#178 Jimmy Diabetes
Scott Benner
Diabetes theory and management with Scott and Nat...
Natalie and Scott talk diabetes theory, management and The Jimmy Diabetes.
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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 178 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's episode, Jimmy diabetes is sponsored by Dexcom on the pod, and our newest sponsor dancing for diabetes, dancing for diabetes spreads awareness through the art of dance, to better educate the community raise funds to find a cure, and to inspire those with diabetes to live healthy and active lives. Now from now until the end of the year, in little 22nd increments every once in a while on the podcast, I'm gonna pop in and tell you something interesting about dancing for diabetes, they're not trying to sell you anything. They just want you to know more about them. Now our other sponsors Dexcom and Omni pod, they're trying to sell you something on the pod wants you to buy the greatest tubeless insulin pump the world has ever known. And Dexcom would really like it. If you looked into the G six continuous glucose monitor. You can go to dexcom.com Ford slash juice box, my omnipod.com forward slash juice box or dancing for diabetes.com dancing the number four diabetes.com You can find these links at Juicebox podcast.com in the show notes of your podcast app, or I guess you could type them into your browser. But then the sponsors don't know you came from me. I mean, you can do that. But you know i'm saying i think you know in this episode I'm gonna be speaking with Natalie. Natalie has had Type One Diabetes for a couple of years. She's in her early 20s. And she initially contacted me because she said she was killing it with multiple daily injections. But by the time she got on the podcast she had upon still the conversation was really amazing. And window couple of different directions I didn't expect. We got into some management ideas. We got into some theories. And at the end, we talked about MDI, so you're gonna get that too. Please don't forget that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should ever be considered advice, medical or otherwise tend to always consult a physician before making changes to your medical plan. I think you're gonna like this one. Natalie's got a certain something.
Unknown Speaker 2:11
Hello, good morning.
Scott Benner 2:12
Yeah, nice and clear. Good start.
Unknown Speaker 2:14
Good.
Natalie 2:17
And I think Mercury's in retrograde or whatever. And usually that is like tech problems.
Scott Benner 2:23
You're starting to talk about things I don't know about. Now let's dive in. So you're saying that we're recording obviously when Mercury is in retrograde, so put that into layman's terms for me.
Natalie 2:35
Okay, so I'm sure other people that listen to this are gonna like, say that I'm totally wrong, because I don't know too much about it. But I know that whenever mercury goes into retrograde, which is some celestial event technology, I guess just becomes a big problem for some people.
Unknown Speaker 2:57
Really? Is it?
Natalie 2:59
okay for me printers. Actually, it does affect me and anytime I try to print anything I get it doesn't work.
Scott Benner 3:08
I love this.
Natalie 3:08
Okay, so if stuff starts happening for you just blame the planet.
Scott Benner 3:13
I have. I've been blaming recently. Our poor decision to have pets and children. But
Natalie 3:21
yeah, oh, yeah. I have two Bulldogs. And I'm always like, why did I do this?
Scott Benner 3:26
Yeah, this morning. at four o'clock in the morning, Ardennes. We got you know, artists Dexcom went off and I was like, Yeah, I pulled myself into the other room. And it just needed to be calibrated. This is a bad news, this bad timing. So I tested calibrated. I gave her some insulin that she needed. And I sat back down and I thought, well, I don't want to go right back to sleep. I want to make sure the sensor is going to work. So I ended up sitting up for like an hour, which I shouldn't have done. But then it's five o'clock. I'm gonna go okay, I still have two solid hours asleep I can get. I close my eyes. And it's six o'clock. I can hear Indy downstairs, he's like, like whining and I'm like, okay, he needs to go outside. So then I went downstairs, I took him outside. I came back in, it's like six or seven, six or seven. I'm now counting minutes, you know? And I'm like, I'm like, I can still get like 15 minutes of sleep. If I power myself back to sleep right now. I overslept right through my alarm art and slept through her alarm. She was late for school. And I just said to my wife I said, Hey, on my headstone no matter what kills me just write dogs and diabetes got this guy? It just just put that stuff right on.
Natalie 4:37
Oh my god, that should go on mine too. Can I take that for me? Because every actually I was just I was just telling somebody I said in tonight's episode of Is my life a joke. I had like a I had dex alarms for like, hours just saying I was low and I was low for Part of it but then I had just did a new sensor, right? And I don't know about you, but I always get, like 24 hours of just crazy readings. Okay, when I put in a new sensor, it doesn't
Scott Benner 5:12
happen to us like I hear it happened to other people like but last night was one of those where it was like her blood sugar's 96 it needs to be calibrated. Then I calibrated it, it was like 140 I was like, well, that's not the same thing. And like that, like
Natalie 5:25
slightly different.
Scott Benner 5:26
So it's not the worst thing in the world. So I bought it was all good. But yeah, I know some people have the first couple hours of the first day have an issue but wow, yeah, we're the numbers don't look great. It's all it's interesting, because I was just talking to someone in Zacks COMM The other day, and I asked a question about how that little sensor wire works. And the answer. The answer is very much this is proprietary, proprietary information. We can't talk about this with you. And I was like, okay, but you know, it's, it's amazing that that little wire does that, you know, seven, it's coated with something and the coating has to absorb the fluid. I'm like, Oh my god, this is good. Who thought of that?
Natalie 6:04
I mean, you're, you're connected via like Bluetooth, like, yeah, like a Bluetooth signal. crazy to me. And, and same with. So I have an omni pod, really. And I'm like, I have no idea how any of this works. But I'm so glad that it does. Because it makes my life so much easier. But I have no clue how any of it actually work. Yeah, Natalie, if
Scott Benner 6:32
I was on the Mayflower. We'd be like eight miles from Plymouth Rock right now. Because I would have been like we should set out and then I would have gotten to like a river and been like, well, I guess this is where we live. Because I mean, how would you get to the other side of that? Yeah. I don't have the engineering spirit. I don't believe but uh, but the people who are amazing. Yeah, no, no, it's a it's a specific way of thinking. And it really helps everybody. So I appreciate it. Okay, yeah, Natalie, let's, um, let's just say that you're on the podcast today. Because you say you say you are killing it. You know how to kill it with MDI,
Unknown Speaker 7:11
is that correct?
Natalie 7:11
I do. Okay, I know how to kill it with MDI. And actually, I just got a pump in September.
Scott Benner 7:19
a month and a half or two months, maybe. Let me do the math. September. Let's count September as one than October, November and sabinus. And let's call it three months. You've had a pump? Yeah. Okay. And and how old are you? And how long have you been living with diabetes?
Natalie 7:35
So I got diagnosed, I'm 24. And I was diagnosed at 21. Although I should have been diagnosed more like 17 it was a pretty crazy. Couple of years in between 17 and 21.
Scott Benner 7:57
You had a bigger story. Here we go. Okay, I'll bite. What happened when you were 17? Because I know what happened when I was 17. Nothing. Just run around. But God, what happened to you?
