#1500 Rub Some Dirt On It
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28‑year‑old Jenn—T1D since age 7—opens up about prepping for pregnancy, wrestling anxiety and disordered eating, and finding footing in therapy amid real‑world struggles.
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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
Welcome back, friends to another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.
Jenn 0:14
Hi guys, I'm Jen. I'm 28 years old. I was diagnosed with type one at age seven, so 21 years ago, and I wanted to come on and talk about planning for pregnancy. Nothing
Scott Benner 0:27
you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. I know this is going to sound crazy, but blue circle health is a non profit that's offering a totally free virtual type one diabetes clinical care, education and support program for adults 18 and up. You heard me right, free. No strings attached, just free. Currently, if you live in Florida, Maine Vermont, New Hampshire, Ohio, Delaware, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa or Louisiana, you're eligible for blue circle health right now, but they are adding states quickly in 2025 so make sure to follow them at Blue circle health on social media and make yourself familiar with blue circle health.org. Blue circle health is free. It is without cost. There are no strings attached. I am not hiding anything from you. Blue circle health.org, you know why they had to buy an ad. No one believes it's free. This episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by us Med, US med.com/juice, box, or call 88872115, 888-721-1514, us. Med is where my daughter gets her diabetes supplies from, and you could too use the link or number to get your free benefits check and get started today with us. Med, this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Omnipod five, and you can learn more right now at my special link, omnipod.com/juicebox
Jenn 2:08
Hi guys. I'm Jen. I'm 28 years old. I was diagnosed with type one at age seven, so 21 years ago, and I wanted to come on and talk about planning for pregnancy. You have other things
Scott Benner 2:22
to talk about too. I think this is going to be a terrific conversation. And I'm a little sleepy today, which means I get a little extra emotional. So just looking at your list of things you sent in, I'm like, Oh, I'm gonna, like, I swear, when I turned this on, I looked at, I want people to understand, like, if you think that I'm like, really well prepared. I came in here. I was working for like an hour, doing stuff on the website, doing back end stuff for the podcast. I looked up somebody texted me. He's like, Hey, can you talk? I'm like, I went, Yeah. And then I went, Oh, no, I can't I'm recording in six minutes. So I set up the file, I moved your notes into the file, and as I was moving the notes into the file, I thought, Oh, I'm gonna cry today. Oh, my
Jenn 3:02
gosh. Okay, well, I might, too. I might. It's definitely possible I might tear up. I have a box of Kleenex right here. Oh,
Scott Benner 3:10
I do too. Don't, don't you worry, Joe, I swear I keep both of us. I read your note and I thought, Oh, I'm a little I don't, I don't think I'm tired, by the way, like I think it's been winter too long. I feel the same way, for sure. I'm a little cloudy, yeah, even though I got good sleep last night, I'm a little cloudy. I feel like, like I'm I feel like I'm not eating right. All of a sudden, like, I usually have a nice couple of eggs in the morning with a little bit of protein. In the last few days, I've been, like, running around and, like, late, and I've got all the, ironically, these doctors appointments to help myself be healthier, but I'm running out the door eating like a bowl of cereal because I'm like, I don't have time to cook anything. And I'm like, this is counterproductive. Anyway. I feel foggy, is what I'm saying. Okay, no worries, we'll get through it. And then your thing pops up, and I'm like, Oh, I'm gonna cry.
Jenn 4:00
Yeah. I mean, right, I was like, I say, I came on to talk about planning for pregnancy, but like, I guess the whole I was kind of trying to prepare a little bit for, like, what I wanted to talk about. And I'm, I'm a big planner. I like to make lists and everything. And I was trying to, like, make a kind of time chronological ordered list, and to help just wrap my mind around, like, all the different topics that I wanted to talk about, and I had to go through it like 10 times because there's just, there is a lot that's just been kind of like the big part of my journey. And like, why I felt like, for me personally, like planning for pregnancy was so much more than just simply that, and like, how much truly went into it, and kind of like, why I wanted to come on and talk about this, because I felt like if I didn't put in all that work ahead of time, I couldn't imagine myself like going for it. And how would I possibly have, like, a safe. Been healthy pregnancy. Let me
Scott Benner 5:01
ask you a question for a second. Is this the first time you sat down and tried to contextualize your life with diabetes? Like, really look at it from, like, from where it started to where it is and and the big steps in between. Have you ever done that before? Is this the first time you've done that?
Jenn 5:15
So, yeah, this is really the first time I've done it. I guess, like, I guess I initially reached out to you, like, about a year ago, and so that was really, like, the first time that I sat down and, like, tried to write out, like, yeah, contextualize my life with diabetes, essentially, and a lot. So you
Scott Benner 5:30
were diagnosed when you were seven. You said, Yeah, okay, 21 years ago, you're seven years old. Do you remember any feelings around that time, anything that stayed with you 21 years?
Jenn 5:44
Yeah, I remember going to the doctor's office that day and getting diagnosed. And I remember being in the hospital for a few days and just for the like initial education, and then afterwards going back home. I stayed home from school for a few days, I think, I guess so we could just adjust a little bit. And I remember, like, going back to school and just feeling like completely in a
Scott Benner 6:08
fog. Yeah, feelings wise, though, scared, sad. Do you? Does any of that linger with you?
Jenn 6:13
No, I, I have an amazing mom who really, like, just completely took charge of my management, and I felt like I, as a during my childhood, really relied on her the whole time for a lot of my management, and so I don't ever really remember like feeling scared or alone really sad about it. Yeah,
Scott Benner 6:37
you describe yourself in your notes as having anxiety. So do you have a really great mom or a very anxious mom that was paying super close attention?
Jenn 6:46
Very anxious mom who was paying close attention for sure? I get it from her for sure. So I
Scott Benner 6:52
wasn't sure, because, like, there was part of me that thought, like, Oh, I wonder if she's gonna tell me later that her mom doesn't have any of that anxiety, and she was just like this on top of it, lady. Or if she was gonna tell me, like, my mom's you're laughing. Your mom was just worried that her actions were gonna end the planet, so she had to move very quickly.
Jenn 7:09
No, you hit the nail right on the head. Honestly, that's so funny. Yeah, you're so right.
Scott Benner 7:13
So your mom, like, finally found something to point her anxiety at that's really awesome and, like, valuable. So she put her whole ass into that and really got it done. Yeah, yeah. And then does she manage you and take care of injections and measurements and things like that, or is that you? Or how does that work?
Jenn 7:33
Yeah, she did most of my management for, I mean, definitely at least the first year I got on a pump after six months, and I was pretty, like, responsible young child, I guess as far as that can go, I pretty quickly started, like, I mean, she took care of my settings, but like, then when I would eat, by the time I was, like, eight or nine, I was putting in my carbs and doing that kind of stuff. And
Scott Benner 7:54
were you responsible, or were you anxious? You
Jenn 7:56
know, at the time, I don't remember feeling anxious until I hit college, but who knows
Scott Benner 8:03
what about college made you feel that anxiety. I
Jenn 8:07
think college for me was, like, the first time that I was really pushed, or like I struggled. Like classes were hard, everything always came very easily to me, growing up, like sports, school, all that stuff, and college was hard, and I hit a point where I was struggling and my anxiety really came out then, Jen, I'm
Scott Benner 8:26
gonna ask a question that I want everybody to hear before I say I don't mean it in any way that's gonna make you upset, make you feel like you need to social justice warrior me or anything like that. Do you think your life would be different, better or worse today, if you didn't go to college, like, if it was 1950 and you were like, I'm 21 and this man is going to make a baby with me, and I will keep the house clean. Do you think you'd be better off or No, today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Omnipod, and before I tell you about Omnipod, the device. I'd like to tell you about Omnipod, the company. I approached Omnipod in 2015 and asked them to buy an ad on a podcast that I hadn't even begun to make yet because the podcast didn't have any listeners. All I could promise them was that I was going to try to help people living with type one diabetes, and that was enough for Omnipod. They bought their first ad, and I used that money to support myself while I was growing the Juicebox Podcast. You might even say that Omnipod is the firm foundation of the Juicebox Podcast, and it's actually the firm foundation of how my daughter manages her type one diabetes every day. Omnipod.com/juicebox whether you want the Omnipod five or the Omnipod dash, using my link, let's Omnipod know what a good decision they made in 2015 and continue to make to this day. Omnipod is easy to use, easy to fill, easy to wear. And I. That because my daughter has been wearing one every day since she was four years old, and she will be 20 this year, there is not enough time in an ad for me to tell you everything that I know about Omnipod, but please take a look omnipod.com/juicebox I think Omnipod could be a good friend to you, just like it has been to my daughter and my family. You've probably heard me talk about us Med and how simple it is to reorder with us med using their email system. But did you know that if you don't see the email and you're set up for this, you have to set it up. They don't just randomly call you, but I'm set up to be called if I don't respond to the email, because I don't trust myself 100% so one time I didn't respond to the email, and the phone rings the house. It's like, ring. You know how it works. And I picked it up. I was like, hello, and it was just the recording was like, US med doesn't actually sound like that, but you know what I'm saying. It said, Hey, you're I don't remember exactly what it says, but it's basically like, Hey, your order's ready. You want us to send it, push this button if you want us to send it, or if you'd like to wait. I think it lets you put it off, like a couple of weeks, or push this button for that. That's pretty much it. I push the button to send it, and a few days later, box right at my door. That's it. Us, med.com/juice, box. Or call 888-721-1514, get your free benefits checked now and get started with us, med Dexcom, Omnipod, tandem freestyle, they've got all your favorites, even that new eyelet pump. Check them out now at usmed.com/juice box, or by calling 888-721-1514, there are links in the show notes of your podcast player, and links at Juicebox podcast.com, to us, med and to all the sponsors.
Jenn 11:48
That is such a funny question, because I want to be a part time working, slash stay at home. Mom is my is what I want in life right now. Yeah, can I tell you why? What may be better? Okay,
Scott Benner 12:00
let me tell you why. Yes, I'm almost twice as old as you are, okay? And my wife is a powerful business person, okay? Like she runs large groups of people in high pressure situations. She does an awesome job at it, really awesome. And if you walk downstairs and found her right now and said, Kelly, what do you wish you were doing right now? She would say, taking care of the kids. I'd like to make the house this way. And if I was going to work, I'd like to own a candy shop slash bookstore, type something like that. But I wouldn't want it to be high pressure or something that I needed to have money. And I'm telling you, my wife is 50 years old, and I think if you drug her up here and asked her, she might say, I'm awesome at this job, but I don't know if my brain is wired for it. Does that make sense? Oh,
Jenn 12:52
no, it totally does. And I feel like I growing up was always like, I originally wanted to be a doctor, and I'm like, all for if that is what you want to do, like women empowerment, but and I think a couple years ago, I hit a point where I was just like, that's when I think my internal clock just started ticking, and I was like, I want to have kids, and I there's nothing in the world that would be more important to me than my own kids, and I want to spend as much time with them as I can, and I want to make our house like, like, a loving home. Yeah, and it was wild. I'm
Scott Benner 13:27
gonna back up for a half a second just to reiterate for all the people who are now upset, yeah, I'm sorry. I don't think that your gender or anything about you dictates what you should be doing in the world. I really don't feel like that. I'm just trying to have a conversation around things that I've actually witnessed in my own life. And I'm telling you that if you get into a time machine and take my wife back to being 21 years old and say, Hey, go to college and then go do all the things that you did or don't do that, I don't know what she'd pick. And I bet you she doesn't know either, like, because now, after having lived the whole life of it, and what I've noticed from afar is that that mothering instinct that she has, which is very strong and very loving and wonderful, when she gets into a business situation, she can't really turn it off completely. She just redirects it a little bit, and now she feels guilty for not doing the mothering stuff, and she's trying to oversee like I think it's why she's good at her job. I think the reason that the people who work for my wife love working for my wife, and they genuinely do, I think it's because she's concerned for their outcomes.
Jenn 14:37
Oh, I think that makes the best manager is someone who you feel like really cares about you as a person. So what I'm
Scott Benner 14:44
telling you is, I think in a business setting, my wife's Awesome, yeah, personally, I don't think she's as fulfilled doing this as she would have been doing something different. Maybe I'm speaking out of turn here, like she might come up here and be like, you're an idiot. She'd probably say that no matter what, I've heard her. Ever talk about it. We've talked about it together, and she never dreams of moving up the corporate ladder. That's not where her dreams are. My wife's pretty far up a ladder, and if you asked her, like, are you trying to get to the next rung, she'd be like, I don't know. This is fine. She doesn't care about that stuff. Yeah. No. It's very interesting. Whereas men just kind of, generally speaking, stew internally, let it go, let it out. Move on, have a heart attack and die. Like, you know what I mean? Like, that's how it goes, like, right? This anxiety that I see with so many people that I'm talking to, men and women, obviously, but like, I'm always looking for ways that they could avoid it. And I honestly think if my wife didn't have this high pressure job, her anxiety would be lower. I
Jenn 15:45
will say, though I do think if, after kind of reflecting on a little bit, I wouldn't change anything that I have done. So I am, I am glad that I, like, got a degree and have worked so far in my life. So I do feel like even though it did initially bring out my anxiety. I have learned so much from it, and like, become a stronger person, and it has been very valuable. Like, and my job has been very fulfilling, but I feel like I am fortunate in the way that now my my husband has a very strong career, and so I'm able to kind of like, I think going forward, would take a step back on my hours and more focus on our home life. And so I think I was fortunate that I could do all that. And now, like, when we're as we're kind of talking about having kids and stuff, I do want to take a step back. So yeah, let
Scott Benner 16:35
me say this as well. This goes for men as too. In my mind, like, I think there are guys that aren't wired right to be in those business settings either. Yeah. So if you're not wired that way, and then you get put into that fight, and it is a fight like, you know, if you're not wired that way, it can be debilitating and anxiety inducing. And like, I like it, like, when I do the stuff that I do behind the scenes, like the business stuff, like the subtle emails and tiny arguments that people are having between kind words and like, meetings. And he was like, I love that. Like, I come out of it. I'm like, Oh, I won. I got that, or I'll come out of it. Oh, I messed up. Like, I definitely gave up the high ground in that conversation, like that stuff, like, I think it's fun and but my wife does not think it's fun, and by the way, my son's good at it. He doesn't think it's fun, but I like it. I wish the world was set up so that people could do the things that really compliment them that would be so nice. Yeah, yeah. I wonder how much anxiety comes out of very capable, very intelligent, well educated people being put into situations that if they had a choice, they just wouldn't be in you know what I mean? I yeah, I can definitely see that, not about barefoot and pregnant or masculine guys versus not masculine. I don't mean it like that, like, I just like, and I wondered, like, you're describing yourself, like, may I read your list? Yeah, go for it. Overcoming an eating disorder, depression and anxiety, working long shifts at night in healthcare, learning to fail and persevere. Like, that's a lot of crappy stuff. You're only 28 I have a daughter too who went away to college and handled it awesome. Like, grades great. Like, you know, succeed, succeed, succeed. But I don't think it was good for her in general. Like, I think it was a lot, and the net positive isn't there for me. Like, don't get me wrong. Like, I want everybody to be educated. If you're having some crazy thought right now that I'm saying, like, let's keep you know, let's keep people stupid. Like, I'm not saying that. Like, it just like, fitting where you fit, and I mean that from a really loving place, because, as you're launching children into the world, just saying, Well, that's it. You graduated from high school. Now go to college because that's what people do, or go get a job because that's what people do, or, like, whatever you the thing is in your head, like, if it doesn't fit your kid, they're just going to be miserable. And even if they adapt reasonably well, it doesn't mean they're not gonna have underlying issues. And I'm not saying that life should be easy for everybody. I think steel, sharp and steel and like, you know what I mean? Like, you I believe in all Yeah, anyway, all right, I'll stop now. So you're 20, so you go to, I
Jenn 19:15
wish we could solve all the world's problems in mental health. And it's, yeah, it's all, it's
Scott Benner 19:20
life is a lot. No. And Jen, like, you see where I'm coming from, I pre you must. You'll see the podcast, right? Oh, yeah, I feel bad about it. For my children, for my wife, for other people I know. Like, I'm like, Oh my gosh. Like, you got thrown in this direction and you had to do this thing, and you're really successful, and you're very good at it, but it's not really right for you, and you know it, but it's what needs to be done. So, yeah, I want to go back to you in college, though, your anxiety starts coming out just
Jenn 19:46
kind of like, what kind of happened from there? Is that what you're asking? Yeah,
Scott Benner 19:50
yeah. What do you think? Like, what happened in that situation? How did it impact your diabetes, and where did you go from
Jenn 19:55
there? Yeah. So okay, I guess take like, one step further back. And so I did. I grew up, I had a pump. I did not have a CGM growing up, was just on the pump. And my senior year of high school, I guess I just had some issues with too much scar tissue or something like it. Just none of my sites were working. So I decided to take a pump break. Went back to MDI using pens. It was supposed to be, you know, like, a short six month break maybe, or something, but I, I liked not being attached to anything, so I went into college just on MDI, okay, no. CGM just, you know, then I started college, pre med biology. I went to a pretty rigorous University, and the classes were just very challenging, and I was doing well, but I was spending, like every single free second of my life studying. I mean, I did social things, I was in a sorority, but between any free second was studying, and it was the hardest I've ever studied. I think I kind of exhausted myself, for sure. So I was just wearing myself out.
Scott Benner 21:04
Are you ignoring your diabetes at that point? Like, or,
Jenn 21:08
you know, I think I at that point, I feel like I just didn't even really, like, know that much about looking, yeah, looking back at my whole life, I was like, I feel like I just, I kind of did what I did, and basically tested my blood sugar before meals and took insulin. And I don't think I really did not have that deep of an understanding of diabetes. Honestly, I was just kind of getting by and without the CGM. It's like, who knows what my blood sugar was doing between meals, but I was, you know, walking all over campus, exercising regularly, like, I think I was active enough that my a one CS stayed pretty good, like there were like, upper sixes, maybe like seven ish at that point, so I wasn't ignoring my diabetes, like saying that I was not managing any differently than I had my whole life, okay. But I do feel like looking back, I have no idea, like, what my blood sugars were doing in between meals, like I said, and I'm sure I was having like, spikes and drops, with how I manage it. Now I can tell that I am my blood sugar is spiking or something. I am completely off, and I feel foggy. And so I do think looking back that affected, like, my ability to think as clearly while I was trying to study and do all those normal college things,
Scott Benner 22:24
if I put you in that time machine, do you wish you would have just left the CGM on in state? MDI,
Jenn 22:28
yeah, I wish I had taken advantage of the technology that was available and, like, actually gotten back on a CGM and pump with the CGM. I first tried one when I was, like, eight, and they were horrible back then. Or, like, you had to calibrate a million times a day. And I just hated having, like, one extra thing on my body. And I just refused my mom, like, let it go. And we, like, never looked back. So looking back, I wish that I had had a pump in CGM at that time. I think it would have helped.
