Scott Benner 6/24/23 Scott Benner 6/24/23

#939 When A Stranger Calls

Brittany has type 1 diabetes and is 6 months pregnant.

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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 939 of the Juicebox Podcast

Brittany is an adult living with type one diabetes who was six months pregnant when we made this recording. My note at the end tells me this episode is very funny. And that's what I'm going to tell you about it. Britney's cool. She's a special education teacher. And she's funny. She recorded this in our car, I think, Oh, actually, she definitely did. She recorded this episode in her car on her lunch break. I hope you enjoy it. While you're listening today, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan, or becoming bold with insulin. Let's see 10% off your first month of therapy@betterhelp.com forward slash juice box 35% off your entire order at cozy earth.com with the offer code juice box at checkout. And a free one year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs is what you get with your first order at athletic greens.com forward slash Juicebox. Podcast. today's podcast is sponsored by me. And I choose to tell you about the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook 40,000 members, over 110 new posts every day. There's a conversation happening right now in the private group for this podcast that you would be interested in. So head over right now to facebook and join that group is absolutely free. I know you're gonna like it Juicebox Podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook. For those of you looking for the series, like bold beginnings or defining thyroid, they're all in the featured tab of that private Facebook group. But if you're not on Facebook, check them out at juicebox podcast.com. Go to the top click on the menu, you'll see all the different series within the podcast.

Brittany 2:27
I'm Brittany, I am 28 years old. And I was diagnosed with type one diabetes when I was 12. So I have had it for more than half my life now. And I am a special education teacher. I am six months pregnant. And so this pregnancy has opened up a whole new journey of my type one diabetes that I never really came to terms with I guess I say now that I used to kind of live with my diabetes, side by side and now I feel like I'm living with it. head on. But

Scott Benner 3:13
tell me one more time how old you are

Brittany 3:15
28 Okay.

Scott Benner 3:18
I know everything I need to know, to make a podcast that is interesting, entertaining, and informative, and much more popular than other podcasts. Here we go. Do you think that other people listen and think, but I do pre work and I ask people a bunch of questions and I I know what they're going to say and I have questions set up and nobody listens to my pod.

Brittany 3:39
No. I don't think when I listened to it. I don't think you do. But I'm always really impressed at how natural you are asking people questions.

Scott Benner 3:47
Oh, yeah, I'm not like you know, now we're into it. I am not prepared at all.

Brittany 3:54
Particularly like Arden's episode really opened my eyes. And like when she was talking about how she had a wedgie and stuff, I'm like, Am I cool enough to be on this podcast? Just so effortlessly at ease.

Scott Benner 4:08
Well, listen, Brittany, if I told you what I was doing 10 minutes ago, you'd be like, that's your prep for this. So all right, well, we'll let everybody wonder what that is. And we'll get going. So 12 years old, you were diagnosed that is 16 years ago. I don't want to throw you off with how quickly I was able to subtract two from eight and one from two but it's pretty impressive. Yeah 16 years ago makes it

Speaker 3 4:35
2006 2007

Brittany 4:40
March 2007. March 13 Okay, so we make it was a Friday the 13th I think it

Scott Benner 4:45
was Friday the 13th

Unknown Speaker 4:48
Oh, wow.

Scott Benner 4:50
I like the way you're trying to name the episode in the first few minutes.

Brittany 4:54
Spooky vibes.

Scott Benner 4:56
Also everyone should appreciate that Brittany is recording this from Her car outside of her place of employment. Yes. Six months pregnant. Yeah. Is there any chance you'll have to pee during this?

Brittany 5:09
No, I ranted every minute that you're teaching is so sacred. So I ran to the bathroom before cut to the skull.

Scott Benner 5:17
What are the children doing right now? Did you lock them in a big like closet?

Brittany 5:22
They're in specials. So either te R or dance.

Scott Benner 5:28
You lock them in a closet. I appreciate that. Yeah. Just as some of them are they in your trunk? That's lovely. You were right. Diagnosed right, sort of at the beginning of CGM. So I'm interested in how you left the hospital with technology or not.

Brittany 5:49
Yeah, I didn't get a CGM until I don't know maybe 2010 or 11. I was in one of the studies because I live outside of Boston. So I was in one of the studies for Jocelyn diabetes, and they basically paid me to wear like, the huge I don't know which one it was. It's like a big black circle. That was the most obnoxious loud alarms. And it was very inaccurate. First. I think like $1,000 and they paid for my parking so my parents are really excited.

Scott Benner 6:30
And parking. Why thank you. And this thing? Yeah. That alarm forever and never be right. Oh, I can't wait. So exciting. Well, yeah, it was nice to be part of a trial.

Brittany 6:41
It wasn't it wasn't a part of my life or even on my radar. When I left the hospital. I was totally like finger picking and doing injections. I didn't even know CGM existed yet.

Scott Benner 6:53
Okay. All right. Interesting. So, injections meter. How long did you go like that for with just this? Were you doing syringes or a pen?

Brittany 7:03
I did syringes for probably a year. I think I upgraded the pen in eighth grade. I think I got a pump halfway through freshman year at high school.

Scott Benner 7:13
Okay. Alright. So Alright, that'll make sense. What was your first pump?

Brittany 7:20
The Delta Cosmo. The best pump ever

Speaker 3 7:23
had the Cosmo? I had the Cosmo. I loved it so much as those

Scott Benner 7:28
everyone else who was ever stoked about it. What about it was

Brittany 7:34
I don't know. Like I think it was the all the time because now I wear a T slim of control IQ. And I think if I had the Cosmo as an option today, I would take it. Really? Yeah. I don't know if it was an emotional connection.

Scott Benner 7:47
It's kind of it has to be sentimental. It couldn't be better than the control IQ, could it?

Brittany 7:54
No, no, no. It's totally a sentimental thing. Yeah, I just think it was like, I don't know, I also went to diabetes camp shortly after getting diagnosed. And that was like a huge foundational part of my type one diabetes life. And I just remember like, I never wanted a pump. I didn't want anything on me to do with diabetes, and then I show up to camp and so all these people with these delta Kosmos on and I was like, I want one

Scott Benner 8:22
of those. Oh, I so Okay, so right now, so salesmen and women right now for pumps and CGM are like Oh, okay. Give them to the kids at the camp.

Brittany 8:36
That's, that's what hook so that's all you need for advertising camp.

Scott Benner 8:39
diabetes camp was your free taste.

Brittany 8:43
died because it was what? Oh,

Scott Benner 8:46
look at you. Not a drug person. Britney, I said your free taste.

Brittany 8:54
Camp was everything to me. How come? Um, well, getting diagnosed at that age and middle school was really difficult. I feel like I was like, trying to figure out who I was. And then I get this disease in seventh grade. And the kids are mean, that's what I teach. Now. I teach middle school. And kids are just brutal at that age. And so you know, I had this it was went to a smaller school. So everyone knew that was in the hospital, when I came back in the hospital was like, the girl with diabetes is now here. And some of the boys there was a specific group of boys that really bullied me. And I just struggled so much with that. And I tried, I think to use humor as a coping mechanism a lot of the time, but inside it did really bother me. And I did have a period of trying to hide my diabetes like I would not go to the nurse or my injections. I would just like sit in class and You know, pretend like it wasn't time to go take my insulin and go to lunch and eat without insulin.

Scott Benner 10:05
Because of the pressure from other people.

Brittany 10:09
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like I would stand up in class and these kids would make like little snickering seventh grade comments.

Scott Benner 10:16
Was this. Was this a seventh grade thing? Or a Boston thing? Or a mix? Not for nothing, but you people are mean.

Brittany 10:23
Yeah, probably a mix.

Unknown Speaker 10:25
Is it the cold probably mix?

Scott Benner 10:29
Was the cold it was like, I don't know. Seven winter here in March. I don't know. Yeah, right. Is it? month seven of winters? That is how bad the Red Sox were for house. How long are like what? It's the is it the wind that comes off the water? Because it's, it's I've only been there a handful of times. And I make fun of Canada, but hellscape okay. It just terrible cold, wind. And it rains. If it rains, you're like, Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Yeah. No,

Brittany 10:59
it was season seasonal bullying.

Scott Benner 11:03
Yeah, this would mean, were they any nicer in the summertime.

Brittany 11:09
I avoid them at all. I was at diabetes camp,

Scott Benner 11:12
where I want to go back at a time machine and find out if those kids were pleasant in the spring and summer and just nasty in the wintertime. Because they're their little pre pubescent balls were cold. That's what I'm thinking. Yeah. Well, this is terrible. You know, we're laughing through it. But you see, this prep

Brittany 11:32
that I did, you know, I think I started to use it as like, Oh, haha, I do. Like, if you're gonna laugh at me, I'm going to laugh too. So I did I make a lot of jokes at my diabetes. And you know, and then that diabetes, Caitlin made a lot of jokes, too. So but at least it was with people that understood where I was

Scott Benner 11:51
coming from. That's understood that's, that's acceptable for all. If you're all together in it, then then That's right. So they joke, and snicker and bully, and you go along with it, to avoid the friction. And probably figured, well, I'll make fun of diabetes as well. But then that leads you to not taking care of yourself as well. Yes, you ever tell your parents?

Brittany 12:18
No, I don't think I did. I think I, I used it so much as humor that I convinced myself that it was funny. And I never would have went to them thinking or saying, Yeah, you know, I'm getting bullied. I don't think I even thought of it in my head is bullying.

Scott Benner 12:35
Do you think they knew what was happening?

Brittany 12:39
No, I think that's a whole part of like, my diagnosis age, it was like, right at time when people are still, you know, kids were becoming dependent, you kind of like, are on this learning curve of like, I don't know, all we could do in that in Boston was kind of them all by ourselves, but like, you know, going home all by yourself or going to your first sleepover. And I really wanted to do those things. So I think I constantly had to prove to my parents that I can still do these things in my diabetes. It doesn't bother me. No, it makes fun of me. I got this. So I would say my parents really only were actively involved in my care. like day to day for the first like six months. And then I really, like took it and ran.

Scott Benner 13:28
Wow. Okay, my, here this is how pregnant are you? Six months? Six months? Oh, actually, yeah. Because when you asked to be on the podcast, you're like, maybe I'll have a baby. Hopefully, I was like,

Brittany 13:41
I thought I thought I thought maybe I will be trying or like be very recently pregnant. I got pregnant, like three weeks before my wedding, which was a surprise. So

Scott Benner 13:53
way to go. Yeah. That's not how you're supposed to do it.

Brittany 14:02
No, no, it's not. I guess, as long as you don't recommend, I guess

Scott Benner 14:05
as long as the dress doesn't need to be fitted again. Who cares one way or the other?

Brittany 14:10
Yeah, I feed a lot of people.

Scott Benner 14:13
So yeah, you trick your eggs, that's for sure. So Brittany, I'm gonna share something with you. The reason I asked about how pregnant you were is because I don't know how emotional you'll be when I say to you that one of my biggest fears as a parent is that what I think is happening isn't actually happening. So you're managing your kids, I guess they call that parenting, or loving them or doing whatever it is you're doing based on the information you have. And when they live with you. And they're young. That's the easiest time because all of the influences and variables that impact them you're aware of, and then the minute they leave the house the first time. You don't know what they're doing. And it's hard. Yeah, really, really horrifying. Like, right now I don't know what Arden's doing. And if I stopped and thought about it too much, I'd spin the circle, get my car drive to where she is, which I think I'm supposed to say Chicago. And so, if you heard her episode, I guess she'll get that. If not, I don't know. And so, so I drive, that's what I would do right now, just to see that she was okay. And yeah, and I often

Brittany 15:29
wonder, like how my parents were able to give me that independence. And I think it's just the way that I carried myself and also not having Dexcom. Well, not having the fallout,

Scott Benner 15:42
because they didn't know what was happening. And so but what I was gonna say is, the way you do that is, you either cling to just blind ignorance and look away and go, it's fine, everything's fine. Or you are steeped in it so much that it makes you mental. And hopefully, you can find them.

Brittany 16:01
I argue now that diabetes is like, you know, more accessible with all the technology, but mentally a lot more challenging. I think for caregivers and people living with

Scott Benner 16:12
it. It's interesting, though, but what's the next sentence? However? Right, man, I can I feel pretty freaking just tell me, what is this? What are we, in the middle of a game? Shouldn't I gotta I gotta fill in the blank. I take your point, right? Like there was a time previously where you didn't have the data. And you could go, well, it must be okay. Except for some people, it works out. Okay. And for some people, they end up with serious health conditions. Exactly. So,

Brittany 16:45
and I feel extremely grateful that I'm not one of them. And I sometimes I'll look back on my life. And it's not like I was like, super out of control or had these like, you know, 1213 a one C's I really never got there. I was always in like the sevens and eights, which my husband does left now because he thinks I was just in the sevens because I was either 350 40. And so I was just somewhere in the middle.

Scott Benner 17:12
Man, I say, Brittany, that that is how that happens. Yeah,

Brittany 17:15
I know. And your podcast taught me that. And I was listening today. And I was like, shoot, I've been called out.

Scott Benner 17:23
Now, here's an interesting situation being called out. Did you know that you were coming to that number dishonestly? Or? And you were ignoring it? Or did you not?

Brittany 17:34
Ah, that's a good question. I think I might have known in the back of my head, but similar to like denying my bullying. I was like, Well, you know, it says the average is 150. So I must be doing pretty good. Like I I don't think I let numbers get in my head too much.

Scott Benner 17:57
Okay, do you know every time someone says that's a good question in my head, my voice goes, I know.

Brittany 18:07
That reflecting back on it, I think a lot about how, Wow, I did all that. And I had diabetes. Like I just I really was letting live. By my side. I was controlling it enough to survive, but not really thrive.

Unknown Speaker 18:24
Okay, if that makes sense.

Scott Benner 18:25
It makes total sense. I mean, I'm not trying to change the world in this moment. But I am trying to put into people's heads that ignoring something doesn't mean it's not happening.

Brittany 18:37
Yes, I think that yeah. You know,

Scott Benner 18:39
you have to, you're making your trade. You know, that's it. I'm not saying that. It doesn't happen constantly in life for all sorts of things. You know, everybody who, at the end of the night walks through the kitchen and grabs a piece of candy after they brush their teeth, you're making a trade. You know what I mean? You're gonna be sugar on your teeth while you're sleeping. So you're probably gonna get a cavity, and it's probably not gonna happen for a year or two. And then you're gonna get it and look at the dentist like, oh, I can't believe this. And the dentist. That's a great analogy. Yeah. And you know, when the lady that cleans your teeth, asks you if you're flossing, you lie to her and say yes.

Brittany 19:19
Every time yeah,

Scott Benner 19:20
she knows you're lying.

Brittany 19:23
endocrinologist. Yeah, where's your meter? I'm not sure.

Scott Benner 19:27
Oh, meter. Goodness sakes alive and I need to bring that with me. I forgot. Yeah, so the lady cleaning your teeth knows you're lying. You know you're lying. Then the dentist comes in to see you. He knows you're lying. Or she ladies can be dentists to Brittany. And oh, and then you know, I just said that because my dentist is the man right? Brittany, I would never go to a female dentist. No, I'm just kidding. I'm upset that I have to say I'm just kidding because I would like the joke to just lie there but you know I don't need people. Yes. Understanding.

Brittany 20:02
Okay, you're in a public platform, right?

Scott Benner 20:04
So this is one of the things about life that I disliked the most. I've brought this up before, I hate being in a space with another person. And they're lying. And I know they're lying. And they know they're lying, because everything feels like a huge waste of time when that happens to me. So I don't want to waste your time. I don't want the people listening to waste their time, like either, you know, I don't know, either either dive headfirst into the pool without water or take the time to fill it up and splash around it the way you're supposed to. I don't know. Like you don't you mean? Like so? Yeah, do or do not? I don't care. Yeah. I can't save all of you. You're gonna listen to you're not going to I don't know what to say. So okay, so you're. So you're coming up through that time? Did you go to college?

Brittany 20:55
I did. Did. I went to.

I started at a college right in the middle of the city, and absolutely hated it. And then ended up going to the State College that my parents had been asking you to go to for five years anyway. But I decided to go for that one semester just to prove myself and then I was like, Okay, I'll go to State College.

Scott Benner 21:19
Yes, this sucks. Just like everybody said it was going to.

Brittany 21:22
It's exactly what I thought it would not be. But yeah, so then I went to a school that was 20 minutes away from home. Which is why I didn't want to go to it in the first place. But I actually ended up having a great experience there. So yeah, no regrets.

Scott Benner 21:37
The idea of moving away from home for college is just so that it feels like you're doing something right. Yeah, yeah,

Brittany 21:44
exactly. It feels like it had to be, you know, in the city,

Scott Benner 21:47
cosmopolitan maybe?

How did you take care of yourself in college?

Brittany 22:01
I think I was, you know, lying to myself, like I just did enough to get by, I don't think I Well, first, I should preface this with like, I did not Pre-Bolus until two years ago, when I started listening to your podcast. So that I think was the majority of my, my lack of care, I guess I just, I would take insulin way after eating. So I'd be covering high. And I would take a lot, you know, be arranged Bolus or not would come shooting back down. And I would treat my low with a lot more carbs, I needed to come back up. And sometimes I'd be somewhere in the middle. But looking back, I don't know if I would change that. Like, I still was able to do a lot of amazing things in college or that like diabetes stop me. And I think that was just like, that was the care that I needed to be having. And the time in my life.

Scott Benner 23:04
I want to understand that better, because it feels like you're arguing with yourself. But then at the end, I think you're making a point, but I want to make sure I understand all of it. Does that make sense? What I just said, okay, yeah, so because it feels it felt like in the first two thirds of what you said it felt like what you said was, well, I didn't know to Pre-Bolus I didn't know I was gonna get super high. And then I would need a whole bunch of insulin just to kill that high. But then I came tumbling down again and had to catch it with a bunch of food, which all sounds like a lot of work to me. But then you said but I don't think I would change it even though you know better now. So can you not put yourself in that position? With what you know now and say, Oh, that would have been better if I would have done it like that. Like why do you think it would have been Why do you think the trade off was okay?

Brittany 23:55
I have the trade off was okay, because I really think I truly believe that it has led me to where I need to be now. Like, especially being pregnant and going through all this with my diabetes. Like, this is the care that I'm you know, my agency is in the low fives right now being pregnant. And it's been extremely challenging, but also really rewarding. And this is the care that I need right now. After I am not pregnant anymore, I will try to always have an agency in the sixes that I just I look at it as like certain times in my life. That was the care that I was I was using to get by with what I did. And I'm okay with that.

Scott Benner 24:45
What do you gain by not having a five five a one C after the baby?

Brittany 24:54
I think again, for me personally, a little more men dole stability or flexibility and the ability to just, you know, prioritize some other things. Like, if I don't get every Pre-Bolus, or I don't get every overnight in the 191 100 range, I'm going to be okay with that. I just think that and that's how I kind of got through my life in college was like, I had some other priorities, and sometimes my diabetes was on the backburner. And either not I might sound crazy, but I was okay with that. No,

Scott Benner 25:36
Brittany, I'm asking, and I appreciate you being so honest about it. Because this is one of, to me, one of the most fascinating conversations that I see adult type ones have with each other, this idea of, I trade a little bit of this for a little bit of that. And I don't not understand it. I'm just trying to just try to dig into it more so that I can get it because you look at maybe it's just personality, right? Like, I'll just use Jenny as an example, since you listen to the podcast, like Jenny eats a certain way, she manages her blood sugar a certain way she gets, you know, she's not ultra low carb or anything like that. And still has fairly tight tolerances that she maintains most of the time. And she still has two kids and a house and a husband and a job and she goes running and plays with her children. And she seems happy. So I'm not certain. I'm not gonna I mean, like, I don't Yeah,

Brittany 26:32
no, I, I think it's interesting too. And I have friends with diabetes. And just a few months ago, I was at an event with them. And, you know, I was managing diabetes, again, was at the forefront of my mind during this event. And I noticed and heard like, a lot of their like, alarms going off or, you know, they their blood sugar's were not nearly in the range that mine were. And that kind of took me by surprise, because I hadn't been around them in a while. And I've been managing an agency and the low fives and I was like, wow, you know, I would hate to be that number. Or, I would hate to hear that alarm right now at this event, but it didn't appear to be bothering them. And I've been in their shoes. So you know, in that moment, the event was the priority and their blood sugar's are just doing what they were doing. So they weren't completely ignoring it.

Scott Benner 27:27
Yeah. So is that a lack of bandwidth?

Unknown Speaker 27:32
I don't What do you mean, I don't

Scott Benner 27:34
understand why you can't Bolus at the event.

Brittany 27:37
Like it see where Bolus thing but they weren't. It was like an event where we were eating the whole time, it was a wedding. So I was like, you know, going into the wedding, okay, I'm gonna take some insulin here, I'm gonna do this. I'm not gonna be dancing later. Let me do this Temp Basal. Like I had all these things running through my mind, I was actively doing it. And I kind of saw that they were more, you know, taking their Bolus, I saw them taking insulin. But at the same time, I heard a lot of alarms going off. And this and that happening. Yeah. And it took me by surprise, but then I was like, you know, if I wasn't like, if I wasn't pregnant, or these weren't my goals, I guess at the time would I be? I don't know, it's made me reflect a lot on different I guess, seasons, or chapters or goals that I've had at the time, what they were, and how my control has been. And that might completely change after my pregnancy. I don't know. But I'm just saying now that I've been a person that managed in the seven eighths of England see, and the habits that caused me to get there versus now. I think for my mental health, I will, I will try to be somewhere in the sixes.

Scott Benner 28:55
Yeah. Okay. I mean, I think that's completely reasonable. By the way, I'm not judging the the target. I'm just trying to understand the process. Those other people you were with, can I ask you? Do they have children?

Unknown Speaker 29:08
They don't do where they

Brittany 29:10
know. And one of the first in the group of my close friends of diabetes, to have children and, and I know that they've been asking me a lot of questions and just kind of amazed at what I've been able to do because I think we all have had similar management being diagnosed around, you know, the early 2000s. And

Scott Benner 29:33
so you know, the thing the thing you know, that they don't know is what? Maybe it's not a thing, you know, maybe it's a feeling you have

Brittany 29:44
I guess it's just the deeper understanding of insulin. All the variables that can affect you.