Natalie 8:09
Um, well, I guess. I started feeling sick at 17. And, but at the same time, my parents had gotten divorced. And I also had mono that year. And so I was writing a lot of stuff off and as just being like, Oh, well, I'm like, I had a big emotional trauma or whatever, you know, and I'm tired, or then I got Moto, and that's why I'm tired. And I just, I don't know, I need it, there was something off, but I just could write it off to other things. And then as time went on, and I think just intuitively, I started. Like, for example, I was having a lot of digestive problems, and I figured out that gluten was causing me problems. Okay. So I cut that out, and I felt a little bit better. But I think intuitively I was like cutting carbs. Because I felt better. Obviously, my blood sugar was maybe a little bit lower. And so I got to college and I still didn't feel good. But if I could write it off to you know, I was taking the maximum amount of units at college and I was at school one day from like 7am to 7pm with a one hour break in, you know. So I just thought, Well, I'm just working myself too hard, but maybe my thyroids off. So I went and got that checked and they're like, no, it's kind of normal. And by the time I was a junior in college, I was like, done
Scott Benner 10:03
laying on the ground like this.
Natalie 10:05
I was, I was like, This is the end of me something is so wrong. And I was having my heart rate was like all over the place I had developed attack cardia my blood pressure was super low. And then of course, I developed the insane amount of thirst. And, you know, I started looking up like symptoms. And everything that I had, it would like list five things and one of them would be diabetes, diabetes, and I literally not it wasn't even a denial thing. It was just like a I thought that there was no possible way I could have diabetes because I thought you get it when you're like, a little kid. Okay? Because I was just so misinformed. Right? So I, I just like literally brushed it off. Like that's just weird that all like, How crazy is that?
Scott Benner 11:12
Something's wrong with me that mimics diabetes, but it's clearly not diabetes.
Natalie 11:16
Obviously not right.
Scott Benner 11:18
So let me ask you a quick question. When you should you had these digestive issues that you kind of limited your carbs and gluten for and then you were tired and all this stuff happened when you were diagnosed? Did it like did all that stuff magically go away? Do you still have some of those issues? Did your thyroid end up being an issue?
Natalie 11:39
Um, I most of it did go away. Okay. Um, my, I still get a weird heart rate thing. If my blood sugar is high,
Unknown Speaker 11:55
dancing
Scott Benner 11:56
for diabetes holds an annual show in Orlando, Florida. award winning and nationally recognized performers create an evening of entertainment and hope these performers are champions throughout the performing arts community, and in the hearts of those affected by diabetes. Find out more at dancing for diabetes calm that's dancing to number four diabetes.com
Natalie 12:18
I'll get like a tacky cardia my blood sugar's high. You know
Scott Benner 12:21
what I realized? Because you've used the word twice. Now tachycardia. And I realized that I have no idea what it means. But because I've watched Grey's Anatomy for so much of my life, I have an inherited feeling inside of me that I understand the word
Natalie 12:36
mean that my heart rate is in a regular beat, and it's fact.
Unknown Speaker 12:43
Okay, well, that's not my understanding from Grey's Anatomy, but okay.
Scott Benner 12:48
You might be wrong. Yeah,
Natalie 12:50
I guess you know, who knows? Um, but yeah, um, right before diagnosis. It was. I mean, I'd be sitting and it was like, 40, my heart rate would be like, 40. And then I would just stand and do nothing. And it would be like 125 doing absolutely nothing.
Scott Benner 13:14
Have you ever had it further? Did Well, have you ever had your heart like, tested or looked into further?
Natalie 13:21
Well, so I went to my doctor, and I said, Okay, I figured it out. My I'm my heart rate is crazy. And she was like, No, that's like, that's super rare. You don't have that. And then she tested it and went, Oh, my God, you do have it. Let's just get some blood work. Just to rule everything else out. I said, Okay. So she did blood work she had, she had called a cardiologist for me. And they called me the office called me and they said, okay, your blood work came in and you're all clear. Everything's good. So just go to the cardiologist. And I said, Okay, well, I don't even know why I said this. Because typically, at this point, I trusted doctors, which I no longer do. Except for my new endo is the bomb. But at the time, you know, I said, well, you just send me a copy of the bloodwork. Okay. I just want to know what they were looking at. And she said, Yeah, so I ended up. I came home from work one day of my summer job. And I opened the letter, and it was like, glaring. It was huge, red bolded letters that my I think my fasting blood sugar was 538 or something like that. And of course, I started Googling What the heck is this? Right? And it kept saying over 126 it's like, for sure you're diabetic. And I'm like, well, this
Unknown Speaker 14:55
is like what is x?
Natalie 14:57
Like way over one? So I'm like panic. Right. And we call we call the doctor. And she's like, oh, that can't be right. Let me I'll call you back. Call me back. And she's like, yeah, you need to go to the emergency room.
Scott Benner 15:13
You guys are spot on here really helped me. Well, part of the country did you live in at this time? Natalie, so none of us moved. There was
Natalie 15:20
no move to Napa Valley, California.
Scott Benner 15:25
That's crazy. At least don't get your health care in that vicinity?
Natalie 15:28
No, the craziest thing was that she was a concierge doctor, which is like, you know, you're supposed to, like, only have a few patients and like they're really on it. Right. And he was clearly not on it. Yeah, I spent like four days in the hospital. And, and I ended up with diabetes. And here we are. Okay. Yeah, that really is.
Scott Benner 15:50
That's interesting that they just maybe they thought your heart had diabetes, and not you. Just testing for your heart. If you do wonder how I'm how a number like that would get missed. That's That's insane.
Natalie 16:03
Miss. I mean, it was like, I opened it. And I'm like, it was so obvious, right? And her she said that. So many people come into her practice and think they have diabetes, and they don't. So she's just used to telling people they don't have it.
Scott Benner 16:19
So your diabetes is the is the cry of wolf of practice. Yes. No, it's interesting. So you see, you're diagnosed for reals? And how old are you then? 21. I was 21. Okay, and, and have your other maladies. You say your other maladies have kind of like kind of everything sort of settled in a little bit, I guess like you don't you still are you still gluten free for instance.
Natalie 16:47
I I've been trying to sort of like sneak gluten in there. And it's like gluten does really doesn't like me. So I'm like, you know, at this point, there's so many ways to get around it that I'm cool with it. But yeah, for the most part, I feel so much better. I mean, between being 17 and being 21. Like I was it was like just years of being completely exhausted. And so now I'm almost like grateful that I'm like, diagnosed Finally, because I have so much more energy, I feel so much better. I didn't remember what it felt like to like, feel normal.
