let's let's be honest, I didn't understand a lot of things. He was

Scott Benner 49:00
like, I don't know. I was just injected. Do you have you had any like clarity moments in the last six months where you think to yourself about like, what might come from the years of not keeping your blood sugar down?

Stephen 49:15
Yeah, well, um, yeah. Another cautionary tale my my right eye is almost completely fuzzy. I have I've had laser surgery on both of my eyes now. And not like the good time where they're fixing it the kind where they shoot a laser into your eye to try to stop it from bleeding. My right eye was completely filled with blood because the retina was bleeding from high blood sugars. And so now that I've got it down under control to seven 7.1 to 7.4 We're gonna go in and I get to get shots in my eye each. Two months. Dude, I

Scott Benner 49:56
hear they I hear they work and I hear oddly they don't hurt If

Stephen 50:01
that's what he's trying to tell me, and I was ready to do it yesterday, and he was like, Well, you got to have somebody here with you to drive your home. I was like, Ah, I have to wait till next Monday.

Scott Benner 50:10
Well, I hope that brings you some comfort. I've spoken to enough people that say that it doesn't hurt. So I think you just have to, like, you have to stare at something and you can't move your eye. And that's pretty much the end of it. So I mean, it's weird to think of, but I hope you've get some corrective relief from it. I mean, has has it at least stopped? Like, oh, yeah, as the decline stops since you got your blood sugar.

Stephen 50:34
Yes, he's noticed a lot of great improvement. You know, even from that. A year ago, where I was at a nine point something now down to a seven. He's like, you can you can see the difference. No pun intended.

Scott Benner 50:47
No, no, no. Good for you. That's excellent. When your blood sugar's came down, did you experience dizziness at higher numbers than you would now today? Yeah.

Stephen 50:59
Um, so I'm sitting down at 113 right now, and I'm kind of feeling okay. But anytime like, 70. I start to get nervous, and I can feel it. You can feel low at 70 at 70. And they're like,

Scott Benner 51:15
as you were changing your your methods. Were you feeling low at like high numbers? Like, where did you use to feel low? Do you or did you never get low enough to find out?

Stephen 51:26
I never when it was uncontrolled. I never got low enough to, like found out. I guess I didn't have that happen. Okay. No, no, I just now it's 70 is where I start to feel it.

Scott Benner 51:40
Did you have any problems from coming down? Like you? How quickly did you come down from like, 1214 to 987? Did it take months?

Stephen 51:50
It's probably been a year, when I when I first got kind of like on this kick. Like to kind of start getting it under control. I got the endocrinologist appointment. And she was like it's at 12.8, right. And then I was like, Okay, we need to, I bought this test kit that came with automatic renewal of test strips. So it's like you have no excuse not to test your blood sugar daily. So I was doing that. And I noticed every time I was testing five times a day, like I was doing a way better job keeping my my numbers closer to 120 130, even 200. But when I'd had when I stopped for a day, or I missed a meal or something like that my blood sugar would just shoot up. Yeah, 300 400 500 You need the data. And that's when they were like, do you need the Dexcom? I was like, Okay, let's do the Dexcom. And then I was like, Well, I was on this Medtronic pump. What about that? And they're like, oh, there's better things now.

Scott Benner 52:50
And they gave me the control IQ. Yeah, we

Stephen 52:53
she gave me the options. And at that point, the Omnipod. Five wasn't out, which has now been released. And I was like, Well, I want this thing that will stop pumping if I start to go low, because that's my problem. Yeah.

Scott Benner 53:05
So you went from around a year ago from like, I got to do something. And testing then testing got you better. You went from 12. Eight to where do you think you went again? The next time you not 9898? That's great. And then you add CGM and a pump. And then where do you get to? Where do you think you're at when you find the podcast? That was that was probably at the nine. The Nines. Okay. And now you're just over seven? Yeah. Oh, you're gonna be in the 60s next time.

Stephen 53:38
I'm really hoping so my goal was 7.0 flat. But a 9.9 would be I might have a piece of cake.

Scott Benner 53:46
Yeah, it's funny. You just said 9.9. But you meant 6.0 I did. You were like, you're like, let's be honest. It's gonna be nine by nine. But no, you're you're onto it now like you. So what did you see? Even Can I ask? What the? I'm really genuinely interested. I'm not just I'm not fluffing myself here, which I think is a phrase I shouldn't use in front of children. But that's not the point. I couldn't think I couldn't think of a clean way to say anyway. Let's just get past that. I really want to know what you heard. And what thoughts moved you towards a seven a one see, like, what did the podcasts do for you? The

Stephen 54:36
ones I was on the Dexcom at one point and I don't know whatever said I've listened to. I'm gonna say 1000s of it just as a joke, but I've listened to hundreds of your episodes. So there was one you're talking about. I give the insulin and then you wait till the arrow goes down to start eating. Okay, I had never done that. Like I had preached I was like, Oh, I'm gonna eat a potato. That's, you know, five units of insulin. So I take five units and eat the insulin. I never thought you know, 30 minutes and 40 minutes ahead, you wait for it to start going down and then you counteract your insulin with food. I thought you always use the insulin to kind of beat your food down at the end.

Scott Benner 55:25
Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. You thought of it. Like, we'll set the whole house on fire, then I'll call a fire truck and try to put it out. Not what if we wet the house before we tried to let it on fire? Right. Yeah. Okay. And that

Stephen 55:39
insulin was being used as a defense instead of an offense. And now it's being used as an offense instead of defense. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 55:45
Oh, that's excellent. It was that alone enough to do this.

Stephen 55:49
That was, that was a big part of it was I've now figured out I have to take my insulin and I have to hit it in my pump about 45 to 50 minutes before I want to eat

Scott Benner 55:59
No kidding.

Stephen 56:00
Yeah, I'm, I'm that resistant. Now. I guess you said my ratios aren't bad. But I felt like I was using a lot of insulin for just a few pieces of pizza.

Scott Benner 56:13
Well, let me let me say this then let's talk about your management for half a second. Overnight, right, because you might have there might be room in your basil here. So overnight, where do you sit stable?

Stephen 56:28
It it's been gliding. My doctor didn't like me gliding at 90.

Scott Benner 56:36
So don't worry about the dog. Tell your doctor to shut up 90.

Stephen 56:40
I actually did. She was like us. Set your your Basal numbers pretty aggressive. I didn't tell you to do that. I was like, Yeah, I felt I was just a little high during the day. And so I just kind of upped it. Um, but today I'm sitting stable from midnight I about crashed last night. So I took half a swig of coke and went to bed. But from from then, till now I have been averaged 115.

Scott Benner 57:13
Yeah, I mean, I don't know that you can. I mean, on control, like you that's right about it. Its target with its target, like 112 and a half. So you're doing great, honestly. I mean, I was gonna say like, maybe Oh, you're showing me Hold on a second. Dude, your lines nice. Yeah. Now you're doing wonderful time and range. So what's your range? That? 70 To 180 70 to 180? You're in range. When you're out of range? Are you mostly lower high?

Stephen 57:44
Mostly high?

Scott Benner 57:46
Yeah, then maybe? Well,

Stephen 57:50
my correction factor is one to 25 card ratio is one to five.

Scott Benner 57:54
I wonder if maybe you're right, man, maybe you maybe you are a little insulin resistant. From all the years of beating yourself up. I wonder if there's not an oral medication that you could use along with something? Or? I don't know, you got to get a good doctor to really start talking about stuff like that, though. Yeah, I don't know that there's not more for you there. Because if you're sitting nice and stable in that 115 range overnight, mostly in the control IQs keeping you in that space. You know, I don't know if going heavier with your basil would help anything. Because if you had a little more basil, you might need a little less than your meal. Insulin is the only way he was thinking to so you see spikes after food. Mostly, and we

Stephen 58:41
we've recently adjusted the the carb ratio on food. Well,

Scott Benner 58:47
I mean, I'm listen, I think the common sense thing here is to like eliminate pizza from your diet from being overly honest. So

Stephen 58:54
what I can't hear you,

Scott Benner 58:56
this thing's not working. Yeah, I mean, honestly, if you're worried about the amount of insulin you're taking, I mean, you could you could try to cut down some of those tougher foods. You know, pizza is a good example. But higher glycemic load stuff, stuff that keeps you stuff that makes you spike and keeps you up. I think if you even if you eliminate it, like a couple of meals a week, you might see a big difference.

Stephen 59:25
That that's probably my next thing I need to get super educated on and I need to listen to more of those on like, the proteins and things like because I was like if I switched to like keto, or I forget what it was where it was the all you all you eat is protein.

Scott Benner 59:42
Yeah, like a like a low carb situation of Yeah, I switched

Stephen 59:45
to that, like how does that affect my blood sugar? Because I was like, I could just eat a bunch of chicken patties. Chicken breasts,

Scott Benner 59:51
and I don't want your life. I mean, listen, your life doesn't need to be like that. You don't I mean, like, have you been through the protests? Yes. Yeah, you hit the glycemic, low glycemic index one.

Stephen 1:00:03
I actually think that's that's one I haven't listened to, but it's coming up try.

Scott Benner 1:00:08
Try that one that I'll talk more about food and their impacts. And then I think you're right. There's a couple of episodes about fat and protein, there's a pro tip about it. There's a defining diabetes if you just want like a basic understanding of it, and then there's an episode called bolusing for fat. I think it's what it's called. Well, you think I would know almost, you put me into your show, not mine. I'm just telling you that I'm six months ahead of all of you. I don't know. I don't know where I don't know how you do it. Yeah. I'm in my head and six different places. Hold on a second fat. I just searched for fat and got 600 responses. So that's probably not right. bolusing insulin for fat episode 471. So, yeah, I think you just start, start learning more. I mean, you've made such an incredible improvement in such a short amount of time. First of all, I mean, congratulations. It's, it's spectacular. You must feel like a different person. Yeah. No.

