#777 If I Could Take It I Would

Chelsea has type 1 diabetes, ADHD, Anxiety and depression.

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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 777 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On this episode of The Juicebox Podcast I'm going to be speaking with Chelsea she has anxiety, ADHD, depression, and type one diabetes. She also has my heart as perhaps one of my most favorite episodes in recent history. 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. If you have type one diabetes, where are the caregiver of someone with type one diabetes, and you're a US resident, please go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. Join the registry. complete the survey. That's it. You've helped yourself. You've helped people with type one diabetes and you've supported the Juicebox Podcast just by doing that. Join the registry complete this survey takes you fewer than 10 minutes T one D exchange.org forward slash juicebox.

This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries G voc hypo Penn Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash juicebox. I began taking ag one by athletic greens because I found myself needing some nutritional support a little insurance for a diet that might not be perfect. I tried a couple of other green drinks but they tasted terrible, but not ag one ag one goes down super smooth. Every morning. I take my water. I take my scoop of ag one, shake them up in a bottle. The bottle came with it by the way. And the next thing you know, it's right down. Easy peasy as they say athletic greens.com forward slash juice box go check it out. Okay, just because I want to make sure I'm recording your voice. Can you give me any four words randomly put together?

Chelsea 2:25
Any four words randomly put together? Perfect. Is that work?

Scott Benner 2:30
Absolutely. Excellent. We're recording now. So you're being recorded? Don't say something stupid? Because shoot. I'm gonna leave it in the oven.

Chelsea 2:42
It's gonna be the whole episode something stupid.

Scott Benner 2:45
You think so? Is this a concern of yours today, Chelsea?

Chelsea 2:51
I'm okay with however, it turns out.

Scott Benner 2:54
What are you using for a microphone? May I ask

Chelsea 2:56
a headset? Do you have a lot of wrestling?

Scott Benner 3:00
And you're just your breathing is being picked up? Do you have an ability to move the microphone a little bit or turn down?

Chelsea 3:05
Yeah. How's that? Is that better?

Scott Benner 3:06
I don't know. You haven't breathed heavy yet?

Chelsea 3:09
Maybe that's too heavy.

Scott Benner 3:11
That's better, actually.

Chelsea 3:12
How's that? Is that better? It's

Scott Benner 3:13
actually good when you laughed before it sounded like a windstorm instead of Oh, yeah, that's not good. Perfect, just like that. All right, I'm going to drink my tea Hola. And then I'm going to tell you that in a moment, unless you have any questions, you can introduce yourself any way you want to be known. Mostly what that means is you don't need to feel any pressure to use your last name. If people in your life come up, feel free to say my doctor, my boyfriend, my husband, my wife, like that kind of stuff. You don't have to say your mom's name. Things like that. If it gets geographical for reasons. I mean, I can't imagine why it would but then then again, you might say something that makes me think that you're from a certain part of the world. And then I might ask,

Chelsea 3:55
okay, I'm pretty. I'm a pretty open book. So

Scott Benner 3:59
I'm just saying it's unlike any, but more people are gonna hear this than you think. And like the whole world. It's gonna be a bit of a thing. Have you ever heard me talking about when cakepops showed up at my house? Yes, that's a weird, I don't want you to get cakepops that's what I'm saying. That delicious. Well, you know, if you got these specific cakepops it would be okay.

Chelsea 4:21
whoever that person is, please send me cakepops

Scott Benner 4:25
figure out who Chelsea isn't Senator cakepops? Well, I'll tell you what if cakepops show up at your house four months from now, please let me know. Because I'm going to assume the podcast is much more powerful than I think it is. Hannah.

Chelsea 4:38
Have you ever found the mysterious cake pop person spoke to

Scott Benner 4:41
her by message over Facebook? Okay, she was lovely. owns a company that makes cakepops felt very strongly that the podcast had helped her child wanted to do something nice. Oh, there you go. Yes. While I was talking to her, I said do you see how creepy This is? And she said well, now that you're pointing it out

Chelsea 5:01
just running a podcast like the weirdest thing. I feel like it breaks social norms in so many ways.

Scott Benner 5:08
Yes. So I would tell you that I mean, you don't start one thinking it's gonna get popular. You don't I mean, like you hope you don't plan for some of the oddest stuff that's ever happened to me is being recognized in an airport by my face across the airport being recognized on a, like a public transportation thing, by my by my voice. That is weird. That was, that was very strange. But mostly, it's just lovely. Like most people are really genuinely great. Even the kind of kooky ones are still lovely. They're just just a little kooky. That's all.

Chelsea 5:47
Everyone's a little kooky,

Scott Benner 5:48
right. And some people are just less careful about hiding it. I agree. Yeah. And other than that, it's i If it disappeared, I would miss it. Because I am, I am sure everyone feels this way. But I am a person who feels like I have things to say. And when I don't say them, I get kind of like inward, and then I think about them too much. And that doesn't. That doesn't help anybody but me. That's good for anybody. Do you know, since we're talking about this, Chelsea will start eventually about the diabetes. But let's just keep going for a second. This is now part of the podcast. I hope you understand. Oh, cool. Yeah. So I remembered this morning, I was thinking about freedom. This morning, as I was making this tea, so I could talk to you, as people do. And and I was thinking about how there are a lot of conversations in the world right now about you can't limit people's voice, even if you find what they're saying is tasteful, because eventually someone's going to limit your voice. It's a pretty basic idea about freedom, right? And I hear it being talked about now as if it's a new idea. And I think I thought this my whole life, like why? Why does it suddenly seem like this is a thing we just realized. And I recognize it's because of media, right? Because people need things to talk about on their stuff. And these things cycle over and over again, I wish people understood that these conversations we're having are like the same 50 conversations that people have been having, you know, for the stretch of time since language is invented, right? And I remembered, this is going back to your question, because Chelsea at this point, you're like, are you gonna make a point, but I will, I promise, I remembered that when I was about 18 years old. I wrote to my local newspaper about the idea of freedom. And I believe I said something to the effect of the minute you limit freedom, even a tiny bit, it stops being freedom. And talking more about the freedom of speech. I actually made that point I said, you can't stop someone, no matter how horrible you think they are from saying what they think because one day they may be in power. And they might stop you from saying what you think. And in that moment, I thought, Well, I've been a podcaster my whole life, the technology just didn't exist back then. I just like I've been trying to tell people what I think I wrote to a newspaper when I was 18. And I know you're 18 Yeah, I was thinking wow. Yeah, and I know Chelsea right now you're thinking like that kid was definitely not getting laid. And some thinking back you might be right. I'm not sure exactly the first time I did it, but it was around there somewhere. So anyway, how old are you? What's your name? Why are you here?

Chelsea 8:47
Oh, how old am I? I always forget. I'm 27

Scott Benner 8:52
I should have guessed I had you at 26. Man,

Chelsea 8:55
I keep thinking I'm still 26 and I have to remember I'm 20 Why am I here? I don't know to have a conversation. I've been type two diabetic since I was two or type one diabetic since I was two. And I guess why I'm first reached out to is because I listened to your episode meet Arden. And that was like the first time I realized like i She's like had diabetes, as long as I have and like her, like perception of it real attitude about it was like, completely different than how it was for me growing up. And that just like blew my mind. I was like, Well, what?

Scott Benner 9:37
Well, let's just be clear, because you your brain inverted numbers, you were getting ready to tell me you were two years old. And you said I have type two diabetes since and then you're like, dammit, I have type one diabetes. So you've had type one diabetes since you're two years old? Yes. Let's be clear about that. I just you know, and you're 27 now so you've had type one diabetes for a quarter of a century. 25 years. Uh huh. A silver anniversary of types. Is that right? Silver? You're like, I don't know.

Chelsea 10:06
I have no I don't know.

Scott Benner 10:08
This is like something old people now. Like, you know, like there's a paper anniversary and stuff like that. wedding anniversaries yet silver. Oh, wow. There we go. I was married 25 years last year I did not get my wife anything that I saw. Oh no, I think we gave each other cards. There's something.

Chelsea 10:27
My husband we're like terrible with anniversaries. It's like, hey, it's our anniversary. Oh, yeah. What do you want to do? Oh, no. Okay, that's

Scott Benner 10:36
how it's so chill. Yeah, that's how it's gonna go eventually. And then one day, you'll be like, you remember when we used to have sex on our anniversary? And you'll be like, I do remember. Oh, arias. Anyway. You're married? 27.

Chelsea 10:49
We've been married for six years.

Scott Benner 10:55
Wow, you got married young?

Chelsea 10:56
I did.

Scott Benner 10:59
My wife was when I tricked her into marrying me. How did that happen? Chelsea told me about.

Chelsea 11:04
So we met in high school. And we just got to know each other started dating and then went, just ended up getting married and having a couple of kids. And here we are with me. You have children? I do. I have two kids.

Scott Benner 11:21
Wow. Okay. How old are they? I'll tell you why I'm saying well, in a second.

Chelsea 11:26
My oldest is five. And my youngest turns four and just a couple days. So that's very

Scott Benner 11:33
cool. I said, Wow. Because you have a lightness in your voice that made me think you didn't have kids?

Chelsea 11:41
I get that a lot. I don't know if I should be concerned about that.

Scott Benner 11:45
Is it possible you're not paying any attention to those kids?

Chelsea 11:48
Like, am I not mature enough for my to be a mom?

Scott Benner 11:54
Your giggle is light hearted. Right? And do you know that about yourself? I do now. No. Okay. Yet, like when you giggle it's light hearted. It makes you sound long, young and even your voices young. You're not tired. Are you?

Chelsea 12:08
Oh, I'm tired. You're tired? I'm glad I don't sound tired.

Scott Benner 12:13
Are you on the smack or something? What's going on? Chelsea? How are you? So puts happen? And actually that would make be a downer, right? I know very little about drugs. I don't know anything about drugs. So I think I should have said are you on the cocaine? But I don't think you are.

Chelsea 12:27
I don't think I've ever heard anybody call it the smack is that.

Scott Benner 12:32
We just call it heroin. Now we're all just so evolved. Is that what we do? Have no idea. I used to watch television in the 70s. Chelsea, and it's smack okay.

Chelsea 12:43
Okay, I'm just I'm gonna go around saying that now and people are gonna be like, I believe my era are you from exactly.

Scott Benner 12:51
Yeah, I think monkey on your back would be the 80s may be

Chelsea 12:56
so long, though. It takes forever to say.

Scott Benner 13:00
Listen, I didn't make these things up. Chelsea. I'm just, I'm just repeating them 30 years after they were in style, okay. Anyway, I bet you later you'll think how in the hell did we talk about heroin in the first 10 minutes of my blog?

Chelsea 13:17
Immediately following talking about my kids, so like, that's like an interesting job. Oh, yeah,

Scott Benner 13:22
I tried. I did something the other day, I was doing some sort of I was doing one of the management episodes. And I somehow transitioned from Arden into people having sex somehow I might have been making an ad for Omnipod. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it. And I might have been saying like, like, you have to try to understand I've a very limited amount of time to say what I want to say, right? And I'm trying to make the point that you can wear an omni pod during all kinds of activities like showering or playing soccer, or you know, having like sex, and I'm just because I don't think it's something people think of, but they should right, Chelsea?

Chelsea 14:00
Yeah, I don't know. That's something I thought about when taking a pump. Exactly.

Scott Benner 14:05
So I just I go for truth in marketing. And I'm saying listen, at some point, you're gonna find yourself with your foot on the headboard and you're gonna hope you're gonna wish there's no tubing running from your hip to the to the I'm assuming you've probably got the pump on a pillow or something. I don't know how it works, because there's no place left to clip it when you're naked. Right?

Chelsea 14:24
No, and you definitely gotta like, unclip that thing

Scott Benner 14:27
correctly. And then I make this very wholesome. I say, and you don't want to be without your insulin. Because I believe that I think that if you have well timed, you know, if your settings are good, you want that basil running. So anyway, I realized in that conversation, I was talking about one of my daughter's activities, and I transitioned like seamlessly into talking about the idea that people listening might want to have sex without tubing. And I made me feel so strange when I said it, and I almost felt like I wanted to go backwards and apologize, but Anyway, Omnipod still seems happy, so we're good. And that's it. Okay, let's start learning from scratch. 25 years ago when you're diagnosed as a two year old, I'm going to assume a you don't have any memories of that.

Chelsea 15:14
My very first memory I can recall at all as a human being was sitting in a hospital with some guy giving me a shot in the arm.

Scott Benner 15:22
Really? No kidding.

Chelsea 15:26
That's literally all I remember is being a diabetic.

Scott Benner 15:29
Wow, I can't believe I have such a poor memory of my life. That that's fascinating to me. So you so it must have been a hell of a moment for you. If it's stuck to you like that. Probably traumatizing. You know, the first thing I can remember. Like really remember falling down the stairs. When I was like three years old. I have a memory of that. I remember being burned by a sparkler on my birthday cake in a McDonald's playroom and I was five. And I don't remember so much the burning I remember the disappointment on my dad's face when he told me Don't touch that. And then I immediately reached out and picked it up. But your thing's crazy. Are you really remember that? That's insane. Yeah. Well, do you have other gifts siblings at that time?

Chelsea 16:18
Um, yep. So I'm the youngest of five. We're all pretty close to my mom. Here. We'll have fun doing the math on this. My mom had five kids and four years. No, she did all her own weight. You birth all of them.

Scott Benner 16:33
I got it. Twins. Yes. To weigh two sets of twins. Are you the only non twin Are you?

Chelsea 16:40
The only and the only non twin?

Scott Benner 16:42
I feel exactly.

Chelsea 16:44
I felt really left out grown up. Seriously, I was like, once my twin coming along. My siblings are like when it's Chelsea gonna get her twin. One of my siblings thought like you grew up and you married your twin. And one of them was really concerned for me. Like who's Chelsea gonna marry?

Scott Benner 17:00
Oh, how did that one turn out? Are they creepy as an adult? No, no. That's good. Because that's a weird thought.

Chelsea 17:08
Yeah, yeah. Like as kids, if your whole world is like, everything comes in pairs, like my parents are in a pair and a parent. So it's boy girl twins. Okay, both of them. So just like assume that the world is full of boy girl twins. And that's how things work.

Scott Benner 17:22
At some point most every child tells you that they're going to buy a house across the street from you and live there. Because they have this like conscious thought of they start seeing people move out of other people's homes and they get like panic. They're not ready for the idea. So they're like, I can't actually leave here. Now if I said that the either of my kids they'd be like, Oh, no, no, no, we're getting the hell out of here as soon as we can. And we're not calling you. So. Thanks for everything. Okay. Wow, okay, so regular an MPH, right?

Chelsea 17:56
I believe so. Yeah, it was the cloudy stuff. Yeah, I remember at one point I was on like, pig insulin too.

Scott Benner 18:04
And that's interesting. You were back just far enough for animal insulin as well. Yeah. And, and then your mom managed most of it or your parents together? Did it? Definitely my mom.

Chelsea 18:15
I can't remember my dad being involved the whole lot except for when it came time to like lecturing

Scott Benner 18:27
him come over here and yell at Chelsea for not taking our insulin. Exactly. Like, like Leave It to Beaver. Which is not something you understand at all, either. Can you imagine that? They named the kid beaver.

Chelsea 18:41
Like serious unless they hated that kid.

Scott Benner 18:43
Well, Chelsea, was that another euphemism for vagina? Like in the 50s?

Chelsea 18:48
I have no idea.

Scott Benner 18:49
I know. You don't know. But I don't know either. We'll find out later together. We'll keep that for later. We'll look up when that you know goes for yeah popped into the, into the stratosphere. Because I mean, it was it was only there weren't that many TV shows. Right? You know, I'm saying Right. Right. So that's a weird idea to put the word vagina in one of the titles. What I'm getting that

Chelsea 19:11
back then when they depicted married couples having two different beds, so

Scott Benner 19:16
yeah, they probably did. Don't you think

Chelsea 19:20
it seems I mean, I don't know maybe it's sleep better that way.

Scott Benner 19:24
Kelly turned over there all about the sleep she punched me right in the face like when she's like she didn't do it on purpose but she like flipped over and I caught like a forearm across my head. I would have been okay with a double bed back then. Okay, so when do you start taking care of yourself?

Chelsea 19:45
Like actually taking care of myself or like taking it upon like taking upon the responsibility.

Scott Benner 19:51
Let me re ask my question. When did your parents get tired of taking care of your diabetes and decided they didn't care what happened to you but this was on you now?

Chelsea 19:58
I think I don't think never got tired of it. Um, like my mom was always really helpful. She tried to always like figure out the best thing for me and she was she was really great. And she she tried to encourage me to like, like take like do it for myself because you know, she valued that. I think she saw the value in that and so about how old do you think anything? I remember in elementary school, my older siblings would come in and give me shots for lunch. And that stopped about I think when I was in second third grade I was doing my own shots for like lunchtime and stuff. So

Scott Benner 20:47
they put your poor your your brothers and sisters in charge with your your insulin.

Chelsea 20:52
Yeah, cuz like there wasn't there wasn't like a school nurse or anything. I mean, I think there was one for like the entire district. So it's not like it was practical that like, I don't know, always have a nurse there for when Chelsea has to go to lunch. But so yeah, and my my siblings, like, they already been around it for so many years because I had it so long. Like they're, they're familiar with it.

Scott Benner 21:17
Well, it's a good idea actually. It's good. It's good division of power and resources. Honestly. Yeah, put them in charge of something.

Chelsea 21:24
I remember one time my brother was about to give him my shot.

Scott Benner 21:36
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thanks as always for listening to the ads and supporting the sponsors. Before we get back to Chelsea, I'd like to share something with you. The episodes are recorded six months in advance of you hearing them so this is going to go up on October 24 2022. And it was recorded like six months ago as I was doing the Edit which really just means me listening through for like pops and noises a crackles people you know breathing in real heavy and I take out those noises for you. I don't take out content almost ever actually. But anyways, they go through to do the edit. And then I prepare the show to accept the ads and the bumpers the front and the back. I normally don't remember them. I mean being honest there six months ago I listen. It's almost like I'm hearing them for the first time but this episode, every word Chelsea spoke. I knew the next word coming. Every word I spoke I knew what we were about to say. I was so so in tune with what was happening In that way, that I was worried that I'd put the episode up recently and forgotten, like, I just edited it maybe a week ago, and I was losing my mind. So I sent Chelsea a note and said, Hey, this is gonna sound crazy. But have I put your episode up already? She said, No, we went back and forth a little bit. And at the end of our, our back and forth, and I don't think she'd mind me sharing this with you. She said, I wanted to thank you for impacting my life, for the better. I am in a better place because of the podcast. Your advice, along with hearing the perspectives of other diabetics and parents of diabetics has been very eye opening and impactful to me. So thank you. So when you're listening now to the rest of Chelsea's story, just know, things have gotten better for her. And that is really cool. All right, now I'm gonna get you back. And we'll hear the rest of Chelsea story

Chelsea 25:48
was about to give him my shot. And he dropped the needle and it like, stabbed into his pants. But luckily, it didn't like break the skin. I'm assuming I have

Scott Benner 25:59
it, pulled it out and used it. Yep. Yeah.

Chelsea 26:03
Stick it right back. And we're supposed to go so

Scott Benner 26:06
well, how was all of this? Did it impact your relationship with your parents? Or how to growing up with type? Any, when you look back on growing up with type one, like, what's the overarching memory you have of it?

Chelsea 26:20
Um, struggle, I think I'm feeling like really alone with it. Like feeling like nobody really understands, like the psychological component of it. And I'm looking back, like with my personality, like, I'm uncomfortable when other people uncomfortable. And I kind of have this like, problem with feeling like a burden. So whatever I could do, to not feel like a burden to other people like I would, I would just kind of hold it in, I internalize things, I try to not let my struggles become other people's struggles. So like that caused a lot of issues for a long time for me with that,

Scott Benner 27:08
does that cause you to feel? So I guess what you're saying is that you kind of hide who you are, and what's happening to you so that other people aren't made to feel put off by or put out by it. And then that makes you resentful of them for not caring about how you feel?

Chelsea 27:27
Yeah, kinda resentful is the right word. And like, I'm kind of coming to a point in my life where I can look back at things and, and be like, Man, I was like, it wasn't anybody else's fault that they were doing fine. It was just me and my weird, you know, quirks with, like, how I saw things and how I handled things. And I mean, sure, nobody's perfect, but like, I just look back and I'm like, I did not handle things. Well. Yeah, it was a kid. I

Scott Benner 27:59
mean, I didn't. I didn't know any better. What would you? I mean, looking back now, isn't it? And by the way, I'm about to call you an adult. But unfairly, I found you on Facebook, and you look like you're 12 years old. So I'll say that to me. They say that to you? Because you look like you're 12 years old.

Chelsea 28:18
Is it the one of me in an igloo? I don't know if you can tell.

Scott Benner 28:22
I wasn't I didn't really pick through your Oh, yeah, that is. The kid you married looks five. What's going on? Your children are gonna look like they're like they're 10 for their whole life. Maybe?

Chelsea 28:34
Oh, no, we're making baby children. Baby Face children,

Scott Benner 28:38
wouldn't it? Wouldn't it be something if they look like all like old people when they were really young? And you'd be like, Well, that didn't work out. Seriously, you look like I'm being like, it looks like the king and the queen of the prom met each other and they're babysitting. Do people often think these aren't your kids?

Chelsea 28:58
No, I don't think I've ever had anybody say that. That never happens.

