#1041 Making Hay

Honey has six year old type 1 and they live on a farm.

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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 1041 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Today I'll be speaking with honey. She is the mother of two children, her youngest has type one diabetes. Honey and her husband live on a family farm in Washington State. And we talk a lot about what it's like to live there, work there and raise animals. Her son Vinnie is using a T slim and Dexcom. While you're listening today, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan or becoming bold with insulin. How would you like to save 40% on everything that's available at cozy earth.com You can you go there you put your stuff in the cart, and use the offer code juicebox at checkout to save 40% off of your entire order. Save 10% off your first month of therapy@betterhelp.com forward slash juice box. And of course the diabetes Pro Tip series has been remastered and is available in your audio app right now. Between episode 1001 1026 Do not miss it. diabetes pro tip.com If you don't want to listen in an app this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by a G one. That's right. I drink ag one every morning and you could as well drink ag one.com forward slash juice box when you use my link. You will get five free travel packs and a year supply of vitamin D with your first order at drink a G one.com. Forward slash Juicebox Podcast is also sponsored today by Omni pod Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. Are you looking for an omni pod five are the Omni pod dash. They're both there at that link Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox Get started today. Learn more and check into that free test drive. Links to Omni pod ag one and all of the sponsors are in the show notes of the audio app you're listening in now. They're also available at juicebox podcast.com.

Honey 2:30
Hi, Scott. Thanks so much for having us on today. My name is Honey and I own a farm up in northeastern Washington and I am the mom of a type one who is a six year old little kindergartener. And we are just thrilled to be on your show today talking about diabetes and being bold with insulin. Cool.

Scott Benner 2:52
All right. So six year old daughter, son, son, yeah. How old was he when he was diagnosed?

Honey 2:58
So he was almost five, he was four at the time. And a little background on me. I'm actually a school nurse. And so I had this inkling in the back of my head that something was wrong, something was going on. And he, you know, had all the classic signs and symptoms. And my husband's also a fireman. So we have this kind of medical background. But it was kind of fluky. The year that he was diagnosed, we had this incredible drought happening, the weather was the hottest, we've seen it, we had no rain for months. And which is not typical of Washington, if you're familiar with the Northwest, and we just thought something's wrong. And anyways, we got him in and it was actually the first day of school. So my first day back at work, and the docs here in our local little clinic said, let's, let's do some blood work. I think you're onto something, I think you're right. And I said just do me a solid and let's poke his finger in the clinic here. And he was 512. And, and that was pretty much the you know, it tell tell we're going to the hospital and we know what our life is gonna look like moving forward from here. And, you know, as a mom, that's scary as a nurse, that's, you know, like, Okay, this is doable. This isn't curable, but there's tools and things out there that we can handle, but I still always revert back to I'm a mom first. And, you know, I was like, my baby is now it's gonna be life changer. So that was in September of 2021. And he turned five and 25 in that year and then he just turned six. And you know, it hasn't slowed him down one bit. I would say actually, he's done. Pretty darn amazing. Yeah,

Scott Benner 4:54
well, let's find out about but before we do, have you ever been concerned or worried? That life is the matrix, and that your life was designed by the same guy that wrote the penthouse letters in the 80s. Because here's what I've heard so far. Hi, my name is Honey. I'm a nurse, my husband's a fireman, and we live on a farm. This sounds like the next sentence is gonna be on a Friday night. My husband came home after putting out a big fire with his big hose. And it's just like, seriously, like, are you serious? Honey?

Honey 5:31
We are serious. I know. I know. It's this our whole story to how we got here is it's kind of interesting, you know, because my husband and I met through work. And it's not like, oh, the nurse and the firemen that met in the ER or anything. We we just met through our jobs. I was working in an adult ICU and, and he was working for the local fire station. And we met through coworkers. And we've done a lot of cool things together. You know, we've remodeled a couple homes. We've gone from a five acre farm to now 115 acre farm. So you know, but it's something that drives and fuels us outside of, you know, our jobs as a nurse and a fireman. So,

Scott Benner 6:18
have you ever bought him cookies at the fire station that he took you for a ride in his Camaro?

Honey 6:25
No, but I would. I mean, that would have been so fun.

Scott Benner 6:30
Where do you Who do you? How old are you?

Honey 6:32
I am 36.

Scott Benner 6:33
I use no context for what I said when I said penthouse letters, then

Honey 6:37
you know what the funny thing is, though, is my husband who listened to this and told me like I know exactly what he is talking about. Because

Scott Benner 6:46
I'll give you the tiniest overview. There used to. There used to be nudie magazines that were old. I don't think they exist anymore. And one of them. They would purport to be printing letters from readers. But they were clearly written by never she horny guys, do you know what I mean? And anyway, like, it totally would have started out like this. Present now.

Honey 7:11
I mean, yeah, you can take it for what you want. I mean, let your listeners have their own imagination. And if their 80s babies and my husband like I said, He will listen and he will say I know exactly what Scott is talking to you about. Not even a big deal.

Scott Benner 7:28
If I wasn't so lazy, I'd get some like cheesy like Cinemax music and play it behind the entire episode. And while we're while you're telling me about things, I would just be like chicken bow. Anyway, sorry. As you were going through it, I was like, this isn't real. Okay, so, so you. So once this is only like a year or so ago?

Honey 7:52
Yeah. Yeah, we're, we're very new to the type one world I guess you could say. Yeah. So but I do feel like, thankfully, with our background, you know, the needles and the insulin and, you know, the poking or dealing with, you know, pumps and stuff like that, that didn't really intimidate my husband and I, I think the most intimidating thing, when we were diagnosed was like, you know, oh, my gosh, this is this is obviously it's life changing. Like, no matter what you say, or do, it's life changing, and being able to, you know, kind of flip the script. And we always tell Vinny, that's our son, you know, like, do not let it define you. I know you're six and there's days that you wake up, but it's rough for you know, there's days that you woke up and you know, your, your site's gone bad. And then we have to do this all before school or you have a bad day at school because you had a low and then you had the mess recess or whatever it ended up being, you know, we don't we really try and empower him to not let diabetes define him. And, you know, we also have a daughter who's his big sister. And so there's also that fine line of keeping the balance and the family peace. When you're dealing with really a family disease that affects everybody. It just doesn't affect him and affects everybody in the family,

Unknown Speaker 9:14
for sure. How old's your daughter?

Honey 9:15
She's nine. So and you know, I will say she has done incredibly well. You know, she was obviously super worried when he was diagnosed. And there, there's a lot of times where he is. He's like the second mom, just really helpful. I mean, but there also are times where she's like, this is unfair, because Vinnie had so much more attention, you know, in certain moments, and I'm like, I get it. It's not fair.

Scott Benner 9:41
Does she actually come to you with that? Yeah, she'll

Honey 9:43
say, you know, like, it's not fair like Vinnie got this or that or got to do had an extra piece of candy because he was going low. And so we try and bounce that pretty well. And you know, if he gets something to treat a low and then we try I'd give her something to treat a low. But again, we're at the same time pretty health conscious about things as well. And she'll, she will even say to us, No, I'm okay. I don't need a piece of candy because I want to try and be on the healthier, healthier side of things today. So, you know, it's just one of those things I think you deal with as a family managing type one. Yeah.

Scott Benner 10:22
So when this happens, obviously, you were able to see it quickly. But did you expect it? Is there like, Do you Do you have any autoimmune issues your husband or your family? Drink a G one.com. Forward slash juice box? I heard words very similar to that on a different podcast a couple of years ago, and then I started drinking age one. Today you're hearing about it on my podcast. It's what do they call that meta circle life. Who knows? Today, I get my foundational nutritional supplements from drinking age one. I feel better when I drink a G one. And I do it every day. I can remember back to before I had ag one, and things just weren't the same. Ag one is a science driven formulation of vitamins, probiotics and Whole Foods sourced nutrients. Ag one is raising the standard for quality in the supplement category and helping you to build a healthy foundation. Drink ag one.com forward slash juice box when you use my link, you're also going to get five free travel packs, and a year's supply of vitamin D with your first order of ag one. Ag one helps to provide sustainable energy, improved digestion and mental clarity. It's easy to mix. Great to drink. Easy to clean up, it will take you just a couple of moments at the beginning of your day. I mix mine with some cool water, knock it right back, and I'm on my way. Drink ag one.com forward slash juicebox links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com. When you click on those links, you're supporting the production of the podcast.

Honey 12:05
No, we neither of us do. And no we didn't expect it. I said to my husband, I can remember vividly texting him because he was diagnosed like the end of August. So it was August 31. And I think I remember looking back at my text messages, and I had texted him like the very beginning of August and said I think Vinny has diabetes. And he was like, Okay, well, you know, we'll get him in and we'll get him looked at which of course we did. And then of course being a nurse and, and in my background. You know, I went from adult ICU to working as a peds nurse on a cardiac and transplant for I would float to the cancer care unit. And so I had seen those kids with different leukemias and stuff. And so in the back of my mind, I thought, well, it's diabetes, or it's cancer. And I was like, neither one is anything that we would choose, you know, for anybody, but we, we ended up with him being a type one. And I was just glad that we had answers. Like, you know, at that point, I was like, Okay, we have answers. Now we know what's going going on because he just wasn't our boy. He was irritable. You know, he always felt like he had a stomachache. And he had, he had lost weight. And that was like, my big trigger was like, Man, he's just he's not putting on weight for a little like four year old he should be like, thriving, and he's doing the opposite.

Scott Benner 13:29
Was it difficult to because he was for like communicating with him, like very clearly about how he felt?

Honey 13:35
Yeah, yes. Yeah, it was he would sit at the dinner table. And I remember to like there'd be times where we cook salmon. And he'd be like, uh, you know, having a fit over salmon, which I'm like, okay, I get it. You're for like, that's not everybody's favorite meal. And then he would just cry and cry and cry and cry. And we couldn't console him and, and he would just seem so overly tired. I thought this is really weird. You're not like this. Normally you like fish or salmon or whatever we put on the table. He's not our picky eater. Our nine year old is actually our picky eater.

Scott Benner 14:09
Yeah, I figured that out when she was complaining about not getting an extra piece of candy.

Honey 14:12
Yes, yes. So it was just really eye opening. And, you know, at four, it just took a lot. It took a lot more time getting down on his level, explaining to him, you know, there's nothing that you did wrong. There's nothing mom or dad did wrong. This just happened. And we tell him this still now. We tell him there is some reason I'm that firm believer of like, everything happens for a reason. But I'm like, there's some reason that this happened. There's some reason that you were diagnosed whether you end up being a doctor or you end up going into a medical profession or you know, you end up running a podcast like Scott, you do something like that. There's a there's a reason, you know, that this has happened, and we don't know why yet, but we will in the future. And so we try and kind of, you know, home that into him on a daily basis, like,

Scott Benner 15:05
do you think it's comforting for him?

Honey 15:08
I think so, you know, and he's so good about, like, he's at school. And granted, I'm one of his school nurses. So I actually don't work in the elementary school, I work in the middle school. And so I don't get to see him on a daily basis. But he will tell his, his friends, you know, like, why am diabetes so this is why I have to have this and we've gone into the classrooms and said, you know, this is why then he carries a phone on him. And this is why he will have sugar when you guys don't get to have sugar. And, you know, try and make it really, versus something that he's hiding and ashamed of, we try and be pretty open about it, because it's not something that you can really avoid, you know, based on the pump that he wears, and the fact that he carries like a little fanny pack around with like snacks for Lowe's and his phone in it because he's a kindergartener. I'm like, I can't imagine a kindergartener carrying a phone around or other kindergarteners care, understanding why have another kindergarteners carrying a phone around well, and we chose to go that route just because we wanted to be able to either talk to somebody quickly while we weren't there. Sure, you know, or when he's able to he can, you know, text us he's not quite there yet. But he'll get there eventually. Hey, Arden

Scott Benner 16:24
had an iPhone in kindergarten, back when iPhone just came out, and we were the scourge of the town for doing that.

Honey 16:34
I still feel like that I feel like when people see us out, I'm like, do I need to explain myself? No, I'm not gonna explain myself. They can make a presorted judgment on me if they want. But at the end of the day, this is what he means. And if somebody wants to, you know, be a kind human and ask versus just judge, I'm open. I'm serving our story.

Scott Benner 16:57
I'm certain that people looked at us. And we're like, oh, there's castles that bought their kid on iPhone. And that's how I feel. Yeah. causing us to be bothered by our children because they want an iPhone. And exactly. Listen, whatever I we one time we were in a 504 meeting. And a nurse said like a teacher. She goes boy art and camping or iPhone into the room, because then all the kids will want one. I was like, tell them just to get an incurable disease and they can have one. Yeah, sure. Perfect. I mean, if they needed that bed, I don't know how to make diabetes happen, but they should go concentrate on it and see what they can do. Yep, yep. Yeah. So anyway, you know, right now I need you to either make a reference about driving or slapping Chris Rock so I can call this episode Honey, honey, come right. Can you work one of those things in while we're talking?

Honey 17:50
Sure. I'll try and work it well. You know, speaking of the farm, the kids I mean, that was kind of our biggest thing when when he was diagnosed, my husband looked at me in the hospital and he said,

Scott Benner 18:00
pickles. I bet you that's not what he said. But we'll find out in a second. My daughter has been wearing an omni pod every day since she was four years old. Today. She is 19 years old, and a sophomore in college. She's wearing an omni pod right now. She wore one last week and she'll wear one tomorrow. It is the complete and utter friend in this trip with diabetes Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox. You can get the Omni pod dash or the Omni pod five at my link. Omni pod dash is a regular pod to Bliss and lovely you can swim with it bathe with a jump in a lake, go play soccer doesn't matter. No tubing never have to take it off to do your activities. And it's all what you would consider like an OG insulin pump, right? You set your Basal insulin up, you make your own decisions. It's a beautiful delivery system for insulin. Now the Omni pod five is an algorithm based pod and it works with the Dexcom G six Omni pod five is going to make insulin decisions for you. You still put in your carbs and tell it what you're eating. But if it sees your blood sugar going up, it tries to stop it. If it sees your blood sugar going down, it takes insulin away and tries to stop that as well. It doesn't matter if you choose the Omni pod five of the Omni pod dash Omni pod is going to simplify your life with its tubeless insulin pump. On the pod five has the smarter just technology. Go to my link and read more about it. Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. You don't have to take the Omni pod offer anything I mentioned earlier, but anything involving water, bathing, swimming, anything involving activity where you most likely would take off a tube pump. You don't have to do that without the pot and I'll tell you what, that's really important because your blood sugar can rise up to like one point per minute. If you take your pump off. You don't want that you want good consistent insulin delivery. Head over now. Check out your coverage. Find out your S to meet a copay, or check that other button out, I'd like a free trial of Omni pod please. It's all there on my link, Omni pod.com forward slash juice box, you can wear the same exact insulin pump that my daughter has been wearing for 15 years, links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com.

Honey 20:21
Do we need to give up the farm? You know, we've been doing this for two years plus already. We have, you know, draft horses and we have Scottish Highland cattle. So we have those big fluffy horned cows, we have goats, we have chickens. We have Barn Cats, we have all the things. And that's a lot to manage on top of, you know, just being a mom being a dad having a full time job outside of the home. Yeah. And I'm like, No, this is, you know what, again, coming back to Everything happens for a reason. I'm like, Absolutely not everything that we're doing here will help Vinny in the future because guess what you don't have to dose for you don't have to dose for protein. And I'm like, there is you know, I get that some people aren't protein fans, we are a protein a kind of every meal, fam. And we, you know, sat down in the hospital and said, No, this is super duper important. This is what we need to be doing. This is how we need to raise the kids, and kind of sharing our story in a different light for hopefully, you know, people who don't have the knowledge of type one, because that's a whole nother story of, you know, oh, you have type one hill Hill grow out of it. And then or you have diabetes. They don't know, the difference between type one or type two

Scott Benner 21:45
or, or they think juvenile means that it only exists while you're a child.

Honey 21:49
Exactly. It's so popular. Exactly. Yeah. You know, he'll grow out of it or whatever. But no, this is this is something that we're really trying to work on and build so that the kids can potentially take the farm over one day. And for us, you know, knowing exactly kind of where our food comes from we, on top of, you know, raising all these animals, we also have three ginormous gardens, we have a 24 by 40 hoop house where we raise all of our tomatoes and peppers. And, and thankfully, he's not our picky eater. And he is super helpful on the farm, he and his sister will drive out in our little RTV and go get eggs for us. And they'll go check on the cows. And, you know, I think that we had some reservations initially when, you know, when he was diagnosed thinking, how are we going to do this? Like, how are we gonna do this? Thankfully, my knowledge is a as a school nurse and my background as a school nurse to that point, because I've only been a school nurse for three years now. I was like, well, there's really great tools out there that we can use and, and that will help us monitor him, especially when he's away from us. And, and we just make sure when the kids are out, you know, rolling around on the farm, whether they're, you know, running up the hill to check on the pigs or they're out in our UTV driving around that they are set, you know that we've got stuff for Lowe's with him pretty much all the time, and that he's got some sort of communicated device, whether it's a phone or something on him so that when they're when they're helping us on the farm, that we can still make sure that he's safe to see though.

Scott Benner 23:29
Do you have like glucagon with him when he's out on the farm? Does your daughter know how to help him? Things like that?

Honey 23:34
No, you know what, we don't keep a glucagon in our, our little farm rig. And the only reason why is because of the temperature, like the temperature control. So we keep stuff like fruit snacks and juice in there. And I had, he knows when he's getting low, it took a while, you know that first like six months honeymoon phase that he was in? He would be like 34 and talking to us. And I'm like, Vinny, like, let's see right now. And he was fine. Now when he goes low, he can tell us before he's getting below 60. And so that's super helpful. He'll say, I don't feel good. I'm starting to feel low. And so we keep snacks on him so that way he can dose himself while he's, you know, still being outside and living the life as a kid should on a farm. You know, we still want him to be a true rugged farm kid.

Scott Benner 24:28
Yeah, we refer to that is feeling the fall. Yeah, like Yeah, so Okay, so I guess I want to talk about that for a second. Um, so I'm assuming you you're building this big thing, right? By the way your life sounds are you also an astronaut? Like on the weekends or something like do you guys have so much energy? Are you doing a lot of coke or something? How do you have all this energy? Seriously? I'm a nurse. I did this he's a fireman. We have a farm. There's a pig there's a goat. I'm like What? No, hell

Honey 24:58
no, I know my husband. As my husband's famous quote is like, I'll sleep when I'm dead. And I'm like, yeah, that's pretty much. That's pretty much how it goes, we, we are really trying to bite off as much as we can right now, while we are young, I'm 36, my husband is going to be 42 this year. And, you know, we really are trying to get a lot of things done, not only to set ourselves up for success, but like I said, the kids, you know, we hope to pass this

Scott Benner 25:25
on. That's where my question is. Because I'm, I tell Arden, I'm like, you know, you could probably keep the podcast going after, like, old and she's like, I don't know. And I'm like, you're good at it. And she's like, Yeah, maybe. And then it's just so I mean, I can't wait to I won't be around the day. You're like, you guys. Wait, don't want the farm. I killed myself the build.

Honey 25:47
Yeah, hey, no. All right.

Scott Benner 25:50
Tell me again, what you want? Yes. So him working on the farm, doing the things he does? He doesn't get low, he doesn't get low.

Honey 26:00
You know, no, for the most part, he actually, like, stays pretty even killed. I will say, he's out. Especially when we're out in the garden, he'll like, be snacking on some strawberries, or those pull a carrot and snack on a carrot. So he's still, especially when we're outside. So that is kind of a hard, bounce. Like, okay, how many strawberries have you eaten from the garden? Because now I don't know what you've had. And yeah, let's make a really good guess on what you've had as far as dosing goes. But he's, he is pretty good about that. He can, you know, tell us when he's feel in the fall. And he'll go back inside, if he's not feeling good. And he'll just go have a snack himself. And thankfully, we do this with a lot of our family, we have a ton of family close by. And so if we have to step away from a project or, you know, finish doing something early, then we can come back inside and make sure that you know, he's doing okay, he's got what he needs. And then He usually comes back out on the, on the farm with us.

Scott Benner 27:05
Do you employ people do you employ people?

Honey 27:08
We don't, we we're still small enough that we don't need to have like full time employees or anybody working for us. But it does help that we have our family here as well, because we all kind of like reap the benefits from the farm, right, like so we, you know, with our meat. And then as far as the vegetables go, my mother in law, and I do a lot of canning, freeze a lot of our berries and you can freeze a lot of your vegetables too. It just depends on what you're going to use them for, for future use. But we try and freeze a lot of that stuff. And the kids get involved in help to you know, like when we can green beans. They're like the best green bean cutters ever. So I guess I employ my children's sense.

Speaker 1 27:50
I assumed you had them working. I just wasn't sure about like, you know if there were other people that it just seems like Yeah, can I look the farm up online or something? Or yeah, so cuz I don't understand. You understand that I don't understand. Like, my, my dog had to go out before we recorded this. And I was pissed that I had to take him out.

