Scott Benner 11/1/21 Scott Benner 11/1/21

#569 I Want To Ride My Bicycle

I want to ride my bike. Corey rides a lot of bicycles.

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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 569 of the Juicebox Podcast

on today's show I'll be speaking with Corey, he's an adult living with type one diabetes who enjoys riding bicycles, both indoors and outdoors. We're going to be talking about that and a lot more. I for one can't wait to find out how he doesn't run to a walk. I mean, how do you ride a bike inside? How do you stop yourself from seeing the Queen song bicycle every time somebody says bicycle

while you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Please Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin.

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this show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries. G voc hypo penne Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash juicebox. This episode of the podcast is also sponsored by touched by type one, please head to touched by type one.org To learn more about them and to get tickets for their 2021 dancing for diabetes program which I'll tell you more about a little later on.

Corey 2:01
Thanks for having me on Scott. My name is Cory Weibel. I'm a type one diabetic have been since since 1997. I'm really just kind of a triathlete. I have competed in multiple Iron Man's, you know, 70 point threes a lot of different triathlons. And, you know, with the pandemic, you know, we were inside, I really haven't been out much I haven't raced in about a year and a half and, you know, just stumbled on, you know, this team type one on Swift. And it's really become kind of my home away from home, you know, being being able to ride indoors on the trainer and still train for races that I hope happened in 2021. But really, it's just become a community of people that are are kinda like family now, you know, that we ride, you know, sometimes four or five days a week with and race. I raced twice a week, usually every week. So it's, you know, it's it's become like a family like atmosphere, based out of Facebook and a virtual world where my avatar? Hopefully it looks something like me.

Scott Benner 3:08
You've said a number of things that have made me think of a lot of questions. So that's good. So you've had type one for almost a quarter of a century. Yeah. Okay. And I'm interested in how long you've been not just racing on bikes, but doing triathlons. Specifically, how old are you two?

Corey 3:26
I'm 35. About to be 36.

Scott Benner 3:29
Oh, you were diagnosed when you were like five, six years old?

Corey 3:32
I was junior high school. Excuse

Scott Benner 3:34
me. Yeah, by my math, it's terrible. But junior high. So you've lived through it. Like you've come up through a couple of different segments of life with type one. But when did you start doing triathlons.

Corey 3:48
So I moved back. So I'm from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I moved away after college. And I was just looking, I had gained some weight. And I was up to as much as 250 255 pounds. And I'm like, I gotta figure something out. Like because

Scott Benner 4:03
you're not my number. You talk. What's that? You're because you're not seven feet tall?

Corey 4:07
Yeah, so I'm six feet like I'm an average dude. I mean, my shoulders are built. I have pretty wide shoulders. So I hold weight pretty well. But like, in my mind, I knew like, I can't live like this. You

Scott Benner 4:19
can I can. I

can. I don't know. I mean, we'll talk. I've interesting questions about that. I think we'll see if everyone else thinks they're interesting. 50 to 55 on a six foot frame. When did you start thinking oh, cuz I know what you mean about being kind of broader in some places and you feel like you carry weight better and so it gives you that false sense of you're okay, like, what way do you start thinking like, This is tip in the wrong way for me?

Corey 4:45
Well, I started just getting into running and I would my gym. I lived in Wisconsin at the time and the gym I lived at was, you know, a half mile down the road so I could run there, do my workout run back home after work. And I just started weighing myself like once or twice a week, and I got on there. And I was like, man, like, this is a lot more than I thought. And when I moved to Wisconsin, I kinda, you know, I had to find an apartment to live in. So, you know, for like, a month, a month and a half, it was, hey, you know, you don't have a kitchen. It's it's fast food. And then I worked in college athletics. So I was I was working 7080 hours a week, some week, I was traveling a lot. And when you're traveling, you know, you stop at McDonald's, and you eat. And so I had put on the way and then there was just that when I finally got settled down, and, you know, stepped on the scale. I'm like, Man, this is this is too much because I played college baseball on a division to school. And I was never a light person. But you know, I played around 200. So 200 to 215. And I just knew that, you know, being up that high, even though my a one C was pretty decent. It was something that obviously wasn't going to be sustainable.

Scott Benner 6:09
Were you a first baseman,

Corey 6:11
I was a catcher.

Scott Benner 6:12
Your catcher was gonna be my next question. Interesting. Okay. So when you were on the road working in athletics, you were recruiting, I imagine?

Corey 6:21
No, so I worked as a sports information director or director of media and information for a division three conference. So I would go to like all the conference championships handle all the media for that stuff. So yeah, it was going from where I lived in Wisconsin, sometimes to Iowa or Illinois, and then traveling again in the same weekend, so it was a lot of a lot of car hours.

Scott Benner 6:46
It's terrible. Yeah, it

Corey 6:48
was awful.

Scott Benner 6:49
It's it's always interesting to me that the people who are sometimes around very athletic people, because of the effort they're putting into it, but not doing the movements that the the people that are around us that they their their health does suffer for that they're very sedentary, you know, watching other people be athletic. I guess it's a Yeah, it's a weird, it's weird to be that close to it and not involved in it.

Corey 7:12
Yeah, exactly.

Scott Benner 7:13
So So you see, you're running your run off to the gym, you're working out you're losing weight, I imagine. And this This, to me is very interesting, because I'm assuming this leads into doing triathlon somehow you meet some lunatics in a gym, and they're like, You know what we do? And you're like, I'll do that was it?

Corey 7:31
Actually, it's really weird because I, I don't have any like real life friends that do this. I had just the the school that I worked out of, it's called Ripon College. They had a lot. They had like a bike share program. And I was like, Oh, that's interesting. And actually, a friend of a friend was doing an Ironman, when I was moving back home. And I'm like, Hey, like, that looks interesting. Because to be honest, at the time, like, I'm a decent swimmer. But it wasn't something I was passionate about. I'm an okay runner, but it's not something I'm passionate about. And at the time, like riding bikes is okay. But it wasn't something I was passionate about. So, in my mind, I thought, hey, like, I can switch things up through this one event, and not be totally bored by everything. So that's kind of the way I got into it. And the friend of a friend that did an Ironman, he kind of, you know, that motivated me to get into it. He didn't continue to do it. So, you know, once I started, I just kind of fell in love with the competition portion of it. You know, at Seton Hill, I played baseball in college and, and we were really good. We actually went, went to the World Series one year, you know, I just needed that itch to be scratched. And I'm a pretty self motivated person. So doing all of this by myself really wasn't a big deal. So it just kind of was like a perfect storm of everything that came together

Scott Benner 9:05
to do you kind of found a way to reignite your competitive. Yeah, heart of Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Did you ever hear you ever hear Mike Tyson tell that story about how he got out of shape? Yeah, he says that, um, that the the competitive part of him is a monster, and he can't if he couldn't feed it at all. And if he would, he said he knew it would. It would just overwhelm his life. And one day, his wife kind of just, you know, gave him a little ribbing about how he was looking. And then a year and a half later, he's in the ring fighting again. He said,

Corey 9:40
Yeah, and yeah, it's kind of like that. Because I know that like, when I when I'm training, like I need to take like taking time off isn't bad. And I struggle with that. Like, if I take a day off in a month, like, I feel awful about myself, like, oh, I can't be getting better because I'm taking taking time off, and my wife is always like, Cory, you need to like, take a day or two and just like enjoy yourself, like, you can't just run yourself into the ground. But what do I do? I run myself into the ground every couple of months, and I have to take a couple days off. And then I realize, hey, yeah, I probably should have taken this day off. And it's a constant trouble because I have that competitive nature. Like, I always want to be getting better and finding that little bit of gain.

Scott Benner 10:26
Right? Well, so Cory, we're not gonna talk about your mental illness today, we're gonna stick on it. So although it would be interesting, I, I guess the the thing that that kind of interests me the most about you, is the possibilities of what you're about to say, based on what I've heard from other people. And let me tell you what I mean, by that. I have found at times that the more athletic people who have type one diabetes, seemed to know the least about it. And I know that's gonna sound crazy. And I'm sure there are plenty of athletic people who are like, I know a lot about my babies, and I'm sure you do. I'm just saying that there are times I talked to people who have done something in college, where they've been around like scenarios where they feel like the diabetes can't get in the way. So it's always a little better high than low or something like that. Yeah. And then you talk to them about, like, what's your ID once again, they're like, that's like seven and a half. And we're like, oh, have you ever considered like any, you start talking about diabetes management with them, and you realize, like, they don't know anything about this? Yeah. And and it's not always, but it has happened enough to me that it feels like a pattern to me. And then they do these amazing things. And I don't want to out this person, because he's lovely. But I was around a person one time who had done this kind of big thing around athletics, right. And I asked personally, like, how did you manage your blood sugar during that? And he said, I just ate a lot of candy bars. I'm like, wait, what? So are you telling me that you just went out and did this incredibly long range physical thing? And then on some sort of a scheduled devour to candy bar? Yeah. And he's like, Yeah, that's what I did. I was like, Oh, well, that doesn't feel like something I can tell people.

Corey 12:17
Right, exactly. That's not the message, right?

Scott Benner 12:20
And so because you've lived through a couple of generations of technology, I want to understand where you started with your management, where you are now and how that's maybe changed or informed what you're doing or if it hasn't, maybe, yeah, maybe, maybe, Cory, you're about to tell me you eat a lot of candy bars while you ride a bike. But, um, but go ahead.

Corey 12:37
Yeah, so I mean, obviously, when I first started 97, it was it was shots into the side. And it was, it was hard. And back then, I'll never forget my doctor when I was in the hospital, which I was in the hospital over Thanksgiving. Um, I do not recommend that it was as like a 14 or 15 year old person who Thanksgiving is their favorite holiday. It was absolutely miserable. Um, but I'll never forget the doctor when I was just kind of like trying to understand what diabetes was saying, Oh, yeah. And 10 years, they're thinking there'll be a cure. And, you know, I sit back now and think about that. And I'm like, man, like, that was way off. But you know, with with stuff like, you know, insulin pumps and CGM. It's, it makes a drastic difference. I know whenever I got my, my pump in my CGM, my Avon see dropped by like a point and a half just by not doing anything. And it really opened my eyes to like, how better management just in a simple sense of changing from sticking shots in myself to, you know, putting, uh, putting an insulin pump on can can really make a difference. And then it was just, you know, making those tweaks with my doctor, um, you know, every visit it might not have been a huge tweak, but, um, you know, it just seeing the numbers and not expecting drastic changes, you know, if I can go down from personally, I like to keep my a one C between like six, eight and seven Oh, and my doctor and I are pretty happy if that's where I'm at. But, you know, if it's like a six, seven, you know, it can fluctuate by point one and to me, that's a big deal and the attention to detail and trying to figure out what works and what doesn't work and just the information you can get from the pump. I know I typically can have some lows whenever I work out it during the day, so from between lunch and dinner, um, so I will let my my levels run a little bit high if I'm going to be riding, you know, in a race after work. That I know it's going to plummet right away. And I can take gels or you know, some carbs pre ride to kind of smooth that out. But it was a tough learning process. It's it really has been trial and error, and just finding out what works best for my body because, you know, talking to other, you know, diabetics that that are athletes, something's worked for one person, and then the next person's like, No, I can't do that. So, trial and error, kinda, to a point has been kind of where I'm at now in terms of trying to figure out how to do things if I'm doing a longer event. So probably about a month ago, I did a six or a six and a half hour ride. And I, I went in with a plan of what I wanted to do, of what I wanted to eat, and when I wanted to eat it, and I was in zone for almost the entire six hours, what zone, try to keep, so I try to keep it. I try to keep it around 180 or below. So I try to if I'm racing 120 to 180 is perfect if I'm but

Scott Benner 16:10
if you don't what happens,

Corey 16:14
try to figure it out on the fly.

Scott Benner 16:16
I mean, I mean, what, what mechanically happened, say, say you started race at 140? Would you get too low at some point?

Corey 16:26
It's a possibility. Yeah. So, you know, if I go out and run, let's say, I'm going out for a run after work today. I could no lie be at 330 at the start of the run, and 30 minutes later, I have an alert going off, and I'm down in any with no insulin on board.

Scott Benner 16:48
Can I ask you a question? Let me ask a question here. And it's the the answer. I don't care one way or the other. You don't listen to this podcast frequently. Right?

Corey 16:56
I occasionally not not consistent I

Scott Benner 16:59
consistently Yeah. So I want to, if I can for a second, I want to agree and disagree with you at the same time. But it'll be a lot of fun. And I'm sure a ton of fun for you having diabetes for 25 years and me not having it. I'm certain you're going to be thrilled by this conversation. But I expect you understand it's coming from a good place. So yeah, absolutely. So I would say that I believe and I have seen it happen over and over again 1000s of times enough to believe it. That if a person is using a really rock solid Basal insulin, meaning that they're their ratios are good and that they work and by work I mean, I mean, I guess what I what I mean is that you could not have food for 568 10 hours and your blood sugar doesn't fall if your Basal is in that space. And you have a good feeling for how to Bolus from meals Pre-Bolus Singh, you know, not creating situations where there's leftover insulin after the foods digested stuff like that. Yep, that if you go into something physical that and you don't have any active insulin going, I can't imagine you dropping that far. Like, I believe that you drop a person, not you, but a person can drop the three hundreds to 80 with a lot of activity, because you're activating the insulin that's in your body. Yeah, right. Right. And that kind of thing. And, again, I don't know what you're doing, like I might be talking about, like, one level of activity, and you might be carrying a boulder up a mountain. Like, I'm not I'm not saying that. You know what I mean? Yeah. But there's there is some balance to be found in there. And God, this is probably not what you expected. But a lot of type ones who have had diabetes for over 20 years that had it for so long before the technology existed. I feel like they're chasing more than they need to be. Yeah. And does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Okay. And I just think it gets hardwired into you at some point, like that idea of like, oh, when I'm active, I drop. Or when I do this, this happens. And you said something earlier that sparked this whole thought in me. But you're so good at telling your story. I couldn't jump in anywhere. But you said that some people have one experience, while other type ones have a completely different experience. And we take that as like, gospel for some gospel. Yeah, people have these anecdotal like experiences. And then one person will say, Well, I can do this and the other person will go well, I can't that doesn't work for me, except we don't have any background on either of these people do want right is one of them using significantly too much Basal insulin and hardly any Bolus insulin is one of them, you know, is one of their Basal insulins like being significantly underused and so they're bolusing constantly and they're dropping thing all the time. Nobody knows how to talk about it. granularly and so that a lot of their experiences and I know this, just speaking about management, and maybe taking it out of diabetes in general, but a lot of times people's experiences aren't that valuable to know. Because you don't know the other details surrounding them.

Corey 20:19
If that makes Yes. Okay. Yeah, you just know a small percentage.