Scott Benner 22:57
Do you have other auto immune issues, anything else, or any complications from type one,
Jenn 23:02
no other autoimmune issues. I have had a history of some, like mild gastroparesis, off and on. I think it has resolved now. And so I think technically that they said that it wasn't from my diabetes, because my a one Cs were never really like over like, the highest I ever had was like one, 8.4 and so they said it wasn't from the diabetes, but looking back, like what I know now, with how much I think I was like on a roller coaster and the spikes, I do think that is was because of my diabetes.
Scott Benner 23:35
You didn't find it to be like some people need, like a digestive enzyme. It wasn't like that. It was you were having bouts of very slow digestion during higher blood sugars, you think?
Jenn 23:45
I think so. I did go through a period which was actually my senior year of high school, also, while I was dealing with like had come off the pump, that I actually did, like a liquid diet for three months and then transitioned back to regular food, and thought that it had self resolved at that point, but I've always just kind of had, like a very sensitive stomach, I think, throughout college, like it was still a little bit there. I just didn't realize it
Scott Benner 24:15
okay, you talk a little bit here about depression, is that something you have that you're dealing with now? Is it something from the past? If so, what'd you do with it? So I
Jenn 24:26
am doing much better now. It kind of followed the anxiety. So my freshman year of college, I mostly dealt with just anxiety, and then I think it got so bad by the end of that school year that over that summer, I started really having feelings of depression, and started seeing someone for it, just a psychiatrist. I don't think I went to therapy at that time, but I saw a psychiatrist and got on some anti anxiety medication and antidepressant as well, and it helped a little bit. I ended up not taking it for super long. I don't think I. I at the time, I didn't love the way it made me feel, and so I just gave up, and not the best way to handle that. But do you remember what they gave you? Like, I think, like Prozac and Gabapentin is what I started on.
Scott Benner 25:12
Did you have any, like, self harm thoughts at that point? No, no. Depression. Felt like, what to you?
Jenn 25:19
Just really sad in general, like, feeling like I was a failure and like I didn't have the energy anymore to, like, continue, like I wasn't as motivated as I used to be.
Scott Benner 25:31
Okay. Your mom have any depression? No, she did
Jenn 25:35
not. My dad had, like, an episode of depression when in his young 20s, because his dad passed away young, but that was really kind of a situational thing for him. But then my younger sister during high school developed really severe depression, yeah, kind of do have it in my family a little bit. Yeah. Was she able to manage it? It was a really long journey for her. It was really hard. She is doing a lot better now, but I think it took like, from when she probably back in 2014 to like 2020 she had some really tough years, and she's doing so much better now. I'm really proud of her. I'm glad, yeah, it was a long journey.
Scott Benner 26:12
Does she have any autoimmune stuff? I
Jenn 26:15
think she has kind of like allergies, but I know that's not really auto immune,
Scott Benner 26:18
but, but she has a lot of allergies. No,
Unknown Speaker 26:20
yeah, okay.
Scott Benner 26:22
How are you doing right now? We're halfway through. Let's make sure people know how you're you're doing at the moment, you feel better. Things are going your way. I'm good,
Jenn 26:29
yeah, no, I I'm in a really good spot mentally now. I feel like, over the last few years, I worked through so much, I went to therapy, I did medication. I'm off medication. Now, doing great,
Scott Benner 26:41
awesome. Okay, so when do you meet this boy that you let marry you?
Jenn 26:47
We met in college, so back in it was like 2017 or something. We went in college through a mutual friend,
Scott Benner 26:54
all right, how long you've been together? Then eight, eight years. A little over eight years. Wow. How long you've been married? Little over three years. Good for you, congratulations. Yeah, he's great. Is he? Is he great?
Jenn 27:09
I love him so much. He is he's funny, he's
Scott Benner 27:12
funny. Yeah, that's interesting, like, so if I said to you, drive your husband funny, I wouldn't even say that's like the main descriptor. Describe him in five different words, oh, goodness,
Jenn 27:25
determined. Hard working, caring always puts me first. Okay,
Scott Benner 27:30
describe your dad in five words, oh, goodness.
Jenn 27:33
They are no. My dad and my husband are so different, they're different, right? But my dad is a very, very caring, compassionate guy. I do think that is, I guess, something they have in common, but they're such different people. It's funny,
Scott Benner 27:47
is your husband super calm or no? Yeah, yeah,
Jenn 27:51
I feel like we balance each other out in a variety of different ways. Like I'm more nurturing. He's like, kind of rubbed some dirt in it while I was working through all of my issues at a certain point, like he was the one who told me, like I needed to figure my stuff out. And I honestly, in that moment, like what I needed was that tough love. And I don't think other I think I would have everyone else just babied me. And I think, like, you know, you need that from some people, but at a certain point, I don't think I ever would have, like, took a internal look at myself and decided that I was gonna go through the work to get everything sorted out if he hadn't been like, I need you to do this because, like, it's affecting our relationship.
Scott Benner 28:36
What do you think the impact on him was? What do you think about you impacted him enough for him to say, hey, whatever this is like, can you figure it out please? Because it sucks.
Jenn 28:47
Yeah, I know I would just like, turned from when we first started dating to, like, a year later, was when my depression got really bad. He was a year older than me, so he graduated, and we were doing long distance. We talked on the phone every day, but every day we were talking on the phone, I was ended up crying and just saying, you know, saying about how depressed I was and wasn't really like doing anything about it. And I, I can't imagine, like, I mean, how hard that would be for the person you love to be just crying on the phone to you every day when you can't do anything about it? Do you
Scott Benner 29:20
think it was breaking his heart? Yeah, yeah. And then what did you do? So you went to you went to a doctor. They gave you meds, but then you were like, No, thank you. I'm not gonna take these anymore. So what do you think actually happened? Like, where's your resolution come from?
Jenn 29:33
That was my freshman year when they prescribed me meds and I start, I tried them and stopped. So this is now a few years later. This was after I was rejected from medical school, and my depression got, like, significantly worse because of that. So then after he kind of gave me that kick in the booty, okay, well, I have to, you know, I will work on whatever I need to work on for my application. At that point, I was still like, maybe I. Study for another year and, like, reapply to medical school or whatever. But I basically, I just started at that point, kind of like I quit seeing my friends. I would go to class and come home and come back to my apartment and, like, sleep, and I was just like a shell of a human being. And after he said that to me, I started, I do think I got back in touch with a psychiatrist and therapist at that point, started doing therapy, and I started just like, you know, even when I didn't feel like it, just going through the motions of, like, normal life, seeing my friends, going to work out, going to class. Eventually, after doing that for long enough, like I actually did feel better, it did take a few years to, like, really work through all of my anxiety and depression and get to a point that I I don't feel depressed anymore. So it overall, it took a few years, but that initial, like, six months when I really went from I kind of just given up on everything to I was at least trying, not
Scott Benner 30:58
giving up on life, just giving up on like, you weren't, like, I'm gonna jump off a building. You were like, I just don't care. I'm just gonna sit around and like, whatever happens, happens. Geez. What did you find yourself like, soothing with? Was it social media? Was it like, food? Like, what did you do when you were like, I just, I'm giving up. You remember what you did? I
Jenn 31:17
think I just, like, sat in my room, in our in my apartment, and, like, watched Netflix.
Scott Benner 31:25
All right, yeah, what was the best show you watched while you were impressed?
Jenn 31:27
I think I was watching Grey's Anatomy for like, the 10th time.
Scott Benner 31:32
For the temp. Thought I've literally watched it so many times. This is the part where kereb says, yeah,
Jenn 31:38
oh yeah. I could quote it at one point, I'm sure. Well,
Scott Benner 31:43
so you're just hiding from the world a little bit. Yeah, did the access to so much entertainment make it feel like you weren't hiding, or did you know you were?
Jenn 31:52
I knew I was, yeah, okay, yeah, right. It affected a lot of friendships, unfortunately. Oh, I'm sorry, but yeah. I mean, like, I said, I'm things have, like, completely turned around, and I am so happy with where things are now. But yeah, and it was my senior year of college, and it just, I, I always looking back, I'm like, that was kind of a stinky way to end my college career, because overall it was, like, a great time, but that year, just, it was rough,
Scott Benner 32:19
not good. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so where does the eating disorder come in?
Jenn 32:26
So it kind of started in high school as well. It was like my freshman or sophomore year of high school, I was never overweight or anything, and I was athletic. I played sports growing up, but kind of like my freshman year of high school, I just started to feel like I was felt like a little chunkier than I wanted to be, and oh, gosh, I still remember I literally just looked like my mom had some of these, like, South Beach diet, like, books or something. And I literally just grabbed one. And like, I was just, like, I just want to, like, lose a few pounds, and like, feel a little like leaner. And I just read it, and I decided I was not going to eat any more carbs, and I ended up kind of developing some anorexia and just not eating enough. Had lost a quite a bit of weight. I went into therapy for that. I recovered. Did fine, really, through the rest of my high school career, but like one thing that one of my doctors said to me that I will always remember is, unfortunately, sometimes with eating disorders like it's kind of like a door that once you open, it is very difficult to like fully shut. So even though I was had recovered and was healthy and had a healthy weight and everything, it kind of came back when I had a little bout of gastroparesis my senior year of high school, and I lost some weight from that, and I was like, Oh, I'm so skinny. I love it. And then through throughout college, I kind of my weight kind of fluctuated a little bit up and down. It was just that door, like, I just couldn't fully close. So I think I I kind of continued to just, like, have a little bit of not normal eating habits,
Scott Benner 34:00
just not eating or just restricting it significantly. Or how did it manifest itself? Okay, so
Jenn 34:06
this actually kind of like comes into one of the big things I had to overcome as I was, like, preparing for pregnancy. But yeah, I was kind of off and on, and then over, I would say, kind of in, like 2021 as I was actually getting ready for a wedding, of course, I wanted to be like looking as good as possible. Unfortunately, that did kind of manifest in starting to over exercise and under eat again. So I was walking or running like four to eight miles a day, and a lot of days I was just completely skipping, not eating until dinner, and I would have just normal to bigger dinner, and so that I was probably, like, a lot of days, maybe not even hitting, like 1000 calories, and lost a little bit of weight, not even anything significant. And at that time, my diabetes was not very well managed. And so I think that. That restarted some of the gastroparesis symptoms, and then it started this horrible cycle of my stomach was upset all the time, gained some of the weight back after our wedding, and a lot of days I just like, was not eating until dinner time. And then that actually evolved into, I guess, at this point, my body was just very unhappy with me. I started, like, waking up in the middle of the night hungry because I had barely eaten that day. Like, I would wake up at like, anytime between one and 3am I consider myself someone with, like, a lot of self control and whatever, but it was something I just it was undeniable, and I, like, couldn't go back to sleep until I, like, got up and had a snack. That, of course, is terrible for your blood sugars to eat in the middle of the night, because your body just doesn't process it the same and you're not moving. And so your insulin isn't really, like, having the same effectiveness. I would take insulin for it. It wasn't ever anything with that. And I would take, like, four times the amount I would normally take for however many carbs I ate, go back to bed, wake up with my blood sugar in the two to three hundreds. Not feel good. Obviously, my stomach was hurting because I had eaten something in the middle of the night and it hadn't digested properly. Then I wouldn't be hungry all day long. I wouldn't eat again until dinner time,
Scott Benner 36:22
and this just kept happening over and over again. It was horrible.
Jenn 36:27
I felt so much shame about it, too. I didn't tell anyone. My husband is kind of a deep sleeper, so he had absolutely no idea this was going on. I tried to talk to my doctors about it, but when I was actually like, in front of them, I couldn't get myself to say, like, what was actually going on? I was so embarrassed
Scott Benner 36:46
tell you, I don't think I've ever been awoken by hunger in my life like that. That seems really like a, like, a vigorous response,
Jenn 36:53
yes, yeah. And then it's disrupting your sleep. I was sleeping terrible. So I overall, like, my health was just kind of crumbling. I felt horrible all the time. This really happened from like beginning of 2022 it was increasing in frequency over that year, and I had recently started my job as an ICU nurse. The schedule that they do for new nurses is you alternate day shift and night shift every six weeks. And so that was not helping my sleep schedule either. And I think I had gotten basically gone on this train with this weird eating situation, and then my work schedule, and I absolutely like, I could not make it stop. I tried different sleep aids, like melatonin, magnesium, nothing worked for me. And I think it was just one of those things, like every single day, like I would go into it with the intention of, like, I'm obviously not ever going to do that again. Like that. I feel horrible. I want to feel better, but then every single night, I would wake up and I just was just so weird as feeling, and I couldn't resist it. And it was so it was never an ending cycle. It felt like,
Scott Benner 38:07
do you look back on it? Jen, I'm sorry and think, like, do you have some hindsight about what happened? Were you just so, like, I don't want to say something silly, but like, Were you just so off kilter and out of step and unbalanced that everything was just impacting everything else. And everything was a problem 100%
Jenn 38:23
I it was totally looking back on it. I think it started out small and and then, like you said, I think several factors went into it and created this black hole of just everything was
Scott Benner 38:36
off. I have to tell you, there are times that I think that I'm having like, or I see people having trouble in their life where I want to just say to them, like, Hey, eat an egg. Okay, in the morning, have a nice little sandwich. In the afternoon, maybe have some protein around five or six o'clock at night, go to bed and wake up in the morning. Do that for a week in a row and see if you don't feel better. Yeah, I feel like I've seen this enough in my life to say with confidence that schedule is very important. Yes, like, just schedule yourself, and it fixes a lot of problems. You know, when you were a kid, and you would spin yourself in a circle and then just run away, yeah, you'd spin, and then you'd run, and you'd run until you fell and then you'd get up again and try to run again. You fall over. I think that happens sometimes. I think sometimes you just need to stop and just start over. Like, right? Like, just stop and start over. Sometimes, I think it's, it could be really good advice, but I want to hear what you did.
Jenn 39:30
Yeah, okay. So then now here we are, January 2023, so this has been happening for over a year now, and, oh, you're in this cycle for a year. Oh, yeah, okay, okay, learn longer. So this was when the thought first crossed my mind that my me and my husband would maybe want to have kids in the next couple years. So I really I knew that type one diabetes and pregnancy like there were extra strict goals and stuff, but I didn't really know exactly what it. Entailed. So I just, I Googled what the pregnancy goals are, and when I read that, it was, I mean, it was, like, a goal of six or less, a, 1c, and I was like, Oh, my goodness, I am, like, so incredibly far away from this. I've had diabetes for 20 years, and I've literally never been that good. And I feel like, you know, every time I go to the end, oh, I've been trying for the past few months to do better, and it I'm always like, quote, shocked by, you know, my ANC is still like, 7.5 I was like, Okay, I'm going to have to make some serious changes. And I 100% knew immediately, like, my biggest problem was that my blood sugars were running in the two to 300 every single night, and I'm like, that's such a big portion of your day. I was like, I have wanted to change this. It had been something I have it. I was like, I just really need to break this habit. But I think it was finally that thought of, I'm not going to be able to have kids if I can't change this, that I was like, Okay, I really need to hunker down and figure out how to fix this. You think you'd
Scott Benner 41:06
still be in that spiral, like, not even a spiral, but just like a dizzying, like experience, if you didn't want to have kids.
Jenn 41:13
I wonder that. And I do feel like I had gotten to the point where, just from, like, my health, I just really wanted to change. I don't think I would have at least gotten to the point that I am now if I hadn't decided I wanted to have kids. Wow, yeah, it was a big motivator.
Scott Benner 41:30
So how long you've been listening to the podcast? A year and a half? This is my takeaway after a decade, over and over again. I guess it's no great like secret to people who really study people, or, you know, psychology or anything like that. But so many people are caught in some sort of a loop right up until they decide that the love for someone else is more important. Yeah, that they want to be better for a person or an idea or a job, or because I want to have children, and I want to be there for them, or whatever. Like that feeling is snap so many people out of it. It's astounding how many people have told me that story of one kind or another. Yeah,
Jenn 42:10
no, it, I mean, it was, it was just like the thought crossed my mind, like, I mean, even if I am able to have kids, or, like, a healthy pregnancy, like, 20 years from now, am I I'm going to have all these complications from how I'm managing my diabetes currently, and I didn't want that. And so it still did take a few months, and I really still felt like I was not making any progress. I finally decided that the next step really needed to be stopping this crazy work schedule of switching day and night shift every six weeks. So I spoke with my manager and decided to apply for a medical accommodation to go straight day shift. That took only about a month to finalize, and fortunately, that was approved, so I now was just working day shift as a nurse, and it did, pretty quickly start. I started to feel better. It's still I did end up finding, like, Z Quill, melatonin, plus chamomile, something that actually, like, kind of helped me sleep through the night. It was kind of a slow progress over, like, a few months, where it was just becoming a little bit at a time, more frequent where I was actually, like, sleeping through the night and then waking up with the good blood sugar that was life changing. It still was where, if I did wake up in the middle the night, I had to use, like, literally, every ounce of willpower. And I think it was that extra motivation for wanting to become pregnant that really helped me break. That's like the will Perry power to, yeah, to stay in bed, yeah. And it was and then my, I think my body just started to get used to sleeping through the night and not feeling hungry in the middle of the night. And then I also did have to really work on, like, trying to eat like a normal person throughout the day, and, like, making sure that I was eating lunch, eating dinner at least, like I was actually nourishing myself and I wasn't waking up at them all night, because my body was like, desperately, like, you need more calories, right? So you
Scott Benner 44:08
got your calories during the day, and then you didn't have to wake up at night. But and tell me again, that whole process of breaking that cycle eating when you're supposed to be eating, etc, how long did that take you? Oh, my
Jenn 44:19
goodness, like months from the time I first started, yeah, at several months, at least from the time I first started thinking about it, to the time I actually, like, felt like I was almost had broken the whole habit was like, eight or nine months.
Scott Benner 44:32
And when you open your eyes at night and realize you were hungry and awake, and did you think, yes, but after you thought that, like, what kept your ass in bed. I
Jenn 44:41
was like, I am doing this for myself and for my husband and our future kids. Felt like
Scott Benner 44:46
you had a bigger purpose. Yeah, can I ask why you didn't work on the eating during the day, before the sleeping through the night? Part was that harder.
Jenn 44:54
I think it was harder and because of a cycle that it had created, of like, if I did eat. In the middle of the night, my stomach hurt so bad that next day that it was it was physically hard to eat.
