#803 The Conversation Reveals All

Julia's child was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age two. This one goes in a number of directions. 

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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 803 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast, we'll be speaking with Julia. Julia is the mother of a young child with type one diabetes who is diagnosed just before their second birthday. And this conversation covers so much I can't even listed here. While you're listening today, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. And 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 take a moment to go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. And take the T one D exchange survey. It's completely HIPAA compliant, absolutely anonymous, all you have to do is just join the registry take the survey takes less than 10 minutes. And once you've done that, you've helped people living with type one diabetes, and moved type one diabetes research forward right from your sofa. That's pretty great. You can do a lot without leaving your house in less than 10 minutes at T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. Alright, thank you very much for listening to that part. Now let's go to the next part. And welcome to the next part. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor. And you may be eligible for a free 10 day trial of the Dexcom. Gs six, find out more about it@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com. You want to know who else the podcast is sponsored by? Well, I'm gonna tell you, it's sponsored by Omni pod. And they make the Omni pod five, which is an automated insulin delivery system. And they make the Omni pod dash, which is an amazing tubeless wireless system. Just like the only pod five is there both tubeless and wireless. On the pod five automated dash not automated, you decide which one's right for you. And you may just be eligible for a free 30 day trial of the Omni pod dash. How do you find this out? I'm glad you asked. Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox you introduce yourself anyway you want to be known, which just really means you don't need to usual ask them. You know, if we talk about people in your life, you're free to speak about them, you know by their name, or not? Whatever works for you. Just please don't say like Uncle Billy 53 times and then at the end say Oh, I probably shouldn't have mentioned Billy's name, you know like this? Yep. Yep. Then I'll just bang my head against the desk while I'm editing out uncle Billy's for you. So that's pretty much it. So when you're ready, go ahead.

Julia 3:04
Okay. My name is Julia. I am a mom of a diabetic toddler. She's three years old and was diagnosed just before the age of two.

Scott Benner 3:18
Julie, I don't want to go off track immediately. But are you giving me your gas station voice right now? We would maybe

Julia 3:25
I have a pretty good receptionist voice from work. So I mean, I'm not a receptionist. But you know, you kind of get that voice when you answer the phone.

Scott Benner 3:34
Is that what you call it? We call it a gas station voice here. I've said on the podcast before because my wife is never as kind as she is to the person who's pumping her gas. So yeah,

Julia 3:43
yeah. That's a customer service voice. And yeah,

Scott Benner 3:47
that window goes down on my website. Oh, hello. Like, who are you? Where's this wonderful person coming from?

Julia 3:54
I'll get better when I'm not like presenting my name because I could Saffold presentation vibe. And that's a whole different voice.

Scott Benner 4:01
It was this is all staying in the podcast. So you know, I just we spoke for a couple of minutes before we started and I thought that's not what her voice sounds like. It's funny. Anyway, so Okay, so you're the one I pay attention to my job here. You're the mom of a child with type one. You say a toddler? Yeah, yeah, she's three, three. How old was she when she was diagnosed?

Julia 4:24
It was 10 days before she turned to

Scott Benner 4:27
beat me by a couple of weeks there.

Julia 4:30
Yeah. That actually was one of the things that was a big draw for me with the podcast is like when you have a two year old to his diagnosis. It's like, well, what the heck is their life gonna be like, and that was a huge comfort, like, just knowing like, Hey, your kid's a teenager and she's doing great and I'm glad. That was like really the first big thing that struck me about the podcast.

Scott Benner 4:53
I would tell her so that she knew but then she'd look at me and go or those who are your people, not mine, or something. I don't know what she would say. She's just actually she's morphing as she gets older where she's like, that's nice. She said to me the other day, I gave her a message from somebody and she said, that's nice. Thank you. And then she walked away. I was like, oh, oh, she's becoming pleasant. Someone softening what's happening? So, okay, so two years old, your daughter, any other kids? No,

Julia 5:23
she's my first.

Scott Benner 5:24
Okay. Any sensor?

Julia 5:26
No. We haven't got the courage.

Scott Benner 5:30
Yeah, I 100% know what you mean by that? How about autoimmune or diabetes? Anything like that in your family line, husband side? Or if you're?

Julia 5:41
So yes and no. So we have diabetes in our family on my side, mostly type two. But I have a grandpa and an uncle who are both on insulin as type twos. And you know how that goes. Like? They could have just never been tested for type one. You know, they're on insulin. I don't know.

Scott Benner 6:04
Well, yeah, that could be insulin dependent type twos as well. But were they for a long, long time using insulin? Is that what you're saying?

Julia 6:10
Yeah, I think they've been on it for a long time. And like my one uncle, he's pretty thin, he doesn't fit the type two characteristics, you know what I mean? So just the idea that, you know, he's type one, or type two on insulin, you know, it's just kinda a little fishy. But, you know, we're not that close that I've ever really dug into it. Like, are you sure you're tight to

Scott Benner 6:33
now that you're speaking more you live near a large lake in the north part of the country? Is that correct? The Midwest? Yeah. How could a person lived their whole life thinking they had type two diabetes and only have an have type one and no one say anything?

Julia 6:51
I, you know, I don't know. But you know, you hear more now that I'm more involved in the diabetes community, you hear more and more of that, how it kind of goes on for a while, and they're like, well, we'll start using insulin because, you know,

Scott Benner 7:03
does he do well working out? Does he do well? Or does he struggle?

Julia 7:08
A lot of lows? Lows? Dangerous lows?

Scott Benner 7:14
Well, I'll tell you what, I might bet that he's type two, just based on what you said. I don't know. I don't know why. Just, I get a vibe. That's all. That's what the podcast is down to now, Julia, I just gonna sit here. And when people speak, and they stop, I'm gonna go, I get a vibe that That's right. I don't know how long it'll be interesting. But that's interesting.

Julia 7:35
Yeah. And then other than that, I mean, my husband's sister has, what I'm told is auto immune asthma. But I don't know how they know if it's regular asthma or autoimmune asthma, if that was ever tested. And then my mom has a little bit of autoimmune stuff, too. So there's auto immune in the family. And then I had gestational diabetes, which I hear there might be a link to that, too. I don't know. So I mean, there's little bit of links there. Like I'm semi familiar with diabetes, but not really type one. And yeah,

Scott Benner 8:08
okay. Well, interesting. Thank you for setting the table for us, and letting us know what's going on. So when your daughter is diagnosed it to her it's only a year or so ago? Was that right? Yeah, almost a year and a half year and a half? Do they start you off with? I mean, now that you hear other people's stories, what did you have one of the good experiences where they're like, Hey, here's a CGM and pens or a pumper, they like take these needles and go suffer until six months has passed by what did they? What did they?

Julia 8:41
I mean, it was kind of kind of a typical experience in terms of what you would expect, we got syringes, I don't know why, but I have no idea how to use a pen. So we started out with syringes and stuck with them, which worked out because she ended up going to diluted insulin where we would have had to do syringes anyway. And they didn't start her with a Dexcom at the hospital because she wasn't quite to yet. And they said the approval process with insurance will go faster if we just run the paperwork when she turns to. So we were without a Dexcom for a couple of weeks. But that wasn't you know, a huge deal, because our honeymoon hadn't started yet. And we didn't know what she was doing. We were doing so she was high all the time anyway, you know, but it was a lot of that don't die advice. Like we didn't get the good advice right off the bat. So, you know, what did you maintain carbon uncovered snacks type of stuff.

Scott Benner 9:34
Yeah. So real quick, though. What did you mean, the honeymoon hadn't started? Did she have a honeymoon?

Julia 9:40
Oh, yeah. So that's actually why I reached out. I kind of wanted to talk more about that because she has had one heck of a honeymoon. She went off of insulin for a while. She went back on it and it's been kind of spotty since then, and we've just had a lot of honeymoon type experiences and I thought,

Scott Benner 9:59
you know what's interesting now?

Julia 10:01
Yeah, and especially since she's so small, like her insulin needs are low anyway, like, she's just kind of a really interesting case to talk about.

Scott Benner 10:08
So at two years old, how much insulin was she getting a day?

Julia 10:14
She was getting about a unit, right after diagnosis.

Scott Benner 10:20
And would you give it to her as basil, and nothing else? Or were you giving meal insulin.

Julia 10:26
So we started out with, you know, a couple of units of Lantis. And very quickly started to take that down, and she went to a half unit for a while, and she was getting meal insulin, but it was really tricky, because, you know, her carb ratio towards the beginning, you know, kind of landed at like one to 30. And so if she didn't eat enough, we couldn't give her insulin, and they had us dosing afterwards. And it was just, it was a mess. So it was one of those like, Okay, kids, like at one point, like, they said, Oh, she has to eat this much. This many carbs to get any insulin. So I made her like a giant bowl of mashed potatoes. And she didn't finish it. You know what I mean? Like, okay, you're one finish this so I can give you a

Scott Benner 11:11
way, because no one wants a giant bowl of mashed potatoes. Is that right? Yeah. And

Julia 11:15
I mean, I like sprinkled ground beef on top and put some tiny little shreds of broccoli on there. So it seems balanced. But I'm like, you're pretty much gonna have to eat a bunch of mashed potatoes for this to get done.

Scott Benner 11:26
You're from the Midwest, you're like, potatoes, we'll put some beef on the top of it. And let's kill something in the backyard. We'll throw that on there, too. And you're gonna love this. It's, listen, first of all, that sucks. Because, you know, because I'm assuming what happened was somebody said to you, that this many carbs is the least amount that you need to cover this amount of insulin, which is probably the smallest amount of insulin you can give her. Yeah. Okay. And if you tried to cheat when she got low,

Julia 11:56
um, yeah. So, as her honeymoon started, it was kind of nuts. Because, you know, we were, you know, dramatically reducing our doses and whatnot. And she was just, we had her on like a half unit of Lantis. And there was one day, I sent her to school, like I was going to, you know, try and get her to get this big breakfast out. And I thought, Oh, she didn't finish it. So I can't give her the insulin. And so I sent her to school. daycare, it's a nursery school, actually. But um, I laid it out for the insulin for breakfast.

Scott Benner 12:32
I didn't think she was like a prodigy. I didn't think she was 10th grade or something. Like,

Julia 12:38
she might be a whole different thing. But so I sent her to daycare and like, alright, well, she's gonna be high. Like, I don't know what to do. And so she but she spiked to 180. And she's just like, she felt did a fall rate alert down. And she was just like crashing and I'm like, Okay, well, if she didn't have insulin, for this amount of food, and she just has her Basal on board. That was like, finally enough to explain to her like endo team. Hey, this insulin is way too much for this child. Like, because I talked to them before about, you know, I think Lantus is too much for them. Like what? And they're like, no, no, you can't take her off the Lantis. She'll go into TK. Like, like, I

Scott Benner 13:24
think this kids making her own insulin here. So yeah. And

Julia 13:27
like that was finally enough to for them to say, oh, yeah, we have to take her off of insulin. Because if that was just that the Lantis Yeah. So she went off of insulin for like two months after that. And it was amazing. And I feel like we should have took more advantage of it. But

Scott Benner 13:44
more advantage of it by like, going out to dinner and things like that.

Julia 13:48
Yeah, that kind of stuff. And you know, actually maybe getting a babysitter, you know, because you don't have to worry so much.

Scott Benner 13:54
Like, I should have gone out, Scott. That's what I'm saying. I should have.

Julia 13:59
I should have exactly. But like I had a newly diagnosed diabetic child, like I wasn't going anywhere.

Scott Benner 14:05
That's very interesting. And that's a lot of insight to just I should have just taken some free time when it was there. So two to four months without insulin at all. Yeah. And was she wearing the CGM still? Yep. Okay. And what did you see?

Julia 14:22
So it was kind of fascinating. So she would, you know, spike up at meals, she would get, you know, maybe 180 At the high end, and we weren't eating very high carb, but we're not a high carb family. Anyway, my husband does keto. You know, since I had gestational diabetes. I don't eat a ton of carbs anyway, so you know, she was eating pretty balanced meals. But she wouldn't get that high. And then actually, the interesting thing is before meals if she was starting to get hangry her blood sugar would crash to like 55 When I was getting food ready.

Scott Benner 14:54
Yeah, so it was taking notes taking no manmade insulin but wearing a CGM. So You could see her blood sugar getting low as with the meal approach, so she knew dinner was being made.

Julia 15:06
Yeah, something I mean, I don't know. But she was angry about it. Like, she was like, give me my damn food. You know,

Scott Benner 15:13
Jenny told me one time that the body in a, in a person who doesn't have diabetes, as it is, as it anticipates I got I hope I'm remembering this right that you're going to eat that it starts to lower your blood sugar a little bit,

Julia 15:26
huh, like even think it would lower it to 55. But yeah,

Scott Benner 15:30
definitely wouldn't think that. But I also know people who get low blood sugars. And, you know, I mean, that's some sort of dysregulation of their insulin, you know, people who don't have diabetes. I mean, who get let's just say unpleasant when they're hungry. You know? How's that? Is that a nice way of saying? People? Yeah, nasty. Like, I'll tell you that for years is a standing rule in this house. My son does not like to have food in his stomach when he's playing baseball. So when the baseball game ends, you don't really talk to Cole until Cole eats? Like, Oh, yeah. He's singularly focused. Sort of like a lion. You know what I mean? Like, I he needs to eat when he's done. Sure. Yeah. Interesting. Okay, so scary, comforting, sad. What's it feel like when someone tells you that your kid needs insulin? She has type one diabetes, and then all of a sudden it goes away for an extended amount of time? Did every day just feel like this is probably the last day or were you happy about it? I'm trying.

Julia 16:35
So I was really relieved that she was going off of insulin. But honestly, it took her endo some talking me into it because her nurses had me so scared about going off of the Lantus, you know, right, exactly. And it's like, okay, that's a valid point. Except if you realize, like that I'm giving my kid to juice boxes overnight to keep her numbers, you know, between 80 and 110. You know, and I'm basically spending my entire night juicing my kid, like, there's something wrong here. Like, she doesn't need that. So once I mean, the doctor, and I really talked about it, I felt okay. And then it was a huge relief, because, like, even at daycare, when she would like have breakfast, and you know, she would be dosed right after breakfast there. And she would go outside and play. Like, she would just be fall rate alert the entire time. And she dropped by like 40. And when reading, and it was terrifying. Yeah. So I mean, it was it was a massive relief to be going off with insulin.

Scott Benner 17:36
Yeah. Or at least for things to regulate a little bit, right. Like just to like, I mean, now that she's back, she's back on insulin now. Is that right?

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Julia 21:59
Yeah, yeah, she was only off for a couple of months. And it didn't take long after she was awesome. fast acting to go or after she needed her fast acting again for her to need Lantis again, too. So she kind of pretty quickly over the course of a couple of weeks went fully back on insulin.

Scott Benner 22:22
How much does she weigh when you were found yourself up at night feeding basil? She was about 30 pounds. 30. Wow. Okay, that's not nearly as small. I mean, that's don't get me wrong. That's very small. But it's not as small as I was imagining. So no, no

Julia 22:36
mid class babies are bigger babies when

Scott Benner 22:39
you're sprinkling ground beef on top of your roots. You have to you have to expect Midwest babies are big babies, are they? Do you ever see a baby that's a little smaller and think, oh, there's something wrong with it. They don't give it ground beef.

Julia 22:55
So I guess so this was something my OB told me is that, you know, the national average Baby's like something like 6.5 to 7.5 pounds or something. But the average baby in our area is more like eight plus pounds.

Scott Benner 23:09
Do you think that's because of the deep fried Oreo cookies at the fair? Or?

Julia 23:14
I mean, maybe we do eat a lot of cheese curds.

Scott Benner 23:19
Do you listen to this podcast with any frequency? Yeah, yeah, a lot of them. Yeah. Okay. I was wondering if I've ever told anybody about the time my sister in law came from Wisconsin at the holidays and brought what she called caramel corn. Except I do think I told this except it wasn't popcorn covered. And Carmel. It was like those. I don't even know how to explain them. Is it popcorn? Yeah. Yeah, like and it was just it was this. I don't even know how to put it like in your in your potato chip aisle. There are these things that they call like popcorn, but they're they're really more like styrofoam peanuts, if I'm being honest, right, like inconsistency. And she had somehow soaked those in a sugar substance and then put caramel overtop of them. And when one went into your mouth, your teeth hurt. And my brain felt like it was going to explode. And she's like, Oh, I make this with my mom at the holidays. Like it was a tradition for her. And I pulled my brother aside. I was like, Yo, man, she's trying to kill you.

Julia 24:24
I was like, grandma makes us two. They're they're good. But yeah, a lot of sugar.

Scott Benner 24:29
Like, I don't think that's food Brian, don't eat that. So anyway, yeah, that was something I'd never seen in my entire life. You know? Wow.

Julia 24:39
Even just your description of popcorn is kind of

Scott Benner 24:42
just like packing your packing peanuts. That's what they seem like to me.

Julia 24:46
Yeah, no, that's that's accurate.

Scott Benner 24:49
So I'm saying you shouldn't be able to describe food as packing. Yeah, that's valid. Also in a world of Amazon. Do people even know what packing peanuts are anymore? You know what I mean? Now everybody just gets a little like air pocket or something in their bag. I don't know. Now. It's been a while. Yeah. And now we're getting into shipping. And I think we that's too far off the topic. So well, did you? When did you have to start diluting insulin?

Julia 25:17
So we had started that right before she went off of insulin. Because they tried that first and apparently, like we go to a good size clinic, but she's like one of two patients that they've had that had diluted insulin. So I thought that was kind of interesting. But yeah, she started that right before and that was you, 10. And we just, they did it straight at the pharmacy. So they did the mail order pharmacy thing for us and just shipped it to us. So we didn't actually deluded ourselves. I hear some people do,

Scott Benner 25:50
like, Dr. Frankenstein, they're just working at their kitchen table, but you got it. Okay, so how does that? How does that work? So I am so I am so scared to talk about this. Because every time I see diluted insolent spoken about people, either there are two forms of understanding about how it works, and nobody's ever certain. So do you know what I mean by that? Like one unit equals? Oh,

Julia 26:19
yeah. So you 10 Is 10% the strength of you? 100. So it's like 10 parts. Insulin is what the like, compound is, it's, you know, 10 parts, insulin, 90 parts, the compounding, whatever it is

Scott Benner 26:37
that you're that. So So basically, you're diluting the insulin, so that it's measurable. Because it's because it's difficult to measure insulin, right? So when a tiny, tiny amount, so you can draw a unit, and you are really getting a 10th of a unit of strength, but a unit worth of liquid.

Julia 26:58
Exactly. Okay. Yeah. So that's really nice. Because you know, if you don't have a pump, you can do you know, half unit so you can get a point five increment. So like, if we were bumping and nudging her we do a lot of point oh, five units for

Scott Benner 27:12
her. So so if you needed if you need her ready, here we go. If you needed point, oh five for her. How much actual diluted insulin like how much? At half unit? A half a unit of liquid was actually point oh, five of insulin. Okay. So a full unit is, of course, one to 10. So you get point one. So if you needed if you needed a real unit of insulin, and you were using diluted, you actually had to use 10 units of liquid? Yes. Okay. Did that I'm assuming never happened with her at that size, right.

Julia 27:48
So there was a point when she needed about, like, if she was sick or something, I would give her eight unit. So it'd be like point eight, and diluted insulin has to be refrigerated. So we're injecting eight units of cold insulin. So that would really hurt. So that was really unfortunate. And that was actually the reason why, like as her insulin needs went up, we started to push to get a pump, because like we needed to do something different. Because, you know, she doesn't mind the pokes. But poking with larger amounts of cold insulin, that hurts.

Scott Benner 28:23
Yeah, the big Bolus isn't that it's cold on top of that. Yeah. So this is the moment where if you're listening and you don't understand you should say to yourself, my fifth grade teacher let me down. Because I see these icy these conversations. They happen about twice a year in the Facebook group where someone wants to talk about deluded insulin. And people get so confused. I mean it and the conversations happen exactly the same way. I've watched them a half a dozen times in my life. That starts with someone saying, oh, you know, we're using we were using you 100, which is like basically like your standard strength insulin, right? Like one, one to one. But now we're using diluted. So when my kid needs a half a unit, I actually inject this much and unit and unit. It just fries people's minds. And then when they try to explain it, it goes off the rails. Just it's masterful, how bad it gets, the conversations just devolve, and then somebody thinks you're going to hurt somebody, and then the panic sets in. Every time every time Julia,

Julia 29:35
you know, and it's always kind of a confusing thing when we update her charts at her endo appointments because they always log it in you 100 So I'm sitting here like, Okay, how do you want me to tell you this? And it's like, okay, she's having a one to five ratio. So it's one to 50 on your charts, you know? And it just makes for a confusing conversation. Yeah, yes. It's ridiculous.

