#1892 You'll Get Used to It - Part 2
Part two: after years coded as type 2 — fighting for a pump, scary lows, lasting damage — she takes charge, turns her numbers around, and makes her case for antibody testing.
You’ll Get Used to It
Cold Open & Sponsors 0:00
Hello, friends, and welcome back to another episode of the Juice Box podcast. This is part two of a two part episode. Go look at the title. If you don't recognize it, you haven't heard part one yet. It's probably the episode right before this in your podcast player.
Nothing you hear on the Juice Box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. If you're new to type one diabetes, begin with the bold beginnings series from the podcast. Don't take my word for it. Listen to what reviewers have said.
Bold beginnings is the best first step. I learned more in those episodes than anywhere else. This is when everything finally clicked. People say it takes the stress out of the early days and replaces it with clarity. They tell me this should come with the diagnosis packet that I got at the hospital.
And after they listen, they recommend it to everyone who's struggling. It's straightforward, practical, and easy to listen to. Bold Beginnings gives you the basics in a way that actually makes sense. Today's episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by the Eversense three sixty five. You can experience the Eversense three sixty five CGM system for as low as $199 for a full year.
Visit evercentcgm.com/juicebox for more details and eligibility. This episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by the Omnipod five. And at my link, omnipod.com/juicebox, you can get yourself a free what I just say, a free Omnipod five starter kit. Free. Get out of here.
Go click on that link. Omnipod.com/juicebox. Check it out. Terms and conditions apply. Eligibility may vary.
Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox. Links in the show notes. Links at juiceboxpodcast.com.
Coded Type 2: The Pump & Mounjaro Fight 2:23
Uh-huh. For the first time?
Mhmm.
How did they get me approved for Mounjaro? Since I'm a type one diabetic, they relying to my insurance for four years.
Your doctor's office then? Mhmm. Okay.
Yeah. Because when I finally pushed, I've been on a pump for almost exactly a year, actually. It might be a year, like, this week. I had to fight tooth and nail to get on a pump, and it took, like, six months to get it approved because my insurance was like, you're you're a type two. Like, you've been coded as a type two all of this time.
We're not giving you a pump. And I, anyway, threatened to do my doctor. I was like, but lying.
But there are plenty
of people who I know.
Who get pumps as type two.
Grab a pump. I know. Yeah. But it was a big issue. It was a big issue.
And so I think that's how they were able to get me on Mounjaro, which I just try not to look too closely at that. Like, someday, someone at that insurance company is gonna be like, wait a minute.
You know what they say?
Plus one is not equal to. So I'm just hoping nobody catches it.
Yeah. Yeah. You know what they say. Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies.
Exactly. Yeah. I just kinda, like, I just kinda quietly pick up my Mantra every month and just hope no one notices. Thank you. Because it's working really well for me.
And I am still at honeymoon. I do still have some low CPAP ties. So
Mhmm. Wow. How much weight have you lost on the GLP?
I don't know. You know, I didn't really so after I started after the hospital visit and I started taking insulin, my weight went back up. Not all the way back up. Mhmm. But it started going back up, and it really wasn't until I started that GLP in 2022 that's when really the heavy weight was.
So maybe 60 or 70 of the pounds.
And is that That
has been very slow. It's been very slow.
Well, you're me. That's awesome. But are you are you able to talk about it without, like when I ask you how much weight did you lose, is that triggering for you? Or like
Not anymore, no.
No. It would have been at some point though.
Yeah.
Yeah. You'd have been yelling at me about the patriarchy by now if I would have brought that up at a certain point of time. Like, I understand. Okay. Alright.
I know how you are. Goddamn white men. Like, what? I know that's it's just a rabbit hole of complaints.
You're not you're not wrong.
You're not wrong. I'm not wrong. I by the way, I I've I'm on a roll today. I interviewed somebody earlier today. And, like, based on, like, six minutes of conversation, I was like, what do you like?
And I picked out, like, what I thought they did for a living, and she cracked up laughing. She was like, my god. You're so close. I'm embarrassed. And I was like,
get That's help
so funny. But but but but so the the GLP, you said you really it's really helping you. Like, can you contextualize for people? Like, take a take a detour here and tell people what it's done for you. What do you think it's still doing?
Well, so the reason I was put on it wasn't actually for weight loss. That's just like a nice side effect. It's how I see it. Mhmm. The way I did have one, there was one NP.
Because like I said, that's an old Endo. It was a revolving door. People, like, quit every three months at that office. So because I saw a new provider almost every single time, which is I think how I also got lost in in the shuffle part of it. Not that that excuses them.
And she this is one good one. She was like, listen. There's these new medications, these GLP ones. There's some preliminary studies showing that it can help protect the remaining beta cells that you still have that are functioning.
Mhmm.
And it can kinda prolong this honeymoon phase and which I didn't even fully understand what that meant at the time, so nobody could explain it to me. But I was like, okay. There's these cells, and they're dying, and this will help them die slower. She was like, yes. And you might lose some weight.
And I was like, great. I've had a problem losing weight my whole life unless I'm literally starving myself. And so that was my motivation, and that still is my motivation. I mean, somebody could tell me tomorrow, like, you can't be on this GLP one anymore, and I'd be upset about my beta cells, not about any potential weight implications, if that makes sense.
Okay.
And so I think that's why five years in, I am still honeymooning. I mean, I have to be because I still have I think my c peptides were at, like, one or 1.5.
Yeah. I mean, you're not you wouldn't be the first adult who told me that they think that Bounjaro is, like, stretching out their honeymoon.
Impatient With the Honeymoon 6:41
So absolutely is. And, you know, at a certain point, when I finally took the bull by the horns and figured this will die these thing out, I was kinda mad about it. I was and I even asked my new endo. I was like, can I just like, what can I do to kill my beta cells faster? And he looked at me like I grew horns.
And he was like, why would you ask that? I was like, I'm not trying to sound ungrateful. I'm sure every other type one out there would love to trade places with me and still be in their honeymoon, but I'm ready to shit or get off the pot. If I understand this correctly, it's only gonna get worse. It's never gonna get better.
And I kinda like I'm tired of being in this honeymoon phase because it is hard. Like, day to day
Changes.
I don't know. Like, is this gonna be a really insulin sensitive day? Is this gonna be a really resistant day? How much insulin should I put in my pod this time? Am I gonna use all the units or, like, none of the units?
And, like, that part is a little frustrating, and he was he talked me off the ledge, He was like, we're not gonna do that.
Yeah. In a world where we're trading one problem for another one, let's stick with this one longer.
Right? Right. And so I'm I'm I'm fine now. I just I had a momentary. I was like, I'm sick of this.
Let's just kill them all the way and be done with it.
Let's get to the bad part. Can we?
Yes. Yes. Let's get to the bad part faster because then I can tackle it, and I can deal with it and move on.
I agree. I mean, listen, it's not a crazy thing to say out loud. I mean and it sounds like he did a good job of being like, oh, slow down. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm yeah. I got past it. Yeah.
It Got Worse: Scary Lows, No Supplies 8:09
So so this continued. My AMNC continued in the eighths until May 2024. And something about, like, May to September of twenty twenty four, my diabetes got a whole lot worse. And you can see a trend of, like, a huge drop in C peptides at that point even though it still happened. Mhmm.
There was a big drop. I still was not on a CGM. I was lucky if I tested my blood sugar even once a day. There was no mention of a pump. I still had never met with a diabetes educator.
I didn't even know that was a thing. I didn't know to ask for that.
K.
I had never been given any kind of training, no crappy little book that you get in the hospital, like, nothing. And I started experiencing really scary lows for the first time. I didn't even know that's what was happening. I had two experiences where I was out with my daughter, and it's just her and I, and I had absolutely zero supplies with me. No meter, no sugar, nothing, and had really scary lows where, like, by the time I got myself home and tested, I was still, like, in the forties and fifties.
Okay. I didn't even know that's what was happening.
Couple questions, may I?
Yeah. Mhmm.
Why are you not carrying a meter in your supplies with you? Is it because you don't want to or you don't know that it's even important?
That was still during the phase where I didn't even know this was important.
Okay. And then the other part I always like to ask anybody who finds themselves in this situation, contextually, not to blame anybody. But did you know you were hurting your long term health?
No. I did not. Okay. I know now, and I'm pissed. I'm really angry about it.
Good.
Lasting Damage & Dismissive Care 9:50
Yeah. I have to take I have, like, some permanent damage to some organs and, like, some nerve damage.
You do already? Yeah.
Yeah. I'm really angry about that because, again, now that I know how to read my own labs very proficiently
Mhmm.
I see it. And I see all the warning signs, and I see I had microalbumin in my urine, and I had protein, and I was probably in DKA more than once. And nobody told me. And They would walk they I would walk into the appointment, and they would say, yeah. Her a one c is still a little high.
Like, how often are you testing? And I'd lie. And I'd be like, oh, you know, I'm testing before and after every meal. And they're like, what's your they never downloaded my data. Mhmm.
They were like, what's your average blood sugar? I was like, oh, most of the time when I test, it's one fifty. They were like, okay. Well, you know, keep chipping away at it. That's it.
You do you I'm gonna use some harsh language, but I wanna make sure that I understand. Is it your intention to tell me that you think that these people were looking at you and going, it's just another fat person that doesn't take care of themselves, and we're not gonna try because it's not gonna matter? Yeah. Yeah. That's the that's the care you feel like you were getting.
Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry. Absolutely. I'm just sorry you even said it out loud, but but I appreciate No.
That wasn't I didn't find that harsh at all. I found that honest.
Cool. Alright. Well, I I oh, listen. I mean, somebody's gotta point this out. Apparently, it's me.
I don't know how that happened.
Uh-huh. Yeah.
“I Wouldn’t Have Wasted Four Years” 11:15
I somebody said to me the other day, he's like, so weird, isn't it, that you don't have diabetes? And I was like, I know. I think that a lot. I I really do. Like, of all the people who could've settled into this position, like, how in the hell?
You know what I mean? Why wasn't it one of you guys? And some of them must
be pissed
at by the way, Mary, some people still gotta be mad, don't you think? Don't you think some people turn on and go, hope that this is the popular diabetes podcast made by a guy who doesn't have diabetes? Awesome. You you know people are pissed at me somewhere. Okay.
I don't know. I hide in here. I can't I don't really know if any of you exist. Although I'm going out in the world, I'm going to a talk this weekend. Oh, first of I'm doing a talk tomorrow
That's exciting.
In a hospital, and then I'm gonna I'm driving to Atlanta, and I'm gonna go do a talk in Atlanta.
I love that you do stuff like that. I think that's really important.
It's gonna be fun. And we'll meet a couple 100 people and and say hi, and then I'll have lunch. And then I'm gonna go look at I talk all the time about, like, I should move south. Right? I'm actually gonna go look at a couple of houses on my way home.
Good for you.
Yeah. It's kind of a working fun trip. Scotty doesn't get out here often enough, so I'm gonna take a few days.
Go ahead. If you should. Yeah. You you've more than you've more than earned that.
Well, that's not why I'm doing this. I'm doing this so that I can keep the electric on, and so that you guys can be healthier. I mean, listen.
Here we go.
I gotta tell you something. A web page about type one diabetes and menopause is not gonna draw a lot of traffic to my site. I'm certainly not gonna make any money off of it. If that if you don't hear me say that out loud and think, this guy must really care about us, you're out of your mind. Because, like, there's there's no one no one making content makes content they don't think that they can't get clicks off of.
I'm constantly running around making content for big 12 people. I'm like, here. Yeah. I think you'll love like, this is really gonna help the people. It's gonna help.
I I look at the the sign language page for the bold beginning series all the time.
It does Oh, that you did like
a few clicks a month. And I think
But but it's so important. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No.
That's what I love about this podcast and and about you is it's it's just so genuine and so natural. And I don't know. We don't deserve you. No. You're a national treasure.
First of all, you're very kind. And and mostly people just heard how I cook one saving you, man, pivoted the whole thing right onto me, which I'm not gonna lie to you. I did. And I'm just I'm so good at. It's hard not to do sometimes.
You know what mean? Okay.
It's your prerogative.
I've got skills, Mary. They're not all fantastic. No. It really I will later, I'll listen back to our episode at some point. Right?
And and what I think people from the outside will see is like, well, that was self serving or this was that. Like, I'm really doing these things because I think they're making points to people listening Yeah. Which will end up moving them in a certain direction that will help them.
But Well, listen. If I had like, that's why I'm here today. It sounds so trite, and everybody says this, but it's because it's true. If I had listened to a podcast like this with somebody like me back in 2021, I wouldn't have wasted four years of my life
Yeah.
Damaging my organs.
Yeah.
So if one person listens to me rambling with you Mhmm. And has benefited, like, that's that's the goal.
That's how I see all this, actually. So I'm I'm happy for you to add your story to it. But, anyway, I'm sorry. I I No. That's okay.
I did waylay you. I apologize. This episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by the Eversense three sixty five. Get three hundred and sixty five days of comfortable wear without having to change a sensor. When you think of a continuous glucose monitor, you think of a CGM that lasts ten or fourteen days.
But the Eversense three sixty five, it lives up to its name, lasting three hundred and sixty five days. That's one year without having to change your CGM. With the Eversense three sixty five, you can count on comfort and consistency three hundred and sixty five days a year because the Eversense silicone based adhesive is designed for your skin to be gentle and to allow you to take the transmitter on and off to enjoy your shower, a trip to the pool, or an activity where you don't want your CGM on your body. If you're looking for comfort, accuracy, and a one year wear, you are looking for Eversense three sixty five. Go to eversensecgm.com/juicebox to learn more.
You already love Omnipod five, the tubeless, waterproof, automated insulin delivery system. Now it's even stronger. A stronger algorithm starts here with Omnipod five's latest algorithm enhancements. A new lower one hundred milligram per deciliter target glucose option for more time and range and fewer interruptions to help you spend even more time in automated mode. Request a thirty day Omnipod five trial today at omnipod.com/juicebox and experience the enhancements firsthand.
Terms and conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox.
Taking Charge & Finding the Podcast 16:23
No. No. No. It's okay. Well, so just to kinda wrap wrap it up.
So, September 2024, I started taking this all seriously. I actually did join and I'm not gonna talk much about this. This is not why I'm here. I did join a a diabetes coaching program that I found online.
Mhmm.
Did that for a few months. It was like a crash course. Learned a lot of basics. Confronted my endo. We duped it out.
I demanded a CGM. I demanded a pump. Anyway and I and I started sort of this this journey that I'm on now, and I didn't even discover your podcast until literally about I think it was April of last year. Somebody had a birthday party. Somebody you know very well at a birthday party told me about the podcast.
And so, like, the too long didn't read.
Already been
a really good hour in.
Hold on a second. Somebody that I know well at a birthday party told you about my podcast.
Yeah.
Is it somebody I'm related to?
No. No. No. No. It's somebody who's been on the podcast, and he's very active in the Facebook group.
Ryan Hodges?
Ryan. Oh, you said Arizona. I should have guessed Ryan. Yeah. Actually, may I say this right here?
Because I don't know where this else will ever come up. Ryan is gonna come back on the cruise and help me with some stuff, and so we're gonna share a cabin together. So Ryan and I are gonna get to know each other pretty well.
Oh my god. Yeah. That's amazing. And he told me last year that he was going on the cruise. Okay.
So let me tell you how I met Ryan. So he okay. I have a neighbor in my neighborhood. We're friends. She has kids.
We have kids. We're at one of her kid's birthday parties. Ryan is her stepsister's husband.
Okay.
And he was there at the party, and I was there at the party, and he saw me. I didn't even have a CGM at this point. Or maybe maybe I had a CGM. I had a CGM. I didn't have a pump.
And so he saw me, like, take out my pen because I was gonna eat a hot dog. And he was like, oh, are you diabetic? And I was like, yeah. He's like type one or type two? I was like, actually type one.
And we got into this chitchat, and I was really I still I kinda hate when people ask me when I was diagnosed because when you say you were an adult and not a kid, people get confused. And it stresses me out and makes me kind of panic. And and so I think I might have even lied about how long I had been a diabetic to him because I was like, I was so embarrassed. I'm better about that now when people ask me. I'm like, was in my thirties.
You know? And he's like, oh, what pump are you on? I'm like, oh, I'm just MDI. Like, you know, I'm trying to get on the Omnipod, and I just did this coaching program. I've got my a one c down, and and he's like, have you listened to Juice Box?
And I was like, what's that? And he tells me about it. He tells me about the cruise, and I started listening, I think, that day. And, yeah, here we are. I've listened to almost every episode you've produced.
I started in the mid hundreds
Mhmm.
And I've skip I've skipped very few.
What the Podcast Changed 19:13
Well, that's really crazy. Mhmm. Can I Yeah? Can I ask you to contextualize something for me? Because you're in the middle of something that's pretty new.
And this isn't I'm saying this to you because I don't want you to feel that I'm asking you this, but also for the people listening. Like, I'm not asking you to tell me, like, why I'm so terrific. I'm asking you, like, what helped you? Like, what struck you? What made sense?
What led you to something? Were there because there's something about how it's made or how much is available or how it's structured online or, like, can you help me understand how it helps you?
Yeah. I listen on Spotify. When I had found the podcast, I, you know, I had already got wrapped my arms around a lot of the basics that you go over in, like, bold beginnings and the the pro tip series. And, you know, my amnesty was starting to come down, but I still listen to all of those series. And I was like, oh, that actually was explained in a way that's a lot more simple than the way it was just explained to me.
Oh, okay. Kinda reinforced what I've been learning. And for me, it's like, I love listening to people's stories. I think everybody has a story, and everybody has a journey, and everybody is interesting. And being able to listen to these episodes, whether they're the tactical ones or whether they're people storytelling, I I find it really comforting to have a way to connect back to the t one d community consistently and to hear stories that I can relate to even if somebody's experience or journey is very different from mine.
Mhmm. So that's what I that's what I like about it. And I I have a poor group of friends now who have type one diabetes and with ourselves with diabetes and, like, being able to con like, connect to them and talk to them and share stories with them consistently is extremely important and helpful for me. And this podcast is almost a continuation of my diabetes.
Okay. So like, a a
You're my Diabesties, Scott.
Oh, thank you. No one's ever said that to me before.
That was really teasing, but it's true.
No. That that made me feel nice. No one's ever said that to me before.
I think I told you before you recorded. I was like, you don't know me, but you're my friends. Because I've listened to you talk for so long.
Because I don't want you to murder me. I'm gonna say we are friends. It's okay. Don't worry.
Don't worry.
So, basically, you you got some basics, then you had them reinforced, but also simplified, and then Yeah. Community and, like, kinship digitally. Those are kind of the things it did for you. Okay. Mhmm.
That's
awesome. And it's good and it's good reminders. You know? Like, if I have just listened to a podcast that day, I'm less likely to forget to prepos before dinner because it's gonna be on my mind.
So that's the one thing I'm I'm over and over again, like, happy to hear about because, like, it it's such an unintentional, like, benefit of the podcast. Meaning, like, there's no there's no world where I sat down and said, oh, if I give people a touch point, it'll help them stay more involved. I'm sure that would have been obvious had I, you know, I don't had know, I paid attention to like my eleventh grade psychology class. I'm sure that would have been like made, you know, made sense, but it's not a thing I planned. And when people report it back all the time, I'm always very like happy about that because of the way they often talk about it, which is when I'm when I was before, like like, overly focused and, like, burning out on it and not having good outcomes.