Scott Benner 45:06
Okay, so you had I got it so you, and you've said that already, but it took me a minute to get it through my head. So you had to stop getting out of bed at night and eating so that you could actually eat during the day. Yeah, gotcha. And then once you were able to eat during the day, then you didn't wake up overnight. Yes, chakra con,
Jenn 45:23
right? I know I was like, what a what a concept, and it will well. And it was hard, because I was like, I have never heard of anyone else like, having this issue. Like, surely I'm not the only one who has ever experienced this. But I tried googling things and, like, I just couldn't find much information, and so I just felt like, I felt it was very isolating. No, no,
Scott Benner 45:46
I can't imagine. And again, your eyes are open. Your husband's not awake. You don't want to wake him up. Like, does he know this about you? He does now, yeah, but you didn't. You weren't excited to be like, Hey, honey, guess what? I wake up in the middle of the night like a crack head. You're not looking to share that with anybody, right?
Jenn 46:03
No, exactly. Yeah. Okay, yeah. It was a secret for a long time to
Scott Benner 46:07
keep this one to myself, because I sound insane. Am I right? Yes,
Jenn 46:12
yeah, I was. I felt so much shame that it was like, until I could prove to myself that I could, like, fix it. I, like, couldn't even bring myself to speak about it,
Scott Benner 46:24
and now you don't feel ashamed to share it with me. No, and I, I'm
Jenn 46:27
really proud of myself for, like, overcoming that. I think that honestly was the hardest part of this entire journey. It was wild. But I also just was like, I don't maybe I literally am the only one of your listeners who has experienced this, and I would not be shocked, but I'm also, like, if there's anyone else out there who is experiencing this, here's what worked for me. And like, it was still really hard, but like, maybe it will at least give someone else, like, a guide point.
Scott Benner 46:55
You know, I said earlier, I have takeaways from having conversations with people. One of my takeaways from my conversations with Erica in the mental health stuff is that shame is a huge part of what holds people back across all different kinds of issues, yeah, yeah. Really, just being ashamed is, yeah, it's interesting how, like, powerful it is. Oh, look at you. Do you feel accomplished now sitting here talking about it,
Jenn 47:18
yeah, I mean, I have to say I do and like, throughout, and at that point that brought my ANC from like, 7.4 to 6.1 simply by doing that, it was
Scott Benner 47:31
crazy and your stomach doesn't hurt anymore. No, it
Jenn 47:35
is so much better. I feel like I I eat on a normal person's schedule. Yeah, it's improved a lot.
Scott Benner 47:41
I think everything is so tied to keeping a tidy schedule. Yeah, I just bought the book make your bed because I was, I was having a conversation with Eric. Eric and I are making a series right now that you haven't heard yet. It'll be out by the time I say this. It doesn't matter. But Eric and I are making a series right now about goal setting and reaching goals the way I got to, got to that idea, like, I reached out to her, and I said, like, this is how our relationship works. Like, I say, Hey, do you want to talk about this? Like, do you have something to say about this? Because I'm interested in this. If you are, like, that's kind of how it goes. I had embroiled myself for a couple of days paying attention to what was very popular in this one segment on YouTube. And I realized that people were taking advantage of other people by telling them, I'm successful and you can be too. It's like, digital snake oil. Yeah, they make themselves successful. Like it would be like if I got up and I made a YouTube channel and I said, Hey, I have a very popular podcast. Here's how I did it, you could do it too. The truth is, you can't do it too. Like it's random that it happened for me. Like you can't just randomize yourself into somebody else's situation. But you hold this thing up in front of people that they want, and you tell them, here are the steps I took for it. And you know, you can do it too. And you get a lot of views that way. Like, a lot of likes, a lot of views, a lot of like, you know, a lot of what people are looking for on social media. Meanwhile, most of the people who are watching it are not going to accomplish that thing. They probably will never even try to accomplish that thing. So I started to asking myself, like, then, why are these videos so popular if it's not really a person who's there and saying to themselves, like, I want to be a popular YouTuber like this guy. Like, what is it they're getting? And I realized it seems like they're living vicariously through that person and through the idea that I am going to be successful too. It's so easy. He's explained it to me. I understand it. It's going to be me. You don't actually do it, but you get the feeling of it. And then I stepped back and I said to Erica, I'm like, I want to talk about goal setting, because it's obviously a very human idea. Like, like, right? Like, I want to set a goal. I want to reach a goal. Goal, and I want to conquer something, and then set a new goal and go again. What the people watching the YouTube videos don't realize is they've lied to themselves into thinking they're going to be whatever the YouTube video is about. But what they're really doing is setting the goal of watching the YouTube video and feeling like it's taught them something and that they're going to do something, and they've pushed their goal setting at something that's simplistic. It's like scrolling like, I don't know how much you pay attention to it, but yeah, the algorithm on Instagram, for example, it helps you to feel like you've completed a task even though you've done nothing. That's why you feel good when you're done with it, because you're like, Oh, I set out to do a thing and I did it. You set a goal and you haven't thought about it like that or but, well, listen, Jen, don't you don't have to think about it that way. Watch any number of documentaries from the people who wrote the algorithms, who are jacking your brain to make you feel like you've accomplished something, right? So crazy, yeah. And so what I said was, is, like, why don't we actually teach people how to actually accomplish something? Yeah, and we'll wrap it around diabetes, like, let them, like, set small goals for their diabetes and feel accomplished and move on. So that's what she and I are doing right now, but you did that for yourself, but you didn't know it.
Jenn 51:09
That's an interesting, like, perspective. I am, like, loving this idea for this new series of yours. Thank you, because I think it is that, like, you can listen to other people's stories, and I, for me, like, personally, like listening to your podcast, like, it helped motivate me, I think, like, I started with, like the pro tips, and then listen to all the pregnancy ones, but then, like, just hearing everyone's story on your podcast, it was, like, motivating, but to overcome, like, my specific issues I was having, Like, I did have to set my own very individual goals. Yeah,
Scott Benner 51:43
no, you have to figure out what yours are. Yeah, and listen. I'm sure there are probably people who are listening to the podcast who, right now, are making themselves feel like they're doing something because they're listening. But I think that the trick here is, is that that actually works for this podcast, because you do learn things along the way. Yes, you set them into motion, even though you don't know you're doing it. And eventually you will be better off once it's over. Whereas, if you're listening to a YouTube video about a guy who's really good at talking to people about how to be a YouTuber, that's not going to help you, because you're not going to be a YouTuber, but you do have diabetes, and you are going to learn how to Bolus if you listen long enough. Yes. Would you talk a little more about that, please, the the idea of listening and how it, how it helped you along. Yeah.
Jenn 52:28
Okay, so then, now I've had, like, made some progress on the whole sleeping thing, but I was looking for, like, something more to help. I was kind of, like, Googling, like, books about diabetes. And then it dawned on me, like, maybe someone's created a podcast about this. So I found your podcast and started with the pro tips. The first one being, like, with, you know this title about start newly diagnosed or starting over. I was like, Well, I'm completely starting over. So this is perfect. And it was so helpful. Because, like I said, I felt like I literally knew, like almost nothing about managing my diabetes other than checking my blood sugar at meals and taking in slim for it. So I listened through all of the Pro Tip series. And I think some of the main themes that I like relearned from it or learned for the first time was literally like the Pre Bolus thing, literally had not done that in years. Yeah, that was a big that was honestly such a big thing for me. And then literally, everything that you talked about in the Pro Tip series continued to help me move my ANC further down from September, was 6.1 and then by the by December, 5.5 and then a couple months later, 5.2 and I've kept it there for the past year. Good
Scott Benner 53:44
for you. Congratulations. It's awesome. Thank you. Yeah, it's really great. Can I ask you, Are you a person who classically can learn this way by listening? Or did you have to make yourself do it?
Jenn 53:57
Yes, I love learning this way. I would just go take a walk or, like, while I was driving to work or something, just have your podcast playing, and I felt like I was just absorbing so much information from it. Earlier
Scott Benner 54:10
with you, I referred to the podcast as we but it's I'm making more written content now out of the podcast, for the people who say, like, I can't listen, like it doesn't work for me, like listening doesn't work for me. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. So I'm gonna do that, but I have to be honest with you, I don't think it's gonna matter, because I think people say they want something, and then you give it to them, and often they go, Oh, that's nice. And then you look at the clicks, and you go, Oh, nobody Look at this. So I'm gonna do it, because I want there to be good content for people who learn all different ways. But I also think I've been paying a lot of attention to people who are saying, like, Listen, I'm just not a person who can listen to something auto audibly and then come away with an answer. And it's funny, because I want to tell them, like, I don't think that's how it works. I don't think you listen and then at the. The end of the hour, you just go like, Oh, I know everything I know now. Like, watch me regurgitate it right now. Like, I could write it down in bullet points. Like, I don't think it works that way. Like, I think you listen and your mind remembers bits of ideas, and then you look up six months from Wow, and you're like, Oh, I understand all this. All of a sudden. I sometimes think that people who say I understand there are people who just their brains don't work this way, and listening to something's never going to help them. But I also think there are people who have an expectation that they're going to listen for 20 minutes and then be a genius when it's over. And that's not how that works.
Jenn 55:33
Yes, actually, kind of like on that train of thought. I think over that next, like first three to six months of listening to your podcast. I mean, listen to so much, it was like a continued progress, but like, still, like you said, I mean, you're not going to listen to, like, one episode and gain all the knowledge that you need to know. But then it's also like about practicing and applying that knowledge. Because so I was, had still been on MDI and, like a FreeStyle Libre CGM, when I first started listening to your podcast, I knew I wanted to get on a pump soon in preparation for trying to get pregnant. So I started my pump in October or something that year, and was using, like, a lot of stuff, as I was learning from your podcast to apply to, like, help transition over to the pump and get comfortable with changing settings and stuff, and even like learning about the different types of insulins that you can use in the pump, like I use loom Gen, which is similar to FiOS, yep, eventually switched over to the Dexcom so that I can use the control IQ. I mean, it was just a process of, I think it took a good three to six months of being on the pump to actually be like, really comfortable with using the pump and and then even over that, like next year to be honest, like I feel like I'm sometimes, like, still learning new things about my pump, and I've been on it for a little over a year now.
Scott Benner 56:57
The first time I threw a baseball, I was a child, okay, I played little league baseball. I had catches with my dad and catches with other kids. I played in middle school for a little bit, and then after that, I didn't really play anymore. And then one day I was an adult, sort of and I had a kid, and that kid wanted to throw a baseball with me, and I did it with him. And he got older and older and older, and one day he started throwing a baseball really hard. If I would have stopped and said, Hello, Google. How do I catch a baseball? When someone's throwing it at me really fast, they go, oh, there's five steps here to catching it. It's great. If I would have taken that five steps written on a piece of paper, walked outside and said to my son, throw me the ball. Step one, the ball would have hit me right in the face. Like, right, like, so at some point, you do the thing, and you do it again, yeah, and again and again and again and again, until it just happens. And then one day, 60 feet from you is that jacked up, 20 year old throwing a baseball at you, 93 miles an hour, and you're just like, clunk, clunk, clunk. And you're just catching it, and you don't know how I would get done. Sometimes I'd be like, Oh my god, the ball didn't hit me in the face. I never knew how that didn't happen, right? I was always just like, Oh my God. Like, I can't believe I didn't get hit in the face again. The truth is, I think diabetes is like that. Like, I think, like, there are some people like, don't get me wrong. There are some people who listen. They have great like, like, their brains work a certain way. They pick out details. They sit down and make notes while they're listening. They're like, these are the instructions. They follow the instructions a few times, then they know it, right? I know there are people who are who learn that way. I'm not one of those people. I want to tell you a secret if you think that I could listen to my own podcast, having never heard it before, and then be done with it 20 hours later, at the end of a series, and be like, Oh, I know everything about diabetes. It wouldn't work that way for me. I would listen over and over and over again. I have pets in my house that have really specialized care needs, and I know exactly how to take care of them, and I can regurgitate it to you now exactly, but I did that by listening to videos and audio about how to take care of them over sometimes two and three times. And I hear people say, like, there's a post that went up this morning. This woman put up a picture. She's lovely. She and I, like go back and forth online quite a bit. Nicole, Nicole, I'm shouting out your post. It's of her car. She's driving in her car, and she's listening to Bolus sing for insulin. It's part of the Pro Tip series. She said this episode is worth replaying or listening to for the first time. You can find it as a best of you can find it. It's called Bolus sing for fat. Excuse me, bullying insulin for fat, right? She's listening to it over and over again. It's not step one, look at the ball. Step two, hold up your hand. Step three, point the glove. That's not how it works. It works where you just sit down to eat and there's french fries or an avocado or anything else that might have some fat in it that slows down your digestion, and you just go, Oh, I know that when I do this, I have to. Extend out my Bolus a little bit, yes, or I know I have to Bolus again an hour from now, because these French fries are going to slow down my digestion, and this whole thing's going to hit me, and my blood sugar is going to start climbing. And, you know, I got to get ahead of that. You're not looking like, in my opinion. You're not looking for some encyclopedic, computerized understanding of diabetes you're looking to be in a situation where, when the ball comes at you, you raise your hand and you catch and you don't even know how the it happened. Yeah, that's what, that's what I think you're trying to do,
Jenn 1:00:30
for sure. And I think with like, diabetes, that's, that's like, how you have to be because, like, you've said, like, you have to be flexible, because not every situation is going to be exactly the same. Everyone's body works different, sometimes different times of the day, or depending on what activity you've done that day, everything's gonna work different. And I that was like, kind of, I guess, another reason like that, I felt like I wanted to come talk about this subject, because going into pre like, I can't imagine not have, having, like, this past, like, year of experience of, like, practicing so many different just for so long, like, on my pump and with different diabetes scenarios, kind of and like, getting more comfortable with, like, not every day is going to be the same. It's harder when you're traveling. I just had the flu two weeks ago. Like, that was not fun. But like, I was confident enough with, like, tweaking my settings and stuff that I was like, over 90% time in range the whole week I had the flu with like, an average blood sugar of, like, 112 being able to, like, preparing for pregnancy, I think, is so important, because it is going to be like a whole new ball game. And like, you're going to be facing, like, all those changes with your hormones. And I think like feeling confident going into it that you can be flexible, and that is not going to be easy, but like having the confidence to manage things and make changes quickly as needed.
Scott Benner 1:01:54
So Jen, this is up to you. Okay, do you want to end your story here, or do you want to tell the rest about your pregnancy is, do we have time to keep talking? I make a podcast, like, I just, I have plenty of time if you do.
Jenn 1:02:06
Okay, perfect. Yeah, no, I'd like to kind of like, finish up my story, if that's okay with you. Okay, perfect. So we kind of ended up, like, pushing back when we wanted to actually start trying for, like, a little bit longer after this point where I'm now on my pump, and we had some trips last year and just life things that we kind of pushed back our timeline a little bit, even though, like, my blood sugars were in a comfortable place, and I'd gotten like to go ahead from my doctor, we started trying to get pregnant just this past December. I did not expect it to happen quickly at all, because I feel like I've heard so much like through friends and other people like it can take a while. I went into it definitely prepared for that to happen. I was shocked that the first month we started trying this December, I found out on Christmas Eve that I was pregnant, and sorry, this is maybe where I'm going to get a little teary.
Scott Benner 1:03:02
Don't worry, I've been waiting the whole hour, so go ahead. So we
Jenn 1:03:06
obviously were thrilled. I told my husband on Christmas Day, because I had been working at the hospital Christmas Eve and Christmas and I wanted to be sure, so I got a second positive test on Christmas Day, and told him that evening, after I got home from work. Unfortunately, just a few days later, I miscarried. So I had it was obviously very early. Some times the doctors, like refer to it as a chemical pregnancy. Since it is so early, I guess it just just means an early miscarriage that was obviously devastating I was in, had already been working with the MFM team that I had chosen to handle, like my pregnancy care. So I was speaking with them over the phone while this was happening, and got like blood work to confirm a few days later. And I guess kind of like from what they said, and something like that I take comfort in, is like, as devastating as it was, I think I can take comfort in, or at least from what they said, that I can't get pregnant, it will happen again. And I do believe in that, especially with the timing, oh my goodness, like Christmas and New Year's. Yeah, it was really hard, tough to
Scott Benner 1:04:16
get excited about a a new planter or whatever, because boys buy the worst gifts, is what I'm saying. And yeah, it's like, Oh, awesome. What is this? I know we're so bad at
Jenn 1:04:29
right? So the doctor kind of told us to wait a month after that, get myself, give my body some time to recover, and then we could start trying again this month. Oh, oh, this
Scott Benner 1:04:40
is it. It's gonna happen this month. I hope so. I hope so you're gonna let him try. Yeah, all right, you start on Valentine's Day a couple days from now.
Jenn 1:04:51
I was really hoping that, like, I could end the like my story would be able to end on like, our episode with like, you know. Exciting news that here I was pregnant. I had done all this work and prep and like, you know, everything worked out perfectly. But I also did go into it like, when I reached out to you, I was like, I know anything can happen. I know people who have struggled to get pregnant, whether it takes a long time. I do know other people who, like, have had a miscarriage, and you just don't know how it's going to go. But I take comfort in like, I have done everything that that is in my control, yeah, to set myself up for success. And like, I know that, like when we do get pregnant, I will have done everything I can to prepare to have, like, a healthy pregnancy. Those are the things that are in my control. And that's
Scott Benner 1:05:42
right, that's all you can do. What I've done, yeah, and listen, I'm not certain, but I don't see a reason why you can't have a healthy pregnancy like it you've set yourself up really well. And of course, what happened is incredibly unfortunate, but I don't know that that means indicative of what's going to happen next. You know, right, what do they think the doctors, what did they talk about?
Jenn 1:06:04
Yeah, that's kind of what they said, too. So I think unfortunately, like, early miscarriage is a little bit more common than people realize. Sometimes, a lot of times that people don't even know. I mean, I was testing before I was even due for my period. I
Scott Benner 1:06:19
was gonna say, like you were testing, that's how you found out so quickly, right? There's a world where, if you weren't trying to have a baby, this could have happened. Would it have even made a blip for you? Would you even have noticed? No,
Jenn 1:06:29
I would never have known. Okay, I mean, I did start to have a little bit of some symptoms, like the last two days, but, yeah, I might never have even known, because early pregnancy symptoms. Can really just miss that too, absolutely no so I might never have even known. And so yeah, the doctors were like, just kind of reassured me, like it is, unfortunately, a little more common than people realize, but that they don't think it has any indication of like, it doesn't mean it's more likely for it to happen again. It was just wasn't a viable
Scott Benner 1:07:07
I'll be random, just not a viable pregnancy. Random. Did that trigger any of your anxiety or depression? I
Jenn 1:07:13
am kind of surprised, like I feel like I have handled it very, kind of well,
Scott Benner 1:07:19
unlike how you might have when you were younger, yeah, so you went with, I'll just rub some dirt on it.
Jenn 1:07:24
I think I was, like, appropriately sad and stressed out about it for especially the first couple weeks. I actually started a new job, like the week after. So honestly, that was kind of a good distraction.
