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#976 Type Two Stories: Nanci

Podcast Episodes

The Juicebox Podcast is from the writer of the popular diabetes parenting blog Arden's Day and the award winning parenting memoir, 'Life Is Short, Laundry Is Eternal: Confessions of a Stay-At-Home Dad'. Hosted by Scott Benner, the show features intimate conversations of living and parenting with type I diabetes.

#976 Type Two Stories: Nanci

Scott Benner

Nanci has type 2 diabetes.

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

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 976 of the Juicebox Podcast

I am back with another type two story today is with Nancy. Nancy had gestational diabetes with I think her second pregnancy she's a type two now has been for quite some time. And this story is I think it's a lovely I think it's an honest portrayal of what it might be like to live with type two diabetes. And it offers some real insight to things that maybe could have been done differently for Nancy, but things you could definitely implement now. 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. Save 40% By using the offer code juice box at checkout at cozy earth.com I am wearing my cozy Earth joggers right now. And I put brand new cozy Earth sheets on my bed yesterday and I got in them and I thought this is how it's supposed to be save 40% off your entire purchase at cozy earth.com When you use the offer code juicebox at checkout

this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the blood glucose meter that my daughter uses. And one that I think you should check out whether you have pre diabetes, type two diabetes or type one diabetes because it is so incredibly awesome and accurate. That Contour Next One Gen blood glucose meter. Learn more Get started today by right now online. Find out about the Second Chance test strips the whole thing. All that stuff you can learn at my link contour next.com forward slash juicebox. Today's show is also sponsored by touched by type one now. Right now Today is August 8. So that means in just a little over a month touched by type one.org. Programs tab annual conference in just over a month. I will be speaking at the touch by type one annual conference. It's a free conference for individuals of all ages and backgrounds. The goal of this conference is to educate, encourage and empower all lives touch with type one diabetes, whether you have type one, or just the connection to someone who does. The annual conference provides a unique opportunity to be surrounded by the nation's top experts related to thriving despite diabetes. And I feel weird saying that because I'm gonna be one of those people come see me speak on September 16. At the Rosen Shingle Creek, Orlando, Florida location, come on touch by type one.org It's free. And Jenny's gonna be there. Go Register Now what are you doing? What's back that place?

Nanci 3:02
My name is Nancy with an eye not a why? Almost 58. I'll be 58 at the end of the month. And I am a type two diabetic along with a myriad of other things.

Scott Benner 3:16
Oh, that's, that's gonna make a great conversation. Thank you for having health issues and coming. I really appreciate it. You're welcome. So you're 57 Almost 58. When did you learn that you had type two.

Nanci 3:32
So I had gestational diabetes with my second pregnancy. And after I had my second daughter it was kind of it was strange, because I didn't know what gestational diabetes was like. I felt like no one ever explained it to me. No one around me had ever had it. I never had read about it. I mean, I just didn't know what it was. And mostly I felt like when I would go for my checkups. They would well kind of berate me about how much weight I was gaining and that my blood sugar levels weren't good. And I really still like think back to then and I'm just so surprised at how little I knew and how little I was told about it.

Scott Benner 4:25
Nancy, let me ask you a question before you go any farther. Is there any chance that in your spare time you torture puppies? No, it's what is that noise?

Nanci 4:37
I'm so sorry. It's my dog. slash my daughter's dog. And she she's a poodle and she's extremely needy. And she's

Scott Benner 4:49
outside of the room.

Nanci 4:50
Yeah, she's

Scott Benner 4:52
what would you let her in?

Nanci 4:54
I'ma let her in. Yeah, hopefully hopefully she'll behave because she really doesn't like being there. I'm so sorry. All

Scott Benner 5:02
right now it just sounds like you're breaking a law of humanity. While you're

Nanci 5:06
Yeah, she's, she's she's pretty good at that to be honest. She her name, her name is Luna. She's little white poodle. And she is 11 years old and probably the most needy dog on the planet.

Scott Benner 5:23
Well let her and let's see what let's see what happens to Luna when she comes in. By the way around here. The moon was amazing last night something called a Strawberry Moon. I don't know if it Yes,

Nanci 5:31
yes. And and yesterday we were talking about how she was even more needy. And someone said, oh, you know there's a full moon and dogs get a little bit more. And I had never heard that before. So

Scott Benner 5:49
yeah, is she in? She then we tell you a story. My mom and dad owned a poodle that they loved very much. And then they adopted me and the poodle went after me and my mom got rid of the poodle. Oh, my goodness. thank my mom for sticking up for me right now. Well,

Nanci 6:09
I mean, not I'm not gonna say that my daughter doesn't love her dog. But my daughter just had her second baby. And so that's why I have the dog. Luna lived with me years ago when my daughter still lived here wasn't married. And she was like both our dog and then my daughter moved out and she took the dog. And truthfully, I missed the dog more than her. Just kidding. I'm just kidding. And so I had visitation with the dog. So I would take the dog every few weekends and after her first daughter was born, we were kind of concerned because Luna can have a little bit of an attitude. So they did okay together. But after the second baby my daughter was a little overwhelmed. So I have had the dog for almost three months now. And we don't know what's gonna happen.

Scott Benner 7:09
How much do you get paid to watch the dog?

Nanci 7:13
I get love and adoration.

