#740 After Dark: When In Rome

Erin was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in college.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 740 of the Juicebox Podcast.

21 year old Erin is here today, she was diagnosed while a college student and she is going to share rather openly about what it's like to be at college as a young girl living with type one diabetes. While you're listening today, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan or becoming bold with insulin. If you're a US resident who has type one diabetes, or is the caregiver of someone with type one, please consider going to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box and filling out the survey. When you complete the survey AT T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box. You'll be helping people living with type one diabetes, it takes fewer than 10 minutes is completely HIPAA compliant, and absolutely anonymous. These are not difficult questions, simple questions that you already know the answers to about your type one or your child's type one. T one D exchange.org forward slash juicebox. This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries G voc hypo pen. Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash Juicebox Podcast is also sponsored by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. Contour next one.com forward slash juicebox. If you want accuracy, you want the Contour. Next One.

Erin 1:59
Hi, my name is Erin. I'm 21 years old and I've been a type one diabetic for nine months now.

Scott Benner 2:05
Perfect. That was perfect. Nine months. Yes. Were you in college when you found out?

Erin 2:13
Yep. Mike, it was my junior year of college.

Scott Benner 2:17
Were you actually away at school? Or were you home when it happened?

Erin 2:21
I was away at school. But luckily, I go to school in Boulder and my parents live in Denver. So it's very close wasn't too far away. Yeah. So when everything happened, I was able to go home and be with them instead of being stuck at my college house with seven other girls.

Scott Benner 2:41
None of them pre med I imagine. Nope. Not Not one. You couldn't get a little lucky.

Unknown Speaker 2:47
Oh no.

Scott Benner 2:48
So how did it how did it present? And? And how did that whole part go?

Erin 2:52
Oh, it started at like at the end of August. Great. When I got back to school. I was just feel like off like very tired. But like being a college student, I was going to school I was working. And I was babysitting like twice a week. So I was working going to school, but I just didn't have the energy like I used to. I was going to bed every night with like, really bad stomach aches. And so I'm like, I don't know what's going on. But like, it's just college, like, I'm just stressed out, whatever. And then I started losing weight. I lost about 20 pounds, which was like, I've been the same weight since I was like 14 years old. And like I'm a healthy weight. Like, it was like an extreme weight loss where I was like, okay, like, I'm really skinny now because this isn't right. Like, I haven't worked out. Something's wrong

Scott Benner 3:41
over just a couple weeks. Is that right? Yeah,

Erin 3:45
I would say like three to four weeks. And then I had gone home on like a Sunday to see my mom and she was like, You look so bad. She's like, are you doing? Are you doing drugs? Like, you look so thin? And I'm like, I'm not doing drugs. Like I don't know what's wrong, and I didn't have a scale at school. So I hadn't weighed myself and I came home. And I always had been around like 140 pounds and I weighed myself and I was like 111 And that was like, Okay, I think something's wrong. Like I'm not trying to lose weight. Like

Scott Benner 4:14
yeah, here's something up for context. How tall are you?

Erin 4:17
I'm five six and like a half. So yeah, I was like very like healthy comfortable weight. Like I was not trying to lose weight at all. So you could you could see it in my face and my arm like I just looked sick. And so I I'm from like Chicago area my parents like moved out here when I came to school and so I since I've been at school I haven't gotten like a a doctor like I haven't had like a checkup or anything since I've lived here and so I'm like I don't know what to do so I call Oh, Aaron heard that says they're in network.

Scott Benner 4:56
All right, I'm sorry. You disappeared for a second like you got like a blip you called

Erin 5:00
And can you hear me now?

Scott Benner 5:01
I can. Yeah.

Erin 5:02
I was saying I called or I went on like my insurance website and started calling every doctor and network just to like, try and find someone because I didn't have anyone, right. And they're all like three weeks out or whatever. And I had gone to like this, like natural doctor out here just like supplements and stuff. And so I called him and I'm like, I've lost 20 pounds in the last like, few weeks, can you order me some blood tests? Like, I know something's wrong. Like, I can't get in to see a doctor, can you just go send me blood tests, I feel like something's wrong. And I went and did that. And then I got all my blood test results as it's sitting in a class. And I'm like, I get the notification. And I'm like, Oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God. And I'm googling every blood test that I was abnormal for. And I just looked at my sheet and I was like, 480, my glucose was 484. But for some reason, like, I saw that number, but I'm like, oh, that's like it for people who have diabetes, that doesn't matter. And I had like a bunch of other abnormal ones. Like, there's like a CA blood test, which is like a cancer one, which I was like, extremely elevated for. So I'm sitting in class, and I'm like, I have cancer, like, I'm done. And so that was like, so freaky. And I like, ran out of class was like bawling, crying, whatever. And then

Scott Benner 6:24
what class were you in? I know, that's the the weirdest.

Erin 6:26
It was an accounting. It was an accounting class. And I'm like, sitting there and I'm in the back. So I'm like, looking at my phone. And I'm like Googling and I'm like, What's going on was we're on and and luckily, we're still wearing masks and classes. I ran to the bathroom, bawling, crying, and then I like, wipe my tears, like, go back into class, and finish it out. And so then I call like that doctor, and the whole weird thing is is everything like I mean, he's he's not like me. He's a doctor, but he's not like, Yeah,

Scott Benner 7:00
are you blipped out again on me? I'm not sure why so just It's okay. It's probably because you're you live near mountains. But in I don't live that close to

Erin 7:09
mountains. My wife, my husband, should we go?

Scott Benner 7:14
Are you on your phone? No, I'm

Unknown Speaker 7:16
on my computer or your

Scott Benner 7:17
computer. Okay. Do you have a possibility of like, hardwired? Do you have like a an Ethernet cable or No? No. And you just move slightly closer to the router kind of thing? Yeah. Oh, wait a minute. Before you do that on is your phone near you? Yeah. Are you getting text messages or other mess? Yeah, yeah. That's what's happening.

Erin 7:42
As you turn off my Wi Fi.

Scott Benner 7:45
I think if you are using a hotspot, I can use a hot No, no, what happens is that I have it happened to me too. So I just silence my phone. Okay, and move it away from the microphone a little bit. Okay, when my phone is too close to the microphone and I get a message, I get that electronic breakup. Okay, I'm gonna guess that's just through my phone. Okay. Wait, it's also not your Dexcom it works.

Erin 8:15
I have my I have my Apple watch. So I have my okay, I can see it. All right. Maybe that's making it bad.

Scott Benner 8:21
Maybe we'll find out now that the phone is across the room under a pillow somewhere. Yeah, literally. So I'm sorry. So just I apologize. Do you remember where you are?

Erin 8:31
Um, yeah. Okay, good. So I really didn't even think I had diabetes. It was didn't even cross my mind, even though my glucose was like 434. And I called that, like, natural doctor. And he was like, You need to go see like a real doctor and figure out what's going on or

Unknown Speaker 8:50
whatever. Okay.

Erin 8:52
Luckily, my dad, we had like a friend who was like a family doctor, whatever. And so this was on Thursday. And he got he got me in on Monday morning. And this is where it gets crazy. Because I go in there. And he's like, yeah, like, I'm pretty sure you have diabetes. And I'm like, Okay, I'm not overweight, like because I didn't really know that much. And like, I know, I don't have type two, like, I'm very healthy, whatever. And I was like, I thought you get type one when you're little. And he's like, no, like, you can get it whatever type of thing. And so he's like, I'm pretty sure you have it, but I'm going to send you to an endocrinologist like to be sure, but we're gonna give you he gave he prescribed me a FreeStyle Libre, without giving the insulin. He's like where this you can check your your numbers but like, I'm not sure. I'm not sure if it's diabetes. So when you go see that other doctor, you'll be able to figure it out. And I'm like, okay, like, sounds good, whatever. And well,

Scott Benner 9:54
does it sound good though, Aaron because if it's not diabetes in your mind, you feel like you have cancer.

Erin 9:59
Well Well, at this point, I'm like pretty stressed, I'd be like, I gave up on the cancer thing. I'm like, I'm starting to understand this probably diabetes. But then I'm getting the debrief where I can see my numbers, and I'm in the three hundreds and four hundreds. And I'm like, How do I fix this? Like, he didn't give me anything to fix it. And so I spent the whole weekend like, with my parents just being like, What the hell was going on? Like, why did he give me this? And so then I go to an endocrinologist, like, like, the main doctor couldn't see me was that physician's assistant, and you get in there, and she's talking me like, I'm two years old, like, hot, like you have diabetes. diabetes is when the pancreas attacks itself. Like, just like the most basic definition like, okay, lady, I get it, like, how do I fix myself? Like, I was very much like, I want to feel better. I want to take insulin, like I had done research and like, I want this and this, because she, she was like, Okay, we're gonna give you Lantis. And I'm like, What about the short acting? And she's like, Oh, I don't think you're ready for that. And I'm like, I want it. Like, I know what it is. I want to have insulin when I eat. And so I had to, like, convince her to like, let me have the homologue. Right. And so she finally was like, okay, and then she's teaching me like, how to use it or whatever.

Scott Benner 11:15
I'm always fascinated by that, by the way, that the doctor says, you know, you can't have this, you go, Oh, come on, and they go, alright. Like, like, I'm

Erin 11:26
not a little kid, like, I'm 21. Like, I'm an adult, I am. Like, I'm, I'm pretty intelligent. Like, I can figure this out, I want to figure this out. I don't like feeling bad. Like, like, let's, let's do this thing. And so she agreed to give it to me, whatever. And then that Friday, I saw the diabetes educator, which was one of the most horrible experiences of my wife, she gave me like, I still have this sheet. It's like a sheet. It's like, you can eat 1500 calories a day. And she's like, do you like eating three or four meals a day, and I'm like, I'm in college, I eat like, I don't know how many meals I eat, like, I eat something different every day. And she's like, You have to eat at the same time every day. And it's like, morning for breakfast. So you can have 30 grams of carbs and get one snack or 15 grams of carbs, and this whole list and I'm like, start crying. And I'm like, I can't live like this. And so my mom has a friend who is type one. And she told us about your podcast, and how there's like a whole list of like, doctors on here have like good doctors in the area. And so my mom went on here and found one, and they're like, luckily, there wasn't, there was an opening, like, a few days later for me to go in. And then I go there. And it was one of the best experiences of my life. And so now my endocrinologist is truly amazing. And I'm so grateful for everything they do. Because when we when we got in there, it was like, I was in there for like six hours. And they were explaining everything to me. And like it was just like, totally different things

Scott Benner 12:58
are you're, you're blowing my mind. And you wouldn't know it. But I can't go in your mind because I can picture myself sitting at this desk, editing a show and thinking, you know, people ask about good doctors all the time. And then a bunch of people show up on the Facebook page and say, well try this when I try that one. I think so many people have good advice about this. I should probably just make a webpage and put them all there. Like, like that was like a throwaway thought in my head while I was doing something else. And well, they might have had it like three years ago. That's what's freaking me out. I don't know why. That's really just wonderful, you know?

Erin 13:39
Yeah, I mean, I'm so like, I don't even have words to explain like the gratitude I have for like finding our doctor because they they're just amazing. And like if I had stayed with that doctor telling me I have to eat what you know, on a schedule, and can you ever I want like, I don't know if I would have made it like literally

Scott Benner 13:59
Yeah, no, because they were giving you sliding. They were giving you a sliding scale basically. Like yeah, this much eat this many carbs. At this time. Give yourself this much insulin. Was that what they were doing? Yeah, that's sliding scale

Erin 14:12
is like one to one to 15 grams of carbs. And then so then there was like a big three and it's like breakfast, three units, 45 grams of carbs, one snack 15 units. And I'm like a very like, I like like schedule. Like, I like patterns. I like that stuff. But I'm like, I can't do this. Like I want to eat whatever I want. And then there are times I'm like forcing myself to like eat a car when I like want to have a salad. I'm like forcing bread down my throat that I don't want to eat. And I was gonna have to

Scott Benner 14:38
eat at least 15 carbs. Yeah, right. And so so if you did you ever find yourself in a situation you're like, Well, what I want is 20 carbs. So I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to jam 10 More in to feed the insulin.

Erin 14:52
Um, I mean, luckily I was only I didn't do it for I went to my next doctor. It was like five days. So, yeah, I mean, like it was in the doctor I go to now was booked out, like always like, you know, six or eight months like the fact that I got in there was like, one in a million chance that he had to cancel it.

Scott Benner 15:13
Yeah, shout him out. What would you say? Shout him out? What's his name?

Erin 15:20
Um, Dr. Gottlieb. It's an it's the Barbara Davis Center in Colorado. Yeah, it's an incredible place. And it's like all it's only type one like, it's there's research going on. It's a part of a research study right now. Like, it's just, it's very happening there. And the day I went there, she was like, put me on a Dexcom. They gave me one within that those within 10 days I had my next one's like shipped to me. Like it was incredible.

Scott Benner 15:50
No, that's it is a big difference when they know what they're talking about. Versus Yeah, at least your first person was thoughtful enough to be like, don't ask me go find someone else. Yeah, you know, but then the next person is like, don't worry, we know what to do. I'm gonna give you advice from 1983. Yeah, thanks a lot. But

Erin 16:08
yeah, I know that I'm like, okay, like, I don't, and she was like, telling me like, help me healthy foods where and unlike, healthy, like, I don't need, like, I don't need this advice from you. Like, just like, I was just so frustrated. I'm like, I can't do this. On top

Scott Benner 16:23
of all that. Did you expect to get diabetes? Like Do your parents have it or somebody in your family or anything? Nope. So you're shopping

Erin 16:31
like that? It was? So out of the ordinary? What's super weird is when I was 16. I had like, like, my mom and I have always like, my mom was refrigerators hypoglycemia, like, where we would get like, super, super shaky. Like, when we hadn't eaten in a while, which I know like, that happens, people but like, it'd be like the sweating and the shaking. And so I went to an endocrinologist at 16. And was like, I think I have like hyperglycemia and I was fine. Like nothing really happened from that. But they had me wear like a libre for like a week, which is so funny thinking about now because like I was completely like normal. That and now I'm like, obviously.

Scott Benner 17:12
Your normal. Yeah. diabetes.

Erin 17:16
I know. Yeah. I had I had Eric was read normally you can see.

Scott Benner 17:20
That's right. I cannot. So I have a question. Yeah, you are? Do you leave school for an amount of time to figure this all out? Are you handling this while you're at college?

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Erin 20:40
The week, the weekend after I got like, they told me it was diabetes. I was at home with my parents. But then within like four days, I was back at school drinking alcohol. Like I was like, I'm not letting like I'm like, I'm ready to go. Like I was like, I figured it out. I'm ready to go, which definitely wasn't played smartest thing, but I, I just didn't want to miss out on stuff with my friends. And that was just kind of like, I like I want to be back at school. But it's definitely hard. And then I started going out and like people what's on your honor? What's that? And that's the whole Oh, I've tried your diabetes. What? And then it's like the whole 10 minute thing to every person. I see.

Scott Benner 21:33
The story you told me you've told a few times.

Erin 21:35
Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I think I've gotten it down. But

Scott Benner 21:40
ya know, you do when? So when you went back? Just you mentioned drinking right away. So were you trying to kind of parse this out? Were you involved in drinking prior to diabetes? Or did you go back and you're like, you know what, I haven't done my life that now I realized I'm just gonna do because what the hell? Like, which is

Erin 22:00
no, I've been drinking for a while. Like, that's when I'm at school. Like, I enjoyed like party and go out like, that's, that's what we do. Okay, so

Scott Benner 22:10
if I need an accountant in a few years, I want to ask someone else or no.

Erin 22:16
No, I'm, I'm good at school. Drinking, I've got I've got a boat.