Scott Benner 29:52
So were you managing this way prior to being pregnant?

Brittany 29:57
I had an appointment with mine chronologist in November of 2021, and that was my first appointment with an adult endocrinologist and they asked me, you know, do you plan on having a family in the next year? And I was getting married in June? And I said, Yeah, I would like to, you know, it's something I've started to think about. But, you know, even though I wasn't always managing the way that I am today, I still like, I never let diabetes stop me from doing what I would consider some pretty impressive things. But pregnancy was always one that I was really, really intimidated by, like, I knew my agency was not where it needed to be. And I wondered, how am I going to get it there? So at this appointment, she completely discouraged me. And she essentially just told me the agency that I would need, you know, ideally under 6.5, before conceiving, and then under six during the pregnancy, but gave me no like, and by the way, you did XYZ. Yeah. And I had had the lowest aylen See, at that appointment, I got money once you know the 6.7. And that's entirely because of control IQ. So control IQ, which I had in April of 2020 really did change my life. And I think it opened the door for me seeing a different lens of management. So yeah, I left that appointment in tears. I was like, totally distraught.

Scott Benner 31:34
Because you couldn't have a baby is what it felt like,

Brittany 31:37
essentially. Yeah, it's Yeah. I just thought, you know, this is the lowest state and with control, like he was a little more motivated, you know, and I was kind of curious, like, Oh, I see it's giving me an automatic correction, or it shutting off my Basal here. Like, let me take a closer look at this, like, why is it doing that? And so I felt like I had the best control, I felt like I, you know, was just giving it my all, and I still had the 6.7. And that was something I previously would have been so proud of. But at this appointment, I was like, if this is my best, and I need to get even lower and have a baby, I'm never gonna have a baby.

Scott Benner 32:16
Did that eventually become motivating to you that interaction? Or was it always an impediment?

Brittany 32:24
I think for a month, I kind of wallowed in self pity. Just, you know, still kind of like hovering at that 6.7. I started using Dexcom, clarity and really looking and just being like, you know, I'm trying, I'm trying, but I just wasn't trying new strategies that helped me get to where I am today. So probably in like, the after the New Year, I said to myself, you know, well, let me just try a small goal. Let me see if I can get to 6.5. And that's how I stumbled on to your podcast, and I don't want to get emotional. But I truly don't know if I would be pregnant today, if I hadn't learned some of the skills that I've learned on here.

Scott Benner 33:05
Brittany, is this the moment?

Brittany 33:08
Where I start crying? No, were

Scott Benner 33:09
you telling me you're gonna name the baby Scott? Is this? Is this sick? Because I don't have any fanfare, music or anything to play? But if this is it, let's take a break. And I'll get to like trumpets or something. Now, is it a girl? It's a girl, isn't it? Brittany?

Brittany 33:25
I actually don't know. I'm not finding out what

Scott Benner 33:28
I would say to a guy. A freaking podcast is haranguing me about naming my baby after I'm heated. I mean, I can't break your heart after that. No, it's okay. So the control IQ is not as valuable as the podcast. Is that what you're saying? Because I would like that on a t shirt.

Brittany 33:45
No, I think that you need to still know how No, of course, yeah. Insulin works to use it. Like like bricks. I got my ANC notice 6.7 with Ctrl Q, which is fantastic. And I'll be happy to be using Ctrl Q after my pregnancy. Oh,

Scott Benner 34:02
I think the beauty of that is that you started seeing it do stuff and you're like, I wouldn't have given myself insulin just now. What the heck's going on? And you exactly you look at it, you've heard me say it, right, like watching loop work. Like it leveled me up. Like, I was already doing really good. And I knew what I was doing. And then I watched the algorithm work. And I was like, Oh, I do that. Is that why I'm doing that? You know what I mean? Like, like, oh, like it gave me context for some of the things I had figured out to do. But maybe 100% didn't know why I was doing it all the time. It's incredible. Yeah, I have a couple of questions if you don't mind. Did you see how I stopped you from crying? People will think that I gave myself credit for something but really what I did was I saved you from crying. You're welcome. Because your union your freaking car. And I don't get people looking over going. Hey, hey, 911 Yeah, I don't know what's going on. Right. But there's a pregnant lady in the car. She bought her eyes out and she's on the phone. I think you Need to go helper? Although that would be great podcast if the cops came. Unless they, unless they take. That'd be terrible. So terrible but I mean, if you were okay, in the base you

Brittany 35:15
just apply to us.

Scott Benner 35:17
Maybe it's just a good thing to for social media when I'm like, Hey, on this episode of the podcast Brittany gets tased in her car. She's pregnant by the way. Make sure you listen. So you said you said a couple of things. One of them I'm most focused on. You said the thing that everyone says that I don't understand. I didn't let diabetes stop me. What that sounds like to me, and I know there's more context to it. Because this is why I like people to understand it. It's like saying to me, I knew if I walked into the reactor, I was going to get radiation poisoning and quickly die. But I didn't let that stop me. I did it anyway. That's how it feels to me. Like, like, like, when I think of it didn't stop me. I think of Jenny. I think of my one C is in the low isn't the fives and I went running. I didn't let diabetes stop me. That phrase makes total sense to me. I was running around with an eight a one C, but I still went to Bonnaroo. I didn't let diabetes stop me. Sounds to me, like I ignored diabetes to go to Bonnaroo. And so but, but there's a there's a I don't I'm not judging it. There's a kernel of a reason in there. There's gotta be a reason why so many people say it the way they say it. And I'm gonna keep asking this question until someone satisfies me with an answer. And you might be that person today, Brittany, so no pressure. But what does that mean to you that you had health outcomes that you knew? Well, excuse me, health outcomes that I think you knew weren't great, but you were ignoring so that you could go do a thing? So you could say diabetes? were stopping? What does that all mean? Tell me, please.

Brittany 37:05
I think that means to me. So I think this also loops back to the question we were talking about earlier. I didn't know what I didn't know, you know, 10 years ago. So to me, living with diabetes was a lot of roller coaster blood sugars, severe lows, that would scare me sometimes. You know, hours of stubborn highs, not having my pump supplies. I needed them. You know, that's what it was to me.

Scott Benner 37:36
And even though those things happened, you didn't give up? Exactly. Okay. That makes complete sense to me. I wish people would just rephrase the sentence that makes that I completely understand.

Brittany 37:49
Yeah, and and now that I know, and that's what I kind of meant earlier, like I and I'm still proud of myself from those times, where like, I had these like, terrible blood sugars or just inconsistencies that my management and I just kept pushing through. And it didn't, it really didn't stop me like I did. You know, 100 mile bike rides for junior. In college, I traveled to an island off of Africa, I went to Portugal, I went to Belize on all these service trips. And my parents were just like, Yeah, you got this like, and I, you know, would just bring I needed to bring and I got through each of these huge things without really thinking too much of it. Like I just let diabetes left to the side. And I just kept on pushing through.

Scott Benner 38:44
Well, thank you for explaining it to me that way. Because that's beautiful, and almost made me cry. Like that. I understand. I yeah, I the intent of the phrase is lost on me sometimes, like I didn't let it stop me. I think that's because I don't have diabetes, honestly. So I think if I had it, I would understand that better. You know what I mean? Yeah, just just the,

Brittany 39:06
there's definitely an understanding of when you actually have it. Yeah.

Scott Benner 39:09
Because I just interviewed somebody the other day who's had five different transplants and they said, diabetes never stopped me. And I was like, it sounds like it's stopping you. You don't I mean, like, it's so. But I take it it's more of a it's more of an intellectual exercise. The idea of it's not stopping me.

Brittany 39:29
Yeah. And I think because of like the age I was diagnosed, how like soon I took diabetes into my own independence. Yeah. And still what I was able to do throughout my life, and I think when I think back on those times, like, wow, I had diabetes, then like, just doesn't seem like I did.

Scott Benner 39:50
You were running drugs off an island in Africa. What you were doing, right?

Brittany 39:56
No, I was doing service and teaching students

Scott Benner 39:59
exactly. code for slavery. Were you were you transporting people? I don't know what you were doing. You were really you were helping people? Yes. Oh, wait a minute, but you're from Boston. You're not it. I have to get this contradictory. I'm not You're not a Mormon. Oh my God. Are you Catholic?

Brittany 40:20
was raised Catholic. Ah, a mission?

Scott Benner 40:23
Sounds like you Oh, yeah. Okay. You want to make sure Jesus would let you? Is he gonna let you in? Did you? Did you get them? Do you get the nod? Fingers crossed.

My mother in law, my what my wife said all growing up. My mother in law would do something that she clearly didn't want to do. But that was a good thing. And that she was like, clearly, like, trying to, like get points on the ledger. Like, like, I'm gonna get into heaven for this one. Anyway, Catholicism is great at making people do things they don't want to do. They're nice, which I think is terrific. And so did you want to do this thing? Why are you so nice? She's dead. We knew it was gonna happen. Brittany, did they taze you? Brittany? Brittany, tell them tell them you've done nothing wrong. Obviously we've lost the connection Hold on one second.

Unknown Speaker 41:28
Well

Scott Benner 41:34
when she pops back on I really want her to go It's Britney bitch. But I don't think she's going to

Unknown Speaker 41:42
she's not coming back.

Scott Benner 41:45
Do you think do you think her phone went dead? I'm gonna texter.

Unknown Speaker 41:55
Did your water break?

Scott Benner 41:58
Did you have to pay? That's better

Unknown Speaker 42:05
She's not answering Hmm.

Unknown Speaker 42:22
My best guess is that her phone died as she was just gone. And now she's not answering. super interesting.

Scott Benner 42:36
Maybe one of those kids get out of the trunk

Unknown Speaker 42:39
accosted her.

Scott Benner 42:42
Like I'd have happened. That's probably what happened. Now that we're thinking about it. One of the children that she stuffed into her trunk so that she could be on a podcast, very irresponsible. escaped from the trunk. Probably that little hatch they give you in the back. Also, there's a like a latch that you can get out of. I don't know if you guys ever heard there was Oh my god. There was a girl named Brittany that was on the podcast one time who was kidnapped in the back and put in a trunk of her own car.

Unknown Speaker 43:13
That this is something Hold on a second.

Scott Benner 43:19
I'm looking that up right now. While we wait for Brittany? Hoopoe. I'm not gonna lie, it could be that I'm googling juicebox kidnapping. Episode 102 Brittany Diggs was abducted and escaped. I can't believe oh, here comes Brittany.

Unknown Speaker 43:46
Hold on. Hey. Hi.

Scott Benner 43:50
So did one of those kids get out of the trunk and jump? You know, that was

Brittany 43:55
actually your fault? Because my phone overheated? Being on the dashboard?

Unknown Speaker 44:00
How was that possible? Aren't you in Boston? Oh, no,

Brittany 44:02
I just lost you in temperature. The phone is too hot. It needs to re boot. Wait, are you terrible? First

Scott Benner 44:09
of all, saying my fault seems I mean, in this day and age, we don't blame people for things. Okay, Brittany. All right. Try to be a little more woke than that if you could. And but what happened? What state are you in?

Unknown Speaker 44:23
I'm in Massachusetts, isn't it?

Scott Benner 44:25
12 degrees there?

Brittany 44:26
Well, it's the fall. So it starts off as 30 in the morning and then it gets to like ad for like two hours a day. And that comes back to

Scott Benner 44:35
Brittany sweetheart, do you need a new phone? Is this do you want to do one of those things where people send money? What is this called? I can't think of what they're called. But I'm glad you're okay. I at first. I was worried you were tased by the police. And then I realized was much less exciting than that. Yeah, I realized you were Irish Catholic and in Boston, so you're probably safe. So yeah, Okay, well, I'm glad you're back. I don't know where we were because I did so much talking while you were gone trying to imagine what happened to you by the way. During my, my imagination period, I realized that a woman named Brittany was on the podcast years ago. She, she had been kidnapped, put in her the trunk of her own vehicle. And she used the light from the screen from her insulin pump to get out of the trunk.

Brittany 45:30
Oh, my that's my worst nightmare. And her

Scott Benner 45:33
name was Britney. Yeah, Brittany, that's right. People with diabetes get kidnapped. And I'm just kidding. You're so literally my worst. How was that your worst nightmare? It's not freezing to death. Because that would be mine. If I lived there. No. Well, wait, you seriously have a concern about this?

Brittany 45:52
I do. I don't know if it's like my, my past life or something. But I like always been afraid of getting kidnapped. And then I watched that movie, like when a stranger calls. Right at the peak of like my early babysitting years. And every time I babysat I was just like paranoid like,

Scott Benner 46:10
maybe this is karma. Because you traffic those people and outside of Africa. Exactly. Could be that too. You know what you were doing? What comes around goes around? Exactly. It's exactly what comes around goes around. Oh my god. There's no way to know if people understand my sarcasm. You understand Brittany? Perhaps because you're from Boston. That, um, my personality, I have dialed down to like, 30%. So I can make this podcast.

Brittany 46:38
Yeah, I get the vibe that listening to you ultimate days. Yeah.

Scott Benner 46:42
Yeah, I'm literally chaining myself down just to give enough humor so that the normal person can be amused, because yeah, if I were to give the whole thing, I think three people that listen to this. Like, this horrible man seems to know how to Bolus but I don't I can't make it through the joking about about human trafficking. So anyway, all right. So by the way, which is on the rise and not a joke, did you know that?

Brittany 47:11
I did. My husband's actually a pilot, so

Scott Benner 47:13
Oh, so he traffics people to like you.

Brittany 47:17
Yeah, it's a team. It's a team.

Scott Benner 47:20
So you lower the man with the big Irish smile. And then he sells them to people for transformers that he was playing. Oh, what a family business printing and we call this teaching. I see what you're saying.

Unknown Speaker 47:30
Okay, special education. Sixth grade.

Scott Benner 47:33
Yeah. Well, I mean, it's a good cover for what you're doing. You wouldn't want to put it on your business card. I don't imagine. So, alright, anyway, it's horrifying that this happens in the world. And I don't mean to make light of it. Just you said an island. And I was like, oh, people must go to islands to take people. That's where my stupid.

Brittany 47:52
I was gonna say Cape Verde, which is where I went, but I don't know if people would know that.

Scott Benner 47:56
Oh, that's a lovely place. Yeah, had you said that I would have gone in a completely different direction, I would have been like, Oh, you're just there lounging around pretending to help people in the sun. I see what you're doing, Brittany. So let me go back to my train of thought here, which is, I'm going back to the wedding you were at recently, and how your, your your other diabetes friends were maybe had alarms that were going off and things were happening that weren't happening to you. I just think it's responsibility. I, you got married. So now you don't want to let another person down. Then you had a baby. And now you realize that baby's going to be alive forever, and you're gonna have to take care of it. Yeah, so you take care of yourself, so that you can take care of others?

Brittany 48:48
Yeah, you're talking about me in particular?

Scott Benner 48:50
Yeah. Brittany's like, Yeah, well, are we still talking about my husband? I don't. Or is this the real conversation again? I'm sorry, God.

Brittany 49:00
Sam is my husband. I don't mind saying his name. And he was, you know, we, we met in college. So there were many times where he saw me having terrible lows. And the middle of the night after drinking, or whatever we were doing. And I don't know, like, he's seen me through all these different phases to with my diabetes. And I have felt his support and every different one, but I guess I do feel a responsibility now.

Scott Benner 49:34
Yeah, I mean, it's one of those things that as you get, I can't believe I'm saying this. I sound like somebody's dad. I am somebody's that. But as you get as you get older, you start to get more perspective. And you recognize like my wife has COVID right now. It's, it's French COVID Because she went to Paris for work and then came home and had COVID So I'm calling I'm calling it French COVID Though I don't imagine there's much difference and And she's pretty sick. And she's like, as soon as we realize she was sick, my son and I were like, Get upstairs, get away from us get away. She's like, but we're like, shut up, walk away from us. Go go, we'll bring you things. Then we brought her cleaning supplies so she could clean the bedroom. We're like, hey, while you're up here, why don't you put these clothes away? But when she needs something, like, I just go right in there. Like, she's like, don't come in. And I'm like, No, you need this. I'll come in. It's, it's that. It's a weird thing that happens if she and I were dating. I'd be like, Why don't you call me when you feel better?

I'm sorry, in college drinking or whatever we were doing. That's a quote. What? What else were we doing in college?

Brittany 50:49
I don't know. Staying up till 4am Eating crappy pizza.

Scott Benner 50:55
getting low.

Brittany 50:58
Yeah, just I don't even want to. I mean, I guess I did have duck Scott. I don't know if I had that big. The first one in college. Still the oval like I don't want to know what my blood sugar's were then.

Scott Benner 51:12
Okay, so you weren't paying attention that I got it. Because you were trying to hang out with this boy. Yeah,

Brittany 51:17
I was paying. I was paying attention enough. And I don't want to sound dark. But I was paying attention enough to survive to wake up the next day.

Scott Benner 51:26
And that was on purpose.

Brittany 51:30
I guess so I guess I prioritize like being with my friends and having a social life and having quote unquote, fun. Over because, you know, I'm pregnant right now. But like, I think it takes a certain amount of effort. Even if you are like an insulin mastermind. To get an A one C in the fives. I think you have to be trying and I definitely did not want to be trying at that. At that time in my life. Yeah.

Scott Benner 51:57
No, I'm glad you said that. That's kind of one of the things I was hoping you would get to I think you're 100%. Right. Like there's a there is a lot of effort that goes into keeping a one save that low, without being low all the time are high.

Brittany 52:10
Exactly. And mentally, too. And like, I just was living my life. I was doing my thing. Like, I didn't want to be having diabetes in my mind more than okay, just a I'll take insulin, okay, I'm low. I'll eat something.

Scott Benner 52:26
Okay. All right. Well, that's helpful. Also, you're scaring the hell out of countless 10s of 1000s of people right now whose children are gonna go to college one day. They're like, wait,

Brittany 52:38
I know. I feel terrible about that. Because I'm part of your Facebook group that I see the anxious parents.

Scott Benner 52:44
No, you should not feel the truth. Don't don't feel terrible about that. Listen, Arden's been in college for a month, Brittany. And I know there's been gaps of time where I'm like, Hey, you should Bolus, hey, change your pump. The pumps shot, change it now. It's fine. It's not changed it. I'll do it later. Yeah. Three hours later, our new blood sugar has been 200 for three hours. I know I'm about to change my pump. I'm really busy. I'm like, okay, but it really only takes three minutes to change pump, we could have done it three hours ago. And what I've realized is that this is one of these things that I'm not gonna get, I'm not gonna get accomplished with a crowbar like, right, like, I'm not gonna beat her over the head and get her to do this. I have to, I just have to be there at the right moments to be like, Hey, this is what a bad pod site looks like, change your pump. And then at the end of the day, say, I'm glad you changed it. See how quickly your blood sugar came back down? I think we could have found these five minutes three hours ago. Yeah, next time and try to do that. I'm just trying to nudge

Brittany 53:48
I'm glad that you said that. Like it's three minutes, your time. And I so relate to that, like in the big picture. It really is three minutes of your time. But mentally I think living with diabetes, it takes up more space on that. Yeah. And I think that's what I always tried to find a balance of,

Scott Benner 54:06
is it because it takes you out of what you're doing and then makes you think I have diabetes? And I have to put this thing on now. And like is that

Brittany 54:12
probably I don't even know if I think I think it's so deep in my whatever my like core that I don't think I'm actually thinking that but it must be that. It's like, oh, I have this thing where I need to change this to stay alive.

Scott Benner 54:29
It's like my dogs. This morning. I wanted to get into the shower. And I woke up and I thought, Oh, I'm going to sneak into the shower, and then I'll go take the dogs out. And then I'll go interview Brittany. And I was in the breast room bathroom. I guess in your own house you call the bathroom, but when you're somewhere else, it's a restaurant. That doesn't make any sense does it? Oh, I guess you can't play Eve in a restroom.

Speaker 3 54:52
All right. No, hopefully not. Well,

Scott Benner 54:55
I mean, I guess unless you're a truck driver or a lady of the evening or a man of the evening. because sometimes you gotta wash your junk off, I would imagine between, don't you think? Yeah. Okay. So anyway, I was in the bathroom, and the dog barks. And the bark is like, I have to go outside. And I'm old. And if you don't come down here, I will pee on something. And I'm like, okay, so I redress myself, go downstairs, let the dogs out, look at them and go, alright, I'll be back when I get done talking to Brittany. And I go back upstairs and take a shower. I don't imagine that that took more than five minutes. But I was irritated by the time I got back upstairs. Yeah, and I'm wondering if that's not a similar situation, where you're just like, it's only gonna take me five minutes to do this. But I just don't want to not right now. It doesn't fit here. Maybe.

Brittany 55:40
Exactly. And then those five minutes are happening every what? If you change your site every three days? I arguably don't. But that's all these minutes of your life are adding up. Right? You know, but now you've been taking insulin,

Scott Benner 55:54
but you're doing those things. Now, while you're pregnant. And you're still working. It's not like you're sitting at home. So. So now, is there a difference?

Brittany 56:06
Um, I think it has been an adjustment because I took the whole summer off. I actually babysit for a girl that has type one diabetes, She's five years old, and her family is the family that introduced me to your podcast hi to them. Yes, they listen, they will be listening. And

Scott Benner 56:29
you know, they're gonna be up separately to learn. Brittany, do you think they're gonna be upset to learn that you're involved in human trafficking? Very much, probably going to lose your job. Yeah, for sure. Okay, I'm sorry, I cut you off. Because I was so delighted by my thought you're you go ahead.

Brittany 56:46
So most of the summer was either being off, like really focusing on my diabetes every day, like it was a full time job. Or babysitting her, which was, I'm also focusing on her diabetes. So coming back to work and doing what I have been doing now for my seventh year teaching. I don't know it might be. And it is harder, I had to adjust. It's not impossible, when it's totally doable. And that will be my big message to anyone that wants to have a type one pregnancy or just to get their agency lower. But it is an adjustment, especially when you've been living your life in a certain way for so many years. And it hasn't really bothered you. It's it's hard to make that transition from living side by side to really prioritizing it.

