Scott Benner 10/7/22 Scott Benner 10/7/22

#768 Dexcom G7 Design

Dexcom Senior Director of Global Product Design, Alex Diener has type 1 diabetes and he's here to talk about designing the Dexcom G7.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 768 of the Juicebox Podcast.

This week, the Dexcom g7 launched in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Hong Kong. If you're not lucky enough to live in one of those places, you're still waiting for the Dexcom g7. If you don't live in one of those areas, I thought perhaps you were having a little FOMO little fear of missing out or even a void. Maybe there's a dark black void inside of you where you want to put the excitement of Dexcom g7. But it just hasn't arrived at your door yet. Well, never fear. Today, Alex Dina is here, Senior Director of Global Product Design at Dexcom. And Alex and I are going to have a lovely conversation about what it was like to redesign the product, and the user interface. It's not quite Dexcom g7 And your hot little hands, but Alex is pretty terrific. So maybe he'll be able to fill that dark hole with a little bit of excitement, just enough to hold you over until the big event. While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan, or becoming bold with insulin.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast doesn't have any ads. It's an extra episode. It's just an idea I had a couple of days ago, I thought oh, I could have Alex I want to talk about g7 design, you know, the UI all that stuff. It would be nice, a little extra something for you. At the end of the week, I was lucky enough to be able to set this up quickly and record the episode. And here it is for you now, I will remind you that the podcast is supported by advertisers. And when you click on those advertisers links. Well, that's how you get this stuff. You know, I'm saying like I can't make this podcast for free. Do you think you I think I have my bills. I do I have built like an electric bill. And you know, I gotta pay like for the kids, they go to college people eat. There's a lot of stuff around here. So if you're in the market for the Omnipod five or the Omnipod dash, the Dexcom G six, the Contour Next One blood glucose meter, G voc hypo pen, the M pen from Medtronic diabetes. Or if you'd like to learn more about touched by type one. And even in fact, get your diabetes supplies from us med you can do that with links in the show notes of the podcast player that you're listening in right now. Or the links that are available at juicebox podcast.com. When you click on the links or type them in a browser, you're supporting the show on the pod.com forward slash juice box, Dex comm.com forward slash juice box contour next.com forward slash juice box G fo glucagon.com forward slash juice box in pen today.com touch by type one.org and us med.com forward slash juice box. That's it. That's all I gotta do. Now the rest of it is free of me telling you about the advertisers. It's over. Now this part's over. I appreciate you listening to it. Let's talk to Alex.

Alex Diener 3:21
Hey there. My name is Alex Diener. I'm the Senior Director of Global Product Design at Dexcom. And have been here about four and a half years and just thrilled to be part of this team thrilled to be on this mission to make living with diabetes a little bit easier.

Scott Benner 3:38
So Alex, you know you're here because we've got to feed the beast, right? You guys have you guys have announced Dexcom g7 and Europe and a number of countries. And right away people are like, what about here? And I was like, Oh, you don't like it? Do you? Canadians are thrilled, by the way to, to watch America and I get something right away because they're like, now you know how it feels. But, but I just thought what a great opportunity. Because I have to admit, I thought we'd be hearing about g7 anytime now. But I liked that there's this gap here to have these conversations that we don't normally get to have. Because you guys aren't always available to talk to so you're available right now. And I'd like to understand how you take a product or devise an app and change it completely without it changing. But make it better because I assume that's the goal, right? Like keep what people love. Make it Better make it smaller, make it faster, but I don't understand how that happens is just beginning a meeting or you don't I mean,

Alex Diener 4:41
yeah, I mean, I think it's also being in a state of like constantly dreaming big, right like and everyone is kind of like putting their their notes down on paper and and sharing them with each other. But you know, I think at the root of it, it's it's about listening Think to people about listening to our customers. And just really centering the technology on the needs of people of everyday people and hearing their stories and figuring out how can we tailor the technology to fit seamlessly in their life? You know, there's a lot of companies, a lot of companies that are developing technology left and right consumer technology, medical technology, but there needs to be like a real empathy and and focus on, you know, Hey, are we addressing the real needs, and you only discover those real needs by spending time spending time talking to people?

Scott Benner 5:42
I find, especially well, listen, I'm more focused on diabetes, but I've seen so many apps, for example, you know, people are like, well, we have a great idea to help people with diabetes, and they get funding, and it's sometimes stunning how much money people throw into it. And then the app comes and I think this is valueless, like it does, don't you understand what people with diabetes want, they want things to work, and they don't want to put as much effort into it, they're not looking to be involved constantly, you know, what I mean, they're looking to, they're looking forward to do what it needs to do. And when they need to be involved with it, it needs to be fluid and work well and look, right. And when they don't need to be looking at it, they don't want to be looking at it. And people keep trying to drag. I don't know, like, I don't want to I don't want my daughter to have to write down what she ate at three o'clock. You don't mean like I want I want an algorithm that sees a little jump up and pushes it back down again. And then that moments go on, and we don't have to think about it. You know, I went east, I wonder how hard it is for you. When you're working on things. And you have drawings and ideas and designs, you know that this is going to be in the next version of this and you hear people online say, you know, we really want we want this. And your problem. Do you think like overdoing that, but I can't tell you? Have you ever had that thought?

Alex Diener 6:58
Oh, yeah. Oh, for sure. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we have a, you know, a lot of different things that we're pursuing. And, you know, medical devices take time to build really high quality robust, user centered products takes time. And yes, sorry.

Scott Benner 7:18
No, I'm sorry. I'm just gonna say so the g7 app that we're going to be seeing soon is that I guess go back and tell me, when did you start working on it? How far back was it being worked on?

Alex Diener 7:29
You know, it's been it's been a number of years, you know, I've been at Dexcom for for four years. And, you know, it's been in work, you know, ever since then, and, and beyond? And, you know, I think there is there's kind of a layering of generations, you know, where work from one blends into the next ideas and, and thoughts and aspirations, kind of flow into the continuity of building one platform to the next. But, you know, you asked about, you know, how does, how does that happen? How does that become real? And, you know, I think I think part of it is us, you know, as a as a team kind of, you know, setting an ambitious target, like what what do we want to deliver? What have we heard from people? What do they want, you know, they want they want clear, simple, robust, intuitive products. Right? Okay. And then how do we break that down into consider constituent parts of the experience, right, like, ah, you know, how can onboarding be better? How could the web experience be better, and looking for ideas, and each each and every one of those vectors, and, you know, I want to make this super, super clear. Design is a team sport, product development is a team sport, and it takes a tremendous amount of people to make it work and to make really compelling, amazing products. And I'm talking about, you know, research, research and product management, engineering, program management, advanced tech, you know, operations, you know, even the feedback from the sales team, you know, all all of these different groups, bring their ideas and their creative energy to bear on on the product development process. And, you know, the hardest part is deciding is curating curating all those ideas, you know, like, what are we going to start on first and what is what is the highest impact to our customers, right. And then from there, building, you know, building some prototypes, whether that be a worn thing, whether that be a digital experience. Let's build some prototypes. Let's get them out there. Let's put them in front of people. Let's, let's hear what they have to say. And then, you know, adjust the prototype and repeat, build, build, test, repeat

Scott Benner 10:00
So Well, I mean, from simple things like websites, all the way up to what we're talking about today, everybody has used something and thought, did they not let anyone try this before they gave it to us? You know, and especially with diabetes, you think, like, Did no one with type one wear this? You know, and there's been stuff like that in the past. So it's a, it's a perfect idea of, you know, to let people look, I also imagine, too, that there has to be a desire from the top. Because you could be at a company that just is like, look, the other app works, who cares? We're not spending money on it. And you know, so there has to be a desire to want to do that. So that you guys have that from the top down, obviously.

Alex Diener 10:37
Oh, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, there's, I mean, there's a spirit of continuous improvement, you know, all the way across the company top, top to bottom. So that, and that's a huge, that's a huge asset to a design team. Sure, right. That have that have that support of chasing, chasing new ideas. Even knowing that, you know, that, hey, not everything's gonna pan out, you're gonna chase some ideas that that won't pan out. And that's, that's okay. You know, that's part of that's part of the process.

Scott Benner 11:03
So okay, so you say it's down kind of broken down into parts? So I guess visual is a part right? What does it look like? How does it function? What information do people need, like you guys are? Did you blend the clarity app together with the Dexcom? app?

Alex Diener 11:20
Yeah, there is there are insights from clarity that show up on a clarity card with ng seven. So you get a lot of that high impact information right at your fingertips on that homepage. But I could kind of maybe expand on your on your line of thinking there. You know, like within the global product design team, we've got UX, which is like, you know, your information architecture and your flow, you've got user interface or UI, which they're the visual layer, how that how that user is absorbing and interpreting that information. In the end, they're very much integrated with that that UX team in terms of the overall flow, there's the instructional design, there's like the content designers. And again, they are also integrated, both with the digital product and the physical product in terms of like, you know, just making sure that people understand how to use this, how to make it as intuitive how to communicate the functionality. And then we've got industrial design, industrial design, is the hardware design, the physical object, the applicator, the actual sensor transmitter that is on the body, what should that look like, feel like? How does it feel? You know, what does it look like? All those teams are constantly trading notes, as I kind of chatted about earlier in the podcast about with all those other kinds of different groups that are helping us make decisions together, you know, what's going to be best for the user?

Scott Benner 12:49
Right? Hey, you have type one. So are you wearing the g7? Have you been wearing it for a while?

Alex Diener 12:55
No, you know, because it's not out in the United States. I just wear G six. You know, and I have worn the non functioning prototypes, just so I could understand, you know, the, how it feels on the arm or? And yeah, so, you know, I wear the non functional prototypes. But I like many of your listeners am eagerly awaiting g7 to arrive here in the United States.

Scott Benner 13:23
How do you Matt, would you mind telling me how do you manage? Do you use the injections or pump?

Alex Diener 13:27
Oh, yeah, happy to happy to share. So I've got Dexcom G six, coupled with a tandem tandem pump and control IQ. And, you know, I love it, it's offered offered me a level of freedom. You know, I'll give you an example. Scott, you know, before control, like you couldn't fast, you know, like intermittent fasting just for health and wellness. That was kind of unobtainium. And now that I've got the smart algorithm on board, it's really changed the way that that I treat and even stuff like sleeping through the night, you know, you know, having having that level of comfort is is pretty incredible.

Scott Benner 14:09
I tried to explain to my daughter recently, she was on the podcast, she doesn't come on very much. And I said, you know, one days when, like, after you've had a long week at school and you sleep in on Saturday. That's because you, you know, Arden is using a loop. And I was like, Well, that's because you have an algorithm. It's taking basil away and then when you start to rise up and give some back about bah. And she's almost I mean, even though she's lived through a couple of versions of diabetes management, she was very young when she used MDI she doesn't remember particularly you know, and even like first generation on the pod and stuff like that, so she's like, Yeah, you can see how it just normal it is to her that that's like being in it's not a big deal. But for so many people it's it's unattainable like you said, like, how do I how much was asleep and my blood sugar starts to dip right away if I stay sleeping too longer? Yeah. How do I go to a blood test tomorrow morning when the guy tells me I can't I can't eat after midnight. And, exactly, it's a big deal. So, yeah, so So then if you're using control IQ, then this covers one of the questions I know people are gonna want to ask is that how soon after g7 becomes available will integrate with Omnipod? Five and control IQ? And I mean, what are the goals for that? on your end? I know you guys aren't the pump companies. But yeah, I

Alex Diener 15:22
can't Yeah, I can't get into specific dates, but I can't say that, like, everyone sees the tremendous value there to our to our users. And, you know, both on the Dexcom side, and with the partner teams, everyone's just working overtime to get that, you know, once once g7 is approved, and and all the all the regulatory needs are met, then, you know, get that get that to market as soon as possible.

Scott Benner 15:49
And then is the step there, then it's up to the pump companies that part at that point to submit to the to the FDA. Is that how that works?

Alex Diener 15:58
You know, I probably not the best person to talk to you in terms of like all the regulatory steps and sequences, but you know, I think you're, I think you're along the along those.

Scott Benner 16:10
Right, right? Well, I think it's just comforting for people to know that it's, I don't know why anybody wouldn't understand that it's being worked on behind the scenes, but it always freaks people out. We're like, well, when's this gonna start? I was like, I believe, I'm assuming they've been working on it for a while. So yeah, it's very exciting. Okay, so what's your I mean, you're the Senior Director of Global Product Design, that's a seems like a big title. What does that mean? What do you do day to day?

Alex Diener 16:38
You know, every day, it's about seeking design opportunities, and helping the helping the team that design that collective design team, you know, really, Chase chase these big ideas? How can how can we bring them to market? What should they look like? What should they feel like? What is the experience that we're delivering, and we employ so many incredible designers? So it actually makes my job much, much easier? Because there's tremendous amount of creativity and empathy for the for the diabetes experience across the team. I will say, you know, you mentioned earlier, like, hey, you know, have you have used products that, you know, you felt like maybe people who were living with it may or not have have tried it. Over half our design managers either have type one themselves, or are a caregiver for somebody with diabetes. And so I think there's a tremendous amount of expertise there. And also, you know, just to make it super clear, even those folks that who, who are not living with diabetes, everybody, you've never seen a company that is more mission driven, and more focused on educating themselves to the experience and what we're trying to deliver. It's pretty incredible. And yeah, so really, it's about you know, how can we make an impact for people? What should that impact look like? And how do we, how do we get it to market so

Scott Benner 18:16
let's break it down a little bit down. So we, everybody who knows what a G six looks like, understands that the transmitter pops into the sensor bed. And you know, you take it off every 10 days, and the transmitter keeps getting recycled for you know, the life of it, which I guess is 90 days if I'm remembering right? And and then you bring in a new transmitter, but G seven is going to be nothing like that, like everything's going to be one use disposable. Is that right?

Alex Diener 18:42
That's right. Yeah. So the sensor and the transmitter is combined. Yeah. So kind of takes away that extra extra step a little bit easier, a little bit smoother to use.

Scott Benner 18:53
What about the application process in? It's just like a, it looks like a little plastic cup to me, and you hold it to your skin and just press it down?

Alex Diener 19:00
Yeah, that's right. That's right. You depress it down. And once you get enough compression with the skin, you hit the, the button there, the release button, and then very much like G six and once you hit that button, you know, there's just that brief second where that sensor is put in subcutaneously. And yeah, it's, you know, for me personally, on some of those, some of those trials, you know, it's very, very comfortable.

Scott Benner 19:31
Good. Yeah, I was gonna say, I mean, it's obviously much flatter. It appears to be, you know, in diameter, maybe like, is it even as big as a quarter? I don't think it is right.

Alex Diener 19:44
I I believe it's a little bit smaller than a quarter. Yeah, had to have to go back and look at the look at the specs. Exactly. But it's very close.

Scott Benner 19:54
So wearing it. More comfortable. You said?