Scott Benner 7:16
I just took my dog either. We use this terrific like kind of private kennel near my house. So it's lovely for the dogs. They I think they like it. They're better than they like it in our house. And I know what I just paid her to watch my dogs for 10 days. So I think you are being underpaid love is not enough. Oh my God. Are you paying for the food too?

Nanci 7:37
No, that's this is so funny Scott that you asked that. So Luna being a poodle, you know, she's had some stomach issues throughout her life. So like I said, She's almost 11 So my daughter, you know, buys her this bougie food from the farmer's dog. Am I allowed to say that? I'm sorry. Sure. And it is expensive, like almost $300 a month for dog food. And so I was

Scott Benner 8:06
yeah, you guys were royalty. Am I talking to royalty? Oh my gosh, that's lovely. Do I curtsy to you? Are you a queen? $300 a month to feed your dog. Hold on a second. Yeah. 300 times 12 I can do this in my head six. And then three. Is it $3,600 a year to feed that poodle? Yeah.

Nanci 8:31
I know. It's crazy.

Scott Benner 8:34
I know. He's not laughing at me. But I am. Oh my god.

Nanci 8:40
I mean, so that was like one of the things I was like, you know, we can take Luna but her bougie lifestyle is above my paygrade so you're gonna have to continue to pay for the dog food. So she still pays for the dog food.

Scott Benner 8:57
I'm gonna I'm going to tell you something. We're gonna get to your type two diabetes in just a second. Okay, but I remember gestational the whole thing I got it in my head. Don't you worry. We had to take a trip to see our kids right. And I have two dogs. India's old like I'm not kidding you. He's 15 like India is the kind of old that like when you wake up in the morning you'll stare at him to see if he's breathing and when he's breathing you go huh no kidding. Like it's that he's that he's that all right. And then Basil is like seven or eight which I guess is getting old but he's pretty much like luggage. You could just pick them up put them down somewhere else he exists again. I think his brains the size of a Walmart like he's fantastic. You know? So our kennel says look in these two old he can't come here anymore. We have to find another kennel. Alright, I understand. We only use this place like once a year so it's not like we're great business for them or anything like that. Just you know too much to watch him to get his age. And so I find another kennel that's like don't worry about him being an older dog. We Trouble that oh my god, it's terrific. Thanks. We dropped them off. Here's the play. I'm going to drive to Atlanta with my son. And the next day Arden is going to drive to Savannah. Or what am I supposed to say she, Where does she go to school? Chicago, I think that's what I'm supposed to say. And Kelly and Kelly is going to drive to work on and goes to school. So I leave a day before I am halfway to Atlanta, when my phone rings. And the kennel says, Hey, you got to come pick your dogs up. And I was like, what now? And she goes, and all I could think is oh, God, indeed. Like, scared them like you. He went into one of his like, staring at the wall faces and they were like, oh, no, like, what's wrong? And she goes, Basil won't stop knocking his water over. And I went, Oh, that's easy. Just don't give him water. Because I'm in self preservation mode at this point. I'm like, no, no, no, like, this isn't happening, you know? So she just No, listen, you know, we tried doing this. We tried giving him a bucket. We tried tying the bucket to the cage. He flips it over immediately. We can't leave him here without water. And I was like, Sure you can. It'll be fine. I was like, I mean, not forever. Like, give him water with this food. He'll drink it, and then he won't have it the rest of the time until he eats again. Wait, no, no, I can't do that. I'm like, I mean, that's what we do at our house. But okay, I'm like, like, there's not always water in a bowl like there is but not always like it really. I can't talk her into it. So I'm calling my wife. I'm like, I don't know what to do. And so I call the woman back again, I tried to talk her out of it. And in the midst of trying to talk her out of it. I say to her, Listen, I can't do I can't. I was like, here's what you're gonna need to do. Let them outside. If Jesus wants him to find us. When he comes back, you know, if he comes back, when I get back from my trip, whatever, I'll go to the woods where you let them out. And I'll call his name a couple times. I'm like, if he comes back then God bless. And if not, I'm like, I have no other options here. I can't I can't not. I can't get oh my deal with this. And she's like, No, oh my gosh, out of no partying goes. You know, we just bought that new water dish. Like, like, I want to be clear. Bezos never flipped his water bowl over here at my house ever once. Never. But recently gotten this water dish that didn't allow for sloshing because because India's messy when he drinks, and it has little rubber feet on it. And oh, Arden Kelly ran that over to the kennel put it in there, Basil looked at it. He was like, Oh, this is cool. And he left it alone. And that was that. But I was willing. I'm even worried were I was like you're committed, let them outside. And we'll find them a reward when we get back. And I didn't really mean that. But I was out of options. Anyway, dogs are a pain. People shouldn't buy them. They're loved

Nanci 12:58
I, but they are there. They're the greatest companions. And they're, they are like, so sweet and fun. But there are a lot there. There are a lot. No,

Scott Benner 13:09
I would have abandoned a child. If somebody told me I had to drive back from Italy.