Scott Benner 57:38
So there was a lot of value in you making time for yourself to figure out how you were going to do this.

Brittany 57:44
Yes. Okay. 100 worth.

Unknown Speaker 57:47
Interesting, very interesting, actually.

Scott Benner 57:49
Well, Brittany, I'm so sorry to tell you we're up on an hour, and I'm worried that you have to go back to work.

Brittany 57:54
Yeah, it's it's coming up in that time. So sorry.

Scott Benner 57:56
And we wasted all that time with your overheating phone. No, I'm sorry. Oh, that's my fault, as you pointed out. And just real quickly, there's no way that baby's going to be named Scott. Right. I don't think so. Yeah, it's okay. Because, because it's a name. Is that right?

Brittany 58:14
I mean, I think naming a child is arguably one of the hardest things we'll ever do. I feel like people do it. So like, I don't know, effortlessly. But to my husband nights seems like the biggest deal ever, right? Why? There's no name picked out for either boy or girl. So we might be naming them in the hospital as we exit.

Scott Benner 58:33
That'll be fun, too. Don't worry. I wish I wish you a ton of luck. Congratulations on the baby and your and your new family and, and I really appreciate Thank you, sir. I know we messed around a lot. But your your core message is really strong. And, and I appreciate you sharing it here. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Oh, it's my pleasure. It really is.

A huge thanks to Brittany for coming on the show and sharing her story. And of course, I want to thank you all for listening. I haven't said this in a while but you support the show in a way that is just magical. Today was the first day of summer and the fifth most popular day in the history of the podcast. It is completely because of the way you all listen, subscribe, follow and share. Thank you so much. I don't really have anything else to say tonight. I'll be back soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Thanks again for listening

#938 Thick As A Brick

Heather has type 1 diabetes. She upped her management game after finding a lump in her breast.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 938 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On this episode of The Juicebox Podcast I'll be speaking with Heather. She's an adult living with type one diabetes, who made a major change in her management after finding a lump in her breast. 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. Were becoming bold with insulin. If you'd like to save 10% off your first month of therapy, use my link betterhelp.com forward slash juice box and to get five free travel packs and a year's supply of vitamin D. Make your first order for ag one from athletic greens at athletic greens.com forward slash juicebox if you're looking for the diabetes Pro Tip series, you can find it at diabetes pro tip.com juicebox podcast.com. We're beginning at episode 210 In your podcast player, and of course, don't miss the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes absolutely free 40,000 members something for everyone. Check it out Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook, but you don't have to have type one. We let everybody in this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by us med us med is the place where my daughter gets her on the pod and Dexcom supplies but they have much more than that. Head now to us med.com forward slash juice box to get your free benefits check or call 888-721-1514 The podcast is also sponsored today by cozy earth. Now longtime listeners will know I'm sleeping on cozy Earth sheets. I love my cozy Earth joggers and sweatshirts, but I just made an addition. The towels we have the waffle towels now and they're fantastic cozy earth.com Go there load up your card. use the offer code juicebox at checkout and you will save 35% off your entire order. I'm gonna tell you about those towels later. Magnificent you have no way to say

Heather 2:30
my name is Heather. I live in Yellowknife northwest territories in Canada. I am a type one diabetic and I've been diabetic for 17 years.

Scott Benner 2:41
You know when you said Yellowknife I thought a minute ago before we started recording I told Heather you don't want to tell people where you live and now she's making something up that that's nonsensical. But it's a real place Yellowknife

Heather 2:56
it is a real place yeah in the Northwest like the far the northern most territory. Is that the Yukon? It's beside the Yukon. It's Yukon adjacent.

Scott Benner 3:06
You trying to name your episode? Maybe I don't know. We already have a butthole adjacent.

Heather 3:13
Do I know I listened to that one yesterday and I died. Did you really? Yeah actually did.

Scott Benner 3:17
Oh, what a coincidence.

Heather 3:19
It is a coincidence.

Scott Benner 3:21
Let me see if I remember that one. The guest a lady had abscess. Yeah, somewhere between I don't even know what to say. Yeah. Okay. popped into my head. Man I share. I'll just bleep it out. I thought to say between the end and instead I went children listen to this if they don't need to know that. Yeah, so so near her butthole and her lady bits sort of in between she had an abscess that's sort of how she was diagnosed. Am I right about that?

Heather 4:00
Yeah, you're 100% right about that. And she was a nurse.

Scott Benner 4:02
Everyone should check out that episode.

Heather 4:04
It's a great episode. Yeah. Okay.

Scott Benner 4:06
Anyway, you live Why do you live where you live? What happened? Did you get lost in there and just decided to stay

Heather 4:12
or I had just wandered off too far. And here we are. Where you born? My sister actually lives here so she got me a job at I worked at a dental clinic so she got me a job at a dental clinic I was

Scott Benner 4:24
like oh god you're not a can can dancer Are you because there was another episode was also a Canadian.

Heather 4:28
Yeah, Canadian can can do so I listened to that one a couple of weeks ago.

Scott Benner 4:34
I was like, oh my god, is this all gonna come full circle. So are you guys are you American? No, I'm

Heather 4:39
Canadian. Okay,

Scott Benner 4:41
so you guys born in the Canada somewhere your sister migrates to the North Pole for some reason. And you decided to go because there's a job in a dental office?

Heather 4:50
Because there's a job at a dental office. Yeah. And I don't like teeth. So why not?

Scott Benner 4:54
At least you're not following a boy around. No, no, no, he

Heather 4:58
followed me. Oh, well. That's acceptable

Scott Benner 5:00
that I have no trouble with. Yeah. By the way, does it sound like I have trouble with women following men places? I don't think I do. No, no.

Heather 5:08
But you know, you're you have a daughter. I get it.

Scott Benner 5:10
I also have to fill an hour this conversation. I need to have an opinion on almost everything you say or I'm interested. Absolutely. As you ship. Yeah, well, okay, so you how long did you move there?

Heather 5:21
Um, I've been here for nine years.

Scott Benner 5:24
You really don't like teeth?

Heather 5:28
Yeah, no teeth are gross. I hate the dentist. Like I have bad dental anxiety.

Scott Benner 5:32
What do you do in the office?

Heather 5:34
I do like administrative stuff with like insurance companies and stuff. So you're not the person like out of the picture. I'm like, in an office away.

Scott Benner 5:41
Okay, you're not the person who's texting me three days from my appointment reminding me of cleaning? No, no, that's been the worst thing to happen to dental care. 15 years is there.

Heather 5:53
By the way, you have a dental appointment text one to apply.

Scott Benner 5:57
I'm gonna hold on a second. This is this is how much I hate this. I'm gonna read you the text. I want to respond back and say you're making me not care about my dental health. But hey, Scott, it's Cynthia from Dr. BLANKS office. I'm reaching out to remind you of your hygiene appointment with us for Monday at 2pm. Please call or text to confirm. Thanks. I want to respond. Leave me alone. Yeah.

Heather 6:23
Where's the opt out?

Scott Benner 6:25
I have a calendar. I know when my dental appointment is, yeah, please leave me alone. And I ignore it. And then you get like a follow up. Then you're like, Oh, God. Now I have to respond. So I just type. I'll be there without punctuation. She's like, great. We'll see you then. Have a great weekend. Leave me alone. So excited about this. Yeah. Please leave me alone. Okay, so you don't like teeth, but you work in a dentist's office, but you're in the back. You've been in the Canada for like nine years, right? Yeah, yeah.

Heather 7:00
I'm in northern Canada for nine years. I've been here my whole life. But

Scott Benner 7:02
yeah, yeah. And okay. In that part of the Canada and And how old are you now?

Heather 7:07
I'm 33. Okay.

Scott Benner 7:10
And when did you get type one?

Heather 7:12
A month before my 15th birthday?

Scott Benner 7:15
Oh, yeah. Like 18 years ago? Yeah. Gotcha. Does your sister have any of the autoimmune stuff?

Heather 7:22
No, I am the only auto immune thing. My dad has a thyroid issue. So there's that.

Scott Benner 7:32
Do you know if it's autoimmune or if it's not?

Heather 7:34
Um, I don't know. But his like his mom had it. Her mom, you know, like, it's a long line of thyroid problems. They

Scott Benner 7:42
call it hypothyroidism or, yes, he thinks

Heather 7:45
Yeah, he's on that drug that your son takes? Really? Yeah,

Scott Benner 7:51
he's on to accent.

Heather 7:53
Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

Scott Benner 7:53
I asked him about it the other day. You can get that in Canada. I think so amazing. Yeah, it's amazing. It really is. I don't understand. You don't even have roads? Right? How do you get? Oh, you imagined it as dirt? No, not even that ice. Not even Oh, yes. Just Rossi snow, and a hill. And then just the thing standing off in the distance. It's an animal I've never seen before that looks vaguely menacing, but leaves me alone. That's how I see Canada. Absolutely. We have lots of those. And then a Mountie, and then three people in a bar stabbing each other. That's pretty much how I see this whole thing

Heather 8:28
that you just described.

Scott Benner 8:31
I imagined I did by the way, but I don't know. Okay, so right before your 50th birthday. So no family history. It's not like you were looking for it. How did it happen?

Heather 8:41
Um, so I used to play competitive soccer. And this was the first year that we decided not to practice their Christmas break. And I was living my best life so I was drinking lots the typical things drinking lots. My vision when my gums were bleeding, I lost close to 30 pounds. My mom was a nurse. So she kind of recognized it but you know, denial. So we went and got my blood sugar tested and I came out at 28 which is like in the five hundreds

Scott Benner 9:28
Hi there. We're going to have a good time today. And the reason I say that is because you thought back on being 15 and just for like, you know, so I did what 15 year olds do I drank to excess and my gums were bleeding

Heather 9:40
100% Yeah, that was it. I like I remember my my one of my girlfriends tells me like I remember we went to the movies and you drank like three large pops in an hour and I was like

Scott Benner 9:54
that but okay. There's that great wish you remember she's like that's important when you're Yeah, yeah. Why the latent alcoholism? It's such a young age Heather were you just bored? Sad what was happening?

Heather 10:10
Just like chugging all the time just needed the booze.

Scott Benner 10:16
I want to say is this a Canadian thing? But I think I'm the outlier when it comes to drinking. So I'm not sure how to

Heather 10:23
know. I mean, I wasn't a drinker really high. didn't drink until I was 19. I waited until the illegal appropriate age.

Scott Benner 10:29
All this chugging was just like pop. Yeah, like my answer. I

Heather 10:35
thought you were Oh, god. No, no.

Scott Benner 10:39
What did I misunderstand? I thought you were like,

Heather 10:44
I said, I was living my best life and you thought, oh, yeah, here we go.

Scott Benner 10:46
I just thought these Canadians, all they do is stab people and drink. This must be the story. So here we go. Here's another here's another Canadian girl. Tell me about her boozing. Yeah. But okay. Alright, so you are just consuming a lot of liquids.

Heather 11:05
Yeah, just a lot of liquid in non alcoholic form. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 11:08
Okay. All right. This all makes more sense to me now. Yeah. So So do you see your you think your mom notices? But she doesn't say anything, do you?

Heather 11:19
Well, I think it was just like a, I think it was a build up, like my vision went first. And then we went, got new glasses. And that was like the whole thing. And then like, I happened to go to the dentist, and they were like, Wow, your gums are bleeding a lot. And that's abnormal, but like, carry on with your life. And then, and then the weight loss, I think was what my mom really noticed. And like in such a short period of time, they figure that because I was so active that was kind of keeping my blood sugar in range. And then because I had like, two and a half weeks of no activity.

Scott Benner 11:57
You notice that all of a sudden? Yeah, I'll because of the lack of soccer. Wow, what a different story. I had you with a fifth of vodka in your hand, just bleeding from the corner of your mouth drunk in a movie theater, and really mean we can we could say that. That's what I don't want to say anything. It's not true. But, but instead you're just an athletic girl who gets a couple of months off and all of a sudden, this is how you see the diabetes come up. Yeah. Okay. And then because you're in Canada, you made an appointment, and they saw you in 14 months. Is that right?

Heather 12:27
They saw me no, they saw me like within like, three like this all happened in a course of three weeks.

Scott Benner 12:34
Okay. All right. So 18 years ago, that's pretty long gone. You're not what was the management style back then?

Heather 12:43
I was MDI, so I was on Novo rapid and Liv Amir. And then I changed to Lantis at some point after that, and then I was on trustee but at the end of my MDI adventure,

Scott Benner 12:58
but you're in a province where they didn't try to give you a sliding scale they gave you Oh,

Heather 13:02
they gave me a sliding scale they did.

Scott Benner 13:06
And how long did you stick with that? And did that mess with you?

Heather 13:09
Um, I think I only did that for a couple months. And then I got to carb ratio. And then everything was kind of golden from there. I basically like I never really honeymooned, I basically was like out of insulin. my pancreas was like, Yeah, I'm done with this. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 13:24
How long did you pay play professional soccer.

Heather 13:28
I love that. You said that. I'm a professional soccer player. So let's go with that.

Scott Benner 13:33
I was making fun of parents who are spending money on their children in sports.

Heather 13:37
Oh, God, no, no, I wasn't going anywhere. I didn't like to run. So and I was the goalie, so you know, good enough. That's like, that's the spot where you stay if you don't want to run, so. I played soccer until I was 18. Okay.

Scott Benner 13:53
Did you go to what would they call that? University? Would you call it University? And when

Heather 13:58
I did go, I went to Yeah, I went to university, but I didn't play soccer. I wasn't that good?

Scott Benner 14:04
Yeah. It's not gonna work out for most of you. That's all No,

Heather 14:08
no, I was not getting a professional career in soccer.

Scott Benner 14:12
I've come to understand that the money that my son got for playing sports in college was is almost a tip of the iceberg. For what most people get. You know, it's yeah, I never I guess I we were he was so focused on continuing to play. You had these expectations. This was going to happen as it kept happening. We're like, well, of course, the next thing happened like we expected it to. But now you look back with hindsight and you're like, because for so many people, it just doesn't work out that way. And yeah, almost random sometimes. But okay, so soccer. I mean, I don't know how you play soccer and snow but whatever.

Heather 14:50
Well, where I lived at the time there was no snow. There's no snow there. You're a liar. How could that be when you live in a small area of Vancouver, BC It typically doesn't get very much. No.

Scott Benner 15:02
West Coast. I see.

Heather 15:04
Yeah, yeah, that's where I grew up.

Scott Benner 15:06
Big TV filming area. Yeah, huge.

Heather 15:09
Yeah, it's funny. I can pick out things in movies. I'm like, oh, that's filmed in BC. I recognize those streets

Scott Benner 15:15
crazy when I interviewed Victor Garber. He was in Vancouver. Okay, they were on like a holiday break from the TV show he was doing at the time. Yeah, anyway, okay, that's not that's neither here nor there. So Heather, I feel like I should just jump in and ask you why you want to come on the podcast because your notes let me read them to people.

Heather 15:32
Oh my god. I bet they're super invigorating. Like they're just say why

Scott Benner 15:36
do you want to come? Here are the questions that are asked if I asked you to come on the podcast send you the link your relationship to diabetes. You said type one. Have you ever been in guest or have you been a guest on another type one podcast the past six months? You said no. What are some of the themes you hope to cover on your episode? Other complications from type one looping? How awesome Scott is?

Heather 15:58
Right see,

Scott Benner 16:00
there we go. I don't know if we can make an hour out of it. But let's talk about you for let's start on making August getting I wanted to talk about I guess I want to start with looping because you just went over your progress from the insulins you were using. When did you start using a pump

let me tell you about us med they have a dedicated 800 number just for Juicebox Podcast listeners 888-721-1514 use that number to get your free benefits check. You can also do it online at my link us med.com forward slash juicebox but that's not what you care about. Here's what you care about. US med carries everything from insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies to the latest and CGM like the libre three and the Dexcom G seven. They also have the libre to the G six they've got what else on the pod dash Omni pod five tandem T slim x two What am I saying here T slim x two My goodness they got what you're looking for baby. US med accepts Medicare nationwide and over 800 private insurers us med.com forward slash juicebox go check them out there the number one specialty distributor for Omni pod dash the number one fastest growing tandem distributor nationwide and so much more. They've served over 1 million people living with diabetes since 1996. And they're gonna give you better service and better care. On top of all that, US med always provides 90 days worth of supplies and fast and free shipping. Head over to the link now us med.com forward slash juice box get your supplies the same way Arden does from us med now let's talk about some comfort. Cozy earth.com I got cozy Earth sheets on my bed. I've got cozy Earth joggers on my butt. I wear a cozy Earth sweatshirt the other day kept me warm without making me hot. wasn't cold wasn't on was just comfortable. And it fit me nice and it felt good. Comfy, comfy, comfy, comfy cozy, just like the sheets just like the name cozy earth. Now what have I done recently added cozy Earth towels to the lineup here at the house. I'm getting out of the shower every day. And I got the waffle towels from cozy Earth you'll find them at cozy earth.com Go up to have bath. Click on you'll see. Anyway, the Waffle House. One side has this like Wofully I don't know what you would call it. And I use that for my first towel down a little bit of Zoom Zooms in like get off the big stuff, you know what I mean? And then flip it around to this super, super soft side. Take care of the rest. I love the cozy Earth towels, my bits and pieces love them. And I think you might love them too. Cozy earth.com Now here's the best part 35% off of your entire order at checkout, not just the first time you go buy some towels today. You go to the checkout, you put the word juice box in a checkout you save 35% You come back a week later you want some sheets, use the offer code juicebox 35 Doesn't matter no limit you use that offer code as much as you want it cozy earth.com Use that offer code juice box at checkout. Save yourself 35% Make your bits and pieces happy. There are links in the show notes of the podcast player you're listening in now. Links at juicebox podcast.com to us med cozy earth. All the sponsors when you click on my links for use my offer codes, you are keeping the podcasts free and plentiful. And I very much appreciate it. Now I'm going to get you back to Heather and we're going to continue on our journey

Heather 20:04
I started using a pump in 2019 I think 28 My life 2018

Scott Benner 20:12
Four years ago,

Heather 20:12
four years. Yeah.

Scott Benner 20:13
Okay. Did you make the leap because you weren't happy with your care, or were you just trying to make a change or what?

Heather 20:20
Um, so I actually started wearing a pump pretty quick after I was diagnosed. I was very fortunate that one of my best friends was diabetic. So he was really big on me getting a pump because he had a pump and it made so much everything was so much easier if you just got a pump and my mom wanted me to wear a pump. So I was like, alright, I'll do it. I wasn't thrilled, but I did it. But it was a Medtronic, something I don't know. I can't even remember. I understand real old and I hated being like, tubed. I hated it. I worked for a couple years. And I wore it. They labeled me as non compliant because I didn't really care.

Scott Benner 21:14
So how does that work? It sure you're wearing the pump. You don't like the pump? Do you not put it on? Do you not Bolus? Like what?

Heather 21:21
Um, I think I just wasn't. I wasn't bolusing properly. So like, basically, I was running on Basal for most of it.

Scott Benner 21:33
Okay, because you were you when you weren't on a pump? Were you injecting it your meals? Yep. What the hell changed? Heather?

Heather 21:42
I don't know. I just like I was fine for the first little while. Like I probably got it when I was 17. I want to say and then by the time I was 19. I was like, Yeah, I'm done with this. But I didn't know that. I could just say that I was done with it. So instead of telling my doctor that I didn't want to do it, I just self sabotage.

Scott Benner 22:10
Oh, they call that quiet quitting now? Yeah. It's not what they call it nowadays. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I keep up with what the kids are saying.

Heather 22:22
So she's so in tune.

Scott Benner 22:27
So you thought you would you would break up with your pump by ignoring it?

Heather 22:32
Yeah. 100%. Yeah.

Scott Benner 22:33
It didn't take to him.

Heather 22:35
It did not. No, it didn't. It didn't. It didn't end well for me.

Scott Benner 22:38
Pump kept coming over on Friday nights expecting dinner and snacks.

Heather 22:42
Yeah, and I didn't deliver.

Scott Benner 22:45
So what an odd analogy, but what So what happened then? Did your health start trending the wrong way? I would imagine.

Heather 22:53
Yeah. So I always had trouble getting my blood sugar's down to begin with. I was insulin resistant for a while. Like I took Metformin. And just to try to help and that was horrible. I hated it. But I like I want I DK like, I don't know, I want to say like, six times.

Scott Benner 23:23
Oh my god. Okay, so were you tired of diabetes? And you were taking it out? Like you were blaming the pump? A little bit of both, I think Yeah. Okay. And that went on for how long?

Heather 23:35
Probably three, two or three years, maybe? Wow,

Scott Benner 23:39
I'm gonna get back to that in just a second. But it turns out quiet quitting is an application of work to rule in which employees work with defined work hours, and engaged solely in activities within those hours. The philosophy of quiet quitting despite the name is not necessarily connected to quitting the job outright, but rather doing exactly what the job requires. Why the hell would they call it quiet quitting?

Heather 24:02
That seems like quietly doing your job

Scott Benner 24:04
quiet working? Yeah, we're focused on really completing your tasks. And just to show you how quickly these like, like monitors can fly through the internet in the last under the News tab on the Google machine, yeah, quiet quitting has 12 articles in the last 18 hours. Jesus like what why did people our obsession with quiet quitting? Doesn't seem to be going away management's answered with quiet quitting Minnesota among top five states for quiet quitting it quiet quitting as a fake trend. Why does it feel real? says

Heather 24:43
well, doing your job is what that's called.

Scott Benner 24:45
So I just assumed quiet quitting was like you just don't do your job until somebody walks up to you one day and goes alright man, fine, leave, and then you can then you can go I don't know what happened. They just fired me. But It turns out that this has to do with what you were doing with your Yeah,

Heather 25:04
nothing to do with it. So I definitely wasn't like you were not quite quitting, but staying within

Speaker 1 25:10
you. So do people know you're in your late teens or early 20s? While this is happening, is that right? Yeah. Okay. Does anyone notice it? The doctor a family member somebody?