Scott Benner 17:29
That's a sentiment I've heard from so many people that you know, I don't want to have this thing but I am so glad to know about it. Because the alternative we are not being treated properly was was just a hell on earth kind of a situation I think, yeah, to maybe go off the path for a second. It's, it's a great time to make the point that it might be a little difficult to stay after your blood sugar a little bit. But you know, an elevated blood sugar will make you not feel well. Whether you are currently using daily insulin injections or traditional tube pump to manage your diabetes. The two part on the pod insulin management system can simplify insulin delivery and help you to live your life on your own terms. You should become part of the potter community. The Potter community has over 100,000 members and it's growing every day. Are you living with Type One Diabetes, type two gestational Leighton auto immune, it doesn't matter. The on the pod system may be a perfect fit for you. And here's how you're going to find out. And by the way, before I tell you how to find out, did you know that the Omni pod is the number one preferred pump for children. But that doesn't mean adults don't love it. You know what you need, you need a completely free, no obligation demo sent to your home and on the pod would love to do that for you. You're going to go to Miami pod.com Ford slash juice box and they're like filling out your name and address and like nothing else. On the pod is gonna send you a free no obligation demo pod today. You can put it on where it and see what you think. I mean, that's a great offer. It's free and there's no obligation and you actually get the hold it touch it, feel it, try it. Nothing better than that. My Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox the links in your show notes at Juicebox podcast.com. And you're well on your way to becoming part of the potter community. Those are these you can hear that my accent is not messing this up like you don't think you're about to join like a Harry Potter group. Right? It's Potter p od D er, um, the pod. I figured you're following along. Let's get back to Natalie.
elevated blood sugar will make you not feel well. And at some point at some point you might get accustomed to it and now you are just having less of an experience being alive than you would if your blood sugar was low. And this addresses as you get you get accustomed to it. And so yeah, you get something taken from you and you almost just accept that it's gone at some point.
Natalie 20:11
Right. And I think that that is why I got so good with me with daily injections because it was like, once I got a like taste of what it felt like to feel good. I was like, Oh, no, no, am I ever going to, you know, run high again or feel that bad again? Yeah, I
Scott Benner 20:39
think I think people undervalue like, I hear a lot. Like I'll put up, I have some posts that I think are fairly popular online about, like, they're just charts of like art and eating Chinese food or pancakes or something like that. Can you see your blood sugar not go over like 110 while she's eating Chinese, you know, for hours and hours, excuse me, making noise over here. It goes on for like hours and hours at a time. And some people are like, get inspired by like, wow, I see what you did. I'm going to try that. And some people and some people get that looks like a lot of work. And I think like would you rather put the effort in like right here in the span of this 10 minutes? or spend the entirety of like the next four and five hours feeling a feeling like hacking and fighting with the blood sugar the whole time? Right? Yeah, a little more insulin little more this might do it. I'll drink some water like all this stuff before you know it. You know, your your endeavor to eat Chinese food at 730 is turned into you up at one o'clock now
Unknown Speaker 21:35
going, Oh, God, I
Scott Benner 21:35
hope I hope I don't get low. Now. I've been giving myself insulin all night or like, whatever it ends up being. And
Natalie 21:41
like, Is it really worth it at that point? Yeah,
Scott Benner 21:44
yeah. And I think it's really valuable. Like by the time this episode goes up, people who are listening are going to have heard probably months ago at this point, like in in podcast time. But Chris Freeman talk about preparation. He's trying to he's trying to cross country skiing. It's like fifth Olympics or something like that. And he talks about how it's possible with preparation. You don't know Natalie, and no one else does. But everyone does by now. That next week, you're going to see an episode go up with the Dodgers pitcher, Brandon Morrow from the the guy who pitched the World Series with Type One Diabetes.
Unknown Speaker 22:19
Oh my god, awesome. He
Scott Benner 22:20
talks about the same thing. When he's talking to me. He calls it I don't know, you didn't call preparation you call it something else. But having a plan, I think but. But you have to put some effort in upfront to get this desired result or at least get closer to your desired result. And that effort can't be looked on as a pain because you have diabetes. Like that's, yeah, like, I'm sorry. You know, you lost the unluckiest lottery in the world, you have type one diabetes, now you're going to have to put more effort in around these situations. If not, everything's going to take more effort. And yeah, you know, you got to decide where you're going to put that effort in? I guess. So. I like the way you're thinking about it. Yeah, I
Natalie 22:59
mean, I just feel like, type one. Community is one of resilience, for sure. Because it's like, you get knocked down all it's like, Who would have thought that like, I could be taken out by a banana.
Unknown Speaker 23:17
It's so dumb. If I
Scott Benner 23:18
don't get any insulin, and I eat this cookie, I'll be dead in six days.
Natalie 23:23
So stupid. So but it's like, you have to, I think that you have Yeah, you have to put in the work. You have to know your body and, and sort of know, you know, sometimes I'm learning with Omni pod, it'll, it'll suggest, you know, however many units for whatever. And sometimes I think to myself, like, Nope, I know, I'm gonna need a little bit more than that, and bump it up. And I think you just sort of know, you start you start to get to know yourself better, and you just have to? Well,
Scott Benner 23:59
I think that what you just said is such a core of like what I'm saying, first of all, you said diabetes is so stupid, which it might be the episode of title, although I was leaning toward Mercury's in retrograde, but
Unknown Speaker 24:11
things are really dumb.
Scott Benner 24:13
Yeah, both diabetes and Mercury, both real and dumb,
Unknown Speaker 24:19
just really dumb.
Scott Benner 24:21
But what you just said is just it's so incredibly important, which is, you know, you said, you know, your pump tells you this, but that the it tells you based on numbers that you or your doctor put in that said, Hey, for every amount of this carbs you eat, this is how much insulin you take. But that's not how your body works. You know, if you didn't have diabetes, say you didn't have diabetes and you picked up a slice of pizza. There's not a process where your brain goes, Oh, that's a slice of pizza. We might as well just give her the 1.635 extra units of insulin right now, out of her pancreas. Your it affects your blood sugar as much as it does and your Body fights it as much as it has to. And that and one of the pitfalls I think that people fall into is that concept of, well, this is this is my basal rate, my basal rates, point six my blood sugar's 160. I don't understand why it's 160. Well, you don't have enough basal insulin right now You haven't eaten in hours. Yeah, and your blood sugar is sitting high, your baseline since not enough. And when you say to somebody, they go, Oh, that makes so much sense. But they don't think about it because the doctor told them. This is your basal rate. So if your blood sugars, I can't be that because we've already decided that's your base rate. And the same thing with insulin to carb ratio, we've already decided that's 30 carbs. And that means you need this much insulin. If I get high afterwards, it can't be that you count the carbs, right? And then that throws you into hours of like questioning yourself questioning the world. You're just like,
Unknown Speaker 25:48
I don't understand.
Scott Benner 25:50
Yeah, I did the right here. Yeah, my system. Is any of that really? In front of me? Am I in the matrix? That kind of stuff? And but but you once you learn to think past that? It really does. I don't know how you find it. But for me, it boils right down to that very simplistic idea that I talked about the time if your blood sugar is high, you don't have enough insulin. Yeah, right. Right. Are you miss timed? Or you don't have enough? Maybe a combination those two and do something about it? Don't sit around for three hours going? I wonder what's going on?
Natalie 26:20
Yeah, huh. Well, I think that one of the most like, the biggest lie that I was told in the hospital, at diagnosis, and I'm sure everybody feels this way, is the biggest lie that I was told in the hospital is basically it's a simple math equation. You calculate the carbs, and you give yourself insulin, and you're good to go. And it's like, it is so far from that.