Scott Benner 20:23
It's not enough to know if they're right. It's like anything else. Like there's, you know, any new story you see or a story your neighbor tells you, like, Oh, my God, the guy two doors over what a jerk bla bla bla bla bla, you go talk to the guy two years ago, he parked his car on my lawn, you know? Like really goes? Yeah, I mean, I come out and his cars parked in my honest Hey, can you move the car? And I'm talking to the neighbor. He's like, hey, it's always upset with where my car is? And I'm like, Yes, we don't have enough of this story here. And yeah, right happens. So often, when we're talking about diabetes, it's the, oh, this is a certainty or this happens to me, and then people share it online. And then suddenly, they think it's a rule. And yeah, that to me is, I think that's sometimes how we get where we are, which is that is that it's just anecdotes built on top of anecdotes that then make rolls in people's heads that they believe are true. And then their self fulfilling prophecies sometimes, and I'm not saying it activity doesn't make your blood sugar fall, obviously, obviously, you know, high level looking at it. That's what happens. And I don't have any reason for saying that to you. Other than I just wanted to say like, I'm not like, you should change your life, Cory? Oh,

Corey 21:33
no, no, no, it's okay. And to be honest, probably probably part of it plays in it is, I mean, it's scary as hell whenever, you know, I'm out on a especially on a run when I'm away from home. Yeah. And I think, hey, you know, this has happened to me in the past, because, you know, I could do you know, when I wake up in the morning, and maybe do a morning ride that I'm fasted, I could I don't drop it all. Yeah. But it's, it's the mid day stuff. And the the post work stuff where I bet I've had zero onboard insulin. And, you know, I haven't eaten in, you know, three or four hours, and I'm just tanking, and I've gone to my doctor, and I've taken examples, like from my pump and showed it, and I'm begging I'm like, someone, like, helped me understand this, because I'm trying to understand it. But you know, am I missing something? Am I too close to it? And I've been trying for, you know, a couple years to try and figure it out. Because it's a scary thing. If I'm, you know, a couple miles away from home, and, you know, I'm tanking, and I'm 50. And no one's around like,

Scott Benner 22:45
it feels to die all by yourself. Yeah. Out Run around, right. Well, I'm, yeah, scary. Obviously, I don't have context for that. And I'm not I'm not minimizing at all, I would say there are sometimes there are things that you don't think to think of like, like end of the day, when the end of the day when people's blood sugar's fall, like after work, which I think is fairly common, right? Yeah. Because I've been able to watch it in another person. What I will tell you is, is that being alive creates a level of stress and anxiety that no one's aware of. And I mean, being out in the world being at school being at work driving, and that requires more insulin. And so you have this bigger baseline, this heavier baseline events on that lives in you all day long. While this is existing, and you maybe it's adrenaline from like, having a crappy boss, or like, I don't know, like, you know what I mean? Like, somebody yelled at you all day, and then you leave that place, and you experience this, like, Oh, I'm out of there. And then all that goes away. And again, you have too much insulin in you when that happens. Yeah, and then there you go. I had to, I learned when my daughter was in school, that I'd have to keep pushing to keep her blood sugar where it was pushing with insulin, but that there was a moment in the afternoon that she had to eat, or that we had to create a Temp Basal that was that was completely void. It was gone. In order to create an inquiry This is because you don't listen too much. So like what I would, my thought would be this. She's going to get low. Excuse me, I'm sorry, at 3pm Yeah, there's an amount of carbs she could eat at 232 40 that would stop the low at 3pm from ever happening. Yeah, or we could completely eliminate or Basal from like, why I forget how I used to do it, but probably about from like 150 to three o'clock. So you take the Basal away for about an hour or so. Yeah, and then it creates a black hole in the future where the Basal doesn't exist. And so when the low comes and it tries the fall, normally it would be propelled by the existing Basal but in Then it gets caught by the sheer fact that there's no Basal that exists. Yeah, there's nothing there. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's trippy to think about it that way for some people but you it is it's like time travel. Like I always say that the the insulin you use now is for later. But a more specific way to think about it is that the insulin you used before it is for now. So right similarly the insulin that you took away before impacts now the same way. And yeah, and that kind of stuff is listen, I'm gonna be honest, I'm a person who cares about a child who has nothing but time to like, look at these things and then figure out little ways to manipulate insulin to make it work an adult try. I'm sure you have like a wife and a home. Yep, might have a baby a baby a baby on the way rationalizations. Yeah. And like so you're busy. You're not sitting around like I am pulling on your your mustache going. I wonder, yeah. It's hard for people. It's why you go to the doctor, you say, Please help me. And they go. I don't know, you get low in the afternoon? Yeah, yes. Thanks a lot.

Corey 26:05
Yeah, it's frustrating, because I would like to Toy what toy was some stuff, but, you know, it's a scary thing. You know, when you get I've never had to go to the hospital because of a low or anything. But, you know, my wife's had to help me, you know, overnight, you know, you know, she's had to help me once or twice overnight. And, you know, it's, it's terrifying. And it's tough to explain, because, you know, people just, I don't want to say they don't understand, but it's just something that's, it's hard to articulate. Um, and you can't, because my wife will look at me and, you know, she'll see, you know, I'll tell her, I'm low. And she goes, Well, how do you feel like she asked me about a month ago, like, how do you feel like, what does it feel like? And I tried to tell her, I'm like, You're never going to understand like, I love you more than anything in the entire world. But like, you'll I could never articulate that to you, a friend

Scott Benner 27:02
of mine. And you said that it feels like her mind is racing, but her body's going very slow.

Corey 27:07
Yeah, exactly. Okay. Um, and there's just no good way to explain it. Like I wish I could but unless you have type one like you, you just even even she asked like, I know when my blood sugar's going high. Like I feel that she said, What does it feel like? And I'm like, I can't explain it to you like, I can try but like, it won't even come close to like, what I feel and how it is

Scott Benner 27:32
Cory. I listen for a person who does not have diabetes at all. I am in and around it as much as anybody and I have 1000s of hours of talking to people that have both been recorded and haven't been recorded. I've heard people say a million different things. My daughter has type one diabetes I've seen adults and children below and adults and children be high and I still have zero context for what it means yeah to you.

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I could never possibly understand it because it's you're altered. You don't I mean like your your your brain is not functioning correctly and therefore all the feedback you're getting is skewed and wrong and not something people are used to seeing. It's like trying to describe being high to somebody who's never been high before. Like, what does that feel? Yeah, you know, it's the amount drugs. They're not bloodshed. Right,

Corey 30:09
right. Yeah, I got Yeah.

Scott Benner 30:12
I know, man, I went to college calm down. But But no, I get what you're saying. And I get your concerns. I and I and maybe, and maybe there's no answer for people who have had to live this long without the technology, like maybe there is no answer maybe that fear is just so grained in and well earned, by the way that you just don't want to break free of it. But I will say something, I don't think a one C is the measure of your health. I think that limiting variable variability of your high and low blood sugars is a good measurement. But a one season indicator, I would say to you that there are about 25 episodes of this podcast that are specifically maintenance. If you listen through them, I imagine your a one C would be in the fives inside of six months, and you would experience fewer lows while you were exercising. Okay, that's that is my guess, based on what I've seen happen to many, many other people and the responses you're giving me the thoughtfulness you have around diabetes. So yeah, you don't need to do that. I'm just saying that. I I know people who have competed in the Olympics that are doing strenuous things like very strenuous long term things and their blood sugar's don't fall while they're competing. Right? You know, and it's yeah, that kind of balance that I'm talking about. But that's not the point you I place a couple shows about this. You do something that I don't, I can't wrap my brain around. So like a triathlon includes bike swimming and running.

Corey 31:48
Yep, yeah, you swim, then you bike, and then you run?

Scott Benner 31:52
What if I told you I didn't plan on doing all three of those things in the rest of my life, let alone on the same day?

Corey 31:58
What when, when I first told my friends, I was doing it, that's the exact same thing. They said to me.

Scott Benner 32:03
That's my honest answer. That's why oh, that sounds horrible. When you said you run to the gym, I was like, kind of a insane person. And then I thought, Well, that makes total sense. Yeah, yeah. No, no. Um, so what is it? How do you prep for it? Like, and how, and what is the day like, when you're in a triathlon prior to COVID?

Corey 32:23
Yeah, prior to COVID. I mean, it's, you know, you, you set out a plan, and you, you know, it's kind of like diabetes, you, you know, you set out a plan to be as successful as possible, and you stick to that plan, you know, you deviate when you need to, usually, I work with a coach. So usually I have a plan, set up, you know, one to two weeks in advance, I take a look at it based on my life schedule, if I need to, you know, swap something out here, there. But, you know, it's usually getting to the pool two or three days a week, I'm running three or four days a week, and then, you know, biking, you know, right now I'm biking five or six days a week. Um, you know, a lot of times, that's, hey, I have to get up before work and do one of the workouts, maybe do one at lunch, or if I can't do one of those times, it's after work. And then on the weekends, obviously, it's, you know, there's more time to do some things. So that's whenever I would get in, you know, a longer run or a longer bike, but um, you know, a lot of time management and just trying to fit something in when there's some time in the work schedule. And in the personal life schedule.

Scott Benner 33:34
It is that that time is spent despite sound like such a simple question, but you're building muscular, like, look for words, but you're building your body in ways that it'll be able to do these things. You're building up a resilience to it, and you're growing towards a longer distance.

Corey 33:55
Yep. Correct. And there is some some short burst stuff sprinkled in there. But yeah, it's mostly an endurance, endurance workout.

Scott Benner 34:05
While I'm not asking you exactly where you work, what kind of work do you do that you have? Like, I'm, I'm fascinated that you have the time to do this. So like, how do you make that work?

Corey 34:13
So it's really nice, because I actually work. I work for 10 hour days, and I'm a full time work from home. So I have every Friday off. Um, so when I say you know, go workout at lunch. My basement I have a bike trainer, I have a wahoo kicker. So my actual bike is on that and I can just jump on there, go on Swift and get a workout in and then all I have to do is walk upstairs jump in the shower for five minutes and and I'm back at my work desk here. When I was working in the office, it was a little more difficult but you know, being being a work from home person, you know, I can take, you know, 20 minutes here over lunch or if I have a longer lunch one day and I was able to start work early, I can get an hour workout in over lunch or, you know, just step out my front door and go for a quick 45 minute run. And that's kind of helped a lot. us rather than just being able to, you know, drive to work, drive back, and then most of that time, it would be workouts, you know, strictly afterwards. Yeah.

Scott Benner 35:22
So you can kind of use commuting time and other dead time that Yeah, did exist during the day when you're at an office job that you don't think about. Yeah. You said Swift is that I apologize. But is that like, peloton like? Is it a? Is it like an online platform where people ride together? Where's that?

Corey 35:40
Yeah. So yeah, so it's a kind of, they consider it a multiplayer online cycling platform. So you know, you have an avatar, you have a smart trainer that's hooked up to I run it off my computer. And then as you cycle, you know, on the bike trainer, your avatar moves, you know, as hard as you're, you know, pedaling and cycling, you use watts. And that's, you know, how it dictates how fast you go, how far you go. So if you're going up, and what's nice about Swift is, it's a virtual world. But it simulates real life gradients. So if, in the game, you're going up a 5% Hill, the game will talk to your smart trainer, and the resistance will ramp up as if you're going up that 5% grade. I'm in real life. Gotcha. So yeah, it's it's like riding outside, you know, quote, unquote, it's like riding outside. But you know, you can do it from the basement. So if it's pouring down rain outside, or if it's snowing, I can get a comparable workout on the game as as I might outside,

Scott Benner 36:58
I'm laughing. And I don't know why. But I'm imagining that there's somebody who can ride a stationary bike who couldn't ride on the road, who's like an amazing person on Swift that if you took them outside, they'd be like, Ah, I don't know why that

Corey 37:10
you're, you are 100% Correct. Oh, no, Jenna, you know, people that, you know, do this type of stuff. There, there are people who are strictly professionals at racing in Swift. And you know, they might race outside. But there, there are certain things in the game that you can be really, really good at. Like, if you're a good sprinter and have good top end watts, you can be really, really good at specific things in here. You might be good at that outside. But you know, a team might snatch you up because you are a great sprinter because that can be used in certain aspects of the races. So it's the same in some sense. But you know, another sense, it's kind of a lot different. If that makes sense.

Scott Benner 37:59
I enjoyed your answer. And I was delighted by being correct. I thought I was being silly. And then all of a sudden, I was like, Am I making a point? Excellent.

Corey 38:10
No, because yeah, so what when you're on a bike trainer, you're not, because when you ride a bike outside, you have to have the ability to balance yourself as you're riding outside. So you're utilizing a lot more of your core, if you're on a bike trainer, you don't have to have that. So, you know, bike handling skills, when you're racing outside is a pretty significant thing. And, you know, some people you know, if they're racing or riding inside on Swift, they don't get that that quote unquote, practice on bike handling skills. So, you know, certain types of races outside bike handling skills are super important on you know, an Ironman bike leg, it's, you know, it's important, but it's not that important, but there's races like criteriums, where it's basically all out for 40 minutes around, you know, sometimes sharp turns, you know, that could, that could be a pretty significant, you know, safety hazard if you can't handle your bike on the road and, you know, caused an accident. So, in a triathlon,

Scott Benner 39:15
how fast do you think you're riding a bike?

Corey 39:18
Uh, you know, probably between, you know, top end, depending on the course how flat it is, or how hilly it is, you know, top end, you know, 30 miles an hour, you know, probably average around 20 to 22.

Scott Benner 39:32
That's fast ourself if you follow those for sure. Hey, quick question. It's gonna sound silly. I apologize. Is this an I'll bleep it out later. Is this hard on your like, you know, your bits and pieces and stuff like that? Like?

Corey 39:46
It's funny you asked that because I just had to go to the doctor today because I've had a saddle sore. So not necessarily my bits and pieces, but there is I think didn't have to go to the doctor today because of something that I kind of have ignored not taking care of

Scott Benner 40:05
for you. Do you find yourself having to expose your butt to a doctor today?

Corey 40:09
Oh, yeah, I did. So yeah, that was a great, great.

Scott Benner 40:13
Good doings, huh? Yeah, I've it doesn't fit here at all. But I told a story on the podcast one time where I went in for a physical and was told that it was like a visit with the doctor. I was told I was going to visit with the doctor for 15 minutes. And then I was going to make an appointment and come back for a physical. Yeah, well, apparently that was relayed to me improperly. So I was going to a physical not, which is fine. But I mean, I listen, I'm 50 I was going to a physical I know what the physical be. But I didn't think it was happening that moment. Luckily, I was prepared, meaning I didn't like you know, you know, run from the gym or something. And then like, show up, so I was, you know, prepared and clean and etc. And I sit there and I think we're just supposed to be talking and we're chatting away. And then he tells me to take my pants down. And I was like, kind of weird interview is this. And then before I knew it, I was having small talk with a man who was um, you know, he's taking his fingers score. I was not ready for it. I did not know it was gonna happen. And so your saddle sore is not making me laugh, because I have a lot. But yeah, I mean, even for ladies, I would think that they're, I mean, what's a word that like adults use like their hay hootenanny? Like I would imagine that's tough with that seat, right?

Corey 41:29
Yeah, so a bike fit is really important. You know, whether you're riding outside or whether you're, you know, you're riding inside on the trainer, that usually can cure things. So really, what mine came from was my saddle was really old. And it had worn away at the edges to the point where I was putting pressure on, on on a part of my, on our part of my bike that, you know, typically wasn't getting that pressure.