But now I feel like I'm aware of it, but it's in the background and it's happening, and I'm on top of it, but not in a way that makes me feel like it's overwhelming. Is that a
100 yeah.
Yeah.
100%. That's where I am today, for sure.
Help Me or Move Out of My Way 22:56
Awesome. That's a quick to get there too in in a year.
Well, you know, I'm pretty I'm pretty driven once I get my head on my ass. I like to do things fast. Once I make once I make a decision, you can help me or you can move out of my way. Right. It just took me longer than usual to make the decision to just take responsibility for this.
It's awesome.
And I and I'm happy to share that now, as of today, my a one c is 5.5.
Woah.
My time in range is almost a 100%, and that's between seventy and one sixty. I'm thinking of bumping that one sixty down, and my standard deviation is 18.
Holy crap. I'm so
good at this.
This is all I heard when you said those numbers. No. I'm just kidding. That's a lot of hard work from you. That's that's really well No.
Seriously.
Sure is. And and it's not just because I'm I mean, I'm sure part of it is, like, I have friends who have had diabetes since they were kids, and their numbers don't look like this. And so I know as I age, like, this will get harder, but it's not just because I'm in my honeymoon. Like, I I work really hard this every single day.
Yeah. No. I I would I I try very hard. Anytime people celebrate with me, I try very hard to remember to say, like, that's a lot of hard work done by you. Very well done.
Like, because a lot of times people will wanna give me credit and I'll just be like, look, I said the stuff and all, but, like, you had to go do it. You know? Like, it's it's a lot of hard work. It is really well done. Congratulations.
That that must be a long
Thank you.
Now is it
It does.
More Than Diabetes: Her Son’s Turnaround 24:26
Is that is that success? Is that translating over to other parts of your life? Are you feeling more confident in other ways? Or is there Yeah.
Is it like
a like a human learning experience that's coming from it? I'm I've never asked anybody that before, but just occurred to
a really interesting question. You know? Yes and no. Back when I was in the thick of figuring out type one diabetes and and how to get my A and T down and how to have tighter control and all of these things, We were also in the middle of the worst two years of our son's life that he's had. Okay.
Things for him are extremely challenging and really scary, and there were some pretty serious real world consequences that were making their way into our home. And and so and I had just started my MBA program on top of working full time, and, like, my home life was was un unraveling. Yeah. Just desperately clawing at anything I couldn't to help this child. And so, again, diabetes was, like, the eighth thing on the list of things for me to be stressed about.
And now all of a sudden, I have this enormous mental load to deal with, and I was really, really, really angry. Because I hadn't I hadn't confronted my anger or my grief yet about being type one until I actually understood what it meant and, like, the foreverness of it. So that was really hard. At the beginning of last year, I was dealing with a lot, and I was very burned out, and the mental load felt impossible. And it feels really good to now to have fought through that Mhmm.
And to have just gritted my teeth and and gotten through it and gotten over it and to now be in a place where diabetes is the fifth most stressful thing on my list because I've learned how to control it. And and we happen to be we had a huge with our son just a few months ago, and he is now in an amazing place and, like, thriving and doing better than he ever has. And so, yeah, just a lot of things right now are going really well. If you had talked to me three months ago, probably would have sounded a lot more pessimistic. But Was it medication?
What'd you find out? Is it a medication, or what'd you figure out?
Mhmm. Yeah. He's he's been medicated for many, many years, but, it was the correct diagnosis and the correct medication. This is when we realized he was bipolar. Mhmm.
So there was a serious mental disorder that had gone undiagnosed that the autism never explained, and I had to call 30 psychiatrists in the county to find one who was willing to evaluate his age, and that's how worked.
Good for you. That's awesome. I did you hear the lady that was on whose daughter was bipolar? And they it took them a long time to get the medication right, and she was so thrilled because there was such an improvement with the medication, but it wasn't like what she would have considered all the way there. But it was good enough that she felt like she could move forward with the girl's life, or the black I can't remember.
A girl's life maybe? Is it? And then they she said, well, now we're gonna try to address her weight, so we put her on a GLP. And a lot of the other bipolar symptoms, I know bipolar is probably not, like, the correct terminology. But, like, symptoms went away with the GLP.
That's really interesting.
Did you hear that one?
I don't remember. I remember that episode. I don't remember that detail. My son is a little bit underweight, though.
Yeah. No. No. No.
Keep weight on him, so I don't but that is really interesting.
All I took from her statement was something about maybe there was a reduction in in inflammation in the kid.
Inflammation.
Yeah.
You know? And we did go down the whole, like, pans pandas rabbit hole with him. Mhmm. And he did not have a single marker for, like, body inflammation, brain inflammation. We tried some medical for that, and it didn't really do anything.
We had tried that child had been on every antipsychotic that exists for his age. He had been on every mood stabilizer that exists for that age. Mhmm. And nothing had truly ever worked until this medication will be done now.
Okay.
And we're thrilled. We're thrilled. And it was kinda interesting. His his psychiatrist who I I mostly have appointments with his psychiatrist. Right?
Like, comes, and then he'll be like, hey. And then he goes off and plays. Like, he doesn't he doesn't wanna talk to this guy. And I remember because his, like, can't evaluate rates, he just prescribed. So we had to go get evaluated somewhere else.
And he was like, so how are you feeling? Because a lot of parents, like, getting a diagnosis of a serious mental disorder can be really heavy. And I was like, are you kidding? I am thrilled. I am ecstatic.
I couldn't be happier because this is identifiable, it's diagnosable, and it's treatable. And the treatment is, like, a very old, long standing, safe, low side effect medication that he can be on for the rest of his life if it's working for him. I was like, I'm thrilled. I said, I I have a chronic disease. I'm a type one diabetic.
I'll I'll be on insulin the rest of my life. This is no different. And that's how we talked to him about it too. You know? Like, the other day, he was watching we're watching survivor as a family, and there's all these pharmaceutical commercials.
And he's like, why does anybody take medication with all these side effects? And he's like, wait. I take medication. I was like, yeah. Take take a step back.
And I was like, I, you know, my body doesn't make insulin, and so that's what I take. And your body doesn't make x y z, and so that's what you take. And, like, the medications we're on are not those medications. It's gonna, like, give you rectal bleeding or whatever it is they talk about. And he was like, oh, okay.
Your rectum will bleed from your eyes. How's that gonna happen? Right. I I the I'll tell you what. Of those commercials, I get why they're supposed to list the side effects in
Of course.
The one thing that I never understand is, you know, it doesn't matter what the drug name is. Right? Like, just let's just say it's Trulicity. And and they'll say, if you're allergic to Trulicity, don't take Trulicity. And I'm like, is that a really a thing we have to say?
Like like,
is Mhmm. Like, right? How do you know you're allergic to it if you've never seen it?
I don't like, are there people out there who are like, oh, I'm allergic to it, but I'm just gonna keep going. Like, I don't like, maybe there is, but, like, that like, I understand the other side effects. Like, if you don't, you know, if if you don't want your if you don't want your asshole to bleed out of your eyes, then don't take it. Like, okay. Thank you.
If you're if I don't know. That does that sentence doesn't make any sense to me. If you're if you have I forget exactly how they put it. It's not allergic. It's if you have something with the drug, don't take the drug.
And I'm like, that really seems like common sense to me. But Oh, yeah.
It's like if there's a sign by the wood chipper, don't stick your hand in the wood chipper. It's, you know, it's a liability. It's just a it's a liability issue. That's all.
The funniest thing mean. I don't know. I laugh every freaking time for every drug when they say that one line. I'm like, yeah. I got it.
Thanks.
Me too.
Awesome. Oh my gosh. Is there anything we didn't talk about that we should have or anything that I've skipped over or didn't get to?
A couple things. Go ahead. If you got a few more minutes.
I got minutes I just don't wanna miss. Okay.
Strength Training & Falling Insulin Needs 31:33
So okay. So one thing I wanna talk to you about, I want your opinion on is something has been happening the last two months, and I'm really freaked out about it. It's a good thing, but it Mhmm. You know, I don't trust good things that happen. They freak me out.
So I've started strength training, which is a very generous way of defining what I'm actually doing on my own.
A pile of books across to our part. Yeah. Yeah.
I'm like I'm like doing, like, pre weights and, like Sure. You know, body for, like, twenty minutes, and I just I'm just trying to get some I have a tone and a loose skin, and I'm just trying to tighten things up and increase my strength and, you know, be able to still pick up my kids and all these things. So for about six weeks, I've been at least twenty minutes a day, like, five days a week. I've been doing the strength training, and in that exact same time frame, my insulin use has gone down by 33%.
Okay. I mean
Which is wild to me. And I'm like, I know that, like, strength training and, like, weight lifting for diabetics can be really great, and it can increase your insulin sensitivity, but, like, that seems extreme. I'm not mad about it. I'm just like, when's the other shoe gonna drop?
Well, no. No. But if if I mean, there's probably a a blend of things there. So you're you're on have you upped your GLP in that time frame too?
No. No.
Okay. So you you started strength chain which may be what means, like, dumbbells and, like Mhmm. Pull downs and just some basic,
like Squats, lunges. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
And your insulin needs went down how much?
33%. I I went from averaging thirty units a day total across basal and bolus to, like, 18 to 20 a day.
No kidding. Yeah. That's awesome. And have well, have you been losing weight during that time?
No. In fact, a few weeks ago, realized I had gained five pounds, which talk about triggering. I absolutely panicked. And I even had a moment where I was like, I should stop taking insulin and drive my numbers high so that I can lose that weight. And then I very quickly told my wife and my therapist that I was having those feelings.
Mhmm. So you stopped.
Me accountable.
Good for you.
And then I realized two things. One, it was the week before my period. And and and two, I think I'm putting on muscle.
Yeah. I mean, I've I so I've had the same experience after, like, having a lost weight on the GLP. And then I got like, and you're so tracking the number, like, because the number means you're losing fat. Like, there's kinda like that whole thing. And then I got down to a point where I was like, god, I'm I'm actually pretty thin.
Like, let's start moving in the other direction.
Mhmm.
And I added, like, you know again, I'm not like I'm not training for mister Olympia or anything like that. Right? Like, know, trying to ride a bike, go for more walks, rowing machines.
Yeah. I ride bikes too. Yeah.
And and the other thing I did was I added I don't eat enough fiber in my diet, so I add, like, fiber tablets to my day. That has it makes me retain water. So, like, I had to watch the number climb from that. I had to watch the number climb from the from the, you know, the resistance stuff. And it at first, it's a panic because I was trying to lose weight.
And then to see the number go the other direction makes you feel like, oh god. Am I gonna like, am I gonna be 70 pounds heavier the next time I look up? I lost 70 pounds. You know, I put three on and they're all gonna come back. But then it took me me a little bit to realize, like, I'm like, oh, no.
I'm just I'm gonna gain probably five to ten pounds from this very low weight, but my clothes don't fit any differently. I don't look any differently. It's just it's a structural improvement. Yeah. And that's how I that's how I chose to think about it.
Yeah. On And my clothes are fitting better, and, like, things are toning. I put on muscle really, really fast. Awesome. Something about my genetics that's always which I used to hate when I was younger.
So I was like, I don't wanna work out. I don't wanna get bigger. But now I'm like, hell, yeah. I wanna be a strong lady. I wanna put on the muscle.
I just have to not panic when I get on the scale.
Arden went to the gym with her boyfriend twice last week, and she's like, I don't wanna get too jacked. And I'm like, I don't think you're in any like, you know, I I don't I don't think there's any real concern about that. I said, just keep doing what you do, but I think you're
fucked. Yeah.
I don't wanna get too jacked. I'm like, like, I don't think that's gonna happen. But, you know, you're fine. That's awesome. I mean, listen.
I I have to tell you, like, I would just take it. I don't I don't know. I can't sit here and tell you. I mean, honestly, you should probably just ask, you know, a large language model or Google it. But, like I have.
Yeah. I
have. And it has said, like, thirty three percent's a little extreme, but, like, maybe? I'm like, okay.
Well, I
mean Whatever. We'll see what happens.
Yeah. Truth be told, like, are you are you eating differently and you don't realize it too? Like, there maybe there's something else happening you don't realize.
I I mean, I I've been trying to increase my water intake to go right along with the exercise, and my stress levels have come way down. Good. I can have little slumpings to do with it.
Oh, there. See? Now that's a great example. Right? That I didn't think of that, but I'll use my
son. Connected?
I'll use my son as an example. Like, if he doesn't move, he turns into a, like, like a caged tiger. And then if he doesn't move long enough, then the tiger gets angry. Like, you know what I mean? Like, so first, starts pacing, like, you know, it used to be, you know, got when he was younger, he had baseball.
And then as he and he graduated from college and didn't have baseball anymore, and he's like, we're like, hey. You need to find an activity, my friend. Like, you like, you know, go and so he started playing basketball. Like, he goes out. He probably once it's warm out, he's probably playing basketball, like, four nights a week at a park or something like that after work.
Goes and plays golf. Like, you know, taught himself to play golf so he could go play golf and and and that kind of stuff. And when I see him doing those things, personality wise, like stress, all that stuff, he he lightens right up. And if it if the weather goes crappy for a week and he can't go play basketball, you can see him get, you know, tight, I guess, is the way to put it. And Yeah.
And and he's not nearly the only person I've ever heard talk about that. So if your exercise I mean, listen. I don't know the numbers on this, but, like, every bro podcast in the world will yell about this. Like, that that exercise is is more effective for depression than an SSRI. I don't know if that's actually true, but people say it all the time.
And colloquially, people who work out a lot believe their mental health is better. So if you're just lowering anxiety or lowering stress, that could be putting down significantly your insulin needs.
Yeah. And I I mean, I'd say the bulk of my stresses could decrease is just how incredibly well my son is doing right now compared to January. And I I absolutely feel better.
So those are those things overlapping the timeline of you Yeah. Your son got better off? So you had more free time, so you started working out, and then your insolence went down.
Yeah. I think so.
Such a great example of, like, not you know, that very often, we don't know why things are actually happening. Like, put a great example of that. And by the way, we could be wrong about that. It could end up being something else, but that is a reasonable consideration, I think.
Yeah. I think so too.
Yeah. Good for you. Your life got better and you're happier.
Autoimmune Family History 38:55
Yeah. For sure. Yeah. One thing you haven't asked me about, so I'm shocked, Scott. I'm absolutely shocked.
What what have you not asked me that you ask everybody?
Wait. I ask everybody or I ask lesbians with babies?
No. You ask everybody about their family history. Oh. Autoimmune family history.
Well, you said though you you said you said people have type two. There's Hashimoto's. Like, I felt like you went over it, but was there more?
There is more. There is more. That's I was just I was prepared. Talked to my mom yesterday. I made a list.
I want alright.
I'll take that before you go, but I just by the way, like, there's a lesbian couple that's on one time, and the way they inseminated each other, it's like, I should stop making the podcast. I've done it. I was like, I should just run this one over and over again. This one's awesome. So but I I but, you know, you just went to the doctor.
It sounds like that's sounds boring.
Yeah. We just went to the I mean, but I we we both, you know, pushed the syringe at the doctor's office.
These girls simulated intercourse and then did it themselves.
Heard of that. Heard of that. Your your chances are a lot higher in a doctor's office, and it's quite expensive. So we went the medical route.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. No. I mean, listen.
I I don't know. Well, there's a lot in there I don't have any personal experience with, but but yeah. Yeah. I when she told me, I was like, really? And she goes there.
She started explaining. I was like, okay. So okay. Well, what else is in your family then?
Okay. So we type one in Hashimoto's. My mom has Hashimoto's and Crohn's disease.
Mhmm.
My brother has ulcerative colitis, which is a little on the fence. They're like, some people say it could be autoimmune. I think if that's one of those, they don't really know. My brother has psoriatic arthritis, my other brother. My grandmother had narcolepsy and rheumatoid arthritis.
Oh, you didn't tell me you were Irish.
Yeah. Well, actually, like
Irish English? Like,
I mostly, like, Scottish, Irish, English Okay. German. Almost a fifty fifty split. That's why I put on muscle. So fast.
That comes from German farmers.
Yeah. Let's just say that part of the world. Okay. Here you go.
That part of the world. Okay.
Okay. I got it. Oh, I'm looking. Yeah. I didn't really look at I see your picture now.
You're very Caucasian. I see it.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm very white. My skin glows in the dark.
Oh, yeah. I see your is that your
I don't pan.
That's not a married last name. That's your last name. Right?
That's my last name. Yeah. My wife took my last name.
Okay. Oh,
I shouldn't have said that. Whatever. I don't care.
Well, that's okay. Like, you want me
to I've take it got no. I've got a bunch of, like, aunts and uncles and cousins with other random, like like, autoimmune pancreatitis and sarcoidosis. And then my wife, just for fun, and she obviously, we're not related, so this isn't exactly irrelevant. But she has psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and lupus. Dear lord.
Yeah.
That's a lot of thought. And you guys both got
That's awesome.
Over it a couple times, you said, too. Did that make anything worse? Does anybody have long COVID?
Perhaps. Yeah. Per perhaps. Yeah. She you know, she's on so many different treatment plans for these pretty serious autoimmune disorders that it's like, meh.
Yeah. I don't
know if there's anything additional she could be she could be doing for long COVID, but but, yeah, she's really she's extremely resilient and strong.
Okay.
Yeah. I like to hide behind her comma, and I like to hide behind her auto means, this first. It's pretty easy to do.
You may think I'm trouble, but look at this one. A problem. Me feel like nothing's going wrong over here. Well, I appreciate I appreciate you sharing that extra stuff with Thank you very much. I am not surprised that that part of the world is makes people like that for sure.
So Yeah. That's something else though, isn't it? It's I mean, so much you know, it just it just sucks. I you know, obviously, my my wife is like English and Irish and and, you know, my daughter's got other issues too. And it it sucks to watch somebody have to live with all that stuff.
You know what I mean? Like, it's people Yeah. Are tough and they'll joke through it and everything, but you're very nice if nobody had to.
It's a lot. Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely a lot. And you know, I we were concerned about, you know, we're watching our son for signs of anything that my wife has because she gave birth to him.
And we've had our daughter in trial net for the last two years.
Mhmm.
So I am very concerned about her possibly getting type one in the future. So so, yeah, she gets her lab work checked every year. Last year, there were a couple concerning markers, and she has an endocrinologist too. So her her endo is also checking her full thyroid panel every year, all of the diabetes markers every year, all the celiac markers every year. And she had a couple concerning levels and symptoms last year, but then this year, all her levels are fantastic and, like, completely normally in range.
So I'm I'm holding out hope that that she won't become type one. And so okay. So something really interesting. So my grandfather might have been a lotta type one. This is my mom's dad.
He he it was just called diabetes. Mhmm. Like, they're you know, like, type lotta wasn't even introduced until, like, 1993, I think, and he was diagnosed in the eighties. And all I know is he tested his blood sugar before and after every meal, and he couldn't eat until fifteen minutes after he had taken his insulin. And I don't know.
I just and he was diagnosed as an adult. So I just wonder. I think people, as he got older, just assumed he was type two, but I don't know. He needed a he needed a lot of insulin, and he really took care of himself. And he ate very low carbons.
Like, I just I wonder if anybody had ever tested him for for a lot for type one when he was still alive. I wonder if that's what he would have had. And then his dad, because my great grandpa was born in 1893, he died at 49 in 1942 from diabetes complications. And I wonder too. Was that lot of type one?