Scott Benner 29:00
Okay. All right. So here's my last question about you in your life with your children before I move on. Are you part of the tribe? Part of the tribe? Yeah, you live in a place where it makes me think maybe,

Chelsea 29:13
oh, I live in Utah. They call it your fan group out

Scott Benner 29:18
here. Yes. I have a large collection of Mormons who listen to the podcast. I have

Chelsea 29:22
I have no idea. I I mean, I'm part of like a Utah diabetes Facebook page. And I know they

Scott Benner 29:30
but you're not a Mormon. You're not You're not this. These first two kids aren't just like your starter kids and you're gonna have seven more or something like that. No, I

Chelsea 29:37
am. Mormon. I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. So I so yeah, like we're following the stereotype. Yeah, married young have kids early.

Scott Benner 29:48
Alright, I just want to make sure I know what I'm doing. And because I am, I don't have scratch marks on my desk like 1234 and then a line to it for five. But I realize now that if I would have known what I know now back then I would have done that I would have taken a little corner of my desk and I just would have written Mormon on it. And I would have made a little scratch mark every time. So

Chelsea 30:09
anybody that walks into your office would just be like, What the heck? I would think

Scott Benner 30:13
they would look at it and think you're not killing Mormons are you? Like, no, these are when they come on my podcast, red flag. You're right. You'd be go downstairs and be like, there's some disturbing stuff on Scott's desk. Okay, so Alright, now that I get, by the way, I mean, I think this goes without saying, I don't care. I just, yeah, I'm just keeping track for, you know, historical

Chelsea 30:36
purposes. For the record. I'm not sensitive about it. So I'm assuming

Scott Benner 30:40
you're not or you wouldn't be on the podcast. Right? Yeah. Because I mean, you heard me ask somebody about their magic underwear at some point, right?

Chelsea 30:47
I don't remember. But that's funny. Yeah.

Scott Benner 30:51
I assumed you wouldn't be here if you heard that. Alright, so you almost forgot where we work. Give me a second. All right. So there's like, because even in your note to me, like you talk about, like relationship issues between you and your parents, stemming around diabetes? So like, what are some of the big things that happened to you that made you say that,

Chelsea 31:14
um, I think just a lot of it was feeling like, the only kind of like, the only part of our like, relationship we had was mostly just like diabetes, like it didn't stem off from that very much, at least, at least with my mom, because it was all put on my mom to take care of it and understand, like, that's, that's a big job to undertake. You understand? Like, that's, that's a lot. Yeah, to have on your mind, like, all the time, like, they never, never stopped so. And I think just kind of felt like if we were interacting, it was mostly just about like, the diabetes. And like, it was never, like, I was never doing well with my diabetes, like, ever growing up. And so it's usually like this negative kind of interaction. So I think that definitely kind of like, caused some distance, like between me and my mom and, and I just on your part, but at the same time, I wanted to, like, I didn't want her to be struggling because I had diabetes. Like I felt I felt bad for her to like, you know,

Scott Benner 32:24
so if this like, let me think if your parents owned up, I don't know, a restaurant made burgers and fries, right? And they were basically working their 19 hours a day, because they couldn't afford to hire too many people and you work there, too. Then would you have the feeling that most of the time when my mom and I are talking, we're talking about burgers and french fries. And we're not talking about all the other things that I imagined parents talk about with their kids. And that to me feels like a loss. So instead of burgers and fries, it was diabetes?

Chelsea 32:54
Yeah. Yeah. And with a very, like, stressful kind of like, feeling around it.

Scott Benner 33:00
So it was on top of everything else. You you were under cooking the burgers and people were getting tricky Gnosis and stuff like that. So so you're not doing well. You're not doing things can get tricky Gnosis from I don't know who cares? Sure way tricky. Gnosis is pork, I think. Alright, hold on a second. Can I just make a list here real quick. Please do beaver. I'm just making notes vagina when trican Gnosis porque question mark, these are things we'll Google at the end. I've never done that before. But it feels like this is gonna happen a lot while we're talking. So

Chelsea 33:36
one if we like if we get off the conversation, and we don't look those things up, oh, like remember a day later and be like, Oh, she forgot to?

Scott Benner 33:43
Well, I'm recording twice today. So I have a little bit of manic energy going right now. Because I'm going to record with you basically do like a little bit of work in between and then jump right back on and talk to somebody else. So I'm making up for I'm paying the price for going away for a week. You know? Anyway, okay, so your mom is killing herself. It sounds like but you're not getting any of the positive results. You feel like she only talks to you about diabetes. And you know, she's killing herself and you feel bad about that. So you keep inside how you feel about type one. So in in reality, you guys are having a very kind of surface or almost fake relationship as you're growing up.

Chelsea 34:28
Yeah, that's kind of how it felt pretty. Yeah.

Scott Benner 34:32
Okay. I appreciate you sharing this because parents are gonna hear this. And this is something that I tried to sprinkle in. You know, but I say it more like, you know, I'll tell a story about seeing Arden come through the door and asking her what her blood sugar was before saying hello to her. And then I realized like, I can't like I'm treating them like she's diabetes. You know, even even a very simple thing. I texted her this morning. Arden's blood sugar shot up. And I sent her a text. And I and I, my, my first thought was like, I'm just texting, right? Like, it's an informal way of talking. And I wanted to say, What did you eat? And what I meant by that what I would have meant by that was, hey, you know what food is pushing your blood sugar up. Now, maybe you need help with this, that kind of thing. But I realized that saying, What did you eat? Sounds accusatory. Right, right. Right. It's not meant by that way by me, like, I wasn't like, you know, let me do I'd never acted in high school, Chelsea, but I wasn't saying like, what did you eat? I was just be like, You know what happened? So I stopped myself. I stopped myself. And I wrote, What did you have? Right? And then she told me, she said, This is funny. She was to hashbrowns. And then she said, I don't know what was in those mofos. And I said, drink some water, please. Then I said this, the school buy food. This is really processed off, there's probably not even any potatoes

Chelsea 36:03
in it. Who knows what it is? Yeah, man school food.

Scott Benner 36:07
Right, right. It's the stuff your parents are serving at this pretend restaurant I gave him probably. Exactly trying to maximize profits. That's all Chelsea. You know, capitalism is not all bad. But you know, sometimes people suffer, they don't get potatoes. They're hashbrowns. Anyway, so like that little idea of just not making it about the diabetes, like finding a way to ask the question without it seeming like I'm putting something on you or making a judgement. But the problem is, is that diabetes is so omnipresent. It's that you can't always stop and be that thoughtful about it, or you know, you get busy or you're tired. So you just say like, what do you eat? And then on the other end, is Chelsea going, it's not my fault. I'm trying like, you don't mean like that, that kind of thing, right? I'm so nervous having this conversation with you, Chelsea.

Chelsea 37:00
Really, you're nervous. I'm supposed to be the one that's nervous.

Scott Benner 37:04
Three days ago, I interviewed a lovely person. And in the middle of the interview, we would really dig in kind of into the psyche of how she grew up with type one. And I think we uncovered things that she maybe didn't realize about her life. And then like a day later, she sent me a lovely email and asked me not to let anybody hear the podcast. That was why I have no trouble with I deleted it immediately. But I realized when it was over, like, like, I, sometimes these conversations get into like therapy, and then

Chelsea 37:37
I've already had these conversations. So you're good.

Scott Benner 37:39
No, oh, good. Did you hash it out with your mom at some point? And I didn't say hash because of the hash browns, but maybe I did.

Chelsea 37:47
The fake hash browns. Yeah, we've talked about a lot of this. And we've, we've like, I've been trying to, like, kind of mend my association with like, like, how I feel about diabetes, and my mom and like, making that a positive thing. Like, I can go to my mom and talk about diabetes and stuff. And, and not and, and not feel like I'm having like going to have an anxiety attack or something new. So it's, it's been a few years to kind of overcome, like my past demons, you know, it

Scott Benner 38:29
was shocked to hear how you felt. It was

Chelsea 38:33
hard for her to hear. Yeah. If she's the kind of person that has a hard time dealing with guilt. She she feels guilty about things that she absolutely doesn't need to and she's an amazing person, but she has a hard time believing so so I think with her personality being that way and my personality being you know, just very concerned about how other people think I think that it just kind of caused a lot of our, our problems and this distance between us. So can I but

Scott Benner 39:05
good. Yeah, I'm sorry. I was gonna ask you. Do you think that you care about what other people think? Or do you think you're protecting yourself from feeling guilty?

Chelsea 39:13
protecting myself from feeling guilty?

Scott Benner 39:15
Yeah. Like if you'd never, if you never make anybody feel uncomfortable, then you won't have to feel bad about having done it.

Chelsea 39:22
No, I'm just that I don't, I don't feel guilty. I mean, like I have regret about you know, maybe I could have done better if I had this. I could have done better at that. But I just I really am the kind of person where if somebody else feels uncomfortable, I am extremely uncomfortable. So I don't know what that is. But

Scott Benner 39:45
when I said you have when you said you have regret. I was like maybe she'll tell a story about shooting an unarmed man in a convenience store just to feel what it was like to take a life but then you didn't go that direction. So it's fine.

Chelsea 39:56
That's good. Yeah. I mean, if if I did, I wouldn't tell you about it because I assume

Scott Benner 39:59
I really do assume that you wouldn't jump on a podcast about diabetes and admit to murdering somebody for no reason. But But it's interesting. So you felt like that your whole life protective of how other people feel? Yep, definitely. Do you think not that you could have possibly done anything different cuz you're a child? But do you look at that now and realize that if you would have just pushed this forward, 10 years ago, you would have saved 10 years?

Chelsea 40:26
Yeah, definitely. If just like, I've really come to understand and learn the value and being open and honest. Because when we are with each other, like, we realize, you know, everybody's struggling, we're all have our struggles, and nobody's perfect. And, you know, just, we can make each other stronger if we understand where each other's weaknesses are. So I really, I really believe in that kind of philosophy. You're exactly

Scott Benner 40:55
right, I think. Yeah. Well, I appreciate you coming to say that. That's really lovely. The nuts and bolts of it wasn't going well. A one sees we're aware.

Chelsea 41:09
Oh, I've, I've been up in the twelves a lot growing up. I've never been up above 12. But definitely, I think most most grown up especially after like, kind of it was more my responsibility to like kind of take, take care of it and make sure I was testing and getting shots for lunch and stuff. But I was probably always, nearly all the time, like above nine, nine to 12 Most of the time, probably Okay, so

Scott Benner 41:38
where are you pumping or shooting? Or what were you doing?

Chelsea 41:42
Shots? Definitely. i My parents had me checkout pumps at once. I like took me to this place where a bunch of adults are like trying to sell it to me. And I just like, I don't want to have anything with that. But they're like, they're like, try to sell it. Like, here's a pump, and you don't have to get shots anymore. It's like that's their main sell point. It's like, I don't mind needles. Listen, guys, I've been doing this since I was two. This is all I know, I've been conditioned to not be bothered by needles. Like, it's like they didn't. They didn't try to sell another other way. Like, hey, this is like you have to you don't have to think about it as much or like, you know, kind of,

Scott Benner 42:21
were you thinking about it?

Chelsea 42:23
Oh, yes, yes, I constantly. And it's like I struggled with anxiety and depression and looking back. Like I realized I was seriously struggling with it as a kid. And, and so my approach to diabetes for the longest time was like, this causes me so much anxiety that I would just avoid it. I couldn't think about it because it was too painful. Like emotionally. So I you know, and then my parents and doctors would be like, Why aren't you taking care of it? And they're like, and I just be like, I don't know, I just I forget, I just put it off as being like, forgetful. So like, No, I'm actually thinking about it like all the time.

Scott Benner 43:08
It's interesting, isn't it? It takes up more of your thoughts and your life to ignore it than it does to take care of it. Exactly. Yeah. So by the way, a lot of things work that way. Yeah, yeah.

Chelsea 43:24
Coming to understand that, yeah.

Scott Benner 43:26
Look at you. And you're still young. And you look like you're 12. So you've got a lot of time. Yeah. When did you? When did you turn a corner? Or have you not? Are you sitting here with a nine a one see right now and you just having a realization,

Chelsea 43:40
my last day when she was a 7.3. So working before that, I think it was like 11.4. So Wow. Yeah, yeah. So it kind of turned a corner when I got married. And my husband realized how dysfunctional I was. And he just like, he got me to open up and talk about it. I was like, if, like, I was the most closed book person you could ever imagine. It's like he would have these long conversations trying to like, understand why I was so troubled by whatever it was, and like, I couldn't even identify it. I'd like buried it so deep. It's like, I don't know what's troubling me, but I'm like, I'm shaking. I'm crying. And I can't even like make words come out of my mouth. I just like I'm seriously troubled by it. But that's just from like, bottling it up for my entire life, you know, up to that point, and not ever vocalizing out loud how I how I feel about it to somebody. And so he got, excuse me. So he got me to open up and talk about it. And I started kind of working through things and just saying things out loud kind of helped me helps you process things and move past them and so And then it's like once I kind of got past those, those past demons, what I call them like. And I yeah, just I really started to be able to think about it more upwind and not just push it out in my mind. So you end up

Scott Benner 45:23
so he kind of forced you to deal with what was happening instead of Yeah. And for clarity for people who don't know, and I only know because of the internet. He looks like an extra in like, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, how did he know any of this? Like, seriously? Again? He looks like he's a maybes, 18. And where did he like? Did he grew up in a super healthy household? Or do you think he was like, Oh, I hitched my wagon to this girl, I better fix this.

Chelsea 45:48
Oh, I hope he doesn't think. No, like, our families are kind of funny. They're so different, like my family's more of, they're not so open with each other. But but my husband's families, they're very like bold, and like, just say what you're thinking and like, get it out there and deal with it like to do that. And like when I first came into this family, I'm like, I don't know how to handle this. This is so different. But it's it's it's been good. Because I've learned to be that way. And I've really come to appreciate being that way. And when people are that way with me, I'm like, Yeah, tell me what you're thinking. Because otherwise, you know, if I'm doing something wrong, tell me about it. So I can fix it. Or, you know, we can clear the air instead of just letting things fester under the surface.

Scott Benner 46:36
You know, I'd rather have hurt feelings than hidden feelings for sure. Yes, I've done. I've done both in my life and it's it's not productive to not say what you're thinking it's really harmful to you. Okay, wait, did you have babies with real elevated a onesies? No. How did you work that out.

Chelsea 46:58
So when. So like before I got before I got married, I tried really hard to get my blood sugar's in range. I think I got them down until like the sevens. And I didn't have a pump. I didn't have a CGM or anything. So I was just like, it was just the sheer will to not be an out of control diabetic going into this new relationship. Like I gotta be better, you know. And so then, we a year after we were married, I found out we were pregnant. And I was just like, Oh, crap, I don't remember what my agencies were at the time. I don't know how what they were at, but not not within recommendations for pregnancy. So I got into see diabetes educator, like, the first time I can remember seeing a diabetes educator in my life. I'm sure I saw one as a kid, but I don't remember it. And if I know if they were diabetes, Ed kids are super patronizing. And I don't like them. So this new diabetes educator name was Eileen blue, and she's just like, the most amazing person. And even before I met her, she, she gave me a phone call, just like a pre visit kind of get to know you. And she told me, like, she's like, in her 50s. And she has five kids, and they're all healthy. And she basically just like, has lived this, this life that I was worried I wouldn't be able to have some day. And like, I was just like, in tears on this, like simple phone call. Just like, oh my goodness, because I hadn't known any other diabetics, I didn't know anybody, you know, in their 50s of diabetes, I was convinced that like, I was probably going to die in my 40s. And like, that way don't mean so it didn't know if I was going to be able to have kids. And if I did, I could, like, be like, healthy and and so anyway, I got into see her. She helped me out so much like, emotionally and with my diabetes. And she got me to get a pump and a CGM. And that was that was the game changer. It's just like, having support, having better knowledge and having the tools to get my blood sugar's in range. And so

Scott Benner 49:19
because you were putting in all this, like mental effort already, you just weren't putting in the right direction.

Chelsea 49:24
Yeah, yeah. And, and I struggle with ADHD too. So that also, I mean, diabetes requires a lot of motivation, right. And ADHD is a disorder that causes a problem with being motivated. So it's really so many things. So many struggles that come with ADHD completely go against what you need to do for diabetes. So like they're really hard to have together and I didn't know as ADHD until I wasn't I I've noticed, I think, until this past year, so understanding that part of it too is really helped me out a lot. But

Scott Benner 50:06
how did you how did you get your diagnosis?

Chelsea 50:09
Yeah. So I, I kind of come to realize that I had ADHD. It's funny by like watching Tic TOCs. And of course algorithms, they know us so well, they start bringing up like ADHD videos. And I'm just like, huh, ADHD, it's not what I thought it was. And then it's like, oh, no, I relate to these way too much. And so I start, I start doing my own research online, of course, because I'm not just gonna go off of social media. Nobody should do that. By the way, do your own research,

Scott Benner 50:40
a podcast about diabetes, that it's probably okay. Right?

Chelsea 50:43
Unless, unless this is podcast, yeah. Okay. You're fine. So, and I'm like, Oh, my God, like, I really do, like, have these symptoms. Maybe I should look into that. And so I was seeing a therapist at the time. I mentioned it to her, we did the you know, the testing and stuff. And she's like, Yep, okay, you've got ADHD combined type, inattentive, and oh, geez, no, I don't remember the weight.

Scott Benner 51:08
She didn't know what kind of a therapist is treating him doesn't know you have.

Chelsea 51:13
Okay, honest. Okay, so I started seeing her during the pandemic. So it's all like on the phone. So that's part of it. She's not like seeing the Fidget and stuff like while we're talking

Scott Benner 51:23
are you doing that now? Still? Are you taking medication for it? How does it work?

Chelsea 51:27
Um, yes, I started taking some medication for it, but I'm not sure how much it really helps. Like, it's it's not a stimulant. They don't I don't think they ever like jumped to stimulants when they first started on ADHD meds, but I've only really noticed that it helps with my depression, and it helps me stay awake. So

Scott Benner 51:47
that's good. Hey, ADHD, by the way, is an inflammatory condition that is kind of linked to autoimmune.

Chelsea 51:53
isn't really Yeah, you should do a little bit make sense of all these autoimmune problem. What

Scott Benner 51:57
else? What? Oh, hold on a second. My throat? I'm dying. Hold on second, Chelsea. My tea got cold. That's not a euphemism. I do hope. What other autoimmune issues do you have?

Chelsea 52:10
So I have Hashimotos. And, let's see. So the type one diabetes. It's just there's a lot in my family to tell all of all of my siblings, and both of my parents have Hashimotos we all have it.

Scott Benner 52:28
Wow. Is there like a pile of Synthroid in the middle of the room like cocaine and a movie in the 70s?

Chelsea 52:34
Oh, geez, yeah. Yeah, seriously, if like one of us friends out, somebody else is like, oh, yeah, just take mine, like cut in half or whatever.

Scott Benner 52:45
I'm literally picturing. Have you ever seen Scarface? No, I have. I'm picturing a big mound of Synthroid in the middle of like the island in your kitchen and you guys just pick from it like candy in the morning or something like that. Alright, so hold on. So 12345 Kids, two parents, that seven people seven people all have Hashimotos

Chelsea 53:04
all Apache motors and we weren't. So most of us were diagnosed with like, just hypothyroidism at first and then kind of as more doctors come aware of Hashimotos we've kind of slowly one by one been diagnosed with Hashimotos like oh, you actually have lost your Moto so

Scott Benner 53:21
Wow. I'll have it that's insane. How about other autoimmune stuff? Has anybody heard about celiac? Somebody's gonna have celiac? No celiac? See fancy fancy? Okay, hold on. I don't know well, depression even I think of is inflammatory. I don't know. Like, I'm not a doctor. But how many people I have to talk to have autoimmune disease. This was talking about like being bipolar or depressed or something like that, before you start paying attention. Give it I mean,

Chelsea 53:51
it's like what do you do for that? You just like take a bunch of ibuprofen every day and you're good. I don't believe

Scott Benner 53:55
that you understand information correctly?

Chelsea 54:00
Probably not.

Scott Benner 54:00
Yeah, that's that's not that's like can you imagine? Imagine if ibuprofen was the the answer to all of our problems. We just hadn't figured it out yet.

Chelsea 54:09
Depression

Scott Benner 54:10
and all these problems. Make your type one go away. Take it. Yeah, by the way, we eventually only gets good for your something else. I mean, again, Chelsea, I barely got out of high school, so I'm not sure but alright, so you also experienced anemia.

Chelsea 54:33
Yep, anemia, which I still haven't figured out. I'm like, always anemic. But the doctors are like, just take some more iron. And I'm like, Is it normal? Like, Scott, is it normal to be taking iron every day of your life to not be anemic? So I mean, I know I'm a woman and I have a period and stuff and like, you know, is that a couple

Scott Benner 54:51
things? You're not taking it next to your thyroid medication, right? No, I

Chelsea 54:56
take it apart from each other.

Scott Benner 54:57
Did you like the thyroid series that I did?

Chelsea 55:00
Did I actually I really did. I tried to convince my family to listen to it. Listen, podcasters I'm still working on them while they're maybe being on a podcast, they'll start listening.

Scott Benner 55:09
Yeah, if they're listening right now, I did a wonderful little series about thyroid, just go listen to it. I mean, it would maybe take them two hours in total, right? There were like 20 minute episodes.

Chelsea 55:20
I share info with them from it and like, it's like really interesting. Learn some, learn some things. So

Scott Benner 55:25
here's what I'm gonna tell you. Are you just taking like an iron tablet from the grocery store? Yes. Okay. I want you to change to a different iron tablet or a different method. Okay, so you can either use something, I'm going to look it up for you. I think it's called vide Tron see. It is. It comes in a box. It's orange. It looks like the sun. So I'm just the way you say orange. La orange. And, and it says it's called vite. Tron see. So it's iron plus vitamin C, the Vitamin C helps your body absorb the iron. Right now.