Nanci 13:13
Right? Like, sorry, drop her off at the bus station. We'll see you whenever

Scott Benner 13:18
Oh my god. So now, you know this last time we left them nd so old that that the person says to me, I have to ask you like, if he passes while he's here, what do you want us to do? And I was like, we'll call the vet. And you know, I'll work it out with them. What we would do and everything. And she goes, would you want us to call and tell you? And I didn't hesitate? I was like, Yes, of course. And I said is that a question? She goes, a lot of people ask not to be bothered on their vacations if their dogs die. Then those people are monsters that like Yeah, and if you're listening, and you've done that you're a piece of shit. And so it's a very easy thing to like to come down on the side of I was like, no, please, if anything's wrong with my pets, please call me immediately. I might tell you to let them out. But

Nanci 14:09
I want to know do you want to know safe house? Yeah. unrealised

Scott Benner 14:12
she told me a lot of people say that. Like if he dies. Don't tell me. We'll find out when we get back. I'm like, oh, that's I don't know where to fall on that one. But anyway. That's extreme. Yeah. Speaking of extreme, tell your daughter. I said She's out of her fucking mind. Okay, I

Nanci 14:30
know. You're not the first got, believe me.

Speaker 1 14:36
10s of 1000s of people listening right now going, that girl is crazy. So anyway, very nice that you would do that for the doc. You get gestational diabetes with your second kid during the pregnancy, which was a long time ago because how old are your children?

Nanci 14:51
Um, so the one that I had gestational with is 31.

Scott Benner 14:55
Wow. So that was, yeah, 31 years ago. Gestational Diabetes. I was confused about something people are going to be like, I don't know how Scott did this after this long tangent about dogs but I remember you saying they were giving you trouble about your weight. Was this during your pregnancy people were?

Nanci 15:12
Yes. Okay. Yes. And I had I had already had severe insecurities about my weight, I had that pretty much to my whole life.

Scott Benner 15:27
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Nanci 16:53
And I did gain a lot of weight. I mean, I am only five to maybe five, three on a good day. And I was upwards of over over 200 pounds when I gave birth to my first daughter. And then again, upwards of over 200 pounds when I gave birth to my second daughter. But I had gained a lot of weight rapidly at the beginning of my second pregnancy. And the nurses, when I got on the scale would just give me like this shocked look that they couldn't believe that I gained that much weight. And one nurse even said, are you having twins? And I was like no, not that I know of. I'm just big. And one of the one of the funniest or it's funny now it wasn't funny them but one of the funniest stories that I ever tell people. When I was pregnant with my second daughter, she was born right before Christmas. And so I was at a mall with my mom trying to get all of the Christmas shopping done before she came because I knew she was going to come and then I wouldn't be able to go and do all the Christmas shopping. And I mean I was huge. And I was standing outside of the store waiting for my mom and a complete stranger walked up to me and looked at me and she said, You are the biggest pregnant woman I have ever seen.

Scott Benner 18:29
Oh, Merry Christmas.

Nanci 18:31
I know. And I oh my goodness, I immediately started just bawling. And my mom came out and she thought I was in labor. And she was like what is happening? And I couldn't even talk. I was so upset. This woman would say that to me. But yeah, yeah, well.

Scott Benner 18:50
Hey, Sandra. Wait, what? No, no. When you said you were over 200 When you gave birth? What were you when you started like on the day you got pregnant?

Nanci 18:59
So with my first daughter, I mean, I was I was probably only about 125 pounds. So I probably Yeah, I probably gained a good 7580 85 pounds what my first pregnancy and then was with my son.

Scott Benner 19:17
Was it mentioned to you during your first one. Doctor say hey, we're putting on a lot of weight here or I'm uncomfortable with Was there ever any conversation about that? No, no. Did you feel that way?

Nanci 19:30
I mean, I did. I did because I was very aware of how big I was getting. And I felt huge. And I I knew that I had gained more than what normal I guess regular pregnant women to me. Seem like what they gain but yeah, in my first pregnancy. I never remember them. meaning my OBGYN or the nurses or anybody saying anything. I don't know if it is because I was so young, I was only 23 When I had my first daughter, so I don't know if maybe it was because I was so young and maybe not that I was that much older. I was 25 when I had my second daughter, so, but I didn't lose all of the baby weight from my first daughter when I got pregnant with my second daughter. So I probably was about 150 pounds when I got pregnant with my second daughter, and again, was probably, you know, to 10 to 11 When I gave birth to her,

Scott Benner 20:36
did they look at your blood sugar during the first pregnancy?

Nanci 20:41
I believe that I did have the, you know, like three hour glucose test during my first pregnancy, but I complete I can't, like totally remember, you know, because it was a long time ago. And I was young and and I I don't really remember, I definitely remember with my second daughter having it and not passing I guess, you know, and my, again, I have the same OBGYN so I'm not really sure. Like, why? It seems like a different experience. But, um, yeah, he would just kind of like, you know, ask me what I was eating. And then when I would say what I was eating, he'd say, you know, are you crazy? You can't eat that you're gonna you're gonna kill yourself and your baby. And I was like, what? Like, I just remember like, not understanding really what they were saying.

Scott Benner 21:42
Did you Nancy feel like you were eating more food than was reasonable?

Nanci 21:50
I don't think I don't think I was to be honest. I think I probably over indulged in some stuff. Okay. But I do think I had, like, I ate the wrong things. You know, I, I ate pasta, and bread, and heavy carb food, which I know now. But back then, to be honest, I really didn't know like, I I remember, you know, when I was younger, I was just thought sugar made you fat, or sugar made you have bad things happen to you. But I'm half Italian. And so, you know, we eat pasta and bread. And can I you know,

Scott Benner 22:37
can I ask also? I mean, this is 31 years ago. So, you know, a while back? Was there any like that like, well, I'm pregnant. I can eat whatever I want. Now, did that used to be? It was right.