Alex Diener 19:58
Yeah, you know, one of the things we We talk a lot about in terms of the wearable is the Z height. And the Z height means it's the distance from the surface of the skin to the top of the wearable. And, you know, with with G six, compared to G seven, there's a big, there's a big difference there a big reduction of Z height. So, you know, the daily activities like, you know, putting on a shirt, you know, toweling off seatbelts, these types of interactions of things that could make contact with your wearable, you know, we think that people are really going to notice, notice interference, they're gonna notice that that wearable, less, okay,

Scott Benner 20:40
so what about on the on the app side? Because I mean, obviously, we've got the device down to almost like, it's almost taking up no space in the world. So you know, that's, I don't know how much smarter, smaller, you can get it one day, but that would be amazing. But now, the apps really where you live, right? Like, once it's on, you don't think about the device anymore. It's all about the app. So what has what what are we going to see, like, in your opinion, what are people going to, like be struck by what kind of changes do you think will they at first see, and then what will they experienced over time that they really end up? Enjoying?

Alex Diener 21:16
Yeah, yeah. You know, I think, you know, as, as we kind of hit on before, I think one, they'll notice the fact that it's combined, they will notice that immediately, I think that they will notice that the height, you know, as they put it on their body, like wow, this is this is really quite at quite a bit lower. I think that they will also notice, you know, this new app design, kind of the more modern interface, card based architecture, a navigational tray on the bottom, that allows you to move into different sections of the app. 30 minute warmup time, is going to be transformative for a lot of people, I like that distance between getting the glucose values between one session and the next, you know, to go from two hours to 30 minutes is a big jump. Having the flexibility of grace period, you know, like, ah, you know, your your child is maybe going to school or you're about to go to work. And, you know, you don't you you don't want to change your, your wearable your sensor yet. So, you know, having that 12 hour grace period is is really key. For those people who prefer to use a receiver, that g7 receiver is, you know, a huge change, it's much smaller, much lighter, the battery life is far extended, you know, high high contrast screen on that. And it's also less expensive. So I think a lot of people will be incredibly surprised, pleasantly surprised, and kind of the upgrade on that on that receiver.

Scott Benner 23:01
Can I go back to two things I just want to bear, because I believe I understand you. But I want to make sure people listening are so in the app. Right now, when you open up the Dexcom app, if you're the user, it's just it's a screen. It there's not much more there. You can turn it sideways go to landscape, you can choose three 612 24 hour views. And yeah, there's like some settings. But that's pretty much it. It's sort of and that's what you mean, when you say card? That's sort of a one card app. Is that right? The way it is?

Alex Diener 23:29
Yeah. It's more or less Yeah, it's more like just one homepage.

Scott Benner 23:33
Right? Right. But But now at the bottom are we going to see icons are we going to see like swiping left or right. At the

Alex Diener 23:41
bottom, you'll have the glucose, what we would call tab, the glucose tab, which is basically your home screen. And then you'll have your familiar backglass, you'll have your trend graph. And then as you swipe down, you'll also have the clarity card. So it's a functionality that's offered that gives the user more information. So you know, it's like, Hey, your real time information, still going to be up front first and foremost. And then if you want to learn a little bit more about how you've been doing in the last three 714 plus days, you can go down to that clarity card and have that experience. Now you know, these other tabs, you know, history connections, there's going to be more on that in the future that we're going to build on that. You know, the g7 app is made for connections is made for integrations and everybody knows our share follow you know companion functionality that's a connection right and we're going to continue to build on that. So excited for what the future we'll we'll hold their

Scott Benner 24:49
will is there a updated follow up?

Alex Diener 24:54
It is in development but not the time timeline not not released yet.

Scott Benner 24:59
Okay. Alright, so it won't happen at the same time. So g7 users will see the new software g7 followers will still just keep using what they're using. Correct. Okay. All right. Okay, so the other thing I wanted to ask you about was the grace period again. So it's a 12 hour grace period. But let me put you into a real life scenario, the, I get a warning that says in six hours, my CGM is going to expire. And I forget, and six hours later, it's two o'clock in the morning, and I really wish I could change it in the morning instead of in the middle of the night. Does that work? That way? I can push 12 hours from the drop dead time. That's right. Wow. That's right. Well, that that basically covers the day. Right. Yeah. Right. It should give you the opportunity to put the change where you want it to be.

Alex Diener 25:46
That's right. Right. Exactly. Exactly. You know, and people want that flexibility. Like you said, it's huge. Yeah, you know, yeah.

Scott Benner 25:54
Yeah, I just, I mean, there's, it's, if you don't live through it, you don't know. But the idea of like, oh, I have to do it. Now. Whether it's Dexcom, or it's your pump, or it's anything like not now and I know, you know, it's funny, Alex, I believe that. Do you ever hear people say things happen at the worst times? When when's a good time for your insulin pump to stop burning? You know what I mean? There's never really a good time, but at least if you can get into the thought process of I control when this happens, and I think that's going to be a big deal for people. I really do.

Alex Diener 26:26
Right? Yeah, we agree. I mean, we pursued that change, because we really heard it from a lot of people.

Scott Benner 26:34
So are you working on the team working now on things that you think will be integrated along the way? Are we going to have to wait for like, like rebels? Or how Yeah, I think it's gonna be

Alex Diener 26:49
incremental, incremental change to the g7 experience? Oh, yeah. Yeah, we're absolutely working on, you know, changes and upgrades to the to the g7 experience. And we'll be delivering that over time. As opposed to, you know, big, big changes only being reserved platform to the platform.

Scott Benner 27:09
Okay, yes, you don't have to wait for whatever comes after g7. Not that I'm trying to put it in your head that you need to come out with her. But you don't have to wait for the next thing. You guys are gonna kind of become like, maybe you could kind of do it the way Tesla does it when they're like, look, here's this one little add on, we'll give it to you in a software update. And here it is. I mean, I think that's, I think that keeps things from getting stale, which was, which is important. Plus, it keeps you from getting into a situation where you recognize, wow, we should have done this. Or we should have pushed harder for this, you know, back when we did it, and instead of having to wait years, which brings me to the question, are there things that were cut from the app that you right now think, Oh, I wish we would have done that? Or Is there stuff that you saw? Like, how does that happen in the room? When someone's like, No, we need to do somebody else is like, no, it's got to be this like,

Alex Diener 27:56
No, I think I think anybody in product development always has a wish list. And we have a long wish list. Right? And you're never able to get everything, everything you want into into one release. So yeah, we definitely have aspirations and future plans for delivering, you know, kind of more new and different experiences expanded capabilities. Yeah, so there's always things that, that you got to you know, pencils down. Time to time to ship.

Scott Benner 28:27
Yeah. Yeah, I just I would love to know what popped into your head when I asked, because I'm assuming the recycle. Yeah, that I would have liked. Well, I can tell you, that I, the years that have gone by since someone reached out to me from Dexcom, and said, Would you talk to a person once they ask you a bunch of questions about what you think about the app? It's so long ago, and the company is so different now than it was back then? I mean, can you give me a feeling for I mean, I don't need exact numbers, but the size of the group of people that work on this compared to that group five years ago? Is it just like before you got there? Like, have you seen that transformation in four years of things growing and becoming?

Alex Diener 29:13
Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, obviously, as as, as a company grows and matures, and its, you know, aspirations, expand with it, it needs it needs a larger team. I mean, I can speak for the design team. I mean, the end end is I think there's also a kind of speaks to you know, how Dexcom C's and values, you know, product design, the product design team has, as you know, doubled in the last four years and we want to do more, we want to deliver more to our customers globally, and that requires, you know, a lot of planning a lot of a lot of thought a lot of careful thought and, and work to make that happen. So Yeah, I mean, there's definitely been an expansion. I think we also, I'm feeling like, ah, you know, there's, there's so much we can do. There's so much that we can deliver to people and the team needs to scale to be able to accomplish that.

Scott Benner 30:13
Let me ask you a couple other questions. How about a rate of change? I mean, it's it's public now. Right? You can tell me? Let's see. So delta, like, do I see in the last since the last reading, I've gone up five points or down three points or something like that.

Alex Diener 30:30
Rate of change is not in there. Okay.

Scott Benner 30:33
Well, if you're gonna ask me later, what I want, we'll start with that.

Alex Diener 30:38
Yeah. That's, that's top of your top of your list.

Scott Benner 30:41
I have to say, I think so. I think I think that's one of the bigger ones. I think other people might say, Watch integration, right, which I don't see as a. I mean, I don't know. But it to me that feels more like a limitation of Bluetooth and the hardware than it does other things. But I think that I would hear from people watching integration, for sure. I think Delta rated change is a big deal. I think it's, it tells you a lot about what's happening. In the moment, it gives you that feeling of like, okay, it's moving, but it's not. You don't you mean, like, I don't know why it's different. Like you see the arrow? It's because you don't have to remember, right, like your diagonal down. 96 The next time you look, you're at eight, you don't have to go six, I've moved eight points. You know, I mean, like, it just you just see that there. And it just I don't know, it takes away a level of I don't know, it takes away a level of having to think about it, which is nice. Yeah,

Alex Diener 31:40
yeah. I mean, there's a grant the granularity of like, you know, how, what is what is my ascent or descent? And what am I doing right now, that may have an impact on that? Or, you know, or that rate could have an impact on what I'm doing? And vice versa? Yeah. In

Scott Benner 31:57
that example, like, the way I would hit me is okay, the thing I did is working. And it's working the way I expected it to, or it's not, you don't I mean, like, it's, oh, geez, I thought it was gonna move farther by now. Or that kind of thing? So I don't know, I find that completely valuable. Yeah. What else are you said? You have questions for me. I didn't realize this was gonna happen, Alex, but we can turn around. Go ahead. What do you what do you got?

Alex Diener 32:20
Yeah, I mean, those are, those are my two big ones, you know, from from artists perspective, what is what does she want? And then you as as a as a parent? What do you want? I mean, ready to change? Got that?

Scott Benner 32:37
I think Arden would say that she wants one app to rule them all. I think that's what she would say. I think that if I mean, if felt like, absolutely being completely, like open aren't used on the pod five for a number of months. And in the end, she said to me, I want to go back to the loop. Because I only have to look at one app, one loop. And I don't have to carry another device, which I know some people don't want to work from their phone, and that's fine. But for her, she wants it to be on her phone. And she doesn't want a ton of different apps. So as the integration comes together, I think that's something everybody's wondering, which is how do you with your pump partners? Come up? And can you like I don't even understand and maybe you don't know, either. But from a regulatory standpoint, like I'm not even sure if you're able to but I don't want to have an omni pod five app and a Dexcom app. I want everything to work in one place. I would bet a lot of people would say that for certain. And then I don't know, just to become cluttered. Like what kind of a design problem does that become then? Yeah. So

Alex Diener 33:45
and that, you know, I think we responded to that. In our in our own kind of way. Our own ecosystem is like where people like yeah, you know, I want more access to my clarity information. Yeah, so

Scott Benner 34:00
and then I think on screen is huge. I don't know if this is a you thing, or an apple thing, or, or Android or whatever. But like I have a widget, you know, that shows where the hell's my camera. That's amazing. I don't order my own cameras. So I have that widget there, which is amazing and works terrific. But I would love it if it was on my lock screen. If I could see stuff on the lock screen. And I know a lot of people, parents of younger people would like to see treatments and boluses on the follow up. Yeah, that's a big that's a big thing too. Like anything that stops you from having to bug your kid, I think is a big deal. That gives you a little insight like okay, I asked him to Bolus and he did I see it here. Good. I'm done. Yeah, I definitely think that's a big, big deal for people. Now having said all that, and I know we're running out of time, but having said all that. What I love most about the software is that it fades away from you eventually. And so as much as I want it to be amazing, and I want to look great, I wanted to do all this stuff. I don't care as much. I don't think I care what it looked like, it could be an eight pixel. If it if I didn't have to look at it, you don't even if I didn't have to see it that much. And I think that after somebody uses Dexcom, for a long enough time, like we have, the truth is that, you know, I need rate of change, and I need the number and I need an arrow, and pretty much the rest of its is extra, in my opinion. I don't know, what do you think you use it? Do you agree? Or do you? Do you not?

Alex Diener 35:36
I mean, I think having additional contextual information is always great. And you know, certainly, you know, trying to get to, I'll give you one example. You know, I also love Fitbit. And I use aura, an aura ring for my sleep. I love all those different data sources. And I'm, you know, I'm a little bit of a data a data nerd. Right. So, I like to have that. But, you know, it would be you know, that's definitely something that is of interest of like, oh, yeah, how can how can you get that information all in one place. And I think that's, you see that with Apple Health and Google Health, right, where people are trying to get kind of a consolidated view. So I think that's a super, super interesting space. And always just trying to make sure that, you know, things are as simple and as robust as they possibly can be.

Scott Benner 36:35
And as you want them, I listen, every time I talk to somebody, I floated the same idea, it never happened. So I might be talking to myself. But as an example, if you use Adobe Elements, there's tabs at the top, it's like basic, medium Pro. And when you click on those tabs, the software becomes visually something else, you get more or less depending on what you're asking for. And I do wonder if there's not, not a space for a basic view? You know, what I mean, a more deep dive view, and then the the data that some people want that other people would find confusing, and then you just get to decide. I mean, I've never designed an app before. I don't know. But to me, that makes a lot of sense. You have one app could could apply to a lot of different people's needs. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Plus, that'll keep you busy for years. Alex.

Alex Diener 37:23
That's right. That's right.

Scott Benner 37:25
give you something to do. I know, we just have a couple minutes of ask you one question that I'm gonna let you go, right. Yeah. What's it like working in the health space where it's not just about how it looks, or how it functions, but it's about the FDA saying it's okay, or it's about it definitely has to work? Like, you can't, you can't say to the FDA, this thing's gonna be at a certain number, it's going to show me something that it can't happen, right? Like, it's, is that an extra pressure? Like, how much of that do you think about? Like, after you're done designing it, somebody else has to say, okay, to it beyond just the design perspective?

Alex Diener 38:01
Oh, I don't think of that as an extra pressure at all, because it's, you know, obviously, we want to develop, you know, products that are incredibly safe and effective and meet the needs of people. I think those you know, those other organizations are just helping us in that, in that mission, it's always good to have an outside perspective. And look at those things. So from a design perspective, I don't I don't see that as, you know, an extra pressure, really, the pressure inherently is doing the best job you can for the needs of people in managing their disease. And that's a we'll take that challenge all day long. Because it's it's incredibly gratifying both to hear from patients and from caregivers, doctors about that kind of the impact and so, yeah, sure. Is there is medical device development. slow and methodical. Absolutely. Is there a reason for that? Yeah. And and we, we love that challenge. Obviously, there's there's some days that you wish, I wish, you know, this process could go faster, but there's a reason why it has a certain pace and, and it's all about making sure we do the best we can for for people living with this chronic condition.

