Scott Benner 8/24/23 Scott Benner 8/24/23

#983 Study Abroad Adventure

Lauryn was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in Tel Aviv, she also has hyperparathyroidism.

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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 983 of the Juicebox Podcast.

13 years ago when she was 19 years old Lauren was diagnosed with type one diabetes. She also has hyper parathyroid itis signos thyroiditis. My let her tell you 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. If you're thinking about getting a Dexcom use my link dexcom.com forward slash juicebox considering an omni pod Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. And if you'd like to get a free year supply of vitamin D, and five free travel packs with your first order, go to drink ag one.com forward slash juice box I drink ag one every day. And you could too. Don't forget to check out the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes for all of your diabetes community wants and needs.

Today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by us med. Now us med is where my daughter gets her diabetes supplies from and so can you to get started. Just go to us med.com forward slash juice box or call 888-721-1514 Get your free benefits check and get on your way with us med. This episode is also sponsored by cozy earth. Now cozy earth.com is where you go. And the offer code you use is juice box at checkout. Why would you do this? Well, you're going to save 40% off of your entire order at cosy earth.com When you use my offer code juice box, that's sheets, towels, clothing, everything they have 40% off with the offer code juice box at checkout. All right,

Lauryn 2:25
hello Scott. My name is Lauren. I'm from Chicago. I am a type one diabetic. I was diagnosed back in 2009 kind of a fluke situation. I currently use an insulin pump. I know you didn't tell me to say any of this, but I kind of went on a roll. Good. Use an insulin pump. I'm excited to kind of talk through just my really I think it's interesting story. So here I am.

Scott Benner 2:49
I will be the arbiter of whether or not you're interesting. diagnosed in 2009 How old were you then?

Lauryn 2:57
I was 19. So it's been about 13 years. Yeah. Back in thanksgiving. Actually. I was diagnosed.

Scott Benner 3:03
Okay. All right. And you have type one. Do you have any other autoimmune issues?

Lauryn 3:07
I have hyperparathyroidism so I suppose that's a constant issue. Yes. In addition to type one diabetes,

Scott Benner 3:14
why this is the only podcast in the world where that makes you extra interesting. Superstar. So thank you so much. No, absolutely. I somebody came on one time. They're like, there's so much wrong with me. I knew I had to be on the show. Unlike other same way. Yeah. Unlike other podcasts where it's like you're on a TV show. That's exciting. I'm like you have hyperparathyroidism it's amazing. Okay, so 2009 19 years old. Were you in college?

Lauryn 3:44
Yeah, so So before I went to college, I actually studied abroad in Israel. I did like a gap year program. I didn't see that when coming probably. I studied in Israel for a year kind of taking some secular classes. It was kind of like a religious program. And I got really really sick that's kind of the abbreviated version. I thought it was food poisoning me my roommate were both really sick. And then mine didn't go away so she felt better and then over time, I was like, This doesn't seem normal that I'm still not feeling well. Yeah,

Scott Benner 4:11
I got the worst food poisoning it's never leaving. And you would literally never leave you traveled abroad in Israel. What do you Lutheran? I'm just I'm Jewish. So getting to know each other, how long were you there?

Lauryn 4:27
I was there for about six weeks. The program started in like October I got really sick in November. And then after the diagnosis, I was in the ICU for a bit of time and then I actually got to go back in February so it was a nine month program total

Scott Benner 4:39
Oh, I almost thought like oh god her thing got cut short because of this and but you didn't go you would just went back on a different trip later. So it

Lauryn 4:46
was the same trip my parents must have been like a little crazy. They let me go back on the same trip in February after I kind of recovered and spend some time at home I know. Bless them.

Scott Benner 4:57
They fly you home fiction Then ship Yeah,

Lauryn 5:00
pretty much in a nice little bow. I was I had an emergency flight home from Israel. It was like, if a lot of talk about finances like a $40,000 flight home from Israel, I flew with like not and Yahoo's paramedic. I had a nurse I had some first I know as a whole situation,

Unknown Speaker 5:18
who your parents. They did

Lauryn 5:20
not pay for they was all insurance based. Yeah. Well, I guess I don't know all of the details of that. I have a family friend who's Israeli and spoke Hebrew and helped create the flights. He's a doctor as well shout out to Dr. Al Judah.

Scott Benner 5:36
That's really amazing. How sick how sick were you?

Lauryn 5:39
I was really sick. I was at the ICU in Israel outside of Tel Aviv for almost three weeks and they thought it was appendicitis. So they wanted to remove my pancreas. But I did have some friends who also spoke Hebrew and they were like, Let's take get a second opinion.

Scott Benner 5:53
I think you meant to say pancreatitis, instead of I didn't.

Lauryn 5:56
I meant to say they thought I had appendicitis. They didn't know what was wrong with

Scott Benner 5:59
me. They thought you had appendicitis and they wanted to remove your pancreas. I'm sorry, appendix. You misspoke somewhere. And I was like, you were like, my head hurt and they tried to cut off my foot. Okay, so they thought you had pancreatitis.

Lauryn 6:15
They thought I had appendicitis and wanted to remove my appendix. Found out. Yes. Thank you for the clarity.

Scott Benner 6:23
Somebody's gonna listen to you. I know. It's like I know this. So someone stepped in and said this doctor, I'm imagining that you know, and stepped in and said, Hey, like, slugger. Oh, that doesn't seem right. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. What are your symptoms.

Lauryn 6:38
So the night that I got sick, I had like a lot of vomiting. Just really fatigue. I spent four hours at the hospital waiting to get just like seen by a doctor. Finally, they said there was a lot of like inflammation near my abdomen. Just like again, feeling really nauseous not being able to hold my bladder and things like that. I had one of those tubes that kind of go through the nose, couldn't tell you what that's called, where it kind of like goes into your system. I had that for about two and a half weeks. That was super fun. And then kind of just over time, they were like, oh, you know, maybe there was a different organ that we missed. And then they realized it was pancreatitis, and by then I was already on a drip of insulin. Because my blood sugar's were really crazy.

Scott Benner 7:16
Wow. That's correct. And are you type one at that point?

Lauryn 7:20
Yeah, well, so they told me that I had so I did get diagnosed with pancreatitis when I flew back to the state. So it was acute pancreatitis, the doctors figured that out. They didn't know what caused it at that time, but they were like, You know what, you're on insulin, it could go away. They did tell me within a year or so that if my pancreas healed, I actually wouldn't be diabetic. And here we are. 13 years later, still on insulin, but they figured out after about four weeks in the hospital in the states that it was caused by a parathyroid glands that was kind of like all the way down in my chest. Yeah. So kind of

Scott Benner 7:51
how crazy is that? You know, I'm online to our talking hyperthyroidism or hyperparathyroidism is when your parathyroid gland creates high amounts of parathyroid hormone in the bloodstream. These glands located behind the thyroid in the back of your neck are about the size of a grain of rice.

Lauryn 8:06
Yeah, that's and you have four of them. Yeah, yeah. Now it's crazy.

Scott Benner 8:11
So what did they do? Well, yeah, what do they do for this? Do they remove things? Do they medicate you? How do they handle it?

Lauryn 8:19
Yeah, so back in the States, I was on insulin, like for a long time. I mean, I'm still on insulin. But then about maybe six weeks after being in the hospital, they removed one of the parathyroid glands. So this really amazing surgeon with long skinny fingers, I guess, like pulled it out. But that's the story. They tell me. But it like broke, because it truly is so small. So she had to like scope it out. Yeah. And then from then, you know, a lot of the symptoms started subsiding. And I was just now like, a diabetic.

Scott Benner 8:47
Now you're young, then this question might not you might not know the answer to this question. But do they take out just one because one was defective? Or do they take out one because they just wanted you to have three?

Lauryn 8:59
Because it was defective? Yeah. So they were all on your neck. And mine was like, all the way down in my chest. They took out the one that was all the way down there. Wow.

Scott Benner 9:08
So and this is on these, these four things, these four parathyroids are on the thyroid gland itself? I think it sits right behind parathyroid glands. Okay, on the back of the thyroid. Yeah. So it sounds like a delicate surgery. Are there any other issues that you're now looking like are you concerned about in the future or does this not or is this problem not indicative of other problems?

Lauryn 9:32
Yeah, so they told me later on that something, you know, they checked, I get a check every year, you know, they check my levels of everything right now all of the other parathyroids and thyroid glands are intact. So it's just the pancreas that truly isn't functional like at all.

Scott Benner 9:46
So you don't take Synthroid or anything like that.

Lauryn 9:49
I take calcium medication, so like a calcium supplement every day, but that's about it,

Scott Benner 9:53
because you're now not making as much calcium or it's not being regulated the same.

Lauryn 9:59
I overproduced is calcium because of the hyperparathyroidism? And now I take it like once a day just to kind of even out the levels,

Scott Benner 10:07
because it's been under producing at this point. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Geez, that's insane. It's a wild story. Are there any people in your family who have gone through this? Or are there other autoimmune issues back in your in your family line? And Could everybody in the world stop calling me at the same freaking time? Podcast? Sorry.

Lauryn 10:28
Is that questions about hyperparathyroidism? Maybe

Scott Benner 10:30
this is going to be my mom, by the way, who is now going to assume that the phone didn't work and try again? And if I text her will never see the text.

Lauryn 10:42
Sorry, if you need to take a phone call. That's I don't

Scott Benner 10:46
think I do. Unless Can you imagine if my mom passes away after this and it's your fault line that I didn't answer.

Lauryn 10:51
Oh my god, I will never be asked me on a podcast again.

Scott Benner 10:54
You'll be it'll be a mush. Bad luck. Sorry. I'm sorry. That was my question.

Lauryn 11:00
You asked if anyone in my family has any other issues similar to mine, thank you. Quick answer is no. My grandmother is type two diabetic. He was diagnosed in her late 70s. She's not by any means have any other issues except for maybe you know, the grumpiness of an older woman. But there's no other type one diabetics. I had like an uncle on another side. If on the other side who had who had type one diabetes, but we're not blood

Scott Benner 11:22
related. It's just the guy you know. hyperthyroid? Hashimotos. Let's see celiac. Anything. Yeah, bipolar grandmother anything at

Lauryn 11:33
all? You'd think but no, no. Wow.

Scott Benner 11:37
makes you a real anomaly in your family.

Lauryn 11:39
It really is goofy. Yeah, I don't think I had any predisposition. And pancreatitis I've always been told kind of happens in like, maybe some older people who have some big drinking habits and things like that. So I had none of those.

Scott Benner 11:50
You hadn't done 40 years of drinking and your first couple? Not at that time. They never gave you any reason for why this happened.

Lauryn 11:58
No, the biggest thing I could uncover from all of my like Googling and stuff was that it was like a dormant defective gland that kind of just, you know, I don't know if it was like stress induced or something like that. But I still to this day, I've had doctors come in and ask me questions for textbooks. And there was a lot of like learning doctors at the hospitals who were like, you're a puzzle. And that's why I was like, That's unhelpful, but

Scott Benner 12:20
it's just it's not really anything you can pin down but do you? Have you ever wondered just the illness like the food poisoning? Do you feel like it like pushed you over an edge or something like that?

Lauryn 12:32
I truly have a vengeance against this Chinese restaurant in Israel. I'm like, I will never go back. I have really been. But I do think about it sometimes. Yeah.

Scott Benner 12:40
Well, I looked up the restaurant and it's called the parathyroid killer. So I don't know why you went in there.

Lauryn 12:46
I think it closed now because of bad press. The bad story

Scott Benner 12:49
about one girl's thyroid explodes after she has a dumpling and we can't do business. Chinese restaurant in Israel must be amazing, right? I'm sorry. It must be amazing food. No,

Lauryn 13:02
dude, it was so good. I went there like all the time, too. And to not be able to go back was a real bummer.

Scott Benner 13:07
I was gonna say you can't you can't pawn bad Chinese off on Jewish people. They weren't happening at all. Can I ask you an existential question? here for a second? As a young person, something that odd going wrong inside of your body? Do you lose a little bit of that? I don't know what to call it like that. That feeling like you're Superman when you're younger? Does it screw you up? Do you know what I mean?

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Screw you up. You don't I mean, yeah, it's

Lauryn 17:39
a great question. And to be quite honest, I actually think I had the opposite effect. I don't know if it was just this religious program that I was a part of it was it was an orthodox program. I loved it. I myself am not Orthodox, but it was a very spiritual program. And I almost feel like it was like I was in this really great spot of being among people who are pious and holy and people would visit me all the time. And I actually, you know, I really didn't feel that I was in like a depressive state or kind of like, Why me, I think I had a really amazing support system. I got very lucky my best friends run this program, too. They'd come and bring guitars and they'd sing and they would you know, be there a long time, which is awesome. So I think if I didn't have that, for sure, I would be a little bit more like,

Scott Benner 18:19
yeah, I was wondering about if your brain goes down the road of like, well to incredibly uncommon and rare things have now happened to me, that would make you feel like you were on unsteady ground. But so it sounds like support from other people helped you from having to wonder about that.

Lauryn 18:35
Absolutely. Yeah. And I mean, I was never alone. I think part of its being 19 in a foreign country. So there's always someone kind of with you at the time. Definitely helped a lot.

Speaker 1 18:44
Okay, so now we're home after the trip, which I guess I would not diabetes related. But it'd be wrong to ask not ask you like, what was your big takeaway from your trip? What do you think it did for you? And what did you learn?

Lauryn 18:58
Absolutely. I would say in general, just becoming a stronger person. I think I'm a little bit passive a little bit soft spoken. I think it really taught me to it kind of grew up a little bit. I think I really had to kind of be more independent, I had to kind of navigate these like crazy difficult things that maybe college students don't experience their first year in college, but it really made me kind of appreciate my family more and kind of being away from them. And yeah, kind of just building strong relationships with

Scott Benner 19:25
people things people don't normally experience like rocket fire or just like being on your own. And then like how, what was your experience? Like while you were there?

Lauryn 19:32
Yeah. So I would say you know, we had a lot of autonomy, which was awesome. I definitely felt nervous sometimes a walking alone, but we were always kind of like chaperoned and supervised. But it was really amazing. I mean, just experiencing a different culture that was outside of my own and really having to navigate that not knowing the language. I still don't know Hebrew. I always kind of like showed my phone like this is what I'm looking for. Yeah, it's just the bathroom, you know,

Scott Benner 19:57
scary going into a hospital nothing. situation?

Lauryn 20:00
Yes, definitely a shout out to all the nurses, even if they don't speak English do their best to help you through everything though. They have roommates there. And maybe America does this too. I had to like share a room with like a woman similar to my age. And she had been there for like three months. And as she was like getting discharged and checked out, she left me this like poster that in Hebrew had some nice beautiful saying, and she blessed me and like, that was really cool. I had no idea we kind of grew close, I guess we shared a room for like three weeks. But that was kind of a different experience, you know, different roommate experience or

Scott Benner 20:33
speak to your parents about it afterwards, and what it was like for them to have a young child that far away and sick.

Lauryn 20:38
Yeah, definitely traumatizing my Jewish, my poor Jewish mother. Just every day awake. And the time difference was really tough. I remember calling them and this program kept Shabbat. So like, it was like a big deal that I called them. And I was like, Listen, I'm at the hospital. Don't freak out. But like, I don't know what's going on in my mom's like, What do you mean, you're in the hospital? And what do you mean, we have to come get you? And yeah, they definitely I was surprised they let me go back after, after all that.

Scott Benner 21:04
Okay. So for everyone in the middle of the country, who is now wondering, I think I know. But Shabbat Oh, yes, people what it is. So Shabbat

Lauryn 21:12
is a Jewish, weekly, I don't know if holiday is the word but observance where you don't really use your phone, you don't drive. It's really a time to be together with your family be with guests and things like that. And so on this program, we were having something called a Chaba tone where we were actually offered campus and we were at a different city. So we were kind of singing and eating and things like that. And we don't use our phone or electricity and things like that. And all of a sudden, I'm like ill, and I was like, I gotta call my parents.

Scott Benner 21:40
Alright, Lauren tests my understanding of the faith. Okay. Is it true that sometimes people will like, have a neighbor turn on something to get around the Shabbat rolls? So like, yeah. Is that right? Like you? Maybe you get a, you can't directly ask them? Right,

Lauryn 21:57
right. You gotta be sneaky about it called a shabbos goy.

Scott Benner 22:01
I know, things I shouldn't know. And I didn't want to say go out loud, because I wasn't sure if I wasn't allowed. But so you can kind of like, like, in an example, where you were in an apartment building, and you wanted to use a, I don't know, a light or something like that you can't turn it on. But you could have someone to your home and then mention how dark it is and how to reset hope they turn the light.

Lauryn 22:24
Right? Right. So it's very true. Yes, you can kind of like indirectly be like, Man, it'd be great if we, you know, you know, accidentally turn the bathroom light off. Right? You're not supposed to directly ask,

Scott Benner 22:36
and do people sometimes leave lights on so that they have them for the next day? Is that right to?

Lauryn 22:42
Absolutely, yeah, I

Scott Benner 22:43
don't know that.

Lauryn 22:44
Do you know a lot of Jewish people?

Scott Benner 22:45
Well, yes, but that's not why I'm gonna guess it's somewhere between a sitcom and Howard Stern that I know that those are my guests. Sounds right. Yeah, that there's those are my guesses about why I might because as you were talking about, I was like, I think I know more about this, which is just excited. In general, because you can imagine if I can't interact with you during this conversation, it's just really you talking. Me sitting here going? I have a pot? Yes. But I don't say much. What does that really mean? At this point, I have the ability to record you. I mean, if I'm not in the game. Alright. So tell me a little bit about being diagnosed with type one diabetes. At that point in your life. Obviously, it was a shock. But how did you know you had type one?

Lauryn 23:27
Yeah. So when I was hospitalized, they basically were like, Hey, your pancreas does not work. You have something called type one diabetes, which makes you insulin dependent. And at that time, I really didn't know anybody growing up that had diabetes. I really kind of I knew my grandma took some like oral medication. They really had to explain it to me, like a five year old. They were like, you are going to take these like needles, there's going to be medicine in there. And I wouldn't give myself shots for probably like three months. I was like, I couldn't do it. I had the doctors do it. I had my parents do it. It was like so freaky. To me. I feel like everyone has like a needle phobia, right? That's the thing.

Scott Benner 24:01
I have to tell you, I never understand when people like I'm one of those people who doesn't like needles at my Who do you think are people who do like them? Exactly. Right? Like a secret society of people are like, oh, you know what I love? It's easy for me. Yeah. But you you resisted it longer, though, that a lot of people do. Yeah.

Lauryn 24:20
I think the denial stage lasted a number of years. And then slowly I was like, alright, this stuff is not going away. This is something I'm gonna have to just like, learn to do on my own. And I actually did not get a pump until about six months ago. I'm 32. Now, I didn't get a pump until six months ago because I was so against it for so long.

Scott Benner 24:39
I'm gonna ask you why in a minute. But first, if I don't ask you this, I'll never forgive myself. When you didn't want to give yourself shots. Did you just trick your neighbors into doing it?

Lauryn 24:50
No, I did it. Yeah, that's funny. So I started using some humor to cope with it and my fiance will yell at me he's like, don't tell them used to shoot up. That's not funny, but I feel felt the need to share that joke that I would just kind of like a little bit make light of it like I would leave and go to the bathroom and do it. But it took mentally, like a long time for sure to like,

Scott Benner 25:09
okay, the idea of I've never really dug into this with anybody. So is it the pain from the needle? Is it the idea of you doing it? Could you not bring yourself to watch it go in your skin? Like what was it about it that really stopped you?