Stephen 1:01:15
Yeah. It's fantastic. It did think it was just this this lady at church who was just like, oh, you should just offhandedly. You should listen to this guy.

Scott Benner 1:01:24
No kidding. You know her first name. Yes. Would you say it or no? Allison? Allison, look at you did such a nice thing for Steven. Wonderful. Tennessee, huh?

Stephen 1:01:37
That's where I was. I'm not there anymore. I'm

Scott Benner 1:01:39
not there anymore. Okay. I'm looking for a place. Steven, I need a I need a place to retire. Low humidity. Not too much snow. Where's the employee stealing? Does anyone know?

Stephen 1:01:51
My, my father in law had picked in between a couple longitudes that he couldn't move out of for retirement that met all those criteria. There's like a circle around the globe. Really? He's Yeah, he's he's the low low humidity, no snow. There's gotta be a lake. Like he's, he's got very specific goals for retirement.

Scott Benner 1:02:15
I like the way he's thinking. I'll look at it more like that. Forget, I'm thinking states, I should be thinking longitude and latitude. You're telling me right?

Stephen 1:02:22
Because like, you're gonna get a similar weather in Florida on the same latitude. Longitude as you're gonna get in Texas. Wow, that's all about where you want to be.

Scott Benner 1:02:33
You've taught me I've I've just I've been thinking about this backwards. Yeah. All right. Let's give me something new. I'm not there yet. I'm still reasonably young. I mean, ish. I don't know, man. I don't feel that young. You know what I mean?

Stephen 1:02:47
You look younger than me. I'll tell you that.

Scott Benner 1:02:49
Well, keep my fingers crossed.

Stephen 1:02:53
diabetes will do that, too. Yeah. Well, listen

Scott Benner 1:02:55
the way you do it. It does.

Stephen 1:02:59
Put a parental warning on this episode.

Scott Benner 1:03:02
Oh, this is an after dark for sure. And not because of the jail by the way, the jail thing is really nothing. It's the it's more of just the you're you're being very honest about living with diabetes and not understanding it, which I really appreciate. And I think so to the people listening. But it could be shot me I could be shocking to some people

Stephen 1:03:20
there. The DKA on a plane episode. That that was it. That was the one that just broke me down into tears. And I couldn't go on living the way I was.

Scott Benner 1:03:35
No kidding. That that was

Stephen 1:03:37
I remember, I was sitting in a car and it came on. And I listened to it. In a parking lot at a Kroger I finished it because I couldn't drive home.

Scott Benner 1:03:48
Hmm. Episode 478 For people wondering, DK or a mother bringing her daughter. Oh, you're gonna cry even if you okay. I'm sorry. It was really upsetting to you, huh? Yeah, yeah. Dude, I I heard Listen, when she was telling me the story. You got it. I knew it. I knew it worked out. Okay. And it was frightening. The way she told it. Absolutely frightening. What about it got to you. Are you able to tell me?

Stephen 1:04:20
Um, that that could be my kid. Oh, okay. Like, I'm, I'm diabetic. And so, you know, some people say or at least, when I started it was like, Oh, it skips a generation. It was like But my mom's type two. I'm type one grandma, grandpa granddad. One of them was was some sort of diabetic so and obviously, there isn't hard and fast rules. So my kid my kid could have diabetes, and that could be me.

Scott Benner 1:04:49
Yeah. Well, first of all, I think anybody could have diabetes and I it skips a generation does not sound very scientific to me and it never has. So youth is so Am I Am I to understand that you needed to understand diabetes better in case your kids got it? Yes. And you didn't want to not be there for your children as well? Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm glad it helped you. It sounds like it. Sounds like it shocked us right in the place. You were like, dammit, via CGM and some needles. Yeah, I gotta. I gotta get working here.

Stephen 1:05:24
I, I have I have the kit from a shout out for your your trial net. If there's still a sponsor kit from them. Did

Scott Benner 1:05:34
you? Yeah. When you send it back in I, I get credit for that. That's okay.

Stephen 1:05:39
Yeah. Then I'll do that. I won't just sit on the box.

Scott Benner 1:05:43
Yeah, well, that, you know, it's funny, when we were talking about doing it together, they're like, the biggest problem we have is getting people to return them. And I was like, Okay, so my numbers, it doesn't count to my number unless you send it back.

Stephen 1:05:54
It's, it's the fear of the answer. I've, I've got the question. Do I want to know the answer? Knowing what I know now and knowing what I've learned in the past year? Do? Do I want to know and worry about it? Or do I want to just let it happen? I think that's

Scott Benner 1:06:09
Are you worrying about it anyway? Yes. Well, then what's more than I'd rather know. I mean, unless you're living in like lala land on it, then. I don't see what the argument is. You're worrying one way or the other? Who cares what you're worrying about? It still worries me

Stephen 1:06:24
making sense that

Scott Benner 1:06:27
even I, you cut me off when I said no pizza. And now here with common sense.

Stephen 1:06:32
No, I like that. You're right. And sometimes, you know, I'm just oppositional defiant. I need somebody to just make me realize you're right.

Scott Benner 1:06:42
You're interesting, because I don't think you're I don't think that you are. What do I want to say? I feel like if God, there's no nice way to say this, I will just say different ways. I think if somebody would have adopted you, you would have had a different life. I don't know if it's where you grew up? Or how you grew up? Or like, what about is right, but the shift you made from not knowing to understanding and talking to you today, like you're a bright person. And you you get all this, but no one introduced it to you. You don't I mean,

Stephen 1:07:26
and I'm a gamer. So keep the keep the numbers between the lines is a game.

Scott Benner 1:07:31
And it's easy for you now that you understand that that's

Stephen 1:07:34
understand the rules, understand the purpose, and then execute goal. That interesting.

Scott Benner 1:07:42
Wow, did you you're well on your way. I mean, it sounds like it sounds like nothing but good things are ahead of you is really wonderful. Seriously, I'm happy for you. What does your wife say about it all? Um,

Stephen 1:07:56
we don't. She doesn't. We don't talk about it very much.

Scott Benner 1:07:59
Is that you're doing?

Stephen 1:08:02
I don't know. I would if she she asked, but you know, she doesn't listen to podcast. So I can say there's, in our years of marriage, she's got up to check on me. Overnight, either a lower high, maybe once or twice.

Scott Benner 1:08:19
You're you aren't paying attention to it. How would she know to pay attention?

Stephen 1:08:22
Right. I mean, but when you go out to the couch and swig three Cokes, and then pass out, you know, something's

Scott Benner 1:08:29
going on. Thanks.

Stephen 1:08:31
Somebody would come poke you and be like, Hey,

Scott Benner 1:08:32
are you okay? Dude, I would think having sex with you back then would have made her blood sugar high. Do you think it was really? I don't know if you can get a contact high from blood sugars. But if you could you were well on your way to proving it.

Stephen 1:08:49
That goes with all the doctors information I had early.

Scott Benner 1:08:53
Yeah, yeah. I don't think that's solid medical advice. But I just said they're

Stephen 1:08:57
out there. So so if somebody has low blood sugar, all you've got to do is and we're done,

Scott Benner 1:09:02
grab a hold of them. But that's it. I'll just do it. Is there anything that we haven't talked about that you wanted to?

Stephen 1:09:11
Know? did? Did anybody post any questions about the JL?

Scott Benner 1:09:16
Facebook group? I don't know if they did or not actually. Do you think do you have some?

Stephen 1:09:21
No. I think when we started talking about this, six months ago, I posted something but I don't think anybody responded

Scott Benner 1:09:29
to it. Yeah, it's it's not something that I think a lot of people have experienced with. It's funny to, you know, not funny, but it actually makes sense. I have had four people set up to be on this program so far in over the years who have been imprisoned like, like, I'm not listening. I wouldn't want to be in jail for 10 days. Don't get me wrong, but I'm talking about people have been in prison for years, right with type one. And they've been, they've contacted me. They've said they want to do it, and then they get to some level of scheduling. And then they bail eventually, most often, I either hear parole issues, like they don't want to say anything and get themselves in trouble. Or they just kind of ghost me after a while. But I've never successfully gotten someone all the way to recording who's been in prison for many years. And I buttons on completely expunged

Stephen 1:10:20
so you can you can try to look it up. You won't find

Scott Benner 1:10:23
it. I can't find you anywhere. Yeah, no. Wow. Well, good for you. That's excellent, too. I mean, you deserve a second chance. I mean, I believe you went you're saying you kind of got LED wrong by a by a co worker. But uh, you know, nobody. I mean, listen, I'm assuming you weren't selling guns, the Contras. Right. You were you were basically given people off a little money like a discount on the on the gun, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Stephen 1:10:49
Like there's, there's a regulated price they have to be we were giving a discount. lower than that regulated price.

Scott Benner 1:10:57
People hear that you you have cheaper guns, and then you do a lot of sales because of it. Even if they're only saving a few bucks. It's money saved and it gets right. And people know. Yeah, that's interesting. Do you own guns? Yes. Are you allowed to steal?

Stephen 1:11:10
Yes, I've since the expungement. I brought a couple of suppressors, to which take fingerprints and background checks. So I'm fully cleared out and everything

Scott Benner 1:11:20
you're back to good. Yeah, yeah. Does your wife shoot?

Stephen 1:11:25
No, no, she she grew up doing it. And her dad likes it. That's why he and I kind of connect and then she's just like, I don't want to do it. Okay. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:11:34
I gotcha. I try to, I'm sure my wife tries to stay away from me, too. I don't see her. When I have when I have hobbies. I don't see her like, Oh, I'll come. I'm more see a look on her face. Like, oh, he's leaving. Super exciting. Scott's going away for the afternoon. Yeah. Well, man, listen, I don't know what you're gonna do about trial on that, in my opinion, if you know, then, you know, then you can look out for things. You know, they do have protocols now that are having a lot of success holding off diagnosis for, you know, for for quite some time. If they find out soon enough, that might be a good enough reason to find out. Just so that you, you know, you can be aware might be a good enough reason to find out. And if you're going to worry about it anyway, at least your worries should do some good. I think that I think that your next steps might be to look harder at your nutrition. You know, for yourself personally. And maybe, maybe you won't need to go to more and more insulin to get that agency down farther and farther. And maybe you'll be able to impact it that way. You know what I mean? That I say go for a walk. And again, congratulations, you have to throw yourself a big, big party. Man. You did something? You did something that not a lot of people do. They seriously Mendy you pulled yourself out of a deep hole. And you did it by yourself is pretty, pretty goddamn impressive.