Heather 25:21
Yeah, my doctor did she, she like I went to go see her. I was still seeing a pediatric Endo. And she, like, Oh, let me see your pump. And I'm like, you know, I've written out all of my blood sugar's to give her and then she like, looks into the cab, but I want to see your pump. And I'm like, okay, an answer. And she's like, why are there no boluses and I'm like,

Scott Benner 25:46
it's more of a Basal machine. It

Heather 25:49
just like all I can see is Basil. Like, it never even occurred to me that that's something that she could look at. Like, I don't know, I just was like, oh, like she's just gonna want to see what my blood sugar's have been. Here's a piece of paper with it all.

Scott Benner 26:00
This is more of a niche pump. It only does this. Yeah, yeah. So when that happens, like this, the person the doctor looking at you horrified and go, Heather, you're killing yourself, or what did they do?

Heather 26:14
She was like, really angry. And she labeled me non compliant and then I never went back. I'll show you. That was my problem to that. I was like, fine. I don't need to see her.

Scott Benner 26:27
She's gonna be so. So honest about what's happening. Did you know I am completely compliant. I'm just not paying attention to it. I know. I'm supposed to be

Heather 26:40
willingly not doing what I want to do.

Scott Benner 26:43
What was your What was your diet like? During that time?

Heather 26:46
I ate whatever. It didn't matter. I you know drink slushies Ay,

Scott Benner 26:52
ay, one C and the elevens twelves.

Heather 26:54
Oh, yeah, easily. I have. I don't know what my agency was when I was diagnosed. But it was only like, just in the last like, four years since I've changed back onto a pot. It's only like, come down from the tents in the last four years. So

Scott Benner 27:14
other being serious from it. Do you have any, any hindsight idea about what was happening?

Heather 27:23
Probably I just was not happy that I was diabetic. Like it not that it was difficult, but I just, I just want it to be normal. Okay, I didn't have to think about it. And I know my friend too was diabetic. He like he was diagnosed when he was four. So like, everything was like second nature to him. But you know, he never known anything different. But I think because I was like, I was almost 16. So I had 16 years of just not having to worry about anything like that. And then to kind of have it piled on really sucked.

Scott Benner 28:00
But you said doing it wasn't difficult. So then this was no,

Heather 28:03
no, it was oh, no, it wasn't difficult. It just was like an extra step that I just didn't want to have to do. And I didn't think that I thought that if I ignored it nothing. Like what could go wrong?

Scott Benner 28:15
Yeah. So it's it's a psychological? Oh, yeah, for sure. In nature, okay. Yeah. Do you find help for that? Does it run its course. Do you have a scare?

Heather 28:29
Uh, no, I, I think I just kind of, I found an endo pretty quick after not being allowed to or not going to see the other one. And she was really great. I think she kind of talked some sense into me. Where at least and then I like she just was like, Get off your pump. You don't want to be on a pump, get off the pump. Like, that's fine. You can go back to MDI. And I was doing that. And my blood sugar's weren't good. But I had always in my mind, like, oh, well, my blood sugars are always high. That's just the type of like, that's just how my diabetes is.

Scott Benner 29:08
Okay. And so her idea was, you don't want to use the pump. So get off the pump. We'll go back to this, but that changed anything immediately. I can't. Or

Heather 29:18
I think I was well then I was bolting obviously. That I would.

Scott Benner 29:22
So there's that. So when it was pushing a button, you were like, bridge too far. But when it was to draw up a needle or using pen, you're like, Yeah, this is fine. I'll do this. Yeah, yeah, there you're gonna make some guy very unhappy one day

Are you well, that was the wrong word. Hold on. I'm going through a list of synonyms in my mind. I'm just gonna go back to my original word. Are you difficult in other ways?

Heather 29:54
I mean, I don't think so. Probably.

Scott Benner 29:57
Because like this is either like I don't have diabetes, right? But this is either a kind of deep rooted psychological, you know, Wall you've built around yourself. Yeah. Or it's you doing the like, like you're getting to hear art in a couple of weeks be on the podcast where she tells you that, like, she has no trouble taking her thyroid medication, for example. Sure, I'll take it every day, I'll take exactly what I'm supposed to I have no trouble with it. If somebody reminds me to do it, the first thing I want to do is not take it. And yeah, is it just that? Is it, um, call it self sabotage earlier? But do you mean that like, in the strict definition of it, were you trying to hurt yourself? I

Heather 30:38
just think that like I didn't think like, I didn't think that anything. Like it was like, Oh, I have diabetes, but like, I could see that my friend was fine. And he was doing what he was doing. And I I think I just didn't understand why. Why I was struggling so much, and why my blood sugar's were so high and why I couldn't do all the things like, you know, he could go and chug a Slurpee, or slushy or whatever, and he would be fine. But that's because he's boasting properly. Whereas like, I just didn't understand it. I don't think and I think I was just, I just didn't think that like, it didn't matter. Like, oh, I've diabetes, no big deal. What's the worst that could happen?

Scott Benner 31:20
Were you angry about it or depressed about it?

Heather 31:23
I think I was angry about it. I wouldn't say that I was depressed about it. Now,

Scott Benner 31:29
what's interesting, because you're thoughtful, and articulate and bright. And you're all the things that I would associate with, you know, wanting to push through it and help yourself. Yeah, I think there's no rhyme or reason for why it strikes people. Yeah, you know what I mean? It's interesting. Do you see any of these personality traits in your mom or your dad or other people in your extended family? Nope, nothing? Nope. No, like, kind of? Like, I don't mean these words. By the way, when I say, say stuff like, difficult, I don't mean in the 1950 sense. Like, Oh, yeah. Give her a second to sit down. She's difficult. I don't mean like, I just mean like, you're brusque against things. You're pushing back. You're, you know,

Heather 32:14
yeah. And like, this is like, I want to say that, like diabetes is the only thing that I've ever really pushed back against. I'm usually like, pretty like, chill.

Scott Benner 32:22
This is the thing you pick.

Heather 32:23
Yeah, this was it. I was like, Alright, this is the hill. I'm gonna die on Yeah.

Scott Benner 32:27
Literally, literally, literally. You know, normally, I just do what I have to do. But on this one thing I was, yeah, maybe I'd give myself a mountain of health problems. So did you give yourself a mountain of health problems? Or what happened?

Heather 32:42
Um, well, I have kind of, I have a lot of autoimmune stuff going on to begin with. So I had I think it's like, any, like, this might be part of it, too. Like, I was diagnosed with scoliosis, when I was 13. So I had to wear a brace for a year and a half. Okay. So like, wasn't thrilled about that. So then it was like, then the next I got it's called Kyary. One for me malformation. It's where your cerebellum space is too small. So the little tail on your brain can fuse to your spine.

Scott Benner 33:24
What now called Wait a second. What's that called again?

Heather 33:27
Chiari one malformation.

Scott Benner 33:35
Holy glare thing. Typing. Is, is it serious? But that's, that's the sad. No, that's the first that's the first question. Yeah. Which means that everybody who gets told this, the doctor is like goes to their phone. They're like, Oh, yeah. The severity of it. malformations can vary from person to person, but generally are not considered life threatening.

Heather 34:03
Well, yeah, no, yeah. So like, as long as I think because they caught like, so the the way they caught it is because my spine curved to the left instead of to the right first, and that's not typical of scoliosis. So that led them to do like an a, an MRI, and then, you know, they focused in on the old, the old brain and they're like, Hey, what's going on there?

Scott Benner 34:29
Carry malfunction. Type one occurs when everything you get as type one occurs when the section of the skull containing a part of the brain is too small or deformed, thus putting pressure on and crowding the brain. Does your brain feel crowded right now?

Heather 34:44
With knowledge,

Scott Benner 34:47
the lower part of the cerebellum at the tonsils is displaced into the upper spinal canal to problems with your tonsils.

Heather 34:57
I used to get tonsillitis all the time. Thanks All right.

Scott Benner 35:00
So what did they do for this?

Heather 35:04
Nothing, they just watched it. Um, but I feel like it was just like, so I had those two things. And then like, a year later, I get diabetes. And it was like, really,

Scott Benner 35:13
as a young person, the scoliosis is tough. And then because the brace couldn't have been fun, everybody probably saw it, but all that. And then this thing, which involves your brain, so even if you're not worried about it, you're a young kid that doctor's office, and they're like, hey, her brain is crowded. Really great. And then the diabetes. Yeah. All right. Heather, you had had enough?

Heather 35:37
Yeah, yeah, I think so. That's why diabetes kind of was like, Yep,

Scott Benner 35:40
I'm done with this. You kind of can't throw the other two things away. Yeah. Interesting. Well, you guess you could have took that back brace off, but it's probably too late. By then they probably held they probably actually.

Heather 35:51
I mean, aside from like it being a back brace and like I had to wear it in high school and like, traumatizing not really traumatized. I didn't really care but like, I loved it. It was so comfortable. Really, like when I just stopped wearing it. I still wore it because it was just like cozy. Like, at night. I'd like sleep in it. Do you like

Scott Benner 36:09
to wear like a tight shirt? Like an Under Armour or spin? spandex? Oh, I

Heather 36:13
don't know. I don't but I guess then maybe I do. Like,

Scott Benner 36:16
interesting. I'll tell you my back is sore. Sometimes. Maybe I'd wear a brace.

Heather 36:20
Like I sometimes wish that I still had it because like sometimes my back hurts. And I'm like, man,

Scott Benner 36:24
it was comforting. No kidding. Okay. All right. So let's, again, with very little education, and absolutely no training. Let's track. Let's chalk this part up to just getting a lot of stuff lumped on you at the end of your teens. And then when you went out on your own, you were like, you know, I'm going to just cut something out of my life. With all this, and but you never thought in that time be honest with me. Did you ever think I know I'm hurting myself? Or did you not even think of it that deeply?

Heather 36:57
Um, I knew like of complications that could happen, but I just was like, yeah, that's not gonna happen to me. It's fine.

Scott Benner 37:03
Gotcha. That'll happen to other people. Yeah,

Heather 37:07
and I was wrong. You were

Scott Benner 37:09
wrong. So what's the first so what snaps you back in? Like, what makes you put the pump back on and pull things together? Four years ago?

Heather 37:16
Um, I found a lump in my breast.

Scott Benner 37:21
Oh, I thought you're gonna say Jesus. I did not find I found Oh, she found God. That's like know, something worse was this lump? Yeah.

Heather 37:34
Yeah, so I found a lump in my breast. In like 2017, like in December, right before Christmas, perfect time to find a lump in your breast.

Scott Benner 37:47
It's Easter. Christmas, but I see what you're saying. So what were you self checking?

Heather 37:53
No. So as you know, I live in Yellowknife. It gets really, really, really cold here. And I was outside, like coming inside from my car into my house. And for whatever reason, my arm brushed against the side of my boob. And I was like, That, like, that's not right. Like, that's really hard. Like, my nipple shouldn't be that hard. I was on the outside for a second. And I'm wearing a jacket

Scott Benner 38:22
for context. And normally, I have to be honest with you, 700 some episodes. I've never asked this question. But are you like chesty? No, no. So through a jet. Oh, okay. I'm actually asking for a reason, because I'm first trying to figure out how you bump against the side of your boob. If you're not like,

Heather 38:42
Okay, well, like, I don't know, I'm not like a double D. But like, you know,

Scott Benner 38:46
there's some. If I was looking at you from the back, I might see some curves on the sides. Okay. I can't believe this is what we're doing. So, so you're wearing a jacket, and you live in wherever the hell it is. You live. So it's, um, you're probably wearing a thick jacket, and my point of like, dragging this all out is like that. It was obvious through the jacket.

Heather 39:06
Yeah. Yeah. Like it was like, rock solid. And I was like,

Scott Benner 39:10
is that wow, that's scary, huh? Yeah, we're at that point where you just like, oh, yeah, sure.

Heather 39:19
Like, oh, like it's cold outside. Yeah. It's like, okay, that's cool. And then like, you know, a week later, I'm like, okay, that's still there. And then I'm gonna go to a doctor. And then yeah, and so then I made a doctor's appointment, and they didn't exam and then they were worried. So that made me more worried. And then I got in for a mammogram pretty quick. Which is a terrible experience.

Scott Benner 39:51
I've never done it, but I've heard stories.

Heather 39:52
Yeah, well, especially when you have a lump, like

Scott Benner 39:55
and they're smashing it in that glass plate, right? Yeah. Like a glass vise

Heather 39:59
like who Well, thanks, I feels really great. And then they do a biopsy. But it was inconclusive. And we, because of where I live, we're not really like a we're not a big city. No, really? Yeah, no shocking. It a lot of our medical treatment gets sent down to Edmonton. So I had to fly down to Edmonton to get a biopsy done. And of course, the guy that's doing my biopsy is like, fresh out of school, doing a rotation. It's his, like, first day there. He's gonna biopsy me and like, it was horrible. It was brutal. Like, it took him like, eight tries to get like, a quality piece. Or like really, really like I'm all for like edgy. Like, I'm all for it like, but like, can we put a limit on the amount of times he's trying to butcher me? So

Scott Benner 41:06
he's, he's botched this three times, right? Why don't we get the other guy in here? Right? Yeah, I flew here for this, by the way. Yeah, you know, what I'm imagining is one of those planes with pontoons on the bottom right where you can land in a lake.

Heather 41:22
They do have those things, but that wasn't

Scott Benner 41:23
that wasn't the point you're on. Okay. So what was the lump?

Heather 41:27
So it came back as they called it, diabetic mess. Stop with it, which is something that I had never heard of.

Scott Benner 41:34
That's new Heather way to bring something new to the podcast.

Heather 41:38
Right? No one there's like no real like, I obviously, like looked it up right away, because I was like, that's that. Um, and there's no real cause for it. I would imagine it had something to do with my high blood

Scott Benner 41:58
sugars. Yeah, you might imagine. Hey, when you hear something funny while we're talking about lumps in your boobs, which there's nothing funny about you said you said diabetic neuropathy, or whatever you call it. You said it so quickly. I didn't catch the second word. So I googled diabetic boob lump and it came up. So anyone who ever gives Google crap like I mean, maybe they're stealing our information or taking over our lives, but it new diabetic boobless That's insane. Way to go. diabetic neuropathy is an uncommon complication of diabetes characterized by tough masses that develop in the breast. Yeah, okay. They can be mistaken for tumors. These lesions which are painless and mainly consists of primary fibrotic and inflammatory elements can be misdiagnosed as breast cancer. Do you have them removed?

Heather 42:50
Yeah. So I had one I had that one removed pretty quick after that, like, probably within a month, and then a year later, I got another one in my other breast. So I got that one removed.

Scott Benner 43:01
Wow. And then since Okay, did that and since then, nothing but did that put what pushed you into taking care of yourself? That was like, I gotta have was it? Was it the lumps are the guy just man handling you for eight tries? A little bit of? Like, I don't want this. This doesn't have to happen anymore. I don't want this to happen. Oh, my God, that's insane. You know, there'd be nothing. Okay, about calling this episode diabetic boob lump. But, I mean, right. You know, I know you would be because I've known talking for 40 minutes, and I feel like there's very little you wouldn't be okay with. Actually, you seem like a fun date. Heather. Like a time? I don't think there's a lot of questions and Heather immediately goes, No, today. Yeah. How we're gonna do that. Yeah. Okay, well, that's horrifying. Yeah, I only know how to joke through these things. If we talked about this seriously, I'd be crying by now. I'd be like, Oh my god, like, like I would I would picture you as a young child and being overwhelmed by your health issues and not having enough support or fortitude or emotional maturity to take care of yourself and then all this comes after that. And you're you're still kind of fighting through it. It's amazing. I am thrilled that something happened. That wasn't life altering that got you back to taking care of yourself. Yeah, that's, that's really good news. So let's talk about that a little bit. You have your second fibrotic and inflammatory element mass taken out of your boob you're like, Okay, this is probably got something to do with the fact that I don't Bolus from my meals and and your agency is like really high. that points though, right? Yeah, it was probably still in the tents. And still doctors don't try to help you. Well,

Heather 45:07
so. So up here there again, there's not a lot of like, there's no endos up here. I see a diabetic team. And that consists of like a regular GP, a diabetes educator, and a nutritionist, and I fired the GP pretty quick. She told me that if I took tumeric, everything would be fine.

Scott Benner 45:36
Tumeric Yeah, so that was like a thing you cook with?

Heather 45:40
Yep. Yeah. If you take a she's like a very, like nap. She does like all that, like natural stuff. So like, she was like, Oh, just take tumeric and you won't have to take as much insulin. And I was like,

Scott Benner 45:54
Yeah, listen, I don't think that's right. And if anybody's listening.

Heather 45:57
Yeah. So I was like, Yeah, I don't want to see her anymore. So I saw the diabetic educator, for I've been seeing her for six years. And she's amazing. And like, I mean, she's been trying to get she's I mean, she's done. She's done an amazing job with my diabetes. So yeah.

Scott Benner 46:21
Listen, I don't think there's anything wrong if you want to take Tumeric but I don't think I should assume that it's gonna take the place of your insulin if your pancreas doesn't work, right. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah,

Heather 46:31
it's not a one stop. Thanks all.

Scott Benner 46:33
I mean, if that was working on your food, it's fine. To imagine if that was true, right? That we wouldn't be talking about a type two epidemic and there wouldn't be so many people with type one because we'd all just be I, by the way, couldn't if you put Tumeric on my tongue, I wouldn't know what it was. Yeah,

Heather 46:49
I was like, why am I like, what? Why is that gonna fix? Okay, sure, lady. You're

Scott Benner 46:54
crazy. Again. I'm not against it, if you

Heather 46:55
think Oh, absolutely. I mean, tumeric works for you. Good for you. Yeah.

Scott Benner 47:00
What your need for insulin if you have type one diabetes.

Heather 47:02
You still gonna need to take that insulin with it, though. Yeah. Okay. Well, it's

Scott Benner 47:05
good to get rid of her cheeses. Heather, somehow we're doing happy and sad at the same time. I know. It's so exciting. It's overheating me a little bit. I'm wearing a sweatshirt. I didn't realize. What's your story? I think it might just be hold on a second. Yeah.

Well, maybe there's a malformation on my skull. It's squeezing my brain. literally sitting here thinking, wow, this is very emotional.

Heather 47:46
Really hot. It's just so emotional.

Scott Benner 47:49
It got cold here this morning. I put my sweatshirt on to take the dogs out. I didn't. I didn't take it back off. Okay. Really, if at this point anybody listening is thinking why am I listening to this guy about my diabetes, you might have a point. Although I love the story, although although Heather, I got a review on the podcast yesterday, it was a very good review. But the person said that the newer episodes are more talking and less management. I was like, okay, that might be fair, but there's all the management like sprint like there's all the series now like I put them together for you in different places. So we could have these conversations. And I think the person was being like saying I really liked the podcast, just know if you're looking for management stuff. You might have to go find the series or go back earlier into the conversations where he talked more about no like management stuff. And I would have been fine with all that except she used the word banter, which for some reason made me feel like we don't like her. Well, I did I did like the review actually. I thought it was a good review. I just wish you wouldn't have said banter, banter. I don't know I wanted to banter seems frivolous to me. And I our conversation about I don't find oddly enough if you want to look into my mind I don't find our conversations today frivolous No Yeah, I think we we we had a serious conversation so far in a frivolous manner but I don't think the contents for it was but anyway, neither here nor there. I'm a bit of a word snob I didn't enjoy banter in that exact city. Didn't like the use literally it was a terrific it was a terrific review five star she loves the podcast the whole thing.

Heather 49:27
I just wish she doesn't like your banter.

Scott Benner 49:29
I could have taken a couple of minutes on Google found a different word than banter. I think I would have been better with it. But that's neither here nor there. And I appreciate the reviews. So Alright, so let's get to before we figure out how you I just decided we're gonna take a bit of a left turn here. I love it before we before we talked about what you did to bring things together for yourself. Talk a little bit about how amazing I am.

Heather 49:54
Where to begin? You know you just you you I have the same personality that I have, which is why I feel like this is going so great. At least I think it

Scott Benner 50:04
is. We probably wouldn't do well married Heather, we'd be both think I Right?

Heather 50:07
Like we have the same humor. You say you say funny that man. I laugh a lot when I'm listening to your podcast, like a lot. What's wonder, Am I supposed to? I don't know. But I do.

Scott Benner 50:19
I don't. I don't know. I appreciate very much. I also think it's like, like you were doing like a low key brag when you talked about that. You could see your boobs for the back. Like I even though we were talking about health issues. Like she is still telling people I have a nice full breast. Like maracas formidable. And just like in the middle of telling a story, which by the way, at that moment, I wasn't sure that wasn't going to end with breast cancer. And so I was a little freaked out. And, and you're you still were like, no, no, no. Yeah, you can see them from the back their fault. Yeah, yeah, he's decent. Anyway, all boobs are terrific. I just want to say that right away. I've seen them. Yeah, from the teeniest tiniest, to the ones where you're just like, I don't understand how you're standing. And does your back not hurt? They all have a place in the world. And that place is equal. Yeah. So anyway, not the point. The point is, is that I'm terrific. But yeah, but it's, I'm more seriously asking you like, like, what about the podcast works for you?

Heather 51:25
Um, I think like, odd, like, I mean, like, a lot of the things that you've talked about aren't things that I've like, never heard before. But the way that you deliver them, I'm like, huh, I should try that. And like, you know, like, a Pre-Bolus. Scott, I've only just started doing that in the last like, year. So we were, I've been told to Pre-Bolus my whole life, but like, what's the difference? What's the, what's 15 minutes gonna make? Well, a big difference.