Honey 28:08
I hear ya. I hear ya. Yeah. So And with that, like our farm, so we follow regenerative agriculture. So I don't know if you've heard that term. It's being thrown around a lot lately. But basically, when we bought our land, it was pretty, like used and abused. You know, it was sprayed for pesticides, sprayed for weeds. And so with herbicides and stuff, and we when we bought the farm, we've not sprayed or done anything. So we're totally chemical free here. And we actually use our cows and our animals to help regenerate the soil and you know, grow healthier grass, we joke around and say, Well, we're soil farmers and grass farmers first versus us being, you know, a rancher or, you know, people that sell eggs or stuff like that, you know, we we really try and focus on healing the land. So basically our cows, they're on winter pasture right now and they get hay every day. And when they come back out onto pasture, we move them once a day. So think of them in a little square. And then the next day, they move to a new square and they don't get to go back to the old little patch of grass that they were on. And it goes like that all year long until they come back to winter pasture. So our cows are on fresh grass every single day. And it is a lot of work. And we've in the years that we've been doing this, we've learned a lot of things and the kids are right there by our side. So if you go look us up on social media, you know, they're in videos where they're helping us pull fences or pull the stakes that hold their fences up or helping us you know, they'll drive our UTV and help us move the water or move the minerals. You know, they get our eggs for us. We'll ask them when we're cooking them. Hey, can you guys run out to the garden and get a pepper and a head of broccoli, and they'll run out and get what we need for four things. And so they're a big help. And we really try and incorporate them into pretty much everything we do. And Vinny is right there along side of us, just, you know, plugging away.

Scott Benner 30:18
So you're not, I mean,

Honey 30:19
testing things.

Scott Benner 30:20
Yeah, test my knowledge of this, right. So yeah, the the, the cows being in one place, and then taking off the grass, then deprecating, and then moving on, like, you're kind of regenerating the ground that way. So you keep moving them so that they are doing the work to, to bring the soil back to where it needs to be is there there are I have, I mean, obviously, you are right, like it's become fashionable to talk about regenerative farming in some places. So I've heard things like some soils only have 60 seasons left and things like that, because, and then you have to bring in outside, like manmade fertilizers just so things will grow in some places, because the soil is so dead. And you're Yep. Okay, and you're trying to stop that from or you're trying to bring bring that back from the you bought?

Honey 31:08
I see. Yeah, yeah, we are trying to stop all of that, you know. So there are definitely farmlands, I think that are, you know, this is what their grandpa's grandpa's did. And this is just the way they farmed, and we are trying to step away from that and really heal the soil, like you said, with the use of the animals. So them grazing them, you know, actually eating the grass and pulling out the grass seeds helps to regenerate the soil down in the roots that that helps, like you said, the deprecating getting their nutrients back into the ground, it's all natural fertilizer, and then we have our chickens follow behind them. And then they spread their manure and eat the worms that are in the manure. And it's this whole kind of, like circle of life.

Scott Benner 31:57
Are you trying not to say circle of life? Because yes, I

Honey 32:00
am, then I'm like, it's gonna happen. It happened.

Scott Benner 32:04
I was. So I'm like she's trying not to say circle of life right now. But there are no other words for it.

Honey 32:09
No, it's not. And to put that into like perspective, for somebody who's not on a farm and doesn't understand, you know, what we talk about when we're talking about replacing the carbon and the nitrogen in the ground, that's effectively what we're trying to do is basically make healthier soil. And we want to see the microorganisms that we know are in the soil, come back to life, and turn, you know, like on a drought season, if there isn't anything for the, you know, when there's no soil and there isn't anything for the water to be absorbed into, well, then you don't have grass that grows and then you're stuck, either, you know, irrigating or fertilizing or praying that you're going to have some sort of harvest for hay or, you know, whatever your crop is that you're that you can feed your animals through winter. And so, it you know, I say it a lot. It's a lot of work, but we absolutely love it, and we wouldn't be farming really any other way.

Scott Benner 33:09
So where does the money come from? Like, okay, it seems like we've got we've can things we've grown things we've raised things, then I mean, do you like for example, like let's go through it like you can the the vegetables, you sell them online, you sell them locally?

Honey 33:26
We don't that's super hard to do. Because just have state laws and regulations, especially when you're canning things, you people do it. So let me sit let me preface that people do do it. We do not have to go to a special kitchen to do that. And there isn't one close to our house. And for us.

Scott Benner 33:44
Would you need to employ a food Packer? Right, basically? Yeah. And what about the beef? Then? How do you do that? The

Honey 33:51
the beef, so basically kind of like where you probably buy your beef or your pork from our beef goes to what's a USDA butcher. So that's a federal federally inspected Butcher. And because it's been inspected, we can sell that across state lines, we can sell that throughout the state. There's a lot of different ways if you're purchasing like a full animal, you can either buy a whole or a half or a quarter. Or you can just buy cuts, you know, like, hey, I want to have a ribeye with my valentine kind of thing. You can go to local farms and say do you have cuts available and if they are more than likely being processed at a USDA butcher, then they can have cuts available for you to purchase. So that's what we do is we have our animals go to butcher we get cuts back and then we sell those cuts to people because not everybody's interested in having a whole cow stashed in their freezer. And so we kind of appeal to those customers that say well I want just some bacon and I want just a couple steaks and maybe some roasts and XYZ to get us through the week of dinners Okay, perfect. So that's, that's where the money comes from there. Obviously, if you've seen all the egg memes and all of the egg jokes going around, you know, you know how, how expensive and crazy it is to get eggs right now. Um, so eggs are another big thing. But what people don't realize is that eggs are chickens decrease their output in the winter because of daylight hours, and it's just colder, in general. And they also molt, so they shed all of their feathers to bring in new feathers for the next year. And so there are a lot of different factors that affect why chickens lay, and why they don't lay. And so like right now, we do not advertise that we have eggs, and we sell only to a couple, like very loyal customers, because we don't have enough to supply everybody, like we usually do in the summer. So that will change. You know, but yeah, so that's, that's basically where the money you know, comes from. And then we also, we sell our live animals as well, to people that you know, either want goats to do the same thing like us to help clear brush or to manage their weeds, or people that just want cows because Highland cows are really popular. And some people just want them as like a backyard pet thing. Seriously. Yep, there are people that have Highland cows as just backyard pets. And we don't do that. But there are people out there that that definitely want them just to have a cute fluffy cow in their yard. And you know, you can have a cow on three acres and, and they do fine.

Scott Benner 36:38
What what, how much does a cow cost me if I want one?

Honey 36:41
Oh, man, I think it depends on there's you know, there's a fluctuating price you could get them in this is throughout the country, but I've seen them as low as $2,000. And then we have seen them go at auction for up to $40,000.

Scott Benner 36:56
Okay, so how much would it cost me if I had it butchered? And I bought it as as the beef.

Honey 37:01
Yeah. So if you did that you pay. You pay your farmer, you're hanging weight. And so basically, whatever the farmer sets is their hanging weight price. So national standards right now is about $5 a pound. And then you would also pay your cut and wrap fees, which can depending on how you cut and wrap your animal is typically 300 To 50 to $300 is what you're, you're paying. So if you were going to buy a whole cow, you could guesstimate that you're going to spend about $1,500, but that's in beef.

Scott Benner 37:34
Okay, and then maybe another three 400 for the cutting in the wrapping. Yep. So the animals basically worth about two grand, have seen a better life. But I'm getting into an entire cowboy theme because we're speak.

Honey 37:49
Also learning so much.

Scott Benner 37:51
I've watched Yellowstone recently. So you know,

Honey 37:53
oh, yes, I know. We're, we're we're big Yellowstone fans. That's funny.

Scott Benner 37:57
I'm fascinated by this. Because if I'm so Nick who puts a cow on their property, just to have fun, because that's how that's how, by the way, if you own a cow as a pet, that's how I see you as an adult. But anyway, like, so what is what, what does it cost me to feed the thing? And

Honey 38:14
so yeah, I mean, you have to think about that. That's an that's one of the biggest questions we get, you know, you have to factor in the cost of hay if you live somewhere like us where we had, you know, 13 inches of snow before Christmas, which is not normal. So you have to factor in your cost of hay. And granted, we're buying hay and create, we make our own hay. So we're making it on very, very large scales. So we have about 70 tons that we store for the winter. So that's quite a bit we have a whole building that's dedicated on our property to just storing hay. And, and that's another place where the kids love to go play. They love to play in the hay bale. Because we have a big beautiful barn too, and, and they love to go play in that. But that is something that you have to factor in. So you're Yes, I'll never be per month is probably going to spend 100 bucks, 100 bucks on hay a month. If you have like one cow.

Scott Benner 39:11
And there's gonna be couched everywhere. Everywhere. Yeah.

Honey 39:15
So you could, you could, you could compost that and you could put that back into your garden to help

Scott Benner 39:26
me that well, but I don't think I can.

Honey 39:30
I mean, yeah, wait a minute, you were annoyed about your dad. I

Scott Benner 39:32
was so irritated. He's like, I have to pay and I'm like you mother, okay. I gotta go make a podcast, but we'll go outside and pee now. Then he then he did. And I'm like, Dude, get back in the house. And it's my mom's 14 years old. And he knows and he's looking at me like I was thinking of walking around and I'm like, You need to go back in the house. And he starts wandering away from me and ignoring me and I had to like run and jump in front of him like what are you doing? And he's like, Oh my god, I could get away with it and then he walks in the house. This cow will not like attack me like if I go oh, three acres to legally keep a cow on my property.

Honey 40:09
Well, I mean that depends if you're in a neighborhood you know it just depends on kind of what your what your guys's I guess laws and stuff are depending on where you are because there's some places where you couldn't do this

Scott Benner 40:25
one acre in Jersey in a residential place I'm thinking I'm gonna throw a cow back there to screw was the people.

Honey 40:32
Oh, that would be so fun. I'm you know what? I know that there's some breeders in that area that we should get to one. We're going to find one. Yeah, we can now

Scott Benner 40:42
Yeah, we should definitely get me a cow. That's a great idea. I'm not sure I could take care of the stuffed animal that I saw. When I Googled Highland cattle.

Honey 40:53
You could you could do it.

Scott Benner 40:55
I do. You did something in the beginning, which I understand like being in your like line of work in your life where you were like, I know, some people don't like beef, which was like protein, which is a nice way of saying, I'm trying to be respectful. Some people think that we're murdering, but I'm gonna have a steak later today, just so everyone knows. But um, I'm trying to decide like that fluffy thing is edible?

Honey 41:20
A sure are I mean, and that's, I guess my my thought is, you know, what's the difference between my my fluffy cow versus, you know, a Black Angus or a reading?

Scott Benner 41:29
And that's what I'm trying to figure out. What am I eating exactly right,

Honey 41:33
you're still leaving, you're still you could be eating a highland, you just might not know it. You know, if you don't have that connection to your farmer, then you won't know what you're getting essentially at the end of the day. And that's why

Scott Benner 41:47
my farmer honey is Costco. So you know.

Honey 41:51
And I love and I love me some Costco. And they do a great job. But yeah, you know, that's, that's kind of the thing for us is, when my husband like, well, we got to, we've got to figure out what we're going to do with the farm. When Vinnie was diagnosed, it was like, Well, no, this is like, very important. And he is he loves our products. You know, his one of his favorite thing. And what he requests for dinner is bones. And that is code for pork chops. Oh, because he loves to just knock on the bone of a pork chop. So for us, it's, you know, it's one of those important things where I feel like, yes, there is this amazing life saving hormone that we have to give our kid multiple times a day and that we think about all the time, but then there's moments where, okay, you're just eating protein. And I don't have to think about that for a minute. Because I don't have to

Scott Benner 42:44
dose you. You don't see any rise later from protein because protein can be stored as glucose after Yeah,

Honey 42:50
you know what? Yeah, we actually with him have not, he'll have, he'll have just, you know, like, one of his favorite lunches is actually just like salami. And he's kind of getting away from cheese right now. But that was one of his favorite kind of lunches. And he will say, pretty much like right at 110 or 108. You know, you know what, I wonder? He has, yeah,

Scott Benner 43:15
he's so active, isn't he?

Honey 43:17
He is very active. I mean, not to

Scott Benner 43:21
also part of it, not to ignore diabetes for 39 minutes, and then come back to it now, but I'm trying to decide like, do you do is he kind of like gone? I mean, he's using a pump, right?

Honey 43:33
He's in a pump. So he's, I don't know if I can say what pump is.

Scott Benner 43:37
Why would you not be able to say that we just said, Oh, I don't know. I think we just like talked about like cutting a cow up and a little pieces. You can talk about that. Yeah.

Honey 43:43
Yeah, so he's on the T slim. And and we went with that just because of the age the Omnipod wasn't out at the time or the Omnipod. Five wasn't out, obviously at the time where we wanted to have him how critical IQ. Yeah, so what's so what's his Basal set? Is basals. Point three.

Scott Benner 44:06
That's what he's he's not using and what's the way?

Honey 44:10
He's almost 60 pounds? Yeah,

Scott Benner 44:13
okay. Yeah, he's not using as much. I think he's not his settings aren't as strong as I would expect them to be. I think it's probably because of all the activity.

Honey 44:21
Yeah. And he is very active. So like, he's always on a sport. So my daughter does gymnastics, and he does soccer and he just finished basketball, and then we'll go back into soccer. And then he's also that kid, when he gets home from school. He's like, I need a snack. And then it's like, Okay, how's this not going to be but I'm going outside, even when it's snowing and garbage out. He's going outside. And it's like, okay, well,

Scott Benner 44:44
honey, I have to be honest with you. I don't get all the action and the movement around and adding extra things to it. So you get up in the morning, go to a job. And then come home and work a farm. Yeah. And then you Why don't you you have to cook and eat and do all those things. You go to the bathroom at some point, I imagine.

Honey 45:07
We're really busy. Yeah, no, it's actually on the mornings where my husband is gone is he you know, he's a fireman. So he'll work those 24 hour 48 hour shifts. I have to get up, get the kids ready for school. So you know. And of course, these are the mornings where it's like, oh, the site went bad or it's decks failed, or it's like, Are you kidding me? So got to deal with all of that. And then get them fed, get them pack lunches, go outside, feed everybody, because I can't leave for the day and not feed the cows. And then go to work and do it.

Scott Benner 45:40
In the morning, um,

Honey 45:42
you know what? I actually don't get up superduper early, like I was up at five today. 530.

Scott Benner 45:49
Your kids don't get up earlier than say 530

Honey 45:53
Yes. I mean, that's not that bad. Hey, you know what, Scott, there's people that wake up at four to work out. And I used to be one of those people that I'm like, I I've given up on

Scott Benner 46:03
trying to live forever. What time do you go to bed?

Honey 46:07
Last night I went to bed at like, 930 I was tired. Last night.

Scott Benner 46:11
I mocked them. I'm making fun of myself, but I shouldn't be so yeah, my life's on a different schedule than yours. Because, yeah, eight o'clock this morning when my alarm went off. And I thought I've got to get a shower and go make the podcast. I was like, it felt early to me. But I didn't go to bed. I didn't go to bed till like two o'clock in the morning. Oh,

Honey 46:31
holy moly. Yeah. So it affects me all day.

Scott Benner 46:35
Oh, okay. I see. So you're sleeping from nine to five. You're getting more sleep than I am.

Honey 46:42
I am. It's good for you to

Scott Benner 46:45
eat that's for also I woke up very angry from a dream at 330 You ever get pissed off at a dream?

Honey 46:51
Oh, all the time. My husband's like, what am I in trouble for now that I didn't my dream. I'm like, well, just wait. I can tell you.

Scott Benner 46:58
Here. This is gonna be really stupid. Wait till I tell you this. Okay, three years from the time I was 16 till I was 19. I was a volunteer fireman. Oh, yeah. And at the end, I decided I wasn't going to do it any longer. But I was still in the middle of deciding. And yeah, I think I had made it fairly clear. And then one day I decided to like, there was a call and I was like, you know, I'm gonna go and maybe I'll decide to keep doing this. And I got there and my gear had been pulled already. And it pissed me off. And I dreamt last night that that happened again. And I woke up incredibly angry. Oh, how bizarre. Yeah, and that was like 29 this like 33 years ago that happened. Interest. I jumped about something that happened when I was 19. And I was just as pissed in the middle of the night last night as I was when it happened to me when I was 19.

Honey 47:54
Well, maybe it's because you knew you were going to talk to a fire away today. And I

Scott Benner 47:58
can't be true because I don't read the notes first. Like when you came on, and I was pulling all my stuff up. I thought this is the lady that has the farm. And and because of the bizarre way that I don't know that I set the show up like I talked to you so long ago. Like, you know, I mean, what did you book this like six months ago or something like that? Yeah, yeah. So I'm like, I've been living for the last six months they can eventually I'm gonna turn my thing on one day and talk about farming with somebody.

Honey 48:29
Yeah, that's right here. You know, I

Scott Benner 48:31
am here I am today. Yeah. Okay, so, here's a couple of things I've learned so far. Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. I do want a cow. Now that I've seen this thing. I think we should make that happen. This specific photo on Google, I think, maybe I'll just get this picture and hang it up. That might be easier. And also, I blame Taylor Sheridan for making me feel way too because I think I've now watched Yellowstone 1883 And I'm caught up on what's the other 119 2919 2323? Yes. I'm caught up on that now. And, and I was I was again irritated when I got to the end of it. I was like, Wait, there's no more episodes?

Honey 49:13
Yeah, I know. I we feel the same way. I have a very well, it's a known thing, but I love rip. I love rip and my husband has like almost he doesn't have a handlebar mustache, but he's got a very aggressive and impressive mustache right now. And I'm like, Yeah, I was meant to live on a farm and, and be married to a cowboy.

Scott Benner 49:35
Well, okay, I've requested first let me say this. If you're enjoying all the Yellowstone TV shows, may I suggest a movie from 2016 Hell or High Water, which was actually written directed by the guy that made the Yellowstone. Oh, okay. We'll have to go watch that. And I remembered liking it back then. And then I put two and two together eventually. Here's another thing. I've never I've never been on a horse. Okay. I feel badly about that.

Honey 50:02
You should do that. I bet there's somebody close by to you that would offer you something like that. And maybe your daughter would get a kick out of it too. Who knows, but

Speaker 1 50:16
I have a short checklist of things. It's the weirdest checklist of things that I've never done that I think I'd like to do that I'm fairly certain I'm never going to do.

Honey 50:29
Well, is riding a horse on there.

Scott Benner 50:32
My list so far is horse. This is so stupid when a cow. No, I wouldn't. I've never had. I've never had a cup of coffee. What? Yes. So I think I want to do that once. Yes, I've never. I've never smoked weed. Okay, and I've never, I've never shot a gun, you should just

Unknown Speaker 50:51
come over.

Scott Benner 50:53
Can I handle all this in a day and a half a year?

Honey 50:58
We could get you on the back of a horse. You could pick a cow. We could drink copious amounts of coffee. Yeah, we could we could take a lot of the things off that

Scott Benner 51:09
list. Like do you skip the weed but you're in Washington. So I mean,

Honey 51:12
we are in Washington. So that is clearly a thing that could happen very legally for you.

Scott Benner 51:21
Also, you've almost named the episode number of times you actually said I can't believe this, you actually said bought the farm at 1.0. And you said making hay. So there's all kinds of euphemisms that have come out through your conversation so far. Oh, by the way, I also want to say that it's super interesting to me that a woman named honey named her son Vinny.

Honey 51:44
Oh, you know what it's from. There is no family ties or anything. But we actually after we decided we were going to name him Vincent realized that there was family ties, but that wasn't what influenced our name. It's from entourage. Oh,

Scott Benner 51:58
I had my fingers crossed for Pulp Fiction, actually.

Honey 52:01
Oh, I mean, that would have been a good one, too. But no, it was from entourage. So I had knee surgery and my husband and I have binged the whole, the whole everything of entourage. And I was like, no, if we have a boy, I want to name him Vincent. And he was like, Okay, I love it. And so that's, that's what he ended up as.

Scott Benner 52:22
So I thought it was one of those situations like when you know, your real Republican, your kids turn out Democrat or vice versa. Like you're like, like some hippie named me. I'm gonna go with something a little more traditional, is what I

Honey 52:33
Yeah, no, yeah. No. And my mom, I mean, my mom. Yes, I would say she was a hippie. But my name wasn't even from like that. It was my mom's a hygenist. And she was like, How to a client and she said, if I have a girl, I'm going to name her honey, because I love that name. I was going to be named a Petra, Petra, because we're Norwegian. But I ended up honey, which is much more suiting and definitely fits my personality. So not a Petra,

Scott Benner 53:01
Petra, it's tough. I think you have to be like an Instagram model with ABS. Petra. That's a tough one. There's a look there, you got to pull off. You got to be like six feet tall. And have, like, I'm thinking blonde hair slicked back. Yeah, yeah. And you I think you get to be a, I think you get to be the bad guy and Eddie Murphy movie, if I'm remember, Oh, that'd be fun. No, Sylvester Stallone, maybe I'll figure it out. Yeah. Okay. So the diabetes thing is not that big of a part of your day, huh?