Nanci 22:49
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I'm here eating for two. And I mean, most of my family members felt that way and thought that way. Yeah. So just Yeah, go ahead. You can have it. Yeah.

Scott Benner 23:05
Wow. So when you are diagnosed with gestational, and your second pregnancy, how do they manage it?

Nanci 23:13
So the only way that they managed it was by having me die diet. They just said I had to eat a better diet and that I couldn't have bread and pasta and to eat a lot of salad vegetables. And

Scott Benner 23:36
that was it. Did that work? Did that move your blood sugar down?

Nanci 23:40
I mean, I know that when I would go to my doctor's appointment, and they would test my blood sugar. They would say, Oh, it's a little high. But again, like I kind of remember like one time I think it was like 155 But, and I was like, is that good? Is that bad? And really, it was so strange to me. I think now knowing what I know. It was so strange to me back then that they, they didn't educate me at all like it was you would think I was living in like the 1930s in some backwoods town somewhere that, you know, they were just like, Oh, you're fine. I I just remember her I fell out knowing of it back. Yeah. Right. Like I just remember not not knowing anything and no one explaining anything to me.

Scott Benner 24:36
Okay, so they didn't give you they didn't give you insolence. Nope. Okay, so was the baby born like, big?

Nanci 24:45
She was huge. Okay. She was she was 10 pounds when she was born they and again back it's so funny because my you know, my daughter who just had two children. She's had a I don't know, seven or eight ultrasounds, I feel like with each baby, and when I had my children, they would not do an ultrasound on you, unless they really thought there was something wrong. It wasn't it wasn't a normal thing that you had done. So I remember about two, two or three weeks before I was due. My sister lot actually just had a baby and I was at the hospital visiting her, we have the same doctor. And I had been sent for an ultrasound. And I was sitting in my sister in law's room, I had to have the ultrasound went over there. And my daughter came in, which was her doctor as well, completely ignored her and looked at me and said, Do you know how big your baby is? You need to go over to the office right now. So they can schedule us for a C section. And I was like, Oh, my goodness. So yeah, I went over to the office. And they scheduled me and brought me in for the C section. And when they did the ultrasound, they said that they were reading that the baby was about 11 and a half pounds. But she ended up being 10. Because I just had so much fluid that yeah, she was 10 pounds, she was very big. So then

Scott Benner 26:18
after you have your, your daughter, your second child, how long until like, do you have type two diabetes right away? Or how do you find out about it.

Nanci 26:28
So after I had her, they, you know, had done all like the blood tests and things that they do in the hospital and my doctor had come in and he was like, it doesn't look like your blood sugar levels have, you know, dropped back down to normal. So I, you know, want you to see your just regular family doctor for this. And I remember a couple of months after I had my daughter, I went for a checkup and they you know, had test I had had like a fasting glucose done. And my fasting was like 160. So my doctor was like, oh, yeah, you have type two diabetes. And again, they just said, this is what we want. We want you to be on this diet, and we want you to get more exercise and you have to lose weight, you absolutely have to lose weight. And so that's what I did. I I went balls to the wall, I ate nothing but salad. And I walked miles and I lost the weight. And when I lost the weight and I went and had all my blood tests done again, my blood sugar's were pretty good. So basically, that was my

Scott Benner 27:45
Yeah, that's it. Yeah, I was. Yeah, the lettuce for the rest of your life and walk right nonstop. Yeah, I think I'll be fine.

Nanci 27:52
And, and that's how I thought Scott like that is what I believe to be the rest of my life. And that just started the roller coaster of me dieting, trying every diet under the sun, you name it, I've done it. Gaining weight

Scott Benner 28:13
is that can I ask you Is that because you wanted to eat more normally, but you were just searching for something that wouldn't impact your blood sugar?

Nanci 28:20
Yes. All right. And I tried, I tried everything I and I would go six months, and I would lose weight and I would have good test results. And then after the six months, I would be like, Oh my God, I need a cheeseburger. And and so I would start eating what you know, quotations normal, I would I would think I have to eat normal, and then I would gain weight again. And then I would go and Jenny Craig and I would lose weight and then I would gain weight and go on Weight Watchers. And I mean it just went on like that for years.

Unknown Speaker 29:01
How long do you think

Nanci 29:04
I'm all the way to when I was. So in 2012 I had a spinal fusion where I had to have my C four through my C seven and my neck fused. Really probably just due to inactive lifestyle from when I was young. Because I didn't really like suffer any kind of trauma that would have caused me to have the injury in my neck that I had. So growing up little backstory growing up. I was extremely active. I rode horses competitively, I skied. I rode motorcycles. I was a cheerleader I ran track, so always fit I was always moving, doing stuff and I'm in 2012, I had to have this surgery. And after the surgery, the doctors were like, and I had been running prior to that doctors are like, No more running. You have to do low impact you can swim, you know. And I think I just was like, I, at that point, I just was like, I give up. I am so I'm just, you know, I'm done with all of

Scott Benner 30:30
it. Was really helping you with your type two.