Scott Benner 29:57
It's the interesting thing is that you don't Think of. Most people don't think of insulin as being in volume measured in volume, although a unit is a volume of measurement, right volume is how we measure liquids. We think of a unit as power for some reason, because we, you know, oh, sure, right, one unit per 10 carbs that its power, it's, you know, I ate 10 carbs, I need a unit of power from this insulin. And so when you start talking about it in volume, but in the same breath, thinking about it also empower, which is, you know, if you're using, what would you say you 10? Yeah, so you're getting point one per unit. So for volume, you're getting a unit of liquid. But for power, you're getting point one or a 10th of that. And that is just when it goes off the rails in conversation for some people.

Julia 30:50
Well, and the other thing is, is they tell you with deluded insulin to roll the vial a few times before each time to make sure that it's properly mixed. So you don't know 100%, that you're getting that perfect dilution either, with each draw,

Scott Benner 31:06
still a little bit of a crapshoot a little bit.

Julia 31:09
But you know, we never really saw issues from the inconsistency. So I don't know if the rolling it was just like an old school precaution. You know, I don't know if it actually becomes like a homogenous mixture or not.

Scott Benner 31:23
Well, it's, it's weird. How long did you do it for?

Julia 31:28
Well, she still actually gets the diluted insulin, like as a backup for her pods, because we can't give her that big of doses generally. Anyway, still. But we did diluted insulin for a year. Well, almost a year.

Scott Benner 31:44
Let's talk about that for a second at her at her current age. What does she weigh now?

Julia 31:49
She's nearing 40 pounds, she's maybe 3940 ish.

Scott Benner 31:54
So do you think she's still honeymooning to some degree?

Julia 31:57
At you know, I'm kind of back and forth on that. It's hard to say because her Basal rates some days goes down 2.05 an hour. But when she first started on our pump, she was at point o five every other hour.

Scott Benner 32:12
What proper using Omnipod? Are you gonna try on the pod five?

Julia 32:17
Yes, but I'm a little hesitant if she's ready for it yet, because her Basal needs are so low, that I worry about those algorithm pumps, you know, being able to give more but not being able to take enough away?

Scott Benner 32:31
Well, it could it could. Alright, so I don't know for sure. I mean, the loop can take you down to zero. So I wouldn't

Julia 32:38
I think Omnipod five, probably can because dash could?

Scott Benner 32:41
I would think so. Yeah, I don't think that would be your concern. I mean, as a matter of fact, I, I can't say for 100% certainty. But as I sit here and apply my common sense to it, there's no way that any of these algorithms can't completely shut off insulin, they have to be able to do that.

Julia 32:57
Well, right. They can but okay, if you're getting point oh, five an hour. Like sometimes it might be 55 minutes before you're taking away that point. Oh, five.

Scott Benner 33:07
I see what you're saying. But well, because once an hour with the algorithm be able to see that far into the future to know that I think it would be able to interesting, I think

Julia 33:16
it depends on how fast of a drop, but I mean, at a certain point, you're doing juice anyway. I don't know. It's

Scott Benner 33:21
the she's still fall very quickly.

Julia 33:24
She's getting to be much more stable. I mean, she's not super stable, like she's usually kind of drifting down most of the time. But it's not like rapid crazy drops, usually unless I was getting a little law. heavy handed,

Scott Benner 33:41
right? You know, the entire time you're talking. I feel like we're in the movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and we're at the bus station, and I'm eating John Candy for the first time.

Julia 33:50
Is it my accent? Yes, Your

Scott Benner 33:51
accent is terrific.

Julia 33:52
A lot of people say I sound Canadian. If I ever go to the East Coast, everyone, you know, accuses me of that. Which is funny, because I've had people around here ask if I was from the East Coast, but my dad was in the military. So when I was learning to talk, I lived in Virginia. So every once in a blue moon, you'll catch a little bit of twitching or something going on. Yeah, but

Scott Benner 34:14
it's blended. Actually. Anyone who would say Canada is not a connoisseur of people's accents. There's no sure I don't get Canada. I get Chicago more towards Wisconsin is what I get.

Julia 34:27
You are right in there. Okay. Uh huh.

Scott Benner 34:30
I love this podcast I get to do I get to do so many fun things that I don't think anyone else thinks is fun. But me, but I love listening. I can hear I don't know. I just feel like we're in the bus station. I'm I'm the mom from home alone. And, or something. I don't know what's going on. Exactly. I have a lot of pictures in my head right now. But I'm having a good time. So can I ask When insulin needs are this specific and dangerous? I mean, honestly, if you use too much ate? Yeah. Is it just you who takes care of it? Or, I mean, you haven't said you're married though, right?

Julia 35:06
I am. So my husband, he does like short spurts of taking care of her. Like if I need to run to the store or something like he can keep her stable and safe. But in terms of like giving her insulin, he usually like checks with me first. And you know, checks like carbs and whatever else. But like at daycare, it's kind of a weird situation. So when we started back to daycare, because she had already been going there, she, they weren't going to be trained on doing the insulin injections. But then they discovered how sensitive she was. And they thought it would this is a giant liability for us. And like, nobody was comfortable with giving her insulin, which, you know, in hindsight, I completely understand but at that point, I'm like, okay, you know, Ada guys, you know, like, you have to accommodate my baby. Um, but and, you know, like, the, the owners, the husband is diabetic, too. He's type one. So, like, they have all the compassion in the world for type ones. But, you know, that whole idea of, oh, we might kill this kid, you know, was pretty real. So I started doing it myself, like, so she would have uncovered snacks morning and afternoon, and I would dose her on lunch. But it was a lot easier because we live like four blocks away from the daycare. And I was working from home because of COVID. So it was really convenient. Like, I could be there really fast. So I mean, I handle pretty much all of her insulin needs for the most part, but then other people are trained on like the safety aspects of okay, if she needs a finger prick. But daycares thing is they also get really busy, like, you know, it's two teachers, 12 kids, and there's a lot going on. So most of the time, if she's starting to go low, you know, they kind of bump and nudge her a little bit like looking for, you know, like one tiny little cookie like an animal cracker size thing to keep her from going low. But if she's looking like she's actually going to go low, I go over there.

Scott Benner 37:12
Okay. How old are you Julia?

Julia 37:14
I am 34.

Scott Benner 37:17
Okay, because it's your story. I mean, you could be anywhere from, you know what I mean? Your early 20s, like your first kid to, you know, to older but your voice because of the Midwest thing. Like if you told me you were 53 I'd be like, Okay, I believe you. So I knew I knew you weren't sound I couldn't I couldn't nail it down. So I'm like, I'm like, I gotta ask. So

Julia 37:39
you're gonna make me a little self conscious here? No, we, we kind of got started late with having kids. Because I we had some fertility issues. And then, yeah, so it took us a while to have her and then, you know, she ended up having a lot of issues.

Scott Benner 37:54
Yeah, no, no, I completely understand. It's not. And by the way, I don't mean like, you sound like my grandmother. That's a relief. Just saying that. Like, there's something about this specific accent, it stops you from dating somebody as well, like, you don't even like, I don't know, how am I going to put this like, there are blonde girls in New Jersey, there were 27. And I can tell they're 27 When they speak three words. But you're like you have like a more mature cadence? Is that what I mean? I think so.

Julia 38:21
Well, yeah. So there's that. I mean, I'm an older Mom, I'm also an architect. And, you know, so there's a lot of, you know, professional stuff going on. And yeah, just

Scott Benner 38:32
like get a more measured experience. You guys, you guys one day, I'm going to I'll record one of my like, like a business meeting I have with an advertiser or something like that. And, and you'll be stunned that I'm not any different in like, my professional life than I am when I'm making this podcast. As a matter of fact, when when companies reach out, one of the first things I say to them, like us met as a sponsor now, and I'm on a phone call early on when they're interested in being advertisers. And I said, Look, just you need to know right now. This is me, I have no ability not to be the person you're talking to right now. So if you need somebody to like, shine this up for a meeting, or, like, just we should probably skip it, because I can't I can't do that. I was like, I am only this person. So I have no like, professional veil that I can throw over myself. My wife is always like, telling me you would get fired at my job in like three minutes and I'm like, No, I wouldn't. They would love me and she's like, you would get fired.

Julia 39:38
You know, I wonder if how much of that is the nature of your job not being in like a corporate environment, too.

Scott Benner 39:44
I also I just don't care. But I think that's part of it. Like you're an interesting story would be by the time this comes out if Yeah, okay. Especially if you just don't say this out loud. We'll be okay. Is going to be a sponsor of the podcast pretty soon, a couple of weeks. Nice and And I had to get on its own. And they're they're very, like it's a very professional company. You don't I mean, like they're just it's a it's a professional setup when you're when you're dealing with people and I had to get onto a call with like four or five people. And I was getting a little pep talk from a friend of mine who used to work at EPA doesn't work there anymore. And I was I was just chatting back and forth with her and I was like, I, you know, I've got this meeting coming up, it seems like a real adult meeting. And she goes, Don't curse. And I'm like, I'm like, I won't. She goes, No, Scott, you will. And I was like, why don't you just you curse in every meeting I've ever been in with you. And she's like, it's delightful. And nobody cares. She's like, but they're new. And this isn't the setting. And I was like, Okay, so like an hour later, I get a text from my friend. She goes, How did it go? I said, oh, a wink rate. They're gonna buy ads. I only said twice. Oh, my. She's like, how did that happen? I was like, I don't know it. Just the word really fit the situation.

Julia 41:06
You're just you're you're building rapport, Scott.

Scott Benner 41:10
I know. But I do it right on the razor's edge, like even my wife's like, Could you start with like shit or something? First? I'm like, No, I was like, it's not important. Anyway, it's, it goes back to. I think when I was like, 20 years old, I was sitting in a diner with my friends. Like it two o'clock in the morning, we're having one of those like, you know, conversations we thought were existential for our, like, 20s. And I just came off and said, like, I think you can say anything to anyone. If you say it correctly. And they were like, No, that's not right. And one kid, like put $20 on the table, and then said the most like, a pourraient word he could think of and he said, work that word into a conversation with the waitress without her getting upset. And I'll give you $20. And it didn't go well. Julie, I'm not really poorly, I did not think it through as nearly I thought my delightfulness would buoy the situation. But that wasn't quite enough. And it's the hold. It's funny back, I said, Give me two more chances. It was like, give me the best out of three. And I did work it out. Eventually, we actually, on the third try at a different restaurant, you know, at a different time. I found a way to slip a word and that just shouldn't be in polite conversation. And, and the person rolled with it. And it wasn't just because I know people are like, well, they're waitresses, they smile at everything. They don't want you to be upset. They're trying to get tips. Trust me, it worked. And, and since then, I like to say that I could tell you that your dog died. And that I killed it. And when it was over, you would thank me like that. Like I'm good at that. Like that. Like and it's not a thing you do. It's just the way of being I guess. So. Anyway, yeah, I said twice in that meeting with the people. Which I'm sure they're not thrilled that I'm saying right now. But anyway. That's funny. Yeah, we're gonna sell. It'll be fine.

Julia 43:04
Those did seem really nice. I was kind of bummed. I wasn't offered one. Like, you guys are giving me syringes. But then when we got to dilute it, it's like, yeah, okay. It's a good thing. I know how to use syringes.

Scott Benner 43:14
Do you know I've never used an insulin pen in my life? Really? Never. Not once. Oh, wow. Arden went from syringes. Right to an omni pod. Wow. Yeah, I used syringes for two years old, three years old. Part of the time she was four years old. We got her onto an on the pod before kindergarten started because I didn't want her to get because back then here was my thought process. I didn't want somebody I didn't know sticking her with a needle. So yeah, that was the entire reason I got a pump. That was it.

Julia 43:48
So it was already in good with the pokes.

Scott Benner 43:50
Oh, you know what? I never thought she loved them. Like don't get me wrong. When she was real little two years. She she'd run. Like, she'd see that she'd see the needle, she'd get a big smile on her face and turn around and run away. It wasn't much of a chase as she was two years old and her legs were very short. But she still put an honest effort into it, pick it up to get away. So I've had to, I've had to like hold her once or twice to give her one but for the most part, she was okay with it. The thing that I remember, I guess most strongly from that time, is that I was always so worried that this would just be some terrible thing that was happening to her that she'd never forget and it would just scar her. And, and I know I've told this before so just in a couple of sentences. After Arden switched to Omni pod, we just didn't have any problems with Omni pod. Like for the longest, longest time and years later, I had to give her like a clearing shot of insulin like I needed to give her an injection. And I pulled it out and like was filling it up and she goes what is that? And I said it's a needle and she goes for What? And I was like, I gotta give you some insult with issues. No, no, no, no, hold on a second. You know, and then, and then literally as we're talking about it, I come to realize, I probably stuck art in 10,000 times as an as an infant, like, you know, as a toddler. And just a couple of years after she stopped getting injections, she had no recollection of needles whatsoever.

Julia 45:25
Wow. Yeah. That's crazy, isn't it? It

Scott Benner 45:28
blew my mind. Like really genuinely did.

Julia 45:31
What really gets to me is Cora, she would like she got pretty desensitized to the needles pretty fast. And, like on bad days, you know, I might give her 10 little minor adjustments throughout the course of the day. So you know, that's 10 Different pokes. And, you know, at a certain point, she got to the point where I'm like, it was time to eat. And she would say, Mama, you didn't give me my insulin. Like, dude, I gave it to you, like five minutes ago. Like, that's how little she was starting to care about them. It was kind of crazy.

Scott Benner 46:00
Didn't even remember. Yeah, just because like,

Julia 46:04
yeah, and I mean, now, now that she's been on the pod for a couple months, she's, if I try and give her an injection, she kind of gets mad like, but then, you know, I give it to her. And she doesn't make a fuss about it. Like it doesn't really hurt her, but just you know,

Scott Benner 46:19
yeah, Kelly has a t shirt that says that. That's, I don't want to poke. Okay, that was the most Midwestern, pregnant pause that virtually she's like, I don't understand. Where's the sexual innuendo going? It says you're so lovely. Thank you for coming.

Julia 46:37
I wasn't I wasn't totally confident that that was an innuendo. We're not I was like

Scott Benner 46:44
wait, the wife doesn't have diabetes. I don't understand. She actually has a sign. It's on the side of the bed. It's

Julia 46:52
Oh, yeah, that that seems more appropriate. From what I've heard about your wife. She doesn't seem like someone to wear out in New Window T shirts.

Scott Benner 46:59
She's got it. She's not a t shirt slogan kind of person. I love that. That's where your brain jump to. That's great. She wouldn't. wouldn't wear a shirt like that. Hold on a second, while ardent? Can I just text ardency quickly. I am recording. Can we talk about this? In 30 minutes. here's the here's the text. So Arden is eliminating gluten for a month. Almost done. The honest truth is, I don't know if it's helping or not. We're having trouble telling. So I guess maybe if you're having trouble telling maybe it's not helping. I'm not sure but I get this text right. I want five guys. Next text. Oh, wait. I can't. I said no. You can just no role. She goes if there's no role, then I can't. Also I can't have a milkshake. Because she gets cookies in the milkshake.

Julia 47:58
Five Guys has a gluten free banana.

Scott Benner 48:01
Hold on. Person I'm recording with says five guys has gluten free bonds. All right. Talk soon.

Julia 48:22
I mean, I'm not 100% confident in that, but I'm like 90%

Scott Benner 48:26
We'll find out also this is what this text is really an indication of an any of you ladies of a certain age will know is that today is the first day of Arden's period. Ah, she's she's sitting in school going, I would like to get french fries. That says planning

Julia 48:41
her food in advance. Yeah.

Scott Benner 48:45
Exactly what's going on? Textbook.

Julia 48:48
So that is actually a good segue for the like last thing I need to talk about. So we kind of talked about like the first half of her honeymoon. And the second half got just kind of weird. She was diagnosed with celiac in November. And the reactions with that in our honeymoon were nuts.

Scott Benner 49:09
Tell me about it. Because I didn't know this. Was this not your notes.

Julia 49:11
It was not because I sent that out and then like, I don't know, two weeks later, we ended up with celiac stuff.

Scott Benner 49:18
No kidding. Okay, do tell how long again, on this podcast ever go like, Oh, my kid has celiac. And I'm like, oh, intrigued.

Julia 49:28
Well, I was wondering how we were gonna segment that because I didn't want to miss out. Um, so she you know, after diagnosis, you know, she we were eating lower carb stuff, so a lot more berries in their diet and whatnot. And she had just had the celiac screening at diagnosis. So, like, looser stools I wasn't really worried about like, Okay, well, it's a little bit looser, but it's not like crazy. And it's just like never like really solidified. Totally. I know kind of girls to talk about, but

Scott Benner 50:00
No, that's fine.

Julia 50:03
Well, you know, I have a toddler, and poop is a big part of my life. Um, and then, so it got worse, like this fall. And then I was starting to worry about celiacs because I know that was kind of a big relationship with type one. But then she was having this thing where at night before bed, like, she would always ask for snacks. And I would give her a small snack thinking okay, like this is about how much I can get away without without completely screwing up your blood sugar for the night. And she was just whining about being hungry. And so one night I'm like, alright, well, I'm just gonna feed you literally everything you want here. So basically fed or the kitchen and she's still saying I'm hungry. And I'm like, you can't possibly be hungry. Turns out she was getting tummy aches, and she was mistaking them for hunger.

Scott Benner 50:53
You're like, hear this will fix that. More food. Yeah, so

Julia 50:56
she's, you know, pouring food on her tummy hoping that'll help. And obviously it didn't. And like her, she was having pretty bad gi upsets. Were starting to and you know, after I realized that she was having stomach tummy aches. It's like, okay, so we got her in for the bloodwork it was elevated, but not elevated enough that we're they were confident just calling her celiacs without the scope. So she got a scope, there was evidence of the celiacs in the scope, like visually, like they could see the villi were worn down. And then also, you know, it came back positive. So she got the celiac diagnosis. And a came to realize that part of the issues that she was having, she was she would eat, she would spike high, and then she would crash back down. And I'm like, okay, is this a basil issue? Is her basil still way too much for her. But she's on like, a half, you know, Lantis at the time. So I'm like, Well, I can't really do anything about that. So basically, I was giving her just enough insulin to keep her under 200. And then I was catching the drop. Because like, what else do I do? Like do I let her go to 300 so that she'll level out at 100 later. You know, like, that doesn't make sense to me. So obviously not medical advice here. And I wouldn't advise people do that or take that approach. But it turns out, basically what was happening with the celiacs is her intestines weren't asserting her food. So as soon as her food would start leaving her stomach and going into her small intestine, like absorption would totally stop. And so she'd go from having, you know, all sorts of carb input and whatnot, and then her food just wouldn't absorb anymore. So she would completely crash. So after the celiac diagnosis, we took out gluten from our diet, obviously. And like her insulin needs started dropping like considerably. And so to the point where for a few, like few days stretches, she would actually like stop needing fast acting altogether. And she was still on Lantus at this point. So you know, like, we couldn't take that away easily. So there was still some feeding of insulin, but like there was like, for a week, you know, she would go she would have a few days where she would need insulin and then she would completely not need insulin at all for like three days. And then her insulin needs would come back, but they would come back higher because like pancreas would be like, Hey, dude, I give up. And then, you know, she'd kind of start tapering back down on her insulin needs again. And then it would go back up. But during all of this, like pancreas is kicking in and we're getting ready for her Omni pod start. And it's like they were already hesitant to give her an omni pod because your insulin needs were so low and you know, there are minimums for pods. And through practice by standard won't do diluted insulin and pump because that's not like a best practices type thing. Yeah, so I was starting to freak out and like we're starting a pump next week and she doesn't need insulin this week. Like she wouldn't be able to turn her pod and her endo was really comforting. She was like no, no like, this is probably like the inflammation in her body going away and it's like lowering her insulin needs and then her honeymoons coming back a little but her insulin needs will go back up as she starts to digest your food better. And her Ender was like 100% right about that because her insulin needs started to go up considerably. And so we started the pump and she was on like point o five alternating for her Basal, so barely anything. And like pretty rapidly like you could tell like her foods started digesting better again, and like she got so much more stable like we could give her insulin and she wouldn't crash later. So it was like this whole magical thing, but it was just kind of nuts to figure out

Scott Benner 54:56
how long did it take for the inflammation to die down? and free to find some stability.

Julia 55:02
Um, so the crashing part where the inflammation died down was a couple of weeks. And then it was only about like, maybe three weeks after that, that her insulin needs started to come back up and staying up where like you could see that like she was starting to heal.

Scott Benner 55:24
It's very interesting because it's incredible. Yeah. Hey earlier we did you misspeak or did you mean to say stump me? Because aren't included? I say you said stump me instead of Tommy. You start to say stomach then you said art Arden says that though? She says her and her girlfriends. They say My stomach hurts.

Julia 55:42
No, I totally meant to say tummy started to saying stomach.

Scott Benner 55:45
You can you can use it if you want the girls love it here. So.

Julia 55:50
No, yeah, I'm just talking too fast.

Scott Benner 55:53
No, that's okay. Stop me. If you made me feel at home.

I was like, I'm glad I could make you comfortable. Very nice.