Chelsea 56:07
That's how they just like put them together.

Scott Benner 56:09
It's magic. Chelsey, I'll tell you. Yeah, less steps, the better. That's how I That's how my son does it. Okay, my son who by the way has Hashimotos and is related to somebody who has type one diabetes. The way I do it? Is I use I'm a fan of, I'm gonna say the name of the vitamin company. I like out loud. And if you people cause me a problem, and I can't get my vitamins, I'm gonna be pissed. Okay. But I use a company called Thorn, t h o r ne. Okay, all right. I buy their iron. And then I buy they're almost like, hey, thorn, buy an ad. Don't, don't just take this for free. I take their iron. It's like called Iron bicycle is that eight? I don't know the words. You don't I mean, and then I pair it with their sorbic acid. So which is vitamin C. So when I take my iron, I take it with the vitamin C at the same time. Here's why I'm telling you this. Prior to doing it this way. I was getting iron infusions. I was literally going to an infusion center. It was it was me. And usually 20 People getting chemotherapy sitting in a room. And they were looking at me like, Get out of here. Your stupid iron. Yeah, like not even really sick, you know? And so I would I get this infusion in a couple of weeks, it would bring me back to life. And then slowly my body would use up the iron and I'd feel tired again and go back and get another infusion. And I just started thinking like, I can't do this forever. Like, like, what is my whole life? I'm gonna get iron infusions. And so I started messing with things and I got down to like, good like, not like, you know what they sell at the grocery store vitamins. Which

Chelsea 57:58
I think you wonder. Yeah, well,

Scott Benner 58:01
I more than wonder I don't think they're, they're great. But you know, so I got a great vitamin company and then I paired it iron with with the vitamin C. So the vitamin C's works well, and it's simple. It's one tablet, or you can get fancy and do what I'm doing. Fancy Yeah. Fancy buying two different things. This volume at the same time. Fancy. How did I say orange by the way?

Chelsea 58:26
Well, I would say Orange. Orange. Orange.

Scott Benner 58:30
You're like orange like an oar with a range at the end? Like a boat

Chelsea 58:34
or orange starts with an O you say orange? Well, I

Scott Benner 58:38
just eliminate the Oh like it starts with an A like orange orange in my mind. It starts with an our orange are like a pirate. Say it like a pirate. Are we do it again when I'm not talking? Orange no like, say like

Chelsea 58:54
me? Say like you that's how you're saying.

Scott Benner 58:56
That's what I'm saying? That's what it sounds like to me be more of a pirate this time.

Chelsea 59:01
They start with yarn. Or EJ Have you ever seen Oh, I've never seen a pirate

Scott Benner 59:09
Are you looking for Johnny Depp pretend to be a pirate be pretending to be Keith Richards and that movie? Do you know who Keith Richards is? No. Oh my goodness. Chelsea okay. You know Wait, do you know who Johnny Depp is? Yes, I know who Johnny Depp is? Because he because he was because they said he hid his wife for because you've seen in movies and because of the pirates movies? Yeah, okay, so then you just are it's our real deep like, I'll do it then you do it. Orange do it like that.

Chelsea 59:37
Orange you almost can't do it. I can't it's beyond me.

Scott Benner 59:43
That's because you can speak English I know I don't say

Chelsea 59:48
arm weird so sometimes I go to say arm and I say like arm and it comes out and every time I'm like what the heck was that?

Scott Benner 59:57
I couldn't think of how to spell when the other day Unlike when w it just left my head for a second I was like, oh, yeah, w h e n couldn't come up with it to save my life. Alright, so wait a minute, there was something you didn't say. There's something you said that I wanted to get more clarification about. Oh, sorry. Speaking of ADHD as I jump around this conversation

Chelsea 1:00:23
sure you don't have ADHD? Listen, if

Scott Benner 1:00:25
I do, it makes a lovely and entertaining podcast, so you should just live with

Chelsea 1:00:30
Yes, it does. I think it's anybody gonna be mad?

Scott Benner 1:00:34
No, I hope not. Oh, gosh, do you think people are mad at me?

Chelsea 1:00:39
I don't know. You reach a lot of people. Someone's bound to be mad at you.

Scott Benner 1:00:43
Yeah, you know, part of the way you you have to do this stuff is you have to realize that not everybody's gonna like you and it can't matter. Yeah. It's a big part of doing this. That's my approach to life. It's pretty healthy, actually. But I just wanted to hear like you had symptoms of ADHD that you didn't recognize right away. I want to know what the symptoms were.

Chelsea 1:01:04
Um, yeah, so like, it's like obvious things that I didn't really connect the dots until, like later, but like, I've always been fidgety. That's like, the stereotypical ADHD thing like in classes. I'm always like, bouncing my feet or tapping my fingers or something. But it's the my train of thought leaves

Scott Benner 1:01:30
while you're talking, I'm bouncing my leg. Do you think I'm in trouble?

Chelsea 1:01:33
Yes. It's, it's, it's like an like, with my diabetes. When I was really trying to manage it. I as I would be like, oh, I need to check my blood sugars. And then my brain does the silly thing where it's like, Oh, you thought about it. We can check it off the list. And like, like it's done, but I didn't actually do it. So like, that's like a serious problem. Having a CGM is like, crucial to me having a good day. Otherwise, my ADHD will not let me take care of myself how I need to so

Scott Benner 1:02:10
yeah, go wait. You just said something that made me think of something. What the hell did you say right before the CGM thing you said Oh, checking something off the list before it actually happened. That's a social media problem, too. So yes, scrolling and liking tricks your brain into believing you've completed a task.

Chelsea 1:02:28
Interesting. So you feel

Scott Benner 1:02:31
like you can you could sit on your sofa. Scroll, scroll, tap, tap, scroll, scroll, tap, tap your whole life. And at the end of a day where you've accomplished nothing, you'd feel like an accomplished person. That's dangerous, by the way

Chelsea 1:02:44
is dangerous. Yeah, we need a listening don't do that. We need

Scott Benner 1:02:48
people to invent things and come up with like, energy alternatives and a different ways of teaching children not feeling good about like, oh, yeah, I was able to double tap on my friends pictures today. By the way, why do you people not look at them? You just have them? I'm talking to kids now. You don't? I mean,

Chelsea 1:03:05
that's a good question. I don't know. Like, I'm getting beyond. I'm getting old enough. I look back at kids. And I'm like, I don't understand you. Little weird failing. And getting

Scott Benner 1:03:16
not too long ago. You were one of those annoying little people. I was oh, cheese. Whether your kids turned into that. I know. What do you think it'll be then? Like what all social media look like in 20 years?

Chelsea 1:03:29
Oh, I don't know. Is the world even gonna be here in 20 years? 100%.

Don't worry. So like the world's just you know, gone, gone to hell in a handbasket. So,

Scott Benner 1:03:40
you think it's worse right now than when, let's say? Let's think of something like egregious. Oh, when gang is con was marching across the world raping and pillaging. Do you think it's worse now?

Chelsea 1:03:51
No, right? I mean, I mean, nuclear weapons is scarier than you know. Whatever gang is con when you make it right. Bring around the mental instability of whatever he had going on and give him a bigger, give him more detrimental weapons. Give

Scott Benner 1:04:14
him a pew pew machine that he can shoot from a computer. Exactly. Alright, so you're making a valid point, I think. I think it'll be okay. Okay, yeah. That's what you're sharing. And I'm 50. So, I mean,

Chelsea 1:04:30
I gotta get you're gonna have to be here that much longer.

Scott Benner 1:04:32
I found out yesterday, I have to get knee surgery. No, have you been hearing me bitch about my knees for like the last six months? So I haven't paid attention. All right. Well, the doctor was like the doctors like, oh, it'd be quick. 15 minutes. Just fix it up real quick. And I was like, all right. It's like two days on crutches she'll be fine. And all I could think when he said that, like I should have heard like, oh, only two days on crutches. I thought, What am I going to do with those crutches when I'm done with them? They're gonna sit in the house and make a mess.

Chelsea 1:04:59
Right? So like you try to find somebody that already has crutches and then borrow them.

Scott Benner 1:05:04
What if I went out into the world, kick someone in the leg and then handed them the crutches and walked away? And I said, I'm recycling.

Chelsea 1:05:15
Or you be like my dad who had crutches from like, Who knows when for whatever reason holds on to them for years. And then when your daughter breaks her foot or whatever, like I did, gives you these old crutches.

Scott Benner 1:05:29
He was probably thrilled, right? He's like, finally holding on to these crutches is another form. Yeah, I don't

Chelsea 1:05:34
have to go out and buy crutches. I'm telling you right now. Foam is breaking and the thing rubber thing on the bottom

Scott Benner 1:05:41
of the foam, it's all crackly up under your armpits. You mean? Yeah.

Chelsea 1:05:45
Yeah, like Thai rags around it. So like, it doesn't rub your raw.

Scott Benner 1:05:49
I am either going to ask for a cane. Because that I figured I could use one day again, or where I'm gonna hop home, just lay in bed for two days and then get up because I really don't want to, like my biggest concern about knee surgery is what to do with the crutches when

Chelsea 1:06:07
you're on Oh, my God.

Scott Benner 1:06:09
I'm like, I don't want to waste them. Like you have no idea how wasteful that feels to me. Yeah, that's all right. But I'm on. All right. I have two more things to ask you about. Let's see, I'm looking at your note here. What do you mean, you were read diagnosed with type one diabetes at 10 years old?

Chelsea 1:06:28
Oh, did I put that in there? Oh, it's like one of my favorite stories. My favorite. My favorite doctor visits. I would say like we're in the office, and they do the labs and stuff, right? And then they leave and you're just sitting in the office. This doctor comes back. He wasn't even like my main doctor. I think he's like some guy in training or something. And he just he's just looks like he's just having the worst day. He he has my mom go out in the hallway with him. So now I'm just sitting in this room by myself. Like, oh my gosh, like I'm like, I'm getting diagnosed with something terminal.

Scott Benner 1:07:03
My head's gonna fall off finally.

Chelsea 1:07:06
Exactly. They come back in and my mom's just kind of smiling. And they're like, you have type one diabetes. And I'm like, Oh, thanks. How did you miss that on the chart?

Scott Benner 1:07:19
What happened? It made the doctor say that.

Chelsea 1:07:22
I have no idea. My theory is that he was just being hazed. And they're like, hey, this family can handle this little prank. So hey, let's tell this guy that they have to tell this kid

Scott Benner 1:07:32
one time in the pediatrician. One time in Arden's pediatricians office, she had to give urine for something. And we were sitting out in the hall waiting for I don't know, I think she's gonna get an injection of something later, like a vaccine or something. So we're kind of waiting. And the nurse opens the door to where like, the your analysis is we're done. And she is like, flopsweat in a panic wide eyed. And in a second, I figured out what happened. I put my hands up. Because she's looking around for a doctor, like furiously. I put my hands up and I was like, hey, and she looked at me, I went, we already know she has diabetes. And you should have seen the stress come out of her. But I think she thought she diagnosed the kid with type one.

Chelsea 1:08:16
Oh, yeah. Oh my god. Imagine what that would be like she was

Scott Benner 1:08:20
in a panic. It was really something else. So like, you could see like that her face relaxed. Her eyes stopped bugging out, her shoulders dropped down. And then she didn't know what to say. And I was like, It's okay. It's okay. Are you okay? She's like, Yeah, I'm like, I appreciate you caring so much. You know, and then she sort of went back into her room. Alright. So you asked a question in your little intake form. And you said, you said something that made me think that you have an opinion about diabetes coaching. And I wondered what it was because you weren't clear?

Chelsea 1:08:54
Oh, yeah. Like, um, like health coaching? Yeah, I think that when I sent that I was really interested in the idea. And, and I think there can be like, a lot of value to that, so long as it's not somebody that's just trying to, like, take advantage of diabetics, and like, just be like, oh, yeah, hey, you're doing good, keep going. Champ, you know, but, I mean, there's a place for that. Some people need that. And at the time, I was struggling with like, ADHD and having a hard time, like, following through on my own goals. And I was like, I need I need somebody to like report to that's not a doctor because I'm trying not to hate all doctors still. But

Scott Benner 1:09:40
does the podcast help you at all or no? Yeah,

Chelsea 1:09:43
yeah, it does. It's it's like the with the podcast, the information is great. And it's just I think even more valuable than that is just like the the attitude. It's like how to perceive diabetes is it doesn't have to be so Serious. Like, I feel like doctors are just so clinical so serious about it that you know, they put the fear in. Yeah. And then and then that's how you're supposed to feel about it, I'm afraid. Exactly. And that's how I was all growing up. Afraid. So, um,

Scott Benner 1:10:16
so I'll get back to the coaching thing in a second. But so when you heard art in talking, you did it make you like jealous or angry or hopeful?

Chelsea 1:10:29
None of the above, I think I was just like, like, awestruck, kinda like, I didn't think anybody diagnosed as, as young as I was. And as soon as she was, could could not have all the struggles, like I was having, like, mental struggles and, and, and stuff like that. And I was just like, she's, she's so like, casual about it. And, you know, it's just this just this thing, like, it's normal, you know. And for me, it was just, like, ruining my life. And, you know, I just hated it. And I wanted to avoid it. I didn't want to have it. You know, it just poured it, you know? And so it's just like, it's just so

Scott Benner 1:11:11
yeah, I don't want to be reductive and just say it's attitude. But, like, but I don't think that Arden's core experience with diabetes is different than yours. Like, she doesn't want to have it. She's not excited to Pre-Bolus like that kind of stuff. It is a burden, you know, etc, etc. I just think that it's, I don't know, I think it's how you now you're in a different situation, right? Because you have ADHD, and you had depression. Do you still have depression? Do you think?

Chelsea 1:11:40
So I'm taking medication for that. That helps. I mean, I mean, I still struggle with it. So right.

Scott Benner 1:11:48
So I'm saying so your situation was, is different, right? It's compounded. But still at the same time? If what I what I hope is that people don't think there's like some magic I answer that they don't.

Chelsea 1:12:02
It's personality, right? Yeah. Just just an upbeat

Scott Benner 1:12:04
like, no, that's not it. Exactly. It's, it's, it's the idea of like, to me, Chelsea. It's, I don't know, what's the difference between having a hard time and thinking pressure makes diamonds, and having a hard time having that same hard time and another person thinks this isn't fair. I'm getting screwed over. Yeah. So I think if you can come to grips with the idea that no one's getting out of this life unscathed. And that something's going to happen to everyone. And fair enough, you've got more things than maybe it's fair. Right? You know, you're still

Chelsea 1:12:42
think, like, some of the things is like, my mom's saying, like, if I could take this from you, I would, if I could have it instead of you, I would, and kind of painting it as a picture is like, this is something you don't want to have, because it's ruining your life. And like, I think it's all well intentioned, you know, that's really sweet. But don't tell your kid that. They're gonna be like, oh, man, this thing really does suck, and I can't get rid of it. And yeah, I gotta live with this. And you know, people apologizing, oh, I'm sorry, you have to deal with this your whole life. It's like, Stop. Don't apologize. Just, it's just the thing you have to deal with. You know, it's just everybody has a thing like this. You know, diabetes is one of my things. And people, you know,

Scott Benner 1:13:28
that's incredibly insightful, Chelsea, because I rub up against that statement very badly, too. So I understand. And I know, I'm gonna make some people mad here. But I understand the theory and the and the concept. I would I would take this from you if I could, like I really do. I think it's,

Chelsea 1:13:46
it's any, any good parent would feel that way.

Scott Benner 1:13:49
Lovely, loving statement. Yes. And I understand how its intended. But much like when I was talking about texting Arden earlier, the words and what they mean, don't always coincide with how they're heard.

Chelsea 1:14:04
Exactly. You know, which is such a weird thing. Right?

Scott Benner 1:14:07
So while you're saying I would do anything for you, I wish I hope you know that what Chelsea was hearing was, Wow, your life is terrible. Really, you have the worst life, so much so that my love for you, as a parent causes me to tell you that if I magically could, I would take this horror from you, and strap that burden to my back myself and carry it so that you wouldn't have to have the terrible life that you're having. And like, that's how it's hurt. Right? Exactly. Yeah. So don't do that.

Chelsea 1:14:42
Don't do that. How you how you perceive things and communicate that perception to your kids is how they will associate and perceive those same things. So language is powerful thing.

Scott Benner 1:14:55
And there's another way to say what you're thinking, right, which is you can just say You know, anything you need, you know, let me know. You could, you know, just be supportive generally in a way that's healthier

Chelsea 1:15:09
upon your back in a way, any way you can without saying, like, I wish I could take this from me, but like, you know, show that show it like, I want to help in any way I can.

Scott Benner 1:15:18
All right shall see now I'm gonna get in trouble with people because I'm going to I'm going to expand on your thought okay. Oh, no, don't martyr yourself to your children. Yes. That's really what we're talking. That's bad. Yeah. Oh, it's it's the it's the I would do it if I could. That feeling. It's first of all, you can't. So it's sort of an empty gesture. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Give me your cancer. Well, that doesn't work that way. So, I mean, yeah, I'm glad we're

Chelsea 1:15:46
all in it kind of makes you feel a little angry, to be honest. Why would you even say that? Possible. So

Scott Benner 1:15:53
everyone listening to Chelsea, she's young. She just went through this. She understands what we're talking about here. Like, seriously heed what she's saying here. Super important. We don't usually dig into this stuff this much. But but it's needed. It needs to be said. Empty gestures are not comforting that you know who they comfort. The person making the person saying, Yeah, I know. I would. I know. I like you know, when people talk about like, if I saw somebody being mugged, you know what I would do? I'm like, Yeah, I know what I would do. I would run away. I would say, Oh, wow, I thank God. I'm not being bugged. Let me, let me get out of here. I think that's what most people do. self preservation is pretty strong inside of people. But when we talk about and we philosophize about, I'm like, Well, what I would do is I jump in there hit him in the head, and I know you would just stop.

Chelsea 1:16:44
There's the ideal us and then like, the practical survival. So

Scott Benner 1:16:50
what do you do for a living? Are you like raising the kids? Or are you like, given a job or you don't?

Chelsea 1:16:55
Yeah, so we kind of, I was just a stay at home, mom. Oh, man, people are gonna be like, Oh, she said, just Yeah, I don't mean it that way. Right, say Calm down, people. I was a stay at home mom. My husband's going to go into school to get his degree. I've been staying home with the kids, I had to drop out of college for time to do that. So as he's finishing up his degree, his last year of his bachelor's, I went back to work. And I have like the most boring job and I process bills, utility bills. Bill comes up on the screen, I type it into our computer.

Scott Benner 1:17:35
Hey, is it paying your bills? Is it paying your bills?

Chelsea 1:17:38
It's thing Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:17:39
that's perfect. For the

Chelsea 1:17:40
most part, I mean, I'm, I'm on Medicaid and that so it helps pay some of the bills

Scott Benner 1:17:46
can always sell one of those kids. If you have two babies go for a premium. Don't tell anybody you have autoimmune disorder, or the price might go down a little bit. As you're handing him to him go, Hey, listen, this kid's almost assuredly gonna have Hashimotos just to get off.

Chelsea 1:18:04
It's like, oh, it's like that concept. When I'm filling out like my donor. Do you want to donate? You know, on your driver's license? You want to be a donor? I'm like, sure, but I don't know if you're gonna want any of

Scott Benner 1:18:14
my shirts pretty Boston.

Chelsea 1:18:17
I don't know what kind of damage has been done there. So you know, if someone needs like a skin transplant, you know, that's probably what you do look very young Chelsea. I mean, I was a lifeguard for seven years, so maybe they don't even want that.

Scott Benner 1:18:30
I don't believe there's water where you grew up, is there.

Chelsea 1:18:34
Actually, Utah has a lot of marshes are people swimming in them? Oh, no. They stink like heck. Yeah, I live close by the Great Salt Lake is where I grew up. And when the winds blow in just right. Oh, it stinks like heck.

Scott Benner 1:18:51
Awful. I really go back to your thing about coaching. Right? And we're gonna end on that it's gonna be a big beautiful finish. You're ready. Okay, I have I have a different perspective. Because of the Podcast, the podcast. It's interesting. I had a long conversation with somebody about this yesterday. So so so coaching is can be a derogatory term to some people. You know, some some people have like real degrees and they're like, I'm not a coach, just because I find my people on Instagram. You know what I mean? Like that kind of feeling. My feeling about it is this. If you're helping somebody I think that's wonderful. If you are taking a unfair amount of money from them to help them I have trouble with that. Now not enough trouble to like raise up an army and come get you. But But enough trouble that I was coming for Yeah, exactly. pitchforks and stuff like that. But enough trouble that I wouldn't let you on my podcast and tell people about your coaching business.

Chelsea 1:19:56
Yeah, yeah. And I think like that it's not fair. Are you regulated either like anybody can go out and be like, I'm a health coach, you know, and like, have no experience or any idea how to actually do that? Well, so right, you're like, gotta do your research and find somebody

Scott Benner 1:20:12
a little bit. It's might be a little high minded, but I found a way to get this information to people without taking money from them. And I still support myself.

Chelsea 1:20:24
Yeah, yeah. And I think that's, like, that's the way to do it. And, and I hired a health coach for a time and she was very nice, very helpful, and, and she charged a very fair price. And even at the end of like, this first three months, whatever thing I agreed to, she's like, you can just pay what you can from here on out, it's like, if you want to pay me $10 for a session, that's great. You know, I just she really wanted to help people and not and not you know, break the bank. You know, she doesn't want to bring people dry. Just yeah. So it's, you gotta find people like that, you know, people like you people that really want to help. And, and obviously, like, if, if you're putting all that time into it, you got to be compensated in some little way.

