Scott Benner 4/25/24 Scott Benner 4/25/24

#1183 Ask Scott and Jenny: Chapter Twenty

Scott and Jenny Smith, CDE answer your diabetes questions.

• Let’s talk about statins.

• Let’s talk about GLP meds.

• How high is too high to exercise? At what threshold should we sit or test ketones? What are the preferred numbers?

• Let’s explain delayed onset hypoglycemia.

• What did Jenny do to prepare for her Ironman marathon? What did she eat, set your pump to? Suggestions for longer periods of exercise?

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

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, welcome to episode 1183 of the Juicebox Podcast

Hey everybody welcome back we got another episode of Ask Scott and Jenny here not much more to say than that there's listener questions and Jenny and I try to answer them. 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. You want to help. It's easy. If you're a US resident, you have type one diabetes, or you're the caregiver of someone with type one, you can advance type one diabetes research by completing the survey at this link, T one d x change.org/juicebox. That easy 10 minutes. And just like that, you're part of what's propelling us forward. Don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com. All you have to do is use the offer code juice box at checkout. That's juice box at checkout to save 40% at cosy earth.com You should go join the private Facebook group for the Juicebox Podcast Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. Everyone's welcome. That's just the title. There's links in the show notes and links at juicebox podcast.com. Check it out. Fantastic community I'm sorry I went into the deep voice therapy. It's really great. 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. US med is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast and we've been getting our diabetes supplies from us med for years. You can as well us med.com/juice box or call 888-721-1514 Use the link or the number get your free benefits check it get started today with us med Today's episode is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes, a company that's bringing people together to redefine what it means to live with diabetes. Later in this episode, I'll be speaking with Jalen, he was diagnosed with type one diabetes at 14. He's 29. Now he's going to tell you a little bit about his story. And then later at the end of this episode, you can hear my entire conversation with Jalen to hear more stories with Medtronic champions. Go to Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox or search the hashtag Medtronic champion on your favorite social media platform. Hey, Jamie, welcome back to a another ask Scott and Jenny episode. How are you?

Unknown Speaker 2:45
I'm good. How are you?

Scott Benner 2:46
I'm very well, thank you. Yay, I'm gonna start where we left off in the last one. But we're just not gonna parse words. And we're gonna jump right into it. Because I think we talked around it a little bit last time.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:57
I think last time we ended, because we thought it was a little bit longer discussion than we had time left or something if I remember about, I don't remember exactly what it was. But oh,

Scott Benner 3:08
yes. Yeah, it was that and so.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:11
Oh, that's right. And I give my, my opinion.

Scott Benner 3:14
Do you did you got a little crazy. So like, I like it. And I want to dig a little deeper into it. So I'm listen at the beginning of every one of these episodes is going to tell you this is not medical advice, you know, talk to your doctor. And I'm not a conspiracy theorist. But you started to dig into it a little bit the last time once they get the okay to use the medication. Now, it's something that just gets distributed, like, you know, oh, you have diabetes, here's a statin, even if you don't show any reasons, to be honest, that that's happening now and a lot of practices. Right.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:48
Right. I mean, and that's, that was the baseline for my concern with it's, it's given out almost like, we'll just take this, that's in a general sense, right? You have this condition, type one, diabetes, type two diabetes, whatever, right? And that has predisposed you to these types of things. And so we are trying to be preventative, they're calling it preventative right in prescribing something like a statin went in the case of actual individual looking, you can see that somebody's already got the lifestyle habits that are preventative. It's such a hard thing to navigate recommending being in a medical field to say, just because you have diabetes doesn't mean you have to be on a statin. So

Scott Benner 4:40
I understand. I understand where it comes from. If there's so many people for so long, who have such poor care, and they all eventually end up with, you know, something that requires a statin why don't we just paper the community with it and keep it from happening? But that's I don't know that's like saying that a house burned down once a month in our town, so every night, I have to go outside and close my house off before I go to sleep, it gets a strange decision to make, I think and now if it saves the person, then I guess it was a great decision, you know, but is that the I mean, we don't want to glance over your point about there are going to be some people who are going to lead a lifestyle that will never, that will never lead to elevated levels. Correct.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:23
And that's where, you know, in terms of just blanket prescribing this as a medication, there are some standards that are followed, obviously, there have to be, and they're not just prescribed solely on like blood tests anymore. Right, there are parameters that are looked at, there are health risks, you know, even some stats that are being put together by data collection systems that say, this suggests that this person is at this percent of a risk based on these other conditions that are already present, or their health factors or inclusive of lab values, and all of those types of things. Those are considered, you know, in terms of heart attack risk and stroke risk, really, those are the reasons that statins are going to be prescribed. But when we talk about diabetes, they're also being prescribed as I said, preventatively. Yeah.

Scott Benner 6:12
So then that gets into the next question. We have a bulk of questions here from people. Should I be on a statin? If my lipids are okay, what about my numbers are good, but they still want me to be honest that and can we please get someone to talk about statins and whether LDL is really a reliable indicator of heart risk, as some doctors would have you believe so that's the next thing, right? Like, can't you just genetically be predisposed to a higher value, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to turn to something or is that not the case. So they

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:40
look at ratios as well, right? So it's not just total cholesterol anymore, they've broken it down into different measurements, LDL, you can easily remember LDL versus HDL, LDL is lousy cholesterol, that's the one that you want to be lower. HDL is your healthy cholesterol, that's the one you want to be higher, right. So it's kind of easy to remember. But in terms of that, when they look at ratios, they're also looking at cholesterol and LDL and cholesterol and HDL ratio is and they're looking at even VLDL, which is very low density, sort of lipo protein, another component of your total lipid panel, and all of these pieces, along with the other conditions that you might be living with smoking, drinking, you know, lifestyle, activity, all of those things have to go in, when you're considering the potential of prescribing.

Scott Benner 7:35
What about having diabetes makes this worse? So if I have a high, lousy, you know, LDL, the doctor looks at me in between the bloodwork and his assessment, her assessment, it looks like I'm going to end up with actual problems from this, what are those actual problems and how to diabetes make it worse?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:53
Yeah, I mean, in terms of diabetes, remember, blood sugar is the thing, we're trying to manage blood sugar being too elevated for lengthy periods of time, or ongoing higher blood sugars than our with a where a body without diabetes would be. It's kind of like rust on a car, right? So the more sugar you've got in your bloodstream that shouldn't be here, causes damage in your vessels, it can cause damage on nerve cells, and all of the different little vessels in your eyes, etc, thus, all of the complications in those areas. But the more elevated the blood sugar's are the more damage and so then the body has to try to repair that damage, but comes in the form of patches or almost like band aids inside of the vessels. And that comes from livers production of cholesterol, it's trying to help the body is a self healing machine, it's trying to help itself get better, right? But you're not helping it with high blood sugars. So that's where it comes in. The more optimal blood sugar management you have, the less or likely no damage that you're causing on the interior parts of your body. And so there is where that risk factor should really be considered. Your blood sugar's are well managed, you've got an E one C, well within target or you've got, you know, a very low standard deviation, which means you don't have a lot of ups and downs and you're well within range. You've got lifestyle that proves all of the things that you're doing, you're at very low risk for anything like that. So then, you know, I mean statin drugs, essentially they they lower cholesterol liver levels by essentially decreasing the livers enzyme output of a particular type of little substance that it kind of puts out, okay, which is kind of something that goes along then with cholesterol production in the body.

Scott Benner 9:49
Now, you would take one if you needed it, right. If

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:52
somebody could prove to me that I had particular risk factors and a lifestyle that was not proving to be preventative Have enough? I would take what was needed. Okay. Absolutely.

Scott Benner 10:03
All right, I just want to make sure. I'm not telling people not to do it. I'm telling you that there's some ambiguity ambiguity here in between, like, what happened basically was, it became in vogue to gives that into the people with diabetes. And I think it started to get in, it just started to get blended, where people are like, Oh, you have type one, take this. And people are like, I have no risk factors that I can see my bloodwork is not even bad. And they want me to take this, what should I do? That question comes up all the time. So I'm glad, I'm glad we talked about and that's I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:34
mean, it's good to clear up because obviously, you know, if taking it because of risk factors that are there, when you do take it, there is good information that says, you know, your bad or your LDL cholesterol can be reduced, it helps to decrease that build up, or that plaque development kind of inside of the walls of your vessels. I mean, all of those types of things can be mitigated by using it, but it's really in terms of whether or not it's necessary. If it isn't, then why are you adding something to the mix that could actually have I mean, another question that probably comes up is what are some of the side effects?

Scott Benner 11:12
Yeah, if I take this and I don't need it like because it's always a give and take with a medication to some level, right, you're gaining something you might but you might be losing somewhere else you get to decide where the value is. If you take insulin or sulfonylureas you are at risk for your blood sugar going too low. You need a safety net when it matters most. Be ready with G voc hypo pen. My daughter carries G voc hypo pen everywhere she goes, because it's a ready to use rescue pen for treating very low blood sugar and people with diabetes ages two and above that I trust. Low blood sugar emergencies can happen unexpectedly and they demand quick action. Luckily, G vo Capo pen can be administered in two simple steps even by yourself in certain situations. Show those around you where you storage evoke hypo pen and how to use it. They need to know how to use G Bo Capo pen before an emergency situation happens. Learn more about why G vo Capo pen is in Ardens diabetes toolkit at G voc glucagon.com/juicebox. G voc shouldn't be used if you have a tumor in the gland on the top of your kidneys called a pheochromocytoma. Or if you have a tumor in your pancreas called an insulinoma visit G voc glucagon.com/risk For safety information. diabetes comes with a lot of things to remember. So it's nice when someone takes something off of your plate. US med has done that for us. When it's time for art and supplies to be refreshed. We get an email rolls up in your inbox says hi Arden. This is your friendly reorder email from us med. You open up the email. It's a big button it says click here to reorder and you're done. Finally, somebody taking away a responsibility instead of adding one. US med has done that for us. An email arrives we click on a link and the next thing you know your products are at the front door. That simple. Us med.com/juice box or call 808-721-1514 I never have to wonder if Arden has enough supplies. I click on one link. I open up a box. I put the stuff in the drawer. And we're done. US med carries everything from insulin pumps, and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGM like the libre three and the ducks comm G seven. They accept Medicare nationwide, over 800 private insurers and all you have to do to get started is called 888-721-1514 or go to my link us med.com/juicebox using that number or my link helps to support the production of the Juicebox Podcast. Right Yeah, well speaking of that, let's jump into this very next one. This person said I've been listening to the episodes on GLP so they're talking about my weight loss diary. So I started off by going we go V so I caught it we go V diaries very recently it's changed over to set boundaries, but I decided I'm just going to call it weight loss because I don't know if set bounds gonna be the last glpi use or what so this person says I know that what you've said about we go V and meds like that being much more frequently used maybe one day for type ones and can you go into that a little bit. They also said you know I also hear rumblings about people worried that it causes gastroparesis. So okay, again, not a doctor. But here here's my view of it and Jenny has one too because she's worked with people who are are using gel PISA of type one. For me, I started with for myself. So I sit here before you today for 47 pounds lighter than I was exactly a year ago. Wow. It's crazy, right? And Jenny can tell you she looks at me probably more than anybody else. I look really different. You do. Yeah. So I don't have type one diabetes I started with we go V, which is just ozempic. To be clear for people it was epic is a medication that was FDA approved for people with type two diabetes. During the trials. I think they looked at each other like wow, people are losing a lot of weight on this. And so they moved over and did another trial for just weight loss that drugs called weego V. That's Novo Nordisk Eli Lilly has Manjaro, no type two diabetes, same idea. Is that bound for weight loss. I'm on Jarno and set bound RG LP with a G Ip, we go V is just a G lp. And by the way, the other day I saw news about Novo working on a daily pill to step in for the weekly injection. And they seem very excited about what they're seeing in trials for that. Now, all that aside, I don't have diabetes. So I take it, it tells your brain you're not hungry. It makes your stomach feel full by slowing your digestion, which impacts your insulin usage. I've had a number of other valuable things happen. But I watched it work for me. And then I cajoled my brother who is a type two. And I was like, Hey, man, come on. So he did it. His agency dropped two points, which is huge. The sevens into the low fives is a type two, he lost 35 pounds. But then I started talking about it on the podcast. And so now a week or so or so ago, I interviewed the mother of a 13 year old type one who had had type one that has had type one diabetes for three years legitimately has type one diabetes. Who On we go V for weight loss? Probably not why she took it she probably took it more because this is gonna sound convoluted for a second. The mom has PCOS. The daughter is showing signs of PCOS and GRPs are showing signs of helping women with PCOS. Correct. So she was able to get it through her insurance because of the weight. She really wanted it for the PCOS. And I'm not kidding you that yesterday, the mom sent me a 90 day clarity report 90 days, the kid has not bolused for a meal in 90 days. Wow. And her total daily insulin has gone from 70 units to seven.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 17:33
And that's it's only Basal then she took her

Scott Benner 17:36
pump off even Yeah, she's just shooting Basil is that I'm gonna pull it up so I can cuz I have it right here because still in my message is, again

Jennifer Smith, CDE 17:42
in for clarification to you know, from a listener standpoint, this is a very specific case of multiple components being in the picture. That it's not, it's not the solution. No, this just

Scott Benner 17:56
little girls probably has a very slow onset that just didn't look like a slow onset because of insulin resistance is my guess. Right? Yes, but you're not going to like have had diabetes for 30 years put it and drop your insulin uses 90% But you might drop it a little bit so

Jennifer Smith, CDE 18:13
or even more than a little bit. Again, in person in personal use, not personal me but personal with the people that I've worked with who have used it that a number of people have had diabetes 20 plus years who have started use of it and their insulin needs as well as that appetite suppression piece that goes along with it is very definitely it's something that the medication brings into the picture. People whose insulin needs have gone down. One of the women I work with her insulin needs went down 50% That's not even a therapeutic dose. Oh,

Scott Benner 18:49
so art and my daughter's doing the same thing she's only using right now half a milligram of ozempic a week. Her Basal went from 1.1. During the day to point eight five, her insulin sensitivity went from one unit moves or 43 to one unit moves her 83 and her carb ratio is now instead of one to four it's one to eight and she lost weight and know her insulin needs didn't drop because of the weight loss because the needs dropped before the weight came off. Before

Jennifer Smith, CDE 19:20
the weight came Yeah, I would imagine the weight eventually came off mainly because it is such a it's such an activator in terms of that not an activator but more of a suppressor really, I guess in terms of the digestive impact.

Scott Benner 19:33
For sure she's not eating as much but last thing about this little girl last 90 days average blood glucose 109 G mi 5.9, standard deviation 23 98% and range range of 65 to 180. Wow, I don't know how long that's gonna last but God bless her as long as it does. You know what I mean? Like fantastic. Right? So I would Oh, sorry. No, I was just gonna I want to remind people that that these GLP meta gauges are not FDA approved for type ones, and you're not gonna get it through your insurance. If you're just the type on the

Jennifer Smith, CDE 20:05
right there have to be some specific diagnostic codes and or reference notes and letters relative to a reason for prescribing and trying that could get it covered. I know there are a number of people who at least, you know, monetarily have the ability to pay out of pocket for it. Yeah, I know a number of people are already also going to Canada.

Scott Benner 20:27
That's how we're getting Arden. So mine is covered for me. My wife uses it too. By the way. My wife story is her own to tell. But I've spoken enough about what happened to my wife when her thyroid went poorly and nobody would give her Synthroid for seven years. And my wife has been doing this one week shorter than I have, and she's lost 70 pounds already. Wow, that's amazing. Doing so she does she just looks like a completely different person.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 20:51
And initially, it was very slow for her your weight loss was very quick to begin with. And hers took time if I remember, right, yeah,

Scott Benner 20:59
it's different for everybody. And I'm not going to tell you. It's not magic. Okay. No, I felt some people call it nausea. I felt like my food stopped somewhere like in my breastbone when I swallowed it. Like it didn't really, but that's the feeling I had. But then I'll say like three months into it, it just disappeared. And I really just, I was like, I'm losing weight. I'm powering through this, like, you know, they kept telling me it's gonna get easier. We go V, they also say may have a couple more side effects than SAP bound. It's one of the reasons I moved. I also plot toad. I think I plateaued at 194 pounds on weego V. And I was like that for months, like I would gain and lose the same two pounds every week. So my doctor moved me to zap bound where I quickly lost six more pounds. And then I think I've lost two more since then I've only been on it like six weeks or so I have I have more weight to go like, don't misunderstand. But then do I have to stay on it people are well, you're gonna have to stay on it forever. And here's what I say. I don't care. Like yeah, if I do, I do, like, you know what I mean, but I'm just gonna have a heart attack. So this got to be better. You know? Right,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 22:03
right. Absolutely. Well, and in terms of, as you just brought up, do I have to stay on it forever. I've worked with a couple of women who have used it. Right

Scott Benner 22:12
now we're going to hear from a member of the Medtronic champion community. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes. And this is Mark.

David 22:21
I use injections for about six months. And then my endocrinologist at a navy recommended a pump. How long

Scott Benner 22:28
had you been in the Navy? Eight years up to that point? I've interviewed a number of people who have been diagnosed during service and most of the time they're discharged. What happened to you?

David 22:37
I was medically discharged. Yeah, six months after my diagnosis.

Scott Benner 22:41
Was it your goal to stay in the Navy for your whole life? Your career? It was? Yeah,

David 22:45
yeah. In fact, I think a few months before my diagnosis, my wife and I had that discussion about, you know, staying in for the long term. And, you know, we've made the decision, despite all the hardships and time away from home, that was what we loved

Scott Benner 22:58
the most. Was the Navy, like a lifetime goal of yours? lifetime goal.

David 23:03
I mean, as my earliest childhood memories, were flying, being a fighter pilot, how

Scott Benner 23:08
did your diagnosis impact your lifelong dream?

David 23:10
It was devastating. Everything I had done in life, everything I'd worked up to up to that point was just taken away in an instant, I was not prepared for that at all. What does your support system look like? friends, your family caregivers, you know, for me to Medtronic, champions, community, you know, all those resources that are out there to help guide away but then help keep abreast on you know, the new things that are coming down the pike. And to give you hope for eventually, that we can find a cure, stick

Scott Benner 23:36
around at the end of this episode to hear my entire conversation with Mark. And you can hear more stories from Medtronic champions and share your own story at Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 23:50
sort of prior to preconception time. And then because it is ABS, it's not approved. While there are some studies in the preconception time in in first trimester in those who have type two, who have continued to use it with with results that are interesting, I'll say it is not approved in pregnancy. So the idea is if you're going to use it, use it well prior to preconception to gain whatever loss really might be in the picture. I know a lot of women in preconception or may have difficulty getting pregnant, if weight is a big piece in the picture. And once that part is, you know, down to more optimal weight for their body and insulin needs, especially the resistance that's in the picture oftentimes there. Once the resistance has come down. It really does lead to a more optimal environment to actually allow conception. Yeah, which is lovely. But then we end up turning around as I've seen in a number of women, where we end up needing to refigure settings and doses because without the Met Vacation. Your needs will go back up.

Scott Benner 25:02
Oh, you have no idea Arden's in the middle of her finals right now. And three days ago, I said, Did you shoot that? GLP? And she goes, Oh, I forgot. I'm like, I can see it on your graph rd like in days. So I think they it's a once weekly, but I was listening to this doctor online who says that the life that half life's about five days maybe? Yeah, right. Yeah. And I noticed that too.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 25:24
It peters out pretty quickly. Yeah. So again, from a preconception standpoint, it gives you enough good time to be able to say, okay, I can take it up to this point, I can kind of figure things out, trying to conceive, et cetera. We're at

Scott Benner 25:38
the very beginning of something here with this because you can find there's Facebook groups where they talk about having ozempic babies, like people who could not get pregnant, their entire adult lives. Go on to GLP and end up pregnant in two months, right? Like crazy. There was this crazy thread in Reddit. I know people are like it's read it, but no, it's where people are talking. You know, people who have I never pronounce this right, Jenny, here's danlos. Damn. What's that? Autoimmune issue with the joints? Eres danlos? Oh, I don't I never say it right, hold on a second. It's not very common ears. It's e h r s o l e r s Danlos Syndrome, a group of illnesses passed from parent to child notice inherited defects, skin joints and blood vessels. It's a very rare condition. Right? But there's this group of people. It's like your connective tissue, right? Yeah. Like if you can, like hyperextend your joints and stuff like that. Some people have like real pain from that. And I found this group of people on Reddit who are like, Hey, I have this and my symptoms are going away. And the only thing I've done differently is taking a GLP medication. And it got 15 people in the group were like, Oh, my God, I thought I was crazy. Like, I think that's happening to me, too. So inflammation may be like, who knows where this is all going to like, eventually, like shake out? All I can tell you is it saved my life. Like for sure. And you know, and what I'm seeing it do for Arden is huge. It really is. So I don't know where this is all gonna go. But if we wake up in the world one day where you're getting a GLP along with your type one diabetes, I'm not going to be surprised when it happens. Yeah, right. You

Jennifer Smith, CDE 27:19
know, it always makes me I had a conversation with a friend the other day, also an educator with type one herself. And it just makes me really consider in the, in the grand scheme of things, what what have we really shifted so much in our recent, let's say, even the past 50 to 75 years of what we're doing. That's something that is naturally produced, interestingly, right? It's naturally supposed to be there working the way that we were created in the human body for it to work. Why is it not doing what it's supposed to be doing any longer? How

Scott Benner 27:56
do we kill it off? Yeah,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 27:58
how did we kill it off? How did we kill off the function of what and why? For some people? Is it so necessary? What are people who aren't using it? And who will find no real reason to even use it? What's the difference? Yeah, like that, like the rabbit hole of thoughts is where this life leads? No.

Scott Benner 28:15
Well, why are there so many autoimmune issues? Why there's so they so much more frequently? And like how is this? Listen to me, between you and I, I think when we start genetically modifying seeds to grow in weed killer, I think maybe you've got part of your answer right there. You know. So, yes, that's all the I don't know. Thank you said Yeah, well, I don't know if people realize that or not, but they make weed killer. And then they genetically modify the seeds. So the weed killer doesn't kill the seed, so that you don't actually have to pay someone to go out there and pull weeds to choke out the thing. You just plant the stuff, spray the field, everything dies, except the modified seed and your corn comes up or whatever. And that can't be good for us. I know. I know. Like people are like, don't click on Teflon. I don't don't microwave your plastic. I don't like you know what I mean? Like, you know, I try to avoid all that stuff, too. But big picture there. Plenty of people have autoimmune issues and never had a Teflon pan. So I think maybe we're unit I mean, like Yeah, that's gotta be something systemic like that. And so my point is, I would like that fixed. But I also understand that by the time they fix it, I'm going to be dead already. Yeah, yeah. So I gotta live. I gotta live now.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 29:25
And hopefully at this at that point, you're not gonna be dead from heart disease.

Scott Benner 29:29
Not now. I thought, Oh, come on J but I had a stomach. That was that would have been clearer. If I had a heart attack a doctor would have looked at me went Hmm, that makes sense. Like, yeah, and now I don't, so maybe I get to live longer. Makes me make more. For me. I don't know how good is for anybody else.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 29:46
All right, good for everybody. Yeah, absolutely. So

Scott Benner 29:48
that's where I'm gonna land is that I've seen a number of type ones using GLP is at what would not even be considered a therapeutic dose. They're having a lot of gains. Now look To the person's last point, it's not for everybody. Nothing's for everybody, right? And there are side effects that are on the label. gastroparesis. I've seen intestinal blockage, stuff like that. You also don't know where those people were before they started the medication, or how they ate once they had it. And I'm going to give you an actual example of a person I spoke to in public. Awesome. I saw them a year ago, I saw them recently. They've lost a ton of weight. I said, Oh, my God, we looked at each other. And he was like, you lost a lot of weight. I said, you did too. And I said, How'd you do it? He goes, GLP medication. I said, that's how I did it. And then he goes, How do you like it? And I was like, I was great. I went over everything about it that, you know, pros and cons that I saw, how was it for you? I said, he goes, I vomit all day on it. And I'm like, wait, what? And he starts talking, and then I recognize he shooting the GLP. But he's eating these high fat, like meals and like, he's, he's, I don't know, you know, I don't know what to say he's doing. But it's not in the spirit of the idea is what I'm gonna get like, it's not magic. You can't like you can't shoot the stuff and then eat a five pound bag of sugar and lose weight. It like doesn't work that way. Right? Right. He's slow, just digestion down. He's had type one diabetes for a pretty long time, it was not greatly managed. I don't know what nerve damage he has or doesn't have, like, so know who you are before you jump into this. But you know, I don't know. I just my, it's just my experience. So yeah, no,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 31:30
that and you bring up a really good point. Overall, you've had success. But I also know, you know, just in our discussions privately that you do a very good job of awareness in terms of what you eat.

Scott Benner 31:43
I'm not taxing this, this situation. Yeah, you're working

Jennifer Smith, CDE 31:47
with it. I guess that's that's the thing. It's like anything, you have to work with a system even, you know, automated insulin delivery systems, you have to work with the system, it's not going to do everything for you. The same thing with medications in general. They're a piece of the pie. Even as we started out talking about statins, great amount of statin now I can go out for burger and fries like it because it's gonna No, no,

Scott Benner 32:08
no. I know that that's it happens a lot more than you might want to believe to. Yes, yes. The number of people who have basically told me I eat through my GLP. Like, yeah, it tells me I'm not hungry. But that doesn't stop me. I'm like, oh, okay, that maybe see a therapist then? Not up. Like if you're not hungry? No, and you're still eating? That's a different situation. Let's jump. Let's finish this one up, because I think this will take a little chunk of time. Okay. Exercise. Oh, exercise with type one diabetes? Oh, that's a broad topic. Oh, well, let's pick through the three questions I have here. This one was interesting to me, how high of a blood sugar is too high to exercise with. Go ahead. I'm interested in what you're going to

Jennifer Smith, CDE 32:54
say no. And that's I'm trying to frame the way to say it. Because

Scott Benner 32:57
you know, everybody gets told, don't exercise when your blood sugar gets high. Correct.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 33:03
So if we're talking about it, just from, from an angle of overall performance, there were some really good studies done. It was a doctor at the Barbara Davis Center, if I remember correctly, he did studies within the realm of athletes with diabetes and athletes without diabetes and optimized performance with blood sugars in certain ranges. And what was found is a blood sugar range of somewhere between like 100 and 180 was where performance worked well, right there, muscle performance, their endurance and all of that kind of stuff. So in terms of targeting, when you're looking at performance, there's a range to kind of work with. But a lot of people also as you said, they need to they feel they're also needing to start with a high blood sugar in order to allow the fall that they know is going to happen in their blood sugar. So then comes in the question, well, how high is too high? What should I be looking at? If my blood sugar is too at do I have to wait for it to come down to get my blood sugar moving? Not necessarily.