Stephen 1:13:01
Again, I don't want to rag on my parents and now that my dad's like, seeing everything he's like, I should have been involved. Why wasn't I involved? I was like, You were busy. You were at work. I also

Scott Benner 1:13:14
didn't know either, right? And your mom, I'm gonna guess this, your mom's got type two, it doesn't seem like a big deal, right? Because they don't really do anything. So there's no way to think of it as a big deal. He IT people don't even know the difference between type one type two. It's just not something they understand. Like, in your dad's mind, I bet you had the insulin kind of diabetes and your mom had the pill kind of diabetes. You know, and it's just not I mean, if you don't know you don't know, someone needs to step up. If some a doctor needs to step up and put it into perspective for you, and if you don't understand it, they should do it again and again and again until you get it not just say wow, you're not trying hard enough. You know,

Stephen 1:13:54
the death thing is real. It's not a joke. You can you can die.

Scott Benner 1:13:59
Yeah, yeah. Like in not used to. You just thought you were being scared. Like somebody's trying to scare you straight and you're like, I'm not falling for this. Yeah. Oh,

Stephen 1:14:07
that's that's not going to happen to me. I'm invincible. Yeah. Well, you're

Scott Benner 1:14:11
definitely not. You can't if you can't even get away with discount a gun. $5 Steven. I'm not sure it's fired. Yeah, well, shots fired. Ooh, I'm trying to be trying to name the episode calm down. That's my job. I really, I genuinely appreciate you doing this. I really do. This was was really wonderful. If you i and I'm super happy for you. I mean, honestly, in a way that I mean, we're in the middle of like, kind of joking around in the middle of this, you and you've talked about some serious stuff. And you started discussing your agency and I swear to God, I got overwhelmed. I really was just I was incredibly happy for you, you know?

Stephen 1:14:52
Now if only I could get my insurance to stop denying the Dexcom

Scott Benner 1:14:56
do you have to you can't get a letter of met necessity.

Stephen 1:15:00
We're working on it, but I've had to appeal it every month and it's always overturned, but it's just a pain.

Scott Benner 1:15:06
Yeah, get that letter from the doctor. You'll be okay. Yeah, if you have trouble with that there's a person in the wet in the, in the Facebook group who really understands all this

Stephen 1:15:17
stuff. So you've given me her name. Good. We've spoken

Scott Benner 1:15:20
Good, good. She's terrific. So all right. Wow, man, this is terrific. I really appreciate you doing this

a huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G voc glucagon. Find out more about Chivo Capo pen at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash juicebox. you spell that GVOKEGLUC AG o n.com. Forward slash juicebox. I'd also like to thank Stephen for sharing your story. And thank the in pen from Medtronic diabetes, head to in pen today.com by clicking on the links in your show notes, or at juicebox podcast.com. Or you can just type it into the browser in pen today.com.

I'd like to thank you for listening to the show and remind you that there is an absolutely amazing community for the podcast in Facebook. It's private, it's free. It's called Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes. I think there's a link in the show notes to that as well. It's an absolutely fabulous place to listen, learn or talk about type one. And honestly, there's a lot of type twos in there to adults or parents. It's just a great space to talk about diabetes. And if you haven't filled out the survey AT T one D exchanged.org. Ford slash juice box, please do it for me today. It really will only take a few minutes. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

#743 Bold Beginnings: Stacking

Scott Benner 8/24/22 Scott Benner 8/24/22

#742 Vocal Support

Suzanne has type 1 diabetes and was a back up singer for some famous acts.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 742 of the Juicebox Podcast

Never before has an episode had so much packed into one short hour. Suzanne's on the show today. And I'm not gonna tell you anything about her life except for this Suzanne sang backup for Billy Joel, Rod Stewart and other famous musical artists. Her stories about her life. Well, they fit right in with that. They are amazing. There are twists and turns in this one and surprises. Things you won't see coming. I certainly didn't. While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. We're becoming bold with insulin. Don't forget t one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. Go there. Take the survey, complete the survey help people living with type one diabetes, it's super simple. That's not take much time at all. You could do it right now from your phone, or your iPad or wherever your butt is then you have access to the internet p one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box. complete the survey. Do me a favor.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Omni pod five. Learn more about the Omni pod five Omni pod dash, and everything else on the pod has at Omni pod.com forward slash juice box you may be eligible for a free 30 day trial of the Omni pod dash find out at the link. Speaking of links dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. Speaking of maybe being eligible, you may be eligible for a free 10 day trial of the Dexcom G six. Find out more about my favorite cgm@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox.

Suzanne 2:09
My name is Suzanne and I live in Canada. And I'm sure you can tell by the accent. That's not where I'm from. I was born in the UK, in Cornwall in the very early 60s. But I didn't Yeah, I moved away from there. I haven't lived back at home for a very, very long time. And let's get going

Scott Benner 2:34
since the very early 60s. That's when I was born. Yeah. Is that is that your way of trying not to tell me that you're 60 years old or?

Suzanne 2:43
No, I am 60 years old. No. I'm delighted to be 60. Come on. That's quite an achievement. I've been a diabetic type one diabetic for 59 years.

Scott Benner 2:50
Wow. You were you were diagnosed at a year old.

Suzanne 2:54
I was diagnosed very young. Yes. Just just over a year old. Yeah, that's insane.

Scott Benner 2:58
In like night, honestly like 1961 ish. Like, right around? Yeah.

Suzanne 3:03
No. Yeah. A little bit later than that, actually. But yeah, yeah, I was diagnosed pretty early. Yeah, I was born in 19. In. I was born in 1962. I was diagnosed in 1963.

Scott Benner 3:14
I gotcha. Okay. That's me not realizing it's 2022 already. But Jesus.

Suzanne 3:22
I know which one of us is 60.

Scott Benner 3:25
Listen, I know I've been saying this a lot lately, but my knee is 75. If anybody if, let me just throw this out here at the beginning this if any of you have been really helped by the podcast, and you're an orthopedic surgeon in the northeast, could you call me? Something's wrong with my knee? But I digress. What do you have you Oh, my gosh, you're you're 60 Your parents are with us or No,

Suzanne 3:49
no, no, unfortunately, not. My father died, Gosh, 35 years ago, from a heart attack. And my mother passed away just a few years ago, but was in her late 80s.

Scott Benner 4:00
Wow. Good for her. That's a good long time. I take late 80s No problem. Did you ever talk about your diabetes with them as an adult? Did you ever look back on it with them?

Suzanne 4:14
Mmm hmm. No, not Not really. Um, my sisters used to bitch about it a lot because they reckon I got all the attention and all the care and all the rest of it but and think I was a spoiled brat because I'm the youngest of three. But no, I didn't might we just dealt with it. So it became a fact of life. Nobody ever thought about it. I don't think so when I went home when I went back to my mom's house. Mom just automatically did what she'd always done I suppose.

Scott Benner 4:48
So but you guys never sat down and had a heart to heart about it. Or you were like Mom, was this hard to raise a baby with diabetes? You just I mean your English you probably don't talk about feelings.

Suzanne 4:56
No, we don't talk about things like that because that would involve feelings. Um, no, I never did. I did talk to my oldest sister though, who is old enough, who is older than me enough that she looked after me a lot when I was little. And I did talk to her about it. And she remembers a lot more about things than I do. So when I was diagnosed, my parents were told that I'd be lucky to make my late 30s. And certainly don't expect me to live into my 40s that I'd never have children and I have to and that my life would be difficult. And it hasn't been it's been great for you, and continues to be great. Amazing.

Scott Benner 5:40
I don't see why it couldn't be just it's interesting to me that

Suzanne 5:43
well, even back in the day, though, I mean, we were boiling urine and testing so you were always learning what your sugars were like six hours ago. There was nothing I mean, there were no a one sees until I believe the mid 80s.

Scott Benner 5:59
Right. Do you remember what you would do with that information after you after you threw your your urine and witches pot and did whatever you did with it? Like what would what did you do with the information then?

Suzanne 6:09
You know what, I don't remember my insulin being adjusted at all when I was little. I don't my mum must have done it all. I do remember that. My pediatrician got me this special injector pen, which was like a little gum thing with a trigger on the side, really. But it was glass syringes and metal needles and everything had to be boiled all the time. And then my mum stored it in surgical spirit. And we use the same needle several times metal needles until you know it became dull. I guess when I scream loud enough mum changed it. No. I mean, she. I didn't. I do. One of the things I do remember though, is that my mother? I do remember my mother telling me that she practiced injecting herself because she was so afraid to inject a baby.

Scott Benner 6:59
Yeah, I know. That's scary. I've done that. And it's yeah, it's a big leap to make by the way, they still make the injection gun.

Suzanne 7:07
with it. Mine was different though. Mine was it didn't look like the ones that you see. Now. It was it held a very small glass syringe and the trigger was on the side of it. It was it was a very different looking thing. I've never seen one like it before or since but I remember it very clearly. And I probably used it until I was about 14 I started off on cow insulin change relatively quickly to pork insulin, and then didn't go on then went on to I think it was called Novo rapid and insular tard. Those are the Canadian names. I tend to remember the English ones better. No, Toronto, it was called Toronto here. Went on to Toronto and insula tide when I was 14. Okay. And my insolence didn't change again, until I was about 48. Wow. Yeah, I know. Right?

Scott Benner 8:10
Wow, you just use a pump in that time? Are you injecting me? I went onto

Suzanne 8:15
a pump a year ago.