Because they certainly wouldn't have been able catch that, I don't think.
Yeah. Then I'm you're never gonna know, isn't it? It is Yeah. Isn't the
same to one word about. I yeah. I just want I wonder. Like, am I the first one, or am I just the first one had access to blood tests?
Yeah. No. I know. I heard you say that before that it's it's it's something you wonder about. Yeah.
I don't know. But listen, probably. You you know what I mean? Like, probably, that's what was going on, and they just didn't know what this I mean, listen. You were diagnosed in the February, and it sounds like you they they barely could tell you what was going on with you.
Now you tell me about guys in the eighteen hundreds. Trust me. They didn't know. You know what I mean?
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So
It it it mean, in the end, it's all very understandable. Like, I mean, it's no one's fault. Like, you can say, oh, it's the system or, you know, they should know or whatever. But I just think in the end, like, this is just how it works. You know I mean?
The One Blood Test She’d Never Skip 45:57
Is.
Although I I do feel like, my soapbox, if I could choose a soapbox to get on and let like, when it would be I I don't think anybody should ever be diagnosed with type two diabetes without having their type one antibodies tested. With the rate at which type one is accelerating and across all populations, that is a hill I will die on. I don't care about the resources. I don't care about insurance policies. It's a blood test.
Mhmm. It's a really simple blood test, and I don't think there's an excuse for anyone to be diagnosed. And and I have since made my dad and brothers go get all their antibodies tested just to triple check that they really are type two, and they aren't. They don't have any antibodies.
But,
I was like, don't trust your doctor. Go ask for this. Go Gotta be your own doctor these days.
Right? No. I I
Yeah. I You do.
I'm glad you did that for certain. And, you know, if you wanted me to be manned at a part of it, I would just say, like, don't look at people and just guess their entire medical history by their weight. Yeah. Like, you know, like, that's just sort of ridiculous. So, I mean, if you wanna I'm not saying that there aren't some physical attributes that could get you moving in a direction, But you can't let it make the decision for you before you even stop and think about it.
It just Yep. Doesn't make any sense either. Because look what it did to you. And and by the way, and you were lucky to get out of it so quickly. I know you're pissed about four years, but I've talked to plenty of people who were treated much longer than that, you know, with with the wrong diagnosis for a lot of different things.
And it always ends up being just somebody somewhere along the way just, you know, make the snap judgment and put them on a path. And, I mean, you've you've talked over and over again today about, you know, I was doing this, but I didn't know. Or I was doing that, but no one told me. Like, I'm I'm just a big proponent of, like, the way you get put on the path in the beginning has a lot to do with where you are, not just a month from now or a year from now, but thirty years from now. And so it's really incumbent on the people who see you first to get you going in the right direction.
And instead, what you got was, you're fat, go lose weight. Mhmm. Yeah. So anyway, I hope people in the medical community listen to this, but I I don't
Me too.
Yeah. Hopefully, they will. Alright. Mary, thank you very much. This was terrific.
I don't know what to call this, but we'll figure that out later.
Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. It was really, really fun talking to you.
You had a good time? That's great. Excellent. I did too. Hold on one second.
Okay? The podcast episode that you just enjoyed was sponsored by Eversense CGM. They make the Eversense three sixty five. That thing lasts a whole year. One insertion.
Every year? Come on. You probably feel like I'm messing with you, but I'm not. Ever since cgm.com/juicebox. This episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by Omnipod five.
Omnipod five is a tube free automated insulin delivery system that's been shown to significantly improve a one c and time and range for people with type one diabetes when they've switched from daily injections. Learn more and get started today at omnipod.com/juicebox. At my link, you can get a free starter kit right now. Terms and conditions apply. Eligibility may vary.
Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of the Juice Box podcast. If you're not already subscribed or following the podcast in your favorite audio app, like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, please do that now. Seriously, just to hit follow or subscribe will really help the show.
If you go a little further in Apple Podcasts and set it up so that it downloads all new episodes, I'll be your best friend. And if you leave a five star review, oh, I'll probably send you a Christmas card. Would you like a Christmas card?
- Adult-onset type 1 is often coded as type 2 — and that coding follows you. Mary had to push hard for months just to get a pump approved because insurance had her on record as type 2. If you were diagnosed as an adult and the label doesn’t fit, getting the diagnosis (and the billing code) corrected matters for access to tools.
- GLP-1 medication and the honeymoon. Mary was prescribed a GLP-1 partly on early evidence it may help protect remaining beta-cell function and stretch the honeymoon phase. It’s an evolving area — worth a conversation with your endocrinologist about what’s known and whether it fits your situation.
- Carrying low supplies isn’t optional. Mary had frightening lows while out alone with her daughter and nothing on hand to treat them — partly because no one had ever told her it mattered. Always carrying fast sugar and a way to check is basic safety, especially early on.
- Strength training can change insulin needs quickly. Within weeks of starting regular strength work, Mary’s insulin needs dropped sharply — a reminder that exercise (and lower stress) can raise insulin sensitivity. Flag big changes like that to your care team so settings can keep up.
- The blood test Mary wishes everyone got. Her hill to die on: no one should be diagnosed type 2 without antibody testing (GAD65, IA-2, islet cell) to rule out type 1 — it’s simple and inexpensive. This episode also speaks honestly about her recovery from disordered eating; it’s a sensitive topic, and if it resonates, support is available (in the U.S., the National Alliance for Eating Disorders helpline).
- Part 1 — Mary’s Story Begins — The first half: the misdiagnosis years, before she took charge.
- Eversense 365 — The one-year implantable CGM — an episode sponsor. As low as $199 for a full year (eligibility applies).
- Omnipod 5 — The tubeless automated insulin delivery system — an episode sponsor. Free starter kit at the link (terms apply).
- Bold Beginnings Series — The newly-diagnosed starting point — where Mary got her basics.
- Diabetes Pro Tip Series — The settings-and-timing fundamentals Mary leaned on.
- TrialNet — Free type 1 antibody screening for relatives of people with T1D — Mary’s daughter is enrolled.
- National Alliance for Eating Disorders — Helpline and support — this episode touches on recovery from disordered eating.
#1891 You'll Get Used to It - Part 1
Part two: after years coded as type 2 — fighting for a pump, scary lows, lasting damage — she takes charge, turns her numbers around, and makes her case for antibody testing.
You’ll Get Used to It
Cold Open & Sponsors 0:00
Hello, friends, and welcome back to another episode of the Juice Box podcast.
Hi. My name is Mary. I just turned 37. I live in Arizona. I am a marketing executive.
I'm in school earning my MBA.
Nothing you hear on the Juice Box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. If you're new to type one diabetes, begin with the bold beginnings series from the podcast. Don't take my word for it. Listen to what reviewers have said.
Bold beginnings is the best first step. I learned more in those episodes than anywhere else. This is when everything finally clicked. People say it takes the stress out of the early days and replaces it with clarity. They tell me this should come with the diagnosis packet that I got at the hospital.
And after they listen, they recommend it to everyone who's struggling. It's straightforward, practical, and easy to listen to. Bold Beginnings gives you the basics in a way that actually makes sense. The episode you're about to enjoy was brought to you by Dexcom, the Dexcom g seven, the same CGM that my daughter wears. You can learn more and get started today at my link, dexcom.com/juicebox.
US Med is sponsoring this episode of the Juice Box podcast, and we've been getting our diabetes supplies from US Med for years. You can as well. Usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514. Use the link or the number, get your free benefits check, and get started today with US Med.
Hi. My name is Mary. I just turned 37. I live in Arizona. I am a marketing executive.
I'm in school earning my MBA. My wife and I are raising our two young kids, and I am a type one diabetic diagnosed coming up on five years.
How young are the kids?
Five and nine.
Oh, did you get one of them as a diabetes gift?
Two Moms, Two Kids & “All Out of Sperm” 2:34
Per well, one of them might have triggered my diabetes. I don't know. Oh. We're gonna talk about that.
Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Listen to me.
Okay. We're gonna figure it all out. This is nice. Yeah. '32 when you were diagnosed.
Prior to that, how was your health?
So I can't actually tell you when I became a type one. I could tell you it was sometime between 2019 and 2021, between 30 and 32 years old. But the day somebody told me, oh, actually, you have type one diabetes was December 2021.
Okay.
Before that, health was okay. I've had Hashimoto's since my, gosh, early twenties, maybe, like, '22 or '23.
Mhmm.
So I've got that going for me. But, yeah, I never really had any major health issues.
Yeah. And did you intimate a moment ago that you cooked that younger baby inside of you?
Yeah. Mhmm. Yes. My wife, carried and gave birth to our son. He's nine, and I carried and gave birth to our daughter, and she's five and a half.
And she was born in September 2020, and then I was finally diagnosed extremely late in December 2021.
Okay.
A whole, like, nine months after I was in the ER for the first time with high blood sugar, which is the whole story we'll get into.
Are they, brother and sister through the donor as well?
Yeah. Yeah. We use the same donor.
Nice. Well, that's fun. Mhmm. Did you guys decide ahead of time that it's, like, you'll do one, then I'll do one?
Yeah. Oh, we sure did. Okay. So my wife, she's eight years older than me. She actually turns 45 on Thursday this week.
So it was just the obvious choice that she would go first and I'd go second.
Yeah. To get going. Yeah. Did you feel like afterwards, were you like, oh, I wish she was younger because she could've done the other one too. I'm I'm good not doing this, or were you excited to do it?
I always wanted kids. I was never super excited about pregnancy, but it was kind of like, it was something she really wanted to experience. And I was like, well, if you're gonna do it, I have to do it. Like, you know what I mean? And she Yeah.
She has a lot of health challenges herself. Her pregnancy was pretty horrible, and her delivery was pretty horrible. Like, you could not pay her to get pregnant again. So I was like, okay. Well, I'll do it next.
And then I was like, oh, hold my beer. Like, I'll have an even worse pregnancy and delivery than you. So you could not pay me to do it again. So we're quite happy. We're quite happy.
Two two parents, two hands, two kids. We're all out of sperm. We're good to go.
I wish you would have said that twenty minutes from now so we could have called this episode all out of sperm.
All out of sperm. We used all of our vials. That's fun.
Planning a Pregnancy, and a “Type 2” Label 5:12
Okay. Well, I guess let's find the beginning of the story. So you're not sure you're not sure when you started seeing symptoms, or they started going so that you're aware of them now in hindsight but didn't know about them then?
Yes and yes and no. So I have a suspicion that if somebody had tested antibodies, maybe they would have shown up in late twenty nineteen, but but maybe not. So, you know, getting pregnant as as lesbian is like a whole planned thing. Right? So, like, before we had decided, like, okay.
We're ready to have a second kid. So I went and had, you know, labs drawn, and they did some flushing of the plumbing and just different things to prepare my body for pregnancy. And at that time, I was actually I've just this is kind of a separate thing that we'll also talk about. I've lost, oops, sorry. I've lost 80 pounds in the last, like, three years.
So I was at my highest weight at the time, and my lab results came back with an elevated a one c. Mhmm. It was 6.3. And I was asked they were like, hey. So we're gonna go ahead and just classify you as type two.
It's the first time I'd heard that. And would you wait to get pregnant? Like, we'd like you to lose weight and try to get your a one c down. And I was like, well, no. Because when they did all the testing to make sure my body was good to go, they actually found that I had a prematurely low egg count.
And and I was like, fuck you guys. Like, you don't tell straight fat people to, like, wait and not have kids. So, like Wait.
Did you ask her that? Did you ask? Did you say, hey.
Do you do you
say that to straight fat people?
Or Yeah. I'm pretty as I'm pretty assertive. I'm a pretty direct person. So I was like, hell no. We're gonna move we're we're doing this right now.
It'll be fine. So they were like, okay. Well, just so you know, when you do get pregnant, which was a few months later, we're gonna just treat you as gestational from from the get go. So I was treated I was put on metformin before I got pregnant, and then I was treated as gestational throughout my pregnancy. I was given basal insulin.
They gave me a bullshit meal journal and carb restrictions. They never offered me a CGM. My morning glucose was always above a 100, which news flash even to this day. I I'm extremely well controlled now, but to this day, my morning blood sugar is almost never below a 100. There's just something about my body that works that way.
So they kept ramping up my basal really, really, really high despite what I now know were low symptoms in the afternoons and the evenings. So during pregnancy, despite an absolutely massive amount of basal insulin, like, I think I was up to, like, forty units a day at one point. My a one c shot all the way up to 8.4, and I was labeled noncompliant even though I I promise I was compliant. I was doing all the things I was supposed to do. They were like, hey.
You know, you're overweight. We only want you to gain 20 pounds. I've gained exactly 20 pounds through that pregnancy. Yeah. And nobody thought, oh, let's test this lady for antibodies because her a one c keeps shooting up, and she's having, like, a really high blood sugar pregnancy.
And my daughter was big. She was she was almost ten pounds at birth, and and they induced me three weeks early. She was born three weeks early. Well, Mary, they
gave you the notebook. What did you want? You wanted more than that? They gave you the notebook. Yeah.
I did it come with a pen? Did you get, like, a UnitedHealthcare pen or something with it too, or did they not even give you the pen?
Didn't even give me a pen.
We're gonna take great care of you. Here's a notebook. Hey. I'm having trouble. You're noncompliant.
Thanks for all the help. Is that about that's about how it went?
No. That's about how it went. Yeah.
Awesome. Yep. Thanks for all the help, everybody. That's great. So we so my gosh.
Did you did you, like, make go through the whole pregnancy with that eight? Yeah. And you were pushing and pushing and pushing with insulin that you couldn't you obviously, you couldn't make it? Yeah. Yeah.
Wasn't wasn't budging. Mhmm. So yeah. And I had a really terrible birth story, which I won't get into because that's not why we're here. But
Four Days of Labor 9:30
I mean, is it a fun terrible birth story? Because we can take a left turn. Except for the people who listen to it. I mean, they don't like the fluff in the podcast. Let me suggest to you, if you don't like the fluff in the podcast, Mary, you don't like a podcast.
I mean Exactly. Exactly. Well, and this is clearly this is a storytelling episode. So, you know, those are the ones I like. So if you don't, I don't I don't care.
Yeah. Don't listen.
Yeah. Yeah. Tell your story any way you want. And somebody online just said to me the other day, she's like, I know you help people and everything, but I don't like all the fluff. And I was like,
the fluff? Okay.
It's the whole thing. That's my thing. That's what
So don't listen to those. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's plenty of, like, you know, tactical episodes.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, that point was made too. I don't wanna get off topic because then people say I was talking about myself. I can't win, Mary.
They'll be also, I like the way I follow the story and I follow what I think is interesting. And someone said to me, like, you sometimes, like, you get away from the main point. And I thought, well, to me, it wasn't the main point. Like, it was it would have been the main point to you if you were interviewing Mary, but you don't have a podcast. So I don't know what to tell you.
Yeah.
No. How however you do what you do works really well for my brain. Thank you,
Mary. I appreciate that.
No. Okay. I wish it was a fun I wish it was a fun first right now. I was I was in labor for four days, natural labor for four days with absolutely zero pain management. I'm extremely stubborn, and I really wanted to see what my body could do.
And I don't know when to quit just in general in general in life. I I don't really
Don't know when to quit.
I really don't ever know when to quit. It it got to a point where, like, the baby was not doing well. I was not doing well. They were like
Mhmm.
I call it an emergency C section, which is easier than explaining what actually happened. It's more, like, semi emergent, but they were like, listen. We can either, like, get you on Pitocin and get you an epidural, and you've got, like, four hours to get this kid out, or we can get you down to surgery in the next hour. Mhmm. And I was like, I have nothing left.
I can't. Yeah. It's been four days of this. I can't imagine my anyway anyway, so I chose the C section. Hang on.
Here we are.
Wouldn't quit. It's hilarious. I'm waiting for you to tell me I'm not actually gay. I just brought it up once, and I'm sticking to it. Yeah.
Yeah.
That's hilarious.
Were you at your at your highest weight during that pregnancy?
Yeah. I was. Yep. So I'm down 80 pounds from my highest pregnancy weight, which I think counts.
I yeah. I would I would
I only gained 20 pounds.
I just wanna tell you. If if I was counting, that's exactly where I would count from. Right.
But Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. But weight an issue your entire life?
Yeah. Weight and eating disorders an issue my entire life.
Okay. And how did you fix that? I mean, you're gonna tell me use the magic juice. Right?
Be well, yes. And I became a type one diabetic. I kinda kinda didn't have a choice. I didn't really have a choice anymore. Yeah.
Well, how did So Go yeah. Go go ahead. I'm sorry. Baby's out and go.
“You Don’t Have Diabetes Anymore” 12:29
Yeah. Okay. So this is break. It's kinda crazy. So I'm in the hospital.
We were in the hospital for seven days. This is during COVID also, by the way, which absolutely sucked. And I got pregnant three months before COVID broke out. So I'm like, oh, wait. Now keep in mind, when I was told that they were gonna call me a type two diabetic, like, that's all anybody said to me.
I never talked to an endocrinologist. I did not know what that meant. I didn't know anybody with any kind of diabetes. So I was like, okay. Like, I don't know what that means.
I don't really care. And then I was treated as gestational. So in the hospital, the first couple days after giving birth, of course, my blood sugars were great. That's what happens. And, they were discharging me, and I was like, oh, wait.
What do I do, like, about my insulin and checking my blood sugar? And they said, oh, well, now that you've given birth, you don't have diabetes anymore. You can go home, and you never have to check your blood sugar again, and you never have to take insulin again.
What was that?
I I didn't know any better, so I said, great.
Knew this wasn't Yeah. Gonna be a Yeah. And I didn't quit on that either, Scott. They said, don't take insulin. I didn't take it.
Yeah. I was like, this is fantastic. I did. Then you hated doing that.
So you have I mean, you have all the knowledge in the world, not all the details, but you have enough knowledge to take good care of yourself. And then somebody has said, you can stop doing that now. Mhmm. And you're gonna tell me you went to DKA at some point. How long did it take?
You've probably heard me talk about US Med and how simple it is to reorder with US Med using their email system. But did you know that if you don't see the email and you're set up for this, you have to set it up. They don't just randomly call you. But I'm set up to be called if I don't respond to the email because I don't trust myself, a 100%. So one time, I didn't respond to the email, And the phone rings at the house.
It's like, ring. You know how it works. And I picked it up. Was like, hello? And it was just the recording.
It was like, US med. Doesn't actually sound like that, but you know what I'm saying. It said, hey. You're, I don't remember exactly what it says, but it's basically like, hey. Your order's ready.
You want us to send it? Push this button if you want us to send it. Or if you'd like to wait, I think it it lets you put it off, like, a couple of weeks or push this button for that. That's pretty much it. I push the button to send it, and a few days later, box right at my door.
That's it. US med dot com slash juice box or call (888) 721-1514. Get your free benefits checked now and get started with US med. Dexcom, Omnipod, Tandem, Freestyle, they've got all your favorites. Even that new islet pump.
Check them out now at US Med dot com slash juice box or by calling (888) 721-1514. There are links in the show notes of your podcast player and links at juiceboxpodcast.com to US Med and to all of the sponsors. The Dexcom g seven is sponsoring this episode of the juice box podcast, and it features a lightning fast thirty minute warm up time. That's right. From the time you put on the Dexcom g seven till the time you're getting readings, thirty minutes.