Scott Benner 34:09
Have you heard people talk about that? They've been told it's dangerous to exercise with high blood sugars?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 34:14
Yes, and that's the clarification there is relative to whether or not there are ketones present. So

Scott Benner 34:21
if there are so if I have an elevated blood sugar for a long time and I have high ketones, I should not be exercising, you

Jennifer Smith, CDE 34:27
should aim to clear the ketones and get blood sugar moving and both of them require insulin. Okay, right. If to clear ketones ketones require some extra hydration, electrolytes as well as extra insulin to get the ketones to move. High blood sugars also require more insulin, so you're kind of adding extra on top of just bringing blood sugar down and at that point, then, if ketones are present, again, we're talking in a normal realm not not ketosis or whatever you might be living in naturally. You're aiming to get those ketones down. Now if you check ketones, your ketones are barely visible or not even there at all and your blood sugar's to 80. Go ahead and take a walk.

Scott Benner 35:09
Yeah, I was gonna say this doesn't mean I can't miss a meal balls and go for a walk afterwards, just because my blood sugar went to 250 or something like that. Exactly what happens if I exercise with high ketones like that. So if you exercise with high ketones,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 35:22
the idea is that the way that your body is going to you're at a deficit of insulin, high blood sugars, and high ketones mean that you're operating without enough insulin in your system, and without enough insulin in your system, what ends up happening with when you add exercise, your body is trying to drive energy or glucose into your cells in order to be used. Well, if there's not enough insulin there, even exercising isn't going to help because also the ketones are present. So you can actually make blood sugar go up. It's a huge stress on the body with ketones present, as well as the high blood sugar oxygenation, also at high blood sugars with ketones changes. So you may find effort much, much harder. And there are a lot of things that are the reason that the general recommendation is if your blood sugar's above 250, you don't go and exercise. I mean, that's, that's the baseline. That's

Scott Benner 36:16
a very clear explanation of that. By the way, the best one I've heard so far. I appreciate that. Oh, yeah. No, seriously, because I've been janky on it, too. Like people are like, why you're not supposed on like, well, you're not supposed to have there's ketones, but you can't if your blood and I'm like, I don't know, it's hard to explain, you know, it is here's the next exercise question. What are the preferred numbers for exercise or sports? When high at the threshold? Should we let the kids sit? So it would you set that again, but go over that one? Where do they what numbers? Should they not be running around? And where should there be testing ketones? That is it a number or is it an amount of time high, or a little bit of both?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 36:54
It could be a little bit of both, I mean, high blood sugars. That's the reason that most meters and even insulin pumps these days still remind you to check ketones and blood sugar if you're if your blood sugar is being recorded at 240 or greater, right. So that is kind of that that that level of evaluation, but also, if you are used to running blood sugars that are well within target, and now your blood sugar has been sitting at 200 or 220. For hours on end, it's a good idea to check ketones no matter what, yeah, no matter what, right. You know, there are certainly reasons that you could have ketones at lower blood sugar numbers as well. And you know, in that instance, maybe your blood sugar's high, when it normally isn't, because you are at a deficit of insulin because your pump sites partly pulled out, or it's leaking or something is wrong. I mean, there are evaluation steps along the way that you definitely have to take into consideration. Yeah, and you know, just an hour of a high blood sugar. Technically, you shouldn't have ketones from an hour of high blood sugar, especially if it's not a pump, or a site or an injection issue. It's probably you just didn't Bolus enough or you timed it wrong, or whatever it is, right. Yeah. So then in exercise, I think another one that kind of always is in the same line here in my thought is, well, what if exercise causes the high blood sugar, right,

Scott Benner 38:18
okay, like lift, like lifting,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 38:20
like either lifting, lifting those anaerobic exercises, right, they drive adrenaline, you might have a quick rise in blood sugar, or over the course of the time that you're lifting, you might have a rise in your blood sugar, which requires insulin, many people find that especially lifters, they need to take some injected insulin or some Bolus insulin with their pump or maybe a Temp Basal increase or something to accommodate for what's going to happen. Some people however, and I see this a lot, you know, kids and adults alike, sort of that a game or they're a the race that they've been working so hard, and they get there. And all of their training has been well managed. They haven't had high blood sugars or issues, but they get to that like, really, like, hacked up energy level of this is my game, and up goes the blood sugar. And what do you do with it? Right? Do you correct for it ahead of time knowing that this is a aerobic exercise, and that you will be moving for a fairly long period of time? Do you just let the high happen? And then let the exercise bring the blood sugar back down? Or does that rise leave you set high? So you may have to analyze and this is where some experiential sort of watching to see what should we do

Scott Benner 39:37
figure it out over time? Yeah. How good is the blanket advice. If you don't want to fall during exercise, try very hard not to have active insulin in your body before you exercise. And wondering Is that pretty good advice like exercise without active insulin if you can, if

Jennifer Smith, CDE 39:57
you can, right. That's pretty good. Exercise now, are you completely at a deficit of insulin? No, because you've got basil there. Yeah,

Scott Benner 40:04
no, I don't mean no basil. I mean, like, don't eat a sandwich two hours before you go out and run around iob.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 40:10
Yeah, in general, that's an if you can plan your exercise that way, that's a great way to mitigate that having to snack not having to, you know, adjust in another way, or having to eat along the way to prevent a drop in blood sugar. Absolutely. That's, that's a great recommendation,

Scott Benner 40:29
I'm gonna throw in one question for myself. How do I mitigate the idea of I've exercised today or played a bunch of games or done something like that. And then I don't get low until like one or two o'clock in the morning. Why does that happen? First of all, this kind of like late and lows. It's

Jennifer Smith, CDE 40:47
called delayed onset hypoglycemia. It's got a name. It's got a name, dope. You're a Simpsons fan, delayed onset hypoglycemia. Most people are like, Why? No.

Scott Benner 40:59
So I know you're saying

Jennifer Smith, CDE 41:02
you say it better than I do. But the reason that it happens is, you know, in the aftermath of exercise, this is often exercise that's more around an hour or longer. And often exercise that can be more in the afternoon or the evening, you may see the later hit of the mobilization of insulin and faster uptake and better use of it. Hours after that exercise kind of is finished. And some of the reason you may not see it initially is because afternoon evening exercise is often coupled with meal or food that comes right after it. And so you may sort of miss the sensitivity that's coming. And exercise. I mean, aerobic exercise, especially, I mean, it's x, its effect could certainly be eight to 12 hours. Yeah. So I've got, you know, one team that I worked with a while ago, and he he was on injections worked better than pumping for him. But because of the buildup of activity through the course of his week, we actually found through testing, we found adjustments in his Basal dose that needed to be paid by Thursday, so that by Friday and Saturday, he wasn't just eating, eating, eating to feed his insulin, because so much of the activity had built up through the week that he just was needing a lot less.

Scott Benner 42:27
Yeah, I just spoke to somebody who added swimming to the regimen. And they had to make adjustments to their insulin because they were swimming every day. But then they said if I miss swimming even a day or so then my blood sugar's shoot up again. Because their their sensitivity changes just from the loss of that. Yeah, it's really interesting. I wrote down two words that you're going to say next, we'll see if I'm right. Oh, I'm gonna read a question. And then I believe the next words you were utter out loud, are these two words, I heard Jenny completed an Ironman marathon. First of all, I think that's amazing accomplishment. But what did she do to prepare for diabetes wise? What did she eat? How did she set her pump? And what do you suggest for longer periods of exercise? And you're gonna say,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 43:09
I tested things.

Scott Benner 43:11
I thought you're gonna say, I thought you're gonna say half marathon Half Ironman.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 43:17
But you are correct, it is. I did a half Ironman.

Scott Benner 43:20
She doesn't want you to think she did a full Ironman when she did a half one I thought that was

Jennifer Smith, CDE 43:25
I do have to say that I did the mid my husband did a full Ironman. And I did the majority of training with him. So I guess despite not competing in the actual thing, I did a lot of the training with him. Do you think before I could have done it, the actually the funny thing about it is that we were actually we were planning kids. And the team that I was planning to do the Ironman with. Just happened to pick the timeframe where we were planning to have kids and like planning kids and training for an Ironman. Could they go together? There are plenty people out there who do it. Absolutely. But that was not in my wheelhouse of managing. So he actually did it with the team that I was going to do it with. But again along the way, I did a lot of the trainings. So could I have done it? Yes, I loved I wish that I still had time in my life to do triathlons. Because they are they're super fun to train for. But yes, half Ironman

Scott Benner 44:23
environment. Okay.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 44:24
I've done a couple of full marathons though. Yeah. For clarification. Yeah.

Scott Benner 44:29
I want solid on television. Okay, so people are running everywhere. Yes. So what did you what how did you prepare for it? Like what what steps you took to to get it accomplished?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 44:41
Yes. So I already had a fairly good base for running and for biking. Because I had done enough distance up to the point that I signed up to do the Half Ironman. The first time. I had done, century rides for are cycling. And I had not yet done a half marathon I had done 10 milers, but I hadn't done even a half marathon yet. So I had a good base for how my blood sugar needed to be managed and insulin adjustments and fueling for that type of endurance movement, what I needed to add to it, and what was the most trying was adding them all together and learning my adjustment for swimming. The swimming piece of it, thankfully, I wearing Omnipod, I didn't have to take my pump off, which made it a lot nicer. But a lot of it was experimentation. It was go in with this expectation based on what I know about my response to movement and do this, and what was the outcome and tracking that I kept a lot of notes, a lot of records. I kept what worked well, in terms of nutrition, like if I was going to go for a run in the morning, how did my stomach feel when I headed out based on what I had for dinner the night before? What worked well for fueling during long runs and long biking. So all of that had to be then pieced together because you do swim, and then you jump on your bike. And then you run. So you

Scott Benner 46:18
had to figure out not just how to go into swimming from the day before but after you did it successfully. Now how do I go from that to the next thing? And then when I do those two things in a row, how do I get to the third row? It's a lot of prep months, right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 46:31
a month? Absolutely. My In fact, my prep started I would it was about a year ahead that we had all as a group we had signed up to do a half Ironman together. We did the Longhorn in Texas was a lot of fun. Okay, was very hot.

Scott Benner 46:49
And humid, right, was humidity. It was not it

Jennifer Smith, CDE 46:52
was just it was just just dry. It was in Austin, but it was mostly dry heat. Yeah. But overall, it's a lot of trial and error. And I think the biggest thing that I found in the endurance part of it was that insulin adjustments for that length of movement, meaning time of movement was it was not as much insulin adjustment off in terms of Basal. Because what I was filling the space with for maintaining my muscle performance was fuel. And that fuel was for a purpose of movement. But when you have diabetes, that fuel also has to work with your blood sugar management plan. It's a strategy that you definitely I mean, it's beneficial to work with somebody to kind of look at all your records, with perspective that's not your own and be able to get feedback. But yeah, I found fueling things that worked and fueling things that I was like, oh my god, I can't even I can't eat this, you know,

Scott Benner 47:56
you know, you just made me think of something, I have to say, Oh, we eat like you get up in the morning, eat breakfast. And that fuel keeps you going for a number of hours until you run low and have to put some more back in. But there's I didn't it never occurred to me, I don't know why. To think of it this way. That there's an amount of effort you can put your body through that it needs fuel almost constantly, because you can't over fuel it or you won't be able to make do the running or whatever you're doing the activity. But you also can't go large gaps of time without any so you have it's little bits along the way. I see. Okay, yeah,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 48:32
that was a learning that's a really good thing, just for you to notice in terms of endurance exercise, the way that you end up fueling is not like, oh, it's, it's on the hour, let me take in like, you know, three goos, or whatever you're using, right? It is an it from a blood sugar management perspective. It's a strategy, I had a watch that had a timer set. And it was a timer for both hydration, it was a timer for my next fuel, so that I constantly had the reminder that, Oh, it's 15 minutes, it's 20 minutes, it's time for this and I had it, packet it out essentially in the right amounts for the whole time through that long duration of movement. Alright, I'm

Scott Benner 49:12
gonna ask you one last question. Don't be embarrassed. Okay. I'm gonna look away from you. When I say how much of training for this? How much of the information that you got out of that? Do you use in other parts of your management? And I'm specifically thinking about sex? Because it seems to me right now you're an active person. So I would imagine that I would. I would imagine that there's not a big activity difference between your activity already and you being intimate, but for people who are maybe sit around a lot or don't move around as much, and then suddenly are working very hard for short spurts of time. I shouldn't have said for short periods of time. Damn it

Jennifer Smith, CDE 49:54
sure that I'll get a laugh. You got me.

Scott Benner 49:56
I didn't I didn't mean it. But but the Is that? How it's got? I can't think but that's got to have that feeling right. Like, that's why I had people on are like, I have to stop in the middle and drink a juice or like stuff like that. That's why right? It

Jennifer Smith, CDE 50:12
would be different. And I would expect that it's probably, as you said more relative to the activity level that the person is already at. Right. Right. And or in their intimate time with their partner. How active? How active that gets or how fast it is, or how slow it is, or whatever they're doing together right, Thursday,

Scott Benner 50:32
or is this a party? Right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 50:35
Exactly. So is this vacation in Paris? Or is it like? I don't know. I'll jot

Scott Benner 50:41
that down and send it off your husband Paris, we'll get it done.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 50:46
We've been there already.

Scott Benner 50:49
Okay. I didn't know it was a memory. Okay.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 50:56
Not really. But that's a really good question. Because it is something that again, working with the large amount of women that I work with, it is definitely something that comes up. I don't know that I've ever had that conversation with a gentleman. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 51:12
have.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 51:14
Yeah, but women definitely it's, it's something that gets brought up because it is a consideration. And also, I mean, the consideration of the ability to actually feel good if your blood sugar is sitting at 52. In that type of setting. Yeah. Yeah. Probably not able to enjoy as much as you should be able to. Because not only is your alarm going off, but your brain is not really I mean, there's a whole host of things that are done. Yeah. And then

Scott Benner 51:46
on top of that, if you're foggy because you're high or you're dizzy because you're low. And yeah, okay. All right. Oh, that was a good way to

Jennifer Smith, CDE 51:54
go. I never I never really thought about my exercise prepared me.

Scott Benner 51:57
Well, I mean, you, you know a lot about it. Now. I do. So if I have type one, and I go to my, my, my mate, and I say listen, I've got to get this right, I'm gonna need a lot of experience. And he told me if I just trial and error, trial and error, I'll really figured I probably just need six months, I'll get it straight. Don't you worry. I just need your help.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 52:18
I'm quite sure that they're made is going to be like

Scott Benner 52:23
alright, thank you for doing this with me.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 52:24
I appreciate. Thank you.

Scott Benner 52:30
Mark is an incredible example of what so many experience living with diabetes, you show up for yourself and others every day, never letting diabetes define you. And that is what the Medtronic champion community is all about. Each of us is strong, and together, we're even stronger. To hear more stories from the Medtronic champion community or to share your own story, visit Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox Don't forget, we still have marks conversation at the very end. It's a terrific kind of mini episode about 10 minutes long. That goes deeper into some of the things that you heard Mark talking about earlier in the show. A huge thanks to us med for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Don't forget us med.com/juice box this is where we get our diabetes supplies from you can as well use the link or call 888-721-1514 Use the link or call the number get your free benefits check so that you can start getting your diabetes supplies the way we do from us med. A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors G voc glucagon, find out more about Chivo Capo pen at G Vogue glucagon.com Ford slash juicebox. you spell that GVOKEGLUC AG o n.com. Forward slash juicebox. If you are a loved one was just diagnosed with type one diabetes, and you're looking for some fresh perspective. The bold beginning series from the Juicebox Podcast is a terrific place to start. That series is with myself and Jenny Smith. Jenny is a CDC es a registered dietician and a type one for over 35 years. And in the bowl beginning series Jenny and I are going to answer the questions that most people have after a type one diabetes diagnosis. This series begins at episode 698 In your podcast player, or you can go to juicebox podcast.com. And click on bold beginnings in the menu. And now my full conversation with Medtronic champion, Mark. Mark. How old were you when you were diagnosed with type one diabetes? I was 2828 How old are you now? 4747. So just about 20 years.

David 54:46
Yeah, 19 years.

Scott Benner 54:48
What was your management style when you were diagnosed?

David 54:50
I use injections for about six months and then my endocrinologist and a navy recommended a pump.

Scott Benner 54:56
How long had you been in the Navy?

David 54:58
See eight years up to that point.

Scott Benner 54:59
Eight years. Yeah, I've interviewed a number of people who have been diagnosed during service. And most of the time they're discharged. What happened to you?

David 55:08
I was medically discharged. Yeah, six months after my diagnosis.

Scott Benner 55:12
I don't understand the whole system. Is that like, honorable? Yeah.

David 55:15
I mean, essentially, if you get a medical discharge, you get a commensurate honorable discharge. I guess there could be cases where something other than that, but that's that's really how it happened. So it's an honorably discharged with but because of medical reasons,

Scott Benner 55:27
and that still gives you access to the VA for the rest of your life. Right?

David 55:30
Correct. Yeah, exactly.

Scott Benner 55:31
Do you use the VA for your management? Yeah, I

David 55:33
used to up until a few years ago, when we moved to North Carolina, it just became untenable, just the rigmarole and process to kind of get all the things I needed. You know, for diabetes management, it was far easier just to go through a private practice.

Scott Benner 55:47
Was it your goal to stay in the Navy for your whole life, your career? It was? Yeah,

David 55:50
yeah. In fact, I think a few months before my diagnosis, my wife and I had that discussion about, you know, staying in for the long term. And, you know, we made the decision, despite all the hardships and time away from home, that was what we loved the most. So that's what made it that much more difficult

Scott Benner 56:07
was the Navy, like a lifetime goal of yours or something you came to as an adult,

David 56:11
lifetime goal. I mean, as my earliest childhood memories were flying being a fighter pilot and specifically being flying on and off aircraft carriers. So, you know, watching Top Gun in the 80s certainly was a catalyst

Scott Benner 56:24
for that you've taken off and landed a jet on an aircraft carrier, hundreds of times. Is there anything in life as exhilarating as that stat No,

David 56:33
but there there's a roller coaster I wrote at, I think it was at Cedar Rapids up in Cleveland Sandusky, and they've got this roller coaster rotation from zero to like, it's like 80 or something, you go up a big hill and you come right back down. So the acceleration is pretty similar. I would say to catapult shot, I'm

Scott Benner 56:51
gonna guess you own a Tesla.

David 56:54
I don't I I'm a boring guy. I got a hybrid rav4 I get made fun of I get called. You know, my wife says I drive like a grandpa on the five miles per hour over the speed limit person. No more than that. So yeah, in the car. I'm boring Scott. So

Scott Benner 57:08
you've never felt a need to try to replace that with something else.

David 57:12
You can't replace it. It's irreplaceable. That's what I thought. So up until the point where someone you know, buys me an F 18. Or allows me to get inside a two seater and fly it you can't replace it? How

Scott Benner 57:22
did it make you feel when you saw or maybe you haven't seen? gentleman named Pietro has his large aircraft license. He's flying for a major carrier. Now he has type one diabetes. Does that feel hopeful to you?

David 57:33
Yeah, it does. You know, when I when I was diagnosed, that wasn't a possibility. The FAA prohibited commercial pilots who had type one diabetes, but I think it was 2017 when they changed their rules to allow type one diabetics to be commercial pilots. And part of the reason I did that was because of the technology advancements, specifically in pump therapy, and pump management. So I don't have any aspirations of going to the commercial airlines. But one of my sons who has type one diabetes very much wants to be a commercial pilot. So, you know, in that respect, I'm very hopeful and thankful. Yeah.

Scott Benner 58:05
Do you fly privately now for pleasure?

David 58:08
I do. Yeah. One of my favorite things to do is fly my kids to the different soccer tournaments they have all over the southeast us so last week, my wife and I and two of our boys flipped to Richmond for their soccer tournaments up there, and Charlie, who's my middle child has type one diabetes, so you know if I can combine flying family and football and one weekend to me that's I think I've just achieved Valhalla.

Scott Benner 58:32
So then it sounds to me like this diagnosis was a significant course correction for you. Can you tell me how it affected your dream?

David 58:39
Well, I you know, if I guess three words come to mind first, it was devastating. Everything I had done in life, everything I'd worked up to up to that point was just taken away in an instant. And I was not prepared for that at all. The second emotion was, it was scary. I hadn't thought much about life outside the Navy, certainly not life as anything else, but a fighter pilot. And Heather and I were getting ready to move to France, I was going to do an exchange tour with with the French naval air force. So we were taking French classes. So pretty quickly, I had to reinvent myself. And then probably the most important thing at the same time that all that was going on, I had to learn how to how to deal with type one diabetes and how to manage it effectively. The third thing that pops into my mind, I guess, is challenging, you know, new daily routines, I had to establish first with injections, and then eventually, you know, through pump management, and then learning how to count carbs and recognize highs and lows, how my body reacts to blood sugar trends based on exercise and stress and those types of things. And my goal at that time, and it still is today is to leverage technology and make sure my habit patterns are effective so that I take diabetes management from the forefront to the background.

Scott Benner 59:46
Have you had success with that? Do you feel like you've made the transition? Well,

David 59:50
I have I mean, I believe in continuous improvement, so there's always more to do. I will say the technology since I was diagnosed specifically with pump management is just It's just incredible. It takes less of me intervening. And it's really done by the pump itself and by the algorithms through the CGM, and to me again, that that should be the goal for everybody is to not have to focus so much on the daily aspects of type one, diabetes management, you know, we should let technology do that for us.

Scott Benner 1:00:19
What else have you found valuable? I've spoken to 1000s of people with type one diabetes, the one thing that took me by surprise, because I don't have type one, myself, and my daughter was very young when she was diagnosed. I didn't really understand until I launched this podcast, and then it grew into this kind of big Facebook presence. I heard people say, I don't know anybody else who has type one diabetes, I wish I knew more people. But until I saw them come together, I didn't recognize how important it was. Yeah,

David 1:00:48
I think similarly, I didn't know anyone with type one diabetes growing up as an adult up until when I was diagnosed. And then all of a sudden, people just came out of the woodwork. And when CGM is first hit the market, certainly within the last five years. It's amazing to me and my family, how many people we've noticed with type one diabetes simply because you can see the CGM on their arm. I mean, I would say, a month does not go by where we don't run into someone at a restaurant or an amusement park or a sporting event or somewhere where we see somebody else with type one diabetes. And the other surprising aspect of that is just how quickly you make friends. And I'll give an example. We're at a soccer tournament up in Raleigh, this past Saturday and Sunday. And the referee came over to my son Charlie at the end of the game and said, Hey, I noticed you're wearing pomp. And he lifted up his shirt and showed his pump as well and said, I've had type one diabetes, since I was nine years old, I played soccer in college, I'm sure that's your aspiration. And I just want to tell you don't let type one diabetes ever stop you from achieving your dreams of what you want to do. And this gentleman was probably in his late 50s, or 60s. So just having that connection and seeing, you know, the outreach and people's willingness to share their experiences. It just means the world to us and just makes us feel like we're part of a strong community.

Scott Benner 1:02:08
So would you say that the most important things are strong technology tools, understanding how to manage yourself and a connection to others? Yeah,

David 1:02:17
technology for sure. And knowing how to leverage it, and then the community and that community is your friends, your family, caregivers, you know, for me to Medtronic, champions, community, you know, all those resources that are out there to, you know, help guide away, but then help help you keep abreast on you know, the new things that are coming down the pipe, and to give you hope for eventually, you know, that we can find a cure. You

Scott Benner 1:02:39
mentioned that your son wanted to be a pilot, he also has type one diabetes, how old was he when he was diagnosed.

David 1:02:45
So Henry was diagnosed when he was 12 years old, was just at the start of COVID, we are actually visiting my in laws in Tennessee, we woke up in the morning and he had his bed. And several years before that, we had all four of our boys tested for TrialNet. So you know, predictor of whether or not they're going to develop type one diabetes, and whether or Henry and one of his brothers tested positive for a lot of the indicators. So we always kind of had an inclination that there was a high degree of possibility he would develop it. But we always had at the back of our mind as well. And so when that event happened, at the beginning of COVID, we had him take his blood sugar on my glucometer. And it was over 400. And so right away, we knew that without even being diagnosed properly, by endocrinologist that he was a type one diabetic, so we hurried home, to get him properly diagnosed in Charlottesville. And then we just started the process first grieving, but then acceptance and, you know, his eventual, becoming part of the team that nobody wants to join. How old is he now? He's 15 years old. Now.

Scott Benner 1:03:51
When's the first time he came to you? And said, Is this going to stop me from flying almost

David 1:03:57
immediately. So like me, he's he always had aspirations of flying. In fact, he out of all four boys wanted to be in the military, that was a difficult part of the conversation and maybe something that we don't talk about as a community. But there are some things you cannot do as a type one diabetic, and that's a hard fact of life. And unfortunately, joining the military is one of those hard and fast things you cannot be you cannot join the military as a type one diabetic. So it was very difficult for him and for me and in my wife to get over. Then we also started talking about being a commercial pilot. So I saw that same excitement in his eyes because like me, you know, he can be an NFA teen or a 737 or a Cirrus SR 20 That I fly and be just as happy. So he still has that passion today and still very much plans to eventually become a commercial pilot.