Scott Benner 41:58
I was gonna say, we're away at the saddle and then we're away you're asked, that's Yeah,

Corey 42:02
that's exactly what happens. Since I've gotten the saddle but, you know, it's, it's basically, you know, a saddle sores just like a pus filled bump that you that you get well, underneath of that. I'm thinking that I have a cyst there. And, you know, that might have to be surgically taken out, you know, for me to get better. It's like riding

Scott Benner 42:24
is gonna kill you. And by the way, if you want to look inside of my mind, I'm not bleeping Hey, hoochie nanny later, but I might. I might bleep out pus filled. Baby feel terrible. Well, that's, that's Listen, it's amazing. I hope it heals for you quickly and that you don't need surgery for certain. Yeah. Have you ever done an Iron Man and completed it? Yeah, I've done two of them. Do you have the tattoo?

Corey 42:49
My first one. To be honest, it's been so long that I can't remember what I think. 2014 I did Ironman Louisville. And then 2016 I did Ironman Maryland.

Scott Benner 43:01
But do you get the tattoo? No, I do not. I do not your wife tell you not to get her. Did you think it was a weird move?

Corey 43:08
I actually was going to and so I don't have any tattoos to begin with. Right? I'm not that I don't like them. It's just I never had any.

Scott Benner 43:16
I don't have to apologize. Very good. Yeah,

Corey 43:19
it's, uh, I had some picked out that I was going to do. And then it just kind of, you know, slipped my mind. And this is the first you you bring it up is the first time I've thought about it multiple years, which tells me that I probably should not do it.

Scott Benner 43:35
Yeah, you really don't care. I genuinely believe that I know, people who did an Ironman just to get the tattoo. So yeah. Oh, I believe that. So that's it. I don't fundamentally understand any of that. But it's still it's amazing. So you show in your note, you said that there's a so I guess this, this is what this width platform allows you to build teams and etc. And you said you guys have one? That's just for type ones.

Corey 44:03
Yeah, so it's actually a Facebook group. It's called swift team type one. Okay. Um, and when the pandemic started, I was just kind of looking for, you know, a group. I had read on a message board, like a triathlon message board that, Hey, there's this type one group, you know, someone had asked a question about type one diabetes, that was kind of out the left field and someone put in, oh, hey, you should check out this Facebook group. It's, it's Zwift. Team type one. So I went in there. It's a closed group. So I just had to put in that aim a type one and it's, it's a, it's a group of, you know, over 2000 people that either have type one, or have a close friend or family member that has type one. To be honest, it's mostly type one diabetics, about probably about 75% type one diabetics, and then As a spin off to that there's a race for a race team type one that kind of handles all of the racing stuff. So if you just want to race you can join that also. And we put together teams that that do really, really well with a large majority of the teams typically being type one diabetics.

Scott Benner 45:23
Okay. Wow, that's really cool. So you guys just it that's so you're together, virtually though, like you've never Yep. Do you even would you know, one of those people if you looked at them?

Corey 45:35
So actually, through this group, I met a kid that's a type one diabetic that lives 15 minutes away from me here in Pittsburgh. So, you know, I'm gonna, you know, when when things get a little bit better outside here, I'm gonna join him for some group rides. And yeah, it's, it's, it's really been cool. I, you know, on the on the type one group, you know, people are going in there. And, you know, we have a guy that travels for work. And when he travels to a different city, if there's one of us that that lives there, he's like, Hey, let's go out for a bike ride. You know, we have people meeting each other in real life off of the group, and it's really cool whenever you're traveling somewhere, Hey, is anybody from here and you know, getting together for group rides and stuff. So it's, it's, it's way more than I expected whenever I whenever I started.

Scott Benner 46:27
That's it. Listen, I think that's amazing. I also think that after that baby comes, if your wife lets you out of the house to go for a bike ride, I'll be amazed.

Corey 46:36
So you know what the worst part is, I actually signed up for two half Iron Man's last year that got bumped to this year. The first one is a week before her due date. And the second one is two weeks after she is set to give birth. So

Scott Benner 46:53
those sounds like when you go to those. That'll be the reason she leaves you 15 years later. So you'll be standing in a courtroom

Corey 47:01
ready? That's already cancelled?

Scott Benner 47:03
Yeah. For you be standing in a courtroom in your late 40s. Going Wait, are you still mad about that? And she'd be like, Oh, yeah. 100%

Corey 47:11
Actually, she she's the one telling me oh, yeah, you can you can go do that one. Two weeks after I'm like, Cory, Are you effing kidding me right? away?

Scott Benner 47:19
I'm leaving. How long you been married?

Corey 47:22
I'm got married at the end of 2019.

Scott Benner 47:25
That's a trap. Cory. Let me let's lay. I'm a Veteran. I'm gonna tell you something.

Corey 47:28
No, at the end. No, I'm sorry. She's gonna be mad. 2008.

Scott Benner 47:32
Don't worry. She tested you there. You can go. Sure. Go ahead. It's no problem you're supposed to then say no, of course I would never go then. That's that's exactly what I Oh, that's a trap. That would be like if she's like, you could you know, go out with one of my friends. I'm okay with an open she does. That. Cory. She doesn't mean that. That's not okay. You can't do that. No, no, no, no, you're smart. You took care of that very well.

Corey 47:55
I want so I was originally right. November, November 2019.

Scott Benner 48:00
Got him sit back and say your blood sugar is low right now. Hey, Cory. Yeah, exactly.

Corey 48:04
That's what we're gonna play it off.

Scott Benner 48:05
Yeah, you're fine. Don't worry about that. Corey, his wife. He knows when you got married, relax. No, seriously, I would never ever do that. That's like my one time my wife is I suppose looking at a car and she was she you can get that I was like, I waited like four more weeks to make sure she really really meant it. Because this was one of the Well that's

Corey 48:23
the thing. So So whenever you go, and especially the bigger races like Iron Man's and 70 point threes, we treat them as a small vacation. So we'll leave on a Thursday, the race is either a Saturday or Sunday. So we take it as like a Thursday through Monday thing. And my, my wife just loves to go, you know, as I'm racing, she's beating other people, you know, spectators and stuff show. She used to just, you know, post up at a bar on the, you know, on the right by the race and she'll follow me around and I couldn't ask for a more supportive wife seems like terms of this. It's, it's pretty insane. But yeah, we it's a whole thing. So we'll go a few days early. Check out some sites around places we go to we'll stay in there too after to see anything we want to do together. So yeah, it's turned out pretty well.

Scott Benner 49:17
Cory Listen, let's take a pause here while the married people who are laughing at you who have older children, and think that you think that's gonna be your life as you get older. Let's let them settle back down and wipe the tears out of their eyes as they're driving. You guys gotta be careful while you're driving. You can't just start crying like that. No, of course. Listen, I think that's really amazing. And if you can keep that going after you have kids, then you should write a book because that's pretty cool. Seriously, and I'm jealous of your if I'm being honest, I'm jealous of the fact that your passion also leans into your health. And that's really kind of great. You know what I mean? Like to have a thing that's doing two things at once. It's, it's, you know, it's it's fun. Feeling a passion? It's it's giving you a hobby. It's keeping you healthy. Like, that's really terrific.

Corey 50:06
Yeah, yeah, it's been a, it's been good so far

Scott Benner 50:09
know what kind of pump you're using. You said you had a pump, but you didn't tell me which one?

Corey 50:13
Yeah, so I had the 670 G,

Scott Benner 50:15
I was gonna say you're on Medtronic. It's right in that part of the country. Is that the automatic one? Is that the? Yeah, it is making those decisions for you. And it's keeping you at like a six, seven ish 687?

Corey 50:28
I think my last was 6969 with with very minimal blows. So Right?

Scott Benner 50:37
Does it allow you to override it? Like what? Like, what if you woke up today? And you were like, dammit, I want my agency to be six. His day, can you see how to inside of that system? How to manage that?

Corey 50:49
I would probably turn off, it's called Auto mode. I would turn that off and just be able to tinker with it myself. Yeah, gotcha.

Scott Benner 50:59
That's a rousing, rousing celebration for auto mode, you know what I would do? I would turn that auto mode.

Corey 51:07
Well, so yeah, so So auto mode I used to have trouble with with overnight lows, and, and it it made them non existent. So I was really happy in that, like, during the day, it can be a little iffy. But I'm actually I'm up on my warranty at the beginning of the year. So I have a endo appointment in July. And I'm going to toy with the idea of possibly moving on, if something else makes sense, fun time

Scott Benner 51:37
for you. It is like that. It's a fun time, you could be tandem IQ, you could go on the pod five, there's so many options now. And you get them yeah, the Dexcom sensor, which, from what I hear is a better experience, maybe than the metro.

Corey 51:50
Yeah. And that's what's really nice about like the the type one group to like, probably every couple of weeks, someone's coming on, like, hey, what do you think about this system, and I just kind of saved those conversations when I'm gonna sit down and really, you know, decide if I want to stay with Medtronic or go somewhere else. Because, you know, people are putting in, oh, I have this system, and they're given pros and cons. And, um, you know, to me, there isn't anywhere else that that I can think of that I can go where I get people that are wearing, you know, any system that's available, there's going to be at least multiple of them, or who are in that thread talking about it. So yeah, it's going to be a good source of information, you know, over the next couple of months, when I start to seriously look and see if I want to change Plus,

Scott Benner 52:41
they're living a similar lifestyle is yours, which makes it Yeah, exactly sure to hear from you would love the Facebook page for this podcast. Maybe? It's, um, I think it's up near like, 11,000. Listen, listeners are in there. And they're just talking about management stuff constantly.

Corey 52:55
Oh, yeah. No, I'll have to join that. Because that, yeah, I didn't know. That was a group. But I'm definitely going to join that

Scott Benner 53:03
I'm enjoying talking to you. Because you are mostly unaware of me and the podcast and all that stuff. And there, it's nice, because there are some times when people come on, and they're just so aware of it that you know, the conversations take a different turn because sometimes they're here to like say thank you sometimes and which is lovely. And I don't want to say it isn't so so yeah,

Corey 53:22
so I came across your podcast most to be honest, mostly through the athletic stuff. So I've listened to all the all the athletes you've had on and things of that nature. And yeah, I listened to so many podcasts and I have so many downloaded waited to go that I've been waiting to listen to for years. It's just sometimes tough to get to them. But you know, I've always enjoyed what what you've done so far. And yeah, I do want to listen to some of those management one. Thank you. That you had mentioned earlier.

Scott Benner 53:55
I also I'll tell you about them in the second quarter, but I appreciate how you said so far. I always like that when it makes me smile when somebody like they say something nice about you though, like so far everything I've heard. In case you've said something I

Corey 54:07
guarantee it's gonna kick your

Scott Benner 54:09
case, you've said something crazy that I don't know about. I don't want to attach myself to it. I don't want to be like this guy. Everything he says is genius. And then I got to pick up my phone one day and hear you talking about some crazy conspiracy theories. That was lovely. The way you slip that in there. You're like, you know, I've heard I'm okay saying I listened. Far my friend. Did this go anywhere near the way you expected? Or is it? Did you not have an expectation for this?

Corey 54:38
I really didn't have an expectation good. No, I

Scott Benner 54:41
thought I was I I'm not kicking you off. I'm just I thought it was great. I enjoy talking to you. I know that. Um, so for me, I'm in. I'm in an odd predicament. You know, in these conversations, you've had diabetes for a very long time. Do you have like I said before, I've had experiences that people have been diagnosed in the last five For 10 years even have not had, you've had more experiences that people diagnosed the last three or four years have not had, like you've lived through iterations of what it meant to have type one diabetes. And you get all those experiences. And then all this technology comes along. And these ideas like I mean, honestly, can you try to think back to 20 years ago, you're going into high school, I'm a doctor and I pull you aside and I go, Cory, what I want to do is create a black hole of Basal insulin two hours in the future, so that you'd be like, what is what now? You know, and none of that existed because nobody had CGM, they couldn't see what was happening. They couldn't suss out where things were going right and going wrong, etc, etc, right. But you feel a very soft spot in my heart when I'm talking to you. Because I have a friend who's passed away who has had who had type one diabetes, since we were kids, we were 18 or so. And he died for certain because of his type one. And he, you know, he grew up managing the way you would manage in the late 80s. And he never really ventured away from it, he never really thought more or less about it, it was always better high than low, because you know, I get dizzy or I fell out of bed one time or you know, like that, those kinds of things. And then the technology came along, the better insulin came along. And he just never sort of came along with it. And if I tried to talk to him about diabetes, it they tried to imagine just the angriest conversation, you could write like, he would take it as poorly as you could expect there. And yeah, and only because we love each other and knew each other for so long. Could I even get a couple sentences into Hey, I think you might like this Dexcom thing. Right? Right. But nonetheless, you know, it wasn't the B and you know, he had a heart attack eventually, and and he passed, he never woke up from that heart attack. And when I talk about diabetes, it is with my friend Mike's like memory in the back of my head that I never want to put people in a position where they think, better high than low. I don't know. Yeah, like, I'm gonna err on the side of caution. Because that's sometimes it hasn't for you. And it doesn't seem like it ever would. But it becomes a slippery slope for other people. Where Hey,

Corey 57:16
Scott, yeah, I'm not gonna be a show like, no. I mean, that's how I've thought in the past,

Scott Benner 57:22
I would imagine and with incredibly good reason, like I said, from where you came from 100%

Corey 57:28
Yeah, so yeah, I'm so I'm sorry, for your loss. Yeah, it's, and I'd be lying. If I said, you know, I'm terrified of diabetes, killing me. I mean, it, you know, it's, yeah, 20 plus years already. And, you know, you don't really know what it's done to your body, you know, and I'm only 35. You know, 36. You know, if, if there isn't a cure, you know, if I don't take care of myself, like, it's a scary proposition, you know, 20 more years down the road.

Scott Benner 58:01
Yeah. And it's only what it's really the only reason why I brought this stuff up with you earlier. And it wasn't because of you, it's because I have the added. I don't want to say pressure, because I don't mean pressure. But maybe it's responsibility, I'm not certain. But there are a lot of people who are going to listen to this. And so I don't want to, I never want to feel like I'm saying it's just 150 Let it be at 150. Because what happens to people's 150 becomes 160 comes 180, then all of a sudden, to hundreds, only 100 points higher than it's supposed to be and, and then they they kind of tumbled down that rabbit hole, and they lose track of it. And I am telling you again, I don't have type one. But this podcast is incredibly popular for a reason. I don't think it's my razor sharp wit. So it's because of how we talk about using insulin and how effective it ends up being for I think most of the people who listen. And so and so I just want people to know that there is a way to use your insulin that doesn't lead to issues like that. Now, most people are not going to be doing a triathlon or not working out like you every day, I'm not saying you're not going to that that couldn't possibly happen to you, obviously, it could, if you just jumped into it without having settings in the right place and really understanding, you know, the insulin use and stuff like that, which I'm not saying you don't I'm just saying if a person did and didn't have that they would put themselves in a problem very quickly. And I don't know what it's like to be by myself and feel like hopeless and lost and helpless like that. And I can't imagine it's not the scariest thing in the world. You know, so I get all sides of it. I just I think that people should in general also get all sides of it, and then make a decision based on absolutely, you know, based on what they want to do. I got very far away from there's a really cool Facebook group where people ride virtually that have type one diabetes, I'm sorry, which I hope people check out if you're like a swift user and you don't know about this

Corey 1:00:00
Yeah, and I mean, even if you just want to John want to join the group and you have a bike and you want to ride inside, like, just join the group and experience it, if you don't like it, you know, you can always leave like that there some of the most supportive people I've ever met in my entire life. And it's, it's, it's vastly positive. Like, if there's something negative said said in there, you know, it's it's taking care of not that not that things are, you know, not that it's just a rosy proposition that you can only say nice things, but, you know, if something, if something is set out a line, people are gonna say, hey, like, you know, why would you? Why would you say that? And I think it's just a general understanding in there of just like minded people that want to be healthier and want to be better. And biking is just one avenue to hopefully help. And then, you know, if you have questions, just ask, you know, someone probably has had an experience or, you know, has something that that might be able to help. Um, and, you know, I'd rather have too much information or, or too much, or an ability to ask too many questions, then not have that.