Well, that's incredible. So yeah. Are you all like gluten free in the house? Now we're just her. So

Julia 56:08
we're mostly gluten free. Like we did glutened our kitchen like we cleaned everything top to bottom, like, you know, silverware drawers, or like big crumb catchers, apparently. So like, we did all that kind of stuff and got rid of everything, like cleaning the kitchen, like head to toe. And so it's like de glutened. But I do keep some gluten free stuff on hand for like my lunches and stuff that like, won't get crumbs everywhere. You know, like, I have some, like tomato soups that are microwavable. And some like microwave thingies and you know, stuff that we wouldn't give to her by mistake. But for the most part, our house is gluten free and our meals are bound her are gluten free,

Scott Benner 56:46
and the benefit for you or your husband.

Julia 56:50
Um, so for me, it's kind of backwards. Because I've I've had like a really weird journey with food. Like with having the gestational diabetes diagnosis, like feeling like I can't eat after that, because Oh, you're gonna get type two. So I was just kind of recovering from that type of approach. And then she gets a celiac thing. And I basically feel like I can't eat around her. So when I'm not around her, I have way too many snacks because I feel like later I can't like, what am I going to eat? You know what, I'm going to have an apple later gay?

Scott Benner 57:31
Would you sell it or what's happening to you an eating disorder or just

Julia 57:35
I think I'm just kind of struggling a little bit. I don't know, maybe it really messed with my head when I had gestational. And the the educator told me that I had an 80% chance of developing Type Two within 10 years. Like so then, like, and I was also breastfeeding at the time, like right after that. So here I was trying to eat super, super healthy. And I was breastfeeding soy and dairy free because Cora can't have dairy. So it was like this whole thing, like I couldn't get enough carbs in my body. So I would just like I was just like shedding the pounds like crazy. And I wasn't a huge person to begin with. And I had to lose weight to get pregnant. Because I had PCOS. So it's like I had already lost weight to get pregnant. And then you know, I had the baby and the baby weight came off easily. And then I was breastfeeding. And it was a whole big thing. So me trying to ward off type two was like borderline eating disorder. But I was eating and I was eating really healthy. But for the amounts that my body needed. It just wasn't enough.

Scott Benner 58:46
Julie, you know, there's a the doctors think that PCOS might be autoimmune. Oh,

Julia 58:54
really? Yeah. That's fascinating and upsetting.

Scott Benner 59:00
Sorry, I didn't want to be the one to tell you're like this is definitely my husband's grandmother's fault. Yeah, no. Yeah. Can you talk about that for a second? I know that's a left turn for you. But when did you realize you had PCOS? And how do you manage it?

Julia 59:17
So I my husband and I were trying to have a baby right after we got married. And my periods were starting to get really irregular. And I was really I had struggled with my weight for a while like I wasn't big, but I could not lose weight, like exercise and eating reasonably did nothing. Like I would lose like maybe a pound a month, which is just kind of a frustrating thing and makes it really hard to keep up with the diet. So that was kind of tough. And so you know, I'd go on these spurts where I'd lose weight and I've gained weight and then what I ended up doing to be able to get pregnant and like regularized my period it is I did the keto diet for about a year. And you know, I had a couple of miscarriages when We were trying, which is, you know, a risk with PCOS too. But yeah, the keto diet got me to a point where my periods were regular enough that I couldn't get pregnant and stay pregnant. And then I had Cora and it seemed like the pregnancy. First off, like negated the effects of going off of the keto diet somehow, miraculously, because if you go off of a keto diet and start eating carbs, again, like you just pack on the pounds, well, the pregnancy kept me from doing that somehow. And then it was just kind of a whole reset button. And like my PCOS seemed to like pretty much go away after I had four. And I think part of that is, you know, breastfeeding is a huge workout for the body, too.

Scott Benner 1:00:45
But so interesting, I can't get I have trouble getting straight answers about PCOS out of people, like in general, you don't I mean, even when you talk to doctors, like, Well, we'll see. You know, it's yeah, it's interesting, what they don't know. And, you know,

Julia 1:00:59
my doctors never gave me a huge straight answer out of it. They, I had switch during that whole trying to get pregnant thing. I started a new OB. And she said, yeah, if you have irregular periods, you probably do have PCOS. And that's like the most I ever got out of it. Like they never ultrasounded me to see, you know, like, Okay, how many sisters she have on her ovaries or anything like that? They said, Yeah, you probably do. And that was it. Like there was no real support for that. They did have me try Clomid a few times to try and get pregnant and kind of force and isolation.

Scott Benner 1:01:38
Sorry about that. I'm not sure what happened there. You said they asked you use Clomid too. And then oh,

Julia 1:01:48
yeah, so the Clomid is to like forcing ovulation because if you're not getting a period, you're not ovulating. That's why you can't get pregnant with PCOS. Half the time.

Scott Benner 1:01:58
Gotcha. Wow. Yeah. I just know that. It's frustrating to hear doctors go oh, you know, that's probably that. Okay. See you like, Wait, why write no more? You don't have other thoughts or ideas or no, just like, oh, that's tough luck. See you later kid. Yeah. And that's how it

Julia 1:02:17
was. And the other thing that really bugs me is when I had that miscarriage from the Clomid pregnancy, I had to ask my old OB about my progesterone levels, because I had read that, you know, sometimes you can't maintain a pregnancy because your progesterone doesn't you don't produce enough progesterone, which, you know, with PCOS and hormone imbalances, and she said, Oh, progesterone only helps you get pregnant, it doesn't matter after you get pregnant. Guess what my no OB did right after I got pregnant. She tests my progesterone to make sure that it's high enough to maintain a pregnancy.

Scott Benner 1:02:56
Nothing like getting completely conflicting information from places you just don't think should be confused about what they're saying.

Julia 1:03:04
No, no, not at all. It just I mean, I already kind of knew I was right to leave my old OB. But yeah, that definitely from that up for me,

Scott Benner 1:03:12
I hope that's comforting to people who think like, Oh, my endo doesn't know what they're talking about, you know, I mean, at this point. I mean, at this point, it's hard to get, I've spoken to people, and I've learned that it's hard to get good care for your thyroid condition. It's hard to get good care for your hormonal problems. It's hard to get good care for your diet. It's, I think it's just hard to get good care. Yeah, you know, I think people need to stop thinking that doctors are specifically not good at one certain thing. And maybe it's time to realize that we're only 100 or so years into modern medicine to begin with. And we don't really know a lot about a lot still. Yeah, you

Julia 1:03:53
know, you know, the interesting thing I found around here is, so within a 25 minute drive, I have like four different health systems I could go to. And you know, we're not like a metropolitan area by any means. So you know, we have a lot of health care options, like the one that's closest to me, it's really hit or miss on doctors. If I go to the one where I send Cora much better chances that you're going to get a good doctor. And then for chorus, like specialty stuff, we send her to the nearest big city because there's like a guaranteed chance at that children's hospital. She's gonna get a good doctor. Yeah, it's just it's kind of like this whole little like range of, okay, where do you go for what you need?

Scott Benner 1:04:39
Yeah, it's a game you almost have to play and how do you know how to play that game even? And how much wasted time is there when you see doctors who aren't helpful at all? And then just say things to you at the end? Like, hey, you might have PCOS. See you later. Like go great.

Julia 1:04:53
Right? You know, I feel like that's a huge benefit. You know, having a type one kid in my 30s because if I was like, 1920 having a kid, and then all of a sudden she has type one. I wouldn't know what the heck to do. Yeah. Yeah. You know, like, I feel like I at least have a little bit of life experience to like gauge those situations, you

Scott Benner 1:05:13
don't just pick the first thing someone says to you and go, well, that must be true. And now we're done. And you know, and then when it doesn't work, go, oh, diabetes, just confusing. Right? You know, just, I, it's one of the things that had bothered me constantly through this whole thing, and probably led in some way to the podcast is the idea of like, I don't I don't understand why when people get information that seems conflicting, they just nod their head and go along with it. Like, it just never made any sense to me. So

Julia 1:05:42
it's the whole questioning doctors thing. That's another big thing that took a long time for me to get my head around is the whole, you know, insulin isn't a you know, something like take as prescribed. Yeah, no, that's, you know, making your own adjustments thing. Like, you don't have to call your doctor and get permission.

Scott Benner 1:06:03
Yeah, count carbs. Give insulin, if that works good. If it doesn't, that's just diabetes. Well, we'll try again at the next meal. Like, right, that's, that's what we're gonna do. We're not gonna put any effort into this whatsoever to figure this out. Right? Yeah. Fascinating. Really. Julie, is there anything that we haven't talked about that you wanted to,

Julia 1:06:21
I guess the only thing is like the end of her honeymoon. So after she got the celiac diagnosis, it seemed like, you know, it was kind of starting to come to an end. But then she also when she started the pods, which you know, is going to be a little bit of an adjustment. But she also started to get chronic ear infections. So we had like, two months where she would have like back to back ear infections and the stuff the antibiotics wouldn't take him away. And she's also got the pile on of her party is now digesting her food, and all of that. And, you know, we're also trying to figure out a new system, which was pretty minimal adjustment in the scheme of things. But that's what really seemed to mostly kill her pancreas is like, all of a sudden, she needs so much more insulin for these infections and the food and everything else. That honestly, I mean, we're a year and a half in and someday she'd goes down to that point. Oh, five Basal great. And I don't know if it's still her pancreas, like producing a little bit or what, you know, but it's just like, we're not having a really clear cut time with the honeymoon on everything. But she got your tubes now. And that was like the best thing we could have done because now she doesn't have like an infection every other week.

Scott Benner 1:07:39
Her ears are draining better now. And not getting Yeah, and all that stuff. Okay. Did they give you any ideas? There's something about the formation of our ear canals, or did they talk about it at all?

Julia 1:07:49
I'm not really they said she probably has big adenoids, but they try to do that your toilet, your tubes first before they you know, do the more invasive taking out the adenoids. So they think that's probably why because she apparently has big tonsils, too. Okay, that can usually mean big adenoids,

Scott Benner 1:08:11
interesting. And that caused kind of a blockage and your ears don't train correctly, and you get infections.

Julia 1:08:16
Yeah, yeah. But actually, you know, since you had mentioned the auto immune thing with gestational diabetes, I also wanted to mention, like on a somewhat unrelated note, but an interesting tidbit. So when you have a baby with gestational diabetes, they track its blood sugar for a few hours after birth. And apparently normal range for an infant is 50 to 92. So I was looking on Cora's charts to you know, check a couple of her numbers, because I really wasn't sure where she had started out with some of those numbers. And I thought the blood tests I was seeing were from diagnosis, but apparently they were from birth. And like her first one, after she was born was 43. And they were checking every couple hours and what the lowest one she had was 24. And then once they finally got her up, over 51, like they just stopped checking. Okay. Yeah, isn't that bizarre though? 24 for a newborn.

Scott Benner 1:09:22
But did they give you any reasoning behind your ask?

Julia 1:09:25
So what they said is, you know, with the gestational that you know, sometimes kids have little hypoglycemia, but they also said, you know, more skin to skin, that kind of stuff. Well, I had a 36 hour labor, and then birther at 8pm Like, you know, I wasn't holding her too much doing skin to skin like I was gonna go to sleep. So that was part of it. But really what helped was they put her in the little baby tanning bed, you know, under the UV light. Yeah. And that's what really kind of ended up bringing her shiver up

Scott Benner 1:10:00
Interesting. Wow. Yeah. Just in time to. I don't know, it's it's she's an interesting and intricate story, especially in such a short amount of time.

Julia 1:10:12
Yeah, she's definitely kept me on my toes. And by the way, so with all of this madness going on her last day when see is 6.9 and her two week GMI is 6.4. So, like you guys, you've really helped a lot with the whole figuring this stuff out. And even though it seems like I should be afraid to give her insulin because of everything that is went on, you know, we were really able to maintain somewhat decent numbers throughout that.

Scott Benner 1:10:41
No, I mean, I think just your your focus on limiting the very high highs and understanding that at the moment, it doesn't seem like you can stop these drops from occurring, but you can stop them from being dangerous. I think that's what's keeping you in the sixes. It sounds like Yeah,

Julia 1:10:58
yeah. And I mean, now she needs a lot more insulin. So it's a it's a little bit of a different game than it was but yeah, I mean, she was around seven for most of them for honey.

Scott Benner 1:11:09
You're a good mom, Julia. Thank you. That's what I keep thinking while we're talking like this is a lot. And you're you seem like you're doing really well with it. So I'm gonna ask, Are you doing well? Are you okay?

Julia 1:11:22
I'm pretty okay. I'm a little bit of an anxious person anyway, like, not, not to a horrible extent. But you know, if you try for so long to have a baby, and you have struggles having a baby, the whole idea of keeping your baby alive after you have that baby is pretty, it's a pretty strong feeling. So, I mean, I've always kind of had that. So hyper vigilance when it comes to Cora came before the type one. Okay, um, so it's one of those like, I'll never, you know, turn that side off and just relax to a degree. But I think in general, I'm doing okay, like, I go in spurts where it gets to be a little bit too much. But, you know, I mean, I have a toddler with type one like, it's, it's gonna be too much sometimes. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:12:11
no, I agree. Is her name Cora or is it Coraline? Cora, Cora? It's really pretty. Yeah, of course. All right. Well, I appreciate you sharing this with me it did it help talking about it. Like, did you feel good about the fact that you came on and did this, I always wonder why people want to come on. Like, for clarity. I'm gonna pull up my calendar. Okay. Today is Thursday. And if I count forward, let's just do two weeks 123456789 I'm making I'm recording 10 times the next 14 days. Wow. So I there are times where if I just get out of this month, I'm, I'm just, I'm just packed, like, I'll do at least 15 recordings a month. And then I keep my Fridays and Mondays open to do editing, and they end up getting filled with, like, you know, interviews that pop up at the last minute, like I did, I'm sure like, you know, Dexcom excuse me, HoloLens. Like I apologize, you know, or Jenny will be like, hey, I can work on Friday. And we'll come in and do stuff like that. So I record 15 to 20 times a month. And I'm always like, just grateful that people want to tell their stories, but I never understand completely why they do.

Julia 1:13:38
Well, for me, so whenever I would ask a honeymoon question, or I would see other people ask honeymoon questions online. People would just be like, oh, yeah, that honeymoon. That's a real, you know. And so I just was always kind of frustrated. Like, there's not a lot of helpful information. It's just like, oh, well, maybe you should just turn your kid high so that they don't fall. And I don't know, I just wanted to share her story, because it's such a unique one that, you know, maybe it could help someone because let's face it, she's got a lot of stuff going on. And you know,

Scott Benner 1:14:16
yeah, yeah, I Well, I'm glad I'm thrilled that you did. Like I really am. I just I always wonder like, Why do what makes people want to know, and I don't ask very much, but yeah, I just thought it was interesting for you to ask. Thank you very much. I can't thank you enough for doing this rolling.

Julia 1:14:35
I'm glad because it sounds like you think it's a good show. So I'm glad about that.

Scott Benner 1:14:40
They're all good. I'm incredibly good at this.

Julia 1:14:43
I know you are but you know there's always a little bit of insecurity like who is mining going to be just boring?

Scott Benner 1:14:50
Remember at the at the beginning before we were recording, you said I wasn't sure if I should come on like really prepared with what to say or not. But do you see that had you if you would have just stuck to a list. We don't even get to your PCOS.

Julia 1:15:03
Yeah, that's true. Yeah. And yeah, that is one like people don't talk about because I mean, there's a lot of ugly side effects to that too, like facial hair, for instance, like, I still have to go get lasered. Yeah. Even after having had laser done before,

Scott Benner 1:15:18
right. Yeah, no, I mean, yeah, people don't want to share that stuff. Because it's, I guess it's, they think of it as embarrassing, I'm assuming. But the point is, is that everyone else listening? They need to hear you say I have PCOS. They need to hear you say, you know, they need to hear me say Arden's trying not to eat gluten for a month to see what happens like because it's the only way you figure this stuff out. Because this, it doesn't come up in doctors offices, most of the things that we've tried for Arden throughout the years for, you know, any number of things, or thyroid or diabetes or any other problems are from us, like it's us going into a doctor's office and saying, What do you think about us trying this? And they go, Hey, that's worth it. But you don't mention it going in? You don't come out with that. They don't they don't say oh, you know, you should do you should try this. They just I don't know what's it's not doctors. And Julia, I'm not I'm not saying it's doctors. There's something about the way it works. It's not, it's not completely right. Do you know what I mean, by that, like, there's something about the way we see physicians and the time we spend together, or the lack of time that they spend together, there's something not right about it, you shouldn't know more about a thing that you can't understand than the person who has a chance of understanding it. And yet that happens over and over and over again. So I think these conversations are the best way to plant seeds in people's heads. And hopefully, they'll walk run into a doctor's office one day and go, You know what, I need a scope to see if I have celiac, or I need you to do a test to see if I have PCOS. Or, you know, whatever. Because people shouldn't say things to each other like, Huh, well, that's crazy. So you

Julia 1:17:05
know, honestly, that's so much of the approach with honeymoon to, you know, sure. It's like, oh, yeah, that's crazy. That's not suggestions.

Scott Benner 1:17:14
I think if you and Cory can stay alive long enough. This will end well. Thank you. Wonderful.

Julia 1:17:21
Yes, exactly. No more

Scott Benner 1:17:23
to it than that. You don't have any, any suggestions whatsoever, even just hearing you talk about the way the digestion changed after going off of gluten. I imagine it just that sentence will help somebody so I you know, I love these conversations being conversational and not being bullet pointed. Because you don't know even though it's your story. You'd if you knew all the parts about it that were important for me to hear, you would have figured out things already that you haven't figured out yet. So you get I think they just need to be spoken about out loud so that you can really hear it. I think it'll help you having said it out loud. I hope so. I think I think I think it will so Alright, well. Thank you very much. Sorry. Thanks, God have a good day.

Well, a huge thanks to a huge thanks to Julie of course for coming on and sharing that great story and having this chat with me. I also want to thank Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor, and remind you to go to dexcom.com forward slash juice box to see if you're eligible for that free 10 day trial of the Dexcom G six. And if you're interested in the Omni pod five, or the Omni pod dash, you want Omni pod.com forward slash juice box links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com. When you click on my links or type them into a browser, you're supporting the production of the Juicebox Podcast and keeping the show free and plentiful.

Listen, everybody, I usually just say at the end something like what I usually say, well, thanks so much for listening. I'll be back soon I do that whole thing. But every once in a while I don't want to just like blurt out a sentence. I want to tell you about how amazing it is that you listen to the podcast and tell you why. I'm gonna give you a couple of numbers here. It's gonna freak you out a little bit. I'm gonna find these numbers for you. I should have found them before I started talking. I know, but I didn't. So anyway, this year, the podcast will have something like 5 million downloads. That's a pretty accurate number. It's astounding to me. I'm not gonna lie to you. I think the first year the podcast had 25,000 downloads 25,000 Like in the whole year. And now 5 million and next year if trends continue. I mean it could be twice that. And the reason I'm sharing this with you He's because it's up to you. Right. And it's because of you. Podcasts don't become popular because they're good or because they're valuable, as crazy as that sounds. I mean, I think that's why people share them, but it doesn't just magically happen. They grow and find other people solely based on word of mouth. And, and that's why I'm taking a moment here to thank you. So, a lot of downloads for a year, especially for a podcast that's in such a specific niche like this one is. So thank you very much for listening, for sharing and for supporting the sponsors. I genuinely enjoy making the show. I love that it helps people and I can't believe that it helps my family pay my bills. When I look back on my life, I just never thought I'd have a job like this. And the truth is, I wouldn't if it wasn't for you. So thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

Small child deluded insulin honeymooning mom has PCOS kid also has celiac.

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#802 Diagnosed at 8 Months Old

Krystal's baby was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 8 months old.

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.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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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 802 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Welcome to the show on today's episode we'll be speaking with Krystal, whose child was diagnosed at eight months old and has had type one diabetes for six years. And she's here today to share that story. While you're listening to it, 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, the T one D exchange would love it if you could spend fewer than 10 minutes filling out their survey. It exists at T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box when you complete the survey, which by the way is completely HIPAA compliant and anonymous. You'll be helping people living with type one diabetes, and you'll be moving diabetes research forward without ever leaving the comfort of your home. T one D exchange.org forward slash juice box

this show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries G voc hypo penne Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash Juicebox Podcast is also sponsored today by touched by type one, head over to touched by type one.org. Or find them on Facebook or Instagram to see what they're up to. I'll give you a hint whether up to was helping people with type one diabetes, it's pretty great. They're not asking you for anything, they just want you to come and take a look touched by type one.org. Last but not least, this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by us med you can get your diabetes supplies the same way my daughter does from us med all you have to do to get started is go to us med.com forward slash juicebox. Or if you prefer, call 888721151. For get your free benefits check today from us med us met.com forward slash juicebox. If you have trouble remembering the sponsors links there at juicebox podcast.com, or in the show notes of the podcast player you're listening in right now, when you click on the links, you're keeping the production of the podcast going and making sure that it remains free for the listeners.