Lauryn 25:22
I have a very high pain tolerance. I don't think it was the pain. I think it was watching. Because what I think happened the first time I tried to do it, I think I like missed or it didn't like break the skin. And I was like, oh, shoot, I have to do this again. So yeah, I think it's kind of the contact of the needle in the skin. It gives me like the heebie now it's fine. But the first couple months? Yeah, I think it was like you have to make sure you're doing it kind of an angle to make sure it

Scott Benner 25:45
goes interesting. And tell your fiance by the way that I imagine everyone who has diabetes has made up. I'm gonna go shoot up. I'll be right back. I don't think no one's not made that joke. So he's worried about the wrong thing there. Okay, so it took you a few months to get through that. But then you obviously were fine, because you didn't have a pump for years and years. And then I want to know about that. I want to understand a little bit about what stops you from wanting an insulin pump?

Lauryn 26:14
Absolutely. So I will say I did try it. I had the Omni pad for about six weeks. But when I got my first job working at a hotel, I was in community college at the time, when it runs out of insulin, it makes that dog piercing sound that like literally only animals can hear. And I was like, There's no way that I'm gonna, like live with this noise all the time, like what is happening. And I didn't know how to kind of navigate that. So that was a huge factor.

Scott Benner 26:40
I wish you would have known me because I would have told you don't let it run out of insulin.

Lauryn 26:45
Great advice at the time. They're like, don't let it go low. But it happens. Yeah, a number of times. And it's piercing. And I kind of remember just like taking it off and throwing it away. And I was like I'm over this. I can't do it. Part of it too. You know, when you're in college and you're young and you want to wear clothing that's tight. And you know, the people can see it. I think there was kind of a stigma for me that I wasn't ready to be like, this is something I have and wearing overtly, you know that I have diabetes,

Scott Benner 27:10
that it sort of just became the way you did it after that. Can you imagine there would have been a time? I don't know, years later, where you wouldn't have minded something being unattached to you. But you just never thought back on it anymore. Is that what happened?

Lauryn 27:22
Definitely. Yeah, I'm just kind of stuck in my ways. I think as I got older, I'm like, I got this, you know, my agency is fine. You know, I kind of like do my own thing. But I think it really would have been more beneficial. It would have avoided a lot of lows avoided some highs being more in tune.

Scott Benner 27:37
So you said your agency was fine. So what what were your goals? Like? How did your doctor setup? You know what you were shooting for? Yeah,

Lauryn 27:43
that's a great question. So I think part of it was age. So like, when I first got diagnosed, my agency was like, 8.5, not proud of that. And then as we went on, he was kind of like, alright, we want to see go into the sevens. And then ideally, we want it to be 6.2, or five or something like that. But I will say not having a pump was really hard to regulate. So that should have been a kick in the pants for me when my agency fluctuated between sevens and 7.5, things like that. But I kind of didn't know, I think the extent when I was 21, that that was like that. I was kind of like, oh, you know, I'll work at it. I exercise I eat well, I, you know, do these things. But

Scott Benner 28:19
you know that I was just talking with someone the other day about this, and the idea of an agency, not just yours, but that moves around like that, like, you know, because the difference between a 6.2. And a seven and a half, for example, could just be a handful of fatty meals that create rises that take forever to come back down, and you're not really doing anything about it, because you're not looking. And that really could just be the difference there. But what is it about the system that teaches people with diabetes, how to help themselves, where it's not more of an imperative when that happens? Like it's more of like, I mean, what you just described is very common, like I'm doing, I'm trying like you don't I mean, like I'll we'll we'll give it a whirl again, three months from now and see what happens. We'll you know, we'll spin up that test and see where I got, instead of like, why isn't it like, Oh, my closer on fire? You're gonna be like, like, when when your blood sugar's 250 for five hours, why is it not? Like, why do people not think, Oh, I have to fix this right now. Instead, they go on? Maybe I'll get it right March. Like that's, I don't I don't know what the answer to that question is, but it's interesting. Yeah,

Lauryn 29:27
absolutely. I think to not to blame any doctors because it's not their fault. I think there was no like, urgency. There was no like, part of my education was like, this is your goal, but like, right, except there was no consequences. And I'm a behavior analyst for a living. So now I kind of know how to like change my behavior, but I think there was no one holding me accountable ever unless it was every three months. So there was no immediacy it wasn't, you know, I didn't have a pump. It didn't warn me when my blood sugar was 250. I had to check it next time I ate and if it was 310, that stinks. And then I corrected it. So part of it was Yeah, exactly. There was no one kind of constantly You're telling me hey, this is for your long term health, this would be really valuable for you.

Scott Benner 30:04
Yeah, no, I just always think about that. Like, I don't think it's apathy. I just think people don't know what they're supposed to be doing. And therefore they it all just kind of jumps from like appointment to appointment, which are usually three months apart. And then they say, one see pops up, and they go, Oh, better, worse. Same. That's it. And then just, we'll see what happens next time. And I noticed it's an odd way. And I was interviewing a type two recently. And the feeling that I got from this person, that basically the doctor looked at them, oh, well, you lost you got type two diabetes, I guess your life's not going to be as good or as long. Use this and get out of here. And you know, eat better and exercise. And that's just, it's just such a strange thing to me here. Imagine if you went to the hospital, and you said, I have a valve? It's gone bad. My heart. I need I need you to clear the valve open and then no, you know, it just yourself, say like, it's so weird. It just it's very strange to me. Okay. You just said that you're what do you do for a living?

Lauryn 31:08
I'm a behavior analyst. I do ABA therapy with kids with autism.

Scott Benner 31:12
Oh, thank God, I thought you were like judging me right now.

Lauryn 31:15
I get that a lot. They're like, Are you studying me? Like, no, no, no, not that kind of,

Scott Benner 31:20
like, I haven't been nervous making this podcast ever. But it's gonna happen in a second. Because you were like, can we use the camera? And I'm like, Sure. And I'm like, Oh, God. She's like, watching the camera. Yeah, I now believe you're looking at me thinking you're not Jewish. Seriously, but all my Jewish friends. So I'm adopted, right? So for many, many years, I had no idea about my lineage whatsoever. But every one of my Jewish friends was like, Yo, you're definitely like, came from Jewish household. And I was like, I don't know. It turns out furthest thing from the truth. I finally found out I'm like the product of so my birth mother. It was just like a, I don't want to say hillbilly because that seems wrong. But they were from a rural place. Okay. And it seems that they traveled a great distance. Have I ever said this on here, Lauren? I, I'm not sure. I'm thinking through my own recollection. There's 800 episodes. So they traveled. My birth mother, who was the oldest, I believe have nine children traveled from pretty far south to pretty far in the northeast to track down their cheating father. Oh, the plot thickens. This is what I've been told. I believe my birth mother was around 19 or 20 years old when this happen. They ended up staying in the Northeast for a while where she became pregnant. The mother, which I guess would be my grandmother was able to corral the cheating man and take him home. But they did not let them take the baby home. They didn't let her take the baby home, which would be me. So they made her give me up for adoption. And then they went back to I'm assuming the side of a hill that they live on or something like that. Now, you're looking at me now. And you're watching me speak with my mannerisms, everything and you're saying it's a good thing. They left him out here. I think that I look at myself. And I think, honestly, I'm totally going to be Ned Beatty. If if they take me back. You know what I mean? Which is their loss? Yeah, the bad reference that most people don't get, but it's not the point. Anyway, um, that's what I don't know why I told you that.

Lauryn 33:41
Thank you for sharing it. You're very welcome.

Scott Benner 33:43
Oh, and I have another thing I want to ask you. When you say that's a good question. Is that a conversation technique? Or do you believe it's a good question?

Lauryn 33:52
I genuinely think it's a good question, because it forced me to think about it. Okay. All right. So this is my first podcast. I don't know the etiquette. There's no

Scott Benner 33:59
etiquette, you're doing great. Oh, thank you. But no, I mean, I mean, there are conversation techniques that people use. And I think that's a good question is one of them. It gives people time to think. Right? And, and so it gives your brain a minute. And you don't have to begin to speak right away. So what it generally means is, oh, you've just asked me a question. Somebody hasn't asked me before. That's the idea, right?

Lauryn 34:25
Definitely. Yeah,

Scott Benner 34:26
I learned gonna make a joke. And now it seems wrong for me to even say, I was gonna say something like, I learned that when I was abandoned in

Lauryn 34:42
bringing out some triggering info, but I

Scott Benner 34:44
was too young for that. So that is not to the joke didn't work. And then I thought, oh, people often find that funny. Anyway, had I been in a group home for a number of years that I could have said, like, oh, I learned that in the group home and then that would have been funny. But anyway, that's still good. Yeah, that was quite a departure. But I know where we are so great. So you are living as an adult on MDI. You're not struggling with your agency, because nobody's telling you, you're struggling. But do you have an internal feeling you'd like it to be better?

Lauryn 35:12
For sure. Yeah. So after doing like my own research, I was like, I definitely should be at a different level where I'm at. But again, I couldn't bring myself to get the pump, even though I knew it was like the best next move. So I would do things like I'm just gonna like, check it more frequently, I'm gonna, and I actually like used to mess I don't know if I should like Mitt this on a diabetes podcast, but I used to like mess with my insulin counts, like my cart ratio kind of a little bit. And I would like reduce my Lantis a little if I like, ate like less, or like, things you're not supposed to be doing as someone without like a doctor's oversight. So

Scott Benner 35:46
it's super interesting that you said that. So I'm going to guarantee you that 89 point 17, one finds the all way up is almost 90% of the people listening to this podcast are like, Oh, she's delightful. These people are moving their insulin around all the time. And I would, I would argue that that is what you should be doing. Because you can't make an adjustment three months from now, from something that happened today. It's not going to be meaningful. And the entirety of how we have this system set up for people, I think is wrong. I think if you listen through, I know you've heard the podcast, but don't listen, listen to it. There's a series inside of the podcast called diabetes pro tip. If you listen to that, you wouldn't have said that, you would have said, Scott, you would be proud of me, because here's what I did. And because that's how I think I think that the entirety of managing type one diabetes is understanding that diabetes is about timing and amount, mostly, you have to use the right amount of insulin at the right time. And that those things are going to change based on your activity variables, and even just the glycemic value of the food that you're eating, which changes from meal to meal at times.

Lauryn 36:55
Absolutely. And everything affects it like coffee spikes, my blood sugar, where I think for some it like totally doesn't affect it at all. And I definitely outed myself for not saying I listened to the podcast, because I agree that would have been a normal thing to say, you don't

Scott Benner 37:08
have to listen to me on the podcast, by the way, so don't worry about that. That's not Yeah, yeah. No, I just think that that's good. I wish you would have gotten to it sooner. But I mean, I think that's amazing, like the, like, what do you do during an illness or your period? If you're not willing to manipulate your insulin to fit the need? Yeah, you know,

Lauryn 37:27
so I, the biggest thing is that I didn't know I could, if they had told me like, Hey, this is something you just kind of figure out as you go, I think I would have been a lot less stressed about it. I was very much like a rule follower. I like always did at the same time at the same you know, all the things and then as I got older, I didn't drink alcohol for a really long time because I didn't know how that would affect my blood sugar. And then when I actually drink alcohol, that was like a huge adjustment like knowing how to navigate the really highs and really lows. But yeah, no one really tells you that I think I was too afraid to ask those questions to like, hey, what happens if I get super drunk and I forget to take my nighttime insulin? You know, what are the repercussions?

Scott Benner 38:03
Well, that's, that's interesting. I say that. repercussions are alcohol drunk. We have an entire series of after dark stuff. You could have come on here and talked about sexual abuse. We'd one girl came on here and talked about being diagnosed during a heroin bender. You can say drunk. There's no I told you before we started I don't care what you say. Did you think I didn't mean it? No, no, I

Lauryn 38:28
just double checking. Like,

Scott Benner 38:30
there was a moment. Just imagine there was a moment I was interviewing somebody. And she spoke about escaping from her grandfather's house, I think where her family had put her to try to get her off of drugs. And she jumped out a window. And she was basically loose in the town looking for heroin. And at that point, went to DKA. Oh, and that's how she was diagnosed with diabetes. That's why I just looked up at you and you're like, it's hope it's okay. If I say drunk,

Lauryn 38:58
you're like, four times.

Scott Benner 39:00
drunk. I would prefer your story was better.

Lauryn 39:05
Well, I can tell you what happened a few days ago at my workout class. It's not the same. I had to leave early because I had our super super low in my insulin. My pump was going bananas. It was beeping it was so embarrassing.

Scott Benner 39:17
I was looking for math. And so was at one point, or I guess I don't even know. But during this progression, do you end up with a CGM ever?

Lauryn 39:29
I do have a CGM? Oh, you're saying back in the day? I did. I trialed one out for a while it almost just kind of like didn't make sense because I didn't have the pump. So I kind of put it off. And then when I went off of my parent's insurance, I was like, I can't afford this $8,000 piece of equipment. So which I could have because it would have been covered which I didn't know. So that was actually a big barrier to financially until I realized I'm like we insurance absolutely covers this stuff. Like I think I was looking for excuses not to get it. I was gonna

Scott Benner 39:59
say you're either You're a paradox somehow where you were kind of lying to yourself at point. Yeah. Right. Because you're, you've said a number of times. You're like, I can't do this, but turns out I could have. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So you didn't want to

Lauryn 40:12
do it? 100% Yep. Okay. Yep.

Scott Benner 40:15
But you call yourself a rule follower. So if someone would have told you that it was imperative to have a CGM, do you think you would have just done it? Probably.

Lauryn 40:23
I think that that would I mean, and my doctor did say he's like, this is definitely the best course of action. But again, when you're 20, and you're kinda like, you know, I just didn't want it on me. And it was like a whole thing. Even now.

Scott Benner 40:35
You worked at a hotel. You said when you're younger? I did. Is that like working in a restaurant? I've never worked at a restaurant. Here's the thing I want to ask you. They say that restaurant employees do a lot of intermingling after hours. Does that happen at a hotel Lauren?

Lauryn 40:52
It does banana in the weird way that you're alluding. I did get some goofy people that would ask me to like take them on tours of Chicago and I'm like you are in Deer Park, Illinois. There's no way there's nothing here.

Scott Benner 41:04
It's not the part of Chicago you're thinking. Right.

Lauryn 41:06
Exactly. We have targets. Yeah. We have

Scott Benner 41:10
targeting. This is a red roof and not the red. So okay, so what I was imagining is not happening. And I don't know where I was going with that. No, no questions where it was headed. I think I was asking you if everybody was banging each other after hours. Oh,

Lauryn 41:29
that? I don't know. I guess it's possible. I wasn't. I wasn't right.

Scott Benner 41:34
If you were would you tell me? Probably. Now that I know I'm able to. It's amazing. Okay, great. Okay, so Okay, so CGM was brought up to you. You did try it a little bit. How long ago like did you get a like a real like, right now? They're amazing, or did you get sort of like one of the beginning ones?

Lauryn 41:52
I think I had a beginning one now I have a Dexcom. And I love my Dexcom. I like can't imagine not having it, but this was probably Whoo. I think it still was a Dexcom. But they were like, much bigger. I feel like than they are now.

Scott Benner 42:03
Yeah. So the receiver was weird and clunky. So did you have like the egg shaped one?

Lauryn 42:07
Yeah.

Scott Benner 42:08
Okay, so you so basically, you had one of the very first ones, it was good. I mean, I'm not gonna I wouldn't badmouth that it saved my ass with my daughter over and over again. But it was not as like finely tuned as they are now as far as the the data you get back. Okay, so you try to eat went backwards? When did you finally end up with one was the Dexcom first or did the pump? Go first?

Lauryn 42:30
I got the Dexcom first and then the pump. Yeah. And, and it's awesome. Because now you can Bolus from your phone, which is amazing. That also helped. So I didn't even have to take out the pump.

Scott Benner 42:39
So you're using the tandem pump now? I am yeah. using Ctrl. Like you were.

Lauryn 42:45
I am. Yeah. Also life changing. Yeah, let's,

Scott Benner 42:47
let's talk about that. So once you get them CGM, and you're really starting to see the benefit of it, what's the first thing that seeing the data makes you think it was

Lauryn 42:57
worth it? It was worth it. And I'm data driven. For my like career, I'm really into graphs and numbers. And I like love to graph my own blood sugar, which is probably weird. But it was really cool to see just the end range and having that percent of like, Hey, you were in range 90%. Today, that's really reinforcing for me to see it like stay within that range. Because I never had that before. I never knew what my number. It's a little obsessive. I don't know if other people feel this way. I'm like always checking it. But it is cool to know at any moment where you're at.

Scott Benner 43:25
So you like the positive reinforcement that you get from A to just like bare bones though, like when you put it on? Did you think oh, wow, I spike after every meal, or I'm low here. And I didn't realize it like and then because I'm assuming that your agency and your variability is better now than it was before that. So like, I'm wondering what you know, when you looked at it, what screws did it make you want

Lauryn 43:47
to turn like change in my day to day or like,

Scott Benner 43:50
yeah, well change in your management and how you used insulin or even how you ate or anything like that? Like, what did you make adjustments off of seeing the data

Lauryn 43:57
a little bit? Yeah, so I guess I take less insulin than I did before. That was kind of nice, because it's always giving that like basil amount, which I didn't know what basil was, I didn't know what Bolus meant, like, I didn't know really, I guess into a Boltzmann. But that's been really helpful. So like being able to like, kind of not that I don't eat what I want, but kind of eat more freely, because the algorithm calculates it for you. I don't know if that's kind of what you're getting at. So it's a little bit less thinking now than when the pens you have to like twist and adjust. Give yourself a correctional amount. It kind of like takes away some of that like mental math.

Scott Benner 44:27
Yeah, I'm not trying to get to anything. I'm trying to pull out what your actual story is like, I don't care what your answer is. I'm just wondering, that's all so good. Because what my imagination is that whether you're a person who understands insulin out to the nth degree, or you're you or you're someone else, or you're a person who's not bolusing like there are people listening, you have the stories and I think it's valuable if you tell yours so that other people can hear theirs in your story. Because, I mean, when you say you didn't know what basil was, when you were MDI for all those years Did you like let's understand what that meant? You injected basil once a day on gathering? Did you ever put it in and think this is the insulin I'm using that holds my blood sugar stable at a certain thing has nothing to do with my food? Like, did you have that understanding of it? Or was it just like a person who told you like, Hey, this is this much at this time,

Lauryn 45:19
for a long time, it was just people saying you give the Lantis at night, and then you take the Nova log in the daytime, no one ever told me that you can stack insulin, I had no idea what that was, until 10 years after I was diagnosed too. So I do think I didn't get the same. Maybe I did get the education and I wasn't paying attention or there wasn't like enough follow up. But absolutely I, they never said like your Lantis. You know, you take it this time, and it keeps you regulated overnight. And then this is your short acting insulin, they probably said it was short acting, but I didn't know what that meant. I didn't know that that was to combat the carbohydrates you ate throughout the day, I didn't know that certain foods could spike my blood sugar, I'm making my team of doctors sound really terrible. But I think it was,

Scott Benner 45:58
I think what you're doing is giving a fairly accurate assessment of how most people are shepherded through type one diabetes, like, here's enough information for you not to hurt yourself, you're not really going to be able to help yourself too greatly, because you don't understand a lot of the moving parts, because we haven't told them to you. And because I'm guessing of the age you were, when you got it, you were sort of like I don't really want to know about this, this sucks. I want to go to Israel, I want to work in the red roof. And I want to you know, I'm gonna go to college, I'm gonna learn things, then by the time you come through it, I think that the direction you got was good enough that you were generally healthy. So you had no reason to look and go, Oh, I'm not doing this, right. Whereas you can hear any number of interviews on here, when people come in, they're diagnosed at your age, they don't give a crap, their health gets poor through college, then normally what happens is they meet another person that they care about, and then want to do better for themselves. Because I don't know why that is I have to ask a therapist, but But why you suddenly see value in yourself when somebody else sees value in you, or when you have a responsibility to another person, whichever. And then they have to reassess because there's so bad off. There's no ignoring it. But you were in a reasonable place the whole time. Right? So there was no reason for you to like, sit down and go, Hey, Google, what is Basal insulin? Or what you don't I mean, like, really? Tell me, what is this thing I'm doing? Because you were doing okay, absolutely. What makes you want to understand it better after that? What do you not? Are you just like, hey, this algorithm works? And I'm gonna give it crap. Why?