Honey 53:32
You know, well, it is a big part of our day. I mean, you know, I think about when we were first diagnosed, and how overwhelming that feels, and then, you know, being, you know, new to that, so not new, because I had I deal with kids at school, right all day with diabetes, or other life threatening allergies, or seizures, etc. And so, I had a little bit of background, but didn't have enough. And so, you know, I think my biggest thing is finding those groups or those resources that are going to work for you. And, and, like we say, to Vinnie, every day, like, you know, you're not defined by your diabetes, this does not define you. This is nothing, you know, to stop you in life. This is just maybe a little roadblock, but there is a rhyme and a reason as to why he was diagnosed and, and, you know, we think about it every day, obviously, when he eats, we're thinking about it, and when he's having lows or when we can tell if he's, you know, going high, but for the most part, you know, we'd really try and keep our, our management, really well rounded, and we try and stay on top of it as best as we can, especially while we're running a farm like this. I do think that the tools that he has to help, you know, like being on T slim, and having decks are wonderful, amazing things and I you know, we'd be lost without them. You know, when we were doing MDI, it was like, how do people do this like cuz we need to get on a pump, you know, and I think there's a beautiful part of MDI, because his pump failed this summer. And so I was like, well, that sucks. My husband, my husband was, of course on and I'm like, well, we can't let us stop us. So pack up, the important off we go, and you're gonna have to, you know, go back to getting injections here for a little bit. And he handled it great as a five year old, because he's, you know, he just turned six. So this was in the summer, because a five year old, he can do his own shots, and he can handle it, doing his own shots. He wants to be involved. And I think that just, you know, being proactive, and, you know, saying, You have to help us, like, there are things that you have to help us with, and I know that you don't want to do this, and it is unfair that this happened to you, but you have to help us, he has realized, okay, I have to do it. Otherwise, the consequences, you know, result in DKA, or ending up back in the hospital or losing, you know, if this was long term things losing limbs or losing vision, or you know, things that you get scared about and worry about. And that's what makes me lose sleep at night sometimes. But then I'm like, I can't focus on all that. Otherwise, I would drowned in in fear. And so we really tried to not not let that take over our life on a daily basis, you know, and he does great with it at school, too. That was my biggest fear was sending a kindergartener to school, even though I work at the school, but I'm right there. I'm like, I'm still worried. Inside. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 56:33
we worked so hard to get Arden on to Omni pod before she started school. Yeah, I had that same. My thought back then was just like, I don't want like a stranger sticking my kid with a needle so many times, that is actually Oh, what I thought, you know, it just occurs to me that you're managing having diabetes, you know, your son having diabetes. Like, it sounds like you just do it the way you do everything else. And it's full out like, like, I mean, what's the what's the other option? Really, right? I mean, like, seriously, you wouldn't see it this way, because it's your life. But if you got caught into a situation where three or four or five hours a day was lost to like, either woe is me, or like, you know, confusion or, you know, whatever. There are, like legitimate live things, that would not be okay, because of that. Like, it's almost like you can't, I'm trying to figure out what I'm trying to say here. It's almost like you can't afford not to do it this way. And because of that, this is the way you do it. It makes me wonder if I couldn't have just taken the dog out without complaining about it.

Honey 57:39
Yes, you can. Yeah. And I you know, what's interesting, and I will say this is when we were in the hospital, that and, you know, diabetes has been around for how long and, and especially in the northwest and whatnot. And the day that we were diagnosed, so a year and a half ago, I said something to the doc, like, kind of like, well are there, you know, because like, I felt like I needed a counselor or somebody to talk to you at that point. And then I was like, Well, are there resources available for the kids expecting, you know, I work with a counselor every day in the school. So I have a counselor at my fingertips if somebody's having an issue. But are there counselors for some of these kids who maybe don't have like a stable home situation, or they're gonna have to navigate a lot of this by themselves, especially if they're in their teens or whatnot. And they had just started their program for kind of more on the mental health behavioral side of things or counseling, like that week, and I was flabbergasted because I thought they're just, there's so many resources out there, but there still isn't enough. Sometimes it seems like, you know, I rely heavily like on Facebook groups, like your Facebook group. There's not like there's type one diabetic mom groups, there's, you know, tandem groups that are specific to tandem, I rely heavily on those groups to, you know, bring more knowledge to the table for us to use with Vincent. Because, you know, at the end of the day, we're all learning, we're all learning. We're all learning from each other. You know, I saw somebody yesterday in your group post about, like, helped me swag this and it was, you know, like a yogurt and a string cheese and oh my god, did you see that? I was like, holy moly. I'm, I'm well over 100 carbs.

Scott Benner 59:25

100. And it was, it was like a, it was a kid at a Valentine's party at school. Yes. There was so much stuff on that plate. And I thought like, wow, like, I could not eat any of that. But okay, I Yeah, exactly. And so it was really actually heartening to me to watch it because so many people got close enough. Like there was my best guesses there was about is just gonna sound crazy. There's about 110 carbs on this plate. Yep. But people like in that group. Word. ere they were between 80 and 105, and they were talking about like, well, that's so much insulin. So I would probably do like this much, and then wait to see if there was a rise and put there, they all had like a plan around it and everything and, and only, it was really interesting, because it got a ton of traffic. And right, everyone was so very supportive about it. Like nobody was like, your kid should need that. Because I think we all know nobody should eat there was like a cookie and a doughnut and potato chips. And like, I was like, Oh my God. But yeah, one, it was one person who said I would not eat any of that. And it was an older person. And I and I removed their comment and sent them a note that said, we don't tell people how to eat here. And that was the end of it. And so, but I mean, 100 other people were like, Oh, I would try it was very supportive, very interesting, was

Honey 1:00:51
very supportive. And I thought it was interesting. And I was like, that's like a perfect example of diabetes and how everybody will manage it differently. You know, like you said, there were people that said, Well, when I dose half or what I give an extended Bolus, or would we see if they ate at all? For one? That would be my question when my kids eat?

Scott Benner 1:01:09
Yeah, I was sure they're gonna eat all that. Yeah.

Honey 1:01:13
And then, you know, dose base off of that my husband went to Vincent Valentine's party yesterday, because of that reason, I was like, there'll be treats, and I'm at work, and I can't, you know, leave to go over there and help, you know, dose and stuff. And I don't want to leave that in the hands of the teacher, and then have them be 400 by the time he comes home. And so I think it's cool that there are so many tools and resources available out there. And I wish more people knew about that I feel blessed, because our endocrinologist, they're amazing. And they tell you, here's Facebook groups that you could follow, here's, you know, helpful resources that you can go to, Here's a helpful group of moms or parents or whomever that you can talk with, that, you know, may have a tip or trick, you know, when we first started with Dexcom, Vinnie broke out in a rash every time and I was like, Oh, my God, I can't, how are we going to do this, this poor little skin, and then it was someone, I was scrolling through something and somebody said, Flonase, and I was like, touching, then take my money. And we haven't had skin issues since then. And so, you know, I think there's so many great resources and whatnot out there. And, and, you know, tying back to our lifestyle, like you said, we don't have an option to not just kind of, this is the path we're going. And we're gonna, you know, we're just gonna do what we have to do, essentially,

Scott Benner 1:02:37
what made you want to come on the podcast,

Honey 1:02:39
you know, I wanted to come on, because I feel like, like, in my realm of when he was diagnosed was like, that people should know that they're not alone, because I felt very alone. And, you know, I don't know, if you battled insurance. Well, I had to battle insurance. And my first month and, and I think I want people to know that. And this comes from also my nursing background. And my husband probably say the same thing, too, because he's a fireman and deals with people in some of their worst moments as well. But having somebody to advocate for you, for you, or advocating for your child, if they're diabetic, is beyond important. You know, and I know that most of us are the big mama bears, and Papa bears that are like, we're going to do whatever we need to do for our kid. But then there are some people I think that need that little nudge, like, No, it's okay. You can ask for things that you want or think that your child needs, and not take no for an answer. To fight

Scott Benner 1:03:36
back a little bit. It's, yeah, and you know, it doesn't come naturally to everybody.

Honey 1:03:41
No, and it doesn't, I would like, you know, I want to encourage people to think about that, and, and, you know, to, to not let, because like I said, when I remember in the hospital, people think this is going to stop in life. You know, like you said, you can spend three to four hours a day, having a woe is me pity party, we could have done that. We could have said we're going to sell the farm, we're going to sell all the cows, we're going to stop everything our focus is just going to be Vinnie, giving him the best life we can. And then it clicked, like in that moment where I was like, well, doing what we're doing is going to give him the best life that we can. Not doing this and not building this farm up, would probably be detrimental to him, you know, in the future. And so for us, it's really just about empowering people knowing that you're not alone. lean heavily on the community that we have here, because it's pretty incredible.

Scott Benner 1:04:36
You ever imagined that you'll be able to farm like full time.

Honey 1:04:40
That's our goal. We'd love to get there. You know, I do. I love my job. And you know, in Washington, I have to work so many hours to keep my license up. So I will probably always have something part time as far as a nurse goes, but we would love to see this the full time you know, operation and right now we're good you know where we're at. We're growing small, and, but we're growing steadily. And we love doing this. We're doing this alongside our kids. So, you know, at the end of the day, I'm like, even if it became nothing, I did it with my family. And so that's the cool part, what's the name of the farm. So the name of our farm is called del Kenna Highlands, and that this is based off of the area that we live in. But it's D ALKE. n, a, and then Highlands. So just like it sounds high, and then land, and that's based off of us being tucked up a little bit in a valley, kind of up in the higher area. And then delta is the area that we're at, in Washington. So that's where we're from. And

Scott Benner 1:05:44
so I'm here I can buy like a pork chop, or something.

Honey 1:05:49
You could so we aren't. Yeah, so yeah. When when we are shipping, I will ship us some steak, Scott. But we aren't shipping yet. So right now we just delivered to like, Inland Northwest. So yeah, so we're on the border of Idaho, actually. So we can touch on, you know, the Idaho kind of Western Idaho border. And then my husband actually commutes and works south of Seattle. And so we can deliver all the way over to you know, we're inland to Pacific Northwest, basically is where our our area is right now. But we're hoping to be shipping here soon. And I'll send you some steaks.

Scott Benner 1:06:26
Thank you. Can I ask a silly question? Sure. Grass fed grass finished. I understand that. Yeah, I don't understand finished.

Honey 1:06:37
So a lot of cows, like your lovely yummy Costco cows, they are finished on green. So they just they basically, most cows spend their life on on pasture eating grass. And that's how they grow and mature and get to their, their standard size. And then a lot of cows are brought in to basically a barn or like a feedlot. And then they're finished with grain. So that basically pumps them up at the end before BUTCHER So that can help with making them more tender. People think that has has more flavor. But then there's my husband, this is his quote is, think about it this way. You've eaten really healthy, let's say you've done like a whole 30 year entire life. You've been super, super great. You're super lean, you're walking around, you're getting all the nutrients we need. And then somebody says, Here's ice cream and you get to eat ice cream until the end of your day. How do you think that would feel? And that's basically kind of what happens is your lean your lean mean machine until the end and where you get screen finished?

Scott Benner 1:07:43
Which fattens them up and then they and people like the fat for plate. Yep. Gotcha. Exactly. And finish with grass. You get a leaner cut,

Honey 1:07:53
you get a leaner cut and like so for Highlands, for instance, why we raise Highlands is they are they've got all that long, hairy coat on them. So they actually don't have to put on as much fat to keep them insulated. But they still have great marbling. And they still taste just as delicious. And they're not gay me like some of that grass fed protein candy. They're really, I mean, they are quite delicious. And I think it's just your preference. You know, we we hunt, and we fish and we do all this stuff, too. And so, you know, you think about like a deer and elk. You're like, well, they're not getting finished within a grain. And so we haven't known really any different and so that's why we chose to go grass fed grass finished. It's cheaper to if I don't have to buy grain at sea saves me in the long run. Sure.

Scott Benner 1:08:39
Okay, I just you know, the word finished. I was just like finished like what does that mean? Yeah. So

Honey 1:08:45
they the the last day that they spent here before they're loaded up into a trailer. They are still on grass.

Scott Benner 1:08:52
Nice. Okay, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Well, yeah. Did I not ask you anything I should have? No, I

Honey 1:08:59
think you asked everything. Yeah, I think we're good. And then I have a pug barking sorry. Why do

Scott Benner 1:09:04
you have what's wrong with you? Honey? Why do you have a dog?

Honey 1:09:07
I have three have

Scott Benner 1:09:08
to have a cow or something? What are you doing?

Honey 1:09:13
So funny. I know. I have. I have two Labradors and a pug. So you know, that keeps me busy too.

Scott Benner 1:09:25
Can I ask a question? I can't believe I have a question about chickens. But I actually do. Yeah. I don't understand that. There's an animal that like, I guess free range. If you didn't own those chickens, there'd be a way they'd live and they'd lay eggs. But when you bring them into a coop, like stuff happens right? Like they they can go crazy. Don't the moms go crazy after they lay the eggs and you have to separate them or what am I not?

Honey 1:09:49
Oh no. So we have actually our coop is built on an old hay wagon. And if you go on like our social media or website you'll see a pic sure of it, and that coop, we built it that way so that it could move behind the cows, you know, part of that regenerative agriculture so they pick the poop and eat the worms and all that, but they have nesting boxes along the side of it. And so they go in and they lay their eggs and and then they go back to you know, pecking and scratching in the grass and in the pasture and acting as a chicken shed and then they come back in the coop at night to roost. But if there is a mom, that is what the term is broody, so she wants to sit on those eggs and hatch those, those moms, we just, we still take their eggs every day. And because we're a licensed egg dealer in Washington, we candle our eggs. So that means we look at them with a flashlight every day. And make sure that there isn't a baby chicken there that we're selling to somebody, you know that somebody's sat on an egg too long, and we missed it or something so we can handle all of our eggs. And we've had chicks naturally born here. But usually those moms go and hide their eggs somewhere. They don't do it in the coop. So go. We last year. In fact, we found four chicks, and a mom in the field just randomly. Like, she had hatched her chicken, her chicks in a long pile of grass, close to the coop so she could go get food and stuff, but would come back to her little clutch of eggs every day and just sit there. And then she hatched out four little chicks and it was beautiful.

Scott Benner 1:11:32
She's gonna make a break for it. Do you think she had like a whole plan? Like in a Disney movie? Oh, yeah.

Honey 1:11:37
It's a legit thing. Their animal instinct is very, very real.

Scott Benner 1:11:42
Like I'm gonna hatch these eggs and we're gonna get the hell out of here.

Honey 1:11:45
That's right. And she did. Great. It was cool. Kind of Wonderful stuff like that.

Scott Benner 1:11:51
Yeah. Oh, that's so interesting. It really is. Yeah. I'm looking at. I'm looking at your Instagram. It's dark Kanna Highlands at Dhaka. It's the ALKENAHI Gh la nds. Yeah, so people want to see pictures. Oh, look, there you are. The internet's amazing. I can see you.

Honey 1:12:12
Yeah. Don't you love that? Also, I

Scott Benner 1:12:15
don't know. You play down his mustache a little bit. It's pretty impressive.

Honey 1:12:18
I told him. I told you. It's impressive. And it's aggressive. It's, it's it's a good stash. I I love the stash. I have. There's this weird thing that I have for Redfin. And I'm like, Well, I can't have the real thing.

Scott Benner 1:12:33
I get this one for have my own version. No, that's not that's not his real hair color. He dies it for the show.

Honey 1:12:39
I know. I know. Which mean, yeah, he's basically he's a redhead.

Scott Benner 1:12:45
I think what do you like about him that he's quiet? You know?

Honey 1:12:49
I don't know. I think I just like that. You know? He's, like a manly man. Like, he just is. He's just fierce. If there's like one word that I'd be like about ribs.

Scott Benner 1:13:01
Yeah, he would not pitch about taking the dog out. I would listen. I I've said it before. I'm not embarrassed. I love complaining. I feel like it's a sport.

Honey 1:13:11
That feels good to complain. I'll call my mom and do that. Sometimes. I'm like, can I complain?

Scott Benner 1:13:16
Fairness, I'm not even upset. I just love the complaining part. Yeah. This is really cool. I appreciate you doing this. I do have one last question. But I don't know if it's gonna make people sad or not. I mean, what's it like to raise an animal? to butcher it? Is it hard?

Honey 1:13:37
It is hard. Yeah. There's, there's moments where I'm like, Oh, my gosh, this is really hard. And our, our, our, basically, our way of our train of thought is that we give them a really, really an amazing life here. You know, there's, they're on pasture, they're getting grass, they're getting all the things that they need, and they have one bad day. And so that's how we look at it. And you know, I think if I didn't have that connection to my animals, I feel like I should be out of the business. You know, because it isn't easy. And I'm not heartless, you know, there's a lot of time and effort and energy that goes into each and every animal. So it's just a matter of, you know, yeah, knowing at the end of the day, though, that I'm not just providing for my family, I'm providing for other families as well. And we gave that animal the best life that that it deserved. Really.

Scott Benner 1:14:25
Yeah. I mean, I to be clear, like, I don't have a problem with it. I just, I just, I mean, I'm looking at them. Like, they're kind of adorable. And yeah, and then, I mean, you have to have some sort of connection with them. You're seeing them constantly, they're seeing you they must recognize you at some point. And you know, like, they do all that goes along with that. And I don't I just figured that personally, it might be hard.

Honey 1:14:48
It is hard. There is no doubt about it. It's hard. And yeah, I guess I just try not to like let that sway me, you know, I'm like yes, they're adorable and cute and I Trying to remind people of this to. I'm like, they're adorable and cute, but then they're adorable and cute. And they end up being 2000 pounds and they have horns, and they are an animal. And so you have to remember that. I mean, I'm like, dogs are adorable and cute until you remember, they're an animal and they have animal instincts. I mean, I would trust my labs with anybody, but they're still animals. You know?

Scott Benner 1:15:22
No, listen, I don't want there are a lot of people on this planet. I don't I certainly don't know how to feed them without without animal meat. So anyway, this is really cool. I thought, Yeah, terrific. I appreciate you doing this very much.

Honey 1:15:38
No, thank you. I love it. And when we're shipping steaks all should be a steak. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:15:43
see, I really do appreciate that. I will smoke your steak just so you know. Oh, I

Speaker 1 1:15:47
love it. I will. I will slice it down. And then I will pick at it for days. Good. Like just is that weird? Like I what I basically Well, first of all, I can't believe I'm saying this. At least around here. Costco is the best steak I can find. Like I believe that. Yeah, it's just without going to a butcher. Like you can't get the steaks in grocery stores around here a terrible I don't even know if people realize it or not. I don't know why I couldn't begin to tell you why. But anyway,

Scott Benner 1:16:18
I go to Costco. I don't do prime. I do choice. So I get a little fattier bike. And then I like to do a I smoke them just a little like salt, pepper, you know, like smoke them up. And then I sliced them down with after they're cold. And I just picked.

Honey 1:16:37
Oh, that sounds delicious. Kind of how I

Scott Benner 1:16:39
go through my week in the afternoon. I do a little steak. So

Honey 1:16:43
yeah, that sounds delicious. To me. I'm in. Yeah. And

Scott Benner 1:16:45
people are like, isn't that expensive? It's like, I don't know what you're talking about. Like I eat all week for $40. So I was like, I you know, I don't know what you're spending to stay alive for a week. I really do. i It's so bizarre how I anyway, thank you. Hold on one second for me. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

I love talking to honey. I hope you enjoyed listening. You can check her format. I'll give you the link in a second. But first, let's thank Omni pod Omni pod.com forward slash juice box on the pod has been supporting this podcast with ads for nine years. Go say thank you at Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. And you know who else had our back today? Drink ag one.com forward slash juice box they supported the show where their ads and we get honey story in return. Go check out my links Omni pod.com forward slash juice box drink ag one.com forward slash juice box links in the show notes links juicebox podcast.com. And I have honeys. farm here for you hold on a second. Here it is. Let's spell it. D ALKENHIGH la nd s.com Delkin Dakka Dakka Tao Kana. Right. Tao Kana definitely Delkin D eight Yep, I got it. Huh? Did you enjoy hearing me say Dalkon a 15 times in a row. You didn't do bad I'm not saying it out. Loud. Gonna highlands.com Really cool little video it tells you a little bit about their life and pictures of adorable cows that I think people eat, but you don't know how adorable they are when you're eating them. They just taste delicious at that point. Go check them out. Would you please that what a great little family and a wonderful farm. If you are a loved one has been diagnosed with type one diabetes. The bold beginnings series from the Juicebox Podcast is a terrific place to begin listening. In this series, Jenny Smith and I will go over the questions most often asked at the beginning of type one. Jenny is a certified diabetes care and education specialist who is also a registered and licensed dietitian and Jenny has had type one diabetes for 35 years. My name is Scott Benner and I am the father of a child who has type one diabetes. Our daughter Arden was diagnosed in 2006 at the age of two. I believe that at the core of diabetes management, understanding how insulin works, and how food and other variables impact your system is of the utmost importance. The bowl beginning series will lead you down the path of understanding. This series is made up of 24 episodes. And it begins that episode 698 In your podcast, or audio player. I'll list those episodes at the end of this to listen you can go to juicebox podcast.com. Go up to the menu at the top and choose bold beginnings or or go into any audio app like Apple podcasts, or Spotify, and then find the episodes that correspond with the series. Those lists again, are at Juicebox Podcast up in the menu or if you're in the private Facebook group in the featured tab, the private Facebook group has over 40,000 members. There are conversations happening right now and 24 hours a day that you'd be incredibly interested in. So don't wait. So don't wait. Check out the bold beginning series today and get started on your journey. Episode 698 defines the ball beginning series 702, honeymooning 706 adult diagnosis 711 and 712 go over diabetes terminologies in Episode 715 We talked about fear of insulin in 719 the 1515 rule, Episode 723 long acting insulin 727 target range 731 food choices 735 Pre-Bolus 739 carbs 743 stacking 747 flexibility in Episode 751 We discussed school in Episode 755 Exercise 759 guilt, fears hope and expectations. In episode 763 of the bowl beginning series. We talk about community 772 journaling 776 technology and medical supplies. Episode 780 Treating low blood glucose episode 784 dealing with insurance 788 talking to your family and episode 805 illness and ketone management. Check it out. It will change your life

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#1040 Not Cleopatra

Elizabeth is a 36 year old type 1 who was diagnosed at 18 months old.