Scott Benner 1:04:42
I appreciate your sharing that with me. Thank you. You have four children do any others have type one. They

David 1:04:48
do? My oldest twin Henry has type one diabetes and my middle son Charlie has type one diabetes as well. The boys are twins. The oldest two are twins. One has type one diabetes, my middle son who is not at When has type one diabetes,

Scott Benner 1:05:01
I see is there any other autoimmune in your family? There isn't I'm really the

David 1:05:05
only person in my family or my wife's family that we know of with any sort of autoimmune disease, certainly type one diabetes. So unfortunately, I was the first to strike it rich and unfortunately pass it along to two of my sons with celiac thyroid, anything like that. Not at all, nothing. We're really a pretty healthy family. So this came out of nowhere for myself and for my two sons.

Scott Benner 1:05:28
That's really something. I appreciate your time very much. I appreciate you sharing this with me. Thank you very much.

David 1:05:33
Anytime Scott,

Scott Benner 1:05:34
learn more about the Medtronic champion community at Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box or by searching the hashtag Medtronic champion on your favorite social media platform. If you're not already subscribed, or following in your favorite audio app, please take the time now to do that. It really helps the show and get those automatic downloads set up so you never miss an episode. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong way recording.com

#1182 Punk Rock Duderonomy

Amanda's 11 year old daughter has type 1 diabetes but you know there's more to this than just that. ;)

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

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, welcome to episode 1182 of the Juicebox Podcast

I'll be speaking with Amanda today she is the mother of an 11 year old daughter who has type one diabetes and celiac, which she's also colorblind, red and green. Specifically her daughter was conceived from a sperm donor. Oh, look at all the notes here about today's episode. What else do we see here? High School used heroin. Oh my goodness. Are you gonna listen to this? It's gonna be amazing. While the episode is being amazing, 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 healthcare plan or becoming bold with insulin. You want to help with type one diabetes research. It's simple to do if you're a US resident who has type one diabetes or is the caregiver of someone with type one. All you need to do is go to T one D exchange.org/juicebox. Join the registry. complete the survey. It takes like 10 minutes and you have officially helped with type one diabetes research right there from wherever it is you are T one d exchange.org/juicebox this is your best chance to help research without having to pick your butt up and go somewhere

you know you can start your day the same way I do with a delicious drink of ag one. The supplements I take are of the highest quality and that's why every morning I drink Hu one drink ag one.com/juicebox us med is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast and we've been getting our diabetes supplies from us med for years. You can as well. Us med.com/juice box or call 888-721-1514 Use the link or the number get your free benefits check it get started today with us med 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

Amanda 2:22
Hi, I'm Amanda. I daughter is 11 years old type one diabetes, celiac. Well other things that aren't usually related to this podcast and we're in Southern California.

Scott Benner 2:36
Okay. Type one. Celiac. I said celiac in front of someone the other day. And they go celiac and I was like, am I saying it wrong? I was like Jesus put that on the list. Things I apparently don't pronounce. Oh my god. Right. Okay, so I got to one celiac. Other things that aren't usually talked about here. Do you want to mention them or no? Oh,

Amanda 3:00
well, she's colorblind. Okay, which is very rare for girl. Oh, no

Scott Benner 3:05
kidding. Yeah.

Amanda 3:07
We actually like when I figured it out or started figuring it out. I got I had an HMO. So I'd go to a specific doctor and he was like, she's not colorblind. Girls are not colorblind. She's colorblind. She can't tell the difference between red and green. Nope. Girls aren't colorblind. Okay,

Scott Benner 3:25
they made me come to you. I'm assuming now because you were inexpensive. probably harder to charge and you don't understand what you're doing? Yeah. So that's a, I guess, I don't know. How do you How does that first become, like apparent to you? Well,

Amanda 3:43
hers was she was in the bath around three years old. And you know, like the paint the paint? Yeah. And so she asked Mom, can you and I don't remember anymore. She either said mom can hear me the green one or mom can hear me the red one. And I said, That's not that color. And she switched it. So she either said, can you hear me the green paint? And I said that's not great. And she goes red? Or she said opposite? Can you give me the red paint? I said it's not red. She said green. And I mean, then I was like, there's only one way you mess up red and green.

Scott Benner 4:18
Is that once you can't tell the difference? And, and are there? I mean, how much have you looked into this? Are there other versions of colorblind? Yeah, there is.

Amanda 4:28
There's I mean, and she's like 70%, red, green, Deuteronomy, whatever it's called. There's a whole bunch of different things for it like so for her. She can see colors a little bit. It's not pure like I guess if you're 100% colorblind. It's like everything is gold. Like a yellowish gold. Yeah, but she cuz she's only 70% She can tell the difference between red and green. Apparently reds, darker greens, lighter, basic visions. that things like golden brown. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 5:02
started Googling when you use the name of a, I think a chapter in the Bible instead of whatever you said, I think you said Deuteronomy. And I was like, I'm not very religious, but I feel like that. So I looked here, NIH says there's red green color vision deficiency, they call it blue yellow color vision deficiency has a lot of words and complete color vision deficiency. Yeah, wow. Right about that. And it's looks like it's here we go, dude or anomaly. Thank you is the most Deuteronomy. We didn't name the episode like straight out. I'm actually making a note about that for myself. Definitely call them this Deuteronomy is the most common type of red green color vision deficiency, it makes certain shades of green look more red. This type is mild and doesn't usually get in the way of normal activities. Then there's protein anomaly makes certain shades of red look more green and less bright. This type is mild and usually doesn't get in the way of normal activities. Pro Oberoi pro 10 Neopia and due to rot neuropathy both an hoppy Jesus the Mother of God both makes somewhat unable to tell the difference between bread green, there's also blue yellow, there's two different kinds of blue yellow and then complete like you said, Can't see colors at all. This is also called mono Christmassy or why did Jesus or achromat tapas? Son of a bitch Why do they do this? Why don't they just call it like total or I mean Yeah. Anyway, that all seems horrible. It Do you think? Is she impacted by it? If you take insulin or sulfonylureas you are at risk for your blood sugar going too low. You need a safety net when it matters most. Be ready with G voc hypo pen. My daughter carries G voc hypo pen everywhere she goes because it's a ready to use rescue pen for treating very low blood sugar and people with diabetes ages two and above that I trust. Low blood sugar emergencies can happen unexpectedly and they demand quick action. Luckily Jivaro Capo pen can be administered in two simple steps even by yourself in certain situations. Show those around you where you storage EVO Capo pen and how to use it. They need to know how to use G Bo Capo pen before an emergency situation happens. Learn more about why G vo Capo pen is in Ardens diabetes toolkit at G voc glucagon.com/juicebox. G voc shouldn't be used if you have a tumor in the gland on the top of your kidneys called a pheochromocytoma. Or if you have a tumor in your pancreas called an insulinoma. Visit G voc glucagon.com/risk. For safety information.

Amanda 7:58
She's really not the funniest part is the hardest color for her to see is purple, because she doesn't have the cones for red. Okay, blue and purple are her hardest things, I guess with red and green like they're just a shade off. And she can always tell those apart. But with purple and blue or dark blue, she can't like light purple and blue, dark blue and purple. She can't tell the difference at all.

Scott Benner 8:22
Can you explain the cone thing a little bit. And please use as many Bible references as possible.

Amanda 8:27
I don't understand it completely. But it's the shape of the cones in your eyes that determine what you're capable of being transmitted to your brain and therefore think. And the shape of her red green cones are I don't know if they're flat or what's wrong with them. But I know it's the cones that don't work properly. And so she just does not get that information from her eye to her brain.

Scott Benner 8:57
That's so interesting. Okay, I have a tiny bit of information here that you haven't mentioned yet, but you went to 711 and got some sperm and made her was that right? Yeah. Yeah. So she's from us? Yeah. No, she's from a donor. Yes. Okay. Honest donor. Was that because you paid boys? You had trouble with your spent like like the your mate wasn't able, like what leads to that?

Amanda 9:27
I was with a guy for about 10 years. Like the Melotte. Finally, it was like, Hey, maybe I actually want to have a family and stuff. And then that fell apart. And before that I didn't want to have a family. So it wasn't like a big deal. But then I was like, Hey, I actually want you. Oh, I see then what? And then I don't know if it was my biological clock or whatever. But then I was like, Bob, I want to do it. Now. I don't want to wait another 10 years to find somebody. I may be like enough. I was already 30

Scott Benner 9:57
So took you 10 years to find a person you Like, yeah, oh my gosh, where were you looking?

Amanda 10:04
Punk rock shows probably rock shows.

Scott Benner 10:08
You should call me I might have been able to help. I would have said, Hey, I made it. How about first let's not look for the punk rock shows. Let's see where that gets. I can't meet any good guys in this bar for some reason. No kidding.

Amanda 10:28
That's lovely. No, no. So then I, yeah, yeah. anonymous donor. Had her. Six years later, I got back together with a guy and now we are married and live together. And he's our dad really? Adopted? Yep.

Scott Benner 10:42
How does that feel to him? Well,

Amanda 10:46
I mean, once they met and clicked and fell in love with each other, to them, their father and daughter, no

Scott Benner 10:56
feeling of loss, or mistake that you didn't stay together? I don't really know. And yeah, don't talk too much. You might learn about each other.

Amanda 11:06
I mean, I asked him when we were like really thinking about getting back together and like really doing I was like, I'm not having any more kids. So she's got to be it for you. You're not passing on your DNA, not gonna do it.

Scott Benner 11:18
And do not see me with your seed. Been there done that. That's over now. And

Amanda 11:26
he was fine with it. But I mean, he always jokes. I don't know if he's really joking or not. But he always tells people he was like, No, I've never wanted to change diapers. I swooped in at six years old, taught her how to swim taught her how to ride a bike.

Scott Benner 11:39
I can see I can see people being attracted to

Amanda 11:42
do any of the baby stuff. I came in, right when she turned fun. Right when

Scott Benner 11:46
she turned five. Yeah, that's about right. I asked because, but I guess this is just something private. I shouldn't say on here, but what are we gonna do? You know, my brother was with a girl. They broke up, she married someone had children. And now my brother and her are married. And I always wondered In fairness, I never asked him like, you know, but like, we're also not married. So don't laugh at me, man. Okay, but, but I've never asked my brother like, did you ever feel like oh, geez, what if we would have just, like kept going? You know, like, those would have been my kids maybe? Like, like, naturally, you know, not that I don't think he thinks that. Actually, let me be clear about that. He really loves those kids. So that's that's not the case. All right. I understand. Okay, I'm good. I'm good. Some kid with diabetes needed some money and now your kids diagnosed when did that happen?

Amanda 12:39
That was in July of 2020.

Scott Benner 12:44
Right after she turned eight. Okay. She was eight and 2020 and she was diagnosed is the celiac come first? The type one. The type one. Okay. How does it present?

Amanda 12:53
Well, the obvious normal stuff if she got super skinny, I had to like buy smaller sized bathing suits, which is weird. Yeah. Super drinking water getting all my never wet the bed. She always got up.

Scott Benner 13:07
But it was happening a lot. A lot of urine. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. In

Amanda 13:12
March, actually, I took her to a well visit. And she had lost a pound. And they're like, Oh, she's losing weight. And she's always been in the very low percentile. She's short. I'm short. Like never was like a major concern.

Scott Benner 13:25
Amanda short, how tall are you?

Amanda 13:28
I'm five, two. Okay, good. So they're like, Oh, she lost a pal. And I was like, Yeah, but she's like doing stuff. Now. She's running and she's playing outside and she's riding her bike. I'm okay with losing a pound. And she's getting taller. So it looks like she she's skinnier. And like, she's like, No, I want you to go do bloodwork. And my daughter, parents freaked out. She was just like, No, I don't want to do bloodwork. And I mean, she's my only kid. I didn't do it.

Scott Benner 13:59
By your easy, you don't want to do blood work, it's fine. You're probably just gonna grow up to be a supermodel. That's where this is headed, actually. So it's fine.

Amanda 14:06
I didn't do it. And I was just like, This lady's just a little crazy. I don't know what she's saying. I'm really I was mad afterwards when I was like, you could have done a finger prick in the office, if that's what you thought. Right? Right. You didn't have to send us for major bloodwork. If that's where you were going with this.

Scott Benner 14:22
Do you think that was the doctor's inclination that they were looking for diabetes? That

Amanda 14:26
in celiac, she said, Oh, for the weight loss? Okay. Yeah, but either way. I mean, if you were thinking that don't think I've heard in the office, it would have been Hi then

Scott Benner 14:36
how long between your poor parenting decision and you find out?

Amanda 14:42
March, April, May, June, July, so four months? Oh, you

Scott Benner 14:45
think you would have known four months sooner? Well, yeah,

Amanda 14:49
but also I now that I think about it. She's had like a slow onset. Okay, her whole life. Has she never drink juice? She never ate bread. She knows Ever had candy? Like she'd have IT people like hey, do you want this? She's having a bite. And she'd have a sip of orange juice and say absolutely not. I need a lot of water. She'd have some soda and say no, I need a lot of water. And I just thought she was like, healthy, amazing kid. I mean, this was a two and three years old.

Scott Benner 15:16
Yeah. Like, what does that have to do with the slow onset, though? Tell me. Well,

Amanda 15:20
I mean, if she wouldn't eat things that raised her blood sugar and made her feel weird, she didn't have any words for it. She didn't know how to say what would that was?

Scott Benner 15:28
You think that kid was low carb in her life? Yeah,

Amanda 15:30
because now she loves you. She loves soda. Now that she has insulin to

Scott Benner 15:36
counteract it. That's interesting. So it

Amanda 15:39
wasn't a taste thing to her. It was a body

Scott Benner 15:42
maybe all carbs are red or green. She just didn't see them. It's possible. I mean, I don't know a lot about this

Amanda 15:48
stuff. You love pizza still, but that's slow so she could do that and not hard

Scott Benner 15:53
not to love pizza. Wow. Okay, so she's, she's paying a lot. You go to the doctor, you don't do the bloodwork four months later. What happens that makes you go oh, okay,

Amanda 16:03
we finally do the bloodwork. Oh,

Scott Benner 16:05
I was gonna say and she's a rockstar bloodwork. Now, I imagine years later. Oh,

Amanda 16:09
no, no, no, still no. Still still really hard thing. Tell me

Scott Benner 16:13
about that. Because I don't talk about it very often. But Arden's like a cat in a in a carwash sometimes.

Amanda 16:24
Yeah, no, I don't get it either. I'm like, you know, get shots. I mean, when she doesn't anymore. She's on the pump. And yeah, but it was like you getting shots, six or more a day for a very long time. But it's still I mean, it's a bigger needle. It's scary. She is always bribing me. Can we put it off? Can we do it this day, like always last minute, we're just barely gets to the doctor and time.

Scott Benner 16:48
diabetes comes with a lot of things to remember. So it's nice when someone takes something off of your plate. US med has done that for us. When it's time for art and supplies to be refreshed. We get an email rolls up in your inbox says hi Arden. This is your friendly reorder email from us med. You open up the email. It's a big button that says click here to reorder and you're done. Finally, somebody's taking away a responsibility instead of adding one. US med has done that for us. An email arrives we click on a link and the next thing you know your products are at the front door. That simple. Us med.com/juice box or call 888-721-1514 I never have to wonder if Arden has enough supplies. I click on one link. I open up a box. I put the stuff in the drawer and we're done. US med carries everything from insulin pumps, and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGM like the libre three and the Dexcom G seven. They accept Medicare nationwide, over 800 private insurers and all you have to do to get started is called 888-721-1514 or go to my link us med.com/juicebox using that number or my link helps to support the production of the Juicebox Podcast. I partnered with ag one because I needed a daily foundational nutritional supplement that supported my whole body health. I continue to drink ag one every day because it works for me. Ag one is my foundational nutritional supplement. It gives me comprehensive nutrition and it supports my whole body health drink ag one.com/juice box when you use my link to place your first order, here's what you're gonna get a free welcome kit that includes a shaker scoop and canister. Five free travel packs. A free year supply of vitamin D and of course your ag one. So if you want to take ownership of your health, it starts with a G 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. Go to drink ag one.com/juice box that's drink ag one.com/juice box. Check it out. Let me see out on the streets panhandling making money to try to get you know, she's like I was able to scrape together $17 Please don't take me for bloodwork. This is all yours if you don't take me for what does she try to bribe you with?

Amanda 19:21
Well, she just she just makes me feel bad. And so I have this plan a day where I go do something and then her dad has to take her. Oh,

Scott Benner 19:27
I see. So yeah, well now he's there. Back then. Was he there? In 2020? Yeah, he was living without he was okay. Yeah. All right. Because he was probably like, look, I got out of this a couple times. I could probably keep pushing this lady off if I tried hard enough. She's pretty smart about that. Yeah, give her over to him. And he's like, we're going to get bloodwork Shut up. Yes. So I should be I should be clear as an adult, and in her late teens to say she's fine getting her blood drawn. That would be a lie. I have to remember to ask her about it when she's on next time but she She sits there and watches the needle go into her arm. She can't look away from it cannot look away, she does not like it. It's upsetting to her. There have been times where she's given like had blood draws, you know, every couple of months trying to figure out like levels for like thyroid stuff and things like that. Every time it does not get better, but when she, when she was young, it was fine. And there I don't know when it happened to her. But there was this one day in the endos office, where the lady who had drawn her blood, you know, like, I gotta say, at least once a year for forever. She came in and art and just pulled her feet up on the table and started pushing backwards. And before you knew it, she was in the corner of the room and I thought she's gonna go up the wall like spider man in a second. The porn nurses like art and what's going on? We've been doing this for years partners like no more. I had to take her into the bathroom and like we had to sit and talk quietly in the bathroom was by the way so that she felt protected like it did take her into a room close the door and lock the door. So I'm like, Alright, no one's coming in. We got to figure this out. Yeah, being a parent has been a lot of fun. So far. Super exciting. Yeah, the fury of sex for a little while and then just arguing with kids about stuff. And for you, not even you do it yourself or you go to a place you can't do it yourself again. You

Amanda 21:20
know, my OBGYN was already like a fertility doctor too. So he had all the connections.

Scott Benner 21:26
What do you think would happen if I typed DIY artificial? Am I about to see something horrible?

Amanda 21:36
I think those are like the stupid rom com movies where they just use a guy for a night DIY

Scott Benner 21:40
artificial insemination kit. Oh, make fun of me. Well, yeah, you can buy him at CVS. Oh, I thought I was making something stupid up and I was definitely gonna get sent to a porn site. But that is not what happened. Freda for Tality for tat fatality fertility. Unbelievable. At home insemination set. Four and a half stars. It says just add sperm. Now it doesn't say that. It's a real thing. It doesn't say just that sperm. Although it should, right. It really marketing like technique that would be yeah, there's a number of different add home insemination kits from a number of different companies. How much did you pay? You could have done this for $129.

Amanda 22:28
Well, that's just a kid. You'd still need the sperm pump punk rock show.

Scott Benner 22:33
How hard would it have been there? I'm gonna say not difficult. My

Amanda 22:36
kid probably would have been healthier.

Scott Benner 22:40
You know, let's get past this. It's my fault. I didn't record yesterday. I have a lot of silliness pent up inside me. I need to let it out every day or this is what happens. Okay, so diagnosed type one. Finally with bloodwork. Does she have to go to the hospital or

Amanda 22:57
Yeah. So like on a Monday, she went got her bloodwork done on Wednesday, the doctor called and said we got her bloodwork back. Her blood sugar's 480. And I said, Okay, what is that bad? I had no idea. Yeah, right. I had no idea. So I was like, Alright, cool. She has to go to the emergency room right now. I was like she's out riding her bike.

Scott Benner 23:21
Yeah. And that feeling of she's fine, right? Yeah,

Amanda 23:24
she's all right. She's not dying. They're like, are you going to take her like, I guess they thought I really wasn't. I was like, I actually have a work meeting, but I'll take her in an hour. And they're like, You need to take her right now. I mean, she's not gonna die, right? Right here. I put this off for months. What is an hour?

Scott Benner 23:42
Lady I've been doing this wrong for like a half a year. So I'm gonna finish up the work meeting and then we'll be over. I'm not a high stress. You're not a high stress person. Hi, Amanda.

Amanda 23:53
You know what I usually am I just I didn't like high stress stuff was always meant with work and not at home. Oh,

Scott Benner 24:01
I mean, it's super interesting, because I thought you're going to tell me that you're laid back and micro dosing mushrooms or something like that. But it's, you're from California. That could be happening right.

Amanda 24:09
Now, I wish not in a long time. Okay. That's

Scott Benner 24:13
the punk rock show. Wait a minute. Can we name this punk rock Deuteronomy? Maybe? Absolutely. Damn. Oh, hold on a second. I'm gonna write that down. I'll forget. Do you know that if I didn't write that down? Then an hour from now when we were done talking? I wouldn't remember.

Amanda 24:31
I probably wouldn't either. fascinate.

Scott Benner 24:35
I worry about myself in those situations? I'd remember

Amanda 24:37
that there would be something but I wouldn't remember what it was like I know there was something cool. What was it? I have to

Scott Benner 24:42
start leaving in the notes that I make for myself after the recording and so the recording ends. I take a second I get a drink. I bring the microphone back to my voice and I go today we talked to Amanda. Her daughter was you know, this this old 2020 when she was diagnosed type one On she had celiac later, she has red green colorblindness, and then I start going, we should call this episode I'll go Oh, sometime about, like, it's like an hour later. It's like an hour later. I don't know. Actually, I have an editor now. And it's been terrific, like 99.9% Terrific, though part that's not great is that the show gets recorded, it goes out and it's edited. It comes back to me and I have to lay in bumpers and ads and stuff like that, right? So I have to sit back down with the track and be like, Hello, friends this episode. Like I have to do all that. And then there's 30 seconds in the beginning where I like to give a little overview of what the the episodes about, and they would come back to me from the editor and I was like, I have no idea what this is about. Like I recorded this like, months ago. I have no idea. So I had to say to him while you're listening can you take notes about the episode?

Amanda 25:58
Yeah, cuz I mean while you were at any you were hearing it again. Yeah,

Scott Benner 26:00
it but I but I don't listen back through like once the edits done, I just I cut it off by laying the the elements where they go, but I don't listen to it again. And so there's like a little scratch pad in the in the thing and he's really his name's Rob. I mean, wrong way recording. If you're looking for him. I think it's wrong way. recording.com. And his notes are fantastic. Like sometimes I look at them. I'm like, I'm going to start stealing these and using it on the website. They're so like, thorough. He's like really sitting there listening. Yeah. So. Okay, kid. Well, Hi, Rob. Yeah. Hey, Rob. What's up, man do a good job on this one. Because, you know, I mean, his dogs barking in the background so you can get rid of that. That'd be terrific. As I try to make you feel that, Oh, okay. So work meeting ends, we go to the hospital.

Amanda 26:45
Yeah, go home. Go to the hospital. Still. COVID. So, okay, my husband just dropped us off. Her blood sugar was 560. Then they mentioned how clear her pee was because you know, she didn't drink a lot of water. She told us to go to a doctor. That's 15 minutes away. If we got another 15 minutes, we could have just gone straight to chalk. I don't know why she didn't just tell us that. So then we're waiting at the closer hospital for three hours for them send an ambulance takes chalk.

Scott Benner 27:14
So you drove 15 minutes to wait for an ambulance. But you could have 30 minutes to where you're going? Yeah.

Amanda 27:20
She's like, go to Mission Hospital right there. Do that go there? Okay, I'll do it. She's like, are you going? I'm going, lady. I'm going. I'm really um,

Scott Benner 27:29
how long did you wait for the ambulance? It was it was about three or four hours. Fantastic. That's absolutely fantastic. I don't understand half the time what happens but okay, so I

Amanda 27:41
remember sitting in there and we're in there and there's telling us, you know, she's got type one diabetes. I'm like, okay, I'd like the only thing I know about this is I read the baby sitters club, and one of them had

Scott Benner 27:54
ever heard about, do you think it comes? So is there any autoimmune on your side of the family?

Amanda 27:58
I have an aunt that has rheumatoid arthritis. Okay. All right. counts. For sure. Yeah. But that's like it. I mean, I'm sure some people are a little bit crazy and have some bipolar. None of them would. would admit it. Jesus

Scott Benner 28:13
already. You're like, I'm just gonna tell you right now. I'm related to a number of people who have bipolar disorder. They don't say it out loud. But I'm 100%. Sure. Is that what you're saying? Yes, yes. Do you want to name them? No. Both and oh.

Amanda 28:28
The other female of the family, aka my mom.

Scott Benner 28:32
I was just kidding. But okay. Jesus. Do you talk to your mom? Yes. Yeah. Okay. All right. Gotcha. Everybody's nice. They just think they might literally like you think they have? No, seriously she they really do. Okay. Is your mom taking medication? She's

Amanda 28:50
been on some stuff, the last few months and she's been a lot calmer and less. Just crazy. Emotional boy thinks she's like, Oh my God, you stop sharing your location with me. I'm like, I didn't mean to sorry. And I'm 43 years old.

Scott Benner 29:02
So okay, if your location stops being shared through your phone, your mom has a freakout.

Amanda 29:08
Yeah, like I'm your mom. I'm not stalking you. It's fine. But okay. I didn't mean to. I really don't care if you see that I'm at home. Yeah.

Scott Benner 29:16
Well, you're just, I mean, what are you doing? Right? Yeah, you're old now. Yeah, that punk rock show or anything like that. You and Sid Vicious are watching the prices, right?

Amanda 29:24
I don't even listen to music anymore. My husband still he's a drummer. So he still listens and plays it all the time. How old are you? I'm 43.