Scott Benner 1:07:36
Keep going, keep moving. Yeah? And I
Jenn 1:07:40
think I, yeah, I grieved, and then just trying to, trying to, like, reassure myself that there is still hope for the next time. And, you know, I had my husband there to support me, and I confided in, like, a couple of my close friends, and they have been really supportive of me. And so I feel now like I don't feel like it has, like, re triggered, lovely, my anxiety and depression. Yeah, how
Scott Benner 1:08:03
did Mr. Rub some dirt on it handle the the problem? Great. Question.
Jenn 1:08:08
I think he was very sad too. Um, obviously. And the first this was, like, right around New Year's and stuff, and the weather where we live was has been really cold and
Scott Benner 1:08:20
likes, it's terrible. Let's just say it's terrible. Yeah, yeah. People kind
Jenn 1:08:25
of, yeah. We kind of, like, he had some time off from work because of the holidays, and I had too. So we just, like, kind of hung out and, like, watched our favorite movies, and we went over to a friend's house for New Year's, and I was, I will say about, like, a week and a half after it happened, I was still kind of, like, kind of gloomy. And he did get to a point where he was like, okay, Jen, like, we gotta, like, we can't be talking about this 24/7 anymore. It's like, I do kind of want, I want my wife back. Yeah. And I was like, you know, you're kind of right. I kind of every single conversation that we have had was me either saying that I was bummed about it or, like, talking about something pregnancy related. And it did kind of push me back into okay, I can be sad about this, and I have grieved this, and I'm still grieving a little bit, but kind of need to focus on moving forward. Yeah,
Scott Benner 1:09:20
you have to do regular things again and not feel like those regular things are perspective wise, not important anymore, because I've lost the pregnancy. Have this experience. The experience is so big and powerful that everything else pales in comparison. And so it's hard to say, like, oh, we should go to a movie, because it feels Am I right? It's like, well, we should go to a movie, but I mean, how can we go to a movie in a world where we lost the pregnancy? You gotta stop judging this, this tragedy, against the rest of life, I think
Jenn 1:09:48
exactly. And I think honestly, that first month that we started trying, that's kind of how I was, like, it was kind of all consuming for me. Like I felt like I was thinking all day about, like, oh, like, you. Ovulation strips to track my ovulation and stuff. And so I was, I'm as me being a planner and stuff like, and I was just very excited about it. It did kind of start to, like, kind of consume, like, most of my thoughts. And I was very focused on it. And so I do think too, like coming out of that, and like having him kind of remind me, like I do need to focus on, like, on other aspects of our lives. I do think it kind of like reminded me going forward and now, like, starting this month and kind of moving forward, I feel like I am able to do a better job of remembering that my the rest of my life is not stopping just because we're trying to get pregnant.
Scott Benner 1:10:40
What's the plan now this time? Are you going to just bang a bunch and then wait to not get your period? Are you going to keep tracking with pregnancy strips and stuff
Unknown Speaker 1:10:48
like that? Oh, I'm totally still tracking.
Scott Benner 1:10:51
Ken, this was a nice moment for you to say. I'm just throwing caution to the wind. It'll just be okay, and I'll know when I'm pregnant because I won't get my period. No, no,
Unknown Speaker 1:11:00
my mom
Scott Benner 1:11:02
would be very proud
Jenn 1:11:04
exactly my doctor told me, when I told her, like, we were gonna start trying, she was like, you know, for the first few months, like, don't try tracking your ovulation. Like, just, like, relax and just let it be and don't stress about it. And I was like, girl, do you know me? Because no
Scott Benner 1:11:21
or what if we just use this calendar and have very cold sex on these specific days and times? Okay?
Jenn 1:11:29
Yeah, right. I think that's what she was worried about. And I was like, Okay, if not gonna like for me, I would just rather have more information than not. And I but it's not gonna make it you're not making
Scott Benner 1:11:41
it overly clinical. You're just paying attention. Yes, I'm sure there's nothing wrong with that. That seems fine. Yeah, I think so too. I mean, as long as it doesn't turn into an 80 sitcom where you're like, calling your husband and going, it's two o'clock, meet me in the den. You know what? I mean? Like, it's, I think you're fine. So
Jenn 1:11:55
doing a better job moving forward of not letting it like, consume my every thought, but still just having information for myself and tracking things so that I Well, Jen,
Scott Benner 1:12:07
let me. Let me tell you something. You've said a ton of impressive things in this time we've been talking you've talked about and laid out how you've experienced anxiety and depression and work through it, how you've had eating disorders, and work through it, like you've talked about, like, pulling your life together, because it sounds like you were out of control for a while, like, just the Yeah, with your schedule and how you felt your body constantly. I think that honestly, that's a major win. Like putting yourself back on that schedule, getting up in the morning, making your bed doing the things that are supposed to get done. Like, you know, eating, when you're supposed to eat, sleep, when you're supposed to sleep, that's a big deal. Like, I'm super proud. I don't know you, I'm super proud. Yeah, I appreciate that. No, no, it's a thing that I trumpet around here all the time. My son listened to me. I'm super excited when he was younger, I'd be like, Man, listen to me. I'm gonna say some boring go to bed on time, get up at a certain time, eat some food, get moving exercise. Like, do these things, like they help, like, they make life better. And he does them. And I'm like, awesome if I get everybody else to listen. But by the way, Jen, I wanna tell you a secret. If everybody would just listen to me, they'd
Jenn 1:13:19
be fine. I mean, honestly, yeah, I can't argue with that. No. I mean, I'm
Scott Benner 1:13:24
right, but I don't, doesn't mean I can do it all the time. Like, I talked to Erica too, about, like, some of this mental health stuff, yeah, I should list, you know, I wish you could listen. When we're not talking. Sometimes she's like, I don't know, I have trouble getting this done. Like, the only, like, people are gonna struggle with things. And I'm not saying, Just do what I say, and everything will work out. But what I'm saying is bigger picture. There are ways to do things that give you a much better chance of success. Yeah,
Jenn 1:13:50
yeah. And then, like, I mean, I'm not perfect by any means. Like, my day to day still has I'm still kind of going with the flow. Like on some days I don't have as great as of a blood sugar day or whatever. But I think it is just that, like, yeah, like, I look back and like, look at how far I've come, and I'm just like, wow, I you know, I wish I had done this so much sooner. And like, I mean, it's completely changed my life. And like, how I feel, like, health wise, on a day to day basis, awesome, but I'm not perfect, and I don't want anyone listening to this, to think, like, you have to be perfect to have a healthy pregnancy, or just be healthy in general, like you don't
Scott Benner 1:14:26
need to feel ashamed when you're not perfect either. Like, just, like, expect some like, I'm not saying there won't be, listen, if you don't think there are nights when, like, at two o'clock in the morning I'm like, why am I not sleeping? Like that happens to me generally, like, once in a while. But moreover, like last night, I got tired. I stood up and I was like, I'm going to bed. I could stay up longer. I could hang out here with you guys while you're doing whatever you're doing. Arden's doing homework at midnight or something. Like, I'm like, I'm not doing that. Like, I'm going to sleep. And you know what? I woke up this morning, 650 refreshed. Wow. I'm like, I'm a. Wake I'm good. I had a nice morning. I got things accomplished. I did work. I was supposed to. I had a nice conversation with you. I'm nice and awake now. I'm gonna get done here. I'm gonna go now, Susan, I'm an egg. Understand, just a little egg, the little protein I might maybe I'll poach it, put it over toast. Who knows? Like you know, you're gonna get a little protein, a little bit of food. I'm gonna go work some more. Drink some water, talk to people, try not to impose my will on people online, like a lunatic, like, I see people doing constantly the argument that's going on right now around COVID vaccines. Like, I can't believe it's my job to go moderate that. When you and I are done, I don't want to be involved. But here I am. I'm gonna go explain the difference between an opinion and fact to adults, it's fine, it's part of my job, right? But I'll keep a good attitude about it, and I'm gonna go get my hair cut, like, later this afternoon, and I'm gonna make dinner, and then I'm gonna, like, hang out with my family for a little bit. I'm gonna celebrate the fact that the Eagles beat the living out of the chiefs in the Super Bowl. Get awesome. I don't care if you don't if you're a cheese fan, take it. No, you got your feet. Just live through it. Yep. And then I'm gonna go to bed on time again. And guess what? It works out better that way. It just does the
Jenn 1:16:11
simple pleasures in life. I think at a certain point in adulthood, you realize sometimes going to bed at 830 is the most beautiful thing. Jen, I don't
Scott Benner 1:16:20
want to make over simplify this, but go to sleep and sleep when the lights are off. Okay? Like, it's not that hard, like, and it really, really helps you. And people told me that three years ago, I was telling over you every time I list you, you should have been in my kids here, when he went to college, I'm like, go to sleep. Go to sleep. Go to sleep. Tomorrow, it'll be there again. It'll be there again tomorrow. It'll be there again tomorrow. Like, go to sleep. That is super important. When you're fighting against that, you're fighting against a lot more, and your story is just a, like, an amplified version of it. Like you were just being you were tormented by your schedule.
Jenn 1:16:54
Yes, yeah, my whole body was out of whack. Somebody put you in a trash can,
Scott Benner 1:16:59
a beat on the side of it with a pipe, and then let you out. And they're like, go live. And you're like, I can. I like, I can I feel nauseous. So what do we call this one? Yep, rub some dirt on it. Or, because that was a great thing, you?
Jenn 1:17:09
I like that one. Yeah, I'll have to tell my husband. He his line made the title well,
Scott Benner 1:17:15
because, truth be told, right? Like he's the one who snapped you out of, like, your situation.
Jenn 1:17:21
Oh, he is I, yeah, I love him for it. Oh, God.
Scott Benner 1:17:24
I mean that should buy him some like, how many things can you screw up? Maybe, probably not a lot. Actually. You know what? It's fun now, while you're like, just the two of you, once you have a baby and he pisses you off again, you'll forget about that. You'll be like, yeah, he's letting me and my prince down, or princess, whichever you end up having any chance, if the baby's a boy, will be naming it. Scott, well,
Jenn 1:17:45
when I emailed you initially, I asked, what your I want to know what your middle name is. I don't know if you're willing to share. Yes, you know you Okay, no, okay, that was, like, not a dig. I just like,
Scott Benner 1:17:58
I'm curious. My I have such a terrible middle name, I can't, I can't begin to explain, yeah, you're not naming your baby my middle name, trust me. Okay,
Jenn 1:18:06
okay, fine. Well, I know, but I honestly, because I've heard you ask people that, and I was like, I mean, honestly considering it, like, just if there's a way we can incorporate something, what about
Scott Benner 1:18:18
Ben for my you could use part of my last name, named Benjamin, maybe. Do you like a Benner? Actually,
Jenn 1:18:23
Benjamin is one of my top baby names. I honestly love that. Yeah, if you choose
Scott Benner 1:18:27
Benjamin, please just tell people you named them after a diabetes podcast or and I swear to God, I will. You can come to my funeral. Okay, you can be the you can be
Jenn 1:18:37
the top of my list. So I'll have to email you and keep you updated. Can
Scott Benner 1:18:43
I be Uncle Scott? If this happens, I'll send you a picture. Seriously, I'm coming to the you sound like you're you sound Christian? Is there a dress thing? Yeah, we are. Yeah. I heard it in your anxiety, by the way, in case you're watching,
Jenn 1:18:58
yep, no, you're very insightful. What's your background? Like, Irish and German? Yeah, my husband is, like, he's from a, like, very Catholic family. Is
Scott Benner 1:19:08
he Italian or is he Irish as well? Yes, Italian, yeah. I know how it goes. Don't worry. Yeah. I understand how this all works. Yeah. People really think you're out there living some singular life that's so unique.
Jenn 1:19:21
No, it's not. I was, yeah, well, and I was like, I mean, who knows? Like, if anyone else I had to be like, are there other episodes that, like, have my exact story? I was like, I think we have some unique aspects in here. Everybody
Scott Benner 1:19:33
has listen. Everybody has a unique story. My My point is just that when people think like that, they're so special all the time, like, these things are being repeated over and over again. Like, I didn't guess your husband was Italian, like, because I just picked it out of the air. I'm like, Oh, she's Irish. She's Catholic. She definitely married another Catholic guy. Yeah, usually the real pasty ones don't go together. So you probably picked the guy with the tan, and I went with our went with, oh my
Jenn 1:19:55
gosh, you're literally, I am. So I get a good tan in the summer. But I am so pasty in the winter, and he is tan all year round. How the world
Scott Benner 1:20:04
works, don't worry. Yeah, you're all making basic decisions off of something that's primal. So Nevertheless, I just seem like a genius when I say like this, except the people who don't like me are just like, he's just a pompous asshole. I'm like, Yeah, okay, live your life. No, that's fine. Jen loves me and and her baby's name is going to be Benjamin one day, so go off.
Jenn 1:20:24
Yeah, yeah. No, I really I do like that name, and I mean just to kind of like, thank you. Like your podcast, truly, like it has changed my life, and like my diabetes management, and I truly am so grateful for what you do has made a big impact on me, and I appreciate you now you're gonna make
Scott Benner 1:20:42
me cry. Don't do that. I made it through your pregnancy story without crying. No, although Can I tell you what weird thing happened during your pregnancy story? What I imagined me putting my hand on the belly of my son's wife one day, and it made me sad, like it made me happy sad, like I got teary. Yeah, yeah. I don't know what in the middle of that, my son's not nowhere near having a baby. I don't even know if he wants one. I actually found myself thinking about, like, Oh, I wonder what will happen if my kids have, like, I started feeling parental towards you, and then it made me go like that. So anyway, no, it's a special thing. So no, it's awesome. Very sweet. Well, this is very nice. You don't have to, like, bum it. Like I was trying to joke our way to the end of this, but now, like, I seriously, really appreciate this. Like, if that podcast helped you or anybody else, it's just the greatest thing. I'm okay at taking the compliment. Now, like, I appreciate it, and thank you, and I'm glad. Like, but like, if I stop and think about it too long, it just the happiness that comes from what you said. It really is overwhelming. I think it's why I stopped myself from feeling it so much. When people say it,
Unknown Speaker 1:21:44
no, that's, that's totally fair. Yeah, it's,
Scott Benner 1:21:48
it's just a lot to take in. Sometimes
Jenn 1:21:50
I get sappy occasionally. So I had to, I had to throw that out there because I hadn't said it yet.
Scott Benner 1:21:56
So no, don't be sorry. It's really, it's lovely. I really, genuinely appreciate it. Okay, all right. Hold on one second for me. Okay.
A huge thanks to us med for sponsoring this episode of the juice box podcast. Don't forget us med.com/juice, box. This is where we get our diabetes supplies from. You can as well, use the link or call 888-721-1514, use the link or call the number get your free benefits check so that you can start getting your diabetes supplies the way we do from us med. A huge thanks to Omnipod, not just my longest sponsor, but my first one. Omnipod.com/ omnipod.com/juice box. If you love the podcast and you love two plus insulin pumps, this link is for you. Omnipod.com/juice box. Earlier you heard me talking about blue circle health, the free virtual type one diabetes care, education and support program for adults. And I know it sounds too good to be true, but I swear, it's free, thanks to funding from a big T 1d philanthropy group, blue circle health doesn't bill your insurance or charge you a cent. In other words, it's free. They can help you with things like carb counting, insurance navigation, diabetes technology, insulin adjustments, peer support, Prescription Assistance and much more. So if you're tired of waiting nine months to get in with your endo or your educator, you can get an appointment with their team within one to two weeks. This program is showing what T 1d care can and should look like currently if you live in Florida, Maine Vermont, New Hampshire, Ohio, Delaware, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa or Louisiana. If you live in one of those states, go to blue circle health.org to sign up today. The link is in the show notes, and please help me to spread the word blue circle health had to buy an ad because people don't believe that it's free, but it is. They're trying to give you free care if you live in Florida, Maine, Vermont, Ohio, Delaware, Alabama and Missouri. It's ready to go right now. And like I said, they're adding states so quickly in 2025 that you want to follow them on social media at Blue circle health, and you can also keep checking blue circle health.org to see when your free care is available to you. Hey, thanks for listening all the way to the end. I really appreciate your loyalty and listenership. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrongway recording.com, you.
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#1499 The 60 Ways You Can Die
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.
Stephanie, 35, diagnosed at 11 on her sister’s birthday amid turmoil, champions tech-led T1D management in pregnancy, defying outdated protocols.
+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.
Scott Benner 0:00
Welcome back friends to another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.
Stephanie 0:13
Hi, my name is Stephanie. I am 35 and I have been a type one diabetic since I was 11 years old and diagnosed in the year 2000
Scott Benner 0:26
please don't forget that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. I know this is going to sound crazy, but blue circle health is a non profit that's offering a totally free virtual type one diabetes clinical care, education and support program for adults 18 and up. You heard me right, free. No strings attached, just free. Currently, if you live in Florida, Maine Vermont, New Hampshire, Ohio, Delaware, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa or Louisiana, you're eligible for blue circle health right now, but they are adding states quickly in 2025 so make sure to follow them at Blue circle health on social media and make yourself familiar with blue circle health.org. Blue circle health is free. It is without cost. There are no strings attached. I am not hiding anything from you. Blue circle, health.org, you know why they had to buy an ad. No one believes it's free. This episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by the Omnipod five. Learn more and get started today at omnipod.com/juice box. Check it out. This episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom g7 the same CGM that my daughter wears. Check it out now at dexcom.com/juice,
Unknown Speaker 1:53
box. Hi.
Stephanie 1:55
My name is Stephanie. I am 35 and I have been a type one diabetic since I was 11 years old and diagnosed in the year 2000
Scott Benner 2:06
I was gonna say 24 years ago. Yeah, we're coming up on it. Yeah, you took me a while. Yeah. I had all that opportunity for simple math that makes people feel like, Oh, my God, he's really good at math. Because I would have been like, Oh, that was 24 years ago in the year 2000 it makes it really convenient. Yeah, right. I also, my son was born in 2000 so it's the best time to have a kid born like, because every whatever year it is, that's how old they are. And he was born at the beginning of the year. So there's, like, not even a lot to remember. You were 11. I was 11. Yeah, only child, brothers and sisters. I was a middle
Stephanie 2:39
child, and I was actually diagnosed, this is, like, always gonna kind of haunt me, right the day before my older sister's birthday. So we spent her birthday celebration in the hospital during my diagnosis, which I still feel bad about.
Speaker 1 2:53
Was she mad about it? How could she be? I mean, probably,
Stephanie 2:58
probably, but like, she would never say that to me, you've
Scott Benner 3:01
never asked her. I haven't I would ask. I would ask on her birthday, by the way, because then if, because, if it did bother her, then you would be able to ruin that birthday too, with him. Excellent. A memory really holding overhead. Did you feel it back then? Like, Oh gosh. Like, look what, look what's happened.