Scott Benner 8:20
Wow, look at you. Yeah, like innovating.

Suzanne 8:24
And I started the libre two years ago now. And now I'm on the libre to my insurance company. Because I don't live in Britain. My anymore. My insurance company won't cover the Dexcom because I'm too well controlled.

Scott Benner 8:38
Well, you know, there's a thing called a letter of medical necessity you could get here in the United States. I don't know if it exists in Canada.

Suzanne 8:45
But I just you know what, I honestly just decided not to bother because I'm good as I am really. You know, I do pretty well, my a one sees around 565 5.6 5.8. So, you know, I'm not likely to tighten that up much more.

Scott Benner 9:02
So we've been in that kind of in that range.

Suzanne 9:06
I've been in that kind of range since I had my son 30 years ago.

Scott Benner 9:11
And so, your first job? Yes. Okay. So is it fair to say for the first 30 years you weren't that concerned? And then somebody told you you needed to do a certain thing to have a baby? Is that what got you there?

Suzanne 9:24
No, somebody told me you're pregnant. You really better look after yourself. Because I was always told that I wouldn't want to have children. So didn't really think too much about it until all of a sudden my husband and I were pregnant. Well, you know, mostly me. Let's be real. Yes, so I was terribly concerned about having an unhealthy baby. So I pulled my a one C's back at that time to be low five with no hypose That's the tightest control I've had was with when I've been pregnant with both my with both of my children,

Scott Benner 9:57
where were they prior to your pregnancy?

Suzanne 10:01
They were probably in the low sixes. And my son was born in 1991. So 81 C's were also very new, and I only have my a one C done once every year.

Scott Benner 10:16
Okay. In the low 60s, do you think you were having a lot of like low blood sugars? Or were you push your variability pretty straight forward?

Suzanne 10:24
No, I I've always had extremely good hypo warning. So I get to about 3.5 3.6. Sorry, I'm, I'm English and Canadian, I don't do your thing. The number of store that I get to a date, that kind of number. And I know and I instantly will take a few swigs of a coke or Sprite, or something like that. That's my quickest way to get out of a Hypo is to take some kind of fizzy pop usually.

Scott Benner 10:53
So around around a 60 blood sugar for us is what it comes down to. It's

Suzanne 10:58
okay. Yeah. And I'll just take a couple of swigs. And that'll usually level me out. Gotcha. Like it took a long time not to stuff my face to the point that my sugar levels were then through the roof, you know that that that panicky feeling?

Scott Benner 11:14
Yeah. Did you learn to overcome it or learn to ignore it?

Suzanne 11:19
Um, I guess I learned to ignore it. Because really, during pregnancy, because I learned to do the 15 grams, 15 minutes.

Scott Benner 11:31
Or you saying that the pregnancy really just gave you the determination or the will to do the things you probably knew you were supposed to be doing all along?

Suzanne 11:41
100%? Okay. 100%, and then the fact that I had children and needs to change my lifestyle, because I mean, I was, I was a touring musician. I was a total Wild Child.

Scott Benner 11:53
Yeah, I know, we were gonna get to that. So I see you grow up the entire time with diabetes? Not really. I'm assuming it didn't really take up much of your life. Right? Like you're shooting that that like that cow and that pork stuff. What are you shooting that like once or twice a day? Twice a day? Yep. Twice, right. And when you get up and mix,

Suzanne 12:14
a mix of fast acting and a low acting in the morning and a mix of a fast acting and a low acting in

Scott Benner 12:20
the evening, okay. And so other than that, it's not like you're testing it's not like you have access to data you just be living if you get dizzy. Eat something. If you don't get dizzy. It's a good day.

Suzanne 12:30
Yeah, if you're thirsty, you increase your your fast acting a little bit.

Scott Benner 12:34
Thirst makes you think high blood sugar.

Suzanne 12:37
Well, not not just for us, but that kind of dry, really dry mouth.

Scott Benner 12:42
Okay, yeah. So Oh, that's interesting. So you, you totally looked to physical cues.

Suzanne 12:49
I had no, I had no choice. Really. Even if you were if you were in the hospital, you could get a blood test. And it took a short period of time for it to come back. But I have never been in DKA my life once I was diagnosed.

Scott Benner 13:03
Did you live as a child thinking you weren't going to live very long? Did anyone? Nobody told me? No one ever said it to you?

Suzanne 13:11
No, I was an extraordinarily happy, very middle class child with a pony in a boat. Gotcha. Oh, no, it was it was idyllic. Honestly, truly, my childhood was idyllic. I don't remember any problems from it. I'm sure my poor mother was frantic. But I don't remember any problems.

Scott Benner 13:32
Will you have kids? I mean, you have kids? Are you doing my math? Right? Your children around 30 years old, right are a little older.

Suzanne 13:39
I have a son who is 30 who is just my second granddaughter was born yesterday.

Scott Benner 13:44
Congratulations. Thank you. And I have

Suzanne 13:47
a daughter who is 22 who has her own autoimmune disorder, but not diabetes. My daughter actually has ailleurs Danlos Syndrome. Oh, no kidding. Yeah, we should have stayed at the gene pool, frankly. But you know what you're gonna do? Yeah, so and she is an F II I groom with showjumpers.

Scott Benner 14:11
Okay, hold on a second. There are a lot of words there. I only understood some of them. But I want to I want to go back to

Suzanne 14:15
the Olympic. She's basically a groom for an Olympic show jumper.

Scott Benner 14:19
Oh, no kidding. Alright, so we'll figure this out in a second. But my my initial thing for bringing up your children was to say, can you imagine if you're if you thought your son was on a 30 year countdown to being dead? No. And you didn't know you couldn't tell him?

Suzanne 14:35
No, I cannot even begin to imagine that at all. I just and I know that it was things like that were a constant worry to my mother. I mean, at nine I actually contracted salmonella. And I was in the hospital for about three months. And I suspect my mother thought I was going to die then as well. Yes, I think my mother lived in a state of constant fear and it must have been all before, but she didn't show it. She was a really great loving, kind fun, Mum.

Scott Benner 15:08
Wow. I just wonder if she looked at you like, like a ticking bomb. You know what I mean?

Suzanne 15:14
She she did, I think until things got easier. Okay. But they let me fly, they really did let me fly. I mean, I used to go off for the day with my packet of sandwiches and ride my horse and go with my friends. And there were no cell phones, there was nothing and I know now that mum would drive her car to places where she knew she could see us from the distance and know that we were that I was safe. But I had no idea that that was happening. I just thought I was just like everybody else. I had no clue that I don't think I am any different. But I had no clue that my mother perceived me as being a walking zombie effectively.

Scott Benner 15:55
This is that that almost made me cry. When you said about your mom driving places and watching you from a distance. It got me. Yeah, yeah,

Suzanne 16:02
I'm just what moms do, right?

Scott Benner 16:03
Yeah, yeah, no, I know.

Suzanne 16:05
My mom was a pretty awesome mom.

Scott Benner 16:06
No kidding. She certainly was. And plus, they were probably like, I let her go. She's gonna be dead soon. Anyway.

Suzanne 16:13
There's possibly some of that involved, too, that you let your child enjoy what you think they can?

Scott Benner 16:20
Right. Yeah, that makes See, that's what I was initially wondering about. Like you're, you know, you're basically what you did with your life? Like, did you ended up being a wild child? Because maybe in the background, people were sort of like, yeah, just let Suzanne go. Don't matter. You know, like me, that was good. It was good for you.

Suzanne 16:39
I've never been, I was definitely wild, but I've never been stupid. I've never played my insulin, I've never forgotten to take the right amount of carbs for the insulin that I've injected. I am. So I'm an odd mix. I think of control freak and wild child.

Scott Benner 17:00
No, it's just I think it's wild pensioner trying to call yourself a child to get done talking to me and pick up a cane and walk away. I know how you feel. Yeah, right. But no, I mean, you know, I think that anybody who has a child will know this, that there's a moment when you you make a decision, right about like, How hard are you going to pull back on the reins and how much you're going to let go and in your heart, you want to just let them go? And then there's this fear in your head that thinks like, Oh, I'm gonna make them a heroin addict, if I don't give them some rules, right? Like you have some like wild concern. And then you'll pull back. And I wonder how much of that is valuable? And how much of it ends up being harmful? And how maybe it's sometimes not necessary for some people versus other children? And maybe you just got like, maybe you got the like, oops, let's go parents because they thought

Suzanne 18:00
Yeah, well, no, I do think I did. I think I got my Mum used did used to say that I raised you until you're old enough to know how to do it yourself.

Scott Benner 18:13
How old do you think you were when that was?

Suzanne 18:15
Well, I mean, I left I left home to go and tour at 15. But so was I old enough to know how to do it myself. I knew how to look after my diabetes, but I also knew right from wrong. Okay. And that was made very clear to us as children. I have never been smacked. I don't I've never smacked my children. And I have never been smacked. My mum was a reasoner. She would. She was a yeller, she would yell, but she was she would explain why you couldn't do it and why that was probably not the best idea. And if I wanted to survive, basically, this was what I had to do. And that was ingrained in me, I think.

Scott Benner 18:57
Okay. Well, that makes sense to me. So what makes you wait, you left when you were 15? To do what?

Suzanne 19:05
I went on tour with Krista Berg in 1977.

Scott Benner 19:08
How long did that last for?

Suzanne 19:12
On and off a couple of years. I've also tour with Rod Stewart, Elton John.

Scott Benner 19:16
Really? Like a backup singer?

Suzanne 19:20
Yeah, yeah. Started a tour with Billy Joel. But it didn't go very well for me. I quit that one. Um, I've been in musical theater. And then eventually I went back to school and now I have two doctorates. In what? I have a doctorate in advanced vocal production. I have a master's in jazz musicianship. And I have a doctorate in psychology.

Scott Benner 19:46
No kidding. Would you do something with those or you just show them off? To teach? That's lovely. Good for you. All right. Well, I I would be remiss if I didn't ask you a little bit about that life. So especially with diabetes, But yeah, I mean, but I'm drawn to first ask you why Billy Joel and you didn't get along. So let's, let's start there and work backwards.