Nanci 30:34
Yeah. And in between that, right. So I was doing like, I went on the diet where, like you, you don't eat anything white. So you have any sugar or rice or white potato or pasta. And I was like, you know, champion through that. And then again, went back to like, Oh, I really want to eat bread. I want to eat this. And then I found keto at some point. And I was like, the poster child for keto. I mean, I was trying to sell it to everybody I knew because I lost weight on keto. So I was like, This is the greatest thing. You can eat bacon and cheese and still lose weight. It's so great.

Scott Benner 31:14
Until that one day, were you looking at a slice of bacon and think I can't I can't, I can't do that. Again. I can't, there can be no more grease that comes from me. And it's unpleasant. Right? And so, wow. And through all of this. Are you? Like, are you managing with a meter? Do you have insulin? Like, what are you doing with your diabetes? So

Nanci 31:38
so the only so then what? So what happened then was I gained a whole bunch more weight again, right? And so years go by with me doing all this right. And then when I turned 50, and I went to my yearly checkup, and I mean, my, my fasting, glucose was horrible. And that's when I got put on the Metformin. And, to me, I thought, well, everyone that takes Metformin, I don't want to say gets better, but it improves their numbers. And I hadn't been tracking my numbers I had, I had a meter that did your ketones, because I had been doing keto. And the meter also came with that you could test your blood sugar. So I remember I was like, Oh, maybe I should try this. Let me let me test my blood sugar. And I tested it. And it was like 211. And I was like, I don't think that's good. And so that's when I started when I was about 50. And I started looking up and reading and trying to understand and educate myself about what was going on. Also, there's a long, long history of diabetes, type two diabetes in my family, my mom passed away from complications of it. My grandparents, both had it, all of my mom's brothers and sisters. And I still even with them having it back before I was about 50. I never educated myself about it. I never took the time to sit down, read about it, learn about it. And I beat myself up now for not doing that, because I know how important it was and that I should have been more aware of what was happening.

Scott Benner 33:44
Let me let me ask you a couple of questions about that. So your your mother dies from complications of type two diabetes? Yeah, you have type two diabetes, and you're in the middle of this never ending like flurry of jumping from diet to diet. And then I guess I'm assuming at some point, just restricting your diet so much that its value, you know, you're you're not taking in anything that can impact you at all, and then saying, Oh, I can't do this anymore. And then going back to it again. So you're flip flopping back, or at any point during that. Are you thinking I'm gonna die like my mom did?

Nanci 34:20
Um, yes, but only probably a little bit more recent. recent, recent, yeah. Because

Scott Benner 34:29
how long has this been in context? Like you've had type two for how long?

Nanci 34:33
So officially put on medication when I turned 50.

Scott Benner 34:38
Okay, but that's, um, that's eight years ago.

Nanci 34:41
Right. But, but, you know, between my gestational and turning 50 And all those years and looking at what what my blood sugar's were each time I would go for my checkup. They were always elevated. Not Not, not in like For hundreds but always like a fasting glucose of 161 70, sometimes 210, you know, which is clearly not healthy. But yeah, put on medication at 50.

Scott Benner 35:20
Put on medication at 50. And so it's interesting because 160, right, like, I think it's interesting to hear that you saw that blood sugar and you were like, Okay, well, I guess that's what this is. Or I, it's what happens when I eat XYZ instead of this. But no, like, not, not to feel like a poll to be like, Oh, I have to immediately stop this. Like, like, I don't I mean, like coming from a, like a type one brain. If you're my daughter's blood sugar was always 160. I think, Oh, my God, like, I have to do something right now today, like cancel our plans. I'm figuring this out. But it doesn't strike that way. And I've talked to other type twos as well, who will make these kind of like obvious statements from their life that are just like, to anybody listening. You're like, that's a red flag, but they don't see it that way. I never. I mean, I'm always trying to figure out why that is.

Nanci 36:21
Yeah, I I find it so bizarre now, because I know so much more. But it's, it's strange, because I remember distinctly after my mom passed away, because my mom was sicker than anyone knew she was because she didn't really. She didn't want people to know how sick she was. And so it was kind of a, I mean, we knew that she had diabetes and high cholesterol and high blood pressure. And we didn't know she had emphysema and we weren't aware of that. She did smoke. So we probably should have been aware. But my mom died pretty suddenly, she actually came to visit me where I live. And she would stay with me for like three months out of the year. And she was here visiting me and had some back pain. I thought it was maybe kidney infection or something. And I took her to the hospital. And three days later, she passed.

Scott Benner 37:39
Oh my gosh, yeah. I'm so sorry. Oh, what was what was the cause?

Nanci 37:47
So she went septic because she had a kidney infection. And her kid their kidneys were only functioning at I think they said at that time, maybe at like 20 or 30%. And it was, you know, from the diabetes? Yeah. And the rest of her, you know, Oregon's in her body had just worn out and the infection got into her blood. And she went septic and there was just nothing that she that they could do.

Scott Benner 38:19
Yeah, so she had had type two for how long?

Nanci 38:24
So she had had probably type two since she was about, I would say, probably 5055.

Scott Benner 38:31
Okay, and how old was she when she passed?