Scott Benner 29:35
I have to tell you. I don't know that I don't listen to music anymore. I try very hard to but it's it's a it feels like a job to remember to listen to music sometimes. Yeah. It's upsetting to me. Honestly,

Amanda 29:50
I mean, I agree. I music was everything for a long time for me. So it's weird. Is

Scott Benner 29:55
it time you don't have time? Can I just

Amanda 29:58
just don't like the sound anymore. And

Scott Benner 30:02
when you go back to old music that you did love, do you find that it starts to feel dated? Yeah, yeah. happens to me too. Okay. All right. Well, that must be a thing that happens to people,

Amanda 30:12
I noticed that I have a hard time paying attention out to more than, like my mind and pay attention to more than one thing that my ears can.

Scott Benner 30:20
So if you put music on in the background, you might as well not have it on. Right

Amanda 30:26
or I can't hear people over it. I just like somebody's talking me, I'd have to stop the music.

Scott Benner 30:30
Are you losing your hearing? Do you think?

Amanda 30:32
Maybe I don't really think so. I can hear stuff. I just, I just only can only pay attention to one sound at a time. You

Scott Benner 30:39
don't say what a lot of people talk. But that's

Amanda 30:43
to my husband, because he starts talking and he usually talks to himself. So it's like after I'm like, Oh, you're talking sorry.

Scott Benner 30:51
Do you know people who start their thoughts, like five or six words into them out loud? Like the first five or six words are in their head and then they start talking out loud? Yeah, that's my husband. Oh, he does that. Okay. And then you're like, I don't know what you're saying. But they think you do. Yeah. It's interesting. My mom did that.

Amanda 31:08
Yeah, he definitely does say, like, Yeah,

Scott Benner 31:11
I'm like, I'm gonna need I'm gonna need all the work. If

Amanda 31:14
you want me I don't know. What about what?

Scott Benner 31:17
You gotta say it all out loud. That's funny. Okay, so Okay, get to the hospital. Finally, kids got diabetes. Now I'm dying to know how you handle it. Because so far, you've handled the entire thing. Like, just very quickly, when I was gonna say whimsically. You're just like, it'll be fine. But when they start telling you what's going on, and you start getting a grasp of it, does that shift your attention?

Amanda 31:40
I don't know. They must have I remember them. They must have thought that I was just still so nonchalant about it. Because I'm asking the doctor. I was like, Okay, how concerned are we about her right now? And he understood what I meant. And he's like, she's fine. She's gonna live. We just have to do stuff. But the nurse that was in there was like, you can't take her you have to stay here. I was like, I wasn't gonna go anywhere. I was just asking like,

Scott Benner 32:05
hey, the kids not gonna die. Right? That's what you're right. Yeah. How

Amanda 32:08
concerned? Am I right now about her health? Yes, she's about to die. Do I need to call everybody and get them here? Or is she gonna be okay? Because

Scott Benner 32:16
it took a lot to make this one. And I've already decided I don't want to do it again. And I like, I like her and everything. So it can we kind of keep her here. Is there a way to do that? Oh, and the one nurse thought the one nurse thought you were being nonchalant. Like you were just gonna blow out didn't? Yeah,

Amanda 32:30
like if I was like, oh, it's not a big deal. She's like, you can't leave here. Leaving? No, that's not at all what I meant. didn't

Scott Benner 32:35
say that. Doctor got what you were saying. And then how long was she in the hospital for?

Amanda 32:40
That was Wednesday. We came home Friday afternoon. That's pretty quick. She wasn't really in DKA. She was only on IVs for about six hours. Maybe?

Scott Benner 32:49
Okay. Yeah, that's, that's great.

Amanda 32:52
I wouldn't see was 12.1 Which seems high. But I don't I mean, maybe she just drink so much of the water, the acidic or whatever, Amanda,

Scott Benner 33:03
if that was true, then everybody listening would just drink water instead of using insulin. For six, six hours, you've made a couple of leaps in your in your, in your thought you were like, she probably just ate low carb or whole life but had diabetes the whole time. I'm going to tell you between you and I, I don't think that's right. So but but you're telling your story. So I'm happy to listen. But yeah, I mean, it's I mean, it's well, day one see would indicate that her blood sugar had been elevated for a while, but not to the point where I mean, she's still making some insulin. Obviously. You don't think she's how long she three years later? Does she have

Amanda 33:40
any? I don't think she ever had a honeymoon. But no, I don't think so.

Scott Benner 33:44
It was kind of gone before you figured out that there was diabetes is there? Yeah. Okay. I took care of that. Not doing anything with your work meeting and other such things. Do you ever look back and think oh my god, if it would have onset quicker like she would have really been in trouble. Yeah, of course. Does it make you feel a certain way?

Amanda 34:01
Well, yeah, how? pretty shitty. I mean, I feel pretty bad about it. I'm still mad that the doctor didn't just give her a finger prick, right? They're just like, if he would have just said what you thought it was and done. And I mean, she probably would have been at maybe 200. Then maybe, and then I would have found out about it and I wouldn't have had to rebuy brand new bathing suits. Six instead of eight.

Scott Benner 34:29
I like how, at the same time, like thoughtful you are about this and flippin at the same time. It's very it's very much fun to listen to. You're like, you know what, I feel bad because I didn't see it sooner and something could have happened and that's very upsetting. And plus, a lot of money in bathing suits went out the window. I can't tell if you're hilarious, or literally not paying attention anything.

Amanda 34:57
I'm pretty funny. Okay.

Scott Benner 34:59
That's what I was wondering. I mean, listen, you've got to have a good sense of humor if you get sperm at a 711. So you get a Slurpee while you're there, too. I wouldn't.

Amanda 35:12
I did drink a lot of Slurpees when I was pregnant. I wonder if that gave her diabetes.

Scott Benner 35:17
I don't think that works that way. But I know you drink a lot of Wait a minute. You drank a lot of Slurpees while you were pregnant. I did. So I randomly said 711 But you're a 711. Girl. You know, I got them at Target. Oh, look at you fancy. Yeah, yeah. You don't get a 711 Are there even seven? elevens in California?

Amanda 35:38
Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I don't know. There's a lot of them there. None of them are gas stations, though. They're always just like corner stores.

Scott Benner 35:44
Fair enough. My 711 Growing up was a corner store. Did you guys get Wawa? Did they make it to the West Coast? No,

Amanda 35:51
I've never heard of them. Okay. Not in the south either. Because I grew up in Georgia. Yeah,

Scott Benner 35:56
you had the buches are down there. Now. You grew up in Georgia. Where in Georgia grew up.

Amanda 36:00
Woodstock. So that's, like

Scott Benner 36:05
inland Right? Like, more? Like

Amanda 36:08
45 minutes north of Atlanta. Yeah.

Scott Benner 36:11
Okay. Well, how'd you get to California?

Amanda 36:13
I was born in California. We moved to Georgia when I was 10. My dad worked for Coca Cola out here. And so got transferred to Coca Cola capital.

Scott Benner 36:23
Which is in Cal. Oh, is it Atlanta, which is in Atlanta. Right. There's that big bike? Somehow there's, if you've never heard of coke, if you've ever been there, there's like a Coca Cola Museum and almost feels like it's like,

Amanda 36:36
it's really cool, actually. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 36:39
mean, you know, soda wasn't bad for you. It'd be amazing. Sure. It's yeah,

Amanda 36:43
they have like little things with soda like sports across the sky until cup four. Yeah,

Scott Benner 36:48
yeah. No, but like, if it was a heroin Museum, you'd be put off by it.

Amanda 36:54
Well, not me but that's the other reason I went to Atlanta.

Scott Benner 37:01
Amanda when that drummer and you break up, call me out have fun.

Amanda 37:11
That's a weird thing. I don't know if I want to I don't know if I don't want this to be an after dark. I won't say but.

Scott Benner 37:15
Wait, you were gonna say something that if you said it, it would be an after dark? Probably. Is it about him? No. Oh, about the other thing about the heroin? Yeah. Oh, I see. Damn. All right, then. It's fine. You don't have to share more than you want to. Just tell me did you snorted or injected? Bow. Oh, there you go. Well, now it's an after dark. Congratulations. You said punk rock. You married a drummer. I assumed there was drug use somewhere. And he's never done it. It's not him. Well, he doesn't need to your eyes. Okay. He's fine. Any man? One of us is gonna be paying attention.

Amanda 37:52
No, I never did it out here in California. I met him out here. Yeah, I only lived in Georgia for 11 years. Middle School in high school. Little bit of college. And then I came back out

Scott Benner 38:00
here. The drugs were in California. Not in Georgia. No drugs. Were in Georgia. Not in California. A weird place sometimes.

Amanda 38:07
Yeah. I mean, I guess it's like it was a small city and there was nothing to do. So yeah, it was just one of those things. When I came out here. Like, I didn't really look for it. But I mean, I guess even if I did, I don't think it would have been easy to find me. Maybe none of the people I met around

Scott Benner 38:23
here. Are you saying you think it was boredom? Oh, totally. When you were younger, and all that fat, Coca Cola money just sitting around it do something? Oh, my God, I don't know if anyone else is impressed that I haven't made a beat on the skins reference because your guy's a drummer. And like, I've kept it completely clean this entire time. So I mean, I don't need like congratulations or anything like that. But somebody you know, to be impressed. So I just completely let it go. You know, so many different versions of inappropriate and they're not me, I held it together. And we went right to drugs instead. Okay, so let's be clear for the people. You don't do that anymore. Is that correct? Correct. hadn't done that while you're a parent?

Amanda 39:05
No, okay. No, not at all. Let me but it's weird. Like I remember. And this was about the only thing I actually didn't know about type one diabetics is that I guess anyone know is type one, but just like sometimes people would go and try and get syringes. So they'd have to go to the pharmacy and be like, say you're a diabetic and see if you can get some syringes used to

Scott Benner 39:23
be able to know, I have that backwards that know the insulin used to use to be able to get insulin, actually, someone told me recently I have no idea if this is true, you still don't need a prescription for like regular. I don't know if that's true or not. But when my buddy was young, he was on like regular mph. He did not need a script for his insulin. He did a script for his needles. But you're saying you could go in and say I have diabetes give me needles and they give them to some

Amanda 39:50
places would but they'd have to have. I mean, I guess maybe they didn't need a prescription, but some places would still do it. Otherwise I don't really know the whole rules because some people could go get him and they maybe they just knew somebody. How

Scott Benner 40:05
long were you involved in that lifestyle?

Amanda 40:08
Two years,

Scott Benner 40:09
you have any trouble stopping?

Amanda 40:10
It wasn't fun. But no, I mean, it really wasn't. I've never like went through crazy withdrawals or anything like that.

Scott Benner 40:18
What makes you stop? I didn't?

Amanda 40:20
Well, I had told myself that I would never use a needle. So I once I actually did that I did it about two more times. And then I was like, No, I'm not going down this route.

Scott Benner 40:32
You crossed your own line, and then decided it was going to keep happening. Yeah,

Amanda 40:36
gotcha. Let's I didn't really like the boy who was dating anymore. That helps.

Scott Benner 40:41
And he was involved with us. Yeah, I see. I'm following. Don't worry. I got this whole thing straightened out in my head.

Amanda 40:49
I mean, I liked the heroin. I just didn't like him. You

Scott Benner 40:53
trying to rename the episode again?

Amanda 40:57
I like I mean, there's a reason people do it. It feels great. It's wonderful. But it's, I don't know, I guess I just grew up. I didn't want to grow up every other night or whatever.

Scott Benner 41:10
So the downside of heroin to you was finish that sentence for

Amanda 41:14
me. nominee.

Scott Benner 41:17
None of the other stuff. Like the vomiting is the thing that turned you off about it. Yeah, interesting.

Amanda 41:23
Yeah, I didn't. I didn't. Yeah. I mean, it felt great to be on it. But I would always throw up always

Scott Benner 41:31
being a person who used heroin. That was not part of what threw you off about it. Not

Amanda 41:35
really. But I mean, I was No, I still worked. I still did stuff. Like the hardest part about it was my boyfriend was kind of a dumbass and a junkie and I'd have to go down to Atlanta and like, saved him a lot. But I didn't get into it so bad that I wasn't still a productive member of society.

Scott Benner 41:55
Okay. Okay. So you're using it? What you would call like, recreationally? Yeah, gotcha. I mean, it's funny. I know what you look like, switch is an unfair advantage. But if you and I met in person for the first time, and you just walked up to me and said, Hey, I used heroin. When I was a child, I'd look at you and I go, No, you didn't stop it.

Amanda 42:17
You can't see my tattoos on me. Yeah,

Scott Benner 42:19
no, but like, you just, you just look like someone's mom. Now. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Everyone has to wonder when they hear this, oh, my God, did my mom do heroin?

Amanda 42:32
You know, I don't so much anymore. But at first when they started just giving us prescriptions of needles. I was like, well, if, for some reason anybody needs a needle, at least I can give him a clean needle instead of going somewhere and getting gross one.

Scott Benner 42:45
Do you still know people who use? No, not at all? No. Okay. Interesting. Wow. I'm fascinated by this. I'm having such a nice time. I don't, I don't know what's wrong with me. But I actually I just met somebody the other day, who said to me, it's a person I knew, but I had never met in person. And we had time to be together for a while. And they said, You're so direct. And I thought, No, I'm not. Am I I'm a I'm direct. And then I started really thinking about it. I was like, oh my god, I guess a lot of people wouldn't say the things I say, I never really It never occurred to me before. Like being completely serious. Like when she called me direct, it threw me a little bit.

Amanda 43:30
That's what I've always liked about listening to you is you are open and honest. You have your opinions, but they're never judgey I think that's what I like, like, whatever it is, you're just like, alright, you only know about it. But you're never like, your person. Yeah,

Scott Benner 43:46
no, if you want to say no, if you want me to judge, you just have to come here in person. And I'd be happy to. But it's not. It's not I'm not a saint. You don't I mean, are there dude, are there saints in Deuteronomy? That'd be amazing. But I don't either, honestly, well, I don't feel judgmental towards people. Like, I mean, I could be if you want me to say, this is what I think and I see this and, you know, I could come down on the side of it, I could, but for the purposes of this podcast, and for life in general, I don't see the value in doing that. You know, like, I mean, sitting around the house and talking about like a mole on somebody's face is judgment is judgy. But it's, you know, it's between three people and nobody can hear and the lady with the mole doesn't know so you know, anybody but yeah, for my actual life and for this podcast, I see no value in doing anything but listening to people's stories, trying to understand them. And that's it. Really I don't I don't see a reason to do anything else about it. But anyway, yeah, I was really thrown off like she's like, you're very direct. I was like, I am not. That's where I started. Then I was like, Oh, I am. But I but I don't take that back. Yeah, I very directly told her she was wrong. No, no, I just I am And I was like, really? Because yeah, it's incredibly so I was like off putting and she goes, No. And I was like, Okay. She's just like you say things I would never say out loud. And I'm like, huh, I don't know that about myself. That interesting. So it's very interesting. I bought an eraser the other day, in the shape of an ear. I don't mean, I don't need it, but it's called an eraser. And they put a picture of Van Gogh next to the box.

Amanda 45:30
I was gonna say, is it Van Gogh's?

Scott Benner 45:32
It's not apparently the Van Gogh. People don't sell erasers. Although I say money left on the table. The picture of Van Gogh next to it cracked me up so much. I was like, I'm buying an eraser. And Kelly goes, do you even write in pencil? And I was like, listen, that's not important. I mean, I have an eraser on my desk from now on. So I'm looking at it and bringing that up, because this episode seems like it's all over the place. Who cares? Talk a little more about why I'm terrific.

Amanda 46:00
Oh, well, you're delightful. And, yeah, I mean, you're pretty funny. I like you.

Scott Benner 46:06
I appreciate this. What you found the podcast for diabetes purposes, I imagine.

Amanda 46:10
Correct. Okay. And that was like, I wasn't right away on there. I mean, she was diagnosed in like August. I think the first episode I listened to was around one of Thanksgivings, of just like, how to get through Thanksgiving.

Scott Benner 46:24
Oh, the talk turkey, the short episode where I just like I stream of consciousness talk about how to manage Thanksgiving Day. Right? Yeah, that's a good one. Actually. It was pretty good. I mean, you said pretty good, which hurt my feelings a lot. But

Amanda 46:39
well, after that it was the Dexcom one with this somebody from Dexcom. And I was like, Well, this is kind of boring.

Scott Benner 46:44
Yeah, that stuff is pretty topical. Like, in the moment when everyone's like, what's happening with Dexcom? Like, what's coming out? Like, then people are like, Oh, my God, it's amazing. It's hard to go back and listen to them afterwards. Because you're like, yeah, that happened already. So yeah, yeah. It's not quite as exciting. But okay, so you found the podcast, listen to it. Do you? For example, like Have you listened to the Pro Tip series?

Amanda 47:05
I did. I didn't, I haven't listened to the remastered ones. But I listened to them. Help. I kind of went back and found very much. Okay, good, good, good, very much. That was like I started coming home and like, we've got to get the pump. We've got to get the Dexcom. At first it was the ducks home. And my husband and daughter. Were just like, No, no, we're doing fine. Let's not change anything. We're doing. Okay. It's like, No, I want to get it.

Scott Benner 47:31
Did you feel like you weren't doing okay. Or do you just feel like there was better to be had?

Amanda 47:35
Yeah, there's this better? I will. Yeah, I just I wanted it. I just knew that. I wanted to know exactly how she was responding to it.

Scott Benner 47:44
Mandy sound like your mom with the Find My iPhone thing? I'm just teasing you. I think what you did is completely reasonable. I just saw a great opportunity. I

Amanda 47:53
mean, I used to be like, What do you work for? Dexcom. Now you're gonna be one of their salespeople. They need it. This is the drummer. Yes. But then once we got it, once I pushed for it and said, We're just doing it, you screw you. I'm the one who works. It's my insurance. We're doing it.

Scott Benner 48:09
Yeah. What about your daughter what you have to do to talk your daughter and awareness? Well,

Amanda 48:13
I told her that she'll be able to choose the pump. That will be her choice, but I'm forcing this on on you. I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't. But I'm doing it till you're 18 you're wearing a Dexcom since you've resisted. She had a first but I mean, once she got it. She was like once she stopped doing sanparks 10 times a day.

Scott Benner 48:36
Then she's like, Alright, I'm in on this. Yeah,

Amanda 48:38
she's like, Yeah, okay, this, she hated the change, like changing and all that she's fine with it now. She just started doing it on her own actually good for her. That's really cool. She likes to watch YouTube videos of people doing it. Like, I want to draw my stomach. Now I want to turn my legs. I don't want to do

Scott Benner 48:53
this. Oh, nice. Oh, that's excellent. That's actually really exciting. I listen, I've said it before. I'll say it again. I don't understand letting children make medical decisions. So it's weird to me. Right. You know, I mean, if you were at the hospital, and the doctor was like, you know, I think she'd be healthier if she wore this heart monitor because of her. I don't know, whatever. And she goes, I don't want to wear a heart monitor. You wouldn't go okay. Or the human.

Amanda 49:14
I also didn't take her for bloodwork for four months. Yes. I'm

Scott Benner 49:17
saying maybe you would, but most people.

Amanda 49:21
But no, yeah, that one. I was like, I'll I'll let you choose the pump. And then she still didn't want the pump a year later. And I was like, You know what? We're doing the pump. Sorry.

Scott Benner 49:31
So you just shows the bump?

Amanda 49:33
Yes, like we're doing it. We're definitely you mean the pump. I'm sick of doing shots. You,

Scott Benner 49:38
you parent, like somebody who grew up in the 70s is done heroin. That's fantastic.

Amanda 49:46
And then we got the pump and then then we're like, oh, wow, this is better and easier. Wow. Imagine that. Oh, so

Scott Benner 49:51
she came along on that too? Yeah, yeah, it's hard. Listen, it's a difficult thing.

Amanda 49:57
You know, the weird thing is like it's so much cheaper. Insurance wise to have a pump like pens. What do I mean? Um, maybe I had crappy insurance, but pens were like 4050 bucks a month where insulin is three or $10.

Scott Benner 50:11
Right? And then the pumps are costing you what? Oh, the pump was covered. Okay? So there's just you're out of pocket the beginning of the year, and then you're done after that, right? But you were paying you were paying for the pens, so

Amanda 50:25
I was paying for the pens like our copay was about 45 bucks. And our copay for pen needles was about 45 bucks. I

Scott Benner 50:32
didn't know that. Let me just slip this in here real quick. Amanda omnipod.com forward slash juice box. There you go. I'm using case people right now are like, wait a minute, a pump could be cheaper than my pens. I mean, you know, no reason we shouldn't support the podcast while it's happening. Oh, wow. So you switch to a it's interesting. So you said look, we're gonna get a pump now got a POM she got used to it eventually. She doesn't resent it. You don't hear feel any pushback now or measure any resentment from her.

Amanda 50:59
Now, once we got it, there was a couple times where I wasn't sure if the site was working or whatever. So I was like, let's just do a shot. Before we change it goes to see which one it is. And she flat out refused. Then she was like, Absolutely not. She'd run screaming and crying. Oh, what did the shots just change the site? So she went from only wanting shots to never ever long shots again. Yeah,

Scott Benner 51:24
yeah, I still haven't gotten art. I tell that story. Actually, those are the two stories. When I say earlier, I needed to have art and talked about on her Oh, her getting blood draws, I'm actually going to write this down. blood draws I gotta get her to talk about and giving herself an injection, which she has done. How many times in her life, you go ahead and guess she used needles for two years old, three years old. Some of four years old. My best math told me she got like 10,000 like shots and no fingerprints combined. How many injections do you think she's ever given herself?

Amanda 51:58
I'm gonna say less than five. Yeah, one.

Scott Benner 52:02
One, and it was like a year and a half ago. And it took her about 45 minutes to get the nerve to do it. Maybe longer. She disappeared into a bathroom for an incredibly long amount of time, and then came out and was like, I did it or like, okay, great. She's like, 18 She's like, I don't I don't want to do that again. I was like, Okay. Like, you might have to at some point, you know, and she's like, I know, that's why I did it once. But let's make sure that that doesn't have to happen. And I was like, I will we'll do our best. But yeah, we were just like wanting to check if a pump site was bad. And so I say hey, we just inject real quick, we'll know if it's the site or if you've got something else going on. And she's like, Yeah, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. Oh, my God, I swear to God is our more. I'm gonna get her to tell that story. So she didn't really talk about it. Like I'd like I really would like to hear her perspective on on those two things. So anyway, yeah.

Amanda 52:53
I don't know. I don't know why, like, my daughter was just always for a long time. I was the only one allowed to give her a shot. She wouldn't even let her dad do it. And

Scott Benner 53:01
me, it makes sense to me probably felt safe to her.

Amanda 53:05
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, she, she'd sit on his lap. At first, she'd sit on his lap and like bite his finger as I was doing it. But that started in hospital when they're like, Okay, you can have something to hold and do something. She started biting swinger.

Scott Benner 53:20
Interesting. You both have that in common. You got six shots and stop doing them. I appreciate you coming on the show. And being so honest, by the way, it's very nice of you. Really to appreciate it. Is there a reason you wanted to come on the podcast? I usually feel like I should ask that question at least 45 minutes into the conversation.

Amanda 53:40
Oh, well, I mean, I was just listening all the time. And I was going to work as listen on the way up, listen, during lunch, listen on the way home. And it was just fun to hear. And I did get a lot of like, good little bits of information. Just from the conversation once Yeah. Like, oh, I didn't think about that. That's not in the pro tips or even Jenny talking or whatever. Yeah,

Scott Benner 54:03
I appreciate that very much. Actually. It's it's super interesting. Because as super interesting to me, because I make the podcast but you know, the rest of you might be like, I don't find it that interesting, Scott, but I do. I think it's an insight. The people who really love management, like specific episodes, they love it, like voraciously, but where most of the podcasts popularity is actually in the conversations. Like there are plenty of people who love the conversations who don't listen to the management. And, but the people who are very, like voracious about the management, sometimes they'll be like, Yeah, I don't want to hear people's stories. Kind of incredible. And the management people are highly focused inside of the private Facebook group two. Yeah. Because because the private Facebook group is huge. Right, like, okay, yeah, it's fantastic. It's huge. But if you try to start a conversation there about like, hey, Amanda was on today. And did you get As here, they don't get a lot of like, play one on the conversationally on the on the page. That was the one thing that surprised me. I thought people were going to be like every day, they'd be like, Oh my God, did you hear the story? Those people don't seem to be Facebook people. So yeah, I

Amanda 55:15
don't think so. Yeah. It's interesting to me, I really don't go on it so much anymore. I, I kind of skim through it, or something easy. I can help answer. I answer real quick. Well, that's

Scott Benner 55:25
very nice. I appreciate that. But otherwise,

Amanda 55:27
I don't like really read him that much. But I mean, because I remember when I was first starting, I was like, why does this tubing look like this? Or why is this? And I start to Google it. And I think I'll just put it on Facebook. And like, I have 50 answers. Yeah. And they're pretty much all the same. So I'm like, I'm going with that.

Scott Benner 55:46
Yep. And then you're like, This must be right. A lot of people think it, which I don't think that's exactly the right way to get good information. But it's a fair bet.

Amanda 55:56
of type one diabetics. Yes. Yeah. And

Scott Benner 55:59
it's on something. It's such a simple, specific thing. Like I wouldn't ask about like, I don't know, I wouldn't get online and go, Hey, what's the right thing for me to think about this Ukraine conflict? I think they're your you know, if you get a bunch of people agree, you probably didn't hear the other side, you know, but, but there's not a lot of other side to, you know, how do I handle this with my pen or something like that? And so no, it's, I actually think it's amazing. I'm very proud of it. Honestly. I think it helps a lot of people, and it's free for them. And I think that's nothing but good. Anyway, alright, so you wanted to come on, because you heard other people on here and hearing their stories helped you pull tidbits of good information out? Yeah. What do you think people have learned from you?

Amanda 56:42
Don't wait, when the doctor says good?

Scott Benner 56:47
Yeah. Do you think they learned that heroin makes you throw up?