Scott Benner 51:58
Yeah. Well, person sent me a graph the other day, and they were like, what do we do about this? And I'm looking at it, there's been a big spike in a meal and it comes out gets crashy low. And I said, Is there a Pre-Bolus in this? No, he doesn't do that. I said, Well, you could try Pre-Bolus thing. And a person says, I mean, he's 16. He's not going to do that. I was like, I don't know. Like, what do you want me? What do you want from me? Like, it's like, it's like, she drove into a wall. And she goes, What should I do about this? And I say, step on the brake. And she went, I don't want to, I was like, Well, what else could I do not to crash into this wall? I'm still gonna go with stuff on the brake, because it seems the most, like reasonable here. I mean, I guess you could swerve or drive slower? Or I don't know, but just step on the brake, you know? And yeah, it's just it's super interesting. How resistant people are to doing the little things that make the biggest difference for themselves. Pre-Bolus thing just doesn't stop you from spiking, it stops you from getting a low later. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And it levels your whole day out. It makes everything easier. You literally put 10 minutes worth of thought into something to save yourself eight hours. Yep. And yet, and the person knows that, because they're literally saying Help me. I don't want this to happen. I was like, Oh, you have to do the right thing. I can't do that. Okay, yeah. I mean, I don't know where to go with that. But it's interesting that you brought this up. And I was, you know, didn't know what you're gonna say. But I was at dinner last night. With I don't want my life to sound too amazing. Because this is the first is maybe the fourth dinner in eight years that anybody's ever taken me to because of the podcast. But I was having dinner with some people from the tea one day exchange. And we were just talking about the exchange and and how I've been able to put, you know, get people to take the survey and they were so thank you dinner, if I'm being perfectly honest. That's what it was. Right? And so we were just talking about bigger ideas. And I said during the course of the conversation, I was like, you know, there's a couple of things I'm proud of around the podcast, I said, one of them is just the longevity of it. And then I've been able to keep it going in a way that it's not just helping people, but it's growing. I said, I think that's a big deal. I think you don't see a lot of a lot of content. Because I guess technically I'm a content provider, right? Like so it's hard to keep something like this going for for eight years, especially at the volume that I put out stuff. And I'm and I sit but the other thing is, I think I'm most proud of taking. I'm like if you're being honest, I'm not saying anything that people don't know. I'm just saying something that people don't say, or when they say it, they say it in a way that when it's heard, the people who need it most are just like, Oh, I'm not doing that. Or I'm not yes, it's just you know, like, I always in my mind, go to glycemic load glycemic index. It's such an important concept. It's so incredibly easy to understand. But it has a big weird name. And it sounds like it's gonna be more trouble than it is. So doctors don't talk about it. And when they do, people don't listen. Yeah, and that's it. And there's simple. Again, over and over again, I'll tell you, the podcast should be five minutes long. It should be one episode, it should be five minutes long. It should say get your settings right. Pre-Bolus your meals, understand the impacts of your foods. Don't stare at a high blood sugar don't over treat a low go color of your life. Like it really is. It's that you know, and, and anyway, I'm proud of being able to deliver it in a way that gets to people, especially hearing your story. Because your your, um, your heads. It's thick, like a rock, Heather. So I'm well aware. It took a lot to get through there, I imagine.

Heather 55:55
Yeah. And it's like, it's so funny. Like, it's just like the simplest things like I think the first, the first episode I listened to was the one with I think his name is Kenny Fox. Is that right?

Scott Benner 56:08
Kenny? Yeah. Fox in the loop house.

Heather 56:10
Yeah. So I was following I wanted to loop. I don't even know how I stumbled upon looping. But I did. And I was like, creeping on their Facebook page for probably a solid year. And then somebody had posted that Kenny was on your podcast, and I had seen your podcast, probably a year before that. And I had like, bookmarked it on my phone. And then I just hadn't ever listened to it. It was there. And I just like never, I just forgot about it carried on with my life.

Scott Benner 56:41
Sorry, buddy. No. That's how it works, by the way. And then

Heather 56:45
and then they were like, oh, Kenny's on this doing this podcast, you should listen to it. And so it was like the second one. And I was like, well, there's got to be a first one. So then I wanted to find the first one first. So I listened to it. And I think he said something like, it was like, you guys were talking about Basal rates. And it was like, Basal insulin, like the insulin. You take now is for later and Lola insulin you took before us for now. And I just was like, light bulb, like, Oh, like that never even occurred to me. Like, I just assumed insulin goes into me. And it's now like, boom, that's it. So like, all these times, I was like, my blood sugar's high. And instead of bolusing, I'm increasing. I'm doing a Temp Basal, like a Temp Basal increase by 50%. And it's like, why isn't my blood sugar coming down? I don't understand why my blood sugar will come down. And like, just wait. And then just like hearing that sentence. It was like,

Scott Benner 57:41
okay, so important. I just, I was on stage a week ago for touched by type one. And they put an amazing event in, in Florida. And it's one of the things I stopped and made sure people were hearing. It was like, you know, I'm like, insulin does not work. Immediately, I went through a whole discussion. So they would understand that it doesn't work. Immediately, I talked about how you can Bolus for a meal and where insulin hits along the way. And then I just said, look, the truth is that insulin use now doesn't work until later. But that's not the way to think about it. The way to think about it is that the insulin that's working for me right now, was used earlier, like what came before is what's happening now is the way if you think of it that way. For some reason, it's simpler.

Heather 58:26
Yeah, it just like honestly, like unlocked, like, I don't even know, a next level in my brain. And I was like, oh, okay, all right.

Scott Benner 58:35
I just I told those people last night, I said, I said, if I've done anything I've turned, I think I've turned complicated diabetes ideas into t shirt slogans for the lack of a better phrase. Yeah, and it really, it makes things easier, because life's hard and you're busy. And if you can just remember something simple, like, trust that what I know is going to happen, it's going to happen, then you can just have that 12 Second thought and move on instead of you know, instead of sitting down and trying to dissect exactly what's been going on with your blood sugar for the past 18 hours and making yourself crazy trying to do computations, that the truth is, like, even our best algorithms at this point, don't completely understand. Yeah, you know, and now you're trying to figure it out while you're working in a dentist's office trying to avoid people's teeth. 100% was a lot of work. A lot of work. What Yeah, do you guys ever, it's not fair to ask you what you do in the dentist's office, but I always imagine that sometimes something's really disgusting. And you guys have to get together in a room and you're like, Oh, my God, look at this.

Heather 59:43
They do I don't I can't look at tool. Teeth are gross. Like I don't want to see. I don't want to see I don't want to see it. I don't want to see it.

Scott Benner 59:51
Well, how how far does this two thing go with you say you and a person were kissing and your tongue hit their tooth. With that So that's

Heather 1:00:01
fine. It's just like, Yeah, I just don't want to see like, because like, the dentist isn't taking picture of nice teeth. You know, sure enough, he's taking pictures of like teeth that are rotting out of somebody's mouth. And I'm like, Yeah, I'm interested in saying that that

Scott Benner 1:00:12
bothers you. Okay. Yeah, but you can lick a tooth. If it's clear. Yeah. Like, it's you, Heather.

Heather 1:00:18
I don't like go out and like, like people's teeth for fun, but like, yeah, cut

Scott Benner 1:00:22
Heather. What I like about your line is that it's very squiggly. You're like, dirty tooth can't see it. I don't overcome it. You know, like, would be happy to lick your tooth though. If your tooth is 30. I do want to be healthy, but not enough to take my insulin. Yeah. Although, if something bumps through my jacket at me that might get me to do this. might really Yeah. What about your mom? Who's your mom said a nurse. She said, right. Yes. Were you just diagnosed at a time in your life where her interaction with you and diabetes was short lived?

Heather 1:00:59
Ah, yes. She I mean, she was pretty involved. She, you know, she understood it. I feel like more than I did. You know, I like she would tell me when to take my insulin when I was first diagnosed and stuff like that. And I would do it and like I was taking insulin at school. Like, that wasn't an issue. It was just like, it was like, I hit 19. And I was like, Yeah, I'm done with this. I don't, I don't care anymore. It can't control me. I'm going to control it. And I was wrong

Scott Benner 1:01:28
by stuffing it down this little box and never look. Yeah, I'm

Heather 1:01:31
gonna Yeah, no diabetes, complications are ever gonna happen to me.

Scott Benner 1:01:35
You think that was just immaturity? Yeah, for sure. All right. Okay, so you figure out all this and you get back on a pump. And you're not listening to the podcast at that point. That's four years ago. So what did you do? Was it was it as simple as you just started bolusing for your meals again.

Heather 1:01:56
Um, I think it's, um, I also started wearing a CGM at the same time. Okay, how quick Oh, I thought that CGM is we're still well, so I had that. When I was on that first insulin pump. I had the like, paradigm one that comes with Medtronic. That thing it was like, It was horrific. I hated it to go in. It was not pleasant. So I thought that they were done. And then I got a libre first. And I liked it. It was okay. I like I like seeing the information. So like, that was exciting for me. And like I was somebody that would check my blood sugar all the time. Like I wasn't just like not checking.

Scott Benner 1:02:41
Wait a minute. You weren't Bolus thing, but you were checking. Oh, yeah. So you just be like, Yep, my blood sugar's 358. Cool.

Heather 1:02:48
Yeah. Cool. Sick moving on. Yep. That's just like, it was like, oh, that's where I'm always like, I'm never like, I sat in like, the three to 400 range comfortably for probably 12 years.

Scott Benner 1:03:04
Wow. What's the first thing you notice? When your blood sugar started coming down? It felt like, you didn't like it when it was coming down?

Heather 1:03:12
No, it was really bad.

Scott Benner 1:03:13
How long did that last?

Heather 1:03:14
Um, probably a couple months. There was like a slow progression, like they didn't want because I had ran so high for so long. They knew that, like, I would go and see them. And I'd be like, I don't feel good. And she'd be like, Yep, we're just gonna, like, you know, we'll increase your Lantis a little bit, we'll increase your, your carb ratio a little bit like that was a very slow progression. To get it to where I like, didn't feel like I was low at, like, 200.

Scott Benner 1:03:42
Yeah, so a nice slow process, especially with a high blood sugar for that long. You really could cause like, damage if you came down quickly. Yeah,

Heather 1:03:51
so like, it was probably a couple months before it came down. And even then, like, I still was like, My target was, like, 180. Okay.

Scott Benner 1:04:04
So once you get past that part, can you reflectively look back at how you felt and how you feel now? Oh,

Heather 1:04:09
yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't feel good at 200 ever, or whatever, like, at 400 or whatever. But I just like, I don't know, I just had it in my mind that because that's how it had been forever. That's just the that's just the type of diabetes I had. I just had a hard case people didn't. We just didn't know how to do it. Well, like they didn't know how to do it. I just wasn't listening.

Scott Benner 1:04:32
Yeah, that's so fascinating. I, I'm sorry, this happened to you. But I appreciate you sharing the story. Yeah, because I think it's common, and it's something that we could all be looking out for with our loved ones as they're growing through this, you know, certain stages of their life, I guess. And that, you know, you can't just I don't know like, Yeah, I think you have to understand it. Tell me if I'm wrong about this either. I'm stopping and starting so much, but you needed help. And if someone would have tried to help you, do you think you would have listened? Like if your mom showed up on your door and said, Heather, I just talked to your doctor, I didn't realize about your agencies, I want to help you. Do you think you would be receptive to that?

Heather 1:05:17
I'm probably but I don't think that it was. I don't think that like, really it took like, it took a lot. I don't even know what it was that like made me click that like, yeah, I really need I really need to get this together, like because I mean, I started even coming down from like, the four hundreds, even before I found those lumps. But I still wasn't like, you know, with my agency at 10. I don't think that anybody even really explained to me how an agency works. Like I realized that it was like a three month picture of like, what your average is, but like a 10 in my mind is like Oh, like that means that my average blood sugar's 10. That's, that's good. That's okay. But like, that's not the case. That's like an average blood sugar of 14 or whatever it is. So I think that that was a little bit confusing. For me, that took a really long time for me to understand that like, oh, 10 is not good. Like, what should I be aiming for? Then? Where do I Where should I be sitting? So I think like, and my mom was very involved. She, you know, as as a nurse, she wanted to help me as much as she could. And I think I don't think that she could have done anything that would have pushed me to where I am sort of thing.

Scott Benner 1:06:45
You understand why I'm asking, right? Like I'm trying, trying to figure out if this is a thing that happens to some people, and they either trip their way to a resolution or they don't. And they're again there Mike from like, the diabetes complications after dark episode, where he just lives his whole life that way. Like, is it is it just as is it just as random? Is that Is that something doesn't happen that I

Heather 1:07:11
shocked? I honestly think it was like a random like, oh, like, just one day. It was like, Yeah, I really need to get this together. Wow.

Scott Benner 1:07:20
Yeah, it's super interesting. I'll tell you that much. Okay, so you brought it down slowly. And then, I mean, just got it down. And we're like, good. I can do this now. And you just, you've been doing Yeah.

Heather 1:07:32
Um, so then I, because I'm 33. I, me and my boyfriend have obviously been talking about children. And so like, I know that an agency of nine isn't great for having kids. So I went in to see a guy No, and she was horrible. Sorry,

Scott Benner 1:08:01
cold hands. Trying to figure out what makes a guy No horrible. It's the first thing I thought, oh, no, she

Heather 1:08:08
was like, I mean, she she was just like, because I mean, I was only like I was there for information. Like I just wanted to know like, where do I need to be? What am I blood sugar's need to be at like, and she was very, like doom and gloom. You can't have children, you your blood sugar is out of control. And like, at this point, I think my blood sugar was like, or my agency was 8.2, which was like the best it had been. And I was like, okay, lady.

Scott Benner 1:08:39
Got this down from an 11. But thank you, right, like,

Heather 1:08:41
you're looking at like, one one picture here. And she, she, yeah, she was just like, like, I realized that there's obviously like, a lot of things that could go horribly wrong. But like, there was no like, 00 sunshine. Like she just was basically like, you shouldn't have children. And you shouldn't live where you live. If you want to have children. She's not from here. So she was like, you can't have children in this town.

Scott Benner 1:09:10
Where did she want you to live? Oh, she

Heather 1:09:12
didn't. She told me that I needed it because I was diabetic. I should be. If I was going to have a kid I should be like, somewhere down south. So because of health care. Yeah. Because like they're not equipped to deal with it, but like they are, to a degree obviously, like there is a chance that if I get pregnant, and things aren't looking good that I would have to go down to Edmonton and have my baby there. But that doesn't mean that they wouldn't be able to do it here. There's just no like there's no NICU here.

Scott Benner 1:09:41
I wonder. Wonder if she partially also meant please don't have a problem around here. I can't handle it.

Heather 1:09:46
Yeah. I don't want to deal with this. Yeah. Seemed like

Scott Benner 1:09:50
a problem. Heather. Why don't you fly somewhere else and make a baby? Yeah. Leave me alone. Yeah. So so on paper, even Though you were doing better to a new doctor, you still look like a dumpster fire.

Heather 1:10:05
Yeah, she wrote in with my so I, at the time, I was like talking to my diabetes educator almost like weekly, or she would like send me a text or whatever. And she, she was like, Oh, I just got your report from the guy. No. And she said that I'm doing the best that I can with the tools that I have. And I was like, wow, wait, she's like, I'm, like, offended by that. And I was like, You should be the

Scott Benner 1:10:31
second. The doctor is talking to another doctor. Yeah. And her report. Yeah. was saying, Listen, don't put this girl's health on me. I'm doing my best.

Heather 1:10:45
Yeah, no, yeah, she No, she said that, that my diabetes educator was doing the best that she could with the tools that she had. Is that is that regarding my health?

Scott Benner 1:10:57
Yeah, but are the tools quote unquote? Are they you? Were they what

Heather 1:11:02
I think like, yeah, like me and like our area, because like, we don't have an endo here. And like, that sort of thing. Like basically saying that, like, yeah.

Scott Benner 1:11:15
Between where we live, and this girl's effort, I'm we're getting don't don't look at this poorly. This is actually pretty good. Yeah. Oh, did you find that insulting?

Heather 1:11:25
I yeah, I felt that like, because I mean, like, like, the A one C before that was like 9.5. So like, in a three month range. I've dropped it, like a whole point, like so like, okay, like, you're looking at one day, but you're not looking at the big picture. And so like, I was offended by that, and like my diabetes educator was to

Scott Benner 1:11:49
was the doctor aware that you were at zero effort at one point? Yeah, I told her. Okay. And then I don't know why the I don't know why the the, the notes wouldn't reflect a change of heart and a change of enthusiasm. And that thinks we're going in the right direction. Yeah, that would be that would seem to be how you would talk about that.

Heather 1:12:12
Yeah, yeah. So diabetes educator, like we should get shirts that say, doing the best we can with the tools that we have

Scott Benner 1:12:22
an arrow pointing to your head? Yeah. Dummy doing best can thank you. Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's crazy. That really is not. Alright, so is there any big secret to taking good care of yourself?

Heather 1:12:37
Um, I mean, listening to you. And yeah, and then I started looping. So like, that was like, huge that like, game change? Everything.

Scott Benner 1:12:48
So you just so you were doing okay. And being serious. You found the Podcast, the podcast was helpful for you? Oh, 100%. Helpful. Yeah, get some ideas together and some big concepts, and then say, Alright, I'm going to employ more technology. And now what's your agency now?

Heather 1:13:03
Um, I got it done in June, and it was 6.5.

Scott Benner 1:13:11
Down from 6.6. In February, right. Yeah. Is it weird that I know what your agency is?

Heather 1:13:16
No, because I'm pretty sure I posted it.

Scott Benner 1:13:21
Okay, so that's Well, first of all, congratulations. That's wonderful. Yes. Yeah. Really good for you. Someone should tell you that the tools you have seem like they're perfectly acceptable. Yeah. And maybe even better than that. Yeah, I

Heather 1:13:35
think that it's amazing. And like, it's like, little things like even like, even in the last like two weeks. I don't know, I feel like you were talking to somebody and you were telling them. You're asking them what their Dexcom High was. And they were telling you and you're like, Oh, you need to lower that. And I was like, oh, I want to remain is so then I like look in mind. It's like, set it to 50 Yeah, that's and I'm like, oh, I should lower that. So like now I haven't set at 180. But like, in a couple weeks. I'm gonna lower that I

Scott Benner 1:14:11
had a you broke up. Hold on a second. Finally, the cannula call like Heather, the candidate? Caller. Sorry, you cut out? Yeah, it's kind of a problem. So. But you, you just said I'm going to lower it to and then you're

Heather 1:14:29
sorry, I lowered it to 180.

Scott Benner 1:14:32
Right. And then after that.

Heather 1:14:35
And then like so that way like I am at least stopping the high before it gets high. Right.

Scott Benner 1:14:40
Are you thinking of a lower number in the future? Oh, yeah.

Heather 1:14:42
I mean, I want it lower than that to cool. I want it I'd like to get it down to like 150 Yeah, that's a good high.

Scott Benner 1:14:48
Yeah. 150 is terrific. Yeah, that's a great spot.

Heather 1:14:52
Is that what you have Arden set at 120 for your phone, right? Yeah, it's

Scott Benner 1:14:55
120 on my phone. It's 130 on her phone. Yeah, and And but 150 is very Listen, you're a person who had like a 12, a one C five years ago, you're doing Yeah, you know. And if you need to take smaller steps to it, I actually don't think those are small steps 180 to 150, you know, what I generally find is you kind of get what you expect. And you get what you're paying attention to. So it doesn't matter. It's a two step process, right? If you're alerted at 180, then you'll keep your blood sugar's under 200. If you're alerted at 150, you'll probably keep your blood sugar's under 170. The amount of effort the same, although with a lower number use, you know, less insulin, and less insulin should cause fewer lows. And on top of that, if you're paying attention, big picture, you should start seeing, hey, I'm reaching 130 and having to correct this is only happening after meals, maybe I'll make my insulin to carb ratio a little stronger. Or this is drifting up on me overnight. Maybe I'll make my basil stronger here, like and then eventually you'll make those little tweaks and then all of a sudden, you kind of don't see 130 Yeah, it's just the process. Yeah, no, you don't? Yeah, like

Heather 1:16:11
even just like, so I've lowered it. It's been like a week and a half. And like, I've been like, 90% in target. Since I did that. Yeah, like, just like, because it's just like, oh, it's gonna start doing something,

Scott Benner 1:16:24
I fully expect that that's exactly what I expect you, you get what you expect, you know, you the tighter the tolerances are, the lower your agency should be, the less variability you should have if your settings are pretty good, and you're understanding the timing of the insulin pretty well. And then after that, excuse me, it just sort of becomes second nature at some point, and you almost don't find yourself thinking about it anymore. to the same degree. Oh, yeah. That's really cool. I'm glad I could help. Yeah, you're killing it. Yeah, well, please, wait, no.

Heather 1:16:54
I don't want to your horn. But like, we

Scott Benner 1:16:55
shouldn't say it too loudly. But podcast is at 8 million downloads the other day, killing it. 8 million. Do you know how many it had at the beginning of the year?

Heather 1:17:06
Ah, um, no, like to 2 million.