Unknown Speaker 26:50
It's not even close. I mean,
Natalie 26:53
and so that, and I think that my experience with having this doctor that was garbage made me and I took I had to take everything into my own hands and figure it out myself. So it's like, you know, I think I trust you. I think you really have to trust yourself and say, Yeah, my basal rate is not right. So fix it, or I just, I just went to my endo a couple weeks ago. And it was the first time I'd seen her since getting my pump. And she was looking at my settings. And she's like, Oh, you bump your bazel up like, to, you know, almost doubled during the night. And I said, Yeah, because I was looking at all my decks patterns, and I rise really high during the night. And she's like, well, I can't argue with you because you have a perfect flat line. Thank you. And why
Scott Benner 27:47
did you want to argue with me? But like, what, what was that's the question what Why is her inclination to be like, Oh, this is wrong. What it's, you know what, I would love to ask her that question like, what what made her like, like, get herself like her hackles up and be like, Oh, I have to say something to Natalie about this. Yeah, she's doubling her bazel.
Natalie 28:06
At night. Why is it doubled? And I guess maybe, because most people probably lower it at night? I don't know, I think that I think that it's just such a weird disease that is so individual that I can't imagine. I mean, it's hard to find patterns in my own self, I can't imagine having patients, you know, that are all so different. And trying to find some sort of common theme
Scott Benner 28:35
every 20 minutes when somebody said, someone sits down in your seat, you know, you just said something that I feel like I could talk about for like an hour and try to figure out what it means. Diabetes is such an individual disease. Right? And but if you there's got to be a, there's a reason that that statement is true, or, or not true, right? Because what does that mean? Exactly? Does it mean that let's say your experience with your diabetes is based on your understanding of many variables. If you came into my house and gave your care over to me for a day or two or a week or a month, could I do a better or worse job than you were doing? Maybe I would end up not doing as well as you did. Or maybe like, like the god mean, like everything we accomplish in life is based on our understanding and our and our will to try and you know, all these different like variables, like it's, it really is like, I wonder how individual it is. If it's not, what if it's individual, but it's individual based on not so much the diabetes, but the person and their ability to absorb, understand and put into practice, everything that needs to happen? Didn't mean one point. So it just always strikes me that way. Like I could be wrong, you know what I mean? But, yeah, it just, if there's Um, I don't know If we take two exactly, you know, two cars that are exactly the same, and put two different drivers in it and send them out on a race, one of them's going to get to the end before the other one was that the car was that the driver?
Unknown Speaker 30:13
Like Dino points, you
Scott Benner 30:15
know, I'm saying like, like, yeah. So it. I only say that because I think saying, I think that when people say in the community when they say, well, diabetes is such a personal thing. I get that. But I get scared sometimes that they're using that as an excuse, like, you don't understand my diabetes is so much different than your diabetes. That's why my one c Is this yours is that this is not my fault. It's, it's the diabetes, I got the special kind of Jimmy diabetes, and I'm just like, you've got the gnat diabetes, and so you're not diabetes are way better than my Jimmy diabetes. And so by the way, Jimmy diabetes is almost the episode title at this point. So but, but like, but my point is, is that is that that that's not that's a fair statement, but right, like, but it shouldn't stop it. But it ends up stopping people, it ends up giving them an excuse to stop because, and it's not an excuse, it's they think that they've reached the pinnacle of what they can do. It's that you ever hear anybody say I have brittle diabetes? Wow, you know, that is not an actual medical distinction. But it but it is a well held, firmly understood concept in the in the diabetes world that is accepted by people and doctors. Oh, I have brittle diabetes. I'm in. And I'm sure some people have these horrible versions of you know, their bodies are just a dumpster fire, and everything is worse for them. And that sucks. But then somebody else comes along, who doesn't understand how insulin works, gets real low, after giving themselves way too much insulin and goes, Oh, I'm a brittle diabetic? Well, no, you're not I just didn't didn't use the insulin right. And it's not the it's cool that that happened to them. Like I understand that happening. I just get worried that then the label stops them or get the label stops them from trying to understand it further.
Unknown Speaker 32:17
Right.
Scott Benner 32:20
Let's play a game. what's covered by Medicare is permitted by the FDA to be used with zero finger sticks is available for iPhone. And Android allows you to see a loved one's blood sugar, no matter where they are in the world, and has been an integral part an integral integral integral and has been an integral, oh, I lost the word important. And that's been an important part of how I've kept Arden's agency between 5.6 and 6.2 for over four years. You know what I'm talking about Dexcom, the G six continuous glucose monitor. Did you really not know? You know, he just been nice to me. I appreciate that. You hear every week about how I take the data that comes from ardens Dexcom g six, and I make split second, and sometimes long term decisions about how to adjust her insulin, her basal rates or boluses temp basals these are the ways we bump and nudge. It's no Solitaire. These are the way we bump and we bump and we bump and notch. There's no song there whatsoever. I'm sorry, but that information Wow. Hundred and 78 episodes people What do you want just by the next comment, I can stop doing this. The information sincerely the information that I get back from the CGM from the Dexcom g sex. That's how I decide I'm looking Arden's blood sugar right now. 92 nice and steady after a giant bowl of Apple Jacks. Did I get the first Bolus right now I didn't. But the Dexcom told me that it said, ooh, this is trying to go up and I was able to Bolus more 20 minutes after the initial Bolus, I was able to set a Temp Basal and then shut it off when I needed to. That's what you need this Dexcom for, forget the music, go to dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. Go to the links in my show notes. Go to Juicebox Podcast, go to Juicebox podcast.com and click there. Just try it. Trust me It works even if I've messed this ad completely up.
Natalie 34:25
My mom always said that she had a cousin that was type one that was a brittle diabetic. And then she has she always says well she also would drink Pepsi's all day and smoke cigarettes. And I'm like, she wasn't a brittle diabetic. Like didn't care.
Scott Benner 34:47
Jimmy diabetes that's what he had. Yeah, and so therefore it just look you're gonna be some people who hear this and get mad and I get that but I'm sure but you have to
Natalie 34:58
everybody gets mad at something. If you have
Scott Benner 35:00
to listen to what through what I'm saying here is that like, if you're having these horrible issues, you have to you have to look for other answers, not not say, Oh, I'm just the guy who this doesn't work for
Natalie 35:16
mine is especially hard, right? Well, you can do it this The thing is like, it's gonna be really hard, but like, you definitely can figure it out.
Scott Benner 35:25
Yeah. And you might not be able to figure it out on your own, by the way, in that that's an important distinction
Natalie 35:30
a long time do
Scott Benner 35:32
yeah, and it might take, it might take a long time. But there My point is that very likely, there is a combination of answers that will be that when put together, they they will make your answer to your problem. And and maybe that's impossible to find. Maybe it's difficult to find maybe at the moment, you don't know the right questions to ask or the right people to ask. But don't give up. Because there is a combination there that will work for most people. Now, again, please don't get me wrong. There are some people whose whose health is just at a different space. But that's not most of us. Yeah. Right. And so I just I get, I don't want to fall into the, you know, I talked about on here that doctors sometimes are guilty of doing, like least common denominator teaching where they teach to who they expect is the least intelligent person they're going to see all day, you know what I mean? Or the person who has the least ability to understand diabetes all day, and then everyone gets that basic information. And I don't want the podcast to become that where you're just like, Well, you know, let's only talk about this spot. Because what if there's a person here who doesn't get it, you'll leave them out? I don't want to leave them out. I want to pull them in and tell them look, just get in here and fight once. You know, there's an answer. And I've seen it, Natalie. I've spoken to people privately, and on this podcast who are as lost as lost could be and they find their way out eventually. They just need they just need better. You know, they need better ideas. Something Yeah. and ways to use them. So totally. Yeah. So so I'm sorry. So. So you, you were for a few years using MDI. And you were having a look at we're 30 minutes and we're never gonna get never gonna get to this part. But you felt you said you felt like you were doing really well with them? Yeah. Did you have MDI and a CGM?