Krystal 2:47
My name is Crystal and I'm the mother of a type one diabetic. And I reached out to you today because I heard your story of Arden. And though my story isn't exactly similar to yours, it just really hit me in the heart because I've been through it. And I know exactly how you feel. So I just kind of wanted to talk about my story today and maybe help other mothers or other parents who are going through it because at the beginning it's really really hard and really, really scary. And right now we're six years in and so far everything's okay. Sugars could be a little bit better, but I mean, we're still healthy. So yeah,

Scott Benner 3:28
tell me tell me I mean something about a something that I've shared struck you what was it?

Krystal 3:37
i You started because it's really like, personal information that you shared. And it might really trigger you actually.

Scott Benner 3:42
Did I say it on the podcast?

Krystal 3:44
Yes, you did. Don't

Scott Benner 3:45
worry. I'm not triggered person. I'll be okay. Okay. Yep.

Krystal 3:49
Okay, because it really like it triggered me and I was like, Oh my God.

Scott Benner 3:53
What do you not want to say? That's okay. Oh, no, no, no,

Krystal 3:56
no, it's okay. It's for you. It's just I don't want to bring back like your memories. You know,

Scott Benner 3:59
don't worry. I've been married for 25 years. Crystal, you can't hurt me.

Krystal 4:04
Okay. So it was a with the episode where you're talking about art. And when she had her seizure at two years old, or two, I think it was right. And she was talking about how she like couldn't see and stuff like that. And like, it just really like struck me like my son has said things like that before, and he was diagnosed So Young as well. And I just really like I was like, Oh my God, you know what I mean? And I heard your story and I listened to a lot of your podcasts. Not all I'm not gonna lie and listen to every single one you have a lot. But I have listened to a lot of them. And I just felt maybe like, you know, I heard you doing interviews with other people with diabetes with people living with people with diabetes and so on and so forth. And I figured, you know, maybe I could share my story, like I said, and just try and reach out to other people. But yeah, that episode were like, you were talking about art and the Having her seizure and you even put the video clip I was a mess. I was crying. I was so emotional and it really hit me deep.

Scott Benner 5:08
Did I put the audio in the episode? Or did I like post the video online for you to find?

Krystal 5:13
I can't. I can't remember exactly. I'm pretty sure you put the audio in your in the episode because I don't think I did any further searching other than just playing like the next episode on my podcast.

Scott Benner 5:24
Okay. Okay, then. Yeah, so for people who are listening now. We were, what were we doing? We're videotaping Arden for something. Yeah. And it wasn't about that. It was about something completely different. Or no, that's not even true. We did we have video cameras up. I know this is people are like, Why do you need a video camera? Because my phone has but back then there was no video? Yeah, first of all, there were no cell phones. But that's not the point. I had a video camera that was set up already. And it wasn't on and on. and I were talking about something. And she began to talk about what it was like to have a seizure. And I just pushed record on the camera and just let it run. And she didn't really know for a while that it was running. And it was interesting because she was so young. She described things. Gosh, this is going back in my memory. I saw exactly I saw colors, which I took I took them in like she was she wasn't seeing anything blocked. Like she was blind. She wasn't seeing she thought she sounded like a monster. And that's because she was grunting it like she had not lost the ability to speak during it. And she thought the colors were pretty Am I remember in this right? That she was saying?

Krystal 6:46
I don't remember exactly. Because it was a while ago that I had listened to the to the podcast. Yeah. But it was just it was genuinely about that. And I know you had also posted, I think a video or you were talking about posting a video or something of that, about where you were fighting a scary low, like, on the camera. Yeah. And he decided to post it. And that one really hit me deep too. And that was really the one that really made me like, reach out to you because those I've had.

Scott Benner 7:14
You've had you've had so tell me a little bit you have type one?

Krystal 7:17
Yes. No, my son is a type one. Okay. Yeah.

Scott Benner 7:20
How old was he, when he was diagnosed?

Krystal 7:23
He was eight months old. So he was the youngest child ever to be diagnosed in the hospital that he's followed up. And he was really like an anomaly. And we were seeing, I mean, he still has his whole diabetes team and everything. But at the beginning of his diagnosis, like everybody in the hospital was interested in him. And for the first good like, year, we weren't left alone because everyone wants to know when see this like special case, because it had only happened like once before that a child that young had the diagnosis in his in his hospital, you know? And so, yeah, we've we've been doing this for about six years. And well, he was really really hard in the beginning. Sorry, go what?

Scott Benner 8:05
I was gonna say being the youngest ever did they have trouble helping him? Did they not know quite what to do? Or did it seem like they had it under control?

Krystal 8:33
No, they kind of sent us away from the house we spent. So he was diagnosed, he was brought to the hospital because he was in really, really bad DKA. And he was in a coma for about two, two and a half days. And when we when we were told his diagnosis, they basically just told me it was a waiting game to see if he ever woke up again. Oh my god. Yeah. It was really scary. And I'll never forget the feeling of watching my son, my infant son just crying and screaming because he was terrified. And then he just passed out in my arms. And he, they were like, well, we're gonna see if he wakes up and I was like, Excuse me What? You know. So yeah, it was really, really, really traumatizing.

Scott Benner 9:18
Can you tell me do you remember what his blood sugar was?

Krystal 9:21
33 Mm. Oh, well, I don't know what that is in America.

Scott Benner 9:25
Version chart on my website. I'll go look real quick. Okay. juicebox podcast.com. Like glucose calculator. So many animals. It was 3305 94.

Krystal 9:39
Yeah, yeah. Thanks for an eight months old. You know what I mean? Of course. Yeah. And I know that his agency was around 11 or 12 when he first got diagnosed. And so he was he was really I

Scott Benner 9:57
you mind picking through it a little bit. So is he your No, no, go ahead. You're first second, third child.

Krystal 10:01
Yeah, he's my only child. Okay. And

Scott Benner 10:05
yeah, go so healthy up until you noticed what?

Krystal 10:11
Well, so when he was born, they told me that his sugars were high, but not high enough to be concerned. So I was like, Okay, well, that's weird. And we were, we were kept in the hospital for five days because he was really, really badly jaundice. He was, like, premature by like one day. So like, technically a full term is 38 weeks. And he was born at 37 weeks and six days. So he's technically premature, but one day, so I have no idea. But that is like anything for account like to, you know what I mean? And so when he was born, they told me that he sugars were really high. And they kept us there for five days because he was jaundice. And they monitors his levels constantly. And then by the time we were released from the hospital, they told us that it was okay, but just maybe to come back and check every now and then because after where I live, six weeks after we have a checkup, the nurse comes to our house and checks on the baby checks on us and stuff like that. And they checked his his blood gas levels and they were okay. She said, so, so left it at that,

Scott Benner 11:14
at the time of his birth. Did anyone mention diabetes or use? No,

Krystal 11:18
not at all? No, not at all even. Okay, so then when he was around two, three months old, he started having seizures. And I couldn't figure out why. They weren't normal seizures like you see in a TV, his arm would start shaking while he was nursing. And then his other arm arm would start shaking and then his whole body would be like convulsing, but just lightly, you know what I mean? So at first I figured maybe it was just like weird. Babies spasms, you know how babies don't have control of their muscles. And I was like, that's a little weird, but it's okay. So I didn't really do anything about it for a couple of weeks, until I was nursing him one day, and he had like a full on convulsion. And so I recorded it. Because his his seizures were so few and far in between. There was never any consistency. And so I recorded that like really bad convulsion because his whole body was trembling, and he was shaking while he was nursing. And so when I brought him to the hospital, they put on a hemorrhage, the ECG or EKG, the one that goes on the head to map to map the brainwaves. So they do watch his brainwaves. His brainwaves were normal. And then so they sent me home and never called me back. And that really makes me angry. Because we have a three month old having a seizure. And because it's brainwave is normal, they didn't offer to check anything else. And so I went home with this child who is seething and yeah, that was pretty much it. I was told that he was okay, there was nothing wrong. And so I kind of lived with him until he was about seven, eight months old. Having these seizures every now and then. And he was a really, like, he would cry a lot as a baby, which I kind of just chalked up to being colicky. You know, that's like a normal thing. But in hindsight, I realized that he was uncomfortable because he was literally starving to death because the sugars were too high. Because he would nurse all the time, all day, all day, all day, like all day, long all night. And when he started eating food, he would eat, eat, eat and chug water like I've never seen, right. And so I realized now in hindsight, that it was because he was a diabetic, you know what I mean? How old were

Scott Benner 13:22
you when you had him?

Krystal 13:24
I was 21.

Scott Benner 13:25
Okay, on your own or with somebody?

Krystal 13:31
Well, I was with someone, but I was essentially on my own. Okay. That's what I mean.

Scott Benner 13:36
Well, because the only reason I asked you you said something that made it sound like you were by yourself. And I don't remember what it was. And I, and what I what I was gonna say is that it's sometimes in those really confusing situations, it's very helpful to be able to bounce it off of somebody and be like, this seems weird, right? You know, looking back, how old is he now?

Krystal 13:55
Now? He's seven. No, sorry, six. He'll be seven soon.

Scott Benner 13:58
Okay. Looking back now, do you think he had diabetes his whole life? Do you think he was born yet? Yep.

Krystal 14:04
Entirely. I not. When I was pregnant with him, I got really, really, really huge. And I was insanely swollen, like record levels swollen. I didn't have gestational diabetes, but I was like, on the brink of that and preeclampsia. And I believe that those conditions in me kind of maybe triggered it and him. Yeah, if you understand what I mean, because he was born.

Scott Benner 14:30
I don't know. I mean, that goes beyond my understanding. But I but it just sounds to me like if his blood sugar was elevated when he was born, and then there's this constant, being uncomfortable. CO some seizures, constant nursing. I mean, it sounds like it sounds like diabetes, you know? Yeah. diagnosed.

Krystal 14:52
Yeah. And makes me feel like a terrible person. And I know that I shouldn't feel like a terrible person because I'm like, you know, I'm not going to judge myself for mistakes. I made you know, but the worst part is I was raised with diabetic parents. And I was raised to recognize the signs and symptoms, but I didn't think it was possible in the baby. I knew as possible in a child, but I didn't know it was possible in infants. So every single time he came up with a new symptom, I just dismissed it. Like when he used to wet through his diapers that night, I would put him to super heavy like, reusable diapers. So they were like, big, thick cloth. Yeah. And he would pee right through them in like two hours. And I was like, Well, maybe he just went to bed super heavy. You know what I mean? And everything that he came up with, I just blew it off. And now I look in hindsight, and I realized how many symptoms you have for so long. until they finally like was on death's door. You know what I mean?

Scott Benner 15:40
Yeah, Crystal, it's a little hard to hear you with the voice behind me one

Krystal 15:44
second. Sure. I'm gonna mute the sound for one second. I'm gonna move somewhere else.

Scott Benner 15:54
That's fine. Thank you

while crystal finds a quieter place, I have time to do this. 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 pheochromocytoma. Visit G voc glucagon.com/risk. So the fact is, we all need medical supplies, but it's not a fact that getting them needs to be difficult. And instead of doing a classic us med add, today, I'm going to tell you a story. Arden's home from school and she's sick. Turns out she may have a sinus infection, and she's pretty wrecked. So we got out Arden's blood ketone meter to make sure that she doesn't develop ketones while she's fighting this illness. And she doesn't feel well. I mean, she's beat up, she's feverish and has a headache and her nose is full, she can't breathe. And I say to her, Listen, let's check your ketones to make sure. Well, after about the fourth or fifth time that the test trip wouldn't work, she was getting sick and tired of it. We had poked our finger like five times. And each time, nothing happened. And I was irritated. And I felt like an idiot. I was like what's going wrong here. But you know what was going wrong. Our old supplier sent us the wrong test strips. And they were in a box that was so similar to the correct test strips, none of us noticed. Now, when you think of why you might want to use us Med, you know, they've asked me to tell you about always having fast and free shipping, they always provide 90 days worth of supplies. They accept Medicare nationwide, and over 800 private insurers you know, I tell you about their A plus rating with the Better Business Bureau, etc, etc. They've got FreeStyle Libre three and Dexcom G six, and you can get Omni pod from there in tandem and blah, blah, I tell you that stuff all the time, right? Here's what I don't tell you is that when your kid is sick, and everybody is just on edge, it's nice to reach into a drawer and pull out the thing you expected to have. That's it. Us med.com forward slash juice box. We've been using them for quite some time now. It's a lovely experience. I hope you give them a try. You can also call 888-721-1514. Call today or go online, get your free benefits check and get started with us, man. I know it sounds like Oh, I gotta switch everything over and it's gonna suck and everything. But doesn't it suck now with whoever you're using it? Maybe it doesn't. And if it doesn't, you know what, fine, don't switch. But if you're fighting constantly with your diabetes supply distributor, do yourself a favor and check out us met. I'm gonna get you back to Crystal. Now she does find a quieter spot. But I first want to remind you that if you need any of the things that were mentioned today by the advertisers using my link supports the show. That's it. I don't make money every time you buy something or anything like that. It's as easy as if the advertisers see people coming through the podcast. They buy more ads, when they buy more ads. I can spend my whole life sitting here in front of this microphone, making a podcast for you. So if you have the need, please use my legs. Thank you very much

Krystal 20:01
Okay, I don't know if this is any better. Oh. I found a quiet hallway. But there's there's resents on a second.

Scott Benner 20:15
Is it still too loud for you? No, that's good. Okay, so I'm gonna stay here, then it's isolated. Not much is going on here. Cool. Tell people you're running from the law. Is that correct? Yeah,

Krystal 20:28
no. No, just trying to find a quiet area and a really big industrial office building.

Scott Benner 20:35
Well, that sounds good. Thank you. Well, I was gonna ask you, what do you mean, you grew up with parents with diabetes?

Krystal 20:45
So my mom was a type one diabetic, and my father was a type one diabetic. Wow. And yeah.

Scott Benner 20:52
each other and a type one diabetes mixture or something like that?

Krystal 20:55
No, no, no. My My father was diagnosed as a child and my mother gotten diagnosed in her 20s

Scott Benner 21:03
I think were they together when that happened? Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, that really is crazy. Okay, so you. Alright, so let's take a little bit of a detour. What was it like growing up with two type ones as parents?

Krystal 21:19
I mean, that's a really loaded question. My mother was always sick, her diabetes really wasn't controlled, like, at all. So I was 10 when my mother died. So I don't really know exactly the truth of what happened, and so on and so forth. Like, I can't give you that much information. Because I was a kid, you know what I mean, but I know I grew up with her always, always sick, always in the hospital always vomiting. I know that she died in 2003. And before that, she was she had a pancreas transplant, and she had all kinds of organ transplants. And basically, just over time, her body was shutting down because it was poorly managed. Now, I don't know what happened to make it that way. Because like I said, I was a kid, you know, I didn't exactly ask questions, right. And as for my father, he was he took good care of himself. And he's still alive.

Scott Benner 22:16
Do you think like, with hindsight, I don't know if you have you had conversations with your father? Was it just mismanagement for your mom?

Krystal 22:24
No, I don't really speak to my father. Oh, okay. All right.

Scott Benner 22:27
Well, that's even something so Does your father know your your son has type one? Yep,

Krystal 22:33
he does. He was there when he got diagnosed. Okay, all right.

Scott Benner 22:37
Gotcha. Wow, Crystal, you're a little, you're a little puzzle. Okay, well see if we can put the pieces together. So you talked about feeling badly. And I would, you know, probably not be the first person to tell you that that's not really a reasonable thing to, you know, to feel 20 You're 21 Sounds like you're pretty much on your own. Just because you knew some of the signs of diabetes doesn't. I mean, who would think of it?

Krystal 23:10
Even? Well, it's because when I was a kid, every time I went to the washroom a lot or something like that, or if I was excessively certain my parents would check my shoulders as I can to make sure that I didn't get it. You know, my brother also has has diabetes, as well as my uncle. So it's all of my family. Hey,

Scott Benner 23:27
tell me again. Your mom was How old was she got

Krystal 23:29
it? She was in her 20s I believe I'm not sure. If I understood correctly. I think she got it as gestational diabetes, and it just never went away. Or something like that. And then it turned into type one. I honestly don't know. Like I said I was 10 when she died. So I didn't really get the whole story.

Scott Benner 23:45
It was just Do you have any autoimmune issues yourself? No, not that I know of. Okay. Hashimotos. No, thyroid, nothing. Okay. gluten allergy? No, no. Okay. All right. Interesting. Very interesting. Actually, Crystal, you really are something here. Hold on a second. So. And you're French Canadian? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Are you around Toronto?

Krystal 24:13
No, but um, the next big metropolitan city. Gotcha. And the French speaking one.

Scott Benner 24:17
Gotcha. I think I know, I you know, this podcast teaches me a lot about Canada. Sometimes not all accurate stuff, but I still learn things. Okay, so babies diagnosed. Okay, I guess we're at the point where they took him from you and said, Let's see if he wakes up. Obviously he did. But how long did that take?

Krystal 24:38
It took about two days, two and a half days. I can't really remember. All I know is that I was walking around his crib at the emergency room just bawling my eyes out. I didn't sleep for days. And we stayed we stayed in the ICU for about two or three days until he woke up and then we were transferred to a regular room where we stayed there for five days while they got his shirt because I'm the controls So sorry.

Scott Benner 25:00
And then how do you manage an eight month old? Is it with injections?

Krystal 25:06
Yeah, he's still on an injection. Now he's too scared to get the pump. So I mean, it's his disease. I'm gonna let him wait until he's ready. We finally got him on a Dexcom this year, thank Jesus, because that made my life so much easier.

Scott Benner 25:17
So So for six years, almost he was just doing shots and using the meter. Yeah. And how was that going?

Krystal 25:28
To be honest, I really liked the meter better than the Dexcom. Okay, because, I guess because I'm used to it. And usually when I see on the Dexcom, that he is going high, or that he's going low. I really, really overcompensate. So I'll give him too much insulin and he'll drop down too fast or give me too much food. He shoots up way too high, because I'm scared watching it beep and go down and go up. You know what I mean? So with the meter, I never had that fear. You know what I mean? I just waited till the next time I print them. And we'll see where it is. Numbers are. But at the same time, I do love the fact that I can watch him in the night with my Dexcom because I used to get up every night. You're breaking

Unknown Speaker 26:06
up. And Crystal. Yeah. Can

Scott Benner 26:10
you hear me? You're breaking up a little bit.

Krystal 26:14
Good now,

Scott Benner 26:15
I don't know you're talking and disappearing and then coming back.

Krystal 26:19
Hold on a second. Is it good enough?

Scott Benner 26:24
I can't say that was good, though. It sounded like a week. By the time this is over, you're gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna be on the roof.

Krystal 26:36
I'm gonna unplug. My thing is like I'm back in Hold on a second. Okay. Is it okay now?

Scott Benner 26:45
I think so. You were in the middle of you're in the middle of explain to me why you don't like the Dexcom as much as the meter. But it sounded like you're just overreacting to what you're seeing.

Krystal 26:54
Yes, exactly. But however, I really do like the fact that with the Dexcom in the night I can I can check him I can check his sugar's without having to get out of my bed and stuff like that, without pricking him. I like the fact that I don't have to hurt him every time I want to check him, you know. And before that, every single night, I will get up to three times and like to check your sugar just to make sure he wasn't dropping or anything like that. And so now with the Dexcom it's really saved me, it's just me, I have to get used to the patterns and the roller coaster rides. You know what I mean?

Scott Benner 27:25
Yeah, just trying to, you know, just don't overcompensate or under compensate. Well, so, can I ask you like a management question? Are there a lot of ups and ups and downs?

Krystal 27:35
Yeah, there are I still don't have good control. Okay.

Scott Benner 27:39
So, you know, I mean, I think if you're looking for my opinion, you would start by making sure that his Basal insulin is good, how much does he why he weighs

Krystal 27:49
about 50 pounds. And he takes seven units of basil, which apparently is like a lot. And his, his nutritionist hates me because of the way I run, not because of the way I run sugar, but the way I deal with services. She can't stand it but doesn't like every time I tried to her way his sugar like sky high to the point that his Dexcom doesn't even read it. So I just keep doing my way and do the best that I can. So

Scott Benner 28:12
yeah, I mean, listen, I'm not there. Obviously, I have no first hand knowledge of what's been happening. But I mean, if his Basal was more like, point three an hour, that would make more sense to me. So but yeah, but wait, wait, hold on a second. That's where you're at now, seven divided by 24 is point three.

Unknown Speaker 28:38
But if we did see Actually, wait a minute.

Scott Benner 28:45
It is 50 pounds.

Krystal 28:47
Yeah, around there. 50 or 53.

Scott Benner 28:53
Okay, let me ask you some questions over overnight this he said stable? Yeah.

Krystal 28:59
What doesn't? What number depends on when he goes to bed.

Scott Benner 29:03
So if he goes to bed at it, it stays at it. Yeah,

Krystal 29:07
if he goes to bed at like, say I'll put him to bed at seven whatever. It will stay at seven he'll drop down to maybe five and then they'll start going back up around after the dawn phenomenon. He goes back up. Okay, which is usually around three four in the morning for

Scott Benner 29:18
us. So a sevens like a 126 here in the States. What if you put him to bed at a six? Would he stay the six? Yeah, okay. Yeah, usually, but same thing if you put him to bed at a 10 He'd stay at a 10 Yeah. All right. So you think his Basil is probably pretty good. Yeah. And so then just Where are you falling short?