Scott Benner 22:25
I'm good at school. And I'm good at drinking. Yeah. Well, congratulations. That's gonna go right on your CV. I can see your LinkedIn right. Nobody ads when they're drunk, like, Aaron, that's your that's your tagline? And then, yeah, yeah, that's a good, yeah, you can have a glass of wine while we're going over your taxes. And you're sad about how much money you send to the government? Yeah, literally, what are you hoping to do when you're done with college?

Erin 22:54
Um, I'm doing an extra year of school to get my Master's in accounting, and then I'm going to sit for the CPA exam.

Scott Benner 23:00
So the family business or was that just something you wanted to do?

Erin 23:05
Not affiliate business. I just, I wasn't when I got to school. Like, I was just in like, the General Business School. And like my first accounting class, like, I was just really good at it. Like, I've always been a math person. And I just like, like, did and, you know, I was just like, Yeah, I think I could see myself doing this. And I just did like an internship this summer and really liked it. So that's the plan.

Scott Benner 23:29
Well, I might need an accountant next year. So hurry up. I cool. I keep I keep asking my guy. And he's like, I don't know. And I'm like, Could you say something more valuable than I don't know. I keep thinking, You know what, I keep thinking, I keep thinking that he wants me to do something that's not completely on the up and up. So he doesn't want to say it out loud. And I'm like, What are you trying to say? Exactly? Like, you never really says what he says he's like, you know, you could probably reduce your, your, your tax burden. And I'm like, yeah, what's the rest of it? How would I do that? He doesn't say anything. Do you think he's thinking something out? You don't know. But I always wonder I'm like, I wonder what he's saying right now. Yeah. Anyway. Okay. So talk a little bit. Aaron, about the college experience as it relates to alcohol and drugs to I don't mean it like do you do drugs? But I mean, do you? I don't know. Another way to say it. Because if I say,

Erin 24:26
like school occasionally like smoke, we are taken out a bowl. Yeah. Okay.

Scott Benner 24:31
So, so let's, I mean, for people who aren't in school now, or who aren't inclined. You go to college out of high school. Had you drank in high school? Yes. Okay. Had you smoked in high school? Yes. Alright. So this was not like a new thing. Yeah. Is this because you live in Colorado?

Erin 24:52
No, I mean, I'm from the suburbs of Chicago. I grew up there my whole life. Like my dad got a job out here and I had I have a brother who went to school here too. And so they just decided to move out here. So I live out here now, but I'm not from your

Scott Benner 25:08
social drinking a way of life and your family. Like are their drinks?

Erin 25:12
Actually, no, my dad is actually a recovering alcoholic, and sober for like, 20 years into my mom never really drink. And so I'm a very person when it comes to drinking, like, I know, the effects that it can have, like, I've seen it. And obviously I have like I can I could have addiction genes to like, in from my family. So I'm very like conscious about it. And I, you know, I've never been like, drinking to like, not feel some you know, drinking in a bat. It's always just been oh, we're going out. So,

Scott Benner 25:44
yeah. Do you see that from kid to kid like in school? Like, is there a difference between social drinking and blackout drinking?

Erin 25:52
Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah, there's not to be stereotypical. But it's a lot more guys who were just like, blacking out, you know, they're just drinking and they get whacked out with their fraternity brothers. God knows what happens.

Scott Benner 26:07
I liked the way you said that. God knows what happens. When everyone is this an after dark episode.

Erin 26:12
Um, that's what I like. Yeah.

Scott Benner 26:15
So yeah, so I want you to tell me when you say God knows what happens. What popped into your head? What do you think happens?

Erin 26:24
Um, I don't know, Blackout hook up with random girls or like, get in fights on the street.

Scott Benner 26:31
I don't know. That you?

Erin 26:34
Yeah. Yeah. Like boys are just crazy. But my son Yeah, I would.

Scott Benner 26:40
Like my son told me a story about guys that got drunk and broken ice carving. And I was like, what? And they're like, they were walking around. They saw like this big ice carving and they just knocked it over. And he's like, they're not like that when they're not drunk like that.

Erin 26:56
Yeah, like the in the stealing like people just like, even like when we'd have parties at our house. Like, they're a group of guys extol. Like our our like toilet paper like holder. I'm like, what? Like, what? What inclines you to do that? Like, what? Like what? Like, he's just like weird things he can like, now we can't put anywhere and you have like, a toilet paper holder? Like what? That's so we're here.

Scott Benner 27:22
Are you straight? Are you looking for boys? Well, what are you straight? Yeah, yeah. Does this scare you? Do you look at them and think, Oh, God, there's gonna be no fun.

Erin 27:33
Yeah, it's a worry of mine. I mean that. And because I am a part of like, Greek life. And so I hang out like with a lot of like, Attorney guys, and like, they're just so immature. And so just yeah, I'm like, I don't know where I'm gonna find a husband. But it's not here.

Scott Benner 27:54
That you think the boys somewhere else are different?

Erin 27:57
Well, I think at a college, I think hopefully they'll grow up, but

Scott Benner 28:01
I'm still sitting on it. So maybe you'll get married when you're 40. That'd be nice. Fine.

Erin 28:08
I hope I get married before then. Find a

Scott Benner 28:11
nice grown up boy by about 40 years old. Well, that's so that's interesting. So how does the drinking? Like let's just we'll do one at a time this drinking? Yeah. Impact Your the way you think about your blood sugar's like leading up to drinking? Are you like, do you plan for it? Or how do you handle it?

Erin 28:33
Yeah, I definitely plan for and it was one of like, the first things I told my doctor and was like, How do I drink? Like, how do I go about drinking with diabetes, because I had talked to my mom's friend about it. And she was saying how, like, you go up when you drink and you drop, like, six hours after whatever. And so I knew that. But especially in the beginning, I hadn't really had like a real low yet. So I didn't even really know what to expect. So there was a lot of fear being like what's going to happen. But from the start, I would always make sure I ate before, like, eat a good meal before and I just steered away from any sugary drinks. Like I mostly just drink like Seltzer, like white clouds or whatever. But you have like two grams of carbs. And so I would just never, and I still really don't ever give myself insulin for alcohol. Like I just don't even even if I'm having a sugary drink. I really don't give myself insulin for because I know I'm going to drop. And like it's just not worth the anxiety of like, worrying about going low. And it's I'm on a like on a pump now, which makes it 1000 times easier. But with MDI, like, it was hard because you couldn't change your Basal rate. And so like I did have a lot of lows. Like in the mornings and just from not being able to change it and not eating enough and whatnot. So

Scott Benner 29:58
what do you consider low

Erin 30:01
Under 70,

Scott Benner 30:03
and were they hard to bring back up?

Erin 30:07
Um, no, no, I, yeah, I just like, I've always been like an anxious person. And so I like the lows. I've had a lot of anxiety about them. And I did have one low that I went to the hospital for. So that then caused a lot more of anxiety, which I've been working on. And I'm better again now, but it's just a hard. It's a hard feeling.

Scott Benner 30:37
Yeah. I have a couple of questions. And I'm sorry, if I feel clunky. What I've learned is if I'm speaking while you're speaking, then we get that electronic sound. And so I'm trying not to step over you. But I'm still trying to interject when I have a question. So my first question, yeah, my first question is, Does dad have anxiety?

Erin 30:57
I would say yes.

Scott Benner 30:59
Do you think he was drinking to help him with his anxiety?

Erin 31:04
Um, yeah. That's the thing. I've, that's never been like, how I cope with it. So.

Scott Benner 31:10
And then, when you said you ended up in the hospital? So did you? Were you so drunk, you couldn't help yourself? Or was this not related to drinking?

Erin 31:21
Well, this is actually so I haven't been gone to this part, really. But so starting in January of this past year, I studied abroad in Spain. So it was like three and a half months after diagnosis, I got on a plane and ship myself off to Barcelona. And my bad lo happened. When I was in Barcelona, I had been out partying all night, was fine, like, woke up. And ironic enough, my mom was visiting me at this time. And so and I was with a friend, and we went to get breakfast, and reading, we're sitting at the table, I ordered like a chai latte and a pancake. And so I like gave myself a good amount of insulin because I'm like, child who is in the sweet and the pancake, and I always Pre-Bolus which, since this has happened, I don't really Pre-Bolus When I'm out at restaurants, because sometimes they forget to put your food in and bad things happen. So I had Pre-Bolus. And my food wasn't coming out, I started feeling really weird. And I had free start eating them. And the friend who I was with was like, visiting me. And she hadn't been around me since I had diabetes. And like, as this was happening, she was asking, like, what happens if you get really low, and I like stood up my head like slammed through the table. And I fell back and like passed out. And I brought my mom was like walking by the restaurant cuz she was coming to meet us heard screaming and runs and thinking like someone seven heart attack. And she sees me on the ground with like, the little of my face, because I had hit my head sat on the ground. And so that was the most frightening moment of my life for sure. And I think for her too, and I don't even know how low my sugar got, like, most insane no one speaks English. So or like she has diabetes, and they're all like what we all know,

Scott Benner 33:12
Greg. Hey, yeah, a couple things here. Did you have a seizure? No, you didn't have a seizure you pass out as serious. And as horrifying as the story is, did your friend later say for five seconds? I thought while you were really committed to answering my question about what happens if you get

Erin 33:34
because I know she was so freaked out.

Scott Benner 33:36
I would have been like, wow, Aaron is really going for it with this explanation.

Erin 33:41
Yeah. Yeah. Literally. Not laughing

Scott Benner 33:45
at your obviously your situation was terrible. But I just I love the timing of it. She's like, so what happens if you're low? You're like, let me show you.

Erin 33:53
I know, it was because I was telling you, I'm like, I don't feel good. Like, what I was eating food snacks. And so but I it was just the combination of the drinking because also in Spain, you go out till five in the morning. And so at this point, it's like 10 So I only stopped drinking five hours ago. So the peak of like, dropping me was right then. And I Pre-Bolus for food that took too long. And it just was a mess and a half

Scott Benner 34:16
had you slept.

Erin 34:19
I slept for like three hours. I think

Scott Benner 34:21
part of it is also the low. I'm not sleeping. Well. I've seen that before to where people experienced crazy loads if they're staying up like, like crazy amounts of time.

Erin 34:34
Yeah. And that was like a majority because I was in Spain for about four months. And I had I mean, I went to the hospital once, but I just had a lot of bad loads because I wasn't I wasn't sleeping. Well. I was out all night. I was just I was traveling every weekend to different countries. Like it was probably the craziest way to start my day. Diabetes journey.

Scott Benner 35:01
You think you were honeymooning? I've been meaning to ask you.

Erin 35:04
Yes. And that was what was really hard is like at one point, I was in Rome and I, my Lantis was down to like one unit a day. Because I, when I first got diagnosed, I was at 10. And it just kind of, we just kind of kept lowering it because I was just having a lot of lows. And I was at one. And I was just because we're walking so much. I probably had like, like, Can you can you hear me now?

Scott Benner 35:35
I lost you. You are walking so much. You said.

Erin 35:38
Yeah. So we're like, we're just walking so much that I was having food snacks, like every probably like 20 minutes and continue to go out. Because we were just walking and I was honeymooning. And yeah, that's, I really wish I put I tried to get let them get me get pumped to go. But they wouldn't let me which I get but like the flexibility, like a pump would have been really, really helpful. Just with like the lifestyle I was living over there.

Scott Benner 36:09
Yeah. No 100%, it would have helped you because you could have just like done Temp Basal, and stuff like that, that would have really probably limited your low blood sugars. And yeah, and you're doing all this walking. But even probably the amount of basil that you had set up before you left was for a much more sedentary lifestyle, right, reasonably speaking. And then suddenly, you're walking around everywhere. And Did you know Did you know? To decrease your Basal you didn't know that.

Erin 36:35
I knew that. And my doctor, like I had his cell phone number. So like, I was calling him constantly. And like when I had my low at the hospital, my mom called him and like, we forgot that it was the time change. So it was like three in the morning for him. But he woke up and his wife spoke Spanish. So his wife wakes up and it's like, on the phone with all the doctors like there. He's amazing. But But yeah, so I knew to like lower and stuff. But it was just hard because once you take it in the morning, like you know, you can't like change it. And so like I had other times like there was another time I was in Italy. And I had had a bad low on the plane. And I had overcorrected because I was just freaking out. And then so I overcorrected. So then I like rage Bolus. And then I was in like the middle of a train station, laying on the ground, like shaking so low, and my friend had to go, like, run get me orange juice was like pouring it down my throat. And I continue to be well like, that whole day. And I couldn't like turn off my basil. You know, like, I had taken it in the morning. And I couldn't like, take it away. And so it was so scary to be like, it's still in my body like I want it gone.

Scott Benner 37:48
Yeah, no, I know the feeling. As soon as somebody explained to me how an insulin pumps worked. I was the my first my very first thought was, oh, I'd be in control of the Basal insulin that Yeah, yeah, that was yeah, that was my first thought back then. Hey, shaking up the train station. Do you think that was a seizure? or No?

Erin 38:05
No, I was like, I like I get really bad shakes. And I get low. Like, that's one of my symptoms. It's like shaky, sweaty, it wasn't a seizure. I was only like, probably 40. But like, again, like I had partied I had partied all night, I woke up hungover, took a plane was on a plane for two hours to like Milan, like I was trying, you know, to travel all of it together, was just like creating these like, horrible circumstances for lows.

Scott Benner 38:35
Can I ask you it during this period? Which wasn't that long ago? Right?

Erin 38:40
Yeah, I got home in May. It's August now.

Scott Benner 38:43
Alright, so we're only talking about the story from three or four months ago. So during that period of travel, and did it ever, like hit you? Like, maybe I should just eliminate one of these troubling scenarios from my life to try to make this a little easier? Or did you more think this is what I want to do? This is what I would be doing if I didn't have diabetes, and I'm going to do it.

Erin 39:06
Yeah, after the SEC, the low in that train station, which was more near the end of my trip. I definitely didn't drink for a few nights. Because I was like, I don't need to be messing with this. But at the same time, when we were going out, I wanted to be with my friend like, not that I could be there with not drinking, like I wanted to go to these clubs, and I wanted to have fun. And I was in that mindset of like, I don't want to let this like take away from it. But there were times where I'm like, What am I doing to myself because I was destroying my body. 100% like it was just not good.

Scott Benner 39:43
Did you ever have you ever have the thought like this could kill me?

Erin 39:48
Um, I mean, when I after that I passed out I was like, okay, yeah, this is like, more serious than I've been thinking. But like it was always I'd freak out. out about it, and then I didn't buy that night, the next night or the next time you're going out, I was like, I'll be fine. And for the most part it was, but

Scott Benner 40:07
yeah, are you? Are you just gonna use the phrase because I don't know what else to say, but are you better at diabetes now than you were even three months ago

Erin 40:17
100%. But I do think as much as I, like, wish I had a pump, I do think being on MDI and having to make all these adjustments and having to learn those things has made me better on my pump, because I think if I just went on the pump, I would have been like, Oh, this is gonna solve all my problems, type of thing. And I think like having to, like go through the motions and like, make do things like helped me just, like learn about how my body like reacted insulin and like, that kind of stuff. So I think it was probably good that I was on MDI, but like, coming home was a breeze. I mean, I'm back, I'm in a routine, and also abroad, like abroad, I didn't carb count one thing when I was there, you know, there's, there's no such thing as car counting there. So everything was a guesstimate. And so coming back, being able to carb count on a schedule, sleeping, not really drinking, like, and getting my pump was amazing.

Scott Benner 41:13
Are you have you at all in the last 38 minutes wondered? I, I, I've tried to put myself in the position of being like the young mother of like a five year old that has diabetes listening to this. They must be listening to you like, Oh, God, Oh, God. Oh, God. I don't

Erin 41:30
know. Yeah, I know.

Scott Benner 41:34
It must be. Right now. They're like, oh, so she can't go to college. That's for sure.