Natalie 37:28
No, I was fully old school until just recently. Basically, I got the CGM in March, and then I got the pump in September. But
Scott Benner 37:39
let me ask you one question to that. And then I'm gonna let you roll with this for a second. Were you good at it? Or were you just testing it spots? Were your blood sugar look good. Because I see that people, sometimes some people, people are like, I ate dinner, and gave myself my needle. And four hours later, I tested myself my blood sugar was 90. I'm so good at this. But they don't know what happened for those four hours afterwards.
Natalie 38:01
No, I was good at it. And my agency actually was better on MDI than on my pump. So you're still pumping them? I yeah, that being said, and it's like, my agency on the pump right now is six. So it's not at all I you know, or, you know, crazy high, but on on MDI, it was like 5.6 5.9 5.8. So it's very, it's just, you know, marginally higher on the pump. And that being I, the first couple weeks was trying to figure out all the settings and whatnot. Yeah, but I think being on MDI, so long, I also really had to figure out, like, what certain foods did to me what certain things if I get delayed by x, or whatever, I was always pretty diligent about testing. And I also am, I work out a lot. So I was always testing a lot during the day before working out during and after, and I went through a lot of test strips.
Scott Benner 39:16
And you almost end up acting like your own glucose meter. When you do that to a little bit like your own continuous glucose. Could you start I remember when Arden was younger, and she was on MDI, I would I would go in and I would say the doctor, like don't pay attention to the blood sugars you're seeing on the tests, because I'm testing it really odd times. And why? Because I want to see what's going on. Like, she's like, why would you test a half hour after she ate? I was like, Don't you want to know what's going on a half hour after she says that make sense? Yeah, like, how am I gonna figure this out if I don't see what's happening? And, and they eventually left me alone about it, and stop, you know, but I said instead of saying to me, Hey, you know, you're testing their blood sugar's 300. Here, we should be talking about why it's 300 and how to stop From being 300
Unknown Speaker 40:00
not right,
Scott Benner 40:01
not that I tested it the wrong time. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, that's
Natalie 40:06
blood sugar is high if you test it or not, right? You know what it's like,
Scott Benner 40:10
it's like when I take a selfie, here's the point. Ready? If I spend enough time, and I hold that camera far enough over my head, like on the ceiling, and and I get my neck and just the right position and the lights right, and I click the thing at the exact right time, Natalie, I
Unknown Speaker 40:27
look thin. Like, it's like,
Scott Benner 40:30
look at me, if everyone could just see me like this all day long. I mean, honestly, I'd probably be a male
Unknown Speaker 40:35
model. Yeah, but
Scott Benner 40:38
that's not what I look like, all the other times. If you were to put that camera on the floor and shoot up at me, that is not what you would say. And so I think that that is a really good, you know, example of like, you can't just test when you know, you look great. Yeah, you know, you have to if you need to really want the truth so that you can make better decisions. Because you will see, periodically, somebody will hold up their meter like online and be like, look at this, I tested six times a day, my blood sugar was always perfect. And I thought I wonder what their blood sugar would look like, if you could see it for 24 hours. You don't me like where are where are they in between those tests? Did they just get lucky and pass at the right time? Did they just know when to test where it worked? where it looks better? Like, are they gaming the system a little bit, you know?
Natalie 41:24
Yeah, and nobody in there is an element of denial where before I had the CGM, like, I can feel when I'm like, a little bit higher. And I'd be like, Oh, I don't even want to know. Like, I just don't even want to know. Yeah, I just, I mean, I still would, but I just be like, Oh, I know. It's gonna be it's gonna be high. And then you know, sure enough, it always. If I had that feeling it was
Scott Benner 41:51
what do you think that feeling is about? Do you think it's about I don't want to be shown for sure that I messed this up. I don't want to have to put more effort into this. And all the cool. What is that part? No.
Natalie 42:03
I don't know. And when I first got to CGM, I was like, I don't know if I'm gonna like being constantly reminded, if I haven't, up if I'm on the rise, or if I'm falling or whatever. Because maybe I don't want it to be so prevalent, like, everything that's going on with me all the time. And if I messed it up, or if I gave too much or not enough or whatever. But, um,
Scott Benner 42:28
so then just a super, super, super simple idea of as I just don't want to deal with this right now. Like,
Natalie 42:33
yeah, and I think being more newly diagnosed, it was like, a god, like, I miss my life where I didn't have to, like know this. Yeah. But then, once I got my decks and everything, it was like, how did I, I don't know how I survived this long without this, because this is the best thing that ever happened.
Scott Benner 42:55
No, I agree. It Listen, in the end, it really does suck down diabetes, like there's no way around it. Nobody's gonna say otherwise. So it's more of a mental leap you have to make it really is like, this is my life. Now let me go have a great life with this
Natalie 43:13
right now. My life is awesome. And I my motto, my diabetes motto is lose the battle win the war. I mean, some days, it's like, some days I lose the battle. And it's like, there is nothing I feel like, some days, I'm just, it's high and it's low, and it's time. And other days. It's great. And it's like, sometimes you just got to lose the battle and win the war.
Scott Benner 43:40
I'm going to tell you, I think that that might be some of the best advice ever. Honestly, I just you can't get stuck on what just happened. It always has to now moving forward. I'm gonna bleep out when you said lose the battle when the bond is put in bold with insulin. So when people hear they'll hear Natalie's voice go. Why diabetes motto was then I'll come in doing girls
Unknown Speaker 44:01
with insulin.
Unknown Speaker 44:06
And then I'll just go back to like a
Unknown Speaker 44:07
computer voice. Yes. Theory. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 44:13
I don't I don't
Scott Benner 44:14
put that much effort in. Or I would try that just to be funny here. But, but but I think seriously, what you just said is incredibly important. Because when you're talking on the diet on the podcast, like when I'm speaking about this, I'm talking about it in a way that's informative. And so you don't spend a lot of time while you're being informative, telling people then do it wrong. Like, you know, to me, like you're like, Hey, this is what I think could eventually lead to that.