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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 1040 of the Juicebox Podcast

this is Elizabeth. She's had type one diabetes since she was 18 months old. And she has a number of other things like she's got it. It's interesting. I don't want to tell you, you know, I hate doing this. This is such a good story. I'm not going to tell you anything. You just you have to listen. As a matter of fact, the title of the episode will not make sense through the entire thing. You have to listen to like an outtake at the end to find out why the episodes called this and you still might not figure it out. I don't know what kind of a detective you are. Anyway, while you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. Real quick 40% off your entire order cozier.com with the offer code juice box, free year's supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first order at drink ag one.com forward slash juice box and you get 10% off when you use my link better help.com forward slash juicebox that 10% is off the first month don't forget that diabetes Pro Tip series has been remastered it goes from Episode 1000 to 1026. And there's a contour add in them and there's really something special going on in that you should check it out. If you are a loved one has been diagnosed with type one diabetes, the bold beginnings series from the Juicebox Podcast is a terrific place to begin listening. In this series Jenny Smith and I will go over the questions most often asked at the beginning of type one. Jenny is a certified diabetes care and education specialist who is also a registered and licensed dietitian and Jenny has had type one diabetes for 35 years. My name is Scott Benner and I am the father of a child who has type one diabetes. Our daughter Arden was diagnosed in 2006 at the age of two. I believe that at the core of diabetes management, understanding how insulin works, and how food and other variables impact your system is of the utmost importance. The bold beginning series will lead you down the path of understanding. This series is made up of 24 episodes, and it begins at episode 698. In your podcast, or audio player. I'll list those episodes at the end of this to listen, you can go to juicebox podcast.com. Go up to the menu at the top and choose bold beginnings. Or go into any audio app like Apple podcasts, or Spotify. And then find the episodes that correspond with the series. Those lists again are at Juicebox Podcast up in the menu or if you're in the private Facebook group. In the featured tab. The private Facebook group has over 40,000 members. There are conversations happening right now and 24 hours a day that you'd be incredibly interested in. So don't wait. So don't wait. Check out the bowl beginning series today and get started on your journey. Episode 698 defines the bowl beginning series 702, honeymooning 706 adult diagnosis 711 and 712 go over diabetes terminologies hit episode 715 We talked about fear of insulin in 719 the 1515 rule episode 723 long acting insulin 727 target range 731 food choices 735 Pre-Bolus 739 carbs 743 stacking 747 flexibility in Episode 751 We discussed school in Episode 755 Exercise 759 guilt, fears hope and expectations. In episode 763 of the bowl beginning series. We talk about community 772 journaling 776 technology and medical supplies. Episode Seven at treating low blood glucose episode 784 dealing with insurance 788 talking to your family and episode 805 illness and ketone management. Check it out. It will change your life

Elizabeth 4:36
My name is Elizabeth. I am a type one diabetic who has familial hyper cholesterol EMIA as well

Scott Benner 4:47
as start off right out of the gate. We're gonna talk about that. Trying to make me look stuff up on the internet. Hold on a second.

Elizabeth 4:55
If I can spell it for you if you'd like oh,

Scott Benner 4:58
don't let me take a shot first. Okay, okay, familial, I know, Oh, watch this. It's one word to hypercholesterolaemia or whatever.

Elizabeth 5:08
familia, strong anemia.

Scott Benner 5:11
Okay. Familial than that word you said is the genetic disorder that affects about one and 250 people and increases the likelihood of having coronary heart disease at a younger age. Oh, throwing must have been a fun day. Oh, it was great. How old are you now?

Elizabeth 5:27
I am 36. Now,

Scott Benner 5:29
when were you diagnosed with type one?

Elizabeth 5:32
When I was 18 months old.

Scott Benner 5:35
Okay. In the beginning, yep. Yep. And when what? You want to say I'm sorry?

Elizabeth 5:44
Okay. No, I just I feel super grateful that I don't know life without it. I've just always, this is life.

Scott Benner 5:53
Can you go into why that makes you feel grateful? Yes, yes.

Elizabeth 5:57
So I hear from, you know, people I know students of mine who talk about how they have this child who's eight years old and was just diagnosed, I don't know that I don't know, my world being turned upside down. It's always been this way. I've always had to pay attention to carbs. I've always had to, you know, be on a sliding scale and think, okay, my blood sugars, this one, you just take this much insulin, I just ate this many carbohydrates. So I need to take this much insulin. I was never a kid who just was able to eat and do whatever I wanted. And then all of a sudden, my world was turned upside down. And I'm super grateful for that.

Scott Benner 6:46
So this, this feeling of feeling grateful is from watching other people who got to know a life without diabetes before. Correct. Okay. And do you feel like what does it? Do you see their experience and think I'm very glad not to have that experience?

Elizabeth 7:08
Yeah. Yeah. I'm very glad to not know the before.

Scott Benner 7:15
And what if I made the argument to be like, what if you just got it this year? And you would have had 35 years without it? Would you have been okay with that? Is it because you were diagnosed as a child that you imagine that in your scenario, you would also be diagnosed as a child, but more like an eight year old or 10? year old? Yeah, yeah. So you see my point? Like, what if you got it when you were 50? Do you think you'd still say I'm, I'm, I wish I would have got it when I was 18 months old?

Elizabeth 7:39
Well, if I got it when I was 50, it'd be type two. And so it'd be

Scott Benner 7:45
No, well, I don't mean to interrupt you. But I have a countless number of adults who have gotten type one diabetes at every, like, literally every age up into like, 70 years old, like 6550 45, it could happen to anybody at anytime.

Elizabeth 8:01
Oh, that's interesting. I did not know that. Yeah.

Scott Benner 8:05
So it's, I'm glad to be the one to tell you actually, because it's, um, it's been very enlightening to, to have this conversation. So I don't I mean, I don't have the exact numbers. But there's part of me that wishes I would have made a list from one to 100 and put a checkmark next to each. And everybody's names, you know, as they came along, but ya know, I've spoken to somebody in every, you know, in every generation of their life. So anyway, but So okay, so then that's why you were having trouble answering my question, because you didn't think that was a thing?

Elizabeth 8:38
Yeah. No, I had no idea. I had no idea. My again, my like, my whole life. I've had like this thought, this thought of, oh, I'm super grateful that I got it when I was 18 months old. I hear these super sad stories about these young kids who have this great life and then all of a sudden, type one diabetes just turns everything upside down. I can't even imagine being 50 years old.

Scott Benner 9:07
And knowing a whole life about it, right? If I'm Fried, fried your mind early on in the episode, and you've kind of fried mind because it just occurred to me, you're only 36 years old, but you've had diabetes for 36 years. So you're you have like an old perspective of type one in a younger person's Yeah. Experience. It's interesting because so if you were diagnosed around the 80s Am I right about 8787? Correct. And so you were right at the time where your parents would have been given you regular an MPH Right?

Elizabeth 9:45
Exactly. You got it. That's what I grew up taking.

Scott Benner 9:49
How long how long did you do that for?

Elizabeth 9:51
Ah, how long did I like take just take shots are regular and MPA

Scott Benner 9:56
regular mph. I'm assuming you use a faster acting insulin now but how long Until, until that happened.

Elizabeth 10:02
Oh, gosh, good question. I think I started taking human log um, was it around

Scott Benner 10:13
the pump? Did you get a pump? And it happened or?

Elizabeth 10:16
No, no, I started Can you mock? Ah See, like when I was like 15? Probably. Oh, wow, okay. Yeah, I think I was late to the party.

Scott Benner 10:26
That's, that's 2002. I did that with my fingers. I added 87 and 15. Together, I got 2000. So that is later. So So was it a situation? Well, first of all, you might not know because you were a kid. But I guess let me ask this first. Were your parents managing your diabetes? Your whole life? Or was it a thing that fell to you? And if so, when?

Elizabeth 10:52
So it fell mostly to me. Yeah. So when I was young, I was primarily with my dad. But with my dad, and him actually being around are two different things.

Scott Benner 11:13
So you live at the same address? Correct? Yes.

Elizabeth 11:15
Uh huh. I had to sibling Well, now, let's be honest. I had one sibling who helped me with my diabetes, the majority of the time, and also I'll say his name, my brother, Wade. He helped me test my blood sugar. He helped me take my insulin. So my brother Wade helped me a lot. Yeah, when I was 15, I went to live with my mom. Okay. And my mom basically was like, What the hell? I know. It's, it's, we're in the 2000s. Now, we're not using this. Let's go see an endocrinologist and get with the times.

Scott Benner 12:05
Can I ask a question? Sure. Did you not have a lot of contact with your mom for the first 15 years?

Elizabeth 12:10
No, I had a lot. I say no. Dammit. Elizabeth's thought that. Yes, I did. I did. I had a good amount of contact with my mom, but she

Scott Benner 12:20
didn't feel like making input about the diabetes until you lived with her.

Elizabeth 12:24
So she tried. As far as I know. She tried to make input about the diabetes. Do you have do you have another podcast about like, putting the fun in dysfunctional? Let's talk about drama. I got Mmm hmm.

Scott Benner 12:42
Yeah. I was just trying to discern if like she, you know, kind of the way you put it made me feel like it was like something she noticed for the first time, but it was something she had sway over for the first time. Correct. Gotcha. Yes. And then I have one last difficult question.

Elizabeth 12:58
Oh, I? Oh, yeah.

Scott Benner 12:59
Are you okay with

Elizabeth 13:00
that? Nothing's nothing's that difficult before it.

Scott Benner 13:03
How do you end up with your dad having custody? In the in that time? Like? Yeah, what? Right? Yeah. Like, my point is a lady has to try not to get custody of their kids. So how did that happen?

Elizabeth 13:20
Yeah, I right.

Scott Benner 13:24
Okay, you're sure you don't want to say it doesn't matter to me. But is there?

Elizabeth 13:28
No, yeah. So honestly, I truly believe I truly believe that, that my dad like paid people off and like that, oh.

Scott Benner 13:42
That's not what I expected you to say. But okay. You because like his you. It's interesting, like you suggest you suggest that your dad's not around very much that you're kind of raising yourself along with your siblings. But yet somebody thought he was the better choice for you to live with that. That's the part that confused me.

Elizabeth 14:00
Yeah, yeah, I know. I know. So, when I was older, I, I got the court documentation. My mom gave it to me. Um, so I was able to read through it. And it still to this day, it does not make sense to me. How he got custody of me. It doesn't. Okay, I've read through so much. And I'm like, what, how did this happen are to

Scott Benner 14:31
figure out okay, well, we're not going to understand that that's fine. So it's okay, so I'm sorry, I waylaid but you're 15 you're with your mom now. And she's like, Hey, this is this is not how people do this. Let's make a change. What and then what did you do? What was that change that happened?

Elizabeth 14:47
I started taking human log. And I was I was still taking NPH but I started taking something called What was it called? Love. When Wente um, it was just a night. Le en te I'm pretty sure that's how

Scott Benner 15:09
it was spelled. That's how people say it when I hear them say it to lenti. Yeah. How is it supposed to be said? No, I think that's right. I think you got it. Yeah. Yeah.

Elizabeth 15:19
So I, I did that I can, you know, took that those insulins until I was see, when did I start pump therapy? Well, it was the same year that my mom died. So it was 2006 2006 is when I started pomp therapy.

Scott Benner 15:47
Holy. It was with you were only with your mom for years before she passed away. Yeah. Oh, my God. You in here? Are you trying to bum me out? No. So how, Oh, God. So you're 19 your mom passes? Unexpectedly or expectedly? Well,

Elizabeth 16:08
I was I was 21. Okay, sorry. I'm barely 20 when she passed away, yeah. Sorry. What was your question?

Scott Benner 16:17
Was it expected or unexpected?

Elizabeth 16:20
Um, a little bit of both. So she died from cirrhosis of the liver. She, as far as we knew, had been sober for two years. And at some point, she secretly began drinking again. Gosh, you know, alcoholics, they, they hide it very well. And so yeah, that day. My lived 10 minutes for my mom left me a voicemail. She had come down and put a post it note on my front door. And she wanted my husband at the time and I to come up and have dinner with her. And so I you know, I returned her call. I'm calling her back. I'm calling the house. I'm calling the camp phone. She was she was the like, groundskeeper at a kid's camp. Actually a kid's camp when I went to diabetes camp as a kid. Dude, I just knew. I knew. I'm like,

Scott Benner 17:33
okay, when she didn't answer the phone. You thought something was wrong? Yeah,

Elizabeth 17:37
I'm like, She's not answering the house phone. She's not answering the camp phone. I could have taken a 10 minute drive, but I just knew what I was going to find. So anyway, my stepdad went home. And I get a call from my little sister's dad. And I didn't get calls from him. So I answered the phone. He's like, Hey, I'm like, hey, my mom's dead, isn't she? And he was like, Yeah, she is. So I mean, like, right away. I knew that she she had begun drinking and my mom and I were really close. She was my best friend. So it it all came out. That she was like by the pool. There were there were no kids there for camp. And so yeah, she was she was like, come up have dinner. Let's go swimming. You know, Camp doesn't start for a few days or something like that. Yeah, there was a there was a cocktail. Right next to her. And she was lying by the side of the pool.

Scott Benner 18:46
I'm sorry. Do Do you have any impacts from her drinking in on your life? I do you have like, are you? Are you a drinker? Or do you like, like, stay away from it on purpose? Or can you can you connect any of that stuff?

Elizabeth 19:03
Oh, absolutely. So for say like, three years after she died? I would not. I just wouldn't touch it would not touch this stuff. I party in high school. And like, I thought my mom was so cool. You know, like my mom would like, buy us alcohol like oh my gosh, my mom so cool. And then after the fact, I was like, No, Your Mom's an alcoholic. And yeah, I there's been times in my life where I've thought

Scott Benner 19:47
Do you have a problem? What made you what made you question yourself?

Elizabeth 19:54
It's it's the amount that I It was drinking in in one day. It just in that particular day, okay. Yeah, yeah. But then, like the day before that and the day after. I was like, not at all. Drinking. Yeah. So yeah, I've always in the back of my head. I've just been like concerned about that.

Scott Benner 20:31
No, I would I would understand. You are at a point your life you don't assume you don't think you have trouble like a problem with alcoholic? Your mom did? Right? Nope. Okay. Okay. How did drinking at an earlier age in school impact your diabetes? Or did it not? Because you were just because of the management style?

Elizabeth 20:51
Yeah. I didn't really manage my diabetes. Like for a long time? I didn't. I know, I didn't pay attention to it. I didn't care about it.

Scott Benner 21:09
Nobody was tracking it. Now, like from a parental aspect.

Elizabeth 21:15
Not real. Yeah. Yeah. My mom was Yeah. Like, you know, back in the day, you've got this logbook. And yeah, you write down what your blood sugar was, you know, every, you know, like, bolusing has been around for ever. And, but, but me personally, I didn't. Okay, you remember how I said that? My mom was my best friend. Yeah. My mom was more my friend than my parent. Okay. So, so now when I went to live with my mom, I really didn't have a whole lot of like, parental. I didn't have parental guidance anywhere.

Scott Benner 22:12
Yeah, I'm getting that okay. So and you have a doctor that was helping you or was there were you just kind of on your own and you and not caring about it?

Elizabeth 22:22
So when I I did I had this doctor who gave me the heebie jeebies. This doctor freaked me out. But, but my dad was just always like, he's the best. He's the best. He's the best pediatric. Okay, fine. And so I saw him or, I mean, years from he's not the doctor who diagnosed me. But I saw him. Yeah, for years. Like, even when I went to live with my mom, I continue to see him. You my a one C's were. Hi. Okay. My my whole life. Right. And until I like, took it seriously, and we can, you know, we'll probably get to that. But yeah, I'm a Rambler. You're off track

Scott Benner 23:21
doing fine. I have a question. I have a question though. Your agencies were high. What does that mean? Can you put a number to it? Were they being tested? Or you just assume they were I?

Elizabeth 23:31
Oh, no, they were being tested because I was going and seeing this this endocrinologist who gave me the heebie jeebies my whole life, but was the best so I continued to see him. He was like, what, like, smack my butt because he would be like, you know, you can you can give you can give shots right here in the you know, in the tushy. And he would like grab my butt. And like, say, like, you can right here, like in the tissue. Oh, are

Scott Benner 24:00
you in that I was happening?

Elizabeth 24:02
I was my whole life. He did that my whole life. Um, I'm like, this just creeps me out. Y'all want me to freak out your dad

Scott Benner 24:12
in the room when that was happening? Yeah. Yeah. No one never said. Don't slap my daughter on the butt. No,

Elizabeth 24:20
no, no, never. No, he's the best we keep going to him. He's the best. He's the best. One Okay, maximum pinches my butt. Anyway, okay, so I'm like in the teens, man.

Scott Benner 24:38
Like when you were you were older and younger. And you're a once he was in the teens the whole time?

Elizabeth 24:43
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, it was bad. No kidding. It was bad. It's real bad. Which is Which again, is why I'm like, why does this guy have custody of me?

Scott Benner 25:00
Yeah, well yeah, it's possibly just pimping you out to the doctor is very strange thing is really bizarre. You Yeah, you are a half an hour into this. And if you told me right now I'm making all this up. I'd be like, Oh, that makes me feel better. No. I'm not okay. I'm not horrible. I mean really hard to put into words. And, and, and then when you're you're actually on your own when your mom passes you were married at 20 Ah, okay, so, Elizabeth. Okay, go ahead.

Elizabeth 25:35
Hi. Um, I was married

Scott Benner 25:38
twice. By the time you were 20.

Elizabeth 25:41
That was my second marriage.

Scott Benner 25:44
How old were you when you got married the first time? 18 How long did that last? I guess I should ask. No longer long months. Now. Can we measure it months or a year? Second one didn't last long. I don't know. I don't imagine. No. Why were you marrying guys?

Elizabeth 26:00
So? You know?

Scott Benner 26:03
I mean, I do know, but I'm waiting to hear if you know, yeah. Yeah, no,

Elizabeth 26:06
I know. I know. Now. Yeah. I know. Now. I wanted a man to love me.

Scott Benner 26:17
No kidding. That's, I'm sorry. You found yourself in that situation? Yeah, it's suck. When did you figure out not to do that? How old were you? Are you gonna say 37? And you're 36? Right?

Elizabeth 26:32
No, no. Okay. Because my husband now and I have been married for almost two years. Oh, good for you. Yeah, finally,

Scott Benner 26:42
is your seventh husband? No, sir. I'm just using her

Elizabeth 26:46
time's a charm.

Scott Benner 26:48
I was just teasing you. So you were married at 18? Married at 20. And then not married again? Till 34? Correct. Did you feel unloved in between those times?

Elizabeth 27:00
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I thought I was just like, the defective. I thought like, I'm never gonna find someone. I can't. I can't do this relationship thing. Like, I'm just I'm not. Yeah, I just was like, No, it's never gonna happen. I'm just going to be, I'm just going to be single forever.

Scott Benner 27:27
But that leave. Was there a hole there? Like, I'm assuming you felt? I mean, I'm assuming you felt abandoned by your mom's death. And by your dad's lack of desire to be valuable to you. So do you feel like do you feel like that hold that entire time? Or do you find other ways to to make that go away?

Elizabeth 27:51
So I filled that hole with music. Really?

Scott Benner 27:56
No kidding. How so? Playing it listening to it?

Elizabeth 27:59
listening, listening? Yeah, I have a guitar, but I need to play it more. I I'm not great at it. My actually my husband got me it for Christmas last year. Yeah, I shouldn't play it more. If you ever

Scott Benner 28:17
try a therapist or talking to someone outside of your life?

Elizabeth 28:20
Yeah. Yeah. I've gone through a lot of therapy actually. Actually, my mom, like when I went live with my mom, she had, like this checklist of things. Because she like knew that I had not been taken care of. Like, went to the podiatrist, we went to the ophthalmologist, we got me in therapy. So yeah, she had this whole entire list. But she did it in little bits. Because she didn't want to overwhelm me. She just knew that I had not been taken care of. So she she did what she could in the little amount that that she had to try to

Scott Benner 29:13
you getting into a better situation. Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like she was dealing with her own stuff, too. So yes, that's difficult. Do you have any kids? By any chance?

Elizabeth 29:24
I do. Yeah. I have a 12 year old child, Addison. And the reason I say child is Addison is non binary. And I'm like, we're pretty open about it.

Scott Benner 29:44
Did you did you have did you have Addison with your second marriage? After that, all right. I gotcha. Yeah. Oh, Elizabeth, you were you were a party there for a while, huh?

Elizabeth 30:00
Actually, you know why? In high school, there were two lenses and we we were really good friends. And my nickname was Liz party. Actually.