Erin 41:40
She can't be her. I don't want I don't want my

Scott Benner 41:43
Well, not that you are. You just the situation is? Yeah. Because, you know, I remember on my son's intake day when he was a freshman, and oddly, he's now graduated. But there were these young parents clearly all like, you know, a large portion of these were their first kids going into college and this group, right? And we're in this, like, seminar room with these people that work at the college. And this woman raises her hand, and she goes, does everyone drink? Like, like, he'd been like, she had been worrying about it for 20 years. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. And, and the person at the podium, gave some statistics about, you know, how many people drink at college versus how many never do How much do you know sometimes, etc. And it was interesting that the numbers were fairly 5050. Like, some people drink and some people don't? Yeah, yeah, I would do that. Yeah. Right. And, and it did not comfort that lady at all. She's like, 5050, I was like, yeah, you've got a coin flip chance of what you're asking about right now. But at the same time, I don't know where I felt like everyone, I'm such a weird person to ask about it. Because you've probably drank more in the last month I've had my entire life. Yeah, so I don't know, like I but at the same time, I don't feel like I don't feel like I'm sitting here thinking like, oh, Aaron's doing the wrong thing. Like, I think you're doing what you mean to be doing and, and it's, um, it's a different choice than I would make, but it's not. But it's not right or wrong. I think the reason that you come on and talk about it is because you got a coin flips chance of this being new. And you're going to need to know how to handle it, because the answer isn't. It's why I asked you the question earlier, the answer isn't, well, just don't do it then. Because you're either a person who is going to Yeah, where who isn't going to? Yeah, right. 100% Yeah. So when you're raising a six year old with diabetes, you can't just go with Oh, I'm sure it'll work out in our favor, and the kid won't drink when they get to school. So how do you manage it now? Like now that you know a little better what you're doing? How are you stopping these problems from happening? Or are you not having luck? Still?

Erin 43:58
I'm definitely having more luck. I mean, just having the pump like I was setting Temp Basal right after I was done drinking, which completely eliminate those morning lows. And I was just able to be more mindful about like eating snacks and stuff. Like when I got home and whatnot. And now I'm on Omnipod five and so that I don't really even change my you know, it automates it. And I haven't had a low from drinking since I've been on it. So yeah,

Scott Benner 44:28
do tell Aaron How long have you been around the past five?

Erin 44:32
I think like three weeks now. For you for? Yeah,

Scott Benner 44:38
this is the whole marketing idea for Omni pod. If they're listening on the pod five for college drunks. That's, that's a nice poster, right? That's a good. Listen, you find a nicer more professional way of saying it but you get what I'm getting at. So the algorithm is stopping you from getting Low when you're drinking and are you not putting any effort into it?

Erin 45:04
Yeah, not at all. I mean, it because when I was on dash, I was lowering my Basal. Every time I was done drinking for like, honestly, like 12 hours because I listened to like the pro tip with Jenny where she was like, decrease it I forget exactly what you said, but per drink, you know, for every amount of hours and so I was doing that and now I don't even touch it

Scott Benner 45:28
was that was what Jenny brought up from the drinking episode. Was that working?

Erin 45:33
Yeah, that was really helpful. Wow. Yeah. See, that's

Scott Benner 45:35
the kind of stuff I'm a fan of talk. Obviously. You listen to the podcast you must write.

Erin 45:41
Yeah, I, I listened to the first pro tip. Like, the second day I was diagnosed. No kidding. Did

Unknown Speaker 45:48
your doctor tell you about it?

Erin 45:50
It was my mom's friend. She is her who told us about podcasts and the doctors this and then she was like, go do the protests. There's about like, it's like the starting over whatever. recently diagnosed. Yeah. And so I'm, I'm I listen to that. And I can't say I've listened to all the episodes. But I do listen, quite frequently.

Scott Benner 46:09
I appreciate that. Now, it would be very, I think I put up episode 732 today. So if you listened to all of them and went to college, and we're both aerated as much as you are, I would wonder where you were getting all this time from? Okay, so anyway, my point was going to be that this stuff gets talked about sometimes in like isolated corners of diabetes, you know, the diabetes world. But mainstream, like, outlets don't talk about stuff like this. And it's why it's why I focus on doing it as much as I do. It's interesting, too, because the prote holding up the pro tip episodes against the after dark episodes is interesting. More people listen to the protests, like like, just tell me how it works. Like tell me how they like that kind of stuff. How do I do it? What do I do? But some of the most completed episodes? Are they after dark, like people who listen just like from when it starts till the second it ends? Yeah. Because I think that it's either a thing that is happening to you something that exists in your life, or it's an oddity to you, and you and you're interested in like, like, oh, I don't like I, you know, I don't have bipolar disorder. But let me listen to a person who has diabetes talk about their bipolar, like, I think they find it incredibly interesting. And so I think, yeah, never enough content like this, honestly.

Erin 47:41
Yeah. And because after I listened to a few protests I, I forget, which I found first, but it was, I think it was the after dark about the girl talking about like, dating with diabetes, and then it listen to the guy won. And then there was another one about drinking too. And I loved all those like, like you're saying it was just like relatable stuff. And that's kind of why like, always wanted to come on here. I just like was like, I would love to, for someone going into college, or who's getting diagnosed in college, just be able to hear someone who is partying and is going out and like, like, okay, like, I will be okay. And if that's what I want to do, like, I can do it, you know, like, it is possible to still be a partier in college and have diabetes.

Scott Benner 48:22
Well, you have to know what to do. It is not a thing that you can just take one faith and be like, Oh, I'm just going to hope this works out, like hoping diabetes ever said, Yeah, hoping hoping type one diabetes just works out is a bad idea to begin with. But then you add being either inebriated, like, not able to make good decisions, or being unconscious to it. Yeah, hope is, you know, a person told me I know, the person listens to the podcast, they'll also be very vague, but happened to bump into somebody one day, like a total and complete stranger. And we were kind of at the same place for like, a half an hour. And she was there watching her kid who was too old to be kind of like, watched by her by their parents. And I happened to be there because I was, I just gotten there to pick my my son up. And so this is very vague, and I'm trying to keep it very vague. So it's not a place where parents usually watch their children, but she was watching him and I was like, you know, you've listened to podcasts. Like I talked to her for comments, and my started getting the best man, like, why are you like, here? And she's like, well, he has type one diabetes. And like, she was just kind of like, I think she was worried, right? And then told me a story about fairly recently in college, where the kid had become completely unconscious, but with high blood sugars, right, okay, and was like vomiting and in decay and like, you know, like just not able to take care of themselves. And then you find yourself in a very strange position where the people you're hoping are going to help you are Other drunk people your age? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Who are not like classically the most reliable subset of, of society drunk kids? Yeah, right. You don't you don't you don't go find a 20 year old and be like, hey, you've drink it. You've drank a fifth of vodka in the last three hours, would you paint my house? Like you don't even let alone? Can you give medical advice to my kid? So this poor kid was just passed out? As was everyone else blood sugar up, up up, the parents had to drive a great distance to go like, scoop the kid and take them to the hospital.

Erin 50:37
Oh, wow. So I would hope that if that happened to me, someone

Scott Benner 50:41
can get to the hospital, you got to check your friends very closely.

Erin 50:45
I think I think they would I think they've given I think, I hope you want

Scott Benner 50:49
to make sure you're around the right people. But my point is, is that in a scenario where this kid was going to do this thing, anyway? Wouldn't it be beneficial if he knew how to do it the best he could?

Erin 51:03
Exactly. It's like, you can't like you're saying you can't just expect someone not to do it. Like, you have to give them the tools to understand how to do it. And then they can decide if they want to engage in that activity or not. But you can't just think oh, they won't do it. Because the odds are they will and then they don't know how something like that happened.

Scott Benner 51:21
This week hit you differently. I mean, obviously we'd hit you differently than alcohol but do you manage it differently? Or do you not need I don't

Erin 51:28
really smoke like I I'll take an edible like once a month I would say and when I first got diagnosed, I took an edible and then I had a low and I was like freaking the fuck out like I was like not okay, so I didn't take edibles for a while and I've recently like taken a few but I don't I don't I just like I don't take them as much as I used to because we'd have such a strong substance where the minute you put an anxious thought in your head you're anxious and so like if I'm like thinking about my blood sugar's it just makes it not a good experience whereas if I'm like laughing and doing something else like I love it, but I think I too much in my head sometimes we're like we just doesn't isn't like a good feeling for me anymore.

Scott Benner 52:19
I have questions and of course my weight information is coming secondhand, but I've heard this before about if you have anxiety we'd either takes it away or can make it like stronger. But I've also heard the difference between smoking and and consuming can impact differently to suit doesn't sound like you smoke a lot but do you have the anxiety when you smoke

Erin 52:45
I'm probably not it's much it's just easier to take

Scott Benner 52:51
Aaron Aaron, I'm so sorry. It's easier to take edibles. Keep talking from there.

Erin 52:56
These are like edibles. Then, like smoking, just like but now I guess I could smoke whenever I wanted because I'm like older but when I was a little younger it's easier to take edibles because they don't smell and stuff.

Scott Benner 53:10
Oh, I see easier to take edibles because nobody will know there's no accoutrements, there's no odor. Yeah, just stuff. Yeah. Interesting. Has anyone ever used the word accouterments with you around weed smoking before?

Erin 53:23
I don't know what that word means? You don't know? Sidebar,

Scott Benner 53:28
this is a nice moment for you and I hold on a second, I'll get you the actual definition. Okay. I'd like to see you use this word. And in regular life, it's a it's a fancy word. But additional items of dress or equipment or other items carried or worn by a person or used for a particular activity. So like a bong would be an accoutrement of smoking. And I'm saying, accountant in loose terms, your calculator may be in a huge amount. Okay, I get it. Okay, got it. You're like I've never seen that works catch that up?

Erin 54:07
Definitely not. I don't think I could pronounce it.

Scott Benner 54:11
Do you think that? So I have one of those weird vocabularies. My son pointed this out to me the other day, he wasn't being kind when he said it. I just want to be clear about that. He's like, you use a lot of words you don't know. And I was like, that's not true. I know exactly what they are. Because how can I ask you to define them? You can't define them. I was like, well, not being able to exactly define them, and not knowing what they mean, are somehow different. And he goes, how and I was like, I don't know what it is. Because I know what a kucha might mean, it's funny, I know when to use it, but if you told me Give me a solid definition, I would pick it up

Erin 54:48
just you wouldn't. You wouldn't know how. Yeah, I get that. Yeah, I don't really have a very like high vocabulary.

Scott Benner 54:54
No, I'm like nouveau smart. You know, they mean like not really, but I get away with it. Yeah, yeah like nouveau riche. Yeah. Have you ever heard nouveau riche? Oh my god, what are you doing over there? You just smoking weed and drinking all day?

Erin 55:09
No, I'm not I profited. I just don't know a lot of words.

Scott Benner 55:15
nouveau riche is a term used usually in a derogatory way to describe those whose wealth has been acquired within their own generation. Okay, new money is another way of okay. Yeah, I'm sort of like, I'm sort of like new education. Didn't I mean? Yeah, I don't come from a long line of well educated. Well brought up people. Okay, but I've kind of like rushed into it. In my lifetime. Yeah. Yeah, I guess. What are we gonna call your episode? We're not done yet. But I think it's just gonna be after dark. When in Rome. That might be one. Yeah. Yeah. So Alright, so let's talk about how you can not kill yourself. Because it seems like you're well on your way. No, that's shaking and sweating. I'm going to tell you something. Arden's had a couple of seizures in her life. I'm gonna bet your I'm gonna bet you're 10 points away from having a seizure.

Erin 56:15
When that yeah, I wouldn't. I wouldn't doubt it. Yeah.

Scott Benner 56:17
Were you conscious and making sense? Or were you lost, like,

Erin 56:21
like, I was completely lost, like, because the first time I passed up, like I woke up pretty soon, the second time when I was on the ground, I was, you know, you're just so out of it. And I'm like, in my head, I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die on the dime and die, which obviously doesn't help anything. But

Scott Benner 56:37
did you ever like afterwards, look up at your friend and go? I can't believe you're the only thing that stood between me and death? And does that impact your friends? Your friends have like, like, that girl who ran and got, I'm assuming is the girl the person who ran and got you a juice? Were they later like, Hey, Aaron, listen, we got to stop hanging out. Like because we're where they pretty cool about it.

Erin 56:59
She like she's very traumatized by it. But it's interesting, because she, like just kind of had more of like a respect for me. And finally, like, understood how serious diabetes can actually be. Because I think a lot of people that I'm around when I say I have diabetes, it's just like, Oh, you have diabetes, but like, no one really understands, like, what could go wrong? Until you see some someone almost, you know, and so she is just like, like, now she was like, always worried about me always asking, are you okay? Like, what's your blood sugar? Because she's like, seen it firsthand. Whereas other people are so kind and like to me and like, always, like, helpful, whatever. But they just don't like know how bad it can get if that makes sense.

Scott Benner 57:45
Right? Yeah. So they're being kind of like surface about Yeah. Oh, that's terrible. I'm so sorry. And then they probably they probably walk away and go. Alright, is diabetes, because they don't know what it means. And exactly right. But this girl got to see like, Hey, I someone hand me a juice, I'm gonna go port in the face of my friend before she drops that in this train station. And yeah, that'll that'll make you understand it pretty quick. Exactly. Yeah, I agree. By the way, I've seen a seizure. And if you haven't seen one, it's different. So you know, it's a different one. Because otherwise, it's all academic, right up until then, like, oh, I don't want to get too low. Because if I get too low, I might shake or sweat or I could even have a seizure. But if it's ever happened to you, you just sort of like, you know, but that never happens until the does. And then. Yeah, it's like saying, I don't need to wear a seatbelt. I drive every day and never have an accident. You're not wearing a seatbelt for the 29 days, you don't have an accident, you're wearing it for the one day when you know, you drive into a pole. That's the day you know, and that's the day you need people to understand around you how to help you. So

Erin 58:56
yeah, and I think I am like, happy is definitely not the right word. But I am like happy that I had such a bad low early on in my diabetes, because it has made me understand because I think if I had gone through this experience, with out anything bad happening, I'd be so much more careless than I am right now. And that would lead to play something even worse.

Scott Benner 59:19
You know, it's funny, it's twice you've said that you needed something bad had to happen. So you would know to take it seriously. I think it's I think it's your age, which is not a dig but that just is how it goes. Can Can we veer off a little bit here and if you if you don't want to talk about it, I'm cognizant of the fact that I'm 30 years older than you and it could be creepy, but um, were you sexually active before you were diagnosed? Yes, okay. I just heard you do the math in your head. You're like my parents are gonna hear this. Where's this gonna go? Like the whole thing but I appreciate you answering. How has that changed with diabetes or has it not?

Erin 59:59
Um, Yeah, I mean, I think in the beginning, in the beginning, I was kind of with a, it was like my, my ex boyfriend was like talking to you again. I was with when I got diagnosed and he was just like, didn't know what to do with himself when I was diagnosed with, which was like such a turn off and like, we went our separate ways. And then I started like, there'd be guys who the interested in me and who would find out have diabetes and try and use it as like a flirting type of thing. And because like, I always wear my Apple Watch and so, like, I can check my blood sugar's like quicker than grabbed my phone and guys would be like, oh, like, Are you doing okay? Like, let me see, you're not like, you know, like trying to make it like a flirting thing, which was kind of funny. And like, I didn't see that coming. But then there's also been times when I'm out and like, I'll be talking to a guy and then like, he's like, what's up? What's in your arm? What's wrong? Like, what's wrong with you? And I'm like, All right, I'm done with you. And I move on. So it's been interesting.