That's pretty great. It also has a twelve hour grace period, so you can swap your sensor when it's convenient for you. All that on top of it being small, accurate, incredibly wearable, and light, these things, in my opinion, make the Dexcom g seven a no brainer. The Dexcom g seven comes with way more than just this. Up to 10 people can follow you.
You can use it with type one, type two, or gestational diabetes. It's covered by all sorts of insurances and, this might be the best part. It might be the best part. Alerts and alarms that are customizable so that you can be alerted at the levels that make sense to you. Dexcom.com/juicebox.
Links in the show notes. Links at juiceboxpodcast.com to dexcom and all of the sponsors. When you use my links, you're supporting the production of the podcast and helping to keep it free and plentiful.
Symptoms Mistaken for Breastfeeding 16:23
Six months. Oh, it's
not bad. How much and and you were losing weight, so you thought, oh, the baby weight's coming off.
Oh, yeah. That's exactly how it happened. So Uh-huh. So a month a month postpartum, I did get labs. A one c was part of that.
My a one c was c was down to 6.3, and there were no alarm bells. Like, nobody was concerned about this, and I did not know what it meant. I also healed really, really poorly from my C section. It took months About. Probably because my blood sugar was high.
Yeah.
My doctor had to put two different wound vax on just to get it to seal up. Then also because this is where it's, like, sugar in the egg. Was it before pregnancy, or did pregnancy trigger it? Or was it we had our first of many bouts of the original COVID that December when our daughter was three months old? Okay.
Like, to you know, take your pick. Russian roulette. I'll never know. Doesn't doesn't actually matter. Just interesting to think about.
So December through March, so this is three to six months postpartum, I started having symptoms, which I thought were breastfeeding symptoms. I was exclusively pumping around the clock, like, eight times a day. I lost, like, 40 pounds. I was peeing buckets. Water was the best thing I had ever had in my entire life.
I was exhausted, but, like, those are all symptoms. Again, I don't I don't I don't necessarily know where the line is between normal and not normal. I've never done this with my body before even though I was a parent already. I was like, ah, yay. I'm losing weight.
Like, this is the best diet I've ever been on. And, like, I'm really thirsty. Well, you've gotta, like, double your water intake when you're breastfeeding, and I'm peeing a lot. Well, that happens when you get up in the middle of the night, and I'm tired. I have a toddler and a newborn.
So Yeah. I just thought absolutely nothing of it until I started losing my vision.
Did that by the way, some people, that doesn't even get them. So did you
That's what got me. Okay. That's what got me. Yeah. I and I've worn glasses almost my whole life.
And but this was not just, oh, my prescription has changed. Like, I couldn't see my computer screen. I couldn't see the TV. The floor was blurry, and I I could no longer see at night. Like, I couldn't see lane lines when I was driving at night.
I couldn't drive at night anymore. Mhmm. And we have some family eye stuff, and I was like, oh, shit. It's that thing that happened to my aunt's eyes. Like, I gotta get to the eye doctor.
The Eye Doctor Who Caught It 18:50
So I go so I go to the eye doctor, and this sweet, sweet man, he's doing the exam. I'm telling him everything that's happening. I'm I at at the time, I'm less so now, but at the time, I was still very prickly if anybody brought up, like, weight or diabetes because it was it was pretty triggering. Like, my whole pregnancy
Okay.
Has gestational. It's pretty triggering for me from, like, a eating disorder perspective. So he's like, has anyone ever diagnosed you with diabetes? And I was like, well, I had gestational. But, you know, that was, like, six months ago.
That's over now. Yeah.
Yeah. That's over now. You know, I'm, like, getting defensive. He's like, have you like, when's the last time you checked your blood sugar? I was like, before I gave birth, they told me in the hospital I didn't ever have to check again.
Like, I'm defensive at this point. And he's literally holding my hand, and he's like, can I please he's like, we have a meter here in the office? Can I please check your blood sugar and, like, fully beat red at this point? I'm like, fine. I was over 600.
Five seconds before that, you're like, the patriarchy. And then Yeah.
But, seriously, this eye doctor is a may I still go to this eye doctor. And every time I see him, I'm like, you saved my life.
Yeah. What a thoughtful person. That's awesome.
Yeah. So he was like, I'm gonna need you. He's like, we're not gonna finish this appointment. I need you to go to the ER right now. Would you like me to call an ambulance?
And I was like, what? An ambulance?
What are you talking about?
No. I don't wanna pay for an ambulance. And I was like, I'll take myself to the ER. I have to go home and get my pump, and I need to call my mom and have my mom come and, like, help my wife with the kids because, you know, who knows how long the ER is gonna take. So this is 03/15/2021.
So I went to the ER, and it was the most disappointing experience. Yeah. They didn't run any labs. They didn't give me insulin. They didn't test my ketones.
They didn't test my antibodies. They gave me a bag of fluids, told me to go home, told me to find an endo, and said, you're overweight and you have type two. You need to lose weight and see an endo.
Awesome. Thank you. Awesome. So the at this point, let me just make sure I understand. The eye doctor so far is the most steady
Competent.
Competent medical person involved in this story so far.
Mismanaged for Four Years 21:16
Yeah. Yeah. And so that's by the way, the where we're going with this is I was grossly mismanaged for four years, and it put my life at risk until I so I chose to take charge. So I really kinda only feel like I've had type one for the last, like, year, year and a half because that's how long I've been like, alright. Everybody move out of my way.
I'm I'm gonna figure this out now. I can I just So I
a quick question off of that? Before we started recording, you said you've list you've heard the entire podcast?
Almost. Almost. I've listened to almost every episode just in the last year. I I only discovered you a year ago.
That's what I was gonna ask you. In the last year you did that? Mhmm. Are the kids okay? Did you, like Yeah.
Are there in the closet? Did you quit your job? How did you make so much time?
I I work from home in my home office, so I my favorite places to listen to the podcast are in the shower and when I'm driving. And if I'm having a just a slow day at work where I'm just running a of numbers and reports, I'll just have it on in the background.
Yeah. I listen to YouTube videos in the shower, in case what people are wondering what I'm doing when I'm shower. Nice. Yeah. No.
I I or I talk or I talk to an AI bot to, like, work through my ideas for the day. Yeah? Yeah. I don't know if everybody else is up to that yet, but you guys will be in a couple of years. You'll stop making fun of me a couple years from now.
My wife always my wife always has a an ear ear AirPod.
Mhmm.
I don't know. It's not actually an AirPod. It's such a earbud thing. She always has one in her ear, and she's always listening to a podcast in the background.
Yeah.
But she likes podcasts about serial killers. So, like, I'll get in the car with the kids, and it'll connect to her Bluetooth. And it'll be like and then he stabbed her 500 times. I'm like, shit.
Hey. Hey, guys. Hi, everybody. Every everyone's fine. Everyone's fine.
Yep. Older mommy is not crazy, which is I assume what we call her. And Yeah.
Actually, her name is mommy, and I'm mama. So you got that right.
Mommy mama? Okay. Mhmm. I wish I would've got the pick more. They just call you what they call you, and then you're, like, stuck.
I did
Our son our son actually named us. We we were interchangeable until he turned two, and then he decided she was mommy and I was mama. And that's what I wanted, so I was happy.
Oh, that's nice. You you had your you had your
I wanted to be mama.
Had your kids on mama?
Yep. Wait.
Working Through an Eating Disorder 23:35
I I wanna stop here for a half a second because I feel like we're about to get very sad about what happened to you after the the emergency room. So let's just double down on sad. Where did the eating disorder start, and how did it manifest, and how did you manage through it, all that stuff?
It started when I was 13, anorexia and bulimia. I was in the hospital a couple times, in and out of therapy. And honestly, it continued. It was the most severe. I mean, I'm five I've always been I've been five seven for a long time.
So I'm a fairly tall lady, and I was, like, a hundred pounds at one point in, like, middle school. It was it was the most acute for a few years. Got better in high school, but honestly, it didn't really stop until my, gosh, probably mid twenties, and and it's something I fight even to this day. And then kind of the pendulum swung in the other direction with bingeing and overeating. And, you know, you get married.
You have kids. You start gaining weight. It's what happens. Emotional eater. And something I wanna talk about at at some point is how hard it was to become a diabetic and have to be so hyper focused on my food and my carb counting as somebody who battles
Mhmm.
Eating disorder tendencies. And I've worked my way through that for the most part, but that was one of the most challenging things for me.
Yeah. I can I can I mean, I can imagine? It does obviously
some tricks that I'll share, to kinda
Okay.
Be less triggering to myself.
Okay. We'll get back. We can get back to what you want.
Or Yeah. Yeah. Even being way even being weighed, like, at I started refusing because I saw two doctors every week. I had two doctors appointments every week for my whole pregnancy. I was considered so high risk for for many reasons, and I started just refusing to let them weigh me.
I was like, one of you can weigh me every other week. And you can compare notes, and you're not gonna tell me what number you saw. And, like, keeping the journal was triggering, having them nitpick everything I ate was triggering, kinda The carbs like, it was all so triggering, and then it got 10 times worse when I realized I was I was type one diabetic.
So I employed part of your strategy this weekend when I took my very fashion forward 22 year old daughter out to buy some clothes for summer.
And Mhmm.
I said to the guy ringing it up. I said, listen. Here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna ring all that up, and then I'm gonna hold my credit card over here. Uh-huh.
No one's gonna mention how much this was. Okay? He looks at me, and I went, I don't want you to tell me. I don't want you to show me. I was like, just let me know when it's time to reach out with my hand.
I was like, I don't wanna know.
Yeah. Yeah. No. Totally. So we'll we'll take a little left turn and then and get then get back on track.
But so for me, counting carbs is less triggering than counting calories because the way I would hurt myself in the past was via calorie restriction and calorie counting.
Okay.
So I've just learned when I look at nutrition labels, I just hold my hand over the big number. I just don't I just don't look. I don't look. I don't care. I I don't wanna know.
And I use because I cook a lot. So often, you know, I'm not eating something from a box. I don't know exactly how many carbs it is, and so I use AI
Right.
To describe what I'm eating, and I'll show a picture of my plate with my hand next to it. Oh, a great idea. I have trained it. Don't you ever tell me the calories. All I wanna know are the macros, and it knows that.
How about that? These are my, like, workarounds. Yeah.
Great idea. And Yeah. Did you learn that in therapy? Did you learn that on your own?
Onion.
On your own. Was the therapy valuable ever? Do I mean, do you do you understand the core of where your pain is from, or do you No. Do you and is that like, this is the reason you still struggle, you think, because you haven't been able to affect that as much as necessary, or, like, what do you see as the as the mechanism?
Well, so I'm I'm still in therapy. I'm a big fan of therapy now, but I didn't actually comply with any kind of therapist until I met my current therapist. And she and I have been working together for, gosh, probably eight years now.
Mhmm.
And, yeah, I've done a ton of growing and a ton of healing, and even this diabetes journey has really, like, stretched me in some ways that have ultimately been positive. But, you know, I'm a I'm a typical type triple a perfectionist. That kinda sums it up with with the the history of with a with a history with a history of trauma. So, like, there there you go.
Right. When when my, series comes out on Friday this week with Erica, I'm gonna put out a four part series. You don't no one knows this. I'm telling you right now. But it's on the the paces, and it's kind of an explanation of, like, there's adverse childhood experiences, but there's also positive childhood experiences.
And so will you skip that, or will you No. Or you listen to that?
I wanna listen to that.
Okay. I wasn't sure how the triggering worked exactly. Like No.
I'm a big fan of that.
Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's, so if we took that paces that ACES quiz, you'd have a fair amount of, like, childhood trauma?
A fair amount. Yeah. I like to hide behind my wife's. I'm really good at that. Because her her childhood trauma trumps almost anyone I've ever met.
I see.
So I'm really good at hiding behind hers. But yeah. Yeah.
You're like, yeah. I've had problems.
I got plenty of my own. Yeah.
I've had problems, but have you met Shitshow over here? And so Literally.
Yeah. Literally. We we've we engaged in couples therapy when our son was young just to we just had to learn how to fight, really. That's it. And it was actually with who is my therapist now.
We started seeing her for couples therapy. She taught us how to fight, and then I was like, hey. Can you be my just my therapist? And she said, yeah. And literally in those appointments, I would be like, well, yeah, that happened to me, but did you know what's that, like, stuff x y z?
And the therapist would be like, you need you need someone on one health. Like
Hey. Why don't you stay, like, for a year? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Eight years. We'll chat
every once in a while. You'll be fine in 2029. Exactly. But you're saying that prior to meeting that person, you were somebody was taking you to therapy, but it was more mandated, and you weren't really
Yeah.
Down with it. Okay.
Yeah. Even I even I would take myself to therapy and then not not not be open. So you know?
The the lying to
yourself is
is my favorite part of being, a person. I
am yeah. I am so much more I'm a huge fan of learning and growth. Like, that's that's my jam. It's just taken a really long time to get there, and it's it's a lifelong journey.
Yeah. No. For sure. I mean, listen, dude.
I think everyone should be in therapy.
I I think everybody gets thrown in some sort of a hole whether they realize it or not. You know? Yeah. And like you said, if you if you grew up poorly, if she grew up poorly, then you get married. You don't even know how to, like, exist together because you only have, like, you only have your, you know, your examples from growing up.
Exactly. And I and I, like like, it it's weird for me because, like, in a lot of ways, I have a great child. I have great parents. I have great family. It's just there were some acute things.
Like, some big hitters.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Some big some big hitters. So it's not like I had a terrible childhood or upbringing.
I really didn't. And it was, like, night and day different from my wife's. But
Yeah. It's interesting. I mean, my my wife helped me. Like, if it wasn't for her having, like, emotional intelligence when we were younger, like, she was able to redirect me. I'm sure I'm sure she would tell you it took way longer than it should have or something like that.
But I'm sure she'd tell you, I'm not there yet. But but she also has the the ability to, like, point out what's happening to me and ignore the parts about what happened to her. So it's interesting how people Yeah. People people. Anyway, okay.
The Revolving-Door Endo & “You’ll Get Used to It” 31:42
Let's get you back to the hop let's let's jump from that big pile of fun back to the hospital. ER tells you lose weight. You're type two. And then
Yeah. Go home. Yeah. Pass them and lose some weight. So I did actually see an ancho the next day.
So actually, I said, like, I hadn't known anyone with diabetes. That was true. But somewhere along this journey, I have learned that my dad had been diagnosed with type two. And my mom had been diagnosed with Hashimoto's after I had been diagnosed, and both of my brothers also have type two. So at this point, there was, like, a family endocrinologist.
And so my mom made a few phone calls, and I did get in to see an ENDO the next day. And I was with that ENDO's office with the revolving door of providers for four years, and they sucked. So they gave me short acting they gave me basal and and short acting meal insulin. They gave me metformin. They gave me Jardiance, which just gave me yeast infections.
They didn't give me CGM so that makes you pee out sugar. That's a problem when you're a girl.
Mhmm.
I had already thrown away my pregnancy meter, so they gave me a sample, and that's the same, like, finger stick meter that I use today. I was vaguely told to get my blood sugars down. You know? And they and they were like, just come back every three months. We'll run labs every three months.
And, you know, at one point, was like, hey. So I'm trying to trying to prick my finger, and, like, I'm trying to get my blood sugars down. But when I get down to one fifty, I'm like, I am like, I feel like I'm gonna pass out.
Mhmm.
I am sweaty and shaky and dizzy, and, like, I don't like how that feels. And they just said, you'll get used to it. And that to me just felt like more shaming. And so I was like, well, fuck you then. I don't wanna get used to that.
Like, nobody explained. Here's why your body will get used to being lower, and here's how long it will take, and here's why it's safe. And, you know, they it was like when a somebody who's overweight says they're hungry and, you know, that it was that kind of shame to me. So
Yeah. Can I ask a question around that statement? Yeah. Get used to it? Was it Yeah.
Did you take it to mean that, yeah, you'll be dizzy and feel terrible, but you'll you'll get they didn't explain it the way that they meant it, which is your body will get accustomed to that, and you won't get dizzy at one fifty anymore.
Correct. You left the office Exactly.
You left the office thinking, for the rest of my life, I'm gonna be dizzy at a one fifty blood sugar.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Communication working.
I just wanna say.
No. Thanks. Yeah. Yeah. I And love so I and so okay.
A Full Plate: Family, Work & Why She Looked Away 34:25
We're gonna take another little side journey really quickly. So my life is I am not unique. Everyone has is busy, but, like, I've been really busy. Like because I don't know when to quit and quit, and I'm type to blame. I'm a perfectionist on all those things.
Right? So, like, I I'm the sole earner for our family. I work full time. I wasn't in school at the time. I am in school now, earning my MBA.
You know, I had two young kids. My wife is actually disabled, and she's a full time stay at home mom. And so there's some, you know, some extra support that I provide for her sometimes there. And then our son has challenges as well. He's autistic and Oh.
Has ADHD and
Mary, I'm sorry. You cut out. You cut out
for a
second. Mary, can you hear me? Oh. You cut out.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. You cut out for a second. He's autistic and?
Oh, and has ADHD, and he's bipolar.
Okay. And he's I'm sorry. He's the older or the younger?
The older. Yeah. He's nine.
Okay. Go ahead.
But at the time when this was all happening, you know, he was, like, so, like, three. And so we hadn't figured all of this out. All I knew was, you know, we have a child who is really violent, really angry, really destructive, really dysregulated, getting kicked out of school. Like like, on my list of top five stressors, this was so far down on the list.
Right.
Yeah. And and and and listen. I take some responsibility for the fact that, like, I could have taken this diagnosis more more seriously even after I was told I was type one, which we're about to get two. But nobody told me I should. Okay.
Yeah. Yeah. Like, nobody made a big deal out of it. Nobody nobody helped me understand what all of this means. And and, like, I have another autoimmune disease, Hashimoto's, and I was like, well, that's easy.
And I just take some pills, and I feel fine. And so this this must be like that. And if I feel great, like, I I mean, I was living life in the six hundreds. So at, like, 300, I felt fantastic. Felt way better than I did.
So I was like, you know what? I don't have time for this. If you're not worried, I'm not worried. I'm gonna just move on
I gotcha.
And bury my head in the sand, which is not something I've ever done in my life with anything. So it's very confounding to me that I just stuck my head in the sand for almost four years with this thing. But I I didn't know Yeah. To take it seriously.
I'm so happy I didn't make my joke about how busy I am because then you started telling me about your son. Was like, oh god. I I would have come off like such an idiot. I was gonna say, did you wake up at 03:30 in the morning and build a type one diabetes and menopause web page for your website? What I did last night.
But I love that.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, a couple of ladies hit me online pretty hard. They're like, don't have enough menopause content.
I'm like, I'm sorry. I'll work on it. Touche. Yeah. Yeah.
I'm getting there. I said, we've we've gotten out to the fringes of content now, which is, you know, I started at the core, and I've been building my way up. But I Yeah. You know, I was like, oh, I don't have enough knowledge about this to be, like, valuable. So I did, like, a ton of research and put stuff together to talk to Jenny about.
And then I was like, well, I can build a web page around it so that it's ready to go out when the content goes out. And then I just never fell back asleep. And then at 07:30 in the morning, I was like, I guess I'll just get in the shower now.
Oh. Yeah. So Sorry. No. But then you kind of a similar night.