Scott Benner 1:21:12
Yeah, oh, I believe that, um, I gotta live 100%. Like, I, I, you think I feel bad about putting ads on this podcast, you're wrong. I've worked 67 hours on this podcast last week. So I have kids and children and I, they have to eat and stay warm, and all that stuff, too. Like, I'm okay with all that. I'm not, it makes me uncomfortable. To learn that someone took 1000s of dollars from somebody to basically tell them to Pre-Bolus their meals, you know, what he means? Like, I'll tell you to Pre-Bolus your meal for free. How's that sound?

Chelsea 1:21:44
And, and there was another person I did a consultation with,

Scott Benner 1:21:47
I don't want to, I don't want to say don't say anybody's name. But

Chelsea 1:21:51
just the amount of money she was asking was, was ridiculous. And, and I feel like if if you're a type one diabetic, you know, the costs of being a type one diabetic, and to ask that much money from somebody who's already mentioned, they're like, poor as heck. And it's just like, desperate for help, you know? And you're just like, okay, yeah, but this much money

Scott Benner 1:22:13
feels predatory. Right? It does. It does. It's

Chelsea 1:22:16
like, do you really get it? You know? And if you if Apparently not, yeah, I don't want to work with you. Well,

Scott Benner 1:22:21
where I ended up feeling badly, is that I'm certain there are people out there who fit the bill who do a nice job for people at a reasonable cost. And that would be something really valuable for people. I'm so inundated by those people. I don't have the time, or the I mean, there's no mechanism here. Like I'm the I'm the organization, you know what I mean? So I don't, I don't have the time to learn about everybody I get, I'm gonna tell you probably a dozen to 15 people a year who, like I wrote a book about diabetes, I want to come on your show, I don't have time to read all your books to make sure that that's something I want to share with people

Chelsea 1:22:56
that you want to promote, right? Yes, that's a big responsibility. Part

Scott Benner 1:22:59
it listen, if I'm telling five friends about it, whatever, if they don't like the damn book, it doesn't matter. When I say it on this podcast, the possibility that I'm swaying, untold numbers of people towards something that might not be valuable, I can't take that risk. And I don't have a mechanism in place to make sure. So when you come to me and say, I want to come on and talk about my coaching. It's just a no, you might be the best person in the world. I don't have time to find that out.

Chelsea 1:23:29
Exactly. So it's, and everybody's out. It seems like everybody's out to get something so

Scott Benner 1:23:35
well, the people who listen to the show, to me, are friends. And they're people that I feel a responsibility to, even though I don't know them. And to somebody coming in from the outside, they would see the show or even the Facebook group, which by the way, has like 22,000 people in it. Those are some people, bad actors, see you as a commodity, not as a person. And I'm the gatekeeper between those bad people in you. And it's you. Well, you're welcome. But it's not a job I really want. So the way I handled is I don't answer anybody's email. But somebody

Chelsea 1:24:12
says a lot about your character, you know, you're not just taking money to whoever, you know, offers it to you to take advantage of a bunch of, you know,

Scott Benner 1:24:20
I've turned, I've turned down some stuff, don't worry. And by the way, some of them don't even want like they're not like, oh, I want an ad. They're like you please just give me it's not even pleased. It's I want access to your audience. And I'm like, No, like that's not happening. So I just, I just got a I got a text from Arden that just popped up in front of me that made me laugh. A couple of months ago. She goes, she goes, I think my guidance counselor is pregnant. And I went, why don't you ask her and she was I don't want to say and I'm like Arden she's a super skinny lady like she's, if you think she's pregnant, she's you could just say hey, congratulations. She goes know what if she's not pregnant? I'm like, okay, so it just I won't say The woman's name obviously but I just got a text that says the person's last name and then it says is deaf prego? Anyway, like how she just Just out of nowhere, like we have not spoken today except by about diabetes like four hours ago and she's like, this person is deaf prego. Okay, ready? Before we go Chelsea? How did the word beaver come to be associated with vagina?

Chelsea 1:25:28
Oh, yes, I already forgot about that. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:25:30
not me. Hold on a second. You took a note so? Well, I'm afraid that it's you know, before I read this, I'm afraid this has something to do with hair. And I'm very worried about that as I look No, because really? Alright, so listen, think about have you ever seen a vagina like first person? Or have you only seen yours like through a mirror? Like from the top down?

Chelsea 1:25:54
I mean, there was this video we watched in health class. Okay, all right, baby being born.

Scott Benner 1:25:58
All right, there you go. So think about right before the baby came out and then think about like looking in the face of a beaver. Oh, no. Do you think that's where I'm so worried. entomology Online offers that beaver in the gynecological sense is a British slang dating from 1927 transferred from an earlier meeting earlier meaning a bearded man 1910 Or from the appearance of split beaver pelts. See, this was my problem is this is exactly what I thought this was. Yeah, I'm feeling bad about this. Now. Hold on you. You're like, Oh, why do you remember the video? Okay, so you got to imagine in 1910. Like, like electric razors didn't exist. Right? So this is probably a little more prevalent, but but to the original reason British

Chelsea 1:26:49
people are notoriously hairy. Right? Are they? That's what I've heard. I don't know. I have a British person listening to

Scott Benner 1:26:57
everyone over there in the UK and then surrounding areas. Chelsea and I do not represent each other's thoughts. Okay. I don't think you people are hairy. That's weird. Chelsea, get me in trouble. What are you doing? Okay, so now let me you know a lot of people listen to this in England, right?

Chelsea 1:27:14
Yes, like my love. I

Scott Benner 1:27:15
love you. It's like my third largest market. Like please be careful.

Chelsea 1:27:20
There. I wish I didn't live you know, I wish I lived somewhere than America. I don't like

Scott Benner 1:27:26
Chelsea we've gotten off the path here. But here's why. Do you remember why we were looking about this?

Chelsea 1:27:33
Leave it to Beaver right?

Scott Benner 1:27:34
Because why? So here's our answer. Is that as early as 1920 This was a euphemism for a vagina. So what I'm saying is this why in 1950 Would you use it in the title of a television show?

Chelsea 1:27:49
I don't know. That seems. Who was the weirdo that decided I

Scott Benner 1:27:53
don't think I don't think I am not right now. Googling Leave It to Beaver creator. Hold on a second. We're calling this guy out. Okay. Yeah. All right. Hold on a second here. We always wait dead. There's no Joe Connelly. Oh my God. Is he alive under this? This is from 2003. In 2003 There's an article here that says Joe Connolly 85 A creator Leave It to Beaver. So Joe, dirty man. I know you're long gone now. Unless he's lived in there's no way Joe's alive, though. Right? He was 85 and 2003. So 13 he that was 20 years ago. He'd be 104 right now. I'm right about that. Alright, let's assume Joe Congolese dead.

Chelsea 1:28:38
That's a fake. Alright, well, I

Scott Benner 1:28:39
hope I hope he's resting peacefully pervert. I mean, come on. You see what I'm saying? Right? All right. And oh, tricky. Gnosis sorry. Tricky Gnosis also known as a wow, I can't say that Trica Chino low or whatever chicken osis is a parasite disease caused by roundworms. During the initial infection invasion of the intestine can result in diarrhea abdominal pain and vomiting. Oh from undercooked meats, not specific not specifically pork. I was right.

Chelsea 1:29:13
So my fake family hamburger shop very well could have been giving people trichinosis they gave

Scott Benner 1:29:18
you a high one see? So maybe it's a no Oh, I'm sorry. I've one last question. How you see your agency jumps around a lot. Have you found stability that you've able been able to hold on to over time? Are you still working on that?

Chelsea 1:29:36
Yeah, so like since listening to the podcast and just kind of like implementing those little things and like this new attitude, like I can keep my blood sugar's like, really steady and I kind of realizing it. Part of it is like I had the skills. I just had other problems. I had anxiety, depression, ADHD, getting in the way of me doing really Well, my dad diabetes, I won't say diabetes is my biggest struggle. I'd say having diabetes with all of those things is, is not fair. But

Scott Benner 1:30:08
yeah, I think that's very insightful. And I'm glad that you found some. I found I'm glad you found it sounds like your husband really helped. Honestly. Yeah. He's the linchpin to this, right.

Chelsea 1:30:20
Yeah. You want to know his name? It's funny.

Scott Benner 1:30:22
I mean, sure, why not? Adam Lambert.

Chelsea 1:30:24
And he's, he's not the one you're thinking of.

Scott Benner 1:30:28
I know he's not that man is the lead singer for Queen xenon?

Chelsea 1:30:32
I don't know. And it was on a Mac. He was on American Idol.

Scott Benner 1:30:35
Chelsea, the amount of things you don't know are fascinating to me. isn't really. It's your age. That's all like you don't have like, depth of.

Chelsea 1:30:45
I'm not knowledgeable about a lot of things in the world around me. I do a lot of thinking about behavior and stuff.

Scott Benner 1:30:51
That's fine. Yeah. Adam Lambert was a contestant on American Idol. And he is now the frontman for Queen I believe and has been for quite some time. Why did you go? That's all good for him, right? Yes. I give a crap about that. Well, what are we going to call this episode?

Chelsea 1:31:12
Oh, I don't know. I was my episode.

Scott Benner 1:31:16
I would call it Chelsea is adorable. But I think that that people would find that to be reductive. So not.

Chelsea 1:31:21
Most people say Chelsea is a dork. So really?

Scott Benner 1:31:26
I'm looking at your picture. Chelsea, you're adorable. So it's your 12? I don't know. No, there's this? I don't know. Like, it's so interesting. Like, there's a smile on your face that would never tell me that all the things you just discussed with the exist in your life?

Chelsea 1:31:42
Yeah, yeah. I'm kind of surprised myself.

Scott Benner 1:31:46
Does your reality not match how you feel about yourself?

Chelsea 1:31:50
Um, I mean, there was a point where like, I would try to come off as a happy person. And then like, you know, go home at night and cry myself to sleep. But I think like really, though, like, that's my personality. I'm like, a happy go lucky kind of person and go with the flow. You know, don't don't get too serious about things. But then, like, that's my that's who I am. But then I also struggle with anxiety, depression. And like, it's kind of interesting that to know that I can separate those two. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:32:22
And let's not forget, you don't want very desperately you don't want to make other people feel badly.

Chelsea 1:32:28
Yeah. Yeah. So that was definitely a part of it. All right. Yeah. I know, I worry less about that. So

Scott Benner 1:32:34
are you seeing a therapist, though?

Chelsea 1:32:36
Um, no, because I kind of stopped valuing my therapist, when I was talking about all these things like diabetes related that caused me, you know, causing me some serious sadness. And, and she's like, I'm talking about I don't know, if I'm gonna live past my 40s. And I can have all these problems, and I don't want to die and make my husband or whatever. And she, she, she says, like, could all of those things really happen? And, and then I have to confirm to her that, yeah, they could. Like, Oh, great.

Scott Benner 1:33:11
So you'd like to try to help? I, I'll tell you like, I have Erica, on who I like a lot, who's the therapist and has type one. And I just wish that the rules were different. So that, like people like her could help people over state lines.

Chelsea 1:33:26
Right? Yeah. And like, I don't blame her. I don't fault her because my therapist because like, people just don't understand type one diabetes, you know, yeah, doctors don't really understand it all that great either. So this therapist that works in a government funded therapy office, whatever counseling. You know, she helped me with other things, and I really appreciate her help.

Scott Benner 1:33:50
Well, I want to thank you very much for doing this and wish you a ton of luck. I would keep talking to you. But I now have 20 minutes to sit down and record this as a man. I just I there was part of me that was like, I'm gonna end this in an hour, so that I can give myself a break. But then I just thought this conversation is too good. I want to keep it going. So I appreciate it. No, I appreciate it. You You really came through today. And I thought you were very thoughtful on a number of points and that you gave people a perspective not too far removed from their young children that maybe they can see what happened to you and and learn something before it's too late for them.

Chelsea 1:34:29
Yeah, hope it helps some people so I really believe it. Well,

Scott Benner 1:34:32
thank you so much for doing this.

A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G voc glucagon, find out more about Chivo Capo pen at GE Vogue glucagon.com Ford slash juice box. you spell that GVOKEG l u c h ie o n.com forward slash juice box I'd also like to thank Athletic Greens makers of ag one and remind you that you can go to athletic greens.com forward slash juice box to get started today on ag one

I don't know if you can tell from my voice but I'm sick so I'm not going to say too much here at the end. If you're looking for the diabetes Pro Tip series, they started episode 210 You really should check out the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, and it's it really I got a record twice tomorrow. So I'm gonna stop talking now.

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#776 Bold Beginnings: Technology and Medical Supplies

Bold Beginnings will answer the questions that most people have after a type 1 diabetes diagnosis.

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

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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 776 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Jenny Smith and I are back with the bold beginning series. As a matter of fact, this is the next to last episode in bold beginnings. And today Jenny and I are going to be talking about technology and diabetes supplies. Don't forget if you're enjoying Jenny, she works at integrated diabetes.com And she is for hire. If you need help with your insulin management, I'd like you to 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. If you're a US resident who has type one, or is the caregiver of someone with type one and you'd like to help out with diabetes research without actually having to do anything like not off your couch, you know what I mean? T one D exchange.org forward slash juicebox. When you complete their survey, you're helping people living with type one diabetes, T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box. At the very end of this episode, I'll list all of the bold beginnings episodes for you. So in case you haven't found them, you'll know where to look.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Omni pod five. It's time for you to try the only tubeless automated insulin delivery system that integrates with the Dexcom G six, try the Omni pod five. All you have to do to get started is head to my link Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. There you'll see a photo of me which I imagine you'll want to scroll past quickly. And then we'll get right to the information. On the pod five is here it says the first and only tubeless automated insulin delivery system. Everything you need to know about it, including how to get started is right here. All you have to do is click that little link says talk to an omni pod specialist when you're there, and you're on your way, get the process moving, get yourself going with the Omni pod five. It's not hard to get going. You could do it right now in just a few minutes on the pod.com forward slash juice box. And if you're not looking for the Omni pod five, but you want a tubeless insulin pump, check into the Omni pod dash because you may be eligible for a free 30 day trial of the Omni pod Dash. And again, you'll find that out at Omni pod.com forward slash juice box when you complete the process with my link, you are supporting the Juicebox Podcast and for that I want to say thank you. The podcast is also sponsored today by Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor. My daughter wears the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor and it saves us every day. Dexcom allows remote monitoring that lets users choose to share glucose data with up to 10 followers. Of course you're getting that famous Dexcom accuracy and performance, seamless integration with Dex comms expanding connected CGM ecosystem. And real time glucose readings sent automatically to the users compatible device that can be an iPhone, that could be an Android, it could be your Dexcom receiver. See your blood sugar in real time including the direction and speed of the number without finger sticks calibration or having to scan anything dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. For full on the pod safety, risk information and free trial terms and conditions, please visit on the pod.com forward slash juice box. There are links the Omni pod Dexcom and all the sponsors in the show notes of the audio player you're listening in right now. And at juicebox podcast.com. If you're going to check out on the potter Dexcom please use my links. Thank you so much. Here comes Jenny

Jennifer, we are up to technology and diabetes supplies in the bowl in the bowl beginning series on this is voluminous is

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:23
a very broad topic.

Scott Benner 4:25
Yes it is. But there's a lot of feedback here from people. So I'm just gonna go through it in order. All right. This first person says this is very specific get a Dexcom that was the entirety of their of their thoughts. The next person says I wished I could have left the hospital with a Dexcom. But we did get it 10 days later. All right. I think advocating for a pump and CGM right away if that's what you choose. It's interesting. We always I don't know that there's something about polite I don't know, gently this is the wrong place for this, if that's what you choose, I just assume that's inferred like that. But I guess everybody's worried that people feel like they're telling each other what to do anyway. Correct? Yeah, correct. Yeah, yeah. I'm not telling anyone what to do. And if your insurance doesn't cover it, if you can't afford it, I'm sorry. Like, I'm certainly not trying to make you feel bad about that as we go through this. advocating for yourself as important as what I got from this person. This person that goes on to say, luckily, our endo was amazing and did that for us. So we had a libre before leaving the hospital. Nice,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:35
good, which I've actually heard. I would say more frequently, in the past two years. Interestingly, the more newly diagnosed that I've had a chance to work with a more than a handful of them have left the hospital either with a prescription for it, or knowledge that they had already gotten a message that it was approved and on its way, or they left the hospital with it.

Scott Benner 5:58
Okay. Yeah, I hear the same stories. It's, I think it's fascinating. And I reject the old thinking that you need to live with diabetes and let it beat the crap out of you for a while before you get technology. I just don't. I don't think that's accurate. I know people like well, what do you do if you don't have it? And I say, well, then learn it, then. Then

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:18
learn it then. Right. Yeah. I think the first comment, but quite honestly, as I tell a lot of people, if you're going to choose technology, get a CGM. Yeah, I mean, literally, that's the bottom line of any technology. Sure, you're gonna have a glucometer? I mean, I have not heard of anybody who has left any office without a prescription for a glucometer. But for the ups and the downs and following, you know, and or any journaling, right that you might do. You You need a CGM of any technology out there yet. One. No, I

Scott Benner 6:57
agree. The next statement here is I wish they would have given me a CGM right away and not made us wait for it. Yeah, I will bring up here that if your practice says saying things like, Oh, we don't give people pumps for six months or a year, you're not allowed to have a CGM till some arbitrary date in the future. Just please know, that's an arbitrary statement. Absolutely. There's not a rule of diabetes or rule of safety or anything like that, if you're ready for it, you can afford it, your insurance covers it, there's no reason you can't have it right away. And please don't let a doctor's office tell you otherwise. Right. I've, I've seen people, circumvent their doctor, go to the company and say, I want this and they send a request for a prescription back to the doctor's office, who often just signs or signs it and sends it back, you know, right. So they'll tell you to your face? No, six months? Why six months? That's how we do it not a good answer for anything, that's how we do it is a bad answer. And then they'll just sign it when it comes to the office.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:58
And I think the unfortunate thing about that bad answer of that's just the way we do it, or we have to wait six months, there should be explanation behind that, it. To be clear, it's not just a random response, there protocol goes a little bit deeper, especially for newly diagnosed to make sure that there is a certain amount of insulin, that actually does work better, once you reach a specific amount of total daily insulin. Most often pumps of any kind, whether it's with an algorithm, or just conventional kind of pump will typically give you better results with a certain amount of insulin that you use. So if you are in that early phase of six months, using very, very little insulin, and the doctor is like, Nope, it has to be at six months, well, what if at nine months, you're using still a really tiny amount of insulin, then it's no more appropriate than it was at two months in. Right. So I think there needs to be better explanation to that, quote, unquote, six month rule if there is one. And also, to go into that, you shall also shouldn't have to prove yourself to be able to get a pump. If you are actually utilizing enough insulin. And you're trying as hard as you can. You shouldn't have to perfect what you're doing to get the use of a pump. The use of a pump should actually help you to perfect things more.

Scott Benner 9:28
Because I said so not a good answer. And the idea of like six months, as an example, is probably just what the the average of what the doctor expects, in your example where they're probably just guarding against a honeymoon situation where you don't need very much insulin to begin with. And a pump won't work for you. But it would be nice to have that explanation. Correct. Not just be told. There's this arbitrary date come back on this day and it'll be and by the way, when you come back in six months, and they start the process then it sometimes can take months. After that to finish the process so correct. Why don't we get this going now and you know, be ready, I listened the next bunch, a friend told us not to leave without a CGM. The best advice I ever got, I didn't have a Dexcom for three months would have made a big difference. Advocate for yourself, advocate for yourself, the more you know, and show the Endo, the faster they approved devices. So this is you just said it shouldn't be this way. And I agree with you. But it doesn't make it not true. That you are a little in there. proving yourself, you don't even interact. And that's that's tough, because I get the doctors might not know you, and they might not understand your ability to understand things. And they're judging everybody. But I mean, listen, I treat it like a first date. That I mean, let's go in there. Keep my smile up. keep my back straight. I'm not a lunatic who will kill anybody with a CGM or insulin pump. Please give me one. Thank you.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:00
Exactly, yeah. Well, and I think it also brings in, you know, a bit of treating somebody almost as if they're an idiot. Honestly, if you tell them well, you can't have it until this certain, like, arbitrary time, based on I'm so and so with the white coat on. And I just know about her, you're kind of making the person who's coming in and actually living this minute to minute 24/7. At home, you're making them feel dumb, when in fact, they're the ones with the amount of data that could prove that they could benefit from something if you just kind of listen to them.

Scott Benner 11:39
Just that the listen and have an actual back and forth conversation. And you're done. This person here, begged their way into two months of Dexcom samples at the hospital. That's impressive, Madam or sir, whoever did that? Well, that's impressive. Yeah. Okay, let's skip past all the ones that say Don't leave without a Dexcom advocate for tech. It's interesting. I also wanted, I would have loved to know about the eye port so great is because that would have been so much easier on my boy versus sticking him so many times. So I port Medtronic owns that right? Yeah, trogons iport. It's this little, it's it. It's like this little disc, right? It adheres to your body. And then this will get Jenny's looking at me like Go ahead, buddy. See if you get this right. And then your your. So there's a cannula in it is my expectation. Yeah. And then the syringe goes into the port, and you inject without having to poke the skin over and over again. Correct. The

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:39
eye port is a really nice, I think for for a number of different reasons. One early on, can reduce, it can reduce the amount of injections all over the body, it can get somebody on a second note, a little bit more comfortable with actually a pump site, if that's the way that you eventually want to move, and many people do. And especially for little kids who can be more prone to picking and pulling things off. It's exactly as you described it, it's almost for those who are already pump users. It's like an infusion site for like Medtronic or tandem pumps. And it has a straight in 90 degree cannula that just pops under the skin. And that leaves a hole essentially, or a tunnel in which you put your syringe right in and you deliver your insulin dose basil, or rapid acting insulin into that site. And the nice thing is that you can leave it on for several days, just like a pump site. And so you can put your injected insulin right into that place over the course of a couple of days. So absolutely. It's a wonderful, I think, really really underused tool. Add an apt sort of initial diagnosis.