Scott Benner 39:23
Well, thank you. I appreciate you doing this very much. Hopefully I can have you back on after the device comes out. We can pick through it a little more. But I you know, it was great talking to you.

Alex Diener 39:32
Yeah, yeah. Scott. Hey, it was great to meet you this morning. You know, I've definitely listened to the the Juicebox Podcast a number of times and thanks for you know, thanks for everything you do for the community and kind of keeping everybody up to speed on what's what's coming down the pike and how best to manage It's

Scott Benner 39:47
my pleasure. It's nice of you to say.

First, I'd like to thank Alex for coming on the show and thank you People who helped me set it up. You know who you are. I know you're listening. Thank you. What else? What else I got for you? Oh, yeah, if you want to check out the Dexcom go to dexcom.com Ford slash juicebox Get started today with the next GM G six, you may even be eligible. What do I say in the ads, you may be eligible for a free 10 day trial of the Dexcom G six, find out more@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. Of course, the other advertisers that I mentioned the beginning on the pod Contour Next One G vote glucagon Impend for Medtronic, diabetes, US Med and touch by type one. links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com. Thank you so much for supporting the podcast. If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, or type two diabetes, check out the Juicebox Podcast on Facebook. It's a private group with over 30,000 members Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes. Are you looking for the diabetes Pro Tip series or some of the other series within the podcast? look no farther than juicebox podcast.com or diabetes pro tip.com or the featured section in the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, there are lists everywhere. You will be able to find what you're looking for. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

#767 Arden's Supplements

Scott goes over the supplements that Arden is taking for digestion and hormonal imbalance.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hey everybody, this is going to be a fairly short episode. But something I feel like I really need to do because of how many people have contacted me about it. So I'm going to do this a little differently today. I'm just going to record it straight through, I'm going to put the ad in where I need to, you're going to hear me do the whole thing. So I guess I should say, Hello, friends, and welcome to episode 767 of the Juicebox Podcast. I gotta put the music here for you to hold on.

Alright, I usually come in about here and I say something about the episode. So on this episode of The Juicebox Podcast, I'm gonna sit here and just talk to you for a little bit about the supplements that Arden took, Oh, you heard my voice crack and I can't go back. That's okay. The supplements that Arden took for her stomach issues. And for her issues that she had with her period. They were very impactful. We mentioned them during her episode that just aired recently. I now see you caught me I'm like, I don't know what episode number that is. Hold on a second. Arden is back episode 757. So this is 767. We're just going to call it art in supplements. And that's it, I need to tell you that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. And ask you to remember that you should always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan or becoming bold with insulin. And then this is usually where I tell you that if you're a US resident who has type one diabetes, or is the caregiver of someone with type one, you should go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox and take the survey takes just a few minutes. It's completely HIPAA compliant, and absolutely anonymous T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. Alright, I'm getting it. Who would you say gotta keep it on this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by us med. Go to us med.com forward slash juice box or call 888-721-1514 To get your free benefits check. US med is where we get Arden's Dexcom supplies and her Omni pod supplies. And you can too. I'll tell you more about it in just a little bit. All right, let's go on. Okay, so is there anything else I'm supposed to tell you? I guess is it. I'm just gonna get going to do a little backstory here. For those of you who don't know, and bring you into it? A number of years ago now. We were in a movie. We were seeing the Joker. So that was October of Hold on a second. The Joker. October when the heck was it in the theater? We just get some water here. I guess 2019 When was when was the Joker released? Yeah, it was that was released in in October 2019. Okay, so my family is in a movie theater in October of 2019. That makes Arden I don't know, she was born in 2004. So 2014 is 10 makes her like 15 years old. The movie is just about the end. We're getting to the you know the end of it here where the big act comes? I think they're at the there's the scene where they're at the what was it like the Johnny Carson rip off thing if you haven't seen Laurie? I mean, go see the movie. And art is on my left. And she just turns to me and she goes, What is this? And I look at her and her nose is bleeding. Like I mean, I thought she got punched in the face, blood pouring out of her nose. So we take her out, get her into the bathroom. get her cleaned up. It's like a crime scene. Kelly says she comes out and then moving forward. Almost like clockwork, once a month. Arden gets a nosebleed every month. It was just crazy. Soon after she starts breaking out acne and we take her to a dermatologist they try you know whatever the first thing is they try doesn't work. Second thing doesn't work. Third thing doesn't work now we're basically pouring like, you know, prescription acid on her face or whatever. I don't even know what it was not working. She's absolutely so careful about washing her face and caring for it the way she should. Nothing's helping. And then she gets her period

and it begins to lengthen. I should I shouldn't say she gets her period she was getting her period already. But her period begins to lengthen. You know, having said that, I don't know. Anyway. 15 Yeah, I think she had her period already. Anyway, it was the beginning of her period. And they last sometimes 11 days, right? Like, she just bleeds for 11 days. And then she gets a break in between half a day, it felt like what it was like two or three days, and then her period would come back again. So she almost had her period constantly. This led to a very low iron situation. As you may imagine, we had to get Arden iron infusions, got her pumped back up again. Then her iron dropped again, because the periods like we just kept thinking like this'll stop, right? But it didn't. And I think we got her another infusion brought it back up again. And I remember my wife and I talking and saying, Look, we can't just let this fall again, it's killing her like she's so drained. By the time we get her to a place where the insurance company will give her this iron infusion. So we need to get ahead of it. We have to fix her periods, and we didn't know what to do. So we started her on a birth control pill. Well, that seemed to work. And not the first one. The first one they gave her was like a low low estrogen that didn't touch her. Then they gave her low estrogen then that seemed to work. And then the company stopped making that pill. So it went to a generic and the generic didn't work for her. So then the bleeding started again, and I swear to you, the nosebleed without the pill comes back every time every time you stopped the pill. Arden's nosebleeds one time a month, it was bizarre. So we're doing everything, testing her for everything you can think of PCOS. I mean, everything. Dr. Benito, from the thyroid episode is helping her running all kinds of tests trying to figure things out. And this goes on a while we finally get her on a pill that stops the bleeding. But then Arden loses her. Her taste for food, like she would be hungry. But she couldn't stomach the idea of eating, she would also get into a position where she couldn't take the idea of eating meat. So it went anywhere from like, I can't eat meat, it makes me feel disgusted to I'm hungry, but I don't know what I want and nothing sounds good. Then if you took her off the pill, she could eat again. Just like that. But of course, then the nose bled and the periods and blah, blah, blah. So art and fought through a number of different a number of different birth control pills. And she came to us one day, about six months ago, and she said, I don't care if I bleed to death. I'm not taking these birth control pills anymore. You know, she'd gained weight. She didn't like the way she felt on them. She still couldn't, you know, she had no flavor for food she couldn't really eat or stomach hurt all the time, etc, etc. We didn't know what was going on. And we're kind of at a loss. You know what to do. At the same time, Arden's fighting with her stomach hurting sometimes a little sometimes a lot, but she would always describe it as my stomach always hurts. It always always hurts. It just was a fact of life. Sometimes it would get worse she'd actually have Kelly pushed like think right below her sternum, I guess right up top there where your stomach is, I guess by you're below your ribcage I'm thinking and she pushed really really hard and it would kind of while you were pushing it would take the pain away. It was really terrible. Again, doctors testing for everything. Does she have celiac? No she does and does she have this? No, she doesn't bother. I mean just everything you can think of we tested for and finally my wife says like I think we have to get it like an endoscopy like I think that's what it's called right to look down her look, you know, get get a look inside of her stomach. But a few weeks before so we set the endoscopy up endoscopy and I think that's what it's called. Sorry. I'm like now getting stuck on the easiest thing and you're like, Yes, God is calling it a Scobie. Stop googling. Yeah, endoscopy. Sorry. So she.

We set that up and it takes a few weeks to get to the doctor. Actually, that's wrong. We set that up, show up at the doctor. The doctor, we're supposed to go to the room Everyone tells us to go to we get there and the guy says his staff says she's not 18 We don't see minors, but they took the appointment. And I was angry. And I feel bad about how I did not handle it well in the office because it pushed it back another six weeks. And she was just in so much pain. It was hard to see. So we pushed it back six more weeks. We got the appointment. And in that time, Dr. BENITO said to Arden I want you to try something In called a VAs atoll. So it's an over the counter supplement. This was for hormonal problems, what would basically what Dr. BENITO had gotten down to is that we had tested for everything. Nothing came back as an obvious problem. And Dr. Medina said, I think this is hormonal. I want you to try this avasta tall and if that doesn't work, she wanted us to give it three months. She said if it doesn't work in three months, I think we have to start talking about putting Arden on Metformin. Because this could be an insulin resistance. You know, we're hormonal and insulin just I don't know. Listen. By now I'm dizzy. It's 2022 We're at this 2019 October 2020. October to 2021 October into and now it's October 2022. When I'm recording this and we only got this all figured out back in July, July August September I four months ago, right so it was damn near. It was like three years it was terrible. This whole time Arden's in pain or stomach hurts can eat. Everything's horrible also, by the way, coming along with her stomach hurting and not eating Arden is incredibly constipated. She is not going to the bathroom very frequently at all. Okay, so artist starts taking of acetone in it felt like no time at all. We got up to her period like a couple of weeks after she started to see you take this Avast atoll and you dilute it or dissolve it excuse me in a drink aren't just takes it and water. Doctor says to start with like two scoops. We do two scoops. Supposed to take it sort of earlier in the day, because it can kind of give you energy too. And you don't want to take it at night because some people report that it keeps you awake from what Dr. BENITO said. So, two scoops and it gave Arden diarrhea. So we were like, Okay, that's too much. So we went back to like, one scoop. I think I think that's how we did it. Diaries thought and Arden is drinking it every day drinking it every day drinking every day. And then suddenly, it's time for her period. And the period comes and it's wonky still because she's been off the period off the birth control pills. So we think well, let's let it go to another period, and we'll see what happens. But by the second period on a basketball, so I don't know six weeks, maybe eight weeks. She gets a period and it's a much more reasonable length. It still wasn't as short as you would expect it to but it was more like seven days ish, I believe. And then it ended. And then it did not start again. And we were like holy heck, this is amazing. Also, by the way, Arden's nose has not bled since she's been taking this. Get the hell out of here, right. That's what I thought too. So she keeps taking it, keep taking it. And we try to think about it. Just just do it right. It's impacting her periods. Well, it's impacting the nosebleed thing. Her acne seems to be lessening, but it is not changing her bowel habits, and it is not changing her stomach pain, which I have to admit everyone in the house was hoping would happen. But since it didn't, we went to the gut doctor I forgot what they're called to do this thing that we're supposed to do right get this endoscopy actually, I'm sorry to do this but this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is brought to you today by us met us med is the number one distributor for FreeStyle Libre systems nationwide. It's the number one specialty distributor for Omni pod dash. It's the place where we got on the pod five from and you could do it. US med is the number one fastest growing tandem distributor nationwide, the number one rated distributor index com customer satisfaction surveys. And they've served over 1 million diabetes customers since 1996. I want to take a drink us med wants you to get better service and better care than you're accustomed to getting. Now wherever you get your stuff now and I know it can be very frustrating some of these places but us med is going to do better, better service and better care. How do they do that?

Well they start by always providing 90 days worth of supplies and fast and free shipping. US med carries everything from insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGM like FreeStyle Libre two and the Dexcom G six us med accepts Medicare nationwide and over 800 private insurers. All you have to do to get started with us med is go to us med.com Ford slash juicebox or if you prefer the phone call 888-721-1514 You want white glove treatment. You're going to get it from us med USA add.com forward slash juicebox links in the show notes and links at juicebox podcast.com. Whoo. My my ever did that. Like, I feel like you're actually listening to me instead of just me recording it. Anyway, we go to the doctor so the doctor can look down Arden's throat and look around her stomach. She's told not to eat, I think after midnight she has a salad like around eight o'clock. So you're gonna hear me clear my throat and everything because I am not editing this. So she has a salad around eight o'clock. We get up early in the morning, head into the place super early in the morning, she goes back and the doctor comes out. We talked about this in Origins episode a little bit and you've heard about in a couple of other places in the podcast if you're if you're listen to all the episodes, which you should. Doctor comes out, he looks at us and he goes, Arden has gastroparesis. And we're like, whoa, wait, why? Because you know, to a person with diabetes, the word gastro precice sounds like nerve damage from uncontrolled blood sugars that blah, blah, blah. And we're trying to talk we're like feeling it out with them and like, What do you mean? Like, I don't know how that's possible. I didn't say once he is insanely good. It has been forever. I've interviewed people who have gastroparesis, and none of Arden's digestion works that way. Like, you know, I don't notice anything crazy. Yes, over the last couple of months, she's been a little more like, you know, resistant to insulin over meals, but my God, like it's not like people describe. And then he explains to us that the word gastro precess it's just sort of like a, it's a catch all word for him. I'm gonna look it up for you right now. So he's a gastroenterologist, and when he comes across people who have any kind of slow digestion that's called gastroparesis to him. So, hold on a second. So we're like, Okay, so that's just a word you use? And he said, Yeah, we just mean slow digestion. So I said, for the love of God, please just say slow digestion, if you please, it's freaking me out. Anyway. He wants Arden to go on a gastro precice diet, which was, to my best of my recollection, like no raw foods, nothing was skin on it, you know, like, you know, you couldn't have like a green pepper for example. He didn't want her eating meats. Like it was a completely very restrictive diet. And he said, you know, Arden also has gastritis she has inflammation in her stomach, and he went in there, he saw there's still some lettuce from the night before and he said everything was swollen, and you know, inflamed. She has gastritis, which is another catch all word. So we're like, okay, so you kind of shake off the What the hell tell Arden artists, of course, the jected because she can't eat anything. But she does it. She goes on this, this very restrictive diet. But I start calling Jenny, Jenny and I are having private conversations. Jenny's like Arden doesn't have gastroparesis. I'm like, I don't think she does either. And we're having that kind of conversation behind the scenes. And I'm like, it just sounds like her stomach is inflamed. And because of that her, her digestion is not working properly, which is also I think, making her constipated. So Okay, fair enough. Let's do what the doctor said. And I want to point out, the doctor pushed a number of different medications on Norden, for pain for other stuff. And we were like, This is weird. We're not like, we don't want to give Arden this medication. He wanted us to go do a gastric emptying study, which the hospital told us like, definitely make sure your insurance covers this before you do this study, because it's incredibly expensive. We're gonna like I'm saying I don't think this is necessary. Jenny told me. She didn't think it was necessary. My wife was worried she wanted to do it.