I couldn't in the middle of the night either, so I got up and worked on one of my final papers. It's due this weekend. Yeah. I know. But I'm also a little tired.
The kids' problems, and I'm like, oh god. Thank god I didn't say that. Yeah. Yeah. I know.
I
It's it's been a I mean, I could do a whole podcast just somewhere that's
been nice.
It's gotta be Be on the parent.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right?
So Yeah. Yeah.
Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Go ahead. So nobody's nobody's telling you to take it seriously. You're living you like, generally, like, excuse me.
Genuinely, you're in the 6 hundreds a lot?
Like, so I had been, right, when I was sent to the hospital. And since then, I I was averaging I was, like, living life in the two and three hundreds pretty consistently, and I felt great. And I did not like how I felt when I was down at, like, one fifty. And so I was like, I'm just gonna do what I'm gonna do, and, like, I'll come every three months for the labs, which they never walked me through and never explained to me. Now I have a spreadsheet of all my lab results going back to 2016 with, like, definitions and charts.
But back then, I just trusted the doctor would tell me if there's a problem, and they really didn't.
So you did not have an expectation that you were doing anything that was, like, that could have been made better. You were o you were like, I I feel good at 300. Nobody's telling me any differently. That was that. That's kinda how it went?
Yeah. Wow. I was losing weight slowly but surely, and my amnesty was lower than it was when I was pregnant. It was down in the sixes. I've been in the nines, but, you know, it it did come back up to the eights.
I've settled in, the sevens and eights for a few years. Mhmm. But but also just, you know, they'd say, like, well, we'd like to get your a one c down, but they didn't say why. Mhmm.
You and you didn't look? No. No. Did you think were you purposefully not looking?
A little bit. Like I said, I I don't know that I'll ever fully understand why or how I just, like, turned a blind eye. Like, you know what? Mhmm. I'm not dealing with this because that's not actually who I am.
I'm very driven and focused and high achieving and all the things. And with but with that, with my health, I think it was so wrapped up in other triggers and trauma and shame and embarrassment that I was like, I'm just gonna close the book on that. Okay. And I feel fine, and I'm just gonna move on. Understood.
And I don't wanna know. I don't wanna know anymore, and they're not telling me anymore, and, like, I'm just gonna move on. I'm fine. I got you. I was not fine.
I understand that. Totally fine. Yeah. By the way, I've done this long enough now that I completely understand. I you know, there's a there was a time back making this podcast before, like, I would have asked more, like, are you like, how did you miss that?
Like, or why did you not? Or, like but after hearing people discuss themselves long enough, like, I I see what happened to you. So it makes sense to me. You know?
Finally, the Real Diagnosis 40:36
So so it turns out about three months after I was in the hospital, somebody tested my GAD sixty five antibodies. They didn't tell me. They were elevated. They were not crazy. I think they were, like, 13 or something, so just a little high.
Mhmm.
But nobody told me. So three months later, they tested all the antibodies, and three of them came back positive. And they told me so this is December now of 2021. So a whole year after I'd given birth, like, six months after being in the hospital, I was told over a voice mail. Hey, Mary.
So, actually, this antibody came back, and what that means is you're actually type one. They didn't explain anything else. I wasn't given any additional tools or information. I was never connected to a diabetes educator. I was told to just keep doing what I was doing.
But what they did tell me was if you're ever over 200, give yourself 10 units and go on a walk.
Okay.
Which that is not my correction factor.
Wait. What what state do you live in?
Arizona.
Okay. Go ahead. Keep going.
I have a great n o now, by the way. And he actually he knows as much as me, maybe even a little more than me, which is great because this other office, I don't think can do anything about type one. Yeah. So I wasn't given a carb to insulin ratio. I didn't even know what the word goal is was.
I was still not offered a CGM. Nobody talked to me about a pump. I was just given very irresponsible advice. So by February 2022, so almost a year after going to the ER, my AONC was back up to 9.3. Mhmm.
My GAD 65 was up to 19. Less than a year later, it was above two fifty. And to this day, like, my lab results don't even give me a number anymore. It just says greater than two fifty, so I have no idea, what the number actually is. It's just very high.
My fasting glucose in February 2022 is three twenty eight.
And they're still calling you a type two. Right?
Well, no. They're calling me a type one now.
No. They're calling you after the GAD that you started getting type one from them.
Plus two other yeah. Plus two other Okay. I think it was I a two and islet cell
But prior to prior to that, it was all just body it was your body makeup, and you must have type two diabetes because look at this. Okay.
Yep. Yeah. So now in September 2022, so we're two years after my daughter was born, just prob probably when this all started, if I had to guess. So, again, this is me now looking back because I charted, like, ten years of my own labs Mhmm. Once I finally took the bull by the horns.
And so I was looking back, and I could see that in September 2022, I had trace protein in my urine. I had glucose in my urine above a thousand. This all indicates DKA. Nobody told me that. Nobody walked me through those labs.
It was just a routine visit. There are a bunch of other lab levels that indicate things like fluid loss, dehydration, inflammation, and and on Mancharo.
This episode was too good to cut anything out of, but too long to make just one episode. So this is part one. Make sure you go find part two right now. It's gonna be the next episode in your feed. Dexcom sponsored this episode of the Juice Box podcast.
Learn more about the Dexcom g seven at my link, dexcom.com/juicebox. A huge thanks to US Med for sponsoring this episode of the juice box podcast. Don't forget, usmed.com/juicebox. 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. The diabetes variable series from the juice box podcast goes over all the little things that affect your diabetes that you might not think about, travel and exercise to hydration and even trampolines. Juiceboxpodcast.com. Go up in the menu and click on diabetes variables.
Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of the juice box podcast. If you're not already subscribed or following the podcast in your favorite audio app, like Spotify or Apple podcasts, please do that now. Seriously, just to hit follow or subscribe will really help the show. If you go a little further in Apple Podcasts and set it up so that it downloads all new episodes, I'll be your best friend.
And if you leave a five star review, oh, I'll probably send you a Christmas card. Would you like a Christmas card?
- Adult-onset type 1 is routinely mistaken for type 2. Mary was labeled type 2 and gestational, handed metformin and a meal journal, and called “noncompliant” while her a1c kept climbing — because no one checked antibodies. When insulin needs keep rising and highs won’t budge, antibody testing (GAD65, IA-2, islet cell) is what tells type 1 apart from type 2.
- “You don’t have diabetes anymore” after birth was dangerously wrong. Being told to stop insulin and never check again post-delivery sent Mary toward a slow-motion crisis. Gestational diabetes resolving doesn’t rule out underlying type 1 — especially when a1c climbed during pregnancy. Postpartum follow-up matters.
- An eye doctor caught what the system missed. Vision changes were the tipping point; a glucose check in his office sent her straight to the ER. New or rapidly changing vision is worth taking seriously, and a simple finger stick can reveal a lot.
- “You’ll get used to it” needed a real explanation. Mary left believing she’d feel shaky at a normal glucose forever, because no one explained that the body re-acclimates as it comes down from chronic highs — gradually and safely. Ask your care team for the why, not just the what; it can change whether someone is able to lower their numbers at all.
- This episode also covers Mary’s long history with disordered eating and the workarounds and years of therapy that help her manage carb-counting without it being triggering. It’s a sensitive topic — if any of it resonates, talking with a professional can help, and support is available (in the U.S., the National Alliance for Eating Disorders helpline).
- Dexcom G7 — The CGM Arden wears — an episode sponsor. 30-minute warm-up and up to 10 followers.
- US Med — Where Scott’s family gets diabetes supplies — an episode sponsor. Or call (888) 721-1514.
- Bold Beginnings Series — The newly-diagnosed starting point Scott recommends.
- Diabetes Variables Series — The little things that affect blood sugar — travel, exercise, hydration, even trampolines.
- National Alliance for Eating Disorders — Helpline and support — this episode touches on disordered eating.
#1890 Wiener Roast
A Canadian mom whose son's type 1 was caught at a celiac follow-up, a husband running a DIY loop, and Scott playing detective on her iron, thyroid, and brain fog.
Wiener Roast
Cold Open & Sponsors 0:00
Friends, we're all back together for the next episode of the juice box podcast. Welcome. K. Hold on a second. Okay.
Just introduce yourself real quick so we can keep talking.
Okay. Hi. I'm Lana, wife and mother to two, one being type one, and celiac. Yeah.
Please don't forget that nothing you hear on the Juice Box 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. Subscribing to the Juice Box podcast newsletter is this easy. You type juiceboxpodcast.com into a browser, scroll to the bottom, put in your email address, click sign up. If you're newly diagnosed, check out the bold beginnings series.
Find it at juiceboxpodcast.com up in the menu, in the featured tab of the private Facebook group, or go into the audio app you're listening in right now and search for juice box podcast bold beginnings. JuiceBox is one word. JuiceBox podcast bold beginnings. This series is perfect for newly diagnosed people. This episode is sponsored by AbleNow, tax advantaged savings accounts for eligible individuals with disabilities.
If you or your child lives with diabetes, you may qualify for an ABLE account because of ongoing medical needs, and many people in the diabetes community do. With ABLE Now, you can save for future expenses without affecting eligibility for certain disability benefits such as Medicaid. Learn more and check your eligibility @ablenow.com. You spell that ablenow.com. Today's episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by the Kontoor Next Gen blood glucose meter.
This is the meter that my daughter has on her person right now. It is incredibly accurate and waiting for you at kontoornext.com/juicebox. I'm having an on body vibe alert. This episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by Eversense three sixty five, the only one year wear CGM. That's one insertion and one CGM a year.
One CGM, one year. Not every ten or fourteen days. Ever since cgm.com/juicebox. If if all of you could have heard the last eighteen minutes of Lana trying to get set up here, the state would come and take her children from her immediately. And they would say
It's not my fault. I swear.
They would say she she she displays no ability to do the simplest things on her cell phone. I think we have to come take those kids. So let's talk people out of that belief. Okay? Don't you tell me.
Okay. To be fair to be fair, we had to do something different because of the AAPS system that we use because it blocks something. I don't know. So
I don't even care. It's fantastic. We should have recorded the last eighteen minutes and then ended the podcast. It would have been perfect. People would have been like like, they would have been like a little nugget that made them feel better about themselves for the day.
Tech Trouble & the Husband Who Runs the Loop 3:28
They would have spent the whole day going, you know what? It's not going perfectly, but imagine how it's going for Lana right now. Does your whole life go this way, or is this just a technology thing, or what's going on?
This is definitely a technology thing.
Okay. Okay. Well, that'll be interesting when we get to the insulin pump stuff. Tell me how
Oh, yeah. My husband has to do this.
Your husband has to do this
stuff. Yeah.
My wife says to me, she's like, it's you do it because you do it. It's not because I can't. And I go, well, okay.
No. I wouldn't say that. He he set up the AAPS all his own, and I was watching behind. And I'm like, I have no idea how you're doing this right now. And he's like, you could do it.
I'm like, seriously? I don't think so.
Is that
what you're Not at all.
You weren't thinking, oh, I can never leave this guy now. Damn it. Oh my
god. I was I was Yeah. He we're we're stuck together now.
I mean, like, he knows all this. God. What else does he know? What else is happening behind my back that I don't realize is happening? So tell me about how old are your children?
Gabriel, he is eight. He's the one with celiac and type one, and then Olive is seven.
Olive. Very nice. And how long have you guys been married?
Actually, ten years this July.
Oh, actually, you just did that math in your head just now, didn't you? You were like, oh my god. I think it's been ten years. Does that feel like a long time to be?
I just ten years? Yeah. I mean, I haven't had relationships last really more than a year or two. So yeah.
What the like, because that's how you're measuring it. How old are you?
I'm 41.
41. So when you were 31, you were like, this is not gonna work, but I'll marry this guy and see what happens anyway. Is that and then Pretty much. And then two years later, your kid can't eat bread and gets diabetes, or what happened there?
Gabriel’s Celiac Diagnosis 5:26
Yeah. So well, it wasn't two years. It was a little longer than that. But, yeah, he was okay. Some of the story about a celiac diagnosis was kinda like he was losing weight, but we didn't really notice it as much.
It was more so my mom and my family were over there one time, and they were just kinda like, he seems to be a little bit thinner. Like, they just kinda mentioned it to me, not in front of him. But yeah. So I thought, hey. There's been other weird things going on.
Like, we'd go for walks, and he'd be complaining about how tired he was. And John, like, my husband, had to carry him back a few times. And I'm like, this is so weird. Like, what is going on? So we finally I got him in with our my family doctor, and she was kinda like, okay.
All these symptoms kind of could sound like celiac, but let's get his blood work done. So we went and had his blood work done and, like, came back, like, crazy high. Like, I think it's, like, an IgA number is what they Told you. Okay.
Do you remember what it was?
Anyways yeah, it was over 600. So I remember the doctor saying, like, if it's over 20, he's potentially celiac. And we're like, oh, hey. Well, he's definitely celiac. So we actually didn't even have to do the the invasive biopsy.
They're just kinda like, we can definitely just just diagnose him with such a high number like that.
Hey. Are you Canadian?
Was kind of but Are you Canadian? Sorry. I am.
Oh. As I told you earlier, Able Now is sponsoring this episode. Able Now, of course, tax advantaged Able accounts for eligible individuals with disabilities. If you or your child lives with diabetes, you may qualify for an Able account because of ongoing medical needs. Many people in the diabetes community do.
With ABLE now, you can save for future expenses without affecting eligibility for certain disability benefits such as Medicaid. And thanks to updates to federal law, ABLE accounts are now available to more people than ever before. That means more individuals and families can use ABLE now to save and invest. Funds in an ABLE now account can be used for a wide range of everyday needs, including education, transportation, health care, assistive technology, and more. There's no enrollment fee, and you can open an Able Now account with a small initial contribution and build from there.
Learn more and check your eligibility @ablenow.com. That's ablenow.com, ablenow.com. I didn't realize. I wouldn't have made funny about the technology thing if I knew you were Canadian. You can't help it.
I didn't realize that. I'm so sorry. I take the whole thing back.
Why do Canadians have, like
You're doing the best you Lana, you're doing the best you can. That's all. You live in a frozen tundra. I didn't know what
you can do.
Right? Oh my gosh. I mean, jeez. With all the polar bears and everything, how are you even existing? So okay.
We still have snow. That's what I'm saying. You're at a disadvantage. I didn't realize it. I I didn't hear it till I heard you say you said something, and I was like, oh, she's Canadian.
I could hear it in your voice.
Really? Like, my accent or something?
Immediately. Yeah. I I knew five minutes ago. I just didn't wanna break up your story.
Oh, okay.
I forget what you said, but you used the And I was like, oh, I didn't know she was Canadian. That's what I thought in my head. Yeah. That's right. That's nice.
But now I can't blame you for all this stuff. Like, you guys are prob you probably like a crank generator powering your house and everything. Right?
I mean, you're pretty close.
I'm pretty close. If something goes wrong, the mounties come or how how is it policed exactly?
Well, I mean, there is RCMP, Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Oh my god. You're bringing me back to the RCMP Twitter feed that is so fan I I don't wanna start talking about it again, but it's just it's just a list of stabbings, basically, that are happening. It's like Yeah.
There is actually a lot.
The the RCMP was was called out to a bar in, like, you know, Saskatchewan where three men stabbed each other for no like, it's just it this is so funny. Anyway, if you guys can find it, it's hilarious. Not not not funny that people get stabbed. It's just you get No. You get my point.
No. Yeah. Yes. So definitely celiac. How old is he when that's happening?
That was when he was five. He was diagnosed at five.
Okay.
So, yeah, there was so we went in, had the whole, like, okay. You gotta eat gluten free now and change out your I don't know. Like, I guess we have two toasters now, one for gluten and one for non gluten. Mhmm. So we do that.
And so then we had to go they told us to go back for more blood work in about three to four months because they wanted to see if going gluten free would obviously bring down his numbers. Yeah. So, yeah, we went in we were supposed to go three months, and I think we waited, like, four or five months, which ended up being probably a I don't know. Why can't I think of the word?
Oh, I don't know, but I'm I'm delighted listening to you try to figure it out. A
Some brain fog.
A misstep, a a lucky thing because
A lucky thing because?
I feel like it's what you ever see those books where you get to choose your own story? Yeah. That's what I feel like I'm doing right now.
I love those books.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We used to have them on records. Do ever you have, like, a storybook that had a record with it?
You'd play like a you're not
old Yep.
For that. Yeah. You
you yeah. I was I'm just old enough, I feel.
Yeah. Oh, anyway, I For those. We have a
record player now. But, anyways Look.
Caught at the Celiac Follow-Up 11:16
May I guess? It was lucky because when you went back, he already had diabetes symptoms, and they caught it then, but he wouldn't have had it two months before if he would have gone back in three months.
Precisely. Yes.
I've been doing this for so long. I already know your story.
Okay. Well, go ahead.
Well, okay. Hold on a second. Your husband couldn't believe it. He said, no. No way.
And you were like, oh my god. He's got diabetes. I called my mom, and no. I'm just gonna go.
No. It wasn't it. But I can remember exactly where we were and everything. It was just we had just actually had a wiener roast because he was diagnosed so, yeah, he was diagnosed September 18. And so we were sitting around.
It was on a Sunday, diagnosed, and we got we went in for blood work. That's the day we went in for blood work to follow-up with celiac. They called us right back that same day saying, like, okay. Your son definitely has type one diabetes. And I remember sitting there being like, okay.
I know this is not good, but I didn't know how bad it was.
Okay. Because Yeah.
You hear that, and you just I just had no idea, like, what this all entailed. I just knew it wasn't good news.
Well, talk about not good news. People who really love the podcast just now thought, why did she say wiener roast in the first ten minutes? That could have been the title if she would have just saved that for a little longer. What a great what a great episode to pop up in your feed tomorrow, wiener roast.
Is that the name of the
This might be the it could be no. You said Weiner. I'm and I'm thinking maybe that's a great title for your episode, but I don't know. I wish people who really listen, I like the titles that come up later because I want you to keep listening to figure out why the hell it's called Weiner Roast. But if you give it
up in the
first yeah. You give it up in the first eight minutes, it's it's too easy. Don't worry. I have high high confidence you're gonna say something else. Probably.
I can't wait till we find out, like, you know, the celiac came, so we just started eating whale blubber. I don't know.
High protein.
I'm sorry. I don't know what's wrong. I had a long day. Actually, I do know what's wrong, but that's not the point.
Okay. I feel like the whole miss, like, technology thing totally threw me off. I felt so prepared, and now I'm just like
Oh, no. No. It's Lana, listen. I had to leave the house like an adult this morning very early, and I'm discombobulated. I have been living a pampered life for so long.
I just want everybody to know that I'm aware of that. That my my son and I had to go into a meeting this morning. We had to be there at nine. It was like an hour drive. So I'm, like, popping out of bed at, like, you know, 06:45, getting in the shower.
I'm like, what? Do people do this? I'm like, just like, whatever. This is horrible. I said to my wife on the phone, I was like, can you imagine if I had to do this every day?
She's like she's like, I do. I was like, I was like, oh, you you set your life up wrong. I was like, this is terrible. So by the middle of the afternoon, I was like sleepy. Was like, what's happening to me?
Oh, yeah. That happens to me too because I'm at home as well. Yeah.
Oh, and yeah. Anyway, it's my fault. I'm discombobulated today, but that that's neither here nor there. I'll I'll take my bad reviews to heart and just get to the point. So there's so much chitchat.