Suzanne 20:11
Somebody got ahold of the bus key, the women's bus key, some guy and barged his way onto the bus. And I was furious about it. And nobody took me seriously. So I walked out.

Scott Benner 20:21
No kidding. What Tor was that? Do you remember?

Suzanne 20:25
Oh, gosh, that would have been in the early 80s,

Scott Benner 20:30
early 80s. So about Christie Brinkley time. Yes. Okay, maybe an old no and stuff that nobody else understands. I imagine there are just scads of people right now going Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel, what is he even talking about? Who is Billy Joel? First of all? Yeah,

Suzanne 20:48
who are these people talking about?

Scott Benner 20:50
I don't understand scenes from an Italian restaurant. What's this? No. Is that about the greatest job in the world being a backup singer? Or is it arduous? Is it repetitive? Or do you love it?

Suzanne 21:01
I loved it. I just I just love music. But no, I did love it because it was a different place. Every day you woke up in a different place every day kind of thing. It was. It was difficult as a diabetic because the hours are weird and wonderful. And you had to work your way around that. I also had some drug involvement, really, without almost knowing that I was taking it somebody gave me some pills to keep me awake. And that was that was a whole issue that developed that that changed things a lot for me and made me much more conscious of my health. But it was it was a good life, though. It was it was a lot of fun. It was a huge amount of fun. It was wild. And it was crazy. And it was it was who knew if it was Monday or Friday. It's It's Vegas, it must be Tuesday. It was It was wild. But it was some?

Scott Benner 22:00
I imagine. So how old were you when someone gave you? I'm assuming amphetamines and told you

Suzanne 22:06
17 Oh,

Scott Benner 22:08
and you just thought like, I mean, I mean, where I don't want to put words in your mouth. Did you think you were doing something a little wrong? Are we like, Oh, this is what people do? This is okay.

Suzanne 22:16
didn't have a clue. didn't have a clue?

Scott Benner 22:22
Did those? God I'm sorry.

Suzanne 22:24
I was just told I was offered these tablets and was told oh, this, you know, it's an upper keep your weight? And I'm like, Well, is this addictive? Is this going to be a problem? You know, I need to be aware of what I'm taking? No, no, no, everybody does it. So everybody did it.

Scott Benner 22:40
How long did you get stuck with that?

Suzanne 22:42
Um, about 80 months?

Scott Benner 22:45
Okay. How did that affect your diabetes?

Suzanne 22:51
Well, I don't know. Because I'm not great. What any, I didn't test during that time. You're not going to exactly be be collecting your urine and putting tablets into it. And because by that time, it was tablets, and then strips. I just didn't do it. I didn't.

Scott Benner 23:13
Okay. And do you have any health issues at this point?

Suzanne 23:17
Yes, I do. My kidneys are not great.

Scott Benner 23:21
Okay. Are they you're there watching them? I guess or Yes. Okay. Yes. They're watching them. Do you think you'll end up on dialysis at some point?

Suzanne 23:31
They don't think so. Because my kidneys have now been stable for seven years.

Scott Benner 23:35
Okay, so you found? Well, yeah, I mean, you pull it. It's interesting. You've got like a half and half life like You're like you're only 60. But you've got 30 years of probably not paying attention at all and 30 years of paying attention really strictly? Yes. Yeah. You probably just stopped whatever was about to go.

Suzanne 23:55
About to go. I probably caught it all just in time. Yeah. I also have visual issues, but it's nothing to do with diabetes. So it's just luck of the draw. Right. But diabetic wise, my eyes are good. Everything else is good. I have no peripheral neuropathy. Yeah, I'm actually pretty disgusted me healthy to be honest.

Scott Benner 24:22
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no good for you. There's a lot of people from back then that just that insulin seem to cover them. Well. You know,

Suzanne 29:11
yeah, we didn't eat sweets in the same way that kids do today, though. There wasn't when I was a kid certainly in the UK. I don't know. Obviously, I don't know much about America. But when I was in the UK, pop was pretty unusual. We didn't get sodas or juices very often. We drink milk or water really. And milk was a was a mealtime thing. Not a not a Oh, I think I'll grab a glass of milk. So I think our diet was really healthy.

Scott Benner 29:41
Yeah, that's interesting. It really is. Do you make any diet concessions now or do you just eat the way you eat and you use insulin?

Suzanne 29:49
Um, yes, I I'm I'm relatively low carb. Okay. I'm not zero carb and I don't restrict myself if I want something. I'll have it and I'll go through it.

Scott Benner 29:59
Right Okay. I'm sorry, I have a lot in my head from you there. So you have a big life. Hold on a second. Yeah, I do. Yeah. I want to go backwards a little bit. I mean, sure. How do you become a backup singer at 15?

Suzanne 30:15
Okay, so my aunt was the nepotism is the is the answer. My aunt was the head of the, the London School of Music was for many, many years and is a was a was a famous opera singer. Okay. So she was in the industry and the first person I toured with crystal Berg was somebody who requires backing singers who are quite good at singing in tune, because he will lose his pitch otherwise, and follow the about, you know, a backing singer who's not quite as accurate. And so I got volunteered voluntold to do some recording work. And it all went from there. No kidding. So, my whole family sang.

Scott Benner 31:08
How about your kids? Yes, everybody can sing. But that's, there's something I have actual jealousy about. I have a terrible singing voice. And

Suzanne 31:21
anyone can learn. It's just not always worth the effort.

Scott Benner 31:26
I'm not gonna shine quite bright enough that we're all think the juice was worth the squeeze. I think you're right. I think I'm just lucky to have a deep speaking voice to be perfectly honest.

Suzanne 31:37
Yeah, so you've got a very you got a very pleasant speaking voice.

Scott Benner 31:40
I get lucky there. So okay, so Chris de Burgh and then, like, like we're talking about, like, lady in red. Yes, I got the right person, right. Yes, yes. But I'm talking prior to Ligue one way, way earlier than that. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yes. I'm

Suzanne 31:58
talking Spanish train. Patricia, the stripper.

Scott Benner 32:01
And you're out there just every night. Just?

Suzanne 32:04
Yeah. Did you try to be super Trump?

Scott Benner 32:08
Are you really? Yeah, it's amazing. It really is. It's just wonderful.

Suzanne 32:13
And then to be Peter Frampton.

Scott Benner 32:16
No kidding. Yeah. And so if I said you, if not that I'm not going to do this. First of all, Susan, don't get worried. But if I started just spitting out songs, could you just start singing along to them? Probably. Yeah. But how long has it been since you've done it?

Suzanne 32:32
Since I don't want some onstage? Yes. Oh, gosh. Um, last thing I did was probably in the late 80s, early 90s. But I've never stopped singing. I still sing. I teach now. Right. And I'm an international judge for singing competitions.

Scott Benner 32:57
Are you really? Yeah. Okay. Did any of these people know you had diabetes while you were out on the road with them? Yes, everybody. You told them. Yeah. What was the reasoning behind telling them at that point? I had a hyper. Okay, so you were worried about a low but you didn't have that happen? Really? Did you ever have it happen on stage where you had to do something?

Suzanne 33:18
No, I didn't have any. I've never had. I never had a Hypo that that caused me to end up in the hospital. I never even had a hyper that pulled me off the stage. I have had hypose where I know I've needed something. But I've been able to get to the next break and run off stage and chug something and get back on again.

Scott Benner 33:41
Gotcha. Are there you'll forgive me because you're a lady. But are there massive amounts of indiscriminate sex during these things?

Suzanne 33:49
Huge amounts. Yes.

Scott Benner 33:53
Thank you for a good

Suzanne 33:54
time. Can I tell you sex and drugs and rock and roll?

Scott Benner 33:59
Did you meet your husband while doing this? Or afterwards?

Suzanne 34:02
I met my husband on the Royal Wedding Day Charles and die. So 1985 I met my husband

Scott Benner 34:11
in a pub watching it on television, or Yes,

Suzanne 34:14
he was he was it was his first job working as a barman. 1985 So we were no nice nice vibes when we got married and lying to you. The marriage. The wedding must have been a few years before that.

We got married in 1985 when I was 23. Yeah, we were 23. So we met before that though, a few couple of years before that on the royal wedding day, he overcharged me 10 Pence for a half pint of cider. And I argued with him until he finally said you can keep it and I said, I don't want it. It's daddy's and walked away. So he knew what he was getting into. I was

Scott Benner 34:54
gonna say he's like, You know what I would love to argue with this woman for a couple more decades. Let me get into this. By the way, do you think she's and that people right now, can't even hear the words coming out of our mouth because they're so impressed that I figured out that you met him in a pub because you said the royal wedding. Yeah. I really impressed myself for a second.

Suzanne 35:19
Actually, let's be real. It wasn't a public was a country club. Because again, daddy was a member.

Scott Benner 35:30
A bar had a nicer place. I see. Yeah. push bar. And, and at that point, you're a she got married a little later, huh?

Suzanne 35:38
Well, we got married. I mean, we were only 23. But yeah, we got married pretty quick. I guess. Really?

Scott Benner 35:43
Okay. Wow. And you're still so you're still performing at that point when you're married? Yeah. So you traveled without him? Yeah. Did the indiscriminate sex stop then?

Suzanne 35:57
Would anybody other than him? Yeah.

Scott Benner 36:01
Would it be great if I got you to admit to cheating on your husband? 30 years ago, just now on a podcast because later you'd be like, I don't know why I did that.

Suzanne 36:10
No, I've always been faithful to my husband. It's lovely.

Scott Benner 36:12
I just think what do you tell your kids? When they know this is what you've done for a living? Their assumptions got to be there that you lived a fairly wild life. Like, are you able to tell your kids like like when you're 16 year old goes out? Can you say to him like don't smoke weed? Like you can't do that. Right? Like you're

Suzanne 36:32
No, no, we just said make sure you're in company and be careful.