Krystal 29:42
Are you issues with that? It's was eating because he's so difficult to get to eat. And he really loves to do this thing where he asks for the food, and I'm making the food. And then as soon as I give him the insulin, he doesn't want it.

Scott Benner 29:58
Kids. Alright, See ya. See, there's a spot where if you had a pump, you could like Bolus Bolus a little bit. And then once you knew he was eating, give him the rest.

Krystal 30:11
Yeah, that's why I want to. That's why I want the pump. And like I said, it's his body. He's afraid he doesn't want and I'm not going to force it on him. You know,

Scott Benner 30:18
is there any amount of intake that you can always count on? Like, even if the meals 50 carbs? Can you count on at least 10 of

Unknown Speaker 30:27
them going in? No, not not consistently. Okay. So

Scott Benner 30:31
you're not Pre-Bolus eating meals. So you're spiking? Hi, do you

Krystal 30:35
and then dropping down after I used to Pre-Bolus meals last year, he was really good at eating. And so last year, I had really fantastic control, right is a onesie from the year before was at No, not even year before the the month before. was, I think nine or 10. And then I had gotten it down to seven. And which is

Scott Benner 30:57
that's, that's a nice reduction to from nine to 10 to seven. Really wonderful.

Krystal 31:02
Yeah. And so last year was fantastic. And then this year, he started this whole eating phase and then now he only wants like to eat sugar and stuff like that, because he knows that if I give him the answer, that's what he's getting guaranteed.

Scott Benner 31:15
So right now he's spiking up, crashing down, you're overcome your overtreating the low, and send them back. So you're just jumping up and down all day long. Yeah, pretty much. So the first meal is the end of the day. It just ruins everything until you get all the food out of him. Get him stay at home, put him to bed.

Krystal 31:34
Yeah, gotcha. And also the physical activity. Some days he's running around and climbing my walls. Other days. He's just sitting there watching TV. So yeah, it's hard. It's hard to have a six year old.

Scott Benner 31:45
No, I don't disagree. It is. It's not easy. And I guess it gives me like I said, with a pump, you could at least put a little bit in and stop the big spike. But, you know, in order to do that with MDI, you have to shoot him twice. Does he mind the shots?

Krystal 32:05
Yes, I know. He says. He says no, but I heard him sometimes, like when I give him the injections, I can see that there hurts him. But I know that he says no, just because he's afraid.

Scott Benner 32:17
You think he doesn't want to make you feel bad? Yeah. Well, I mean, you know the answer. So the rest of it's him wanting to eat more, you know, consistently, I guess. I'm sorry that that's a struggle. I do think he'll get a little older and it'll stop. I was gonna say, I wonder if he didn't. I mean, he's so young, though. Like, I don't know how easy it is to like, explain big ideas to a six year old. I don't remember anymore. But, you know, like, what if you said to him, Look, it's fine if you don't need everything, but you know, we're just going to, we're going to inject twice then to be sure I don't get you too high or too low. I wonder if eventually he wouldn't just i Sounds kind of I don't know how that sounds, actually. But I wonder if to avoid the second shot. If he wouldn't just eat his lunch eggs, for example. Now, he wouldn't. He wouldn't care. So he's the not hungry, or is he distracted?

Krystal 33:15
Sure. Justice as good as mine.

Scott Benner 33:19
I gotcha. Well, good luck. Thank you. No trouble? Is there a lot of I'm trying to figure out what made you so emotional hearing about Ardennes? Well,

Krystal 33:33
it was like I said, it was really just hearing about the lowest and the like, the scary low because I've had those so many times. I've luckily avoided seizures after his diagnosis. But like, it just brought back my own memories of the times that I've had to shove everything I could find in his mouth while he's, like half conscious. And it just it really like it really just made me want to reach out and just kind of say, you know, I feel you and to let others hear my story about how many times I've shoved things in his mouth while he was dropping down to the floor. And, you know, let's just basically I want to let other parents know that it's normal to be scared, and that it's gonna take time to get used to it because I see on all these Facebook groups and stuff like that the support groups, all these parents saying like, Oh, is it ever gonna get better and it doesn't, but you learn to adjust, you know what I mean? And I was actually recommended your podcast in one of those Facebook groups. And I'd say for me, personally, it took about two years to feel comfortable, like okay, and four years to feel confident. Now I changed his his ratios and his doses and stuff like that myself. I don't call his team anymore, because I know what I'm doing. You know what I mean? But it just, it was just really like, emotional for me to live. Cindy, you, when you were talking about with the video, and you caught the low while you were feeding, you were like feeding her and you decided to post on your website or whatever. And like I've been there, done that. And

Scott Benner 35:11
it's so much more difficult when they're that small to right. I mean, at eight months old at eight months old, what did he weigh?

Krystal 35:19
Got 17 to 20 pounds, maybe

Scott Benner 35:23
right? And then probably didn't gain that much weight over the next year or so

Krystal 35:28
even? No. I mean, now it's 60 is only 50 pounds.

Scott Benner 35:31
Right? Very small to begin with. Do you ever have his thyroid

Krystal 35:33
checked? Yep. Every year at his annual checkup?

Scott Benner 35:37
Would you tell me what his TSH is? Do you know?

Krystal 35:40
I don't know. Sorry. Everything's normal, though. She told me Yeah, he told me the number but last time, but I can't remember.

Scott Benner 35:45
Do me a favor. The next time you dig out that number? If it's over two, but they're calling it normal? Why don't you press them to medicate him? I know they want to call that normal. But over to like over 2.1 There's a thyroid episode you could listen to that would tell you, but over about 2.1 2.2 If he could be having symptoms, and you would know and and I'll tell you that Arden was the tiniest person in her school. And then we figured out she had thyroid issue she got on the thyroid replacement. And that she's like, Ardens, five, seven now. But at 1011 12 years old, Arden was like five, three, she had like 75 pounds. Okay, and so I just know that a lot of doctors will say no, that's in range. Like they'll call a four TSH is in range. Because I guess technically it is in it's in the it's in the it's in range. There are some hospitals that won't medicate it to like an eight. Which is which is insane. But, you know, who knows? Like, I wonder if I don't know, I could be completely wrong. But I would check if I were to show.

Unknown Speaker 37:06
Okay, that's all all last time I go. Yeah. And

Scott Benner 37:10
if it comes back higher than two or so and you like write me out. I'll I'll point you to the right stuff and, and let you make a decision for yourself. But you know, I mean, is the lethargic. Does he lose his hair? Does he have trouble? Is he constipated? No, none of that. No. Okay, good. Well, that's good. May I? Maybe I'm 100%. Wrong. That'd be great. If I was. Yeah, right. You need some of that go? Good. Do you worry about getting diabetes?

Krystal 37:40
Yeah, I do. I mean, it's all in my family. And I'm not gonna lie. I don't have the best eating habits. So I know. I'm not helping myself. So I am worried. But at least if ever I do get it, I'll have him by my side with me. You know?

Scott Benner 37:53
Well, yeah, you can definitely do it together, that's for sure. But with both of your parents having it, and your mom having the end that she had, and your son and your son getting I just wondered like if you, you know, if it was something you worried about? Would you call it a constant concern or just something you're aware of?

Krystal 38:10
No, just something I'm aware of. Okay. I don't really live my life worrying like that. If it comes to comes and I'll live with it when I have to.

Scott Benner 38:17
Gotcha. Well, you'll definitely know when it happens. If it happens. Excuse me. You've got enough. You've got enough practice. Thanks for your wishful thinking, Oh, well, I'm sorry. I just misspoke. I don't necessarily think you're getting diabetes. Is it difficult? How are you finding school? He just must have started school recently. Right? Well, you are gone. Your voice disappeared. Crystal, you're not there right now.

Krystal 38:47
Can you hear me? Okay. It's it was difficult, but they take really good care of his diabetes. The only thing that's kind of enraging for me is that we don't really have any like train staff. There's no nurse, there's no nothing like that. I know in the States, you guys have like your 504 plans or whatever it is. But we don't really have that here, at least not that I know of. We have our Canadian equivalent, but it doesn't really do. Much like in the states that is really a lot more severe. And, I mean, the staff that are there, they do the best that they can, but I just really wish we could have someone like on him 24/7 So that way, it's not.

Scott Benner 39:26
How does it work then? Because he's six, I mean, he he's given himself shots.

Krystal 39:30
Yes, at the moment, he gives it to himself.

Scott Benner 39:33
Do you guys go back and forth, like through text or something?

Krystal 39:36
No, we call his school at lunchtime. And he goes actually his father's calling right now because I'm on issue as far as calling right now, and he's going to tell the nurse to put him on the phone, not nurse. Sorry, the Secretary put him on the phone. Right. And then he gives it himself. And that's it. That's it.

Scott Benner 39:55
If this is too personal, don't answer me but are you and his father together? No, no. Okay. Do you split time with him? Does he go to? Is the management? Does the management change? from one home to the other? Yeah. How? So? If you're able to say,

Krystal 40:16
yes, the sugars, His Father's house are much more out of control than my house, because I don't really allow snacking in my house. And he does. And also, I don't really give a lot of junk food. And he kind of just looks like, whatever and deal with the consequences later. So

Scott Benner 40:38
there's nothing There's, is that a conversation? Have you ever had a conversation with them? And

Unknown Speaker 40:43
oh, yeah, okay. Yeah.

Scott Benner 40:46
doesn't help much. No, no. It's a very common issue. I know that for sure.

Krystal 40:56
However, my wife takes better control of his sugars, and I do. It's like she was born to be his mother. I don't understand. She's phenomenal with the sugars.

Scott Benner 41:05
Okay. Oh, so there is somebody who is she mostly who's mostly involved when when he's with you? Okay,

Krystal 41:15
yeah, his father just calls the school because he has the time.

Scott Benner 41:21
That sounds that statement sounds like there's a half an hour worth of complaining you could do afterwards. He has the time. That's not why we're here. So we'll skip over that. But you made me laugh some other story. Yeah. You made me laugh when you said that. I was like, Oh, I think I know what she means by that. Sorry, hold on. You took me by surprise. Give me a ticket. You took me by surprise. That was great. Okay, that's funny. So do you think he'll go for a pump? Or like, what's his, what's his what's holding him back at this point?

Krystal 42:09
I don't know. I hope he will, eventually, one day because he has the Dexcom. And I know that he's happier that we don't prick him as often, I still do check them sometimes just to make sure that it's accurate. And sometimes if his Dexcom is having a sensor fail, I'll use a thing until it comes back online or until I change it, whatever. So I know he's happier that he has to be pricked less. And I'm trying to get him to understand that, you know, my son is like, really, really sensitive to carbs. And if I give him like 10 carbs, he's gonna jump up, which isn't much, you know what I mean? Yeah. So for every time I feed him, I have to give him insulin and then give them insulin again, to correct after and, you know, I mean, it's definitely that so

Scott Benner 42:52
have you told him that, like, have you gone through it and said, Hey, if we had a pump, we wouldn't do the shots and you tell him it would be easier to snack?

Krystal 43:02
You know what, I might bring that up? I might help actually, there's always hungry. This kid is like a 16 year old and a six year old body? I don't understand.

Scott Benner 43:10
Well, yeah, maybe maybe that would help him like, just kind of, I don't know, just get a clear, like big picture understanding of the whole thing. I mean, you just have to find a way to say it to him, that he understands. Yeah, that matters to him. You know, forget understanding. He's probably understanding what you're saying he doesn't care. You know, you get a fine, get a fight. Like, I'd be like, hey, you know, when this happens, and we don't, we don't do this. It's because we have to inject and but I don't know what you could do to get them moving in that direction? Because the truth is, I mean, listen, if you put a pump on him, and he hated it, I don't imagine you'd make him stay on it. But no, of course not. Yeah. I think that my expectation would be that once he gets on it, you know, a week or two later, he's not going to remember not wanting it.

Krystal 43:58
Yeah, that's true. That's kind of what we did with Dexcom kind of just forced him on and I said, Listen, just try it for a week. Yeah, he don't like it. We can take it off on he's he likes it. Now. It doesn't even hurt him to put her on his crazy, big needle in this tiny little body. And I'm like, wow, you just take it like a champ.

Scott Benner 44:12
Yeah, no, I hear what you're saying. I have to tell you, like, you know, what I usually say on the podcast is I you know, I'm not into letting kids make medical decisions. I mean, I don't want to do something they absolutely don't want to do but a lot of times, you know, kids just you know, listen, I'm saying kids people in general, forget. You know, everybody's resistant to change. I mean, if you want to make people like you know, make an adult upset change the way Facebook looks people like lose their minds. Oh my god, right. They

Unknown Speaker 44:43
moved them Yeah. Why

Scott Benner 44:45
did they change the color? Where's this that like, it's good think that you think it was the end of the world? And, and I think that everyone's like that. I think change is hard for people. But the truth is, I don't know. You know, I've been through a lot of bad things in my life. And in this moment, I don't remember any of them. So, yeah, right. So, you know, here's the pump, we're wearing it. What what makes this right for your kid? I start dealing dollar bills into his hand or not dollar for putting out loonies up there or something like that. I just start ripping those loonies into his hands. He looked happy. He was like, Are you go where? You're fine. We'll go out and spend this money afterwards. Get yourself something nice kid. It's a good idea. Yeah. I'm, I'm I'm okay with bribing children, certain situations. I mean, not for everything. But any, because if he could put him in a position where he didn't understand it, you know, maybe a week or two later and say, Hey, isn't this great? We haven't stuck you with a needle and you know, forever. Yeah, he might be, he might be thrilled by it. And then all of a sudden, you can Pre-Bolus your meals better, then all of a sudden, you can you know, it just changes everything. Yeah.

Krystal 45:57
So I've heard, yeah, I'm also going to, I'm also not going to lie. I'm a little afraid of the pump, too, just because I'm afraid of pump failures. But I know what the Dexcom I don't have to like, worry about that. Because I'll see if there's a pump failure. I'll see his sugar's rising. Yeah. But that was always a fear of mine, too. So I understand his fear. But I also think that it would be better if he did you know, I mean, at least try.

Scott Benner 46:19
It's so interesting, because that is everyone's

Unknown Speaker 46:24
fear. Yeah, because it's terrifying.

Scott Benner 46:27
Except Did you ever see it? Like, like, when's the last time you like, pop them to like a Facebook group? And you heard about the scores and scores of people whose pumps failed all the time? You don't? I mean, like, it doesn't really happen with any great frequent. I mean, I listen, I oversee a Facebook group with like, 25,000 people in it. Well, I don't know the last time I saw somebody say, hey, my pump stopped working. And I didn't get insulin, and I went into DKA. I haven't, like I get the concern. But to your point, you're always aware of was blood sugar is with the Dexcom you're not gonna get too far away from not having insulin before you know it. Sure. Yeah. That's all I mean, I get the concern. But I don't think it's gonna really rear its head in your life,

Krystal 47:11
though. Yeah, it's like a one in a million chance.

Scott Benner 47:13
I don't know that. I don't know the odds, Crystal, but I think it's uncommon. I mean, yeah, at least in my experience. I mean, art has been using an omni pod. So that's the one I want. Okay. Well, there you go. She's been using it on the pod since she's four. She's almost 18. So that's 14 years. And we once had a bent cannula where she wasn't getting enough insulin. And her blood sugar was rising. We saw that it was rising. I'd happen overnight. We did sleep through it for a little bit. We got we got her up. We over hydrated her got her ketones back down again, and you know, put a new pump on her. And but my point is, is that I mean, what is my point Hold on, I'm gonna pull up. I'm gonna pull up a calculator here to make my point. Arden has been using it basically for 14 years, right? There was 365 days in a year. You put a pod on about every three days. So divided by three were 121 pods a year, times 14 years Ardennes were about 1700 pods, and one of them had a bent cannula.

Krystal 48:24
You know, I'm saying when you put it that way, it's a lot less scary.

Scott Benner 48:26
You mean you mean when you think about it realistically? I think I mean, to me, that's that. I don't know. I get the pump. I don't look

Unknown Speaker 48:34
back, but we'll see. I'll bring it up to him tonight. Yeah.

Scott Benner 48:39
Listen, tell him the guy on the podcast. He don't know. It's,

Krystal 48:43
I guess I'll have to show him the podcast as proof.

Scott Benner 48:45
2022 people on Tik Tok look famous to him. You know what I'm saying? I was I saw something the other day this girl? I don't know. Crystal. Listen, it seems to me that girls on Tiktok are making money bouncing up and down. That seems to be what's happening. And I saw a video somewhere I don't. And my daughter's like, what is that? I'm like, I don't know. I'm like, What is this girl doing? And she goes, Oh, I think she's trying to make money. And I was like, gotcha. And then she goes is that and then she says the girl's name. And I'm like, you know that person? And she's like, I don't know or know her. But I know her name. I'm like, you know, you know someone's name because they wear a loose shirt and bounce up and down on Tik Tok. And she's like, Yeah, like the world's very strange. You know how hard George Clooney had to work to be George Clooney. You know what I mean? Yeah, turns out now,

Krystal 49:39
nowadays, the internet blows up with the most random things possible. Super easy. I'm

Scott Benner 49:43
just saying you let my voice come out of a speaker. That kid will think oh, I have to listen to him. It's ridiculous. But what the heck.

Krystal 49:54
If it works, it works.

Scott Benner 49:55
Listen, there I go with what works. Crystal tell me Is there is there any Anything that we haven't talked about that you want to?

Unknown Speaker 50:03
I'm

Krystal 50:06
not I can think of I spoke about his diagnosis. I spoke about his scary lows.

Scott Benner 50:16
I do want to dig a little more into that if you feel comfortable that we've gone. Okay, so from eight months, Josh Jesus and this crazy eight months old to six or seven years, almost seven year saying, Yeah, okay, so basically six ish years a little more the kids had diabetes. But you've been through so many different versions of type one, like with an infant, with a toddler, with a young child like it's just, it probably feels like you've started over a half a dozen times.

Krystal 50:48
Yeah, it's, it's really hard, every growth spurt that he goes to, it's like, I'm back at the beginning. And I have no idea what to do. Because the insulin, the hormones, change the insulin so much, and sometimes it gets used up like crazy. And I can give him no one's live and he'll be dropping most fast. Other days I can give him like so much insulin and it goes nowhere.

Scott Benner 51:11
It's it really is like, I'm just thinking about it. You really have. You've raised like, three or four different people with diabetes already. Like seriously, you don't I mean, like, and it's going to keep changing.

Krystal 51:24
Like it was so scary for when he's a teenager.

Scott Benner 51:27
Yeah, when you're 40 you're gonna have the wisdom of like, 100 year old person.

Krystal 51:33
That's just on my life experiences alone, not including him.

Scott Benner 51:36
Well, we haven't gotten into that yet. But but I just like, I mean, how many lows Do you think you saw in the first couple years that were frightening to you?

Krystal 51:46
Frightening ones, the ones I really burned into my memory. Do you mean?

Unknown Speaker 51:49
Yeah. Good question. Hold on.

Krystal 51:55
I'd say at least a good handful, maybe 123? I'd say about four or five. Other really scary scary ones. How much ones where I'm narrowly avoided hospitals? How much

Scott Benner 52:11
of them? How many of those do you think were made more frightening by your age?

Krystal 52:20
By my age, or his age,

Scott Benner 52:21
yours, I mean, his is obvious. But like, I don't know that you you sound like you might have had a tough life. Like I'm I'm guessing. So like, maybe you're a little more grown up than then some people are when they're 21, and 22 years old, but my son is 22 If I put him in charge of a hamster, I'm not sure it would be alive. So um, you know, you're you're 2122 years old with an eight month old, a one year old who has diabetes, working just with a meter and shots? Like, are you like some kind of, like, super mature person? Are you freaking out?

Krystal 52:54
Oh, I mean, I was freaking out. But I was ready to have a child and whether they were healthy or disabled or whatever. So I was ready for whatever came my way. And I just kind of took it in stride did what I had to do, did it all again the next day, and manage it as best as I could. Thank you. Were we gonna say? I

Scott Benner 53:18
said, that's wonderful. Why do you doubt yourself? You're so confident otherwise?

Krystal 53:23
I don't really doubt myself. To be honest. It's No, I don't really doubt myself that his diabetes, it's just it's just hard to like, you know, I try as much as I can to get his sugar's under control. And like, I just don't see results. And it's frustrating. It's frustrating, especially when I'm looking at Dexcom. And it's a frickin roller coaster ride. It's like, Man, I'm giving it my all and it's just like, doing what it wants. You know,

Scott Benner 53:48
I understand I use the wrong word. I said, doubt. I meant before, like, you felt like you were punishing yourself a little bit like,

Krystal 53:56
Well, I mean, you know, mom guilt. Yeah,

Scott Benner 53:58
I guess so. Right? That thing is very, very real. Yeah. You can't get away from it. I don't know what happens. The minute the baby comes out, you just lose your mind.