Lauryn 47:40
No, no. So actually, within the last year, part of it is actually having a partner who's in the medical field, and I think he kind of pushed me to be like, hey, yeah, right, which, like, unfortunately, it took maybe another person, but you know, kind of saying, like, hey, there's all this stuff out there, like you should really be, you know, checking it out, it would improve your life, it would kind of, so I think slowly, I was like, You're a, you know, like, I've kind of put this off long enough, I am an adult, I need to, like take care of myself. Also, just being in a job, that's kind of stressful, and like, moves out, like the day to day is always changing and kind of meeting to be a little bit like, I don't eat at the same time. So having a pump really keeps me accountable. And like maybe reminds me if I'm going low, were things like that, just like my life has evolved. In general, I've gotten more education, I have a master's degree, I really enjoy research and articles. And I'm like, Why haven't I applied this to myself? So it kind of was like a bit of awakening, but it kind of took a little bit of my partner being like, hey, this, this exists, this would make your life better, you should look into it. And then you're an

Scott Benner 48:36
anomaly on the show, in that you weren't like, in a really bad situation. Or you weren't the kind of person who either was super type A and like, I have to understand all this, or had a parent who was up your, you know, because you were diagnosed, like we're going to take care of it, and you just go to college, and we'll we'll stay on top of everything. You're lucky. I don't think I don't know that you know that or not, though, guys. A lot of people with diabetes, like your path is lucky. I think that's my assessment, whether you're not really asking me to assess you, but like that, really, based on all the people I've spoken to you I think you've got B and the reason why I say that is because I've also spoken to a lot of people who are much older, who can talk about their life, like you're talking about a little in retrospect right now. Not a lot, right. But I've spoken to people in their 60s in their 50s in their 70s sometimes who've had diabetes their whole life. And when they look back, and they're still healthy now, they have no idea why. And we pick through their stories. And sometimes their stories are just they got lucky along the way. I think you're one of the lucky people.

Lauryn 49:48
That's really nice. I've never been told that about my diabetes. Appreciate it.

Scott Benner 49:52
I am absolutely going to have to get I'm gonna have to keep this going for a really long time. Back on when you're like 54 I

Lauryn 50:02
check it in 10 years. Yeah, thanks.

Scott Benner 50:03
How old are you now? Would you just 3332 32? Hold on a second. I'm 51 years 32 You don't I can't make a podcast and I'm in my 70s just be an old man clear in his throat the whole time. Like you. I'm so dry, my teeth are sticking to my teeth. You could people do it all the time. How many people are speaking to speak to their older parents? And before they talk about mom take a drink before we start the throne. Anyway, I know that might be weird. That's, I mean, let me ask you. Is that strange to hear? It is?

Lauryn 50:45
I've never been told that. I do think as you were kind of talking, I'm like, did I just like cruise through the last 10 years of diabetes? And was that all like, cruises? Maybe? Like a?

Scott Benner 50:55
No, no, I didn't want to say that. But yeah, maybe I did.

Lauryn 50:59
Like I never thought about it that way. It kind of just like was what it was, you know, like,

Scott Benner 51:03
you're like the character at the end of the action movie who's not dirty? And everybody's like, why are they still alive? I was gonna die in the first

Lauryn 51:16
I will say the first like, three years were really rough of just adjustments. And then I think I just kind of like accepted it. I think I was just like, there's no other option. This is just part of my day to day. And again, I feel very lucky. I have an incredible support system. My dad's big into like mindfulness, and like, you know, whatever. And I think that rubbed off on me because I practice that stuff. And I tried to practice just self care and giving myself a break when I've tough days. My pump is beeping right now, by the way, I don't know if you can use the

Scott Benner 51:46
only podcast the world where nobody cares. just wrote down but I think is the title of this episode, which I think you're too young to get. But oh, no, I might call it Last Action Hero. It's an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. parody movie. Anyway, that's, that's where I'm at right now.

Lauryn 52:05
I'm just a big paradox. Either that or

Scott Benner 52:07
I'm calling it something about Shabbat goibibo or something? I'm not sure those are my those are my ideas right now. But no, and I don't mean this. And you're obviously taking it the right way. I'm not being I don't mean an insulting way. I don't mean like, Oh, you were just a big dummy. You got lucky. Like, I'm not saying that. I'm saying you were doing what you were told to do. But it actually worked for you. You know what I mean? Whereas a lot of people get told what to do. And they stick to a very strict regimen. And it doesn't work for them. Maybe for reasons of as it might be as easy as their activity level or the kinds of food they like, maybe your meal choices just fit well enough with that, that you had nice outcomes. Maybe you were a person who exercised consistently. And so you know, you had some highs, but they were maybe brought down by who knows. This is fascinating.

Lauryn 52:56
Well, I will say so hot take but I like eat the same foods all the time. I probably learned that from like my grandmother who's type two diabetic that just like everyday ate oatmeal and a sandwich and whatever. So that really did work. For me, I think it was really hard for me to stray like I didn't drink alcohol, like I said, like, for a number of years because I didn't know what the outcome would be. So I'm very rule governed in the sense that like, what works for me, I kind of stick with, but I still had highs and lows. Like my agency still was kind of goofy up until like two years ago. Now it's in the sixes, which is great. But shout out to that.

Scott Benner 53:29
Thank you to all the people who made up all the algorithms because honestly amazing Dexcom like somebody said to me one time Dexcom is expensive. I was like, Listen, you know, this is the wrong place for this. But you know, people make businesses to make money, I don't care what they're making nobody, you don't have a cell phone, if the guy who came up with it first wasn't like I really want to make a bunch of money. And I think this is how I can do it. And then, and then once they come up with a product that really is great. You want them to innovate it and you want them to make it better, faster, smaller, whatever, whatever the hope is for it. And I don't know what people think but that takes money. It takes people it takes smart people and educated people those people want to get paid. And you know like so. I mean listen, I wish everything was cheaper for everybody and I genuinely mean that but I am also I want these companies to exist and I want them to thrive because you're we could go back in time and find a 19 year old you and slap a present day Dexcom G six in this control IQ on you. You probably have a six a one C for the last every year you've been alive, you know so my biggest regret. Really? Is it really

Lauryn 54:41
a little bit I traveling maybe not being biggest. Yeah, it's up there.

Scott Benner 54:45
No, I want to know what your biggest regret is. Oh,

Lauryn 54:49
bangs your bag. Yeah, I have a big forehead. They look silly. Anyway, Oh,

Scott Benner 55:00
my gosh. Well, if bangs are your biggest regret, and you're being honest, and I think you're doing okay. Okay, so you're, obviously this boy is gonna marry you. It sounds like you're gonna one week. Whoa, you're getting married in a week, next next weekend. She's 17 In Chicago, and Chicago for you. Isn't that nice? Congratulations. So what I was going to ask is, do you think you make little babies one day or is that not on your radar?

Lauryn 55:30
I hope so. That's the plan. Yeah. Hopefully they won't be you know, full of health conditions. But if they do, that's okay.

Scott Benner 55:39
They won't be full. Does the fiance have any autoimmune on his side of the family?

Lauryn 55:45
His mother has, I believe? Hashimotos. Okay.

Scott Benner 55:49
Well, yeah, you're gonna explode probably that. But that's the only thing that I know. One day you'll be holding up a little kid going down. Michael Jackson had this too. For reference, I know. Right. Well said for the logo. I need a better reference for that. Famous people with vitiligo so I can go on Hold on a second. Let's figure that out. I'm gonna edit that one. Well, no, I'm not gonna edit out. I'll just say it again. There'll be funnier that way. All right. Hold on. Famous people have been a Lago. Winnie Harlow. Okay, there's not a ton of people that don't know hold. Well, okay. So all I Googled was famous people with vitiligo. And now I'm scrolling through a number of people. I don't know. Like, you're waiting for someone to like, just jump out. And you'd be like, Oh, I know who that person is. Okay, Jon Hamm. I know that oh, wait, Jaya. Jon Hamm is the actor madmen God? Yes. Who is what is he famous for? Test your level of depravity.

Lauryn 57:06
Bridesmaids, huh? No.

Scott Benner 57:11
Yeah, yeah, he's got the energy. And so I that and Shabbat Why do I know this stuff? Okay, Rashad. Rasheed Wallace was a basketball player. People might know him. And then Winnie Harlow is a model who I feel like I recognize Google. But I gotta just tell you,

Lauryn 57:30
Oh, yes, yes. Yes. She's beautiful.

Scott Benner 57:33
You scroll this list. Michael Jackson is the only one that jumps out to you. Because I know that is. So that's Graham Norton. I guess if we were British, I would have known that. Also. He I don't know how that's possible. Anyway, this is not the point. Yes, it was a bad reference. But as we've proved, it was really the only one available to me. It was yeah, that was Yeah. How many emails do you think I'll get now with people who are famous within a Lago? I'm gonna go over understand. That's okay. I'll take those emails, those likes. By the way, you don't know this. But last night, I got in bed, and I got this, like, crappy text message. Right. So I just added a phone to my account. And I'm going to use it just for the podcast and work and stuff like that. So right now, I'm getting a lot of like, spammy texts. And some of them are very funny. They're popping up. While you and I are talking.

Lauryn 58:31
Are they diabetes related?

Scott Benner 58:34
Oh, no, these are not from anybody. I haven't given anyone this number yet. This is like the thing happens, like when they recycle someone's number, and you start like so. Anyway, I've gotten one recently. And the sender was, it's a group text, and the group is called, also. So this is obviously not somebody I actually know. But I just want to give people context that these are I'm in someone's group text right now. That's wild, who I don't know, I can't even read some of these

but I'm trying to talk to you. I'm talking to you and all my screen pops up. All said I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. You would really like some of the podcasts so do and I don't want you to feel like I don't actually listen. No, I mean, like the more management stuff, I think there's some stuff in there you would enjoy like you said like you brought up stalking insulin. And you said it sort of like it's the sum this thing like a rule like you can't give yourself insulin in certain like what do you think of what do you think of stacking insulin so like

Lauryn 59:39
taking my insulin for my meal and then also like a correctional about so basically when you give like too much at different times, they can't like work at the same time.

Scott Benner 59:49
Hmm there's an Episode Episode Four four you can correct is the is the defining diabetes has a whole series of terms that get defined. So they're shorter episodes where It is a Is it me? Me and Jenny? It's not I was gonna say I, oh my god, me and Jenny.

Lauryn 1:00:08
You're gonna make a Taylor reference Taylor's reference Taylor Swift record. What's

Scott Benner 1:00:11
Taylor Swift reference would I have made? If I said that you were

Lauryn 1:00:13
like, hi, it's me on the podcast. It's me.

Scott Benner 1:00:18
Right? That's a look into your problems, not mine. And so, so. So there's a defining diabetes episode called stalking insulin. Where I explain along with Jenny, that stalking is a real thing. You can't just like willy nilly, give yourself insulin at 1111 1011 1511 30, because eventually, it's going to all catch up to you and crush you in unless you need the insulin, then it's not stalking, that's Bolus thing. And that's a nuance that it gets lost on people. Because I think generally speaking, doctors don't want you obviously, to end up with too much insulin on board and get low. I don't want you to do that either. But what that leads to sometimes, is people like in a grazing situation, like in a party or on Thanksgiving, who eat 15 carbs and Bolus for it. And then 20 minutes later, they have 20 more carbs, but they think, Oh, I can't Bolus for this because that would be stacking. But that's not stacking. That's Bolus thing. And there's a difference. And you should, if you understood that, it would really go a long way towards them not only not getting high, but that crashing low later, a lows come from highs, you know what I mean? Like when you get really high, you eventually end up using a bunch of insulin, and then that food is digested out of your system, but the insulin remains behind a roof, you know, like your then you fall through the floor. So using the insulin mindfully, and where it's needed is what's important. Anyway,

Lauryn 1:01:43
yeah, no, absolutely.

Scott Benner 1:01:44
What I had on that I set out. Well, good reminder, I'm telling you for you. There are algorithm episodes, there's one called control IQ ninja, you should totally check out. I have

Lauryn 1:01:56
listened to that one. But it's a good refresher.

Scott Benner 1:02:00
And even just the pro tips in general, basically just talk to people about how to use insulin. So and I think that helps. Whether you're excuse me, I think that helps whether you're on MDI, a manual pump. Isn't that funny? Now that there's an algorithm pump, regular pumps need a name? Yeah, the manual is not right. But it is. But it's original, og pumping, whether you're OG pumping, or your or your algorithm pumping, still understanding how the insole works is important. That's actually one of my, I wouldn't call it like a huge concern. But I do. I do think that there's a possibility that somewhere in the future, like we talked about earlier, someone's going to get diagnosed slap on a CGM, an algorithm, and never learned about diabetes at all. And maybe that's not going to matter. But I don't know, maybe it should, I think it should matter. It matters to me, I think people should understand how their insulin works, I will

Lauryn 1:02:54
say to something that I thought was an underused service that I didn't get until I was older to was a nutritionist, which seems really simple. But I've been seeing one now every year just to kind of maintain and ask questions. My diabetes educator is also there. And she's actually the one that recommended juice box, by the way, the diabetes educator, she's lovely to her. But she basically was like, it all works together. So if you don't know what a carb is, or how much sugar is in something, or how it affects you, like, all of that is in conjunction with what you're already doing with insulin, and carb counting and things like that. But that was something that I was like, Well, now that I know, like, all these things, I'm like, Why didn't I see a nutritionist? You know, many, many years ago, just in like looking back, that would have been really valuable to

Scott Benner 1:03:37
the simplest thing that no one would tell you. For reasons that pass understanding is that 15 carbs of a baked potato and 15 carbs of white rice and 15 carbs of something else all impact your blood sugar. Definitely, yeah. 100% But they all they tell you is count your carbs and put in your insulin. And then you're like, I don't understand why my blood sugar is high. Like or, like silly things. Like the one that pops into my head most recently, is that a, the riper a banana gets, the harder it hits your blood sugar, because it has technically has more sugar as it's ripening, right? But yeah, no one tells you that, you know, and then it's just and then you go along, eating, you know, bananas, blah, blah, blah for so long. And then all of a sudden, you're gone. I don't want to eat this one. But I will and then boom, I don't understand what happened. diabetes is so unpredictable, you know, and you start saying things like that, where? Turns out it was very predictable. You ate an incredibly ripe banana. That's why you different high sugar. Yeah, that's super interesting. So okay, so you're not concerned about about having children. It's not your head. How do you share your diabetes with your fiance? I'm interested in this because you've had it for a very long time. Is it something that he's involved in? Is it something he's not involved in? Is it something he understands, but doesn't touch like? How does that work?

Lauryn 1:05:00
Yeah, definitely. So he's a dentist. So he's definitely learned a little bit about that. He's got patients that have high blood sugar issues and things like that and understands diabetes in general. So I think it was really helpful to have someone with like, kind of a background a little bit in it. So I talk about it constantly. Like he definitely is like, Oh, I know that coffee spikes your blood sugar, so I don't feel that I've like kept anything. I used to keep my agency from him when it was kind of high, actually. So that is something I was like, a little ashamed about, like, I'm not telling you what it is this time. But normally, I'm very open

Scott Benner 1:05:31
out of embarrassment or because you thought it didn't make like a good good wife. Like, I can't let this guy I'm trying to I'm trying to get some of this sweet Dennis money here. So

Lauryn 1:05:44
yeah, we first started dating, I couldn't use the shoot up joke for like six months. I'm like, I gotta like, make sure he's in it for the long run, you know?

Scott Benner 1:05:53
Something so he, so let me like put you in a scenario. You get the flu shot, by the way, hope you did not get the flu. But you get the flu, and you're really wrecked. He can help you with your insulin. Could he make decisions autonomously? Or? No?

Lauryn 1:06:06
I think so. Yeah, definitely. I mean, we've been together long enough to I think he kind of like knows how everything operates. He's he came with me to or he like understands like the control IQ had to like put, when I first got the pump, I could not figure out how to get the insulin into the like, what is it even called? I had to like read the instructions for a full like three days. And I'm like, okay, so you flick out the bubbles. And he like helped me with that. He like understood how that works. But again, like I had only done it maybe twice at the at the, you know, doctor's office, and I was like, I get really nervous. Tandem customer service, by the way is 15 out of 10. They are incredible. They were on the phone with me. Yeah, for so long talking through step. So my point being is that he's watched me do it now a number of times that he can help with that and understand them. So

Scott Benner 1:06:55
I just changed the title of your episode, when you didn't know what a cartridge was. I'm now calling it I'm now calling it lucky Lauren.

Lauryn 1:07:05
Like you just live in ignorance.

Scott Benner 1:07:08
What's this thing I'm holding? What is this? It's a pen. You've been using them since you were four. Oh, it's wonderful. Every time I want to write something down, it's there. And it works. It's really It's terrific who made this thing. I love the way I imagined you're not a stressed out person. I you know, I really try not to be ya know, like you have anxiety

Lauryn 1:07:32
100% in a Jewish household my whole life. But I do think that the anxiety has also been really like motivating because I like I'm afraid to like do something wrong. So I think diabetes has actually helped me manage my anxiety, which I don't know if that's weird to say, but

Scott Benner 1:07:47
Well, it is fair to say because no one's ever said it before. But I appreciate what you're getting at. Let me pick her up for a second. Do you think you have diagnosed anxiety? Or do you think that you've just lived in a you know, this is so weird now because of the of what's going on in the zeitgeist right now. And by that, I mean Kanye West losing his mind. I so badly don't want to make a lot of like Jewish jokes, which I do see is very light hearted. For instance, when you said you're marrying a dentist, I thought, well, of course you are a crochet, all right, your mom was not gonna let that not happen. And so but but um, do you mean real anxiety? Meaning like diagnosable anxiety? Or do you mean that like, energy that I don't know how to quantify, but every one of like, I have a very good friend. He's a cliche, is the best way I can say it. Like he's vibrating and worried about everything. And we can have these great conversations where we complain about the whole world. I love complaining learn in a way that is hard to put into words. I just I don't I'm not really upset. I just love to complain. It's like one of my favorite pastimes. I can't even do it around my wife anymore. Because she hates it. But I get together with my buddy. We can complain about anything. Like like anything, and it's like a sport. But he is I've never met a person more worried about everything in my entire life. And I don't know if that's literally genetic. Like, if it's just if it's passed down, if it's learned, I don't know what it is, like, I don't know where it emanates from, like, I've heard Jewish friends say, whose parents were kind of like, grew up around the Holocaust, right? Like not they weren't, weren't directly involved, but maybe they were the children of somebody. And that they say like there's a sadness and a worry and this feeling that something bad is going to happen that they live with. And and that maybe that's where that kind of comes from. And I don't disbelieve that i They say that the potato famine had like a major impact on on Irish people and that's why you see a lot of depression. I don't know if that's true or not, but I've heard it bantered about. And so anyway, that's what I'm on. Make like, do you think you're, like clinically anxious? Or do you think you've just lived around a lot of anxiety? For sure.