Nanci 38:35
I'm 77. Okay, so

Scott Benner 38:37
in 27 years of diagnosed type two, what was what was her management like? So she was on I'm sorry, I know. You said she kept it private, but as much as you know, right. Yeah.

Nanci 38:49
So I mean, she was on medication she took I can only assume and I know, it's crazy. That I don't know exactly. But I can only assume that it was something like Metformin that she was taking. And she just, I guess would just didn't want everyone to know. And because we I lived so far away from her. She lived 1500 miles away from me. And you know, when I would ask her, Oh, how was your doctor's appointment? She would say, Oh, wait, went well. I did good. So we I just didn't know how bad it was. And I knew she took pills because she had prescriptions with her when she would visit me and she would take them but from an outward or parents you know, she she didn't seem frail to the point that she looked sickly. She she just looked like my mom

Scott Benner 39:56
wanted to share this with you. My mom had a some sort of an episode last week where she was having trouble walking. And and I called her about two days. I mean, I was talking to her pretty consistently, but about two days into this. It is a situation where my mom finds it difficult for her to get like from her chair to her bathroom and back again. I call her up and we're talking everyday. So mom how you feel? And she was fine. I was like, Oh, great. You know, and they were chatting a little more, that it occurred to me to talk to her like she was 10. Mom, are you still having trouble walking? Yes. But you feel fine. Yes. I said, Mom, I think we can characterize not being able to walk to the bathroom is not feeling fine, don't you? Yes. And she goes, Yeah, probably. And it was like, Okay, no, fine. I'm fine. Everything's great. Fine, great. It's wonderful. Mommy changes. Nope. It's always like that. Never ever, ever says the truth.

Nanci 40:56
I know. And I've, you know, I do find that I do it too. You know, like, I think I don't want to I don't want to trouble my daughters with, you know, what I consider to be like, a small issue or something. So they same thing. They'll ask me and I'll just be like, nope, fine. I'm doing good.

Scott Benner 41:15
Yeah, yeah. It's just it's interesting. I don't think yeah, not common. But I mean, it's crazy, because, because look at what happened to your mother really like that idea of not understanding type two diabetes, either meaningfully with how to control it with medication, or how to control it as best you can with diet, then seeing if you need to supplement with medication, that whole thing, just not understanding it. And not understanding what it does. Like just takes her out like bang. Yeah, you know, like, yeah, and even, there's language you use around it. That makes it clear to me that people are just comfortable with this. Like you said, like, our organs just wear out. As if that's the thing that happens. You don't I mean, like, yeah, your organs just wear out eventually. But But when your sugar's high all the time, they were out a lot quicker. And yeah, and it's, um, it's just I don't know, it's kind of fascinating to me. So I'm sorry. Good. You have something to say?

Nanci 42:15
No. And again, I do like distinctly remember thinking to myself, after my mom passed away that I would, I wouldn't be like that, that I would never let myself get to that point of leaving my children so quickly. And not not having a control or a handle on my health. And, and yet, it still happened to me.

Scott Benner 42:44
Yeah. Tell me then through those eight years.

Nanci 42:48
Did you write so?

Scott Benner 42:49
Did you have that fight? Like, I'm gonna figure it out?

Nanci 42:53
Yeah, I mean, I kept trying, you know, I kept saying, I can do this, you know, I can get a handle on my health, I can do this. And like I said, I would try different diets. And, you know, my daughter got married, so I wanted to look good. And I went on, again, keto, and I walked and, you know, lost some weight. And right after the wedding, it was, Oh, I could have this or I can just have that. And it's fine. I'm going to I'm just going to have this.

Scott Benner 43:33
Yeah. And move away a little bit. Right, and then flows last much longer than you think they're going to.

Nanci 43:40
Exactly. And I just remember, I didn't you know, I just didn't feel good. You know, I had gotten to the point where, like, prior I think I'd never not really felt okay. I mean, I always felt like I felt okay, and probably, you know, right, I guess you know, COVID just like time is like so weird with COVID You can't remember if it was like was it before COVID Or during COVID But I think it was somewhere before COVID That I really just started to not feel well and you know, tired and sluggish and just not not feeling well at all and was so frustrated with myself that I couldn't lose weight and I so I came to the conclusion and it wasn't an easy one. But I said, I'm gonna have weight loss surgery. This is what I'm going to do to finally get a handle on all of this because I just can't I just can't get it handle on it and I need to and so I started like the whole procedure of Getting a gastric bypass, which is a long procedure. Like I think people think it you know, you decide to do it you go to the doctor and two months later you're having a gastric bypass but it doesn't work that way. It's a lot of doctor's visits different cardiologists, dietician, dieticians, regular doctor, your surgeon. And during all of that I had found out because I had to have an endoscopy done that I had gastroparesis. And I didn't know what that was. I didn't know that when I would eat, I would feel so uncomfortable. And I had really bad GERD I had really bad constipation. And so, found that out, and then had some more tests done and found out that I had fatty liver disease, and I was in stage two kidney disease. And really, yeah, yeah. And I mean, I it just blew my world. Like wide open. I thought, this is exactly what happened in my mom. And I'm, I'm doing it to myself. Like I'm, I'm my mom. And how

Scott Benner 46:23
long ago did you discover this?