Amanda 56:51
My knowledge? I have to be honest

Scott Benner 56:53
with you. I have no common knowledge about heroin. So I think first talked to enough people about it. Yeah, I mean, I have their knowledge now. Yeah, but I didn't have any before. If I didn't have the podcast, I'd be like, I don't know. Like my drug references would be from like, I don't know, Eddie Murphy movies from the 80s. If that happened, gaming?

Amanda 57:12
Yeah, yeah, maybe they weren't. I think that's pretty common knowledge, though. They even put that in movies. Can

Scott Benner 57:19
I tell you what I get out of your conversation?

Amanda 57:23
Can I take it? I don't know what Deuteronomy me know,

Scott Benner 57:25
neither of us know that. What I get out of your conversation is, even though you are not classically, if I said if I sat 10 people in a room, and I said, Build me the picture of a really great parent, or a really great mother or something like that. I'm being honest, I don't think people would paint a picture that you just painted of yourself. But you're a real, you're really good mom. And yeah, and you're very good at this diabetes thing for your kid. And I like your focus on it, and all of that stuff. And what I think it tells you what I think this conversation tells us, you probably shouldn't judge people, because, you know, you get a couple of factoids about them, and you think you understand their whole picture. And your factoids, or like, would be easy for people to make a bad decision about who you are. Does that make sense? Yeah, that makes sense. So by having the conversation, the rest of you comes out. And that, to me, is what this is about. So if you guys are looking for behind the scenes idea of what I think this episode is about, that's what it's about for me. But and I think that's very important. Because if you want to get further and further into this, eventually you're going to be judging your own children this way, too. You know what I mean? Like, your kids grow up, and then you start seeing little things about them, you know, like, Oh, my God, just, you know, my kids smokes weed. Everything's terrible. Wow. Is it all terrible? Or is just a very, like, complex person who also does this? And that's what I see in there. It's very cool. Like, I appreciate you sharing your time with me. Oh, thank you. Seriously,

Amanda 58:58
what are we doing?

Scott Benner 58:59
Oh, no, I'm glad Thank you. Did we miss anything? Have I missed anything?

Amanda 59:03
Oh, my God. My daughter wanted to come say hi, real quick. She says come to look and I just realized there's a dead rat on the ledge up here that my cat Mr. Left.

Scott Benner 59:15
Whoa, whoa, slow down. We'll talk to your daughter in a second. The rats on the inside of the outside of your home. Inside

Amanda 59:23
so we have like this like large, like, just big ledge. There's a mini drum set on it, obviously. And it's just like a decoration ledge. I say my cat hangs out up there. And I don't usually come up here. But now I'm looking over.

Scott Benner 59:38
I have questions. How long does the rat appear to have been there? I'm

Amanda 59:43
gonna go for a week. Oh,

Scott Benner 59:44
is it like dehydrated yet? Yeah, the cat rip into it?

Amanda 59:49
No, not too much. left it there. I can see this

Scott Benner 59:53
this how frequently Oh, so first of all, let's just tell people again remind them you're in California, not theirs. There. Are Some people go? I don't understand why is there a rat near your house? But there are in some places, right, so Well, yeah,

Amanda 1:00:06
I mean, my cat brought it in. Yeah, it doesn't live in your house. Right?

Scott Benner 1:00:10
I gotcha. How often does this happen? Well,

Amanda 1:00:12
we moved to this apartment a little over a year ago and they keep it rent free and lots of pesticides. So this is the second one. At our old house, she would bring me like rabbits all the time. Lizards all the time. Rabbits. Yeah, big cat. She's pretty small. But she's part part bangle. She's got a little bit more.

Scott Benner 1:00:37
She's on heroin, so she's very

Amanda 1:00:42
that would make her very bolo,

Scott Benner 1:00:44
actually. Yeah, that wouldn't work for my joke. Nevermind. Hey, not for nothing. You do heroin. You've done coke. Right? Correct. Okay. And you said mushrooms happen in there somewhere?

Amanda 1:00:58
Yeah, we'd obviously I see. We had a couple times that I don't like it. Not a weed person. Look at you. I could never handle that.

Scott Benner 1:01:11
That's it. See, that's the statement I'm looking for to give people a deeper look. Heroin. You are good with we too much for you.

Amanda 1:01:19
It really was. It really is. I can't do it. I flip out and I I just constantly think get this out of my body. I can't think like this. Oh my god, you get paranoid worse thing. Oh, little, I guess I mean, I'm never like, Oh my God. I don't care if people know. And if I did it. I mean, my parents did it. My brother did. It wasn't like I was scared that somebody would find out I was high. I just hated the feeling.

Scott Benner 1:01:41
Me I asked like your mom sounded like a bit of a problem when you were growing up. So was this to kind of escape all that or you were really just doing it? Because the boy did

Amanda 1:01:50
it? No, no, my mom was great. Growing up. It wasn't until later when I was like, I'm gonna have my own life. She's like, No, don't leave me. And then she went crazy. Yeah, she was wonderful. Growing up, give me a break. She sisters. I have an older brother and then an older half brother, which is my dad's

Scott Benner 1:02:10
an older half brother, but this is after your dad. Your mom broke up. Before before, okay. Your mom, your dad, second wife. Right? Are they still together?

Amanda 1:02:24
He died five years ago.

Scott Benner 1:02:25
I'm sorry. From drinking soda. You know, a lot of soda probably right.

Amanda 1:02:32
He never drank that.

Scott Benner 1:02:34
That's what I was trying to get to. That's all I wanted to say. That's all I was hoping you were gonna say. My dad wouldn't drink that garbage. He knew what was in it.

Amanda 1:02:43
My God, he would get so mad when I ate Doritos to go like, Oh, there's a ton of chips. They're gonna kill you.

Scott Benner 1:02:51
I'm in the meeting. Sweetie. Listen to me.

Amanda 1:02:54
I remember we used to have to hide buying something. I think maybe it was Doritos. Because one of them was owned by Pepsi. Something was owned by Pepsi. And we couldn't be seen at the store buying it.

Scott Benner 1:03:07
I do remember that. Frito Lay and PepsiCo were related somehow I thought when I was a kid, though, I'm not sure if I'm right about that.

Amanda 1:03:14
Yeah, something like that. One of them is I remember having to like sneak stuff in.

Scott Benner 1:03:19
There's that documentary, which let me just say I don't remember the name of that was about how algorithms are literally written to just take over and make you do you know, click and swipe and keep you in the app and all that stuff. And there were designers of the algorithms and the thing I said, I my kids are not allowed to have these. That's what I pictured when I talked about your dad than your dad. You were like my dad doesn't drink soda. Are you kidding? That's for you people. Not us. We know. So it's the most telling thing anyone's ever said on this podcast by God, I hope people made it to this part. I don't even know what the hell we were talking about. Your mom's a decent person. Blah, blah. She went wonky when you tried to have your own life. Your dad died from what? I'm sorry.

Amanda 1:04:08
Um

Scott Benner 1:04:12
it's such a long pause. Did he take his own life?

Amanda 1:04:14
Maybe he died from bacon or beer? Not sure. Oh, hard talking. Like one of

Scott Benner 1:04:18
those things? Yeah, okay, cuz you pause for so long as I go, God, our Father might have taken his own life.

Amanda 1:04:24
No, no, no, no, he just, he got he had a bad heart. He had a quadruple bypass when he was like 46. Wow. Yeah. And then towards the end he had a pacemaker and defibrillator and it just

Scott Benner 1:04:41
I should have picture your father with a cigarette in one hand a stick of butter on the other hand, saying this soda is not good for you. Is that about right? Exactly. Exactly. Gotcha. Saturday, you're putting butter on butter. I am I love it. My gosh. ASHRAE in every room

Amanda 1:05:01
when I was young, but I once we moved to Georgia, I think smoking became an outdoor thing. Yeah, like we weren't allowed to do it. Now he wasn't allowed to smoke in the house, my

Scott Benner 1:05:11
age and you know your age. You're close enough to me like your parents were smoking. There was just it was everywhere.

Amanda 1:05:18
Oh, yeah, you're smoking in the hospital while I was born, most of

Scott Benner 1:05:23
you don't I haven't seen in decades. My dad stop at a red light. Take the ashtray from his car, which by the way, for all of you young people, cars used to have ashtrays, and it was full overloaded with butts and ash, he used to have to take the bus and crush the ash to make more space to put more butts and ash into it. And then you'd pull up at a stoplight. He'd pop it out, open the door, reach down, dump them on the ground, tap, tap tap on the ground and put it back in the current driveway.

Amanda 1:05:53
I saw a guy the other day with all windows up smoking in a like a nice car was like a SUV Mercedes ish kind of thing. Oh, man smoking with all the windows up cigarettes.

Scott Benner 1:06:04
Not vaping

Amanda 1:06:06
cigarette. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I was like, wow,

Scott Benner 1:06:10
yeah, give it up now.

Amanda 1:06:13
pretty hardcore, but there's he in his 60s 70s 80s late 70s. No more. Yeah, definitely. I'm

Scott Benner 1:06:19
rolling out just like this.

Amanda 1:06:22
Have a heart attack so expensive. It's crazy. You know,

Scott Benner 1:06:24
so I didn't know that. But we were driving to see Arden and we stopped at this place to get drinks and use the bathroom and stuff like that. And I saw a guy asked for a carton of cigarettes. And when they I remember when the woman said how much it was. I was like, wait, what? What is happening? Like, you know, like insane amounts of money for cigarettes. Yeah. Didn't slow him down. He's like he got to actually. Wow. I remember. My dad used to pay two bucks for a pack. And card.

Amanda 1:06:55
I remember I used to when high school. Yeah, we all like cooler. quarters together. Get

Scott Benner 1:07:01
your cigarettes. Yeah, I remember that storage. I remember when a carton went to $20 My dad was like that. That's insane. Like, he was like, he was like, put off by that and went to like a generic cigarette for a while. He was so

Amanda 1:07:16
pissed about it. My dad rolled his arm. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:07:19
obviously it's in your blood. But um, we got almost like, how much is a carton of cigarettes now? I'm gonna find out. Yeah, I don't know anymore. I wouldn't know either. Hold on a second carton of cigarettes. By the way. How much is a car car battery catalytic converter popped up car inspection in Pennsylvania. Wow, you can get a carton for $50. And this is not in California. And this know how much there?

Amanda 1:07:47
I mean, I know that. At least a pack is $10

Scott Benner 1:07:52
here in California, hold on, let's say in California and see what happens. pack of cigarettes. Jesus mother gun. All right. Well, God bless you. You must love people must love smoking. It's all tax too. Right? Like they're taxing the crap out of it trying to get you not to do it. Right. Well, actually here Wow. Price per pack by state. New York. 1045.

Amanda 1:08:19
Cattle Wow.

Scott Benner 1:08:20
California. 553. It says

Amanda 1:08:23
that's you think some crazy pack? I don't know. What's kind of that in

Scott Benner 1:08:27
Alaska. Add one. Minnesota or Minnesota? A 840. That's interesting. It varies a lot. Looks like New York's got the on this list at least.

Amanda 1:08:42
Yeah, New York's always been a little ahead of California. But I mean, I know whenever I go to the gas station, I see that it's nine something Oh, two, nine something to excuse me.

Scott Benner 1:08:51
It 553 for a pack of cigarettes in California. 87 cents for excise tax per pack. 43 cents for a state tax per pack. $1.30 total state tax per pack that all gets tacked on to the 549. So in New York, Jesus 1045 plus four plus 40 cents plus 470 548. Yes. $20. Oh my god. That's enough reason to move. If you're a smoker, you'd have to leave the city, I would think All right, listen, this has been terrific. Are we letting your kid talk? Or did she bail? Yeah.

Amanda 1:09:25
No, she wants to just put on speaker the headphones. It's up to you if she's your kid.

Scott Benner 1:09:33
I mean, well, I mean, you can put your to hear it. You're not going to hear what I say to her then. If you're alright with that. Then Jim has things in her ears. Oh, hey, kid. What's up? What's your name? Karen Perrin. Oh, that's a lovely name. How old are you? 1111 I'm 52 just so we know who each other is. You know my name. Yeah, I'm Scott. Your mom and I were talking about your diabetes. I hear you're using a Dexcom. Yeah, yeah. Which one do you have? That's comme je six, six. And you have a pump? Yes. How you like your pump? Okay. Yeah. Well, what kind of bump is it?

Unknown Speaker 1:10:22
I forget my visit.

Scott Benner 1:10:24
Is it tandem? Tandem? Why is it? Why is it Why is Dexcom good and tandems? Okay. Because

Speaker 1 1:10:33
it has to have the wire the tubing. Yeah, your

Scott Benner 1:10:38
mom wouldn't let you in on the pod. Yeah, she wouldn't get it for you. Or she would. But

Speaker 1 1:10:44
she would get it for me. But I was, I'm afraid because it's bigger, so it'll hurt a little more.

Scott Benner 1:10:54
I don't think that's how that works. But I hear you. You should do what makes you comfortable. My daughter wears nod. Oh, yeah. For like ever. So my daughter's 19 which is eight years older than you. You might be impressed with how good my math is. And she's been wearing it on the pod since she was four. That's 15 years. She's been wearing

Amanda 1:11:14
one. Oh, wow. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:11:16
She likes it a lot. Maybe you'll try one. Who knows? Yeah, because because the tubing is. So what's wrong with the tubing is it gets stuck or do you not like taking it off to get baths? Or what's the thing? Yeah,

Speaker 1 1:11:28
like out like taking it off to like getting a poor shower.

Scott Benner 1:11:32
You ever forget to put it back on after shower?

Unknown Speaker 1:11:35
Actually, yes.

Scott Benner 1:11:36
I mean, your blood sugar goes up, right? Yeah, it happens a lot. Okay, what do you eat? Like, what's some of your favorite foods? Probably tacos. Yeah, like, like once your mom makes or once you get to the store? Yeah. Yeah, Mommy, are you pretty good at bowling is one of them? Not really. I

Unknown Speaker 1:11:55
usually have my mom and my dad did him. Uh huh. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:11:58
I understand. It's different. I heard you're changing your own Dexcom now though, right? Yeah. Very cool. Good for you. Was it scary to do the first time? Yeah, a little bit. Not too bad now. Yeah. Have you seen the g7?

Unknown Speaker 1:12:16
Yeah, I'm looking into it more. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:12:18
You doing your own research? Yeah. Yeah. You want to make sure, right. Yeah, my daughter's using it. She likes it a lot. Yeah, smaller. I think she finds it a little easier to put on. And the warm up period where you don't have numbers. There's only 30 minutes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Pretty

Speaker 1 1:12:38
cool. Yeah. So that's how I'm excited about it. If

Scott Benner 1:12:42
you ever decide to buy Can you do me a favor? Yeah, go to dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. When you get it, okay. I use my link. Okay. Okay, I gotta make a living. You know what I mean? Yeah, I guess can't talk to your mom for fun. I mean, I could, but I got bills. You and me. You're young. You don't know anything about money? You got any money? Oh, yeah. Yeah, like score on it away somewhere. How much you got? I'm not sure right. Now. You want to say in front of your mom. She thinks she'll make you pay for something. No,

Unknown Speaker 1:13:15
I'm just not sure how much I have.

Scott Benner 1:13:19
More or less than 50 bucks.

Unknown Speaker 1:13:22
Probably less.

Scott Benner 1:13:23
Okay. What do you get for like, birthdays and stuff like that?

Unknown Speaker 1:13:27
Um, I usually use it on Starbucks. Oh, look

Scott Benner 1:13:30
at you. You're like a what? Do you like a cold coffee or hot tea? What do you enjoy?

Unknown Speaker 1:13:36
frappuccinos so cold stuff.

Scott Benner 1:13:38
How are you? bolusing for those

Unknown Speaker 1:13:42
10 units.

Scott Benner 1:13:43
10 units does a frappuccino. Yeah. Do you get a spike out of that or no? Yeah. Hi. Hi. Hello. Hi. I'm sure. Does it come back down on its own? Or do you and your mom have to give yourself more insulin at some point? Um

Unknown Speaker 1:14:06
I don't quite hear you.

Scott Benner 1:14:08
Oh, I'm sorry. Do you usually have to Bolus again? Or does it come down by itself? After you?

Unknown Speaker 1:14:14
I usually have the Bolus again.

Scott Benner 1:14:16
Hey, can I ask you a couple of questions about your your vision? Yeah. Oh, good. This is exciting for me. Thank you. I'm sure it's not as exciting for you. Has it been your whole life as long as you can remember? Yeah, yeah. So you don't you don't have any memory of it. You feel like it's possibly been like that forever? Because you don't have any memory of it any other way? Yeah, then red and green. How do you tell them apart?

Speaker 1 1:14:44
It's usually easy. I'm not quite sure. I just taught my brain to train me to know the difference you

Scott Benner 1:14:52
taught yourself which is which? Yeah, are they both just different versions of like, like black or or

Speaker 1 1:15:00
low usually, it's more close to orange.

Scott Benner 1:15:06
Reds more like orange or greens more like reds more like red. Okay. And what's green look like? What do you think green looks like? How do you describe that?

Speaker 1 1:15:15
Probably like, light brown. Like

Scott Benner 1:15:20
Brown. Okay. Does it do everything? Well, everything looks different to me than it does to other people. Yeah. How does that feel?

Unknown Speaker 1:15:30
Honestly,

Speaker 1 1:15:31
it doesn't really feel like anything. It's just like kind of wish like see normally. Yeah, clarifying

Scott Benner 1:15:37
this. Maybe if I could see the way you saw. I'd wish I could see like you. Maybe no. Yeah, it's possible.

Speaker 1 1:15:44
Yeah, like it's cool sometimes. But it's also kind of annoying, but people find out. Then they're kind of just like, Oh, what's this color? Or like, was that color?

Scott Benner 1:15:56
Oh, then they want to like play the game with you. Or they asked you like, yeah. Is this the kind that like you can wear glasses to change? Have you ever seen those glasses? Yeah,

Speaker 1 1:16:04
yeah. Yeah, I've worn them when I was little by hated it. Yeah, like the

Scott Benner 1:16:08
glasses. Yeah. Hey, weird question. You're not gonna understand why I'm asking you. Do you like Slurpees? Yes, you do. Do you love them? Yes. Interesting. Okay, thank you. You have any questions for me?

Unknown Speaker 1:16:23
Not really. No, no.

Scott Benner 1:16:25
I appreciate that. Do you ever hear me like coming out of your mom's phone? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Just you dad ever say like crap about me. Like, oh my god. You listen to that again? Oh, no, that's nice. Tell him I think he's cool. Then. Do you see? Is he teaching you how to play the drums?

Speaker 1 1:16:43
He tries to but I don't want to learn.

Scott Benner 1:16:46
Are you any good at it? Are you just not interested? I'm just not interested. Gotcha. Jamia has like a lot of work. It looks like to me. I mean, really does. It was like a sweaty thing. Do you play any instruments?

Speaker 1 1:17:00
I used to play trumpet last year. No.

Scott Benner 1:17:04
Did you like it? Yeah. Nice. But why did you stop?

Speaker 1 1:17:11
Because I wanted to give acting more of a try. You're doing acting in school? Yeah. And school? Oh, wow.

Scott Benner 1:17:19
Tell me like you take classes.

Speaker 1 1:17:22
Uh, yeah. Nice. I'm actually doing the Little Mermaid. Really?

Scott Benner 1:17:28
Are you the crab or the mermaid? Where are you the sea witch or whatever?

Unknown Speaker 1:17:32
I'm one of the sisters. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:17:34
nice. Like the one Oh, yeah. Like behind Ursula right. Oh, no, no, no, the the. The mermaid sisters. Yeah. Nice. You have any lines?

Speaker 1 1:17:46
I'm just singing but otherwise know what songs the daughters are trying to and she's in love. Oh, that's

Scott Benner 1:17:52
wonderful. You're doing that at school? Are you doing that

Unknown Speaker 1:17:54
in the class? In class?

Scott Benner 1:17:56
Oh, nice. How often? How many times a week you go to class

Unknown Speaker 1:17:59
to Monday, Wednesday.

Scott Benner 1:18:03
Do you have any problems with your blood sugar's while you're acting?

Speaker 1 1:18:07
That usually, sometimes when we're dancing, it'll go low. Okay, otherwise now?

Scott Benner 1:18:14
Gotcha. Is there like an exercise mode on that T slim? I think there is right? Yeah. Is it? Is it worked for you? Good. Very nice. Oh, celiac. There's certain things you don't eat right? Yeah, the bother you not eat those things. You do not care.

Speaker 1 1:18:33
Most of the time. I don't care. But sometimes I'm just like, I wish I can have that. I got birthday cake. Like birthday parties with cake. Cake. That's

Scott Benner 1:18:43
that's something I wish I could have. I don't want to rub it in. But I had a cupcake the other day was fantastic. Oh, yeah. You'll never know I guess. But my God So good to cake. And then there was the sugar all over the top with the only thing that you ever eat the icing? Yeah, that's pretty good. Actually, the icing is probably the best part. I don't know if you're missing anything. Yeah. Is this like, gluten free cake? Is it not great?

Speaker 1 1:19:07
It's good. But gluten cakes better?

Scott Benner 1:19:11
Yeah. What happens if you eat gluten?

Speaker 1 1:19:13
I'd throw up after two hours. So it's like digesting it. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:19:18
that might be genetic that's thrown up. Yeah. You see you eat a cupcake, for instance, with gluten in it. And a couple of hours later, you just vomit? Yeah. Oh my gosh. That's insane. Well, yeah, I would want to avoid that. Right? Yes. So are you taller than your mom?

Unknown Speaker 1:19:37
No,

Scott Benner 1:19:38
I think you will be.

Speaker 1 1:19:41
Maybe I'm very much shorter to her.

Scott Benner 1:19:45
Yeah. Hey, I am adopted. out so you and I kind of have something in common a little bit, right? Yeah. What's it like to like, I mean, I know your dad's your dad. Right and everything. He loves you and you love him. But what's it like to not know? Like a parent? Oh,

Speaker 1 1:20:05
really? No views. I was so young. Yeah, that's time and I didn't really know what that was. You don't think about it though? No, not really. No,

Scott Benner 1:20:16
I didn't either. When I was little, I don't know, either. I get all seemed very normal to me. You know, but it's kind of cool. I thought. So I used to think this. I used to think that because I don't know, the people that I came from, like, I get to, like, decide who I am. And I don't have to, like, you know, follow along by what other people do. So I don't know if you might find that freedom at some point when you're older. Yeah, that's pretty cool. What else do you love? Anything? Music drawing?

Speaker 1 1:20:46
Probably my pets. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:20:50
you have a dead rat up there. Did you know that? Oh, yeah. Your cats? Like an animal like religion unmanly? Like, just like it just grabbed a rat and killed it. Is it gonna be weird now to pet the cat knowing that he or she like she she? She was able to do that? Because she's like, a little, like a little murderer. Or almost, you know, anyway.

Unknown Speaker 1:21:12
Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:21:13
Are you scared of her now? Right?

Speaker 1 1:21:15
A little bit? Yeah, she's actually right here. So I shouldn't say much. Yeah, right.

Scott Benner 1:21:21
You don't want to piss her off. Come for you next. It'll be up on the windowsill. You know what I mean? Yeah. I don't think the cat can kill you, by the way. But I have one last question for you that I'm gonna let you go. Or you haven't. First of all, you haven't fun? Yes, sir. Good. Good. All right. My last question is, you don't like to get blood draws, right? Tell me about what it makes you feel like when you know you have to get a blood draw.

Speaker 1 1:21:45
Like kinda nervous. And I'm afraid it's gonna hurt way more than it does like, these. One time, I had to go with my mom. And it kind of like, we couldn't get enough blood or anything. And so I had to do it again. So that's the part I'm most scared of.

Scott Benner 1:22:04
So it makes you nervous because you think it's gonna hurt but then it doesn't really end up hurting that badly. Yeah. Why are you nervous the next time?

Speaker 1 1:22:11
Almost, it's really nerve wracking to get my blood drawn.

Scott Benner 1:22:15
I gotcha. I understand. My daughter doesn't like it either. Yeah, I don't mind it. Can I give you a hint? I think I learned. Yeah. Okay. So you know, when they like, the gut in the vein, like in your like, like the bend in your arm, right to get the blood out? Yeah, I found that if you take out like a, like a deep, not a real deep breath, but a breath in. Right. And then as they're putting the needle in, push the arrow. So while the while the needles going in. It really, it really changed it for me. Oh, yeah. Give it a try next time. So just you know, say, All right, well, I want to make sure we're ready. I'm going to take a deep breath in and I'm gonna blow my I'm gonna blow the breath out while you're putting a needle on. So I want to time it like that. And then just deep breath in. Blow it out while the needle is going. It made a big difference for me. Give it a try. Let me know if it up if I helped you. Okay, if it helps you tell your mom tell her write me a note. Okay. Okay. All right. Cool. It was lovely to talk to you. Is this going to be the first podcast you've ever been on?

Unknown Speaker 1:23:23
Yes, actually. Nice.

Scott Benner 1:23:26
You want to pimp your Instagram or anything while you're here? No. Yeah, Instagram you want people to check out or anything like that? Yeah, yeah. You can share it if you want to.

Unknown Speaker 1:23:37
Okay,

Scott Benner 1:23:37
I'll ask your mom if it's okay first, okay. Okay. All right. Put her back on. So I can say goodbye to her. It was really nice to talk to you.

Unknown Speaker 1:23:45
Have a good day. Bye.

Scott Benner 1:23:48
Hello, two things and I'll let you go. Okay, was that kid on school?

Amanda 1:23:53
Because I scheduled this wrong. She's having a pump failure right now. She'll be a little late.

Scott Benner 1:24:01
I'm gonna let you go. And the other thing is, she told me that when she eats gluten, it makes her throw up and I said, Oh, that might be genetic. But she doesn't know why I said that. And I think when you listen back to it, you're gonna laugh You're I'm gonna let you go. Because obviously you have a life that you have to attend to in Arad, you have to dispose up. So I really do appreciate you doing this very much. It was terrific.