Krystal 54:09
Nothing I can do is ever good enough.

Scott Benner 54:12
It never goes away, apparently. So good luck. Oh, great. My children are like, you know, pretty grown. At this point. I still look at my wife. I'm like, What are you beating yourself up about right now? Like?

Krystal 54:24
I hope one day I'll be able to let it go. Because I know. Like I know, logically speaking that. It's normal that a 21 year old would miss a diagnosis of a child. Like the day that I brought him to the hospital. I didn't even notice anything was wrong with him. I just thought he Okay. Hold on. Let me explain my story a little better. So the day that he was brought to the hospital, I was out at breakfast with my friends. And he was really like, lethargic and I this will forever be burned into my brain and it's a huge trauma for me. We were at the table and the waitress brought us water to drink. And he took my huge, amazing glass and he chugged it all. And he was eight months old. You know, they're not supposed to drink that much water. And I was like, Oh, my God, that's really weird. But it was like 40 something degrees Celsius. And I figured, you know, we're just in the middle of a heatwave. He just really hot. And he was lethargic. And he wasn't really like getting up at the table like he normally was. And I just kind of attributed to like a heatwave. He's just tired. Maybe he's cranky. They didn't sleep well, the night before. He was nursing all night long that night. And my friend picked him up because he was crying. After he drank all the water. And she was like, something's wrong with him. I'm like, really, really sure. Like, you know, and so she just kind of consult him. And later on, I went about my day as normal. And then I realized later on in the day, after my friend had told me that something was wrong. And after witnessing an eight month old drinking an entire mason jar of water. Later on, I had brought him home, and I realized that he was breathing as if he was running a marathon. Yeah. And his whole chest was sucking in. And I was like, Oh, my God, something really is wrong here. But it took me like the whole day, to really realize that something was wrong with my friggin baby, like my own baby, you know what I mean? And that's the one thing that I really can't forgive myself about. Especially sometimes I will design the diabetes,

Scott Benner 56:32
Crystal art and look like a zombie for a number of days before we figured it out. Like she just turned around with a she was only two. And she wandered around. Like she weighed 17 pounds. She was two years old, and she had a dead like a death stare just a like 1000 yards there. You couldn't interact with her really? She couldn't stand up for too long. And it still took days to figure out like, what was that girl? I know how you feel? I'm sorry?

Krystal 56:59
No, no, it's okay. It's, I mean, it is what it is. Right? It's already happened. There's no point in stressing over. But when I think about it, it really like tears me apart. Thinking about the fact that someone else noticed before his own mother did. And then I went about my day, just like kind of keeping an eye on him. And like not really realizing there was something actually seriously wrong until I went to the hospital. And then we were in the hospital for all of maybe 20 minutes. And then the way it works at my hospital is that you have to go in and they triage you. And then you go to the waiting room when they're going to call you to see the doctor. And they have one specific room that you're supposed to go back into if your condition worsens or changes, whatever. So we had been triaged, and then we were sent to the waiting room. And I went back in because he just kind of like, collapsed in my arms. And he was I want to say conscious, because he wasn't really conscious, but his eyes are open. And I was like, something's really wrong, my baby like you guys got to help me. And then so they did a quick urine test. I think we're blood tests. And they told me that he has type one diabetes, and after that they were trying to get him like, set up with insulin drips, and sugar drips and whatever. And she was just like, screaming and crying in my arms. And then he passed out. And then they told me that they would let me know they ever woke up. And I was like, wow, that's cool. Yeah, I feel so guilty.

Scott Benner 58:25
I know. But I'm gonna say something completely obvious to you. That it's not obviously, it's easier said than done. But you're gonna have to get past that, you know, you don't want to keep beating yourself up about that. Because look where you are now, you did a good, you're doing a good job bringing as a one seat down, you're aware of why you're having the issues that you're having. So it's not like you're just lost, you know what's going on. And you know how to fix it. And you and you have a pathway to maybe figuring it out with a pump, it sounds like, and he's, and he's gonna get older and it's going to be easier for him to get, it's gonna be easier for you to say, look, you know, I listen, I don't care. Just eat this, you know. And he'll listen. And I mean, you've been through something that's so terrible and so difficult. The rest of it might end up seeming easy. You might be one of those people just laughs like, oh, yeah, this isn't hardly anything compared to when he was two years old or three years.

Krystal 59:18
Yeah, that's pretty much where I'm at. Yeah.

Scott Benner 59:20
Wow. All right, Crystal. I'm going to ask you one more question before I let you go. Where I cannot figure out your accent completely. See, you're obviously French Canadian. But at the end of your words, you sound Spanish for a second.

Unknown Speaker 59:33
Spanish? No, but no, but you're not right.

Krystal 59:37
I'm just French Canadian. Yeah, I'm just, I'm an Anglophone and a French say it again. I'm an Anglophone and a French province. I'm English speaking. But I guess I just pick up some of their mannerisms. Because I've been here my entire life. Yeah,

Scott Benner 59:49
there's just a little at the end of your word. Sometimes. I'm like, I know she's not but it sounds like a little. So I was trying to figure out what the rest of it was. You're born where you live. Yep, yeah. Born and raised. Are you Cool. That's excellent. I love people's accents. I think they're, they're super. Yeah, I think I find them incredibly interesting. My must seem very boyish to you, but

Krystal 1:00:09
you just sound American.

Scott Benner 1:00:11
Oh, Oh, perfect. I'll take it. Alright, hold on one second for me. Yeah. Okay, thank you

a huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G voc glucagon. Find out more about Chivo Capo pen at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. you spell that GVOKEGLUC AG o n.com. Forward slash juicebox. I also want to thank us man for sponsoring this episode of the podcast and remind you that all you have to do to get started with us med is go to us med.com forward slash juicebox or call 888-721-1514. And don't forget touched by type one.org.

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#801 How We Eat: How Jenny Eats

How Jenny Eats

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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 801 of the Juicebox Podcast

today, I'm going to add to the how we eat series. Now, so far in this series we've covered vegan, carnivore plant based gluten free low carb, Bernstein FODMAP keto flexitarian intermittent fasting and today, I thought it would be interesting to find out how Jenny eats. Now you know, Jenny, she's from all the management episodes, diabetes, pro tip, defining diabetes, bold beginnings Jenny, it's Jenny. Today I'm going to talk to Jenny about how she eats. I thought you might find it interesting. She is a person with an astonishing amount of control over blood sugar, and I thought it would be valuable for you to hear about. So while you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan, or becoming bold with insulin. If you'd like to find the other how we eat episodes, just go to juicebox podcast.com and scroll to the bottom there's a whole cascading list of them there. You can also find them in the private Facebook group in the feature tab. That's Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Ian pen from Medtronic diabetes, if you don't want an insulin pump, but you want some of that functionality that comes with insulin pumps, you might want the ink pen. Learn more and get started today at ink pen today.com. You may pay as little as $35 for the implant. Listen for more about that in the ad. Today's episode of Juicebox Podcast is also sponsored by Omni pod. The new Omni pod five automated insulin delivery system is here. Go get it at Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox tubeless and automated oh my goodness, what else could you possibly want? Start the recording. Cool and say hello, Jenny. How are you? I'm great. How are you? Good. You look casual today. Like I like cash. Like maybe you have plans this afternoon where you're not going to be working or something like

Unknown Speaker 2:26
that. Um, no

Scott Benner 2:30
relaxed. You're not relaxed today. I don't know you have a certain sound maybe you're happy. It's Friday. I have no idea.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:36
It's Friday. It's Yes. It's it's Friday. It's actually should I was colder today. Our temperature has changed like 40 degrees overnight.

Scott Benner 2:47
Oh my god. Seriously,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:48
yesterday, it was 72 degrees. It was beautiful last night when I got home from taekwondo with my kids. And then I woke up this morning and the thermometer was like 34 degrees. Like, kidding me.

Scott Benner 3:04
You live in a hellscape. It's terrible. I mean, it was like 80 here for a couple of days. And I mean, it's November, and you're like what is happening? But then very quickly, overnight, it's getting cooler and cooler. And it's gonna happen really fast. Yes. Anyway, it's

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:20
coming to you. Well, it's spreading. Let us

Scott Benner 3:23
let us let us do this today with the people and then we will go on our way. Oh, freeze your butt off this weekend. And I don't know what I will do. It's supposed to

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:30
be in the 40s this afternoon. So better.

Scott Benner 3:33
That's a Wisconsin answer. Better. I just had, I just had a an organization invite me to come to Montana to speak in March. And I was like March in Montana. I'm not sure about that. I guess. Yeah. Well, I need snow shoes and, and I said, Look, I started saying, Look, I really would like to do it. The event sounds great. I say Can I fly straight in? And they're like, No, you'll probably have to get on like three different planes. I was like, I yeah, I don't know if I'm okay with that. Can we? Virtually. So they weren't sure that the last plane would be a jet. And that's that threw me off for some reason. You get the puddle jumper. Oh, it was like I'm not doing that. I'd love to see Montana, but not that badly. Anyway, Jenny, I thought today would be a great day for you and I to talk about how you eat. We've been talking about this for a number of years. Actually. I always say to Jenny, like at the end of the year, I'll do an episode with you. And we'll talk about how you eat because I have a whole series where people come on and they're like, I'm keto. I'm a flexitarian. Actually, I think I learned the word flexitarian on this podcast, you know, and all that stuff. So today, I just wanted to go I wanted to go through that. Are you comfortable with that?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:47
Yeah. Basket way.

Scott Benner 4:51
So I guess my first thing I should do just for people who may be, you know, come in and out of the podcast and don't know you as well. If at diabetes for let's test my memory, are you up to 33 years now or 3234

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:06
and a half 34. My gosh, Jimmy,

Scott Benner 5:09
and that made you how old when you were diagnosed? I was 1313. All right, we won't do the math 34 plus 13. That's no one's business, but yours. It's 47. But so you've had diabetes, since you were 13 years old, you were diagnosed a very long time ago, we've talked over and over again, about your you know, how your management was when you were coming up. But we don't talk as much about how you've eaten through different segments of your life. So I'm gonna go back all the way to you being 13. And ask, did your mom adjust eating when you were diagnosed? That you know of a long time ago?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:51
No, I and I was old enough to know or recognize the change or the difference, right? Did she change how she cooked? Not really, because, I mean, my mom grew up with four siblings. She was the oldest, they lived on a farm. So she ended up doing a heck of a lot of the cooking. Yeah. So they she always was a cook. I mean, the amount of times that we went out to eat, or even fast food or something were very minimal. So she was used to already cooking, the biggest change, I think, was that I don't think I ever remembered measuring cups outside of making cookies at Christmas and cakes. And you know, where you have to use the measuring tools to obviously get it all right. But man, we got more measuring tool, tools and the bouncy like scale that we put the meat on to weigh the perfect portion. And all of that kind of stuff. My mom did change all of the desserty types of things. I mean, they all became sugar free pudding and sugar free jello, and, you know, that kind of stuff. But she didn't. She didn't make that specific just to me, it was if we're going to have putting it sugar free for everybody. Okay, if we're gonna do this, it's this way for everybody.

Scott Benner 7:16
But your management at that point is two shots a day.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:20
I did two shots a day I did the really old school because there was not what we now have as long acting insulin a 24 hour, we had intermediate which was the cloudy and or NPH. I actually use Lily's, which was called Al or lenti. And so that had to be mixed in the syringe with our insulin or regular insulin wasn't even rapid. And I only dosed it twice a day breakfast. So the regular covered breakfast and then the law, the intermediate acting peaked at lunchtime. So I didn't take insulin at lunch. Okay, I did get a snack in the afternoon as well, which was an uncovered snack, kind of curving the downside shift of that intermediate acting insulin. And then dinnertime I did the regular and the lead day mixed in the same syringe again, and that regular covered dinner. And then I always had to have a bedtime snack because it covered the peak in the intermediate acting overnight. So for

Scott Benner 8:23
people who have a Dexcom now and are operating with you know, I don't know modern insulin, excuse me once with modern insulin, even if they see a peak at dinner and everything goes well, their their their bell curve probably goes over like two or three hours, right? I mean, they might spike up a little bit. But you were basically running two bell curves a day morning. So you were mixing make sure I understand this right because I'm I'm Arden comes into diabetes long after this. You're mixing two different insolence into a syringe, shooting it in the morning. One of them is handling breakfast, and the other one's going to come online in time for lunch. Then you shoot for dinner the same mix, one of them handles dinner but then you have to come around at the end of the bell and eat again to stop yourself from getting a little before bed

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:13
are into the midnight hour. Yeah, because intermediate acting was really like a peak of about five to seven hours. So again, breakfast time I'd eat somewhere between six and 7am. So the regular insulin covered that and then the intermediate acting was peaking by lunchtime at about that same five to six hour mark. So lunch would get covered or that in that intermediate would cover lunch and the same thing for the evening. There is no way to cover in all over over the night basil need because there wasn't anything besides intermediate at that point. So in order to hit the the kind of insulin the way that it needed to at its peak without getting low overnight, I had to have a snack before I went to bed.

Scott Benner 9:58
I see and I No, I remember this from our previous conversations your mom was the one thing she was a stickler about is the time you ate. Is that right? Yes. Yeah.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:08
I think the reason that I literally cannot sleep beyond like I will wake up even before my alarm clock goes off at like, six 615. Because it was, that was the time it was breakfast. It was time Jenny had to have her like first dose of insulin because that was a 12 hour window. until dinnertime, when I got my next dose of insulin. Yeah. And they had to be spaced apart enough. So I think the reason I wake up so early. Like, I was just wired that way. Yeah. So So

Scott Benner 10:39
she, she, your mom was looking and saying, If she eats at 6am, than the way this shot works, we'll be good for whatever lunchtime is at school. And then it'll be out of her in time that we can shoot it again for dinner, or dinner. That's why your later snack almost. So were you up late at night as a child?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:58
I wasn't I mean, again, child wise, I was 13. So I was probably going to bed. In fact, I know I wasn't going into bed until maybe like 10 o'clock, and I'd have my snack around like 930 ish.

Scott Benner 11:12
And then after that, carry that off to bed. No one tested you overnight or anything like that.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:18
Nobody tested. Oh, no. Oh, my goodness. No, that wasn't even like a thought unless I woke up and didn't feel good. Which did happen. Or for some random reason my mom was up overnight and wanted to check on me. But outside of that, no, there were no checks overnight, it was bedtime. fingerstick wake up in the morning, do it again. And

Scott Benner 11:39
the way you ate during that time was more about almost kind of food pyramid thinking. Like a little bit of this, a little bit of that a little bit of this at certain weights more than anything else.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:50
It was and you know, I think I think there's some practices that do okay with this with kids. And other times I've talked to people and they've said, you know, nobody focused on what my kid needs nutritionally. They just told us that we can eat whatever we want to eat. As long as we cover it with insulin and your blood sugar stays here, then that's fine. Were when I was first educated, the dietitian and educator I worked with looked at what are my nutritional needs based on where I am in life and what my activity level is like. And then they planned out sort of a caloric plan and fit the macronutrients in a certain percentage into that plan. Okay. Yeah. So, you know, I got certain portions of food that got covered with what's called a standard amount of insulin just for the food at that mealtime. I mean, I can still remember like lunch and dinner, I got two starches, two vegetables, a fruit, two to three proteins, one or two fats and a milk. And you did you that was lunch and dinner every single day?

Scott Benner 12:55
And did you have to finish it all every time? Did you have that pressure? Like I need to eat all this or no, you know,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 13:01
in a way, yes. And you know, being as active as I was, I was probably hungry enough for it all anyway, but I also wasn't, I wasn't nibbling on anything in between, because that just wasn't there wasn't additional insulin, at least not in the first I guess two years after I was diagnosed. And still I until I was taught carb counting, and dosing with insulin to cover a certain amount, then things shifted and became a little bit more flexible in terms of portion.

Scott Benner 13:29
So when that happened when they taught you carb counting? How old were you then do you think? Um,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 13:35
I was in high school? So probably six to finish, I would estimate.

Scott Benner 13:42
All right, so you did that the one you did the first play for three years or so? Did did having access to the idea of carb counting covering meals for how many carbs at work? Did it change how you ate at all? Or did they just sort of eat the same way?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 13:59
I don't think that it changed. What my food choices were because I still had certain preferences, obviously. But it gave me more flexibility in terms of how much okay, right? So if I didn't want to eat all of that food at a mealtime now we had wiggle room to play with, you know, I only really want the peas and grilled salmon for dinner. Great. We could adjust for that a little bit better than saying well, you always have to take three units of regular insulin. So you have to eat this much because this is what your insulin is covering.

Scott Benner 14:36
Yes, that was the big shift is that you had more autonomy over the amounts of food and I could drop I don't want to bake potatoes or something like that. Right? Right. Okay. How long do you think you and what insulin I'm sorry, what insulin was that at that time?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 14:51
That was still regular insulin. Okay. I did not have rapid in getting real excuse me rapid acting insulin. until I was in college.

Scott Benner 15:04
Okay. So so so this first step that you took basically took away the cloudy and you were just counting carbs for and using regular for it. Is that right or no, the first

Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:16
step I took was switching from intermediate acting. And if I had to estimate, when did I switch to Lantus? I think it was 1999. Actually, it was right around the time that Lantus came to market. I was switched from using my intermediate acting insulin to Lantus insulin. And then and I had been switched to rapid acting before the change to Lantus. Okay, so I was using intermediate acting the cloudy along with rapid acting.

Scott Benner 15:55
Okay. I don't know, what was

Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:57
the first change? Oh,

Scott Benner 15:57
how old are you?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:00
We just said, I'm 47. I

Scott Benner 16:02
know. But why do I think of you as being? I think of you as being so much younger than me? I don't know why that is. But the data is because I've got younger

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:10
kids. Maybe. Maybe that is it. You know, I mean, my husband and I just we did a lot of other things before we had kids. And a lot of people do it the opposite way. They get married, and they're like, let's have kids and we just didn't do it that way.

Scott Benner 16:24
I don't know why, like, if you're telling me the times, and you're like, you know, in 1999 I'm thinking 1999. Kelly was pregnant. Like, Cole, I'm like, This is crazy, but I look at you and I'm like, but she definitely said she was 47. So I'm like I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:38
did. Yes. In fact, 99 is Gosh, 99 is when my husband and I got married. Oh, wow.

Scott Benner 16:45
Okay. Yeah. This is my fault. Forgive i for getting married too early. I'm throwing off the balance of this conversation. Not you. We were still young, we got married. Really? Okay, so you see, you're covering carbs. It doesn't change doesn't change what you're eating. You're still eating. But what I'm what I'm going to call like a very like 1950s through 1980s Like American kind of blend of foods. Just blade some vegetables and starches, some protein chicken beef. Probably all that stuff was happening.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 17:21
Okay. Yes, absolutely. It was all and you know, growing up in the Midwest. I mean, our starchy things were typically typically potatoes, some noodles, rice occasionally. I wasn't really a big fan of rice as a kid anyway. But I would say more of my like, grainy kind of carby stuff was probably bread. We didn't have cereal was just not something my mom made or purchased. I mean, it was either oatmeal for breakfast or something like toast with peanut butter toast with eggs or you know, something like that for breakfast time. So yeah, I think what really changed was once I went to college, I didn't have to eat what my mom cooked anymore. And I am, I personally am not a meat eater outside of fish, okay, I don't enjoy me. I never did even as a kid. I would, I would have sat at the table for four hours trying to like choke down a burger. That was just not a preference of mine.

Scott Benner 18:35
Did they still give them to you.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 18:36
Of course. This is what you're eating.

Scott Benner 18:41
I want to gently set for an entire evening, five o'clock, six o'clock, seven o'clock, eight o'clock, nine o'clock in front of a plate of French cut green beans that I did not want to eat. And the colder they got, the more good. They were. And you know, I'd be like every 15 minutes. I could get one of these. I couldn't do it. And I remember waking up on a Saturday morning after that. And my mom bringing the green paints back to the tea.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 19:09
Oh, my parents never do that.

Scott Benner 19:11
I was like, Oh God, I'm never gonna eat again. Because like these green beans and and I think I just went into like full on like, I don't know how old I was a tantrum. Probably. I'm thinking I was just probably child abuse, you know, but as far as like a young, young teen, I was like crying. I was like, I can't eat these like you have no idea. I have such trouble with how some things feel in my mouth. Like I'm just not okay with how some things feel. So I wouldn't even know how they tasted like I couldn't get past the part where it's like It's touching. And so, but that's interesting that you didn't particularly like red meat.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 19:52
And as you say like a texture thing. I mean other other textures really. They don't bother me so much and fat I have textures that I really actually prefer in food. But maybe that was it. I mean, even just like thinking about eating meat, and I don't know why fish is so different. Maybe there's a moisture to fish or it's just a very it's definitely different, right? I've never had a problem with fish. But other meats I just saw I got to college

Scott Benner 20:21
last night. Oh, no, no, no, I'm dying to know because I now have some context for what it means to send a person with type one to college and it's not terrific. So

Jennifer Smith, CDE 20:29
yeah, for one, I learned that mom's home cooking with all of the measurement and the skill that my mom put into what literally went on my plate was very different once I was choosing things in the cafeteria.