Scott Benner 30:16
I was trying to be jovial but I didn't know I would hit on it on a fact. Sorry. No.

Elizabeth 30:23
Yeah, I just I was searching. I was searching for just I just wanted to be loved. And I was searching for it. And finally, when went, you know, in my 30s Finally, I found it. Yeah. No, I was. I was not married to Addison's biological father. Thank God, because He is just a POS.

Scott Benner 30:51
Do you find that you were? I mean, I guess this is probably just something people say at this point. But I want to see if it was true for you think did you look for men that inevitably were going to hurt you? not intentional. I don't imagine it was intentional. But do you think it was? Do you think it was happening? Oh, yeah.

Elizabeth 31:11
Oh, absolutely.

Scott Benner 31:13
Okay. How do you break that cycle?

Elizabeth 31:17
I didn't. I didn't break that cycle. I met my husband. And he was just so freakin sweet. And good to me. Yes, he broke the cycle. You got lucky. Yeah, I did. I got really

Scott Benner 31:39
lucky. Let me ask you. Like, think of the I don't know the guy before your husband is still still a bad like still not good for you? Yeah, yeah. So you really did trip on this guy by mistake? Yeah. Uh huh. How did that happen? How did that happen? Did you change the people you were hanging out with? Did you find yourself somewhere? You usually weren't? Do you know? Can you think back to how you met him?

Elizabeth 32:01
Oh, yeah, I know how we met. It's, it's very interesting. So myself and three other ladies. We created the singles group on Facebook, okay, years ago. And each of us eventually left it. But the way that it would work is when when you would leave, you would pass your baton, you would pass your administrator baton to someone that you thought could continue to run it well. And so I rejoined it years later, and I was super happy to see it, like still going strong. And I wasn't looking for anything really. I just was, like, bored. And that's that's where we met was in this Facebook singles group that myself and three other women had created years ago, it was still going strong. And that's, yeah, that's, that's where we met.

Scott Benner 33:12
before. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. That's a lovely thing. Was you did make it for yourself. Really. You made the group and you have found some more conquers. But then you found your husband, and now you're happy? Yeah, good for you. Yeah. And you're young, too. Because it's a long story. And it feels like like, I mean, honestly, if you told me this story, and then told me you were 55 I'd be like, Oh, this makes sense. Like, you don't I mean, like, a lot tap in here, right? It could fill a full life, but you're not really. I mean, you're not really started yet. You know, it's hard to think of when you're 36 I'm sure you're like, you know, I'm old. Trust me. But, but you're not here. You know, I mean, you're not you have a lot of life left. You met somebody you've got a child, you know, I'm assuming you love and and I guess see, there we go. They have a child you love. And you have a lot of time left with them with a new family and you'll be young when your your child moves on down to college as well or into the world wherever they end up. I mean, that's only six years from now. You'll only be 42. When that happens. You get the chance, you know, it's really cool. That's really cool. Yeah, it really is. Do you feel that? Do you feel like there's been a big shift in your life?

Elizabeth 34:27
Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

Scott Benner 34:29
Do you wonder Do you ever wonder who you'd be if you didn't get saddled with I don't want to speak ill of your parents. But I mean, I don't see how I couldn't like if you didn't get if you didn't get saddled with two people who were the on that level parenting. Do you ever wonder what would have happened to you?

Elizabeth 34:46
Oh my gosh. I don't. I don't because with without all of it without all of the Bad. I would not be who I am. Oh,

Scott Benner 35:05
that's a really great answer. You are happy with who you are.

Elizabeth 35:08
I am good. Yes. Very, very good. All right. So

Scott Benner 35:11
when did you figure out to take care of your diabetes?

Elizabeth 35:15
When I found out that I was going to be a parent? Oh, the

Scott Benner 35:18
old pregnant thing made you do? Yeah. Huh. Pregnancy made me do it.

Elizabeth 35:23
Exactly. Yep. I was 23. And I was like, Okay. Well, we have got to make some serious changes. No, no more of this party and crap. We need to get it together, dude. So yeah, I see you taking it seriously. Yeah,

Scott Benner 35:44
you shut down the party and you paid attention to your diabetes as well. The party I'm sorry, was the party drinking? Or was it drugs to

Elizabeth 35:53
drinking and marijuana? And then

Scott Benner 35:57
the diabetes thing though, you're 23 You've had diabetes your whole life that you're not managing in any way. So how do you begin to learn what to do? Like, did you always know when you just weren't doing it? Or did you have to learn from scratch?

Elizabeth 36:10
Yeah, no, I always knew and I just wasn't doing it. Okay.

Scott Benner 36:14
Can I ask what you thought was gonna happen? When you weren't when you weren't taking care of yourself? Did you just think it was gonna magically be okay, or did you think it'll be bad, but that's in the future?

Elizabeth 36:24
I didn't. I didn't care. I just was like, Addison. gave me something to live for. I understand. I was just surviving.

Scott Benner 36:41
Yeah. No, I understand. Well, that's lovely. Do you ever. I mean, Addison is a little young for you to put that on. Do you think you'll ever share that with them at some point or have you?

Elizabeth 36:54
I'm Addison and I have a pretty honest relationship. So, I mean, I haven't said those words. To Addison.

Scott Benner 37:04
Maybe it's an adult, you know, like, once it's not a burden. And that it doesn't feel like a responsibility. It might be nice to it might be nice to know that as an adult. Like, yeah, I don't mean. Yeah. I mean, I can see why you wouldn't say now, but, yeah, 10 years from now, something like that. Might be a nice thing to know. Anyway, it's up to you, obviously. But, but So okay, so baby's coming. I gotta do something. You just start taking your insulin the way you're supposed to. I mean, are you supposed to be carb counting by then? 2000. Right. You shouldn't be right. Yeah, you're not right. You're still doing the regular mph since you're 15. So so what were you doing just shooting your basil and not bolusing for meals? Or how were you handling food before you've pulled it together?

Elizabeth 37:53
Yeah, so yeah, I would you know, Bolus, and then I would I, basil, and then I'd Bolus when my blood sugar got high. Okay, I'd be like, Oh, my blood sugar is high. I'm gonna take insulin to bring this down and

Scott Benner 38:12
you're high because you feel high or you're high because you're testing and you know, you're high.

Elizabeth 38:17
I would feel high and then I would test and confirm that I was high and take the proper amount of insulin for it. And when we I ran a high alarm

Scott Benner 38:25
when we say high high enough for you to go okay, I guess I'll give myself some insulin 300 Yeah,

Elizabeth 38:31
three, yeah, three hundreds. Yeah.

Scott Benner 38:33
So you started feeling sluggish and nauseous or however it made you feel and that made you think alright, I'll pay attention to this. So then how do you I mean, I assume that you go to an OB I'm assuming the OB gives you the big talk right? You have type one diabetes, this baby's not going to come to term if you don't like you probably got the full court press from them right? No, because anyone tried to help you

Elizabeth 38:58
know, they don't disguise the OB I went to which this is something I regret. I wish I had done more research and chosen a better OB. The OB I went to I was his first high risk patient.

Scott Benner 39:15
Well, listen, your bar is set pretty low. If he doesn't grab your ass. You're pretty much like this guy's All right.

Elizabeth 39:20
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, I mean, he's not he's not been to my but

Scott Benner 39:26
yeah, look, I've really upgraded I don't even mean that. I mean, obviously that's horrible. I'm not laughing. I'm laughing if you're that you're finding yourself in these situations, you know? But yeah, I get but but serious. Being serious. Like you. You had a fairly low bar. Like it might not have been a conscious thought. But I'll tell you what, when you go in there and you don't get manhandled, I bet you're like this is better. Yeah, you know, yeah. Sad, but I bet you it was true. So yeah. So you get a doctor who's never handled a high risk pregnancy before. Yeah. And so you're on your own to figure this out. So how do I how am I? How do you figure it out?

Elizabeth 40:04
A lot, a lot of reading, you know, a lot on the internet and a lot of just remembering what I already knew. I knew it. I knew how to do this. I just had to put it into practice.

Scott Benner 40:20
That's great. And you got it done a healthy pregnancy.

Elizabeth 40:24
Yes, Addison is, is very healthy. Actually, this kind of leads into the familial hypercholesterolemia. There are a couple of genes that I have passed on to Addison. We've done genetic testing to find this out. I have passed down this gene. And they also have this familial hypercholesterolemia. It comes from my dad's side, it came from my grandma, to my dad, for my dad to myself, and then three more of his children. There's one of his children that does not have this did not get the gene. Also, another gene that I didn't even know I had until last week actually causes basically epilepsy. Addison was diagnosed with epilepsy last January. So, so Addison is, you know, has their own struggles, epilepsy and familial hypercholesterolemia.

Scott Benner 41:39
I swear to God, what a word hypercholesterolemia. What what are the impacts of that on your seriously gluten, you have even gotten like a, like an easy to pronounce thing. But what's the implication take a medication to have to eat a certain way? Like what what's the management of it? Like?

Elizabeth 41:57
Right, right? Yeah. So I have been taking statins since I was 11. Statins are the kind of that's what they've used for years to lower cholesterol. And then I began taking something called Ezetimibe. That's the generic the brand name was called Zebadiah. Like a year and a half ago. And then last year, I'm going to ask my husband, was it last year, I tried to start taking Repatha? Was it here in Colorado? Or was it in Utah? Okay. Last year, I started taking Repatha. Okay, it's it's injectable, is it's called a K nine inhibitor. Okay. And the canine is a well, P canine, I think is what it's called, actually, that is what my gene, this gene that's mutated, is not stopping. And so this PKI inhibitor that I inject that was a game changer, no kidding.

Scott Benner 43:11
It impacted your your cholesterol, the way you were hoping.

Elizabeth 43:15
Oh, my gosh, so much about that so much. Yeah.

Scott Benner 43:19
So this is like, is this like a monoclonal antibody kind of a situation? What is this? I tried to figure it out. And because listen, I mean, was I don't want to be a bummer, right. But you didn't manage your diabetes for 20 years, and you have a thing that gives people heart attacks before they're 50. That's a bad combination.

Elizabeth 43:38
It's a very bad combination. Yeah,

Scott Benner 43:40
yes. So this is exciting for you to find something that works.

Elizabeth 43:46
Yes. Yeah. It was so exciting. When I went and got a lipid panel done after taking Repatha. And my LDL cholesterol was 48. I was shocked and delighted. People without FH. That's what that's easier than whatever. Familial Hypercholesterolemia just FH. People without this. They don't even have LDL cholesterol of 48. Wow. I was like, Oh my gosh,

Scott Benner 44:26
this is amazing. Listen, a little googling. Repatha is A human monoclonal antibody against the PC, SK nine protein as potent cholesterol lowering therapy. I'm just impressed that I knew it was a monoclonal antibody. Yeah. I'm learning stuff while I make the podcast. Very cool. I'm hoping everyone else's too, but well, so that's super exciting. And is is Addison using it as well.

Elizabeth 44:54
No, Madison, right. Yeah. Addison is taking us statin and Is that am I not taking any injectable? Right now Addison's terrified of needles and yeah, only 12. Oh, but you

Scott Benner 45:09
would prefer using the injectable, but it's the needle phobia that's stopping you.

Elizabeth 45:16
It's the so Addison's just not old enough for it. Yeah.

Scott Benner 45:19
Do you think that eventually?

Elizabeth 45:22
Oh, for sure. Yeah. I really don't care that much that, like you're afraid of needles? No, I'm going to inject you with this. To your heart.

Scott Benner 45:35
Do you have? Have you ever had Addison checked for type one? diabetes markers?

Elizabeth 45:42
Yes. Anywhere? There are? Oh,

Scott Benner 45:45
that's good news. I'm glad. Yeah, me too. That's great. I'll tell you what another thing I'm proud of is I have been talking around using a pronoun for the last 10 minutes. I'm doing an amazing job at it. You're doing great. It's really, it's a muscle like you have to work it a little bit. But I really did. I can find my path through the sentence without it being choppy or awkward. Or, like, you have to listen back if you want proof of it. But yeah, like because I don't know what the right thing to do. And instead of confusing myself by like fumbling over the right thing to do. I'm finding a way to talk without the without he him she her. Yeah, and I'm doing it. Oh, that's all. How, how was that for you? Like, when does that as they come to you and say, I'm non binary?

Elizabeth 46:33
Well, Adam, actually Addison came out to my husband first. Okay. My husband and Addison have a really awesome relationship. Um, yeah, that's, that was like number one for me. My kid has to like you, if my kid doesn't like you get out. Yeah. They sent Brad like a meme saying that they were a lesbian at first. Okay. And it's it's changed a couple times. But Addison has finally found their identity. And I have told Addison, before they could even understand what it meant. That, who ever they were, whoever they loved, as long as Addison, and whoever they were with. treated each other. Well, yeah. I, I loved him.

Scott Benner 47:32
Well, I just had to imagine. Yeah, I just had to imagine after the upbringing, you had in your experience, you're going to be the last person to judge somebody? Uh, huh. Yeah, exactly. That just seemed obvious to me. Okay, so I want to make sure that we've talked about everything that you want to because I have kind of a heart out at one hour today, and I apologize. I have a meeting coming up from my mom's health, I have to get on a phone call. So I let me just ask you like, is there anything we haven't talked about that you wanted to?

Elizabeth 48:03
Well, last thing is my my dad. I'll make this quick.

Scott Benner 48:09
Don't make it quick. But just I just want to make sure we're moving in the direction of wrapping up. That's

Elizabeth 48:14
all got it. Got it. Yeah. My dad. When I was a kid, I remember seeing my dad with these big scars up his arms, up the back of his legs up on his chest. He had a quadruple bypass surgery. He had two heart attacks that I know of. He passed away. Let's see. Seven. No, I was 24. But four years after my mom passed away, and he died of a heart attack. And like, I had already started managing my diabetes. And I was like, That is not going to be me. I am not going to be a statistic. This is not going to get me. And so I started talking to my cardiologist about like, Okay, this thing has haunted and taken members of my family for decades. Yeah. What I want to know, I want to know the root. I want to know where it comes from. Yeah. And so when this genetic testing started, he was like, hey, I want to I want to talk to you about something. And I was like, Heck yeah, let's do that for you. It seems, and that is how we found out this little tiny gene that chills on the end of the liver is what has caused this

Scott Benner 50:00
and it got your dad the FH got your father? Yes, yeah. Wow, look at you, you you, I have to say, in a number of ways, you know, people always talked about like breaking a cycle, but in a number of different ways you've accomplished that with very little help from other people. It's very cool. Now it's very, very cool. A lot of people would have given up, you know, like, honestly, Yeah, I bet you did. You know, What stopped you from giving up,

Elizabeth 50:30
seeing my mom not give up.

Scott Benner 50:33
Just want light. Because you know, your notes. It's funny. Your story is not captured in the notes that you sent me. But oh, yeah. Yeah, but but which is fine. But my wife asked me last night. She's like, Who are you interviewing tomorrow? I said, a woman named Elizabeth. She said, what does she want to talk about? And I opened up your note, and I thought, and I read it. And I said, I think she just wants to tell me, she's a survivor. And that's what I took from what you wrote, like I not that you said that. Now I understand. But when I read what you wrote, I thought, this is a person who's been through a lot. I'm going to learn about what they've been through. And I think they want to leave me with the idea that they that they fought, fought a big foe, and they won. And that's all I said, so does that resonate with you at all? Or was that just

Elizabeth 51:18
Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I agree. Yeah.

Scott Benner 51:23
I mean, it's hard not to after hearing the story, honestly. I mean, jeez, you could have like, I mean, there had to have been a moment you just you must have gone to a bathroom once inside the door and been like, what is happening?

Elizabeth 51:35
Yeah, yeah, pretty much. What did I do

Scott Benner 51:39
holy? Is no one gonna step up. Like, I'm gonna do this myself, I guess. Like, oh, my God. I mean, you're like really? Like because of your, like you said earlier? Like, you feel like you're a little all over the place. Do you have ADHD? Are you just a little all over the place? I'm a little all over the place. Fine. It's not a big deal, by the way, but because that's your style of talking. Your your story comes out in like chunks. And, and in, like, some people's stories come out very smoothly. And they almost feel like, I don't know, like you're spreading warm butter. You know, but but yours came out more like the butter was out of the refrigerator. And we were having to get it soft to put it on, which is fine. Like, which is absolutely fine. But because of that it sticks in my head. Now an hour later in chunks like, My my, my parents split up, I ended up with my dad, which right away made me think something's wrong. Like moms don't lose their kids like that. You know? And then you're like, I don't really know why we're not together, which then told me you're not judging your mom's situation. And then you because it would be easy to say I wasn't with my mom because she was an alcoholic. And that's how my dad was able to get me get but you didn't see it that way. And then you start telling her story, but you tell her story without judging her. And then she dies. And I'm like, Holy hell, like I already thought you had enough. Like I thought, Alright, she'll grow up with an alcoholic mom. That'll be tough. No, no, mom's dead. Mom's not just dead. I'm married already. I'm not just married. I'm married for a second time already. And as you kept laying it on, I was like, where's the part where she walks into traffic or tries heroin, Blake like, and yet that part never came up in the story. You just kept going. And then you get pregnant, and you're like, god dammit, I'm gonna fix this. And then you did. It's insane. And I'm just saying Good for you. I'm at a loss for words for what to say. Like, they should put a statue of you up in front of something. Seriously, no, like, like, I'm from Philly, they should take that rocky statue down and put one of you up there. Like this is just like you have more than your fair share. And now I'm really left as I go back over it again. Wanting to say again, how cool it is that you're only 36 Like it feels to me, Elizabeth, I've interviewed really older, like people who are older, like I told you 60s 70s I think I interviewed a woman or under 100th birthday once. And but, but one thing I want to share with you. And then I'll let you say whatever you want to say before we go but I want to share this thing with you. I've learned a thing I think is going to help you. When you talk to people in their 60s. And they refer back to times in their life. It feels like they're talking about someone else. Or like they've had three lives. And so right now this probably all feels still very like, part of like your current story, but there'll be a day where you'll sit down and tell somebody you know, I got married when I was 18 and when I was 20. And it will seem like it was someone else. And it won't be a part of your current narrative. It'll just be like what made you you but it won't but it won't be this fresh. Not that you've seen burdened by it because you by the way, oddly, Elizabeth do not seem burdened by any of this. I'm assuming you're smoking a lot of weed. But but uh But if you live in Colorado, I heard that part I was like, there's definitely like a mighty x in Elizabeth's house is what I was thinking. Or a vaporizer of any kind. I didn't mean to just pick one. So, um, but, but I mean, I really think I found myself thinking that so many times while like, a 65 year old woman tells me a story of she lived an entire life with a man, like, like a 20 year life, they raise children. And then he passed, and she met someone else, and lived an entire another life. Like, it's just, that's gonna happen to you one day, like, you're gonna look back on that and not, it's not going to feel the way it feels now. And I'm excited, like, I will be dead by then Elizabeth, because I'm much older than you. If by some chance I have a podcast 20 years from now, I want you to find me because I'll interview you. For sure. Sirius okay, really? What a wonderful story. Do you have anything you want to end with?

Elizabeth 55:59
So last thing, the reason that my dad was so set on me being there is I was literally money in the bank. He went on medical retirement. And so he got a Social Security check for himself a spouse. Have you had one? And any child under the age of 18?

Scott Benner 56:19
Oh, touching it back. Exactly. Yeah.

Elizabeth 56:23
So I I think that's, I feel that's a big reason why he fought so hard for me to live there. Literally. Money in the Bank.

Scott Benner 56:33
Yeah. Well, listen, he joke's on him because he ends up giving you the best gift of all by dying.

Elizabeth 56:38
Yes, yeah. Yes. Yeah. You very much.

Scott Benner 56:41
You looked at that situation? You thought I gotta get out of this. Yeah. And if he lives on forever, you don't get pressured like that about your heart? Yeah. Wow. Um, I mean, listen, it sounds callous. But you know, it just it just kind of is what it is. And you don't see like the person who cares. Don't I have one last question out of left field? Maybe a little but do you have any? I mean, you're married. Right? Your husband walks through the kitchen slaps you on the butt? Does it make you feel weird? No, not at all. You're okay. Yeah. Yep. That's all I was just wondering. Like not by the way, if I had for $50, and you made me bet on the answer to that question. I would have said Elizabeth okay with us. But I was just wondering if it was something that lingered with you? No, not the worst thing that's ever happened to you. So it didn't really stick with you? No, it's not. Yeah.

Elizabeth 57:34
It's just a weird thing that doctors so frickin weird.

Scott Benner 57:39
There's, there's, there's another odd thing you'd never say your life was so messed up that a Hanzi doctor as a child, you're like, no big deal. I can handle that. Whatever. Yeah, we're gonna just have to let that go. Because I got bigger problems. Hopefully, Elizabeth, you somehow have my favorite interview I've done in like a month. Like, you know, really, really, really wonderful. Oh, my God. All right. Well, I wish I spoke to eat because I could ask you if there's little vaporizers are really the way to go. But I would have no context for it. So I'm just gonna say goodbye and ask you to hold on for a second. Okay. All right.