Stephanie 3:22
Definitely, you know, it was an interesting time for diagnosis, for sure, just kind of, like, starting puberty. And so, like, I was, like, super, kind of aware of, like, our family dynamics anyway, with, like, my older sister just went through puberty I was starting, so we had a lot of just like, you know, women in the house, we had a lot of hormones in the house, and then kind of to add to it, this, like, new diagnosis that really, like, changed our lifestyle and changed a lot of our family dynamic. For a long time, I was super aware of the diagnosis and how it impacted our family. Definitely
Scott Benner 3:56
tell me more about, I know this isn't why you're really here, but tell me more about how you think it impacted your family?
Stephanie 4:02
You know, the time I was diagnosed, it was an interesting time in our family anyway, because my parents were going through a divorce, and they were kind of starting that process right at the time that I was starting to get sick. It required a lot of communication between the two of them at a time where maybe, like, they didn't want to be communicating as much, or they were kind of trying to figure out what life looked like. They were also kind of dealing with this idea of having life changes and a sick kid at the time, and a sick kid who was turning into a teenager that they had to kind of deal with and figure out the new normal. So like, I think it impacted us a lot, and then it kind of forced us to continue being a family unit and to communicate on my health, like when I would stay with my mom versus when I would sit with my dad. Like it required so much communication about, like, insulin dosing and at the time, like, about my shots, about my car ratios, things like that. At the time, yeah,
Scott Benner 4:58
can I ask a question that's going. Of if it's none of my business, you'll just say it's none of my business, right? But I feel like contextually, it might help the conversation, so you can be vague if you want to be at all. Why were they getting divorced? They just hate each other. Somebody cheat on somebody. Like, what was the severity of what happened? Like, I'm trying to gage how much they didn't want to talk to each other. They didn't want to talk to each other. Oh, okay, I hear what he did, okay. Now I want to perfect and,
Stephanie 5:22
you know, my parents were, like, really, quite wonderful about it. Honestly, as kids, we didn't know anything was wrong till we knew everything was wrong. They never thought in front of us, we, you know, we really didn't have any idea what was going on. So for me, like, as we were kind of navigating it, and I was kind of, you know, definitely the source of what required them to communicate for a long time. That's kind of when I realized, like, oh, they don't want to talk to
Scott Benner 5:48
each other. Oh, and they did it anyway. They did. Oh, that's awesome. Did you feel badly for putting them back together again in that situation? Totally, really at 11, you felt that, Oh, absolutely. How does that manifest for you? Do you remember,
Stephanie 6:02
I wouldn't say at 11 necessarily, but like, certainly in those like, couple of first years about it just was a lot of, like, guilt surrounding it, or just feeling, like, if you know, during those first couple years, of like, starting to get independence with diabetes management, and I didn't always handle it in the most graceful of ways, like knowing that also required them to have to communicate on an action plan, like, kind of added, added to the what
Scott Benner 6:27
does that mean? You didn't always deal with it in the most graceful ways. I think,
Stephanie 6:31
if you're really asking how it manifested, I mean, I think it manifested in a lot of like diabetes rebellion when I was younger. Okay, you know this thing that I didn't want, that we spent a lot of time right at the beginning, kind of getting in good shape and getting everybody on board. And then I started having some independence with it, and really found it to be too much to handle. And so I would, you know, lie about blood sugars, or I would totally forget to test and and pretend like I did. I'd come back to my mom's and she would check my meter and see, like, oh gosh, like, you haven't been testing all weekend, that you've been with your dad. And then that would cause them to have to have a conversation about it. And I don't know what that was, but I would certainly feel bad about it, because I felt like, you know, my actions definitely impacted their relationship and made them have to kind of CO parent more closely. Did you not
Scott Benner 7:24
ever have the feeling of, like, if I can keep them talking about this, maybe they'll get back together? Oh, no. Okay, I feel like I want to interview your mom, but
Unknown Speaker 7:33
okay, she would love it.
Scott Benner 7:36
So I was just wondering if you ever were just like, Oh, if I don't test a couple times, then Mom has to call Dad, and then they talk. And maybe you didn't have, like, I used to dream about my parents getting back together. That didn't happen for
Stephanie 7:45
you. Not at all. No, no, no, it. It made sense, you know, then being separate made sense, and still, to this day, made sense.
Scott Benner 7:53
I want to be clear, it made sense that my parents were divorced too, but I still was. I still, like, kind of, like, childishly, like, I wanted my family together, you know? So anyway, yeah, okay, so more about the guilt. Let's really just dive right in. I have a whole focus this year I'm going to be doing with people so interesting. You brought this up so early in the year. What do you mean? You felt guilty, not just about them talking. You felt guilty about other stuff, right? About the diabetes and how you were managing it. The Dexcom g7 is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast, and it features a lightning fast 30 minute warm up time that's right from the time you put on the Dexcom g7 till the time you're getting readings 30 minutes. That's pretty great. It also has a 12 hour grace period, so you can swap your sensor when it's convenient for you. All that on top of it being small, accurate, incredibly wearable and light, these things, in my opinion, make the Dexcom g7 a no brainer. The Dexcom g7 comes with way more than just this, up to 10 people can follow you. You can use it with type one, type two, or gestational diabetes. It's covered by all sorts of insurances. And this might be the best part. It might be the best part alerts and alarms that are customizable, so that you can be alerted at the levels that make sense to you. Dexcom.com/juice, box. Links in the show notes, links at Juicebox podcast.com, to Dexcom and all the sponsors. When you use my links, you're supporting the production of the podcast and helping to keep it free and plentiful. My daughter is 20 years old. I can't even believe it. She was diagnosed with type one diabetes when she was two, and she put her first insulin pump on when she was four. That insulin pump was an Omnipod, and it's been an Omnipod every day since then. That's 16 straight years of wearing Omnipod. It's been a friend to us, and I believe it could be a friend to you, omnipod.com/juicebox whether you get the Omnipod dash or the automation that's available with the Omnipod five, you are going to enjoy tube. Less insulin pumping. You're going to be able to jump into a shower or a pool or a bathtub without taking off your pump. That's right, you will not have to disconnect to bathe with an Omnipod. You also won't have to disconnect to play a sport or to do anything where a regular tube pump has to come off. Arden has been wearing an Omnipod for 16 years. She knows other people that wear different pumps, and she has never once asked the question, should I be trying a different pump? Never once omnipod.com/juicebox, get a pump that you'll be happy with forever?
Stephanie 10:37
Yeah. Oh, for sure. And that lasted, honestly, a long time I was and am definitely the like. I like having control. I like performing well. I like pleasing everyone. And I knew for a very long time that this was an area of my life that I was just kind of like skating by and holding on by a thread, and I felt a ton of guilt for that. My mom sacrificed a lot at the beginning to, like, truly understand diabetes and help me get healthy. And she later down the line, like I learned so much from her and so much from her advocacy at the beginning that I carried into, like, what I want to talk about today more. And so I felt guilty, right? Like I wasn't doing a good job. I wasn't performing. People were disappointed in me, and I felt that way through my teenage years, through college, honestly, with diabetes management, every time I'd go to the endocrinologist, it was a really negative experience. It was either like my mom found out that my management wasn't going as well as as she'd like it, or as it should be, or she'd find out that I wasn't testing, or the doctor would kind of give me a fear lecture, and it would, you know, scare both of us. So I think there was a lot of guilt at the beginning, and I felt like I was kind of so deep in a hole that this was just what diabetes was and what the management was I really didn't know anything else. With
Scott Benner 12:02
the hindsight, retrospect, do you really think your mom was disappointed in you somewhat?
Stephanie 12:06
I think it kind of sometimes. I think it shattered her illusion of, like, Oh, she has it all together. Like, I know she has it I'm confident in her. And so I think we'd go in and she'd take it back, like, I'm not as confident anymore in that she doesn't have it all together. So I felt like I would sometimes disappoint her in that way, but I also feel like she'd kind of feel disappointed in herself too. Of like, how did I get so distant from this care? Like, how do I get back in? She won't let me back in.
Scott Benner 12:35
She never said to you, Stephanie, I'm disappointed not that I remember. Do you remember her being supportive. I
Stephanie 12:41
remember her being supportive. I remember her being Stern, like, kind of switching to stern mode a lot during my teenage years, of like, if you don't do this, this is going to happen. Yeah, I think she definitely was scared by what the doctors would say when we'd go to the endocrinologist and I'd have an ANC that it wasn't what she was expecting. And I think you know that fear, because she kind of had the gift of, you know, more time on this earth and being able to see how health impacts your life. And I felt invincible at the time.
Unknown Speaker 13:13
Do
Scott Benner 13:14
you ever notice her? I watched my mom try to pivot to like, this is what I think a male figure would do in this situation? Did she do that stuff? Like, do you know what I mean, like, suddenly get harsher or more firm than she was in the past? Or, like, like, that pressure of having to be both parents? Yeah? Yeah, I would say, yeah. I always felt bad about that, where I was, like, my mom is saying something right now that she doesn't even, like, this is not her inclination. She's doing her best the estimation of what she thought my dad would have said there. It was kind of interesting.
Stephanie 13:45
That's really interesting. I've never thought of it
Scott Benner 13:47
that way. Yeah, you know, I'm just, I'm very interested in this, because my daughter's 20 she's almost 21 now, right? And, you know, we have conversations about diabetes pretty constantly. And what I've come to realize is that a lot of the minutia that's happened over the years that puts us in the positions we're in, or causes us to make decisions that we make, they get forgotten. And the only thing that gets remembered is the part that's uncomfortable. If that makes sense or not, it totally does. And then, like, you know, like, it's like, oh, like you're always doing this, or this always happens, or whatever, like, and you're like, Well, no, that that's because of this. There's no remembrance of that part. Like, I didn't do that. This is a response to that, you know. And I don't mean like a thing a person did. I'm saying like a medical thing comes up, and then you're like, Okay, well, I guess we have to do this now and then later. It kind of gets transposed into something a little different than what it actually was. And they're young, so you don't, like, you're not holding them accountable for remembering every second, but like, I remember it like, you know, like somebody burned it into my brain. And then you can tell, like, even with Arden, who does, like, extraordinarily well taking care of herself, right, especially for her age and everything, like I've said here before, like, away at college by herself, Arden was keeping. A six and a half, a 1c, wow. Yeah. And then, you know, as soon as she comes home and, like, the bad food goes away, that six and a half becomes, like, 6.2 taken care of it by herself at 20, like, she's doing, like, it's awesome. And I tell her constantly how well she's doing, but I think she thinks I'm disappointed. I think it's maybe something you can't avoid. Like, I'm starting to wonder about all these people over the years that have come to me and said, like, my parents were always disappointed in me. Were they? I'm sure some of them were like, don't get me wrong. I'm sure some of the people's parents are like, garbage parents, like, right? Like, I don't I don't imagine that's not true. I can tell you, from my perspective, I've never been disappointed in Arden, and I don't believe I've ever said that. I have been so like, is there something about the nature of these conversations that we have to have about diabetes all the time that just leaves a child feeling like they're not doing well enough, no matter how well they're doing or how hard they're trying? I
Stephanie 15:52
think absolutely, and I think it's not even just in childhood, but it's the language that's used around this disease is, like, I even experienced it recently of getting told like, oh, you're a good diabetic. Like, are you good or are you bad? Did you do a good job, or did you not do a good job? I remember one of the things I had to tell my spouse when we first kind of started communicating about diabetes was to stop asking so much about why, or I'd be like, Oh, I don't spoil all my blood sugar's high. And you say, why? It doesn't matter why. Like, when you ask why, it makes me think I've done something wrong, and I have to rationalize, like, what happened and what I did? And I think there's a lot of that as a kid, a lot of like, explaining why, what happened, what did you do? And it comes across and it makes you feel like you didn't do it, right? It would
Scott Benner 16:45
be better if you just were raised by wolves, like seeds, yes, so you didn't have to have, like, all those human interactions. Then you could just be feral, and then it'd be fine. I think we're a couple 1000 years away from being as, uh, as thoughtful as we need to be to to navigate all of this, it's we were getting better but, but we're not good at it. Totally. Yeah, no, I appreciate you sharing that with me, because it's going to be on my it's always on my mind. Honestly, when Arden was younger, it was more in my mind about, like, I wonder what's happening right now that I don't realize is happening. And I have to, I have to tell you something like my youngest brother, Rob, who, of course, now is, you know, a man in his 40s. I thank him for that because, for that way of thinking. Because Rob was always in so much trouble as a child that there were two like stasises for Rob. He was either getting in trouble and you weren't aware of it, or he was in trouble and you knew about it, and he's not like that anymore. He's actually an upstanding citizen who helps put satellites into space, but back then, he's a dick. I hope he hears this, but he taught me that nothing that's happening is really what's happening. It's something else is always happening somewhere else, and you just haven't learned about it yet or heard about it, and it's going to impact soon enough, when I think about my relationships with my kids, and it's a little overwhelming, because I don't think people are wired to think like this yet. Like, I don't think we're smart enough for this yet, you know. But like, you're not just making a decision about like now, you're making a decision about now. And how does it affect tomorrow, but then how does it affect a year from now? And how does it affect the other people in the room? Yes, I said, oh gosh, let's stop here, because we have to change Arden's pod. Did I know that 10 years later my son would be like we were always doing things for Arden, even though my son and I traveled the country and every weekend playing baseball together, I was with him constantly. But the way he remembers it is, is that Arden got more attention, yeah. And then when you talk to Arden about it, the way she remembers it is, you pay too much attention to me, and you were always at baseball with Cole, and Cole never came to my softball games because he was busy playing baseball. And in you're like, Oh, God, everyone's perspective is so who are in the same house and yet their experience and their life is so different, yeah? And then, as the parent, you're just standing there going, like, I don't know what to do about any of this. I'm a moron, okay? Like, I don't understand what's happening half the time. I'm also a person who taught you know why I'm good at podcasting, because I explain my feelings in real time. That's not great in personal interaction. In case you're wondering, when people are looking for concise statements and I've got to talk for four minutes to figure out what I think I have that problem. So I stand around going, like, what's the right thing to do? In my head, I'm like, what's the right thing to do? What's the right thing to do? What's the right thing to what's what I need to do is talk it out loud. But the people around me, only one of them thinks the way I do. The other two think opposite. So when I start talking and they're like, What the fuck is this guy doing? And I'm like, thinking to myself, like, people love this on a podcast, I don't know why you're not enjoying it right now, and I'm trying to get through. It, and I will get through it, like, I'll get to the end, but then when I get to the end, like, here's a secret for all you people who are younger, or don't have babies yet, or something like that, I've just gotten to what makes the best sense to me in the moment. I don't know if I'm right, and then I've got to put that thing into action. And then if it blows up, it's my fault. And if it goes right, what I've learned is no one remembers. I did it. Being alive is terrible. This
Stephanie 20:24
is a great pep talk for somebody with a 16 month old.
Scott Benner 20:31
Yeah, listen, you are in a game. Ready? Everybody want to get bummed out? People who have children would be like, This guy is preaching. He knows exactly what he's talking about. But if you don't have kids yet, you're gonna be like, Hey, man, calm down. You're in a game. You can not win. You cannot win this game no matter what you do, it's gonna be remembered as you did the wrong thing by somebody in some situation. So good luck. Thank you, Scott. I wasn't even talking to you. I was talking to everybody. It's still incredibly fulfilling and rewarding, but I listen. I sent a text to a friend last night. I had a day yesterday where everyone in my family needed something, and it all connected with each other. No one was happy, and I did not know what to do. And when I try to help, people are like, don't fix it. And when I don't help, they stare at me, like, how come you haven't figured it out? Why haven't you done anything so you cannot win? And I sent this note. A friend of mine checked on me yesterday. Said, how you doing? I was like, I'm just, I'm having a day like, don't like, I just can't even talk to you right now. And they checked on me again later, which was lovely. And I said, I think at some point. And I didn't mean this defeatedly, because by then, everything had been okay, but I meant this just academically. I understand why? How many, how so many adults just give up eventually on this, and they just go, You know what? You're 18, you're 20. I got you through college. Go live your own life, because you're not listening to me. I have old ideas at this point, my brain's not working fast enough to keep up with all this anymore. Like, I have my own stuff. Like, I'm, you know, like, 53 like, I don't know how people think success works, but if you're not born wealthy, you know what I mean, like, I'm just getting comfortable and I'm almost done. You know what I mean? Like, I'm in that mad dash to make like, like, try to save money for a few years before I retire, I can't stop in the middle of the day to have a five hour conversation with 17 different people so that everybody feels good when it's over. And then, by the way, when it's over, everybody doesn't feel good, right? Yeah, but all they remember Stephanie is that I didn't get it right. So anyway, this kid, when was it born?
Stephanie 22:46
My son was born in September 2023, congratulations. Now. Oh, it's wonderful.
Scott Benner 22:51
And you're here to announce that his name is Scott. Is that correct? Oh, no, it doesn't matter. What are you?
Stephanie 23:00
Have you found a Scott yet?