Scott Benner 1:00:59
But these dastardly boys, Aaron. Now I'm using now I'm using words just for fun, but they that would look at you and go, Hey, I'll pretend to care about Aaron's health, so I can see her butt cheeks. That's wrong. Okay, he really

Erin 1:01:18
find the moment I'm like, oh, there's they care about me. So nice. Yeah. Don't

Scott Benner 1:01:24
Oh, my God, these boys are gonna drive me to the other side. That's for sure. That was seriously because Who? Who? That's, I mean, listen, I get at that age. You're limited with your with everything, like your knowledge of how to talk to people and everything. But I don't know if you got to you got to know that's a slimy thing to say to do. Right? Yeah. Oh, I see. You broke your leg. Yeah, I did. Oh, my God. Is this you're in? Yeah, this is what you're gonna do? I don't know. I don't know. I'm not okay with this. I want you. I want you out of college.

Erin 1:02:04
I have one more year. Okay.

Scott Benner 1:02:06
Well, then, but then the grad program. Yeah, but that

Erin 1:02:09
won't be like it's like, crazy and I won't be doing crazy things I'll be studying and

Scott Benner 1:02:17
all that. Oh. What are you talking about? Oh, like

Erin 1:02:20
all my friends are gonna be like, like, I don't really have any close friends who are going to be in the program with me. At least I know of yet. So we'll see though.

Scott Benner 1:02:28
Aaron. This is either the first time you've lied to me yourself. I'm not sure. You think you're gonna magically stop drinking when you're undergrads?

Erin 1:02:37
No, I didn't mean like that. I just mean like, I'm not going to be out. Thursday through Saturday. like talking to fraternity boys. You were trying to get my pants.

Scott Benner 1:02:47
Yeah, but now you're gonna be talking to grown men are gonna be trying to give you a coke. You know this, right?

Erin 1:02:55
No, that's not gonna happen. I mean, there's a ton of coke at school, but I've never done that. That's great

Scott Benner 1:03:00
stories. Aaron. I hear it's like water. Right? cocaine. Cocaine is like tissues. They're in every room.

Erin 1:03:08
I've that's where I draw the line. That's where I draw the line. Like,

Scott Benner 1:03:11
it's you. Your parents are gonna be so proud when they hear about this. Have you done any other stuff? Besides we'd ever? No, no. If I said to you, heroin, you'd go? No. wouldn't do that. Never. Okay. I'm just checking. I want to make sure you're okay. i So far I see you defending yourself and one girl on a train station. I need somebody else on your side. So I'm going to be on your side for a minute. About mushrooms. You had to have done mushrooms. You live in Colorado. You Brian, you broke up.

Erin 1:03:48
All my friends and all my friends did shrimps. Oh, sorry.

Scott Benner 1:03:51
Yeah, I can but mushrooms.

Erin 1:03:54
As I was saying, No, I've never done them. And I was in Amsterdam, where the legal and all my friends did them. But I was too scared to do that.

Scott Benner 1:04:01
Do you have diabetes at that time?

Erin 1:04:04
Yeah. Okay. Did that happen? Yeah. I just Yeah, I was I didn't know how it would affect it.

Scott Benner 1:04:10
Yeah, I mean, it would make you look inwards at your ego and it would flip inside on itself. And you would either become very aware of yourself or you would become like a self obsessed. bore. I think that's pretty much the two ways that ends up going from what I've understood. Okay, so you have I'm just I have to tell you like the cocaine thing. Being so prevalent now is like, especially with fentanyl.

Erin 1:04:36
Yeah, that sounds insane. It's really scary. Yeah. Being such

Scott Benner 1:04:39
a problem. Do you know anybody who's Odede? Not personally. Okay. Stories from school.

Erin 1:04:47
But there have been odd at my school. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's freaky.

Scott Benner 1:04:52
Of course it is. Friend of my son's died this year. So Wow, I'm so sorry. Yeah, it was terrible as a boy you knew from high school. And I don't think they were close anymore. But certainly don't expect to hear that 22 year old who lives in your town is is no longer Yeah. Because of fentanyl. You know, yeah. It's alright. So be careful. You know, there's a whole episode about testing your drugs, right? You know about that? No, I didn't know that. This girl came on, she's terrific. She's probably your age when she did it. She's like, I just want everybody to test her drugs and be safe. And during the whole thing, she was like, I don't do hard drugs. I just do this, this this. And I was like, right. And she and I was like, I forget how the conversation went. But it's one of the moments of 700 and some episodes that sticks out in my head. Because I was like, so no, no hard drugs, because no will cocaine. And I was really not measuring that as a hard drug anymore. I was like, that's,

Erin 1:05:47
like, that's a hard drug.

Scott Benner 1:05:50
Right? So, all right. Can you explain to me, you're not going to be able to this is a stupid question.

Erin 1:05:58
I ask it.

Scott Benner 1:06:03
I don't even know how to ask it. So I'm going to I'm going to start with a basic idea. Because this is how little I understand this. This concept. Why do people drink?

Erin 1:06:16
Um, it just like, when you're going out and like, with people, it heightens like, your emotions you like laugh more you your worksite like, it just you just want to be like partying and out and having fun all night. I guess. I see it.

Scott Benner 1:06:35
When you say partying? What is the definition of that to you?

Erin 1:06:41
Like, just like going out and like being with people, like doing thing

Scott Benner 1:06:47
with people and

Erin 1:06:49
I have to, I have to define partying. I know what you're saying, You know what? You know what these words mean. But when you have to define it, this is what I'm experiencing.

Scott Benner 1:06:58
Okay. I appreciate that. And it's a it's it's both a weird, simple and deep question, in my opinion. So I wasn't sure what you would say. Like when you say that, my and not just me now, not just me. 50 years old. But if you would have said to me when I was 20. Hey, we're gonna go out and go partying, I'd be like, Oh, no, I'm not, like, be like, Oh, God, I am definitely not doing that. I don't want to see your stupid drunk ass talking. I don't want to hear your dumb thoughts. I don't want to see you pass down on the sofa. I don't want to feel responsible for you. If you can't handle yourself, like, like I would. That's how it would strike me if you said it to me. And if I said it to you, you'd be like, oh, yeah, let's do it. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I'm not saying what's right or wrong. It's just one of those

Erin 1:07:47
things. Yeah, it's just one of those things.

Scott Benner 1:07:50
I genuinely don't make a judgement about it. I just don't understand it.

Erin 1:07:54
Yeah, I guess. Yeah, I don't really understand it myself. To be honest. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:07:58
Like the the episode I put up today guys skydives. And I'm like my brains going, I don't understand. You jumping out of a plane for fun? Why? I can't I can't I can't wrap my head around it in a million years. If you said to me, Scott, we're gonna go out on a plane and skydive. It's gonna be great. I'm gonna No, I'm not doing that. I don't I don't want to do that. Because who knows why, but you know, I don't know why I'm saying no to it. I just No, no. I just I would not do that. And so I don't know. That's interesting. Even like weed. I have no trouble with weed and I've never done it.

Erin 1:08:35
Yeah, I don't know. It. Just it just happened. That Yes.

Scott Benner 1:08:38
happened. So let's go over some of the fallacies that people might think of. Did you have a happy childhood? Yes, yes. Do you love your parents? You think they love you? Yes. Okay. Do you feel incomplete? Or at all? No, no. Do you feel like misunderstood? No. Okay. Do you feel like you fit in with people when you're not Hi? Yes, okay.

Erin 1:09:07
I feel like I fit in last

Scott Benner 1:09:11
describe what kind of a drunk you are.

Erin 1:09:15
I'm a fun. I'm very happy, drunk. Like, I like like making jokes. Like, I think I'm really funny, but I might not be very funny to other people. I like I like to just like, I love dancing even though I'm really bad at dancing, but like, that's always a good time. I don't know how

Scott Benner 1:09:39
you're doing fine. If you weren't partying what would you do with your free time?

Erin 1:09:47
Like go to dinner goes shopping, hanging out with my dog may still do all these things like you're asking like my whole life is spent.

Scott Benner 1:09:54
I'm not acting like this. Substantive. It's just what we're talking about.

Erin 1:09:59
I'm just I'm just kidding.

Scott Benner 1:10:00
I don't imagine I don't imagine you aren't. But does regular life feel boring? No, no, no interest. I

Erin 1:10:07
said, like, I usually will drink like, Thursday nights. And then like, Saturday during the days, and sometimes Fridays, but like, usually Fridays, I am too tired. like I usually do two nights a week. So it's not like I'm, like going crazy. No,

Scott Benner 1:10:23
no, I mean, I actually don't think you are. I'm just, I'm asking my questions. Now, it's my question, how many percentage wise, how many of the kids you go to college with do you think suffer from some sort of depression or anxiety?

Erin 1:10:40
90% I mean, more towards anxiety, I think anxieties become a part of too many people these days. So I would say, like, I had just with the pressures from parents in school, and there's always something that you're supposed to be doing or you didn't do, right. Or, like, why aren't you doing like, or the anxiety of people? Like, why aren't you in a relationship? Like there's just there's always something that could be causing you to feel that way? I say,

Scott Benner 1:11:10
feel like judged constantly. Yeah, yeah, pressure about multiple facets of your life. Yeah. And there's no ability to just be like, I don't care.

Erin 1:11:22
I think the race and I have friends who are like that, and I am starting to try and become that person, like I've always ever from anxiety. And I started seeing a therapist, like, two years ago now, who's completely changed my life. And I would say I'm a lot more on that. I don't care side, I'm gonna do what I want. But it's a really hard place to get you when you have those feelings.

Scott Benner 1:11:52
I have a question that fell out of my head because a different question popped in my head. Dammit, I heard is it possible? There's only room for one thought at a time my brain? Possible? Maybe? Oh, God, that would be terrible. If that was true. Anxiety? I'll find it hold on a second. Oh, perspective. Do you think perspective and expectations drive anxiety? Because I do. I think that I use myself as an example, I grew up really broke. I didn't have any expectations for success. I didn't think I was gonna go to college. I didn't think I was going to learn anything. I didn't think I was going to make any money. I didn't think I was going to be particularly special in any way or do anything wonderful in the world. I didn't have any, any expectations about any of that. So no matter what happened to me, I was always like, Yeah, well, that makes sense. And but then now, everyone, right? Like if you if you come from a household that even has a median income, someone expects you to go to college. 100%. Right. Yeah. And then you're gonna go, you're gonna leave with that most most people are going to leave with that. Although not you, because your parents were fancy enough to move across the country to hang out with you. So I'm going to assume they're doing okay. And am I right, Aaron? Did I figure that up? Yeah, you are correct. Thank you. So you're not paying for school? Is that right? Yes. All right. So there's one pressure lifted, but you still have? Do people like me? Am I dateable? Am I gonna meet a person? Am I going to figure out this degree? Is this really what I want to do? Can I get a job? And then on top of that, if your parents are making a handsome income, then your expectations for how much you make coming out of school are probably raised as well.

Erin 1:13:44
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's definitely like I would say,

Scott Benner 1:13:49
say that again. I'm sorry.

Erin 1:13:50
Dr. A huge part of anxiety. And I would say expectations do drop a huge part of anxiety because the Yeah, the world, the world that we live in now. It's just you're always expected of something and yeah, it can. It can be hard at times for sure.

Scott Benner 1:14:04
Set the bar low. Aaron. That's my motto. Okay. Anything that goes right seems like a major win.

Erin 1:14:11
Yeah, I feel like I don't. I'm like past that point of setting the bar low. Like I'm almost done with it. I don't know how to say that. Like, I'm not a kid anymore, you know?

Scott Benner 1:14:21
Yeah, no, I hear you. I don't know that. I don't know that. I mean it exactly the way you're saying it. I just mean Yeah, yeah. Um, what are the Beatles say? Aren't you know, the Beatles? I know the Beatles. So this is a this is an interesting moment. Because if you don't listen to The Beatles, you'd be like, I don't know what that's an old listen to The Beatles. Okay. I think let it be is. That's a good one. Yeah. Might be my motto sometimes. Right? Yes. It's a good one. Yeah, whatever happens.

Erin 1:14:49
That's that's what I've been learning. And honestly, I think getting diabetes has like, helped me in a way which I wouldn't have thought but like it It's just, it's like, it's caused anxiety to increase around lows. But in all the parts of my life, my anxiety has decreased immensely, I would say.

Scott Benner 1:15:12
Do you think if? If I snap my fingers, right, and you and you opened your eyes, and you were graduated, had a job with an income you were happy with? And were with a boy that you liked? Who liked you back equally? Do you think most of your anxiety would disappear?

Erin 1:15:34
Yes, okay. Yes. All right. Yeah, there's, it's the anxiety of the future to like, yeah, am I going to find a husband? Am I going to get married? Am I going to get a job? Am I going to do this? Like, that's my biggest thing that I have, like, I just have to live in the moment and not be so worried about the future,

Scott Benner 1:15:56
the unknown gets a hold of you. Yeah. You know, the ship after you attain these things that at the moment you think of as the things that your future will hold? That new stuff will fill in that that vacuum, right, you'll start wondering about, like, buying a home or having a baby? Or is your baby going to have diabetes? Like, like, you're going to have like this, this doesn't stop, but it actually, sorry, I can't believe I'm gonna say this. It gets worse as you get older. So, yeah, I can see that because your concerns will start becoming about not just yourself, but other people. Yeah. You know, and then you're kind of inextricably, like connected to these successes and failures of other people. Did I use that word right now? I'm in my own head about this. Alright, hold on a second. What? Where did you even say, give me a second. All right, I said inextricably, in a way that is impossible to get to. I used it right God damn, Aaron, I am on a payroll today. Where's my son? I want him in here. Right now. It's like atomic himself. Because I use good words, I just don't 100% know what they are. So thank you, you know, he and you are the same age. Oh, really, he's like, he's like five minutes older than you are so inextricably, in a way that is impossible to disentangle or separate. So you become inextricably attached to other people whose lives you you care about as well, and whose health and outcomes and their anxiety and all that stuff. So then, by loving this, this is this is not me talking to you out of like caring about people. But when you start caring about other people, their problems weigh on you almost more than your problems, though. You know, what? Why the hell am I not drinking? I think you might have just talked me into it.

Erin 1:17:59
Yeah, you're making the future sound pretty, pretty, not happy.

Scott Benner 1:18:04
is happy? It's just I know, it's not an unhappiness. It's um it's just there's more expectations to manage. Yeah, I think that's all what it is, like, you know, why is it upsetting that your kid has diabetes? Because you didn't expect it to happen? Why is it upsetting that you have it? This is not something you expected to happen if, if growing up every, I don't know, six months, someone would have said to you Hey, Aaron, by the way, when you're 21, you're going to get type one diabetes, you have to start using insulin, then the day it happened, you would have been like, oh, yeah, I expect this. Yeah. Right. So I'm almost talking about this, because I don't think there's anything wrong with it. I don't think it's a bad thing, that you're going to love somebody so much that you're going to care about them more than you care about yourself and that they're and that you may rise and fall with their experiences as well. I think if you expect it, then it's manageable. But if you just look up one day and think I thought life was going to be perfect, and it's not then it feels terrible. Yeah, right. Yeah. And that's true. That's the expectation we give kids. It's going to work out for ya. You earn you're gonna be terrific. You're such a pretty girl. You're so smart. You're gonna get a job doing whatever you want. And the guy is going to be lucky to be with you earn. Yeah, right. And then you bump into a guy at school. And he's like, what's that diabetes get away from and you're like, Oh, I thought he was gonna be lucky to be with me. What the hell? Yeah, and then it hurts. All right, Aaron. Listen, life's easy. You'll figure it out in the next like, six or seven years. Don't worry. You're sound smart. I think you're gonna do it.

Erin 1:19:46
Yeah, we'll see. I think I can do it. I think I can do it too.

Scott Benner 1:19:49
Do you really? You have like, you have like cope. Uh huh. Yeah. How much does the therapist help you with that?

Erin 1:20:00
it sorry, say that again?

Scott Benner 1:20:00
How much has the therapist helped you be hopeful? A lot?