Scott Benner 1:17:10
I think it had like four at the beginning. And I think it might end the year with nine. That's insane. So that was crazy. I didn't expect that. I had a month, my biggest month ever, like last month over a half 1,000,030 days, which was just insane. The first month of the podcast have 1300 downloads for perspective. This is crazy. Yeah. And it's and it's still it's still striking people the way I hoped. Yeah, I mean, like, like, that's, it's not easy. If you not anybody gives up. We've cursed a lot in this. So anyway, but not that any of you really give up. But it's not as easy as you might think, to start a thing. And then to scale it and to grow it. And to not lose at its core. What it is. Yeah, absolutely. A bit of a balancing act. Yeah, for sure. And it's a it's just, it's pretty. It's pretty terrific. The other day, Heather, by the time this comes out, we'll know if this happened or not. But a major media company contacted me the other day. And they were like we're launching a podcast. I was like, Okay, what is this about? And it's a podcast being made by a pharmaceutical company who only deals with difficult disease states. And it sounds like they're going to make a limited run series, where they're going to talk about each disease state and an episode. I was like, okay, and they said, you know, we don't know how to grow the podcast. So we're going to, we were wondering if we could drop our diabetes episode, or type one diabetes episode into your feed. I was like, really? And they said, Yeah, I said, I don't know about this. They said, Well, we would pay you and I was like, well, then it seems completely reasonable to me. Yeah. How much? Yeah. And I said, well, first of all, just so you all know, the first thing I said was, I need to hear the episode first. Like, I'm not just not going to just say yes to you, like delivering blindly, whatever you want to my the people who listen to the podcast. And they said, Well, plus, you can put an opening on it, you can let them know upfront what it is. And that way if they don't want to listen, they can. They can just shut it off. And I'm like, alright, and I got off the phone. I don't know if it's gonna happen or not, you know, and I thought, it's my podcast that big. That Bloomberg media is contacting me about how to get a podcast off the ground. I was like, is that really happening? Cuz it's just me. Like you don't have there's no one else here. I mean, I don't want to say Isabel is very, very helpful online with the stuff on the Facebook group and we've actually started we kind of deputized a couple of you people to answer questions because the Facebook group is getting out of control. It's so freakin it's so big, it's just so big. It gets to the point now where if I put up a post people ignore me and I'm like, Hey, I used to be the one that was like, if I listen, people, people were like, Hey, that guy's here, you know. And now it's like, listen, there's, you know, there's a lot of posts every day. And so they can kind of get, we don't want people's questions to get missed. So now we have people who are watching and saying, look, here's your question. I think these episodes that are leaving you links like, these episodes are good for your question. Which is really cool. So, so I'm not doing it completely by myself. But I'm making the podcast by myself. And it was just strange to have like, you know, a PR person from a third party company hired by Bloomberg calling me saying we need, we need help from you to get this massive thing off the ground. And I was like, wow, okay. That's crazy. Cool. Yeah. And then I told him how much and I don't know what's gonna happen or not. But I can tell you, I was telling somebody the other day, they're like, Would you do that? I said, would I do that? I said, I would punch my mom in the face. For a certain amount of money, the amount of money. I said, I'd let her know when I'd split it with her and everything. You know what I mean? I'd still be like, Mom, listen, bear down. Because rules of engagement million bucks. Come on, Mom, I gotta give you I gotta give you a couple knuckles that are far heavier. By the way, if it was a million dollars, I wouldn't even tell her. Yeah. I just I just punch her. And when she woke up, I'd be like, hey, we'll go we got a million dollars. But it was not a million dollars in case you're wondering.

Heather 1:21:43
But it was shoot I got you gotta shoot was enough

Scott Benner 1:21:45
money that I thought, well, this helps support the podcast. Yeah, you know, and that's the goal. Like the goal is just funny. I put it up online. I said, Would you guys mind if I did this, like just trying to get some feedback from people and everybody was lovely. And mostly they were like, did go for it. One person said, I wouldn't mind if you did it if you donated the money. And I was like, do this my job. Like I said, Do I come to your work and say, Hey, let me see your paycheck. give that away? Which

Heather 1:22:15
you don't know, I earn a living. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:22:17
yeah. And I get the inference. Like you're making money off of diabetes, which, I mean, I guess you could say that, but I feel like I'm helping people with diabetes and giving them information for free, but whatever. And, um, but But I saw the point. And I just thought like, well, who does it? Like, who does he work for? Because he worked for a sneaker company. Like, should I say, hey, once you get paid should give all the money? Those kids, it's those sneakers together? Yeah, we're like, What? Are we all gonna just start giving our money away? Heather, what do you do? Go find people who need teeth and give your money away to them? Because you're making money off of dentistry? I'm like, kind of thinking is that?

Heather 1:22:56
Yeah, that's a ask backwards if you

Scott Benner 1:22:58
give it away. If I give it away. I'm not doing it. I got a limited amount of time, man. Yeah. I started thinking like, is everyone not out there trying to make money every day like to feed themselves? Am I the only one is yeah, you are?

Heather 1:23:12
You are Scott, the rest of us are just out here for free. And

Scott Benner 1:23:17
I'm just like, Oh, what am I the bad person? Everybody else is just out there. Like, oh, I'll just give away my time for everybody for free. And you have any idea how hard it is to make this podcast? You? Yeah, that's I was really. I let it go pretty quickly. Because I was like, I understand that. I understand. Like the I mean, the idea. But yeah, but my gut reaction was like, you're trying to work in here.

Heather 1:23:46
Listen to like, it's that episode, like what does it what does it do to you, man? I

Scott Benner 1:23:51
just was like, I was unbelievable. I don't know not unbelievable. With Do you understand what I mean? Like it was yes, it was off putting for a second not the idea of giving money to charity. But the idea that my money that I earn shouldn't be mine. But the money you earn is yours. And I'm like, Okay, I don't know. It's Listen, for people who might not believe this, because this sounds like I'm just dicking around with Heather for an hour and a half. But my entire day, every day. Like like the way you go to work at eight in the morning and come home at five in the afternoon, my entire day, every day and often on the weekends and in the evenings is spent in one way or another making this podcast. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So if I can find a way to make money off of it, maybe just say, good for you. Yeah, yeah. And let's be done with it. Anyway, this sends the part of the story where Scott pitches about nothing. Heather, is there anything we have not talked about that you wanted to?

Heather 1:24:53
Um, I think I just wanted to tell you a really great story I had recently with our local hospital

Scott Benner 1:24:59
It's gonna be better than you bumping into your own boobs and finding a medical problem. I

Heather 1:25:04
don't know if it's gonna be better, but I don't know. Anyway, so a couple months ago, I foolishly forgot to pick up insulin from the pharmacy. And of course, it was a pod changing day. And of course, it's 1030 at night. So we don't have 24 hour pharmacies here. They all close at 10 o'clock. So I was like, like, my pods already been beeping at me for like, two, like, I already got the two hour notification two hours ago, like, you know, so I'm like, Okay, so like, I got six hours before this thing starts screaming, and then I don't have any insulin, and I don't know what I'm gonna do. So I'm like, oh, I'll just like, I'll just call the ER and see if they'll give me insulin because, like, if they don't, then I need to figure out how I'm gonna get hold my pharmacist. Right, right, right. Um, so I call and I get put through to this nurse. And he was very nice. I was like, Listen, I'm a type one diabetic. I were an insulin pump. I'm out of insulin, and I need to replace my pump. And he was like, Oh, okay. What is what does that entail? And I was like, entails me getting insulin, and I don't have any. So if I come down to the hospital, like, I'll wait in the waiting room, I don't care. I realized that there could be people dying. Like, I realized I'm not priority one. But like, I'll wait. And then like, Would you guys give me 80 units? Because I just need 80 units to fill the pod. Yeah. Can

Scott Benner 1:26:37
you hear me? Yeah, yeah.

Heather 1:26:39
He was like, Oh, I don't know. Let me I don't really understand diabetes. Let me just go ask another coworker, Kevin. And I was like, great, Kevin, Kevin's gonna know what's up. He goes, and he asks Kevin, and I can hear it. Like, he's clearly holding the phone away. And he's talking to Kevin from a distance, and I can hear the conversation. And Kevin's like, we'll just tell her not to drink a juice. And I was like, Oh, Sweet Jesus. So he comes back on the phone, and he's like, listen, me, I've talked to Kevin, and we think that you're going to be okay. And I was like, okay, but like, you realize that, like, in six hours, I'm not going to have any insulin in my body. And I am diabetic. And they were like, Yeah, we just think if you just don't have a snack or anything, and you just like, wait until the pharmacy opens, they all open at 9am. And I was like, again, so you just Just so we're clear. You want me to go eight hours without any insulin like you think that that's a good idea. And he was like, Yeah, I mean, if you really feel like you need to come. I was like, Yeah, I'll be there in five.

Scott Benner 1:27:45
What position did Kevin and his friend hold on when you got there? They were orderlies. They were cleaning the floor. What was going on? Oh,

Heather 1:27:52
they were nurses in the nursing station in the back. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 1:27:56
Yeah, type one diabetes. Do you think they were clear about that?

Heather 1:27:59
I don't know. I just don't think that they thought. Like, I was like really clear about how like, I would have zero insulin and they were just like, well just don't eat and I was like, yeah, it doesn't matter if I eat or not like,

Scott Benner 1:28:13
you're gonna see me one way or the other tonight. By the way, either. You're gonna give me insulin now or give it to me later when I'm in the Yeah. So

Heather 1:28:19
I like I get to the hospital. And I go to like, check on it in and triage. And I get this lovely lady. And she's like, What can I help you with? And I'm like, I just called and heard from Kevin. And I told her the situation. She was like, so wait, all you're asking me for is insulin. And I was like, yeah, and she's like, I don't really understand how insulin pumps work. Could you explain it to me? So I explained it to her. And she was like, I'll be back. So she like goes to the back. She talks to whatever doctors on staff. And he also doesn't want to give me insulin. He's like, No, oh, and they also weren't sure that they would have enough insulin. And I was like, first of all.

Scott Benner 1:28:56
They weren't sure if they had enough for just for you. Or they're saying if you took 80 Everyone said

Heather 1:29:01
that if I took 80 units of insulin, there wouldn't be they didn't think that they even had 80 units. And I was like, believe me you have 80 units and they were like no I don't think and I was like yeah, do you do I know you do

Scott Benner 1:29:12
this this message is provided to you by the travel Council of Yellowknife.

Heather 1:29:19
Someone come on, they want

Scott Benner 1:29:21
you to know that if you go there, you're going to get at best dubious health care.

Heather 1:29:26
Yeah, so she anyways, she was great. She went back there. He didn't want to give me any insulin and she was like, listen, either we give this woman insulin now or she's gonna be back here in three hours when her pod dies, and in an ambulance and we have to give her insulin then so why don't we just you know, take this one. Like, this is easy enough. She can do it herself. Let me grab a vial of insulin. And he like begrudgingly gave it to her, like annoyed about it and like gave it to her.

Scott Benner 1:29:51
The mayor of yellows knife looks like she's like 15 years old, by the way. Oh yeah. Rebecca AlTi you know? Yeah,

Heather 1:29:59
this is how small All y'all know,

Scott Benner 1:30:01
the place you are. There aren't less there are fewer than 20,000 people living there. Yeah. Wow. Do you like go to you like you might? Like no Rebecca from like the grocery store kind of Oh yes. No, no kidding. Oh yeah. Interesting. 57 degrees there right now by the way, and humid. Yeah. Cold, humid, small. nurses don't understand what insulin does. Yeah, it's great place great place. What's the house cost? $35 What are we doing?

Heather 1:30:35
Stupid expensive. Really?

Scott Benner 1:30:37
I have to overpay.

Heather 1:30:38
There. We just bought our house that we live in and we paid $400,000 And it's a two bed two bathroom and it's a modular home. So most houses up here are like trailers but they're not trailers. Yep. Love to hear your series serious. Yeah, I'm 100% serious. Don't think like trailer trash like a trailer.

Scott Benner 1:31:00
I know what you mean. Yeah. I gotta pay $4,000 No offense to live in Yellowknife?

Heather 1:31:06
I know. Are you serious? No.

Scott Benner 1:31:10
How close am I to where Santa Claus lives at that point.

Heather 1:31:13
I mean, he's about four, four hour flight, I'd say.

Scott Benner 1:31:18
Uh huh. Uh huh. I'm not even kidding. By the way. Neither.

Heather 1:31:25
I think it's like a to get to the Arctic Circle from here. It's like

Scott Benner 1:31:28
700 miles. Take surprise. Yes, the this is driving it would take me 47 hours to drive from Yellowknife to the North Pole. Oh, yeah.

Heather 1:31:37
Because you gotta go like back into like B you have to drive down into like BC and then like, go back up through the Yukon and come it's a weird. There's a lot of like, direct route that goes straight through.

Scott Benner 1:31:48
There's a lot of origin never going to hear me say on my map. My Google Maps. The Yukon, by the way. All right. This is insane. Heather, can I ask you a question? Yes, please. Why don't you move?

Heather 1:32:02
The money is really good up here. Really? Yeah, you're paid really unpaid. Really? Well, my my. The owner of my dental clinic is like, he's the most amazing man. And he pays us all very well.

Scott Benner 1:32:16
I don't understand anything you're saying. Yeah, it's amazing. It's the

Heather 1:32:20
money Scott the money. He's keeping

Scott Benner 1:32:21
you in Yellowknife? Yeah, yeah. Because I don't mean this pejoratively, but you're doing like billing and paperwork in a dentist office. Yep. And you own a $400,000 home? Yeah. That doesn't sound right. I don't know why. But it is there a movie theater?

Heather 1:32:44
Yeah, but like it's no Cineplex or whatever you guys have done there. It's pretty sad.

Scott Benner 1:32:52
Do I get to see the lights if I live there? Yes. Yes. That sounds nice. Yeah, so

Heather 1:32:59
like we have we get the 24 hour daylight in the summer. But we don't get full darkness luckily and Yellowknife so we do get like a four hour window usually in the winter where the sun is up.

Scott Benner 1:33:15
Wait is that maddening? After a while?

Heather 1:33:18
Um, I don't find it. I find it like a you get tired in the winter. My boyfriend really struggles with the, with the darkness and the light he like has a hard time adjusting every time. Is he from there? No, he's all he's from the he's from BC to British

Unknown Speaker 1:33:36
Columbia. Yeah, he followed you there.

Heather 1:33:39
Yeah, well, we met here in Yellowknife. He was working up here. And then he went back and then I convinced him

Scott Benner 1:33:44
convinced him How did you not want it? No, nevermind. I have a short list of things you'd have to do to get me to move. And none of them are something I can repeat here on the podcast. Yeah. All right. Well, I think we're done Heather. That was terrific. Thank you.

I want to thank Heather for coming on the show. And I'd like to thank us med for sponsoring this episode us med.com forward slash juice box, or call 888-721-1514 and of course cozy earth.com use the offer code juice box at checkout to save 35% There's more I wanted to say here but in complete honesty, this file got corrupted and I just spent the last three and a half hours of my life getting it fixed. So I'm fried. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back again very soon. If this doesn't kill me with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

#937 Fastidious

Jason has type 1 diabetes and uses T-Slim.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 937 of the Juicebox Podcast

Jason has type one diabetes, he's an adult, he's having great success on control IQ but he doesn't really completely understand why you go over his settings have conversations. He eventually sent me a note where I'm going to don't forget to read his note into the end and he switched on the pod five and I was having a great time. Boom, boom, what are we going to call this one? Is very amenable. Festivus call it Festivus. While you're wondering why I'm calling it that, 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. We're becoming bold with insulin, save 35% off the most comfy sheets towels and sportswear I guess like joggers and stuff like that. Yeah, that I've ever worn. Cozy earth.com Go there, load up your cart, put in the offer code juice box at checkout and you'll save 35% off your entire order

this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by two devices that my daughter has been using forever. The first one, the Dexcom CGM right now Arden's wearing the Dexcom G seven but you can get the G six two at my link dexcom.com forward slash juice box and orange juice the Omni pod dash right now. But this podcast episode, since it's sponsored by Omni pod, I'm going to tell you that you can get the Omni pod dash or the Omni pod five at Omni pod.com forward slash juice box use the devices that Arden has been using since she was a little tiny kid.

Jason 2:08
Hi, my name is Jason. I'm 46 years old. And I was diagnosed type one, three years

Scott Benner 2:17
ago, three years ago when you were 43. Wow. Any any reason to think you would have diabetes like a parent or someone else in your family has it?

Jason 2:28
I had a great uncle that had it. But other than that, no, no, no diabetes. I've got one of those. on mute. I guess it was unusual. But now it's sounding more normal that it's the same kind of diagnosis that a lot of older people are getting. In April to third 2013 I was diagnosed as type two. I had a one C of 8.1. And I had all the normal symptoms. I was losing weight, I was thirsty was getting up to pee all the time at night, four or five times at night. And I went in and I said oh, you're tight to

Scott Benner 3:11
give you medication from there. What do they do? Yes,

Jason 3:15
they started me on Metformin. And then a month later, my agency was down to 5.4. I had started exercising and eating better. And they took me off Metformin. And then I think three months later, they put me back on Metformin. And somewhere in that six year time span, they added insulin. I was taking over long. I was checking my blood sugar four times a day. And they got me a sliding scale that I still have a copy of I kept of how much insulin we give it meals. And then they put me on Invokana as well.

Scott Benner 3:56
Just you were misdiagnosed as a type two for six years. By a general practitioner.

Jason 4:05
I worked for a city and we have a city clinic. And I went in there. And they were the ones that tested me and the doctor at the clinic actually said you have one of the antibody markers, but you don't have to so you're type two.

Scott Benner 4:24
You work for a city. That's the first time anybody's ever said it that way to me before.

Jason 4:29
Yes, I work for a city. I'm a senior chemist at a wastewater treatment

Scott Benner 4:32
plant. Oh, no kidding. Oh, yeah. Jason, you probably shouldn't have told me that. I have a lot of questions about water trough.

Jason 4:42
I got to hear you say water.

Scott Benner 4:44
Yes, you did. And it's gonna happen again. So let me I'll divert for just one second. The picture we all see online from New York City have a giant ball of fat in the sewer. Is that real? Yes. Okay. All right. So do you You put enzymes in the water to break up the fat? Or how do you handle that?

Jason 5:06
Well, I don't do any of that I work in the lab and they bring us samples and we test them and give them their data. And then they go out and do whatever they do.

Scott Benner 5:17
But do they do? Like, how do you handle something like that? Like, I guess let me re ask the question then based more on your on your perspective. What are you looking for? And why are you looking for it?

Jason 5:34
We're cleaning out the the water that comes through the sewer, so that we can clean it up enough to pump it back into a river.

Scott Benner 5:43
Okay. And what are you taking out of it? Like what what happens when the population uses it that it needs to be cleaned? I know medications I remember reading a story about somewhere near Oh, Wisconsin, or Chicago or something where there was so much Metformin in the water, it was starting to impact wildlife. And that they said was because the population was using so much that it was passing through in their waist. Is that kind of how that works? Oh, yeah. Wow. That's weird. It makes so much sense. And yes, and yet, I don't think anyone would ever consider it. So you need to clean it also good.

Jason 6:25
They also can find COVID and wastewater and track it

Scott Benner 6:29
that way. You can tell how, how much a virus is in a particular place. Is that may I ask Jason, does that come through the Poopoo? Or the PP are both? Both? Both? Interesting. Oh, my goodness. And then we want it it's one of the marvelous things about this country, isn't it? The way we can provide clean drinking water and and usable water for people? It's, it's a marvel of like society, I think, I don't know. Nobody thinks about it here. I wouldn't imagine but this many people, this much the volume of water that must get used? I think it's I think it's marvelous like that it works that way. I imagine it doesn't feel magical to you anymore, but it does. Not so much. You don't you don't feel like you're involved in a, in an amazing process. I do. Just to you know, Jason, between you and I think what you're doing and the people you do it with? It's, it's pretty amazing. So anyway, all right. So you've done this your whole life? Or is this a like, how do you apply a chemistry degree?

Jason 7:39
I've been doing it for 17 years. I originally got it who read environmental science, he just wanted to help the environment and stumbled on this job.

Scott Benner 7:49
Nice. It's, it's I think it's definitely important work that I don't think anybody pays attention to. So I do. I'm constantly amazed by it, just so you know. And I'm very careful. Like if I fill up a container to give, you know, my dog's water, and there's a little bit left in it, I will go out of my way to put it in a plant or somewhere like I would never consider going back to the sink and just dumping it out again. I don't know I'm, I'm I don't know why it strikes me that way. I don't know what someone said to me when I was younger, but I don't know. I think it's amazing. Alright, forget all that. They tell you your type your type two for six years, you're living on Metformin, eventually, obviously, you're not type two, so they have to start adding insulin. How do you and then you have a doctor tell you you have a marker for type one, but that still doesn't move it so how do you end up figuring out you are

Jason 8:53
going into the city clinic I can't remember now if I was sick or had an injury, but I went in and he's like, Hey, we haven't done bloodwork in a while. Let's do let's take let's take some blood work and see how you're doing. And so when they took my blood work, I was 7.1 Okay, and I was still losing weight. I was down 260 pounds. I think

Scott Benner 9:21
how much weight had you lost in total?

Jason 9:25
Over the six years I'm five nine I think I went from around 200 to 160

Scott Benner 9:32
do you think 160 Is the correct weight for your frame or were you too small?

Jason 9:38
Oh my wife is telling me obviously skinny Okay.

Scott Benner 9:41
When she just might be a chubby chaser Jason I don't know about health wise not your wife proclivities, you know, I'm saying but, but you felt undersized. Okay. So so you're you're wasting away but slowly and you're using enough insulin I guess to Do you think it's Lada? Do you think it was a slow onset? Or do you think you were like full on type one, and you were just using enough insulin to help yourself?

Jason 10:10
I asked my CDE back in June. And she said, You know, I don't really know. But it doesn't really matter. You hear type one now and you need insulin now. So

Scott Benner 10:22
your CD was your CD was deflecting Jason

Jason 10:27
actually didn't know all that whole backstory. So he wasn't involved in that.

Scott Benner 10:32
It reminds me of when Cole was born, and he came out and the doctor held him and I was going to cut the umbilical cord, and there was a knot tied into the umbilical cord, like tight. And I pointed to the knot, and I said, Is this a problem? And he held call up an extra inch and went, apparently not. And then I. And I was like, that's not a real answer to my question. So anyway. Okay. So once you figure out your type one, how does management switch?

Jason 11:06
I started to go see an endo. I saw an endo. And I guess November and I walked out with the libre. And I went back. Well, I mean, obviously, they put me on long lasting and short acting, MDI, okay, and they said, come back in January, I came back. And they're like, You should start thinking about getting a pump. Is that something you think you want to do? And I said, Well, I've never really thought about it. And I said, Sure, why not? Let's get a pump. And I started pumping in February of 2020.

Scott Benner 11:46
Okay, so can you tell me a little bit from a psychological perspective? What was it like to go into that office thinking you had type two diabetes, and probably being like, you know, the way people think about type two all the time, it's like, you know, lose weight, it'll get better. And you've lost a significant amount of weight to the point where you think there's something wrong with that. And it hasn't made an impact on it. So you have this thing you believe you're doing the things they tell you, it's getting worse, not better. And then someone just does the Presto change along you and tells you that no, it's not this. It's that. Is that hard to swallow? Or were you able to just roll with it?