Scott Benner 14:01
Okay, next person. This is long, I wish we would have gotten a pump sooner. Oh gosh, them three years. I wish someone had put in a script for a libre for us before they gave us a Dexcom Okay, here you go is the person who would prefer Libra in those first few weeks after diagnosis? Were some of the scariest of my life. And a libre. Oh, I'm getting this now a libre would have allowed me some sleep. So I think Libra is cheaper. I think so they're saying I could have been no disrespect to libre, but I think what they're saying is if I couldn't have got a Dexcom at least I could have gotten a libre. It's something that I could have scanned and looked at once in a while. I was so worried that something terrible would have happened during the night and I'd never know about it since our room was on the opposite side of the house. A reminder that people have done this for years was nice. With only a glucometer so please remind people that too, okay, I will hold on last second. And sometimes lack of tech can be crippling, even though things will likely be just fine. She makes some good points in there. And I do say that to people, especially when they talk about like the warmup time for their CGM or something. I was like, you know,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:15
do a finger stick? Yeah,

Scott Benner 15:16
you just, it's not that hard. What are we gonna do? And I was like, you could use your meter. And

Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:23
that thing over there as for and I do I mean, we're not laughing to the point that I understand. You know, little kids or, or people who are, you know, worried or frightful of that type of I get it. I get all the worries. But honestly, if you can get over a five second screaming because you want information, at least you're calm now because you know where things are. Right, so just do the finger stick.

Scott Benner 15:55
Yeah, I agree. I wasn't laughing at people. I was like, You're phrasing so far, you've made me laugh to myself twice once it came out that was there. And earlier when you change into your doctor's voice, it reminded me of one of the claymation Santa Claus shows. Like Rudolph kind of one. Yes, yes. When one of the characters pretends to be another character, and they go into a deeper voice. I was like Jenny definitely grew up watching those claymation shows. Oh,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:24
absolutely. I did I make my kids watch them. I don't know if they enjoy them. But I make them watch them because I grew

Scott Benner 16:29
up. I agree. So okay. That's funny. I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:33
didn't know I had a doctor voice. Yeah, you,

Scott Benner 16:35
you went into like you even like you like, you straight up your shoulders, and everything was fantastic. Okay,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:42
I, this one's I don't have a white coat on, though.

Scott Benner 16:45
No. But you could gently I'd give you a give you a degree before some of the people I've met that are dark. Ah, this one's going to be interesting because you see the mindset of this person. But I could make the exact opposite argument. So they said I advise people to push for CGM, but don't be too anxious for a pump. And they do say I'm sure opinions vary on this. But we're still MDI after 11 months, and it has taken us some time to learn how to Bolus how basil impacts and how to monitor the ups and downs. While a pump may take a lot of the workout, I feel like learning MDI in advance is valuable, sort of like learning math by hand before using a calculator because at some point, if you go off a pump, you'll need to know how to do MDI. Now, it's not I don't disagree. But I don't understand. I don't know if that feels conflicting. I don't disagree that it would be great to know how to manage to MDI. But if you know how to use a pump, you can reverse an MDI and two seconds, you can reverse engineer it, you can't reverse engineer MDI to pumping. Does that make sense? Or am I wrong about that?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 17:57
I don't think you're wrong. But I think that you have you have a broader perspective on insulin than this person manipulation. I guess that's that's the best way to say it. Because I actually am more the I'm more agree with the person. I think oftentimes, there are many people who get a pump before they have figured out insulin use on MDI. And there's there is value to it, whether it takes you three weeks or six months to figure that out. It timeframe is based on what you have, I guess, done the homework to understand. So a pump could be beneficial at any point doesn't have to take this long or the short of time. But I think MDI makes a good point here that if you do have to go back to MDI, after being on a pump, and you have knowledge of what you did, for how at least your life was at the point of using MDI, then you have a base to start at. So I, you know, I think it's, again, person to person. I also think with technology and stuff today. We're using a conventional pump before starting out on an algorithm driven pump is very, very valuable. Because I mean, we all know technology will fail. At some point, your tech will not work the way that you want it to work. You have to have someplace to step back to. And if you don't know what to do outside of what the algorithm has been doing for you, you're at a loss. Yeah,

Scott Benner 19:40
I just sent a text to Arden to help her understand her algorithm. She's looping and I texted her end up end of your Let me see how I put it. So this is me trying to teach her something I said old pump site algorithm needs some help from you. And I don't know what she'll take from that or not take from that. But what I see is that the loop is micro Bolus thing like crazy and, and not getting what it wants. And so she either needs to change the site now, or make a larger Bolus if she wants this to actually go her way. And I don't see how I'll see your point. And here's what I'm taking from all this. You should not just flat out listen to anything you hear from anybody, whether it's me or Jenny or anybody else, just because and you go online where people say things like, definitely do MDI first. And then you hear that and go, Okay, that's a rule. Or, or I say, you don't have to do MDI, firstly, go, oh, the guy on the podcast said, you don't have to do that. That's not how this goes, you have to figure out like, this is MDI, I'm going to shoot some insulin, I'm going to have to give more. This is what it is. Do I want to do that? Do I want to do this? Like, who am I in this situation? And that's hard to figure out? I guess. So. I guess listen.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 21:01
And also, I mean, readiness there, too. You know, we're talking with a lot of people who have kids in the picture, right? There are there are many kids who aren't, they're just not ready for all of that stuff on their body. Yeah, they're just not. And you as a parent may be ready for it for some of the precision that you think it's going to bring into the picture. But if your child isn't there yet, it may bring in a ton more frustration,

Scott Benner 21:31
right? It's not Harlan, it's just not time. Right. The first thing you said in this episode, I'm gonna say at the end of it, which is if you get one thing, get a CGM. Yes, that's where you start. Everything else is great. And, but it's not the first thing like a pumps not going to tell you your blood sugar's go in under 50. That's pretty that's pretty much it. So alright, I want to keep going here. This person says ask about newer products, like, for example, for us v ASP as an insulin, because they wanted something that moved quicker, but the doctor's office was talking about older stuff, especially with Basal insulin when you're MDI if somebody's handing you Lantus or levemir. At this point, there are more modern Basal insulins that work better. So you know, knowing that is helpful, especially when you you know, using that as an example when suddenly you think every, every 18 hours, your blood sugar goes up for no reason. That might be because love Amir doesn't really make it 1224 hours, you know, you don't know that there's a variable you're never going to know as a new person with diabetes. So if you can get what are they true Siba

Jennifer Smith, CDE 22:37
to jail as a Glar. Yeah,

Scott Benner 22:39
the more modern Basal insolence and other stuff like listen, I do an ad for Contour. Next One meter. And in every ad, I say, not all meters are the same. As far as accuracy goes. So when the doctor reaches out to you and goes here, from my drawer, just keep in mind, those are in the drawer, because the pretty girl from the company that came in with them, gave them to him and brought him bagels, I'm assuming, I don't know if that's still illegal or not. But at the very least, she was pretty and smiled a lot while she was doing it. And he was

Jennifer Smith, CDE 23:11
he was a very handsome man, he could be a very handsome man as well. A very

Scott Benner 23:15
handsome man could have come in I listen to any variation to the doctor could be gay, gay man came in straight man came in and we found attractive doesn't matter to me what I'm saying. We're sending pretty people into these doctor's offices with big veneer smiles and handed out stuff. You don't know if you got the best meter or you got the meter that was in the drawer. So ask, say, hey, is this accurate? Or they're more accurate meters? It told me about that. You know what I mean? And I think that goes for everything you just for me, it goes back to insulin. When Arden was diagnosed, I thought Novolog was insulin. At the beginning, it never occurred to me that there was another brand or right blends

Jennifer Smith, CDE 23:55
are well, and I think one step further in that too. While the doctor may have written a script for something, doctor isn't necessarily looking at what's going to be covered for you either, right? So you might go home with X brand glucometer or x brand of insulin. And then when you get to your insurance like well, we prefer you use this one

Scott Benner 24:18
because we've got a big pile of them. But no, but yeah, best you can afford. It is you know is what I'm saying but don't don't just assume that what you were handed was the best or the most accurate or the fastest or whatever because it might not be person says please just take the time to learn about technology on the pod five looping any control IQ like keep opening your mind up to new ideas. I put well this person just ran through everything. Oh, how to this person says make sure you understand how to suspect if a cannula is bent. Hmm very interesting. I just heard a story the other day from somebody who had a long day of high blood sugars ended up in DKA. Got home and found out their cat. Yeah,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 25:09
yeah. Yeah, I mean, and that is part of you know, we, we consider technology, just the actual like, pump or CGM or even glucose meter, right. But the pieces that work with the technology also go into what it does for you. So absolutely cannulas, you know, if you're having problem after problem with your particular cannula, pump companies will if you mean Medtronic in tandem, which use you know, a different set or you have options within the infusion sets, call them and say, Hey, this isn't working, can I try a different kind? Can I try angled versus 90 degree? Can I try the steel cannula versus, you know, the more flexible kind of plasticky one, there are options. So that consider that part of technology too. And that one size doesn't fit, all

Scott Benner 26:05
right. There's this really great story, this person told here about iport, I'm just going to boil it down to like two, yay, two ideas. But her son had anxiety about injections was crying all the time, started saying how he hated his life, and then started skipping meals to avoid shots. And the eye port. She said save them. Because it sounds to me like he was on his way to, you know, some sort of an eating disorder on top of everything else is a meltdown. You know, so simple little thing. And there, I mentioned it doesn't cost anything and iport get, you know, like the tiniest little things. I wish Okay, what does a normal graph look like? This is interesting, they found it interesting to see what a normal graph look like, or just a well, you know, manage type on graph, we got a Dexcom with no idea what our big data should look like. And it took me like, right, and so now they get all the data. And they're like, Well, what the hell does this mean? Look like this is this right? I had to find someone's random blog, I did a bunch of googling. I found graphs for people who are wearing them who don't have diabetes, I have found people who were the data without a control set doesn't help. CGM should come with sample data and give parents and users something to shoot for an idea of what should happen after meals, like the effects of Pre-Bolus Singh versus not Pre-Bolus ng versus high GI versus low carb, etc. Data more data, not just here's the CGM don't let her fall between 80 and try to stay in range 70% of the time, the endo recommendations still piss me off three years later. That's a good point, like it is yeah. How do you know what you're supposed to be doing?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 27:58
Right? I mean, they give you a range. And that range does differ. Practice to practice based on a protocol that they are trying to follow much more of a, like, a true protocol versus what their, what they feel comfortable telling you to aim for. But it doesn't tell you what that graph should look like, in that target range. Right? Should it be okay, that it looks like you're on the craziest roller coaster that you've ever been on in your entire life? Should it be smoother? Should it have no lumps or jumps or bumps at all? You know, how often are lows? Okay to see, how often could you expect? Or what could possibly cause a higher blood sugar that you're not expecting? And how to analyze that? I mean, all those things? Definitely, I think a piece that's also missed, because it's very buried in the manual that nobody reads for any product at all. But I mean, it's it's highlighted, highlighted in terms of described in the Dexcom manual about what the end arrows mean, the rate of change? I think that I have talked to maybe two people in the many people I've talked to, who actually knew before I brought it up what the arrows meant,

Scott Benner 29:22
right? Or that How about a steady arrow doesn't actually mean steady all the time. You might be vacillating. A little bit with a stable arrow. Diagonal down is one rate of change a single arrow down as another rate of change two hours down as another rate of change, same as going up. And it is spelled out. You know, it's so interesting. You say that, because I think that all the time, like for all the visual things that people share about diabetes. You never see that image anywhere. It's almost like it's almost like nobody knows maybe.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 29:55
Right? Right like I should I think that it should be a page that has one of those tabs. On the outside that says, This is important. Turn to this page.

Scott Benner 30:06
Sticky Note right on that. Well, you know what, I'm glad you brought that up. I'll do a post about that and try to remind people, that's a great I know, this person says get a great blood ketone meter. Interesting. We have the precision, extra extra. It's a blood. It's a blood ketone meter. Big Deal stops you from having to pee on things. You don't use it very often in our situation, but it's great to have I sent one to college with Arden. And I remember holding it up going, you remember what this is right? I was like, if you get sick, I'm going to ask you to find this. And she's like, she's like, okay. She's like, leave me alone. Urine ketone test strips can be messy with young kids. They can be messy with me too.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 30:55
Well, and not precise. I mean, what is mild? Versus it looks like it's in between mild and moderate. Like, do I do something differently? Right, the color change is not purposeful. It'll give you a little bit of information. But again, keep blood ketones are right now information just like a blood glucose value is right now here. Whereas urine ketones, it's older data. It's a collective of ketones, but it's not truly what's right happening

Scott Benner 31:30
now. And your doctor should give you sick day rules for how to how to Bolus for ketones. And it's nice to know that you have point five or you have one or whatever, because it's easier to make that Bolus this person said they paid out of pocket for their first X Games. He's like, I didn't know what diabetes was. But when somebody told me what that thing did, I was like, I'll take one now, please. So that's, you know if you can do that, that's amazing. Yeah, I wish they would have been able to give me a pen, not a syringe. I told them to train with a pen in the future. I didn't even know how it worked until we got home. And they showed me but I had to do it the first time alone. Oh, okay. So she trained on syringes. And then someone just said, here use this insulin pen instead. And

Jennifer Smith, CDE 32:17
it's different. Yeah. And they did. There's a different strategy. And yeah, dosing could be wrong if you're not using it the right way. The needle caps. I mean, there's a whole slew of things about using an insulin pen. And I think in terms of this being, you know, about technology, I wouldn't want to not mention in pen.

Scott Benner 32:38
Yeah, no, it's really something because you get, again, I'm gonna sound like an ad, but you get a lot of the functionality of pumping with the insulin pen. And yeah, I say it's like pumping without a pump. Yeah, no, it's really terrific. I do think people should check it out. I do think I'm, I think I'm contractually obligated to say from Medtronic diabetes every time I say we're not bad, so I'll get past this person. This person said we hesitated to move from finger sticks. But gotta libre and loved it. Excellent. No, I sent my son to school five days after being diagnosed and I was terrified. I called the nurse about eight times a day to check his blood sugar. We did not have a CGM was the hardest thing for me personally. You know, that's another good point. If you have a CGM that shares data. I don't know if libre does. But Dexcom does, right. You have followers, people can see that it's incredibly comforting. Oh, I the fact that a monitor can have a variable range, a glucose monitor can have a variable range blew my mind. And I did not see how we could trust it. Now. This is very common. Jenny, are you good on time? Do you have to go? I've got about 10 minutes. All right. We can get this done in 10 minutes. This happened to me. I recently told the story somewhere but the nurse came into the room she had this big expensive looking meter checked Arden's blood sugar with a meter. Then gave me the freestyle like little white. Yeah, whatever. Whatever they gave me like it looked like it was it was like I came out of a bubblegum machine. I always say they checked Arden's blood sugar with that. Arden's blood sugar on the meter, they were sending us home with an ordens blood sugar on the one from the hospital that looked like it costs $10,000 were significantly different. And it paralyzed me. I was like, You're telling me to make decisions about insulin based on this thing? isn't yours more accurate

Jennifer Smith, CDE 34:31
is can I just have this one?

Scott Benner 34:34
I try it I was like, give me that one. She's like, I think it cost like 10 grand. I was like, I'll steal it just like give it to me. You know? That's what this person is saying. That the minute I realized these things aren't perfect. I did not know what to do. All I can tell you about that is get the most accurate stuff you can afford. And never think about that again. I don't know what to say.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 34:57
Well, and because even as As most people who've already been using a CGM know, if you do have to calibrate it, you are calibrating off of a finger stick, you want that finger stick to be as accurate as possible. So now that you're tuning something else, that's going to give you many more data points to be more accurate.

Scott Benner 35:20
I listened. I say all the time. I don't know if people believe me or not, but the people who advertise on the show are very carefully curated by me. So I'm not just I'm not Hawking a Contour Next One blood glucose meter because they they knocked on my door and asked to buy an ad, somebody else knocked on my door and asked to buy an ad. And I said, I'd rather do one for contour. Thanks. So you know that just surrounding yourself with as good of data as possible, is the best thing but that part in there the part where you like, well, this might not be right. I guess the answer. There's a lot of people living with diabetes, and they're all okay. Might be the thing you say here. Okay. I wish I would have known about sugar meat. Okay, third party apps that also give you data. That's great. The different CGM options. That's interesting. So somebody told them either libre or Dexcom. They didn't know there was a different company. Getting the T slim help for my mental health because I started sleeping. algorithms can help you sleep. That's a good thing to know. What are the different glucagon options? That's a great, right. So right now there's, there's old school, are they? Oh, no, they're being discontinued.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 36:38
As of the end of December 2022. The old school red Lily glucagon box will no longer be available. That's, that's it. And then there's, there's G voc which comes in multiple different like, options, as well as the back shimmy, which is the nasal glucagon.

Scott Benner 36:58
Okay, so right now, G voc and back to me are the ones that are available. There's a third one coming, isn't there? I don't know.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 37:07
Now. Of course, it's not in my brain. Can I tell you the talked about it not too long ago in our staff meet AI. It's escaped me. Sorry.

Scott Benner 37:16
It's interesting. Here's a little back back room. The only reason I know about that is because the company approached me to buy ads. Oh, and I said, I'm sorry, I already take ads from a glucagon company. That's the one we use. I apologize. Can't do that. But that's the only reason I know there's another one coming from how to use a lancing device. Don't laugh at me. It says first time I tried it out. First time I tried without the top and kept stabbing my finger until it bled. Oh, so they weren't clicking it they were stabbing

Jennifer Smith, CDE 37:47
stabbing which was the old you never had to use it. I we refer to it as the guillotine the one that snapped over it literally you pulled back this like post that had a spring you loaded in a Landsat to it. And then you put your finger Neith finger underneath the platform, you push the button and the thing literally jammed into

Scott Benner 38:12
like pots. What I use is like pulling a long time pulling chopsticks apart and letting go one side right and it just snapped down.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 38:20
Oh area go. Absolutely. They were not nice. I mean, the good ones. Now I there's the Genteel. I know a lot of people use that one because it's very adjustable in multiple different ways. It is not a small device to carry around and use. But it is very gentle. Honestly. The one that I really liked the best that I like, baby because I know it's still in the market because I can still get the lands and

Scott Benner 38:48
I tell you what you're gonna say. Yeah, ask the multi clicks. Yes. Multi clicks from X. Yes. Ardens Ardens just died. We kept going for like so many years. And we went to the fast clicks but it's not the same accucheck if you're listening, what are you doing?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 39:06
Right? Yes, the accucheck is it are the the melty clicks was it was the best and I still I have the fast clicks because I couldn't get any of the things anymore for the clicks. And the fast clicks is certainly the next best in my opinion. But yeah, the those are another thing to consider because the typical ones that come with your meter. Yeah, many of them don't feel the greatest.

Scott Benner 39:35
Get a good one. I listen, I could go on, I get you. You're limited on time and I have to get a couple of things. I could do a dissertation on what accucheck did leaving the multiplex and go to the fast clicks. It was a huge mistake. This is my opinion. I wish this person says I knew about different ways to keep insulin cool, like from gadgets to packs and things like that because that's a big deal. Right? Like you're MDI and you're moving around with insulin. Arden's going through it now because her classes are very far from her dorm. And so on days, she's she's kind of stuck taking insulin with her and a pump just in case we can't, not how she's used to traveling. So we had to go over that with her.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 40:13
Did you guys get it there is a really good device. It's called the Vivi cap. Vi VI, the Vivie cap,

Scott Benner 40:19
if that was just for pens,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 40:21
it is for pens, but at some point, I do know only having talked to them at the educator conference. They are working on one for the vials. Yeah. But right now the Vivi cap is just for pens of any kind. So if you carry your pens with you, it's it's an excellent

Scott Benner 40:42
option. Well, I hope they make one for vials. Because Arden's in a hot weather climate right now. So she's using a tiny little, like, very hot. Yes, she's using this tiny little Yeti thing that she has to throw ice in and then throw the thing and to travel around with her insulin every day. And there's already been days where she's like, look, I didn't take it with me. Because what, what about the frill get wet? If I trust me, I know it works well. And if I asked her to do that, she'd be like, I'm not carrying a wet bag around with me. It's definitely what I would hear from her.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 41:13
Yeah, it's not I mean, I use it for my travel. But again, she has to do what she can do.

Scott Benner 41:18
Yeah, trust me what she's going to what she did was she set up with her counselor that if she needs to go back to her room, she's allowed to call Campus Security and they'll zipper back to change your pod real quick. So that's awesome. Talk about getting the combination. That was a pretty good. Last couple things here. bracelets. Okay, I just interviewed Jennifer stone the other day from Wizards of Waverly Place who has type one diabetes, and she's talking to me on camera, she lifted up her hands and I brought up that she was wearing an ID bracelet. She said nurse now as well as being an actress still, I think you just supposed to say actor but and she said yeah, it doesn't take too many people coming into the ER without one of these Alon to realize you should be wearing one. So mine never comes off. I know Jenny's always got hers on.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 42:10
I don't I don't it doesn't it never comes off. Yeah, I made sure that I got waterproof, won't tarnish won't rust won't blah, blah, blah just sits there so well. So

Scott Benner 42:21
that's it. I mean, that's everyone's list about technology and data, or technology for diabetes. Excuse me. I mean, from my perspective, I mean, we've been using Omni pod forever. I can stand behind it. I also talked to a ton of people who love control IQ. To me, I think it comes down to to Bolus versus tubed and what you want. But yeah, this is it. No one's going to explain it to you. You gotta get out there and figure it out. So hopefully this will help. Cool. All right. Thank you, Danny. I appreciate it.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 42:52
Of course, you're welcome.