Amanda 1:24:24
Thank you.

Scott Benner 1:24:25
Thank you. Yep, take care. Bye

a huge thank you to one of today's sponsors. Ag one drink ag one.com/juice box. You can start your day the same way I do with a delicious drink of he won. A huge thanks to us med for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Don't forget us med.com/juice box. This is where we get our diabetes supplies from you can as well use the link or call 888 8721151 For us the link or call the number get your free benefits check so that you can start getting your diabetes supplies the way we do from us med. A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors G voc glucagon, find out more about Chivo Capo pen at G voc glucagon.com. Ford slash juicebox. you spell that GVOKEGLUC AG o n.com. Forward slash juicebox. If you're not already subscribed or following in your favorite audio app, please take the time now to do that. It really helps the show and get those automatic downloads set up so you never miss an episode. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong way recording.com

#1181 After Dark: Black Squirrel

Haley is 28. She was misdiagnosed with T2 but has T1 diabetes. She also has Necrobiosis Diabetica, Ehlers-Danlos and more. Warning: Talk of suicidal ideation, cutting and other issues.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends welcome to episode 1181 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Today we're going to do an after dark with Haley who is 20 years old and has type one diabetes she works on a hobby farm was diagnosed with type two, obviously misdiagnosed with type two originally. We're going to have a lot here in this one. So be ready for some talks about drugs, depression cutting some suicidal ideation. But there's a lot more to this conversation with Haley so settle in and we'll get going. Nothing new here on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. Or becoming bold with insulin. Get your FREE 14 day trial@aura.com slashed juicebox that's right protection for your online identity and much more. I mean seriously much more credit score's oh my god, it protects your devices VPN, but this thing what it doesn't do. I mean, it would be easier to list what ora.com can't do for you or a.com/juice box get a free 14 day trial. Don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com All you have to do is use the offer code juice box at checkout. That's juice box at checkout to save 40% at cosy earth.com This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. Learn more and get started today at contour next one.com/juicebox. Today's episode is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes, a company that's bringing together people who are redefining what it means to live with diabetes. Later in this episode, I'll be speaking with Mark, he was diagnosed with type one diabetes at 28. He's 47. Now he's going to tell you a little bit about his story. And then at the very end of the episode, you can hear my entire mini interview with Mark to hear more stories from the Medtronic champion community or to share your own story. Visit Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box and check out the Medtronic champion hashtag on social media.

Hayley 2:20
My name is Hayley.

Scott Benner 2:22
And you don't know how else to describe yourself other than Haley. That's fine. Yeah,

Hayley 2:27
I guess. No, I'm working mom. And I'm a farmer. So

Scott Benner 2:34
you're a farmer? Yeah. Okay. So you have a job and you're a farmer or your job is farming?

Hayley 2:40
Both? Yeah. Okay,

Scott Benner 2:42
so you work somewhere else in conjunction with the farming? Yeah, I actually work two jobs. Okay. What kind of farm? Is that your farm? Yeah, it's gotten a

Hayley 2:51
lot smaller through the years, but my parents live on property, and we all live on the same property. Okay. So I've just been doing a bunch of turkeys and chickens and

Scott Benner 3:01
stuff. Oh, I see. So mostly poultry. Yeah, yeah.

Hayley 3:06
I do the whole process from hatching them out to butchering them.

Scott Benner 3:09
Wow. And do you sell them locally? Or does somebody like take your stock and sell them somewhere else?

Hayley 3:15
I don't really sell them. You have to have certain licenses to be able to sell poultry. So I will give them away to friends, but I will not sell them.

Scott Benner 3:27
Oh, okay. Wait a minute. So you hold on a second you I like you, you're gonna confuse me the entire time. You you do the husbandry part. And then you raise them. And then you go, Hey, come here, buddy, I guess smack in the head and kill it. And then he cut its head off and pull it off its feathers and then give it away to somebody?

Hayley 3:46
Yeah, more gruesome than what how you described it, but yeah. Oh, it's

Scott Benner 3:49
I was nicer about it than it actually is. Okay. What why?

Hayley 3:57
Um, cuz I actually either cut off its head or I slit its throat. Okay.

Scott Benner 4:04
Yeah. Hey, listen, my my father's gone. And he described that his mom to his dad would get this bonus at the end of his work week. On if I've ever said this before. I apologize. They've given they'd give him a chicken at the end of the workweek. And he'd come home and just kind of toss it over the fence. And then his mom, my grandmother would have to go out and catch it and then wring its neck and and pluck it, then cook it. Oh my gosh. So she would do that with her bare hands because she was. Yeah, yeah, she was a farmer, too. There's no compulsion there. But But my point is this you have a farm but you don't make money with it.

Hayley 4:45
No, I usually have people like buy feed for my birds. It's mostly just a hobby farm. It used to be a lot bigger because I used to have like almost 160 birds. But now I just we just get the eggs.

Scott Benner 4:59
Gotcha. I had turkey for.

Hayley 5:01
Yeah, but normally I'll go and help some of my local farmers and I'll help them butcher their birds.

Scott Benner 5:06
Oh, I see classes. Oh, so you got to transferable skills though. Yeah, gotcha. Yeah, it's

Hayley 5:13
mostly it's really just for fun. I don't make any money off of it. It's anything I lose money. But it's something to keep me entertained. So Haley's

Scott Benner 5:20
crazy clarity. You murder birds for fun. Is that correct?

Hayley 5:24
No, no, I, it's the husbandry that's the fun part. Okay, and also to provide food for someone else. That's the fun part.

Scott Benner 5:34
I was teasing you but okay.

Hayley 5:36
I'm giving them the other people's skills. Like a lot of times, I've had people come up to me, and like, ask me like, Oh, do you know anybody that knows how to do this? And I was like, Yeah, I can teach you. Oh, wow. Nice. I like doing those kinds of things. Because it's people learning how to literally grow their own food.

Scott Benner 5:54
Did your parents make a living with the farm?

Hayley 5:57
No.

Scott Benner 5:59
Oh, this is a generational thing.

Hayley 6:00
No, no. My mom used to live on like an Angus beef farm. But my parents won't actually eat any of the meat that I make.

Scott Benner 6:12
They don't trust you know, they

Hayley 6:14
just feel bad. Really? Yeah, I don't. I've effectively turned my mother into a vegetarian.

Scott Benner 6:24
Yeah, accusing the hell out of me, Haley, let's keep going. Do you have type one diabetes? Were you the parent or someone with type one? I have type one diabetes. When were you diagnosed?

Hayley 6:33
I was diagnosed like, seven years ago. So I was right after my 21st birthday. Okay, I was actually diagnosed with type two. All

Scott Benner 6:42
right. How long did that misdiagnosis lasts for?

Hayley 6:45
Like two years. Whoa, really? Yeah. Well, because I was controlling it with the keto diet. Uh huh. And so like, I got my Awan Steen down to like a 6.2 in three months.

Scott Benner 6:59
So you were honeymooning still you were your body was making some insulin? Yes,

Hayley 7:04
it was making some insulin. But what really kicked it is that I finally I got mono and didn't know about it. And so that really just kind of pushed it over the edge.

Scott Benner 7:15
Do you think we can call this episode Burdur? I think we can. I think I'm going to it's a strong contender in my mind early on. So like murderer but with bird. So burger. You got the joke, right? Yes, I do. Yeah. Okay.

Hayley 7:37
I work like 60 hours a week. So it's not just that

Scott Benner 7:40
you better say something much more interesting in the next 15 minutes, or you're gonna get an episode called burger. 100% sure of that. Okay, so you were misdiagnosed as a type two for all you were managing with like a keto diet, any medication. Right now we're going to hear from a member of the Medtronic champion community. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes. And this is Mark.

David 8:04
I use injections for about six months. And then my endocrinologist in the Navy recommended a pump. How long

Scott Benner 8:10
had you been in the Navy? Eight years up to that point? I've interviewed a number of people who have been diagnosed during service and most of the time they're discharged. What happened to you?

David 8:19
I was medically discharged. Yeah, six months after my diagnosis. Was

Scott Benner 8:24
it your goal to stay in the Navy for your whole life? Your career? It was? Yeah,

David 8:28
yeah. In fact, I think a few months before my diagnosis, my wife and I had that discussion about, you know, staying in for the long term. And, you know, we've made the decision despite all the hardships and time away from home, that was what we loved the

Scott Benner 8:41
most. Was the Navy, like a lifetime goal of yours? lifetime goal.

David 8:45
I mean, as my earliest childhood memories were flying, being a fighter pilot, how

Scott Benner 8:50
did your diagnosis impact your lifelong dream?

David 8:53
It was devastating. Everything I had done in life, everything I'd worked up to up to that point was just taken away in an instant. I was not prepared for that at all. What does your support system look like? friends, your family caregivers, you know, for me to Medtronic champions, community, you know, all those resources that are out there to help guide away but then to help keep abreast on you know, the new things that are coming down the pike and to give you hope for eventually that we can find a cure. Stick

Scott Benner 9:18
around at the end of this episode to hear my entire conversation with Mark. And you can hear more stories from Medtronic champions and share your own story at Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox. That contour next gen blood glucose meter is the meter that we use here. Arden has one with her at all times. I have one downstairs in the kitchen, just in case I want to check my blood sugar and Arden has them at school. They're everywhere that she is contour next one.com/juicebox test strips and the meters themselves may be less expensive for you in cash out of your pocket than you're paying Currently through your insurance for another meter, you can find out about that and much more at my link contour. Next one.com/juicebox Contour makes a number of fantastic inaccurate meters. And their second chance test strips are absolutely my favorite part. What does that mean? If you go to get some blood, and maybe you touch it, and I don't know, stumble with your hand and like slip off and go back, it doesn't impact the quality or accuracy of the test so you can hit the blood not good enough, come back, get the rest without impacting the accuracy of the test. That's right, you can touch the blood, come back and get the rest, and you're gonna get an absolutely accurate test. I think that's important because we all stumble and fumble at times, that's not a good reason to have to waste a test trip. And with a contour, next gen. You won't have to contour next.com forward slash juicebox you're gonna get a great reading without having to be perfect.

Hayley 11:00
No, I really didn't want to do any medication. I wanted to try to do it myself before I had anything intervene. That wasn't myself. Because I've always had like, a lot of health issues, but I've always been like one to push through them myself and not take medication. So honestly, getting type one really hit me hard because that I had to take medication.

Scott Benner 11:21
Yeah. Did they eventually tell you you were Lada. So that's a pretty slow onset. Yeah.

Hayley 11:27
Like go back and forth. But yeah, it would, it would go to the fact that I'm probably a lot of they played around with, like the type one and a half and everything. But I think at this point, I'm really just insulin super insulin dependent. Yeah, you're type

Scott Benner 11:44
one now. Right? So yeah. Any autoimmune in the family or do you have any other autoimmune diseases?

Hayley 11:50
So I'm actually adopted?

Scott Benner 11:51
Oh, me too. So

Hayley 11:53
I didn't have any family history to go off of. So I didn't find out until more recently, in the last like two years when I finally reached out to my biological family. Yeah. But of course, none of them have type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 12:09
Any other autoimmune stuff? You know, I'm

Hayley 12:11
playing around. So I have multiple autoimmune diseases, right? I have diabetes, and then I had necro BIOSes. diamedica. It's like a skin thing. But it's not like your standard blistering skin thing. It just you're literally it's an autoimmune. It's your skins taking attacking itself.

Scott Benner 12:29
I'm still googling Hold on. Wait, say it again? necro necro

Hayley 12:36
or Nbd? Neck row. BIOSIS. Diabetic.

Scott Benner 12:44
Okay. What BIOSIS? Is it? LiPo lipid? dika. I have never lied. Don't read that phonetically. Give me a second. Okay. Uncommon condition related to diabetes?

Hayley 13:07
Yes, it's super uncommon. It's only found on diabetics. So when I actually found out that I had it, the specialist the skin specialist was like, Can we take a picture of it? It's not very common. We'd like to have evidence of it or like, Oh, great. Yeah, thanks. I want a laundry pose

Scott Benner 13:23
with a dead turkey. a skin rash that mostly commonly affects the shins and seems more often and seen more often in women? Is it on your shins?

Hayley 13:33
It's on my shins, but it's also on my hips too. If for some reason I haven't like in more areas than the common. So it's like, again, I want a letter again, I guess.

Scott Benner 13:44
Is the end is that? Wait. It's not autoimmune?

Hayley 13:48
Yeah, it's an autoimmune disease. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 13:50
Okay. Holy hell.

Hayley 13:53
Yeah. And then I have another one that I'm in the process of actually getting diagnosed with like, I know I have it. But I need like clinical diagnosis. It's called it's called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. Oh, sure.

Scott Benner 14:05
The stretchy. Yeah.

Hayley 14:09
It's an autoimmune disease that affects your connective tissue. So you don't create the correct connective tissue.

Scott Benner 14:17
I once had a doctor say, we talking about that. And they said, you know, people can get diagnosed if they want but there's no treatment. He was out there. It was so matter of fact, he's like, so whatever. And I was like, Okay, brother. Oh, so you have a Deal or No, no, no, we I was talking about it with someone wants and he was just making the point. Like, you know, you can get people to get diagnosed that they want to but it's, there's, there's nothing you can do about it.

Hayley 14:41
Yeah, and the crazy thing is, is it actually affects your heart and digestive system as well, because it is the connective tissue.

Scott Benner 14:50
Yeah, so what are you saying?

Hayley 14:52
I'm like super bendy. Okay. But I also have a lot of hip and joint injuries like work and like, put my hip and knee at a place back in. Yeah. Like it's just on a regular basis. Does that hurt? Not anymore. Um, so because of chronic disease, and I've had it for so long. I don't really feel it anymore. Oh, wow. But, but because like if anybody else was in my body, they've been in tritiated pain, but

Scott Benner 15:20
it's just a party trick for you. Yeah, I guess. Good thing. That flexible. Yeah.

Hayley 15:29
But, um, yeah, so I actually started having issues when I was like, 12. And they all just thought it was just like growing pains. And, also, I'm sure I'd have huge feet, like, for my height, like a hobbit. Kinda, I were like, 10 and a half wides for women. And I'm only 530 Hell,

Scott Benner 15:49
you must take an L

Hayley 15:52
pretty much the same issue.

Scott Benner 15:54
Are you serious? When you tried to kiss? Can you not reach each other because your toes are hitting?

Hayley 15:58
No, he was taller than me. But. But Our poor son has big feet now too. I was like, Sorry, dude.

Scott Benner 16:07
That's a good try. But I still think this one's called burger. I haven't interviewed anybody in a few days. And I have like, there was a trip in between. So I feel like very silly right now. I don't know why. And we're doing it at night. I usually do these in the morning when I'm still being serious. Yeah, but but this could go well off the rails. Okay, so tell me a little bit about how you felt when you were younger. And what are you going to do to get a diagnosis? Well,

Hayley 16:36
I guess when I was younger, I tried to I'm very much does I like learning struggles, too. I am very much of like, I'm not gonna let myself stop me.

Scott Benner 16:47
I'm not gonna let myself stop me. That's excellent. Like you tell yourself. Oh, you can't? I gotcha. Yeah,

Hayley 16:54
exactly. Yeah, I never want anything to slow me down, let alone myself. Yeah. So I just persevered through it. And I did soccer. We have a picture of me kicking a soccer ball. It looks like my knees like opposite of what it supposed to be. Like a flamingo. Um, but yeah, so I just kind of grew up with it. And I just dealt with it. I was on swim team, like for like, as a actual, like, almost professional, like a professional. Right. And I did it for like, six years. But then finally, I just had a quick to my joints even though like swimming is supposed to be like gentle, new joints. It's the rotating all the time that really like affected me. So I found I just had to quit. But I've been like going another naturopathic doctors, physical therapy, all different kinds of things throughout my life. My parents really wanted me to succeed. Yeah, so there was a lot of just like when like my learning struggles in the ADHD, and the physical struggles.

Scott Benner 18:02
Yeah, we'll see. You said you had more things you have there, is it URLs then? How do you suppress that? Hilarious. So you probably have that. You've got ADHD. You have type one diabetes. You have the? The patches. Yeah, I don't want to say that word again. Because I think I almost cursed saying that word. It does. I mean, where's that at? Let's look at that again. Yeah, it's lip to the there's the necro BIOSIS. But then it's li P O ID. I see a

Hayley 18:38
Yeah, let the Let the dead code let the day. Yeah. Listen

Scott Benner 18:41
between you me, Haley. I was really afraid. I was gonna say like, and so I just kept stop.

Hayley 18:52
Yeah, so that one is harder to say. So I don't say is that that's a scientific name of it. Yeah,

Scott Benner 18:58
well, it doesn't sound scientific when I say it. So I skip it. Yeah, those would you have anything else?

Hayley 19:03
As of right now? I don't think so. But you know, with with autoimmune diseases, they all come in three and I met three.

Scott Benner 19:12
So it's either you hold here you think you're gonna go to six? Yeah, pretty much. How's your thyroid? Surprisingly, it's

Hayley 19:18
okay. Celiac. No, no, I don't have celiacs. I have a hormone imbalance. It's not like crazy. What

Scott Benner 19:27
does that what does that entail? Well, like I have

Hayley 19:32
higher testosterone than women should. So like I get like, sometimes I get a little bit of facial hair, which is great for a woman. No, you

Scott Benner 19:40
love You gotta love it. Yeah, people. Women are always very excited when they get facial hair and little stray hairs around their nipples are thrilled about to I've noticed you ever get those? No. Oh, good for you. Look at your wedding. Okay.

Hayley 19:55
But yeah, so it's, yeah, it's just weird. I didn't even know they really diagnose was new with it. And so I was going through my medical records after I was diagnosed type one. Okay. I was like, Oh, I guess I had a hormone imbalance.

Scott Benner 20:08
How about do you see any problems with your menstruation? Your periods? Do you have acne stuff like that around?

Hayley 20:15
Yeah, I have pretty bad acne. But also, I've never really like my period is like crazy spot on. Like, I know the day before it's gonna happen. It's crazy.

Scott Benner 20:29
Okay, so not heavy periods or anything like that.

Hayley 20:33
No, no, it's just normal. Interesting. But I also have like, such a high pain tolerance from the Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. So I don't know. But I was like in four days of labor with my son. So

Scott Benner 20:47
wait, I don't understand thought I think was stretchy. It is.

Hayley 20:51
But I had to. I got preeclampsia. Oh, yeah. So he was born two months early.

Scott Benner 20:58
Really? Have you considered giving up?

Hayley 21:03
But it's so true. And that's the thing is it's like, yeah, I got preeclampsia. And like I literally was fighting it the whole time, like trying to make everything perfect. But I've always had like elevated blood pressures. So I didn't succeed. Is that

Scott Benner 21:17
your only child? The your son? Yes. Yeah, that experience may just stop or you just haven't had a chance to try again.

Hayley 21:25
I haven't had like successful.

Scott Benner 21:28
Oh, I say yeah, I gotcha. You're 28. Now? Yes. I did that math, just from the story you told. So people should be pretty freaking impressed.

Hayley 21:40
Well, I'm in person. I remember that correctly, then. Oh, wait,

Scott Benner 21:44
are you maybe you're not 28? I've talked you into believing you are? No, I

Hayley 21:47
am 28? Sure. Yes. But I couldn't remember for sure how long I had had diabetes and stuff. So it was like, ah,

Scott Benner 21:59
what makes you want to come on the podcast? Because

Hayley 22:01
I have all these experiences and stuff. And I had been through a lot. diabetes and everything else. I kind of just wanted to be another voice of, you know, I live in this chaos. And other people might live in it too. And to know that you're not alone, because I know for me for a long time. I felt very alone, because I didn't find out till I was like 21 diabetes, and I had to figure it out on my own.

Scott Benner 22:28
Your family was not helpful at that point. Or you didn't ask them to be

Hayley 22:33
I was moved out at that point. Oh, you had no idea what did how to deal with it. They just freaked out. So I didn't tell them anything.

Scott Benner 22:42
Sweet. So you were on your own 21 you go to college? Yeah,

Hayley 22:46
I did some college. I did. Like it's called Running Start. And it's like, you do college while you're still in high school. Okay. Yeah. So I took on like an 18 credit load, and then I still went to high school and another school. So yeah, I'm a little bit of a overachiever sometimes, or I like to punish myself.

Scott Benner 23:06
Did you finish college?

Hayley 23:07
I have two classes. Both math class, listen.

Scott Benner 23:12
I'm gonna help you a little bit. You can't call yourself an overachiever. And then tell me you still have two classes left to get through college when you're 20. It's because

Hayley 23:20
it's because I got so burnt out from trying to do everything.

Scott Benner 23:25
Okay, so tell me so then let's see. Like, I'd like to know about that. Tell me what happened?

Hayley 23:29
Well, again, I was doing like 18 credits of college. And then I was working, and I was going to high school. And then I also was doing culinary programs to where I went into like, state nationals. Okay. Yeah. So I just, I'm very good at overburdening myself.

Scott Benner 23:47
Is that the ADHD? When did you get that diagnosed, by the way?

Hayley 23:50
Just recently.

Scott Benner 23:52
Tell me what led you to find out that that was the case. Well,

Hayley 23:57
my sisters, my adopted sisters, they were talking to me and they're like, Hey, you should look into ADHD because you have a hard time with these kinds of things. And I was like, Well, okay. And my husband also has ADHD. So

Scott Benner 24:14
why did you giggle like that? You giggle a lot. And I don't know why you're giggling Well, what was so funny there?

Hayley 24:19
It's because it usually people who have ADHD, like, gravitate towards other people that have ADHD.

Scott Benner 24:27
So, okay, why do you think that is? Because

Hayley 24:30
we have the same kind of mindset and understand and can actually keep up with each other.

Scott Benner 24:35
So you follow him when he's kind of jumping around? Yes,

Hayley 24:39
I can keep up with him. But mostly, he can keep up with me because he's more of a quiet, more internalized ADHD brain. Okay, borrow more external.

Scott Benner 24:49
Tell me the difference, please.

Hayley 24:51
So internal would mean that like you have so many thoughts going at once, but you keep them inside and you're very analytical and you're tempted to details like crazy. Whereas nine, I can't keep it inside. And so I'm super talkative and bubbly. And like, jump at different squat like subjects really quickly and say, like squirrel. So it's really hard for me to keep it all in because not only do I have it, it sounds crazy, but you have multiple thoughts in your head. But then also, I can't keep it in my head, it has to be expressed out. And so people get really confused. Okay,

Scott Benner 25:29
so you're saying that you have, like, at any moment, you have two different thoughts going on in your head? Oh, probably more like six? And which one? Are you sharing? How do you decide which one to share with me?

Hayley 25:42
I don't know. I don't really decide it just kind of comes out like so I can't. When I'm talking to someone, you know, you grow up, you look in their eyes and stuff as a sign of respect. Okay, I cannot look at someone's eyes, I have to look or look around them and keep moving. Otherwise, I get distracted. And my thoughts like take over than if I'm actually listening to the person.

Scott Benner 26:05
Tell me why looking at someone I someone's eyes does that. Because

Hayley 26:09
my mind like, is like stop being interested at what it's looking at, like, looking at the eyes without actually like looking at other things around me. It makes my brain really distracted because it's bored with the situation. So it's like, let's think about this now.

Scott Benner 26:26
Okay, so if you're concentrating too hard on somebody, you're looking them in their eyes trying to really concentrate on them. Your mind wants to look around the room.

Hayley 26:33
Yes. And so more. It's more like it's bored. And so it thinks of something else that's internally in your head and then you go like on a tangent in your head.

Scott Benner 26:42
Okay. What if the people are really boring? Maybe it's not ADHD? Maybe you just know really boring people.

Hayley 26:48
Oh, it happens to everybody. So are you jumping

Scott Benner 26:52
around while we're talking? Because I don't find you. You think you are? Yeah, well, I

Hayley 26:58
didn't take my medication this morning. So yes.

Scott Benner 27:01
Just to be fun, or you forgot? No.

Hayley 27:03
Ah. Oh, no, I did. I forgot.

Scott Benner 27:07
The funniest thing you're gonna say the entire time we're talking in case anyone's wondering. I expect nothing funnier than this that have just happened. So you did take your medication today? Yes. I'm not laughing at you. I'm just laughing. It's hilarious. But I want to get back. Hold on. What's the giggling? Are you nervous when you giggle? No, I'm

Hayley 27:28
actually not really a nervous person. I really do. Like speaking like in front of people and doing podcasts and stuff. So like, I've done my own podcast.

Scott Benner 27:37
Okay. Is it wildly successful? Or maybe people are jaded by you? Should I get you off right now?

Hayley 27:44
No, it's just a couple of videos I did on one of my diabetes groups.

Scott Benner 27:47
Oh, are you calling that a podcast? Okay,

Hayley 27:50
I started the podcast doesn't mean that I actually finished it.

Scott Benner 27:53
Nobody does. Do you know, do you know there are 4 million registered podcasts?

Hayley 28:00
It sounds surprising. Yeah. Do

Scott Benner 28:01
you know how many are actually active? I don't know. Yeah, like 40,000 of them. Oh, wow. And active only means at least one episode a month?

Hayley 28:11
Yeah, no, I started doing it. And as many things when you get very common with ADHD, I got distracted and moved on to something else.

Scott Benner 28:20
So are there things in your life that you genuinely want to be doing? That you're not because you've been distracted away from them?

Hayley 28:29
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Well, it's like, again, going back to the hole that I have to overcome myself. So like, for me the school, like not finishing my college is really like, hard on me. Because I feel like I never finished it. It was a close. It didn't close the book. Do you need huh?

Scott Benner 28:48
Do you need the degree? Could you put it to use?

Hayley 28:50
Oh, yeah, but right now my husband's going to college. But when he's done then I'll go back and finish to

Scott Benner 28:56
How old is he?

Hayley 28:57
He's 28 as well. What?

Scott Benner 29:00
What's he going to college for?