Scott Benner 1:01:14
Yeah. Well, you're preaching to the choir here, because the, the Facebook page around the podcast, I, I managed the same way. Like I don't like I don't, I don't really manage it at all. I look here a bunch of adults act like, you know, have conversations be nice to each other. The rules of the it's, it's, I wonder if I can just find them very quickly. Hold on a second. How do you figure this out? Group? Moderation, say, oh, group rules. Here's rule one, be nice, be helpful. Be human, treat people the way you would be treated if you break the rules, that I'm gonna have to kick you. And I don't want to be involved in both. Like, that's how the rules go. You don't? It sounds. Yeah, it sounds like the same thing. Yes. Yeah. My rule number three is, if this community becomes a pain in my ass, I'll delete it. Like, yeah, just like, Please don't make me involved in pettiness. And it turns out, it's never been a problem. And I think for similar reasons to what you're describing, because there was a catalyst that brought everybody together, they listened to the podcast already. So they were they were very similarly minded. They come together, and now they find themselves thinking about things. Similarly, so there's no real reason for them to fight. They just help each other. It's wonderful. It's one of the I can't believe I'm saying this. But creating that Facebook group is one of the was one of the top 100 best things I've ever done in my life, because I watch how it helps people. Yeah, and

Corey 1:02:38
stuff like that is like I'm not on Facebook, like I don't post anything on my junk. The only reason I'm on Facebook ever, is for racing. And we have, you know, we have groups of every team has their own messenger group and the team's online like, I talk to people on there, but I don't check Facebook outside of that. If I didn't have this, I probably wouldn't be on at all.

Scott Benner 1:03:02
Yeah, you and I are the same exact query. I'm a grown man, I don't want to be on airs. Every time I open it up to manage something for it, I remind myself, I'm managing a group for the podcast. I'm not on Facebook. That's how I feel. Yeah, exactly. So it's very similar to when I post something on Instagram, I think to myself, Oh, what am I 15? You know, so, but I, you know, it's a great way to reach people. And it's a great way for people to reach up each other. And I think that all that I think like I'm not denigrating, and I think it's wonderful. I just, I feel a little too old to be on social media like that. At times, you know, but it does a wonderful thing for people as the podcast does. And I bet you your writing group does and, and so yeah, and so on. You know, I love teasing you about being married. That was fun.

Corey 1:03:46
Hey, that's okay. I'm still in the early stages, so I can take it.

Scott Benner 1:03:50
Yeah. Oh, you're right. It had none of those things landed with any real honesty for you.

Corey 1:03:57
I'm still living the dream.

Scott Benner 1:03:58
Yeah, for 15 years. Now when I tell you, Cory, you're not allowed to go ride your bicycle on the weekend. But but I'm an adult. And I work hard enough. Like that's not how this works. Cory Shut up. Yeah, exactly. That's fantastic. Oh, my gosh. Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you were hoping to?

Corey 1:04:15
Yeah, I just actually wanted to plug our racing teams that that's okay. So really our biggest race group, it's called WT RL. And basically they do team time trials. So that's every team can be up to eight riders, and you ride as a team on different course routes every week. There's about 4000 riders every week. I think this past week there 700 teams. They're divided up into what's called Coffee classes, which are kind of broken down based on ability level. So in essence, there's four of those and the top 10 teams in each coffee class. get promoted to what's called the platinum league. And that race is shown on YouTube with commenters like a legit broadcast where they bounce from team to team talk about talk about how teams are racing talk about backstories. And our teams are wildly successful. And that this week, I know we have three teams in the platinum League. So it's not just like our teams are there, you know, some people do ride just to have a little bit of competitive but they are now to win. One of our teams that I raced on two weeks ago, we set a course record and and won our coffee class. And, and we finished, we finished third, your two weeks ago, we set a course record last week, we finished third. We've been in the platinum League for the last 22 out of the last 23 weeks. So we have some legit seriously good bike riders, you know, throughout. So if that's something that interests you know, jump in the people that do the commentary. To be honest, they love our team, they always talk about type one diabetes on the broadcast, talk about how, you know, we use the platform and the exercise to to help keep ourselves healthy. And we were featured on the broadcast last week for about two minutes, which doesn't seem like a lot. But you know, for an hour long race with hundreds of teams, you know, we were one of the ones they picked out. Yeah. And focused on so, you know, I just have to really shout out, you know, all our all our TTT teams, and how well they do and, you know, we do other things, too. For World diabetes Day, we did a 20 we do every year a 24 hour relay. So for 24 hours on World diabetes Day, you know, you'll find a pack of Team type one in Swift, and we have our own custom kits, jerseys that were made up for us. So you know, if you're riding in there, you'll you'll see someone's Phantom. You know, we we had people that rode 24 hours straight for the entire time. So, you know, we're doing outstanding things and people notice and, um, you know, if you're hesitant to just join, I guarantee you're gonna love it. You'll love the group and, you know, we're always looking for people to race. So, um, you know, enjoy the fun.

Scott Benner 1:07:30
I appreciate sharing that with everybody. That's excellent. It really

Corey 1:07:33
if you want to get a bike trainer you're in

Scott Benner 1:07:38
like a gory I gotta cancel this podcast you want me to ride I mean, you know I I'm giving my life here for this. I sit in this chair a lot to get this accomplished. It really is. That's very kind of you. I'm, I'm going to I'm going to do the very American thing of ignoring my health right up until it's about to kill me and then try to do that is very, that's my goal. Yeah, I just want to I'll say it's like, it's like hiding from a bear. Like, I just want to see it over the eye like, oh, there it is. Now I'm gonna learn how to shoot a gun right now.

Corey 1:08:14
You just You just got to be the the, the person in front of the slowest person so the bear doesn't get you. Yeah, that

Scott Benner 1:08:21
doesn't work with heart disease as well. But I understand what you're saying. Oh, no, no, I appreciate that very much. i Wow, that it seems so outside of who I am. That it's hard for me to wrap my head around while you're saying it. Yeah, I don't I think it's possible. Coming back to what we talked about early on. It's a really it's a really similar thing. My son plays baseball in college and my free time is spent supporting his endeavor or watching it. Yeah, and it really is interesting how much at certain at the times of year when being outside would be a good thing it takes up and then it makes those other months very focused on getting the other stuff done. You don't get to during that time. I'm sure he won't play forever. So when that's over, who knows? Maybe I shouldn't laugh maybe I'll find myself in my basement riding a bicycle getting a sore on my ass. And yeah, I can't wait to see you though. See me or this or what were you gonna say?

Corey 1:09:20
Oh no, no, you I do not want to see the sore. And for anyone and for if this makes it on do not look up what it looks like on Google images.

Scott Benner 1:09:29
What should they not Google? A saddle sores okay. Yeah, I don't know saddle sores yet? Do not. But real quick, make sure you click on the links for the advertisers before you Google saddle sores because I don't want you to start vomiting before you've done the other things I've asked you to do run the ads. Cuz everyone's gonna look now I'm not I just want you to know I will not be looking. I don't care and I don't want to know. But that's fantastic, Cory. I really appreciate this. Thank you so much. If you hold on a second I'll tell you about those other episodes and you can

Corey 1:10:03
okay yeah, I was actually one that you bought that

Scott Benner 1:10:05
one on one second

A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G voc glucagon, find out more about Chivo Kaipa pen at G Vogue glucagon.com Ford slash juice box. you spell that GVOKEGL You see ag o n.com Ford slash juice box don't forget to go to touched by type one.org. Click on the program's tab go to dancing for diabetes and get your tickets for the dancing for diabetes extravaganza happening on November 13 2021. I want to thank Corey for coming on the show and thank all of you for listening and sharing the Juicebox Podcast. I'll be back soon with more

#568 Diabetes Variables: Full Moon

Diabetes Variables: Full Moon

Scott and Jenny Smith, CDE share insights on type 1 diabetes care

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello and welcome to Episode 568 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Hey guys, welcome back to another diabetes variables episode with me. I'm Scott and Jenny Smith. Jenny, of course works at integrated diabetes, and you can hire if you'd like at integrated diabetes calm. The diabetes variable series has been going over listener submitted variables for type one diabetes, today's variable is a full moon. And I don't mean when you pull your pants down, I mean the thing up in the sky that's made out of cheese. Now that I've said the moon is made out of cheese, I probably don't need to tell you this. But just in case please remember while you're listening 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 are becoming bold with insulin. My friend Jenny Smith has had Type One Diabetes for over 30 years. She holds a bachelor's degree in human nutrition and biology from the University of Wisconsin. She's a registered and licensed dietitian, a certified diabetes educator and a certified trainer on most makes and models of insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors. If that's not enough, she's pretty freakin awesome.

This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries g vo hypo Penn. Find out more at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. Jenny, is there any chance that a full moon is a diabetes variable

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:50
in the grand scheme of considering everything, I mean, my mom was a school teacher, like elementary middle school teacher. She didn't have any kids who had diabetes. But she saw enough children. She she could put a finger on the date of the calendar when the full moon happened. Because of the way that kids acted. She knew it was a full moon time she just she knew it. I actually saw an article the other day is something about mercury being in retrograde until like October 18 or something this month. And so it was from school teachers. And they had noticed that their kids were much more irritable, anxious fatigue, not paying attention. Even the the highest rate graded kids in the classes were having like issues. So I mean, that has I don't think that has anything to do with the moon. But it's something in terms of like whole, like astrologically whatever.

Scott Benner 2:54
I don't know about that. I can tell you that a friend, a lifelong friend of mine is a police officer. I mean, lifelong, he's getting ready to retire is how long. And for as long as I've known him, there's a time where he'll just be like, hey, like, you know, sometimes people know cops, sometimes they stop at your house, he's standing outside your talk, but right. And as consistent as could be every month, he'd be like, I gotta go. He's like, tonight's gonna be crazy. And I'm like, why? And he's like full moon. He's like, he's like, there'll be more car accidents. There'll be more assaults. He's like, I just it's I don't know, man, he goes, it just happens, you know, so.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:31
So as a variable? Could it have some impact on blood sugar? I think not directly. But indirectly, as we've talked about all of the variables in diabetes already. Things like anxiety, things like appetite, or attitude, or fatigue, or I mean, all of these things, if they're being if they're being impacted because of the placement of the moon and the phase of the moon and whatnot. That could then impact the blood sugar, right?

Scott Benner 4:07
So there's no direct line. It's not like the moon and your blood sugar starts coming up for real physiological but what if a full moon makes you anxious or weight? Or something like what is it I mean, the moon for not

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:21
sleep as well. I mean, we had a whole episode, we talked all about sleep and impact on blood sugar, so you're not sleeping as well or you're more tired or whatnot. All of that. Are there stress factor variables on the body? that could impact your blood sugar? So yes, there's not a direct like line from the moon to your blood sugar that's like, this is what's going to happen now. But indirectly, I think

Scott Benner 4:42
so. Maybe there are other ways that it impacts you. Okay, yeah. And so that's a funny one. Well, yeah, I mean, but it got set enough that it made it on the list. So I like you know, listen, in fairness, breathing is also on this list. That's people's people trying to be funny. You know, but I really just thought like okay obviously a full moon doesn't have anything to do with your blood sugar but if it is impacting people like you said like maybe there's other things that come from that that then in turn impact your blood sugar so they indirectly it does then right you know, right

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:17
that's all I'm gonna What a perfect time of the year for talking about a film.

Scott Benner 5:21
I'm gonna put this up around Halloween and it gets Yes. All right, well thank you very much for doing that little care fairy welcome. Hey, don't go anywhere. I'm going to be talking more about the moon in just a second. g evoke hypo pan has no visible needle, and it's the first pre mixed autoinjector of glucagon for very low blood sugar in adults and kids with diabetes ages two and above. Not only is chivo hypo pen simple to administer, but it's simple to learn more about. All you have to do is go to G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. g Volk shouldn't be used in patients with insulin, Noma or pheochromocytoma. Visit g Vogue glucagon.com slash risk. Alright, let's talk about the moon for a second. How often do you think a full moon occurs on Halloween on October 31? The answer is only once every 18 to 19 years. The first full moon after Halloween is November's moon, which is traditionally called the full beaver moon. Say Aren't you glad you waited? The full moon after Halloween is thought to be the time when the deer rut where mating season for the year is in full force. You know what I mean? Like they're out there just like Thumper and away. Thumper was the bunny and Bambi. I mean, for those of you who are not 1000 years old, okay, a little more about the moon. So as you may know, there is a lot of superstition around full moons. I've gone online and tried to find some fun things tell you about them. First of all, I can tell you with a fair amount of confidence that werewolves don't happen in full moons, but people think they do. werewolves are not real people. My God if you think they are, I'm so sorry. This here says oh, this is interesting. menstrual cycles are affected by the full moon 2011 study showed evidence that a full moon affects the periods of women 16 to 25 years old. They have no reason for this. It has not been fully explored. But the findings do point to a full moon influencing a woman's menstrual cycle, which I guess then technically would impact your blood sugar. So Ah, seems that sea turtles lay their eggs during a full moon. Because of the know the higher tide takes them further into shore and makes a better place for their nests. This is a little sketchy, but a recent study says that the gravitational pull of the moon may have something to do with the amount of births. Statistics have shown a high rate of babies being born on around the supermoon. They call it unexplained. And I can also find a number of articles that will say that that's absolute bs so you know greatest all. This is interesting one study monitor brain activity on sleeping participants and it showed that it took longer to fall asleep during a full moon than during other phases of the moon. It also found less brain activity related to deep sleep and shortened sleep times all around. There have not been many studies on it. But if you're having trouble sleeping during a full moon Hmm. I alluded to this earlier, emergency rooms get busy many er doctors think that a full moon really does have an effect on the number of patients admitted as well as the strangeness of the injuries that they see. Interesting little website. The crime rate goes up. I said that too. Oh, moods change. Research has shown that the moon's gravitational pull may very well be responsible for messing with our emotions. Those with unstable personalities or personality disorders may be extra sensitive to the moon's poll. So on average, the moon is 238,855 miles from Earth, and it seems it can impact things. One of those things might be your blood sugar, dum dum dum. That was supposed to be scary music I can't afford like sound effects and stuff. Although I did pay for this music. A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, g Vogue glucagon, find out more about chivo hypo pan at GE Vogue glucagon.com Ford slash juice box, you spell that GVOKEGL you see ag o n.com. forward slash juicebox. I just want you to know that there are so many stories about the moon and weird sex stuff. I did not get involved in it while I was looking But turns out that might be something to, at least people think it is. Hey, make sure to check out those other diabetes variables. They're right there in your podcast player, and at Juicebox Podcast comm

you also don't want to miss the diabetes pro tip series, the defining diabetes series, how we eat after dark. There are so many to choose from. Check them out at Juicebox podcast.com and diabetes pro tip.com. And if you're a US resident, go to T one d exchange.org. forward slash juice box. Fill out the brief survey that helps people living with Type One Diabetes, super simple questions. Completely HIPAA compliant, completely anonymous takes less than 10 minutes, you can do it right on your phone, right on yourself. You're going to help people living with type one, you're going to support the podcast. I'm trying to get to 2000 completed surveys by the end of diabetes Awareness Month. So one month from now. Go go go. If you all stopped and did it right now. Just based on how many people I know are listening to this episode. Not only would there be way more than 2000 but you might you might hear a pop like an audible out in the world that would be the minds of the people at the tail end exchange just blowing they just be like Oh, I can't believe that happened. That'd be one day exchange.org forward slash juice box.