Erin 1:20:05
Yeah. Yeah, that's like, my like, I have changed a lot in the past two years. And I think about it a lot. If I would have gotten diabetes at that time, like, when I was a freshman in college, like, I don't think I could have handled it even like, yeah, I don't think I could have handled it. I don't know what I was in such a anxious, like, cared so much about what everyone thought like, if I had to wear a Dexcom on my arm out to a party, I wouldn't have gone out. Like, that's where I was in my life. And now I'm like, I love wearing my devices. And I, I like people staring at them and makes me feel like that about myself in a weird way. But like, if it if I would have gotten diagnosed two years ago, it would have been a completely different thing, I think.

Scott Benner 1:20:50
Yeah, why did you initially go to the therapist?

Erin 1:20:56
Um, I always just, I, the thing that was so funny about me is I would get anxious about like, the smallest things, and I was going to get my eyebrows waxed at this place. And I couldn't find a parking spot. And I call my mom, like, screaming, bawling crying about how I can't find a place to park. And how am I supposed to call like, I can't call them and ask them where the parking because my mom's like, there's a parking lot. But I didn't know where it was. And the thought of like, having to like call someone and tell them that, like I couldn't find a place to park made me like literally almost passed out from panic. My mom was like, We need to find you someone. And I was like, You're right. Like this is getting out of hand. And so like that, then I started seeing her and yeah,

Scott Benner 1:21:45
I think more recent generations live so virtually, that when they go into like the real like, IRL world, that everything seems crazy. You know, like, like for me, you know, growing up, I mean, think about it. When you were 16 is four years ago, five years ago, I was 1634 years ago. And no one even i No one even fed me. No one made sure I was alive. Really. Like I like parenting back then was just a series of like you, you you make a place where they're safe and inside, and there's food available. And you yell at them to do their homework and you yell at them to take a bath. Like that was the interaction I got from my parents mainly. And, and if I screwed with my brothers, somebody would smack me. It's pretty much it. Okay, and so, you get up in the morning, you'd be like, Alright, I gotta eat. And then you'd go feed yourself. And then you'd be like, I gotta put clothes on, then you'd put clothes on? And then you'd be like, well, it's summertime. I don't know what to do. I'll go find other people and see what they're doing. And then we would go do things by ourselves and be gone. I know it sounds like a story people tell or it's a meme at this point. But I'd walk out of my house at nine o'clock in the morning, I'd show back up at one or two being like, hey, food, I'd grabbed some the leave again. And we didn't come home till 5am Yeah, that's my mom says to my parents were unaware of where I was. Like, we were like crazy. Yeah, you did not. You didn't have a day like that growing up. Yeah, no. Right. And now you're in the you're in that you're out rolling around in some fat car. Trying to get your brows wax which by the way, man, I say on and I'm not embarrassed. Look into threading.

Erin 1:23:43
I, I you get your eyebrows threaded?

Scott Benner 1:23:48
Arden and I do it together. Really? Yeah. So it's a thing she does that I used to just drive her to. And then one day I was like, he's like, do it. I was like, Okay. And now when I go there, the woman's like you too. And I'm like, Yeah, and I swiped in and I get my brows done. And I gotta be honest with you, I look better. So that's funny. Which, by the way, on the scale of one to 10 that the eyebrow threading moves me from a 2.5 to 2.9 on that scale. Because that's some great thing. But it's, um, they don't grow back as quick. The shapes nice. It's cheaper.

Erin 1:24:24
I know people who do it, but I guess I've never even looked

Scott Benner 1:24:26
into it. Yeah, they gotta be some hippies in Colorado who are doing that? Yeah, definitely. The whole place smelled like petroleum oil. And, you know, they'll be like, you want hash like they just heard my eyebrows. Okay. Yeah, so turning the hash down to so um, so yeah, so there's this like, I don't know, like, everyone. There's a big part of me that thinks you're okay. You just haven't been tested yet. And so you don't trust yourself because you're untested.

Erin 1:25:01
I yeah, I think I think that's how I was. But I think like, that's what I think like, I think diabetes has been that thing for me. Like, I think it has been a thing like testing me. And like it has been like I think, I don't know, I don't really know how to describe it.

Scott Benner 1:25:17
No, I think it's also it's really hopeful that you got in this situation with diabetes, and you were like, I'm gonna go on this trip, for example. And okay, you didn't handle it. Great. But you also, I mean, think about it. You didn't call your mom and say, I can't find that eyebrow plays. Right. You were like, I'm in Rome. Yeah. So you did like you made it there. It's a big leap real. It's a great accomplishment that you present. Yeah, the next level is to do it without shaking in a train station. But I mean, yeah. And you're getting there with that as well. So I mean, I don't know you see, much. More self assured today than you might have even been two years ago.

Erin 1:26:00
100% Yeah. The free 100%. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:26:04
Do you still do you still do the therapist? Yeah,

Erin 1:26:07
every two weeks. I I see her. Alright. It's over zoom.

Scott Benner 1:26:11
But kind of like a management thing. Almost.

Erin 1:26:14
Yeah. And just yeah, it's just like, it's just nice to talk to someone about things. That's not your mom. That's not your friends. You know, it's just like, get things off your chest. And then I always just feel like, so light and like, All right, now I'm ready to keep going type of thing. You feel good.

Scott Benner 1:26:31
I'm sorry. I cut you off.

Erin 1:26:32
I just, it's just a good like, check in like, okay, like, I'm doing things like I'm good. Just yeah. Right.

Scott Benner 1:26:39
Do you feel like that now, after you and I talking for a while? Like, I'm just different? Yeah.

Erin 1:26:45
No, I would say it's like the same thing. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:26:49
That's really nice. All right. What have we not talked about that? We should have talked about anything?

Erin 1:26:59
Thanks. So

Scott Benner 1:27:01
we did okay. Yeah, I

Erin 1:27:02
think so. Are

Scott Benner 1:27:03
you comfortable with how this one? Yeah. Excellent. What made you want to come on? How did you were you like in the Facebook group?

Erin 1:27:11
Yeah, I'm in the Facebook group. And ever since I've heard the podcast and like I was saying this after dark episodes. I was just like, I because I, I was just like, I would think it'd be cool to come on here. Because I knew I was studying abroad. And I was like, I feel like I'll have like a cool story. And I just like, anytime, like I am, like, down or like not feeling great about diabetes. Like I go and listen to a podcast and hear someone's story and always makes me feel better. And so like, if I could be that for someone else. I was like, that would be really cool.

Scott Benner 1:27:41
is excellent. Oh, I'm so happy to do this. Thank you. I thought you were terrific. First of all, I and you were really honest, which is probably because you're young. Like you'll probably look back on this 10 years now and be like, I probably shouldn't have said that. But that's Do you think you'll share it with your parents? Is there anything in here? They don't know.

Erin 1:28:01
Oh, yeah. Oh, that makes sense. Isn't it?

Scott Benner 1:28:03
Nice? Like it's you? They're gonna be so thrilled you didn't do coke.

Erin 1:28:10
I know. You're gonna be like, Yes, we did something, right.

Scott Benner 1:28:13
Yeah. If your parents are still listening at this point in the episode, I'd like to see an extra little gift for your next birthday. You know, for other brothers and sisters by any chance.

Erin 1:28:23
I have two older brothers.

Scott Benner 1:28:25
They probably did coke. I don't know if they need me. Do you ask them how much older are they the new?

Erin 1:28:34
Four and three years? Oh,

Scott Benner 1:28:36
you guys don't have a ton in common then. Oh, were you a close family younger?

Erin 1:28:43
When we were younger, I mean, they just were always traumatizing me and absolutely hated me because I was the annoying little sister. But now I'm very close to both of them.

Scott Benner 1:28:55
Yeah, that's excellent. Well, it's it's really simple. But yeah, I think you you sound like you're doing terrific. I know that. I don't know how that sounds at all. But I mean, you don't need my approval but I think you're doing a really good job. It sounds like you came through a lot. You're handling it really well. You're thoughtful about it. And you know boys are Aki so

Erin 1:29:15
literally Yeah, that's my next thing I need to tackle in my life. Is it the boys

Scott Benner 1:29:22
Yeah, you got it you know, you know the you know the secret right? What's the secret? You really don't know. Okay, hold on a second. Most of the guys that visually you want to be with they haven't had to develop their personalities. Why is that? Because they're handsome. Oh, because yeah, for the same reason that pretty girls can be like hi and everybody's like, Oh my god, I love how they're like didn't mean like, as Heather ever said anything interesting. Like I don't care. So the the athletes the like they the the handsome kid It's like, all that stuff. They just, it's easy. Or for them probably not realize probably like handsome guys right now like, Hey, I gotta work hard to but, but I mean like people give them a pass. And so you don't have to work on your personality. A lot of your personality has to do with your empathy and with how you see other people. And so if you've been kind of skating by there's might be skills you haven't developed yet. So you either have to get a really handsome kid early and train them yourself. Right? Yeah. Or you got to wait till they turn into a human being, which my best guess is 27 years old. And then you know, it's too long. I know. It's gonna be you're gonna be a 50 year old lady with a 10 year old kid. You can't be like that. You don't want that. Say that.

Erin 1:30:47
Don't say that.

Scott Benner 1:30:49
You want kids to?

Erin 1:30:51
Yeah, yeah. I love it. I love kids.

Scott Benner 1:30:54
I can tell talking to you that you want to be a mom. So hey, though, the woman who did the after dark drinking episode that you heard the original, and she's a mom now. Really? Yeah, she had a baby a couple of years ago. Oh, that's exciting. Yeah, it really is. Okay,

Erin 1:31:11
hopefully that'll be me.

Scott Benner 1:31:12
I have one last. Can I ask a bummer at the end? I should have. I'm so sorry. I should have done this earlier. How do you defend your body? In college as a girl when you're drinking? Like how do you? How do you? Do you guys look out for each other? Or how do you do that?

Erin 1:31:34
Yeah, I would say yeah, I mean, I'm always with like, my girlfriends. And like, I would say we're pretty conscious about that. But I also would say, at this age like and the people I hang out with, I'm mostly hanging out with the same group of guys. And like, they were not trying to do anything inappropriate to me. Like it's more like if I was going out. And I guess meeting like older men, but at my school, I haven't run into like that many situations where I'm like, having to defend myself or like in an uncomfortable situation. But I wouldn't say abroad, there were a lot of creepy people, but I would always be with my friends. And we would just literally push them away and like run away to the other side of the bar.

Scott Benner 1:32:14
So at school, you almost create like a, like a bubble of people. And then you kind of figure out who they are before you start interacting with them more. Like intimately?

Erin 1:32:25
Yes. Like I Yeah. Like I'd become friends with all the guys. And like all the guys that I've dated or been with, in college, like were my friends first, I would say

Scott Benner 1:32:35
do you do you? Do does it happen that you go to a girl and say, hey, look, I'm gonna head off with this guy. Like, check on me in a little while. Do you guys go that far?

Erin 1:32:44
Yeah. And we all can track each other. Like, I have all my friends on like, find my friends. Right? So we always like, but yeah, if someone's like, going home with one you. Like, tell somebody before and are like, yeah, like technique to make sure I'm okay, texting.

Scott Benner 1:33:02
I understand. Okay, well, that's good. I just wasn't sure like, and but but then when you get out in public, or like a bar scene or something like that, then there's more. There's older guys. And they they see You're younger than they're more aggressive.

Erin 1:33:17
Yeah, I would say so. But I were always just really good about at least being with another girl where like, nothing bad could really happen. Like we're very good about sticking together.

Scott Benner 1:33:28
overseas. Did you find it to be different?

Erin 1:33:32
I mean, the men are like, so much more aggressive. And like, especially like in Italy, you're walking down the street, you're getting called Beautiful every five seconds. Like there's so much more forward than American men are. Which sometimes it's nice. They're like, Oh, you're so pretty. Oh, this and when I go home, like you don't get the time of day from anyone. It's like, oh, you've diabetes.

Scott Benner 1:33:55
So do you think it was because they didn't know you? Or do you think it's like that culturally, they're not scared to talk to people in a way that they think somebody else might find objectionable?

Erin 1:34:07
I think it's a little bit of both. I think the culture it's more accepted. And I think them not telling us they're kind of like, well, wouldn't give me whenever I see these girls again. Let's say whatever we want them.

Scott Benner 1:34:17
Yeah. And the cat calls were mostly reasonable. Like were they like, Hey, you're beautiful or Hey, beautiful, not like stuff where you're like, Oh, God, that sounds like violent. Like nothing. Yeah,

Erin 1:34:31
it was always just You're so beautiful. Are these gorgeous girls like that type of thing?

Scott Benner 1:34:36
Yeah. Did you think about it ever. Did you like that as a handsome Italian boy? I'll never see again. Why don't I walk over there?

Erin 1:34:42
A lot of times they're like, like, a lot older. I'm not attracted to them at all. Oh, I

Scott Benner 1:34:50
see. Oh, I thought it was yeah, like on your on your level? No,

Erin 1:34:53
it's like, at least in like late 30s and an older Yes. There's a little bit more like,

Scott Benner 1:35:01
you're actually, you know, it's interesting. You're seeing that 35 year old guys. That's his pickup line. That's why he's 35. And he's still yelling at girls because he's exactly yeah. Yeah. Because

Erin 1:35:11
that's how he's trying to find a wife. Yeah, well, you find that yelling,

Scott Benner 1:35:15
but yelling at girls on the street. Yeah, that's not how it usually works. We know that 21 year old boy who was like, So what's that Apple Watch? For? What do you find him when he's 35? I don't know. Are we doing the same way? He's

Erin 1:35:27
hopefully he's single. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:35:28
yeah. Unless he figures it out and then tricks some poor girl into thinking he's a real person. Who knows? Yeah,

Erin 1:35:34
I could see that happening.

Scott Benner 1:35:35
Aaron, you're terrific. Thank you so much for doing this.

Erin 1:35:38
Yeah, thank you for having me. I had a blast.

Scott Benner 1:35:40
I'm glad I really am.

A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G voc glucagon. Find out more about Chivo Capo pen at G Vogue glucagon.com Ford slash juice box. You spell that? G VOKEGLUC AG o n.com. Forward slash juice box. I also want to thank the Contour Next One blood glucose meter and remind you to go to contour next one.com forward slash juicebox. There are links to G woking contour, and all of the sponsors in the show notes of your audio app, or at juicebox podcast.com. When you click on the links, you're supporting the show.

If you're looking for the diabetes Pro Tip series, it begins at episode 210 In your audio app, or is available at diabetes pro tip.com. As a matter of fact, many of the series within the Juicebox Podcast are also available, of course in your audio app, and at diabetes pro tip.com, which is accessible by typing that link or through juicebox podcast.com. If you're listening to the show online, please consider listening in an audio or podcast app and subscribing and following in that app. If you're looking for a community online, try the Juicebox Podcast Facebook page. It's private and free Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes currently has over 27,000 members. And there are over 100 new conversations to be had every day at Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

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#739 Bold Beginnings: Carbs

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

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

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 739 of the Juicebox Podcast

Welcome back to the bold beginning series, today's episode with Jenny Smith and I is all about carbs. I think I'm just gonna call it carbs, carbs. Anyway, while you're listening today, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan, or becoming bold with insulin. If you're a US resident who has type one diabetes, or is the caregiver of someone with type one, please go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. Join the registry take the survey that survey taking part less than 10 minutes easy questions about type one diabetes, your answers help people with type one diabetes and they might help you as well go find out T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. And if you're looking for Jenny Smith, she works at integrated diabetes.com You can find her there

this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor. Get started today@dexcom.com forward slash Juicebox Podcast is also sponsored by Omni pod makers of the Omni pod five, learn more ami pod.com forward slash juice box the show is also sponsored by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter contour next one.com forward slash juice box and by us med get your medical supplies at us med.com forward slash juice box or by calling 888-721-1514. The podcast is also sponsored today by Ian pen from Medtronic diabetes. You can find out more about the in pen and ink pen today.com. Last but not least, the episode is sponsored by je voc hypo pen, je voc glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. Now don't worry, I'm not going to start piling up 17 ads on every episode I just had a thing this week. So instead of two longer ads, you're gonna get more shorter ads. Just this one time on this episode right here. I hope you understand I hope you'll listen it's going to be fun. I'm going to try to do them without stopping the recording. It should be crazy. I'm gonna need a stopwatch to Anyway, I'll see if the ads we'll see how I can do with this. And to the advertisers. I'm sorry, I didn't clear this with you. But things come up. You know what I mean? Pico? Hello, Jennifer, how are you?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:05
I'm great. How are you?