Lauryn 1:10:06
So to answer your question about like generational trauma, I think that's totally a real thing. I think I grew up in a household where both my parents or my dad's parents were Holocaust survivors, and he was always anxious about, you know, where his news would come from. So he over bought groceries when I was a child. So as a kid, for sure, I bet that I went undiagnosed with anxiety, I worried about everything, the weather, things I couldn't control about, you know, what I was gonna wear the night, you know, certain things that maybe are trivial now. But now, as an adult, I don't think I have like a clinical diagnosis. I think I've just learned to manage certain expectations or learn to like sit with some feelings, just practicing some of that stuff. But for sure, as a kid, I think it came from having parents that were just nervous about everything. So that made me nervous about everything.

Scott Benner 1:10:52
I can't say that I've seen it enough that it's definitely real. And the generational trauma thing is amazing. I once had an argument with someone. It was around the time of Katrina, which is a really long time ago. He says, I don't understand why those why why they didn't just leave, like how did that hurricane hit them? And I said, Can you imagine being in a situation that for the love of transportation, or the tiniest bit of money, you can't escape a hurricane. I said, that's not something that just happens. That happens to you over generations. Right? Right. Like, and it's not a thing that you don't, you're not born and decided I'm gonna grow up one day, and not have enough money to run away from actual destruction. That that is the thing that happens to you, it is not a thing you decide to do. And you and people can hear that and go, Oh, you could work hard and pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and all that, that's all well and good. But you can't pull yourself up from your bootstraps, when your boots are 50 feet down in the hole, and you can't and that's where you're starting. Right? And so I made that point to him. And I do think of this in a similar way. Like, is it funny to, you know, watch Seinfeld and go, oh, there's crazy Jews, like, like, like, you know, like, look how nervous he is like it okay. It's funny when I talked to my friend, and do I sometimes say to him, like, Man, are you okay? Like, like, this is not a real problem. Like, don't worry about this. And he and he'll say, I know, but I can't help it. You know, and it's just I don't know, like, that's not a that's not a decision you make. That's a thing that happens to you. I think. I mean, I think there are things you can get yourself out of in life. And I think there are some things that you're you're stuck with, for the lack of a better word sometimes. So anyway, anyway, I appreciate your opinion about it. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So is there anything that we haven't talked about that you wanted to anything I've left out? Or we haven't gotten to? I don't think

Lauryn 1:12:47
so I feel like I definitely explored aspects of diabetes that I don't think day to day. So I appreciate like your questions. And just being you know, open to hearing my side, I know that a lot of it is kind of all over the place. So I've never really told that story fully before. So I appreciate just being given a platform

Scott Benner 1:13:02
to do so nice. My pleasure. I'm thrilled that you reached out and wanted to do it. Like I said, just the parathyroid type of thing. You buddy, what is the cost?

Lauryn 1:13:11
hyperparathyroidism?

Scott Benner 1:13:13
I'm sorry, I had it up in front of me earlier. And then I took it down to look at something completely ridiculous. That I never, that I never even brought up. Well, I appreciate this very much. I really do. It's a lot of time you took out and it's a real honest story you told I hope you feel good about it. Because like, at no point was I saying like, Wow, you got lucky. Like you weren't trying? Like I you know that right? Absolutely. Yeah. Just I think some pieces fell into place for you. That made your path clear. Maybe, you know, do you and now that you've heard me say that, do you have any feelings about hearing it said?

Lauryn 1:13:49
Yeah, definitely. I will say I don't think the initial process was easy. I think it was really tough. Like getting diagnosed. That part was awful. Like just being in the hospital for a period of time. But I think yeah, afterward, I think I was kind of just like, alright, this is kind of what it is. It's not going anywhere. So I might as well kind of learn to like sit with it and live with it and navigate the best I can and I think that part did take a lot. I'm acting like it was nothing like it definitely was a process.

Scott Benner 1:14:15
No, I don't mean easy. Like, like easy. I mean, yeah, I mean, like on a super simple level as an example. I mean that if you just because of upbringing decided to eat a pretty steady diet. And that diet ended up being one that matched well with your regimen. That's kind of lucky and you don't know it because if you grew up in a house I guess this is coming full circle now. So if this if you grew up in a house where your grandma mom said, we don't worry about we don't worry about diet and you were having a ringing for breakfast and washing it down with a glass of chocolate milk and then having kool aid for lunch along with a deep fried, you know something you would not have to say aim outcomes using the strict management that you were given from the doctor, your blood sugar's would be way higher, and your agencies would have been significantly higher. And so that is the sense that I mean, luck, right? They're not like not like, diabetes didn't come for you and you're dancing through it. Like it's singing in the rain, you know, they mean, like, just yeah, just like things lined up for you that worked out better than than other things may have. Does that make sense?

Lauryn 1:15:26
Absolutely. Right. I didn't have to change too many, like big live thing. Like, yes, my parents always ate very healthy. I've always done sports and things like that. Right. So I didn't have to change too many drastic. Yeah, life style. Yes, just

Scott Benner 1:15:38
being inactive, would have been a significant detriment to you, you know, like you'd because a one sees would go up. Insulin wouldn't work as well, like insulin works better when you're hydrate, like significantly better when you're hydrated. So if you just were lucky enough to grow up in a household where people were like, Hey, make sure you have a couple glasses of water today. That actually would be a thing you wouldn't know was benefiting you that really would have been so holy.

Lauryn 1:16:06
All right. I like that outlook on it.

Scott Benner 1:16:09
Well, yeah, I mean, listen, I've heard enough unlucky people, like seriously, like, I've heard people who grew up in households that were under educated, who didn't understand nutrition at all, who are now in significant problems. And I don't give them I guess, the way to make you understand how I feel is like, I don't blame them. And I know more than I'm giving you credit for the thing that just is is how your life was, you know what I mean? Like, I could take your exact management style, and drop it on another person, and they wouldn't be in your situation anymore, because you didn't have the idea of adjusting and moving. You would have just got what you got. Right? You know, anyway, I don't know. Right?

Lauryn 1:16:55
Yeah, we played the cards were dealt the best that we can, and you're

Scott Benner 1:16:59
the one playing them. Because if you don't meet the same cards, I might do something different with them. Right? This is my phone. All right.

Lauryn 1:17:06
I support it. You support

Scott Benner 1:17:07
it. But you don't like that. You don't like the title though? Lucky learn. You don't like it? I can tell it's fine. I think we could do better. What what do you want to do? You want to figure it out to get you want to just take it out of these text messages?

Lauryn 1:17:22
Well, that's your best one.

Scott Benner 1:17:27
What if I just said, Lauren got it? poppin?

Lauryn 1:17:32
Like that wouldn't feel like it's about time.

Scott Benner 1:17:36
Oh, you you you have to dig through the episode titles a little more. None of them are about diabetes.

Lauryn 1:17:41
Well, that's what IQ ninja was. The last one you said

Scott Benner 1:17:45
was about management specifically. Yeah. There's I think there's an episode called the frozen urine of diabetes or something like that, which trust me only makes sense if you hear it, and then probably only makes sense a little bit. I can't use that word. Your title. I don't know what. What is HR? You? You mean? Ah, what? HR? Is it like a Is it like a internet? Or are you? Oh, is that what it means? I would assume so I'm looking at right now. high rated underage users workgroup? That's definitely not it. Oh, what does it be? What is it that was from from like, a government website? HR use an acronym meaning how are you? See, you're younger than me that made sense to you? And then somebody said, Good. How are you back?

Lauryn 1:18:35
Up this group chat.

Scott Benner 1:18:36
Someone's calling me Manny. Oh,

Lauryn 1:18:38
I have an idea for a title. Go ahead. What about like diabetes entered the chat? Oh, not great.

Scott Benner 1:18:45
Oh, I don't know. See? So little on the nose, but I don't mind it. We're getting closer. Alright, so here we'll do something that I usually do at the end together. I usually I say goodbye. And then I do this. I talked to myself I go. Lauren's 32 years old. She was diagnosed in 2009 at the age of 19. She went on a trip to Israel where she was diagnosed with hyperparathyroidism has type one diabetes uses control IQ Index comm G six resisted a pump for many years. Didn't like needles in the beginning. We joked about calling the episode Last Action Hero lucky Lauren, or the red. The red riffin holy, why don't we just do that learn? That's great. All right. Yeah, let's just do that. Okay, we're just gonna call your episode. Is it going to be the red roof in? Oh, also is good by the way. In case you guys were wondering. Let me clarify that. I did not mean that. Am I gonna have to bleep this out. Now? No, I did not mean that. That also was good. I meant the guy or girl I guess if I'm being ferrous metals is doing well because they were asked how they were. And they said, good. And the person who's talking with them is also good. In case you guys are wondering, oh, there's a new tax. It's kind of late. So um, what's you guys names? Oh, am I gonna like a random chat?

Lauryn 1:20:16
That they might have just taken random numbers and put them together? Hmm. All right, who knew they got a celebrity in there?

Scott Benner 1:20:23
Yeah. Can you imagine right now if they knew what was happening?

Lauryn 1:20:29
I think the dynamic of the chat would change. Do you want me to tell them? Sure. Don't use my name. No.

Scott Benner 1:20:35
Names. Hold on. So okay, hold on a sec. You already you have time for this. I know. You're, like a real job. Take a half day at work today. I actually have another question for you as crazy. Wait, do you see me trans? Wait, do you see me transition from this back to my question? It's okay, hold on a second. All right. So I said, Hey, everyone, no idea how I got in this chat. But I am currently recording a very popular podcast, I will not tell you which one. But we've been reading your text into the recording as this went on. If you have anything to say to the people, this is your last chance. Now while we see if they respond. I'm going to ask my question, which again, I don't mean any disrespect to do you have any insight on autism is an interesting thing, right? Because it feels like it just showed up. Excuse me, which it didn't, obviously, but we became very aware of it, I guess is probably how it happened. So then common sense would tell you that in the past, people grew up on different I guess. I mean, Autism is a spectrum, right? Like so there are people who have grown up on that spectrum, who are now adults. So my question is, how many of us are dating married to related to a person with autism? Who doesn't know they have autism? Do you think that happens? Do you ever meet people as adults and think? Because you would know, right? Like, if you were talking to me, and I had autism, would you be able to like smell it on me? You don't even know.

Lauryn 1:22:03
I don't do like any diagnosing. i People always ask me this question I have experience working with individuals have a wide range of abilities. And I might be like, Oh, that matches something maybe I've seen with an adult with autism, but I would never be like Scott, you do this, this and this, you have this? No, I definitely. And for the people out there, I do not diagnose whatsoever.

Scott Benner 1:22:22
Okay, so I hear what you're safely you don't, technically you don't. But you've never been in a party like that guys on the spectrum.

Lauryn 1:22:30
I mean, it's definitely crossed my mind where I'm like, Okay, it's social skills maybe are a little subpar. Like, you know, again, like lack of eye contact is a big one. But colloquially, I wouldn't be like, Oh, every single person knows somewhat like it's definitely being more diagnosed. Now, just because like that label is maybe also no longer like, people aren't afraid of that to the

Scott Benner 1:22:51
yeah, that's my follow up. Question is, are we now just calling awkward adults autistic?

Lauryn 1:22:57
I don't think you still have to go through some like testing. But I definitely think that, like people are getting the label a lot more than they did before because they're matching certain behaviors that

Scott Benner 1:23:06
are associated with it. Okay. Yeah. Because if you think about it, like in reverse, if you marry this guy, okay. And, and 35 years from now find out that something's going on with him that was previously unknown to, you know, medicine or, you know, the general population. It's weird. Like, it would be weird to just look up one day and go, Oh, my God, I had no idea about that. And does it? And then my question is, does it really matter? If it didn't really impact anything? And does it just become trendy? At some point to say, I have this like, because that does happen, right? There's that? Um, what is it called, like, a social contagion? Where somewhere, suddenly, everybody just says, like, Oh, I'm that, you know, and then they start. I mean,

Lauryn 1:23:54
I hear you're saying, I do think people are just more open to it. I think there's less of a stigma now. So people aren't afraid to be like, Oh, my son has autism versus like, he has defiance disorder, like, which maybe he also does, but I think it's like one of those things that now insurance covers ABA therapy, but you need a diagnosis. So to be able to get certain services, you actually like need to have that requirement of having like, an actual, you know, diagnosis to get that stuff. So I think that's a big factor also,

Scott Benner 1:24:19
and would and maybe you're not the right person to ask, but when people who I'm here say legitimately, but I don't mean it that way, but like people who you know, legitimately are on that spectrum have autism, right? Is it insulting to them for someone to roll around and be like, I'm autistic, because I've seen adults do it. Like people are just like, I have autism. I'm like, what that What are you talking about? You don't like it? It would seem insulting to me. If I was

Lauryn 1:24:47
it's insensitive. Yeah, right. Right. Well, right, well, but again, but I wouldn't equate it to like if someone comes up to me, they're like, Oh, my blood sugar's low. I need to eat something. I wouldn't be offended by it. But I think because autism is like it. Community its people are very proud to be autistic to it's no longer something where people are like, I'm trying to fix these people like it's, you know, so I think that is that would be very insensitive to be like I have sensory issues, I have autism, you might have sensory issues. But if you weren't diagnosed, it's not fair to say you have autism.

Scott Benner 1:25:16
You're the first place I became aware of this, that that feeling through the podcast was a person who has PTSD said, I'm sick of everybody who's been through something scary telling me they have PTSD. They don't know what PTSD is, you know, like, and I think it'd be, I think it's one of those things that was colloquial, since you use the word I'll use it to. And then because and then because people started to understand PTSD better, it became insensitive to say, and I'm not usually a person who's real worried about what's insensitive. I guess that became obvious as we were talking, but I do in these these specific scenarios. I do think it's just shit to do. being perfectly honest with you. Yeah. You know, if you don't have PTSD running around saying you haven't. I mean, it's, it's almost like I it's almost like Stolen Valor. A little bit, like in

Lauryn 1:26:11
the say, like, cheapens the label kind

Scott Benner 1:26:12
of thing. Yeah. Yeah. Like don't don't say you were there if you weren't there. Anyway, all right. I kept you longer than you imagined you were gonna be kept, was really great. I enjoyed talking to somebody who doesn't listen to the podcast a lot. So because you didn't always know where I was going. And I was like, this is better. Okay, this was terrific. All right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna say goodbye. Hold on one second for me, okay.

First, I want to thank Lauren for coming on the show and sharing her story. Absolutely fantastic conversation. I'd also like to thank cozy Earth and remind you to use the offer code juice box at checkout to save 40% off of your entire purchase at cozy earth.com. US med. That's where Arden gets her diabetes supplies. You should check them out us med.com forward slash juicebox or call 888-721-1514. If you're enjoying the Juicebox Podcast, tell somebody else about it. We're always looking for new listeners. And don't forget the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes with over 40,000 members. It's absolutely free. And there's a conversation happening right now that you would love. If you have type two or pre diabetes, that type two diabetes Pro Tip series from the Juicebox Podcast is exactly what you're looking for. Do you have a friend or a family member who is struggling to understand their type two and how to manage it? This series is for them. seven episodes to get you on track and up to speed. Episode 860 series intro 864 guilt and shame episode 869 medical team 874 fueling plan, Episode 880 diabetes technology episode 85 GLP ones metformin and insulin and an episode 889. We talk about movement. This episode is with me and Jenny Smith. Of course you know Jenny is a Certified diabetes Care and Education Specialist. She's a registered and licensed dietitian and Jenny has had type one diabetes for over 30 years. Too many people don't understand their type two diabetes, and this series aims to fix that. Share it with a friend or get started today.

#982 From a Small Rock

Laura has type 1 diabetes and was diagnosed while in school.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, welcome to episode 982 of the Juicebox Podcast

Laura is 22 years old she was diagnosed I believe around her 17th birthday with no history of autoimmune in her family. She was in the French Navy when she was diagnosed the French Navy but she lives in Texas. None of this makes sense. You'll find out more by listening. 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. When you head to my link Omni pod.com forward slash juice box there's an option down there to take a test drive of the Omni pod you can check it out for free in your home Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. Say 40% at cozy earth.com with the offer code juice box at checkout that's off your entire order by the way 40% juice box at checkout. And don't forget to check out Check Out Check Out I've said that word too much but go take a look at juicebox podcast.com It's the website for the for the podcast and there's a bunch of stuff there. I think you will enjoy it. Just go look which will make me yes Governor this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter contour next.com forward slash juicebox. You want easy to use you want accurate you want contour contour next.com Ford slash juice box. If you want to take ownership of your health. It starts today with ag one. Try ag one and get a free one year supply of vitamin D and five free ag one travel packs with your first purchase. That's at my link. Drink ag one.com forward slash juice box 81 is sponsoring this episode of the podcast. And they're sponsoring me too in my belly cuz I take it every day and you could to drink ag one.com forward slash juice box.

Laura 2:21
So my name is Laura. I am 22 I live in Texas and I'm orange originally from a small Caribbean island last called Guadalupe which is French. But I'd been in the US for three and a half years now. And I have been in type one since I was 17 or two days before my 17th birthday.

Scott Benner 2:46
So five years with type one. Three years almost six years long, almost six years. Three years in the US. Yes. And you're from an island that even though you said the name of it. I don't know what you're talking about. Spell it for me.

Laura 3:03
It's called Guadalupe Gu Adel au or up. E it's near you most likely know St. Maarten. Oh, I do know if you notice that Martin. It's it's a part of what Lupe so it's right next to it.

Scott Benner 3:20
Oh, that's so interesting. We we normally if we go there we go to St. John.

Laura 3:26
Or yeah, it's one of the island nearby.

Scott Benner 3:29
Yeah, we just don't make it to the is that the British own side? St. Maarten. It's

Laura 3:35
St. Martin. So St. Martin is Dutch and Sint Maarten is French. So the island is a small rock divided into

Scott Benner 3:45
a small rock divided into

Laura 3:47
Yeah, the North side is French and the South Side is

Scott Benner 3:50
Dutch. Oh, that's interesting. So you were born there?

Laura 3:53
Yes. I was born and raised for 910 years and then I moved to friends for middle school in high school. Okay, got diagnosed in high school and then moved back to Guadeloupe.

Scott Benner 4:07
Your did your parents? How were you born on a tiny island like that? Were they from they're? Well,

Laura 4:13
it's let's say it's as big as Hawaii. Okay, I've been to Hawaii. That's that's the closest I can explain.

Scott Benner 4:21
But did your parents see you got stuck on the size thing? I was trying to find out if you're? You're like Don't insult the island. It's not that small. But it's no I just mean like Were your parents native to the island or did they move there as adults?

Laura 4:34
No, my my dad was on my both of my parents were born in France. But my dad was raised in Tahiti. And once he finished high school in his military service, he decided that he was no longer going to live in France because he hated the cold. So he moved to the Caribbean and that's where my parents met.

Scott Benner 4:58
That sounds much nicer Good for him and all the people who have the nerve to do the things that the rest of us talk about. And don't do. You don't I mean, yes, yeah, yeah,

Laura 5:09
he moved there, I think in 9395. And he's been there since then. Wow.

Scott Benner 5:15
That's amazing. Okay, so you are in France when you're diagnosed?

Laura 5:20
I was in France when I was diagnosed. Yes, I was in senior year of high school.