At origin stays on this diet for 567 days, a week rolls around. And she looks at me and she goes, I don't care about this diet. I want to go to five guys today. I want a cheeseburger. I want a milkshake. And I want french fries. And I was like, I don't know how to tell her no, because this diet does not appear to be impacting her at all. Not that I think a week was long enough to really know. But it just it wasn't. It didn't give any indication that it was getting better and it was hard for her to deal with. So I kind of scrambled in my mind and I had been looking at other things. And it occurred to me that I wanted Arden to try a digestive enzyme so I had already ordered them. But they hadn't arrived yet. Now I went online and ordered them from pure It was pure encapsulations digestive enzymes Ultra. I had ordered them but they hadn't arrived. But Arden wasn't waiting for this cheeseburger for these things to show up. So I said okay, look. Absolutely. You're gonna have this cheeseburger and this milkshake, but we're gonna stop at the health food store and get you some sort of a digestive enzyme. You're gonna take it along with that meal. And she's like, whatever I want this food. Before I move on, I want to indicate to you too that Arden did not ever have any vomiting. Just nausea, stomach pain, constipation. So we stop at our local health food store. There's a lot of pressure by the way not to stop talking, we stopped at our local health food store. When in spite, I spoke to a lovely woman Arden sat in the car, she was having no part of this. She's like, Whatever, I'll take the pills because you want me to but I'm not into this. And this lovely woman gives me something called Super designs, which is just the I have it here with me. And it's just the health food stores brand, right? It's just I don't know, Black Forest acres in New Jersey. In this beta time, hydrochloride pepsin, one to 10,000 broma line 2400 GDU G's, pap pain and F. Ox bile extract, which we all agreed not to tell Arden about ox bile extract, pink pancreatin USP eight times which and amylase 100,000 USP units, protease 100,000 USP units, lupus 22,000 USP units now I mean, obviously, I don't know the first thing about this, right? I'm just, I did some reading. And I thought there's probably something we could do to help the digestion a little bit. Maybe if we could get the food to get through her stomach quicker, then the gastritis would die down. And she'll go to the bathroom like this is what I was thinking it's worth trying, right. So I bought these gave her two of these, the woman said take two with like a fatty meal or something like that and take one with a regular meal, whatever was all very, a little hippie dippie. But we're like whatever role we're in, right? So Arden pops two of these sheets, cheeseburger sheets, a milkshake cheats french fries, and her blood sugar does not spike the way I would have expected it to even a week before had she had this. I was like huh, like no big spike, no crazy drawn out, like impact from the food. And I was just a well, this had to have done something like look how well this work because artists blood sugar was getting difficult around meals. So then the next day, I'm like, Did you poop? And she's like, I don't want to talk about going to the bathroom with you. And I was like, okay, but did you poop? And you know, no, I didn't. Oh my god. So day later, she still was kind of constipated. Nothing was happening on that end. And I was forcing the enzymes on her. Every time she ate forcing. I meant like, what I mean by that is every time she ate, I was like, Hey, I'd slide them across the table at her. And she'd look at me like you, mother. Alright, I'll take them but I don't want to, you know, and I was real diligent about it. Every time she ate every meal, enzymes stopped restricting your diet, just use the enzymes. So about a week later, I hit her again. You know, how's things going? She's like, Oh, you know, not bad. But I'm still not going to the bathroom. Really? All right. Okay. So we go back to the health food store and this time I tell her want you to come in with me speak the lady. She's lovely. You know, your stomach's not hurting as much so it is doing something I can see your blood sugar's better at meals. You know, let's go pick this lady's brain some more. So we go in, say hi to her, tell her everything that's going on. And she hands me these.

This is just I think just an affordable version of this. But she said, I want you to take magnesium oxide, not any other type of magnesium but magnesium oxide, she hands me these the ones I'm holding her from TwinLab 420 milligrams. And she's like, take one of these a day. In the evening. You're gonna go to the bathroom. And Arden's like, whatever. And she's like here take these probiotics too. And she just gives me these. They're not anything special. I don't think PB eight probiotic eight strains of beneficial bacteria supportive digestive health, 14 billion active culture. She's like, you know, take these, see what happens. So now, here's the thing you don't know is that the pure digestive enzyme showed up at the house a couple of days after we got the super designs from the local health food store. And I thought I'll do this with Arden right. So I just started taking the approach because art and I have similar like systems, as far as digestion goes, and in complete candor, there are things I can't eat, they just hurt my stomach and I do not go to the bathroom regularly. Like the way I would want to I did start taking fiber some years ago, which I've talked about in the podcast, which regulated my bathroom habits. But still it wasn't. It's not like a perfect system. It just felt like it was a I don't know. It felt like it was a patch. It wasn't helping. There's still things I knew if I ate I'd feel sick and stuff like that Wally greasy stuff, some other things that I just couldn't do well, with a lot of heartburn I would have. And, and anyway, so I thought I can't hurt, right? It's just the digestive enzyme. So I start popping one of these pures every time I eat. And I have to tell you, I don't have to take the fiber anymore. Crazy, right? And now I can eat things that have a little more grease in them once in a while without my stomach getting upset. So I'm doing it along with her. I'm like, What the hell? You know what I mean? I might as well do it, I start taking the probiotic. I even think I take the magnesium. I do actually. So I'm like, I'm gonna do what she's doing. figured she needs somebody to you know, she's already taken the Avasta tall everyday drinking it, which she does not at all bulk about anymore because she's because it works. Because she sees that her period is regulated. She doesn't have to take that freakin birth control pill anymore. So now getting her to take this is no big deal. Similarly, we're at the health food store that day, you know, fast forward back to going into pick up the magnesium and the probiotic Arden's now excited, not you know excited, as excited as she gets, she's happy to do this, I should say, I'm no longer having to tell her, Hey, take an enzyme and a meal. As a matter of fact, we were leaving one day, she and Kelly were going out. They were going to go shopping, and then pick up lunch. And they got in the car. And they were leaving the house and Arden told Kelly Hey, stop, I gotta go back inside. And she went back inside to get the enzyme, the digestive enzyme. She said I can't go without this. And that's when we knew this is some, you know, big doings. It's this is working. So anyway, Arden starts with magnesium. The next day, I'm like, How'd it go, I don't want to talk about my bathroom habits, blah, blah, blah, poop and etc. But I did poop today. So she adds the magnesium to go to the bathroom, the probiotic to help just with her overall gut health, and these super designs or digestive enzymes at a meal. And she does not miss them now. And she's been off to college now for three weeks. And I talked to her every day. And she's like, I do not miss this stuff. I take what I'm supposed to take, because it helps. So anyway, she came on the podcast and number a couple of weeks ago now right before she left for college. And we talked a little bit about this stuff. But not much it was kind of in passing. And the amount of people that I've heard about her heard from, like both online and through emails was so great that I thought I have to do this episode and talk about this stuff. Because it's just it's so many people are reaching out and saying my kids stomach hurts all the time. Or my stomach hurts all the time, or my hormones are messed up. What's that stuff you were talking about? So I have no relationship with these companies. Although let me just tell you right now, I'd happily do an ad for any of these companies. But I have not right. So. on their Facebook group, specifically, there's just so many posts about like, Hey, can you help me? What was Scott talking about the other day on the episode. So this is what we're talking about. So here it is for all of you, if you're having trouble with digestion,

if you're having trouble with constipation, if you're having trouble with your stomach in any way, this stuff is not that expensive. And it's worth trying. I just got a note today from somebody like literally tonight. And she said, Hey, I tried the digestive enzymes with my kid. And it was like we had too much insulin for the meal. It couldn't work that fast, could it? And I responded back and I said listen, I'm not a doctor. I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. But I gave these to Arden for a milkshake french fries, and a cheeseburger and I had to use less insulin than I thought I was going to so I mean this is something you might see a quick turnaround on and at least you'll know you know pretty pretty quickly if it's valuable for you or if it's not that's pretty much it. So let me go over it again. It's Oh Vassa tall of asset tall actually contacted the company a couple times to see if I could get one of their doctors on they're not getting back to me. But a thorough logics if you hear this, I'd love to talk to somebody about whatever the hell this is. Oh VAs it all ova s i t o l we get it on Amazon. It is not cheap. But it is not expensive. It has an Myo inositol m y Oh dash INOSIT o l 2000 milligrams per packet it says are scoop and D keuro. In set all d c h I r O dash ion Osito l 50 milligrams. I'm telling you right now no nosebleeds. Periods are regulated. Acne is going away. There are there are reviews online reviews that I read of it before we got it for Arden where people were talking about being I mean in fertile like not being able to get pregnant and taking this for a couple of months and boom, knocked up pregnant, so I don't know what it does. I mean, on the front it says supports healthy insulin levels. And there's a little little asterisk next to that I'll find out the asterisk means promotes healthy ovarian function and egg quality supports hormone health, independently content certified by NSF International. It looks like it is dye free gluten free vegan BPA free canister. Women trying to conceive should take of acetone along with a preconception vitamins such as thorough needle core or Oh vite looks like this little pigment for their own stuff here. The Asterix says these statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Well, that's fair, but I'm gonna tell you right now helped my daughter a ton. The digestive enzyme I'm taking pure encapsulations digestive enzymes Ultra has a bunch of stuff in it. It's available on on Amazon. It's in a white bottle with a blue label, pure encapsulations as the company Arden is taking something called Super designs just from our local health food store. I'm sure you have a local health food store too. I read you the ingredients earlier. Absolutely amazing. I bought I went back and bought three of them and sent them to school with her. The probiotic is PB eight probiotic 14 billion active cultures. And the magnesium oxide which was handed to us by the lovely lady at the place at the health stores made by twin lab, I don't know that you absolutely have to have a twin lab, magnesium oxide. But again, these are 420 milligrams. I don't know it's worth a shot. So I wish you a ton of success. This can't be fun. I watched art and struggle with it. It was horrible. I felt bad every day, she felt bad every day, we were starting to get caught in the situation where we thought this is it. She's just gonna have our stomachs gonna hurt. And our nose is gonna bleed and our periods are gonna last forever. And she's gonna have to get iron infusions, because she believed so much. And it was just sad. It really was. If any of this helps you. That's terrific. I'm trying to find people who understand this stuff better than me to come on the podcast, but I haven't had much luck so far. So I thought I would just sit down and tell you what we did. And what led us to try. That's pretty much it. I appreciate you listening very much. I have to tell you that US med sponsor this episode of The Juicebox Podcast, I

thank them very much us med.com forward slash juice box. Or you can call 888-721-1514. Like I said, we are getting Ardens diabetes supplies from us med I think you're gonna like them. They're really terrific. But Bob, I'm sorry. To end exchange.org forward slash juicebox. Please go take the survey when you complete the survey. You're helping people living with type one diabetes, you may help yourself, they may contact you with opportunities that you'll like. And you're definitely helping the podcast because I make a little bit of money every time you complete the survey us med. Thank you very much. You helped me pay for these. These pills that are sitting in front of me. That's pretty much it really. Oh, you might have been here today looking for a better beginnings episode. They'll start back up again next week. We have a few more before the series is ended. And then Jenny and I are gonna move on to something else. I think this is the part where I say thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Also, I'll put up a post that corresponds with this episode dropping. I'll put up a post in the private Facebook group and the public page juicebox podcast.com. I'll put up a post there too. Why not? I'll put them everywhere. So it'd be juicebox podcast.com And on the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, and the public Facebook group which is called bold with insulin. I'll even throw it on my Instagram for for good measure. That's it. I guess I'll talk to you soon. This wasn't This is weird. I never did this like this before. I'm done. I don't have to go back and edit. I'm just finished. I just save it. No. Okay, this was pretty cool. If your stomach hurts, I feel bad for you. I watched Arden struggle with it and it was terrible. She has all her flavor back for foods now. meat, dairy, vegetables, everything she used to eat, she can eat again. It's a weird thing to say like she couldn't imagine what she wanted to eat. She just knew she was hungry. And then there were times like I said, meet like she couldn't stomach the idea that it would happen like something else. Usually he'd say, Oh, how about this, you know? That's gonna make me sick. I can't do that. I'm not going to eat. I'm really hungry though. And it was like that constantly. So it's a it's a living hell, and I hope something here helps you. Okay, I'll be back soon. Thanks for listening.

#766 Rhymes With Fun

Aimee has type 1 diabetes.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 766 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's podcast we'll be speaking with Amy an adult living with type one. She recorded this right around the time of, I believe her first anniversary with type one diabetes. Amy lives in Canada, a Canadian Canadian. She lives north of Minnesota and south of the North Pole. In Canada, I had a fantastic time talking to her. She taught me something about where she lives that I will never forget. And it's why the episode title is rhymes with fun. While you're listening today, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. Or becoming bold with insulin. This is me late at night, keeping myself amused while they record the bumpers. Are you a person who has type one diabetes and a US resident? Or are you a person who is a US resident and cares for someone with type one diabetes, if you are bingo, you can go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. And take the survey. When you complete the survey. You've helped people living with type one diabetes, you may have helped yourself and you definitely helped me. Today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Omni pod five, please go to Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox. To learn more and get started today with the Omni pod five or the Omni pod dash which you may be eligible that last part the dash, you may be eligible for a free 30 day trial of when that be something. The podcast is also sponsored today by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. It is an absolutely delightful little blood glucose meter. How's it delightful? I'll tell you if it's in your hand. Well, it's got a bright light. It's got a screen that's easy to use. And it's bonkers accurate accuracy of course being the most important part of this contour next one.com Ford slash juice box.

Aimee 2:19
My name is Amy. I am 31 years old and I am a type one diabetic diagnosed just about a year ago. April will be my one year anniversary. Anniversary, whatever you call it.

Scott Benner 2:31
I don't call it anything specifically people do call it a diversionary. Yeah, if I were to call that a diversity to art and she would definitely make a weird face at me.

Aimee 2:43
Yeah, I listened to her episode and I appreciated her humor. I really liked it. I know some people were weird about it, but I thought she was great.

Scott Benner 2:51
Only a couple of people seem to not enjoy her. I do think at some point she mentioned her religious beliefs and that that through. Sure, sure. Yeah. But anyway, she's 17 She was trying to be very honest. And I appreciate it that very much. Yeah, awesome job. I thought so too. I keep trying to get her to come back on. And she's like, No, just do it again. You know, so I said people really enjoyed hearing from you. And she's like, she goes, I know. You're trying to be funny. Anyway, okay, so you're only a year. Ooh, hold on a second. You got you got kids?

Aimee 3:26
I do. I have two two daughters.

Scott Benner 3:28
Okay, how just how old? Are they?

Aimee 3:31
nine and three?

Scott Benner 3:33
Three, you're married? I am excellent. I just said Excellent. As if I cared if you were married or not. I don't know why. I just think I said Excellent. Because I'm like, Ooh, she answered my question. Move on to the next one. anyone in your family have type one diabetes?

Aimee 3:47
No, no, no one at all. There is though some like Hashimotos my mom's got Hashimotos. So there's other autoimmune stuff going on? For sure.

Scott Benner 3:58
Okay. How did you figure out you had type one?