Scott Benner 36:36
Okay. Because that was your your experience with it. Was that it? Yeah.

Suzanne 36:40
Actually, I didn't I I've never been a smoker. So I haven't Yeah, I actually have an edibles. Yeah, different matter. But no, I've never smoked because I worried more about my voice I suppose that I did about my pancreas.

Scott Benner 36:57
What was big then? Was it acid?

Suzanne 37:00
Everything every cocaine, cocaine was the biggest thing on the music scene.

Scott Benner 37:04
Okay. Interesting. Who is your favorite person to perform with? Rod Stewart? Who's the best singer? Me is very, very diplomatic.

Suzanne 37:22
I don't know. It's very difficult to say. Probably the best musician was Billy Joel.

Scott Benner 37:27
Okay. But the rod store stuff is just fun to sing. I would imagine

Suzanne 37:31
he but he was just the loveliest man. He's just the loveliest guy. Okay, we would play football. Soccer backstage. Before we went on, and everybody would would have we would all gather together and do a pre concert warm up and and it was just a big family atmosphere. There was no it was much less bitchiness and, and, and drama on his tours.

Scott Benner 37:56
Don't say the name out loud. But in your head. Who's the most famous person you've been intimate with? You have it?

Suzanne 38:03
Yeah. Okay. That's all. Yeah. Oh, my 16th birthday. Really?

Scott Benner 38:09
You'll tell me when we're done. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Girls. Yeah, yeah, girls, too. Yeah. I mean, why not write in for a pen? Absolutely.

Suzanne 38:25
I have no, yeah, no, I don't. I don't. It's it's, I don't know. Everything was just fun. Everything was fun, and free and easy. And it was the I mean, you know, I guess we had the liberation of the people from the 60s that passed on through into the 70s and the early 80s. And then, things became a lot more careful after the AIDS epidemic began

Scott Benner 38:49
right now. I remember, I was not. I mean, I was a child still in school. But yeah, I remember how that like hearing adults talk about it. Like, there was a way the world used to work and it was over now. Was Was, was the vibe.

Suzanne 39:05
Yeah. And it and it brought out a lot more homophobia. And

Scott Benner 39:13
I think racism too, right. It got Yeah, it got it got focused on blacks, too. And it was I remember it being really terrible for

Suzanne 39:20
it's pretty nasty. Well, yeah.

Scott Benner 39:24
Well, at least he got him before then.

Suzanne 39:26
Yeah, exactly. Right. I have my phone.

Scott Benner 39:28
The worst thing that happens is what something that takes a little penicillin, something like that. Back never never for you. Good for you. Good for you. tells you I was never stupid. Yeah, that's wonderful. So I didn't realize we were going to do all this. This is so much fun. I don't even give diabetes IVs we'll get back to it. No, but somebody told me the other day. They were listening to an after dark episode with the stripper. And she's like, it was like 45 minutes into it. And I thought, does this girl have diabetes? And she's like, I don't even care. And then we just, you know, she just kept listening. I thought that was just a wonderful thing to say that that the podcast is, is is entertaining for reasons that that aren't. Yeah, right.

Suzanne 40:19
I mean, yeah, diabetes is just a part of who I am. But it's not a defining characteristic. Yeah, I'd be naked on stage too, because I was in here.

Scott Benner 40:27
You were inherent. You know who was here? Oh, God, who am I thinking of? He's a Canadian. He has diabetes. He's older than you. Why can't I think of his name? He's been on the podcast now. People are like, Come on Scott. Victor Garber. Oh, right. Yeah. Victor Garber was on like, in the first couple years of the show. He's Canadian. left home very early at a really early age to perform, actually, yeah. And when he had type one, your stories are pretty interestingly similar. What was he in? Which was what was that big show? He was in Hold on a second. I got this. I got the internet.

He was in the Toronto production. Of Godspell. Gods. Oh, right. Okay. Yeah. That's what I was thinking. That's where he became famous first. Now young people are like great hair. Godspell. I don't know what any of this means. I know. Right? Yeah. But

Suzanne 41:36
I toured, I did tours Fantine in Les Mis before it went on to the Barbican in London.

Scott Benner 41:43
It was this more nepotism or by then had you like, really laid down? No,

Suzanne 41:47
I was known as being easy to work with, I think by then.

Scott Benner 41:52
If I Googled you, what would I find? You

Suzanne 41:55
know, because my stage name is not my real name. Okay. There are naked pictures of me out there. Scott. My children don't need to see that.

Scott Benner 42:03
I don't want to see those either. Not while I'm talking to you later, maybe later, but not now. We'll keep that for after the podcast as well. Well, I should start making it after the podcast list. I put an episode up recently were with a woman who was divorced. And she'd put up with a lot of things from her ex. And at the end, I said, Can I ask you a question? And then I'll and you can answer it. When the podcast is over. She was sure. And I said Did Did your ex husband just have a really big and then I just cut the audio off. But I never really finished the sentence. I just left it out there for people to wonder about. Because I couldn't understand why she was putting up with him otherwise, and and I'm trying to think of how to end the podcast with you. But I think you might say so many things. I won't be able to pick one. Is it? Do you feel younger now? Because of the experiences you've had in the past? Do you think?

Suzanne 42:58
Do I feel younger? When I get up in the morning, my body's not young my body creaks and cracks and moans and groans and I haven't placement yet, which is the youngest part of me. But my brain is no different. I don't feel any older. I wonder why people gave me all these responsibilities I have now I don't really understand where they came from. But I I think I am by nature. I'm very enthusiastic about everything. And I think that that keeps you young.

Scott Benner 43:30
Yeah, I mean, you can hear in your voice like you. You're You're telling me stories like you're 20 years old. And yes, yes. I feel the same way. I in my mind. I don't know how old I am. No, me

Suzanne 43:41
neither. But I'm certainly not 60 I walked towards a mirror and I'm like, Oh my God, there's my mother. And I'm like, oh, no, that's neat.

Scott Benner 43:50
I enjoy if I lay in bed in the same position too long, and then I decide to roll over I have to will myself to do it. That's my favorite part of being older so far. Like, my back getting stiff for just reasons that seem incomprehensible. You know? That's something else. So when did you so when you switched over to pumping? You're saying just a few years ago,

Suzanne 44:15
a year ago? A year and a half ago,

Scott Benner 44:18
I guess what made you do that?

Suzanne 44:20
Um, well, I was doing really well on in on the injections and I thought if it ain't broke, don't fix it as always been my kind of mentality. And then I thought but try it. So Alberta have a pump program where they pay for your pump. We have we have pretty good health care here. Um, a lot of things are covered, but a lot of things aren't covered so you have to pay for your own insulin and things like that. So I mean, you know, we've got insurance. It's not the best insurance in the world but it's pretty good but a bottle of insulin here of I use Nova rapid nine And a bottle of Nova rapid is like $35. Okay? So it's not nothing's terribly expensive. But I thought, yeah, I think I'm gonna try the pump. Now we have horses, so I ride horses. And so I didn't want tubing, I've got dogs and horses and grandchildren. And so I didn't want tubing. So I went for the Omnipod. Okay. And I also wasn't terribly interested in looping anyway, which is why I didn't go on to the depths calm, I am too much of a control freak to let a piece of computer technology managed my life for me.

Scott Benner 45:39
That's a fair statement, I would rebut by sending you Arden's last 12 hours on our graph. But

Suzanne 45:46
if I was a child, I think it would be very different than I think if I was younger, and I hadn't had all these years of thinking about my diabetes, these last 30 years of thinking about what everything is, I think it would be very different. But I don't know, that is such a large part of my daily existence that I was a little reluctant to give that up. Funnily enough, is it

Scott Benner 46:09
that you just do it now without having to think or that

Suzanne 46:13
I eat? Yes, I don't really think about it. I look at a plate of food, or I fight I think about what I'm cooking, and I go, Okay, I need this much insulin, 20 minutes before I eat it bang done. So I don't really think about it. But I also don't really want to give that control up. Do you know why? To do I just I think I'm a bit of a control freak. And I think if I didn't have that, I'd start over controlling everybody else.

Scott Benner 46:43
But the dogs would have to learn how to walk on their hind legs, because you'd be bored. Yeah, yeah, no, no, I take your point. Like, and I'm not. I'm certainly not saying you should or you shouldn't. I'm just interested in in why you say that. So

Suzanne 46:56
yeah. Am I against it, per se? No. And certainly, as I get older, and maybe if things start to get more difficult, I might look into it. But the the thing, the other thing is, it's almost a way to convince myself that I don't need a Dexcom I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. You know, it would be hard for me to get a Dexcom because I got a letter from a doctor, letter of medic or whatnot, you know, similar type of thing of the medical necessity. And Dexcom still refuse me I would my insurance companies still refuse me. And also, I would reach the maximum on my insurance payout pretty quickly. Okay, so exactly what I would do if the pump program here started to include CGM ins, I'm not sure. I think Libra is the best thing since sliced bread. So I probably love it. But I am not going to stress over any of it.

Scott Benner 47:50
Okay. Do you give a lot of time to thinking about when you're older? Like you're being able to see meters being able to like articulate with your hands and things like that? No. Okay.

Suzanne 48:05
Not really. I mean, occasionally, I do think, I mean, dementia is more common in in diabetics, right. So I do worry a little bit about that. But, but then I decide that that's a waste of my time, so I stopped worrying about it.

Scott Benner 48:22
So it's just gonna happen when it happens. And then you'll Yeah, I'm pretty optimistic by nature. Yeah. So you're gonna have to just adjust it and you're you are still married? Is that right? Yes. Yeah. Are you? Does he have much? You know, I asked him this question. I didn't know the answer to it. But I was gonna ask how much he helps you with your diabetes, but I'm guessing the answer is not at all.