#567 Constant Struggle

Constance has type 1 diabetes and a host of other medical issues.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends welcome to Episode 567 of the Juicebox Podcast

on today's show Constance is here Constance has a number of medical issues one of them is type one diabetes. I went back and forth about whether or not this should be an after dark episode because one of her problems involves her private lady area but you're all adults you can handle it. There's no reason this needs to be an after dark episode. When I was recording it, I felt like this episode started slow and finished strong. And when I went back to do the Edit I I agreed with myself so there you go. I agree with myself. Please remember while you're listening that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise please always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan. or becoming bold with insulin or like you're gonna like Constance, I found her to be genuine and very sincere. I have a couple of seconds here so let me remind you T one d exchange.org. forward slash juice box go take the survey takes less than 10 minutes you just have to be a US resident who is the caregiver of someone with type one or a US resident who has type one, you answer some simple questions. And boom just like that you've helped people with type one diabetes. This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries. g vo hypo Penn. Find out more at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. today's podcast is also sponsored by trial net trial that is available at no cost to relatives of people living with Type One Diabetes. It is a Risk Screening that identifies type one in its earliest stages, often years before symptoms appear. Early detection allows you to take steps to try and change the course of the disease trialnet.org forward slash juicebox tell them the Juicebox Podcast sent you.

Constance West 2:12
Um constant constants last currently, I will eventually change my last name. I have been a type one diabetic for 13 years now. And I just have like a complicated medical history. I don't know how to you

Scott Benner 2:32
know, I know it's hard to introduce yourself. Wait, but I loved what you just said. I'm trying to figure it out. You will change your name eventually.

Constance West 2:40
Oh, yeah, sorry. I got married in February.

Scott Benner 2:43
Oh, I thought you were like I will make a conscious decision to change my last name at some point. Or I was thinking you were thinking, I think I will get married.

Constance West 2:52
Oh no, I am married. I'm a married woman.

Scott Benner 2:55
Oh, you're a married woman?

Constance West 2:57
Sure I am.

Scott Benner 2:58
I'm a married man.

Constance West 3:00
Great. I'm 2626 Yeah, I was 13 at the age of diagnosis.

Scott Benner 3:11
Okay. Alright, so you're, you're right at the, you've split your life now. 13 years with 13 years with that?

Constance West 3:18
I have and you know, it was really funny. The day that I had my 13 year anniversary. I was working at the hospital that I was diagnosed. And it was a really it was kind of crazy. My job I work as a certified nursing assistant at one of our major hospitals in the area. I'm not going to say the name because I don't think I can. And they worked there for five years. But I haven't diagnosed there and it was it was good to be there. Like I'm running around crazy doing my job. You know, I'm on my feet for 12 hours straight and I texted my husband and I was like there better be cake when I come. Like if any anniversary day. I'm in cake. It's today and he had gone out and rehab a bakery close by and he had gotten me my favorite piece of cake and I just sat at home and I was like okay, this is good. I've never spent my anniversary my diabetes anniversary actually working before so I think it was good to come full circle and just, you know, 13 years previously, my life had changed forever.

Scott Benner 4:30
Yeah. Did you have any like, like flashback key moments during that day where you walk down and you remember things?

Constance West 4:36
Oh, no, our hospital has changed completely and the 13 year time frame. We have like two new readings. And the emergency department is no longer where it used to be. And so it there were no like flashbacks. It was really funny. When When I was diagnosed my diagnosis story was I had just started junior high in junior high up here starts in the sixth grade. And so you're at a school with sixth graders to eighth graders. No, sorry. Seventh to ninth graders. ninth graders and

Scott Benner 5:26
that was a child right? Because if not your dog can speak English. Oh, that's my dog. Yeah, what did it just say?

Constance West 5:35
Mom?

Scott Benner 5:35
It did right?

Constance West 5:37
Yeah, he says mom they both say mom, they're German Shepherds. We have a boy German shepherd and a girl German Shepherd, Lucien Atlas and they both say mom,

Scott Benner 5:47
Constance, I don't want to panic you but there are aliens in your house posing as German Shepherds. And you should probably run away

Constance West 5:55
right now. I mean, Lucy alerts me if our blood sugar so she's bad.

Scott Benner 6:00
Does she say anything? When it happens?

Constance West 6:03
No, she'll, she'll jump on my chest like unusually. So Kyle, my husband works evening shift. Or actually, they moved on to night shift recently. So within the first first like three or four months, we got her. He was working a lot of overtime. And one night, she just jumped on my chest. And I mean, she was fairly like 35 pounds at the time. And she would not get off of me. And I finally did a check my blood sugar with with not with my Dexcom at the time, and my blood sugar was low. And she's continued to do that. So she will alert me at my lowest when I'm sleeping and like my pump doesn't catch it. Or my Dexcom doesn't catch it fast enough.

Scott Benner 6:54
Because it's an alien. Listen, I know you love her and everything, but you have to leave the house. Your husband works at area 51 overnight, and he brought the dogs home is all this correct? No, no, like you're lying now to protect the dogs. That's crazy. Do you have a diabetes alert dog that chained itself? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Constance West 7:18
And so when I like when my head hits the pillow, like I'm so busy when my head hits the pillow on. Like, ruin Kyle's home, we'll lay down to watch a movie and I'm gone within the first five minutes. And so whenever she will, like jump up on the bed, and she'll start whining. He always like pushes me because like, check your blood sugar.

Scott Benner 7:40
How lovely and sweet. It says if you're newlyweds almost What a lovely story. The dog will all fall asleep from working so hard all day, then the dog will wake my husband up to let him know my blood sugar's low, and he kicks me Ah, just like you imagined at the wedding. Don't you think?

Constance West 7:59
Yeah. I mean, we've we've been together and living together for three years. So I mean,

Scott Benner 8:06
you Imagine all the people listening are like the shine rubs off in three years does it?

Constance West 8:12
Yeah, well, I've been married since March. I don't know it's no different than when we weren't married. So

Scott Benner 8:17
he kicked out when you were single as well.

Constance West 8:20
I mean, is it single? If you're in a relationship and you live together?

Scott Benner 8:25
I mean, I think technically it is. Yeah.

Constance West 8:28
I don't know. I always thought of myself as married to him anyways, because we were just like, together.

Scott Benner 8:34
There was no constants by by way of where you grew up. So I can't I can't trust your social construct ideas. Because

Constance West 8:43
Oh, no, that's not that's not a norm over here. I can tell you that for sure. Yeah, nope, nope. Nope.

Scott Benner 8:52
Alright, so you're 13 you're diagnosed it's only 15 years ago. So you came out with good insulin right? What did you get?

Constance West 9:03
We got human login. lantis. Actually, can I just backtrack for a second?

Scott Benner 9:09
You can say no, I'm just teasing you.

Constance West 9:13
And the hospital of I did have like this last anniversary. And March. It was really funny when I was diagnosed. So like, we had been trying to do a workup for actual cancer because I was so sick and like, there is not really anything that the doctor could figure out my PCP and so and mana was also going around at the junior high was and and so this was like a several week thing. I was so tired. I was not really actually paying a lot. I was drinking a lot. And they couldn't figure out what was going on, but they never did a glucose test. And then all of a sudden one day where And they're and they're like, Oh, we run an aliens t test. And I actually found that a winsenior a one C is 10.3 you need to go to the hospital. So we go to the hospital and like, we're in the emergency department and we're waiting for that new chronology team to come back and some like general surgery resident is just like looking at me to make sure I'm okay as we're waiting for endocrinology to come down from clinic. And he goes up in your mouth because they're doing their system check. And he goes, Oh, my gosh, your uvula goes the wrong way. And then, like I had a whole herd of residents who came in through in and out of the emergency department room as I'm waiting to see the chronology and they all just want to, like open my over wanted me to open my mouth and check my uvula because they've never seen that you do that went forward and not backwards.

Scott Benner 10:51
Listen, does it really does it still do that? Yeah. Yeah. First time, we're aware of it.

Constance West 10:57
Yeah. And so that was like, that every year will get me because that's really what I remember from that day.

Scott Benner 11:05
Or you feel it goes the wrong way. Oh, my. That's so bizarre. It can't even be the title of the episode. You know, one time constant. Somebody said to me, can I tell you a funny story? And I was like, Yeah, they told it. And I thought the whole time they're telling I was like, This is not funny.

Constance West 11:22
Maybe that wasn't funny. It's always funny to me that

Scott Benner 11:26
I was amused This time, I'm just telling you there was the one time while the person was telling the story, and all I could think was like is not funny at all. So you're okay, so tons of people look at your uvula. I also am interested and I think everybody should be you can tell a person who's living with autoimmune issues because you're like winning you're a funny story. People thought I had cancer. But it wasn't anyway, I just have and what do you have? You have type one, but you have other stuff too.

Constance West 11:59
Yeah, so I have type one diabetes, I have hashimotos I have I always forget and so I had been told that I have sjogrens disease, which is your immune immune system attacking your glands that secrete so like your mouth. And then those vagina Sorry, I'm gonna say that word a lot. And then Lycan sclerosis, which is the immune system attacking the genital tissue and

Scott Benner 12:38
Okay, so you're a little soft spoken so let me just say a couple things first, so you had so I never can say this because they put dots above letters and when they do that you've lost me but sjogrens disease show show grins I just order of your immune system identified by two most common symptoms dry eyes and dry mouth. Do you feel like you have that or you're just somebody tells you?

Constance West 13:05
No so i i do have dry mouth and I do have dry eyes and then they can do an AMA and anti nuclear antibody test which is like kind of the standard and at the time that I was told I had that it was it was showing positive maybe it was for something else at the time. But I have a neurologist that just went and did labs and my ama is completely negative so he's like, I don't think you have shell grinds anymore if you ever had it, but I do have constant dry eyes and constant right now

Scott Benner 13:37
can last for years or be lifelong. Now. The next one lynchin school right skin lichen sclerosis,

Constance West 13:48
yes, lichen sclerosis, or we can call it LS because it's also called bat.

Scott Benner 13:53
Why don't we do that. So I want to say sclerosis again, in a long term is a long term skin condition that mostly affects the gentle and anal areas. It causes your affected skin to become thin, white, and wrinkly. It turns you into my grandmother. It is due to inflammation and other skin changes in the affected area. Common symptoms include itching, irritation, and painful sex. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, less than a rare condition. By the way, which always makes it feel worse in my mind, because they're like, you know, all the countless millions of people on the planet. Only 200,000 a year get this thing and they're like, great. So what's your first diagnosis in your life?

Constance West 14:40
Well, I also have pelvic floor dysfunction

Scott Benner 14:43
on pelvic floor dysfunction. That pops right up on Google. That's interesting.

Constance West 14:52
And then my, my pelvic floor muscles are hypertonic

Scott Benner 14:56
you're okay? your pelvic floor muscles are hypertonic Yes. And that doesn't mean they're like a bubbly drink at all.

Constance West 15:06
No. So hyper just like high blood sugar hypoglycemia, they are. Constantly contract it. Sugar high, or high tone.

Scott Benner 15:16
Okay, pelvic floor contractions can also be measured internally with a paragon meter, which is a tampon like sensor that can be placed in the vagina or rack them. I mean, they say, only go one way with that can also be used to diagnose pelvic floor dysfunction. Have you had this test?

Constance West 15:40
Yeah. So what is it called specifically a urodynamic test. So they like go in. And what they do is they put a Foley catheter in to the urethra, and they start filling the bladder full of normal sailing. And then they also have the little probe that you were saying, and the vagina, and then they measure how much the bladder can hold before it starts contracting and then making the pelvic floor muscles contracting. And at that time, my bladder could only hold 62 L's before it started having contractions equivalent to childbirth. And so 62 ml is two ounces.

Scott Benner 16:25
Okay, let's go slow, because this isn't happening to me, and I'm getting upset. Let's go with what was your first diagnosis? And how old were you? Was it the diet? Was it the diabetes?

Constance West 16:38
It was a diabetes at 13.

Scott Benner 16:39
Okay. Which now seems like passe if I if I may say,

Constance West 16:45
No, honestly, yeah, my diabetes is the only thing like, people are like how you do it? I'm like, Oh, no, like high right? not do it.

Scott Benner 16:54
Yeah. Honestly, it probably is the least of your issues, right?

Constance West 16:59
Yeah, I think so. I mean, other than like, when you have a really low blood sugar, and you feel like,

Scott Benner 17:05
right, no, no, I understand. And by the way, it's cool that you curse because you got my you're supposed to go you can go from one way to the other, but not the other way. Joke earlier and you left under your breath. And I really appreciate it because it's early morning, we should tell people it is a day I'm here is the earliest i think i've ever recorded an episode. Not to say that it's super early, but it's five o'clock where you are right? Yeah, yeah. Right. Yeah. So we thank you very much for doing this like this. It was and what happened? You had a doctor's appointment, and we kind of got our things messed up. But my schedule so full, like, there's not a lot of options. So yeah,

Constance West 17:43
I have a doctor's appointment, and I thought that it was Eastern Standard Time. Which I was like, Yeah, fine. 5am my time No problem, but it was Pacific Standard Time.

Scott Benner 17:52
Yes. It's no big deal. I'll sleep tomorrow. Great. Yeah, it's not a big deal. Actually. I'm joking. I'm fine. I think you might give me a nice day. I should probably get up earlier to begin now. People are like, wait, he's not up at eight o'clock. Usually I am up at eight o'clock. I'm just not usually working at eight o'clock. Yeah. Alright, so what comes after the type one?

Constance West 18:13
Um, what was really cool about my NGO, she was constantly when they withdraw, they even see she would also draw t three and TSH and so she caught my hash not not even hashimotos but hypothyroidism really early, so I was on 25 micrograms of love of pyroxene. Until then, like from, I think it was 15 I was diagnosed with that. So 15 all the way to 20 before we even need to do it dose change.