Nanci 46:26
So, um, it was probably close to about two years ago, um, that I was going through. And what had happened was I so I was at that point, at this point, I was on Metformin, right Elsas, which is an oral semaglutide And one other diabetes medication that evades me at this moment. So I was taking three different medications for my diabetes. And I went to go have one of my endoscopies done and my blood sugar was 288 fasting on three different medications. And I was just beside myself, because I was like, I, I, what do I do, I just don't know what to do. And so I at that time, my regular doctor was just managing my diabetes. So I had made an appointment to see an endocrinologist, when to go see him and he right away said, You need to be on insulin, you're, you're the kind of type two diabetic that you're not responding to this, you need insulin. And so at that time, and this was obviously prior to me having a gastric bypass, but he put me on to Seba, Manjaro, and Glyburide. So again, I was on three medications, but three different medications from what I had previously been on

Scott Benner 48:01
going forward to write the Manjaro help you.

Nanci 48:05
Yes, it did. I, I, I I would say it was, you know, probably a couple of weeks. But my blood sugar levels were so much better, so much better. And I definitely felt better. There's no question that I wasn't feeling as sluggish. I wasn't feeling that just being exhausted failing all the time was

Scott Benner 48:36
was lowering your blood sugar? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. You losing weight as well. Yeah,

Nanci 48:43
I definitely lost some weight. I won't say like I was on the very lowest dose. So I was, you know, started out at 2.5. And then after a month, moved up to the five and then stayed on the five until I had my gastric bypass. Okay. So I was on Manjaro for about four months.

Scott Benner 49:08
How much weight do you think you lost in four months?

Nanci 49:11
So I probably last I'm gonna say about 16 pounds.

Scott Benner 49:17
Okay. That's pretty Yeah, it's pretty impressive. Honestly. Yeah. Did you did it changed? I imagine how much you were able to eat?

Nanci 49:28
Oh, yeah, definitely.

Scott Benner 49:30
Did it change? You're like, I don't I don't know how to ask this question. I guess for clarity. I'm using weego V for weight loss. So ozempic is a drug just like Manjaro Magento, I think is a GLP one and maybe a GLP? Two, right. So there's more kind of

Nanci 49:50
GLP one and a G Ip gap.

Scott Benner 49:52
Thank you. Yeah, yeah, for for satiate satiation, right like, and weight loss. So As ozempic During the testing for ozempic, they were like, hey, people lose weight on this, whether they have diabetes or not. And they did a separate study, relaunched it as we go V. It's the same exact literally the same exact molecule. Right, and I, you know, my, my body mass made, it may be eligible for weak Ovie. And so now I've been taking it for I think I have two more injections left. So it's a ramp up point two, five 1.5 them. One, I think I have two more one. So I guess that makes me 10 weeks on this maybe. And I've lost 20 pounds. Wow. And it's fascinating. Because, I mean, I've maybe changed up how I eat a little bit, but not really. You know what I mean? Like, I mean, it's not like, it's not like I was eating like pizza and french fries with both hands. And now I'm having like a sound like, it wasn't like that I didn't over eat to begin with. I just was a person who's like bodies, like I just held on to weight, you know, and I didn't matter what I did, you know, I can die it like my face off and lose 10 pounds, maybe. But then the minute, the minute I had anything near even like a reasonable calorie count, I would just start to put the weight back on again. And yeah, that is not happening now. Like not only do I not have, I mean, any appetite to speak of, like you have to literally remind yourself to eat. Yeah, but I'm, I'm losing weight, like, in a very consistent pace. And to say that I've I mean, my blood sugar's were not high, but I feel terrific. And you know, much better than I did before. We even went, Yeah, you know, we were gone. Like to bring our son home from college than we'd like wrapped up seeing our son in there, too. So we were out of the house for like eight days, I ate in a restaurant for eight days in a row. And was on two long car trips, which is should be an indication to you that I was not, you know, drinking tea with my pinky out, like having a watercress salad for lunch. And I came home only a half a pound heavier than I left. And once and once I was home for 24 hours, my weight went right back to where I was.

Nanci 52:24
Yeah, I I definitely think that the the drugs, the GLP ones are game changers. There's no question. And I do sometimes think to myself, had I found it sooner? Would would I have still gone through with having

Scott Benner 52:48
the gastric bypass? Totally what I was thinking yeah, that's what I was wondering. Yeah, yeah.

Nanci 52:52
And, and I don't know, I really I don't know, because I have had really good success with my gastric bypass.

Scott Benner 53:01
Tell me about that. Yeah. How much have you lost? And how? In what stretch of time? So I

Nanci 53:07
just had my six month checkup from my surgery date. And I am down. Almost 59 pounds. Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, yeah. So um, um, I mean, when I started, I was just about 210. And, again, I'm only, you know, five to five, three. And, you know, some people are like, well, that's not that big. But it is. It's, it's a lot of weight to carry. And I'm considering, not that everyone goes by the BMI standards, or what they say you should weigh if you are this tall, or this tall. But if you do look at those, you know, I should only weigh about 130 pounds. And so think about 80 pounds. I mean, that's, that's a lot. That's a lot of weight to carry around