Scott Benner 43:00
I hope you've been enjoying the bowl beginning series. I want to thank Jenny Smith for lending her time to it. And of course, I'd also like to thank Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitoring system and Omni pod makers of the Omni pod five, get yourself some automated insulin pumping with Omni pod Omni pod.com forward slash juice box or to find out if you're eligible for a free 30 day supply of the Omni pod dash use the same link. In just a moment, I'll go over all of the episodes that are available right now in the ball beginning series. And I was like in a sorry about that. But first, let me tell you if you're living in certain countries in Europe, the Dexcom g7 is available already. And you can still use my link for that dexcom.com forward slash juice box. Today is the 20th episode of the bowl beginning series and there's going to be 21 One more coming next week. So far, here's what we have. Episode 698 Defining bold beginnings. It's a toss up of what the series is going to be. Then 702 honeymooning 706 adult diagnosis 711 terminology Part One 712 terminology Part Two episode 715 Fear of insulin 719 The 1515 rule 723 long acting insulin 727 target range 731 food choices 735 Pre-Bolus 739 carbs 743 stacking 747 flexibility 751 School 755 Exercise 759 Guilt fears hope and expectations 763 community 772 is all about journaling today's episode 776 technology and diabetes supplies and next week's episode which will be seven Adi think is going to be all about insurance. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Oh, and by the way, if you're wondering where you might be able to see this list, you can find it in the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast, type one diabetes, right at the top, under the feature tab. You Oh, are you not in the Facebook group? You should be it's really cool. 30,000 people all using insulin, asking questions, answering questions, being supportive. It's the most unfaced book like experience you're ever gonna have. It's actually nice. And it's free, free, mean, Scott, you're not trying to nickel and dime people to get access to information. So the Juicebox Podcast is ad supported. I don't want your money. That's it, I want you to have information, I want you to have access to each other to community. That's all I care about. There are no classes, you don't have to sign up for any kind of, you know, $60 a month of call me on the phone. I'm not going to give you 10 seconds of information in a podcast and tell you to come find me for the rest of it. I'm not up for that. But understand. I don't care about that. I'll make a living. But it's not going to be off your ass. You understand what I'm saying? That's all, head over to the Facebook page. Check it out. It's amazing. Listen to the podcast. It's amazing. And it's free. Everything's free that Juicebox Podcast brings forth. Everything is free to you as it should be. Having decent blood sugars and understanding how insulin works shouldn't cost you money. It shouldn't cost you a membership. You shouldn't have to pay a fee. You don't have to take a class, this this podcast, set your speed. You want to listen to the diabetes pro tip episodes in three days. Go do it. You want to listen to it over three weeks. Cool. Whatever is good for you. If you don't like listening, I've got transcripts on the website juicebox podcast.com. Go read it if you want to. You want to read a podcast. I'm not judging you couldn't possibly care less how you learn as long as you learn. That's it. Again, I thank you for listening, and I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

Test your knowledge of episode 776

1. What is the significance of regular blood sugar monitoring?

• It helps in managing blood sugar levels effectively
• It eliminates the need for insulin
• It has no impact
• It is only relevant for type 2 diabetes

2. How can stress affect blood sugar levels?

• It lowers blood sugar levels
• It has no impact
• It raises blood sugar levels
• It depends on the individual

3. Why is carbohydrate counting significant in diabetes management?

• It helps in accurate insulin dosing
• It has no impact on blood sugar levels
• It is only relevant for type 2 diabetes
• It should be avoided

4. What is the primary function of basal insulin?

• To cover meal-time glucose spikes
• To manage blood sugar levels between meals and overnight
• To correct high blood sugar levels immediately
• To eliminate the need for monitoring

5. How often should blood sugar levels be checked in a newly diagnosed patient?

• Once a week
• Before and after each meal and at bedtime
• Only when feeling unwell
• Once a month

6. What role does physical activity play in managing diabetes?

• It should be avoided
• It helps in managing blood sugar levels
• It complicates diabetes management
• It has no role

7. How should insulin doses be adjusted during physical activity?

• By ignoring blood sugar levels
• By increasing the insulin dose
• According to the intensity and duration of physical activity
• By avoiding physical activity altogether

8. What is the best way to handle a low blood sugar episode?

• By ignoring it
• By consuming fast-acting carbohydrates
• By stopping all activities
• By drinking water

Submit

Change Answers

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#775 Don't Knock Knoxville

Rita got type 1 diabetes from a cancer treatment.

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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 775 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's show we're going to be speaking with Rita, she was diagnosed with type one diabetes at age 57. She's 63 Now, and she got her type one diabetes in a rather unique way. It was brought on by a therapy she was taking for her cancer. Her story is rather unique and incredibly interesting. 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. If you're enjoying the Juicebox Podcast, please share it with someone else who you think might also enjoy it. It's the best thing you could do for the show. Share it, help people listen, help them find it in Spotify or Apple podcasts or wherever they get audio. If you're a US resident who has type one or is the caregiver of a type one, please go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box and complete the survey. When you complete the survey, you're helping yourself people living with type one diabetes and the Juicebox Podcast T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box

this show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries G voc hypo pen. Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash Juicebox. Podcast is also sponsored by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter is a great meter that is easy to carry, easy to use. And just lovely to be around. Have you ever had a device like that you just like I like holding this thing. It works. That's how I feel about the Contour. Next One blood glucose meter. It works. And I don't mind holding it. Here you go. It's high praise for a blood glucose meter. Damn things accurate and easy to use what else you want? Contour next one.com forward slash juice box. links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com.

Rita 2:22
An early riser. I just don't get to work

Scott Benner 2:24
early. I don't usually work that sort of like no it's not crazy. Don't get me wrong. But last night I sent Arden a text at school at like 730 And I was like hey really stay on top of your blood sugar because I want to go to bed on time. And you know like I'm worried right? working away tomorrow. Baba bomb. She's like Oh, yeah. And then. I don't know what Yeah, right? At 10 o'clock, you know, I was like, so then I'm texting. I'm like, Hey, you have to Bolus and she's just not answering. I'm like, oh, no, sorry. And I realized that I think she's asleep. And, and her blood sugar's kind of going 161 70 And I'm like, gosh, so I remotely Arden uses loop. So I'm remote. Yeah, I'm remotely like jacking up her basil and and it's setting lower targets and all the things that I can impact from from the Nightscout from afar. Yeah. And watching, I'm texting like please just wake up just I just needed a Bolus, like a half you don't like please just Bolus

Rita 3:31
so So what time does that all end?

Scott Benner 3:34
Oh, I go to bed at 230. And then, you know, so like, it's okay, I'm gonna get up at 730. I'll let the dogs out and take a shower, blah, blah, blah. And at seven, like five of seven, I get a text. And it just wakes me right up. And it's nonsensical for my mom. I'm like, Mom, what are you saying? And she goes, Oh, she goes, nevermind, this was a mistake. Go back to bed now, Mike. Yeah, you're

Rita 4:00
not gonna go back to sleep. So I slept four

Scott Benner 4:02
and a half hours. Oh, well. And then I went downstairs and I was like, Oh, the dogs look rested. That's nice. And I took them out. And you know,

Rita 4:11
yeah, you could nap after the call. Well, maybe it's

Scott Benner 4:15
possible. My son was like, I need to get tires on my car. And I'm like, Huh. I don't really know how to do that. And I was like, I just didn't do that today. And I was like, oh, yeah, sure. I'll do that today. Yeah, but yeah. Anyway, I'm sure I'll be fine. Or one day, it'll just kill me. This is the day who knows?

Rita 4:36
Yeah, yeah. A parent job never ends does it? It's like,

Scott Benner 4:40
apparently not. Parents. Apparently. It's funny. Arden's biggest problem at school, all the things that we were, I'm sorry, read a word recording just in case this ends up being okay. Yes. Of all the things that I was ready for. The one thing I didn't consider is that the quality of The food if the college would not be as maybe pure as it is, yeah, at home. Yeah, that's where we're having problems. Yeah, it's interesting of all the things.

Rita 5:11
It's like, I guess, eating out all the time, right. I mean, considered, I think she's not having a home cooked meal. And it's like, she's eating out all the time.

Scott Benner 5:19
She's, you know, she's in their cafeteria, and, you know, yeah, picking and you know, and it's buffet style, etc. So, anyway, it, you know, is it going to be hotter? Is she gonna have more activity? Will it be stressed all the things I thought I was ready for? The one thing I didn't think about was, what if the material failed? Crappy? You know what I mean? So anyway, do you have any questions or concerns before we get going?

Rita 5:47
No, I don't think so. I think I'm ready to go. Sound is good for you.

Scott Benner 5:52
Oh, sounds perfect. Wonderful. Absolutely. So normally, I would ask you to introduce yourself, but this is Rita.

Rita 6:03
Yes, this is Rita. How old are you? I am. I am 63 years old. And I was diagnosed with type one at the age of 57. I live in Georgia. And I am a cancer patient which led to the type one diagnosis my treatment did. So I've got a story to tell. And it is it's quite rare. But I know there's a few of us out there that have gotten type one as a result of immunotherapy. Yeah, so that's my, that's the gist of my story. Yeah,

Scott Benner 6:38
that's something Well, let's pick through it then. So okay. You have children.

Rita 6:44
I have two children. They are 33 and 32. They are adopted. So my husband and I adopted them. When they were just under three years old and just under one year old. They are siblings by birth. And so I adopted them. I traveled to Romania, and back, you know, after the fall of the Ceausescu government, and I traveled there by myself and found these two wonderful kids, and they've been with me, or with my husband and I ever since they are our scientists, married, I have two grand kids. And our daughter is on her own and they're doing lovely,

Scott Benner 7:26
great. Were they siblings in Romania? Or were they to they were they were?

Rita 7:31
No, they were. They're actually brother and sister, like biological brother and sister. So great for them to have each other. And yeah, so that's, that's our family. My husband and I, we were never able to get pregnant. But in the grand scheme of things, it didn't matter, because I got these two wonderful kids. Wow,

Scott Benner 7:49
great. You knew how to do this x and everything. It just didn't work out. Yeah, exactly. everything by the book. That's what I was wondering. You know, it's funny, as you're introducing yourself, and you told me, You're 63. I interviewed a woman I interviewed a woman yesterday was 62. And I asked if she had children, and she said, four, I think. And the last one. She said, well is, you know, my foster child. I said, Oh, how did that happen? And she tells a story about her daughter's friend whose family just fell apart. And her daughter came home one day and was like, we have to take her in. And yeah, and that was like when they were, I don't know, 15 or 16. And now they're in their mid 30s. And that's like, oh my gosh, that's crazy. It's interesting to hear.

Rita 8:36
It's wonderful. Yeah, it's wonderful. And it just shows the, how much a person you can love. Like you just can just love. It doesn't have to be I find it doesn't have to be from me. I just they're just, you know, two great kids and my grandchildren. I am so grateful. So my first grandson was born in August of 2015. And I was diagnosed with cancer in December of 2016. And so the diagnosis was really, first of all extremely unexpected. It is so I don't know if I told you I have been diagnosed with you coastal melanoma in the vagina. So basically, it is a type of melanoma that grows in the mucous areas of the body. So vaginal rectal nasal. You can get it in the eye. And anyway, those are the primary so if all melanomas 95% are cutaneous 5% are mucosal. And of that five, I'm gonna guess. Less than 2% or vaginal. So, this diagnosis, a lot of things sort of, when you hear my story, a lot of things sort of I'm lucky and somebody is looking out for me whether that'd be my higher power or I don't know, it's just the way things have worked out. I've been very fortunate. I mean, really, I shouldn't, I shouldn't be here the diagnosis. I was never told how long I had. But because I didn't ask, I didn't want to know, I had to focus on the positive, but it was not. I didn't know I didn't get the impression from the doctors that this was very helpful. So

Scott Benner 10:26
wasn't very Laissez Faire in the in the room, they're like, well, we'll just work right through this, it'll be fine. It's all about I mean, in an orifice of any kind, I just have to think, like, That's craziness, because and I'm going to want to hit Okay, so hold on. I'm gonna go backwards just for two seconds to tell you something about, about loving people and adoption, just very quick. I'm adopted. As you probably know, if you're listening to the show, and my mom, right, my mom is 80 years old. And as we as we record this, we are one year in one day, past us learning that my mom had cancer. And she had a very, very large tumor, probably grapefruit size on an ovary. She had some cancer in her uterus. And she was given a full hysterectomy at 79 years old. And this came, I'd say, right, as my youngest brother got married, and as my mom was planning to move across the country to live more closely to my middle brother, so he had, he had moved to, you know, college and, and never come back. And she's like, you know, I'm gonna spend the rest of my end of my life with, with Brian. Yeah, and so we're kind of working towards all that my brother's gonna get married, and then my mom's gonna leave. And instead, we're carting my mom to my brother's wedding, in a wheelchair, and we're all standing off to the side, talking to each other going, Hey, Mom looks like she's gonna die. And it came out of kind of nowhere, you know. So we got her right off, we got to write off to a doctor. And she had this procedure, after we had to pick through a number of doctors who all were happy to just manage her into the grave as the best way I could put it, you know, like, nobody wanted to give a 79 year old woman this big surgery, and she's gonna die. And bah, bah, bah. And just Luckily, my neighbor's son grew up to be a surgeon. And I contacted him and he said, I went to medical school with a girl who's, you know, in oncology, ob now, and a couple of text messages later, my mom had a surgery. And, and just the other. It's been, it's been about two weeks now. My mom had it was time she made it through, they gave her a clean bill of health, and you know, she's gonna move to Wisconsin. That's fantastic. Yeah. How do you get her there? Because she can't sit too long. She can't, you know, she needs to get to a bathroom like, so we're like, well, we can just drive her a plane seemed like it wasn't a great idea. We had toyed with the idea of taking her in an RV because there'd be a bed and a bathroom with us. That turned out to be very cost prohibitive. And, and a big and kind of a mess logistically. And so in the end, my mom and I ended up on an Amtrak train across the country together in this little bed, and, and, you know, we spent this day and a half making this trip. And when we got there, my brother was going to pick us up at Union Station. And then I was literally just going to get back on a plane and fly home. So my brother was a little late. And my mom and I are just sort of standing there. She's in a wheelchair, and I'm, you know, I'm standing there and we're talking and it's this odd feeling that nothing's different. We're going to, like, you know what I mean? We're just talking the way we always have, right? And yet, yeah, in about 45 minutes. I don't think I'm ever going to see her again. Or if I do, it's going to be very, you know, sporadic at the best. And yeah, and the way she hugged me before we laughed. My whole I'm telling you this whole story to tell you that the way my mom and I hugged each other before she laughed. I would dare you I would dare you to feel that and and think that she didn't love me the way she loved my brothers. And I'm absolutely I'm the only adopted one you know, and me. me right back to her obviously. So, yeah, I think it's really it's lovely. But anyway, I have so I have a tiny bit of context for what you're about to tell me that I didn't have a year ago so I'm going to do my best to keep up. Can you just tell me when you first noticed the issue and what and how you noticed it.

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Rita 18:17
it was September of or I should say August of 2016. And I noticed I go to the bathroom and I wipe and I wouldn't even say there was blood there was something very light pink. When I cleaned. I said oh that's that doesn't look right. And given my age I go you know, I'm going to call my my primary. I call my primary doctor. I go in to see her right away. And she says well, I can't like as a primary. I can't do an examination down there but I'm going to send you to a gynecologist. I had one but mine had retired. So she put me through they saw me right away. They examined me and they said oh it's probably vaginal dryness. And they gave me a cream and they sent me home and this is now the month of September and I'm doing this vaginal cream. My husband and I had a trip planned with friends to go to Italy I go to Italy this bleeding has not stopped it's like it's always there and it goes away maybe for a day or two it comes back so when it was supposed to they said within 30 days should resolve itself so now it's November and they renew I made I gave a call to the doctor they renew the prescription but it's the month of November and I'm saying I don't know I want him to see me again and I go back in and that morning of that appointment I wake up and I go take a shower. There is so much blood and so much clotting and it was just gross. So I My husband was already off at work. I just get myself dressed and I go straight to my appointment though. I'm about three hours early. I didn't really care if I go, somebody will see me and they did. And they did a biopsy and send me home and they said, Okay, maybe it was, you know, just some clots that were blocking it up. I don't know, whatever. I go home. And I'm still thinking nothing of it. And then they get the results. They call me now we're in December, and the PA calls and she says, Well, we've never seen this, but there's actually melanoma in your vagina. And we're running the pathology again, because the pathologist has never seen it. But in the meantime, you've got an appointment with you know, gynecological oncology and dermatology and all these doctors. So, okay, I still I still didn't want to believe it was that it's like, how can I have melanoma? There I go. I've never heard of it. They've never heard of it. It's a mistake. So it's now December 18. And I go to the gynecological oncology appointment, and they take all the notes, they want to know the whole story. She examines me, and my husband's in the room with me. And she examines me and she says, Oh, yes, I see it, you have a tumor in your vagina. And obviously, it's melanoma, you know, given the pathology. And I'm lying on the table, you know, and she's looking at me and, and I am saying nothing. And she goes read, did you hear me? And I said, Yeah, like, but I'm so confused. I'm looking at my husband. And in my head, I'm thinking to myself, This is my I'm living my worst nightmare. This is what I feared the most that one day I would get cancer. Are you kidding me? I have cancer. So at this point, she says, the location is really not good. And there is nothing we can do. And I said, No, no, take it out. Take everything out. You know, I don't care. Just take it out. And there's got to be chemo. And they said, No, there isn't. But because for melanoma, there is no chemotherapy. And she says, but I will send you to the melanoma surgeon, specialist and to the melanoma cancer team.

So this is Christmas. Now we're at December 18. So I get through the whole holiday. And I have my pet scan in I don't know it was early January, or between Christmas and New Year, I don't remember they do a PET scan to see exactly what they're dealing with. And, and I see the surgeon and sure enough, yes, there is. It's not anywhere else. But it's there. And the surgeon tells me they will have to do a complete hysterectomy. They're hoping the location of this tomb or that they are not going to have to touch the bowel, because if they do, I would get I would have to wear a colostomy bag. And you know, a whole bunch of other and it's a big surge, I gather this is a really big surgery, they had also to remove part of my vagina and all that stuff. So it's a big surgery. And he says, In the meantime, because of the size of this tumor, and I couldn't tell you how large it was, but maybe because of the size and the position of the tumor. We're going to start you on some treatment and that's great. I was willing to do that and I go off and while we're getting ready for to schedule surgery says In the meantime, do some treatment and hopefully it'll shrink the tumor. So I see the gynecological know the regular melanoma oncologist and they have a plan and it's extensive and they're giving you so much information and one of these is a combination immunotherapy drug called epin Evo so I don't know if you know much about immunotherapy, but immunotherapy unlike chemo that destroys everything and then rebuilds immunotherapy actually revs up your immune system to wake it up to the fact that you've got cancer in your body and to attack it. And so I said fine, and of course they run through the list of side effects, which are many and and one of them I remember very well was type one diabetes, but the chance of that was like, less like 1% chance you would get it so what Rita

Scott Benner 24:29
what's the chance to get vagina cancer?

Rita 24:32
Exactly right. So like oh, you will soon find out that I there is a very small chance of getting it I will get it so anyway, I do this treatment, it was fine. I mean, I do the treatment I handled it well. I'm like I'm like two weeks into it like it's every three weeks I think and I'm two weeks into I'm still working I'll also good and then when morning, I wake up and I go, Oh, I don't feel good. I start coughing and couldn't stop. I'm scheduled actually, for another treatment, I go to the hospital. And I had called them I think, and they said, you know, come in, we'll take a look at you. And we'll see what's going on. And of course, what I'd had developed was pneumonitis, which is sort of difficult to breathe. And I guess it's an inflammation of the lungs, I'm not sure but so I cannot have treatment. So I'm put on steroids for 30 days, they stopped treatment, because they said, We don't have time to wait for your tumor to shrink, we're gonna take care of the pneumonitis. Because the way your lung capacity is right now, you're not going to make it through surgery. So we'll take care of the pneumonitis through steroids. And then we'll go straight into surgery, which is exactly what happened. So I had surgery in March. And he did not have to touch the Bible, he did the whole surgery, were good. But I knew I would have to have radiation just because of, I guess the type of cancer it is. And the way they explained it to me, though he thinks he got it all. There's always can be specks of the cancer, you know, sort of around, and we're going to do a radiation in the area, which they did. And now, I finished that in the end, the end of May. I have my pet scan in July, and they're telling me they have told me that. If all is well then then that's it, we'll just follow up with scans every, I don't know, six months for a while or three months. And so I do a PET scan in July, which is you know, the full body scan and they found cancer in the lymph nodes in the groin and something in my lungs. So okay, I have to start therapy, immunotherapy. Again, this time, they're giving me another drug. Because that combo, my body doesn't tolerate it. And they gave me one of the two drugs that were in that combo. It's called off Devo. And I had that and I started that in August. And that went really well. I'm doing very good in early December. I have my PET scan, it's showing things are sort of shrinking, but still there but doing well. And it's December 21 of 2017. And I'm at the hospital for my infusion. And of course every time you do the infusion, they do labs, and I'm sitting at the chair, they've got the IV going, they're just waiting on the labs before they start and the nurse comes in. And she says hey, are you feeling okay, today? I go Yeah, I feel great. She goes, Oh, because your blood sugar's are at 622. I know what? And she says, I got there certainly wrong. And she goes, Yeah, we're going to repeat the blood glucose and they repeat it and comes back. She goes, No, now you're at 530. Doctor wants to see you right away. There's no infusion today. So I go up to the office. And that's when they told me they said, We think you are you have develop type one diabetes as a result of this. So off you go to, to the emergency room and to be admitted

Scott Benner 28:13
reader before we get to that. Yeah, I'm trying to I want to make sure I understand. In the course of two years, you get diagnosed with a incredibly rare cancer inside of your vagina, they take it out, and you're getting treatments, and then you develop cancers and other places, you get more treatments. And then like two years after the initial diagnosis, you get the type one is that right?