Scott Benner 5:24
Okay, and how did that happen? How did you figure out you had type one. Um, so I

Laura 5:28
was actually an athlete, I was swimming twice a day, 20 to 25 hours a week. So I was in a good shape. I was not what people would think someone with diabetes would look like. I was also I was a swimmer. And I was also in the Navy. I was at school, technically for the Navy. So every two to three weekends, a year, every Saturday, I would go to the school where everybody would join for the Navy and would just learn stuff that you usually do on the Navy. So my goal was to join the Navy, which didn't happen. Okay, so I was around. I think the whole thing started during the summer of 2016. I was Girl Scout and spend a few weeks just camping in the woods. And obviously, we got ticks and everything. And every summer I'll just take some antibiotics from the I mean, the doctor would prescribe anti antibiotics just to make sure I wouldn't get the Lyme disease. Coming back on it was like that may have been the mistake mistake that made me diabetic. We don't know what there was no way of knowing, but that could have triggered it. So that was in like August, September and October, November, we have 10 days or two weeks of vacation. spent a week doing a swim camp swimming. Yeah, for at least four hours a day. Plus some weightlifting. And

Scott Benner 6:59
let me let me ask you a question or maybe a couple. So you think that being bit by texts or the taking the antibiotics, but we kicked

Laura 7:10
it? Yeah, taking the antibiotics, because usually antibiotics would be for six days max. And after that it's us. It's too long. But she the doctor itself prescribed me three weeks of antibiotics, which could have caused or trigger diabetes, but there's no way of knowing that it's just a really long time.

Scott Benner 7:33
Is that Is that something the doctor said to you? Yes. About not? Well, she

Laura 7:37
she told me to get on antibiotics for three weeks. But she never said oh, yeah, that may have been the thing. Okay. But looking back, I was fine. Before that. I was completely fine in two and a half months after I was in the hospital.

Scott Benner 7:52
So holding down your your concern, I think is is holding down your immune system with the antibiotics. And then maybe you're thinking you got a virus after that, or

Laura 8:03
I really don't know, I don't remember being sick, right?

Scott Benner 8:08
It's interesting, it's different. Is there any type one through your family line?

Laura 8:12
No one, literally no one and the week of my diagnosis will also the diabetes month is in November. So that's when I was diagnosed. And it was also the actual week where a bunch of associations and groups would get together to spread their awareness and my grandparents were shocked that I was diagnosed and they both went to the local supermarket to get tested and all blood sugar's will find at 11am So it's not from

Scott Benner 8:43
I love your grandparents are out like we need to get out of this. They they're gonna look to us first we have to prove it isn't us. My blood sugar is fine. Leave me

Laura 8:50
Yeah, no, less than a week after they'd call me. And they're like, well, we just got tested and was fine. I was like, Yeah, I know

Scott Benner 8:56
how that's funny. How about other autoimmune stuff like celiac word. And

Laura 9:05
literally, I had no idea what celiac was before I moved to the US. Okay. I feel like more more people have those kinds of food allergies or intolerances in the US than in France, not thyroid issues. Nope, nothing absolutely nothing. I know right now that my ala Grandpa is has type two diabetes and is getting the pills but he's completely against them.

Scott Benner 9:34
He's rebelling against the bills. Oh, yeah. He's

Laura 9:36
fully rebellious. He's he's a hunter. And so he's like, I don't care. I don't want to eat. And I'm fine. It's fine. I'll just get those pills and keep eating my sugary stuff. Sweet stuff every day. I was like, Cool. Yeah.

Scott Benner 9:52
Do you think he'll take it seriously at any point? No. Like, no, I'm pretty certain to you. He won't Yeah, okay. All right. So let's think 17, five years ago, six years. Yeah.

Laura 10:04
So I was at a swim camp. And I mean, I was tired, obviously, because we're swimming a lot. And got initially got off the swim camp took a train to go to my navy school, spent a couple of days at Navy school went to my cousin's house, because it was also, I mean, still holidays, so couldn't go back home, my mom was walking. And that's when I remember my first symptoms were that I would wake up in the middle of the night to drink, which was really unusual. And it was a small vacation house. So it was really loud for me to go from my bedroom downstairs to go to the bathroom and get some water. So I would just end up sleeping on the couch and waking up every couple hours to go to the bathroom and go drink and go to the bathroom and go drink air wouldn't sleep for days, because I was just up all night long.

Scott Benner 10:58
How long did this go on for? Oh,

Laura 11:01
that was just the end of vacation. So for three, four or five days, okay. Then I went back home and I told my mom's like, hey, it's kind of weird. Like, I don't know what's going on. And went back to school, I would sleep through all of my classes. I was really good student, extremely student. I was a may have been a bit annoying for teachers because I knew what I had to do. And I was getting good grades. So I wasn't really listening. I was like a bit of a troublemaker, but I still had good grades. So they didn't really have much to say but I would just sleep through the whole classes go to the bathroom every 30 minutes to fill up my whole water bottle and just drink it and chug it all day long. A week after went back I went back from holidays, we had a huge swim meet at our in our city. And my mom talked to one of my mom was a physical therapist, but she had no idea what diabetes was okay, she talked to one of her colleagues and she said, Well, you may want to order some blood tests because that's, that's not normal. So it was over the weekend and that during that weekend, it was one morning what didn't swim, stayed at home, watched a movie. And in two timeframe of watching a movie I had been drink I drank two and a half liters of water, which is like for like three quarters of a gallon, right? It was just by laying in bed and drinking, which was not good. So next day we go to the doctor's office, get a prescription on the Tuesday, I get blood tests do a blood test in the morning on an empty stomach without having breakfasts. And in the afternoon the lab calls my mom right away and like blood sugar is not good. You need to go to your doctor's office right now. So I'm at school I'm like, okay, cool. Well, let me just take the bus go. Go to her office, which was right next to the doctor's go to the doctor's office and stack. Yeah, it's a bit elevated. So let's oh, by the way, same doctor that told me to get antibiotics for three weeks, right? She's like, warm, it's a bit it was 322. And she's like, it's a bit too much. So let's try sugar free diet for a month and figure it out.

Scott Benner 13:16
Yeah, she doesn't seem like she knows what she's done it anything so far?

Laura 13:19
Yes. Okay, well, let's just do that. So Wednesday morning, I tried to do a sugar free with big quotes in between, because it was granola and milk, which we know now it's definitely not sugar. Great.

Scott Benner 13:38
What did you think of a sugar free in that moment? What were you

Laura 13:42
doing an athlete? I was eating really, really lean food. It was really simple. No, absolutely no fast food. That was not a thing in our house. I knew I had to have protein, carbs and veggies at each meal. No sweets, no. Drinks, of course. Yeah. Like it was really like the simplest meals you could have. That's what I was having already. Except maybe cereals in the morning and maybe pancakes on the weekend. But really simple meal. So I go to school Wednesday morning, and my mom calls the schools nurse. And she's like, Well, yeah, that's not good. So she called me into her office. I'd like 1111 30 just to get my blood tested because before I went to lunch, and I was at 457 at 11am So she looked at me like you've got your bags, right? I'm like, Yep, I was in German. I'm going into math right now. And she was like, No, you're not. I'm calling the neck I'm calling 911. Right now you are going to the ER. And just like that, two days before my birthday in between two classes. I was rushed to the ER and was diagnosed. How did

Scott Benner 14:58
you feel at that point? wasn't just physically still tired, but everything else was

Laura 15:03
extremely tired. I had lost a lot of weight. I was even right now. I'm still not back to that weight. I've never been that late. Since I was probably 12. I lost a thing indoor was, well sorted, say 20 to 25 pounds. Oh, wow. Three weeks.

Scott Benner 15:24
Oh my gosh, how tall are you?

Laura 15:26
I'm five, four. But I was I was an athlete. So it was mostly muscles, and I just couldn't do anything.

Scott Benner 15:32
I did no one mentioned that because you're in a bathing suit a lot. Did no one say?

Laura 15:37
No, actually, it was like, oh, yeah, you're looking much better now like you're, you're losing weight. That's great.

Scott Benner 15:42
I say cool.

Laura 15:43
That's that was the mentality. No, like the, what people would say is you're like, oh, yeah, you need to lose weight. You need to to look better on the swimsuit. So yeah, it was great. I think I think for a few days before I was diagnosed, I would, I didn't go to practice. I would text my coach every single day. I was like, Hey, sorry, I don't feel good. And he would just come back at me like yeah, you don't want to swim. Like you'll you think you can go to the French Championship without practicing and he would use bash me and bash me until the day I got diagnosed. And he was like, I am so sorry. I should not have said that to you.

Scott Benner 16:20
Were you able to get back to swimming?

Laura 16:22
I did. Not for long, but I did. I actually broke my own personal record two months after being diagnosed without swimming for two months. Yeah,

Scott Benner 16:33
maybe nobody just needed a break.

Laura 16:35
Yeah, just jumping in pool and break my own way.

Scott Benner 16:39
Cool. So when you don't need to practice when you said you wanted to be in the Navy, you were trying to be in the French Navy.

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Yes, okay. And with type one diabetes, that's not possible.

Laura 20:31
Well, I was diagnosed in between during that year, I spent a year going like every Saturday or every other Saturday and one full week on a Navy base during the year. And so started in September ended in May, June. And I was diagnosed in November of that year. So technically, I started, and I was okay. And I was pretty good at it. I really enjoyed it. That was my goal was usually to enroll and the marine be a Navy officer. So my command told me like, I know you have diabetes, but it's just cool. I am not gonna let you go right now, because you're one of the best ones. And I know you enjoy it, and we enjoy having you. So I'll go against what policies say because you started and you will find,

Scott Benner 21:19
so he's trying to let you work it out and see if you could do it. Yeah. And

Laura 21:23
he I told him right away. I was like, No, I know what to do. It's fine. I mean, I didn't know exactly what to do. I had choose being diagnosed. So I finished my year, I still enrolled in an officer school. That was it was a three year school. And basically, the dude on the phone was like, Oh, I saw you have diabetes on your paper. I was like, Yeah, but I'm fine. Now. Like, at that time, I had a pump already. Managing everything doctor say was fine. And he was like, oh, yeah, but I called the Navy doctor. And he said it will not be able to get diabetes, the diabetes diabetic people. So I put your paperwork in a trash, so you're not going to be in the Navy. Thank you. Bye. And he hang up the phone cheese. How

Scott Benner 22:07
old? Are you at that moment?

Laura 22:08
I was just 17. Not even. Yeah, just 17.

Scott Benner 22:11
Wow. And this is the only thing you'd consider doing as an adult, right?

Laura 22:15
Yes. That was the only my only plan that was back in March, the year after I was like, Okay, well, I've been diagnosed like, what, five months ago? My goal is to go in the Navy, navy. I'm graduating in a couple months, and I do not know what to do.

Scott Benner 22:30
Are you able to pivot away from that and find something else? Or was that a struggle?

Laura 22:34
Yeah. Well, at that point, I was still in France. And my dad and my brother were in Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. So I told my mom was like, Well, I'm gonna go back. And I'll do I think it was tourists like to walk in tourism, like go to school, and it'll be fine. I'll just go back to what I know, in Guadeloupe. And I'll just do that and walk in tourism. But it lasted a month. And I was like, yeah, that's not for me. So after a month of school, I quit. And so that was again, October of 2018. Not even a year after being diagnosed. I was like, Yeah, I'm done with school. I'm not doing that again.

Scott Benner 23:14
Okay, so you grew up you graduated from I don't know what they would call it in France, but from high school. Yeah. Okay. But then college not going to do that.

Laura 23:23
Yeah, I did a month and it was like not gonna happen.

Scott Benner 23:27
I guess I have a couple of questions. Where do you get your supplies from when you're jumping around from country to country? Like, how do you is that an easy transition? Like I'm in France, I'm getting, I'm getting diabetes supplies. I'm gonna go back to the island. Now. I'm getting them here. Like, how does that all work?

Laura 23:43
Yeah, it's kind of a struggle. So technically, right now, I am a student an F, where it gives an international student on a visa. So I'm still French. I'm just here for a little while for my studies. And the plan is technically to go back to France, which is not going to happen. But

Scott Benner 24:04
we'll tell them about that later.

Laura 24:05
Yeah, I just married three and a half weeks ago, and he was citizen. So

Scott Benner 24:11
Oh, wait. Okay. So it's so funny, because, you know, when you start speaking, and I hear your accent, I think you're like, I'm in Texas. I think like, I can't wait to find out how she made it in Texas. And you know, it's a

Laura 24:23
fun story with a bunch of circumstances that made me end up here.

Scott Benner 24:30
Yeah. Let me ask you before we get into it, what were what was your level of training and education around diabetes when you're diagnosed? And was this a thing that your parents were involved in? Or did it fall to you immediately?

Laura 24:44
I had absolutely no idea what it was. My mom seemed she had heard about it but knew nothing about it until a few days after diagnosis, so I was still in an ER in pediatric er because I was still technically 16 Huh. So I was actually really funny because the school had called that Jana was coming in. And I mean with my school bag on on my shoulder or just walking into the ER. And they were waiting for me because at that point I was at 457. It was pretty high. And they just opened all doors for me. And I walked through the yard and didn't stop and got admitted right away when you could see just toddlers and babies and throwing ups and crying in the waiting room. And I would just, I was fine. I was just walking in. And so all of the parents got angry, obviously, seeing that someone just walk in and get admitted right away, but it's invisible. So they had no idea that I was on the verge of going into decay.

Scott Benner 25:48
How long did you stay in the hospital for?

Laura 25:51
It was really long, because I stayed for full week.

Scott Benner 25:55
Like seven days.

Laura 25:57
Yeah, I went in on a Wednesday got out on the Wednesday.

Scott Benner 26:01
Did they teach you anything valuable while you were there? Or were they just salutely?

Laura 26:04
Not? Oh, that's the that's the wall. So the Friday was my birthday, November 11. And it's a day off in France. So in hospitals, you had no no doctors, only nurses. And technically the doctor is teaching me not the nurses. So the nurses would just keep me alive for Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So I had technically only the Thursday of learning English. And then nothing for three days, I will just lay in bed and do nothing for three days. That's why it took so long for me to get up out of the hospital because I just had to wait for the doctor to come back.

Scott Benner 26:41
Oh, so you had to you had to stay for the first three days just to the doctor could take the weekend. And then oh, yeah,

Laura 26:46
absolutely. Yeah. That's crazy. That's crazy how it all works.

Scott Benner 26:51
Yeah. Oh, wow. So by the time you're there four days before somebody really even starts to talk to you about it.

Laura 26:56
Yeah. I remember getting a doing my first shot myself on the Thursday. So less than 24 hours after being diagnosed. admitted. I was doing my first shot. My mom was with me, I think. Yeah, that was one of the the one and only shot that she ever gave me was in the hospital. And she didn't do anything after that. No kidding. How long has she asked you to do everything myself?

Scott Benner 27:22
When you get out of the hospital? Do you think you're honeymooning at that point?

Laura 27:26
I was not. I had no idea what honeymoon was okay. They didn't teach me anything. The doctor was like breakfast lunch and dinner. You're getting eight units snack? You're getting four units. That's it.

Scott Benner 27:40
Okay, so they gave you an amount of insulin to shoot? Did they give you a number of carbs? D?

Laura 27:45
Oh, no, absolutely. I had no idea what that was. That's how French like diagnosis is how crazy that is. It just I had to be admitted again for a full week for them to figure out my insert incident EUCOM ratio. Oh, you had to be admitted for a full week for that.

Scott Benner 28:06
Wait. So you were there for a week? Did you ended up back in the hospital?

Laura 28:11
I should have but I didn't because I never had the time for that. Okay.

Scott Benner 28:14
But yeah, so in a full week, they came up with an insulin to carb ratio for you

Laura 28:19
know, they came up with a number for me to use give myself for every meal. That's it. Yeah. Had that hadn't said anything about I didn't know the difference between carbs and sugar. How did you mean it was just no sugar, but not calm? So then

Scott Benner 28:35
where do you learn about this? Is that a private, like outside of the hospital with a doctor? Eventually?

Laura 28:42
When I moved here to the US, I went to see a dietitian and I had to get blood tested and stuff. And that's when she told me Yeah, well, you can change your incident every single single meal, depending on what you eat. I was like, what? I don't have to have eight units every single time

Scott Benner 29:01
or how many years? Is that? That you looked like that? Probably two years. And were you what kind of technology did you have in those first two years,

Laura 29:09
I had the Omni because I was swimming a lot. I decided to had to jump on the Omnipod right away. So in two months after being diagnosed, I went back to the hospital for a week. So they could teach me how to use it and monitor me for a week or five days, I guess. Well, that

Scott Benner 29:27
seems excessive, too. But I mean, did you did you need to be maybe maybe it didn't need to be there that was that helpful. The second week where they taught you how to use the pump?

Laura 29:36
Well, it was mostly for the problem. It was still not for management ideas. Yeah, it was mostly to find out my Basal rate, but every other week, I'd be back in the doctor's office to change themselves so she could look at my graphs and very cool. You're swimming from that dam to that time. So we're gonna do a low Basal, like couple hours before so you don't drop low. Obviously it was still dropping low in the middle of practice. is so it was kind of a pain. But yeah, I was on the PA Omnipod for two months after diagnosis and I'm still on the board right now. And I was still doing fingerprints.

Scott Benner 30:12
I've one question about that for clarification for me. So when you go to the hospital to learn how to use the pump, do you live at the hospital for a week? Yes. Full time. Is that Is that common?

Laura 30:24
In France? Yes. That's how it works. Okay, that that is crazy. Now that I know that like two year olds, three year olds here, just someone comes home comes at the house and explain to them how the pump works. Change the settings and then you're good to go. And if I had to stay from Sunday night to Friday, midday,

Scott Benner 30:43
yeah, Laurie, you could have called me I could have got your basil set up for you. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's okay. So now you have the pump. And I'm assuming your basil is perfect since they spent seven days getting it set up. But absolutely

Laura 30:57
not. It was it was crazy because I was swimming. And then I was at home and I was eating a lot because I mean, I was moving so much that I had when on the days that I was swimming in the morning, I would wake up around five 530 have a small breakfast, swim from six to eight, have another breakfast, the school from 830 to 5:30pm. Have lunch in between. Then after school, I had another snack that I would go back in the pool from six to 8pm and then have dinner afterwards. So I will eat like six times a day.

Scott Benner 31:32
Were you getting low or high a lot.

Laura 31:34
I really don't remember much. But I just remember having half of my backpack dangerous candies and snacks and juices and crackers that I didn't want that had had to have, but I couldn't eat whenever I wanted. Right.

Scott Benner 31:49
Wow. So she's and you're testing just with a finger stick at this point. Are you actually testing frequently testing your blood sugar with?

Laura 31:58
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. My fingers were destroyed. Okay,

Scott Benner 32:01
so you were testing? I

Laura 32:02
was? I was checking probably at least eight to 10 times a day.

Scott Benner 32:08
Okay. All right. So. So you live like that for two years. And you're living at home at that point with your mom.

Laura 32:18
Yeah, I was with my mom until the next summer. So less than a year. Then I moved to back to Guadeloupe for a few months. And in January, I decided to go for six months in Toronto, Canada, and live in a host family. That's what we call them. Sure when you school in the morning, and just leave with a family in the afternoon. And that's what I did for six months. And that's actually where and how I learned English.

Scott Benner 32:47
Really? You've only you just picked up English a couple of years ago. Oh, yeah. Is that why at the beginning, before we started recording, you said you hope people can understand you.

Laura 32:56
I know like as soon as I introduce myself to people just like friends that don't know me or family friends like Oh, hi, like, Oh, where are you from? Like I just said, Hi. How would you know that I'm not from here?