Scott Benner 20:47
Freezy did you start like,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 20:49
I don't, I wouldn't say I went crazy. Because I was conscious of what I needed to do. Again, I had no CGM. I had no pomp. I went to college on MDI, and, and finger sticks, essentially, while I was doing a heck of a lot more finger sticks. To get more information, I still really kind of had to stick with what I knew about what my experience with food at home did to my blood sugar. And so I use that in terms of figuring out what to choose from the school cafeteria. I often in fact, by the end of my freshman year, I realized that the salad bar was probably my best friend. Okay. Because it was the easiest place to find things that were good in terms of what I saw happening in my blood sugar. And actually tasted like food.

Scott Benner 21:44
Type raise everyone, everyone who now is looking $14,000 a year in the face for room, board and food at a college. It's like great. So my son my son's senior year. He's he just he called us one day. He's like, I'm so sorry, I can't do this anymore. Can I start buying food outside of the cafeteria, but we had to pay for the food. Like you couldn't regardless. Yeah, you couldn't not pay for it. So I'm like, okay, like you don't even like you know, there's a few 1000 more dollars. I'm like, sure. Yeah, go ahead. He's like that. It's horrible. He's like, it's absolutely terrible. So when we took Oregon to college, and the cafeteria was so much nicer Arden's college than it was at Kohl's. We were so excited, like, Oh, she's gonna get real food. But the truth is, it's like she's eating at a cut rate restaurant. As far as blood sugars go every day. You know how people say like, oh, it's tough to go to a restaurant because you need so much more insulin for this food. Three times a day. That's the situation Arden has been in, like so much. So Jenny, that she contacted me a month ago and said, I'm gonna run out of insulin. And she's only there for a quarter. It was it was 10 weeks. And I sent her enough insulin to be like, plus to be off to be fine. Yeah. And she's like that we got to do something, I'm gonna run out of insulin. And I was like, okay. So I called the doctor. And I'm like, you know, I think this is what's going on. But how long did it take you to adjust to bolusing for that food? Because for the first five weeks Arden was there, I would get a lot of text that said, I'm working on it. I'm trying, you know what I mean? Like, and I'm like, No, I know. You are like I could see, you know, because isn't it interesting Nightscout. Like I can see she's Bolus thing. I can see what's happening and everything like that. But she was not having a lot of luck in the beginning. It took her a number of weeks to figure it out. She's finally starting to get it in her like last three weeks of this 10 weeks. And she's doing a good job now. But it took her a month and a half to learn how to Bolus for that food.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 23:52
It's definitely adjustment. I mean, while they're not, by any means the healthy choice, I figured out, or at least I think I did, you know, again, only having finger sticks. I figured out french fries, like at school. So when we would go and you know, food is one of those things that becomes very visibly a social piece of your life in college. If it wasn't in high school. It it definitely is there in college, and especially with the later evenings and like whatever else you're doing. Like who wants to eat carrot sticks when you're sitting around with your friends like studying, right? And so I guess those were some of the things in terms of I wouldn't have gotten that at home as much as I probably ate them at school. But the other things just ended up I figured out they they just weren't even worth it.

Scott Benner 24:47
I just I'm I think I'm watching art and follow the same path to work. There have been a couple of times that I'm like, Look, if you just tell me what you ate, I can help you adjust this and she's like, I don't want to tell you what I ate I'm okay. And I'm telling you, french fries are at the core of that. She's like, you know, you get there late at night all the food's not there anymore, but there's always french fries. Yeah, you know, and then I think you're right. Like, it's the end of a day they get around. They're her roommates, and they sit there and they've got friends. They're chatting and talking about boys and girls and whatever else. Yeah, and, and they're eating french fries. So. Alright, so you. I mean, you obviously made it through and you ate a pretty classic college cuisine. When do you become the Jenny I see before you before. When you become a woman who just says quinoa? Like it's just nothing like like it's a thing we all know about.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 25:50
It's a yummy grain for those of you who don't know. Although I think it's pretty mainstream at this point.

Scott Benner 25:57
I'm not saying that I'm saying that you say keen, while the way other people say chicken nuggets. Just flows. So do you get Do you meet your husband? Do you do like what shifts your eating style?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 26:13
I think? Well, certainly learning to cook for two. And be aware of another person's desires and like preferences in food makes a difference overall to especially when you're trying to follow a budget. I mean, my husband and I did not live together before we were married. So again, it's a, although we knew each other, you know, enough, obviously. Clearly, I wish together for a long time before we actually got married. But in terms of cooking for two people, again, that does shift some things, I think the biggest thing that I learned is that men can eat a heck of a lot of food. So when I'd sit down, I'm like eating, you know, the portion that I had gotten used to eating. I was like, I you're still hungry. Seriously, like what I don't understand, like, where are you putting all this food, you know, so from a visual or just a perspective of of, like my own management, that's something to kind of overcome is seeing what somebody else can eat compared to what you know, is works for you, as well as for your blood sugar control, and that kind of stuff. So I think in terms of what you what you see today, in what I choose, and what I talk about eating is definitely been like an evolution, right, right over our marriage in life with kids and all of that kind of stuff. And I think, while for a good portion of years before we had kids, I had made a lot of the changes that I currently, you know, still use in terms of food, I think it became even more important for me to improve. For the majority of the time once we had kids.

Scott Benner 28:07
Why do you think has to start thinking like, I want to teach these kids how to eat? Well?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 28:12
Yeah, yeah, really. And because, again, with all of the knowledge that I have, about what is in food, and not meaning bad stuff, but like, what's the value in food? Food is fuel, it's like putting gas in a car, right? So if you put in quality stuff, you're gonna get quality health out of it. Well, you know, yeah,

Scott Benner 28:38
so we'll mention that here. Because so when you're in college, what is it you're learning to do? Survive what you do for a living after?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 28:48
All right? And that, that, I guess, that's another big difference. You know, I went to college, knowing where I was going, I had a very clear, I thought it was a clear career path. I was going to go to school to be a dietitian. And then I knew that I wanted to move on and become a diabetes educator. And, you know, the road there, kind of windy and whatever happens, but I learned all those things along the way in college too. Whereas other tracks, I would have never been exposed to the information about nutrition and food and what it does in the body and human biology and physiology. I mean, all those things I would have never known about.

Scott Benner 29:31
Yeah, but it's still even though you learned it in college, it becomes a slower transition as an adult, right, you just start applying what you know, as you go. And correct. And so now

Jennifer Smith, CDE 29:42
well, and to put one more point to that in terms of saying, you know, I think it became more important to me and to really do that after we had kids was because I know what kids aren't taught in school, especially where I really think that needs to begin in terms of overall healthy lifestyle. Some of that information in science alone could easily be taught in terms of this is why you eat an apple, or these are the main food groups and then expanding kind of every year so that children grow into well rounded lifestyle

Scott Benner 30:21
and health consumers really

Jennifer Smith, CDE 30:23
consumer. Yeah, exactly.

Scott Benner 30:27
So, so you're trying to it's interesting, isn't it? Like most of the people I talked to on this podcast, when they make big life leaps? It's almost always for somebody else. Almost always, they almost always say, Well, you know, I was getting by with my agency in the 80s. But I got married, and I started thinking, like, I want to be healthy for our relationship, or I'm gonna have kids, so I gotta lower my UNC or, like, that kind of stuff. Right? It's interesting.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 30:53
And I think something there too, in terms of asked, you know, well, we ended up bigger shift to like what I'm doing now kind of happen, it actually happened right before we were planning to, like, try to have kids, I started to see a naturopathic doctor. And which they're amazing. If you find the right person, I mean, the amount of time that they spend with you, and the really in depth that they look at your life and kind of everything that works together. It's, it's really amazing. But just some of the things that I brought to the table in terms of concerns. I mean, besides type one diabetes, I also have rheumatoid arthritis, which is really well managed. And but some of the things that I learned from this practitioner changed some of the ways and some of the things that I ended up, including in my diet, okay, because we did some allergy testing, and we did some sensitivity, you know, evaluation and kind of, like, how do you feel when you eat this food, like a gut health kind of analysis and all that sort of stuff? So I did, I made some really good transitions from that into kind of where I currently am and I've stuck with, you know, 99% of those shifts and changes do you think

Scott Benner 32:05
because your your, I mean, I think of your diabetes, as well managed throughout your life, for whatever the management style was at the time, right, your your returns, your agencies, and that kind of stuff fit in a healthy a healthy level for whatever the management was at the time. So how much of your eating is about the RA? Is is like are there things you're trying to avoid for that?

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Jennifer Smith, CDE 37:09
The biggest thing, honestly, that I I find affects how I manage it. And when I know I've had more than what I can kind of tolerate is cow's milk dairy.

Scott Benner 37:25
Okay, that's,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 37:26
that's the biggest thing. I mean, I went through all of the different like, sort of you you take foods out of your diet, you evaluate you add some things back to see how you react to some things. I mean, many times RAs are also very sensitive to what are called the nightshade vegetables, things like peppers and tomatoes and eggplant and that kind of stuff. And I ate a heck of a lot of tomatoes. And I see no difference whatsoever. When I did my food kind of elimination sort of plan. The biggest shift was definitely around dairy specifically, again, cow's milk based, because I can do like the cheeses that I will buy or either sheep's milk or goat's milk again. I don't eat them every day. They don't bother me if and when I do eat them. But I can tell like, if we go out for pizza. There's like real cheese on the pizza. I mean, even though I don't eat the whole pizza, I can tell the next day that I'm stiff. Okay. I can tell in my joints quickly that I've had dairy.

Scott Benner 38:30
Yeah, that's really interesting. So so so Okay, so let's let's go into the homestretch with, let's kind of go through one of your weeks and really find out how you eat so Okay, let's just start today because you've, you've woken up today already what you have for breakfast.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 38:46
So I had raspberries from my mom, my mom's garden. So they were frozen raspberries. Obviously. It's freezing outside right now. There are no raspberries left on the bushes.

Scott Benner 38:59
I want to be clear, you met your mom pick the raspberries earlier froze them and you ate them that they froze overnight with the temperature.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 39:06
Correct? Yes, absolutely. So frozen raspberries. And then I had a it's a sheep's milk yogurt with it. And then there is a really awesome grain free granola that I like it's made by nature's path. And that's literally what it's called is grain free granola. So I mix that all together and I had that this morning. I mean other breakfasts are typically like old fashioned oats, a small amount and then I use things like chia and hemp seed and ground flax, some coconut oil and cinnamon. spoonful of like nut butter in it, mix it all together.

Scott Benner 39:47
How many carbs do you think your average breakfast is?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 39:51
Yeah, I can absolutely tell you so for my breakfast I had this morning. I count 18 grams for it. For my typical oatmeal Well, I count 26 grams for that.

Scott Benner 40:03
Okay, do you see spikes?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 40:07
Not unless I have a bad site. Or sometimes when I know it's a couple of days before I get my site, my period, I'm more prone to potentially having more of a rise up after the oatmeal. It doesn't typically happen with the the granola and the berries. So,

Scott Benner 40:32
yeah. Do you ever get up in the morning on a Saturday and go crazy? Do you ever make a stack of pancakes or french toast or bacon or something like that?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 40:42
I I wouldn't have bacon, but I get what you mean. Yeah, we we do pancakes. But again, the pancakes that I make are tend to do much lower carb, lower glycemic pancake. And my kids don't. They don't complain about them. They eat them. So does my husband. So I'm like, Well, I'm gonna cook them the way that I cook them because they're good for me. And so clearly, they're good for them too. I mean, I usually use like an almond flour and a coconut flour. I've got a couple of good recipes that I follow. I might put some pumpkin puree in them or some of what's the lily brand like the low sugar like mini chocolate chips kind of in maple syrup. I just don't I don't even eat. I don't eat honey. real maple syrup. I figure why. And that's just my choice. You know? Do you like your maple syrup, have it but I usually use the Lecanto maple syrup, which works really nice and it doesn't affect my blood sugar. So I have to say,

Scott Benner 41:47
I don't love maple syrup either. If I'm not we use like a low carb syrup on the house. I think we use Karis most of the time.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 41:56
Yeah, that's a that's a common one. Yeah.

Scott Benner 41:58
And, but if I, I'm, I'm perfectly happy with it. Like, it doesn't bother me at all. If I'm gonna go crazy with syrup, which might happen once or twice a year, I want like, I don't know, I want something that could also be like motor oil or something like that. Like, when you're when you're eating it, you're like, This isn't even a natural flavor at all. Like I'm in a diner where we're all going to die. When was the? And even at that, it's like, wow, it's a lot. I can't really do a lot of that. And I'm saying, We haven't made a ton of adjustments to I mean, you know, I guess I'll do an episode one day about how I eat. But I grew up very badly around food. Like nobody understood food around me. And my wife and I took us years to our 20s to like even make sense of like, fire we I still joke my wife is like, I shouldn't say this here. But my wife like is like, the sheets like she's homeless. And she's happy about it. Like, like, we have, like we have 10 cents in the bank is how she eats and that's when she's happiest. But she grew up broke. And eating that way. And I don't know, it just it's what occurs to her, you know. But anyway, my question and the reason I brought that up is your kids have your palate, do you think you taught it to them? Or do you think that it was theirs all along? And you just met them there?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 43:23
That's a really as a good question, because I I don't know, I think some of it might have transitioned from what I ate while I was pregnant. Because, you know, broccoli for a really good example. Broccoli is both of my kids will always eat broccoli, they will eat it steamed, they will eat it raw, they will always eat broccoli out of any of the vegetables. And I think it's because whether this is true or not, I think it's because it was one of the few vegetables in both pregnancies in my first trimester that I could actually stomach. Okay. And I eat a lot of steamed broccoli with Dijon mustard. That's what that very well for me. Why I know that's very bizarre, but that's what worked. And as soon as they introduced it, you know, once they started doing like table foods and that kind of stuff. They had no complaints. It didn't come out of their mouth. So maybe some of it is but I think some of its learned Yeah,

Scott Benner 44:25
I don't want to make you feel sad. But Kelly was pregnant with call and she had a very her palate while she was pregnant with Cole was very clean and healthy. And Cole is it's more like a boy. You know what I mean? But with Arden Kelly a crap like a lot of like for some of it and art and eats very, very well. Like like art and art is the one who's like, well, I'll sit and eat carrots or I'll do this right. You

Jennifer Smith, CDE 44:52
know, like, do you think some of that though for Arden is relative to such an early diagnosis.

Scott Benner 44:57
But I will gently I didn't Oh, like the the person who you're talking to now is not the person who grabbed that two year old baby was like diabetes, okay? Like, I mean, we were, you know,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 45:08
I was theater carrot.

Scott Benner 45:10
We didn't go that way, like I spent two years going like why can't I figure out how to Bolus for cereal, you know, like, like, like what you see online people are just like, I didn't adjust at all. And it didn't occur to me at first. Because like I said, we didn't grow up well around food that some of these foods were better than others or whatever. I mean, I know now and excuse me, we made you know, adjustments. My first big adjustment as a parent was not buying frozen chicken nuggets. That was the that was my first lightbulb moment. I thought like if I'm gonna give these kids chicken nuggets, why the Hold on I go get some chicken and bread in the oven and give it to them. Right and, and I did that, like if it wasn't easy, because by then they knew what um, like a nugget was from McDonald's or from a frozen bag and it was cut like a dinosaur or something like that. So at first they're like, this isn't chicken. I was like, oh, god, look what I've done to you. You know what I mean? Like, like, you don't think chicken is chicken. You think whatever that crap is this chicken. Okay, so, alright, so you will have a splurge. But your sport stays more in a clean lane.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 46:20
For the most part, yes. And a splurge really, like we're talking about breakfast foods. And again, we don't we don't eat out very often. But there's this place here. It's called short stack. It is if I'm gonna get pancakes out that are not by any means. anywhere close to being low carb or low glycemic or anything at all. I mean, it's it's served with like this sweet mascarpone sort of like yumminess on the side with strawberries. They're probably the healthiest thing on this plane. But they're super they're they're like these Oat. They're oat pumpkin. Pancakes. Sweet potato pancakes. They are. They are the best pancake I have ever had. Honestly. In fact, after my my second son was born, the next morning they came in and they asked they're like, Well, what do you want? I'm like, oh, no, my husband's gone out. And he's

Scott Benner 47:21
so the guys bringing it in? Yeah.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 47:26
So, you know, splurge? Absolutely. I will.

Scott Benner 47:30
But, but but I like you telling the story because you splurge on pancakes. You're not at IHOP you're not like Yeah, right. Jenny made a face that you guys can see that said Oh god, no. So okay, so

Jennifer Smith, CDE 47:44
for people who are like I have I just Yeah, I wouldn't choose it.

Scott Benner 47:48
So So lunch today, what are you going to do?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 47:51
So lunch today is typically vegetables. I mean, I usually have some type of raw vegetables, cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, carrots, and cabbage chopped up hummus. This time of the year I really like sauerkraut. Usually an apple or again some berries.

Scott Benner 48:20
What do you think? Carbs? I mean, I can try guessing.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 48:25
Yeah, my vegetables in the portion that I eat I count 10 grams for my portion of vegetables raw vegetable, they have about a cup and a half ish of raw vegetables. And the hummus I know because the labels right on the container with 11 grams of carb. And then my apple I weigh it because the apples we have are still from the orchard and we picked and so I mean the Apple could be really teeny tiny or could be like the ginormous huge. You could like softball sides, right? So I weigh it. But on on average my lunch is with the with the apple, probably somewhere between 28 and 35 grams of carb. Okay.

Scott Benner 49:12
Yeah. You don't consider yourself low carb at all right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 49:15
I don't know. No, in fact, I'm not. I am not worried about I don't aim for a certain amount under carb amount to certainly eat. I also am not, you know, the opposite end high high carb either. I would say I'm more consistently my daily intake is probably somewhere between 80 grams, 7580 grams on the low end to maybe 110 to 120 grams on the high end. That's crazy.

Scott Benner 49:49
I mean, that's a lot more than than then I was imagining how long it's like. Yeah, sorry. That was more than I was imagining. So you got So close, I have a word written down here. As I started today, I'm like, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna see if Jenny says this word, right? You have not said it yet, but you got so close, I'm gonna go, I'll tell you what the end. Okay, I got so close, it's still might happen. So we'll say, okay, so middle of the day, your is kind of your lighter meal

Jennifer Smith, CDE 50:21
of middle of the day tends to be my lighter meal. Now that's on a week, day, weekends, especially Sundays will tend to be a little bit heavier probably on lunch. Mainly because, and I again, it's not necessarily a conscious effort, I just know from experience what I can get away with at certain times, right? So my weekday is tend to be you like lower impact type of meal mid day, because I'm most often while I have a desk treadmill, which is awesome. It's still real low pace. And otherwise, I'm just sitting or standing here. And some by mid day, even though I exercise in the morning, and still been sitting or standing around. Right and so I also I usually have a couple of hours of work to still do after my lunch. So I tend to do something that I know is going to be easier.

Scott Benner 51:22
So it's it's fair to say that you match where some people would match a meet with a wine you're matching a meal with your activity level.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 51:32
Yes, exactly. Like for Sunday's then these are usually my long run days. I go for a long run in the morning. And so the whole rest of the day I can kind of quote unquote get away with a little bit more because I've got just a much heightened much more heightened sensitive. kind of stay.

Scott Benner 51:54
Okay, all right. So what's for dinner tonight?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 51:59
Oh, you know dinner tonight. I haven't planned yet.

Scott Benner 52:02
That's dinner last night. I'll make it easier for

Jennifer Smith, CDE 52:05
ya. So dinner last night was a corn squash and like a mixed green vegetable kind of salad. I made a Caesar dressing to go on top of it. And then we had salmon.

Scott Benner 52:18
Okay. And the kids boom. Or you have young boys. Acorns their acorn squash cut in half in the oven. Little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. That's that idea for that.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 52:29
Yeah, my boys like them. I do it with a little bit of like more savory seasoning on like a sage and kind of like a mixed season. My husband I like it that way. My boys really like it with cinnamon and a little bit of coconut oil on because it gives it a little bit of its a sweeter kind of flavor to it. So they like it that way but yeah, they they love they love the acorn squash the delicata my littlest. He really loves spaghetti squash. He thinks it's so fun that when you scrape it out that it looks like new Italy.

Scott Benner 53:04
Do you guys need any pasta?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 53:06
Yeah, we do. And the pasta that we typically eat is like the bonza type of pasta, the lentil or the chickpea type of pasta. The one that I really like, because it's the lowest impact is the Explore Asia brand. It's made either black bean or edamame a or I think they've got a green bean one. But I mean a really good like cup cup and a half cooked portion. It comes out once you kind of reduce it by the fiber amount. It's only like 10 or 11 grams of carb for a really big plate of pasta. So I will often do something like that on a weekday type of dinner where I'll give my kids the bonza Prost pasta, which got some good protein quality to it. I'll do the other one and just good marinara and a salad on the side. It's really nice complete meal.