Thanks. It's a podcast.
Yeah.
It's not a Ted
Gong. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Like, I'm not supposed to just stand up and blurt everything out, and then it ends, and you go, right on. But nevertheless.
Well, my husband was trying to tell me how you know, just think of it as like a fireside chat.
Like, oh, yeah.
I should turn our fireplace on.
He's right. And it's all you're doing is you're just sitting and talking to people, and how it comes out is how it comes out. So Yeah. Okay. So he's got celiac.
Thrown to the Wolves 14:58
Now he's got type one. You're not really sure what all that means. What's the the process of education like? And what kind of Yes. What what's the start you get with technology or insulin, etcetera?
So yeah. They're telling me that. I think it was the endo August I called. And they're like, is he okay? Because I think his number was 35, which is I don't know what that is in
other talking off that.
600. I think it's, like, 6 or 7, 800 probably.
Okay. The Kontoor Next Gen blood glucose meter is sponsoring this episode of the Juice Box podcast, and it's entirely possible that it is less expensive in cash than you're paying right now for your meter through your insurance company. That's right. If you go to my link, contournext.com/juicebox, you're gonna find links to Walmart, Amazon, Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, Kroger, and Meijer. You could be paying more right now through your insurance for your test strips and meter than you would pay through MyLink for the Contour Next Gen and Contour Next test strips in cash.
What am I saying? My link may be cheaper out of your pocket than you're paying right now even with your insurance. And I don't know what meter you have right now. I can't say that. But what I can say for sure is that the Kontoor Next Gen meter is accurate.
It is reliable, and it is the meter that we've been using for years. Kontoornext.com/juicebox. And if you already have a Kontoor meter and you're buying test strips, doing so through the juice box podcast link will help to support the show. Why would you settle for changing your CGM every few weeks when you can have three hundred and sixty five days of reliable glucose data? Today's episode is sponsored by the Eversense three sixty five.
It is the only CGM with a tiny sensor that lasts a full year sitting comfortably under your skin with no more frequent sensor changes and essentially no compression lows for one year. You'll get your CGM data in real time on your phone, smartwatch, Android, or iOS, even an Apple Watch. Predictive high and low alerts let you know where your glucose is headed before it gets there, so there's no surprises, just confidence. And you can instantly share that data with your health care provider or your family. You're going to get one year of reliable data without all those sensor changes.
That's the Eversense three sixty five. Gentle on your skin, strong for your life, one sensor a year that gives you one less thing to worry about. Head now to eversensecgm.com/juicebox to get started.
So yeah. And he's like the doctor is like, is he okay? I'm like, yeah. Just had a Lira's. He's running around.
He seems fine. They're like, okay. Well, I guess if you're okay with bringing him in tomorrow morning, then we could just do that. I was like, sure. Like, they didn't seem too concerned.
And I was like, is there anything that I should or should not do? And like, well, just don't, like, give him pop or juice or anything sweet. I was like, noted. Okay.
Okay.
So went went to bed normal. I don't know. Like, didn't really know what to be, you know, like, worried about yet. And so went in the next morning, and so that's when we started with the education. So there's, like, there's a peds hospital, which they were pretty pretty good.
Like, it I like how it was just, like, this is his number. He's type one. It was just that was basically how he was diagnosed and just like threw us into the wolves, you know.
Yeah. By the way, a 35 is is 631 for people.
Okay.
Yeah. Using different measurements, just so you know. That is Mhmm. So how long do you think how how almost said how long I almost said how long do you think he was afflicted? But I don't know where that came from since it's not a movie from the thirties.
But, like, how long do you think it had been going on?
Well, I think we caught it pretty quick because his his a one c was 7.8.
Okay.
And at his celiac, like, back, like, four or five months prior, his a one c was normal. Like, it was, like, 4.8 or something, I think, I wanna say.
But they
have really from, like, April to September.
He's probably, like, small bodied at that point. Right? He probably doesn't weigh too much.
No. He was he's very thin. So well, that was a thing. So it was thin from celiac. Then he started kinda feeling better, it seemed.
He wasn't so I don't know. He was just so irritable and just so not himself because he was seriously the most easygoing Mhmm. Human being, like, you'd ever meet. So, yeah, he would just, like, get so angry and just not like not like him. That kinda went away, and then it kinda started up again.
And just like their classic looking back now, drinking lots, going to the bathroom more at night Mhmm. And, I don't know, just the usual. Those are the two things I noticed the most. And I think he was starting to get quite, like, irritable again, being really grouchy and not being himself and just, like
But if it wasn't for the celiac, those aren't enough to make you go to the doctor. Right?
Mhmm. Yeah. Exactly.
Yeah. Yeah.
So, like, honestly, it was just our going in for our blood work for his celiac, and that was how we yeah. I don't even know. So we definitely escaped the whole Gary DKA stories, which we're so thankful for.
Yeah. Of course. So then what do they do? I it depends on what I should say province. Right?
But it depends on what part of Canada you're in about how they start you. So what was the management style getting set up?
So yeah. We went in that morning, 8AM, and I feel like a lot of
it is such a blur.
I do remember sitting there and being like they're telling us how to like, for food. So it was, like, counting carbs and, like, okay. So if he's gonna have some rice, then he'll put this out. And we should want to figure out, like, how much read the labels and how much rice he'll be having or any whatever. All the food.
And I just remember everything was coming at me. And suddenly when they were telling me about how everything he eats needs to be accounted for, I just lost it and just started, like, bawling. Yeah. Like, okay. This this is what I was wondering about when I was like, this is bad, but I don't know how bad, you know, until Until you get it and then
Yeah. And the idea of having to just keep track of so many things and measure medication every time, it hits you all at once.
Yeah. It did. Yeah. So it was so it was that. And then I think, I don't even remember.
I don't even think we had, like, a meal there yet. Oh, it is such a blur. That was trying to think about it.
No. It's it's super interesting. You you your recollection is is cloudy for sure. Like, and and is it that way about other things, or is it just this?
I feel like it has gotten more so like that with the lack of sleep through this whole entire
Uh-huh.
I don't know. It it played a big part in, I feel like, my brain fog and not being able to remember things so well, and, like, words don't come to me as good as they used to. And I don't know. It's crazy. Like, my friends even have noticed that too.
Brain Fog, Sleep & Two Years of MDI 22:53
How how how long has it been now, Anna? Like, three, four years?
It will be me four years, September.
Okay. And you're not Yeah. You're not sleeping well?
Better now that we are on a pump.
Okay.
We did MDI though for, like, two years. And Aaron was always like, why are you doing MDI? Like, how do you just?
And why were you? Hold on a second. I'm gonna This doesn't happen often. Give me one second, Lana. Yeah.
Arden Arden, I'm making the podcast. What's going on?
Okay. Well, I I need you for a second. Mom's old part is on file, not her new one, I don't think. So can you just check to make sure that I have enough to pay for this on my
I'll okay. I'll make sure right now. Okay? Yep. Bye.
Sorry. Hold on everybody Okay. While I take care of some apparently, financial issues by moving some money around. Arden is getting her hair done at the moment. And I guess she's trying to check out, and they're like, this card doesn't work.
Yeah.
See here. Sorry.
No worries.
We'll get back to you in just a second. But the people that hate the fluff are gonna hate the hell out of this. And my bank's making me put in a code so I can log in. That's taking time.
Oh, banking is another problem with me.
Lada. You're awesome. Hold on a second. Turn off this reminder for now. Let's see.
Transfer. A little more Scott's money going to somebody else. That's okay. Part of it here. She's also just texting She's texting me now.
She's like, also, it looks like my card expires next month. I'm like, oh, okay. Well, we'll just worry about all that right now. Hold on a second. And now, of course, I have no idea what she did because when she left there, I was like, so what are you getting done?
She was like, oh, you'll see when I get home. And I'm like, oh, okay. Oh. So Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. I don't know if there's like there could be color in here. There could be a cut in here. I don't exactly know what it is I'm transferring money
Base tattoo.
Oh my gosh. That would be terrible. Hold on a second. Let me tell her the money's in the account. Okay.
Looks like it's taken care of.
Oh, good.
Yeah. Awesome. Imagine technology. Ten years ago, I I would have been like, I have to go now and take and take Arden, you know, money so she can get out of the hairdresser without
I would probably have I probably would have still had to do that. I'm like, okay. Hold on. Well, yeah. Arrive there and
get cash. You're like, I think I could do this, but my phone's never gonna let me. During this setup, Lana kept going, why is this happening to me? I'm like, it's not really happening to you. You just don't understand the details of what's going on.
Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. So but but so you said the first two years were MDI.
Why It Took Two Years to Pump 25:55
Yeah. Why did you and you switched over to a pump. What pump did you get?
Omnipod Dash because we had full intentions on going to, like, AAPS because we have Androids.
Okay. And what was I gonna say there? Okay. How why did it take you two years to do it? What not that that's a long time.
Just what was the process?
It is. Well, we had been doing okay because we we were kinda doing the lifestyle just because it felt much easier, like, obviously, with his celiac. And then we're just finding recipes, and I was kinda like, oh, this is keto. I'm like, okay. Well well, let's just try that.
And so it had been going okay. So at school, we would pack, like, lower carb meals, and it just wasn't very difficult to take care of. So he would just get he would get his needle at school, and, like, the EA would do it. They're called, like, educator assistants
Okay.
Here. We don't we don't have school nurses.
I
know. So yeah. And at home, it just seemed to be working out. Like, then he didn't want anything else on him. Like, CGM was enough for him.
And yeah. I don't know. I just felt also intimidated by, you know, more technology.
Yeah. No. I hear you. And But what made the so then what made the change? You just
learned learned more? Because yeah. I think so. And also, the oh, wait a minute. The g seven
Mhmm.
Was starting to work better. So because we were having so many troubles with it. And I don't know. It just started kind of working a little bit better for him.
Okay.
So we decided to try a pump because then we knew because we knew that, like, obviously, the pump goes by what the CGM's numbers are.
Okay.
So, yeah, we're all kinda just ready for it. And I was getting I was so done with the needles at night because that was probably, like, our biggest the biggest hurdle. Hurdle.
Autoimmune, Adoption & a Hashimoto’s Hunch 28:06
Hey. Let's pivot for half a second. Do have other autoimmune stuff in your family, your mom your side or your husband's side?
Well, my husband's side, yes. He his grandpa on his mom's side had MS, and his cousin on that side also has type one diabetes.
Okay. And how about on your side? Does your mom have a thyroid problem?
Well, I'm adopted, so I don't know a whole lot about that. I just know through k. So backstory. Go ahead, please. Through the adoption, we were obviously give my parents were given some papers.
And, oh my gosh, I feel like I am so nervous right now
for something. Don't be nervous. First of all, Lana, I'm adopted too. I don't know if you know that or
Yes. I did know that, actually.
And and I'm I'm sitting here thinking, like, I wonder if you maybe don't have, like, Hashimoto's and you don't know it or something like that. Because, like Me? Yeah. You. Because you've and the the brain fog's for real.
Right? Yes. Is there anything else going on? Is your hair falling out? Have you gained or lost a lot of weight that you can't figure out why?
Well, I've gained weight, and I kind of I guess I am kind of, like, I was losing hair worse before, but I feel like there's also a reason for all of
that. Yeah. I think that reason might be called Hashimoto's. Hold on a second. So, like, do you okay.
Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Hold on.
Everybody a lot.
Everybody calm down for a second. Are you fatigued?
I mean, yes. But okay. I have endometriosis, which also has a lot of those same
Okay. Okay. And just brain fog. Do have any cold intolerance?
Not really.
Weight gain? Yes. Hair loss?
Yes. Yes.
Joint pain?
I feel like I have answers for those. They're not what?
You have joint pain? Nope. Okay. Feel weak?
No.
Alright. Depressed, sad, anything like that? Mood all over the place?
Sometimes.
Uh-huh. I'm sorry for this last one. Any sexual dysfunction? No. Okay.
Well, you Not
since the whole endometriosis thing was figured out.
You got that all? Oh, Well, how'd you figure that out?
Well, I had been having quite a bit of pain kind of in my, like, ovary areas.
Right.
And also so also thought maybe I was potentially, like, gluten intolerant or even celiac, but I just never got tested for celiac.
Okay.
So I go in because I had so much pain. I went to the ER, and it was so bad on my one, like, my right side. And they were feeling around on there, and they'd said they could kinda feel like a bump. And they're like, oh, what could potentially be like endometriosis? So they got me in for a ultrasound.
And, yeah, I guess I could see it on there. Like, they did the invasive ultrasound and then also the one, like, outwardly.
Mhmm.
And that's kinda how they found it. And then I went in for surgery and had some cysts removed.
Interesting. Yeah.
Mhmm. So it so I had that. And then
That's recently? Pain
what? Is that recently? Yeah. Like, two years ago?
Yeah. For boys listening, when she says invasive ultrasound, she means giant dildo with a camera on it just so you all know what your ladies are going through. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
That's exactly it. Yeah. Yeah. No. I I've I've heard the stories.
So I haven't been there, but I've heard the stories. And I've seen the face afterwards, by the way. Yep. Yeah. I've seen the I've seen the the, oh, okay.
Well, that happened. Yeah. Look I
mean, after having kids, I feel like nothing
That doesn't matter anymore.
Nothing is that scary anymore.
You think back to when you were 18, you're like, oh, that was so cute of maybe. I'm like, oh, no. Don't look. Yeah. But but okay.
So you had Oh, yeah. So you had endometriosis. So, I mean, you still do. Right? Like, so
Yes. It doesn't go away. Yeah. It's crazy
what it is. Yeah. No. I I know of a fair amount of like, everything you just described, going to the hospital, pain on the right side, they're like, oh, it could be your what do they do? They do they say, first, it could be your appendix, and it's not your appendix.
They say, it might be your gallbladder, and it's not your gallbladder. And then they do the thing, and then they go in and pop out a couple little cysts. You're like, oh my god. The pain's gone. That's crazy.
And and the pain's insane. Right?
The pain is excruciating. And so it's obviously worse when, like, when you're on your period, ovulating. And so I don't know how much TMI. But so yeah. So I was still having a lot of pain, a lot of bleeding.
Hysterectomy, Fibroids & Low Iron 33:17
And so I actually went back in telling them that, and they did more ultrasound. And they found that another one had now grown, and, like, they ended up actually having to get a hysterectomy as well.
Oh gosh. Did they do a full, or would they take the the
They did a like, they took just the uterus. They left my ovaries because they didn't wanna put me into, like, pre
Pre pre menopause. Yeah.
Yeah. Exactly.
Oh, did that help?
Yes. Definitely has. Awesome.
That's good. I And even that I'm sorry. I I don't think I'm you know, I'm just gonna you know what mean? Sometimes I think of something. I'm like, I don't think I should say that.
But my wife has, like, a fibroid inside of her uterus.
And I had that too.
Oh, awesome. And the fibroid is growing a friend. And at this point now, like, you can almost feel it, like, through her stomach. So Oh, wow. She's going in two days for a surgical consult.
I'm pretty sure they're gonna do the same thing to her.
Yeah. Because well, what my what my doctor said is he could either go in there and, like, essentially file it down or and, like, maybe the bleeding wouldn't be so bad and maybe your pain wouldn't be so bad. But I was just like, honestly, just get rid of this uterus. Just take it.
It's horrible thing. So What what are there any downsides to anything you've found?
I mean, obviously, I can't have children anymore.
What? I
was already done with that.
I was gonna say, thanks, captain obvious. I meant other stuff. You and if anyone's listening right now and they just learned that, they're like, oh, she can't have a baby now because they took the uterus out. If that just happened to you, I'm so sorry for you. But but but otherwise, Okay.
So, yeah, there's no, like, other, like I don't know. You didn't grow a horn or a mustache or anything like that. Lana. Lana, are you gone? Shut off her audio.
This happened earlier when we were setting up. She'll figure it out in a second. You're back. There you go.
Here I am.
That's all. I love it. Any any anything weird going on or you're just generally happy you did it? She's gone again. Lana, I can't hear.
Did I actually Yeah. You're back now. Yep. Oh, what the heck?
I know. I think it might be the question. I'll ask it again and see if your voice goes away. Were there any other unwanted side effects after this?
No other unwanted side effects
Mhmm.
At all. Okay. Yeah. Obviously, I had to outweigh what I like, when I was researching, like, to do it or not to do it. And I don't even remember what the things are that could potentially happen because I haven't had to worry about this.
So k. Good to good. And I like, I had to get another sister moved anyway. So I was like, they were gonna go in there anyways. So I was like, why not, you know
Take care of business.
Take that while you're in there.
What what was it minimally invasive? Did they go through, like, they open
My belly button. They go through your belly button.
What was the recovery like?
Well, for the hysterectomy, it was, like, six to eight weeks where you can't, like, lift or do anything. I was kind of, like, probably in bed for about a week. Obviously, you're supposed to, like, get up and move around and stuff, but, yeah, I think it was about a week.
Wasn't bad after that. And you just don't lift anything. Yeah. My wife's not lifting anything anyway, so we're fine.
No. Yeah. Yeah. So so it was kinda like during that time, feel is when I kinda put on a weight. So Okay.
I feel like there's reasons to why certain things have been going on, and it is not hashing modus.
Well, maybe it's not. I I wouldn't say it could be a it could be a lot of different things. But, I mean, there that's a fair amount of, like, issues going on for you, though.
Mhmm. You know? Must feel like
You don't forget to take care of yourself is what I'm saying, really.
No. Yeah. Exactly. And I feel like that's kind of this year is finally where I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna do a little bit more for myself.
And because this I can't have type one diabetes be bringing me down.
Well, it's good. Yeah. I mean, first of all, like, I'm not gonna say something, like, trite, like, you have to put on your mask before somebody else's. But, obviously, you need to be okay too. And, you know, the worse it gets for you, the worse it's gonna get for everybody.
You just Yeah. You're just gonna turn into one of those moms yelling at people at the McDonald's. You know what I mean? And there's you don't want that.
So No. Yeah. No. Yeah.
No. No. Want I wanna be a happy person. But there's there'd be nothing wrong with going to an endocrinologist and saying, you know, my son has celiac. He has type one diabetes.
You know, I have endometriosis. Here here's what's going on. Still, like, why don't we just do some blood work and see where we're at? I'd love a full iron panel. I'd love make sure you're not in need make sure you're not
in And yeah. So I did actually have to go and do all that before surgery for my hysterectomy, and I was a very iron
Deficient. Deficient. What'd what'd they do for that?
I actually did get the transfusion while I was in the hospital right after my surgery.
Did they give you enough? No. They really gotta juice you up for it to really work.
Oh, wait.
Do you remember
Oh, they did.
Do you remember what your baritone level was?
There's no way that
all Did you look up?
I'm gonna be able to look all this up even talking with you, but I can't now because then I then I go away.
Because the way you're using your phone. Yeah.
Yeah. But they were it was low.
Yeah.
They that was very low. So, yeah, they were able to do that for me while I was in the hospital, which was awesome because then I didn't have to go back or pay for it.
How many how many did they give you?
I don't know. I don't even know how many they gave me. They just said
What? Did he do it one time, or did he do it multiple times
over a couple weeks? Was just one time, like, after. And I was there for, like, I don't know how long did it take. Two hours?
Yeah. Well, I would tell you that, like, I mean, I've gone through this myself and usually, it's multiple infusions to get you back up to where you're supposed to be. And they usually give you one, wait a week, do it again. So my thing would
be Oh, yeah. That couldn't happen.