Jason 12:27
I mean, I've never looked into type one. I didn't know a lot about it. I didn't know anything about it. It was kind of a shock. And what's funny is the the doctor was like, Oh, this is good news. You have the good diabetes now. And I'm like, that doesn't sound right. How can I don't think anyone can be

Scott Benner 12:47
good. Exactly. There's not a good version. Yeah.

Jason 12:57
I told my dad that on the way home, I talked to him on the phone and he's a doctor. He's like, No, that iPhone is not the good version.

Scott Benner 13:03
Did your dad say? You got the bad kind of a doctor?

Jason 13:10
I'm sure he was thinking that.

Scott Benner 13:11
What kind of physician is your father? He's an OB, Jin. Oh, okay. No kidding.

Jason 13:19
Yeah, he was a originally he was a naval doctor. And

Scott Benner 13:24
then he moved down to the Medina. Thank you,

Jason 13:29
man. Thank you, man.

Scott Benner 13:32
Jason, I gotta tell you something. We can stop now. If you want. He moved from the navel to the vagina. Um, good. I don't think it's gonna get better than that. You know what I mean? Man, I was really proud of that. Just uh, you're all aware. Yeah. I'm sorry, crack myself up. Okay, so. So you, you leave for the libre, you go to MDI. I love how they asked you. Do you think you want to pump as if you have any idea what any of that means? Or, you know, like, why not? You don't I mean, man, like, why wouldn't somebody say to you, hey, an insulin pumps an option. Here are some benefits of an insulin pump. What do you think about what I've just said, instead of going, Hey, you want an insulin pump? I know you don't know what it is or what it does or any reason why you would want it but it's now on you to decide. But you went with the idea. Right? Once you did go with the idea you decided to do it. Yeah,

Jason 14:35
sure. Let's let's try it out. I mean,

Scott Benner 14:38
Jason, you're incredibly easy to get along with why is that? A part of the country? You're from? Texas. Like northern southern east west.

Jason 14:49
I grew up in South Texas, but now I'm in Dallas.

Scott Benner 14:52
Okay. You just you're very amenable through the story with with not with me. You're very difficult with majors but no, no, I'm just kidding. You're very, you're very amenable, like in the conversation with the physician. And even earlier before when people aren't going to hear that we had some trouble technically getting set up, you. You err on the side of like contrition during the thing, even though you weren't doing anything wrong. So it's interesting. But so you start pumping, how long does it take for you? Or did you ever get things under control?

Jason 15:28
The interesting thing was I was the first patient in the office to start control like you.

Scott Benner 15:33
Really? How long ago?

Jason 15:37
2020 Right before COVID I snuck in an appointment before COVID started looking

Scott Benner 15:41
to really hit. And is that is control like you the thing that brought things around for you like how were you doing prior to that?

Jason 15:53
You mean, between my diagnosis and

Scott Benner 15:55
then? Well, between the time somebody hands you needles and said you have type one. And when you got a pump? How long was that time?

Jason 16:04
That was from that state, November 1 to February 12. I went from a 7.1

Scott Benner 16:16
to a six, just on MDI and then you move to a pump very soon after a few months after I gotcha. Okay, did the pump then make another I would imagine another adjustment to your outcomes.

Jason 16:32
I stayed. On January, I was six. April, I was 6.3. And then, in August, I was 4.8. I remember I was sitting on the field watching my kids practice soccer. And I was looking at Facebook and I was in a diabetes

group. Someone's mentioned that Juicebox Podcast, and I was like, Well, I'm almost done with the podcast and listen to I don't have anything else to listen to well get the juice box and try and see what that's about.

Scott Benner 17:12
And now you realize you'll never get done with this because I make too much content you'll you won't be able to finish.

Jason 17:18
You keep me entertained at work.

Scott Benner 17:20
I'm doing my best. Oh, am I helping to support the cleaning of water? This makes me feel very good. Yeah, of course you are. How do you listen? The liquid that you drink that comes out of the faucet? What do you call it? Water water. When I say it like that? Am I saying what you're saying water? Does that sound like though? See, it's hard to tell, isn't it? So when I say Yeah, I hear you say water. Are you hearing me say it correctly when I do that? Say it again? Water. That's normal. Okay, and when I say water, you hear like WT t er. Yeah, gotcha. Hey, when you're watching your son play soccer. Are you thinking I wish this kid was playing football or baseball? Be honest with Jason.

Jason 18:14
I'm not I don't want him to get a head injury. And I find baseball born.

Scott Benner 18:19
That soccer ball could hurt though. You get that worked in your head. It's not good. I'm telling you. Maybe field hockey. That's for girls. Even that. Even that balls hard badminton? Nobody's getting hurt. And badminton. I bet.

Jason 18:32
Well, now he's switched over to taekwondo. So

Scott Benner 18:34
oh, oh, that's interesting. Good for him. All right. So you found the podcast? did? I mean, listen, I want to try to take, I'm gonna take credit for your 4.8 and one see if I can. But if I can't, like, how are you accomplishing that?

Jason 18:52
Before listening to your podcast, nobody had ever mentioned Pre-Bolus. That's just check your blood sugar. Give your insulin and start eating.

Scott Benner 19:03
What are you eating? Jason? What's your diet?

Jason 19:08
I eat just a normal American diet. No restrictions.

Scott Benner 19:13
Get out of here. So you're using you're using a fast acting insulin in a pump. You have a CGM. You're using control IQ. So you must have moved from libre to Dexcom. At some point, is that right? Yes. Okay, so you have a Dexcom G six, you have control IQ. You'll learn how to Pre-Bolus and you have a sub five a one C and describe to me what an American diet is to you like what are a handful of things you've eaten this week?

Jason 19:39
Let's see. Well, last night was just grilled chicken corn on the cob and a salad but the night before I made pizza. We've had tacos as we spaghetti. We do a lot of grilling and smoking. Because we're in Texas. That's what we do. There's

Scott Benner 20:01
no drawing with your with your smoking. Those aren't wet rubs in Texas. They're dry rubs, right? Yeah. Right. But you're, you're taking in carbs? Do you avoid processed foods completely?

Jason 20:19
Um, I don't eat a whole lot of processed foods. I'll eat chips. But I say no restrictions, but I don't really have a sweet tooth. I don't eat like cookies or candy or cakes. Okay. But I didn't stop my want to eat, I'll eat it. Chinese food.

Scott Benner 20:41
How many carbs do you think you take in a day?

Jason 20:46
Hmm. It's hard to say because I kind of quit counting carbs. I kind of do like you. I just looked at the plate. And I'm like, Well, that's about 10 units of insulin.

Scott Benner 20:59
Wow. Why are you so good at this? Maybe? Jason, maybe you do have the good kind of diabetes. But No, but seriously, why do you think you're doing? Like, I mean, I guess I should ask first. Are you having a lot of lows? No, no, you don't have hours at a time where you're 65? You don't do something about it? Nothing like that? No,

Jason 21:25
no, I actually actually looked at my clarity report before coming on here is no that the endo wants the range set at 70 to 180. So that's what I declared. He said I was 94% in range with like, 2% low. And point 2% very low.

Scott Benner 21:45
what's your what's your What was your percentage High and High means over 180 In this scenario, but

Jason 21:51
let me see if I can pull that up. Would you because I'm

Scott Benner 21:53
fascinated.

Jason 21:54
High as 2.7% Very high 0.2.

Scott Benner 22:00
Holy hell. What? Huh?

Jason 22:04
My average glucose is 109. power efficient 25.7. Standard deviation play

Scott Benner 22:12
your deviations pretty good. And everything's good. Alright, so, Jason, I mean, you're three years at this. Can you contextualize for me why you're having the outcomes you're having?

Jason 22:27
I think I just pay proactive on it. If I'm gonna eat a high carb meal, I'll change my Basal rate. I'll double it from point seven, five 1.5. And I'll leave it there for till it peaks and starts coming down. You know, and I just make corrections. If I get over. My alarm is set for 140. So if I hear it, I start looking. Do I need to make an adjustment to why did I miss on my basil? Am I going to need more? You ever had to stay on top of

Scott Benner 23:05
it? Yeah, that's what I was gonna say you're you're ahead of it. And if it tries to get ahead of you, you jump on top of it. Push it back again. That's it. Yep. You know, Well, I'm glad about that. But you know, not everyone listens to Jason, which is why you're freaking me out a little bit. So, in a very good way. Don't get me wrong. You're not a Cowboys fan. Sorry. Yes, we are. I don't know how we

Jason 23:30
were more college fans. Oh, perfect.

Scott Benner 23:33
Let's not mention the Cowboys. Okay. I've learned growing up in Philadelphia, that Eagles fans believe that the Cowboys are their bitter rival but the Cowboys don't feel that way about the Eagles sack true.

Jason 23:53
No, I think. I don't know. Like I said I'm not the hugest Cowboy fan.

I know we don't like the Eagles. We think our people down here think the Eagles fans are awful.

Scott Benner 24:05
I'm an Eagles fan. Jason, what do you think? Wow. You being awful. Thank you. It's perfect. Although, let me tell you a story that might change your mind. Then we're gonna go back to your your management

I just got nervous because I forget what story I told to highlight. Anyway. I guess we'll find out together in a second. But first, Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox at my link, you can get the Omni pod dash or the Omni pod five. Now, all the AMI pods are tubeless they're all delightful. They're all just that little thing you just put on no tubing, nothing to be tethered to no reason why you can't just jump like in the lake or in a pool or your tub. Right? You don't have to take it off first. Anyway That's maybe just the tiniest little bit of why we love the AMI pod in our house. But here's the thing, there's two Omni pods, you can get the dash. If you just want to make all the decisions yourself, like put in your settings, then you know, you're like, Well, I'm gonna put in this many carbs and you know, my blood sugar is going up, I'll make an adjustment that's going down and make an adjustment. But if you get the AMI pod five, when it's coupled with a Dexcom, G six, you have an algorithm that's making insulin decisions for you. Yes, you still tell it, I'm gonna have this many carbs. But then man, it starts making decisions by itself. It's pretty amazing. Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox. It's at least worth you checking out use the links, please, it helps support the podcast, you can type them in a browser or click on them in the show notes of your podcast player or at juicebox podcast.com. As long as you get the my link, you're supporting the show, whether you're interested in Omni pod, are ready to buy Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. Now another link to please just treat exactly the same dexcom.com forward slash juice box Dexcom, G six and Dexcom G seven both available there. Arden is rockin the g7. Right now she loves it. But she wore the G six for years. And it was fantastic. So whatever you're looking for, whether it's a G six, or the G seven, head to dexcom.com, forward slash juicebox. To check it out, you're going to be able to see your blood sugar in real time. Its speed and direction. That's like, is it going up? Is it going down? Is it going up? Three points a minute, two points a minute. Is it 98? Next time it takes a reading? Is it 110? Is it 70 It shows you right on your smartphone, Android or iPhone or on the Dexcom receiver. I don't want to call it magical because I think I'm not allowed to. But it's amazing. And I love it. And if you came to my house and tried to take it, I'd get a stick and beat you back out the door. dexcom.com forward slash juice box you can't have origins Dexcom you can't ever Omni pod. But you can get your own use the links support the show. That was slick when I was like he can't have hers. Like I set that whole thing up. Like can't come to my house and take my daughter's stuff, but you could get it. Anyway, I was pretty impressed with myself as I do those things on the fly and don't pre write them. Support the podcast, please, by supporting the sponsors. I'm not saying go by Dexcom if you don't want one, but if you're gonna get one, please use my legs. Thank you so much. Let's get back to Jason and whatever horrible story I'm about to tell.

I grew up being taught to like, yell and scream at sporting events, right? I'm not I'm not a big yeller and screamer anymore. And I can look back in hindsight and see that I don't that, you know, athletes are not people who you get to yell at just because they're, you know, being paid to play a game in front of you. However, when I was much younger, I don't know exactly how young, my early 20s Maybe we were at a Phillies game and a visiting team. I think it was the Cardinals and I want to say that the guy was Lance Berkman, but hold on. And let me check. And anyway, this guy was playing left field. Was it Lance Berkman? Yeah, I think it was. I apologize the LANSON in advance if he ever hears this. I don't imagine he will. He had recently lost a lot of weight and in honesty look terrific. He's coming out of left field. We're at the Phillies game. And so he's coming down the third base line, I'm sitting on a third baseline. And, you know, sometimes at a sporting event for reasons that you can't figure out like just all the sound dies, like nobody makes noise for a minute. So it's dead silent. And I yell Lance, Lance, and he looks up. And I said, You look better fat. And he I don't know why I said that. Again, I was the young man. And he like he looked up. I feel bad telling the story. He looked up like, oh, look, somebody's calling my name. I will wave and as he was getting ready to gesture, I said what I said and his hands in his head just went forward and he just slumped down into the dugout, and then an entire section of the stadium burst out into laughter as if the best thing that ever happened just happened. And I in the moment, was incredibly proud of myself. And now 30 years later, or however long ago it was now actually I might be dating myself. I have no idea when it was it was the end of his career, I believe. I feel I feel badly for doing that. So our Phillies and Eagle those fans bad people. All I can tell you for sure is that 300 People thought that Lance Berkman story was hilarious. So, maybe we are. So anyway, Jason, I, here's what I'll tell you about Philly. If you're walking down the street in Philadelphia, when I was growing up, and you tripped and you fell, everyone would laugh at you. And then they would all make sure you're okay and help you. That's, that's how I think of Philadelphia. Like, you're not gonna get out, you're not gonna get away with anything, but no one's gonna leave you behind. So, there's something about sarcasm, and picking it people you love that seems intrinsic to this area. I don't know why that is. Anyway, Landsberg was a perfectly fine guy. And I don't, I'm sure I was happy for his health changes. I just thought of the first bizarre, hurtful thing that I could think of and blurting it out loud. And I couldn't begin to tell you why. Anyway, all right. What do you think Jason in my bag? I know. You think Landsberg would like me?

Jason 31:12
I think if he heard the story, if he remembered it, he might think it's funny now looking back, but

Scott Benner 31:18
I don't know. Jason, I have to tell you if he remembers that. It would be one of the proudest things I've ever accomplished. I would go places and tell people anyway. So you're you said I said it's such a strange turn. But okay, so you're using insulin? You're on this control like you. Are you consistently under five or was that just a fluke?

Jason 31:44
I looking back, five is the highest I've ever been. In August, I was five. But we went on three vacations this summer. And I had COVID like two weeks before that appointment. So

Scott Benner 32:02
Jason, this is a verified agency from a lab or this is like your app telling you this?

Jason 32:07
No, this is from the CDE I've I've kept all those little stickers they print out when they do a want to see

Scott Benner 32:12
wow and in for for your money. This is about understanding the timing of insulin and staying ahead of arise and nothing else. Yeah. Are you are you maniacal about it like you would never let a high blood sugar go.

Jason 32:38
I don't I don't know if I'd say maniacal but you know if it gets the 180 I'm pretty mad.

Scott Benner 32:44
I wasn't proud of the word when I pulled it. Jason just so you know, I think my my internal thesaurus let me down. I was I think I was gonna say Festivus. And then I thought that's not a word people use.

Jason 32:58
I was picturing someone staring at their just looking at it like with mean eyes like, I'm going to do something.

Scott Benner 33:08
Well, I think I meant half of that. But not the mean part. Just the just just the intensity of not letting it go. You know, fastidious was the right word. I shouldn't have been embarrassed that. I knew that word. I should have just one word. Yeah. Okay. Weird spelling by the way. But great word. FAS T ID IO us. fastidious, it's a great word means showing or demanding excessive delicacy or care. I'm not I'm not embarrassed by my. But I actually I dumbed myself down just then Jason. I don't usually do that. Why did I do that? Is it because you're from Texas? I'll figure it out. As I don't want to be using fancy words when we're talking about Texas and barbecue and yelling Atlanta. Fancy words to hey, how bizarre is it that I'm the guy who yelled you looked better fat at Lance Berkman. But I thought I knew and use Sidious. And I'm a paradox, Jason. We're not going to people know what paradox is right? I don't have to define that. We're good. So we got that. Yeah. So what made you want to come on the podcast?

Jason 34:29
I guess just to share my story. I don't know. I think every podcast has got something valuable. And then I thought maybe I could add something to it. My goal was to come on if I was diabetic for a year, but then I waited around and then wants to do schedule it. It's pushed out so far.

Scott Benner 34:53
I'm amazed every day when there's somebody on the line when I push the button, Jason. I'm like this person signed up to do this six months ago. I had a lady sign up the other day. It's September 2022. Right now. And I got an email that said that this person just chose August 23 2023 as their recording date. Wow. Almost a year. Yeah. And I was like, Huh. And then I'll record with them. And I'll put, it'll take me six months to put up. But I tell that story because it makes the, it makes the advertisers very comfortable because they know there's content. So you were going to do it under after a year, then you sat on the idea for a little bit. And then by the time you did it, it takes as long as it does to get on. Do you think you've learned anything in that time? Like, how much different? Are you as a person with diabetes right now than you would have been two years ago, for example?

Jason 35:49
I think I've gotten better at, you know, taking out doses for meals for sure. Like, you know, he kind of eat the same things over and over again. And you can look at it and say, well, six units wasn't enough last time. Let's try seven or seven was too much last time. Let's try backing it down a little bit and see what happens.

Scott Benner 36:11
Are you incredibly active? No,

Jason 36:15
no, I think my activities probably aren't working. That's about it.

Scott Benner 36:19
No kidding. Did you put a bunch of did you put much of that weight on after you were diagnosed? correctly? Put it back I've come back to

Jason 36:27

And I'm just kind of hovering right at 180.

Scott Benner 36:31
So you're probably in a very healthy weight right now for your size. In your mind. Yeah. Your wife happy again?

Jason 36:37
Probably I could. I could probably lose five or 10 pounds but okay.

Scott Benner 36:41
Is your wife happy again? I know she wants something to grab onto. Yeah, she's happy I'm still here. Is that how you measure your marriage whether or not she makes you leave? That's how I measure my Jason That's why I was asking. Oh my god. I don't I'm amused by the idea of your wife being like once you put some weight back on, get that thing shaken for me again. But I'm also used by the idea of saying it to you because it seems so out of character for you. That I feel like it makes you uncomfortable. I think my Lance Berkman things coming back Jason off the stop that. So okay, so you're back at a good weight. There's nothing Jason I can't tell you like this is crazy. Like, you don't have you're not incredibly active. You're You're swagging your meals by going I think it's about this much insulin, you are eating repetitively. So you're learning and getting better and better and better. I mean, you're past the age where I imagine you'd be having any weird hormonal shifts. So you're not seeing an impact there. You're not a woman, you're not having a menstrual cycle, like nothing like that's happening. It almost feels like this is as easy for you as someone could hope for.

Jason 38:09
Yeah, I, you know, I feel bad for the kids who have it and who go through puberty and their fight and all those changes. You know, that seems like it's a lot rougher. And for me it just kinda it's just another thing to do during the day.

Scott Benner 38:27
Yeah, it's really it's super interesting. So what about like, I don't know Are you do you take any supplements do you? Like I'm trying to figure out something you might be doing that other people aren't doing that we wouldn't maybe initially attached to this.

Jason 38:43
Now I don't think any other medicine except insulin.

Scott Benner 38:46
No kidding. I don't know what to say even you what's your what's your like lineage? What's your background? Western European mud. That's got it. English, Irish, Swedish. English Honors. So you even have a blend of European and you that's, that leans towards people who I see it. How about other autoimmune is there? Do you have any other autoimmune issues? Do your kids your family members?

Jason 39:20
No. Not as not as far as I know. No one's ever said anything about thyroid or celiac Hashimoto, or just in your ear bipolar.

Scott Benner 39:31
You're a unicorn Jason. Very interesting. How many you have kids? How many kids?

Jason 39:42
I have one kid. He's seven will be eight and December.

Scott Benner 39:45
Are you thinking of more or is one where we're stopping?

Jason 39:50
One and done?

Scott Benner 39:51
I agree with this. Yeah, I mean, you've run the risk of him being like a snotty little brat when he's older but you can knock that out of him and in his early 20s Probably But but but I, oh, smart because also college very expensive. Yeah.

Jason 40:09
We went through a lot of IVF to get the one and

Scott Benner 40:12
Oh, I see we

Jason 40:13
tried a couple times after and then just didn't never take so

Scott Benner 40:18
interesting. So while you were Oh, he seven. So you were trying to have a baby while you had diabetes? Yes. Wasn't what did you ever wonder if that was the cause? Like, were you ever concerned? And did you look into it from your perspective versus hers?

Jason 40:37
Oh, no, it was all her

Scott Benner 40:43
it was very directly like that. I was everything. Sperm perfect. It was. So well. That's tough. So your wife went through a lot then to have your your son? Yes,

Jason 40:55
it was very emotional. Very rough on us on her.

Scott Benner 41:00
Yeah, no, I imagined terrible. I'm sorry that she had to go through that. I'm glad it worked out for you. And I understand why you wouldn't be up for it again. So you, you're your own condom. Basically, Jason, you don't even have to worry about it. You know, it's gonna happen, right? Like, you'll be 52 And she'll come into the room and be like, I'm pregnant. You're gonna be like, no, no, no, no. She'll think that

Jason 41:23
would be well, that would be something else. Yeah,

Scott Benner 41:26
you gotta be careful. Jason. Are you being careful? Oh, that's it. No, I'm gonna take that as a no. Jason. Okay. It's,

Jason 41:38
there's an issue with two stuff. So it's not possible.

Scott Benner 41:42
You really okay. It really It can't happen. All right, right. All right. Listen, if it ever happens, please call me back. Please be like, so Scott. Listen. We went to a wedding. Then after the wedding, we went home, acted like kids for a couple of hours. And I don't know. I don't because if you ever heard of people like I noticed it's not the same thing. But people have had like their Oh, I can't think of the name of vasectomy. I almost said there. I almost said their balls clip. But mastectomy? And then they you'll hear about it like it going back or something? I've

Jason 42:21
I've heard those stories before. Yeah, terrible stories. JSON. They're

Scott Benner 42:25
terrible. Like a horror movie. Seriously? Wow. All right. Well, listen, let's that'd be is there anything you want to talk about that? I don't know to bring up because I'm baffled by you. I don't even I'm not 100% sure where to go with this?