Natalie 44:41
In the middle, like trial and error,
Scott Benner 44:43
right right to trial and error is so important, like try it, but you have to be you have to be willing to see the error as data and not error. It has to be trial and data. You don't mean like oh, I did this I talked about all the time. Like it's simple math. I did a B happened. Next time I'd like to see see happen. So next time I'll try this. And you know, and and you can't burden yourself with like, Oh, I messed it up because you didn't mess it up, you're learning it, you're figuring out or by the way, sometimes it just you're not going to get it right. And that that two's not messing it up, it's just, you have to keep going, if you get mired down in the idea that you're screwing up, this becomes very difficult to do. It becomes very, you know, it's, it can be really depressing at that point, then, you know, then you're gonna burn out then if you keep if you keep focusing on that, that aspect of it. So I just think what you said is really important. And actually, I have a episode coming up in the beginning of the new year, where we're going to talk to somebody who was completely burned out and depressed. Because we don't talk about that enough, either. So
Natalie 45:50
yeah, it happens for sure. Yeah, I
Scott Benner 45:52
don't see how I couldn't. I mean, this morning at four o'clock, I almost just kept like, I should have just walked up on the roof and took a swan dive. I was so tired. I was just like, Oh, God, like, you know what, you're all on your own. Good luck. I'm checking out
Natalie 46:07
Well, one of the reasons I got the decks was because I was starting to get so burnt out on on pricking my finger, because I was doing it so much. That I was like, I my fingers are sore at this point. I just I'm like, I don't want to do it. I just don't.
Scott Benner 46:24
I saw something the other day, like I have to have to get a glucose monitor. This guy said he's like, I can't I just can't do this anymore. I can't stop myself anymore.
Unknown Speaker 46:32
Yeah, it gets old, sucks,
Scott Benner 46:36
gets old quick. Dancing for diabetes is passionately committed to the fight against diabetes, and they will continue to serve until a cure is found. Find out more at dancing for diabetes.com that's dancing the number for diabetes.com for the links in your show notes for Juicebox podcast.com. Like sometimes Arden's like, you know, she's doing her homework, and I'll be like, test and she'll be like, I'm doing my homework. And I'm like, She's like, five minutes, and I'm like, five minutes. I'm like, can you test really quick and she's like, just kind of like, you know what, I just walked over and like, she'll put her hand up in the air. And it's a weird thing, right? Like she's accepting of it. It doesn't stop her from thinking about what she's thinking about. If you told me you were about to, like, snap my finger and make it bleed. I would stop everything I was doing and be like, Oh, my God, oh, my god. I'm like, I don't mean, right. And so please, please, please, please, why is this person doing this, but she's just like, here, go do it. But as it's happening, there's this. I don't know how to describe it except for energy around her. And the energy says to me, I wish this wasn't happening like that. Like it's not, it's just like, I'm doing it because I have to do it. But if there was a way out of this, I'd really like to know what it is right now. And yeah, the technology is getting better and better and better to the point where you have to imagine that someday, you won't need a meter. Like it's not now. I still need one now. But I it's got to be there one day, I hope, you know,
Natalie 48:07
I for sure. I think for sure.
Scott Benner 48:09
Yeah. Because I did talk to the doctor. I forgot his name just fell right out of my head. But the genteel lancing device, a gentleman who made that he was Oh, yeah, I was on a few episodes ago. And that that's nice, but it's probably not for everybody. No, because diabetes is an individual disease. As we said earlier, it's not for everybody, but that might be one option. But it's just in the end, whether it's done by suction, or it's done by it's just it's a pain in the butt. It's thanks, Sam. angry,
Natalie 48:38
cat hurts, and it's annoying. Yeah.
Scott Benner 48:41
Right. So you were testing it weird times and giving yourself the same kind of concept that a glucose monitor would give you? And yeah, you're actually able to? So were you pre, we're just gonna call it Pre-Bolus. And even though you were doing it with needles, but were you giving yourself in some prior to meals, you know, would you test them a little later and find out? Oh, I'm still high and inject again, like, how did you handle it?
Natalie 49:02
Yeah, so. So I didn't realize until I got the pump, but I was essentially like, mimicking what you can do with the pump so much, you know, easier.
Unknown Speaker 49:15
So
Natalie 49:17
I would give, I would test my blood sugar and give myself a Pre-Bolus based on what I what I was going to eat and what my blood sugar was at the time, right? However, if I was more if I was like, if I was over 100 I would do the Pre-Bolus if I was like closer to 80 then I would Bolus it right before eating.
Scott Benner 49:43
Okay, um, but does that make you high then even though cuz I just had this conversation. My wife the other day, she was like, Well, she's 75 so I didn't Pre-Bolus I'm like, That doesn't matter. Be benign. I
Natalie 49:55
mean, yeah. So for me typically No, because and This is where I'm saying the MDI is a lot of work. But you can totally do it is. So then after eating shortly after, I would give myself like one more unit, just like, knock it back with one unit, right. And then, so basically, I was doing an extended bolus
Unknown Speaker 50:19
when needed needles
Natalie 50:20
with needles, right. And the other trick that I have that I'm sure if any endo is listening, they're going to be like, What is she talking about? But I would get syringes. And this is all just me treating myself like a science experiment. I would get syringes. And let's say I needed you know, four units. But my fourth unit, I would, I would need, like, more towards the end of the meal. So I would stop from going high later. Okay. I would do like three units, I would drop three units of humalog, right. You know, in a syringe, and then I would pull up like a unit of regular insulin, like old school regular, okay. Because it peaks way later. So I would mix them and give myself an injection of the concoction. Yeah. Oh, my God. Does that work?
Scott Benner 51:32
She'd been making a little of how did you get them to give you all that different insulin? Would they just they were cool with it.
Natalie 51:38
I think my endo like, he thinks I'm insane. But she finds me entertaining, I think. So I said, you know, I've been researching and I and I know that regular insulin takes longer to peak. And sometimes after I eat like a steak or something, I get a delayed bike, like the protein spike for me is like a couple hours later. And I was like, What if I just tried a regular and she was like, I mean, whatever to what you want
Scott Benner 52:11
to get out of here.
Natalie 52:12
It's like if she it was, I think you can even get it over the counter. And like, I don't know, if they you I think they use it for like dogs and stuff.
Scott Benner 52:23
I have to tell you it as you were explaining it in my mind. here's, here's what I pictured. You draw up four units of insulin, you stick the needle in your arm, you push them three, then the needle just hangs in your arm for an hour, then you push the other unit. I was like, is that what she's gonna say? Cuz that would be
Natalie 52:39
insane. That would be really insane. But that's not what I'm talking about. No, give yourself a full injection. But
Scott Benner 52:47
it's a mix of these two insolence. Yeah,
Natalie 52:49
yeah. Because the peak time is different. It would cover me for and I would get the best flatline. And once I got the AGM, then I really could see like, oh, man, you've got to do you've got to throw in that unit or to have regular.
Scott Benner 53:07
That was holding that now did that information that you got back from that experiment that does that inform how you're using a pump now?
Natalie 53:15
Totally. Yeah, right. Oh, yeah. Especially on things with better like, for me higher things with like higher fat. So Indian food, for example. Every time I eat Indian food, like three hours later, I'll spike. I'll be like, move sailin all through Indian food. And then three hours later. I think the fast slows down the absorption. Right?
Scott Benner 53:40
I was just talking to the to the mother of a child privately the other day. Hey, Deepa, if you're listening, and she was saying the same thing, she's like, oh, Indian food is so hard on my son. And and that's where they were struggling with. It's it's just interesting. You brought that up, and I just somebody else just said it to me two days ago.