Scott Benner 33:11
Well, we can hear but it's not that but I understand everything you're saying just so you know. Good. Yeah. I've not had any moment where I thought I don't know what she's talking about. So you go to Toronto, and then where do you head after that?

Laura 33:25
I went to Toronto for six months, then went back home helped my dad he had a business so I walked with him. I walked in a scuba diving center, literally just down the street from my house. That was actually pretty great because I learned English. So now I could speak English to clients and I walked in that business for a few months.

Scott Benner 33:48
Do you know what your agencies are? In those first years?

Laura 33:51
I think I was in the eighth in the eighth. Okay, I got the libre in June, like nine months after being diagnosed. That's when the French government decided to to cover it. So I had the libre one in June.

Scott Benner 34:05
They didn't make you go to the hospital for a week to learn how to use it. Did they?

Laura 34:09
Not that one? Okay. Luckily, I was fine with that one. But that helped a lot. Because I was waking up really early in the morning being in the three hundreds. And my doctor felt that I was getting low in the middle of the night without knowing it and my body would use counteract it and got high but no, it was just no Basal was completely messed up.

Scott Benner 34:30
Right. Well, they probably just needed a couple of more days to figure it out. They would have got it all straight. I'm sure. If you would have just stayed for 14 days. I think they would have gotten it all right. Yeah, I

Laura 34:39
would have. I mean, my high school was hating me because every other week I'll be gone.

Scott Benner 34:44
Yeah, that's insane. Well, okay, so and just for clarification, because it matters. Your mom and dad are not together.

Laura 34:52
No, they're not okay. All right now No, no, no. So we all I got diagnosed in November and December for Christmas. I went to Guadeloupe to See my dad and my brother. And the first thing that my dad said was, why are you giving yourself insulin before you eat when you don't know what you're going to eat? I was like, I don't know. That's what he told me. Well, why don't you just see what you eat? And those after I was like, I guess I could try and I would just shoot up. Like, I had no idea. I was just trying.

Scott Benner 35:23
Yeah, you really didn't have any direction whatsoever.

Laura 35:26
I didn't know what Pre-Bolus thing was until a couple years ago. Yeah,

Scott Benner 35:32
I definitely find that there's that age, right around 18. When parents and even doctors can think, Oh, they're old enough, they can do it. And meanwhile, you don't know what you're doing. And it's not like, it's not like you're gonna go home and sit down and figure it out or go online. It's just you're gonna do what you're told. And as long as you're not passing out, you're gonna you're gonna think you're okay. And that's pretty much it.

Laura 35:56
Yeah, I my mom had the only thing she would do almost he say was, what's your blood sugar? What's your blood sugar like 20 times a day. And that pissed me off really quickly. Yeah, it's not fun. My dad My dad had still now he has no idea how my diabetes life is going. What my pod Dexcom insulin is that he has no clue. How does that feel?

Scott Benner 36:21
That the people around you that are close to you don't understand anything about something that you're existing with constantly?

Laura 36:29
I'm used to it now, I guess. So it just doesn't bother me. I won't. I don't live with them. I like I haven't seen my dad in three and a half years. So it's fine. They're far away. They don't know. But my husband, for example, he has he follows my Dexcom he changes my God. He knows like when I'm high when I'm low what to do. So he's the closest to me. So he manages it with me, which is pretty great. But my parents leave so far away. It's just it doesn't seem

Scott Benner 37:01
useful for them to even understand it. Yeah. Well, how did you make it to America?

Laura 37:08
Um, well, after Toronto went back home. And I had a friend who was like, hey, it's pretty cool. What you're doing in Toronto, like, like, you just live in a family for free. You go to school, and you just live your best life? Like, yes, that's pretty sweet. So she's like, Well, how do I do that? But what if you want to do it, there's something a program called au pair, which is a living nanny coming from abroad that you could do in the US for at least a year. And then if you want to stay a bit longer, you can stay for two years. And she's like, Oh, that's pretty cool. But if I do that, you come with me? Like, yeah, sure. Okay. Let's do it. So just like that, I did my paperwork. And thing was like seven or eight months after coming back from Toronto, I was back again, back to the US.

Scott Benner 38:03
Where are your personalities? More like your father's?

Laura 38:06
I think so. Yeah. It's more like you want to try something? Go for it. My mom's like, why would you do that? Like, but why do you want to do that? You shouldn't you shouldn't have to do that. I was like, I'll go to like,

Scott Benner 38:18
why not? No, I see your you've kind of got just wander lost a little bit. And I mean, it seems like that's how your dad was like, I don't like this anymore. I'm gonna go all the way over here now. Oh, yeah,

Laura 38:27
absolutely. And my dad has, like, one of my dad's dream when I was little was to live in the US. So we came to the US, mostly Florida for a while, like on an archer zoo, we could live here and he could learn English and figure out like how it walked in. But because of 911 visas were much harder to get so he couldn't do that. So that's why when I told him, Hey, I want to go to the US for a year old. He was like, okay, cool. Yeah, he was excited.

Scott Benner 38:57
Yeah, right. Well, okay, then you make. So being an au pair. So your friends gonna be an au pair you go along with Are you an au pair as well? Yes. Okay. And so

Laura 39:10
I ended up in San Francisco. Okay. Oh, right next to San Francisco. She ends up in Los Angeles, which is far but still close for the US. And would you go about our lives and that's actually a pretty sweet life. Well, it's basically you live in a house, you are paid, not that much, but you're still paid weekly. You work for the family. And you just enjoy your life.

Scott Benner 39:39
And in the time you're working, you're looking after kids or making meals or things like that.

Laura 39:44
Yeah, that's the whole goal is to look after kids. So I had I lived in different families throughout the program and yeah, had in each family I had three kids to look after. So from babies to teenagers, like well, okay, let's go to dance break. kids go to school, go to the doctor's go to the playground. And it just, that was my life for basically two years. Okay.

Scott Benner 40:07
Did you find that a good experience?

Laura 40:12
It depends for who but I think if it's for the right people, it's amazing. Okay, I would I would never be and do what I'm doing right now, if it wasn't for those two years that I spent alone, just learning about myself.

Scott Benner 40:28
So you had enough free time to be introspective, and you didn't really have to make too much money, because I'm assuming you were driving their cars and living in their house and things like that. Yeah,

Laura 40:37
the whole problems. It's, it's a steep and it's not really a pay. It's a steep end of just a bit less than $200 a week. Okay. We do walk up to 45 hours a week, though,

Scott Benner 40:48
but but there's very few things you actually need that aren't being provided. Yeah, I

Laura 40:53
didn't need to pay for anything. But for my travels that I wanted to do any personal stuff out there myself, but the phone the call the house, the bills, everything was paid for.

Scott Benner 41:03
Yeah. That's a great time of life to do stuff like that. And, and the organization you did it with was reputable. And you had a good experience.

Laura 41:11
Yes. To come to the US. You have to go through an agency that sponsors a visa. If you don't have that you cannot come to the US. So yeah, the agency took care of my flights, my insurance,

Scott Benner 41:24
and then place you did you move through a lot of families into yours? Did you stay pretty much

Laura 41:30
I did. I moved through, I worked for four families in total. And I loved it, I was I'm not good at staying in one place or doing the same thing all over again for a long time. So it was great to just change down in Asheville. My first three families were in the Bay Area. So it was really close. But I changed the kids, they will younger, older, the schedule was different. The activities were different. So it was it wasn't great for me. I know some people hate it, but I absolutely loved it.

Scott Benner 42:04
Any kids you didn't like,

Laura 42:05
not the kids, the kids were always great. It was never the kids fault. It was mostly the parents fault. If something went wrong, it was because of the parents,

Scott Benner 42:14
okay, they treat you like they owed you or they just weren't thoughtful or how do

Laura 42:18
they go? Depends on of the family on the families, like the last couple of families were amazing with me and treating me like a human being an adult and not like a toddler in the house. But the first one was, I was just a made for them. The kids, it was not the kids fault. I love those kids. But I had to switch family. So families because it just I was they were overwhelming me. And it just, I didn't have a life and because of diabetes, like I couldn't eat when I wanted. I couldn't eat what I wanted. I had an awful schedule, and I would sleep less and I would not sleep and I would stop eating and it was just not like, well, for my own health, physical and mental. We need to do something.

Scott Benner 43:09
And for health insurance during this time period. How did you get that?

Laura 43:14
For the agency? They provide us with health insurance through eight now. Okay, which paid for everything.

Scott Benner 43:23
That's pretty amazing, actually. But But I guess the one downside of this, you're not able to amass any savings.

Laura 43:30
I did actually, oh, I'm not a big spender. Like, I'm not going shopping every day. I'm not going to start I don't go to Starbucks or stuff like that. So I was able to keep a bunch of money and travel a lot. Like, in two years. I think I've visited 15 or 16 states.

Scott Benner 43:48
No kidding.

Laura 43:49
Sorry. I've lived my best life. Yeah.

Scott Benner 43:53
I mean, you're only the way you're talking about it. I feel like you're 50 But you're 22

Laura 43:59
That's what a lot of people tell me they'll be I have an old soul.

Scott Benner 44:03
You get a lot accomplished in a short amount of time. Alright, where do you meet this boy that you marry? Where does this happen?

Laura 44:09
I met him through mutual friends in the Bay Area. He was at school in break they 2025 minutes away from where I was living. Funnily enough I met him on Bumble and on one of his pictures I so someone that I knew that. That's weird. Why do I know that guy on this profile? Young Bumble as so? Well, we started talking and yeah, now we're married.

Scott Benner 44:35
Alright, I gotta tell you Bumbles the first word. I wasn't certain what you were saying, but I figured it out. Don't be sorry. I was like, I'm like, What is she saying? I'll get it. I'll get it. There. It was. So okay, you met him through friends. But on an app, you noticed him in a picture with somebody that you knew.

Laura 44:54
On his profile. I was scrolling through his pictures and I was like, hey, on that picture. I No, that guy. Oh, that's funny. And they ended up being at the same school on the same year and their dorms were like two or three rooms apart, right? So

Scott Benner 45:10
your age? He's two years older. Okay? Did you sit now this is the first thing that did you want to get married because you seem like you don't want to be paid to

Laura 45:21
me not like I moved here. I was like, I'm just gonna live my best life. And I was, I was in a state of mind, like before coming to the US where I'm like, I don't fit in any boxes that people want me to fit in. I'm not. I didn't go to school after high school. I didn't want to just settle in my parents village. I didn't want to have this small call that everybody has. I just I was dreaming big. I was I was like, my, I want to have a big SUV. I want to have a big house. I want to have a boat. And I was like, I'm not doing that stuck in France in a small village that it's just not walking.

Scott Benner 46:01
Interesting. Okay, so does a job. Take him to Texas?

Laura 46:05
Yes. So we, yeah, we will together for quite a while in California. And then he finished college just during the pandemic. So finished. Yeah, he's last semester at home online. And that same friend, I was on his Bumble profile, moved to Texas a year ahead of him and got a job here. And it was like, well, they're looking for engineers here. So why don't you come down and apply for a job. So he applied or moved or plan on moving? And I was like, Well, if you're moving there, I might as well find another family and just move there with you. So go on Facebook, and I found that family that lives 20 minutes away from where he was gonna live. Their family name is exactly the same as his. The mom is a nurse and their eight year old is also a type one diabetic.

Scott Benner 47:03
We're not going to say your name out your last name out loud. But the last name that I'm seeing is your married name. No, that's not it's not. Okay. You have the most Caucasian name for a lady who's got such an interesting background. Really, like your names like right out of a 1950s TV show? And yeah, it's just such a simple name. But anyway, that's not the point. The point is this. You're doing all this not having a great grasp of how you're supposed to be taking care of yourself. So at what point during this process? Did you start figuring out I don't know enough about diabetes,

Laura 47:40
mostly when I moved to Texas to that family with a mom who's a nurse, okay. And the kid who is was eight, type one diabetic in the US diagnosed that five, and US diagnosis few months after me.

Scott Benner 47:54
Okay. And so did they come to you? Or did you notice? Like, did you notice that like, wow, they do this differently than I do? Or did they say something to you?

Laura 48:04
From the beginning, I had talked to them. And I had met them. I took a weekend trip to Texas choose to meet meet them. And the so the kid had the Dexcom, which I was still on a Libra. I was like, it's amazing that you can have it on your phone every five minutes. And you don't have to scan it to know your blood sugar. The mom was getting his alert on her phone. When he was at school on daycare. He says like the moms like Yeah, I know his blood sugar from wherever I am. Like, it's amazing. He had also the Omnipod same as me. So I was like, Well, if you need help with that, I know how I know how to change it. I know how to Bolus I know how to do all that. I see. When we had lunch together. And at the end of the lunch, she was like, Yeah, we would really love to have you with us for however long, right?

Scott Benner 48:55
And then so while you're together with this, this child, you guys are managing together a little bit. Yeah, I

Laura 49:03
was. So when he was not at school, I was managing his blood sugar. So it's like, he had kind of a different approach to bolusing on the parents had the mum knew exactly how much units he needed for each plate that he was eating and not how many grams of carbs it was, I say. So she would look at the plate and she's like two and a half.

Scott Benner 49:24
It just like and you were you weren't even doing that much right. You're

Laura 49:28
in no, I wanted to learn from them how to cop count as like, won't teach me and she was like We don't like oh, I guess I need to go to doctors and find out but because she was a nurse and she had a type one kid. She she had an endocrinologist office in her building. So one day she was like, well, we're gonna drop the kids off at school. You're coming with me and I'm gonna get you an appointment with the best endocrinologist in my building.

Scott Benner 49:57
And then you'll learn that way and that's how you learn From this endocrinologist,

Laura 50:01
that's how I mostly learned also from them that it was not about sugar. It was about carbs. And at that time, I still didn't know that protein and fats had to be Bolus form. I learned it on the podcast take less than a year ago.

Scott Benner 50:16
How did you find the podcast after all this?

Laura 50:19
I found mostly I found the Facebook group first. I was not that much into listening to podcasts at all. Actually, I was not at all until a few weeks ago. But my husband is a big podcast fan and he started listening to it. I was like, Hey, you should listen to it. You would learn a lot. I like Yeah, but I don't know when and I don't know how. And I was not really tech savvy. So I was like, well,

Scott Benner 50:44
So Laurie, your husband's listening to the podcast? Yes. For you, for you are to try to learn

Laura 50:49
a bit of both. I think. I didn't really ask him. But you listen to the pro tips. And it was like, Hey, I heard that they just listened to the podcast and tell me what you think. Like, okay, cool. I'll listen to it. And he left for on this morning. And I told him like, Hey, listen to the new one that just came out. It's a pretty fun story. Like you will like it.

Scott Benner 51:09
Wow, that's amazing. So he's trying to find a way to help you. He finds the podcast. You don't necessarily want to dive into it too much. But how long have you been listening? Because you had to sign up the record this like six months ago?

Laura 51:22
Actually, no, I emailed you. Oh, Laura, you're

Scott Benner 51:25
the one you want to. Laura is the lucky one in 2022. You really are. That's the time frame that wasn't making sense to me. You got a link and someone cancelled. And there was one day left.

Laura 51:40
Actually, I was double lucky then because you sent me the link. And you're like, well, it's now before like June 2023. I was like, oh, that's fine. I can just wait. And I go on the link. It was like, hey, there's an appointment for that date, which was actually yesterday. Yes. But I'm at school, and it's at 8am. And I have class at nine. It's just not gonna walk. So I was like, Well, I'm just gonna wait. And I'll figure it out later. And then a week later, I go back on the on the link and I see that there's a slot for today. I'm like, Well, I don't have school on Wednesdays it's doing

Scott Benner 52:12
you are parked on my my pack. This was going to be my packing day because we're taking Arden just to college and a few days. And when the person cancelled, I was like, I'm not going to fill that. But I also didn't go back and block it. So when I saw you take the the time I was like, that's fine. We'll do that. That's why okay, this makes better sense now. So you're just starting with the podcast? Really?

Laura 52:35
I Yes. I had been I stone it? Well, I think the first actual podcast, I listened to it a year ago. But I wasn't really into listening to stuff at that point. I was just, it's easier for me to read it or see it. So it's hard to just listen to podcasts. And I didn't have time, I didn't know how old mostly when or where to listen to those podcasts. So I was like, Well, I'm just gonna go on the run, and we'd be not that long, like 1015 minutes, and then I would be done. So I would never end up finishing the podcast.

Scott Benner 53:08
I see. But your husband listens more frequently.

Laura 53:13
Right now. Yes. Because I figured out a way to and a time to do it. Interesting. When I go to school, I just put in my car and and there it is. And there it is, you know,

Scott Benner 53:24
why did you want to come on?

Laura 53:26
Because the French diagnosis is absolutely awful. And so different to what I know now from the US and

Scott Benner 53:34
like, are you in my private Facebook group?

Laura 53:37
I'm on the on the Juicebox

Scott Benner 53:39
Podcast, you are in there. Okay, so I'm going to look very quickly to see if you're there because I'm gonna say something that

Laura 53:47
yeah, that's that's how I learned about the whole thing. And now that I know that I had no idea. I've had the Omnipod for five and a half years. Okay. But I didn't know what extended Bolus was I had never used it

Scott Benner 54:04
right. Okay, so I'm sorry I see you I see you're here. So do you ever notice online that a person named Isabel helps me with the Facebook group?

Laura 54:14
I don't really look at the names like with how Facebook is set up right now. You see the group name and then the person's name is so small. See it anymore.

Scott Benner 54:24
She's French and she lives in Toronto. And the one thing I'm going to give away a little bit about about Isabel she it makes her upset when when she hears bad things about Canada and I've never heard her hear anything bad about France so I'm wondering what happens when she when she hears you say that it's if it's gonna she has such a national pride I feel like but but it's it's interesting. I think you're the first person I've talked to who was diagnosed in France and I mean, the the experience is, obviously needs refinement. If this is if your experience is a common experience. It's it's not Great, that's for certain.

Laura 55:01
Well, that's how it works in France a yield diagnosed for a you stay in the hospital for a weekend and you have to go back to get a pump and you have to go back to learn about carb ratio. And I was supposed to do that. Basically, I was scheduled a month after I landed in the US. I was like, Well, no, it's not gonna work. I'm not gonna go back to France for a week tissues to spend it in the hospital.

Scott Benner 55:25
Yeah, no kidding. Well, interesting. So you just, you just wanted to blow up France. On the podcast. That's what you're shooting for? Well,

Laura 55:35
the thing is, I've listened and read so many stories about kids in the US like, well, we stayed in the hospital for three days. It was awful. Like, dude, I stayed there for a week. As a 17 year old. I spent my birthday in a small, sterile room with three of my family members. My aunt actually made me some sugar free cupcakes. Oh, it was muffins. I think your birthday. Yeah. And so I had a sugar free muffin and an applesauce for my birthday.

Scott Benner 56:08
Oh, happy birthday.

Laura 56:11
It was so sad. Yeah, I bet it was awfully sad. And my own actually gave me two. So I had one on my birthday. And the second one I would I kept it on my night table. And I'm still pissed at that. Because at 4am when they came to check my blood sugar, they took it away from me and didn't give it that

Scott Benner 56:28
my gosh. Someone stole it. The only thing you had.

Laura 56:33
No, I knew it was the nurses because I saw them. They saw it on my nightstand and they were like, she cannot have that here that she cannot eat that. It's sugar free. And they told me you cannot eat sugar. Like it doesn't have sugar in it. Well, it does have carbs but I didn't know that. I

Scott Benner 56:49
didn't know that at the time. Right. So oh my God, what did my muffin Gil Cohen guys. They're French muffin thieves. That's exactly what they are.