Yeah. My thing would be go get those labs run again. Because your you go brain fog, fatigue, weight gain, hair loss, that could be anemia. Right? Yeah.
So, like, go so I'd go back and say, hey. Listen. I was low before. They gave me some, but only once. I still have a lot of these symptoms.
I wonder if, you know, maybe I don't need it still. And because I think that I mean, I've had people on, doctors on, who say that they want your firetin to be, like, at a minimum 70 at a for a woman your age. If you're if you're walking around at ten, twenty, thirty, a lot of doctors will tell you that's okay, but I really it isn't. It it leads to all the things you're talking about.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I knew I do need to go up for follow-up blood work.
Good. And it's Canada. I mean, you have to hurry because you're not dying, so they're not gonna help you for, like, nine months. So
Hey. To be fair, I've actually had pretty good I know and you hear about it, like, everywhere here where it's just awful healthcare and stuff. And to be fair, I actually everything that has kinda happened to me and my family, it's been dealt with very well. Like, I can't actually complain about it.
Cool. What province are you in?
In Saskatchewan. Okay.
Well, they there's only three people there, so there's not much of a line. They're they're just like, oh, you know who's coming early? Lana. And they go, oh, yeah. Who?
I
don't sound like that, do I?
No. I'm just teasing him. Of course not. Not at all. But I've just heard different stories.
There are people in some provinces that are they'll wait nine months or something that's not life threatening.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's I mean, okay. So it's funny. Got on to this podcast so quickly to do an interview because I was just like, you know what?
Last minute, let's do it. I had my hysterectomy last minute. They called me on a Wednesday. Like, wanna come in on Tuesday and have your hysterectomy? I was like,
yeah. Sure. Why not?
Because I I was on a waiting list, and I had no idea when I was gonna get in. So I guess that would be the thing where I was gonna have to deal with that for much longer had I not gotten in on a cancellation.
Yeah.
But it was it worked. So
Well, don't tell people how you got on the podcast because it'll make them mad. Because every once in a bay basically, what happens is every once in a while, I go look at my calendar. I sometimes I have to move things around. I have to travel next week. I have to travel next week for work.
Can I say what I'm doing? Probably not. But I'm going to do something next week that I wasn't expecting to have to do. So I had to move some things around and make some space on my calendar. And then I realized that today, I had that meeting this morning that I was telling you about.
And so I moved the person off of today to another day. There was somebody scheduled for today and I moved them. Oh. But then when you came on, that all of a sudden, I forgot to block the day off, so it looked open. And so you didn't you didn't wait in line like everybody else because today's not supposed to be here.
But once you were emailing with me, I thought, oh, we'll just work it out where I'll do it later in the day. And yeah. Yeah. So don't tell the people who waited six months to come on the podcast.
Oh, well, I won't. Everything just seems to work out how it should. Right? Yeah. Keep your
Living With a DIY Loop (AAPS) 43:05
head down. You deserve it. Trust me. So so so he jumps your son jumps to Android APS. And Yeah.
Something your husband sets up, a DIY algorithm for people who don't know. Right? And what's your experience been like with it?
It's been I don't know. It's been okay. I feel like he's so sensitive to insulin that sometimes, like okay. For, like, DIA, you can the highest you can go is nine hours or what like, whatever that means, I guess. I don't even know.
It's, how long the insulin is in you for. Right?
Duration of ins duration of insulin acting.
Yeah. Yep. So nine hours is the highest we can go, and sometimes I feel like that's not even high enough. But and with his okay. So another thing we're struggling with that night is when he is laying on it and he has a false low, it turns off the insulin because it thinks it's going low.
Yeah. And then you roll him over and he goes back up, and then it's like, oh, let's give him insulin. It's like, no. I don't want you to give him insulin. He's just going back up to his normal Okay.
From what he was. Does that make him low later?
Yeah. Because it's blasting with insulin when you didn't need it. Well So we always have to instead of just like well, then we just have to put a temp target on it. Like, okay. Don't send him insulin because he's literally just going back up to where he normally should have been.
Mhmm. Okay. So it sees the rise?
Like little things. Yeah. It sees a rise, and then it's like, oh, it needs insulin because it's going high.
Even if the rise doesn't go over top of the correction number? Because, like, are you
telling me
are you telling me, like like, his blood sugar is nice and stable and normal, but he rolls over, gets a compression low, it cuts off his basal for a while. He looks low, you roll him over, the blood sugar pops back up, and it starts the bolus.
Yeah. Exactly. If we didn't put on a temp target.
Okay.
So if you forget, then it's like Then you get that way around that. Like, I think you could probably I think you'd have to make your own. Like, that's where we we're kinda like, well, I don't know how to do that.
Make your own.
Like, it's gotta be
What? Make your own
build it?
Like Make your own
build. I think you can build that kinda thing on AAPS, but I don't know how.
Oh. And
that does my husband.
I see. So some sort of, like, an add on to the algorithm that that does a thing you'd like it to do in a certain situation.
Yeah. Exactly. Okay. So he doesn't use a whole lot of insulin. Like, what what the max fill is, like, 90.
And after three days of changing his pump, we usually have, like, sometimes 50 45 to 50 units still left.
Okay. Alright. So he's not using a ton of insulin then?
No. He's not.
No. And because you're eating more low carb and not using a lot of that kinda, like, celiac friendly stuff that can be higher in carb.
Well, I mean, we still kind of try to do low ish carb. Like, say, supper, we'll have we usually have a meat and some, like, vegetables as opposed to before we'd probably, like, load in a ton of I don't know. We'd have, like, either rice or potatoes Mhmm. Or, you know, like, that empty carb Kinda keeping away from But
keeping away from starches and stuff like that now.
Yeah. Okay. So that has definitely helped. So usually, our mindset now is, like, a protein and a vegetable for supper. Mhmm.
Not all the time. Like, we still have spaghetti. Like, last time we had chicken Alfredo. Like, we haven't we were at the first year. We were kinda not having any of that.
And then it just kind of I don't know. It just got too difficult, and he wasn't gaining weight. Like, he wasn't eating enough protein to make up for the lack of carbs or whatever.
Okay.
So we're kinda like, well, we're just gonna introduce carbs back in again. Okay. And meaning, like, spaghetti or, you know, noodles
and stuff. What's this a one c at?
I think the last one we checked, it was six point zero.
Oh my gosh. Sounds like you're doing pretty well.
Yeah. I mean, I'm so hard on myself. I feel like I'm I wanted it to be I thought it would be in the fives. You were
disappointed with the six?
Yeah. Sort of.
No. That that I
feel like we've been doing so much I feel like we were doing so much work, and then, like, hear that it wasn't, like, 5.8 or 5.7. I was just like, oh, like, how do you actually get into the fives?
Well, you just keep your blood sugar lower from where, like, stable times. It's it's but but but, I mean, first of all, he's he's not that old. Right? No. He's has to deal with celiac.
Does so is there something about celiac that changes the a one c? Is there accuracy? I'm trying to think if I remember something about that. Oh, sorry.
I don't really know about that. Like, obviously, if he were to have like, if he were to get gluten, I'm sure he would like, that would affect some way somehow.
Well, okay. So it's like
Because then
I'm looking it up because I I remember something, but I didn't remember the whole thing. Like, so celiac doesn't change like the a one c test, but the idea is that untreated celiac could cause malabsorption that could create an iron deficiency and anemia, and then that might impact the a one c. So Right. But he's not he's you guys are sounds like you're pretty careful with the celiac.
Yeah. Like, we went in last time for his celiac. We got that checked too, and he's back down to, like, a a regular like, if someone were not celiac number now.
The the the test. The Yeah. IgA test. Right?
Yeah. Well, that's good news.
I mean, you have two toasters now, so you might as well utilize them. Was that as an as an adult, you mean, taking the health part out of her for a second, is there a moment where you look at the countertop and there's two toasters there and you think, oh my god. We have two toasters. What happened to us?
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. We actually finally were just able to move it over to, like we moved into a new house, and the, like, pantry area didn't have any, like, plug ins. And so we're like, what the heck?
We can't put our two toasters in the pantry. Yay. We had to have them out on on the counter.
Two toasters?
Anyways, we
What a waste of your adulthood. Yeah. Just my goodness. How does he hand how does he handle it? Go you mean what?
Go ahead. I'm sorry. I cut you off.
No. I was just gonna say, like, we have more than just two toasters. It's like two of so many things.
Two Toasters & Splitting the Caregiving 50:08
Two bread knives, two places where you keep stuff. Like, you're keeping things completely separate?
Well, kind of. Like, do we have one kind of cabinet for him, and then the other side is the gluten stuff?
Okay.
But so, I mean, if you had, like, a small kitchen, I just feel like having all this double of things would be Annoying.
Overwhelming or maybe contaminate itself. Right? So is that is that does he have, like, flare ups from contaminations, or is it not that
Honestly, no. I feel like he wouldn't he has gotten sick maybe once or twice, and we thought, oh, well, maybe it was gluten. And I think both times is when we'd gone out for a meal. Mhmm. And so I remember him, like, the next day kinda felt like he had to throw up and stuff.
And, well, you know how when a child has to throw up after dosing him, it's never fun.
Just like, oh, good. All the insulin's in there, but under the food.
Oh my gosh. Exactly.
So it so the whole thing is, like, I mean, you're are you a stay at home, did you say? You stay with the kids during the day, or you you leave and go to work to she's gone.
Yeah. So I'm definitely the the primary, like, caregiver when it comes to especially diabetes. So I'm always the one in, like, talking with the school or messaging back and forth with him Yeah. Which he's gotten really good at now.
That's awesome. You guys are just kinda texting about his diabetes back and forth?
Yeah. Yeah. So he has a, like, a phone and a watch. So just recently, he's been doing so much better with, okay. It looks like you're going well.
You should
have a
tab, and then he'll give the thumbs up. Or if his alarm goes off, he'll be like, okay. I'm having a tab because my alarm went off.
Nice. That's good.
And that's just recent.
Yeah. That's good. I mean, it'll keep growing. You know what I mean? Like, things will
get Yeah.
Easier, better. He'll understand more. You'll probably rest more. That'll be good too. And then things will seem different in in the light of day, I would imagine.
Husband knows a lot of knows anything about it or is mainly stays into the like the app building side of this?
No. No. No. He I mean, he does do the app part side of it, but, no, he's definitely involved. And I've gone away and, like, for a weekend or whatever, if I go out, he's there's no problem.
I'm not like, okay. Are you gonna be able to handle this? Yeah. I mean, I do feel like I know more about it and, obviously, because I am more involved while he's at work. Mhmm.
But, no, there it's definitely both of us Okay. Doing it. That's awesome.
Where Does This Go? Family, Loss & Adoption 52:49
Yep. Yeah. Where do you think this all goes? So, like, when you I mean, do you have the brain space for that to think about, like, how is your son gonna grow with this? What are expectations for him look like short term, long term?
Or is it more of a one day at a time thing for you?
I feel like I've kind of taken it more so a one day at a time. Just because before, like, the first year was I would say it was pretty dark. Okay. It was kind of always thinking about what's gonna happen, what could happen. I feel like I haven't had the best information given to me about other type ones in my life.
Uh-huh. Like, one of my friends, she actually passed away from type one diabetes, and my birth mom almost passed away from it. And my husband's cousin has quite a few medical issues from it too. So
What? So wait.
You Kinda like
Yeah. That's upsetting. But your birth mom had type one? Has?
Yeah. Okay.
And and and and someone on your husband's side has it too. Mhmm. Yep. Oh, okay. Yeah.
It's a perfect little mix here. Did you guys Yeah. Did you guys meet on on autoimmune Tinder? Where how'd you
I mean, you could minus the word autoimmune, but we did meet on Tinder.
Oh oh, god. So the kid was the kid was I don't wanna say doomed, but he was definitely gonna like, something was gonna pop up. And this makes me think more about good.
It's so funny. Well, okay. Not funny, but I feel like until his diagnosis, I really didn't have a whole lot of information or even know much about autoimmune Uh-huh. Because it wasn't really in my adoptive family that I knew of.
Yeah.
So I had read like I was saying oh, yeah. Here's what I was saying before in the papers that we had gotten with like, through the adoption, it had a little bit of description of her, and it said she had gestational diabetes while she was pregnant with me. And so, like but then I actually ended up meeting her, and she I remember her talking about diabetes, but it was never, like, a specific, like, yes. I have type one diabetes.
Okay.
Unless she did, and I just don't remember because I was 18. But
When when you met her. How'd you end up meeting her? Well,
my they didn't I think it was on the adoption papers. They forgot to, like, white out, I guess, essentially, her name. So we were able to go off of her name and my mom, like, my adopted mom. Well, I guess, my adopted mom, my third mom.
Wait. Who was the second one? He
my dad's first wife passed away when I was two. So you were They adopted me in.
You were adopted by a a man and his wife. And then when you were two, she passed away, and then he remarried. Yes. And so you've only so you don't even know you don't you don't have any recollection of your first adopted mom?
No. No. Not really at all. Like Wow. My brother does.
He was I think he was 10 when she died.
Okay. But your brother Yeah.
So they're my dad.
Wait. Is your brother another adopted person or is he natural to the two of them?
He's natural to my dad now and his first wife.
His first wife.
And then my dad remarried to the mom I have now, and they had two more kids.
Naturally.
Naturally. Yes. And I'm I'm the only adopted one.
It's so interesting that you don't refer to the woman who adopted you as your mom. She's your dad's first wife. Yeah. Have ever thought about that?
I have. Yeah. It's almost like I feel like I didn't have her long enough to call my mom or something. I feel like, I don't know. It's really weird.
I've definitely had this conversation in my mind before.
Yeah. Because if you were born to two people and two years later your mom died, you'd say that my mom died when I was two, and then my dad remarried and this is my step.
Well, yeah, don't know if I made it clear. My birth mom is not with, like, the dad that I'm,
like, talking about. You were clear. No. But so I yeah. So what I'm saying is is that I in a supposition kind of if if you suppose for a second let's say you were born to the people you were born to and they kept you.
And then two years later, your mom that mom died and then your father got remarried. You would say to people, my mom died when I was two. I was raised by my dad and my stepmom. Right?
Yeah. You're right.
Yeah. It's a it's
a It's funny you picked that up because that's definitely something that I think about where I don't usually refer her to as my mom.
Yeah. No. No. You're definitely you're talking around it on purpose. Like, but not, like, just because we're recording, that's how you talk about it.
Like, I could tell.
Oh, yeah.
This is the part I'm Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I'm really good at this part. I don't it's sorry.
No. I I know. I've I've noticed that.
Okay. Well, it's interesting. You should see a therapist. Do they have the honey cat, or what what would they do? They just put you with an otter?
Well, no. I think they just set you up with some, like, bear or something.
A bear. Yeah. Yeah. A bear. And the bear and an otter talk to you, but you feel better.
Better. And then you go work on the oil rigs, and then it's over.
Yeah. Exactly that.
You know, I I like to bring this up all the time, but there was a woman on one time who was a can can dancer up in, like, Northern Canada. And I was always, like like, just taken with that idea. She was she was just in a, like, a, like, a CD bar just, like, you know, shaking her ass
trying to get can can Yeah. Canada. Yeah.
Trying to get trying to get some some gold coins thrown out at the stage. I I don't think she did it long, but it was just the way she said it when she was like, was a can can dancer. I was like, get out of here. It's crazy. Wow.
Scott Plays Detective: Iron & Thyroid 59:07
Okay. Well, I am here's the things I'm worried about for you. Okay. I'm worried about your anemia. I think it's possibly still here.
I think you
should get Well, I'll get that blood work done.
Thank you. I think you should get a full thyroid panel while you're getting the iron panel just because your mom had type one, your birth mom had type one, and your kid has type one in celiac. So and you've had the endometriosis. I just feel like you're a you're a melting pot for something like that to happen. And
Probably.
And you you seem lovely, but you are struggling for, like, for your words.
Oh, I know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's been really bad.
Yeah.
It was perfect time for to, like, get on chest. Checked. You got your thyroid checked? What what how did that come back?
I think it was, well, it was under two.
The TSH was under two. Good. Good. I'm glad. See, I'm helping.
So then we then we got Yeah. Yeah. Then we get to anemia next. And now that I know you had you were anemic when they they I was gonna say when they hoisted out your
I was gonna say Just get rid of it, though.
You were anemic when they hoisted out your uterus, and they gave you an infusion. But those hospital infusions, I guarantee you, was one of the small bet, and it wasn't enough. I'm gonna guess. Okay. I'm betting my I'm gonna bet my my gold coin con dike can can
Bloonie?
Bloonies that you're anemic still. And that's why you're having brain fog right now.
Okay. That would make sense.
That's it all fits. And if I'm wrong, this was free. So what do you gotta do about it? But, like, I I really think that I think you call the doctor up and say, hey. I think I might still be anemic.
I need another test.
They did say, like, you could potentially need more.
Well, then what You know? God. Don't make me curse at you, Lana. Why didn't you do the thing then?
I don't know. I hate needles.
As much as you hate not being able to find simple words during conversation?
I can usually cover it up better, I feel. Focused, like Yeah.
Yeah. No. Yeah.
I know.
Yeah. You're you what do you do?
I mean, I'm so like, I'm just more scared of needles than I am of anything. Like, I didn't even have epidural with my kids.
So Listen to me. I'll go with you. Alright? Well, not me. I'll send to your husband.
But, I mean, like, someone will go with you. You'll be cool. It'll be fine. It'll be free. Can I I'm gonna tell you something crazy?
No. This is embarrassing. It's okay. So I'm having I've I've, you know, I my dental health is much better now that I go to the dentist more frequently. But when I grew up, I never went to the dentist.
Like, I think the first time I went to the dentist, that was, like, '19. And people are like, oh my god. Where was he? In the Adirondacks? No.
I was in Pennsylvania. And so but, anyway, like, I've had a number of root canals over my lifetime, and I've had them long enough ago now that a couple of them are but they're time to you gotta recondition them. You gotta get in there and and shine
them need to get a crown.
Well, no. Have a crown. Gotta take the crown they gotta take the crown off, go back in, clean it up again, put a new post in, like, all this stuff. Right? Mhmm.
So Yeah. I've I've been doing that this year for two of them. I've got one finished, and I'm working on the second one. So I went to the dentist two days ago where he, in the back of my jaw, injected me twice so that he could pop off the temporary crown Yeah. Clean it out, put the post in, and put on a temp another temp crown, wait for the real crown to come in.
So he injects me twice. And then the next day and this is the part I was gonna be embarrassed about. Arden and I went to get our eyebrows threaded. So I'm gonna be recorded for something next week, and I wanted to make sure my eyebrows were good. And she was going to
Is painful?
Well, you're getting you'll get the hold on for the story. And and and then and she's going to some sort of a like a college mixer this weekend. Like, you know, they're spending the night at like a hotel and there's like a big thing in there. So she she's like, I have to go get my eyebrows on. Do you wanna go?
And I was like, my god. Yeah. I'm doing that thing for Omnipod next week. I wanna go. And so, like, we went.
While she was plucking out the the my eyebrows, I actually thought, this hurts more than going to the dentist to me. And the dentist is using a jacked up big needle, but he's just he's an he's an artist. Like, the man's an artist. He should be there should be a statue to him somewhere. Yeah.