Aimee 4:02
Oh, I had all of the symptoms I was. I was really sick. I was, you know, everything you can think of I had it. I had lost a ton of weight. I was super thirsty, super hungry. I like my eyesight was blurry. I was out of breath. It was just it was all of it. So it was you know, I think as we do as adults, and as parents, we kind of like push things aside. We explain it away. So I was diagnosed in April, and it was for sure the December. Prior that I started really feeling like something's not quite right. But you know, I was like, Oh, well, I'm working hard. It's COVID I'm wearing a mask at work. Maybe I'm just extra thirsty from that. That would make me know all of the things and then I was like, Oh, I'm drinking so much water. Like maybe I'm just like losing water weight or like I thought like, oh, what sometimes that happens. So there was all of these different things, but then it kind of really got to the point where I couldn't continue on I'm just sort of making excuses. It was like, okay, clearly I'm not well, and, you know, so I went to go get some blood work done had to find a doctor, I didn't even have a family doctor. So I had to find a doctor got bloodwork done, and thankfully, he did catch it right away. I had honestly gone into his office, like, pretty much self diagnosing myself, so I don't think he had to make too big of a leap. But yeah, I was in full DK when I was diagnosed. So it went on for quite some time.

Scott Benner 5:32
Wow. Oh, so you did figure it out on your own though?

Aimee 5:35
I yeah, I did. And you know, even like, I want to, say two months into when I started feeling super thirsty. That was really my first noticeable symptom. I, you know, I had known sort of the symptoms of type one diabetes, just from talking with parents and being in like moms groups and stuff, and seeing people talk about their children being diagnosed. So I knew that extreme thirst was a symptom. And I had kind of said to my husband jokingly, like, a couple months after experiencing that, like, maybe I have diabetes, and I was like, no, because I still kind of thought like, oh, well, you know, you don't really get that as an adult. And I obviously don't have type two, I'm a very healthy person. Otherwise, you know, eat well. I exercise. I don't have type two. I know that. So, you know, at but it was just funny than when it turned out to be true. Because I had honestly called it months before so.

Scott Benner 6:26
Wow. Yeah. That's sucks. Sorry.

Aimee 6:30
Yeah. Well, it is what it is. Yeah.

Scott Benner 6:33
Did you like get to your goal weight before you call the doctor? Yeah. I kind of think I would be like, I'm gonna lose five more pounds. And then I'm definitely gonna go to the doctor.

Aimee 6:41
Yeah, that's the funny thing is, you know, at first, I was like, sweet, I'm losing all this weight, and I'm eating so much. This is the best. And then yeah, then it kind of got to be too much. I was Yeah, for sure. Like, it wasn't, it was to the point where I would go buy new pants, and by the end of the week, they wouldn't fit anymore. So

Scott Benner 6:58
Wow, geez. Now I enjoyed letting people talk through that. Because I think that there's just a lot to learn. By listening to the stories people tell themselves while something's happening, like you made me laugh by saying like, I was thirsty because I was wearing a mask, like everyone else was wearing a mask. Like, by that logic, we would have all been supermodels. And you know, and there'd be a water shortage because nobody could get enough water, we'd all be drinking so much water.

Aimee 7:26
But who knew that wearing a mask makes you lose weight and just be super healthy by drinking so much water?

Scott Benner 7:33
And that's true, by the way I got ripped off. So I wear that mask, and I didn't lose any weight at all. But no, seriously, it's I just like listening to people. It's just interesting to me. You know, like, I figured it out. But then I thought Yeah, that's probably not that because I'm not old enough to have Jouvet. I'm too old to have juvenile diabetes. And I'm not old enough to have type two diabetes, and I'm not, you know, out of shape. So that's all that must mean. And you just write things off and write things off. So, so easily. It's just very, you know, away from diabetes. We we all do the same stuff. So

Aimee 8:07
yeah, yeah. And I have really narrowed it down to like, okay, either I've got type one, or it's thyroid, because lots of the symptoms are very similar. Yeah. So that's kind of like, what I was, you know, I was sort of hoping. I mean, I know you don't want either, but I was like, well, hopefully it's thyroid. But, you know, turns out I have both. So that's great. It's

Scott Benner 8:30
one of the but yeah, I don't know what to call it. I almost said, like I was I almost said, Well, if I don't have to say it, but I almost said that's like one of the bullshit things about autoimmune is that the symptoms are so common through so many different issues, right? And it, it makes it incredibly difficult to figure something out, because, you know, you're like, Oh, my, my hair's falling out, or I'm losing weight, or I am low on energy, or you don't even you're like, Oh, great. Well, this could be any number of like, nine things that I've heard people on this podcast talking about, you know, you're really trying to pick through it. And you already know about like, say you have type one, and now you're trying to figure out if you're if your thyroid is a problem, or if you have, you know, arthritis or any number of other autoimmune issues, and it's, it's hard. It's hard to pick, pick through it all. Hopefully, you'll never have to do that again. Did you start putting the like, do you start doing the math like my mom has? Hashimotos I have type one. Did you look at your kids and go Oh,

Aimee 9:32
so you know, no, I guess I didn't before a diagnosis. I didn't really make the connection between other autoimmune issues and type one. Like I didn't really realize that that was connected. So all I was looking at was well, there was no type one in my family. There's no there's not even any tattoo on my family. Like there's no diabetes. So I was thinking like, how could it possibly be that and with my kids like, Oh, absolutely. When I found out that was really the only thing like I had a mole meant a very brief moment of being like, well, this sucks for me, but then it was immediately about them. And and what does this mean for them? Yeah. And, you know, I think I asked, I asked the doctor when I was diagnosed, and he kind of said, like, oh, it's not likely, like, basically just because, you know, you had them before you were diagnosed, and he gave me a whole laundry list of reasons why it's, I really don't have to worry about it. But I think I've, you know, in my own research, I've come to realize that, not that I'm sitting here worrying about it, but I certainly it's a possibility. So, you know, they've both had their fingers pricked a few times, and so far, so good,

Scott Benner 10:37
but I understand well, I mean, you can't like you can't live your whole life. Just, you know, worried worried worried all the time. I guess you could do trial on that, or something like that. If you were really interested. You're in Canada, right?

Aimee 10:50
I am. Yeah, yeah, they,

Scott Benner 10:52
I'm sure that works in Canada, doesn't it? It does.

Aimee 10:55
It does. Yeah, sorry, I lost the headphone when it made a difference to you. Yeah, I was in contact with someone with trial net. Actually, I was we kind of have considered doing it. But you haven't decided yet. The one thing that's kind of holding me back, and I don't know, if it really matters, it's just my endo had brought it up. I asked him at an appointment, what his thoughts were on it and, and he said, Well, you know, I think it's like, it can be good to find out that information. But then if your children end up having the markers that flags them as basically already having type one and so then it's very hard for them to get life insurance. If like say they might be diagnosed as an as an adult later on, like I was, so I don't know if that's the case. I honestly haven't looked into it any further. But that what he said there kind of is holding me back a little bit on doing it.

Scott Benner 11:47
Can I ask you a question? Sure. Do you have life insurance?

Aimee 11:51
I do. Yeah. But because I got it before I was when we we were smart. We bought life insurance when we were like 22 years old, my husband and I saw

Scott Benner 12:00
dorks That's lovely.

Aimee 12:03
Because we had a baby and we thought well now we have to be responsible for someone else to

Scott Benner 12:06
do you know, we did we did that. We took a piece of paper and we wrote on the paper if we should die, give the baby to this person and they can have our money and we stuck it in a lockbox.

Aimee 12:16
I don't have a will yet officially that's something that I know I need to do. But yeah, maybe I'll do that version, your version of a will.

Scott Benner 12:23
Just like somebody will find us eventually. Save those kids. You know.

Aimee 12:29
Years later, someone will uncover this lead.

Scott Benner 12:31
Yeah, after Arden's been living in a home for six years, like oh, she was supposed to go to their uncle. How about that? They were gonna give all their money to Oh, but a sad story. Yeah, I know. We should do better at this point, though. Arden is going to be 18 in a couple of months. Yeah. So we made it through.

Aimee 12:48
Yeah, you kind of Yeah, yeah, sneak through that one.

Scott Benner 12:51
Yeah, let them fight over whatever's left when that when I go,

Aimee 12:53
they can put like sticky notes on things in your host. This won't

Scott Benner 12:57
be a sad weekend, wouldn't it? I'm gonna take this lamp. You want this chair? Now? I'll take it. Further after this crap out. We just we just did this with my mom. My mom moved into a, like an assisted living facility. And it was fascinating to see she had she had experienced the health issue. And it was it was fascinating to see what six months before she would have like fought you for. And now she was like, throw it out. I don't care. It's just what's it was amazing to watch her. Her priorities shift. And was really, really interesting. We had to like, sometimes we had to stop. I'm like, Mom, that's 100 year old picture. Why don't you hold on to that, you know, like, we'll keep it you know, she's like, I don't have any place for it. And I don't need it. And I was like, Look at look what happens when you hit a certain age just like whatever. I don't need this stuff. I shot I thought I kind of freeing like she was free like free of ego. Even about herself, you know where, you know, six months before she would have been like, I don't want somebody helping me. You know, she would have gone down that road. Now. She's like, No, let them help. Like, yeah, interesting. Don't worry. That's not gonna happen to you for a while. Amy. Don't get sat on the

Aimee 14:12
road. Yeah, well.

Scott Benner 14:15
Hey, I unfairly know something about you that you didn't share with me in the Oh, so can I ask about it? Sure. Like, sure. What is? Well, now we know you're a decent person, Amy. Because if you had any really weird things going on in your life, you would have been like, maybe you were like, yeah, no, sure. Your job is interesting.

Aimee 14:38
Oh, yeah. But which one I am too.

Scott Benner 14:41
Well, I was thinking of being a doula.

Aimee 14:43
Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure. How it is interesting.

Scott Benner 14:46
Yeah. How does How do you get involved in something like that?

Aimee 14:50
Um, I kind of just weirdly love the process of pregnancy and childbirth and I had, you know, when I was pregnant, and and going through that experience with my two I just have very different experiences and sort of saw. I had a doula with my second daughter. And I saw the difference that that made in my experience, you know, during and after. So, yeah, it was just something I wanted to pursue. And so I've been doing that for just over a year. Now that's sort of like my little side gig. But yeah, I love it a lot. I work with a really lovely girl who's like my kind of business partner and we, we share our on call days and stuff. So it's not too overwhelming. Yeah, it's it's a lot of fun.

Scott Benner 15:35
How many bursts? Do you think you've been around for him in that year?

Aimee 15:39
Um, so I'd say like, personally attended, I think, eight or maybe 10, eight, between eight and 10. I would have to count but we've, together my partner and I have worked with, I think, probably close to 20 clients now in this past year, so

Scott Benner 15:58
Wow, that's really something how Yeah, intimate. Does it get like, are you contacted very early on in the pregnancy? Or is it something people think about more towards the time they're gonna have the baby?

Aimee 16:08
Um, yeah, it really depends. We have people who contact us like, in their first three months of pregnancy and others who are, you know, a month away from giving birth? So it just, yeah, there's not really any like standard. I'd say most most people probably contract us somewhere in their second trimester.

Scott Benner 16:25
Have you ever been involved in a birth in a blow up tub in someone's living room? Yes. Excellent. Please explain it.

Aimee 16:32
Yeah. Oh, I love home births. Yeah, no, it's lovely. We have, like midwives here are provincially funded to so you can. It's good. And it's bad. It's good, because you don't have to pay for it. But we, especially in the province I'm in I'm in Saskatchewan. And we have far too few midwives for the amount of people who want them. So you would contact the midwives and if they have room they take you on as a client or a patient, I guess. Yeah, it's great. I, you know, there's really no, I guess, people used to think of home birth and maybe even I used to think of homebirth as like, this like radical thing. But it's really not that much different than a hospital birth. If you don't have complications, the midwives still have all the tools to do everything. You know, they can still monitor baby's heart rate and yeah, it's, it's really nice. I think it's a great way to labor if you're, if you're interested in it. Well, I mean, you're not interested in it. Someone else is interested

Scott Benner 17:30
in you imagine if I if I shifted now's, like, I'm gonna dump this podcast thing. I'm really gonna get into homebirths I might be a doula. Yeah, that'd be super comfortable for women, if I showed up at their birth. Oh, absolutely. Well, how do you I have one more question about that. Like, how do you get certified or what made you a good choice for this?

Aimee 17:51
Yeah, so it's like a it's just sort of like a course like an intensive sort of weekend course initially to do your like support person, your doula kind of certification, but then you can choose to do an additional like two year I guess, like official certification process as well, where you're kind of monitored closely by an instructor so yeah, it's it's not like an intensive schooling for it or anything. So really, a lot of people even choose to take the training if they're like, like, men will take it sometimes if their partners are, are expecting and they just want to be like a really good support. Yeah, it's we don't do anything medical. So there's no like medical factor.

Scott Benner 18:34
What would you how do you describe what you do? Like if I if I called you and was like, hello, I need a doula. What is it you do? What would you say?

Aimee 18:42
Did you just make a plan? I didn't know what else. Yeah, so we are there to be a support to primarily the laboring woman, but are the laboring person I suppose. And also the partner emotionally, physically, spiritually, if they like. So we do a lot of like, pain management techniques, we'll do a lot of like preparation in the pregnancy on like, you know, creating a birth plan and, you know, even like a postpartum plan, talking about realistic expectations. We help like, decipher medical terms, or things that doctors and nurses are saying, so we can kind of explain it in like plainer English, we can make sure that our clients know like, what all their options are. So sometimes things are presented to you in labor as if like, this is what we're doing. Now, a doctor and nurse might say, like, and now we're going to induce you or something along those lines. And, you know, really, that's usually the case is that you actually have a choice in that matter. So just sort of being like a second voice for that laboring person and and making sure that they're making informed decisions throughout and helping their like wishes be respected.

Scott Benner 19:54
Very nice. Amy, can you please put a PCR dummy into plain English for me? How would you say that on the fly oh, All right now like, yeah, that's not good. Right? Where are you going with that? Exactly? How are you nice in that? You're not?

Aimee 20:07
Well, you know, we talk, that's honestly almost always a conversation that we have in pregnancy because women are worried about that they don't want an episiotomy. So that's something that really comes up. And, and truly, no, I don't know what it's like in the States, but in Canada, for sure. Like it's not commonly used. It's, it should only be used for emergency situations. It used to be really commonplace, unfortunately. So yeah, but we definitely like that's a conversation we often have with the partner. If you see those scissors come out like I have, or if I kick you under the table, like you have to say, like, whoa, hold on a minute.