Hey, a big thank you to Elizabeth for coming on the show and sharing that story with us really incredible. That's pretty much it. There's no ads. But there's a little bit at the end here with me and Elizabeth that will explain. Sorry, I needed a drink. That will explain the title. I think we'll see what happens. We'll see if you get it. Don't forget the diabetes Pro Tip series has been remastered or runs between Episode 1001 1026. And there's a very special offer in one of the ads that you'll find within the series. You should check it out. Don't forget to check out the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, there are now over 42,000 active members. And there's a conversation happening right now that I guarantee you would enjoy. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. You introduce yourself keep it kind of brief and then we'll start talking. Alright. Excuse me. I apologize. I'm gonna turn my head alright. In fairness to me, you burped in my ear before your microphone came on. Oh, where there was a really weird sound that happened. One of the other I was like,

Elizabeth 59:39
I may have Cough. Cough. I'm sorry.

Scott Benner 59:44
Sorry. It was hilarious because it can't because here's what happened before we start recording. It came on. And I have I mean I've done this close to 1000 times. This is the first time I've thought this one could be like someone Fine with me. Because your name is Elizabeth. Oh, so I thought maybe, maybe this is going to be the time you know. And so I started the recording right away because I was like, well, if somebody definitely want to record it, and so, um, so I can let people hear it. And then the the audio comes up and I hear and I'm like that said, this is the time like someone's gonna belch for an hour into the microphone, under the guise of them being Liz Taylor and I'm like, I'm in I'm up for this. Like, I'm gonna sit here for an hour and let them do it, you know? Oh my gosh, so that when you said hello, I was almost disappointed. Oh, it was almost like it's a real person. Damn it. Anyway, sorry, no

Elizabeth 1:00:49
person anyway, I don't have purple eyes. And I do have a bunch of diamonds either. I'm really gonna burst your bubble.

Scott Benner 1:00:58
Okay, go ahead, introduce yourself.

Elizabeth 1:01:01
Okay, so yeah.

Scott Benner 1:01:05
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#1039 Since 1967

Sheila is 61 years old and was diagnosed with Type 1 at age 5 - in 1967.

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

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 1039 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Today on the podcast I'll be speaking with Sheila. She's had type one diabetes since 1967. She has lived a full life had children been married, and been through quite a lot. This episode will discuss some of the things that Sheila has traversed. 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. We're becoming bold with insulin, save 40% off of towels, sheets, hoodies, all kinds of clothing PJ's everything that they have at cozy earth.com. And to save that 40% All you have to do is use the offer code juice box at checkout. You can get a free year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first order at drink ag one.com forward slash to Xbox. And last but not least, the diabetes Pro Tip series has been remastered it runs between Episode 1001 1026 In your players, and there's a special offer in the contour next gen Ed's if you haven't heard it, you really should go find it. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by us med us med.com forward slash juice box or call 888721151 for us med is where Arden gets her Dexcom and Omni pod supplies from and they have much more US med.com forward slash juice box, head over now get your free benefits check and get started with us med us med.com forward slash juice box.

Sheila 2:02
My name is Sheila and I have had type one diabetes since 1967.

Scott Benner 2:11
Sheila, you almost made me curse right away.

Sheila 2:16
Well, I know you've had other people on that have had it as long as I have. But you know, initially that was my goal. And coming on here. I wanted to basically, you know for newer people say you can do it. You can live a great life.

Scott Benner 2:32
Have you lived a great life? I have. How do you measure that,

Sheila 2:37
you know, had a wonderful childhood and did anything the other kids did and went to college and had a great career in software. Married a wonderful man had two absolutely wonderful children. And yeah, it's a great life.

Scott Benner 2:59
That sounds good. Two minutes for sure. What is the biggest difference between having diabetes now and having it 56 years ago? And how old are you? I'm sorry to task.

Sheila 3:09
I am 6161. So

Scott Benner 3:10
you got diabetes when you're five about? What's What's the biggest shift from the earliest you can remember to now

Sheila 3:19
Oh, it's completely different. I mean, when when I was diagnosed, I know they they told my parents, you know, I had a very specific diet. And I remember you know, getting the exact same breakfast and the exact same lunch and just measuring very, very carefully. And now you know I can eat almost whatever I want.

Scott Benner 3:50
Oh, what do you have the toughest time Bolus thing for?

Sheila 3:53
Oh, I mean, I love bread I do. But it can be tough. And you know, I'll try to go with like whole grains. I mean, those are easier. But if there's an occasion and as you know white bread, that can be challenging.

Scott Benner 4:10
White bread. Any white bread? Have you ever tried making sure it doesn't have high fructose corn syrup in it?

Sheila 4:16
I have not baked any although I know. I know. I asked for your recipe for pizza. No, I haven't made my own bread, but I have found a brand that you know works very well and that's what we buy.

Scott Benner 4:29
Good. I want to say I don't have a recipe for pizza as much as I use someone's and I'll give them a plug here. Because let me find it for you. It's interesting. It's called. I use a recipe that I found on YouTube by a company called Statler made and they also have a website. It's Staedtler made.com and I make a Neapolitan pizza out of that I usually use their cold fermented recipe and I let My dos said a few days before we use it, and huge shout out to them. It's a it's a great, it's a great easy recipe and then the website puts together you just tell it how many pizzas you want how big you want the balls to be, and it gives you the gives you the breakdown. So Wow, very nice. And it hits easy. That I mean, that was not on purpose. By the way. It's not like I looked at their website and it said, Hey, if you use insulin, our pizza crust recipe might be easy for you. It's just the, I think, between like a thin crust pizza, right? Without a ton of anything in it. I mean, if I'm thinking correctly, that pizza dough has flour, sea salt, yeast, water, that's all it said. And then you know, the way you dress the pizza up really ends up being, you know, the big part of it. So if it's not, you know, cheese isn't dripping everywhere. And if it doesn't make a whole link of sausage on every slice, that kind of stuff. It's it's not too bad to Bolus for. But back then. I mean, I think obviously you were were you boiling needles.

Sheila 6:02
Yes, man.

Scott Benner 6:04
Are you really paying every day to test your blood sugar? Yeah. How long do you think you did that for?

Sheila 6:12
I don't remember. It's interesting. The things I do remember, I remember hearing that the clicking noise of my mother rolling the insulin hitting her wedding ring. Interesting that would make this click, click, click, click, click, click click click in you know, I would hear that. No, I had to go, you know, get my shot. Yeah.

Scott Benner 6:35
It's really like Pavlov's dog with that. And, uh, you know, modern people don't even know what you're talking about that, like they don't roll their insulin before they inject it. They take it out of the out of the refrigerator and go, but you had to it had to get mixed. Right? Like we kind of like mixed back up again. So your mom was just telling like this, and it was hitting her ring. And you remember that?

Sheila 6:56
Yeah, yeah. The noise. And that's something. Yeah. And it's funny. I I've spoken. I mean, my parents passed a number of years ago. But I was asking, I have an older sister. And I was asking her some questions before I came on here. And, and she was telling me that I guess in the very beginning, I did have some seizures. I don't remember any of that.

Scott Benner 7:21
Interesting. So your sister remembers you have to she remember in a traumatic way?

Sheila 7:27
Yeah, I mean, she remembers, you know, my mother, like, struggling to get me to drink juice. And yeah, I mean,

Scott Benner 7:35
did she talk to you about how it felt?

Sheila 7:39
More? She was kind of? No, no, no, the straight answer. Yeah. Just know, when I was asking her questions about, you know what happened back then? I just know, I was diagnosed because at at five I had started wetting the bed.

Scott Benner 7:58
And that's how they figured out to get you to a doctor. Yeah. Is there? Has there been any other type one in your family line?

Sheila 8:04
Yes. And this is interesting. So I have a younger brother. And he has had type one. He was diagnosed when he was around 30. So he's had it for about 25 years. And my older sister, also, just in the past year, was diagnosed as type one. A few years ago, she was misdiagnosed as type two.

Scott Benner 8:34
Wow, how old is she now?

Sheila 8:36
She is 69.

Scott Benner 8:38
Wow, that's a crazy time to be diagnosed. Have you guys been? Have you been helping her with it? Like the three? Or the three of you close? I guess I should ask first. Like,

Sheila 8:46
well, we're close. We're definitely we're all the five of us. We're all very close. But my brother is just kind of like, that's a nice feel. But I'm gonna do my own thing. So okay, that's fine. My sister has been asking questions and, and so yeah, whenever, you know, I'll try to help her out. She's doing pretty well. I'm, I have you know, her Dexcom follow for her on my phone. And yeah, she's doing okay.

Scott Benner 9:18
Did it scare her?

Sheila 9:19
I don't. Only because she knows I've had it all my life. Yeah. I think honestly, she was glad. I mean, when they did put her on insulin, she started to feel better. Because she had been on Metformin and that she really struggled with.

Scott Benner 9:37
Okay, so let me ask you a quick question. Do you work at a prison? Are you letting people in and out of the yard? What is that beeping? Oh, do you hear a beeping?

Sheila 9:45
I do not okay. Doesn't mean anything. My hearing is bad. Why? My hearing is

Scott Benner 9:52
bad. I'm screwing with you. She'll I'm sorry.

Sorry. I know that's fine. But I feel like there's I feel like there's it almost feels like a windows opening. It has an alarm. It's like a door and then it stops. And then it happens a minute or two later. There's nothing in your house that does that. No. Okay. Your pumps not making a noise. It's like muffled or muted or something. No, I just checked it. Okay. All right. Well, listen. You may be putting pulled up to the mothership by UFOs. If you disappear that's where I'm going to assume you went. Oh my god. I tell you, my kids mess with Kelly constantly. Because her hearings okay, but there's something she's gonna be pissed if she hears this one day. I don't remember exactly what it is. But there's something with her hearing with like tones or something like that. So she doesn't hear you right away all the time. And oh, yeah, it's you would think there'd be like a loving support but it's more like an unmerciful mocking. Oh, my gosh, meanwhile, meanwhile, that's a that's not they'll be laughed at like it. As as you watch her, it's tough because people have a do you do this? i My mom does it. My mom's like, I don't know what you would call her death as a doornail. Maybe. And, and she'll do this thing where she? I think it's out of I don't know, honestly, if she's embarrassed, or if she's just trying to not break the flow. But she tries to infer what's going on. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then and then you end up saying something and people like, What are you talking about? Like, that's not what's being said right now. Do you do that? Or have you thought of it? And?

Sheila 11:42
Well, yeah, oh, yeah. No, I definitely do that. It's not intentional. It's just Yeah, I guess. certain sounds. I mean, I wear hearing aids, but even with the hearing aids, yeah, sometimes I have to guess. Okay. And I don't always get it, right.

Scott Benner 12:00
Like, I think this is what we're talking about. Have you ever gotten into a situation where someone shows up at your home and you're like, why are you here and you've made plans with them and you didn't know or something to that effect? I want to tell you about us med. This is alright. I'm gonna tell you something embarrassing about me. But it's about us med so I'll do it. Okay. I was in the how do I say this? I was on the throne. There. The other day. I was seated in my bathroom. And I got an email. Oh my God, why am I doing this? Alright, it's okay. It's okay. Just okay. Some I'm taking, and I get an email. And I look at it because I don't have anything else go on. And it's from us med. It says, Hold on a second. Give me a second. I'm sorry. You should all get a podcast you know about having to do this. Like, just be so honest. It's alright. Anyway, I'm in the bathroom. greetings card and your next order of supplies is eligible to ship within the next 14 days. Please click the button below and fill out the brief form to confirm your orders. I clicked on confirm my order. I clicked a couple more times. And that was it. It was over. I received another email it said everything was on its way. And then I took care of the rest of my business and I was on my way. And I and I actually thought one well that was actually very convenient and easy. And two, I felt a little productive for getting something extra done while I was in the bathroom. But then I guess the third thing I thought was how am I going to tell the story on the podcast. And here I am. Us med.com forward slash juice box. They carry everything from diabetes testing supplies, CGM. They've got libre two libre three Dexcom G six G seven Omni pod dash Omni pod five, tandem control IQ, the T slim, right? That one they have, they've got what you're looking for. You've got to just go get your benefits check. It's absolutely free. 888-721-1514 or us med.com forward slash juicebox. Then if they take your insurance, you're on your way and they take over 800 private insurance. They also take Medicare nationwide. So your odds of being covered are pretty good. I mean, do I get any points for this? Does anybody or you guys just like why Scott? Just say you're in your car when it happened? I can't I can't lie. All right, the US med always provides 90 days worth of supplies and fast and free shipping. You're gonna get better care and better service from us med there's links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com. We use us med they're fantastic us med.com forward slash juicebox.

Sheila 15:08
No, that hasn't happened yet.

Scott Benner 15:11
I'm here for the check Sheila, the what? We're going into business together, don't you remember? I thought I said, I thought I said I would buy cookies from your, from your nephew. Anyway, you know, I just find that you have to be able to. I know, it's it's a trite thing to say, but everything's so serious in life all the time, you know, and it's just easier to to laugh about it a little bit and recognize what it is. And, you know, absolutely not, don't be offended all the time. I did something recently that I haven't figured out how to talk about yet. And I thought I was gonna say it here. And I started to get it out of my mouth. And I was like, I don't know that I'm ready to admit that I've done this. Yeah. So sorry, Sheila, I almost told you a very embarrassing story, and I'm keeping it for another.

Sheila 15:58
Alright, well, maybe by the end of the episode, we'll say, Well, I

Scott Benner 16:00
don't know. We'll say it's a it's a pretty big screw up on my part. So I'm not certain. Anyway, okay. So you, you are in an interesting part of your life where as you've had diabetes for so long, then it's all just a smushed together cloud of loose memories, no different than how I remember myself being five or seven years old, like, which is to say, I don't remember it. And I don't know if younger people can appreciate that, that I don't think I could purposefully tell you a story from a specific time. Until maybe, like, maybe I'm like, I'm 51. Now. Like, maybe I could go back to like being 13 and tell you something that traumatic that happened. And maybe 16 and tell you something that fun that happened. I definitely can remember the first time I have sex. And so she was like, Yeah, I remember that one. And like and stuff like that. But I couldn't sit down and be the person who wrote about my own life, like day to day stuff. I just don't I don't remember any of it.

Sheila 17:06
Right? Yeah, yeah. No, I remember bits and pieces here and there. But I'll tell you one thing that I very much appreciate now is that I think my parents made every effort to treat me the same as my brothers and sisters. Okay. And and that, looking back, for me, that was important.

Scott Benner 17:32
You didn't want to be special. Yeah, nobody wants to

Sheila 17:35
be different. You know, and so as much as possible, they tried to make me feel, you know, like, I was, like everybody else.

Scott Benner 17:44
And that was the that was the group you wanted to belong to the just Oh, my average? No, no, I mean, like, average normal, run of the mill kid. That's the group you want it to be a party to,

Sheila 17:55
right? Yes, definitely. And even so when I was eight years old, and I've heard other people, I think even Jenny said this, but I wanted to go to Girl Scout camp. And I, you know, I asked my mother and she said, No. And I asked again, and she said, No. And then I think I bugged her enough until she said, You know what, we're going to ask the doctor, and we went to the doctor's office. And I was so shocked. I do remember this. He said, If you treat her like an invalid, she's going to become one. Let her go. Whoa, I couldn't believe he was talking to my parents like that.

Scott Benner 18:33
Don't you think to your mom just wanted the doctor to tell you know, right?

Sheila 18:37
Yeah. Yeah, so I learned to take my own shots. I went to Girl Scout camp.

Scott Benner 18:44
Tell people to that story did not happen in black and white. Everything had color on it, right? Yes.

Sheila 18:50
But the thing also that I know and they didn't even say anything to me, but when I when I think back about the situation. There was a nurse at Girl Scout camp, and I don't know if normally there would have been, but there

Scott Benner 19:05
was a wasn't that interesting. A thing you remember. How old do you think you are when you're telling the story about I was eight? Something that from eight years old? You don't remember much else? You do remember wondering? Did they put that nurse here for me? Or was that nurse always going to be here? Well, I

Sheila 19:21
actually at the time, I didn't think about it. But now it was just like, but now looking back. I'm like, oh, okay, I bet they had something to do with that. Well, listen

Scott Benner 19:32
that that lovely person made a nice income during that thing off. If it was for you feel good about that. You're making jobs creating work as you go.

Sheila 19:45
Oh, but it was I mean, oh my god, I just wanted to go to camp so bad. Oh, that was great.

Scott Benner 19:50
Yeah. And that and that's a and that's a happy memory for you something you wanted to do that you thought you weren't allowed to do that. Your mom didn't want you to do that. Luckily the doctor was like letter Do it. And all these years later that whole thing indoors in your mind? Yes, absolutely. I think I'm saying that twice Sheila so that people listening can hear it. That's, that's really interesting. I, I was talking to my wife the other day, this is not a fully formed thought yet. But that I feel like I'm seeing more and more people that want to be special. Like they want to somehow distinguish themselves as different. And that they're willing to. I mean, sometimes it feels like they're willing to just, like throw in with anything, just because it's something other than the normal. And I I'm just really touched by what you said, because what you really wanted was to be normal. Right? Average everyday fit in. And, and now I feel like some people are like, I want to be extraordinary. And you know, and you hear you hear people talk about, I don't know, sometimes you hear people talk about their children or their situations and they try to make it sound like like something extra is happening. I'm like, I don't I don't see this, but okay, and then I think when they label it, they're like, see, I'm this this is special. My kid is this. And that makes that makes them. I don't know, I just I like that. You just wanted to be just like everybody else. Yeah. So you said that you met a man and he was nice. How when did that happen? Is he with us? So?

Sheila 21:28
Ah, oh, yeah. Yeah. You ever killed a man?

Scott Benner 21:33
Are you doing what my wife's doing just slowly. You just ah, well, I don't know. chipping away a little bit at a time. Just

Sheila 21:41
glad. I'll tell you, God love him for everything that I have put him through. My husband. Oh, my God. We met we work together. I think it was 8696 after we started dating up until that point, I didn't have a home glucose tester. And I don't know

Scott Benner 22:04
in 86 You still didn't have one? I didn't

Sheila 22:07
have one did Mike and he bought one for me. Oh,

Scott Benner 22:12
look at that. Yeah. That's so sweet. It's such a weird move. But it worked.

Sheila 22:18
Oh, god. Yeah. But he's just been so Oh, my God, you know, dealing with. So I didn't even get into my other. I'm doing well. But I have a number of health issues. So the first one? Well, I have something called sjogrens syndrome. You know, other people have and have rheumatoid arthritis. And that's fine. But in 2001, I was only 39. And I had a heart attack.

Scott Benner 22:51
Holy crap, Sheila. Yeah, yeah.

Sheila 22:55
And

Scott Benner 22:56
sort of a defibrillator instead of that, that meet her all those years. Wow.

Sheila 23:02
So God bless them. God bless them. I mean, we had to, you know, not super young, but I don't know, seven or nine, seven or nine year old boys. And you know, he was running around taking care of them. And, and taking care of me. And just bless them. You know, he just made everything work. And then this, this is interesting. So maybe two years after the heart attack. Because at the time, I thought, Oh, God, here we go. This is it. You know, diabetes is catching up. I'm just gonna have to deal with it. And then one day, he says, Sheila, did you see the article in the paper about Vioxx, which is a drug that I was taking from my arthritis.

Scott Benner 23:54
Oh, snap show. You got Vioxx. Yes.

Sheila 23:59
Right. Yeah, I had been taking it. And then like, even by the time you saw that article, I had stopped taking it because it really wasn't working. But they took it off the market.

Scott Benner 24:09
It was working it just not working the way they told you. It was going to right. Yeah.

Sheila 24:14
And it's so bizarre, because I felt so happy.

Scott Benner 24:19
Because it wasn't diabetes. It wasn't diabetes. Yeah. So you got good perspective. Hey, did you sue them? No, you didn't get in on that class action lawsuit.

Sheila 24:28
Oh, a lot of people said that to me. No, I did not.

Scott Benner 24:31
In 2007 Merkin company agreed to pay $4.85 billion to settle claims over its arthritis medication. Vioxx, the company faced an estimated 50,000 lawsuits filed by people who experienced serious side effects including heart attacks and strokes after taking Vioxx. This is from drug dangerous.com. And let's just real quick, Sheila. Let's just Let's just do this. Sorry. I'm gonna ask Siri. 4.8 billion divided Buy 50,096 grand you could have got Sheila.

Sheila 25:03
Oh, wow. Well, you could have bought yourself

Scott Benner 25:07
maybe six grand. Oh, my goodness, you could have get yourself a nice summer cottage.

Sheila 25:13
Well he's gonna listen to this.

Scott Benner 25:20
Yeah, at least you could have finally paid him back for that blood glucose meter, which I imagine, was pretty expensive. So, how long were you on Vioxx?

Sheila 25:30
I don't know, maybe a year or two?

Scott Benner 25:33
No kidding. Hey, didn't help with your arthritis at all.

Sheila 25:37
It really didn't.

Scott Benner 25:39
Wait to go, Mark. Oh, okay. So, you say you took it for a couple of years. You got off of it, though? How long? Were you off? How long? Were you off of it before you had a heart attack?

Sheila 25:52
No, I think I was taking it when I had a heart attack. Oh, but then after that, you know, the rheumatologist? And I told them like this, this just isn't working. And so I got off of it.

Scott Benner 26:07
Yeah, no kidding. So what was the severity of the heart attack? Was there lasting damage? Or how was that?