Scott Benner 23:01
I got an Arden for a baby. And I think people have stolen our pets names, which I guess is cool. But no, I'm not getting Scott's a terrible name, so I'm not getting a Scott. Like, I know that now, but during COVID, I thought it was gonna happen. I thought you guys would all be like, at home just listening to podcast 24/7 you'd get bored, knock each other up, and then they'd be like, Oh, that guy on that podcast. That's where I thought it was gonna happen, for sure. But I guess that's not happening. All right, so your first kid, yes, okay, you wrote to me about wanting to talk about advocating during pregnancy, specifically to use modern technology during labor and delivery. Stephanie, it sounds like you have a soapbox already, and you need to tell us something. What is
Stephanie 23:42
it? So I wrote to you initially, to thank you. First off, because I could never have gone through pregnancy without finding your podcast. And it's actually pretty funny, because when we kind of decided we were going to move forward, I went to the high risk goby and had my first consultation appointment. It didn't go great. The perspective was really different than my perspective, and I was just feeling pretty like, back in the stone ages, when I left, I came home, and I remember feeling like, I feel like I'm going back to my teenage years of like, kind of doctors telling me what's right and wrong, telling me what I can and can't do, and I had gotten to this stage of, like, really good management and feeling super confident, and I felt like there's no way I can go back to this. Like I can't go back to them telling me how many carbs I'm allowed for breakfast. I can't go back to calling my doctor and having them make adjustments. But like, I didn't have any context for that. I just, like, knew that's how I was feeling. And so I, for the longest time, never looked anything up online related to diabetes, because I was so afraid of, like, you'd google it and it would tell you, like, the 60 ways you're going to die today. And it was so intimidating for me to go online and start to look up diabetes, because I really just didn't want to be inundated with negativity. And I did some looking. I went on Instagram and started finding, like, some women who were going through pregnancy, or had just gone through pregnancy, and somebody had tagged your podcast in there. And I decided to go on and take a look at your podcast. And I listened to the episode with Jenny Smith that you recorded on pregnancy, and I remember I like, turned it off, and I was like, nope, nope. It's not going to work. I am, like, Midwestern, through and through. And I remember being like, nope. He's he's telling me what to do, like he is east coast. He's so brash. I can't listen to this. There's no way. And I went on a walk, and I was like, no, no, no, no. My defenses were all up, I think, from going to the doctor and having them tell me what to do, and I, like, went back home and I listened to it again, and I'm so glad I did, because I could just take a breath and listen to, like, the real information that was there. And really, from then on, I used this podcast multiple times a day to learn what the heck I was doing and learn how to have a healthy pregnancy. And for that, I'm just, like, so grateful, and that's why I reached out to you as number one, just to tell you, like, a successful pregnancy happened because of the information that you've put together, like, through the interviews and then through the Pro Tip series. Like, that's what, what got me going and what really gave me the confidence to do so much advocacy during pregnancy and understand, like, what was good medicine and what was really outdated practice, yeah, and figure out, like, how to use these tools and all this information that we have to have a healthy Pregnancy and a delivery kind of the way that I wanted it. Stephanie,
Scott Benner 26:43
I know you think this is a story about you having a healthy pregnancy, but I feel like it's a story about why people who don't like me are wrong. It's their fault, not mine. That's what I heard. In case you're wondering,
Stephanie 26:57
so glad that's what came out
Scott Benner 26:58
of this. Yeah, what I heard is, if you're listening right now and you don't like me, that's your problem. I'm fine. Take a walk. Listen again. I'm gonna tell people in my life this, this is awesome. Like, anytime somebody like disagrees me, I'm gonna be like Stephanie said, this is really you, not me, and you just have to walk away, relax and calm down a little bit, and then come down and then come down and listen to me again. I think I'm gonna make a lot more sense to you that Joking aside, the part that I find interesting, though, is the idea of how often you can get in your own way. Yeah, that's what I think I find interesting about it. And around diabetes, specifically, I completely understand there are people who I know love me, who have type one diabetes, but are bothered by me talking about it, I get that right, because they're like, you don't have it. You don't know. Or I'll make an assumption about something, and they'll be like, You're wrong, and I'll say to them, well, like, I mean, I disagree with you, but is it because you have it? I'm wrong, couldn't I just have a different perspective? Maybe I don't have your perspective. Maybe we're both wrong. Maybe we're both a little right, like, who cares? Like, I'm not saying like you have diabetes, like, go to hell. Like, whatever I say counts. Like, not obviously what I mean, but I do think that you can have, I don't know what you would even call them, but like, psychological sticking points that make it impossible to either listen to another person to begin with, or hear another person who doesn't have diabetes and go like, I can't listen to that person. Or even just that, my communication style is different than yours, and you could quickly put me in a bucket and go like, he probably threw a battery at Santa Claus at an Eagles game. Like, you know what you mean, like, that kind of thing. If that's not a story you've ever heard, you really should look it up. But nevertheless, I get that, like I get where you you'd have some sort of a sticking point, and something about me or whatever just puts you off, and you go, Oh no, forget this. But I'm telling you that the people who stick with this podcast, they are rolling around with low, six, mid, five, a, one, CS, and their lives are easier. Oh,
Stephanie 29:00
absolutely. And I wouldn't even say Scott, it was only you. It was listening to Jenny. And I think listening to somebody else kind of like, really validate when you're starting a type one pregnancy. There are so many guidelines around it, yeah. And I think hearing somebody else say, like, you really need to have your a 1c in this area. You really need to avoid spikes over 120 like hearing somebody else say it was like, I can't have other people, people telling me what I need to do. I need people helping me learn how to do it. Oh, okay. And I felt like the only tools I when I initially went for my consultation at high risk. OB, it was well before we decided, like, we were actually going to start trying. Because I remember growing up and kind of hearing this narrative of, like, it's going to be really difficult to have a type one pregnancy. You have to plan a year ahead. You cannot have unexpected pregnancy. Like, I remember, like, hearing this over and over, so I went into hydroscopy A year before we even like, we're going to start trying. Yang, I met with a nurse practitioner who kind of talked through and said, like, Okay, I think my ANC was in the mid sixes at that point. And so she's like, Okay, you're in a good starting point, but we need you below a six if you're going to get pregnant. And we need to make sure that your blood sugar is staying between, I think it was 665, and 140 only at 140 for one hour, if ever, and then comes right back down. And she kind of told me, like, the way you're going to do this is through this really controlled diet, so having, like, certain carbs and for breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack, yeah, and by talking to them several times a week, so they can make adjustments in my blood sugar or in my insulin settings,
Scott Benner 30:42
fun and super sexy, by the way, for
Stephanie 30:44
your body, it was like, Well, this is something I want to do. Hey, honey. I was
Scott Benner 30:48
thinking that a year from now, we should try to make a baby. Let's go to a doctor now and talk about it fun.
Stephanie 30:55
And it was like, I think the good that came out of it was like, I walked out of there being like, like, nothing makes you want to do something more than somebody telling you you can't do it. Like nothing makes life the fire more of like, All right, so she's telling me I can't do this on my own, and I know I can. I just need to figure out how to do it. I need to learn. Yeah, and so that's what I really spent the next year doing, was like, really, truly learning. And I felt like the reason I was in the mid sixes for my ANC at that point was that I had recently switched to a tandem pump, and I started control IQ. And I felt like control IQ was the only way I could ever get my book, my ANC down in the sixes. It was because of this algorithm, okay? And I remember during the appointment, she said, like, I can help women do better than the algorithm. And so I heard that, as women can do better than the algorithm, right? Like, I can learn how to do this, or
Scott Benner 31:46
as good as you thought you were doing, you're not really doing that well, right, right?
Stephanie 31:50
Absolutely. That's like, really, when I started tapping into the podcast and starting to hear voices of people that were really using modern approaches and technology and, like, individualized approaches, instead of feeling like I was on a conveyor belt and I'd be like the third call of the day with the exact same information delivered. And so I spent a lot of time listening to the podcast. I also found this incredible group on Instagram that was led by a dietitian who had type one women who are either trying to get pregnant or work be pregnant. And we met weekly on Zoom and talked about a lot of the things that were talked about in the Pro Tip series, but more in the lens of pregnancy. So we were able to talk about, just during the different trimesters, how hormones will change and how that impacts your insulin. We talked about exercise, we talked about mental health, we talked about diet, and then we talked a lot about kind of delivery. And one of the things that stood out to me really early on was this idea that, like most hospitals, have kind of these policies of not wearing your insulin pump and not using a CGM when you are giving birth when you're going through labor and when you're giving birth. And I remember that really sticking out to me quite early in the podcast, listening to people that, like, went into the ER and had these things taken off that happened to me as a child, like my insulin pump gotten got taken away, and my mom, like, freaked out when she came back in the room. She was filling out paperwork, and came back and she's like, where's her pump? And so that's like the protocol with labor and delivery. And it struck me as like, we are working for so long a year before pregnancy, and then the time of pregnancy to get blood sugars in this really immaculate, perfect range, and then during labor and delivery, the time that they say, like, really matters quite a lot for the outcome of the baby when they come out, and what their blood sugar is is like when we're handing it over to somebody else who doesn't didn't make sense to me. Yeah,
Scott Benner 33:50
so how do you fight back against that, like you start a conversation earlier, or how do you work it out? Yeah, it was
Stephanie 33:57
really difficult in my medical system. And I think one of the good things about being involved in the support group, and I would encourage anybody who's going through type one pregnancy like so in my medical system, the protocol was, as soon as you go in for labor and delivery, you go off of your pump, and then You kind of join whatever the hospital protocol is, depending on what your blood sugar is at the time of admission to the hospital, and then they kind of use this algorithm to be able to manage your insulin. And this is true whether you're a type one, type two, or if you have gestational diabetes. It's kind of the same algorithm that's used for everyone.
Scott Benner 34:42
Why couldn't you just do it yourself against
Stephanie 34:44
hospital protocol was kind of what I was told at the beginning. Yeah. So I started a conversation probably about six months into my pregnancy with my care team, because I really wanted to show them at the beginning of my pregnancy that, like I. To do this, I wanted to show them, like what I knew about management and how I controlled my my diabetes, and get them kind of on my side for it, because I knew there's, like, a lot that I needed them for, and this was not a part. This was not something that I needed to help with, right? But I really wanted buy in at the beginning, so in about six months just really learning about how to manage blood sugars during pregnancy and doing a really, really good job. It went really well. And about six months in, at my appointment, I first asked if I could see their hospital protocol for when I was in labor and delivery for insulin, because I wanted to be able to have something to kind of use as evidence, as to like, why this might not work for me, or how, like my pump settings, right and my brain might beat this algorithm that they have. So they gave me their hospital protocol for insulin, and it was super eye opening. That was a very interesting document to get. Why, just being able to see that there's not a lot of differentiation between the type of diabetes, the type of patient, if I was in there as an 11 year old, versus if I was elderly, 300 pound male, we get the exact same protocol, right? And so it to me, I was looking at it as like this is fascinating to see which they need. They need an emergency situations, absolutely. But it was very interesting to see kind of that lack of any differentiation between the types of diabetes and the type of like experience you're going through in labor and delivery like it is such an active experience. When you're giving birth, it's exercise, like there is just a lot of adjustment that has to be made for that. And the documentation that I was given really didn't reflect that
Scott Benner 36:51
at all. Yeah. So when you see that, when you say, Okay, well, this is the protocol, and it just says diabetes on it, like it's not clearly pointed towards me, even towards type ones, you know, anything at all, and I've got to get this buy in from them, right? So I like what you're doing here, like you set up the long con, right? Like you're going to get them on your side, show them how good you are at diabetes, kind of point out some foibles in their plan. And then what do you do? Then you offer them a solution. Yeah, exactly.
Stephanie 37:20
So the next appointment that we went into, I kind of brought their protocol and went, had gone through it, and said, Okay, so if I went into the hospital, let's say at 70, which is perfect in terms of pregnancy, that's exactly where you want to be, their protocol would have me on no insulin. Hey, you got
Scott Benner 37:40
it all the way to 70. What? 70. We can fix that, right, right? And
Stephanie 37:45
so, like, we started there, right? Like, we want me to be in this range through all of labor, but like, if I'm not getting any insulin, then very quickly, I'm gonna leave this target zone. Doesn't it
Scott Benner 37:56
tell you, I'm sorry to cut you off, but doesn't it tell you that what their protocol is, don't get low. We don't care how high you get.
Stephanie 38:02
Exactly, right? It was not met very positively when I said that I wanted to do this, oh, the first kind of message I was given was like, we really want you to enjoy labor. We want you to enjoy delivery. We don't want you thinking about diabetes.
Scott Benner 38:16
What you say, I've had diabetes for 24 years. That ship has sailed. There's not
Stephanie 38:22
going to be a moment. I'm not thinking about this. It's actually at the end of such an intense experience, right of like, every moment is about blood sugar and being healthy for yourself and the baby.
Scott Benner 38:34
If only you would have known just to have a stranger tell you not to think about your diabetes anymore. Would have fixed all that. I mean, gosh, you could have done it years ago. That's awesome. Oh,
Stephanie 38:42
and a kicker was, there was something in the protocol that said, like, they would test me every four hours and make adjustments. And like, I find, I found that in there, and I asked them about it, they're like, oh, that's an error. That should say too.
Scott Benner 38:57
Oh, that's better. That's fine. We'll just know what my blood sugar is every two hours, it'll be
Stephanie 39:01
okay two hours. So, yeah, I think that that was a key though. Was like trying to respect their process first, like get their process down, and really be able to talk smartly about why it wouldn't work for me, okay, was a key part. Let's
Scott Benner 39:17
pivot for a second. What do you do for a living? How do you know how to manipulate people like this?
Stephanie 39:24
I work in communication. Oh,
Scott Benner 39:25
okay, yeah, sure, I figured that out. Okay, so, so tell people your communications degree is, it's almost a psych degree, right? Like, yeah, right. You're Yeah, you're learning how to talk to people so that you can get them to have the outcomes you want them to have, and they're happy and you're happy when it's over. Yeah, yeah, right. You're a professional. I'm also a
Stephanie 39:48
pleaser. I'm also a pleaser. So being in this situation of like, pushback was, like, it was incredibly new for me, and so I was trying to figure out, like, how do I advocate when I know in my head is what's. Right? And like, I still want, like, a collaborative experience, but like, I want to do it my way.
Scott Benner 40:04
I can tell you're a people pleaser, because you're you were gonna bring them information about why you were right about the thing you were saying, I would have just been like, no, no, no, no, why not? This is how we're gonna do it. The truth is, you get you get there both ways. Also you did more good because you probably taught them to do it a different way. Well,
Stephanie 40:22
that was kind of my hope going through too was, you know, through my whole pregnancy, the woman that was kind of following my blood sugars kept saying, like, I never have had a patient who's made their own adjustments. I've never had a patient be able to do this kind of control. And I just, I kept saying, back, I don't think a woman has felt empowered to do that in this system, it's not presented as an option. I can't imagine not making my own adjustments and reading my own body cues and what's going on. But like, if you tell them that something bad is going to happen, women aren't going to do it. This is such a vulnerable time of life, they're not going to take a risk.
Scott Benner 40:58
Yeah, and also, they know what they're doing when they do that. This was my big complaint about diabetes blogs back in the day, right? They'd be like, I'm gonna blog today about Pre Bolus, but first, here's a paragraph and a half about why it's dangerous, right? Awesome. So you know, if you give your insulin before you eat, and I don't know, an alien comes out of the sky, and then we all start running around crazy, and you forget to eat. Oh, my God, your insulin is happening. So what if the aliens come when you're Pre Bolus? Now, you don't want to die, do you? And then the next paragraph was like, here are the benefits of Pre Bolus. And you're like, No one's gonna
Stephanie 41:36
do it. Now, that describes pregnancy for me entirely. There was so much fear tactic used, really, when you got down to it and you asked so many questions about it, it was so old. Everything was so old. There was nothing they could cite for me when I would ask questions about like, all right, like, why do you not allow somebody to use their data from their CGM during labor and delivery to make insulin adjustments? Yeah,
Scott Benner 42:02
they have this thing I paid 80 bucks for that's better than testing every two hours. Like, should we, like, by the way,
Stephanie 42:07
and the hospital costs, like, about $300 every time they test you. So, like, the Dexcom and the further people are listening
Scott Benner 42:13
to don't have insurance, I think that is what it costs them. I'm just saying, like, you know, if you had insurance, you're like, look, I paid like, 80 bucks for this thing. It works great. Yeah, why don't we not throw it in the garbage? And if you don't want to, like, okay, maybe you don't want to lean on it because you're uncomfortable with it, or you haven't used it yet, or whatever. But, like, why take it off, right? Let's, let's try to use it in conjunction with what we're doing exactly.
Stephanie 42:33
And that's really what I was advocating for, is this idea of, like, how can we find some compromise? I went back in and kind of told them the plan, and during that appointment, I said, like, I would really like to manage my own blood sugar. I'd like to have my Dexcom on, and I'd like to wear my insulin pump during labor and delivery. My husband's going to be with me. He's really versed in all of this, and he too like be helping control my blood sugars. The woman that I was meeting with pretty consistently, was a fellow, and so she kind of reported up to the maternal fetal medicine doctors, and I could tell like she was younger, and she was definitely like understanding that the technology was a benefit, but her have words to me constantly where the providers may not all be comfortable with this and they might not sign off on it. So I took that information from that appointment home and put together a birth plan that was just all diabetes, and wrote went through, kind of using Jenny Smith purple, the purple type one diabetes book, I definitely recommend that I used that to help prepare, kind of my own birth plan to be able to bring into My next appointment. And it was like three pages long. And went through like, what is an insulin pump? Because it truly felt like I needed to explain what my insulin pump was doing. What kind of insulin was in it? What is a CGM? What do the arrows mean? Where is it connected on my body? How do I use it to make decisions? I went through and put information about how I make like key factors I consider when I'm making blood sugar decisions, what, obviously, all my current rates were, what my goal ranges were, put together this huge document, and I brought it back into the next appointment, and I think they could tell that I wasn't going to back down on this right? And she went through and took the document and asked if she could take it to their their next staff meeting, and talk with all of the doctors in their practice to see if anybody would be comfortable with this
Scott Benner 44:31
okay, to try to find the person to help you have the baby. Yeah, yeah, good for you. But that's a lot of work that a lot of people it was so much work couldn't do and and they still could have told you to go to hell when it was over. But
Stephanie 44:43
could they that? So that was my kind of question going through, is, could they could they say no, that this is like my body, my medical devices, like they can't take them off of me.
Scott Benner 44:54
No, they they could say that I'm uncomfortable with this, so I'm not doing it, but I'm gonna have the baby or what. It. You're like, look, this kid's coming out, so you're not gonna do it. Were you at the point in your head that you thought that if they don't agree to this, when they reach for my insulin pump, I will just tell them you are not taking that off of me. Oh, yeah, absolutely okay.
Stephanie 45:13
I've heard way too many stories about women who've ended up sneaking insulin in the hospital because they can't get enough to keep their blood sugars down. Stephanie,
Scott Benner 45:24
don't tell anybody that happens all the time. Yeah.
Stephanie 45:27
And so it's just Yes. That's exactly what I was gonna do.
Scott Benner 45:31
Take this off you No. And by the way, you should have said after that I thought you wanted me to enjoy this time
Stephanie 45:42
during our next appointment, she came back with a document that I actually pulled out for a conversation today that was handwritten. None of this is in my notes. I went and nothing is officially documented, but I have, like, a handwritten note from her that was pretty much what you had talked about before with the blogging is like all the things that could go wrong, and in all of those scenarios, they wanted me on an insulin drip and a glucose strip and not an insulin pump, and she sat down with me and my husband, and it kind of went through the scariest things that could happen when you deliver a baby.
Scott Benner 46:16
Oh, can't tell what did they try to scare you with? Let's hear it. They tried
Stephanie 46:19
to scare me with needing a C section, and what would happen if it's an emergency C section? What would happen if I was unconscious at the point where they needed to decide to do an emergency C section? What would happen if I had pre eclampsia and I had to have magnesium drip, and I would be so out of my mind that I couldn't make diabetic or decisions about diabetes and dosing? So they kind of went through this list of things that could happen, which is super valid. And I think looking back, how I wish the conversation was more of, how can we empower you to manage your diabetes, up until a point right? Like, if we kind of see, like, the red flag of, hey, this has been going well. When can, when can we step in instead of here's all the things that we're going to throw at you that can go wrong. A lot
Scott Benner 47:07
of people plan for failure, and I don't, I don't understand them thinking like I want to be ready when something goes wrong and know what to do. But why are we going to set ourselves up to fail from the beginning? Because it might happen. Listen, if you were giving birth, and I'm glad that this didn't happen, obviously, I'm glad that the baby came scooting out. Everything was fine, right? If there's an emergent situation, then start treating me like an emergent patient. But up until then, I'm doing a thing that I saw some lady doing a blow up pool in her living room. So like, like, let's like, act like that's gonna happen until it doesn't, and then when it doesn't, go ahead and we'll do the thing. Why are we going to do the thing first? When this I mean your pump, like, even about making insulin decisions, your pumps just giving you basal?