But I don't want you to get you wrong. Like, it's not that like, five seconds after they're done doing the the eyebrows, it's over. It's not like it doesn't linger or anything like that. And so my point is, does getting your eyebrows threaded really hurt worse than being shot with a needle in your mouth? I don't think so, but I think it's, the anticipation of it.
It's definitely the anticipation.
Yeah.
Yeah. I I work in dental, actually.
No.
So people coming I'm I'm, like, the front, so I was doing admin.
Mhmm.
So you could definitely tell when people were coming in. They're very nervous, and, like, no one likes the dentist. No one's happy to be there. They're so much different when they leave had, like, people apologize and be like, I'm sorry how I was at the beginning of this appointment. I love
I love going to the dentist. It's so relaxing. Like, so like Yeah. Because, like, two and a half hour appointment to work on a, like, work on the root canal. Right?
I put my head back. I put some I go I go to sleep. Sometimes they gotta wake me up to move me around. They're like, Scott, can you turn your head? I'm like, oh, sorry.
So relaxed. So relaxed. I love the my dentist says no one's ever said this before. But when they're cleaning out the roots, they use this bit that kinda feels like it's it feels bumpy. I don't know another way to say it.
Like, it feels like it's Mhmm. And it it makes a different sound, and it almost feels bumpy while it's in there. And he gets done, and I'm like, are you are you putting out the roots right there? I said, yeah. I said, I love that feeling.
But you're not really feeling it. You just kind of sort of feel it?
It's like it feels like like look. I don't obviously know what he's doing, but it feels like because I can't see it. But it feels like he's taking a round item and putting it into a tubular thing and that it's kind of boring through it. And Yeah. I like the way it feels.
So, anyway, take don't take me. And then I'm at the the threading, and I'm like, oh, that hurt. I go walk out, Arnie goes, okay. I'm like, oh, it hurts so much. So
I've had that done.
Yeah. By the time you get to the car, it's over.
Yeah. You know?
But it's Good. Yeah. $7, by the way. Very realistic.
Well, let's keep there. I don't know if it'd be that cheap here.
Yeah. Well, maybe. Listen. Let me give you a good a good tip. Find an Indian population to do it for you.
Okay.
Really, they're Yeah.
See, I could see them being really good.
Very good. Very good. Nevertheless. Alright. Well, do you you know what to do now?
You know what you're gonna do?
Go get my blood test.
Doctor. Get my blood test. Make sure I'm not anemic. Get some more infusions. Feel better in a couple of months.
Probably send you an email and say thank you. That's probably how it
works.
Olive, Sewing & a Dream of Acreage 1:06:13
Right. And then and then you'll be able to, like, kinda, like, drill down on no pun intended on the kid's diabetes, get yourself some rest, and be okay. Are we worried about this other kid? Is he a ticking time bomb? Or she?
By the way, great name. Olive. Really great name.
Olive. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks.
Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Does she have anything going on or not so far?
No. Not that we know of. She seems okay, and I hope that it stays that way.
Yeah. No. Me too.
I always see, like, when other people are like, oh, my second type one diabetic child. I'm just like, I can't even I mean, we can't you can imagine it, but it's just one is enough to deal with.
No. Thank you. I'm okay.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm okay.
You can give that to somebody else.
Yeah. We'll be hard. We're good here.
We're good here. Everybody's fine. Thanks. Oh my gosh. Well, I would ask you if there's anything else that we should have talked about that we didn't, but I don't know how the hell you would remember.
So
Well, that's yeah. I wrote all down.
You wrote it all down. By the way, the beginning, she's like, but my notes are on my phone, and we're using my phone to record, and I can't go to my notes without shutting my phone off. And I was like, send them to your send them to your computer. And she was like, how is that gonna happen?
No. No. No. I knew how. I just couldn't exit out of you in my email.
Exit out of you in my email. It should be the name of my my autobiography. But seriously, is there anything that we didn't talk about that we should have? This was a little more about you than it was about the kid, but I I'm okay with was.
Yeah. And it it's funny because I even said that when I was talking to my husband, I'm like, who knows what avenue we are going to go down? Because listening to your podcast, it's you never know.
Yeah. Please.
I listen to it all the time while I'm sewing.
So Thank you. I appreciate it. With sewing? What are you sewing? What are making?
I sew and sell children's clothing.
Oh, wow. Is it extra warm? It
can be, like, really warm. How do you
how do you sell it?
What do mean how?
The Internet? You sell it on the corner? You you go to Chick fil A and do it with the marketing lot?
No. No. Sell it. What do you mean how?
What's your
Yeah. I do sell online. I'm not very good at getting the stuff up on there. So anytime people are like, oh, you have a website? I'm like, yeah.
Sort of. But I usually do markets around the city here. And then now that I've gotten quite a quite a good clientele, people just do a lot of
Yeah.
Custom orders. So I show them the fabric that I have, and then I have my website showing the kind of things that I could make, and then we just go from there. And I sew their children up lovely wardrobes.
Listen to me. What's your web address? How do the people find you? I don't normally pimp people's businesses, but this sounds lovely. What are we doing here?
Aa.com of some sort? What do you got?
Unfortunately, it is not a.com because I don't ship anywhere outside of Canada.
Sorry. Canadians listen to this. I just wanna go look at it. What's the address?
Oh, it is www.gabeandolive.ca.
Dot c a?
I usually
Who even knew that was real?
Use more of, like, my Instagram.
Oh, of course. What's your well, hold on. I'll tell people. Oh, this is nice. Hold on a second.
Oh, look at you. And there's moose on there. Of course, there's moose. Why would it's all you know about. Is this you in the photo?
What? Let me just I
feel like Do you not know your own website?
I
Oh my god, Imperial. Do you not know if this is you on your website or not?
Well, it's me.
Well, then just say yes.
I'm just saying. I was like, wait. I had
get to a fight in a second.
Oh, there I am.
So t shirts, tops, little skirt, top. Oh, that's cute. Look at you.
That's me. Oh my gosh.
Oh my gosh. Lovely. This is wonderful. You make all this yourself?
Yeah. Yeah. I do it all myself. I kind of learned from mostly the Internet or just kind of picking up my this one girl on my Facebook. I was kinda friends with her back in the day, and I kept seeing her stuff that she was making.
And I'm like, can you can I come over and you just show me how to use a serger? So she said, yes. And I went over there, and I, like, sewed something up, and I just went on from there.
And just ripped her off and knocked her out of business. Is that what you did?
Well, she always says that I've actually out what it whatever it hurt in her because I went to markets, now I sell to a bunch of people. So
Oh, lovely. Oh, look at this.
Outdone the teacher, I guess, she said.
Oh, look at this cardigan. You're you're really talented. This is wonderful.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah. Oh, that's cool.
Yeah. So and, like, I sell for my family, but I don't really sell a whole lot of adult stuff just because I mean, people say they want it, and then I'm like, this is how much. And they're like, oh, okay.
Never mind. I'm gonna go to Walmart, but thank you.
Yeah. Never mind.
It's funny they'll spend they'll spend it on their kids, but not on themselves.
Yeah. Kind of. But, mean, I feel like it's I don't know. The way my clothing is is a lot of it is it does actually last a a lot longer than maybe a typical outfit from the store.
Yeah. I would imagine.
My kids have still worn for, like, two to three years. So
I don't know. Thank god I don't have babies because if I showed this to my wife, we'd be Yeah. Paying the shipping.
I know. I'm kinda glad I started sewing after my kids were not babies anymore. Yeah. I started during COVID.
Alright. Well, listen, Canadians. Gabenolive.ca. You can go look yourself. Buy something.
Obviously, buy something from Lana. She needs she needs a steak. She gotta get her she gotta get her her iron up. Help her out a little bit. My gosh.
Well
Man, I need to get my iron up, and then maybe in, like, two years so that I can come back on here and I'll be a whole new unfoggy person.
Well, I was just gonna say, honestly, when you get this all figured out, I think I might like it if you came back on after you listened to yourself. Because it's possible you're gonna be like, oh my god. What the hell is going on? Because Great. Yeah.
No. Because I've gone through it. Like, I've had really low iron. And I'm telling you, like, you're doing shit you don't even realize you're doing. So Oh, no.
Yeah. All you go after I is check your
feel like well, I also do have anxiety, so that doesn't help things.
Well, do you know that come hold on a second while I teach you. Anxiety and anemia, think, go hand in hand. So if you are like, let's say you have silent celiac maybe or, you know, there's another reason that you're anemic, you could you could have low iron throughout your life. Yeah. And anemia can possibly make anxiety feel worse, and sometimes it can look like anxiety even when the main driver is just low iron, low b twelve blood loss, or another anemia cause.
Do you have do do you have a computer there in in Canada? You do. Right?
I do have a computer.
Yeah. Have you have you found the chat sheet PT yet and stuff like that? Yeah. Yeah. Just type
in I do know how to use that.
Just type in anemia impacts anxiety, and then just go read it. Okay. Okay? Because anemia may not cause anxiety in the emotional sense, but it can create body sensations that your brain interprets as danger, racing heart, breathlessness, shakiness, exhaustion, and that can trigger or amplify anxiety.
Oh, yeah.
You're like, oh, that's me. Want me to keep reading? Iron deficient anemia, especially can cause fatigue, shortness of breath, chest discomfort, fast heartbeat, dizziness, lightheadedness, cold hands or feet, and the symptoms often intensify as the deficiency gets worse. Do you have shortness of breath when you run up steps?
Not really. No. And I've started to work out. I go to a trainer.
So Okay. Just feel I feel like you just you just CBC, ferritin, iron, panel, b twelve, folate, thyroid test, and evaluate blood loss if the iron is low. Like, you're not you have you don't have any GI bleeding or anything like that. Right? No.
No. Do you still get your period without your uterus? Nope. No. Right?
See, that was the problem with that's why I was so low iron.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You just need two more jackups. Two more bags up.
I tell you, two more bags and you're set. I'm not a doctor, and this is not advice. But two more bags and I think you're a different person.
Yeah. I definitely okay. You know what? I'm gonna call my doctor. I'm gonna get another blood work done and see how my ferritin is.
Everyone says it. With glow. Everyone says it. Not enough people email me back and say I did it. So
Do you want me to email you back?
I do, but you won't. Because no one ever does. Just a throwaway avatar in your life. I'm not a real person to you. That's fine.
Alright. I do not use avatars.
But did you like the movie with the blue things and the dragons?
No. I actually didn't.
Why not? Why why are you the only person that didn't like avatar?
I I don't know. But I remember everyone talking about how amazing it was, and I'm like, okay. I kinda found that boring. Okay.
I don't know. The ride at Disney is pretty awesome or wherever it is. I don't know where it is. Disney? Maybe.
Oh. It's a good ride.
Haven't been.
Yeah. Well, I mean, how are you gonna get out of the country?
I don't know.
Yeah. You don't have enough energy. You're not gonna make it.
I actually just have zero desire to travel right now.
Maybe you'll feel better after your iron's heart. Right now, I mean, the idea of getting on a pontoon boat and then taking a kayak to get to a bus, to get to an airport. I mean, how are you gonna it's a lot of work. And then
That sounds exhausting.
The last 50 miles are sled dog. Right? And then you're on your way, but it's not great. How did you end are you born there? How you I almost said, how do you end up there?
I was born in Saskatchewan, and I have not moved or, like, lived anywhere else other than Saskatchewan.
Interesting.
I almost moved to Alberta, but then I didn't, and I'm glad I didn't. And I like that I live out on an acreage out of the city.
How much I grew up on a farm. How much space?
Just, like, under three acres. It's small, but it I can see the stars, and the sunsets, and the sunrises, and it's glorious.
I'm not gonna argue with you. I looked at a house in the South, and I didn't have like, I wasn't really like, I wasn't like, show me a house. I was going through I'll I'll explain this to I was going through Tennessee on the way to Atlanta to do a talk in Atlanta for Touched by Type one, which by the way, went great. Touchedbytype1.org. Check it out.
And then I
Check it.
But I I had met I hope this is doesn't sound too obtuse, but I I went on a cruise in December to check out the ship that I'm taking everybody on
Right.
In June. And while I was on the ship, I met a woman who was a former American Idol contestant. She was singing on the It it it's just kinda funny. And and her name's Ashley Amber. She's might be somebody you recognize because she has, like, like, a really, like, a giant, like, afro.
So I think that's how people know her. Anyway Okay. She was singing on the ship. She and I were getting food at the same time on the ship, and somebody had kind of, like, accosted her. Like, somebody somebody recognized her from the being the singer, obviously, and then was talking to her, not meanly, but was really just monopolizing her time.
So I have kinda gone through that at diabetes events. I can tell the look on her face when she's like, I'm just trying to eat this food. Please leave me alone for five seconds. Right? I kinda I stepped in, and I was like, oh my god.
Hi. And I kind of just, like, hijacked the conversation. Then the woman felt the pressure. She excused herself and left. And then she looked at me like, oh god.
No. Was like, you and I went, hey. I don't really wanna talk to you. I was just saving you. Go ahead and eat your dinner.
And she she comes up to me afterwards. She goes, how did you know I needed to be safe? And I said, well, in certain situations, I'm more famous than anyone in the world. And and I was like, but not in many situations, just in very specific ones. I was like, and I I know the look of I'm just trying to eat this food, please.
I just I need five minutes. And then we started talking. That's amazing. Yeah. We started talking, and she's like, actually, I'm not gonna do the ships much longer.
I'm really gonna pivot to because this is how she makes her living. She sings on cruise ships. And and then she's like, I'm gonna start selling real estate in Tennessee. And she's like, I live in Nashville. And I was like, oh, that's one of the places I talked to my wife about moving to.
And so we just kinda kept in contact, and then I found myself traveling to Atlanta. And I said, crazy question. If I drove to Atlanta instead of flew there, if I spun through, could you just show me a couple of houses real quick? I'm not looking for a house. It will be a waste of your time.
But, like, can you would you? And she was nice enough to do it. So she just picked a couple of houses, and I didn't know where to pick or I I had no idea. Like, I hadn't looked into it at all. And I just followed her lead, and she put me on this piece of property.
It was five acres. And I it took a while to get from the road to the house. And then I walked the house, and I was like, this is really lovely. It was, like, new construction and everything. Was really nice.
And I walked out back, and I was making a video for Kelly who was not with me. I was gonna show her the house. And I got outside, and it struck me how silent it was outside. There was no noise anywhere. And then a bird chirped.
Not 20, not a thousand. And I and I realized I'm only listening to the bird chirping right now. And I could've yeah. I would've like, if I didn't have kids and a wife, I would've just been like, this is fine. I'll take this one, and I would've just stayed.
See you. Yeah.
Yeah. This is good. I'll be okay here.
Mhmm.
I I I take your point because I've been bugging my family incessantly about it since then. I was like, come on. Yeah. This is the art. And I'm like, I know you probably love your boyfriend.
I'm like, but you could find another guy. Like, let's go. So and
I mean, I feel like had I been 20, I would not have wanted to move out here. I was like, yes. City life. Woo. Mhmm.
And then it got into my later years, like, 35, and I'm like, hey. You know what? I think we could move out to an acreage. And then finally, it happened, like, a year and a half ago.
Yeah. I'm in. I'll leave right now. Like, I'll I'll you got I'll sell this and leave. You can have it as is.
I'll buy a new bed when I get there. Like, I'm I'd be happy I'd be happy to go. So I don't think I'll
I got a large
ever gonna happen.
Large garden. It's Yeah. It's awesome.
I said to my wife, I was like, you could plant something. I'm like, you're always talking about it. You could actually do it. You know? Like, you already
worked food or just flowers?
Any who cares? Right? Get a chicken. I don't know.
There's a fox. A fox just ran by our yard.
Oh, what does the fox say? Did it say anything?
What does the fox say? I know. He's just running. He's so cute.
Look at that. That's he was.
So, like, ADHD, just like a fox.
Oh my god. Fox. I was like, when you said that, I thought I thought you were pretending that a fox ran by during my my experience. I thought you were adding
It's not very often that we see a fox. We see lots of deer, but a fox is not as common.
Oh my.
They're around, but I just don't see them.
Yeah. Well, anyway, I guess there's a long way of saying if you're looking for a realtor in the Nashville area, Ashley Amber. She really is Good to know. Fantastic. Alright.
I'm gonna let you go now. Hold on a second. Okay. Stay with me. The podcast episode that you just enjoyed was sponsored by Eversense CGM.
They make the Eversense three sixty five. That thing lasts a whole year. One insertion? Every year? Come on.
You probably feel like I'm messing with you, but I'm not. Ever since cgm.com/juicebox. I'd like to thank the blood glucose meter that my daughter carries, the Kontoor Next Gen blood glucose meter. Learn more and get started today at kontoornext.com/juicebox. And don't forget, you may be paying more through your insurance right now for the meter you have than you would pay for the Kontoor Next Gen in cash.
There are links in the show notes of the audio app you're listening in right now and links at juiceboxpodcast.com to Kontoor and all of the sponsors. A huge thanks to today's sponsor, AbleNow. Able Now offers tax advantaged able accounts for eligible individuals with disabilities. If you or your child lives with diabetes, you may qualify because of ongoing medical needs. With Able Now, you can save for a wide range of disability related expenses without affecting eligibility for certain disability benefits such as Medicaid.
And thanks to recent federal law updates, more people are eligible than ever before. Learn more and check your eligibilityablenow.com. You spell that ablenow.com. There's links in the show notes and links at juiceboxpodcast.com.
- Type 1 rode in behind celiac. Gabriel’s diabetes was caught at a routine celiac follow-up draw — his a1c had jumped from about 4.8 to 7.8 in a few months — and they escaped DKA only because that bloodwork was already scheduled. With one autoimmune diagnosis, staying alert for the next one matters.
- A DIY closed loop (AAPS) is powerful but has rough edges. Their pain point: a compression false-low makes the algorithm cut basal, then it over-boluses the rebound. Their fix is a temp target. Knowing your system’s failure modes — and how to override them — is part of looping.
- Caregiver health is part of the kid’s care. Scott walked Lana through brain fog, fatigue, hair loss, and weight gain that may trace to iron deficiency (one transfusion is often not enough) and possibly thyroid — and noted anemia can mimic or amplify anxiety. Worth a full panel: CBC, ferritin, iron, B12, folate, thyroid. Many clinicians aim for ferritin ≥70 in women. Decisions belong with your doctor.
- Low-carb helped, until it didn’t. They leaned keto/low-carb early (easier with celiac), but Gabriel wasn’t gaining weight, so they reintroduced carbs. Growth comes first — a number on the meter isn’t worth stalling a kid’s development.
- An a1c of 6.0 is excellent — and self-criticism is common anyway. Lana hoped for the 5s and felt let down by a 6.0. Naming that pattern matters as much as the number; the goal is health and sustainability, not perfection.
- AbleNow — Tax-advantaged ABLE savings accounts for eligible people with disabilities — an episode sponsor.
- Contour Next Gen — The blood-glucose meter Arden carries — an episode sponsor. May be cheaper in cash than your insurance meter.
- Eversense 365 — The one-year implantable CGM — an episode sponsor.
- Gabe & Olive (Lana’s shop) — Lana’s handmade children’s clothing, named for her kids — Canadian shipping. Scott insisted we share it.
- AndroidAPS (AAPS) — The open-source DIY automated insulin delivery system Lana’s husband John set up.
- Bold Beginnings Series — The newly-diagnosed series Scott points listeners to.