Sheila 26:13
They the way they worded it to us is they said that if I was you know, if my heart was a six cylinder engine, I lost one of the cylinders.

Scott Benner 26:22
Oh, that's not comforting at all. Is it? So?

Sheila 26:25
Well? I mean, okay. But then years after that. I was saying my cardiologist. And he said, and he went into to look for some reason. And he said, Oh, you have collateral vessels. And I said, What's that? And he said, Oh, new new vessels are growing in the damaged area. That's cool. So it was trying to heal. Yeah. So, and I'm good. I mean, my husband and I, I would say five out of seven days a week, we walk for three miles. So I mean, my heart is strong. And yeah,

Scott Benner 27:07
that's a long time ago now to 2000. Let me count 2017. That's 1018 1920 20. That's like 16 years ago. Yeah. Does it scare you though? Do you think about it?

Sheila 27:18
Well, yeah. Because I mean, in all honesty, I have had other heart incidents, even after that.

Scott Benner 27:24
What does that mean? arrhythmias? Well, I

Sheila 27:28
had to get stents. No, no arrhythmias, but I've had blockages blockages, and I did have to have a bypass.

Scott Benner 27:35
Do they put you on cholesterol medication? Yes. Are you on blood thinners? Yes. Does it make people uncomfortable when they're listening when it sounds like I know what I'm talking about sometimes, probably. So you think they're like the idiot? Now all of a sudden he rattles things off. Like he knows stuff. But earlier, he was giggling about something. That's right. I'm a paradox. Silla. No, no, I

Sheila 27:55
mean, no, you you, you always, you know, kind of play yourself down, but you're very sharp.

Scott Benner 28:02
Stop and chill. I'm a big moron. Now, let's keep bumping the walls all the time. And I always I'm like, who am I? Actually, you have no idea. There are days when I'm like, I can't believe I got dressed myself. Although I did. I don't want to say too much. I don't want to say today's show. That's not good news for podcasting. Maybe at the end, like you said, but they're not. Are they saying that the heart stuff is from the Vioxx. Are they saying it's from diabetes?

Sheila 28:35
Well, I mean, they're not. I'm not asking the question and then not saying why. But you know, I'm sure. Like I said, you know, I didn't, I didn't even test my blood. Until, what was it? 1986 or 87, whatever doing? Probably 86.

Scott Benner 28:52
How can you? Let's dig into that for half a second. So blood glucose meters were available, but they were really big, right? They were literally the size of like a red brick, maybe even bigger than that. And they were expensive. And not a lot of people had them in their homes. So were you still paying on strips. You

Sheila 29:11
know, at that point in my 20s. I don't know how much testing I was doing at all.

Scott Benner 29:16
Were you taking like you still doing cloudgen mph or had you gotten into like, what would it have been that were you like, when did Lantus Lantus maybe.

Sheila 29:25
So at the same time, when I met Dan, I had been taking mph and regular and then apply. The doctor that I had at the time said, Hey, there's this new humulus insulin.

Scott Benner 29:41
Oh, okay. Yeah, I skipped over that whole level. Lantus was until like, 2000. So okay,

Sheila 29:46
okay. Yeah, but the thing that happened with that, the short story is I had the first time I tried it, I had an allergic reaction. So I had to stop. So I went back to NPH and regular are. And then later, I don't remember what year but at one point, my doctor said, Sheila, that they're talking about taking these off the market. And he said, I want you to try again. Just just to be sure. And then the second time I didn't have the reaction.

Scott Benner 30:18
She'll I gotta tell you, part of me doesn't understand how you're alive. Well. I mean, that's like you just said to my 20s I don't really know how much I was. So you were in college? What were you getting a degree in, by the way? Computer Science, and you weren't testing your blood sugar? Really? So you weren't peeing on the strips anymore? Doing anything? And were you just taking insulin morning and night?

Sheila 30:40
Yeah, I was taking insulin and, and I didn't see this as the other thing. That's crazy. It's amazing. I'm alive, because I never got a lot of training about what I should be eating. And basically, I avoided sugar. And I was very good. You know, I was a good girl. I mean, I did not eat any sweets, no cookies. But at the same time, like, I would eat a bag of potato chips. Like it was nothing. You know, and I didn't know anything about carbs. Until my pregnant my first pregnancy in 9091. I, you know, the doctor said, I want you to go to Jocelyn. And they gave me some training. And then I knew about carb counting, but I was. I am very lucky to be alive.

Scott Benner 31:32
Yeah, I mean, it's just like, at what point? I mean, because this guy, he I mean, it's not it wasn't like a gift. It wasn't like, here's flowers in a meter. So he's your husband sees that you're, I'm assuming, right? If I asked him, he'd say he saw that you weren't really taking care of yourself. And he got you a meter?

Sheila 31:50
Well, I think not so much that I wasn't taking care of myself, but more. It's like, Hey, did you know these things even exist?

Scott Benner 32:00
Oh, like it's a new thing. Like when my dad bought us a VCR? When he was like, Oh my God, you see this thing? We can watch a movie in the house now? Like that kind of? Yeah. Is that different? No.

Sheila 32:10
Yeah. Because back then, the other thing and this, you know, I've heard over, I've listened to all your episodes. And people say this. I mean, it's not like a doctor ever said to me, you should have a meter. Right? Because I was fortunate enough. I had, you know, good. Software job. I could have bought myself one. I don't think I knew they were out there. Okay. But Dana, and you know, it was like, oh, boy, this girl, you know, I mean, he must have done some reading. I'm sure he did. Knowing him. He wanted to know more about diabetes. And he saw that these things existed and he bought me one. And back then when he bought it, I am absolutely positive. It cost a good amount of money.

Scott Benner 32:54
Yeah, he was trying to get your parents to show 100% 100% Oh, you're not a cheap date at all. Sheila. You're like, I want medical equipment. I need medical devices if you're even gonna knock on the door and say hello.

Sheila 33:14
No, he was thought he was very caring. And the other thing is, around that same time, he bought me a cell phone.

Scott Benner 33:22
This guy working. Looking

Sheila 33:25
at and and this again was way back. You know, when I at the time, I didn't know anybody who had a cell phone.

Scott Benner 33:33
Oh, would you call your husband kind of like a tech forward person? Oh, absolutely. Is this the same cell phone I had, it was in a black canvas bag and it plugged into your cigarette lighter in your car.

Sheila 33:43
It might have I don't. God, I don't even remember. I just know what the time he gave it to me. And I was like, Damn, that's so sweet. And I was thinking, what am I going to do with this? And I just, I clearly wasn't very forward thinking. And it was just it seems so odd because I didn't know anybody who had one

Scott Benner 34:04
and the expense. Do you remember was dollar a minute, if you remember to be $1 a minute to make a phone call.

Sheila 34:10
And of course, I didn't even know that because he was paying for it.

Scott Benner 34:13
And that was an 89 When I'm talking about 8889 90 Right in there right around the time. Yeah, we had bag phones that we got for how do we get them? Oh, my God. Friend of mine was a cop. There was a special deal. They were given the police and I got in on it. I got a free bag phone. And then it came with this thing. It was like $1 so you barely used it. Like you know how now everybody's just constantly on their phone. I tell you what if it costs $1 A minute that's slow everybody down.

Speaker 1 34:42
You want to fix you want to fix people's cell phone addiction start charging them like that. But But yeah, it was $1 minutes, make a call you would use it in really, really, really specific situations. And if people started chatting,

Sheila 34:57
or wanted to know like if I was running or later something you know, he wanted me to call he worried about he still does. He's just very concerned anyone to make sure I was okay.

Scott Benner 35:09
That's beautiful. All right, nice. And he was doing well. He's got this meter I would have married him just because I thought he had money. Right? He had money and he was like buying phones. I would have been like, this guy's got it together. Did he hold it together? By the way? Are you? Are you supporting him?

Sheila 35:23
No. Yeah, no, he's he. Both of us software at the time was a great career to get into. And he's doing well.

Scott Benner 35:34
Good. Good. That's wonderful. Surgeon surgeons, how do you say that? Sir? It's so G. Why would you put a J after an o o sjogrens? sjogrens. Okay, how does that impact your life?

Sheila 35:46
Well, the main thing. I mean, for me, it's dry eyes, dry skin. So it's just annoying. But it also causes for women, your there's a higher incidence of your children having something called Congenital heart block, really. And that did in fact, happen with us. No kidding. And this is another thing that I have a little story I wanted to tell because, yeah, when, when I was 18 weeks pregnant with our second son, I went just for my regular appointment. And they listened and they could tell, and I could hear at all. So there was something wrong with his heart, he didn't have a normal heartbeat. So the doctor, you know, she she told me what she thought and made an appointment at the children's hospital with a pediatric electro cardiologist. And he explained it to me. And then of course, I made the mistake everybody makes Google was available back then, or some kind of search engine. And, and, you know, I looked at it and it did not sound good. And I said, Oh, God, I said, Do Do you have any patients? You know, whatever trial that's doing okay with this condition, and any gave me the name of a woman. And I called and this 11 year old voice answers. And and I said, you know, I'm calling Dr. Dr. Walsh gave me your number. Can I please speak with your mother? My baby has heart block. And she goes, Oh, it's fine. She's like, Oh, I you know, I play soccer. And I just, I have to stay away from the microwave. But, you know, she's, she's just like, babbling on. And she did hand me off to her mother. But she sounded great. Yeah.

Scott Benner 38:00
And that made you feel better, and then they were able to help your son.

Sheila 38:03
And yes, and he's doing great. I mean, he had to get, so he has a pacemaker. And he got his first one when he was five. And then before that, he was just when, before he got the pacemaker, if he like went to run around or extend themselves in any way, his heart rate would not speed up. So he would just get very tired. So most of the time, you know, everybody, people would make comments to me about how well behaved my son was.

Scott Benner 38:38
Just he's in a coma. Yeah, he's not well behaved, but don't worry. Yeah.

Sheila 38:43
Certain color or whatever. And, and then, when he had the surgery, I had bought this is back when people you know, it was the big cartridge movies. Cartridges when you went to Blockbuster. Oh,

Scott Benner 38:57
like VHS? Yes. Yes. Yeah. So I

Sheila 39:00
rented because they told me I rented a bunch of them. And we brought him home from the hospital. And he had never had energy. And he was bouncing off the walls. And just running around and jumping. And it was just oh my god.

Scott Benner 39:17
That was nice. Right? It just to see that happen? Yeah. And

Sheila 39:20
he was fortunate. I guess a lot of kids that have this condition. They have multiple heart problems. Okay. But he just has this one. So I mean, he's, he's 29. Now. He's doing great.

Scott Benner 39:36
Now, do his children have a chance of getting it or No, it's because you had sjogrens? No, it's because of my sjogrens. I'm going to read congenital heart block is a rare complication of pregnancy associated with children's disease that may result in death or of the fetus or infant or the need for pacing and the newborn at a later stage. So that's what happened and got a patient. Yeah, you know, I have to tell you, when you first started saying this, you said something like that. You were telling me what the effects of sjogrens was, and you said, but in women and I'm like, Oh, she's gonna say something dirty and then you and I almost I almost made a dumb joke to like, get ready for it. And then I'm like, No, let's wait and hear what she says. And then the next thing you said was my son has a congenital and I was like, Thank God I didn't do that. Because that's part of I put my foot in my mouth earlier about a thing that I didn't want to tell you about yet that I'm warming up to explaining but still anyway. Well, that's and so that's his does he have any autoimmune stuff?

Sheila 40:36
No. The only thing that's kind of weird though, is we are both very sensitive to sunlight. And I don't know that that's autoimmune. But absolutely the two of us if we walk out of a building into the sunshine, we start sneezing.

Scott Benner 40:53
sneezing, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, second. The sensation of sneezing when you see the sun is called Photo sneeze reflex. photic means light. Yeah, thanks a lot. photic means like, Thank you, internet. I'm a bigot. It literally means reflex. Scientists have given it another name V. Always some no autosomal dominant, compelling Helio Omnipod what up? Why are smart people stupid? Why you want to give something a name? With five words in it? I can't say. And then they call I see why were first for short. It's a choo ACH. Oh, all right. I take that back. Well done smart people. That's funny. Yeah. It but is it hold on is a can't be autoimmune. Right? That can't be

Sheila 41:45
well, you know, I don't know. But um, because the other okay. So the other thing I forgot about is so I have anemia. But it is not due to lack of iron. Was it I have autoimmune anemia? Get out

Scott Benner 42:05
of here. Haha. So second at HSU. I don't see with autoimmune. And if nobody's googling that it doesn't exist. And now you're saying you have anemia. But it's autoimmune. You know, I I was lined up with a hematologist yesterday and he had to bail because his wife's having a baby or something like that. Oh, yeah. So I'm gonna have to get him back. To do an autoimmune hemolytic anemia. AIHA is a rare immune disorder. Well, Sheila, you're piling them up here. It happens when your body mistakes red blood cells as foreign substances and attacks them. Oh, so you have it in your body like kills? The treatments include medication surgery, or in rare cases of blood transfusion, right? Highly manageable but fatal if left untreated. So how do you treat that first of all?

Sheila 42:56
Well, right now I'm actually not. In the past, I was taking something called epogen that they give to cancer patients. And it worked. And I felt great. And then again, my husband says, Sheila, did you see this article?

Scott Benner 43:19
This guy? How come this guy is always figuring stuff out African.

Sheila 43:24
These are all from the Wall Street Journal, but he reads it. And yeah, there was an article about again, heart issues with epogen. So I just made the decision I would rather be kind of tired, then then worry more about my heart.

Scott Benner 43:43
Anemia drug made billions but at what cost Washington Post 2012. So, taking iron doesn't help, you know, because it's killing the cells, right cells have plenty of iron. Have you tried a blood transfusion?

Sheila 43:59
I have had blood transfusions. But most of the time, I just kind of hover at a I mean, I forget the numbers off the top, honestly, but they've been the same for years. And I'm lower than what they want for people. But I can function. So we just kind of keep an eye on it. Okay, now when? So, are you ready? Yep. Okay. In 2020 At the beginning of it, I was diagnosed with cancer. What the fuck?

Scott Benner 44:35
Are you serious? Yeah, God, you weren't enough? How in the hell Why is it always you? Why is it always people like you who come on here and tell me I've lived a good life. And then at the end of the hour, I feel like Rocky at the end of the movie when I lost like why? But I have

Sheila 44:57
lived a great life and I was very lucky. So a couple of things. I'm going to say this one right out loud. They found it in my just regularly scheduled mammogram. So ladies, get those mammograms. Because I, you know, I never would have known. I went, they found it. You know, I had the surgery and then because it was a rare type of cancer also. So they removed the cancer and then I did chemo, which as a diabetic is challenging. Because they they have, as part of the chemo, they put steroids in it.

Scott Benner 45:36
Now your blood sugar was a problem. Yeah.

Sheila 45:39
But I actually I did pretty well. So I was able to handle that. But they were, you know, watching my blood while I was getting the chemo. And I had to have infusions with every round.

Scott Benner 45:53
Yeah, to keep it up. What kind of cancer was the show? You said it was rare?

Sheila 45:58
I had it's called triple negative breast cancer.

Scott Benner 46:02
Triple negative breast cancer. Yeah. found during a mammogram. Yep. Anything? Is that a family thing? Other people with breast cancer your life?

Sheila 46:14
I have a cousin but no other types of cancer. My dad had skin cancer. And and I have another cousin who had pancreatic cancer.

Scott Benner 46:31
Is that a mastectomy?

Sheila 46:31
Did you get no lumpectomy? lobectomy? Yeah. But the good thing is I did get the testing that they do to find out if basically if you're going to pass it on to your children. And that was all negative.

Scott Benner 46:47
Good. Oh, that's good. Yeah, yeah. Oh, now I'm gonna have to tell you my story. Okay. All right. I'm looking forward. No, I feel like an ass already. Hold on a second. This needs a tiny bit of context. Okay, because it'll make me seem I don't know. It's not gonna help. But let me just, it'll make me more comfortable. So I needed a new monitor to make the podcast with I'm looking at it right now. I found one online, was going to take too long to get I found one locally, not that local, like 45 minutes from my house, but I had to go get it. So I worked a full day I did two recordings. I made dinner, I took care of my life. And then I said to my wife, I'm going to rush to this place and try to get there before it closes. So I pulling up, and no lie. The kids out front pulling down the metal door. I parked my car and I jumped out I walked up to him and I was like, Brother, listen, I drove like an hour to get here. I know exactly what I'm buying. I'll be out of here in five minutes. I have a credit card even like, like there'll be no mess. Like he needs like a guy come in. I came in. I'm looking around where the monitors are. I don't see it. There's a kid. There's like, Can I help you? I said, I'm looking for this monitor. I told him the brand and everything. He goes, Oh, absolutely. I have that as a great. And he goes, I'll just bring it up front for you. You can go head up and I was like, oh, okay, but then I got kind of like sidelined. I was looking at something else as I was walking up. And so he comes out with a monitor. I'm not to the front. So he says why don't you just come over here to this little kiosk? And I'll bring you out here. And I said, Oh, that's so nice. Because it was like a line up front. And I was like, Oh, thank you. And as we come up, this tiny little kiosk has two places to bring people up. And I sort of came around the back of these two women. So they did not see me coming. And when I settled in at the kiosk where the kid put the monitor down. One woman was seated, but the other one was standing. And the woman that was standing was startled, I think because I came from behind her. And I just looked up at her and I was like, I'm sorry. And she goes no, no, I'm sorry. And she starts to back away from me. And I'm like, now I'm like, oh, what's happening? Like, why is she backing away? Why is she sorry? Like, you know, and then she looks at who I realized later is her mother, an older woman probably in her 60s. And the woman on the other woman's the standing woman is I don't know, she's probably in her 40s. And she the mother is like, it's okay. And she goes no, like, you know, he might not want me near him for health reasons. And then I realized she was wearing a mask and I thought, Oh, she's just nervous about COVID still. And I'm not thinking I want to be clear. I had worked all day. I just driven an hour. I was hungry. I was tired. And I tried to be funny, and not even on purpose. It just came out like I was getting my credit card out. I'm looking at the kid who's bringing me up. And I said it's okay. It's not like I have cancer or anything. Oh, and there's a pause Sheila. Oh, she goes, I have breast cancer. And the voice in my head. No, a lot of the rest of the story is the voice in my head. The voice in my head goes mother. And then and then and then and then the voice in my head goes dum dum dum. And then I look up at the kid that's helping me he's like 19 Here's the look on his face. Oh, what the fuck did you do? And like say So he's looking at me like that the voice in my head is saying the same thing. And I just bear down, and I could hear my voice go, Well, Scott, you think you're gonna talk to people? Now's a good time to prove it. And I turned and I faced her. And I said, I'm really sorry to hear that. And I didn't mean to be flippant like that. I apologize. What kind of cancer do you have? And she said, I have breast cancer. I'm about to have my breasts removed this week later, that's, I'm having a surgery. And I said, I'm glad they caught it in time. Are you okay with all that? And she said, Yeah, I'm pretty comfortable about what's going to happen. I feel good about it. And I said, Are you thinking about getting reconstruction afterwards? And she said, No, I don't think so. I've toyed with the idea of maybe doing some tattooing, but I don't think I'm gonna get an implant. And then she and I had a very real conversation. And then her mother got involved in it. And we talked some more. And I said, Well, I don't these is not an apples to apples comparison. I said, But my mother just beat cancer this year. She was at she had a huge tumor on her ovary and a couple of other places. She had a full hysterectomy. And then the mom's like, I had a full hysterectomy. That's a hard thing to bounce back from. We talked about my mom. And by the time it got all done, I said, I'm sorry, what's your name? She told me her name. i She asked my name. I told her my name. And we had had a really lovely five or six minute conversation. And I turned back to the kid at the register. And I made eye contact with them. And with my eyes. This is what I said, Sheila, I said, You I did it. Because he now he's looking at me. Like, how did you do that? And I was like, I talked to people for a living friend. And so I and so that I paid him. And I turned I just ignored him, like be clear, the transaction stopped. Because I was like, first of all being serious. I was like, What the hell did I just do? You know what I mean? Like, I don't want this lady to feel bad. I wish I just picked the biggest thing I could think of would that would be a reason why you wouldn't want someone near you during a pandemic. I could have said anything. I wasn't thinking. And normally, this is not how I would have acted in public. I think it was just all the rushing around and silliness. And anyway, not the point. So it turned back to her and we wished each other well. And as I was getting ready to leave, she said, You're such a lovely person. And I said, thank you. And she goes, I'm really glad we had this conversation. I feel better. I was like, Oh, thank you very much. And I said, I am very sorry about my joke earlier, that led to this conversation. But I'm glad that we talked. And she said me too, when the mother waved goodbye to me. And as I was walking away, I heard the mom say he was so nice. And I thought sure, like, I don't know, like whatever the noises for wiping your brow and throwing a lot of flopsweat aside because I felt like a dick Sheila,

Sheila 52:51
like, oh, no, no. I mean, no, that's we were very nice. And, and people do make that comment. I mean, you know, a lot of times in life, they'll say, well, but don't cancel, you know, I mean, but that's not

Scott Benner 53:05
usually how I roll in public. You know what I mean? At the very least, that was not indicative of how I am in public. Like, I'm not a person, I'm not a podcast host when I'm walking around a store buying a monitor, do you know what I mean? Like I was just trying to get in and out of there. And it just it was the whole interaction. It was how it was how oddly, she was shocked by my presence, and how she was suddenly worried about my health. And I don't know, like, my brain just went to the biggest thing, like, Don't worry, it's, it's not like I have, and then that word came out of my mouth. And I felt hurt. I feel bad about it now, as I'm telling you the story. But I also I also was very impressed with my ability to turn it around. Because, and you know, what I, you know, what I give a lot of credit to, I want to thank the people, it's talking to people online, like, like, it really has helped me to know how to streamline a conversation. So that so that you can have a reasonable back and forth with people and stay out of the weeds and stay out of the arguments, there is a way to talk to anybody about anything. And I and I actually am telling the story, not because I'm proud of it, because I'm, I'm embarrassed. But because I think it really proves that communication is possible anywhere because I put myself in about the deepest hole as I possibly could in that moment. And we still got to a good place and rather quick. So and, you know, and kudos to her for not just like kicking me in the balls, which is probably what she should have done. You know, they seriously she probably should have just said fuck you and hit me with something. But, but I just, I don't know, it was it was really interesting, how quickly we were able to get on a personal level like to strangers and I had a lot of empathy for obviously, and I think some of that comes from talking to people to like understanding more deeply what that means not just hearing like, Oh, I'm having breast cancer. And then but having spoken to a person like you for example and and having deeper content Anyway, if that person ever hears this, I am genuinely sorry about that. And but I thought it was worth mentioning here.