Suzanne 48:44
Certainly not very much. No. I mean, he would if I asked him, and he's really good. If I may say to him, sugar levels are running low. And he'll go and grab me something if I'm doing something else. So he and there are a couple of times when I haven't necessarily pick it up and he'll go check your blood sugar and it will you so it's just a part of our life, but it's not something that he does know. Sometimes if I want to put my pump on my back, he puts it on for me. So yeah, seems like that.

Scott Benner 49:14
But you're on your own pretty much bite by choice. Yes. Okay. Would you mind if we pivoted to your daughter for a second? The light is the is it? How do they pronounce it? It airs.

Suzanne 49:28
Here's a news I think we say Ehlers in the UK and you say ailleurs, e h l e r s Danlos Syndrome.

Scott Benner 49:39
And that's a connective tissue issue, right? Yes, but mainly, mainly about skin.

Suzanne 49:46
No, hers isn't hers is vascular.

Scott Benner 49:50
Okay, how does that impact your life?

Suzanne 49:53
Um, she could die of an aortic aneurysm.

Scott Benner 49:56
So we can veins, arteries, that kind of stuff.

Suzanne 49:59
You Yes There go the dog sorry. Yes she could she we can veins are a part of it. She has a scan every six months to make sure that there are no bulges anywhere that needs to be treated.

Scott Benner 50:11
And is that what happens? They look for stuff and then they go reinforce it.

Suzanne 50:16
They'll look for stuff and then they'll if they can they'll they'll repair it.

Scott Benner 50:19
Has that happened to her yet? Not yet. Okay, how young was she

Suzanne 50:24
when you guys have permanent distribution does have constant dislocations?

Scott Benner 50:29
Her joints dislocate. Yeah, hypermobility? Yeah. How old was she when you figured this out about her?

Suzanne 50:36
She was diagnosed at 13. But we just thought she was clumsy because she was always hurting something and she got a lot of fractures, which we later come to find out or avulsion fractures because the tendon or the ligament have ripped off a little piece of the

Scott Benner 50:55
bone bone. Is that? I mean, you joked earlier about the gene pool. But is that stopping her from thinking about children?

Suzanne 51:06
She will not likely be able to have children naturally anyway, because of the weakness of the vessels. I doubt the uterus would die the baby or even Meredith would survive it. No, I don't think it's very likely.

Scott Benner 51:22
I say Is she married? No, no. She's

Suzanne 51:27
She's 22. And currently living her own wildlife is a groom.

Scott Benner 51:32
And you said groom so she was explained that to me is that she works in horses. Okay, so she's a she, she prepares them, grooms them keeps them how she rides as well. Yeah. Do you know, I know a man who does the dental work on horses?

Suzanne 51:47
I don't know, right? Yeah, we our horses get their teeth done every year.

Scott Benner 51:51
I don't know what it's called.

Suzanne 51:53
I just coined dentistry.

Scott Benner 51:56
So my son, you know, is a baseball player his whole life. And, you know, there's kids that you play with, and they come and go, and then they're back again. And so you know, eventually you meet people that you just see over and over again over decades. And one day, I was just talking to this guy who I'd known forever and I was like, what do you do for a living? He's like, I work on horses teeth. And I was like, why? I was. It was just endlessly fascinated by he files them and I'm like, how do you? You know? So now I'm like, he's a nice guy, but he's a real normal average guy. And

Suzanne 52:26
well, he'll be halfway up a horse's mind for the Black and Decker drill.

Scott Benner 52:30
I'm trying to figure out like, you know, did you Sorry, don't be so

Suzanne 52:39
hang on, give me a second your thing okay, they're gonna bark for that because someone's come to clean out the dog pen.

Scott Benner 53:00
Well, I'll say this and probably just trim out them barking later. So this this gentleman that I know like I asked him you know, what did you like go to school to learn this? You know? And it turns out it was a blue collar thing that he picked up. Like it was just a job that he worked with somebody else when he was younger, and he learned how to do it. He's no special degree or anything. And I thought oh, that's That's insane. It's very cool. He seems very happy doing it as well.

Suzanne 53:24
Oh, yeah. I mean, we use a vet. We don't use a dentist we use a vet but but I know people who do use an equine dentist

Scott Benner 53:34
you know we can wait a minute Susanna for one. So yeah, I'm really sorry. Don't be sorry.

Suzanne 53:39
Somebody comes on a Thursday. Normally they come in the afternoon.

Scott Benner 53:44
But not today. Thanks. Okay. Don't worry. We can chill out for a second. Your life seems lovely.

Suzanne 53:51
It is. My life is wonderful. My life has always been wonderful and continues to be wonderful. I am very very lucky.

Scott Benner 53:59
Were you able to pass this kind of free nature on to your kids?

Suzanne 54:03
One of them a little bit my son is much more like me. They're both an odd mix I suppose of myself and my husband my husband is is tends to be more serious and studious than I am

I'm just gonna go and shut them up okay

Scott Benner 54:24
don't like the lady. The lady looks pissed we'll stop well I was gonna say like your husband couldn't be like your you would not successfully have raised children or bought a home. So

Suzanne 54:36
this is this is true, although honest, I think is quite a he's quite optimistic too. But I am very much on the art side of things and he is an engineer chemical engineer who paints own artistic bent but he is much steady or I guess,

Scott Benner 55:01
yeah, Kelly's the one who's like more. Like, I don't know if serious is the right word, but she's very. She's studious. And yeah. And a hard worker. Like if you I don't care what kind of business you have you hire my wife, your lover. You know what I mean? Like she she works. She knows what she's supposed to do. She doesn't really well, she doesn't ask for help. She gets it done. She takes it seriously. Like, it's her own job. Like it's her own life that she's doing. You know, it's and, and I'm more like the one who's like, oh, it's nice out today, we should scrap all of our plans and do something that nice weather says to do? Yeah,

Suzanne 55:35
that's me. I'm very, I suppose spontaneous. Disorganized would be another way to call it. Name it. But But yeah, I think that we've complemented each other fairly well raising children. But, you know, if you want to know some more interesting facts about me, my husband actually is gay came out as gay 20 years ago, and him and his partner live in the basement of the house and I live in the upstairs of my house. Wait

Scott Benner 56:01
a minute. Wait, hold on. Okay. Really? Your children are obviously aware of this. Absolutely. Okay. And you. All right. Hold on. Do you date?

Suzanne 56:17
I have done Yes. I'm not dating currently. But I certainly have done in the past. Yes.

Scott Benner 56:24
That and so why did you guys decide to stay in the same house

Suzanne 56:29
is we still had a daughter to race together when we moved here. So we moved here from the UK. And everything was fine. And I thought everything in the garden was rosy. And we got here in the February. And in the end of March, I found out work out my husband was gay. And a week later, my daughter developed leukemia. So by the time I stopped to think about Alastair being gay, I had that initial oh my god, oh my God, oh, my God. And then the OH MY GOD moved on because my daughter was very, very sick. So by the time I stopped and thought about it all, we were still raising a child together. And he was doing him and I was really just raising the children at that point. And so we decided that he I am no longer in love with him, but I still love him. He is my best friend.

Scott Benner 57:28
So you weren't? Obviously you're not angry with him for feeling the way he feels. But it's it's shocking to you and you can't possibly

Suzanne 57:34
be angry at the way he feels because it's not the way he feels. It's who he is. Yeah, he can't choose this. It is the way he is genetically gay. It is in his makeup. And we had a great a great relationship up until he came out. We had a bit of a rocky road there for a little while. And now we are good again. So he is still my helpmeet.

Scott Benner 57:58
And I'm sorry, the Leukemia is the same daughter we were talking about earlier. In that that she she got through.

Suzanne 58:07
Yes, but only just we were told to pick. We were told to plan her funeral.

Scott Benner 58:13
No kidding. When she was just a couple years old. She was two and then again, free. Yeah. Oh my god. Sorry, no, don't be sorry.

Suzanne 58:27
Yeah, so she she was Yeah, so she she got through that and she's, she's a tough cookie. She really is a tough cookie. I imagine. She really really is. She's an incredible kid. She actually got into read Neurosciences at Calvary university, but decided that one her body would still support her. She wanted to run wild for a little while, and then she'll come back and go to university when her body starts to break down a bit more.

Scott Benner 58:56
Listen, you need to apologize for nothing except for waiting 54 minutes to bring up that your husband came out like that far into your marriage. The only thing you need to have all you should have what? When I said introduce yourself, you should have said, Hey, I'm Susanna. I have diabetes, and my husband came out. That's how that should have gone. But other than that, I'm good. Wow. And everyone should be proud of me. When Suzanne said she was busy raising the babies while Aleister was I thought raising penises but I did not say it out loud.

Suzanne 59:28
That's not true. He's a good dad. Wasn't and he is. He's an amazing dad and he's always been there for the children. But he has my daughter for a while called him the penny because he kept turning up in other men's pockets.

Scott Benner 59:42
Oh my goodness, you have a varied lifestyle. This is really something there's a book in you like you should be a movie or a mini

Suzanne 59:51
right? No one will believe it. Scott. I've said that many times before. If I wrote a book about my life, nobody would believe it. Yeah,

Scott Benner 59:57
that's true. I there's a portion Have my extended family that I once thought I should turn into a sitcom. And I just thought people would think it was ham fisted if I wrote it down, they just think like that's not people don't live like that. That's he's making this up. So

Suzanne 1:00:12
no, no, we genuinely sit around the dinner table never be burst into song because somebody said something. And I didn't know we're pretty. We're pretty crazy lot. So

Scott Benner 1:00:22
that's wonderful. I just because we're up on an hour. Is there anything I didn't ask you about that you wanted me to? I can't imagine there's something we left out. But if there is I want to know.

Suzanne 1:00:33
I don't think so. I guess I didn't talk much about diabetes, did I but it is a back. It's takes a backseat in my life. It's not front and foremost in my mind all the time. I am aware of it. It floats around in the back of my head all the time. Wherever I am, it is always and I will flat a panic if I don't have insulin and a blood testing kit with me.

Scott Benner 1:00:55
Okay, you're just you trained in a very modern way now.