Scott Benner 53:58
Okay, yeah, I was gonna say cuz you don't do any cream sauces, right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 54:02
I don't do any cream sauces unless I make them myself more from like a vegan kind of approach. Like if I have a really good recipe that's got like a cashew nut, you sort of soak it in blended and puree it and make it into like a creamy kind of sauce. It's very tasty. You wouldn't couldn't imagine there's no dairy in it. But

Scott Benner 54:21
as you're talking, I'm thinking I am going to get notes where people say Jenny should write a cookbook with all of her recipes in it.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 54:28
I have been asked that. So why don't you put all the things that you eat together into this really nice cookbook and as like, if somebody could just keep notes for me? Sure.

Scott Benner 54:40
Let me ask you a question. If we're driving the Jenny families in the car, we're going to another state we're visiting people whatever we pull over on the side of the road everyone's hungry. Do you bring food with you? Or are you in a gas station going I guess I can eat this ring thing.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 54:58
I know I have to credit my Mom with this, whether it's made my life busier or not, I am definitely the parent that will pack. They pack things that I know, not only snackable depending on how long the trip is, but also if we're going to be on the road over a meal time. Because usually one I know that by the time you end up stopping someplace, you're usually over hungry. Yeah. Right. And then you're more likely going to make the Ring ding choice than something else. And so I packed I packed not only from my only my benefit in terms of driving and the sedentary nature and what that does to blood sugar. I know what the foods that I've packed do for me. And I can also we don't actually have to stop. I mean, not as much as

Scott Benner 55:55
we used to get a bathroom. That sounds like a great, that'd be fabulous. Yeah. It sounds like it would be fabulous. right until you realize that one of the people in the car was going number two while you were driving. Thank you. Maybe this isn't fabulous.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 56:09
Not a good idea.

Scott Benner 56:10
You have a couple more minutes or do you have to go? Oh, of course. Yes. Okay, so, snacks. I mean, I've we've said on here before it's funny. We kind of said when Arden was looking for different ice cream. You You pointed her towards oat milk ice cream, but she she loves now. Which is fascinating because before she tried, she didn't love real sweet stuff. Like if you know Arden she's Arden's not about like real sugary stuff. So she was like using the lenti at some point, like a brand and she's like, this is still too much. Like she's not the kind of kid who's gonna eat like Ben and Jerry's. You know, she might have a spoonful of it, but she's not going to go crazy. But when she when you told her about the oat milk ice cream, like that was a big deal for her. Oh, yeah, she loved it. So when you're snacking, this is kind of the lane you're in. I'm imagining. So I want you to just kind of throw out a few snacky things that you have around the house for yourself.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 57:07
nuts, nuts. That sound weird nuts.

Scott Benner 57:12
Nuts in your mouth. Jenny is your business.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 57:16
Yes, no, I like mix nuts. I think they're, they're great. Boiled eggs are really awesome. Some of the mug like sort of the mug cake or mug muffin kinds of recipes are pretty good. Actually found one the other day that's really super yummy. It's like a, it's like pumpkin pie in a mug without the crossed. Okay,

Scott Benner 57:38
it is brand thing or you made it yourself.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 57:41
Oh, you make it yourself. It's like pumpkin pumpkin puree, like out of a can not up not the pie stuff, the stuff without sugar added to it. And it's an egg, some baking powder, some vanilla extract, and a no sugar sweetener of your choice. Like I just use the vanilla stevia to sweeten it. A pinch of salt. And I think that's it and then you literally like mix it all up in the mug and you put it in the microwave for three minutes. It is it's so yummy. It's like it all the carb that's in there is the portion of pumpkin pie that you put in comes to eight grams of carb.

Scott Benner 58:19
All right, I'm gonna ask you to send me that when I'm gonna try that. I want to try. Okay, good for ya. Because, like, for instance, if we've just got past Halloween here, there's no bowl of candy corn in your house. Is that right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 58:34
There's no bowl of candy corn, there's no bowl of candy. We just don't. Not from my perspective, because I I'm an adult decisionwise I can choose or not choose right. But I just don't think it's necessary to have that as a potential option. I mean, if you really want to go into also why we don't have any Halloween candy despite it not being very long ago and our kids having come home with like four buckets full of of Halloween candy. Our children got to pick five pieces that were chocolate. Not the like sugar, you know, sugar stuff. I mean, not that the chocolate doesn't have sugar but and then I paid them to give me their candy, which they were all excited. I was like these are your options. You're not eating all this candy. That's just how it is. It's going out of the house but if you willingly give us then I will pay you each this amount of money and you can use it as you like for something you want. Where did the candy go? Oh, the candy went. My husband plays soccer. So he took it to the soccer field for one of his games and he just left it there. Okay. We brought like the Rubbermaid just like plastic things and we put it in a couple of them and we left them on the tables there and they're adults, they can make a choice right

Scott Benner 1:00:00
sec. Okay, so a lot of this really is then about options in front of you. Yes, like you, there's no way for you to have a bad day, I'm making quotes and put my fingers in your house. Like you can't you couldn't get up today and just be like, I'm gonna go find some sugary candy that doesn't exist in the house. I'm gonna like, that stuff's just not there. Right? I could

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:00:23
choose to over eat some of the things that are here. Absolutely. I mean, if I chose to eight, chose to eat, you know, eight apples in a row. Clearly that bad day

Scott Benner 1:00:34
impact. So let me ask you this question. If I picked you up, and took you to someone else's life, where today you got up in the morning, and had a bowl of cereal, and at lunch, you had a sandwich on bread, and there were potato chips with it. And it dinner? I don't know what you have like that. Could you Bolus for all that for your body? Do you think?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:00:55
Having enough experience? I could? Yes. Yeah. I mean, I could, I could figure it out. Obviously, just having hindsight from having stuff like that in the past. I mean, we've had, you know, family gatherings and whatnot, which I haven't obviously put all of the work into all of the food that comes to something like that. So I do have to make choices. And certainly will I indulge? Absolutely. At certain points in time? I don't make it regular though, right. It's like, what's in our house and what I choose to eat, and what I choose to kind of prepare and what not for our family is like 80 to 90% of that is its fuel, it's what should be going in to my body. And I can tell a difference in how I feel, depending on what I eat not only blood sugar wise, just in general, you know?

Scott Benner 1:01:46
I'm guessing on to the in between meals, you're not overly hungry, right? No, no. Okay, I'm not weird carved desires and stuff like that, because you haven't been eating that stuff to begin with that kind of sugary stuff that wires your brain to say, like, go get more

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:02:02
true. I mean, at times when I do want something like chocolate again, I do more like real dark chocolate is absolutely like my favorite. So but I don't eat again, it might be here, but I'm not eating the whole entire bar or 20 pieces of it. I just don't need that. And the one little piece that I do eat might have, for me, you know, something like three or four grams of carb. I don't even have to Bolus for that. I mean, it is what it is. Somebody else may have to obviously cover and considerate, but

Scott Benner 1:02:35
sound work that way. So two more questions for you. My first one is that through your life, you haven't, I'm assuming had to worry much about your weight, like your body style stayed fairly consistent.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:02:47
It has, I would say that the time period that I probably gained the most, which is not odd, I'm quite sure you can guess it was in college. I mean, it just was right. My activity level change even though as we're walking around campus and playing like rec volleyball, it still was just very different. I think that this shift in your sleep schedule, and I'm sure the french fries didn't help me.

Scott Benner 1:03:14
Tries just tape them right on your thighs, don't even yourself. But I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:03:18
think outside of that, no. And that's certainly while I work to stay healthy. I haven't thankfully been somebody who has struggled with weight, right? And whether it's because I've just paid attention to what my body wants, and I feed it. And I do good things with what I'm feeding it. I also learned pretty early on because of because the manner of instruction that I started with when I was first diagnosed was very tied to portion. Yeah, it was this amount is this much. This is why you need it. And again, today, not a lot of portion is really taught outside of just how many grams of carbs in the portion, right?

Scott Benner 1:04:04
I can't tell you like I clearly don't eat as well as you do. But how often I see things people are eating. And I think it's like how do you eat all that? Like, I don't understand how you can like, like, physically the amount, even with liquids. One of the reasons I don't think I drink is because when I see somebody drink three or four beers and like, I couldn't drink three or four cups of water like that, like how are you doing that? You know, I'm impressed by it. Honestly, I'm like, how do you get that in? I can't do it. So yeah, so my last question to you is, obviously with what you do for a living. You're helping people who eat in all varied ways. Even though you and I don't really ever talk about it. I assume we're like minded and as much as that I just want people to know how to use the insulin for what they're eating. Like I'm not I'm I'm not here telling anybody how to eat like I know. I don't imagine that's the thing you could do for A for a stranger through a podcast one way or the other. So. So then, do you feel like, like, are you almost like a video game character with your, your understanding of diabetes like these are like, I'm imagining a spinning dial on you and I hit D and the dial pops up. And I spin it around to like high carb, low carb, vegetarian, like, and you're like, Oh, I know how to think like this. Do you think of it that way? Like, when you get a person on the phone, you don't I'm saying?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:05:30
Yeah, no, that's absolutely, because I think I've worked with so many different fueling plans, if you will, right. And it's great that you bring in, you know, we're not really about talking, you should always be eating this one way, the idea is really just navigating management. And that's how I approach any new person that I work with, right? You have these options, this is likely to potentially be a little bit easier if we swip swap do this versus this or a little bit more of this a little bit less of that kind of thing. But everybody has an eating style. And it's my job to help you. If that's really what you want to keep doing great, then we need to figure out how to navigate that and make sure you know your glucose is staying where you want it to stay and your insulin is well managed or your other meds are well managed. So that's, I guess that's an interesting like, spin the dial and it comes up this person wants to be vegan. So then my brain sort of Yes, absolutely. It sort of navigates into like my vegan train of thought like, what, what do I have to consider? Where are you getting your nutrients from? Are you getting enough of these vitamins and whatnot? Absolutely.

Scott Benner 1:06:39
I mean, I think that a lot of my skill comes from the fact that we mix and match so many different kinds of food styles at the same time. Like Like, that's where my that's when I see a food I'm like, well, that's a slow impacting carbon. That's a quick impact the I think that's why I'm good at Chinese food and things like that, because I don't look at it as I don't know I don't look at general, the general chicken and think Oh, general chicken, I think sauce. Deep fried breading you you're breaking it down. Yeah, in my mind. I break it down into different thoughts. So it's, I mean, in my mind, if you're eating generals chicken as an example, you're eating four different things. 3d, you're eating protein breading fat, and sugar. Like that's, that's how it seems to me. I don't think of it as chicken. I know that if you put like rice on top of it, I think okay, well, if this is white rice, it's one thing if it's fried rice, it's different. You know, like, I don't know, like, it just that just makes sense to me. But if Arden ate more like you, like say Arden just came out of the womb, like I'm gonna say the word that you didn't say, Jenny, I'm so let down. You didn't say this word. Oh, that was a quinoa.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:07:50
Do you want me to say quinoa? I

Scott Benner 1:07:52
was just say kimchi.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:07:54
Kimchi. Oh my gosh, I love kimchi. I can't show you when I commented about sauerkraut before I'm

Scott Benner 1:08:02
that's I haven't written right here. So I wrote down kimchi when we started. And when you said sauerkraut, I wrote down sauerkraut. She got so close.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:08:11
Oh, I'm so sorry. Yeah, we have. It's funny because we've got friends around the corner from us. That are our little boys are the same age and are in school together. And they make kimchi and it's it's so good. Like, so so good. My mom who makes sauerkraut, which is probably the reason that we've got a lot of it right now because we just

Scott Benner 1:08:32
that sounds good. I love sauerkraut. I've never had kimchi. Although I was in a store the other day, I saw a jar. And I thought if I didn't know, Jenny, it would look to me like somebody threw a handful of grass and weeds in this jar. But instead I know what.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:08:48
Oh, good. I'm so glad that I provided some education.

Scott Benner 1:08:50
Well, not only that, you know, I'll tell you this before I let you go. I saw someone online the other day, who said I had a banana but it was overripe. So I had to Bolus more for it. And I thought she knows that from the podcast. And she knows that from Jenny. And I was very proud of that. Like I really was I was like oh, this is wonderful. So that's super awesome. I appreciate you sharing with us with all this how you eat this is gonna go into the how we eat category.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:09:18
Fantastic. I'm sure there are things that I don't even know if I missed saying anything. I don't know. I

Scott Benner 1:09:23
mean, no, but I think the important thing about the conversation is it's a vibe, right like here's what I didn't hear you say I didn't hear you telling me that you eat anything deep fried. I didn't hear you very rare. Yeah right. I didn't hear you tell me that you have processed sugar. I didn't hear like you know that kind of stuff like that's the you know, I didn't hear you telling me I eat like this unless I ended up you know at the store and then all bets are off or something like that. You know you I heard you tell me how you eat when you get away from your house. I heard you told me that you don't go to a lot of restaurants. See, that's how I mean, this is how you eat. You know what I mean? Like, it doesn't fit into a category. You're not low carb, you're not flexitarian you're not, you know,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:10:10
I don't write i, this is like Jenny's fuel plan. follow you, right? I don't fall into a category. I mean, if we go out to eat, we've we've picked some places that both Nathan and I have decided are just, they're really good options. You know, I mean, there's a place here that it's a really good like, salad place that's got really good quality, super awesome stuff that you can that our boys even love. Like they love to make their build their own salad from the options. And so those are more the places that we will often go.

Scott Benner 1:10:47
I didn't hear a lot, a lot, a lot of white flour. Like that sounds like something you don't get.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:10:53
I don't know. In fact, I think the last time I had white flour was probably sourdough bread this past summer that we had when we were we had gone to see Nathan's dad and his stepmother, and she made some good homemade sourdough. And I was like, Can I have a piece of that? Yeah, that sounds no good. I'd like that. Yes, that sounds

Scott Benner 1:11:17
good. Yeah, I listen, I made chocolate chip cookies the other day that are just kind of sitting downstairs. And I realized that as a, as a younger person, if somebody would have made a batch of chocolate chip cookies, I probably would have eaten lunch every time I walked past that. And I don't feel like that anymore. And I don't know if that's because I'm older, or if it's because I don't eat as much of that to begin with anymore. And so I'm not drawn to it the way I was like, There's part of me that thinks that I didn't have a chance. I woke up on Monday morning, I ate a bowl of sugary cereal. And that drove my desire throughout the day. Nobody made a meal to send with me somewhere. So even as an at 19 or 20 year old out of, you know, out of high school and on my way to work, I'd stop it like a store and grab, by the way what I could afford, which was never quality either. You know, like so there's, and then you're sort of, I don't know, like, it's like you're trapped in a in a hurricane that at that point that you just kind of can't break out of the walls of anymore. Like this is the world like my body desires this sugar, and flour, because this is what I can afford to eat. Even if I get afford more because when I got older and we could afford more, I didn't know what to do. Right? You don't I mean, I wasn't like, oh, we have some money now. I'll go buy good things. I didn't know what good things were versus bad things. No one even thought about it that that? Yeah. So I don't know. It was interesting to hear your path through all this. Your parents or your body style ish?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:12:53
Um, my dad was more. He was more the exercise. person in our house. Definitely. I mean, he's the one that got me interested in biking. My mom, now older is a little issues heavier than she was growing up. But yeah, I mean, in terms of body size, I don't have tall parents. And I didn't have extremely big parents by any means.

Scott Benner 1:13:27
It was my situation where I, when I'm with my children, people don't think they're my kids. Like we were able to do the thing that you were worried about, to some degree, like we were able to take our kids and like lift them out of the swamp that we grew up in, and kind of throw them up on the shore. And we're like, I mean, they still eat things that I wish they didn't eat. And I and I know that's because we eat those things like or that they brought around the house when they were younger before we wrapped our head around completely, you know, but for the most part, I mean, on any baseball field, or softball field I've ever been on, when people come up to you and they're meeting you and they're like, is that your kid? People always like point to the I don't know how to say this. Like the fattest kid on the team know if that's your kid there. And I'm like, I'm like no, my son's that. Gizelle and centerfield. And then they're like, Oh, I know your wife slept with the mailman. I understand that Kelly said all the time, people would come up to her at a softball game and point to the catcher and say is that your daughter? And Kelly be like, No, that's my skinny girl at third base. Are you there? Yeah. And so like that, but you match like if you stood with your family you guys all look at the reason I'm bringing

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:14:43
we would look much more visibly, I guess facially much more similar than body type like my I got the short jeans in the family. I did. I mean my brother's like six to

Scott Benner 1:14:57
I'd love to like, Yeah,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:14:59
I'm like, you know Five, three, I didn't get the tall jeans.

Scott Benner 1:15:03
I just think that what I'm hearing from your story is that your mother was willing to cook and do a good job of that, and your father was active. And you kind of took those two things and blended them together. And I'm gonna guess that you ended up in nutrition or health care, which I think of being a nutritionist as healthcare, because you had diabetes, right? Like you probably grew up with people taking care of you that you I mean, I hear it all the time. So

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:15:30
I did it became an interest after after I realized what a what I thought was a really good job that my dietitian, especially diabetes educator, like, I never felt like I couldn't do something. After I was diagnosed, like I never I've never had this. Well, God, I like this has just been so horrible my whole entire life. I mean, would I give it away? If somebody was like, Here? Take this pill and you don't have to? I'd be like, Sure. Give me the pill. Tomorrow or, you know what a ring the I don't think it's like a doughnut, right?

Scott Benner 1:16:12
It's, I don't know what it is. It's chocolate with chocolate cake with like white cream and chocolate icing around the outside. Okay, there

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:16:18
you go. Yes. I'm assuming you would take a bite.

Scott Benner 1:16:21
You'd go. Oh my God, that's insane. And then you would never eat. I'm at the point. Now, by the way, were processed foods. Tastes plasticky to me. Yeah. But when I was growing up, I didn't know the difference between them. Sure. I thought that was sweet. And now I'm like, This isn't good. You know? Or if you get if you took me to McDonald's, for example, I understand what a McDonald's cheeseburger tastes like. But I don't match that in my I haven't had a McDonald's cheeseburger in a really long time. But if I had one, like, I know what I think it tastes like right now in my head. But if you asked me what a McDonald's cheeseburger tastes like, I would tell you that it tastes like a McDonald's cheeseburger. Not like that, like a cheeseburger. Yeah. So I didn't have that. I didn't have those measurements in my head when I was younger. I thought that's what a cheeseburger was. Sure, yeah, yeah.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:17:10
There was always a like, I can probably count on two hands. The number of times as a kid we went to like McDonald's or Hardee's was like card theme. You know, but I don't even think that I've ever had a McDonald's cheeseburger. Because I didn't I didn't like I always chose the fish was the fillet of fish. It's called fillet

Scott Benner 1:17:31
o fish, I believe fillet o fish, Diego. I would tell you that I haven't had one in years, except once. And it was like six months ago. And Arden and I were out late. She had a bit of blood sugar. That wouldn't like it just wouldn't break. And when we finally got it to break, and she had missed dinner, and everything was gone. And it was like midnight. And I was like Arden. Like we are going Yeah. And so we sat like, like to giddy children in the dry like outside the drive thru like EDA. God, this is terrible. And it was, but it was really good. And it was terrible at the same time. And so I don't know, it was just something. All right, I appreciate you doing this with me very much. Thanks for asking. Everything you need to know about Jenny was just in the inflection and her voice when I said thanks for doing this with me. And she said of course. Thanks for asking. That's who Jenny is. She's delightful. Let's thank Jenny of course and remind you that she works at integrated diabetes.com. If you'd like to hire her, you can also want to thank Omni pod makers of the Omni pod dash and the Omni pod five and remind you to go to Omni pod.com forward slash juice box Do not delay go now. Find out if you're eligible for that free 30 day supply of the Omni pod dash. I'd also like to thank my other sponsor in pen from Medtronic diabetes and remind you to head over to Impend today.com Ford slash juice box alright everybody, that's it. I am time shot. I gotta be honest with you. I haven't felt well in weeks. And this took a lot out of me. But I'm happy happy happy that you're here with me. And I will not die I promise. Even though it is trying to kill me. First the COVID then I got rid of the COVID then bronchitis then I got rid of the bronchitis. Now, I don't even know what this is. This just seems cruel at this point. But uh, I will not be I will not be thwarted. I am a little woozy. And I'm hot. But I won't I will not be third party. Sorry. I will not be the word. I will make this podcast. It will I will not be stopped. I want to feel better so badly and get this. I'm not nearly as sick as my wife. That poor girl. She's told me Stover, you know what I mean? Like, she's beat up. It's crazy. As soon as I feel better, and I mean, as soon as I feel better, I got to start doing the setups because I need somebody to take care of these kids. And you don't I mean, it's not looking good. You guys can hear the sarcasm, right? I mean, she's really sick, but I don't think she's gonna pass. But seriously, really, really sick. If you've been ill with all this. You have my you have my compassion. All right, everybody. Here I go watch this. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. I got it when I need it.

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