Scott Benner 3:06
I am I'm doing okay, I am looking through our bowl beginnings list. We are little more than halfway through recording. And we are upon carb guidelines and impact of food. But just how the statements, questions and concerns sent in by people were categorized by our dear Isabel. So it's a bit of a long list. But I think we can get through it. Cool if we try. So there's two. There's no There's two thoughts here. Right carb guidelines like what does that mean impact of food? What does that mean? I think we're gonna see by listening to people's statements first first one out of the box. All carbs are not created equal. That comes directly from the podcast. So somebody is speaking from a perspective of having been diagnosed, listen to the podcast and looking back now thoughtfully and saying what do I wish people would have told me the beginning that all carbs aren't the same? Correct. Okay, now, you and I talked about this. It feels like constantly to the point where sometimes I'm embarrassed that I don't have other examples. When I pull up like two foods, there's two foods that pop into my head every time and I I'm always like, I should come up with different foods. That's a conversation. I'm having these. There's consistency there then, right? Yes, my brain is pulling from the same place over and over again. But you know, the basic idea here is that you're going to be told to either count your carbs and Bolus for you might be told to eat on a schedule or eat a certain amount of carbs. But no one ever explains to you that all carbs don't impact blood sugar's the same way. You're taught the number. Right right. And that is come forgetting in the beginning to people like, Oh, you just count, you know, and that's why you'll hear some people go like real, like, heavy into, like, I bought a scale, it goes down to the like, the gram, you know, like, if I if I measure this correctly, you know, that works mostly. But it's not a perfect system, right? Correct. From a different person counting carbs was a huge stressor for us. We needed easy ways to count carbs. And we needed to understand how different things would hit differently. So let's talk about that a little bit. What do you think, is the benefit of telling people that and what do you think the problem is with telling people that

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:43
I think initially the benefit goes along with the first line of information, which is counting carbs, because you have to learn, many people don't read labels before they're diagnosed, right? They may look at certain things on it, but they're not really looking specifically at carbohydrates, and learning how to count the grams of carb. But I do think that along with that conversation, if you're going to show somebody and tell them how important it is to count carbohydrates, and give this medicine, that's, that could be really heavy and action based on what the what they know now about food and how the food works with their insulin, you essentially should be telling them or giving a baseline list of these foods are slower, these foods act a little faster, these foods act really, really fast. They may all have the same carb amount, based on portion. But they may have a very different onset of action in terms of what you see happen to your blood sugar. So I think, a simplified chart, not only for carb counting, which is a really basic easy concept, for the most part. Moving into that though, the bigger discussion should be about how those carbs could show up differently in terms of your CGM trend, especially or even fingerstick values if you're doing enough of them, because you don't have a CGM yet. And I think, you know, taking that one step further, if, if you do have a really good educator, they should really sit down with you. And they should ask you what, what are you eating, not give you a random list, and you maybe eat three foods out of the 50 that are on it. And you say, well, this wasn't very helpful. Sitting down and giving them what you eat or what your child eats and getting feedback on. What should I expect of these foods? Do

Scott Benner 7:42
you think that sometimes when clinicians give lists of foods, they see it as an opportunity to change your eating habits to better things? So they write stuff so the list consists of like broccoli, and you know, things that they're like, I'm pretty sure people don't eat enough broccoli. So we'll put there's one that you say all the time that I stopped myself from laughing constantly. Quinoa. No one eats Kean rocket Jenny, just you and four other people. Right? My kids like, Alright, listen, but you know what I'm saying? Like they think sometimes they give you the list they wish you ate not the list you actually ate. Right, right. And

Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:21
which is, it is unfortunate, I would say, I don't know, I would have to ask honestly, like how many people were really given this random list of stuff that looked like it was supposed to be healthier, but they never really ate versus just the typical list of carb counts for foods. That's like a general list, right? The 15 gram per portion kind of list. And I can tell you those lists from when I was a kid are there there. Many of them are not like great foods, many of them are

Scott Benner 8:54
processed. I just find myself wondering how many nurse practitioners who on a set on a on a Saturday morning hungover eaten honey smacks would never tell you how to Bolus for honey snacks. So because it seems like you'd be saying, hey, it's fine to eat a Twinkie. You know what he mean? Instead of saying, Look at Twinkies not great for you. There's here I could sit for 20 minutes and tell you why not eat this thing. But I think it's possible you're going to eat it. And it would be nice for you to know how to Bolus for it. And I don't think that conversation happens. But I want to know want to go back a little bit to something you were saying a minute ago about how nice it would be to explain to people, here's a list of foods that will kind of impact at this level. And here's a list that might hit a little harder. Here's a list that might hit a little quicker. Whatever it is. It made me feel like the problem with doing that. If I'm thinking about how to explain things to people, is that you're in this short doctor's visit. And now you're going to start telling them that foods not food. This food is Mike Tyson and this food is Sugar Ray Leonard and this food is You know, 150 pound guy who's only been boxing for three days? And or I don't know how so I'm trying to think like, what would you say to somebody would just say, Look, when you think about speed, there's the kind of speed that a Camry creates, there's a kind of speed that a Mustang creates, there's the kind of speed that a Tesla creates. These are all cars. But the way they generate speed is differently, I don't know how you could save to someone and explain to them, you're going to eat a baked potato. And it is going to make your blood sugar higher in the future. Right, it might make it really high, because it because of the impact that's going to have for the lasting effect it's going to have in your system, but it won't jump up in the air. Like if you took out a ring pop and just started sucking on it.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:46
Correct. In fact, one of the ones that I explained that way. It's grapes. I call them Sugar Bombs. I mean, they really are they are you eat them. It's why raisins are also one of the like, treatments for low blood sugar, because they impact so quickly, that they will cause a quick spike. So I that's a, it's a good way to think about kind of reaching somebody at a level that they can say, Oh, I understand that. That totally makes sense.

Scott Benner 11:16
Around this time of year, cherries come into season. Yeah. And Arden will just take a bowl of cherries. And I swear to you, I think sometimes she might take 10 or 11 units of insulin to eat a small bowl of cherries, right? It just, it's like she's having a popsicle over and over and over again. Like as she's sitting there, right? It's funny, because before diabetes, I would have thought cherries, that sounds healthy grapes, that sounds good for you. You know, like I didn't pay much attention to nutrition. Prior to diabetes. I was not raised well, in many different ways. But around food was just really broke. You know, like it was like meatloaf night you got potatoes. But that night was chicken with chicken came green beans, like we were just my mom was trying to make $70 Last week, you know what I mean? Like she didn't, she just didn't want us to die. And she didn't want us to be broke. So you know, like, so? It is, um, I don't know, like I said, kind of like circling back to it. There has to be a way right now to explain to people that more than all carbs are not created equal. Although, after doing this podcast forever, I don't know that that's not the best thing to say is that you have to be aware that these foods are going to impact differently. And you start to talk about it a second ago, that processed food is going to be more difficult to Bolus for than

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:45
simple simple style real food. I mean, to be quite honest, it food that is real, is not broken down. It hasn't been processed through a factory someplace transformed into this dinosaur shape. You know, I mean, I use the phrase which has been well overused in on online and describing food. But if my grandma didn't know what it was, then it's probably not real food or it's probably processed and started out as food.

Scott Benner 13:24
Well, so the way the way my brain does it because it's funny you said dinosaur shaped, which it's really funny because when Cole was little, one of the first nutritional decisions I made as an adult, was if I'm gonna give the kid chicken nuggets, I'm gonna buy chicken and a bread at myself, and I'll bake it in the oven, and I'll give him nuggets. And when we first did it, you might have thought I don't know if you saw this. This video lately. Apparently, there's an aquarium overseas because of budget cuts. They had to go to a cheaper grade of mackerel for the penguins. And they hold them out and the penguins turn their heads away and won't they like won't eat them, like, like, and so that was cold when I first gave him fresh real chicken nuggets. He ate them and he was like, What is this garbage? Gold this is just a I overspent I bought chicken breast i cubed it up nicely. I even I don't know if you know this, but when you slice meat, there's a direction you can slice that makes it easier to chew right? Even I went that far Jenny breaded it nicely. I put seasoning on a nice daddy mother Jennifer, you know and then then the kid then he acted like I was trying to give him one of these cut rate macros. And but after a long time, it just switched and just noticed how his palate just changed. He doesn't want a frozen dinosaur that somebody said has chicken in it because I'm not certain it was chicken. You know what I mean? And so we did that. And then we did it in as many places as we could but but my thought here You're for people. And you were just saying that a second ago, when you look at something, you look at a piece of chicken and somebody says you what's in that? Your answer is? Chicken, Chicken. Yeah. When someone says, that's a grape, what's in that? Your answer is, it's a grape. When somebody says, hey, what's in that Oreo? You don't go Oreo.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:20
Let's look at the ingredients on the package. How many are there? Can you read them? Do you know what they are?

Scott Benner 15:26
Right? If you there are, I don't know how many things and I don't even mean to just pick Oreos, but anything like that. There's 2030 things in there. And you don't know what any of the more and this is this oversimplified thing I've been hearing people say for decades. And it just becomes more important when you're the one that has to figure out the insulin, not your pancreas, because you can your body can hammer through a lot of crap. Like I'm pretty sure we could eat stones and get away with it for a little while. Don't need stones. But you don't need mean like like, we're not birds. Birds eat stones,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:59
birds, some birds, it helps their digestion if you see birds on the side of the road. Totally random thought. But yes, they're like picking stones you'd like why is that bird picking through the stones? It's because the stones in the digestive system help to? Oh, I don't know that it's all birds. So if you are a bird expert, I am certainly not stepping on toes. I I know that birds eat stones, not all of them

Scott Benner 16:24
do. I thought you just said birds because I said penguins earlier. But no. But my point is, first of all, I can't believe I have to say this, please don't eat stones, your body cannot process. But my point was is you can put a lot of crap in yourself, especially when you're younger, and your system can fight through it. It doesn't mean it's good for you. And it doesn't mean you're not going to have short term or long term, like health effects from it. But I think that thing tricks us a little bit. You know what I mean? Like, you go out on a Friday night, and you have nachos and this and you have pizza and you're drinking beer, and the next day, you know, someone says Are you okay? And the answer is no, I'm not okay. And then more of the answers, you probably shouldn't go in the upstairs bathroom, you know, like, like, five or six hours later, you feel okay again. And that somehow, I don't know how humans think Jenny, but somehow we don't think about the time spent in the bathroom, clutching the wall. Talking to Jesus.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 17:22
It's almost like our taste buds when out, right? The memory of the of the taste, and maybe even the social experience that went along with the taste and the enjoyable like eating experience. All of that is more of the forefront of the brain. And Out goes the experience of the bathroom that you spent four hours in. Yeah, you know, it's it is I humans are. We are interesting, right? And really interesting.

Scott Benner 17:50
And what I see anecdotally is when people are diagnosed with diabetes, their first thought is generally I don't want to lose my freedom, about how I eat. And I don't want you to either. I mean, if you listen to this podcast long enough, you'll know I think you should eat whatever you want. I just want you to know how to bowl a sport. So that's what we're talking about here. Whether you're going to eat the Twinkie or have a pile of nachos, or eat rice, quinoa, you know, or somewhere in between, right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 18:18
And I think what it boils down to honestly is given like the more newly diagnosed and this information coming to them, carb counting, know that the carb count is like, it's like the base step right? Now you know how to count how much you're eating. But the next step of that and very close to it really is, what kind of food is it? Is it a slow action kind of like a turtle? Or is it fast? Like the hair, right? I mean, if you imagine those two, just simply, it'll help you make more sense. And then look at what you're already eating. Regardless of what somebody told you should be eating or shouldn't be eating anymore. The easiest thing to not change yet another piece of your life. Take what you're eating, and see how things look after you eat those foods, and you can say, Okay, I think this is enough insulin, but it looks like my blood sugar rose up too quickly. Gosh, Scott was right. Maybe I need a little bit more Pre-Bolus Right. So let's try that and be this is more of a high glycemic food. It's not really so slower medium like I thought it might be.

Scott Benner 19:33
So yeah, you know, I'm funny. I'm looking at two different statements here from two different people. And if you want to know why it's easy for people to get confused. These are two statements that are I think, pretty consistently told to everyone and they completely they they clash with each other right? The one person says the hospital made it seem very black and white. You eat X amount of carbs and you take x amount of insulin and just go on then live your life. And the next person says, it would have been nice to understand that all the free carbs they were telling me I could eat weren't really free. And it's it you know, so what? Which is it? Are there free carbs? Or are there not free carbs? And every card gets covered? The real answer is in between? It is

Jennifer Smith, CDE 20:18
yeah, it is. Absolutely, I think the first statement is take this amount of insulin for this amount of, of black and white carbs, regardless of what it is, and it should cover that amount of food. But now we're digging deeper into insulin action and food digestion. So it's it's a, it's a road kind of that veers off of take the insulin to cover this amount that you counted. It may be a timing thing, you know, something like a big bowl of cherries, for example, you definitely need that insulin. Now, the same amount of carbs though in a grilled chicken caesar salad. You may need that same amount of insulin, but I can guarantee you don't need it all up front.

Scott Benner 21:06
Do you think that they talk about free carbs more with kids, because they've they've already given the kids a wide target range to begin with. So if your kids at and drifting down, you can give him this, I don't know a certain number of these things. And it's free. Don't bother giving insulin for it because they know you need it to fix the blood sugar. And the bigger idea about insulin you don't have yet. All right, ready, this is off the top of my head. I don't have anything in front of me. 30 seconds. For each one, I have a stopwatch in front of me and go the Dexcom G six is a continuous glucose monitor. You wear it to see your blood sugar's speed, direction and number. For example, my daughter's blood sugar is 104 right now, and it's steady. I just saw that on my iPhone. You could actually do that on your iPhone or your Android device. dexcom.com forward slash juice box. Check it out. It is absolutely one of the greatest things I've ever seen managing insulin dexcom.com forward slash juice box 30 seconds. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. Go to contour next one.com forward slash juice box when you get there, you're gonna know everything you need to know about the greatest blood glucose meter I've ever seen, held or touched fits in your hand wonderfully. It's an amazing size. It has a great light, it's easy to read and it's incredibly accurate Contour Next One, go to contour next one.com forward slash juicebox that was 30 seconds. So okay, now oh my gosh. US med go to us med.com Ford slash juice box or call 888-721-1514 To get your free benefits check. US med is where I get Arden's diabetes supplies. They're the number one distributor for Omnipod dash, they have over 1 million diabetes customers worldwide. And they always give you 90 days worth of supplies and fast and free shipping with that one over 30 seconds. Sorry, they carry everything from CGM to all of your diabetes needs us met.com forward slash juice box links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com. This one's not going to be easy. I have to say certain things. Okay. There's no way I'm gonna get this done. You want it? Oh, I'm scrolling up. Do you want an insulin pen you're not quite ready for an insulin pump, but you'd like to get some of the functionality that insulin pumps offer. If that's you, you're looking for the in pen from Medtronic diabetes. You can learn more and get started today in pen today.com in pen pairs with an app on your phone to give you much of the functionality that you see with type one diabetes and insulin pumps but you get it with a pen. In pen requires prescription and settings from your healthcare provider. You must use proper settings and follow the instructions as directed where you could experience high or low glucose levels. For more safety information visit in pen today.com The Omni pod five baby it's here automated insulin delivery system it is available on the pod five is the only tubeless automated insulin delivery system that integrates with the Dexcom G six CGM and it uses smart ingest technology to automatically adjust your insulin delivery every five minutes helping to protect against highs and lows without multiple daily injections. The Omnipod five is currently cleared for people with type one diabetes ages six and older and if you have the option, and you have the option, dammit to control it from a compatible smartphone, Ali pot five is also available through your pharmacy which means you can get started today. Damn, which means you can get started without the four year Durable Medical Equipment contract that comes with most insulin pumps. Even if you're currently in one RT with another system. So to get started today with the Omni pod five, go to omnipod.com forward slash juice box for full safety and risk information, a list of compatible phones as well as clinical trial claims data, go to omnipod.com/juice box. Alright, I don't think I'm going to get this last one in. But it might go a little past the music already. G voc hypo pan has no visible needle, and is a premixed auto injector of glucagon for treatment of very low blood sugar. In adults and kids with diabetes ages two and above, find out more go to Jeeva glucagon.com forward slash juicebox G voc shouldn't be used in patients with insulinoma or phaeochromocytoma. Visit G voc glucagon.com/risk. And the bigger idea about insulin, you don't have yet

Jennifer Smith, CDE 25:51
it could very well be and remember a lot of kids initially diagnosed are very sensitive to insulin, and may have a ratio that's something like one unit for every 50 grams of carb, well, then really, if you're starting out, you don't have a pump yet. And you're using multiple daily injections, and your child wants to eat five grams of cucumbers. That that's free. There's there is no way to dose for that. Right. You know, well, I shouldn't say that. You can dose you can dilute insulin, you can get micro doses of rapid insulin, but that's another that's another regular.