Stephanie 47:49
Well, that's why I tried to explain to them. It's in my birthday like, a pump is an insulin drip. Yeah,
Scott Benner 47:56
it's the thing you're asking me for. Because when I'm asleep, I'm not going to give myself a Bolus, so don't worry about it. And by the way, if I like, pass out, I'm not going to be worrying about a 180 blood sugar in the end. It's people who don't understand, right? It is, it
Stephanie 48:13
entirely is, and I think that it is fear based on their end and
Scott Benner 48:17
because they don't understand. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And this
Stephanie 48:21
isn't what the training is like, even in working with the new fellow that was working with us throughout like, This isn't her training. And that's really sad to me that, like her training in 2023 was not to use, understand and use an insulin pump. It's just It's wild to me. And in fact, one of the things that she came back with because I had offered we will put an iPad out in the room and have the Dexcom app display it on there, so anytime somebody walks in, they can see what direction my blood sugar is and what it is. And she actually recommended we don't do that, because people won't understand and somebody might come in and make a really quick decision based on what they see on there, and so she recommended we didn't include that information. Stephanie,
Scott Benner 49:05
do you ever stop and step back and take this experience that you've had and start applying it around the rest of the world and get really scared? Yeah, I do that. Sometimes. I'm like, oh, so the bus driver or the guy over there with a gun, or do any of us understand what we're doing? Is it all just like, working because nothing's going wrong? Like, do you know what I mean? Like, and then the minute it goes wrong, you go, like, oh, LA, did need 17 other million dollars for their fire department? Like, how did we not like, you don't even like, like, that kind of stuff. Is I get it? Like I understand, listen, I understand that people are cycling through society constantly, right? Like new people are always coming in. Older people get tired and busy, and they don't have time to re explain the world every five seconds, they don't have time to keep up with new advancements. The people who come in haven't been put through. The process yet. Like, so they don't really know. So everyone defaults to being, like, extra cautious, which, listen, I guess it's probably a great thing, right? Like, because extra cautious at least, might mean alive. But like, I don't understand why, when someone steps forward with something different, that our first response is always that's bad, it's wrong. I don't understand it. So no, and I don't just mean with diabetes, by the way. Like this runs the gamut of social issues, right? Like, anytime someone says something different, everyone goes, that's bad. No. Burn it. I think this is what I was talking about earlier. With the parenting we have not come along far enough yet. Like, our brains can't pivot quickly enough. Like, and if you need an example, just look back to when Facebook used to change what the Facebook page looked like like every six months. Yeah, and people would lose their why'd you move that button? How come it's a different color? It looked better like this. I'm getting off this goddamn thing like we can't pivot with that, you know what I mean, and now we're all sitting around talking about medical stuff, like, how come these people can't pivot? Those are the same people were freaked out by Facebook. I think
Stephanie 51:07
the sad thing that I found during it too, is like, the message we had heard a lot was, like, we I've never had a patient control their own management. I've never had a patient get this a 1c during pregnancy, but like, nobody asked me how, or like, what tools I was using or what I was doing differently. No, right? I got the outcome they they asked for with a ton of work, and I felt like I didn't know what to do with it, like I had all this information that I had to learn on my own, but they didn't want to hear what it was. Stephanie, I'm going to say
Scott Benner 51:38
something that's going to sound absolutely ridiculous that people don't like me and people who do like me are going to be like, That's right. What should those people have done if they wanted to understand diabetes? Should they have listened to a podcast about it? That's what I did. I understand that like I completely they don't have the Inkling. They don't even have the need. They're not trying to manage your diabetes. They didn't get it when they were 11. They didn't sit in a room and feel judged by their mother and a doctor like they don't live your life. They don't know they don't have any of this input. Like, their variables for this are completely different than yours. Also, when they say stuff like, I've never seen anybody with an ANC like this. You know what you should have said? How long have you been doing this? Because the answer might have been two years or six months. Or how about the answer is, I've been doing this for 20 years, and I've never seen anything like this that doesn't say as much about you as it does about the system, right? I'll give you an example. Once a company came to me one time, and they had been really heavily steeped in the influencer space to try to get the word out about their thing. I'm gonna be very vague about this. Okay, okay. And then they come to me and they say, like, you know, we've never worked with a podcast before. And I said, Well, you've come to the right one. And they came to me, and I did the thing that they asked me to do, and at the end of the first 30 days, they call me up and say, you've just gotten more people to click on this link than every influencer we've ever used historically combined in one month. I beat them all for the entire time they had been doing it, and they started treating me like I was special. And I put my hands up and I said, stop, stop. This is not an indication of me. It's an indication of them. I'm not great at this. Those numbers aren't even that great. The influencer model you were trying, it doesn't really work. It makes likes and clicks and views, but likes and clicks and views aren't someone saying I trust this enough to follow through. I was, like, the reason I worked and they didn't is because people actually trust me. Yeah, that's why they clicked on the link. And by the way, it's not like, a money thing. Like, so are you out there? Like, oh, Scott's selling, trust me, it's a good thing for everybody, right? But the judgment is, what I'm pointing out is that as soon as they saw me as different, they thought I was special. And I was like, I'm not special. You were just trying something that doesn't work. Yeah, that's all. And you had talked yourself into believing that it works. They're influencers. They put pictures up on Instagram, and 20,000 people like it. I had to say to somebody once in a sales meeting, in case you're wondering how comfortable this was, they're like, well, we've got this person right here on Instagram. They have type one diabetes. They drive a ton of traffic. We're going to go with them. And I said, and I looked and I said, I said, I listen, I don't know how to say this. And you know, in the 2000s he's without getting in trouble. I'm like, But this girl is in a bikini in every one of these pictures. And they're like, yeah. I'm like, You think she's a diabetes influencer, and they're like, well, she has diabetes. I'm like, late. I'm like, Look, she's a penis. Influencer, okay? Like, and she's doing a great job of it. Like, that girl's gorgeous. People with diabetes aren't looking at her and going, I wonder what she's doing with her insulin, right? They're looking at her and going, I can see her butt cheeks. Like, like, that's what's happening right now. Like. Like, listen, full disclosure, that's exactly what was happening. I don't mean it poorly, like, I'm not judging her, I'm again, judging the person that was judging the situation, who's like, we think that's a great diabetes influencer. And I was like, it's a girl in a bikini, right? She's doing something different than what you're doing, and they keep doing it, by the way, and not just one company. A lot of them lean into it honestly. Like, look at your social media around diabetes in the summertime, it's just companies saying, like, send us your pictures with your gear on, which is code for send us pictures in shorts and right, yeah, and bikinis and bathing suits and stuff like that. If you have a six pack and you're a guy, please also send us your picture with your shirt off. That's really what's happening right now. Now, do they drive big numbers? Do some of these pictures have literally, like, hundreds of 1000s of likes on them? They absolutely do. But those people are not doing the thing that they think that they're doing. Now, I'm off on a little bit of a tangent here, but back to the hospital thing. You're not special. You're just doing it the right way, right, right? They're accustomed to watching it being done incorrectly by people who didn't know what to do, and now they've decided that that's what's real. And how in the hell do they not look at you and realize, oh, Stephanie's what's real. We could all do this. Like, I haven't said yet in an hour. It's insane that when you make yourself pregnant, and you go to one of these doctors and they tell you, what's the a 1c they told you had to keep six. They wanted it under six. Okay, right? And you're like, that's not how this works. But the truth is, if you want to do you could keep your a 1c under six. Like, it wouldn't be fun all the time, and you would and it would be a lot of work. I'm not saying otherwise. Like, it really would be, but it is functionally possible. Like, so why do we act like it's not functionally possible? Like, why do we say, like, hey, it's important to be super healthy if you're pregnant, but if you're not pregnant, it's not as important well entirely.
Stephanie 56:56
And I still feel that way, like, after all that I learned with management and after pregnancy, like, I maintain my a 1c well below the threshold for pregnancy in a comfortable, like, livable way. No,
Scott Benner 57:10
you made my bed. That's awesome. Even my doctor is
Stephanie 57:12
like, well, you can loosen up now, like you're not pregnant. Awesome. I'm still alive.
Scott Benner 57:16
Like my cells are still inside of me trying to keep going for as long as they can. Like, yeah. And I'm not saying if your a 1c is seven or eight or nine or 10 or 11 or 12. I'm not being like, hey, you suck. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that there's a level of success in here for all of you, and it stems on how to use insulin. Somebody might hear that who's like, ultra low carb, and be like, No, if you don't eat carbs, none of this matters. Like, yeah, right. That'd be a weight of the be a way to use insulin right like, eat low carb and use the right amount of insulin for that. There's probably somebody listening who's like, look, I would love to do that, but I got a real problem here. Like, you know, I eat it, it's a slice of cheesecake every day, and it needs to happen. Or I got psychological issues, like, everything's gonna fall part of me. There's a way to Bolus for the cheesecake. Like, I'm not telling you what to eat or how to do or how active or inactive to be, or anything like that. And I'm not saying that some of these decisions aren't more healthy than others of them, but there's an amount of insulin and a timing to be used that will work with almost everything. And I want people to understand that so they go out into the world and apply it to their own life and how they eat. Because I think Stephanie, between you and I don't think that anybody who jumps up and tells people how to eat is going to have any real success widespread. You know what I mean? Like, you might find, like, a niche of people who are like, yeah, right on. I'm going to do it this way or that way. But there's millions of people who have type one diabetes. We're not going to get them all to be keto. So, like, instead of beating that drum, my drum is, you know, timing an amount, like, learn how to use insulin, apply it to your life. I think you'll have better outcomes than the ones you're having
Stephanie 58:51
now, well, entirely. And I bring that back to even, like, my first appointments in high risk when they were telling me how to eat, instead of teaching me how to use insulin really effectively, and trying to think about, like, how are you going to live your life when you walk out of this office? And instead of me calling every week or twice a week to tell you how you should be doing it, think about how to make your individual life work with this pregnancy. So
Scott Benner 59:17
you just made such a point that I've always been, like, fascinated by, you know, I don't know what people call them at this point, but like, you know, kind of those bro podcasters who are just like, what you got to do is get up in the morning and then you go submerge yourself in minus 1900 degree water for three minutes. Now, if you don't, that can kill you. Then you get out of that, and you got your side tickets going, and then what I need to do is go on a 19 mile run. You understand, I'm saying 19 miles and and like, do this, then do that, then go to the beach, and then lift the boat up, and then walk out into the surf with it. Hold over your head for 25 minutes now, after you've done that, yeah, okay, cool. I'm glad that's your life, all right. But like, that's not everyone's life. And nobody can do those. Most people can't do those things. But moreover, when you tell people to do stuff. Like that. Psychologically, they go, No, Q, you and I have been talking for an hour now. You've been listening to the podcast for a while, I assume, right? The first time you heard me, you called me brash. How would you describe me now? How would I describe you? Now? Am I brash? No, I mean, in the best way. Ah, right. It was how you interacted with brash. Because I'm still a brash, yeah, I'm, yeah, of course, I am. I'm all the things you think I am. I'm from the East Coast, I'm brash. I have no filter. What that I can tell I know the things I'm saying can be interpreted differently, but I leave that to you to figure out, because you're a adult, figure it out, like, if you're taking me that way, how do I say this? I was once, I'm adopted. I was once listening to a radio show as a younger person, and the person started making fun of adopted people, and I started to get upset, and then I stopped, and I thought, I've been listening to this show for 10 years and laughing every day when he makes fun of these people and those people and those people and those people. And he got to me, and I was like, Hey, what the hell? And I stopped myself. I was like, That's ridiculous. If that's funny, this is funny. I adjusted my idea of what funny was in my personal life. I would tell you that I think if you want to say you have a good sense of humor, you have to be able to hear maybe the harshest joke and see what's funny about it. You don't have to find the topic funny or, you know, but, but you have to see where the humor is. You can know it's funny and not laugh, I guess. And so over and over and over again, people hear things and it puts them off, and then they decide, oh, I'm not going to do that. But that happens with food constantly, right? So you tell someone what to do, and they're going to do the opposite. And some people have it more strongly than others, and some people are, you know, more people pleasers, and they'll just do it and silently be angry forever. It'll ruin their life in a different way. Arden's the kind of if you tell Arden anything about her health, she will do the opposite. Yeah, that's just how she that's she can't. She knows it. She'll tell you, and she'll tell you, I don't know why. She's like, she's like, I don't even want to, but like, if you remind me to take something or to do something, I'll almost not do it on purpose and not but not consciously. I believe that then, when that's the world, if you're trying to help people, then it's not just as easy as jumping up on your bro podcast and telling them like you want to be thin close your mouth, yeah, even if that is actually the answer, that's not going to get anybody anywhere.
Stephanie 1:02:32
And that's exactly how I felt through the experience with like you telling me your answer isn't my answer right,
Scott Benner 1:02:40
even if it's right. And I know that doesn't make any sense, but people, you know what I mean, we're complex. We're basically ants that got thumbs and now we're thinking, and we're like, ah, a lot of this doesn't make sense. Still, it's what I mean by like, another 500,000 years, like, look, I don't know what the average I don't know, you know, however you measure intelligence, I don't like, you know, I don't know what the average one was, 300 500 1000 years ago, but I but, you know, it all seems to work a little better now imagine three, five 1000 years in the future, like, what if the average, I don't know, I don't know how valuable an IQ measurement is, but what if the you know, What if the average IQ jumps up 50 points, and all of a sudden people have a lot more emotional intelligence, and when someone says to you, Hey, don't eat a Twinkie. Eat that, you just go, Okay, well, if that's right, then I'll do that. But right now, that's just not how people work. So you're like, already freaked out. Want to get pregnant. You're putting a ton of effort into it, you get there and find out, like, oh God, like everything they're saying is opposite of what I'm doing, and what I'm doing is working. So if it's opposite of what I'm doing, that's working, it's really not going to work. And then I'm going to be pregnant, it's going to be too late. Now you're scared, you luckily step forward and advocate, where as most people would just step back and either say, I don't want to have this fight, or they would take the doctor's word as, and I'm not judging anybody, but you would take it as, like a prescription to off, because you'd be like, Oh, he says it's not important. Then it ain't important, that kind of thing. Like, now it's like a free nine months. You just have off because you were told by a physician that it wasn't to be worried about. Yeah, then you go forward from there, and if the baby comes out and cries, the doctor is going to think they did the right thing. They did it. Yeah, yeah, right. Oh, trust me, I know everybody's very complicated. Talk a little bit more about how I'm an asshole in what ways did you dislike it when you heard it at first? It's okay. I'll have my wife send you the list. You don't have to make your own. I'm sure the list has already been written. Oh, oh, Stephanie art and I were having this conversation the other night. I'm gonna ask you the question, right? She said, I don't remember how this started, but it was down to like she was watching this person. It might have been Theo Vaughn, you know? Theo? Of on, I don't, there's no way you know that. But that's he was apparently having a conversation with his mother about something, and he, out of nowhere, says, like, what if once a year where you were allowed to kill a person? And like, and so we went through this thought exercise together, and I stopped, and I said to Arden, you know what the question really is for people, if it was legal for once a year for everyone to kill one person? Stephanie, would you still be alive? Hmm, oh, that's a good question. It is, because now you have to think about all the people in your life that don't like you, and how much my list Yes, and how much don't they like you. And then we started talking. I said I might start asking everyone on the podcast that question. And I also said, Isn't it interesting? Because I bet you'd have fewer famous people, because there'd be, like, you know, if you were famous, like somebody out there would wish me dead, if that was the thing. You know what I mean? Like, there's too many people know who I am, and one of them doesn't like me and like and put in that position where most people wouldn't want to kill somebody, if, you know, you woke up on January 19 or 27th the fourth of whatever, whenever we make this thing and you wake up and you're just like, Okay, what's the day? I have to write down someone's name. I don't really want anybody to die. I'm gonna kill some random famous person who I don't like, right? And then we start talking about, like, how many votes would those people get? Yes, right? I'm
Unknown Speaker 1:06:24
alive. Okay, you're actually thinking about it.
Scott Benner 1:06:26
Nobody picked me. Nobody picked you. Okay, that's hilarious. Thank you. But yeah, like, think about that. Like, how many people would wake up tomorrow and then vote for, you know, I don't know a political person or and how would that feel if you got to know before it happened, like, oh, 18 million people voted for you to die today. Trust me, there's a lot around this question. I think it's yeah. Anyway, thanks. Theo Vaughn, have we not talked about anything that we should have talked about, anything that you wanted to cover, that we haven't covered, I guess, like, yeah, how it ended go, oh, yeah, you made a baby. Tell us about that. Yeah, we
Stephanie 1:07:00
had a baby. So we had babies. So all that to say with, like, the negotiations that went back and forth, we did end up kind of like the thing that I kept asking, they kept saying, like, the providers might not be comfortable with it on the Day of the Doctor delivering your baby might not be comfortable with this, like, we can sign off on it being like your plan, but it might not happen on the actual day. And so the thing that I kind of kept going back with was like, well, then what would happen, like, if I'm not gonna, if we're, if I'm managing my insulin, and we get in there and somebody's not comfortable with it, like, what would they do? And that was, like, really not something that ever could be answered for me. What they would actually do if that was my preference going in? And so that's kind of how we left it before delivering the baby, was like, this is the goal of the plan. I might get there and have a doctor tell me no, but then what if I say no? And that was just kind of where we left it. I ended up going in and getting induced, which is one of those things that's like protocol for diabetic women. And I decided, like, I was gonna be okay with that part, just because I was asking for so much leniency,
Scott Benner 1:08:06
you gave up induction to get your plan. Yeah, I
Stephanie 1:08:09
felt like I that that was one thing they felt really strongly about, is that you should be induced. And we kind of went back and forth on that, and I ultimately decided it wasn't the battle that I wanted to fight. It didn't feel as dire to me as being able to manage blood sugars during delivery. My wife
Scott Benner 1:08:27
gave up a name to get a circumcision. Oh, that's not
Unknown Speaker 1:08:33
what I was expecting. You to sit
Scott Benner 1:08:35
that's what she did. She wanted to call Cole Nicholas. I wanted to call Cole Cole. I don't know why I'm, oh God, by the way, all you listening, don't get a podcast, because you end up saying stuff like this, and as you're saying it, you're like, What am I doing? I'm circumcised. And back then there was, like, this whole kind of, like, people were really talking about not doing it. And I guess I kind of got, like, swept up in it. And I was like, I don't know, like, should we get them circumcised? Maybe not. My wife's like, yes, definitely. As a person who's been on the business end of a penis more than once, I think it should be it should be circumcised. And I was like, Well, I'm like, I don't know. That's not what people are saying. So we're like, we're going back and forth. And then we got into the horse trading section of making a baby, and she's like, you can call him Cole, if we can get him circumcised. And I was like, All right, deal.