Rita 28:38
Oh, sorry. One year rap was temper of 2017. Yeah, I'm sorry. I might have given the wrong one year after

Scott Benner 28:44
No, it was a lot of information I might not have been keeping. Yeah. So okay. Yeah, that's kind of how I want to go over it. You're in his office, you're looking for a window to jump out of or where's your where's your mindset at the moment when he tells you

Rita 28:55
Yeah, I'm, well, sort. So part of it is, you know, cancer, the cancer is such a big thing. That everything else sort of takes a backseat because I go, it's okay. It's okay. Like what is I have no idea what type one diabetes is. I know people get diabetes. I know. I probably know what type two is because you're overweight and you're not extra. You know, like, just the usual what people think type one I have no idea what is involved. And,

Scott Benner 29:25
and you're you're actually living the phrase, at least it's not cancer, because you know what that like, because that's what everyone says, anytime anyone gets sick with anything. It's not cancer, like least it's not cancer. But then once Yeah, once you have cancer, I guess the phrase is, well, at least it's not cancer, but you have way more context for it. Yeah.

Rita 29:48
So my, my thought in my head is well, at least the cancer is shrinking. I don't care if I've got type one. At least this seems to be working. Like I'm still here. Like I've still I've had another year of life. If I've seen my grandson grow up a little bit, like I'm good, you know, it's okay. And so, so anyway, I could tell that they were. I mean, my doctor was my oncologist was, I'm so sorry, this has happened and I'm going so right. Okay, you know, send me two. She says, you know, will you go ahead because we were waiting to be I was waiting to be transported with the wheelchair to the emergency room, and they weren't coming. And so she says, you know, you got, are you okay to walk? I go. Yeah, like, I'm feeling totally fine. And I will say the only thing I had in retrospect, was probably maybe a week before. I was really thirsty. And I did notice that. And again, I didn't, I didn't think anything of that. And, you know, my blood sugars up until that point, were really good. Like, I've never had an issue. So anyway, my husband and I go walk over to the emergency room, and I go, What do I tell them? She goes, she goes, You tell them that your blood sugars are high. She goes, I think you've got type one. She says, But if she's giving you if she's not understanding what you're saying, have them give me a call. This is the oncologist referring to the emergency room doctor. So I get in there. Yeah. And they do my blood sugar. And of course, I'm high and they're taken during the intake, and the doctor is there and the emergency room nurses there. And I just say to her, I go, she goes, You know what brings you in and I go, I told her the story I got you know what, I think I've developed type one diabetes, and she looks at me like, No, you just don't develop type one diabetes. She goes no, I go look, just call my doctor. And and sure enough, that's exactly what it was. But it is immunotherapy. I mean, this was already four years ago, already, it's come a long way. It was so new that even just your regular doctor, if you're not exposed to this, you're not even going to know what this is like, this doesn't make any sense. So that day, I get admitted to the hospital. I am not in the ICU, I'm in the regular hospital. And you know, they start doing all the tests and and I find out that my biggest fear was do I have to give myself insulin like, you've got to be able to give me a pill. I don't do needles like that. I don't do needles, I don't want to learn how to give myself. Like I'm very grossed out by that. I don't know. It's like, I'm sure there's something I am still, I guess, sort of in denial. And, uh, no. I mean, I was in there for two days, they told me they showed me taught me how to inject insulin. And it wasn't too bad. They brought in on, I guess, she's the educator, um, you know, in the hospital when she's there teaching me the formula, like, I don't even remember it now, because I'm on a pump now. But you know, for this many carbs as much insulin and. And looking back, I was told, I was told a number of things that were not right. Which of course, I knew nothing, such as, when you inject insulin, you need to be eating immediately, like, do not be waiting around like, so no such thing as a Pre-Bolus. And, and anyway, so I do this, and I learned and I'm, I'm doing well, I don't know, I made it through I was doing okay, but my sugars were if I were to look back, I think anything, you know, around 220 I considered a victory like, you know, I had no idea

Scott Benner 33:33
was that my brain? I mean, was that because that you had seen a 600 at the hospital and 200 seems much lower.

Rita 33:39
Yeah. And I think they sent me home with something under 250. So they sent me home. And then I remember, this is how crazy I was. And crazy only in retrospect, like three days after this diagnosis, my husband and I, we do Christmas with the kids. And then my husband and I fly off to Canada where the rest of our family is, I don't even know what I'm doing. I mean, I've got the formula, but at this point, I know my sugars are like, really high and I've, I've put in a call to the uncle, not to the oncologist but at this point, I have an endocrinologist. And I must say She guided me through it but I don't know if it's because I was under enough control right now to sort of get through things and we're gonna deal with the nitty gritty of it. Soon enough, you know, just sort of like letter, familiarize yourself with carbs and insulin. We're

Scott Benner 34:35
such a lovely person. Here's what I imagined. It's Christmas. Two years. We'll get to this lady after I've drank myself silly. That's what

Rita 34:45
exactly. She's fine. She's not at, you know, 400 anymore. She's good. So we'll send her

Scott Benner 34:51
on January 5, shall we? Yeah,

Rita 34:54
yeah. So I go back. So I think my treatment was canceled. As my next scheduled cancer treatment was, was cancelled, because I said, Let your body kind of get used to what's happening right now. And, but we'll start it up again, because damage is done. It's like, you got what we feared. And so we can continue and they did. But yeah, so that's, I was gonna say something else, but I can't remember right now, but that whole that whole time period, but yeah, so that's it. So eventually. So yeah, so what happened is that the so the immunotherapy drugs sort of rev up your immune system and it revved up. It revved it up so much that it didn't recognize that the beta cells were were necessary it considered the beta cells something for and I guess and so it just basically killed them all. And so that's what happened. And

Scott Benner 35:55
we'll never know if you had markers for diabetes. Like if you like, Isn't it crazy to think that you might have lived your whole life with genetic markers for type one, it just wasn't happening. And it maybe never would have happened if somebody wouldn't have supercharged your immune system. Yeah,

Rita 36:12
maybe they were there but my fat in my family on either my parents, either my parents died. Nobody. Nobody has any. You know,

Scott Benner 36:20
there's no autoimmune at all.

Rita 36:22
An autoimmune just No, none. None. And so yeah, so it. Yeah, so it attack the pancreas. And in fact,

Scott Benner 36:31
you didn't have kids, so you can't pass them.

Rita 36:33
So I didn't know exactly. And I know that when they did the C peptide a year late. When did they do the C peptide. Initially, I guess I was at 7.0. So I was in the range. But when they do it a year later in 2019, I'm at less than point one. So I was doing well. Until Until then. And then what happened is I got a whole bunch of auto immune really, diseases Yeah, so I develop. So in that period, I develop vitiligo, so I have the which is like you know where your skin uses pigmentation. So I have that in my hands and arms, my feet and legs, I develop colitis, and which has been a Lago is not a biggie. I mean, it's, I can live with that colitis, I'm on medication. I mean, colitis ends up playing a role later on, but I'm on medication for the colitis. And at some point, at this time, I also lose production of saliva in my mouth, mucus is in my nose tears in my eyes, so sort of no mucus is from neck on up. And that was extremely difficult. That was that was a very difficult side effect. Because without saliva, it's difficult to talk, extremely difficult to eat and swallow food. Of course, you've always got a stuffy nose and then the eyes it hurts to blank because there is no no tears. And then yeah, I was gonna say and then when you cry because I'm so frustrated no tears come out and and that's fine with no tears. That's that's traumatic. I can't even cry. I'm saying to my husband is it's terrible.

Scott Benner 38:35
That an autoimmune disease, the no tears, no mucus.

Rita 38:39
So yeah, so they sent me to so that's another thing. So I go to a lot of different specialists at this point, because so they go to rheumatology. I see rheumatologist and really, he told me he goes, this drug is so new. These drugs are so new. We really don't have a track record with other patients. But he looked it up and he sort of it is not sjogrens Because he does you don't have any of the markers I guess or whatever there. It's not sjogrens but it is like a sjogrens. So I'm actually on a drug right now. And I'm not sure if it's the drug that we established all my mucus is or if it's just time, you know, just like because once eventually I stopped this up Devo. It was just it was too much for my body. We had to stop. And it wasn't because they know we stopped the infusions. So yeah, yeah, I was just so I get all that

Scott Benner 39:36
as you said that I thought, well, maybe can you induce sjogrens disease and then that's not but that's not that.

Rita 39:43
No, it's not. No, and I've asked again, you know, I asked the rheumatologist recently. I just want to be clear. This is not short because it is not short because we don't I don't even know that they have a name for this yet that they just know this is happening.

Scott Benner 39:56
I have a number of questions. Can we can we kind of like go backwards for a second here. and picked it up. Thanks. So yeah, all the way back to the beginning just because if I don't ask, I'm gonna wonder for the rest of my life. How do they how do they read? I'm 51. And I feel like I know what the vagina is, you know what I mean? Like, anatomically but like, did they take parts away? Do you still? Yeah. Do you still urinate that way? Yes, yeah. Can you have sex? No, no, okay. Okay, boom, boom, boom. Yeah. All right. How is? What's that? Like? I? Because I think people would, I think it's possible that younger people here 63. And they're like, Oh, you don't have sex meter? 63. But sure you do. And so like, how do you adjust with that? Or is sex the last thing on your mind while you're going through all these things? It

Rita 40:53
is the last thing on your mind. Okay. It really is. Because, you know, it's, I guess when you're faced with living or dying, it is really, for me, at least for me. It is like the last thing on my mind. And so I've had up until now, like, Oh, wonderful, like a wonderful, you know, it is what it is. And you just sort of make it work. And but it's for me, it's okay. Because I still there's so many moment life is made up of so many, so many moments that all those moments make it worth it. You know, ya know, and so a part isn't there. But that's, it's okay. But yeah, it is hard to it is hard to wrap your brain around it. And it's not a decision that everybody would make, you know, I understand that.

Scott Benner 41:55
No, no, I would trust me, you could, if I thought it was gonna save my life, I think you could pretty much take anything from me. So that that makes sense to me. Is it visible? Like what? No, like, from the outside? You can't tell what happened? Never. Okay. Oh,

Rita 42:09
no. And if you were to meet me in the street, and there are people that I see, nobody would ever know. So my cancer is stage four. I mean, it is. So this, this cancer is not even staged. It's not staged, because typically, by the time you find it, the doctors find it. It's really a stage four, so they don't even bother, like the doctors had told me a while back, like, I was never under the illusion that, hey, we're gonna do all this, and it'll go away, and it'll never come back. That was never the way it was presented. To me, it was always this is we're gonna consider this to be a chronic disease. And there'll be periods of time where you're, you're fine, you're clear, and all we're doing our skins. And then there's periods of time where we will find something and you're, you're back in treatment. And it's like my first, well, not my first my surgeon had told me early on when we, before he did the surgery, he said at that time, so this is 20. I spoke to him, I say 2017 As I'm when I'm having the surgery, and he said, there's really like Not a lot, there's a lot of a lot of research in the pipeline for this cancer, because that's not where the funding is. That's not where a lot of the focus is going on. He goes, but there's a lot coming up in the next five years. And it's it's he didn't say it's unfortunate. You got it now, but sort of like but here we are now. And so we got to work with what we have. So my, my philosophy right now, if you will, or my way of getting through it is that science has to stay one step ahead of me, as long as my cancer doesn't progress so far, that they have nothing left to give me. I'm good. Like, I'm fine. I'm willing to try. And in fact, you'll hear that I've, you know, I'm on other stuff right now. So, so that's, you know, that's how I look at it. And and we know you're not to get to

Scott Benner 44:09
before, you've been living like that for about five years now. Yes, yeah. Yeah. So you, you have cancer. It is yeah. And they are beating it back with the the therapies, with with the

Rita 44:23
therapies, some brand new ones, and some that I have yet to try that are just in the pipeline right now that are coming. Some that are not there yet, but some that I know some promising ones that are waiting FDA approval, which should be coming within the next, I think less than a year so I'm just trying to keep I give it all I've got to sort of make that science you know, stay ahead of me and that's how I look at it. But yeah, so when you look at me, you would never know I'm sick. Now I have lost initially from the start of this I've probably lost about not probably I have lost roughly 40 pounds, a lot of that loss came after the diabetes diagnosis. So I'm not sure if, if it's that I am not sure, like what diabetes forced me to do is really, um, cancer was really changed. Both diabetes changed the way I eat in terms of not so much what I eat, because I was pretty good eater how much but how much I eat. You know, diabetes has forced me to be a healthier person, believe it or not,

Scott Benner 45:35
I know that but like a portion you mean, like you just smaller portions?

Rita 45:40
Yeah, it's not, you know, at the beginning, you should have seen me and even now, I just don't do it. My husband does Oh, come on now. I mean, I weigh everything, I weigh my food. I'm a little OCD that way. So I weigh I carb count, I, you know, I do all this, all this stuff. And that's, I have to, it's the one way I can control you know, and anyway, as much as you can, I can control the diabetes, or I think I'm doing a good job now.

Scott Benner 46:10
I'm certainly or what, what, um, do you see a therapist, once the cancer comes?

Rita 46:18
So I, so when the cancer came, there was a support group at the hospital for melanoma patients. And I did that. And then COVID stopped that. So I do. So in the middle of all of this, I find. So between I was I was home for a year following that surgery because I had surgery and then treatment. And you know, it's just, it takes a lot out of you. And I was home. And I decided I was going to do I wanted to do some yoga. So I found a cancer center that had a lot of sort of whole holistic approach in terms of yoga and exercise. And there's therapy there and I do an all through zoom. Now the Yoga I don't do as much because I do work now, but I do I do. Zoom, cancer support. I really you really need it. i I'll speak for myself, I really need it. I am very, I'm very open about what's happened to me. If somebody were to ask, I would, I would certainly tell the story. I think there's a story to tell. But, uh, but I think therapy has helped me help me with that. How about and like I said, if if you were to look at me, you'd never know I was sick.

Scott Benner 47:31
I know. I know who you are. I've seen pictures of you. Yeah. You smoke the weed now. Does that help with? No,

Rita 47:40
not necessary? Not necessary? I'm not I haven't been there. No, no. And you know, through all the treatments that I've had, and it's funny how the mind or the body kind of like, forgets like when I think back. I was like, Yeah, I was I was pretty sick. You know, I was sick. And I look at pictures of myself. And I go, Oh, yeah, I can tell like at the time. I couldn't tell I was sick. But now looking back and seeing the way I am now I go. Yeah, I could tell I was sick. And I was one. At one point. I'm in the hospital for some probably DKA. But I'm in the hospital. And I look in the mirror and I go oh, my goodness, look at the way I look. So I've had those moments. But yeah, what was your question? I didn't know if. Yeah, so not necessarily. Yeah. Like, no, no,

Scott Benner 48:29
no, or anything like that?

Rita 48:30
No. Okay. No, no, no.

Scott Benner 48:32
Wow. Can I ask just getting away from all this for half a second? looking more at the kind of, I don't know, the psychological side of it, I guess. Have has your has your outlook on what life is changed? And, and what your date, what your days mean? And what your time means, like, that kind of thing?

Rita 48:57
Definitely. So it's changed first of all. So I've started meditating. I do that, but I'm actually more I'm really grateful. It's like, I am so grateful for my husband because like, without this, like, I know, I'm lucky. I really despite it all, I am lucky, he has been with me for the whole thing because there are times when you're dealing with all of this, it's just a lot for the brain to absorb. And even now, I mean, I I might look like or I might feel like I'm good. But you know, when you go to those appointments, it's always like anxiety provoking when I have a scan, it's anxiety, provoking all those things. And so I'm grateful for that. I am so grateful for like Mike to see my kids like five years out and okay, this is what they're doing. And now I have a brand new grandson so I get to see him. And I look at the day Yeah, and I just say oh gosh, it's such a beautiful day. I do so much. I do a lot of walking. And I started that early. I started that actually four But before cancer and diabetes, but I do a lot of it. Now I have some extremely great friends that are there for me. And yeah, so I'm so grateful to everything you know. So about yes, definitely

Scott Benner 50:14
things that just eat time like I make a very simple like example, like do you still watch television? Or did you prior? Or is that one of those things where you think this doesn't matter anymore? Like I'm not trying to kill time anymore?

Rita 50:29
No, I'm not trying to kill time. I'm not a big TV watcher. So I don't watch a lot. But I do read a lot of books. I love that. I. So prior to the cancer diagnosis, my husband and I did a lot of traveling. And we've done a few trips where we do walking vacation. So we walked through Spain, we walked through Portugal, we've done a lot of that. And of course, cancer threw a monkey wrench in that because for a long time, I was not this is even before COVID I was not allowed to travel. The doctors didn't want me too far from a good hospital, a hospital that would know what I've got, you know, yeah. And, and then of course, COVID hits, but just and then, and then diabetes and diabetes was I've had some scary moments with it. And it was like, it's scary, but I think it was in October of 2019. So before before COVID I did We did do a trip out to the west to the Grand Canyon and the Four Corners area and I hiked and so that was scary because Okay, I'm gonna be somewhere in the middle of nowhere I got my pump. At this point, I got my pump and my CGM. But it's like, you know, in the back of my mind, oh, man, what am I gonna do? Like, Okay, I gotta bring all the snacks, I gotta bring all the glucose tabs and all those are really, like, heavy on my mind, you know? And even now, like, this evening, we're actually traveling, and we're going to Vermont, and I'm in I'm in Georgia right now. But we're going to Vermont and Okay, I gotta bring all my supplies. And that's all. Don't forget anything. You know, I mean, getting through security. It's like, it all works out. But that doesn't mean I don't stress about it. Just that about.

Scott Benner 52:14
Has there ever been any conversation with you or your doctors about some of the things earlier in your life? And this like, for instance, not being able to have kids? Is that? Is there a possibility that there was something wrong in there the whole time? And you didn't know? Or is the nose? Yeah, there's no way to know about stuff like that, right?

Rita 52:33
There is no way to know. I mean, I know they did some some testing, like genetic testing, but even what I have, and what I understand, and I'm not gonna pretend I even understand what the doctor said. But mine doesn't really have anything, they have no idea. So when I asked the surgeon, he says, who knows, like maybe the invite, like we don't even know enough other

Scott Benner 52:52
people that have it that you could get no, like, no, like some data from people like oh, there's, you know, a certain percentage of them that have had similar other issues in the air. There's not even there's not even

Rita 53:06
now there is a Facebook group that I belong to that is dedicated to mucosal melanoma patients. And so it's the variety of us it's vaginal rectal sinus, but there's not a lot of us. And, and it's, I don't know that anybody has found out the reason why this has happened. I know there is a registry. I've learned through the group, there is a registry forming right now on rare cancers, with the hope that we will have some of the answers. And just getting back to my diabetes. You know, I follow a lot of, I'm always like, sort of looking. That's how I found actually, my husband found your podcast that kind of helped me along. But I belong to I guess it's type one. I don't know type one something. And one day they send sort of like a little newsletter, and in it was they were starting to do research and UCSF regarding they've discovered that people on immunotherapy, very few get diabetes. And I just reached out to that I had a name of a person who they interviewed and I reached out to her. And they they're just starting and this was probably maybe three, four years ago that I reached out and they sent me like a kit like labs to get done. And I just sent my labs off to them. I'll never know what they find. I don't think they're using it for research purposes. But my doctor, my oncologist has said, what they're trying to do is, you know, the patients that do develop type one is trying to find out, is there something is there a commonality in it, or is there something that we could give these patients is there a drug out there? Or do we need to develop a drug that if we give it to them prior to immunotherapy, it will save the beta cells? I think this is what they're working on. But I don't you know, I Google it every once in a while to see if there's any progress made. But I mean in my case is it's too late, I think Um, but you know, that's okay. Yeah. Well,

Scott Benner 55:02
maybe it helps somebody in the future because the therapy absolutely is the therapy is growing. And it's and it's morphing and getting better. And they're trying. Yeah, yeah. Because yeah, look what it's doing for you. It's really back. It's put the cancer in like stasis, right? So you're not getting worse and you're not dying. It's just, it's amazing. Honestly,

Rita 55:23
it truly isn't.