Scott Benner 26:27
Yeah, it's funny, as we're talking, I think, here are the words that are missing when people are talking to clinicians, right now. These foods are going to be free. But that probably won't be like that forever. It's the it's the those things are the things that no one tells you. Because as I'm reading the I mean, we're going through these bold beginnings things. And the thing that sticks out to me most is that what you get told in the beginning really, really sticks in your head. Yes, you know, and then when things morph and change your honeymoon ends, or your kid gains 20 pounds, and all of a sudden, a half a unit, it's not enough to you know, just tank them completely. Once things change. People hold on to the rules they were given at the beginning, and then the rules and reality don't match any longer. And no one ever comes by and tells them Oh, that's fine. This stuff changes, you know, be flux.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 27:25
Excuse me, I think also that goes right along with that is it is the concept of change. And people rightly so they take the information they have been given as if it's written in stone. And this is not going to shift. Again, some explanation needs to go along with it in terms of especially kids who have very fluxing needs for many, many reasons. Not that a newly diagnosed adult doesn't initially to, but I think more so for kids, especially since their insulin doses may be microscopic. To begin with. You have fried foods for a child who's really residing on just a couple units of Basal insulin, and really doesn't seem to need coverage at all for meals yet. Yeah. Eventually, those foods that look like they're free, will need to get covered. Eventually, as their insulin needs creep up that five gram treat or snack in the afternoon, as their insulin to carb ratio becomes more aggressive, they're going to need some insulin to cover what you didn't really need to give insulin for before

Scott Benner 28:33
this other thing that happens to people where they get told to eat a certain amount of carbs at a meal. Even when they're using a fast acting meal insulin, that again, I think of his lazy, the description that was given to them because I think what's really happening is the clinician saying to them, Look your kids so small, I don't know how to break this down beyond a half a unit of insulin. So you're gonna have to eat 20 carbs. So you can give this kid a half a unit of insulin correct. But instead the takeaway from the family is he has to eat 20 carbs every time he sits down. And then they start getting into the like, Well, how do I eat 25 carbs, no one tells me that. So now if I want more than 20, I have to eat 40. And then and then kids can't do that. And because it's too much food for them. And again, if someone would have told you the reason we're doing this right now is because we just can't get the amount of insulin low enough to tell you how to Bolus for eight carbs. But don't worry, kids gonna gain weight, this is all going to change, honeymoon is going to end etc, etc. Again, I think it's the rest of the words that nobody speaks that are always what causes the problem.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 29:40
No, yeah, that's absolutely correct. Especially, you know, again, for a kiddo who's like a one unit might cover a warming meal, but they're three years old and they're not going to eat that large amount of food. Then you have to break it down a different way for them and it takes It takes individualizing the care from the start. It does.

Scott Benner 30:05
What do you think about the idea that most people newly diagnosed are going to be MDI. And that the way I heard somebody told me the other day that the podcast is about, it's for pumpers. And I thought, I don't think that's true. Like, I think that what we talked about works fine. If you're doesn't matter how your insulins getting in, like, you lose, right, can't do an extended Bolus, you know, without a pump, you can't shut your Bayes law for Jack it up without a pump, okay. But the rest of the stuff is just about putting in insulin at the right time using the right amount the right time.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 30:39
I, I wonder if some of that timing though, I can say I mean, we do refer to things like extended Bolus and Temp Basal are using, you know, the fancy features of all the other algorithm driven kind of systems that are out there. But from a timing perspective, it covers both bases, it covers MDI, and it also covers pumping. But in a sense, you have to be okay with potentially giving more injections, on MDI, in order to cover the food the way that you want, and get the sort of out, you know, the aftermath covered the way that you need it to be. So you can do that. And from the beginning, again, we've talked about this in stacking right, from the beginning, people get scared of stalking their insulin, and they need to learn from the get go that if you're going to eat little bits, as many little kids do a little here a little here a little here, you may have to figure out how to get the insulin in in the right amount to cover that little bits of nibbles along the way. Yeah.

Scott Benner 31:52
I have this thought from this person here that I don't I kind of don't see how it fits into this conversation completely. But it is really interesting to me. So I'm gonna mark it and come back to it at the end. There. Oh, yeah. Okay, hold on. We were told snacking under 15. Carbs was free, just so this person was just told anything under 15 carbs was free, not just certain foods, like you can have a cheese stick, or you can have chicken or something like,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 32:18
I wonder what their initial dose of insulin was like to his I mean, 50. And as we've the 1515, right, anything under 15 is free, but I can use 15 to treat a low blood sugar. Right? I that's confusing.

Scott Benner 32:34
Yeah. I and then you wonder if this is what they were actually told, or if this is how they remember it. And or if this is exactly what they were told. And the person telling them was, was conflicting ideas. Yeah. Not all carbs are the same. This person says, I had anxiety about food and insulin, it took weeks to really get an idea of what a balance look like for me. So I, I can't tell you, I mean, I don't have diabetes, right. But I can't imagine what it feels like to be given this medication being told, Look, you have to use it. If you don't use it, you're gonna die. And if you use too much of it, you're gonna die. And it's connected to everything you put in your mouth. I don't know how that that must freeze people. The idea that that eating disorders come out of type one diabetes frequently is very easy to see. It's not at all shocking, right? Because of that feeling, like this paralysis of analysis that you must get I hate using terms like that. But But that idea of just like, What do I do? And then everything you've been told, is scattershot. It seems, I mean, some people come away with great, you know, with great information up front, but for the most part, I don't get to talk to those people very frequently.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 33:53
Right. And I think it also speaks to the very individual nature of how you first teach somebody about their diet, you know, their diagnosis with diabetes, you can't, from my perspective, you can't approach somebody the same way as you did the person three hours ago, there is no way to do that from a newly diagnosed standpoint as well. You still have to ask enough questions that help you to individualize the care so that their lifestyle while it's going to be impacted, is a little bit more. It's a little easier to get them to understand how to do these things within what they had been doing before diagnosis from a from a comfort level and there are some personalities that certainly require some additional assistance sooner than later.

Scott Benner 34:50
Yeah, no, I mean, obviously, there are some people who just get like, I'll do it tell me what to do. I'll do it right and there's some people are like you're not changing my life. And again, Anywhere in between a we just tell them all the same thing and sent them home? Right? Is this accurate? This person says, the kids are hungry for a few weeks after diagnosis, like overly hungry.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 35:14
That's in a general sense, especially if they have lost a fair amount of weight. Because their body was essentially eating itself. That's the easiest way to explain it. You know, when the blood sugars are running so high, obviously, they are losing a lot of calories through urine excretion. And so after diagnosis now, when their body actually is able to, gosh, I can grab this food and I can pack it away, I can store it, absolutely. Kids can get very, very hungry. They're also in a stage not to say that adults or you know, those over the age of growth couldn't also be hungry again, especially if they've experienced that extreme weight loss before diagnosis. They may also their body is just telling them, Hey, we need to put this back on. You lost a lot. We have to sort of recoup what what was kind of given away, but kids are growing already. So you could expect them to be hungry,

Scott Benner 36:12
right? Even if they're just more feeling healthier, because they have insulin, and they're getting back to where they were. But I mean, Artem was down, excuse me, Arden was down a fair amount of weight, she was small, and she was ravenous for a little while as well. Somebody just says here, it would have been nice if somebody gave us the rundown about the glycemic index and glycemic load. If you go to the Pro Tip series, there's an entire episode about that. Earlier in the podcast. Jenny touched on a little bit about giving you lists of foods that impact differently. But if you I was going to say if you want to understand but you really have to understand it. So go find that episode. Understand you know how how words that seem a little weird and confusing and stuff you haven't heard before are really important glycemic index and glycemic load. While we were in the hospital, we were told not to do more than 45 carbs a meal. So she says this was clearly BS. We felt the need to go to the store and buy a ton of diabetic food. Of course, we haven't bought any of that sense. So it's just a it's just an insight Jenny into how saying something to someone incorrectly or not conversating with them to make sure they understand your intent can send people down these crazy rabbit holes. I don't know that people can afford to go to the grocery store and spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars re fitting their home only to find out later that magic spoon cereal tastes like not good. I'm sorry for those of you who like it.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 37:46
I like magic. Cereal is the one process thing and I will say it is processed I mean it there is no doubt about it. If and when I have it we do it for like a road trip or like to go camping or something because it's it's a little bit easier. And it certainly doesn't have bad impact on my blood sugar. I have tried some of the other brands out there, which I will not name. But the magic spoon is definitely one that I can I can say works like it says it's going to work glycemic ly. And many of the flavors. I won't say all of them, many of the flavors are palatable.

Scott Benner 38:24
Art we tried one said, I'm gonna have to bleep this out. Arden said where are they trying to approximate Hold on a second. I'm making myself laugh unintentionally, or were they trying to approximate what a unicorn say, almost tastes like he did not like it at all. He didn't like the garbage. But that's fine. There are a lot of people who love it. And I think that's terrific. But but the point is, is that if you say something specific to somebody, you can never have a meal again, that goes over 45 carbs. They think well, how are we going to accomplish that? Right? You know, now they're in that one aisle at the grocery store that nobody goes into?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 39:07
is unfortunate. If you go back, you know, I don't know, 15 minutes ago when we're talking about real food versus processed food, all of the all of the food that is labeled diabetes friendly or whatever they're calling it now. It is processed Yeah, there is nothing. There is nothing in it. That is there are a few pieces, I guess a few ingredients but most of it is artificial sweeteners of some kind added fibers of some kind or some nature added protein powders of some nature, right? I mean, so you're better to go home and at least just keep eating what you've been eating and maybe then asked for help cleaning it up or figuring it out or whatever. Or just go to the produce

Scott Benner 40:02
weighed real food. Yeah, what is that they put in the diabetic. I wish people could see me making the finger quotes, but diabetic case sort of a tall, right. And if you get too much of it right,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 40:14
the bathroom will again be your friend. Yeah.

Scott Benner 40:17
Because things will be flying in all directions. Don't eat too much candy. Just eat regular candy, learn how to pull it sport for God's sakes. Right? Yeah. This is interesting. This person says that they were told that anything was free under 15 carbs. On top of that they were told not to Pre-Bolus their meals. And they said that these two things together made any kind of stability in their blood sugar impossible. Absolutely. Yeah. Right. I mean, and I wish someone would have given me a comprehensive list of actual zero carb snack. So this is the I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 40:56
don't know, I don't know who would have said, I really don't that. It makes me really, really sad that there are that there are education teams out there that are giving this kind of information. Really, I am like, I have nothing. I don't really even know what to say about that. I really don't. Jennifer's mortified. Yeah, I am. I'm mortified. Honestly, from a professional level, I am mortified that somebody would have given that information.

Scott Benner 41:25
Yeah. So here's the next thing that's gonna happen. Pizza's gonna get ruined for you. You've been diagnosed with diabetes. And, and there's this thing that through 35 minutes of talking here, we have not gone over which is yes, food. One broccoli hits your blood sugar in a certain way. And yes, mashed potatoes hit in a certain way. And yes, mashed potatoes will hit differently if you put butter on it. And if your meatloaf is just meatloaf, that's one thing, if you put gravy on it, it's another thing. What happens when you eat them all at the same time, right? They're all in a mixed meal where they all live. The way I like to think about it, when I'm thinking about insulin is where they all live on their own kind of timeline of existence in your body. Like an impact timeline, the broccoli impacts with a certain amount of force over a certain amount of time, as does the butter, and the potatoes, and the beef, and the flour and the gravy and all these different things. And you just thought it was gravy and mashed potatoes. And now you're realizing, oh geez.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 42:30
I think one concept there is the the typical, the typical mixed meal of proteins, carbs, and fats, right? All the macronutrients in a portion that should be eaten. Should should have a typical absorption or digestion that goes along with the Action Timeline of our rapid acting insolence. Okay? The, the larger the portions get, or the higher in one macronutrient versus another, like, really, really large amount of the meatloaf and like a spoon of the mashed potatoes and maybe one stalk of broccoli, right? Do you see there's a there's a definite difference there. And that goes back to impact on blood sugar and what you may end up seeing happen. So portion comes into play, to not only just carb counting, but a portion of a combined mixed healthy meal. And the impact that you're going to expect to kind of see Yeah, so

Scott Benner 43:47
the idea being, we'd all be okay, if we took a handful of potato chips once in a while. Eating the entire bag of potato chips has a different impact on your body. Yeah. So alright, so back to pizza. And Pizza gets described throughout the podcast a number of different ways. But pizza is not just pizza, it's flour, and it's cheese. And it could be meat, right? Or it could be vegetables, it gets the sauce. There are all these different things on this one delivery system. When you understand how to Bolus for pizza, that will actually open your mind up about bolusing for a mixed meal too, right? Because why? Because you look at a slice of pizza and you say, well, the box tells me or the pizza place told me this is 35 carbs, you Bolus for it. The food goes in your body doesn't start breaking it down right away. So your Bolus makes you low. Then you end up drinking a juice because you get so low and then all of a sudden 45 Yeah, the pizza hits you and now you're you're just you're lost because the insulin you put in was for the pizza. You didn't cover the juice because you were alone, etc, etc. And then you learn when to Bolus for pizza, right? Like when does the insulin go in versus When's the food going to hit? How do I balance these things up? This is what you're going to learn in the Pro Tip series for certain, if you go listen. And you'll also be able to see bigger picture about other meals, you'll be able to look at a plate at a mixed meal and say, Okay, this turkeys not going to hit very hard. It's five or six carbs, maybe. But here's the stuff that is going to hit me. And you just I don't know, at some point you just learn, right, Jenny, it's not a

Jennifer Smith, CDE 45:26
you do and that it kind of in. In that example, it kind of also goes back to figure out the foods that are pretty normal for you because that that base knowledge rolls over into other meals that may not be your typical, but appear to have similar enough content that you could expect to try to use your insulin the same way around this newer meal, right. Pizza as an example. On Nacho dinner, right nachos and meat, cheese and guacamole and whatever else comes on that they are all similar monsters, if you will. A burger and fries or a cheeseburger and fries, for example. They all have a lot of mixed nutrients that are going to be similar to pizza. So if you have the most experience with pizza, and your friends are like, Well, hey, let's go out for Burger night on Friday. You know, like okay, well, it's definitely high fat, just like my pizza. Let me try the pizza strategy. Right? Let's see, right?