Suzanne 1:01:00
Yes, but I Yes. So ever since I've been able to test my blood, which again, was about the 80s I believe. I have carried a blood glucose monitor of some sort, and testing strips and all the rest of it. And now I have the libre, which isn't a CGM. I realize that, but it's, but it's a similar type of technology, I suppose. And I have the pump. But I don't leave home without everything ready to replace it?

Scott Benner 1:01:33
Yeah. How did you find me? How are we talking?

Suzanne 1:01:38
How did I find you on the internet. Um, I actually I listened to a podcast. And I typed in on my apple podcast app thing. I typed in looking for things about diabetes, wondering if there was anything. And it was random at the time that I find out that my kidneys weren't doing quite as well. Um, that I started looking into various different forums, I suppose to begin with. And then I had pneumonia and my sugar levels were all over the place. And once I got rid of the pneumonia, I couldn't sort out my sugar levels again, I couldn't stabilize everything. And that was when I hit on the podcast, and the whole bowl with insulin thing and, you know, the whole everything sort of started to slop together. And I got back on track again.

Scott Benner 1:02:37
I'm glad. I mean, as you were talking earlier, like you said you didn't talk much about diabetes, but in my opinion, you did. I think, I think what we heard was, you know, you were diagnosed at a really young age before, you know, much treatment was really honestly available day to day. Yeah, that you went out you let an interesting, active life. You know, you met people had children got married, phallic rosin, was gay bought dogs rode horses. Like I think that's the kind of stuff people need to hear that you can do all that stuff with diabetes, like, there are plenty of people who are worried that not just you know, all of those things aren't possible. They think one of those things is impossible. So

Suzanne 1:03:18
hasn't stopped me doing anything I've wanted to do.

Scott Benner 1:03:21
Doesn't sound like it. But I just wondered, because, I mean, you sound like you're doing so well. Like I didn't imagine you would you would need like something like this. So, but you did find like the way I talked about diabetes to be valuable, kind of like straighten your back up again. You're saying?

Suzanne 1:03:39
Yeah, well, it got me back on track again. Because it's sometimes you do get, I suppose that's probably the closest I came to a diabetic burnout, which I hear about all the time. And I didn't think I'd ever had but looking back on it. Maybe I did, maybe this fighting constantly with blood sugar was was just getting exhausting. And I was like, it was like I was constantly correcting. Okay. And so that was when I thought about the whole thing and stuff and thinking about pumps and all the rest of it. And just thought, you know, yeah, I got a, I'm getting older. And so it's, I would say as I've got older, my diabetes has got a little more brittle. In a way. I think my responses are quicker and slower. So my responses to food are quicker. My responses to insulin are slower, maybe. So if I I am not particularly careful about what I eat, but if I step too far off that trail, I will pay for it. And I don't enjoy that feeling. I enjoy feeling well.

Scott Benner 1:04:46
Right. So what do you need to do now? Like are you Pre-Bolus ng longer?

Suzanne 1:04:52
Um, I use a lot of a you I always Pre-Bolus Anyway, but I use a lot of extended bonuses. Okay. Alright, um, yeah. And I, I didn't take a huge amount of insulin. I don't think I fill my pump every three days with 100 units.

Scott Benner 1:05:15
That's a I mean, that's 30 Some units a day. So yeah, yeah. I mean, what is that? What is your Basal like point seven?

Suzanne 1:05:25
Yeah, varies between point five, five at night to the highest is point eight first thing in the morning. Okay.

Scott Benner 1:05:32
Wow. All right sounds like you're doing great. I also don't think of it as using a lot of insulin or a little bit of insulin, I just think of it as using whatever amount of insulin you need. So

Suzanne 1:05:40
yeah, exactly. And I don't really care too much about about what I need. And if I'm sick, my insulin goes through the roof. I mean, I will literally use eight to 10 times more insulin. Gotcha. Okay, so if I, if I do get sick, I don't use the pump.

Scott Benner 1:05:56
Do you switch back? Yeah. Have you ever done what they call untethered? Like,

Suzanne 1:06:03
I, I've thought about it, but I don't need it. So. And I prefer, I suppose to what I what I what I do when I'm sick is actually I do leave, I leave the pump on. And I leave the pump running on what I've got as my sickness, basil, which is like two units an hour. And then I dose on top of that.

Scott Benner 1:06:27
It sounds like you've got a lot together. I was just surprised that you found me because I mean, not because your age, although it makes it a little more unlikely. But just because it didn't seem like you would have needed this. But it's really cool that it that you found it and that it was of any value to you at all. I'm

Suzanne 1:06:43
sure there's a difference between need and want. Okay, yeah. No. Like, it's nice to know there's a community out there. I don't have any friends who are type one diabetic at all. Gotcha. So I just, it's nice to know that you're not the only one because people don't understand me. Now. I'm sounding like, Oh my God. There we go. There we go. Everything is awful. And it isn't. But it is different. And it is a part of your life that you have to take care of. And sometimes it's nice to know somebody who understands the words hypo Bolus?

Scott Benner 1:07:20
No, I agree. I really do. I also think that's why like conversations like this one are some of my favorite because I think we both didn't speak about diabetes and only spoke about diabetes. Somebody asked me recently. I don't know, they the way they said it was like, you know, what, what's it like making a diabetes podcast? And I said, I don't really think of it is a diabetes podcast. I think of it as a podcast, where I mostly talk to people who have diabetes. And I don't Yeah, and I don't know that, that most people would see a difference in that, but I see a huge difference in

Suzanne 1:07:53
it. Yeah, so I am a diet. Like, I've always said, I am a diabetic, but it is not a defining characteristic,

Scott Benner 1:08:00
ya know, that's how I see this whole thing. So all right, well, I can't thank you enough for doing this. And for having such a great life and telling us about it. And being Yeah, you were demure in places you wouldn't say who the best thing or was, although I know someone popped in your head. And yeah, and I was demure and didn't ask you about the most famous person you had sex with, although I am going to stop this recording and ask you immediately. And then I'll spend my afternoon trying to find those nude pictures of you, and then I'll get on with my life. That'll be pretty much No, but seriously, I really appreciate you doing this and taking the time out of your day. It was it was

Suzanne 1:08:39
Thank you. I appreciate everything you do. You're out there for people. And it's a great thing, Scott. It's my pleasure.

Scott Benner 1:08:52
A huge thanks to Suzanne and Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor dexcom.com forward slash juice box Get started today. I also want to remind you to go to Omni pod.com forward slash juice box get started with automated insulin delivery with that on the pod five, or check out the Omni pod dash and see if you're eligible for a free 30 day trial. When you visit the sponsors, including Omni pod Dexcom, and all the rest, if you do it from juicebox podcast.com and use my links or use the links in your audio app. Well, then they know you came from me. And that really helps. So thank you. Many of the series within the podcasts a lot of the management stuff is located in your podcast player, right? But if you're looking for lists of them, or you'd like to be able to listen to them online, you can do that at juicebox podcast.com, or more specifically, diabetes pro tip.com. Since this is a shorter episode, I thought I would leave you with a couple of minutes I'm Susanna ly trying to get set up for the recording. I don't know why, but I found it delightful. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast

Okay, do you have headphones?

Suzanne 1:10:18
Um, I do somewhere. Um, I don't to be truthful I hate them though do I have to use them?

Scott Benner 1:10:25
Well if you hate them so here's the problem is that you're going to when you're just speaking into the end of your iPad, which is basically what you're doing you are you're going to change distances from the microphone without realizing it your your voice is going to get softer and louder. We're also going to hear room noise and the hollowness of your room which is not something you're accustomed to worrying about but I think about Yeah, can we try it to see what it sounds like?

Suzanne 1:10:55
Yes, hold on a moment because I have to find something

Scott Benner 1:10:57
you go ahead Thank you

Suzanne 1:11:51
Okay, so I find the box that should contain them

Scott Benner 1:11:56
that doesn't sound promising.

Suzanne 1:11:57
No, it doesn't does it? You okay wire but

Scott Benner 1:12:32
you didn't fall, did you?

Suzanne 1:12:36
You know what, I genuinely can't find them. Scott.

Scott Benner 1:12:38
That's okay. Well, we'll just show sorry. I'll be sorry. We'll get you close to it and be a little bit cognizant about not tapping your feet or moving around stuff like that. That's okay. Right. Okay. Yes, I'm not wasting your accent. We're doing this, don't you? Were

Suzanne 1:13:00
we talking about I've been in Canada for 20 years.

Scott Benner 1:13:03
Sure. You sound like Wayne Gretzky.

Oh my gosh. So here's how this goes right you introduce yourself anyway you want to be known. And don't feel pressure to use your last name. Don't feel pressure to say specific places where you live where you do things or use people's names if you don't want to, you know, if you're going to talk about someone in your life, you can refer to them as your mom or your partner. You don't have to say you know Jim and bill or whatever. So, you know, after that just introduce yourself and we'll start talking. Okay, are we ready? I'm always ready. I've been recording the whole time you've been bouncing around your room looking for those. I'm so sorry. My dogs don't bark. I have to tell right now all that's going at the end of the episode. You just buried with no explanation. It's just gonna run at the end. It's gonna go straight in there. Fair enough. I get it. Okay, so

#744 Shots Fired

Stephen has type 1 diabetes and he's made some major improvemtns to his health.

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#743 Bold Beginnings: Stacking

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Test your knowledge of episode 743

1. What is the role of basal and bolus insulin in diabetes management?

2. Why is carbohydrate counting significant in diabetes management?

3. How should high blood sugar episodes be handled?

4. What psychological aspects of living with diabetes should be managed?

5. Why are regular medical check-ups important for diabetes management?

6. How does physical activity impact blood sugar levels?

7. Why is it important to have a personalized diabetes management plan?

8. How can staying informed about new research and developments in diabetes care help?

#742 Vocal Support

Suzanne has type 1 diabetes and was a back up singer for some famous acts.

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