Scott Benner 20:43
I just, you know, it's funny in my mind, because Arden was hanging out with a bunch of friends last night, and it somehow came up in their conversation, like I was in the other room, and I'm like, What are these girls talking about? And, you know, you're talking about, like, we'd never want to have a baby, because, you know, they're like, 17 and 18. They're like, I don't want anything showing out of there. And you know, like, that kind of stuff. And one of the girls was just like, you know, sometimes they have to, and then she started explaining it. And then the rest of the girls were mortified. And yeah, I was more I'm telling you right now, that could never happen to me for a number of reasons. First of all, I'm well past childbirth in years, but also, I don't have any the requisite parts. And more importantly, it still gives me the willies talking about it, you know? Yeah. Like I'm like, oh, geez, like, so anyway. All right. I'm sorry. That was a weird left turn. But now I do have one last question. Because you said I have two jobs. What's the other one? Yeah.

Aimee 21:37
I own a like a book and gift shop with my mom. The two of us do that together. So

Scott Benner 21:43
yeah, people have extra money for gifts in Saskatchewan. This is cool.

Aimee 21:47
Yes. People have a lot of money for books right now over COVID They. Yeah, people have been reading a lot. So

Scott Benner 21:53
that makes sense, doesn't it? Yeah. Okay. All right. So we've got all that out

Aimee 21:58
of the way. Me? Do. You know who I am. I would

Scott Benner 22:02
love to listen to the podcast with people. Sometimes I like, you know, you know, when movie makers make a movie, and then they sit in the back and they watch other people watch the movie. Yeah, I'd love to, like, be able to witness people listening to the podcast, because I mean, at this point, now, we're 20 minutes into this, Amy. And you haven't really talked about your diabetes at all yet. And yet, I'm fascinated. So

Aimee 22:23
we've talked about a PD PCI dummies and, and all of the things that otherwise

Scott Benner 22:29
I a little bit I could be and we figured out how you got diagnosed and how you figured it out the process you went through. Now I'm going to ask you, when you left the hospital, what was your understanding of management of type one?

Aimee 22:43
Yeah, so that's a good question.

Scott Benner 22:57
I love this meter. And I can do the ad with my eyes closed. I'm closing my eyes now. The Contour Next One blood glucose meter is the meter. I've enjoyed using the most since my daughter's had type one diabetes. Is that weird to say? I don't think so. Because I've used some meters before that, were they I hated them. There is this one. This one I like a lot. It's easy to hold easy to use bright light for nighttime testing, and a bright screen for nighttime viewing. The test trips offer Second Chance test trips, which means you can like hit the blood not quite do it right, not quite good enough and go right back in and get the rest without ruining the test trip. Or the accuracy of the test. And by the way, since we're talking about accuracy, that Contour Next One blood glucose meter is so accurate, it's got like a lot of accuracy. And that's what you want. Really, right. This is a blood glucose meter. This is this is a belsham Sorry, this is a blood glucose meter. It's not you playing darts at a bar for $3. You want this thing to Bullseye baby. Get as close as it can every time but a bing bada bing bada bing as what you're looking for. Contour is gonna give it to you contour next one.com forward slash juicebox head over there right now. See how inexpensive why are people calling me? No, I'm doing something. Alright, that was my fault. I did not mute my phone I might leave all this in contour next one.com forward slash juice box head over there right now you can actually buy the meter online for very little there's links to all kinds of places online that you can buy it. The test strips are incredibly accurate. I'm not kidding. It's my favorite blood glucose meter fits in your pocket to your bag. It's super easy to carry. You really should check it out contour next one.com forward slash juice box and other good people to send you I'm sorry about this ad but I still think people are gonna go go check it out. So I guess we'll have to see if I'm right. Ladies and gentlemen, boy Isn't girls children of all ages the Omnipod five automated insulin delivery system is here it has arrived. It exists in your Stratusphere universe right around the corner from your house. Ali pod five is the only tubeless automated insulin delivery system that integrates with the Dexcom G six CGM. And it uses smart adjust technology to automatically adjust your insulin delivery every five minutes, helping to protect against highs and lows without multiple daily injections. How about that every five minutes is thinking about you. So you don't have to. That's pretty great. Omnipod five is currently cleared for people with type one diabetes ages six and older. And all you have to do and you have the option to control it from a compatible smartphone. On the pod five is also available through the pharmacy, which means you can get started today without the four year dorable medical equipment contract that comes with most insulin pumps, even if and listen to this closely. Even if you're currently in warranty with another system. Hmm, that's cool. To get started with the Omni pod five, all you have to do is go to Omni pod.com Ford slash juice box for full safety risk information, a list of compatible phones, as well as clinical trial claims data go to omnipod.com forward slash juicebox. That's pretty cool. Oh, I got time with Hey, if you don't want an automated system, go check out the Omnipod dash same link omnipod.com forward slash juicebox. You may be eligible for a free 30 day trial the Omnipod dash, that'd be crazy. I have to say now shoot I ran out of music. Who cares already belched in the Contour? Next One. So I have to say what I have to say I have to say for full safety rescue from nope, that's not it. I said that already. Oh, get a free 30 day trial Yamaha dash. Nope. I already said that. There's definitely something I'm supposed to legally say. I think I said it. I say it already. I said it already. Right. Yeah. For full safety and risk information, free trial Terms and Conditions. Those are the words I didn't say free trial crime. Okay, Fair's fair. I said for full safety and risk information list of compatible phones as well as clinical trial claims data go to Omnipod. But I did not say for full safety risk information and free trial terms. And conditions. Also visit on the pod.com forward slash juice box. Well, now I've said it. So everybody should be happy. Except for you who had to live through this. And I apologize for that. Anyway, let's get back to Amy. Now.

Aimee 27:41
I left the hospital with pins. And so with Hema log, and to see the pins in a meter. My understanding was that I took this amount of to SIBO, once a day, and I was on a sliding scale for human log. But I knew that a carb ratio was coming. However, they wanted me to sort of keep a really good blog for about a month so that we could figure out what my ratio would be. I was Yeah, other than that, you know, I had an awareness of pumps and CGM that was kind of talked about with me in the hospital. But I didn't have one yet. I got a deck called like very soon we have, you know, actually, I've been pretty fortunate. We have a, I have a really good endo and his team of educators are available, you know, iPhone, text, all of that. So I think it was not even a week after leaving the hospital that I had a Dexcom. So I had that. But yeah, you know, my understanding was basically take insulin for what you eat. It was definitely a little bit more on the like, play it safe side better hide the mobile. Yeah. What what made pretty, pretty minimal at that moment.

Scott Benner 29:03
So so now I'm aware that you're in the private Facebook group. And I actually, like, I do my best to keep up with it. I want to say that some things stick out to me more than others. I have no way of knowing why you don't I mean, like, in my mind you and this is crazy. Your name is spelled a little differently. Yeah, it is. And so it's for some reason, my brain remembers it, I look up at it. Like your name looks like an image to me. I don't know how to explain this to people. But there are 23,000 people in that group. And you know, there are some names that they roll in front of me and I'm like, Oh, I know that name. And then my brain associates it with something and then I look and it's just a weird thing. You know, I can't I obviously can't I think there were like 120 posts in there yesterday. So yeah, I'm not aware of. Yeah, I'm not aware of all of them. But having said that, like I associate your name with with somebody who's trying really hard and having success, do you feel like that's going? Is that about true of who you are?

Aimee 30:07
Absolutely, yeah. And even like, you know, to circle back to your understanding of diabetes, when you left the hospital, I think my understanding, in a greater sense was a lot more than what they taught me because I am definitely a person that, you know, does tons of research and, and seeks out that info on my own. So, I, you know, had, I think I've even found the podcast, like, before I left the hospital. I didn't start listening to it yet, but I was aware of it at least and, you know, had followed a bunch of people on Instagram and read a bunch of things. So I kind of already knew, like, some of the things they were telling me. I was like, Cool. That's not right, though. Or it doesn't have to be that way. Like I but I didn't know how to get to that point. But it didn't take me long for sure. You know? Yeah, I was diagnosed with an agency of seven. I think it was 17.4 17.1. Something like that. It was really high. Wow. Yeah. And by, I guess, was it three months later? Yeah. Three months later, I had my agency down to five, two. So yeah, I think I'm doing quite well. I've just switched to Omni pod now from NDI. Just about two months on that. And it's, I'm still doing like fairly well, but I'm definitely I know, I have figured out my rates and my ratios properly. It's, it's close, but I haven't quite figured it out. So I'm still playing around with that a little bit. But,

Scott Benner 31:39
ya know, it's astonishing, like you like you, I, first of all, thank you, I appreciate you being so involved in the site, and, you know, sharing things with people, it's really terrific. But like I have, you know, I feel like I've seen posts from you where they're about, like, Hey, look at this meal, like, Can you even see where it is on my graph? And, you know, like, down to, like, look at my one sees, like, you know, doing so well, and you're not It's not boastful, like nobody. I listen, I feel weird that I even like backed up to, like, do an apology tour on this idea. But for me, I think people sharing their success is a great way for people to be a hopeful light for other people who don't have that success. I know, some people think, you know, don't tell people how well you're doing. It makes other people feel badly. I subscribe to the idea of you don't just say, Hey, I'm doing great. You're not like Nana, like, you know, but here, this is like, let a conversation roll out of those posts. Like, how did you do this? How did you? You know, how did you keep that from spiking? Or, you know, what do you do? And I think that's how people learn. So when people like, come along, and and share stuff like that. It's very, very valuable, in my opinion. But thank you. No, no, I appreciate it very much. You don't have to thank me. I was thinking you did? You did?

Aimee 32:53
Yeah, no, I really do. I agree, though. I've seen a bit of both just in different people who've followed on Instagram, especially, you know, I think the people who have had diabetes for longer tend to have that idea that like it's sort of a faux pas to share your agency or talk too much about your successes without like, also talking about how terrible it can be. And, you know, like, personally, I had to leave almost every other like Facebook group that was centered around diabetes, because other than yours, because I just found it so negative, like it was just so many people like, oh, well, that's just diabetes, and like, you know, it was, but yet here I am, and I, I can appreciate that I might still be experiencing some honeymoon, you know, maybe, but still, like, I'm like, well, there's this whole group of people who are not doing it that way. So I know, that doesn't, that's not how it has to be anymore. You know,

Scott Benner 33:48
so, you know, to go off on this for a minute. I don't think of those people as bummers. Right? Like, I don't think I don't think of them as people not that you said they were I'm just experimenting. Yeah, like, I don't think of them as people were just want to be negative. I think that they have been introduced into a world that is not easy to navigate that most of them were probably not given good tools, or good explanations. And then they were left to flounder. And now all they can believe is what they see. Which is that's just diabetes. And this doesn't work. And you know, just because you got lucky and your blood sugar's like, you know what I mean? Like, there's that vibe that you got the good kind of diabetes, and they got the bad one. And you know, like that their body acts differently than yours does, or whatever the feeling ends up being. And I've seen enough from adults who sometimes have had diabetes for decades, and struggled for decades, find the podcast and not struggle anymore. Like I believe that the possibilities there for everybody. I don't know if you'll if everyone's in the right headspace to take a hold of it or you know if they have the right Home Life or, you know, even financial ability sometimes, you know, to really do the things that, um, that kind of need to be done. But it's there, you know, on some level, I think everybody can improve if they just understood the game they were thrown into, you know what I mean? Like, it's just, it's a, it's an unfair situation. It's almost like you're thrown out of a football field, in hockey gear. And, you know, you're like, I keep getting tackled, and I can't run. So you're wearing skates on grass. And I think that's how diabetes can feel. Sometimes they just don't, you know, you don't have the right tools. So anyway, how did you? How did you figure out like, what did you what the question should be is like, what made sense to you that led to all of this.

Aimee 35:47
Like, led to having success? You mean? Yeah. Yeah, well, I think I, so when I was diagnosed, my agency was so high. I was like, feeling like, terror. Like, I just felt like garbage for a long time. So I kind of right from the start, kind of had more of a fear of highs than I did have lows. I never really had that, like, hypo anxiety. More. So it was like, I don't want to be high, because I don't want to feel like I did before. Right. Like, I felt so terrible. And I do I feel if I get you know, I don't know what this is in American terms, like anywhere over like an eight 8.5 It's, you know, I feel thirsty and tired. And just all of those things again, so that was kind of always where I was coming at it from and I started listening to the podcast pretty early on, and I started from episode one, I honestly, like, constantly was listening to it while I was doing other things. And I think that I just, it made sense to me that what you were saying about being bold, and you know, just like little bumps and nudges. And I wasn't really afraid to give myself like just little micro doses of, of insulin throughout the day. Even when I was on pens, it just didn't really bug me. So yeah, I think, I don't know, it just totally made more sense to me to aim for a regular person's blood sugar levels. I've kind of always been like a perfectionist, so I guess I wasn't really willing to settle for anything less than that.

Scott Benner 37:33
Well, 8.5 blood sugar, by the way, for people in America and other places? Is like 153. Yeah, yeah. When you get over that you don't like the way it feels?

Aimee 37:45
Yeah, if I mean, if it just like sort of goes in high fives and comes back down. But if I hover there longer, or if, especially if I get into, like the double digits, you know, into, which would be like, 200 Plus, like, I feel terrible. So yeah, so I really tried to avoid that and kind of have from the start. So Well, yeah.

Scott Benner 38:07
So I'm orienting my mind. I don't know what happened. I just, like looked away for a second to look at that number. And then all of my thoughts escaped out of my eyes and felt like, where did all my thoughts go? So you don't subscribe to any specific diet, though, right? Like you eat pretty, you know, like, just regularly?

Aimee 38:29
Absolutely. Yeah. In the beginning, for sure. I tried to eat a little bit lower carb, like I you know, found breads that were lower carb, or, you know, I think I was, especially before I had my carb ratio, or was really trying to stick to like this many carbs per meal so that it would not send me crashing low with the sliding scale they gave me. So you know, but once I got my, my carb ratio, for sure, I eat whatever I want. You know, within reason, I've always been a healthy eater, but I certainly am not low carb. At all. Yeah.

Scott Benner 39:02
And you said that you're not not so much scared of low blood sugars. Have you ever had a low blood sugar? Like a frightening?

Aimee 39:08
Yeah. I've had a few. Yeah, definitely a few. Like more recently, I found since starting the Omni pod, I think it's just the way my body is reacting to using like human log as a Basal insulin. It's just absorbed differently. So I'm still just sort of trying to figure that out. I've definitely been low, more than I'd like, in the last month or so. So yeah, I've definitely had like moments where I've had a scary low and certainly I can see how that anxiety would come into play. Because, you know, I would be lying if I said, I wasn't like, I never thought about that again. Or, you know, there's been maybe a couple times where I've given myself a little bit less influence that I think I need following those sort of scary moments, but yeah, for the most part. No, I'm not. I have the Dexcom I watch it carefully. So I I think that is a huge factor.

Scott Benner 40:02
What do you call low?

Aimee 40:05
So low for me is anything under 3.9, which I think is like, I got it. 7070. Yeah. But like, that's like a mild low, like, sometimes I'll let that ride out. But then if it's like a straight arrow, right, but anything under a, probably anything under like 3.5, which is Hold on, I'm going to do it 63

Scott Benner 40:26
doing it. You're so quick.