Scott Benner 46:35
Yeah, even even you find yourself in a place where you get a burger. And then you grab a milkshake. And you probably think ice cream sugary fast, right? More, really, it's the fat in the ice cream that's gonna kill you right later later. Yeah, a whole bunch of episodes about how to Bolus for fat and protein. And that's the next part of this really, is that this whole conversation is based around carbs, because that's people's understanding that they're given. Except protein breaks down in your system and turns into glucose. And fat slows down digestion, which changes Bolus timing. There are other things to think about not just carbs, I'm gonna roll through some people statements here just so you can hear them right. I cried about never being able to eat cake again. I know it's ridiculous. But that's what got me. And now I learned how to eat up because of the pocket. Oh, I wish people would have told me about the glycemic index again. I wish people would have told me that my kids will be starving because of the way they set this up. And that's how it's going to feel. So now the kids are running around asking for food asking for food. And the parents like I'm sorry. You can't eat for three hours or we already Bolus for something you should have told me before. And all the stuff that they get messed up when these are some of these are really sad. Oh, my first couple of weeks, I thought I needed to have three hours after dinner before giving my Lantis like Ha he. So he's eating dinner right now. And at 9pm. I was leaving for work early. And this was stressing me out. So isn't that interesting, just a misunderstanding about when somebody told them to shoot this Lantus at a certain time, they get stuck in their head as a rule. And it creates all this anxiety for this person down to like they're now making meals when they don't want to have them to. To right.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 48:23
And again, there's lack of proper information given Yeah, it's your Basal insulin might be a very defined time of the day. But dosing that at that time of day doesn't go along with your whatever rule you've been giving about the dosing of the rapid insulin Yeah, at all, that they are independent.

Scott Benner 48:44
Right? This person says I wish someone would have just told me a little bit about how to visualize portions. Ah, see what to what you just said. Because apparently prior to that they were eating, what occurred to them and not, you know, they know people don't really think about it, right? Like, we don't talk about that, like a scoop of mashed potatoes is probably Oh, no. See you.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 49:08
I mean, you do you do or did a lot of assistance for Arden. She's been growing up, you could sit down at a dinner out, and you're focused on what's coming on to her plate. But when it comes to your own plate, are you also like, oh gosh, my burger? And is it about the same? No, you just start eating.

Scott Benner 49:27
I'm saving. I'm making her live forever. And I'm killing myself with this.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 49:32
There is no care for what's on your plate in portion.

Scott Benner 49:35
Right. And so that really is the I mean, listen, that's a bigger conversation, obviously. And I don't want to just say like Americans or anybody you know, like, is that we don't think about stuff like that food is plentiful in this country. Right? You don't think about like, well, I'll just have a little bit because I want to have some more for tomorrow, right? I mean, how many times you eat something you don't finish it again. You throw it the trash, you don't think twice about it there. You feel like there's always going to be more Food. So that feeling there's something about finances and food that go together, I haven't had I don't have this all worked out yet in my head. But when you can afford it, you stop thinking about it as nutrition and you start thinking about it as a thing you need. And because you can afford it, you can eat it, if that makes sense or not

Jennifer Smith, CDE 50:24
possibly and, or if you can afford it, you can do a little bit more specialty, or you can choose to do a little bit more quality, let's call it from specialty items. Whereas if you can't necessarily afford it, or you have just a budget that you really stick with, right, then what comes into the house may be very different.

Scott Benner 50:51
And I think that thought works in two different directions. Maybe if I can afford it, I can buy better food. And I can show it right? I should because I can afford it. But also the other side of it, I can afford it, so it doesn't matter. And the personal, like, the thing I can say is that I have found myself sometimes he's like a little candy dish. And I'll sometimes take candy out of it. And I don't want it. And at first I thought like, okay, like that's a snacking function. But I also realized back when I was broke, I wouldn't have touched it. Because the candy would have been so special. It wouldn't it was, it's almost like a favorite. It's almost like, I never missed the Charlie Brown Halloween special because it only came on once. And if I missed it, it was gone. But now I could stream it anywhere I want. And so I can just grab it whenever and the food almost falls into that category. Sometimes I can afford it. And it's here. And I stopped thinking about it as nutrition. And I just sort of I think about it as a possession almost right. That makes it

Jennifer Smith, CDE 51:54
does Yeah. You know, the other day I was I was chatting with somebody and they're like, Well, what would you have done if you wouldn't have gone this route of like, nutrition and diabetes education and whatever. And I said, you know, I, I have a very big health connection. And I said, I think I probably would have gone into the realm of educating on school information, that's health specific, to start with educating from kindergarten forward, each year builds on itself with what the kids learn in terms of their health and what they put in their body and exercise and how that builds into an adult healthy level of living, right. I mean, my, my little guy the other day, we've made a stoplight thing for our pantry. It's got a red, yellow and green light on it. He made it and we put it in there. And he knows the green foods, he can have those. As long as he's hungry. He doesn't really have to ask much about them. The yellow foods he needs to ask about and the red foods are absolutely I mean, they're not even typically in there, or they're very much on the top shelf. But it's a good way to start educating on a very early level of these foods we can go to because they're really good. They serve our body these foods, they don't need as much of them. They're still good. Or we don't really need them as often. And then, you know, but if we did more of that,

Scott Benner 53:26
right? And then it would work like the chicken nuggets with my son. Yeah, eventually his palate would just desire something that was better for him. Right? Yeah. Jane, do you have a minute or do you have to go? Yeah, I've got a minute, just unroll through a couple of things here. It would have been nice if somebody would have told me the difference between a correction Bolus and an insulin to carb ratio. They didn't understand that. That one person said that they gave me a Basal Bolus doses just excuse me, they set up Basal and Bolus dosages for my kid, but never asked about their physiological activity. And the kid was a super aggressive like active person. And so the kids always falling always falling. And of course, the mom is so new to it. She never puts two and two together. Just thinks this is what diabetes is. My kids got a thing now where his blood sugar's low all the time, right? Because

Jennifer Smith, CDE 54:19
there's no explanation to why it's happening. Right? You know it Yeah,

Scott Benner 54:23
yeah. So then she comes online and learn stuff and and then puts two to two, two and two together on her own and figures it out. The last thing was, I said I was gonna go back to something.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 54:37
Oh, yes. I don't know what it was because you

Scott Benner 54:40
didn't know I haven't. wrapping my head back around that again. She was just talking about that prior to insulin. Her whole understanding of medications was in pill form. And somehow that that predominantly made her believe that every thing was super regimented, because you take the pill in the morning with food, and then you take it again at lunch with food and everything she'd ever learned about about medications was based on timing. And then she couldn't make the insulin work the same way. And it was frustrating. I don't know why I wanted to bring that up other than,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 55:23
well, I wonder if the person is an adult who was diagnosed initially with type two diabetes?

Scott Benner 55:31
No, it's for a kid, I said, the kid, the beginning of the statement is my kid was starving, because I was trying to keep a schedule.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 55:40
So they're in again, should have been better explanation in terms of timing of insulin, it really is, because it oral oral medications, or even some other injectable medications. They all have a timeline of action, from time of giving to expected time to give the next dose, right. But they are, they are not as precise in terms of what we can then control versus insulin being much more in our realm of controlling. Because we can put it in when we know that we're going to need it based on what we're putting it in for. Even if it's for food, we do it this way. If it's for correction, we do it this way. And we might even do something else along with it. Right. So I think insulin is definitely very different than pills. Yeah. And that is that's unfortunate, too. And I don't think the doctors maybe, obviously, maybe they didn't ask enough questions in terms of understanding of medication use.

Scott Benner 56:50
It made me think about people with thyroid issues. Because when you get a thyroid issue, a doctor is going to explain to you very clearly, you have to take this medication at a certain time of day, you have to take it with, you know, an empty stomach, you have to take it not with other pills, like and or you can take it with some pills, but not all of them. And here they are. Because if you don't, your body will not take up that medication correctly. And you're going to have a deficit that will come on you slowly. And you'll just sort of your your functionality falls apart. And you don't see it happening because it happens so slowly. And still, if you go through the forums and look at people who have thyroid issues, most of their problems are because they don't take their medication correctly. correctly. Yeah, right. It's all about like, you know, I don't know, like, I just take it when I think to take it no, take it at the same time every day, because it only lasts for 24 hours. That doesn't seem to matter to them. I don't understand, I take it every day, I never forget with my vitamins, and then you look at their vitamin list. And they're taking vitamins that are blocking their absorption, the absorption of the thyroid medication. If you can think about that pill correctly, you can think about insulin correctly. And because insulin is not going to work the same in every situation. And in the beginning, that seems incredibly overwhelming. But if you I can't believe I don't I just I mean this the way I mean this, if you listen to the podcast, you'll understand those different situations eventually. And not because the podcast is magical. But because you'll hear conversations and scenarios and experiences that will eventually teach your brain like the stop and go like that your son made that. Yeah, I'm gonna do this thing, because this thing is what works for me. It's not because you've beat it into your head, or you wrote it down or you, you know, you remembered it's because it happens. You just do the thing, because it's the right way to do it. And you've heard it enough times where that's how it happens.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 59:00
Well, I think the biggest thing to within many of the episodes. Actually, I'd say all of them is something to do with a variable. Right? Yeah, it is. So if you if you pay attention and learn whether it's learning from somebody else's experience and saying, Well, I have this same sort of lifestyle, maybe I could give that a try, or that sounds like it would work better. Maybe this is why it's not working for me. Right?

Scott Benner 59:29
Well, you know that you said that. I skipped over a statement from a person here who said I wish someone would have just told me that breakfast will have a different impact every day. Even if I eat exactly the same thing, and I thought I don't want to go through that because that's not really true. It feels like that. Because that's what you see. You see the I put the insulin and at this time they ate the same food and then something different happened. But you don't see how much insulin did they have over Night. Is this a moment where there is a growth spurt or there's not a growth spurt? Is my period happening? Is my period not happening have less I very active yesterday or very sedentary? All of those variables. People who ask questions like that in the beginning, they don't see that the truth is, is that the meal and the food that didn't change something else change and you don't realize it, maybe you're on a prop and you're at the end of a pump site and it's going bad. Or,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:00:27
or maybe you're on an algorithm driven pump. And because settings aren't quite navigated appropriately, the system is doing one thing, some mornings giving you a load of insulin getting you ready. And so your aftermath of breakfast looks a lot better, right versus taking away. And now you're left with, you know, this deficit of insulin and then things look the opposite of what you really wanted.

Scott Benner 1:00:47
Yes, there are so many variables, yes. And the only way to learn them is to live through them. And to not put yourself in that exact mind set of that question, which is why I didn't ask that question out loud. Because I don't want people to think that I don't want them to think that diabetes just magically happens to them. Because,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:01:08
yes, there's nothing magical about right.

Scott Benner 1:01:12
It's all pretty, it all happens for a reason. The reasons are hard to see. And again, you keep listening to people's conversations and they say something and finally, like it pops in your head, you go oh my god, and then you relate it to something in your own life. And before you know it. That's another thing you've got in your tool belt that you don't have to wonder about ever again because it's just there when you reach for it. So anyway, I thought this is a great conversation. I appreciate you. Absolutely. Thank you. A huge thanks to you all for listening and to Jenny for coming on the show. I'd also like to thank in pen from Medtronic diabetes and remind you to go to ink pen today.com Us med.com forward slash juice box or 888-721-1514 Get your free benefits check today. Don't forget the Contour Next One blood glucose meter is available at contour next one.com forward slash juice box to get the glucagon that my daughter carries go to G vote glucagon.com forward slash juice box Omni pod five. Are you interested where the Omni pod dash doesn't matter which one you want? You get them@omnipod.com forward slash juice box and get the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor@dexcom.com forward slash juice box. I appreciate you guys putting up with all that today. I want to remind you that there are more bold beginnings episodes in your audio app. And they're also available at juicebox podcast.com diabetes pro tip.com. And at the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes. The bold beginnings episodes begin at episode 698 Defining bold beginnings. Then at 702. honeymooning 706 adult diagnosis 711 terminology Part One 712 terminology part two, Episode 715 is fear of insulin 719 The 1515 rule 723 long acting insulin 727 target range 731 food choices 735 Pre-Bolus And today's episode, carbs. There are more coming, check them out. There'll be there in your audio apps on Friday for subscribers. They just pop up if you're a subscriber, a subscriber or a follower, by the way, in whatever app you're listening in. It'll just magically be there. So subscribe and follow, follow and subscribe. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

Test your knowledge of episode 739

1. Why is continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) important for diabetes management?

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

2. What is the purpose of different types of insulin?

• They are used interchangeably
• All insulins have the same role
• Rapid-acting insulin covers meals; long-acting insulin manages blood sugar throughout the day
• Long-acting insulin is used for corrections; rapid-acting insulin is used for fasting

3. How should insulin doses be adjusted?

• Based on fixed schedules
• According to blood sugar trends
• By avoiding all physical activities
• Without any changes

4. What impact does physical activity have on blood sugar levels?

• It has no impact
• It can cause blood sugar levels to rise or fall
• It should be avoided
• It only affects type 2 diabetes

5. How can stress and illness affect blood sugar levels?

• They have no impact
• They can increase or decrease blood sugar levels
• They only affect type 2 diabetes
• They should be ignored

6. What role does diet and nutrition play in diabetes management?

• They play a critical role in managing blood sugar levels
• They should be avoided
• They have no impact
• They are only relevant for type 2 diabetes

7. Why is having a supportive network important for diabetes management?

• To avoid physical activities
• To manage the emotional and practical aspects of diabetes
• To ensure proper carb counting
• To reduce the need for insulin

8. How can staying updated on the latest advancements in diabetes care help?

• It can improve management strategies
• It has no impact
• It is only relevant to healthcare providers
• It can lead to more complications

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Please support the sponsors

The Juicebox Podcast is a free show, but if you'd like to support the podcast directly, you can make a gift here. Recent donations were used to pay for podcast hosting fees. Thank you to all who have sent 5, 10 and 20 dollars!

Donate

Omnipod 5 Pro Tip Series - #736, 737 & 738

The Omnipod® 5 Automated Insulin Delivery System Pro Tip Series on the Juicebox Podcast is hosted by Scott Benner, with guest Cari Berget, RN, MPH, CDCES. In these episodes, Scott and Cari talk all things Omnipod 5 to answer your questions and help you get the most out of your Omnipod 5 experience!

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

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Omnipod 5 Pro Tip: Overview

All of your questions about SmartAdjust™ technology answered, including how to prepare for training, what to expect with your first few Pods, and tips for ongoing success.

Omnipod 5 Pro Tip: Settings

A review of the Omnipod 5 System settings to help you understand what each means and how they affect your insulin delivery.

Omnipod 5 Pro Tip: Connectivity

All about the Omnipod 5 System’s integration with the Dexcom G6 Continuous Glucose Monitor and how you can maximize time spent in Automated Mode.

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Please support the sponsors

Insulet has paid the host of this podcast, Scott Benner, and his guest, Cari Berget, a fee to create this content. Cari is an Omnipod® Ambassador with an ongoing commercial relationship with Insulet.

This podcast provides general information and discussions about health and related subjects. This information and other content provided in this podcast, or in any linked materials, are not intended and should not be construed as medical advice, nor is the information a substitute for professional medical expertise or treatment. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something that you have heard in this podcast or read in any linked materials. The opinions and views expressed on this podcast and website have no relation to those of any academic, hospital, health practice or other institution.

 Please speak with your Healthcare team if you or any other person has a medical concern and before making any changes to your diabetes management and consult the Omnipod® 5 Automated Insulin Delivery System User Guide for more information.

The Juicebox Podcast is a free show, but if you'd like to support the podcast directly, you can make a gift here. Recent donations were used to pay for podcast hosting fees. Thank you to all who have sent 5, 10 and 20 dollars!

Donate