Laura 57:00
Yeah, my aunt also got pitched was like Well, I I checked online to make sure that you could eat it and there's no sugar in it.

Scott Benner 57:08
Yeah, and at that time, that's all they were saying it was Sugar, sugar, sugar, nothing about carbs. Gotcha.

Laura 57:13
Yep. Nothing about carbs and definitely nothing about protein and fat.

Scott Benner 57:19
Right? What is your A onesies? What are they like? Right now? Right

Laura 57:23
now? I've been at five for for the pastic year and a half or two years. Every time I check. I'm faithful.

Scott Benner 57:30
That's terrific. What do you think the secret to how it's going is for you? Just take

Laura 57:35
literally on my phone on Dexcom like every 10 minutes. So you're I cannot live without it's awful to say but I cannot live without my phone. Okay, because I'm constantly checking my blood sugar.

Scott Benner 57:49
Now, are you checking it and finding that it's leaving the range you want to be in and you have to adjust it or you just feel like you're being vigilant.

Laura 57:57
Oh, right now it's perfect. It's a straight line for the bus. That's what I said to my husband and couple nights ago like for the past two or three days? I have not been high. I have not been low. Like it's amazing.

Scott Benner 58:10
Are you noticing it different times of the month? Is it different?

Laura 58:15
Yes. Usually. It's a few days before I'm on my period. It's Hi Ron. Hi aren't straight. But our and Hi. When I say hi, it's above like around 161 ad. Okay, so I have to reach Bolus so I can go down. But as soon as I eat something, you just like, oh, yeah, no, let's just go back up.

Scott Benner 58:33
Because once I go back and this is before your period during your period, is that different? No. I run No, during. Okay. And then how about after the periods over?

Laura 58:43
I think it goes back to normal back to

Scott Benner 58:45
you get a normal range at that point. Yeah, you know what, we've just started doing something with Arden, where we're we're putting we're choosing her sites for her pump. Based on where she is in her cycle.

Laura 59:00
I don't have that much choice. Since I used to put my pod on my arm, I start making my legs and then I figured out that my arms didn't really work anymore. So I switched Jani legs and stomach, okay, and now my legs don't work anymore. So I have like four sites on my stomach around the belly button. And they just switch in a clockwise Yeah. Are you over? Go low and then they change I go right low and then they change I go high low a high rate.

Scott Benner 59:28
Right? Where do you think you've overused some of your sites? Do they need or just need a break?

Laura 59:34
No, it I don't really know. But as soon as I put it on my legs, I know I'm gonna be high and like, I'm just gonna try again. Yeah,

Scott Benner 59:42
so that's not that's not uncommon. So some people will use their legs and then use a different Basal profile. For instance, you know, a little more aggressive. Arden's legs are her least effective spots. So she gets more out of her arms, back of her arms and her belly. So we've been using her to just like you during her period, her blood sugar is much easier to maintain. So we've been using her legs during her period. And then when the period stops, we're moving to her belly or arms for ovulation. And, and belly or arms in that spot right before the period when you you start to get that, that resistance to Yeah, I just figured why not match up the you know how effective the site is with the need?

Laura 1:00:31
Yeah, I mean, I was I was actually talking about it last night. I just, I can see so much. So many scars on my stomach now from the pods, especially when those pods like heard of it, and then they bleed a lot, or as they bleed a small amount, but it just leaves that small bruise that's as big as the cannula basically. And those calls never go away. So I have the dots, red dots on my stomach. But I know that's the only place that my, like Todd walks. I tried to put it on the back of my like, no back. But it would burn me to a point that it would be itchy and I had blisters on my back from the pads.

Scott Benner 1:01:13
Have you have you tried? Do you pinch up when you put it on? Yes. Okay. And that spot doesn't work for you.

Laura 1:01:20
Gotcha. Yeah. So now I'm just I know, it works only on my stomach. So I'm fine with it. And I have the Dexcom I don't want my arms on my chest.

Scott Benner 1:01:30
Okay, when you do your arms with the pod, were you doing the outside facing out or back facing back?

Laura 1:01:35
I was facing that. But I hadn't done hurt like last time I did my arms was probably two or three years ago. Okay. All right. Yeah, I stopped that really quickly.

Scott Benner 1:01:44
Yeah, when Arden was little we put put it on the back of her arm. But now when she wears on her arm, she likes it sort of more on the outside of her arm.

Laura 1:01:52
Although I don't have much going on on my arms like moment. It's just bones and skin. So I think that's why it slowly adjust.

Scott Benner 1:02:00
Well, you said you said you haven't put all your weight back on, right?

Laura 1:02:03
No, I actually since I moved to Texas, in that family, with a diabetic kid, it helps me mentally to get better with my eating at it. So I lost I started losing weight, which was good for me.

Scott Benner 1:02:18
How so? What were your eating habits like before you met the family?

Laura 1:02:22
I was I was not forced. But I forced myself to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, even when I was not hungry. When when I moved to that family and like, what do you want to eat? And when do you want to eat? I was like, Well, I'm not hungry. I just want to eat a salad. And the whole family would have pasta and pizza and whatever. And it was like move. I'm just gonna have a sudden, and I didn't feel ashamed to eat something else all to be like, Well, no, my blood sugar is high. I don't want to eat pizza right? Now good for you. What do you think hungry I don't want to eat and that that changed a lot also in my mental health because I was not ashamed of doing something else because of diabetes. Like they understood. As soon as they saw me they were like, oh, yeah, so you were high all night, or you were low all night, or the kids blood sugar was high all night. So you were also awake all night. And so they gave me a break don't like just go sleep do they are and then you're good to go. And it was easier for me to manage it knowing that they knew what I was going through.

Scott Benner 1:03:25
So you think that the change for you was meeting people who understood your situation?

Laura 1:03:30
Oh, yes. Because the first families like, it's not that they understood it. They just they were okay with it. But they didn't try to help. Or they didn't try to understand it better. I'm like, Hey, if you do that, is it good or bad? They would just let me figure it out and didn't even ask anything. I'll just tell them. It's not contagious. I know how to deal with everything. I know what to do when I'm high and what to do when I'm low. I'm not going to show the kids the needles. I'm not you know, any like baloney stuff all over the place like money neat and clean. And these

Scott Benner 1:04:07
are these were all things you were concerned about or worrying about previously.

Laura 1:04:12
I didn't know that was but yes, looking back back. Yes. I was hoping not trying to hide it. But I was trying to leave the same as everybody else when, like if I'm high I will not eat pizza now when before I was like, Well, I'm high but they're all eating pizza, so I'll have to eat pizza.

Scott Benner 1:04:31
Is that because you didn't want to be the kid? You didn't want to be the girl with diabetes? Who couldn't have pizza? So you just had it anyway?

Laura 1:04:37
No, because I've always told anyone and everyone like yeah, I'm diabetic and okay, it just that's who I am. But I didn't want to have them go out of their way to be like, well, we're gonna buy you more salad or we're gonna buy you like sugar free stuff. Okay, I moved here to Texas. They were like, oh, yeah, like the first day I went to the grocery store with the dad and you was so we have sugar free milk. I was like Sorry, what? That is amazing. And we have we don't have chips, we have that kind of chips because it's slow carbs. I was like, Oh my God, I need to relearn everything in the grocery store grocery store, because it's just, there's so much stuff that I had no idea about. And that yeah, they made me sleep. They made me grow up a lot into my diabetes knowledge.

Scott Benner 1:05:27
Do you feel like in a in a kind way they parented you about diabetes? Oh, yes, yeah.

Laura 1:05:32
I mean, first day when the dad took me to the store, and the week after, when the mom was like, Hey, let me call your insurance to see if you can have the Dexcom. I was like, Well, I'm not even sure I don't. I didn't know how it works, right? Because their insurance in France is completely different here. You have to call your insurance and like, hey, I need this to leave. We didn't give it to me.

Scott Benner 1:05:55
And now that you're married, you still know that family. Yes, you do you maintain a friendship.

Laura 1:06:01
We moved since then. So we don't leave that close from them. But I still text with that. That diabetes kid and the parents were on the group chat together

Scott Benner 1:06:11
pretty great. That's pretty great. Well,

Laura 1:06:13
he calls me randomly out of nowhere. I was like, oh, yeah, we're going to the park. Oh, just had marshmallow ice cream or like, oh, cool, buddy.

Scott Benner 1:06:20
How old is he now?

Laura 1:06:21
I think he's 11. Okay.

Scott Benner 1:06:25
Wow, cheers. This is, you know, your story is really interesting. It's very different and fascinating to see somebody in a short amount of time go from no real understanding of what they're doing. To, you know, a clearer understanding of it. It's,

Laura 1:06:41
yeah, it changed a lot when also when I learned how to do the extended boluses. I was like, Oh, my God, that's what I needed the whole time. And I didn't know it was right here under my nose.

Scott Benner 1:06:52
Right. Yeah. And now you're learning about fat and protein and things like that?

Laura 1:06:58
Yes, I'm trying. So well, yeah, we got married like three and a half few weeks ago. And I wanted to fit in that dress. So I tried to for the month after to eat a bit poorly low carb, low Tinoco. And so it was a lot of protein and veggies, mostly mostly, like, Well, why do I go high when I have just a burger? And salad? Like, that just doesn't make any sense until like, we listen to the pro tip bus podcast. I was like, huh, that makes more sense.

Scott Benner 1:07:32
I'm glad it's helping. That's really excellent. Wonderful. Is there anything that we haven't talked about that you wanted to I don't want to skip anything or miss anything. I was just

Laura 1:07:41
about traveling. Because I've traveled a lot. I know a lot of families, especially during the summer like hey, well traveling here. We're traveling there like what do I do? And a lot of people will scared about flying and going through security and stuff. And a lot of parents are like, well, you can go on the side. They don't have to you don't have to go through that whole like scanning machine. You don't have to put your bag through it. Like I've I've never done anything different than anyone else. I just went through just put my my I have the bag that says make all of my diabetes mag. And I put all of my stuff in it. And with also jukeboxes pass in the I go on planes with juice boxes. Yeah. When you need people like no, you're not allowed to make warts, medical medical device.

Scott Benner 1:08:36
Yeah, you can get through TSA with juice boxes, you just have to do let them know what they're for. Then they, they swab them to make sure there's no explosives inside of them. Right.

Laura 1:08:45
And that's what they do the first time like, oh, you cannot go through that. Like, yeah, I can. Cool. So again, good for you. I was like, Whoa, and because I have my plan, and it just did some like yo, yo, my hands just swap them. I know, another drill. And my incident go through everything. I don't put my incident in any cold stuff. At home. My what? I have my incident in the fridge at home, right? But it's only for the past like what, two or three months before that for the past three years. It's been just in a drawer, and I never put my incident in the fridge

Scott Benner 1:09:22
in a temperature control building though, right? The building's not

Laura 1:09:26
always around like 7072. Right?

Scott Benner 1:09:29
And how much well how much insulin do you have on hand at a time?

Laura 1:09:33
Well, mine so I get everything from friends. I email my endocrinologist every time I do blood tests. I'm like, hey, everything's here. I send you my graphs, my blog, my agencies that merge, everything's fine. I still have some dogs gums, I need more insulin and she writes me a prescription. I send it to my mom who has my insurance gone and everything goes to her next door neighbor who's the pharmacy goes to the pharmacy Seems like well, we didn't go and sit in follow her. And then she just sends me a box. So I usually get about a year of insulin at a time. And in between eight and 12 months of bugs index comes at a time. So yeah, when I get a box, it's a huge box and I have 20 year she vials of insulin at once.

Scott Benner 1:10:22
Okay, and so when you travel, you don't you only take what you need with you.

Laura 1:10:27
Yes, I used to be like, well, what if my pod fails? And what if I go into water and it dies? What if? And what if, and I just ended up traveling with so much for just a two day weekend? It's just crazy. I know that I'm not going to use all of that. I don't need to Dexcom for two days.

Scott Benner 1:10:47
So you bring a little extra but you don't bring so much. Yeah,

Laura 1:10:51
I in my backpack to go to school or to go anywhere. I always have a pen and a couple of needles. But I don't have my meter all the time with me. I never have Dexcom arms. I never unless I'm travel. But on a daily basis. I have just my PDM a pen and a couple needles.

Scott Benner 1:11:11
Where did you just get married? Yes. Like in the last couple of months?

Laura 1:11:17
Beginning beginning of the month? Yes. Okay.

Scott Benner 1:11:19
I just watched your wedding video. Oh, like in the background while you were talking? I ran up behind. Like what I'm looking at? Yeah, that's amazing. Good for you.

Laura 1:11:28
So yeah, we're going through actually switching my insurance right now. And I need to see if they would if his insurance would cover up the Omnipod. Five, which would be pretty cool.

Scott Benner 1:11:42
Yeah. Are you thinking of doing that

Laura 1:11:44
or everything since because I'm getting married in the US. My French insert insurance won't walk anymore.

Scott Benner 1:11:50
Right? Right. Yeah, you're gonna have to go on to his.

Laura 1:11:53
Yeah. But so far, his insurance has been really great for him whenever he needs to go to the ER or doctor's office.

Scott Benner 1:12:01
Okay. Are you working? Are you going to?

Laura 1:12:05
I'm a student on a visa. So I cannot walk. I can walk at school, but I will seven or eight hours a week.

Scott Benner 1:12:12
Are you trying? Are you hoping to get some sort of? Like, is there a degree you're looking for something you're thinking of doing in the future?

Laura 1:12:18
Yeah, right now I'm doing a double major in French and geography. And I'm a junior level right now.

Scott Benner 1:12:25
Okay, what do you want to do with it? You know, if I use mostly to

Laura 1:12:29
French, I can do teaching, but I'm not I can do but I don't really want to. I would love to do some translation. I can walk in communication, a bunch of stuff like that. If I do geology, I can do GIS, planter. Urban Planning and range of different things.

Scott Benner 1:12:48
How long till you've got your degrees?

Laura 1:12:50
I'm planning on graduating early in December of next year.

Scott Benner 1:12:53
Good for you. Congratulations. So big thing. How do you handle seeing your parents? Is it just FaceTime and things like that?

Laura 1:13:00
i My mom came for the first time in the US for the wedding. But in the past year, three and a half years. That was the third time I saw her and I talked to her on the phone. Yeah, pretty often. But in real life was the third time I haven't seen my dad since I left in February of 2020 2019.

Scott Benner 1:13:19
Is that pretty comfortable for you? Or do you find it difficult?

Laura 1:13:22
Yeah, I've never been that close to my parents. Okay. Since the beginning, even before diagnosis, I was just like, yeah, just I'll do my own thing. And I'll be fine.

Scott Benner 1:13:32
It does seem like you don't really need any help. So

Laura 1:13:37
no, well, from them not, but because I know they they cannot do anything from where they are.

Scott Benner 1:13:44
Yeah, I meant big picture. You just feel like you're okay. And even when you don't know what you're doing somehow you just just can't seem to come across the answer. So,

Laura 1:13:54
yeah. For the big picture. Yeah. For the small picture. There's you ask my husband and like, well, he knows when I'm high just by looking at me and looking at what I say and how I do things. And so he he walks on boats. So he's gone for half of the time. He's gone for a week and a home for a week. So when he's on the boat, and I'm on the phone with him. He knows when I'm low before my Dexcom something. That's how crazy that is.

Scott Benner 1:14:23
All right. Well, I just I really appreciate you doing this. Thank you for taking the time to record with me. Well, I was glad to come on. Yeah, you were terrific. You really were I'm so glad you slipped in here on my day off. It was a it was really it was really a nice way to spend an hour.

Laura 1:14:38
Good luck in college for Alden. Oh, thank

Scott Benner 1:14:41
you. I'll tell her she's very excited. She I think she would have left two weeks ago if she could.

Laura 1:14:47
So if she has really good professors like I have, I usually try to make them laugh about diabetes the first day. That's what I said last week to my professors. I went to each and every one of them and I was like hey For international students, I'm also diabetes. So I'm trying not to pass out in your class producer, you know, if I do, that's because I'm diabetic. And usually they laugh and like, well, it never happened. So that shouldn't be fine. But I just let them know if I'm on my phone. I'm not texting. I'm just making sure I'm still alive.

Scott Benner 1:15:18
Yeah, here. We've been talking about that recently, how she's going to approach professors and explain things and the school so far has been really terrific about it as well, allowing her to have like a smile.

Laura 1:15:29
I talked to the Office of Disability and thought, Okay, we've got a couple people that could do that. And I'm not ashamed of being diabetic. I'm not ashamed of I don't hide it. I actually just laugh about it. Like, yeah, I have a Dexcom. Well, you don't know. It's the Dexcom. It's just a GPS so my husband know where I am at all times.

Scott Benner 1:15:50
Keep it drag me, that's all. Alright, well, Laura, thank you. Hold on for me for a second. Okay.

Laura 1:15:57
All right. Thank you so much.

Scott Benner 1:16:05
Hey, I want to thank Laura for coming on the show and sharing her story with us. And I want to thank ag one for sponsoring this episode of the podcast drink ag one.com forward slash juice box. Take ownership of your health and get the five free travel packs in the year supply of vitamin D when you make your first order at drink a G one.com. Forward slash juice box. I also want to thank the contour next gen blood glucose meter and remind you that all of the contour meters are incredibly accurate and easy to use. And you can learn more about the end make your purchases at contour next.com forward slash juicebox. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

If you were a loved one has been diagnosed with type one diabetes. The bold beginnings series from the Juicebox Podcast is a terrific place to begin listening. In this series, Jenny Smith and I will go over the questions most often das at the beginning of type one. Jenny is a certified diabetes care and education specialist who is also a registered and licensed dietitian and Jenny has had type one diabetes for 35 years. My name is Scott Benner and I am the father of a child who has type one diabetes. Our daughter Arden was diagnosed in 2006 at the age of two. I believe that at the core of diabetes management, understanding how insulin works, and how food and other variables impact your system is of the utmost importance. The bold beginning series will lead you down the path of understanding. This series is made up of 24 episodes. And it begins that episode 698 In your podcast, or audio player. I'll list those episodes at the end of this to listen, you can go to juicebox podcast.com. Go up to the menu at the top and choose bold beginnings. Or go into any audio app like Apple podcasts, or Spotify. And then find the episodes that correspond with the series. Those lists again are Juicebox Podcast up in the menu or if you're in the private Facebook group. In the featured tab. The private Facebook group has over 40,000 members. There are conversations happening right now and 24 hours a day that you'd be incredibly interested in. So don't wait. So don't wait. Check out the bowl beginning series today and get started on your journey. Episode 698 defines the bowl beginning series 702, honeymooning 706 adult diagnosis 711 and 712 go over diabetes terminologies hit episode 715 We talked about fear of insulin in 719 the 1515 rule episode 723 long acting insulin 727 target range 731 food choices 735 Pre-Bolus 739 carbs 743 stacking 747 flexibility in Episode 751 We discussed school in Episode 755 Exercise 759 guilt, fears hope and expectations. In episode 763 of the bowl beginning series. We talked about community 772 journaling 776 technology and medical supplies. Episode Seven at treating low blood glucose episode 784 dealing with insurance 788 talking to your family and episode 805 illness and ketone management. Check it out it will change your life

#981 Glucagon Story: Anonymous

My anonymous guest has type 1 diabetes and has used glucagon. This is her story.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, welcome back to another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Today, my anonymous guest will be sharing her glucagon story. She's a young woman in her early 20s And she's had to use glucagon. 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 or becoming bold with insulin. 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. When you have diabetes and use insulin, low blood sugar can happen when you don't expect it. G Bo Capo pen is a ready to use glucagon option that can treat very low blood sugar in adults and kids with diabetes ages two and above. Find out more go to G voc glucagon.com forward slash juice box visit G voc glucagon.com/risk.