Scott Benner 18:49
really early that she caught

Constance West 18:51
it super early. And then I'm 22 now it's just been a freakin roller coaster of trying to get it under control. And I think we finally have

Scott Benner 19:05
and doing it just with T four.

Constance West 19:09
We have no way I do love and by Roxanne and then lift those hierarchies. By running why Oh fine. By running?

Scott Benner 19:19
Is that a T three? Yeah. So not sight. Oh, have you tried sight? Oh, no, no, no. Okay. That's just a brand thing. So now you have a good seat. For people who don't understand or test my remembrance of this. You are you don't you can't you're not making the T four but you're also having trouble picking it up. Right? So the T three helps with that. It's all in the thyroid episode people. It's one of the one of the stranger things that I'm not good at remembering is that

Constance West 19:51
Yeah, so I believe if my nursing education has stuck in my brain long enough, t three is converted to T four To go to the south,

Scott Benner 20:01
there's there's there's something about when you don't convert it when you don't pick it up well you can,

Constance West 20:06
right. Right. And I just I think what it is is just it's not fast enough. It just doesn't work fast enough and I have seen a difference since starting the lie of irony like I've always had fatigue and the fatigue is a little less again I'm a very busy person, but I'm just constantly fatigued if I could sleep all day long I would probably sleep 20 hours a day.

Scott Benner 20:30
That is a real serious implication of thyroid issues that people are just they're tired even when they get their medication right they can still be tired Yeah, yeah did t three give you a little kick? Or no?

Constance West 20:47
Does anything we just saw my end last week I was like can we titrate down on the GSA can go up on the on the cheap three a medication on like I just want to see if that's more helpful because at this point, it's working But could it work better to push boundaries? Yeah, I have

Scott Benner 21:07
to be careful with the what is it I'm thinking of like you can start getting like teeth grinding or heart palpitations. Stuff like that.

Constance West 21:18
Yeah, there's a very narrow therapeutic range for thyroid meds so I'm aware and I do get those if the dose is off at all I will get them and they will come full force and and just message and ask for a lab and then they adjust but she was like yeah, we can do that. And it should be about the same amount that your your body should normally make but your thyroid toast so

Scott Benner 21:43
great. Okay, so do you have any other problems like in that those years getting it together where your your hair keep falling out? Or issues with weight or anything like that?

Constance West 21:56
I never had issues like wait until recently. I've always had been hair does get thinner. They did find a nodule on my file, right? So we get that checked every year and make sure it's not cancer. cancerous.

Scott Benner 22:13
But yeah, just like it. The nodules are sorry to cut you off the nodules indicate hashimotos Yes, right. And that's, that's a common if you have hashimotos you're gonna you will likely see so what do you get like ultrasound? Mm Hmm,

Constance West 22:29
yeah, but if we they also tested for antibodies and they found them which was the confirming diagnosis because you can have a nodule without having

Scott Benner 22:39
the antibodies? Yeah, right. Okay. All right. So what came next?

Constance West 22:47
What came me sjogren

Scott Benner 22:55
sjogrens was next. Alright, so can you kind of put into context for people like dry eyes dry mouth is it a constant is it something it flares How did it How does it present?

Constance West 23:08
Yeah, it's kind of the dry mouth is definitely constant. And so what they tell you to do is say like either eat candy Keep your mouth Keep your mouth full of saliva by eating candy throughout the day. Sorry I have diabetes that I can't just be candy willy nilly so that was never an option and so chewing gum was how I would try to keep it kind of what and keep your mouth with the amount of saliva it's supposed to have and secrete enough saliva Jimmy able to eat and then the dry eyes It's they just it's kind of it can be intermittent like from screen all the way through summer usually it's pretty bad when it gets drier

Scott Benner 23:59
and that's used like wedding drops or

Constance West 24:03
and I have when it gets really really bad I have specific ones for that I mean suppression of that a go lacrimal gland I think it is to like actually moisten the eye I'm not exactly sure how it works and I just said the completely wrong thing um but yeah, so it's like an immune suppression drug for your eyeballs doing it's really bad I use those but yeah, there's not really anything else that they can do for

Scott Benner 24:41
the dry mouth just the irritating or I guess it could have other impacts too right like you can end up with like more cavities because of that there's

Constance West 24:49
right and so that's what happened was I got more cavities and I maybe maybe the sjogrens has been lifelong and it just intermittently enough that it which is sticking my teeth but by the time that I was 18 I had shown many cavities and at this time I mean I was looking at my a Wednesday when I was diagnosed was 10.3 but I couldn't go back and see labs all the way back in the highest that I ever had after that was like an 8.6 so my diabetes has never really been out of whack far yeah, it's not it's been out of whack if you ask my parents but whatever, um, and my diabetes should not have caused it their dry mouth or the decay and they're not that happened and so the time that I was 18 I had to have like $30,000 worth of dental work done which insurance was did pay for which was great. Because there was just so much decay going on, I'd show fast. And then at the age of 20, or vine, I my two front teeth, I was I was I was working i think i think i was at work and I was eating something and just both of my two front teeth just snapped. Holy crap. Wow, they just snapped and I had had a couple of other cavities that were working their way through on the upper and the bottoms after all of this dental work. Three years prior to running to the dentist and the dentist was like well we can spend another $30,000 trying to fix all of these or we can just take all of your teeth out.

Scott Benner 26:45
Okay, I'm gonna put the ads here but trust me when I tell you a constant is just getting going. The really crazy stuff is yet to come. g vo hypo pen has no visible needle, and it's the first pre mixed autoinjector of glucagon for very low blood sugar in adults and kids with diabetes ages two and above. Not only is chivo hypo pen simple to administer, but it's simple to learn more about. All you have to do is go to G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. g Vogue shouldn't be used in patients with insulin, Noma or pheochromocytoma. Visit g Vogue glucagon.com slash risk. So all week I've been telling you what people on the private Facebook group have been saying about the advertisers and trial that is no different. Jamie says that after her son's diagnosis, she had her oldest son and herself tested. Just for the peace of mind. Katie tells me the town that was able to help her keep a very close eye on one of her other kids and that her daughter was able to be diagnosed and start insulin very early. Because of trauma that she says we avoided DK or even a hospital stay. Jill says the town that helped her to know what was potentially coming with her kids. and due to that they didn't have to be hospitalized when officially diagnosed with type one. And they never went into DK for this story pops up over and over again here. Carrie says town at help with an early diagnosis for our son 18 months after the diagnosis of our daughter. There's a lot of a lot of sentiment in here about trial net, I'll tell you it's absolutely free. You can do it one of three ways. They'll send you an in home test kit, you can go to a lab for a test, or visit trial net location. It's really worth your time trial net.org forward slash juice box at some point during the process, the last few where you heard about them, please say that Juicebox Podcast then complete the testing and send it back to them. And that's when the show gets credit when you send it back or go to a lab. Now when you just ordered so you guys are out there wanting to help me. You know just ordering it's not going to help us to complete the process trialnet.org forward slash juicebox T one D family members are at a 15 times greater risk to develop Type One Diabetes than the general population. T one D risk training will detect if you are in the early stages of T one. If you are identified as at risk trial net is here to help you. They have prevention trials if your screening results show that you are in the early stages, you may be eligible to join a prevention study that is testing ways to slow or stop the disease progression. And you're eligible for ongoing monitoring by top Type One Diabetes researchers. And if you happen to develop type one being monitored and clinical research studies, like you heard from some of the listeners, decreases the chances of DK trial that says from 30% to 3% trialnet.org. forward slash juicebox. There are links in the show notes of your podcast player at Juicebox. Podcast calm to trial net chivo, Cape open and all of the sponsors. When you support the sponsors through my links, you're supporting the show. I really appreciate that. Alright, let's get back to constants and really dig in.

Unknown Speaker 30:17
And Kp ventures

Scott Benner 30:19
constants, I have to tell you when I said that I didn't know that I have my hand up like I have it on the Bible in a courtroom. I just went, when I heard dry mouth, I thought, oh, like, you know, if people sleep with their mouths open, for instance, a dentist, they'll say that's one way you might end up with getting a cavity because the bacteria and you feed it with it anyway, but but I didn't know you were gonna sell that. That's insane. Yeah, wow. No kidding. So they just took out your teeth and set you up with dentures.

Constance West 30:52
How old? Were you? 21

Scott Benner 30:55
Happy birthday. So yeah, a lot of people go out drinking, or some people get dentures. So I'm going to stop for a second before we get to the other issues and ask you buy them five years ago, 21 years old? What's the psychological impact on you? With all this? Like, how do you handle this?

Constance West 31:15
You know, it's it's just the card that I was given. I there's no way to handle it. I can't stop and break down. I do stop and break down like when something's really affecting me. I do and I cry and I cry and cry and my poor husband will just sit there and try to help me and he has no idea what to do. And then I get up literally it'll be like okay, I'm done crying now I'll get up and I'm like, Okay, well I got to go on I got to keep doing what I got to do. And that's that's it like there's my motto is like every day gets better like yeah, today right now this feeling shocks. It sucks. But I'm doing things that will have a prolonged effect in my life. And hopefully I won't have to be here forever. And it's it is just kind of like what gets me through the day. I will say you usually ask people if there's any other autoimmune funky stuff going on and families. I'm the only one with anything wrong. I am one of six children. My parents don't have any siblings. Their parents are mostly all dead. But there is nothing autoimmune. Oh, sorry. My great, great grandfather we've learned before he passed away that he had hypothyroidism But it wasn't until like way later in life, he had only been on it for like, two years.

Scott Benner 32:49
Like mental issues even that.

Constance West 32:51
I mean, my dad, um, my dad had dental issues, but his Purdue to a dentist in his 20s leaving, like a needle in his gun. Yeah,

Scott Benner 33:07
okay. Don't say that again. Okay. Look, none of us want you to say a dentist let the needle in your dad's gum again, because that is going to kill everything. That was the chilliest thing anyone's ever said to me on the podcast. I was like, it just ran right up my spine. Okay, all right. Hold on a second. Well, the truth by you really got me with that one. The. The truth is, no one else in your family can have an autoimmune disorder passes because you took them all okay? You literally

Constance West 33:35
literally I joke with people and I'm like, I just want my genetic lottery.

Scott Benner 33:40
You You just you're greedy. And you took every one of them. Okay, so we're left with like, Hey, can I guess was pelvic floor next?

Wow, look at me getting good at this. All right.

Constance West 34:02
Well, I would say no, I would say these things. So I would say pelvic floor dysfunction as long as I can remember is the same as lichens sclerosis, and I'm going to say with Lycan sclerosis, the only way to actually make a current confirmation for Lycan sclerosis is they do a biopsy of the skin tissue which might give you a tingle as well up your spine. So they did want to recently but I have been on topical steroids for that in the area for well over a year and they had me stopped for a few weeks and it came back as contact dermatitis, which is just inflammation of tissue. And it didn't come back as like an fluorosis but with the way that my tissue clinically looks, the doctors like we're just gonna retest in a couple of months. If you can handle being off the steroids and see if it comes back positive because she's like, there's no way this is isn't like in sclerosis. But the only way to like actually get the tissue to kind of go back to its normal is just up the stairway. But let's go back pelvic floor dysfunction, and the lichen sclerosis. So for as long as I can remember I would tear in the genital area and not like real bad. But it would just happen and then it would do a little awkward floor and it heals, it's fine. And pelvic floor dysfunction, I have always had like heavy periods, which is part of the hypertonic pelvic floor. And so basically what it is, is like my pelvic floor muscles, they're a big bowl and they hold like they hold our the uterus and the vagina and then it holds the bladder and everything kind of follow the diaphragm. While mine is literally like above my navel. Basically, like my pelvic floors so far up, it's so tense, it's so far up. And so it's always caused issues for sex, I just didn't know that was a thing. Um, and so two years ago, I out of nowhere got a kidney infection. And I think that kind of threw at all for loop. Because sense getting that kidney infection. And I honestly have no idea where that can even infection came from, I actually think it's from the lakes here. Because I was swimming in the lake a couple of days prior. And I, there was no way that I would have I've never had a kidney infection before. And so I go in, because I started King blood one night, and they do the scan and everything and you're like yeah, kidney infection, and it gets worse and it gets worse because like when you go in with your symptoms, it takes three days, at least for the antibiotics to kick in. And it was over a long weekend. So of course, you can't get into see anybody right away, and the antibiotics weren't working. It's kidney infections are so painful. And then once that was relieved, I always had like, in my urethra would burn, burn, burn, burn. And so I was still having that symptom of this burning urethra on and off. And then I started having cramping. That will literally drop me to the floor. And so I was referred to a euro gynecologist and recipe which is putting just fluid in the bladder to check if there's any tears from the infection and there wasn't and so they kind of just sent me on my merry way. And said, Here, take this medication if you are having the urethra spasming, and it'll be fine. So I dealt with that. Up until last July, so we're talking like a full year.

Scott Benner 38:25
I have a couple of symptoms. So the um, they the steroid medication and the issues with the LS is that internal or external? That's external, external, okay. And the pelvic floor like what are the real world implications of it, like in your day to day life? How does it impact you?

Constance West 38:50
Yeah, so, um, I can't, we can't have sex. I will just have spasming. Again, it'll kind of just like, drop, I kind of have to like, drop whatever I'm doing. It used to literally dragged me to the knees. It doesn't do that anymore. So I have like a team of doctors that we're all kind of like working together, but not in the same clinic. So I'm not actually on the same team. But I I so we had COVID that hit right. And so I went from not seeing my PCP at all. And I couldn't get into an appointment with her like they weren't doing in person appointments, but I had a tear that happened in March of last year. Yeah, March 2020. That lasted all the way till like, middle of June. And I mean, it was pretty deep. It was pretty bad. And like okorafor wasn't working and I call the office and I was like I need to get in, I need to see somebody and I need to see somebody in person because I need somebody to look at this like, this is no longer like it was so hard because it's like, oh, we're in the middle of a pandemic. And the pandemic was so new at that time. But I was like, I cannot do my daily activities of living because it is just so painful. And so I went into my PCP, and she looked at it and she was like, This is not my specialty. And she sent me back to the Europa ecologist. And the euro. gynecologists was asking all these questions and just questions that they hadn't asked before or maybe I wasn't getting the right answers. It's so hard to know which, which it was. And she was like, okay, she looked at everything. And she was like, Oh, my God, this is not my wheelhouse, either, like, I cannot help you here. But I can help you with the like urethral spasming I was complaining of in feeling. And finally, we had we scheduled another follow up appointment. Once I got the confirming diagnosis. She sent me to a VA the general dermatology of general dermatologists,

Unknown Speaker 41:18
which there was,

Constance West 41:21
I had no idea. But the funny thing was like, I went to the original dermatologist, but i three days prior, I had gone to your dermatologist as well, because I had a couple of moles that popped up and were weird. And they were scaring me. So I went into the dermatologist and she didn't look at my bachelor scan at all. And so this virginal dermatologist looked at everything. And she was like, yep, this is like an sclerosis. But the urogynecologist had already started me on, it's helpful. They does all the topical steroids. And we were doing that at that point, because I think it took three weeks to get into her. I had been doing it every day for three weeks, which was too much of it to get a biopsy. So I

Scott Benner 42:10
got a couple of questions. So when you say you can't have sex is that constantly or during flare ups?