Natalie 53:57
Yeah, it's my favorite food in the world. So I have like figured it out now. And if you're on MDI, you like I swear, the regular is the way to do it. But yeah, for on my pump, I do the same thing. It's like, I'll give myself less of upfront insulin, and then bump my basal rate up and or do it you know, do a Temp Basal and then extend it for like three hours and put most of it on the extended end of it. And I think that's where I'm saying that diabetes is so individual because I think certain foods affect people differently and you know, for sure, and stuff like that. So for me
Scott Benner 54:45
that that works for you. But I will say this, like, I'm looking up now, Arden's blood sugar's 97. She's going to need to Pre-Bolus for lunch in 30 minutes, and I'm still hoping she gets a little lower. I appreciate I Pre-Bolus yesterday, I think she was 78, before lunch, and we at 20 minutes before I really couldn't give her insulin then she was like in class. So I just did an extended bolus with nothing up front. So it was like zero percent. Now the rest of it over, you know, a half an hour so that by the time she got there, 20 minutes later, most of it was already in, but not all of it was active, and then the rest of it was in and became active. That's one way to do it. Sometimes all. You know, if she's a little higher, I'll I'll give her more up front extended out over an hour. And if an hour later, I mean, this year at school. Her vibe has been about an hour and 10 minutes after we do that Pre-Bolus it's possible she'll head up and then we just as soon as as soon as we say it, there's more insulin so so yeah, if she, if she gets insulin at 11:20am. And at some sort of extended bolus, and at 1230 she's 120. Diagonal up, I bolus more. Because for sure, because I've seen I've seen blood sugars done I've seen mealtime insulin given perfectly and when it is given perfectly, your blood sugar does not move. And so if it's moving, you missed a little bit now, here's the interesting, I'm gonna take a drink because this is going to be me talking for a second. Okay, so Natalie just said something. I want to circle back to right. And let me see if I can focus my mind. Oh my god, it's gone. This is what happens when you get older Natalie, try to avoid age if you can. re engineer this conversation. So is this. How did the drink throw me off? Not? What happened? I was worried about the ice making noise. Let's go backwards in time we'll try to go. What happened? Okay, then I was gonna turn and say, Okay, I remember what it was. I did it.
Unknown Speaker 56:56
Crap.
Scott Benner 56:57
Thank you so much. So you were talking earlier about, about like, you know, I took a unit of this and they mix it with change that what I heard, because I've got so much experience talking to other people about diabetes. I hear all the voices of the people listening going well, wait, how much did she use? And how long before? And then how much? And they because you people listening? You still want an answer you want like, one you want you want someone to tell you? Here's a point where you put in two minutes Wait, what it's got, say at 120? people's is going to how much does evals Stop worrying about that. Listen to the spirit of what Natalie said she was an adventure. She was like, Look, I'm gonna try something here. You're mixing regular with with, with, you know, humor blog and all this stuff like that is like, that is a person who's like, I wonder what's on the other side of that mountain range? Let's go find out. You know, and and that's the takeaway, if everyone listening, the takeaway from what Natalie said, Isn't the exact amount of insulin she is. It's that she tried that she was like, Hey, I wonder what this will do. Because so much of what's holding you back and talking to the people listening now. So much of what's holding you back is yourself is the idea that someone told me this. And I think this is the rule. So I don't want to buck the rule. But I feel in my gut that it's not like I can tell it's not but I can't make myself break free and try. I tell people all the time, you know, when I'm talking to them privately, and they're like, Well, okay, so you're saying more than so at that point? I'm like, Yes, then they're very next question is always How much? And I always say, I don't know, I figure that out. Yeah, there's no, there's no magic number. Do you think there's a calculator here that someone didn't share with you? You know what I mean? Like, more blood sugars higher, more. And that's why I started talking about like, if you have a dexcom, I talked about, like stopping the arrow. Like when I see the arrow, I think I need to stop the arrow. And how much time does that I don't know as much as it
Natalie 58:52
takes to stop it. And that's another thing that sort of is intuitive. And I from listening to the podcast. And and I've heard you say, you know, right, when you see that arrow, just sort of like bump it down. And that's like some of the best advice that I've gotten from from listening to your podcasts because there's been times where I see the arrow, and I'll just, even if it's like, even if I'm like, it's like 107 or something and I just eaten but there's a little thing, I'll just say, I'll throw in a throw in a happy unit and like see what happens. Or I'll just, you know, bump my Temp Basal up for a minute and sort of like, see how this goes. And it always knocked me right back in. And
Scott Benner 59:41
so there's two things here. First of all, everyone erring on the side of caution most of the time you end up needing more insulin than you think anyway. And you know, yeah, you can always Bolus using the juice box theory, which is not specific to the to the show, but to the idea of there was this time That delete ups not important but Artem was getting high at a sporting event from adrenaline. And it is difficult to talk yourself into bolusing you're, you know, back then eight or nine year old when she walks into a gymnasium to play basketball in her blood sugar's 100. It was hard to tell yourself her adrenaline's gonna kick in in 10 minutes, and she's going to have needed insulin. It is hard to make that decision to Bolus a 100 and then send somebody out to do something. So one day, I realized, look, I'm seeing this happen every time I have to do something. How can I decide how much insulin to use? And then I said, Oh, I'll bolus the amount I know a juice box can catch. And then I just said, okay, that back then it was like a unit and a half. I was like, here's a unit and a half. And sure enough, the adrenaline tried to kick in, but the unit and a half was working and it worked. And I wasn't gay. But my my safety net was the juice box theory, which was if this goes wrong, I'll just give her the juice box.
Natalie 1:00:58
totally right. Yeah, if it goes wrong, my juice box is a roll of Smarties.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:04
There you go. Nice. I'm
Natalie 1:01:05
like because sometimes I'm like, Huh, if this goes terribly wrong, half a roll of Smarties. We'll fix it. Right?
Scott Benner 1:01:12
See Natalie has the smartest theory. I have the juice box theory. Yeah. And you at home should have your own adventure. Yes, exactly. It's like Dragon's Lair. Except you don't always die. Oh, boy. Yeah, so you bet but there's like five old people are like I remember dragons. I was terrible video. Yeah. But but you're just like, I'm gonna say yes, but I don't know what the hell Dragon's Lair is. But but you know that that's such an, it's such an important idea. Like, figure out what your Smarties are, you know, figure out where how you can do this. It's, you have to trust yourself and try things. You can't just sit back and wait for someone to tell you. Hey, this is the spot 23 minutes, 23 minutes and 18 seconds after this. You need to put in 1.4759 units, like no arm, you're never gonna get that answer. Just figure it out. You have to try Don't be scared. You can't be afraid to get a try. You know you got a you got to throw yourself into it. And test you know, don't be Don't be silly. Don't start giving yourself a ton of insulin like on this is probably okay. You know, if you don't have a C if you don't have a CGM. If you don't have a dexcom, then test if you have a dexcom. Pay attention to it. Test still if you feel like you have to. But you can't just sit back and hope that someone's gonna give you some static answer. There are almost literally no static answers in diabetes.
Natalie 1:02:30
No, and then it's always right. When you figure it out. It's like you get a curveball.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:33
Yeah, absolutely.