Unknown Speaker 1:09:17
Shake on it. Yeah. I'm sure
Scott Benner 1:09:19
he's thrilled. I just said that, but whatever. Very cool. Yeah, he's fine. He's he's done, okay, okay, I'm sorry. So, like, so you. So that's the idea. Like, we'll wait and see what go
Stephanie 1:09:29
to the hospital. We get used overnight. I had a super, super fast labor. I went in and got the, like, first part of the induction, place, they like, place, the pill and say, like, I go to sleep, and when you wake up, we might have to do this, like, four times, and then move on to the next phase to try to get your body ready. And luckily for me, just placing that pill and like, going to sleep for a little while, while sleep, I laid horizontally, didn't sleep. That was enough to really get things moving. And when I kind of got. And started moving in the morning, my labor just started naturally, and that was great. When we got there, I was like, the first thing I'm going to do is give my birth plan to the nurse that's on on call. And they didn't when they checked me in, they really didn't ask any questions about diabetes. They must have seen my birth plan in my chart, but nobody asked about it, nobody asked about my pump, nobody asked about my sensor. So I just kept them on and kept my mouth shut. So I'm, like, all right, I'm just gonna, like, do this, like, first part of labor with my temp on with CGM, I'm not gonna bring it up until somebody brings it up to me. And so we were kind of just waiting for somebody to come in and ask us about it, and to, like, kind of start that conversation, to confront it. And the next shift of nurse came in and told me that she had read through my birth plan, and she said, you know, your diabetes better than I do, like we're gonna we're gonna let you do it right? It was such a relief, and it ended up being the nurse that we worked through, through all of labor and delivery. The doctor on call apparently was okay with the plan. I never saw him, so I never really knew. I never talked with him, but apparently, from behind the scenes, kind of like, oz, was okay with the plan. This thing that, like, we spent all, like, a year and a half really working on and negotiating on the day of, was almost like a non issue, a
Scott Benner 1:11:18
big nothing burger and non issue. Were you like, son of a bitch,
Stephanie 1:11:25
all this so many reasons, but I don't think we could have gotten there without it, right? Like, I think we needed all that. But, like, first off, like, my blood sugar was 80, steady through all of labor and delivery. Like, a sip of juice here, no issue. So, like, all those things I prepared for, like, okay, if I'm rising, if I'm falling, how fast am I? Like, we didn't have to use any of that. The thing that did go wrong, I will say, is we got to the point where I was, like, really close to starting pushing. About an hour before I started pushing, I heard a noise that I had never heard before from my sensor, and I looked at my phone and it said sensor failure.
Scott Benner 1:12:02
You were like, of course,
Stephanie 1:12:05
I never had a field ginger up until that point. And it was like, all I did for like, months and months was tell my doctors, like, this is like, technology. We need to be using it. We need to be using
Scott Benner 1:12:15
it. And then it, like, it makes that noise, it goes and you're like, wait, what? No, not now. He's like, what is that? I'm like, I literally have no idea, nothing. Don't worry about funny.
Stephanie 1:12:27
He like, he's like, What do we do? I'm like, We are the sensor. So he, like, would just grab my finger and test me every couple minutes, and probably every 10 minutes or so, he just test me. And he handed me a new Dexcom, and I, like, in between contractions, slapped it on my arm to the point where, like, I was so out of it, like pushing and getting ready to that I actually put it, like, in my elbow crease, like, you know, out of it, just like, put a new sensor on. Let's go. Let's go. Let's do this. Where
Scott Benner 1:12:53
did she put it? She put on her forehead. It's weird.
Stephanie 1:12:57
I was like, I have to live with this for 10 days. All that to say, though, like, we did all that work, so during labor and delivery, like diabetes, I didn't have to worry about it, and it really did go well. And even when we had a little issue with the sensor, like we could deal with it, like it didn't throw anything off. It was okay. I want
Scott Benner 1:13:16
people to know that there's an amount of effort that's going to go into diabetes, you can't avoid it, but you can control where the effort goes. And I think you did that first of all, like, I think you controlled where your effort went. And even though you hit a speed bump, you were able to, like, go through it. The way I talk about that more day to day, is that, you know, if you put that effort in, into understanding bolusing for your meals and getting your set, your settings, right, if that's where your effort is, then your effort might not be spent nearly as much on the back end with, right? Oh, my God, I got so high after a meal, and then I finally Bolus, and then it came down, and I got low, and I woke up at two in the morning and I was still low, or I was still high, or, like, all that, like, that's a ton of effort, right? Just take all that effort that you're putting in one way or the other, because now it's effort to stay alive. Take the effort to stay alive from Oh god, I'm about to die. I got to do something and shift it to pre planning and making decisions up front that don't lead to the rest of those problems. Yeah,
Stephanie 1:14:16
I think it was about being proactive, for sure, and like, the proactivity, just like, gave me the confidence to do it and to know I was making the right decision for myself. Ultimately, like, one of the reasons I wanted to come on was just to put a positive experience out there, because there, you know, it's a space like I haven't found, like, a good resource to go to for pregnancy, preparing for it, and kind of like labor and delivery is a type one. I hear stories every once in a while, but like, I when I was in that situation, I just like, soaked them up anywhere I could find them. And so I just wanted to add, like, one more positive birth story, but also just like the work that it took to get there, out into the universe, to say, like, it is possible. And. Just trusting your own instincts is so important. Like, even, like, right after he was delivered, they tested my blood sugar because they they were testing my blood sugar alongside my Dexcom, and then they came back in, like, an hour or two later with a gluco strip. And I was like, What are you doing? They're like, Oh, well, your blood sugar was in the 70s. You're
Scott Benner 1:15:23
like, Yeah, I've been trying to do that for 24 years. Thank you.
Stephanie 1:15:28
A couple hours ago was my protocol, like, I was supposed to have it there, and also that blood sugar, it was like, two hours old, and you're gonna hang a glucose strip
Scott Benner 1:15:36
now. Like,
Stephanie 1:15:38
right? Like, like, so much has happened since then, like, I mean, but there's just, there's so many things where it's like, trust your gut, test your Instagram, nothing to be difficult, but like, you are your own advocate. And the thing that I found is like, nobody really was looking out for me and the baby at the end of the day except me. Like we weren't looking out for a bottom line. We weren't worried about liability, like we were looking out for ourselves. And that's just something that I took away from. It was just how important that inner voice is. Yep,
Scott Benner 1:16:07
you're the decider, just like George Bucha had one time. You remember when he said that I am the decider? I was like, Oh my God. Now we yearn for that level of stupidity. It's a wonderful quote, like he's like, I'm the decider. I was like, All right, brother. It's like, you get out there, get out there and decide nothing like confidence. It's not my favorite quote of his, but my favorite one is the I don't even want to go into it. I've probably said it like six times on the podcast, but anyway, George Bucha has a couple of awesome quotes that I love. Oh,
Stephanie 1:16:35
absolutely. I think mine was like, Where dreams take wing.
Scott Benner 1:16:40
Oh, my God. He's awesome. He's such a he's such a quote machine. He's getting old now, so it's even hard to like, you know, look back and I just still remember it fondly. Oh God, not the point. Point is you're the decider. You took care of things, you prepared, you tried to get everybody around you to understand. Turns out, by the way, that the people in that room with you had more common sense about diabetes than the people who were setting it up. And you know, it's funny, because your experience getting your pregnancy set up like your your delivery setup, excuse me, is exactly mimicking of anybody who's ever taken their car to a place to be fixed, and there's an intake person, and you say to the intake person, how long do you think this is going to take? How much do you think it's going to cost? And they can't answer you, because if it costs more or takes longer than what they say, then they're in trouble, right? Yeah. Then one day, you bump into the mechanic, and you go, Hey, I'm bringing my car in next week. How long do you think this is going to take? And the mechanic will go, that's gonna take two days, because the mechanic does the work, right? Like they know. And so the person you're talking to in the beginning is giving you worst case scenario, because they don't want to over promise anything. And by the way, you could be one of those people who, like, starts having a baby and then codes that happens, you know, like, like, right? And that's also not a thing they want to say to you. They don't want to go, Stephanie, well, look, we'd love to do this, but, you know, some people die giving birth, like, you know, like, they're not, they're not going to say that to you, because it doesn't happen frequently, but they, they're still prepping for it one way or the other, you would hope, right? And then you get on the day in the room, and you, you know now you're you, and you're speaking and you're prepared, and you understand, and the nurse looks and can, because the nurse has been in that exact situation, the nurse can look at you and go, Stephanie knows more about this than I do. Let's just do what she wants to do, and that person is the decider. Like, the problem is that you're setting the whole thing up with the with not the person who's going to make the decisions at the end. Yeah, yeah, that's a limitation of the situation. To some degree,
Stephanie 1:18:46
it certainly is. And I think for you know, women that can find one and afford one, like having a doula would be such a good way to be able to, like, prevent you from having to be that voice. The entire time, I worked really hard to try to find a type one doula, because I really just wanted somebody who had the language and could help me negotiate if I needed it. I don't live in an area with a ton of diabetic resources, so like, I just couldn't find one. I tried for a while, but like, if you can, that would be such an amazing way to have somebody in the room who's an advocate for you and your diabetes and your diabetes plan. If you're feeling like uncomfortable with finishing it on your own, I would strongly recommend
Scott Benner 1:19:26
that. Yeah, well, if you ever do this again, you'll know, you know. And also, Stephanie, there's an old saying in Tennessee, I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee, that says, fool me once. Shame on you. Fool me. You can't get fooled again. That's the one I love. Yeah, so you won't, you won't get fooled again. You'll be okay. Probably. Do you think you'll make little more babies? We
Stephanie 1:19:51
haven't decided yet. Yeah, we're, we're enjoying the one right now.
Scott Benner 1:19:54
Did you look at how much college cost? Yeah, we're enjoying the one right now. Out, yeah, trust me, one's already too many, and I'm sure it's lovely and all, but like, one's fine. And if you have two, I'd say the same thing, guys, yeah, two is fine. Just slow down. They're very, very, very expensive. That's all. It's like. Also, I refer you back to the first 20 minutes of the conversation. It'll be it probably fine.
Unknown Speaker 1:20:22
I mean, great, yeah, I'm sure she won't
Scott Benner 1:20:24
be anything. Is it a boy? It's a boy, right? A boy? Yeah, yeah. I'm sure he won't be anything like you and hassle your mom like you did, and all that stuff, exactly. Yeah, probably won't happen at all. Yeah, awesome. I have, I have an interesting question. We already been going along, so I'm gonna go five more minutes, because you just had a baby, but you had a baby in 2024, right? 2023, 2020, 2023 right? Yep. So you live in this culture now where people live in their homes and work in their homes and can't afford homes, and where you have to be seeing people who have 1820, 23 year old, you know, children who are still at home trying to save money up to get out of their home, if it's like that now, and we don't change anything, then you're not bringing up a child in a world where I just got to get them to 18. They go to college, then they get a job and they move out, and I really don't see them much after that, right? Like you're living in a new world where your kid could go to college or not come home, or still be home and have to live there into their 20s in order to afford their own home. I don't think we realize how much that's going to change parenting and that structure, because you're accustomed to leaving home still like all right, my parents meant well, I started seeing them getting older as I got older, I could see them slowing down, or I could see them making some stupid mistakes, or they did stuff I didn't agree with. But then you leave, but when you get to hang around for an extra four or five years where you're like, more of a sentient, thinking person, I get worried about what happens when they leave? Like, are they just gonna leave and be like, Oh, thank God I got out of there. Those people are like, falling apart around me. Like, do you think anything about that at all? It's so early, but I'm wondering, no, entirely
Stephanie 1:22:05
I do. I mean, I guess less in the context of being a parent, and more, like the kind of age group I'm in, where, when I graduated, like I was one of the fortunate people that was able to get a job during the recession, and like, I didn't move back in with my parents, but so many people did, and it took a lot of my friends, quite a bit of time, to be able to get a job and to be able to afford a house and move out and yeah, those relationships with their parents. I don't envy having to parent a 20 year old living in your house. It's totally different, especially after they've had if they've gone off to college and had that independent experience,
Scott Benner 1:22:43
yeah, it's hard. Like, I'm telling you right now, I'm, like, my son's, you know, still here working things out, like, and he's got a job. He's working right now, you know, he's actually doing great this job, which is awesome. But if we threw him out in the world right now, he'd be renting for the rest of his life. Yeah, right. And so, like, we're, you know, trying to give him a little bit of a like, don't get me wrong, it would be nice if you could just write somebody a check and be like, here's money to buy a house with. But, you know, that's not my situation. So, like, you know, so he's here trying to, like, save up. He is actually saving up, which is awesome, but I still wonder about the rest of it, like, the interpersonal stuff and how it's going to change, like, going forward in this next generation. How are adult children going to see their parents when they lived with them a little too long? Do you know what I mean? I can't wait to find out I'm
Stephanie 1:23:31
going to try to do but I also think about from your perspective as a parent of an adult child, like it changes your relationship with your children, and it also like you're kind of in this situation now where you're sort of parenting an adult, and you're also potentially, like, caring for elder your elder parents as well. Like, it sandwiches you so much more.
Scott Benner 1:23:51
Also, you don't realize how much of parenting works because the person you're parenting listens to yeah and doesn't have their own thoughts, like the part about parenting, when you're building people up, you're teaching them what to think about, right? But once they know what to think about, and they've decided that everything they think isn't the thing you think, which, by the way, is what you want, it's not like a bad thing. But then once that happens, and then there's a moment where they need to be parented again, even in, like, small ways, and you're like, I think this. And they look at you like, yeah, you're an idiot. And you're like, Oh, oops. What happened? Like, when you were eight, you would just go, okay, and then do it right, yeah. And maybe I am an idiot. So then you turn it back on yourself, and you go like, Oh, God. Is that wrong? Like, because, like, I said earlier, all I did was, like, I thought about it the best I could, this is my answer. So now we're finding ourselves blending everyone's opinions together more, which is, I think, really good, but it's hard, like from my perspective,
Stephanie 1:24:52
well, with four like, grown independent thinkers, absolutely yes,
Scott Benner 1:24:56
they all have an opinion. Everybody's right about something. Everybody sees something a little different. You're trying to blend it all together, but at the same time, you have to give away your ego while it's happening, because you're like, Well, I thought this, but that does sound better. Maybe we should do it more like that, right? And then you kind of have to, like, swallow hard and go, Yeah, I think that's a good idea. Like, let's try that. So anyway, I can't wait to see what happens. It's gonna be interesting. Hopefully these new medications and stuff will keep me alive long enough I can figure out how it went. But anyway, you go make another baby and name it. Scott, okay, oh, I'll, I'll add it to the list. Nobody's name of their baby. Scott, that's ridiculous. What a terrible name. There's no, there's no, it's Scott. Listen to it. Scott, there's anything wrong with it short and it doesn't have a lot of I don't know. There's no judge at all. You know, I'm saying it
Stephanie 1:25:45
feels just familiar to me, like we know Scott. We all know Scott, but that's because it's me.
Scott Benner 1:25:48
I don't use my my name doesn't get really spoken much, like you guys know it, because it's me, but like in my real life, like people don't refer to me as Scott, like I get dad or Hey, or stuff like that. My wife might say something like asshole or something. I don't know exactly how she does it. People don't look at me often and go, Scott, but I'm a I use people's names all the time. Like, when I talk to people, I use their names. You do, yeah, but it's not common in the world. Really. Like, because I even do it with a waitress or a waiter.
Stephanie 1:26:19
I feel like when people do, my impression is always like, you're not you're in trouble, but like you're being told something really important, like Stephanie, you better pay attention. You know, Stephanie, like refocusing me.
Scott Benner 1:26:31
I just say thank you to people. The reason like dropping a car off is in my head that is like, I had to drop my car off to have work done on it. And the person was like, hey, I want the mechanic to look at it. I was like, Okay, so the mechanic, like, put his coat on and everything. He was coming over to come outside, and as he approached me, I reached out and I shook his hand. And I was like, Hey, I'm Scott. Thank you. And he said, I'm John. And I said, it's nice to meet you, John. And he said, you too. And but he looked at me like, this is weird. What are we in a 1920s movie? And I was like, I just Yeah, and I'm just like, saying hi to the guy, right? But my, my kids all the time are like, like, you freak the waiters out when you use their name. I'm like, it's on their shirt. Like, am I not just supposed to say thank you, Stephanie? Like, at the end, like, I hope you have a good day. Like, you know what? I mean? I don't know this is going way too long. Rob's gonna charge me extra to edit this. We have to be done now. All right, hold on a second.
Dexcom sponsored this episode of the juice box podcast. Learn more about the Dexcom g7 at my link, dexcom.com/juice box. Omnipod five sponsored this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Learn more and get started today at omnipod.com/juice. Box. Links in the show notes. Links at Juicebox podcast.com, earlier you heard me talking about blue circle health, the free virtual type one diabetes care, education and support program for adults. And I know it sounds too good to be true, but I swear it's free thanks to funding from a big T 1d philanthropy group, blue circle health doesn't bill your insurance or charge you a cent. In other words, it's free. They can help you with things like carb counting, insurance navigation, diabetes technology, insulin adjustments, peer support, Prescription Assistance and much more. So if you're tired of waiting nine months to get in with your endo or your educator, you can get an appointment with their team within one to two weeks. This program is showing what T 1d care can and should look like currently, if you live in Florida, Maine Vermont, New Hampshire, Ohio, Delaware, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa or Louisiana. If you live in one of those states, go to blue circle health.org to sign up today. The link is in the show notes, and please help me to spread the word blue circle health had to buy an ad because people don't believe that it's free, but it is. They're trying to give you free care if you live in Florida, Maine, Vermont, Ohio, Delaware, Alabama and Missouri. It's ready to go right now. And like I said, they're adding states so quickly in 2025 that you want to follow them on social media at Blue circle health, and you can also keep checking blue circle health.org to see when your free care is available to you. Hey, thanks for listening all the way to the end. I really appreciate your loyalty and listenership. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrong way recording.com, you.
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#1498 TSA Device Swabbing
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.
This short five minutes episode will explain why your medical devices get swabbed at airport security.
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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.
COMING SOON
Please support the sponsors
The Juicebox Podcast is a free show, but if you'd like to support the podcast directly, you can make a gift here. Recent donations were used to pay for podcast hosting fees. Thank you to all who have sent 5, 10 and 20 dollars!