Constance West 42:18
I have not had a time that I've not been cleared up.

Scott Benner 42:21
Okay. And so when, when you I'm assuming you've tried sex?

Constance West 42:27
Yeah. And I happen. It's so funny prior to this pelvic floor dysfunction. My husband and my husband had a couple, like long term girlfriends prior to me. Were actually like old, high school sweethearts, just an old story. That takes quite a while to tell. But he had several girlfriends and he was like, I've never not gotten them to orgasm, and I've never I've never gotten the I never orgasm so fast. Because my husband Oh my god, he'll orgasm in two seconds. I'm not kidding you. And he gets fired me. It's the worst thing ever. Especially if I'm trying to enjoy myself. And so we always forget that was something wrong with him. I was like, there's something wrong with you. We need to get you into some sort of therapy. So you're not just going every two seconds.

Scott Benner 43:29
So you're in bed, so you're trying to have intercourse and you're in pain.

Constance West 43:33
I'm in pain. Yeah.

Scott Benner 43:35
But the implication to him is there's like 7000 vaginas on him. Right? And yeah, doing the hard work. And so he Yeah, like, okay, so yeah, I'm gonna have to beat this out, I imagine but so you're like amazing stuff, right? No,

Constance West 43:57
no, it's it's funny. I I don't know if this when I was 18. I was doing my CNA classes. And the first time I actually ever saw a penis was when they were shoving or urethral catheter in. JOHN at one of our major hospitals, and I was like, gross. So penises really grossed me out? Honestly, I'm gonna be honest.

Scott Benner 44:17
We did. Let me ask a serious question on that is Was it hard to date for you because of all of your issues.

Constance West 44:26
I'm hard today I've never been one to like date date. If I went on a date with the boy it was because I already liked them and saw something in them that I thought would be acceptable as a boyfriend. I had one relationship that lasted for years. And then the one previous to Kyle was a year and a half and he ended up ghosting me just out of nowhere. And then I've been with Kyle for three years.

Scott Benner 44:58
So what do you do? Do you just take One for the team once in a while. Yep, sure to I'm sorry.

Constance West 45:05
Yeah, I mean, he tries god he tries as hard as you possibly can. And so a week, we can have sex. I don't want let's see. How do I explain this?

Scott Benner 45:21
I don't know. But go ahead and try.

Constance West 45:23
Yeah. Um and I have no qualms about explaining it, but um, let's see, okay, so things will get there will be touching and touching is sometimes okay. I really have to be in the right mindset. I have to be calm. They gave me some muscle relaxers that are really helpful. So it's not like we can't just out of nowhere spontaneously have sex. I have to take these muscle relaxers. 45 minutes to an hour beforehand, which does not work very well with my husband when he wants to have sex. I'm like no, let's do it. Now

Scott Benner 45:59
does it turn into cardio you take the muscle relaxers then run away from him for 45 minutes

Constance West 46:06
but the muscle relaxer really does help and so we'll take them a little slow relaxer and kind of will help relax everything though he will touch me and try to get and like It'll take a while to get the juices flowing. How would you say yeah imaginal juice flowing?

Scott Benner 46:30
I think if I said that I don't think it would go over well but I'm sure it's fine.

Constance West 46:37
To get the juices flowing I want that if we're okay then he'll try to penetrate if you want to get technical and if he doesn't come within 10 seconds and my body will actually reject him like my muscles will reject him out of my body

Scott Benner 46:57
No kidding

Constance West 46:58
no not kidding at all. That happens all the time.

Scott Benner 47:02
Okay hold on do you I mean asking because of the part of the country you're in I guess more than anything Have you tried like drugs like recreational drugs?

Constance West 47:15
No I don't I don't

Scott Benner 47:18
you don't seem like a person who would try that which is but I wanted to see if it was bad enough that I honestly thought to myself that was going to be your answer but but I just thought maybe it's been Have you ever talked about it

Constance West 47:32
like in therapy know like

Scott Benner 47:34
between the two of you like maybe we should try smoking weed and doing this or something like that.

Constance West 47:40
Oh, I mean my husband's like sweet I just don't i well i could get drug tested at anytime I'm in nursing school and I'm also working

Scott Benner 47:48
so so not that I'm saying to do this but has does alcohol have any impact on it?

Constance West 47:53
Um, so I can't drink alcohol either because I also have chronic yeast infection.

Scott Benner 47:59
Of course you do right? No, I don't know why I didn't just assume that I'm sorry. I'm

Constance West 48:04
literally chronic from well before even being diagnosed with the diabetes I can remember having yeast infections and they've been ongoing since so they're it's like this with my my, which was the reason I emailed you and asked if you wanted to do a after dark episodes. So like I have the chronic yeast infections that have never gone away. I have dumped every infectious disease doctor I've seen are still trying to figure it out. And then I have the lichen sclerosis, which came back as contact dermatitis, which is its own thing and then the pelvic floor dysfunction. When I have a seizure when I have a tear, which is another word for it because fissures and tears The use gets inside it makes it more inflamed which sets off my pelvic floor.

Scott Benner 48:51
Wow. All right, well, well, this is a this is an after dark so I'm gonna just I'm gonna ask you another question. That seems like an obvious question. Pretty sure I know the answer to but I feel like for we need to understand fully doing. No, I wouldn't either. By the way, if I was you just I'm just I was just like I would ask. Are your hands super soft? How does this work?

Constance West 49:20
My husband's just really patient.

Scott Benner 49:21
Well, no, he's the same. I'm pretty certain. By the way,

Constance West 49:28
it's so funny. It's so funny. Our girl dog Lucy she's in heat right now. And she told me as I was leaving for work yesterday, he was like she got on top. Alison started helping him the other day. And I was like, same thing when I'm trying to have my period. I just want to help you. I was like, it's the hormones that are released me. I was like, yeah, it's done, and I just left.

Scott Benner 49:50
None of this impacts your desire, though. I mean, I'm assumed like, Oh,

Constance West 49:55
no, I love my husband. I want to have fun with my husband. He Doesn't my brain doesn't work with my vagina?

Scott Benner 50:03
Do you do stuff to? I'm just gonna ask you like, do you do things that, like, do you, like, bring like the back of your knee into it? Or like what do you do to like any? I don't even know what to say I'm a bit of a loss here. I only know the classic ways to do it. So, but do you see what I'm saying? Do you guys get like try to figure something out? Or do you I mean,

Constance West 50:30
we've definitely definitely tried so I, I, in October, I had surgery, they put in a neuro and nerve stimulator of my sacral nerve. So like usually they'll do this for people because pelvic floor dysfunction is usually usually happens after pregnancy, right? And it usually happens in the elderly population. And again, that's usually usually hypo tronic muscles where they are have just been too stressed either due to age or pregnancy that they are not tight and mine are too tight. So if you were to like, if we were to turn on the video, I could show you like usually your, your pelvic floor muscles actually sit in your pelvic floor where you're like, you know, your legs Connect, you know, it says they're mine. It's above like my belly button and basically, and so the pelvic floor muscles and move kind of like all of the organs up with it. You could say, constants are we had

Scott Benner 51:34
when you said yeah, if we had the video on you could show me You met with your hands that you were gonna show me? vagina, right?

Constance West 51:40
No, I don't want. You don't want to. Believe me? I've never personally seen it. But I'm sure you don't want

Scott Benner 51:49
to tell you like because if that's where you were going, I've recorded like 600 of these and that would have been the first time somebody said, if you put this on and show you my genitals. I knew you meant like you were making some hand. Just Yeah, yeah.

Constance West 52:06
Anyways, yeah, we did this like diary log or me peeing, and like the spasming I was feeling. And at that time in October, I was paying like 16 times a day, I'm in my first semester of nursing school, I'm driving three hours, at least every week I I work a very high demand job that I have on my feet for 12 hours, three days a week right now. And I'm going to be a bedside nurse, you know, you're on your feet for three shifts for 12 hours a week, once I'm done with nursing school, going to the bathroom 16 times a day, is not effective. To get any of that done. Like let me just be clear, you're in the bathroom. your urethra is spasming as you're trying to stop peeing, and then your pelvic floor contracts. And it's just you end up sweating sitting there on the toilet. Like you're, you've just eaten really bad takeout? Like, right 16 times a day. And time today,

Scott Benner 53:12
I want to tell you something. There's something interesting going on about you, right? Because at your core, you're kind of a proper young lady. And no, but no, no, not hold on, hold on. But you have so many things going on. You really don't have the time to be proper. And you've read right, but I think you have it. Do you think if none of this had happened to you? Would you be a little bit of a teetotaller? Or do you think you'd be going crazy? What do you think your core feeling is about life?

Constance West 53:42
My core feeling about life? I think my sister's kind of like me. Yeah, I think I would kind of be the same thing. I just have a lot less

Scott Benner 53:50
going on. Yeah, no, but your attitude is impeccable. By the way. Like I seriously, you have so many things going on with you that if it was the 1600s people would think you were a witch and put you on trial. Like oh, yeah, sure. 100% you'd be at a witch trial. So she makes men's Pierce's explode. I think that alone would have gotten you burned. So um, but you have an amazing attitude, like even wanting to like tell somebody about this is is really lovely. Because you're not the only one I would imagine. And I can't imagine that a lot of people are excited to run around and tell these stories. And your husband is obviously a person who loves you, which is that I mean, that's lovely in and of itself. Especially when I asked about the mouse stuff and you said you because I just assumed that's how you guys got through.

Constance West 54:47
Now, you know, he'll ask me and I'm like, Nope, not today.

Scott Benner 54:50
Yeah, he's a boy. We asked constantly. It's literally like one of our headcount. I was at a funeral once and that's what I was wondering about. So Oh, God. We're tortured.

Constance West 55:02
No, I'm like you have lefty, like, go hang out with lefty.

Scott Benner 55:08
Do you make most of the money?

Constance West 55:10
I'm not currently he does, but I will in a year,

Scott Benner 55:14
I was just thinking like, maybe he was like, all right, but such a good. What made you want to be a nurse, I'm assuming having scads of medical issues.

Constance West 55:25
Oh, it was definitely the care that I got in the hospital when I was diagnosed because the diabetes educators that I had, as well as until I was 18, with the care that I had at the hospital was diabetes educators. So they were just wonderful. And I hated my endo that whole entire five years, I had the same endo minus the times that she was pregnant, and she was pregnant, like three or four times when she was on leave, but um, my diabetes educators were just wonderful. And I find as a type one diabetic, at my core, because if you really were to boil me down to one disease, I would just say type one diabetes, because it's the it's my longest lasting disease, it's not going anywhere, it just, it can affect everything else. And I just want to be helpful to future diabetics and families. And I, I think that's why I enjoy listening to your podcast so much is because we speak so much truth. And like, diabetes educators, and a lot of times it's because I can't speak the truth of what diabetes is actually like, and the peaks and valleys. But just being that person and knowing that these families were going through such a, it's traumatic, it's shown dramatic having diabetes on a daily basis, I feel like it's traumatic. Some days, not every day, but it can be dramatic, and just having somebody to be like, Okay, this is what we're seeing, this is what we're doing. what's not working, because we would do that with my, with my certified diabetes educators, the nurses, because they had had diabetes for forever. One of them Her name was Barb, she's still actually at the hospital. And she was diagnosed at the age of four, you know, and so if we were ever having any problems, we would call her not the hospital and say, Hey, this is what what's going on? What's what what do you think? What should we do? And it's just, and the only way to be a certified diabetes educator is through being a nurse or through be a nutritionist. And I've taken nutrition classes and classes, I could have become a nutritionist, but in case something were to ever happen to my husband, and I was a single mom, and I needed to find work as a nurse, you can find more work than as a nutritionist, so I went with nursing. Hmm,

Scott Benner 58:01
good for you. That's really I mean, it's the whole stories mean, it's terrible. Obviously, I have nothing but compassion for you. But the way you handle is is astonishing. Why do you think why do you think you're able to do that? It's a question nobody ever is able to answer but

Constance West 58:21
yeah, and doctors asked me that too. They're like you can't be living in a body with all this happening going on at once. I'm like the head guy. Can I share Yeah, I'm doing it and I'm doing everything else that everybody else is doing so I can do it and I am during it. It doesn't mean I don't have times that stop me and I have to kind of readjust what I'm doing. But I I honestly think it's just like, I lived for so long with the diabetes know when I was diagnosed, my thought was okay, I'm just gonna make it to 18 you know, like we were given basically, and this is 2008 I don't know why the doctors did this, but they were like, you're probably gonna end up dead sooner than later. And again, yeah, yeah, they they gave my parents a max of 30 is what they said. Really? Really? Yeah. I don't know why.

Scott Benner 59:23
stoned out of their mind they can't think you guys gonna stop smoking the weed long enough up there right?

Unknown Speaker 59:29
Do you know Ben?

Scott Benner 59:31
What's now that didn't stop anybody in the upper northwest to be in the elite? Do you think that we've been illegal stop people from smoking weed?

Constance West 59:40
Oh, no, no, no, no. Everybody's smoking and now anywhere you go.

Scott Benner 59:45
Just it's it's just everywhere. It's a cloud of wonder like well, you guys should be able to get decent stuff. It shouldn't be that bad. No, I mean, it's just listen I've spoken to a lot of people. And I don't think that people have a good attitude, or what would be perceived as a bad attitude on purpose. I don't think anyone's reaction is mindful. Meaning I don't think something happens to somebody and then they go, Well, let me decide, will I be upbeat and cheery about this? Or am I gonna act like a prick? Like, that's not what happens, like, whatever your reaction is, is your reaction. But I mean, were your parents like, fantastic parents? Did you have like an I deal with childhood until you were 13? Or do you just have is this just a good disposition? Is there anybody in your family that has your disposition that you could point to? No, you're just gonna live your life like this is it? This is what I get. Yeah.

Constance West 1:00:48
And I think again, diabetes, because like, I could literally die in the middle of the night, and all blood sugar I have my ANC just came back the other day, 6.0 I am flying, you know, but something could happen, you know, my site could fail. And before I wake up, I die from some, you know, I can get I live my life. I was like, I could get into my car, and I could freakin die because some moron hits me, you know, and that's just kind of like, I'm going to do the best that I can. I'll be here like, and it is what it is like, diabetes is not going to stop me. And there have been several people who throughout my life have tried to stop me because of my diabetes, mainly educators and telling me, I wasn't worth the time. I wasn't going to make it. I was too dumb. And it just wasn't worth their time because it would take too long and I wasn't worth it.

Scott Benner 1:01:41
causes. I've been speaking to you for 57 minutes. Now you've not come off as dumb once. Why would someone think that about you?

Constance West 1:01:49
I'm probably because I was 13 at the time. And all 13 year old. Are

Scott Benner 1:01:55
you going to? Where was your endocrinologist in the middle of the woods or something? What? Where did you? I mean, I watched Grey's Anatomy. So I think of Seattle as being the hub of good health care. Is that much.