Scott Benner 55:25
It makes me embarrassed for the notes I've written in front of myself, because at one point, I was jotting things down Georgia, not able to have children and I my shorthand for vagina. I made an oval and then I drew a line from 12 to six o'clock. Yeah. No, I drew it. I was like, that doesn't look like a giant at all. But I knew at least what I was doing when I was going. It's just such a crazy. It's a crazy stuff. It's crazy. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't it doesn't make any sense. So let me ask you, when you got the type one diagnosis, do they give you like, you get to the endocrinologist, the holidays over etc. You're back from Canada from if I'm listening correctly. Yep. You get a pump. You get pen to get needles. Do you get a good? No,

Rita 56:14
I get the needle, I get a needle and and I don't know if this is typical of other type ones. I have no idea but my blood sugar. Oh my goodness. So unstable. It was like, you know, I think I was picking my finger like about 10 times a day. And even that I was I don't know if it was me just being worried. But I was forever. It was and my blood sugar's were like kind of all over the place. So then we are in. I don't know it was an April. Okay, now hold on, what year Am I met? I think it's 29 2018 or 2019. But I'll find out in a second. But I say to the doctor, hey, I at least want a CGM. I've gotten used to given myself needles, can I just get that thing in my arm, which tells me where I'm at. And she goes, Well, if you're gonna have that, I want you to have a pump. So they they give me the pump and I get a pump. I don't, I don't even know There's choices out there. So I get it. I get the Medtronic pump with the CGM. And I said, Great. So they started me on the pump. And again, thinking back and telling you the story. Another crazy thing that we did is I get the pump on a Thursday, and I made the pump trainer. And she sets me up and shows me how to do it. And we're all good. And the next day, we're heading to a wedding, three and a half hours away. And I thought nothing of just sleeping because like, Okay, I'll have my pump, it'll be great. And I'll go. So we're driving and my sugars are going up and up and up. And I'm just pumping more insulin and I really don't understand what I'm doing. Like I have an idea. But I go this is not working and I'm not I'm eating and my sugars are like in the three hundreds and I go Why isn't this supposed to be better? And I do call the endocrinologist on call at the hospital. I'm like three and a half hours away. Watch your sugars, you know, increase your Basal like, bah, bah, bah, you know, whatever, whatever. She told me, I'm doing all this well, by the Saturday morning. I was so sick. I mean, literally, I'm on the floor. And I said I have to get to a hospital like I don't feel right. This isn't good. And I am not going I don't know if I mentioned when we were in Knoxville and nothing against Knoxville, but I want to go to my own hospital, because I'm still thinking of the cancer and I just want to be where people know my case. And I don't want to have to explain all this because this is you know, rare and so we make the three and a half hour three hour trip to back to I'm in Atlanta

Scott Benner 59:02
back to Atlanta and DK

Rita 59:05
and DKA I don't know it so I get to the hospital and they're waiting for me. You know, we had made the call, go straight, do not go home do not do anything straight to the hospital. They take my sugars. I'm in DKA and I ended up in the ICU but you know in the emergency room they take off my infusion set and my cannula so then cannula I wasn't getting any of the other the insulin I was pumping in that easy.

Scott Benner 59:31
Yeah. Yeah, you too. You're too early into it.

Rita 59:37
I am Yes. I don't know. I don't know what, you know, what, what, but what I was doing really, I really shouldn't have gotten on the trip, right. At least I should not have started the pump when I wasn't going to be home. And so I'm in DKA. And at that point, the endocrinologist says Oh, no, I don't have a I don't think I had the CGM then and he says no, we're, the CGM is Like I don't care about because they were saying, you know, do six weeks with the pump to get you used to it. And then we'll bring a bill introduced the CGM, and they go nevermind all that CGM for you right now. And I did that. And and that certainly helped me a lot. I did have another episode of DKA. In. So this was I looked at my notes, this one has happened in May of 2018. So six months after diagnosis, I got the pump. And then in November of 2019, I did end up with DKA. Again, I really don't know how that happened. Because I was really, my sugars were not terribly high, and I'm gonna call it in the baby. I mean, high in the 250s, but not enough for me to, and then all of a sudden, I just didn't feel good. And once again, it was DKA. And that was the last the last time I was in the hospital for diabetes.

Scott Benner 1:00:54
Do you ever firmer grasp you do now like your husband found the podcast? Yes.

Rita 1:00:58
That's so this is. So here's a funny story. And so it's Yeah, so he's a big podcaster. And, you know, I don't even know what I'm doing. I go to a nutritionist who was no help at all. Because when I tell my endocrinologist, what she's asked me to do the nutritionist in terms of what I eat and donate, she goes, Oh, no, she goes, she's treating you like a type two. Forget that. That's not, that's not what you're supposed to be doing. She played with the settings a little bit. But anyway, he finds your podcast. And I listened to it. And then it is. I see that you guys, you and the whole bunch of diabetic specialists, if you will, are coming to Atlanta at a JDRF event. And that's February of 2020. Just before COVID

Scott Benner 1:01:46
Were you there.

Rita 1:01:47
I was there. But this is what happened. My husband goes and see you because again, you never leaves. You know, he's so in this with me. He listens to you. And I go listen to Jenny. Yeah, Jenny.

Scott Benner 1:02:00
Same time with the first the first hour. Yeah,

Rita 1:02:04
yes, you're right. Yeah, unfortunately, you're talking at the same time. And we get in there. And that was actually very enlightening, because we get in there. And it's full of people. And all these young I mean, these young kids. And it was funny because we go to lunch and my husband goes to see these people, they're eating everything nobody's waiting. You need you need to be like that read a lot is like waiting and watching it. And so yeah, I we learned a lot on that trip. And in fact, if I can say I had Yeah, I did hire Jenny. And Jenny has helped me tremendously through managing all of this. I mean, she's sort of, you know, I go to the doctor now. And they don't even Oh, look at these numbers that you're doing great. Keep it up. They don't just they don't adjust anything, Jenny.

Scott Benner 1:02:57
And I don't talk about it, of course, because she's a professional health care provider. But I'm aware that a lot of people that listen to the podcast, see Jen Yeah. And so it's it's wonderful that you? Did you see Yeah. So did you see Jenny and I speak together in the second hour? No, did you go to something

Rita 1:03:17
was I might I might have gone to something else.

Scott Benner 1:03:21
Read it was your mistake. We were delightful.

Rita 1:03:23
That was the one thing I've done wrong. Yeah, really,

Scott Benner 1:03:27
if you if you've made any mistake, really, it was not seeing to me and I speak together.

Rita 1:03:32
But that that event was so helpful, like in so many ways, like really helpful to hear, you know, the speaker speak helpful to see the people helpful to see parents and, you know, vendors, like just everybody. I thought that was, that was a pivotal point for me. I really believe that.

Scott Benner 1:03:50
Yeah, the person who ran that event did a wonderful job. And I don't know if they're, I mean, it's the JDRF I don't even know if they're doing this stuff in person anymore at some of these places, to be honest. But God, I think it was Kim, right? And

Rita 1:04:07
could have been, I'm gonna look. I don't think they've had one in Atlanta because I would have no,

Scott Benner 1:04:13
I would have seen it. I'm not going to use her last name. Because it's, I don't know, it's not my business to say but Kim was terrific. And she set up an amazing event. And then we all bug the hell out of there because the world was coming to an end.

Rita 1:04:26
Yes, exactly. After like two weeks later, it all sort of fell apart.

Scott Benner 1:04:29
Flight I took home from Atlanta was weird, like walking dead empty. And like so much so that it was clear things were happening. You know what I mean? I was like, Oh, this is it. I guess people are serious about this COVID thing. And I had three seats to myself my I like I flew home like laying across three seats, because there was just no one on the plane. Nobody there and but I never I didn't meet you at that event or your husband.

Rita 1:04:58
You did not meet me. No, you didn't make a and I'm not sure that he went up to you like, of course at this point, we're just I finally started listening to your podcast and mid maybe fall of 2019. So yeah, so no, I didn't I didn't meet you there. But anyway,

Scott Benner 1:05:21
I want the real story. You didn't you're like the guys he's okay but this Johnny's

Rita 1:05:25
he's okay you take the guy I'm gonna go to you

Scott Benner 1:05:30
because you tried to nutritious and didn't get good help but Jenny's Yeah, different.

Rita 1:05:34
Yeah, no, I mean, it's totally different. So yeah.

Scott Benner 1:05:39
i It's i I'm sorry, they don't do those things anymore. But the JDRF seems to? I don't know. I don't know, they changed. They changed direction during COVID. It seems like to me about the in person stuff, but for at the very least, so. Okay, so you're so now you're using a pump? What do you that is an algorithm to are using control like you are on the pod five or something like that? Are you still managed? Yeah,

Rita 1:06:04
no. So I saw I know, I'm Medtronic I actually don't do I don't you know, they have the auto mode where it sort of does it for you. I don't do that. I do manual mode. And I prefer that I like to have. I like to control it myself and sort of figure out

Scott Benner 1:06:22
I'm sorry, using CGM from Medtronic. I am your

Rita 1:06:27
I'm on. And I'm on the newest pump. The seven. I just got the 770. And I'm doing well. I find their CGM quite accurate, actually, compared to the 670. And yeah, and I'm doing well. And I've, you know, I've got my rates sort of dialed in, I think. So I'm probably I'm up probably about 93% and range. And my, my agency back in April was 6.2. So I could bring it a little, a little lower. But where I am right now, I'm happy. I mean, compared to where I started. Yeah, I'm not. I'm never rarely Am I low? Like I think I'm less than 1%. Low. And, yeah, so

Scott Benner 1:07:17
I think you're about to be famous at Medtronic, because right now I imagined someone's running around the office going someone finally said something positive about our CGM.

Rita 1:07:27
Yeah, I mean, and, you know, I just got the new one and part of it is like, Okay, I had an option, I suppose. But, you know, I don't feel like starting over again and dealing with insurance and get it I was like, oh, nevermind, it's just too hard. And it hasn't been, it's been fine for me. So I just said, I'm just gonna keep keep doing what I'm doing.

Scott Benner 1:07:50
That's exactly the attitude that helps me stay married. Because Kelly's probably just like

so much trouble to get the sofa out of here and

Rita 1:08:04
all of that. It's like, who needs that?

Scott Benner 1:08:08
Wow, that's amazing. We're up on an hour, but I'm not rushing you away. Is there anything else you want to talk about?

Rita 1:08:15
Ah, no, I guess the only other thing I'd like to talk about that people don't maybe doctors don't understand is how difficult it is for type one diabetic to get a PET scan, I find it probably one of the most stressful things that that happens and I don't think enough doctors understand what is involved. So when I have a PET scan the night before, okay, I got I watch what I mean I don't watch what I eat. But I tend to eat a little you know, a careful because I want my blood sugar to stay at range because for the PET scan, I am not allowed to Bolus or eat anything. I think it's six hours ahead of the of the scan. So I do do the scan first thing in the morning I usually you know we schedule it then. But and it isn't so much that I go high because I'm not because with the high I can I can play with the Basal but it's when I go low and yes, I can play with the Basal when I go out but I cannot take a glucose tab I cannot eat anything I can't so I have to keep it within a certain range without really the aid of any insulin. I do have Basal going into the last till an hour before. But I find that is extremely stressful. I've gotten better at it because I've now I've had many PET scans but I think it's something that is not understood. And in fact, when I first I didn't even have the pump, but I was having a PET scan that day and it was at the wrong time of day and you know I think they scheduled it for the afternoon which is terrible and my sugar's are climbing and I call the endos office See, what am I supposed to do? And they said, Oh, just give yourself go ahead Bolus. I didn't know I wasn't supposed to. So I get to the PET scan. And the tech technologist says to me, you didn't give yourself any insulin, did you? And I go, Yeah, actually, I just did to bring down my sugars. They go, Oh, you're not allowed no PET scan. I go what? And I think the trauma of that visit, I mean, I started to cry, they, they called the radiation oncologist in to talk to me because I said, it doesn't matter. I'll just wait here to the Bolus sleeves, and then you're going to do the PET scan. And they go, No, we can. So they brought in the radiation oncologist who finally explained to me that I was going to be scheduled the next morning, they couldn't do it, because they'd get a false reading on the test. But I thought, like, as a patient who I'm about to find out, this test is going to tell me if my cancer if my my treatment is working, or not working if my cancer has spread or not. And for you know, doctors to not know that's I thought that was so basic. You should know that I would think

Scott Benner 1:11:10
Yeah, so you're saying that they just tell you Look, come in tomorrow, this, this happens to a lot of people like there are a lot of tests, like there's even fasting blood work, where they say to you like you can eat after midnight. And then that's a lot of pressure. What if I get low and I need to eat or what if you know, but you can't even Bolus like so you can get a Basal insulin, but you can't put a Bolus. And that doesn't make sense to me. So I'm trying to figure out why that is. But I guess

Rita 1:11:34
what I'm thinking is the Basal sort of mimics your pancreas right, sort of slow and steady. And that's okay till about an hour before and then they have me turn off my pump. And I you know, I remove everything from me. But yeah, and so I think it's Yes, exactly. It is like extremely stressful.

Scott Benner 1:11:53
And in the way they say to you like it's nothing like just don't eat or drink until you

Rita 1:11:57
Yeah, it's like, it's no problem. And you know, and the other thing that that really gets me is, you know, I have all of my you know, I got the pump and I got the CGM. And it's always a production, because I can't go in with them. Like, I can't go in with this equipment. It says so in the literature. And I'm guessing it's the same thing for all the other companies, you can't take these devices into MRIs and PET scans and stuff. And inevitably, every single time Oh, yeah, it'll be fine. And I go know the literature. And I'm a rule follower. And the literature says you can't take it in. And if it says you can't take it, and I'm not going to take it in, and I can't put it anywhere. So, you know, I give it to my husband, who then leaves the area and, and we're all good. And it's only when I say well, okay, I will bring it in. But if it breaks, you guys are paid for it. And then they go home. No, no, you please do, which. It's like,

Scott Benner 1:12:52
we just had this for Arden, right? Where she did have a fasting test in the morning. And we're in the office the day before. And the woman's like, you know, the nurse, she says, you know, no eating or drinking after midnight. And I said, Well, can you tell me? What if her blood sugar starts to fall? You know, are we able to stop that? Or do we have to call the test off? And she goes, No, you can give her insulin. And I went, Yeah, that's not how that works. So I'm like I said, I said, I think I can do a pretty good job of keeping her blood sugar stable. I said, But if she gets too low, she might have to drink some juice. Would that be okay? Well, yeah, you're not supposed to. It's like so if we do, do we call and cancel? And she just right doesn't have an answer. I'll go to the doctor, she comes back out comes back in and then you get a blanket like don't eat or drink. And if it happens, you know, you can cancel. But I don't even think they know if that's like Artemus just having a again, an endoscopy. Like they were just gonna throw like, what a little bit of? I don't know, you don't I mean, like, Could she have sucked on a lollipop like and nobody. But you're talking to somebody who told you to take insulin if your blood sugar gets low. So you're like, Well, are they really going to have an answer for me? No, it just seems like the answer is no. And, and but it said to you so blase. Like, oh, just don't eat or drink after midnight. And immediately you're like, Well, I don't know if I can do that or not. And then you have other stuff on top of it like that. The anxiety of like, nobody gives a crap if they don't get a blood test tomorrow, but you're trying to find out if you're, you know, right, yeah, your life. And,

Rita 1:14:30
and I think the other thing that they're, you know, because they'll ask, and do you have diet? They don't say type one or two. Do you have diabetes? Oh, yeah, they don't do this. Don't take your pills don't do. No, but I'm not on that. I'm on insulin, do I take insulin? And they sort of like, yeah, you know, like, not really. So I don't even think, you know, it's just like, you're just reading a script and it's just diabetes and to them it doesn't really matter which one it is though. Type two can go without eating for for six hours. hours and not worry about blood sugars, I guess. And of course, you know, for for type ones it's the battle is the challenge is a little, a little tougher. So anyway, so that's the one thing. I'd love to like, Oh, I wish and I'm not even sure you know where you begin? I mean is it? Is it the, you know, like that there's so disconnected, right, the radiology department with maybe endocrinology, like, you know, really you sort of got to know like, if you're sending a patient or if a patient calls, you said, Hey, I'm gonna have a scan, can I not? You know, can I do this or not do that, that they would sort of have a real answer, not sort of like somebody that really doesn't know. And really, it's no difference to her if I get a scan or not. If it's canceled or not, you know, does she care now becomes my problem. So that's, that's such that's the biggest challenge. That's a very big challenge.

Scott Benner 1:15:53
You know, I saw my mom is now with my brother, right? And my, my brother is handling a lot of my mom's medical stuff for the first time, and I think he's finding it overwhelming. And I said, Can I give you a piece of advice about talking to doctors offices? And he's like, sure, I said, you have to find a very polite way to do this. And he goes, Okay, I said, but you're telling them what to do. You're not asking. And I said, there's a way they do things. And that might work for most people. And I said, But, but if you're not getting the answers to the questions you need, or if they're not doing something that they need to do, there's a way to say what you need without being demanding. And you almost are, I really do feel badly saying this out loud, but you're kind of directing them without letting them know you're directing them. Right. And I and it's important, because they can't know all of your details. And, and there's no way for them to know. And oftentimes you're talking to people who have answered ads for jobs, who are schedulers, or answering phone calls, or they sometimes they're not even nurses, and you know, they don't really know. And you're asking them these big questions, because they're your point of contact, but they don't have an answer. And then, you know, sometimes they just say the first thing that comes to mind or what they hear other people saying or what worked for somebody else, and you can't get frustrated with them, you sort of have to say, this is what we need. I need you to call this person, I need you to fax this document. You can't just say, I want you to set this up for me, because they might not know what that means to you. Right. Yeah. And he's having a better time. But now that he's been more, I guess, proactive.

Rita 1:17:40
Yeah, and yeah, and the same thing I find when I was in the hospital, you know, and I'm with my CGM and popped out. So I think. I think in some of those visits, the pump came off obviously, because of my bent cannula. And so they had to bring my sugar's back down and did it through an IV and all that, but you know, I really tried to keep to get back on everything like really quickly, you know, and I try to be like, inevitably when a few times I went in there take they're taking my I have no CGM on my arm and they're taking my blood sugars, and it is what it is, you know, whatever, they take it, and I go, okay, and you're coming back in like, couple hours to do it again, right? Oh, no, you're scheduled again. To do your to do your your, you know, we're going to check your blood, like at six in the morning, let's say and I go no, no, I can't go for six hours without, you know, without a checking. So I've learned that. You know, I've been in the hospital a few times. Now that you know, the format before my husband leaves the room. I said, Bring me my CGM. Bring me my, not my CGM, but my glucose monitor right in front of me because during the night, I'm going to check my own sugar. Right? And sure enough, sure enough, one night, I go, you know, I opened I was sleeping I opened my eyes ago. I just don't feel right. And I checked my sugars in there at 40. So I rang the bell and they all come running and I said to them, I told you guys don't let me go for six hours. You know, so. So in all this to say you sort of have to be your own advocate. And I guess that is sort of what you're saying. You don't have to be mean about it, but it's just sort of yeah, like I know what I need to talk about here. It is

Scott Benner 1:19:21
the number of people who will tell me privately when they're done recording that when they're in the hospital, they have family members sneaking their insulin and stuff like that and they take care of themselves and won't even tell the hospital because the hospital wants to run you like a type two on their protocol. Yeah, you know, I'll test you again in six hours, which is insane. And by the way to healing and overall health is optimized with in range blood sugars. You can't exactly can't heal with a 300 blood sugar. It doesn't work that way. So

Rita 1:19:55
no. I was fortunate enough that during one of my hospital visits, they endocrinology sonkar was actually my endocrinologist. So he knew he saw my numbers and they can look at the chart now and he knows. And he said to them, have her put everything back on. She's going to tell you how many carbs she eats, don't worry about the insulin, she's taken care of it all herself. Yeah. And that was so much better and even now, I've had a few surgeries since you know. You know, subsequently after your story, I told you I've had a number of surgeries and even then into surgery now I most anesthesiologist say just leave everything on and we'll and I just reinforced that you better be checking my blood sugar's which I know they do, but they just sort of want to see how it looks no leave everything on because I think for them it's actually maybe easier I don't know but they're fine. They're fine. It

Scott Benner 1:20:44
would be a damn shame that if vagina cancer and melanoma is different places and and lymph nodes and everything that that doesn't kill you, but you're gonna get taken down by by a nurse. When she goes, that's not gonna happen. That's not the way I'm gonna go. Yeah, cuz I imagined your last conscious thought would be son of a bitch.

Rita 1:21:12
Yeah, like in my head, like you're saying Be nice. And I am nice. But in my head, I always say you don't know what you're talking, I could I can do this. It's like, you know, I know what, just leave it all in place. And it's good. And just go look at my you know, go look at my charts. And you'll see where my blood sugars are at. And but yeah,

Scott Benner 1:21:29
I spoke to a nurse recently who had such a good, I thought way about this. She said, with people with diabetes, we see people who are completely just miss managed, they don't know what they're doing. And then it's hard to believe anybody knows what they're doing. But the way we handle it is we start off by saying, Alright, it's on you. But if you drop the ball, then we're going to take over. And I think that's a I think that's a reasonable way to do it.

Rita 1:21:58
Yeah, I think it is. Yeah, I think that makes sense. Yeah. And they don't know us, right? I mean, they see so many patients and you know, I know myself but they don't know me and that's understandable. And so but I like that approach of let's look at you can deal with it. Let's let's watch what you do for the next little bit but if it doesn't work, you know, we're taken over and and that's fair, because not everybody manages their diabetes. Well, I guess you know, so we're

Scott Benner 1:22:27
safely for for the situation. Yeah, what were you this was terrific. Please thank your husband for finding the podcast for me. And I appreciate that you came on and share this story. It's at absolutely insane. It really is. Thank you so much for doing this.

Rita 1:22:43
Thanks for having me. scars.

Scott Benner 1:22:43
No, it's a pleasure. It's fun.

A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G voc glucagon, find out more about Chivo Capo pen at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. You spell that G VOKEGLUC AG o n.com. Forward slash juicebox. I'd also like to thank reader for sharing her story. And of course, the Contour Next One blood glucose meter for sponsoring this episode contour next one.com forward slash juice box get a great meter, get the Contour Next One.

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