Gvoke is a prescription injection for the treatment of very low blood sugar in adults and kids with diabetes ages two and above. Do not use if you have a specific type of adrenal or pancreatic tumor starvation, chronic low blood sugar or allergy to G voc High Blood Pressure hyperglycemia and serious skin rashes can occur. Call your doctor or get medical help right away. If you have a serious allergic reaction including rash, difficulty breathing or low blood pressure. Visit G vo glucagon.com/risk for more information. My guest today is going to remain anonymous. They are here to talk about an incident that required glucagon. So are you the parent of a child with type one or do you have type one yourself?

Anonymous Female Speaker 2:19
I have type one myself.

Scott Benner 2:21
How old are you?

Anonymous Female Speaker 2:22
I am 2222 How

Scott Benner 2:24
old were you when you were diagnosed?

Anonymous Female Speaker 2:27
I got diagnosed in March of 2021.

Scott Benner 2:30
Oh gosh. So just maybe a year or so ago? Okay. Wow. Is there any other autoimmune or type one in your family?

Anonymous Female Speaker 2:40
There is no other autoimmune or anything? My not in my family? No. But for me, yes.

Scott Benner 2:49
You have other autoimmune issues? Yeah.

Anonymous Female Speaker 2:53
So I have a connective tissue disorder called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. And with that your connective tissue is like the glue to your joints in your body. What happened was, I had my artery was being compressed by my spinal cord and everything. And it caused no blood flow to my AR aortic artery and my stomach area. And shortly, we didn't know for the longest time about it, I was sick a lot. And I would go to the ER and no one would say what's going on? And they're just like, it's fine. It's just stress. And then I was like, Well, I don't think it is. And when they found the compression i i was having low blood sugars at the time. Before I was type one, I had a lot of low blood sugars. And I was already on Dexcom. Shortly after that, a couple of weeks or whatever, after I developed it, because the compression had been there for so long.

Scott Benner 4:06
I have to tell you, if you want to come back on and do a regular episode, I would love to hear that story if you if you're interested. Yeah. Okay. All right. We'll get you at will at the end of this. We'll get you signed up and get you on another episode. My reason for asking centric to the the glucagon conversation was I wanted to make sure that when you were diagnosed, you would have had no idea what glucagon was or had any reason to understand what it did. Is that right?

Anonymous Female Speaker 4:37
Yeah, I didn't get a glucagon until I was diagnosed with type one. I didn't know about anything. I've been to the ER to get D 50. Quite a few times because my blood sugar was 48 and I felt fine. But

Scott Benner 4:57
but they no one had given it to you prior to your diagnosis. No. Okay. You have a lot of interesting stuff, we are going to definitely get you back on. But for now, you're diagnosed with type one. When do you remember someone talking to you about glucagon the first time.

Anonymous Female Speaker 5:14
I believe the first time was in my endocrinologist office a little bit, because I had a Dexcom when I got diagnosed, it was kind of weird on what's gonna go on, because they immediately started me on insulin stuff and just sent it to the pharmacy. And was like, here you go do this amount in this amount. And then that next week, I had went in and that was when they did all that. I, we adjusted, we figured out what my how many carbs to a unit I needed. That was when I got in for for training.

Scott Benner 5:50
So during that training, you got glucagon at the same time. Do you remember what they told you?

Anonymous Female Speaker 5:55
I definitely didn't know about glucagon. And they had shown me how to use it and everything it was after G Bo chi come out. So my doctor didn't want to give the old emergency kit or basket me. They wanted just the glucagon. They're like, okay, like, here are the guidelines. Like they're just saying, if I can't get my blood sugar up, take it, or other things like that. I, I got trained on the insulin stuff, but the glucagon wasn't really. I wasn't really like, trained trained on I understand, because, yeah,

Scott Benner 6:36
I don't know why they don't. But I, I half expect you to tell me that. So okay, so you've got a loose understanding of what it is. They tell you something like if your blood sugar gets really low in an emergency, you use this. Did anyone take out a trainer pen and show it to you? No, no. Just you'll figure it out. Yeah, yeah. While you're having a seizure?

Anonymous Female Speaker 6:59
Yeah, they're like, well, the instructors on our on there, you can definitely read the instructions when you do it. Yeah.

Scott Benner 7:06
And by the way, read it when you're not really low. I will tell you that I was told when we were handed glucagon, when my daughter was two. This is glucagon. It's for a low blood sugar emergency, you'll never need it. That's what they told us. So by the way, the first time we needed glucagon, I didn't know what to do with it. Because nobody explained it to me. And I was flat out told in a moment when I didn't have any idea about anything. Here's something we're giving you, but you'll never need it. Now, did you end up needing it?

Anonymous Female Speaker 7:43
Yes, I've had to take glucagon TWICE, TWICE. Hard part of it too, is like they told me that if I take glucagon, I have to go to the hospital. But I'm like, How do I have to go to the hospital with it? Because like, I don't think the hospital is going to do anything, once it's backed up and everything. So

Scott Benner 8:03
did that stop you from using it ever?

Anonymous Female Speaker 8:08
Again, yeah, because I didn't really understand the glucagon at the time, I didn't know what it was really. And why I needed to go. I've had epi pins for food allergies and stuff before. So I just kind of figured it was similar to the epi pens, on the effectiveness and everything. But with blood sugar. So I just kind of assumed that you have to go to the hospital with it.

Scott Benner 8:39
Yeah. This is this is fascinating to hear how little explanation or, or understanding that was was given to you. I know you're like, younger, but not very young. Were your parents with you during these explanations?

Anonymous Female Speaker 8:55
No. So my, most of my family lives on the other half of the country. So well, other half of the states. And then I'm my mom and I are here. But that's kinda

Scott Benner 9:11
that's it? Yeah. So can you describe the first time you actually used glucagon?

Anonymous Female Speaker 9:18
Yeah, so I didn't use it all myself. I actually was at work. And it was a really hot day. And I worked outside at the time. And I started feeling bad. And this was before I had the text column. I started feeling bad, but in finger poked, and my meter said, I was like, 48. And I'm like, oh, so then I go into the break room and grab a soda or whatever. And I drink it and I'm like, okay, it'll be fine. I'll, I'll just drink it and I'll go back out and work out aside, but I started feeling worse. So then I went to a vendor that was near where I, the position I was working in. And I got sugar packets, and Pepsi. I was just trying to get anything that I could to bring it back up. And I still didn't quite get it up. And after my third finger poke, my blood sugar was like 28. So once I figured poked, and it was 28, I then was like, Well, I kind of need to go home. And my supervisor that was with me actually realized how bad I realize how bad my blood sugar was, because she saw me pass out on the floor. And that day, they had to give me two, she gave me glucagon. That was in their emergency kit or whatever, she gave me it, I still didn't respond. And then medics had to give me it twice. And I was like, I don't understand what the heck is going on. So that was kind of a really scary day, because that was before we knew my blood sugar, like I was having low blood sugars without really knowing. And that was like, the hardest part is I was trying to do. I didn't know that.

Scott Benner 11:31
What's interesting, as you're telling the story is that you haven't had diabetes for that long to begin with. You're young, your training wasn't great. And you're at a 48. And you're like, I'll drink a soda and I'll be okay. But then you feel poor, again, you test again, you're not getting any better. And then on that third test at a 28 blood sugar, which by the way, you are right, you're getting ready to pass out or have a seizure. Right. And you don't know that you're planning like, I'll go home. Like, like home seems like a safe place for me to be in this situation. That's how out of it you are in that moment, and you don't realize it. And then you say you passed out they gave you glucagon from an emergency kit that you had at a job. Do you know which one they gave you?

Anonymous Female Speaker 12:18
Um, I feel like it may have been evoke, I'm not fully sure. Really. It was a couple of years ago, so I don't know exactly if it was that or the old kits,

Scott Benner 12:30
and you carry G voc with you.

Anonymous Female Speaker 12:32
I wasn't carrying it at that time with

Scott Benner 12:35
me. At the time you weren't this is your first time with all this. Okay, so

Anonymous Female Speaker 12:38
that was my first time with a low blood sugar where I passed out, right.

Scott Benner 12:42
Okay. So thankfully, emergency comes, they hit you a couple more times get your blood sugar up. Do you remember any of that scenario after you passed out?

Anonymous Female Speaker 12:52
And no. Basically, everything that I'm telling you right now is what my supervisor told me. Yeah. I don't remember anything. I do remember getting to the hospital, and having my blood sugar dropped again. And I remember that time it felt like I was having a seizure. Like I was coherent, but like, I could hear what everything's going on and everything. But I couldn't really tell you. I couldn't say anything. I understand. It was kind of hard. And I was in the waiting room. And they immediately ended up taking me back. Luckily. But yeah, that's I don't remember a lot of it.

Scott Benner 13:39
I understand. My daughter's had a seizure, and I was present for one of them. And I was on the phone for another one. So I understand what you're saying, Actually, I'm having an emotional day already. And I'm thinking why did I book all these seizure stories on one day? Because you sound so young, like I'm crying. Okay, anyway, I'll put myself together and we'll get to the next story. G vo Capo pen has no visible needle, and is a pre mixed auto injector of glucagon for treatment of very low blood sugar in adults and kids with diabetes ages two and above. Find out more go to G vo glucagon.com forward slash juicebox G voc shouldn't be used in patients with insulinoma or pheochromocytoma. Visit G voc glucagon.com/risk. How much longer is it at now now moving forward into time you're carrying G voc heipo pen or the or the syringe?

Anonymous Female Speaker 14:40
I carry type open. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 14:43
Alright, so now you have that on you. What happens the second time I got

Anonymous Female Speaker 14:47
a different job and I have been working with them for a little bit. I'll give you a little backstory. So that week I decided to switch to the Omnipod five, but they told me that I didn't need to go in for training because you can do it all online and get your settings in and everything. Well, I put my settings in incorrectly. So the insulin sensitivity. I put us 20. And then And then

Scott Benner 15:26
yeah, I understand. So you're getting one unit to move you 20 points, but how much did you really need one unit for 50? It lowers

Anonymous Female Speaker 15:33
me about 60 or so. Yeah. So so I put it in incorrectly?

Scott Benner 15:39
Three, three times stronger than you needed. Yep. Yeah, that'll do it. Okay. And

Anonymous Female Speaker 15:45
I didn't know what the heck was going on or anything because I was so confused on why I was I kept on going low. Like, here all day, I was having like bread soda. Like I was having everything. Yeah. And it still wasn't staying up. So then it was like, okay, is Dexcom acting weird? Or is it true that I'm that, and I think revoked and everything and I was that low. So then I talked to my team, and they're like, I don't know what to do. We don't know what to do. And I was like, I have no clue what to do. either. I was at work. I didn't really hear much from the team or anything. And then it was still going down. And at that point, it had been at like 40 for about 45 minutes or so. And I ended up because I have my glucagon in my bag. So even though I work in that little area, I am able to have my medical stuff, medical bag as long as it's separate from everyone else. So I grabbed my glucagon. And I gave it to myself.

Scott Benner 16:57
After how long of being 40,

Anonymous Female Speaker 17:00
about 45 minutes or so. Because I was literally eating things. And I was like, There's no way and I was just trying to wait for it to come up because I didn't want to overcorrect it, because I have a very high tendency of doing I think all US diabetics do. But I was like, trying to and then I was trying to wait for it because I was like I don't want to take it if it's going to be like that. Like I don't. I don't know what to do, even though I'm doing everything.

Scott Benner 17:30
Yeah. And you said you contacted your medical team. And the they told you we don't know.

Anonymous Female Speaker 17:36
Well, they they told me they're like if it gets that low, then you need to take your glucagon. And you need to take your glucagon.

Scott Benner 17:45
Did they go? Did they go over your pump settings with you? They knew you were like had recently moved to a pump, right?

Anonymous Female Speaker 17:53
Yes. But we hadn't figured that out that that was the pattern because I was only like three days into the new pump or something like that. So I hadn't quite figured that. I hadn't quite realized that. That was what it was. Yeah,

Scott Benner 18:09
I understand. But they didn't realize, Hey, she just started using a pump three days ago. Maybe the settings are wrong. No. You still have that doctor?

Anonymous Female Speaker 18:19
Yeah. Well, but when I got so I made it the I took the glucagon and I was fine. I didn't go to the hospital because I didn't feel like it was necessary to go because it kept me up. And then the next day, it was a Friday. And then the next day Saturday, I was in class in the morning. And my blood sugar did the same thing. So I went ahead and message my trainer and was like, Hey, what's going on? Like, I have my settings at where they're supposed to be in everything. But my blood sugars have been like super low and everything and I ended up ripping off my pod because unlike I don't know why it's like this. And I message the trainer because at first I was like, Okay, well maybe it's an off day of just having lows. And then. And then the next day when I had the loads and everything else, like you know what I might as well just contact my trainer about it. So I contacted her about it. And she had me read all my settings and everything when I reset it. And that was when we figured out that my insulin sensitivity factor was at 20 instead of 60 like it was supposed to be

Scott Benner 19:32
holy hell, okay. So all right, when you go to do it, you take out you bow Capo pan, pop off the cap. Where do you do it? You do it on your leg, your belly? Where do you think to do it?

Anonymous Female Speaker 19:43
I was at work and I didn't know if it go over my pants so I just did it in my belly.

Scott Benner 19:59
Yeah And you didn't do it through your clothes, right? No, yeah, please don't do that. Okay, so. So you put it in? And does your blood sugar rise?

Anonymous Female Speaker 20:11
Yeah, so I put it in and I told the staff that I needed to go take a break and be in the break room for a bit. And they were perfectly fine with that. About 2530 minutes go by. And my numbers are back up. And now I'm in the two hundreds and just study. And I was like, Okay, sounds good. I had a coke and juice and everything at my little station that I was at. Where I am when I'm off duty, I went ahead and kept that stuff there. Because I knew that because I'm walking around and stuff it was going to drop. So I just wanted to be prepared again. And so I just kept on sipping on the juice and stuff throughout the day, even though I had already taking g voc. Right. I just wanted to be safe. Yeah, but yeah. Wow.

Scott Benner 21:06
That's incredible. Do you carry them still?

Anonymous Female Speaker 21:12
Yes, I never leave the house without it. We have one in the kitchen and one in my room. Good for you. And we keep them in stuff because it's definitely something and part of my hypoglycemia with that stuff is because my GI system doesn't work too too well. So it can't it's like having hard times absorbing things. Or

Scott Benner 21:36
you have gastroparesis. Yes. That's That's what they told you. And is that in any way attached to I mean, you haven't had diabetes that long. So is that is that attached to

Anonymous Female Speaker 21:47
the to attach to my EDS, which is my genetic condition?

Scott Benner 21:51
That's what I was wondering, Okay, how did they How did they diagnose the EDS?

Anonymous Female Speaker 21:57
I had to go to a lot of specialists. So I got sent the first specialist I got sent to was it was an orthopedic doctor, they couldn't really do anything because obvious reasons. Because they're more for like surgeries and stuff. So then I saw him and then I saw another doctor, and that was a rheumatologist. And where I was later diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.

Scott Benner 22:42
Do you have that? Yes. How does that present for you?

Anonymous Female Speaker 22:48
A lot of joint pain, stiffness, soreness. Yeah, about the same stuff as EDS. And then once they realized I had EDS and everything that they suspected EDS and everything, they did the little Biden scale or whatever, it's called for it for me, the the rheumatologist office, and then they referred me over to a geneticist.

Scott Benner 23:23
Is there treatments available? What do you do for it?

Anonymous Female Speaker 23:26
Um, so once the, once I talked to the geneticist, so some forms of Eds are some forms of Eds are some forms show up on bloodwork, like genetic panels, and stuff and some forms don't I have one of the forms that do not show up on genetic panels? Which is classical EDS. Um, so there's no cure for it or anything. A lot of it is just like physical therapy, and wearing like braces when you're doing more things throughout the day, whether that's going to the zoo or going out and stuff like that. And then just bracing if you need to do those things. Yeah. So it definitely does help. And for me, right now, I'm kinda in a middle situation with that stuff. But it's been a journey.

Scott Benner 24:38
I'm sorry. It's a lot. You're young, you know. You okay? Yeah. Yeah, you're doing all right. Like, psychologically, you're hold that together and stuff.

Anonymous Female Speaker 24:51
Yeah. There's some days where I'm like, Okay.

Scott Benner 24:57
Do you see a therapist? Yes. Yeah, I think I would do. I think it's a good idea. I cannot thank you enough for coming on and telling me your stories about glucagon. I really appreciate it. A few Hold on for a minute we'll stop the recording and I will help you find a time to record about the EDS. It doesn't matter if you're a newly diagnosed person in their 20s, a parent of someone living with type one diabetes, or someone who's been living with type one forever. If you're using insulin, G voc glucagon wants to remind you to check the expiration dates on your glucagon. And if they're expired, contact your physician immediately for replacements. Don't be without glucagon in the moment that you need it. Have it where you are on your person in your home, at school, at your job, or when you're traveling. Emergencies don't announce themselves. That's why you need to be prepared. Parents of children, this is a perfect time. You're going to end up back at the endos office before the new school year to get your orders in line for the school nurse. Don't forget to ask them about G voc glucagon. If you'd like to learn more about G voc hypo Penn episode 789 is with Jenny Smith and I we discussed the important things you need to know about evoke this episode is absolutely terrific to teach you or other people in your life how to use G voc hypo Penn School Nurses, your best friend anybody you're around who might be in a position to help you or your child if the need should arise. G voc hypo pain is the first glucagon autoinjector that treats very low blood sugars in people with diabetes ages two and above. Low blood sugar also called hypoglycemia occurs when your blood sugar gets below 70 milligrams per deciliter. When this happens, you can consume sugary foods or drinks to bring your blood sugar back up. There are many reasons why you may have low blood sugar including taking too much insulin, the amount and timing of physical activity and unexpected changes to your schedule. Very low blood sugar or severe hypoglycemia occurs when your blood sugar gets so low that you need help to bring it back up. It is an emergency situation that needs to be treated immediately. If your hypoglycemia is left untreated, it can quickly and unexpectedly progress to severe hypoglycemia. Severe hyperglycemia is potentially life threatening and can lead to loss of consciousness, seizure, coma, or even death. If you experience any of the following administering glucagon is the next step. You've tried eating or drinking but it's not working. You are unable to eat or drink. You feel like you might pass out or if you have passed out or are having a seizure. I'm just going to leave you with this. My daughter carries G voc hypo pen with her constantly. It is always on her person. There is another pen in her bedside table. When she goes to college, there is one on her person and one on her bedside table. Everyone in her life knows how to use G fo Capo pen, her roommates, her friends and family members both extended and within our home. G vote glucagon is a sponsor of this podcast because it is the glucagon that my daughter carries, not the other way around. You understand. We carry G voc and then I found the company and said if you guys want to be advertisers, I'd love to spread the word. I personally find that G voc hypo pen is the easiest to carry glucagon option that I've ever seen in the entire time my daughter has had type one diabetes. This may seem odd, but I was genuinely excited when we got G voc hypo pen the first time putting G voc hypo pen in my daughter's bag gave me a sense of relief that I had not had since she was diagnosed. Ask your physician today about G voc glucagon or go to G voc glucagon.com forward slash juicebox.

If you have a glucagon story that you'd like to share with me on the Juicebox Podcast contact me through juicebox podcast.com Or on the Facebook page Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes. Find out more about Chivo Capo pen at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juicebox you spell that GvokeGlucagon.com/Juicebox

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