Sheila 55:06
Yeah, no, that's a good story.

Scott Benner 55:09
It's a good story. I didn't tell my wife for two days. Because I was like, I knew she was going to be like, You're a moron. I know, that's how she was gonna start.

Sheila 55:21
I mean, you handled it, you handled it wonderfully. And, and, you know, that's what people should do. I mean, that's a it's a good example for everyone. Well,

Scott Benner 55:30
I handled it wonderfully after I made the problem. So we all make mistakes. Thank you that I appreciate it. Because that was a big one. I mean, honestly, I wish you could have in the first 10 seconds heard the thoughts in my head. Like, I was like, You, idiot. Like, why that? Why anything? Why not just smile and say, Thank you, like, why did you like and Oh, my God, anyway, is there I got the car afterwards, I just sat there for a second. I was like, Oh, my God, I am so stupid. And I felt bad for her. And, you know, like the whole thing. But I got out of there. And I'm hoping she's, well, it sounds like she had a good plan. And she was going to a good institution. And I think she will probably make out pretty well, based on her her example or description of what's going on. So anyway, knock on wood for her. Okay, she was sorry. See why I didn't want to tell that. AAA actually,

Sheila 56:29
I think it's a good. I mean, it's a great story. It says a lot about you, because you are very, very good at you know, talking and relating to people

Scott Benner 56:41
use the all my talking skills in that moment. Because I just I had to, I had to speak next, right? I had put her in this awkward situation. It was on me to fix it. And I was pretty, but I was pretty sure that the next thing I said had to move us in a different direction. Like I didn't even want to start with a like, you know, like, oh my god, I'm sorry, because I felt like I would have been apologizing for her breast cancer, which I was. Oddly, that's not how I felt I was apologizing for my ridiculousness. And then it was funny, I think just making the podcast and maybe me being who I am, in some way blended. I was immediately interested in her story then. And I thought that that would probably be the most comforting to her is to just be able to verbalize what had happened to her. And so we I just I basically interviewed her in a store for like four minutes. Wow. And it was and it seemed like it she was grateful to talk about it with somebody made her really comfortable. And then we joked a little bit about my mom with with her mother and, and then she got to talk about our mom and how proud she was of her. And it was really nice, honestly, just started very poorly. Anyway, I won't be doing that again anytime soon. That was, you know, if you said you've learned you've heard this podcast, if you remember me telling the story of when I was 20. And my friends betting me that you couldn't say anything to a stranger and get away with it. You ever heard that story?

Sheila 58:09
I listened to it sounds vaguely familiar. I've listened to all of them. But I don't know if

Scott Benner 58:14
it's a lot. I don't remember all of them either. Yeah, my my buddies and I were sitting in a diner, like in the middle of the night one night, doing what kids do like talking about the world and everything. And I made the assertion that I thought you could say anything if you said it the right way. And they bet me like $20 that I couldn't. And then gave me a very, very bad word to say to the waitress. And I had to try to work it into conversation in a way that would leave the person. Comfortable still. And I failed. I failed miserably the first time. Like to the point where I think I lost the $20 in the tip later, I was like here, sorry. And then we explained it to the person. We were like, look, we were it's a thought exercise and it was dominant. We're sorry. But eventually, I did get to that point. And now like one of the nicest things people say to me is like I had somebody told me one time like you could tell me my dog died. And I think I'd thank you when it was over. And I was like, Oh, thank you. I do pride myself on being able to speak to people. So anyway, has a lot of story about nothing. And I'm sure most of the people listening now are like making pitchforks and like things to burn on my front. Because it was terrible. But a lot, a lot of good came out of it afterwards. So I'm gonna call it a wash at least. What else? Sheila? Like, I mean, you just keep saying things like did your head fall off ever or anything like that?

Sheila 59:40
But actually, alright, so I have one thing that I wanted to get in on the podcast, and what brought me to listening to the podcast. So at some point in my 40s my endo said You know, you get a metal if you have diabetes for 50 years And I thought, really, I thought, wow, damn, I want to I want to get that right. And then I started when it was getting close, and I was about to get the medal. Couple of friends said, you know, surely you should write a book. And, and so I thought I, you know, maybe I will. And I thought first I'm going to look and see what's out there already.

Scott Benner 1:00:21
What do you find? I,

Sheila 1:00:22
I had never really said to myself, gee, could you be doing this better? Like, I was just living life, you know, working, I got my kids everything else. So I, you know, I started looking around. And I found all these books, you know, and I read, I read a bunch of them, I read, you know, sugar surfing, and I read things like a pancreas and, you know, bright spots and landmines and, and then I started, you know, finding, you know, Googling around. And I found stuff on Facebook, and I found the podcast. So, up until then, like my a one sees would be like, in the sevens. And, and my doctor would be, you're doing great. You're, that's beautiful. That's great. And they never even said, but you could be doing better. So since I started listening to the podcast, now, my agencies are in the fives.

Scott Benner 1:01:28
Wow. I appreciate you holding that story until after I told my terrible story, because it makes me seem better. And maybe it'll get people to cut me a little bit of a break on the

Sheila 1:01:39
I mean, this podcast is just wonderful.

Scott Benner 1:01:43
I'm glad. That's that's, that's really terrific to hear. I actually found an article online. Have you celebrating your 50 year Willie medal? Oh, yeah. That's really, that's beautiful. Do they still do that? Yeah, you can still get a lovely medal. That's excellent. Oh, yeah. Tell me a little bit about. So you, you mentioned three books that I I'm just gonna admit I've never read. But I've have I've had two of the three authors on and in. And I've heard nothing but great things about them. But what was the difference between reading a book and listening to the show? Like, how was one thing? I mean, how did it strike you? Like the anatomy? Like why did one thing get to? And the other thing too?

Sheila 1:02:27
Well, I mean, the books definitely, you know, they were good. And they had information. And I did, you know, get little pearls of wisdom from those. But I think with the podcast, and especially over time, like, there would be topics that you covered, you know, early on, like in the, you know, 100 200. But then, like later episodes where they would be revisited and like really going into more depth. And then also just the all the stories that people would tell, you know, almost every episode, there's some pearls of wisdom. Somebody says something, and I think, Oh, I didn't know that. Or oh, I could do that. I could try that. You know, and it just all adds up?

Scott Benner 1:03:17
Yeah, I think so the repetition is valuable. It's hearing it and building on top of it. That's valuable. Is it being spoken even better for you? Yes. Yeah, I think so too. I, somebody asked me, a publisher asked me to write a diabetes book wants I should not say this out loud, because people are always like, Scott wrote a book about diabetes, but I just don't think it's as valuable use of my time. Because I think then you put an idea down, and it's and it's stagnant then, and you can't you can't build on it. You can't like in the Pro Tip series, there's the bump and knowledge episode. And when I made it, I thought, that's good. That's perfect, that does what it needs to do. And then I watch people online, and once in a while I would hear people like I could see that in their management. They were bumping and nudging too much. And I would go say to them, Hey, look, you know, if you find yourself always making adjustments, your core settings are probably off, like you shouldn't have to be adjusting this often. And then I went back and listened to the bumper nudge episode, and I was like, Ah, I never said that in there. And, you know, you can think, well, we should have. But I think what people might not understand about the podcast, and maybe why it works in the way you just described, is because that when Jenny and I sat down that day to make a bump and nudge episode, we sat down with two words in front of us bump and nudge. And in fairness to Jenny, those aren't even diabetes terms. And so we started talking and having a conversation about it. And it's not like I don't know what you all imagine. It's not like I have a bullet list here of things I meant to talk about. So I just let the conversation take me where it does, even when we're doing the management stuff. So I was like one day I'm like, Well, this needs an appt As I need to add more context to this, and we made a bump and nudge to I call Jen, you know, I said to Jenny, hey, next time we record, I want to make an update to the bump and nudge episode, because I'm seeing people online say this thing. And I feel like they need more context. Now, I don't know if the people online who said that actually heard the bumper nudge episode, right? All I can tell you is that the information I'm putting out, it needed this addendum. And I only knew that by putting it out, and then watching people react. And and saying, Okay, well, I'm still seeing these questions in the world. We should address those questions, too. You can't do that with a book. Yeah, me. You can keep rewriting it. But I'm not gonna go back and keep rereading it. You don't I mean, like, if I added a chapter to a book, you're not gonna she'll she'll doesn't get a notification or house. It's like, Oh, they've added a chapter to a book I've liked. I'll go back and reread the entire book. That doesn't happen. And this is contextually is easier just shows up in your app, and you spend an hour doing the dishes and listening to me tell horrible stories about things I've done apparently at a store. And, and somewhere in there. Here's something that helps you. And, yeah, the format works. Yes, definitely. Yeah. It's and it's his dumb luck. Right. I mean, we talked earlier about a cell phone in a bag that costs across the dollar to us. I mean, it didn't have data. I don't know. I'm gonna look up a bag phone right now and see if I can figure it out. Yeah, there it is. I

Sheila 1:06:26
know. It was just, you know, just a phone call. No, nothing. Yeah, nothing, no internet access.

Scott Benner 1:06:35
Yeah. And so the point is that that technology came along. And I think what 2000 2006 Or seven, the iPhone. And when it came out, people didn't even know what to do with it. It didn't do anything. That's why the App Store is so important that people now would understand that. But back then, the phone came with a calculator. It came with email, it didn't even come with email, like it basically didn't do anything you could get on the internet, it was super slow. But adding, you know, beefing up cellphone towers, and making the signals faster, and allowing third parties to make apps. That's how you get a podcast. And then that happened. And then the world shifted away from reading, which made me shift away from blogging, and all these things intersected to you at you know, in your 60s, which is, by the way, pretty cool that you found a podcast and saying that my a one season the fives now and I could make a point that you're a one season the fives now because cell phone technology got better or because Apple opened up an app store or any number of reasons that lead to a podcast being a real thing.

Sheila 1:07:46
But But no, absolutely. The the pot. I mean, those things helped you to do the podcast. But the podcast has helped me.

Scott Benner 1:07:57
Yeah, Sheila, listen, I'm terrific. But I don't have a leg to stand on right now after telling that story. So I can't talk about that. I can't really, at this point, there are people calling the police on me. They're like, Did you hear what he did do something. But no, I appreciate that very much. It's, it's, it's the other part of it. Like I talk about it sometimes. But it's just being able to communicate, it's not something everyone can do. And I didn't even know that. It's funny how these stories kind of coalesce once you start telling them. But when I wrote my book, I did write a book. It wasn't about diabetes was about being a stay at home dad. Yeah. And I would go out and do media for it. And did one. And I think it's pretty clear. Like, if you've ever done business with me, you're doing business with like, this energetic version of Scott, I don't have an ability to act professional. And so my book publisher got an interview for me. I went and did it. And it came out. And she called me actually to have them call me. And they were like, You were terrific. And I was like, I don't know what you're talking about. She's like in the interview are amazing. And I was like, I definitely wasn't amazing. I just guy asked me some questions. I answered them, I talked a little. And she said, she starts then talking to the other publisher, we're on a three way call. And I'm now suddenly not part of it. They're talking about me in front of me. And the guy says, it's because he's not really an author. And I was like, I was like, Oh, this feels insulting. where's this going? And then they started saying to me that people who write books are generally speaking great at writing, but they're not terribly good at talking. And I didn't and as a general rule, and he's like, and he's like, this is working because he's not really a writer. Like he's, he's not a person who lives in his head and like, you know, like that kind of stuff. So I started doing more and more interviews, and I just having a good time, and it was going well, and everybody's probably heard the story about eventually I ended up on the Katie Couric show When she's like, you're good at talking to people, and I made a podcast, etc. But I heard someone just the other day described if you ever heard of Huberman labs, who are is that how you say it? It's a really popular podcast right now. Oh, yeah, no, I'm, it doesn't matter, it's Huberman lab. And the guy that's on the episode is just naturally, a good communicator. But he happens to also have a lot of knowledge about the things they're talking about. And I think that every once in a while, you get a mix of somebody who understands the thing, and can talk about it. And that's, that's where the value comes in. And I for whatever reason, I'm good at that. In regards to diabetes gifts, absolutely. just dumb luck, Sheila, that's all the same reason you're still alive, by the way.

Sheila 1:10:50
I mean, you probably added years onto my life.

Scott Benner 1:10:53
Well, I was gonna say dumb luck. But yeah, like, just doing better. Do you feel better? Do you like that difference between a seven a one C and a five? Is there like, noticeable difference?

Sheila 1:11:03
Well, I feel good. I mean, I do. I look at I don't know if you probably know this, but I mean, there are type ones that, you know, are out there that have had it for like, 85 years. Like this is starting to happen. Yeah. And, and I look at them, and I say, you know, all right. That's, that's my next goal. And I, you know, and I might make it.

Scott Benner 1:11:30
Yeah, damn, right. You might, I mean, hell, you're still alive. After all this? I think you're, it's the same way I think about my mom. So my mom, you know, people are kind of following along 79 years old, looks like literally looks like she's about to die. Can't get a diagnosis right away, we finally get one next thing. You know, doctors don't want to do surgery. You're so old. It's not going to work, blah, blah, blah. My neighbor's kid grew up to be a surgeon, he hooked me up with a friend who hooked me up with another person. My mom gets the surgery removes the cancer. She spent the next year in chemo. Not fun, you know, with this kind of eye on the prize of moving to where my brother lives. And I'm not gonna lie like we carrot and stick my mom a little bit through chemo. Like if you want to get out there to see Brian mom, like, this is what you got to do today, you know, and she gets the all clear and moves out there. And she's there for three, four months. And the other day, I just out of nowhere. I'm like, I haven't talked to mom and a couple days, then this never happens to me. I talked to my mom like every 48 hours, right? And so I texted my other local brother here. And I was like, Hey, you talked to mom, last couple days? He says no, I don't think so. And so I texted my brother out in Wisconsin. I'm like, something's wrong with mom. And he's like, what? You were just talking to her? I'm like, No, I can't reach her on the phone. Something's wrong. But she lives in a facility meaning that she lived my mom was dead. Someone would have told us we imagine, right? Like so. So I'm, like me, you'll imagine, right? But the more you learn about these facilities, no matter how nice they are, by the way, you wonder what's going on. So I say to my brother, I'm like, you gotta go check on her. He's like, alright, like, you know, so he heads over Friday, two Fridays ago. And he gets there. And my mom's like, out of it, like oh out of it. And he assesses her dresses or takes her right to the emergency room. Oh, my gosh, and sends me a picture of her in a wheelchair slumped over. And he says to me, she was awake five seconds ago. And I was like, get her there. Right, right now like go. So he gets her there. And it seems like she has a UTI. And this kills elderly people, or you have all the craziest things, right? And so they hit her with a ton of antibiotics and five hours later, and they you know, give her a bag of saline. And five hours later, I'm FaceTiming with her and she's like, fresh as a daisy. Hey, what's up? And she's fine. Right? Right. Oh, my God. But the next day she wakes up, she's slurring her words, that something's not right. No energy sleeping the whole day away. And we're like, what is happening? So they do all these scans and everything. And it takes them a day or two to figure out they think she's having a little seizures. And then she's sleeping because they're not not strokes, like seizures. And so she's having little mini seizures, where she kind of goes blank for a second. Then she sleeps for 12 hours. And they're happening pretty frequently. So she's not rebounding ever. So they put her on a couple of seizure medications. And it doesn't get better. And I make the phone call to my kids. I'm like, Hey, I You gotta find time to call grandma in the next 36 hours. I'm not sure she's gonna be okay. And so my kids call or check in on her. My son calls back he says my grandma sounds horrible. Like she's like swallowing her words. Like if she was going to say protein. She'd be like prompter like that, you know, like really like couldn't hold her thoughts. We were asking her questions over and over again. to test her memory from just minutes ago, and it looks like she's sliding off a cliff. And then about four days later, she just calls me. And she's like, Hey, Scott. And I'm like, What's up, mom? Now in the last four days, my mom's throwing trays of food on the ground in the hospital, yelling at people out of her mind, not herself at all. The hospital understands, right. It's not like she wasn't, and she just turns back on. And so the infection gets through her. The medication starts to work. She gets a couple of days of real sleep, and she's just herself and better again. Wow. And I was like, Wow, mom, you're going to live forever. Like, I just, I have now thought twice in 14 months. Everybody call grandma on this is it. And she just bounces back? It's I don't know what it is about her. She's got so many medical issues. And she's at, you know, she'll be at one this summer in August. But I believe it now. Like I think that if you can get some help. And if if you can get some people looking out for you, and a little bit of good luck. You can go for quite some time. You know, yeah, yeah, that's it. But make no mistake, and translate this back to diabetes. If you're listening. If I don't recognize that I hadn't heard from my mom and two days. I don't think she'd be alive because my brother was on. My brother was on the night shift. And he wasn't going to make it there for a couple more days. And the place she's living, you can say, well, they're supposed to take care of her. But these places are not always what you hoped them to be. Right? Yeah. So anyway, we have a meeting coming up with them where I imagine I will be unpleasant. Because people need to do their job. Sheila Don't you think?

Sheila 1:16:48
Yeah, no, you're right. You're right. I think they all you know, the state of the world right now. So many places are short staffed. Yeah. And you know, it's just it makes it very difficult.

Scott Benner 1:17:02
Oh, sure. There are people helping my mom. They're 18 and 19 years old. Right? Yeah, this is the best job they could get. They're not interested in helping people like me like it's a low paying job. They're they they probably don't even know what they're looking for. But my sister in law goes back and talks to them afterwards. And they describe my mom and the decline. But they never did anything about it. Just yeah, we noticed she wasn't herself. Your mom's slid out of bed. That's not normal for her. She seems fine. She seems fine, though. She seems fine. She was slurring her words by then and getting ready to pass out and everybody was just like, Oh, she seems fine. Like, yeah, no diagnostic ability at all with the people that she has contact with day to day. Yeah, you know, so anyway, save a lot of money if you can. Yeah. Gonna be a moment when you get older and you're gonna need to, you're gonna need to buy your way out of it. It's, it's terrible. Anyway, don't get older, right? Yeah. Okay, there you go. Unless you want to stay alive, and then you're gonna have to Oh, man, what have we not talked about that we should have? Ah,

Sheila 1:18:13
we hit the main points for me. So good. All right.

Scott Benner 1:18:18
Well, I can't thank you enough for doing this. And honestly, your story brought out my story, which I thought 45 minutes ago, I was probably never going to tell anybody. But then when you had breast cancer, I was like, Well, this is I have to tell the story now. glad you did. Thank you so much. And thank your husband for taking such good care of you. Because it sounds like he's a he's a good guy. Yes, he really is. You made me think of a post that I saw on the Facebook page. Yesterday where a guy asked if he's dating a girl, and he's worried that she's not he, like he like comes out and says I'm worried this person can't love me. You know, because of my diabetes. Oh, you know, and he got such good advice from people and made me feel like I hope he hears this. You know?

Sheila 1:19:09
Yeah, ya know, there's wonderful people like my husband out there, you know, he just loved me for who I was. It's beautiful.

Scott Benner 1:19:19
Hopefully everybody finds that. And if you hold on for one second, I will explain some stuff to you about how this goes from here. Okay, thank you

a huge thanks to Sheila for coming on the show and sharing her life story. And I also want to thank us Med and excuse me, still upset about the ad I just read. I didn't read it by the way. It's I don't know I just said it. I didn't read it. He imagined if I wrote down the story, I was in the bathroom. I didn't do that I just said off top my head. Anyway us med.com forward slash juicebox or call 888 8721151 for head over there now get your free benefits check and one day you'll be ordering supplies from the can us mint.com forward slash juice box links the shownotes links at juicebox podcast.com. When you use my links, you're supporting the production of the show and keeping all this free and plentiful. So that will get you a big thank you for me. Thank you. You know what? I haven't done the last couple of episodes. I forgot to do it. I'll do it now. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. I swear I put a toilet flushing sound right here if I had one

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