Hayley 29:01
He's getting his BA and his MA in it and cybersecurity. So yeah, I

Scott Benner 29:09
know some kids go to school for that right now. They're nine years younger than your husband and probably a much more attractive hire, but tell him to hurry the hell up. Because he's gonna You're gonna want some money when he takes one of those jobs, you know, and those kids are gonna do it for free. Right? Yeah, cuz they're, they're living with their parents like little like leeches. They don't even need money. All unfair. Well, that's cool. Did he go back to school? Or did he just start later?

Hayley 29:36
So he only has like one or two classes to finish his associates. And he stopped around the same time I did, which is after we got married. How

Scott Benner 29:45
old were you? You got married? We were 24 So you guys both got married and then decided not to go to college anymore? No,

Hayley 29:54
I was trying to finish up my college before we got married. But then we moved to another City pretty far away, and then we just started working a ton. So it just wasn't feasible.

Scott Benner 30:05
I understand. I really don't you make that baby on purpose or no? Yeah, we did a plan. Thank you didn't get distracted in the middle of it decide not to do it. Probably. I'm sorry. Ah, she's not funny. You're just delightful. That's all. Oh, good. I love that. You don't know that you giggle a lot.

Hayley 30:30
You know, I think I've done it for a long time. And I think it's just for like, spaces when I don't have a thought. Then I fill it with that.

Scott Benner 30:38
No, I just what I'm trying to get out because you're making me feel hilarious. And I know I'm not. So like, you're just like you're laughing that you said something horrifying. I forget what it was and then laughed immediately afterwards. I was like, That was interesting.

Hayley 30:50
It's kind of it's kind of a coping mechanism to Yeah.

Scott Benner 30:53
So you just did it.

Hayley 30:54
I know, you're aware when you think about it?

Scott Benner 30:57
Well, no. Are you aware that it's happening or know when it happens? If

Hayley 31:01
not, like, right away, I don't notice that. It's if I look back at it, and I'm like, Oh, I did do that right thing. But that's like my life, and not realizing I do things until later on, like, Oh, I did do that.

Scott Benner 31:14
Because you ever tried not to do it? Like consciously not to giggle?

Hayley 31:18
Ah, no,

Scott Benner 31:20
let's do it. Can we do it? Can we try? No.

Hayley 31:24
It's a coping mechanism, as well as like, filling the space. And also, it's like, for me, I have a hard time expressing like, emotions and stuff, and being like the right point across. So if I laugh or giggle about something

Scott Benner 31:38
I don't understand, what do you mean, you have trouble? I don't have any trouble, like understanding your emotions that you've like, laid out for me so far. Why do you think you have trouble doing that?

Hayley 31:46
I've had that for a long time. But again, being on the medication helps.

Scott Benner 31:51
We really don't hold on a second, do me a favor, don't tell me it's just the thing that's always happened. Explain to me what it is. Like, what do you mean, you can't express your emotions?

Hayley 32:00
So are like I don't understand other people's emotions or reading the room? Well, okay. And so I will a lot of times speak thing and matter of factly. But then they're actually like really deep things. And then I really hardcore Empath, so then I feel it, someone else, like I never want them to feel that way. So I A lot of times will giggle at things in order to like lighten the mood. Because I can say things that are horrible, just a matter of fact thing. But then I get to the whole point of like, Oh, now they feel it.

Scott Benner 32:35
So you don't like it when other people feel the emotions of what you're saying? Yeah.

Hayley 32:40
Right. Because I don't like feeling it. And it's hard for me. So it's

Scott Benner 32:47
expected it'll be hard for them.

Hayley 32:49
I very much don't like people. Like, that's, that's why it took me forever to like go to therapy and stuff just because I don't want anybody to feel like the pain or anything that's going on with me. Because

Scott Benner 33:03
that's what I was masking. Like, are you really trying to protect them? Or are you protecting yourself from feeling badly about how they feel?

Hayley 33:09
So hard question, I think is a bit of both. But I think originally, it would have been the thought of protecting someone else from feeling my feelings. But I think it also is a coping mechanism protect myself. If I really look at it.

Scott Benner 33:23
Give trouble being close to your husband.

Hayley 33:26
I can Yeah. Especially like after we had our son, I had really really bad, like, postpartum depression. So it's been a lot of that I've worked through but kind of got really dark. You

Scott Benner 33:40
were you depressed? Like oh, yeah, like, I'm gonna throw the baby out the window depressed or where we're, you know,

Hayley 33:46
nothing like to him but to myself and like, just the burden of both the guilt of having my son so early. And that I couldn't make well my body to make it happen correctly.

Scott Benner 33:59
Okay. Okay. So when you try to be like, open with your husband, does it not work?

Hayley 34:05
He's very good about reading me. I'm not very good about expressing it. Because again, I don't I'm already feeling these heavy feelings. And I don't want anybody else to Yeah. So it's really hard for me to express those especially if I talk to him about like, kind of a more dark stuff. But don't want to know about those things. Kelly I

Scott Benner 34:28
don't normally ask people this but because of the the direction our conversations and I'm going to ask you What in God's name are you doing while we're talking?

Hayley 34:35
Oh, literally just sitting on a spinny chair and rolling around. Okay,

Scott Benner 34:39
like clicking and popping and like if you told me you were like popping the lid on like, the I don't know, like test strips. I would have believed you. But you're not rolling around. No, I'm

Hayley 34:53
just rolling around in a chair.

Scott Benner 34:54
Do you know futzing you know the word? Oh, yes. Yeah, like me. So my cord is uh, yeah, like touching the cord or tapping your glasses on the desk or something like that probably.

Hayley 35:05
Oh, yeah, probably because, yeah, because I'm very. Yeah, everything has moved.

Scott Benner 35:12
What is this medication supposedly doing for you?

Hayley 35:15
It helps. So I'm also on antidepressants. Okay, so I, they're both stimulants. So the depressants, releases happy stuff. But also

Scott Benner 35:29
you really, you really read that label.

Hayley 35:34
I don't remember the top of the head like right now what it is, but um, the other stuff ADHD meds works with your, the antidepressants to help your body release like dopamine and stuff. But it has a hard time releasing,

Scott Benner 35:50
okay. You went on the antidepressants after the birth of the baby. Is that right? Yeah,

Hayley 35:55
I I should have done it a long time ago. But again, been very much of like, not into medication. Until I'm literally forced into it.

Scott Benner 36:03
Tell me how you felt without the antidepressant?

Hayley 36:07
I guess I can go darker. But um, I I did a lot of cutting and self harm, and try to commit suicide, I think three times now. What ages? I'm just in the last couple of years.

Scott Benner 36:25
Can you tell me like vaguely what the the attempts were like?

Hayley 36:29
The first one was because I had recently gotten my insulin pump. And I was struggling with it. And it wasn't. It would keep failing and stuff. And I felt very, like I finally got this thing that I worked so hard for. I literally had to tell a doctor that yes, I needed. And I wasn't working and I was frustrated. And luckily it has a lock on it that you can't overdose yourself. Right? So that's what stopped it.

Scott Benner 36:58
So when you say you attempted to give yourself like too much insulin like, yeah, we can you look back was your real intention to hurt yourself? Or were you looking for someone to notice.

Hayley 37:11
I was definitely hurt myself because I again, don't share things. So I don't really want people to notice. And it was like super late at night, my husband was asleep. And I just tried to give myself a ton of insulin. But again, the alarms shut it off. Okay.

Scott Benner 37:31
Other times were within thought as well are different ways. Different

Hayley 37:34
ways. There was one more recently when I was at work, and one of my co workers kind of just betrayed me who was a friend, and I went into my truck and I was like about to write a suicide letter and stuff. Like I was just done. Luckily, I had therapy that day. So that really saved me. That's

Scott Benner 37:54
amazing. Hey, well, I don't you weren't trying to get rid of birder but I guess you did it. I can't use that now. Yeah, sorry. I didn't know this was gonna happen. All right, I will start over, I guess. Such a perfect title for a POC. It's okay. Don't worry about it. Ellie, I'll be alright. I don't want you to worry. You see a therapist or a psychiatrist.

Hayley 38:20
I see a therapist. I was seeing psychiatrists just to get diagnosed with ADHD. But now I just see my therapist who also has ADHD. So it works out really well. Or

Scott Benner 38:30
not depending on I don't know, I'm not there to judge it. But what if it doesn't? What if you guys, you're just telling yourself, it's going great. She's like,

Hayley 38:44
No, yeah. Yeah. It's mostly that he can keep up with my brain. So I don't have to explain myself all the time.

Scott Benner 38:51
I'm imagining it's going terribly. And he goes, Hey, this is going great. Don't you have to go? Yeah, then it's over. There's no way there's no one there to just check you and go, Hey, guys. I don't go well at all.

Hayley 39:03
We go on so many tangents of different topics,

Scott Benner 39:07
is what I'm worried about. It sounds like you guys are making a podcast for two people is what's going on?

Hayley 39:12
Well, the funny thing is, too, is he also plays d&d. So we'll talk we'll go on tangents about d&d as well. I think

Scott Benner 39:20
you need to find a better therapist, but that's neither here nor there. Like so. The reason I asked about this is because is there any chance there's something else going on? That's not seen? Is there a chance you could be bipolar or anything like that? So that's

Hayley 39:32
when I went to the psychologist and I they thought I might be bipolar as well. But then they ruled that out.

Unknown Speaker 39:40
How did they do that?

Hayley 39:43
I took some tests, like personality and how I deal with things and it was just rolled out that I when I have supposedly I don't have as enough like swings and personality. Also, I don't get stuck there super long. Okay.

Scott Benner 39:58
So That's interesting. I appreciate you sharing all this Haley seriously. No,

Hayley 40:02
it's so good. I'm, I'm kind of an open book when it comes to like just factual things like, I can turn my things on going through into facts. And then I can actually, like, share them. Yeah. But if I feel the emotion with it, I can't share it.

Scott Benner 40:15
Okay. I mean, I'm looking back again. And you talked about, like, postpartum depression in your notes, but I didn't realize that, like your depression led to like suicide attempts and stuff like that. So I, I was a little unprepared for the direction. But I'm okay. I'm okay. It's,

Hayley 40:35
I think I've been dealing with it for a long time, like ever since probably middle school. But I've again, been very much not wanting to go into medication or share my feelings or anything. And so the being diabetic really hit me hard. And then with my son, it hit me hard again. And so it kind of like pushed everything over.

Scott Benner 40:59
Yeah. When you contacted your birth family, did you ask about the depression?

Hayley 41:04
No, I try not to get into their drama. They're very dramatic. I know. Like my biological mom was only like, 17 when she had me and she was 16 when she had an older sister.

Scott Benner 41:20
Okay. Oh, do you know your sister? Yeah. He also adopted as she stayed with the biological mom.

Hayley 41:27
So I was the only one that was adopted out. And that's another sort of subject. But then I had one. So I had one, there's an older one, and then there's a younger one, like, She's three years younger than me. So yeah,

Scott Benner 41:43
sorry. No, I'm just trying to like, they just piece it all together. That's all. Because, you know, I think that the number of people that I talked to who have like, you know, mental health concerns, and other autoimmune issues, it's not, it's not a low number. You know what I mean? Like when people come on here, and they're like, hey, you know, I've suffered with depression or this or that. They often talk about, like, a lot of other autoimmune stuff. And I just wonder how much of that I don't like, please keep in mind, I'm an idiot. Okay. But like, it makes me it makes me think about like inflammation, and how it might be impacting things that people just never think about. Yeah,

Hayley 42:22
the only the other thing is to for me, I was also born two months early, but she forced it happening. And she was a druggie. Okay, so, so there's a lot of other things that are part of that too.

Scott Benner 42:38
Yeah. Also, what kind of drugs was she isn't the mom? Meth? Heroin? Yeah, that stuff can beat a quiet like depression too. Sometimes, like people are self medicating in ways.

Hayley 42:49
Well, she she was only, like, 16 when she was with her 26 year old boyfriend. Yeah,

Scott Benner 42:57
you're not describing a lot of stability there. Yeah. Right. So I'm just saying maybe she's got something going on as well. How about your sister? Does your sister have any of these issues?

Hayley 43:05
Um, the older one, she was into drugs. Her. Our biological father, like pretty much used her as like a drug meal, and would actually like pimp her out and stuff.

Scott Benner 43:17
Oh, my God. Wait, like sexually? Yeah. Oh, my God. Where the hell do you people live? I got to make a map of places. I'm not going Which one is this? You don't have to say. I was gonna say probably should. It's in the Midwest though. Right? Northwest? Oh, oh, in the rainy part. Yeah. It's hard to live. Yeah. You shouldn't live there. People shouldn't.

Hayley 43:41
Well, I was adopted from like, I again, my dad's a police officer and stuff. So I was adopted to a really good family. But

Scott Benner 43:47
your your birth mother and your adopted family are reasonably close, like in the same state? Yeah,

Hayley 43:53
we're all the same state. My mom actually my adoptive mom. She's my mom. She's been keeping tabs on them all, like through Facebook and stuff. So that if I ever wanted to reach out, then I it was very easy for me to write.

Scott Benner 44:08
Well, you know, earlier I said I'm adopted to and you laughed. I wasn't sure if you laugh because you thought I was going to hear you. Oh, yeah. Sorry. That's okay. Like I was like, I'm adopted too. And you like you laugh and I thought is this nervous laughter or is she laughing? Because she thinks I'm kidding about being adopted.

Hayley 44:27
I didn't hear you.

Scott Benner 44:29
I'm adopted to Haley.

Hayley 44:30
Well, that's good to know. So you understand some of that

Scott Benner 44:33
for me and I don't understand a lot of it to get a lot of that was pretty screwed up. But I understood. Yeah.

Hayley 44:38
Well, I didn't I didn't find out a lot of this until way later. So I like I was very much like, Oh, she was young. And that was so gracious of her to adopt me out to be have a better life. And then, like the things that I've found out with both her like, trying to enforce abortion because I was too far along. Yeah, so she like, tried to do it herself. Oh,

Scott Benner 44:58
with like a stick or what Do we do they're like pushing on her stomach. Oh, wow, what a scientist. Yeah, Jesus. Okay. Sorry. Okay, don't be sorry, Ellie, you're gonna be part of the new uncensored after dark episodes. Congratulations.

Hayley 45:15
I was trying like, I'm like, I don't really cost like anything. So

Scott Benner 45:20
this is good enough. You don't need the cost.

Hayley 45:24
Again, I like I do like it. I can share these things. It's more of a matter of fact. Yeah.

Scott Benner 45:28
Yeah. If we sat down and tried to talk real real personally, you'd have trouble saying these things. Right.

Hayley 45:34
Oh, in the beginning, I would still keep it as like fact. But yeah, if I went in deeper, it would interest you. And I then Yeah, probably.

Scott Benner 45:41
Well, I mean, listen, it can't be easy to know that somebody tried to abort you. First of all, that's.

Hayley 45:47
That's a tough one. That's tough. That was yeah, that was hard. Yeah.

Scott Benner 45:50
And even though it's got nothing to do with you, I still don't know how it doesn't make you have like, oh, geez, backfill terribly. Yeah. You know, well, then on

Hayley 45:59
top of that, with, like her having a kid that she kept after me, too.

Scott Benner 46:03
Yeah. You weren't good enough to keep but the other one was, yeah, right. Right. Which is how it feels probably not what happened, right? Yeah.

Hayley 46:10
Well,

Scott Benner 46:10
you know what I mean?

Hayley 46:11
Yeah, they were. So there's three of us that were from the same dad. And then there's one after that's another guy. So but my biological father had like, 16 kids before different women. So

Scott Benner 46:24
it was the super handsome.

Hayley 46:27
No, really,

Scott Benner 46:29
how does that happen? Haley?

Hayley 46:30
I don't know.

Scott Benner 46:34
Just is the drugs part, right? Because like, I'm trying to imagine talking for different women to let me have babies with them when they knew that they had babies with other people, too. Yeah.

Hayley 46:44
I guess he was kind of forceful. Like, at least my biological mom. Oh, wait,

Scott Benner 46:49
wait, sorry. This is not like a consensual thing. Like

Hayley 46:53
it was but like he she kept having kids because he wanted to have kids. And she wanted to get out of it.

Scott Benner 47:00
But it's not a lot of common sense going on a lot of the things that you're saying. That's No,

Hayley 47:04
it's not again. Yeah, it's chaos. It's

Scott Benner 47:08
upsetting to hear it. I mean, it's not. I'm not like shocked or anything like that. But you don't want to think that people are living in these circumstances.

Hayley 47:17
Right. Well, and the thing is to her, she left her parents because she want to be around her parents. But her mom has like hardcore bipolar. narcissistic. So oh, they Yeah. So that's where a lot of that's why when you said that about, like other things. She's been diagnosed with bipolar and narcissistic.

Scott Benner 47:41
Okay, and this is who told me this is your mom's mom?

Hayley 47:45
Yeah. Someone by my biological grandmother. Yeah.

Scott Benner 47:49
Your parents know about all this? Yeah. Yeah.

Hayley 47:52
I've shared everything with them. This is

Scott Benner 47:55
stuff you found out. It's not stuff they found out. Right. Correct. Yeah, that's tough for them to hear to. Do they adopt other kids or just you?

Hayley 48:02
Um, yeah. So I have a younger sister that's also adopted from a different family. That's nice. Lovely. Yeah. And they had like, 10 foster kids and stuff. Well, no kidding. Yeah, they only have one biological.

Scott Benner 48:14
Oh, my God, they have a biological child. They fostered like 10 kids, and they adopted two kids. Yeah. She trying to like get to heaven or something. What's going on there?

Hayley 48:25
Well, um, so they had my older sister, and then years, they were trying and she kept having issues and miscarriages and stuff. And then in the meantime, they just foster kids, because they could they were able to provide that. And then, yeah, and then she, they adopted me, and then four years later that my younger sister

Scott Benner 48:45
seemed like lovely people. That's very nice. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my gosh. Alright, so hold on. How do you met every once in a while? I think this podcast is about diabetes, you should ask the diabetes question. To me sometimes, I'm like, but how like with this, like, all this that you're describing, like, how are you with your type one? Are you kind of hands on like on top of it? Is your agency where you hoped it to be? Is it something you struggle with? How does that all go?

Hayley 49:16
So right now it's not super great? Because it's like for me, it's really hard to manage multiple illnesses at once. And so it's been kind of put on the backburner when I've been trying to figure out all this other stuff, like I still like in a minute okay, range but not like where I should be.

Scott Benner 49:33
He told me What's okay, right. Like,

Hayley 49:36
I'm consistently in between, like 140 and 180.

Scott Benner 49:46
What's stopping you from doing what you want to do? Just

Hayley 49:48
trying to figure out with mental health and then now this whole thing with ADHD diagnosis and then the researching into the Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, and then we're Getting 60 hour weeks. It's just yeah, it's been a lot. And being a mom, but luckily like my husband's a stay at home dad. Well, he's, he works two jobs too. And the school. That's all online.

Scott Benner 50:14
You guys seem busy.

Hayley 50:16
Yeah, we're prone to kind of showing your schedules probably when we get along so well,

Scott Benner 50:20
I had a pretty chill, I had a pretty chill day. I got up a little late. So here, here's where I'm at. My wife has to travel for business, right, so she left last evening. And then I spent that last night by myself as a little lonely, I have to admit, but that's fine. I lived through it. And then I slept a little later this morning, because I didn't have to get up because you and I were recording at night and I had a lot of like work to do. But I was like, I'm going to sleep a little extra tight up like 10 o'clock, like a king. You know what I mean? And I rolled out of bed and I was like, I'm gonna take care of the dogs get a shower and have something to eat. I didn't even start my day till like one o'clock today. I was like, This is how ballers live. Except there were no like, you know, there were no like scantily clad girls running around or anything like that, or cocaine or not really a baller lifestyle at all. But I just started a little later today. And I got a bunch of work done this afternoon. And then I'm recording with you. I had a turkey sandwich in there somewhere. And, and now I'm after you, I'm going to work more and watch a football game. So yeah, but it's a pretty slow day for me. Usually, I'm up earlier working, like the whole day. It just I was like, let me just let me see what would happen. Like if I live by myself, how would it go? It turns out it would go pretty easy. I would take it pretty easy on myself. But he's got two jobs. And he's taken. And it's school from him. So are the jobs from home as well?

Hayley 51:45
Yeah. So he does one job that for his old job that he had before he went to school. He does their like routing so that he works for a FedEx contractor. So he kind of dictates where everybody's going based on the package load. Interesting. And yeah, so that's what his job is for that. So that's not a ton of hours. But it's a couple hours at night. And then he just started doing a job as they're in it for our church for like their social media and was called anything to do with social media and like, making slides and stuff. So does that

Scott Benner 52:24
making content for them? Yeah, very nice. And that is to watch in the hold yourself at this point.

Hayley 52:31
He just turned to Oh,

Scott Benner 52:33
that's a wonderful age. Have you? Do you worry about diabetes for him? Is that something that's in your head? Or

Hayley 52:39
my son? You know, that's why it took forever for us to like, even get pregnant is because I really was just like I was all down to her adopting. And I because I just didn't want to pass it on to him. Yeah. But, you know, I had a friend of mine who's also diabetic, she said that, even if it happens, you are the best well equipped person to take, like to take care of him and to help him. So I just

Scott Benner 53:09
felt better about it. Okay, that's excellent. The medication you take for your ADHD. Like, what happens if you don't take it?

Hayley 53:16
I get super Spacey. And like, so this is me being bubbly for Ahmed's legend 10 times worse.

Scott Benner 53:25
So without the meds you'd like this would be multiplied for like the kind of jumping around and the giggling and stuff like that. Yeah,

Hayley 53:32
absolutely. Okay. I also I can't concentrate. So like I take most of my medication because of my job that I do. Because I have to be super detail oriented and super, like not distracted. I even I even wear headphones that are for like, their their earplugs but you can still hear out of them. They're just supposed to cancel out outside noise. I wear those so I can not get distracted.

Scott Benner 53:54
Okay. Okay, because any little sound might pull you away, even when you're on and what medication is that? I'm sorry.

Hayley 54:02
I have like eight different medications. You prophy on I think that's

Scott Benner 54:06
for the ADHD. Yeah, it's basically speed, right? It speeds you up, which somehow slows you down. So

Hayley 54:13
I am on a stimulant, whereas what you're thinking of is like, some of the harder stuff that's more of like adding to your body. Yeah, like Adderall? Yeah, Adderall is more of an adding to your body. Whereas what I take help stimulate my brain to produce what it needs to produce. That's kind of interesting. Okay. Yeah, it sounds like one of my friends. He just got on Adderall. Because he found out he has ADHD and his wife was like, Oh, I might have some tendencies at that. I wonder what would happen and so she tried one like to see if I would do anything for her which I don't know why she did that. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 54:52
think you're supposed to but but okay, God, I'm gonna say no, yeah,

Hayley 54:54
she said she like pretty much turned to having like ADHD The brain and was like, how do you live this way?

Scott Benner 55:02
Oh, it actually she doesn't have ADHD. So it sped her up. And she got like, yeah, yeah.

Hayley 55:09
Yeah. And she couldn't call the trade. She had so many thoughts of like different directions and stuff. And she's like, I don't know how you guys live this way. Yeah,

Scott Benner 55:16
I mean, listen, everybody I've ever spoken to who has it, it sounds a little torturous to me. You know. And that's even for people who just talk about lightly. It's,

Hayley 55:25
it's kind of like, if you have your computer open, and you have 100 different tabs open, and you're using all of them at once. Yeah, I have a T shirt that says, My life is like, there's 100 tabs open. There's a video playing and I don't have any idea where the music's playing. And, and you know, that's, that's my life. Yeah.

Scott Benner 55:44
Can't find which tab is making the light. Come on. Why? Stop? Yeah, that's an interesting description, actually, isn't it? But it's

Hayley 55:51
a very good description. Yeah. That's

Scott Benner 55:53
really something. Wow. Okay. Do your, your parents that raised you? Did they ever talk about this when you were younger? Or were you just like, did they just think you were annoying?

Hayley 56:05
No, but no. So I've always had like, learning struggles. And I think it's partly due to ADHD. I'm pretty sure. If I really delve into I'd probably have autism too. They kind of go hand in hand. But I've always struggled with learning. And so my mom, most of my mom, because my dad's a sheriff's officer, so he worked a lot. But um, oh, so kind of ironic. Sorry, squirrel. My dad's not only ensures officer, he's a firefighter and an EMT. So I wonder where I get my work ethic from?

Scott Benner 56:38
I saw a black squirrel today. You stuck on squirrel? No, you said it. I was like, Oh my God, how did you possibly use the word squirrel? In a day when I've only spoken to two people and I saw a black squirrel today. And if I don't say this here, no one's ever going to know what happened. So I had to say it out loud. Did you know there are black squirrels? Yes, there are black squirrels. Yes. You don't see them very frequently at all. No. It was like, right out. I was I went to get the mail. And he was like, right across the street from me. I was like, I was on the phone with somebody. I don't want to brag, but I was on the phone with Pietro who is that? He's the first guy to ever get like a like the, like that jumbo pilot's license with type one. You don't I mean, like he really? Yeah, I was talking to him about his blood sugar. I'm sorry for telling people his business. And I was like, ah, there's a black squirrel in front of me. And then we talked about it for a while and I thought I'll never speak about this again. And then you said squirrel just some hours later. So now we can call the episode black squirrel. And we're all set. Yeah. I mean, right. tie it all together. Yeah. I mean, I have to do something. Because yeah, cuz I just, I'm not gonna lie to you. It was the suicide attempts that got me off a burger. But in my heart, that's what this episode is called. And so just so you know, that between you and me if anybody if people ever like you know, that episode is the after dark with Haley. I'll be like, Oh, that was gonna be burger or Bulaga. Yeah, black scruff. I know which one you mean. So anyway, don't feel bad. Seriously. Do you have any depression now? Oh, yeah. Sorry. You were like, Oh, hell yeah.

Hayley 58:14
Yeah, no, if I'm off my meds like you for like two days, I go back to like, trying to cut myself and everything else.