Aimee 40:28
I calculator times eight. And so it's whatever. Like, my number is times 18.

Scott Benner 40:34
Amy gives you asked me where I'm doing it.

Aimee 40:37
On. Where? Oh, juicebox podcast.com? Yes,

Scott Benner 40:40
juicebox podcast.com. There's a link at the top says a one cm blood glucose calculator. And that's how I was doing it. Good job, Amy. Sorry, plug the website. That's all. I don't care if you do with a calculator with your fingers just mentioned that it's on the website. Okay. You listening to me? Come on. I do. I do. I have Questions You really went back to So you went back to the first episode started listening to this podcast? Are you caught up? Yeah. Yes. Bless you. Thank you so much. So Joking aside, because I feel like people are hearing me say like, wow, me, give me 650 downloads, which Trust me, there's a small part of my brain that is doing that right now. But the other part of my brain is that I've long believed that if you just listen through the podcast, you could put your agency in the fives.

Aimee 41:30
Absolutely. Yeah. And I listened to for sure, like the pro tips and, and defining diabetes, those are helpful. Absolutely. But I feel like by the time I got to those, I had almost already heard all of that information, just in the conversations you have with people. So I find those, you know, episodes like this just as valuable for me. There's, you know, when you listen through, there's little pockets of, you know, great information throughout all of them. So,

Scott Benner 41:54
so the, the pro tip episodes and that kind of stuff, I'm opening up my phone, hopefully, like it won't make a bunch of noise. They exist for this exact reason. So I'm looking at a message that I got last night, which I won't identify the person, obviously. But they start off very nicely asking like, you know, is there suggested episodes list that could be helpful, which I take as meaning I don't want to listen to your whole podcast. And then I scroll a little bit, and I was like, Yeah, have you tried the Pro Tip series? And, you know, then it becomes, can you please tell me what numbers those are. And then you realize that there are some people who just aren't going to do any of the work on their own, but it doesn't mean they don't deserve good health, you know, maybe maybe this person is busy or you know, has 1000 children, I don't know what their deal is. But then eventually they get down to like the real honesty of it. And they're like, you know, I send the link. And the answer is Thank you. Because I really do not have enough time to be looking through your podcast or listening to anything. That's not exactly what I need. And so I agree with you, by the way, and I did it on purpose. Like if you listen to the podcast, you'll just know how to take care of your diabetes. But I added the Pro Tip series and that other stuff, when I realized that there were going to be some people who just for a number of reasons, weren't gonna have the time to listen through. And then I think once the podcast got into, like the 200 episodes, I was like, What am I even asking of people, you know what I mean. And that's when that's why you see the the first pro tip pops up around to 10. But then you can also see how agile you can be with an organization, if you don't have to ask 17 people in a meeting, what we should do next, you know, I just looked up one day, and I was like, we've, I have too many episodes at this point to expect everybody to listen through all of them. I have to condense some of this information in a certain place. And that's when I went from helping people who had the time to listen to a podcast to help him people who had the time to listen to a podcast and people who did not have the time to listen to one. Yeah. And I think that's when it became more valuable. And now, of course, having this conversation. I think that I want to say the protests started in 2019. But ironically, I'm the worst person to ask about the podcast because I'm busy making it I don't I'm not a great historian about it. But I'm gonna look real quickly.

Aimee 44:22
Also, like, what year is it even do we none of us know? Yeah, at this point.

Scott Benner 44:25
Yeah. So that first pro tip went up in February 2019. And I think today, Episode Four or a second today, Episode 642. And yeah, yeah, so I can't you know, I think what you did will work yeah, and but I got to the point where it's like I don't imagine everybody can do that. So anyway, yeah, for

Aimee 44:54
sure. But I my my big listening times are cooking. I go for like a run or a walk with the dog. or grocery shopping. That's like, where it all happen

Scott Benner 45:03
and you have two jobs. I do. And two children. Maybe I should answer this person back and said, Hey, Amy don't don't cop out on me. It's uh, I mean, honestly, joking aside, the podcast is big enough now, like, if you can't listen to 650 episodes, it doesn't hurt me. You don't I mean, I wish you would. And I think there's something in every one of these. That's, that's fun, or valuable or entertaining, or, you know, educational. Somehow. Like, one went up today with like a mother and, and son.

Aimee 45:41
I saw that I haven't listened yet because it came up, right? While I was like sitting here waiting.

Scott Benner 45:48
Well, guess what, six months from now somebody's gonna be waiting to talk to me, and yours is gonna pop up in front of them. So there you go. Yeah. I just think that it's, um, it's too easy to say to people? Well, if you put the time in, you know, then then you'll get your your hard work will pay you back. And I'm not saying you shouldn't have to work hard to figure things out. But not not so much that if you don't have the time, that that's an actual impediment from you getting to the information. That's not fair. And shouldn't be.

Aimee 46:20
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I think like, I know, I've heard it so many times come up in conversations on the podcast, who like most people that you speak with in the medical profession, who are helping you with your diabetes don't, I mean, they don't know you really well. So they don't know that you're a person that, you know, wants to maybe do better than whatever the norm is, yeah. But I don't know, I just feel like, you know, even stuff like I've had to follow closer with my CDs over the last couple of months. Since starting the Omni pod, there's a we have a provincial pump program in Saskatchewan that covers it for you know, anyone with type one, which actually was approved, the, like, the month I was diagnosed, so that was lucky. But in order to be approved for that, you have to do a three month trial. And in those three months, you basically have to prove that you're like, making the effort and, and, you know, having appointments and all of that. And so I was having a meeting with my CDE just the other day. And every time I talk with him, he's like, I noticed that you like, you know, you say you set your Dexcom alarms, like quite low. Like, you might want to consider putting that up higher, so it's not annoying you all the time, like and he keeps going like, oh, you know, keep saying like, once you're out of honeymoon, and I like truly I think I am out of I don't think I really had much of a honeymoon. But I've

Scott Benner 47:45
I think Amy your good control is the only thing he can imagine. Yeah, and he keeps

Aimee 47:51
kind of like, he keeps kind of saying like one day that's gonna get really annoying, and it's like, but no, I like I want it to be annoying, so that I can act on it. Like I'm not just gonna, you know, so I just, it just irritates me. You know, it's like, well, what, what do you do? I'm not gonna can't argue it here, right? Yeah, exactly. I just don't. Okay. Yeah,

Scott Benner 48:10
I would imagine that you have, like, so you don't think you're in the honeymoon, right?

Aimee 48:16
No, I think maybe in the beginning a little bit. But I never had like, like, I was taking quite a lot of insulin right from the start. And I never had situations where I just randomly would be low all the time without explanation. And I've, like, especially recently, like, I don't have any free foods, like even things that are zero carbs, I need to take something for pretty much like I can't eat like a pepperoni stick without needing at least a little bit of insulin. So I don't think I'm in a honeymoon anymore

Scott Benner 48:46
at all. No, but it's funny because you've mentioned it a number of times, but I don't like from the outside looking and I'm like, I don't think this person in a honeymoon. But then you finally said it like you're the physicians telling you you are but yeah, they keep Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna tell you that the reason he thinks that is Hey, right. The reason he thinks that is because he doesn't see graphs like yours, unless the body's helping. Right, so you're gonna prove him wrong. He's gonna shut up about that one day.

Aimee 49:14
Yeah, I hope so.

Scott Benner 49:17
Why don't you tell him? Why don't you just say hey, I don't believe I'm honeymooning. I just think I'm very good at Bolus thing for my meals.

Aimee 49:24
Yeah, I did you know what that was like my driving force I had you know what, I guess my when I said my five to a once he was three months later, it was six months later because I had an appointment between those so every three months that I think my first one after diagnosis was 6.2 or something like that, which is still quite good, but I was like, visibly upset about that at the office and my endo was like, You seem disappointed. And I was like, Yeah, you know, like, I'm aiming for a five five and he basically was like, All right, like pretty much said like good luck, like you can but that's not very realistic. And then the next appointment. He remembered that I had said that. And we were just kind of laughing about it. I have a really great endocrinologist. I quite like him. But we were Yeah, we were giggling about it. Because I said, I told you I was gonna do it

Scott Benner 50:11
a little pat you on the head situation when he was like, well say, yeah, like, yeah, like you don't understand.

Aimee 50:18
It felt a bit like that, like, oh, well, you know, you'll have a realistic goal.

Scott Benner 50:24
I think we're gonna find these tables turn pretty soon, buddy, where you're gonna be the one who sees, and I'm gonna be the one patting you on the head. What do you think?

Aimee 50:31
Yeah. Yeah, no, but he was I mean, I think after seeing me a few times, he kind of he I think he kept referring to me as type A, he kept saying, a lot of my type a patients can do like to do this or

Scott Benner 50:46
this. So do you see yourself that way?

Aimee 50:50
No, I mean, in certain situations, yeah. But I'm also I can be quite impulsive with things, which I think sort of lends itself well, to diabetes management.

Scott Benner 51:00
Well, my question is, do you think you're doing well with your diabetes? Because you have a driving force inside of you that won't let you rest about anything? Or do you think you just have found a way that works?

Aimee 51:10
Yeah, it's a combo, but more than I've just found a way that works. Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Benner 51:15
Because I, I'd be concerned that people who are like sitting around right now going like, I'm more of a go with the flow person, like, I can't do this. But you could, I mean, yeah, I don't want to like, you know, go off on a tangent, but I will for a second, you know, there's not a whole lot to this, the longer I do it, the more I realized, there's just not that much to it. You know, like, You got to get your Basal, right, you have to Pre-Bolus your meals, you have to understand the difference impacts of different foods. And then you got to stay a little flexible afterwards, because things aren't always gonna go right. And, you know, I might add to that later, you probably need to understand the impact of fat and protein, you know, on your blood sugar. But it's not some, it's not something it's not calculus, you don't mean like, diabetes is portrayed as the some, you know, alien calculus that none of us can understand. But it's not like that at all. Like, I don't even think about the math of it. It's all about timing and amount and staying ahead of the blood sugar not chasing, it's super kind of intuitive. Once you see it, you just have to see it work, right, like after it happens. And you're like, oh, that went exactly the way the guy on the podcast said it was going to and then then you can be like, I could probably make that happen again. Is that about your expectation and your experience?

Aimee 52:35
Yeah. And, you know, in some ways, I think it probably is better to be a go with the flow person, because you do have like, if you're too stuck in a little bit last time, it was this way. Right? Like, I think you can't you have to be a bit of both. You can't. You can't be too rigid. So yeah, I don't think like, I don't think if you're a go with the flow person that you can't do it. Yeah, I think it was just kind of like, the way he was viewing it was that I needed to, like have control of everything. You know, I think that's what he was seeing. Well, I'm doing probably truthfully, he probably thought I was like driving myself crazy to get those results. I'm not. In fact, I think about it less when I'm doing well.

Scott Benner 53:15
Yeah, no, that's his improper interpretation of diabetes. Yeah, because I'm a completely like, go with the flow person. I don't have much rigidity about me at all, especially around this stuff. And I'm as good at it as I think anybody could possibly maybe be, you know, and so I just want people not to think that I'm that if you're not of a certain brain, you can't do it. Because that's not true, either. I you know, I mean, the truth is, I think you said it a second ago, if you're too rigid, that that will make it more difficult. Because if you're in this, if you're in this headspace that like, look, I weighed this food. I always feel like I feel bad for the people who live like, like travel with the scales or like a restaurant or something, you know what I mean? Like, I weighed this food and Dammit, this is 43 carbs. And my my meal ratio says this, and it didn't work. That I think must be maddening. Because it feels like you've been told the answer and the answer is wrong. Yeah, you know, whereas if you listen to me, what I'll tell you is, you know, put in the amount that you need. And then if it doesn't work, figure it out, you know, next time make an adjustment, and you'll see eventually, it'll just work out really well. That's it. Yeah. You know, my sound so trite to people who don't listen to the show. I imagine I apologize to those people. I'm not making light of diabetes. It's really difficult. I'm burdened by it just like everybody else's. But there's a way for it. Excuse me, there's a way for it to for people to have that that kind of experience that you just talked about, because I think the most important thing you've said in this last hour, is that when it's going well it's less work right? Yeah, it's going well, because of the effort. You put it up front. Right ahead of it. Is that all right?

Aimee 55:07
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, like, I hear you say things like that, like, just well, like one day, it will just not feel this hard. You know, like, and I think there's probably a lot of people who have been diagnosed for a long time. And it still feels that hard, because they've never really been presented with the information to be successful. Yeah, you know, I'm really grateful that I found the information that I needed and found the podcast and, you know, didn't get stuck in that, because certainly, there were a few, like, it wasn't long. I want to say there were a few weeks where I really was like, Well, this is my life now. And like, I'm never going to eat pizza again. And I won't do this anymore. And yeah, I can see how it would just sort of feel so restricting. Like, you know, like, you have shackles on almost?

Scott Benner 55:58
Yeah. Well, I listen, I'm happy. Hold on a second, please. I said Saskatchewan, one too many times, and something I call

Aimee 56:09
my throat. Just wait till you hear the name of the city. I'm in.

Scott Benner 56:12
Oh, well, you tell me.

Aimee 56:14
Oh, well, I know laugh at me. Have you heard it? Maybe you've heard of it. The city I live in is called Regina.

Scott Benner 56:21
Yeah, I know this one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, yeah. Canadians. Like, how would someone not hear that and go, Hey, we probably shouldn't call it that. Because it sounds like vagina.

Aimee 56:34
Let's at least pronounce it Regina. No, it's

Scott Benner 56:37
not. Yeah. I never understand. Like, did they not have someone like me in the room when they were making the sign up? You know, because I would have been like, Hey, guys, real quick. That sounds like vagina. Maybe we should do something else. You know? I mean, unless that's what we're going for. And then, yeah, let's keep

Aimee 56:54
going. Yeah, for some someone of British royalty, or princess or something you think?

Scott Benner 57:00
Sure. Great. And 100 years later, you live in vagina. So that's not helpful.

Aimee 57:06
They call it. They call it the city that rhymes with fun. is truly a slang. I didn't make that up. That's an actual slogan that they they say?

Scott Benner 57:19
Well, as a heterosexual man, I can't agree more. What do you think of it? Yeah. That's hilarious. All right. You got me off my thought there with that. But don't be sorry. I really believe that the amount of effort upfront is so much less than the amount of effort it takes, if you ignore upfront, you know, if you just Pre-Bolus your meals, like Jesus, like, you know, you want to day one seeing the sexes Pre-Bolus Your meals. You know what I mean? You get your basil, right? What does that mean? It means you're not getting low all the time and having to feed the insulin, feed the insulin, or you're not riding high all the time, and always Bolus and just get your basil, right. Doctors don't talk about that, like it's important at all. They almost talk about Basal insulin, like it's a throwaway. And, you know, here's your Basal insulin, well, we did a calculation and he's you're probably 11 a day, well, well adjusted.