Jason 42:43
Oh, yeah, I was kind of wondering if we wouldn't go anywhere with it. Because I didn't know what how this conversation was gonna go.

Scott Benner 42:50
Thank you. You're flipping me out. So like, it's I mean, I guess Tell me a little bit about, you know what, let me let me dig for a second. So your, your hunt 180 pounds, you're in your you're in your 40s? What's your Basal set?

Jason 43:11
Well, I just, I just listened to your on the pod series. And I heard that your Basal should be 40 to 50%. And I'm using less space on that. But I bumped it to point nine.

Scott Benner 43:24
Well, that's on on the pod five on the pod five, when you're first setting it up is desirous of your basil Bolus being pretty balanced, that it makes the learning process smoother. And I and you know, to dig into that a little more. I think people often get to the right, the right result the wrong way. Meaning maybe their Basal is very low when they're over bolusing food and corrections to stay above it are there Basil is too high, and they're eating to feed the basil like that kind of stuff. And so not that it's some sort of rule that it's 5050. But for reasons that are explained in the on the pod five episodes, which people should feel free to go try. They when you're starting on the pod five, having your settings near 5050 is advantageous. So but where were you at? Tell me I'm sorry, you were at point seven, five now and you moved at 2.9? Did you then change your carb ratio or your correction factor or anything like that? No, I didn't see you got stronger with your Basal but didn't change insulin to carb or your correction factor and you're not getting low? Correct. You're just keeping so where do you sit stable away from food and BOCES?

Jason 44:51
Oh 100 Arlington.

Scott Benner 44:55
Okay. And the point nine is the 100 110 where we Were we sitting prior to that? And were you seeing control IQ was consistently giving you insulin. And now you've made up for that with the Basal

Jason 45:09
control IQ. Yeah, it's taken away my Basal even though I had it set at point seven, five A lot of times it would look like it was point three an hour.

Scott Benner 45:18
Then why did you move at 2.9?

Jason 45:21
I don't know I listened to you.

Scott Benner 45:24
Just like our slides. Just just you might be like, just like dumb luck in this this diabetes thing? Who knows? But,

Jason 45:31
well, I I've gotten no advice from my CDE they don't they don't. They never look at my settings. They never told me to adjust anything. And they're just like, hey, you're doing great. New prescriptions have family. What's going on in your life?

Scott Benner 45:44
How's the family? I heard that kid stop playing soccer. God bless. Soccer cannot be a sport people love in Texas. Am I right?

Jason 45:55
There's a lot of soccer players. I mean, not played for eight years. When I was a kid.

Scott Benner 45:59
Oh, no kidding. Oh, that I'm misinformed. I think of I think of Texas as a place where everybody plays football in high school and everyone lives and dies with that might be because I watched that TV show. Oh God. Now I'm realizing Friday lights, which I did enjoy. I don't think I've ever seen the movie though. That who cares? Alright, so what are you what's your? Alright, so what's your correction, your insulin to carb ratio for meals?

Jason 46:30
Oh, gosh, let me look at even if

my correction is one 254. My carb ratio is one to 10.

Scott Benner 46:48
One to 10. One unit moves, you're 54 points, point nine Basal. All of a sudden? Do you find that to be right? Do you ever go out of automation and try your settings to see if they work? No, I've never done that. Interesting. But you notice that it's taking basil away most of the time? Yeah. Do you eat frequently throughout the day?

Jason 47:21
Just three meals a

Scott Benner 47:22
day, you're a three meal person. So So you Bolus your meal? And is that when you see it take basil away? Or is it taking basil away? Even? Overnight? Or?

Jason 47:36
Yeah, I don't take it away overnight.

Scott Benner 47:43
Because the weight control IQ works, it is it is utilizing the Basal rate that you put in there. So whatever you tell it, it's deciding. I'll take some of this away, I'll leave it where he put it, or I'll add to it. And you were at point seven, and it's taking it away. You made it point nine it's still taking it away. Is there ever any time on your graph where you're actually using the point nine? Yeah, right now, you are right now okay. Because there's part of me that wonders if your Basal like I see you're trying to get lower like stability? I did you consider making the the correction factor stronger, instead of the Basal stronger? Have you ever tried that?

Jason 48:37
No, but now that you've mentioned that, I probably will give that a shot.

Scott Benner 48:41
Again, you're very amenable. And so so let's tell people for real quickly. Nothing in here that Juicebox Podcast should be considered advisement or otherwise, I'm just talking out loud. So like if so did moving your Basal up lower your the place where you said stable or no? It would? I don't think it did. That's what I'm asking

Jason 49:02
now. It's still

Scott Benner 49:05
it's still the 101 10 Yeah, pretty much. So my thought is because you're not spiking it meals, right?

Jason 49:15
Everybody goes up, I go up. I mean, sometimes see. lunch yesterday, I hit 182.

Scott Benner 49:23
Okay, how long for how long until you were back down again? And did you have to correct it yourself?

Jason 49:30
Yeah, I did add some corrections. That was I think that was fat and protein though, because the rise came

Scott Benner 49:37
later again, while later we don't want to count that and I know everybody's blood sugar goes up when they eat but for the most part, it sounds like you're more of a 140 person. Okay, which I'm comfortable with. Not that you care what I think but so. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I don't put the Basal back to where it was. and try making your sensitivity. Would you say it was one to 54? Like, move it to like, oh, no, I'm just I, you know, where would you move? It's 50

Jason 50:15
I don't know, I've never moved it before. Yeah,

Scott Benner 50:17
I might just move it a couple points and see what happens, like, make it 52. And see, and see if that starts bringing down that, that stability. And if it does, then keep nudging it one at a time, until you get to where you want to be. And pay attention to what the algorithms doing with the Basal like the in a perfect scenario, that you have chosen a Basal amount that the algorithm does not need to frequently take away from or add to that would be an indication that it's well set. And then you're giving the algorithm the ability to be more aggressive by making the the sensitivity stronger. And you know, the lower the number, the stronger the number, right. Yeah, okay, so and then, I mean, I I'd make very small adjustments to that to see what happens. And then if you start and then see if that doesn't also impact your meals. And then if that's amazing, though, Jason like your See, you might be see you can't really over Basal, though, because you have an algorithm. So, so you're where are you? How are you fixing? I think you need less insulin than you think you do. What's your total daily insulin? Can you pull that? I'm gonna get a calculator while you do that. By get a calculator, I mean, I'm going to open up an app on my computer that's a calculator

the lady that left the review the other day that said my interviews don't have enough diabetes in it. She's gonna love this. And also this is for her Jason cover years. There. Okay, now. He just talked to her about being a stripper. It was interesting. Okay. Jason cleans. Wait, hold on water. Water. Jason cleans water, which is I can't say that makes me feel uncomfortable. All right, go get your total daily insulin, making some notes here.

Jason 52:35
Where's that average? It's usually about 3035 a day.

Scott Benner 52:42
30 to 35.

Jason 52:45
On a 30 day average. 35.61 units a day.

Scott Benner 52:54
Alright, so we're gonna go with 35. And then tell me this. You eat about three meals a day. What's your total Bolus a day meal Bolus? Average? Does it show you that should right 23. All right. So then Jason, we have as OJ said, when he was running up the highway a problem because think about this, okay. If your total if your total daily insulin is 35, and your average meal, insulin is 23, that means 35 minus 23 is 12. Okay, and if you divide that by 24, that means your Basal is would be about point five an hour. And you were at point seven, and it was taking it away. So I would write all my settings down first of all, Jason, because I don't want to mess you up. Right? But I would wonder if you made your basil first of all point five an hour. I don't expect you would notice any difference in your care at all. You're just not. And then from there. How much of the of the rest of the insulin so your meal insulin is about 23 What about correction insulin? Can you see your corrections?

Jason 54:30
I just actually didn't have screen. Correction when good or did it go? 0.15. So I guess that's the correction Bolus that control IQ is given

Scott Benner 54:49
well then let's think of it this way. How frequently do you go into the pump and add insulin once a day to the tune of a couple of units not even mighty, point five or one. Okay, so pretty, not a lot, not a lot of corrections going on. Yeah, I think I would probably make your Basal point five an hour, and then watch it for six hours, I'm amazed, I'm assuming you're not going to see anything changed because the algorithm has been taking your basil away to begin with. And then I would probably, I would probably give you a little more insulin sensitivity power, and see if that doesn't make your stability lower. That would be kind of my first step there. And not by a lot like not 54 to 44 or something like that. I might go 54 to 52. Watch it for a few hours, see what happens. You know, if you notice a little bit of a decrease, then I I'd ride it for a little bit to see if it's, you know, consistent. And then if it is make a decision if it you know, 51 would be better. But you think one unit moves you 54 Does one unit does one unit move you 54. And you're always automation, right? So you're not sure.

Jason 56:26
You know, as we're talking through all this and working through all this, I should tell you that Tuesday, I just got approved for Omni pot size.

Scott Benner 56:33
Well, that's Listen, that's good. Because you're very, if you're going to try it, you're you're very consistent with the 35 units a day, as your total daily insulin on the pod five cares a lot about total daily insulin. And so if you do 35, I'm just going to split it in half 17 and a half divided by 24. Ah, that'll put your Basal at point seven. So, if you do start on the pod five, I would tell it, I would first of all, figure out what your insulin sensitivity is, right? Now you can get that straight. But if your total daily insulin is about 35, when you set up on the pod five, I would tell it that your Basal is point seven an hour. Okay, and that'll that'll be at 5050. That gives it the best chance to do its thing. But I think there's no harm in figuring out this other stuff for you. Because I think that it's possible that once you go down to maybe around point five an hour for Basal, and get your insulin sensitivity straight, you'd probably be able to shut off control IQ and sit in manual mode and be pretty stable. And then the only thing left to do if that's the case would be to look at your insulin to carb ratio. And see if there's any any space in that at all, one way or the other. Because you know, you want to you want to spike as little as possible without ever experiencing a low later. So, you know, like I just made, we just changed Arden's insulin to carb ratio last night from like, it's gotten weaker, since she's gone off the birth control pills, which I haven't talked about on the show yet, but I think we took it from like 5.5 to 5.3 Last night, like moved it very, very, just a little bit. Because I was noticing or I was noticing the algorithm, she's looping at this point. And I was noticing the algorithm working too hard after her meals. So I was like, let me get some of the insulin out of the, you know, out of the hands of the algorithm and into the carb ratio. Yeah, dude, I would do that. I would try it, then I would try it and manual and see if you stay stable. And that's it. But then and the other thing is I'd write all this down. Because if it gets wonky, you can always just put your settings back and say, Oh, the thing that guy said didn't work. You know? That sounds Does that all make sense? Or have I been unclear about anything?

Jason 59:13
No, it makes sense. It makes sense to me. I mean, I've just never had anyone really talk to me about it. Walk me through it?

Scott Benner 59:21
Well, I think it's, I think it's interesting to do. And I think it's, I think it's necessary, especially moving forward where more and more people are going to use CTRL IQ and on the pod five and whatever Medtronic puts out next. People are going to be using them. And it's not a fear of mine, but it's a concern of mine, that we're going to get farther and farther away from people who actually understand their insulin. And they're leaning on the algorithm so hard that they don't know what they're talking about. I mean, like you're such an interesting story because you have an agency around five I have. And other than the things you do, which are amazing, you know, Pre-Bolus stay on top of high blood sugars, which is a lot of it. You don't really know why you're having this success. You're having the algorithms doing it for you. Yeah, the algorithms doing it. Yeah, yeah. Hey, listen, I don't. Why are you switching pumps? If you're having such good success with control IQ?

Jason 1:00:25
You know, just because Omnipod five learns, and control like, he doesn't learn. And honestly, when I reached out to Omnipod, I was just trying to see if a if I was eligible for it. And I never talked to anybody. I finally got a phone call on Tuesday. They're like, Hey, we got it together. We're ready to ship it to you. I'm like, what?

Scott Benner 1:00:50
That faster?

Jason 1:00:51
Yeah, you know, I always thought that, what from what I've heard, you have to be on a pump for four years. But I haven't been on a pump for four years now. And so the warranty ends up expiring.

Scott Benner 1:01:02
I believe. If you listen to my ads from the pod five, you will hear me say something like, Hold on, let me pull up my ad reads. On the pod five. Yes, I read a line that says this. I'm sorry for all of you who sometimes I make it up. But you know, on the pod five is also available through the pharmacy, which means you can get started without the four year Durable Medical Equipment contract that comes with most insulin pumps, even if you're currently in warranty with another system. So that's something I say during the ad. So that's why you were able to switch is my guess. Hey, for legal reasons, just to cover my butt here. Jason, can you just let me say something real quick. For full safety and risk information, a list of compatible phones as well as clinical trial claims data on Omnipod. Five, you can go to omnipod.com forward slash juice box even though this isn't an ad, I wanted to make sure I wasn't doing wrong. Anybody. So there's my there's my legalese. Okay, well, okay. So how are we going to figure out, you got to email me in a couple days and tell me if this worked. And I'll add like a little like, I'll add your email to the end of the episode. Okay, would you do that?

Jason 1:02:20
So as soon as I when I get it, and I've used it for a little while and let you know how it's going?

Scott Benner 1:02:24
Well, no, I was thinking about the changes to the control IQ. I'd love to know how that goes. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. Yeah, I would really appreciate that. Just because I'd love to either, you know, I'd love for there to be a gap here. And some music play. And then people hear me go. Alright, Jason wrote in, he's like, Hey, your settings messed me up completely. Or, you know, like this worked or that didn't, or I ended up doing this or that, like, I'd love to hear the end of it. So your deficit is not going to go up for a while. So if you have an answer in a few days to a week or so I'd love to know what it is. Sure, sure. I'll do that. Thank you. I really appreciate it. All right. Is there anything else you want to talk about?

Jason 1:03:06
Oh, man. No, I can't really think of anything. I think we've covered it.

Scott Benner 1:03:11
Thank you.

Jason 1:03:13
I think we've done a good job here.

Scott Benner 1:03:15
I appreciate that. Thank you. I appreciate you coming on and sharing. And I mean, it's, it's funny, because I think that people could listen to this and think Jason is just like locking into this, it just works. But what I hear is, algorithms are really valuable. And so much so that you're living a fairly unencumbered life with an amazing agency. Like to me, you're the holy grail of this conversation like this is because what I think is, if you weren't great about Pre-Bolus thing, obviously your agency would be higher, you'd have more spikes they last longer, etc. But I mean, how much worse could it get? You're at a five a one C or lower? You could, you know, I don't know, like I can, I don't know there are going to be people who don't know how to do any of this, who still might end up with sixes, mid sixes are seven a one sees for somebody who previously could have very well been in the nine to the 10s. It's an astonishing improvement for someone's health. And I think you're proving it out by your story. That they can be valuable for anybody. And if you're willing to put in extra work like you're doing, which, by the way, I mean, how much it's not that much extra work, I don't imagine right Pre-Bolus Singh, etc.

Jason 1:04:41
No, no, I mean, you just glance down at your screen. Look in 30 seconds that takes about some even that.

Scott Benner 1:04:48
Jason, you've got the attitude that I think would make Jenny very happy and you're making me happy. Yeah, seriously because, you know, it's so easy to You hear I heard somebody talking about the other day like, I have trouble this, this person said, I have trouble hearing the beeping and willing myself to do something about it. And you don't? That's not you at all, is it?

Jason 1:05:16
No, you've got to be willing to do something about it. I mean, if it's beeping, it's beeping for a reason either. Fan ignore you

Scott Benner 1:05:23
have to fix it. Yeah. What is it about your personality? Do you think that leads you to that?

Jason 1:05:31
I guess that's just how I'm wired. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:05:33
it's no, there's no answer to these questions. It's they're fascinated to hear spoken out and talk through. But I because I agree with you, I hear the beeping. And I think we'll do something now. And then we won't have to worry about it later. But a lot of people hear it and go, Oh, I'll get to it. And then their blood sugar goes 131 4151 80. And they're like, Oh, I can't believe this. My blood sugar is a mess. And they make a big Bolus they get low later than they're upset about that. And all I can think is, you could have just done something three hours ago that would have required such a small amount of insulin, there's no way you would have gotten low afterwards, and you wouldn't have this higher blood sugar. And that just makes sense to me, and I understand doesn't make sense to everybody or that everybody's not wired the same way. But I do like them hearing that. If they were more. I don't want to say proactive, although I guess that's I was gonna say proactive. Was my head. Yeah, yeah. But it's it right. If you're more proactive, it takes less time, and comes with less hassle than putting it off and then having to deal with it later. And I guess if that makes

Jason 1:06:38
easier to fix, it's easier to fix a 140 than it is to fix a 180 or 200.

Scott Benner 1:06:43
Jason, you really believe that the stuff I say on this podcast, and it's working for you? I do. Thank you. I appreciate you sharing that. I mean, it really, it's validating for me, so thank you.

Jason 1:06:56
I will say though, that if you're Disneyland or Disney world chasing around a seven year old, you probably don't need to Pre-Bolus

Scott Benner 1:07:04
Right, right. Well, that's a good point a bag of Skittles. Are your variables very similar every day?

Jason 1:07:13
Yeah, usually. Okay.

Scott Benner 1:07:14
So when you so interesting, so you go over to Disney. Your blood sugar starts to fall.

Jason 1:07:21
Yeah, we walk 12 miles in that one day we were there from when the gates open. And we left at like 1030 at night.

Scott Benner 1:07:29
How did you handle it with your blood sugar's just were you just kind of offsetting with candy.

Jason 1:07:34
Skittles, Skittles, one scale equals one card. So

Scott Benner 1:07:38
were you on control? Did you consider going to exercise mode? You know that. If I'm not with you, you're lost. I I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to come down there, get in your pocket. And we're going to talk some more. Yeah, I wouldn't be interested. Like I don't not interested enough for you to spend countless 1000s of dollars to go back to Disney again. But if you're in a situation like that, again, I'd be super interested if exercise mode would have helped you.

Jason 1:08:08
Oh, we went skiing a couple years ago. And I did use exercise mode for that. That worked out pretty well.

Scott Benner 1:08:13
Interesting. That's great. Well, listen, man. You're doing terrific. Nobody needs to tell you anything. So but but if you do it, and please don't feel any pressure. But if you do make little bump around changes, I'd love to hear how they went. I will I promise, I appreciate that, hey, keep cleaning the water. I will such a big deal. Chasing the hallmark of a great society is is functioning sewer and the delivery of clean water. It's, it's, it's it's the basis of everything. Really,

Jason 1:08:52
I'll tell you something that you probably never thought of and your listeners probably have never thought of. If you live on a river, trace that river up to another town and think those people have already drank this water and picked it out. And now we're drinking it.

Scott Benner 1:09:07
I remember the first time my kids said something about that the toilet goes somewhere different than the sink and I said no it doesn't. There's just one pipe in the bathroom in the basement. It all goes down into that pipe. And they were just like frozen. They're like what I mean seriously like, what a what an accomplishment to take wastewater and turn it into drinkable water. It's an it's a massive it's a massive accomplishment of humanity. It really is. What What's the is there a river somewhere in China Hold on a second, where they make blue jeans nearby and the river runs blue. Have you ever seen that? Let me see if I'm making that up or not?

Jason 1:10:04
I have not heard that. I wouldn't be surprised, but I'm not up on my Chinese news.

Scott Benner 1:10:12
Why? Why Jason? Are you busy with that? Having a kid and everything and? Yeah. So these stories are mostly from like 10 years ago, so but yeah, I guess you can like from from space, taking a photo you can actually see the darkness the blue that comes down this river into a body of water. Is that an actuary? When that happens? Look at me. Yes, you were estuary. Very good, Jason. You're paying attention in college. Sometimes I was saying an actuary somebody who like deals with like, managing uncertainty. Listen, nobody listening knew but you. estuary the tidal mouth of a large river where the tide meets the string. All right. Well, everybody can go look that up on their own. Jason, thank you for doing this. I appreciate it very much.

Jason 1:11:14
You sure thank you for having me on. I enjoyed it.

Scott Benner 1:11:17
As my pleasure really was. I want to thank Jason for coming on and sharing his story. I want to thank Jason for coming on and sharing his story and I want to thank Omni pod and Dexcom for sponsoring the episode dexcom.com forward slash juice box and Omni pod.com forward slash juice box go yourself a Dexcom G seven a Dexcom G six Omnipod five or an Omnipod dash. Get your gear as they glow up? Is that what the kids call it? glow up your Gear game Dexcom and Omnipod. Thank you so much for listening. If you hang on for a minute, I'm going to read Jason's email for you. Don't forget to check out the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes and don't judge all Philly fans by me.

All right, talk about transparency and honesty. Let me read you Jason's email. There's two emails, actually. The first one said, Hey, Scott, I tried to make any adjustments to my Susa might cease. I was like, to my T slim that you suggested. But they didn't really work out for me. The new Basal rates wouldn't hold me steady. And I would just continue to creep up. But thank you for the suggestions. I started the only pod five last Thursday so far. Blah, blah, blah, it goes on and on Omnipod trainer, they changed his Basal rates, blah, blah, blah. And here's the follow up. This is

since a few months after that email I just read through sorry, while I was counting months in my head. Jason says again. Hey, Scott, Friday, I went to the editor to get my first day one see since being on on the pod five, and it was 5.2 with a standard deviation of 27 and 93% and range. I mean, let's go up from five on the T slim, but the time period was over Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and a week long trip. So I'm not disappointed. We made a few adjustments at this past. We made a few adjustments this past weekend. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. The lack of tubing not having to take it off or showering and not having to change it. Thank you for everything you do. All right. That's uh, that's it. I'm done. I have to be honest with you. I am tired and I gotta stop. So I hope you're enjoying the podcast. It's late at night here when I'm doing these ads and bumpers and everything. And Scotty got asleep. I'll talk to you tomorrow.