Scott Benner 58:21
The medications keeping the cutting away? Yes, for

Hayley 58:25
the most part unless it unless it like it's, it's pretty much so the medication does for me is that it softens everything. So it's not as hard of a blow. Like if something happens that I can actually like, kind of pull myself back and process it rather than being in it. So if I'm not on the medication, then I can't process it. And then it just concerns me and then then I go into dangerous directions.

Scott Benner 58:52
But with the medication. It doesn't happen.

Hayley 58:54
Yeah, not as much. It takes a while like you'd see something really big to get past it. Okay. medications.

Scott Benner 59:01
Name something that's overwhelmed the medication and made you feel depressed.

Hayley 59:05
Oh, like when my friend from work?

Scott Benner 59:09
Oh, they double cross you.

Hayley 59:11
Yeah, backstabbing. Only that but I found out she was spreading rumors about me for like six months.

Scott Benner 59:17
Oh my gosh. Yeah. And that was enough to make you obviously feel that way even though the medication was happening. Correct. How long so then you go out to your truck, you don't obviously kill yourself. So how long until you don't feel that way anymore?

Hayley 59:31
I think I did cut myself I was in the truck. And I was feeling very, like, considering how my son would life would be without me here. And debating start writing a suicide note and stuff like it was pretty dark. Yeah. And then I went back to work and like I'm just gonna get back to work. I have like, a good like four more hours at work. And I go straight from work to

Scott Benner 59:54
therapy. Therapy. Yeah. So and then you were able to work it out there. Yeah, interesting. What kind of truck I'm just kidding. I don't know why that would matter. Although for some reason I feel like it does. But I don't tell tell me I don't want people to know what kind of car yeah, like, you know, is it an SUV or a pickup? It's

Hayley 1:00:15
a pickup okay.

Scott Benner 1:00:16
I'm fine with it. Yeah,

Hayley 1:00:17
I tried to older Ford's Oh, is

Scott Benner 1:00:19
it a two door?

Hayley 1:00:21
My first one was a two door that I fixed up and like I actually sold for more money that I spent on it. But my, the one I have now is a four door.

Scott Benner 1:00:31
Okay, interesting. I love a pickup truck. I was thinking to get one. I don't know what I put on it.

Hayley 1:00:38
I was gonna keep my older truck but with it only having a bench seat. I didn't feel good about putting Percy did not

Scott Benner 1:00:45
it's probably a smart move. Yeah, I cried. I every time I'm doing something, I'm like, I really need like a truck. And then when I think I should get a truck, I think what would I do with the truck? I'm getting old. Like it would have been more helpful when I was younger. I think

Hayley 1:01:03
I had a Malibu, little Malibu and I was able to fit a catering event for like 200 people in it for the

Scott Benner 1:01:11
butcher, my Carlos put a bush in my car one time.

Hayley 1:01:18
You know, you figure out how to do it. Not always the best way.

Scott Benner 1:01:26
Guys, like do you want to deliver that? And I'm like, I don't want to pay you to drive that across the street.

Hayley 1:01:31
You know, it just teaches you to be resourceful. And how to play Jenga.

Scott Benner 1:01:38
Yeah, there was a car Bush one time. It's okay. It's like one of those situations where if you're at a stoplight, and you know like people are looking and they're like it's a bush that guy's car. And and you think I really hope no one knows me like sees me.

Hayley 1:01:52
Oh speaking or something like that. My there was one time when I went to grab a white birds and I was going to someone else's house with them to do the deed. And so yeah, so I had like eight roosters, five geese, a bunch of pheasants, quail. And what else do I have some ducks on the back of my truck. I had like 10 turkeys. So they're all in the back of my truck. And I had opened the vents so you could hear all the animals and so stop by somewhere and like you hear the roosters crowing and stuff.

Scott Benner 1:02:27
I don't know why you're laughing It's fantastic. I'm laughing

Hayley 1:02:30
because it was so funny about your whole like, Oh, I just had a tree in the back. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:02:35
there's a bush. But yeah, I hear what you're saying. And the my Bush didn't make any noise. I don't do people have noisy bushes. I guess you could get a noisy blush. Right? You

Hayley 1:02:44
could have like the you know, like the Christmas time thing where you put and it's like, gosh, I can't remember what his name is. But you put the animatronic thing, like in your Christmas tree and it talks.

Scott Benner 1:02:55
Oh, what? Like not the fish? Right? Yeah.

Hayley 1:03:00
The actual thing for your Christmas tree? It's

Scott Benner 1:03:02
like the face of a tree and and talks in the tree? Yeah, yes. I oddly, I've seen that. Okay. I guess a bush could talk. Yeah, talking bush. Who knows? But we've gotten pretty far from the subject at this point, Haley, I'm not gonna lie to you, sir. Anything? Is there anything else we haven't talked about that we should have? What else was on your list that we haven't gotten to? I don't even remember my list. It's been so long. No way. You're gonna remember this list. I'm looking here. It says what are some of the things you hope to recover in Europe? So being diagnosed in my 20s misdiagnosis? Type Two, and we've got those diabetes in pregnancy? We haven't talked about that postpartum. Yes. relationship with your child while having issues not really. And adopted. Okay, so what about your relationship with your child? And your issues? You were you talking about, like more of the mental health stuff? Yeah,

Hayley 1:03:55
a lot of the mental health stuff. It's gotten a lot better than it used to, but I was very much like, I felt that I was inadequate. Okay, and that I had to, I wasn't blaming him. I blamed myself. For all that happened. With like being because I was 21 weeks when I went into the hospital no, 27 weeks, 27 weeks when I went into the hospital, and I was there for two weeks. And then he was born at 20 or 32 weeks. So and for four days of that was labor. So So for me, it just it felt like I failed in that in that whole thing was me having to do everything besides myself. Like in spite of myself. So it felt more of like I failed. I didn't I didn't get past my own body to tell it what to do and make it happen.

Scott Benner 1:04:50
Hey, so just not not the baby not making it to nine months felt like a failure. Yeah, absolutely. Okay.

Hayley 1:04:56
Well, because like I saw when I was pregnant with my son, I got my agency down to an eight. But that's as far as I can get it to go without like causing stress and really causing more issues. So I just kept it at that. And honestly, it was he was pretty healthy. But like he was four pounds, nine ounces at two months early. So he's pretty big.

Scott Benner 1:05:19
Yeah, so he was getting bigger. And you just, there's a lot going on there at the pre account clamp co2. Yeah. So So you couldn't keep your your blood sugar lower and more stable because of your own anxiety. You couldn't take your medication because you were pregnant. Is that right? Well,

Hayley 1:05:35
I wasn't I was on that anxiety medication, because they were noticing that when I go to doctor, I would have this spike in blood pressure, because I'm white coat syndrome and being super anxious about

Scott Benner 1:05:46
it all. So you were able to be on that medication during the pregnancy. Yeah, it

Hayley 1:05:50
didn't really work. But

Scott Benner 1:05:54
he told me three things that are going well for you right now, please.

Hayley 1:05:58
Oh, that's a hard. Like, that sounds really terrible. But it's a hard question. Is it? Yeah. One thing. I got an attaboy at work last week.

Scott Benner 1:06:09
My turkey sandwich was rock solid today. Like it was I smoked the turkey breast and then I cut it up and I put it on a nice piece of fresh sourdough and I had it for lunch. And it was good luck. A lot of you. Honestly, if you ask me what went right today? I'd say that sandwich. I don't have another answer.

Hayley 1:06:29
Well, you've honestly bed. Well, yeah, but

Scott Benner 1:06:31
I'm saying Don't say that your thing is that bad. Like getting a like an attaboy at work is pretty good. You know?

Hayley 1:06:37
Well, yeah. And I've been on the hot seat and my job because of being easily distracted. So

Scott Benner 1:06:43
oh, they're they're telling you like, pull it together? Or you're not gonna work here? Yeah. Yeah, kind of work is that you have to tell me where it is. But like about what do you do?

Hayley 1:06:52
Yeah, so it's a medical supply manufacturer. And I work in the shipping and receiving department. So it's the parts that go into machines that you'll see like at labs,

Scott Benner 1:07:01
okay, you've been sending the wrong parts to the wrong places,

Hayley 1:07:04
quantities or quality issues or whatever, whatever they

Scott Benner 1:07:08
ask for to you set them 15. So

Hayley 1:07:10
I found out later on that I can't like, count. Normally, I have to count with my hands. So like, I have to feel the pieces leading my hand in order to get an accurate count. Okay. So because it's for me, the more senses I use. So like hearing, hearing the piece drop in the cup, and holding it and letting it go. And using my eyes to see it. It's I'm usually more successful with actually getting it accurate.

Scott Benner 1:07:36
Interesting. Yeah.

Hayley 1:07:39
Yeah. So the more senses you use, the more likely you're gonna actually get accuracy. If

Scott Benner 1:07:44
you just throw one in and make a mark on a piece of paper like 1234, then slash for five and keep doing it. No, no, no, that wouldn't work. You would not remember to make the slash

Hayley 1:07:53
I would get distracted and then forget what number was on. Or I would like did I put it into in the cup?

Scott Benner 1:07:59
And that would be the end of it.

Hayley 1:08:00
How about them? Yeah, that would have to restart over. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:08:03
Is there some company right now like holding on to like five really expensive parts? And you were only supposed to send them to and they're just giggling and they're like, I can't believe this is we're so lucky. No,

Hayley 1:08:12
it was mostly what I do now is actually the receiving department. Okay, so I receive in like materials and stuff so they can use it to make the parts. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 1:08:22
Well, I hope that goes well. It sounds like it's going better. I hope that continues like that. Yeah,

Hayley 1:08:27
now that I'm on medication, and actually able to figure out what more were my shortcomings and able to fix them? It's much better. It's

Scott Benner 1:08:35
really interesting. How do you figure that out? Like, are you stuck waiting for someone to tell you?

Hayley 1:08:41
So yeah, so are you mean, like on the end? Like, if I make a mistake there? No,

Scott Benner 1:08:45
I mean, like bigger, like, if you have something going on? I would imagine doesn't feel like that to you. So like, yeah, you know, I'm saying like, how do you know you have ADHD or something like that?

Hayley 1:08:55
Well, I had, because again, I never wanted myself to slow myself down. I would just figure out things in order to make it work. So I'd actually be able to succeed. So a lot of the things like other tools and stuff, they say, like oh, these help you with ADHD. I've already been dealing with them for so long. Because I'm made it up trying to make it work for me.

Scott Benner 1:09:18
I gotcha. Okay, guys. So if you needed somebody to come along and say to you like, Hey, do you know that you are blank? Blank blank, and you go, No, I didn't know that. But now that I know, thank you. Yeah, yeah, it or if it's, you have a trouble with something and you can kind of start seeing it yourself? Well,

Hayley 1:09:35
I guess for me, it's more that I've already found ways to make it work. So I don't notice it myself until someone else like my little sister brought it up to me and said, Hey, you're having these issues. This looks sounds like this. You can do it.

Scott Benner 1:09:49
And that's how you figure that out. Yeah,

Hayley 1:09:51
I said for the most part for me, I just figured out how to deal with it. Wow, that's really interesting.

Scott Benner 1:09:57
I appreciate you sharing all this with me. I really do and it's very A nice way to go out of your comfort zone to talk about this stuff being serious, and

Hayley 1:10:04
I've turned it into a fax thing rather than an emotional thing. So

Scott Benner 1:10:08
if and if I tried to make you like I purposely didn't ask you to dig into your emotions, would it have like, put you into a bad way? Oh, no, because I'm still keeping fax, you wouldn't be able to do it.

Hayley 1:10:19
No, it would literally just because it's the whole paralyzing for me to have someone else feel the feelings that paralyze me. But what

Scott Benner 1:10:26
if we, what if we got into an I started crying? What would happen to you then? Oh,

Hayley 1:10:31
I would turn into like trying to show you the positive side of everything. Oh.

Scott Benner 1:10:38
But you wouldn't be able to see it for yourself. Because we'd be talking about you. If you were telling me the positive side. Yeah. So

Hayley 1:10:43
I wouldn't be able to, like, if you were sharing something I would always like it would automatically I would share something about me and say as a fact of like, I also felt this or something like that. So I'm very much of like, I turn off my own emotions, and my own pain in order to make someone else feel better. What

Scott Benner 1:11:03
happens? But what happens if you experience the emotions? But what if we weren't on your way? Here? You're completely by yourself and you're experiencing them? How do you feel then?

Hayley 1:11:11
Oh, I let it all out. It's like a bottle cap that comes off.

Scott Benner 1:11:15
I just kind of explode. Yeah, do you feel better after that?

Hayley 1:11:19
Depends, either I'll feel better about it. Or I'll go in a deeper depression, because I'm actually forced to think about it. I see. So it's easier for me to just not think about it and move on. I'm very much a person that like, oh, that's inconvenient. But I have things to do. Hence why I also add so much to my work. And everything is because it's easier for me to fill up my time with work and projects or volunteering things or whatever. In order to not feel.

Scott Benner 1:11:47
I say, Wow, I appreciate you sharing all this. I don't I don't honestly know where else to go from here. But it's been really interesting. And I feel like educational i i feel like i've heard bits and pieces of this from other people in the past, but your story is obviously different than theirs. And, again, makes me feel like I heard something new today, which I really appreciate.

Hayley 1:12:10
Oh, good. I like to share, again, like that was part of my whole reason of going on the podcast is sharing what I've experienced and being able to kind of put it in a personal level of understanding. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:12:24
no, no, I mean, we didn't start off like, I didn't start off understanding all this about you. So like, I thought we got through it pretty, like, you know, quickly to the part where you were like, This is all of my story, you know? Yeah. You know, were you not planning on doing that? Or were you waiting for me to find it.

Hayley 1:12:40
I don't ever plan anything. So it just kind of comes out.

Scott Benner 1:12:44
You hadn't thought about it previously, like when you're getting ready to do this, you hadn't thought to yourself, like Oh, I hope this doesn't come up. Or

Hayley 1:12:50
I knew there was things that I wanted to like talk about, like the whole diabetes and pregnancy. And then also, like, the difficulties of getting diagnosed later on in life when you don't have your family to kind of help you out. And also the adoption and everything and having the uncertainties of like, what else do can I have? Because I have no idea what my background is,

Scott Benner 1:13:12
ya know, it's something else. Okay. I'm gonna stay. Thank you. I think this has been terrific. I really do appreciate your time. Yeah, no, I appreciate it very much. I'm gonna hang up with well, you're gonna stay on for me because I'm gonna ask you more about where you live, because I want to know, but the other people they don't get to hear that's not their business. A huge thanks to the contour next gen blood glucose meter. We're sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast, learn more and get started today at contour next one.com/juicebox. Mark is an incredible example of what so many experience living with diabetes, you show up for yourself and others every day, never letting diabetes to find you. And that is what the Medtronic champion community is all about. Each of us is strong, and together, we're even stronger. To hear more stories from the Medtronic champion community or to share your own story, visit Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox. Don't forget, we still have marks conversation at the very end. It's a terrific kind of mini episode about 10 minutes long. That goes deeper into some of the things that you heard Mark talking about earlier in the show. You have questions? Scott and Jenny have answers. There are now 19 ask Scott and Jenny episodes. That's where Jenny Smith and I answer questions from the audience. If you'd like to see a list of them, go to juicebox podcast.com up into the menu and click on Ask Scott and Jenny. And now my full conversation with Medtronic champion, Mark. Mark. How old were you when you were diagnosed with type one diabetes? I was 2828 How old are you now? 4747. So just about 20 years.

David 1:14:57
Yeah, 19 years.

Scott Benner 1:14:59
What was your management Is that when you were diagnosed?

David 1:15:01
I use injections for about six months. And then my endocrinologist at a navy recommended a pump. How

Scott Benner 1:15:07
long had you been in the Navy? See eight years up to that point? Eight years? Yeah. I've interviewed a number of people who have been diagnosed during service. And most of the time they're discharged. What happened to you?

David 1:15:19
I was medically discharged. Yeah, six months after my diagnosis. I

Scott Benner 1:15:22
don't understand the whole system. Is that like, honorable?

David 1:15:25
Yeah. I mean, essentially, if you get a medical discharge, you get a commensurate honorable discharge. I guess there could be cases where something other than that, but that's that's really how it happens. So it's an honorably discharged with but because of medical

Scott Benner 1:15:37
reason, and that still gives you access to the VA for the rest of your life. Right?

David 1:15:41
Correct. Yeah, exactly.

Scott Benner 1:15:42
Do you use the VA for your management? Yeah, I

David 1:15:44
used to up until a few years ago, when we moved to North Carolina, it just became untenable, just rigamarole and process to kind of get all the things I needed. You know, for diabetes management, it was far easier just to go through a private practice. Was

Scott Benner 1:15:57
it your goal to stay in the Navy for your whole life, your career? It was? Yeah,

David 1:16:02
yeah. In fact, I think a few months before my diagnosis, my wife and I had that discussion about, you know, staying in for the long term. And, you know, we made the decision despite all the hardships and time away from home, that was what we loved the most. So that's what made it that much more difficult

Scott Benner 1:16:17
was the Navy, like a lifetime goal of yours or something you came to as an adult,

David 1:16:22
lifetime goal. I mean, as my earliest childhood memories were flying being a fighter pilot and specifically being flying on and off aircraft carriers. So you know, watching Top Gun in the ad, certainly a weight was a catalyst for

Scott Benner 1:16:36
that you've taken off and landed a jet on an aircraft carrier,

David 1:16:39
hundreds of times.

Scott Benner 1:16:40
Is there anything in life as exhilarating as that? No,

David 1:16:43
but there there's a roller coaster I rode at. I think it was at Cedar Rapids up in Cleveland Sandusky, and they've got this roller coaster rotation from zero to like, it's like 80 or something, you go up a big hill and you come right back down. So the acceleration is pretty similar. I would say to catapult shot,

Scott Benner 1:17:02
I'm gonna guess you own a Tesla.

David 1:17:04
I don't I I'm a boring guy. I got a hybrid rav4 I get made fun of I get called. You know, my wife says I drive like a grandpa. I'm a five miles per hour over the speed limit person. No more than that. So yeah, in the car. I'm boring Scott. So

Scott Benner 1:17:19
you've never felt a need to try to replace that with something else.

David 1:17:22
You can't replace it. It's irreplaceable. That's what I thought. So up until the point where someone you know, buys me an F 18. Or allows me to get inside a two seater and fly it you can't replace it? How

Scott Benner 1:17:33
did it make you feel when you saw or maybe you haven't seen? gentleman named Pietro has his large aircraft license. He's flying for a major carrier. Now he has type one diabetes. Does that feel hopeful to you? Yeah,

David 1:17:44
it does. You know, when I when I was diagnosed, that wasn't a possibility. The FAA prohibited commercial pilots who had type one diabetes, but I think it was 2017 when they changed their rules to allow type one diabetics to be commercial pilots. And part of the reason I did that was because of the technology advancements, specifically in pump therapy, and pump management. So I don't have any aspirations of going to the commercial airlines. But one of my sons who has type one diabetes very much wants to be a commercial pilot. So, you know, in that respect, I'm very hopeful and thankful.

Scott Benner 1:18:16
Do you fly privately now for pleasure? I

David 1:18:20
do. Yeah. One of my favorite things to do is fly my kids to the different soccer tournaments I have all over the southeast us so last week, my wife and I and two of our boys flipped to Richmond for their soccer tournaments up there and Charlie who's my middle child has type one diabetes, so you know if I can combine flying family and football and one weekend to me that's I think I've just achieved Valhalla.

Scott Benner 1:18:42
So then it sounds to me like this diagnosis was a significant course correction for you. Can you tell me how it affected your dream?

David 1:18:49
Well, I you know, if I guess three words come to mind first, it was devastating. Everything I had done in life, everything I'd worked up to up to that point was just taken away in an instant. And I was not prepared for that at all. The second emotion was, it was scary. I hadn't thought much about life outside the Navy, certainly not life as anything else, but a fighter pilot. And Heather and I were getting ready to move to France, I was going to do an exchange tour with with the French naval air force. So we're taking French classes. So pretty quickly, I had to reinvent myself. And then probably the most important thing at the same time that all that was going on, I had to learn how to how to deal with type one diabetes and how to manage it effectively. The third thing that pops into my mind, I guess, is challenging, you know, new daily routines. I had to establish first with injections and then eventually, you know, through pump management, and then learning how to count carbs and recognize highs and lows, how my body reacts to blood sugar trends based on exercise and stress and those types of things. And my goal at that time, and it still is today is to leverage technology and make sure my habit patterns are effective so that I take diabetes management from the forefront to the background.

Scott Benner 1:19:56
Have you had success with that? Do you feel like you've made the trip? position? Well, I

David 1:20:01
have I mean, I believe in continuous improvements. So there's always more to do. I will say the technology since I was diagnosed specifically with pump management, it's just, it's just incredible. It takes less of me intervening, and it's really done by the pump itself and by the algorithms through the CGM s, and to me again, that that should be the goal for everybody is to not have to focus so much on the daily aspects of type one, diabetes management, you know, we should let technology do that for us. What

Scott Benner 1:20:30
else have you found valuable? I've spoken to 1000s of people with type one diabetes, the one thing that took me by surprise, because I don't have type one, myself, and my daughter was very young when she was diagnosed. I didn't really understand until I launched this podcast, and then it grew into this kind of big Facebook presence. I heard people say, I don't know anybody else who has type one diabetes, I wish I knew more people. But until I saw them come together, I didn't recognize how important it was. Yeah,

David 1:20:59
I think similarly, I didn't know anyone with type one diabetes growing up as an adult up until when I was diagnosed. And then all of a sudden, people just came out of the woodwork, and when CGM first hit the market, certainly within the last five years. It's amazing to me and my family, how many people we've noticed with type one diabetes simply because you can see the CGM on their arm. I mean, I would say, a month does not go by where we don't run into someone at a restaurant or an amusement park or a sporting event or somewhere where we see somebody else with type one diabetes. And the other surprising aspect of that is just how quickly you make friends. And I'll give an example. We're at a soccer tournament up in Raleigh, this past Saturday and Sunday. And the referee came over to my son Charlie at the end of the game and said, Hey, I noticed you're wearing pomp. And he lifted up a shirt and showed his pump as well and said, I've had type one diabetes since I was nine years old. I played soccer in college, I'm sure that's your aspiration. And I just want to tell you, don't let type one diabetes ever stop you from achieving your dreams of what you want to do. And it's the other man was probably in his late 50s, or 60s. So just having that connection and seeing, you know, the outreach and people's willingness to share their experiences. It just means the world to us and just makes us feel like we're part of a strong community. So

Scott Benner 1:22:19
would you say that the most important things are strong technology tools, understanding how to manage yourself and a connection to others.

David 1:22:28
Yeah, technology for sure, in knowing how to leverage it. And then the community in that community is your friends, your family, caregivers, you know, for me to Medtronic, champions, community, you know, all those resources that are out there to, you know, help guide away, but then help help you keep abreast on you know, the new things that are coming down the pipe, and to give you hope for eventually, you know, that we can find a cure. You

Scott Benner 1:22:50
mentioned that your son wanted to be a pilot, he also has type one diabetes, how old was he when he was diagnosed.

David 1:22:55
So Henry was diagnosed when he was 12 years old, was just at the start of COVID, we are actually visiting my in laws in Tennessee, we woke up in the morning and he had his bed. And several years before that, we had all four of our boys tested for TrialNet. So you know predictor of whether or not they're going to develop type one diabetes, and whether or Henry and one of his brothers tested positive for a lot of the indicators. So we always kind of had an inclination that there was a high degree of possibility he would develop it. But we always had at the back of our mind as well. And so when that event happened, at the beginning of COVID, we had him take his blood sugar on my glucometer. And it was over 400. And so right away, we knew that without even being diagnosed properly, by endocrinologist that he was a type one diabetic, so we hurried home, to get him properly diagnosed in Charlottesville. And then we just started the process first grieving, but then acceptance and, you know, his eventual, becoming part of the team that nobody wants to join.

Scott Benner 1:23:58
How old is he now?

David 1:23:59
He's 15 years old. Now,

Scott Benner 1:24:01
when's the first time he came to you? And said, Is this going to stop me from flying

David 1:24:07
almost immediately. So like me, he's he always had aspirations of flying. In fact, he out of all four boys wanted to be in the military, that was a difficult part of the conversation and maybe something that we don't talk about as a community. But there are some things you cannot do as a type one diabetic, and that's a hard fact of life. And unfortunately, joining the military is one of those hard and fast things you cannot be you cannot join the military as a type one diabetic. So it was very difficult for him and for me and my wife to get over. Then we also started talking about being a commercial pilot. And so I saw that same excitement in his eyes because like me, you know, he can be an NFA teen or a 737 or a Cirrus SR 20 That I fly and be just as happy. So he still has that passion today and still very much plans to eventually become a commercial pilot.

Scott Benner 1:24:53
I appreciate you sharing that with me. Thank you. You have four children, do any others have type one.

David 1:24:58
They do my oldest When Henry has type one diabetes and my middle son Charlie has type one diabetes as well. The boys are twins. The oldest two are twins. One has type one diabetes, my middle son, who is not a twin has type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 1:25:11
I see. Is there any other auto immune in your family? There isn't I'm really

David 1:25:15
the only person in my family or my wife's family that we know of with any sort of autoimmune disease, certainly type one diabetes. So unfortunately, I was the first to strike it rich and unfortunately, pass it along to to my sons

Scott Benner 1:25:30
with celiac thyroid, anything like that. Not about nothing. We're

David 1:25:34
really a pretty healthy family. So this came out of nowhere for myself and for my two sons. That's

Scott Benner 1:25:39
really something. I appreciate your time very much. I appreciate you sharing this with me. Thank you very much.

David 1:25:44
Anytime Scott,

Scott Benner 1:25:45
learn more about the Medtronic champion community at Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box or by searching the hashtag Medtronic champion on your favorite social media platform. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong way. recording.com