Aimee 58:18
Yeah, that's basically just like, you take this, so you don't go into DKA. Like, that's what it was explained to it. To me as like, this is just so you always sort of have something and you're not gonna like get back here again.

Scott Benner 58:30
Yeah, and a person who would say that to you. Either doesn't understand the bigger picture, doesn't care about it, or it's just lazy. I don't know what it is, you know, but such an important tool, and then nobody tells you how valuable it is. And now you're suddenly I don't know if you can roll around all day with three or four units of Basal insulin too much or too little. And both are gonna cause you a different problem too much. And, you know, you go into your doctor's office and you're like, Hey, I can't lose weight, I have diabetes, and and they'll say to you like, oh, yeah, insulin will put the weight on you. But that's not true. Calories, puts weight on you. But if insulin is constantly making your blood sugar low, then you're constantly taking in calories. And then they got it's the insulin, you know, no, no, it's not the insulin. You're moron. It's the You didn't give me enough. Yeah, like you didn't give me enough information. You just you randomly pick this number, you're making me low all the time. I'm eating constantly. And, and, and when that happens, you don't see it as eating constantly because you see it as saving your life constantly. You see it as a medical intervention, not as great as a food choice. And because it is, but you know, just make the basil right? And that doesn't happen and the reverse of it is, you know, not enough Basal blood sugar's high all the time. You eventually you get fed up, you Bolus a whole bunch and you make yourself low. And then you eat a bunch of food and make yourself high get frustrated. Bolus a bunch make yourself low. All that is from Basal, you know, so All right, I can only say so much common sense on hearing me and then it's just it gets to be too much. What made you want to come on the podcast?

Aimee 1:00:16
This is gonna sound really weird. Oh, I

Scott Benner 1:00:18
hope so. Okay.

Aimee 1:00:20
I don't know if I have a true reason i So when I started listening to the podcast, like pretty much right away, I was like, one day I'm going to be on this podcast, and I just like thought it to myself. And I was like, Yeah, I need to be on this podcast one day. That'll be fun. And so then I just reached out to you, and you're like, Yeah, I hear you can book a time on here. I think you said but like, I can't get you until March. And this was maybe like, last summer? Yeah. And I was like, okay, cool.

Scott Benner 1:00:49
It's March now, if you want to be on now, I think it's December. Yeah. Like, every day, I record the show, like, every day at this point. And yeah, I'm we're booked out that far. So I'm just fulfilling like a,

Aimee 1:01:04
like prophecy.

Scott Benner 1:01:07
Making you feel good about your thoughts, that all this is really for, you?

Aimee 1:01:11
Know, I just thought, you know, I like talking to people. And I. Yeah, I just thought it would be fun to come on and chat with you about life and diabetes. And I just, to me, like, those are the episodes that kind of mean the most to me, and that it get the most out of is just these like, back and forth conversations where, you know, people might say just in passing, like a little sort of tidbit of something that I find helpful or can relate to. So

Scott Benner 1:01:38
I agree. Yeah, I'm a podcast person to begin with. So I agree with you, I would rather pull gems out of a conversation than be talked at for an hour, which I think is even why I had trouble even making the protests very, like they're not super. You don't I mean, like, if you if you put a company or a hospital in charge of making those protests, they wouldn't sound the way they sound coming out of my mouth, because I still want them to be conversational. Like, I just don't. The bullet pointing thoughts into people's heads, I don't find to be a great way to communicate with people. I'm waiting for someone to come on one day and offer themselves to me somehow, like is a I don't even know like, Hey, I Scott, I really appreciate this and to come to your house and clean once a week. You don't be mean or I mean, if I was single, even sexually, I mean, you know what I mean? Like, hey, but no, none of it ever goes that way. And by the way, sometimes I got off of are you giggling at me? Thank you. Oh, you love the podcast? Don't you?

Aimee 1:02:39
laugh all the time when I'm listening? Like my husband will be like, where are you listening to? Probably that podcast.

Scott Benner 1:02:45
Come to learn my name. Have a little respect and know, oh, what was I gonna say? yet? Oh, I was recorded with the person the other day. We got all done. I thought it went really well. And it ended. And they go, Hey, can I just tell you something real quick? And I'm like, Sure. And then they like passionately spoke about what I meant to them for two minutes. And while they were talking, all you think is no one's hearing this, but you and me.

Aimee 1:03:14
Couldn't have said that on the podcast?

Scott Benner 1:03:16
What are you doing? Like, I didn't want to embarrass you. And I was like, Oh, let me be embarrassed. Like it would be. I just I said afterwards, I was like, Look, I have a podcast. I was like, if I'm having a conversation, it's not being recorded. It almost feels like a waste of time at this point. You know, I need you to say that while I'm recording you, but it was very nice. And listen to their point actually, was kind of nice for me too. Because I do realize that some of my embarrassment comes from the fact that I know someone's going to hear it later. And so I could just let this person just tell me how they felt. And I could accept it nicely and say thank you and, and have like a normal conversation about it. Because I don't care how good of a job you think I do with this podcast. When you're being recorded. You're aware you're being recorded. Yeah, yeah. So it does. It does change you a little bit like I stopped myself five minutes prior from making the joke about someone offering themselves sexually to me. And then I while you were talking mulled it over in my mind to make sure that that's something people would hear the right way. Because obviously, I don't think that, you know, I don't think that should happen, right? Like it's a preposterous idea. That sounds funny. Then you say sex and sex is funny and blah, blah, blah. Like I don't have to explain the joke to people, but but when you're being recorded, you really do you think twice about things you say, you know, and you're and trust me when you're just freewheeling I think it's more valuable. So I do my best to go free. But there's times when I'm like, oh. Anyway, I don't know where that all went. But

Aimee 1:04:55
oh, yeah. And I think like people who listen regularly get your sense of humor and The people who might have that moment, be the one off time it looks to me like

Scott Benner 1:05:06
it is it has happened. Like, I know that for a fact that people sometimes just pick the wrong episode to start with. Because you imagine, if you just came into this one, and you're this far, and you're like, there's this guy, he doesn't have diabetes, he says he's so good at it, that people should offer themselves to her sexually. As a thank you. I think this guy sounds like a jerk. And I gotta

Aimee 1:05:26
admit, children that listen to this podcast. Heard that out

Scott Benner 1:05:30
of context, I'd think I might agree with you, you know. But yeah, I think if you know me a little bit, you'd understand i I'm joking. And and by the way, kids do listen to the show, which is tough for me, because I can't Yeah, you know, I mean, like, I can only be myself, but I'm assuming they either it's okay with their parents, or their parents don't know what it's all working out one or the other. I have no idea.

Aimee 1:05:54
And like, really, if they're listening, they're probably like, at least old enough that they don't know, why don't mature about.

Scott Benner 1:06:02
I have a photo on my computer somewhere of a little kid, like in a car seat, holding a phone up to their ear, listening to the podcast, right. And it's accompanied by a note, which I don't have any more. I wish I didn't I wish of all the things I wished I wished I could pay somebody to do a better like to do a better job than I do with my correspondence. But I remember this note, where the the mother and her friend were in the front seat, and they're talking and laughing. They're just out driving. And this young kid, like four or five, six years old, I don't know in that range, shushes them and says, I can't hear the podcast. And she's like, she was listening to your podcast. So I responded back and I'm like, really? And you know, like, she's Yeah, she's like, she's learning about her diabetes from it. And I'm like, wow, that's insane. You know? So anyway, what? One person can't just like make, I would say, No, I'm married, Amy, but it would still be nice, don't you think?

Aimee 1:07:11
If you know, just to feel wanted, or if one of you

Scott Benner 1:07:15
in grades would name your babies after me. Just one I so far, I got a dog, which I appreciated. I have a number of license plates throughout the country, which I think is very nice. Someone did name their their child Arden.

Aimee 1:07:30
I was just gonna say I saw that recently. But

Scott Benner 1:07:34
that just made me upset. So oh, she's like, that's my name. She was What if everyone starts doing that? I'm like, everyone's not gonna start doing that. Calm

Aimee 1:07:44
down. Oh, now you've made her name. The most popular name in

Scott Benner 1:07:47
America. I don't know about that. But I just want one baby named Scott. Like it wasn't that hard. What about one of you who've already just named your baby Scott. And it wasn't after me, just lying to me and saying it was like when

Aimee 1:07:57
that price? The timeline lines up enough?

Scott Benner 1:08:01
Why not? Amy? Why not do a nice? That's all I'm saying. Oh, my gosh, you have no idea. I would tell people for a week if that happened. Oh, I know. I know. He went longer a week. A month a year? Yes. 10 years now and the length of the podcast. I'd be like the last one. Let's go over everything.

Aimee 1:08:21
The last episode is you speaking to the Scott that you were named after?

Scott Benner 1:08:25
Whoa, Amy. This. You're very cute. Alright, so listen. So what does that mean? Somebody's got to get to it right now. It's a it's 2020. What is it? 22. You're right. I do not know what year it is. 2020 To make a baby right now, if you stop listening to the podcast and have sex right now, we could have a Scot nine months. And the kid would have to be I mean, I could probably, but then the kid would have to get diabetes, right or No, not necessarily. Yes. No,

Aimee 1:08:54
I think you're not necessarily it won't be the cherry on top. But you know,

Scott Benner 1:08:58
what a weird, weird statement from you, Amy, that what we really wish for is that a baby gets diabetes. So it can be on a podcast later and it would be a better story. I think that's what you're saying. Alright, so Amy's not wishing diabetes on hypothetical children. But I think this is like a 10 year plan. Right? I can have a reasonable conversation with a 10 year old. Yeah. All right. Well, everybody get to it, then. What am I like? I'm done. I can't have more kids. Yeah, I dropped out if I can eat well, if I tried to raise another baby. I think it would kill me.

Aimee 1:09:32
And what like, Yeah, well, I'm sure. I kind of feel the same.

Scott Benner 1:09:36
Yeah, I need to sleep. You don't I mean?

Aimee 1:09:39
Yeah, I do. Yeah. And also like, yeah, like, no, especially for you. But for me, like now, even with a three year old. Like, I feel like we're at this time where like, sometimes it's quiet for like 15 minutes. And you're like, Ooh, this is nice. But then we got a puppy. So that's like gone now.

Scott Benner 1:09:58
Amy, you listen to the podcast. I I told you listen,

Aimee 1:10:03
no, I love dogs. We already had a dog and then that dog died. And so then I felt we there was like an empty space. We needed a new dog.

Scott Benner 1:10:12
Got an ottoman, get an amen. Yeah. So nice to put your feet on would have been lovely. Yeah. Is there anything that we haven't talked about that we should have?

Aimee 1:10:24
I don't think so. No, I don't think so.

Scott Benner 1:10:28
All right. Well, Amy's bucket list is over that, I guess.

Aimee 1:10:31
Right. Yeah. I didn't have like a specific point. It was just like fulfilling my life's purpose to be on.

Scott Benner 1:10:38
What else is on this bucket list? Me because it sounds sad.

Aimee 1:10:42
Yeah, be on a diabetes podcast. I want to go to Ireland someday. That's on a bucket list. I don't know. I don't really like giving too much thought.

Scott Benner 1:10:51
Me either. I just want to get these kids out of college. Yeah, so tiring, paying for college. Oh, my God. Oh,

Aimee 1:11:00
my god. I can't imagine dude got enough saved for both of our kids to go to school, like one semester.

Scott Benner 1:11:06
Both kids one semester. You imagine that's all you get? Make them pay for it? Have you considered like that's sort of like a Bloodsport situation where you tell them look, we only really have enough money to send one of you to college fight. Like

Aimee 1:11:22
I'm banking on maybe University being free by the time we go. But I don't know if that's good news.

Scott Benner 1:11:29
Or maybe like a little Saskatchewan, like squid games situation where the kids have

I don't know where we feel us wheat and Saskatchewan.

Aimee 1:11:43
Oh, hugely. wheat fields all around canola, wheat X. It's all about it.

Scott Benner 1:11:49
Really? Well, you guys know. I just assume you live on a sheet of ice. So I don't know. Really?

Aimee 1:11:54
Yeah. Well, I kind of do right now. It's insane. But oh,

Scott Benner 1:11:58
well. Yeah, I can't live there. I'm sorry. Although I live in vagina. That'd be nice.

Aimee 1:12:04
You would. Yeah. And it gets really hot in the summer. The winter is is terribly cold.

Scott Benner 1:12:10
Amy, I just need you to tell me that. The place you live gets really hot in the summer, and I need you to use but I need you to use the name of the place.

Aimee 1:12:18
Yeah. Regina gets really hot this summer. Thank you. I appreciate that. A little bit sweaty.

Scott Benner 1:12:25
Oh, sometimes you get a little sweaty and a little bit. Yeah, you do. Yeah. I just need an episode title. And you know,

Aimee 1:12:32
oh, that's gonna be it. No.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:36
Just say no, you don't want it to be.

Aimee 1:12:39
I mean, it can be. I know. You're just going to name it whatever you want. So it's all fine. It can be whatever. But that's as soon as I said it. I was like, this is the episode title, isn't it? I knew it in my head.

Scott Benner 1:12:53
It gets a little hot in Regina in the summertime. It gets hot. I think I'd have to pare it down. Just Regina gets hot in the summer. No, I gotta be honest with you, Amy. That's gonna be the title of the episode.

Aimee 1:13:06
But good. I like it.

Scott Benner 1:13:09
There's no way it's not going to be that. Like, I'd have to sell the podcast to someone else who would then rename it. There's the only way it could happen. I would never in a million years not make it that. I really appreciate this. Everyone else who's thinking of coming on. This is the level of effort I need from you.

Aimee 1:13:29
Yeah. Okay.

Scott Benner 1:13:32
Yeah, she told a good story. She was honest. She came up with a title. Even though she didn't know she came up with it. She did. I just had to lead her to it a little bit. Yeah, for Amy, your delight. Thank you so much.

Aimee 1:13:46
Oh, thank you. That was so much fun.

Scott Benner 1:13:48
I appreciate that very much. Tell your husband learn my name. I didn't like it when he said

Aimee 1:13:52
well, I will hold on one second okay.

Scott Benner 1:13:54
A huge thanks to Amy for coming on the show and sharing her story. I'd also like to thank Omni pod makers of the AMI pod five and the Omni pod dash m remind you to go to Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox to get started today or learn more about the Omni pod five or the Omni pod dash. I also want to thank someone else. Oh I remember it's the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. It really is a super easy to use super easy to hold incredibly accurate blood glucose meter. That is inexpensive. Contour next one.com forward slash juice box you will not regret it. It's simply the easiest decision you can make today. Right next to getting an omni pod thanks so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.