Natalie 1:02:35
So another thing that really helped me was with my basal insulin, when I was doing MDI, actually bleeding the dose. So a lot of people you know, you take 16 units or whatever, at night, or however many units you need, right at night, you just take it all, or in the morning, whatever time you usually take it, you take the whole thing. But I learned that splitting it in half and taking for me one in the morning, one at night was so like, I had such a better wine. And yeah, it's just like a straight. Whereas if I took it all at night, then maybe at three o'clock in the afternoon, the next day, I would go a little higher or whatever. So splitting your dose of whatever you take your Seba, lantis, or whatever you're on. I think that
Scott Benner 1:03:40
really helped. We did that too, with our despite what your package insert says that insulin doesn't last 24 hours. So now, which is how you end up with a low at some point, you have to think of that slow acting insulin as like a bank account of insulin, you you know, you inject it all and it crystallizes under your skin. And then for the lack of a more specific term, it melts away slowly holding down your blood sugar. But there are moments when it can, you know, melt away quicker or slower or too soon. And then, you know, you hear a lot of people say oh, like, you know, I take my slow acting insulin in the morning. But, you know, I start getting high about 20 hours later, but it's because this lighting is on it's pretty much gone. Yeah. So split it up. So it's always there. Yeah. And you don't have to change your dose. By the way, when you do that, like in your example of 16. It might not end up being eight Nate. It could end up being more or less it could be end up being more on one side and less than the other side. But
Natalie 1:04:40
I can also I think the other thing is pay attention to if you're running high for a couple days and got bumped, bump up your units. Don't be like well, I'm supposed to be 20 units. So it's like maybe you need 26 units. I don't know you know,
Unknown Speaker 1:04:59
yeah, it now Well, let's
Scott Benner 1:05:00
have a back to what I said if your blood sugar is high, you need more insulin. It's just right. All right, listen, Arden's last, her next endo appointment coming up whenever it ends up being whatever a one sees gonna be. This is the time if her a one sees not higher and significantly higher than her last one because our last one was five, six that one was like I walked out there I was like, we're never doing that again. And you know, and so but but her she's been growing exponentially, so she's getting taller and stronger. And like this is all happening like very quickly. And I am it's the point where I always hear people go Oh, wait, wait, oh, puberty comes and everything's gonna get out of whack. Everything didn't get out of whack. Like I'm gonna I'm gonna lay it on the line right now. I'm bet bet right now, that her hurry once he's going to go up, but it's not gonna like leave the sixes
Unknown Speaker 1:05:49
later. So
Scott Benner 1:05:49
yeah, that when that happens, that's when you're like, oh, high blood sugar. Again, I guess I'm not going to do anything about it. I've just been fighting more with it. I haven't had as many. Like I'm looking at Arden's line right now. I can actually click on it here. Her last six hours. look like she doesn't have diabetes. And I'm more often than not was able to accomplish that. In the past this last three months. It's not so much there's been spikes, and they've hung for a little bit. And I've had to be really aggressive with them and come back at them. But keep in mind what that means is that like, you know, when I say to you like orange vulture got out of hand, I'm talking about like, I was like, 160
Natalie 1:06:30
Yeah, that's I feel the same way. I'm like, oh, man, I'm so high. And then it's like, it's like 155 and other people are like, Oh, I feel great at 155. But you don't know what 80 feels like? Because 80 feels magical. Yeah. Magic. Yes.
Scott Benner 1:06:45
That's a great example. If you know, I don't know what my blood sugar is right now. But it's probably not over 90, right? So I don't have diabetes. So if you're if you're running around, go my blood sugar's 180. Yours is double what mine is. And you know, and
Unknown Speaker 1:07:00
smells like garbage.
Scott Benner 1:07:02
Yeah, it just slows everything down. Right? Like you feel crappy. Natalie, we've gone over now. Oh, my gosh, talking to me, just it's magical goes by. So experience is true. I like the way you said that. I want you to know right now, I'm leaning very heavily towards calling this episode Jimmy diabetes. And I don't know what's going to happen in the end. Because when I go back and edit it, I could be inspired by something else you've said. But at the moment, I have a strong feeling about me diabetes.
Natalie 1:07:36
Oh, God, go with your gut.
Scott Benner 1:07:38
Thank you. Wonderful, excellent. So I'm gonna say goodbye. And thank you for coming on, then I'm going to say goodbye like a real person after I stopped the recording. So really appreciate you coming on and sharing your life with type one. It means a lot to people. Everybody does the same thing when they go to come on the podcast sick. Well, I don't have anything to say. Or I don't know if what I'm going to say is going to be valuable. But I want everyone listening to know that everyone who you've enjoyed listening to on the podcast, thinks that they go
Unknown Speaker 1:08:08
Well, yeah, you know.
Natalie 1:08:10
Yeah. Well, thanks for having me. And I hope that I hope that if anybody's on MDI listening, that will somehow help because, you know, I just want everybody to feel good. So
Scott Benner 1:08:27
it really is it right, once you know how it feels to feel good, you really do want it for everybody else. You just think Oh, I wish I wish I could explain this to other people. Do you talk about diabetes on your Instagram, which I think is where we met?
Natalie 1:08:39
I don't really I do sometimes. But I'm just not that. I don't know. I think I would like have a whole separate account because I could talk about it all day long. I don't you know, I am. I'm not ashamed of it or anything. I just don't really talk about it that much. Yeah. I know what you mean. Also, it's obviously a huge part of my life, but it's also not my life, right? It's a very small part who I
Unknown Speaker 1:09:09
am. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 1:09:11
yeah.
Scott Benner 1:09:11
It's just last night. Arden. Arden met somebody online. And on an Instagram, it's a person her age, and who has diabetes. And I actually, I know they talk and I said to her last night, I was like, How did you meet this person? She goes, I don't know. I think maybe they found you first, like the podcast or something. And then through Instagram figured out that, you know, you're not Arden and then figured out where I was. And she's like, I really like this person. They have a really nice relationship and everything. But then she said, I said oh, because I thought you just found her. She was no no she goes but she is one of those people has tea one day in her profile. And I was like, Oh, it was such an interesting statement. Like she's one of those people who puts T one day in her profile because Arden never hides her diabetes. Like, you'll see pictures of Arden all over the place. If she takes a picture and her pumps in it, she doesn't think twice about that effort. She doesn't Dexcom stick it on her head while she's never thinks twice about and yet never talks about diabetes. So it's interesting how her I don't know. Like, she's not an advocate on our own, but sometimes just living, you can be an advocate just by being yourself out in the world. You don't have to specifically talk about it, I guess. Yeah, it's just a very,
Natalie 1:10:30
I mean, I guess for me, it's like, it's like, you know, my eyes are blue. I don't put in my profile. I have blue eyes. It's like, I just do you know what I mean?
Scott Benner 1:10:41
That's, it's just I'm glad we answered with that. Because that's, it's, I think it's an interesting distinction. So, all right, I'm gonna say goodbye right here. All right. Thank you, Natalie, for coming on the show and sharing your life with Type One Diabetes. Thank you dancing for diabetes. Thank you. Dexcom. Thank you on the pod. You can check out all the sponsors at Juicebox podcast.com. Or use the links that are in your show notes.
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