Constance West 1:02:08
I mean? I have I could. I could talk to you for

Scott Benner 1:02:17
this. I'm laughing at myself, because I have co mingled a television show with reality in my mind. I was out in Seattle recently. And no, yeah, right. And then I was disturbed to find that I think Seattle grace from Grey's Anatomy is actually a set in Los Angeles and not

Constance West 1:02:39
in Seattle.

Scott Benner 1:02:40
So people were like, do you want to see the Space Needle? I'm like, No, we're Seattle. Grace.

Constance West 1:02:46
No, it's not a real hospital at all.

Scott Benner 1:02:48
Yeah, I found out It's okay. I was actually so busy when I was there. timewise I didn't see anything. Well, that's unfortunate. Yeah, I saw that mountain that finally. Yeah, I love the there's a I think I've mentioned in another episode, but there's a colloquial phrase that people use around there. They say when the mountain is out. It doesn't rain here. Yes. But when the mountain is out, isn't actually a sensible statement. The mountains always out. It's when the sky is clear. But yeah, the idea and it was lovely. Like the first person that SAW said it to me, I thought like, Oh, that's nice. They don't understand English. And then that's fine. But then when the fifth and sixth and 20th person said, oh, wait till the mountain comes out, so you can see it. I was like, Alright, this is the thing these people say. Did you see it? Did you see Mount Rainier? One day? I got a really great look at it. Yes. Is it not breathtaking? It's astonishing. And I will y'all see

Constance West 1:03:47
the mountains are like dirt compared to us. So it's amazing.

Scott Benner 1:03:52
I think the most fascinating aspect of it was that we arrived on a Saturday night. And I remember being a traffic light and it was late at night. Don't get me wrong, like one o'clock in the morning, right? So it my time so it was probably 10 or 11 your time. I was exhausted, we were sitting at a traffic light. Can't see anything, obviously because it's dark. The next day you're out I'm sitting at that traffic light again, I don't see anything. Three and four days go by. And finally we're at this place and I get a text from from Chris, the guy that put us up for the first week for put me in coal up and then coal moved on to housing, but he said Oh, when you get out of there today, you're going to see the mountain and I was like, Oh, great. And what astonished me was that in the 35 minute ride back to Chris's home from where we were, the mountain was almost always visible. All I could think is we had taken this ride about a dozen times already. And I had no inclination of where the mountain was. And that was fascinating to me. Like just to turn a corner and be like, Whoa, that was not They're yesterday so I get this thing I do get the saying when the mountains out because it feels like it just decides to appear. Literally Yeah, it's very cool. There really is. Anyway Is there anything else wrong with you that we didn't talk about?

Constance West 1:05:20
My husband has bipolar

Scott Benner 1:05:23
that's not that's not you though.

Constance West 1:05:25
No, but I mean I have a sunny disposition and you're in your thought process and others would not Um, but yeah I it's funny because his his you know, like a chronic illness and we just got the diagnosis in like a finally, we've been dealing with really bad severe depression. And I don't get me wrong as a teenager, I was definitely like, defiant, I would make my mom mad because I would give myself and for for my genes or your on my blood sugar would stay around to 10. And I wouldn't care and I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I would not check my blood sugar, but I would take my insulin and you know, I kind of was just a little different with it. I don't be on it. I still don't want it, but I deal with it. And then one day, I was like, Okay, well, this is not getting me anywhere, I'd better just take care of it. And so you know, my, my definite motto is even with everything that is going on. And even though my pelvic floor socks and my skin is caring, and I have a yeast issue that nobody can freakin figure out and get rid of. Every day gets better. And that literally is my motto, like, everything sucked right now. And it might suck this second. But tomorrow is a new day. And tomorrow, it'll get a little bit better. And I'll look back in 10 years and be like, Wow, look at how far I've come. Because even just like the 13 years of diabetes, it's come so far, the fact that I have an insulin pump on my head, and a continuous glucose monitor that works and works well. is just amazing. And my husband is so early in his diagnosis with his bipolar, he's just like, I don't know, I can't I can't function. I can't do anything. And like, it's so like, both chronic illnesses, right? This is not going to go away, we have to figure out how to deal with it. And I I just take on that motto and he has not yet. So hopefully one day he will. But I just I think it you really do just have to like, be honest with yourself and tell yourself that like, this really sucks. And I don't have answers right now, I don't have a way that is conductive to actually having sex that will work with my husband, but maybe in a couple of years, everything will slow down and hopefully it will be able to have sex and you know, it kind of is what it is and possibly having the new diagnosis of pcls. And which I'll find out today. It's just like, well, I just got from it. Another goddamn thing. Another sorry. I don't mean to say that like that. But like, you know, one more thing, like and we had, we had our anniversary the other day and our dating anniversary, and I had that day gotten back the high testosterone. And I was like, I don't even feel like a woman anymore. Like I can't have sex. I now have more testosterone than I have estrogen in my body. I've already had an IUD, like that was one of the immediate things I did when we got together. I was like we're not having children until if we can even have children. I was like we're not having children until I'm done with nursing school. So we're going and getting an IUD and going off of oral birth control. And the main factor was like I'm allergic to latex and non latex condoms are so expensive when we were trying to have sex. And so I got an IUD and even with the IUD, and my testosterone is like through the roof, and I'm like, oh, when is this ever going to just stop? And I sat there I was all pretty. I was making for the first time for a year and I started bawling at dinner. I mean, just reached over and grabbed my hand and he just sat there and was quiet. And I had my little moment and I wipe my eyes and I was like All right. Let's change the conversation.

Scott Benner 1:09:48
What were some of the things that led you thinking you might have PCs?

Constance West 1:09:52
Oh, I'm in May my I had bilateral upper and lower. Like it feels kind of like an electrical socket is hooked up to my nerves. That just happened literally overnight. It was the, it was the legs one night, and then the following morning it was my arms. And then June 6, I was at work and I was charting and my middle finger became completely immobilized. And then it spread to all of my fingers on my right hand, and then my wrist got contracted in a very weird position of what kind of like it was sitting on a mouse as well. And it got stuck like that. And we went to the end, because it at that point, I had to leave work, but nothing was resolving it. I couldn't move it. I could not move my fingers. I could not move my hand by myself. I could not move my wrist, but I couldn't move my elbow on that right side. And so they they did an extra CT scan, they did an MRI and they were like we can't figure this out. Here's a brace. Here's a sling, go home and follow up with these doctors. So one of them was a neurologist. And now I forget the question.

Scott Benner 1:11:11
I was wondering about, like what you saw about PCs? Like what made you? Oh,

Constance West 1:11:16
yes. So the neurologist was like, literally spent an hour and a half in the room with me a couple weeks ago. And was like I think it could be sleep apnea. He was like, it could be neuropathy. It could be an eye switch. It was not a nice thing got nothing against Ms. But we don't need another autoimmune disease. Because pcls because of the fatigue you always had. And I say sleep apnea. Yeah, you did. Okay, Batman. Okay. All right. Oh, he ran, he ran a bunch of labs, and the testosterone came back high and said, Here you go go to a gynecologist.

Scott Benner 1:12:00
I live one last question for you, then I can let you go. Oh, you're fine. So I am wondering, does How do I how do I wonder this? Your husband? Has he been depressed? Most of the time you knew him? You just have a diagnosis of bipolar now.

Constance West 1:12:25
How husband has been clinically depressed for my god health? 15.

Scott Benner 1:12:34
So do you. Okay, that's fair. So do you? How does that how do you make a decision to be with a depressed person? Is it is it? You love them before? You know? So then? Or is it? Is there any piece of like you feeling like, there's so much wrong with me? That and he's accepting of that I need to be accepting of his thing. Like, what's that dynamic? Like? Does that make sense? Question?

Constance West 1:13:01
So yeah, he, we were together like our freshman year of high school, and then his parents are going through a nasty divorce. His mom moved to Indiana with him and the rest of the kids, right? So they were there for 10 years, and we've been best friends. You know, like, we ended our relationship, fine, you know, whatever, we were 14, um, and we've just been best friends. And we'll talk to each other throughout it. And like, he would always come to me with things that were going wrong with in his relationships. And I'd be like, dude, you gotta like, fix yourself, like, you're kind of the problem. And eventually, his girlfriend's would ditch him. And his, so that went on for 10 years, forever. And then, my parents left for Indiana, 10 years ago, because of my dad's job. And my boyfriend, previous to Kyle just ditch. He just, like stopped responding to any of my text messages. And I couldn't get ahold of them. He's alive. He still friends with my sister's husband. But just completely dropped off the face of the planet for me. And my husband, I was talking to my, my husband now. And I was like, I don't know what I'm gonna do. Like, my parents are literally leaving in a week and like, I have no place to live. And he was like, I'll just come be with you. I was like, Alright, so I'm on an airplane, and we drove home. And we've been together since but like, I knew he had depression. I didn't know the extent of it. Right? Right. Because like if you're talking to somebody over text message, it's completely different than active living day to day, you know, and so the first he came in June, that year, three years ago, and so our our winter here, good stuff. So bad, like, you literally will wake up the sun doesn't rise until like 9am. I feel like probably not right but and then it's gone. You know, like we have a couple of hours of overcast. And so it got really bad and I would come home I was in school, I was finishing up my prereqs for nursing, I was still working full time at that time. So I was working three hour till 312 hour shifts, and I would come home and he was working at Lowe's then and he would just be in bed, and he hadn't moved, if he wasn't working or if he had gone to work, he would come home and and be like, go back to bed. And I was like this is not acceptable. And I was like if you want to stay with me, you need to go get help. Like you need to go to the doctor and either get some sort of pharmaceutical help. And you need to get a therapist and you need to start working through you're like this is not acceptable. This is not how a normal person lives their life. And it's not it's not okay, like I cannot be at school, I cannot be at work worried if you've even gotten up to like, eat today, basically. And I do like all the cooking and all of the cleaning and the making of the food just because I'm so particular with what I eat, and I need to know the amount of insulin I need to take, you know. And so he was like, fine, and then he got on meds. So he's been on meds for three years, but I just have continuously gotten worse and worse. And even with all the medications and medication changes. And he started seeing a psychiatrist who was like, Yeah, I think this might just be your expectations with how you thought your life would be at this point are not how they are. I see this a lot and men your age, try this medication. And it just at that point, it's like I do I love him, I adore him and it's when he is okay and his mood is stable. He's totally fine. It's it's the depressive aspect of like, he gets so deep, so deep. I don't even know how to explain it. But it's just like, and for me with diabetes and the lifelong illness, it's so hard to understand that because I'm like, you just need to get up and go freakin shower, go shower. Like just do a normal thing. And I mean, I am going to be a nurse, I understand the mechanics and the science behind what's going on, but actually living with it. Right? Right. It's so hard. Like I literally it's a hormone thing. It's an imbalance man,

that's what I tell him all the time. Like, what would you do if I didn't take care of my diabetes, especially when things get bad? I'm like, if I didn't take care of my diabetes, and I had to have worst case scenario, something amputated. You wouldn't want to be with me. You don't want to take care of me. Like you wouldn't. You would end up regretting being with me at some point, whether it was a decade or two or three, you know, I'm like you are doing the same thing. You're not taking care of your illness and you're not taking care of yourself and you're not doing justice to our marriage over to me and he that really resonates with him and he's like, Okay, Okay, I get it. I see it. And so

Scott Benner 1:18:27
Huh, does that does that get him to try when he's feeling

Constance West 1:18:32
Yeah, yeah. And I mean it will make him It will make him cry. Like he. I think that's like my big gun is like Hey, dude, like come on. You see how hard it is. And I'm not saying that like you're bipolar isn't hard. But like you need to get out of bed. You I know it's hard to get it to an extent but like, we have a life to live and I'm not going to live my life like this. So you need to so no

Scott Benner 1:19:03
matter what's going on for you or for him, you want to do you want to just whatever the best foot is you want to put it forward.

Constance West 1:19:12
Yeah. And my my husband will say if you were tasked him me at my core, you would just say she just never stops moving. Never. She's just go go go but that's just if I stopped literally again I would totally for 20 hours. I wouldn't move and he he will he'll be like can you just slow down for 10 seconds just slow down. Just Just be here with me and I'm like fine.

Scott Benner 1:19:43
You have done something here today that I appreciate very much. Honestly being this like, clear about all the different issues. Is is really is a lovely thing you've done for Bayliss. I

Constance West 1:19:58
do. I do want to say Lightroom fluorosis is actually I asked the I asked the virginal dermatologist I asked her what population of people with like authorises, do you see, I have diabetes and she told me 90% whether that's type one or type two, she goes, usually it's later in life, it'll pop up, and they will get it. Because again, it's an autoimmune issue if the immune cells are attacking the skin, and it's, it's crazy. And so, if you're going to a dermatologist, women with Type One Diabetes, if you have children, you probably don't have to worry about it. Please have them look at your skin, your vaginal skin, you have a higher rate of having like an sclerosis, because you have type one diabetes, and then lichen sclerosis, if it goes unchecked, and we're talking like 2030 years, if it goes on without being treated, you have a higher chance of getting squamous cell carcinoma and it's so hard to treat. So please just have your dermatologist look at your vagina. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:21:09
that's it. That's our takeaway. Have your dermatologist look at your vagina. That's definitely Yeah, 100% i think that i think that's,

Constance West 1:21:16
um, get a biopsy, please get a biopsy first. Don't start treatment without a biopsy. that that would be a two.

Scott Benner 1:21:22
All right. So listen, next time anyone calls with one of these ideas? We can't do it this early in the morning. I just as we're talking, I was like, I looked up at the clock. And I'm like, it's not even 9am yet at one point, I'm thinking. But it's important to talk about and I again, I really do appreciate you doing this. I want to wish you luck at your doctor's appointment today. I hope you hear good news.

Constance West 1:21:50
Yeah. I mean, it's pretty definitive that like, I've had ultrasounds before and I do have this better on my own my ovaries at all time. So it is just like how do I how will be treated information.

Scott Benner 1:22:08
All right. Well, I hope you get good answers. And I really appreciate you doing this. If you

Constance West 1:22:13
Well, thank you.

Scott Benner 1:22:14
Thank you for everything that you do. Oh, please. If you thank me, I'm gonna be upset. It's okay. You don't need to thank me or anyone else by the way. You have a pass on on needing to thank people you've got enough going on that you don't even care about me. That's fascinating. Like it really is something. Your parents still in Indiana.

Constance West 1:22:34
Yeah, they're still in Indiana. They're still there. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 1:22:37
Okay, so your your update Yo, by the way. Is your vitamin D

Constance West 1:22:42
low. No, that was checked you vitamin D is fine. Interesting. Of all the things. No, why not? Well, I've been taking vitamin D for since we moved here. Yeah, yeah, I've always taken it. There was just something that they're like, Hey, we tell people when they move here, you take vitamin D. That'd be 12. So it's just something that is part of my vitamins.

Scott Benner 1:23:02
I take it myself. A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors. g Vogue glucagon. Find out more about chivo Kibo pen at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juice box. you spell that GVOKEGL Uc ag o n.com. forward slash juice box. also want to thank trialnet for being a sponsor of today's episode, go to trial net.org forward slash juicebox. To get started, don't forget to tell them that the Juicebox Podcast sent you. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of the Juicebox Podcast.