Scott Benner 54:16
my God, it's insane. I, I, um, while we were away, I saw something funny I wanted to take a picture of, and instead of just taking a picture of it, I jumped in the picture. And I said to Kelly, I'm like, take a picture of me with this. And that is just something I would not have normally done. Yeah. And I have more weight to lose. But it's the first photo I've seen of myself, where I thought I would show this to someone. Like, like, in quite some time. And it's just it's fascinating. Like it's just fascinating how much better I feel like in my mind even just, you know, yeah, because I my whole life. I was like I don't understand why I shouldn't be, uh, you know, I've said it on here a million times, I'm happy to say it again. I am the fattest person who doesn't eat that you'll ever meet in your life. Like, I really just don't eat much food. Like it doesn't make any sense. And they're starting to say now some, some doctors, some weight loss doctors are starting to say that maybe and I should have somebody on to like, explain this. So just keep in mind that I'm this is like second hand me going through something here. But maybe there are people with GLP deficiencies, like not much different than the thyroid. Like so yeah. Like, you know, maybe your body's just not making enough or maybe it's making it and not taking it up for some reason. So giving some of it like, you know, through a supplement is changing it because I can't tell you. Like, I know, I didn't have a lot. Like I'm not obese. Okay, I guess actually, technically I am. But you know, like, by the standards that the doctors used and healthcare, right. But I'm not like, I don't I don't even know how to put it. Honestly, I don't I don't have context for it. But you wouldn't have looked at me and thought, Oh, my God, Scott's gonna die. Like like it. I didn't have that feeling. And the doctor told me when she gave it to me Look, you know, because my wife started at the same time. And she said, Look, you know, you'll probably see weight loss before she does. And I was like, Alright, whatever. And she's like, plus, you know, guys just seem to lose weight easier, and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, okay, but check this. And I'm four pounds lighter inside of five days. Now, nothing about my life changed that drastically. And then, you know, a couple more pounds the next week and a couple more, a couple more. And a couple more than one day. I was like, I weighed 20 pounds less than when I started. Yeah, it and I honestly think that 10 more weeks from now, I'm probably going to be down 40 pounds. And that's probably about where I I'll stop. But right, it was never going to happen otherwise, right? Never, ever, ever.

Nanci 57:00
And I totally agree with you that I think that there are people that have that deficiency, and these medications are changing their lives. Like literally, it's changing people's lives.

Scott Benner 57:14
I felt really sad last week when I saw that photo, and I thought, I wish I wish this would have existed sooner. Because I I have dodged being in photos with my kids.

Nanci 57:28
Yes, i Oh, my goodness. Yeah, I'm totally with you on that.

Scott Benner 57:34
And I mean, just for that alone made me sad, honestly. And I mean, I'm happy that medication exists. And I know it took forever to bring it to market. The first. The first inclination to this was in the early 80s, with a Canadian doctor who noticed that healer monsters don't get fat. And really, and they and they're not hungry after they eat. And that, wow, that led to him learning about the GLP and all this stuff. And then I you know, I happen to know because of what my wife did for a living like a decade ago, a decade ago, my wife came, my wife came home from work and said, there's going to be a drug one day that you take, it's going to help you lose weight. I've seen the early data, and it really works. Wow. But it's only really been on the market for a couple of years now.

Nanci 58:26
Yeah, because I, I remember when my doctor prescribed. So like I said, my primary care prescribe to me ride Celsus, which is the oral semaglutide it and it did nothing for me. Like I didn't lose any weight. It didn't do anything to my blood sugar. So I don't really understand how the injectable is different. But I guess maybe some people and more.

Scott Benner 58:57
I don't either, and I don't care. And I've heard people say like, well, there's no long term studies on I said, there are plenty long term studies on me being 40 pounds overweight and my 50s I know how that's gonna go with me. It's gonna go me having a heart attack is how it's gonna go. And you know, so I'm like, I don't want to I'm not going out like that. Like, I don't like I'm gonna fight a little bit here. And you can say, Oh, well, Scott, well, you could have eaten differently or exercise. I tried all that it didn't work. Like it just didn't do anything for me. I don't know why I don't even care why. And right. You know, it just it's not important. Like even let's say I didn't I deserve to die. Because I don't want to because I don't exercise like right we're, we're decision you know, and I've said this in another episode, but I'll repeat it here. This is kind of a grandiose thought. But if, if a generation of parents eat differently because they're on a GLP one for example, then a generation of children will grow up not eating poorly, because they won't be mirrored to them. Right? i We got lucky. Like, I'm not even gonna lie to you, we got really lucky because my wife and I, we grew up broke with any money. Like, we didn't have anybody leading us telling us how like what nutrition was, I'll tell people all the time, like in the 70s and 80s. Like no one understood what they eat. I know you think like, that's crazy, but it's not crazy. I made the joke earlier. There's a lemon on the front of like a lemonade mix that my mom would give us. And if you asked her if that was healthy, she'd be like lemons come from trees. You know what I mean? Like, like, come on. Don't be dumb, you know. And so there was no direction through any like that. I didn't have any directions. Then I had kids. And this is where I'm saying, I got lucky. My kids were so athletic, and so like involved and stuff like that. And we tried really hard to push them towards healthier food. But it was healthier to our understanding. Do you don't even like my idea of like health was like not serving my kid a frozen chicken nugget when he was little I cut up actual chicken and bread. Like I don't really know anything about nutrition or health or anything like that. And somehow my kids have are maintaining a better style of eating than Kelly and I had. But now suddenly, I mean, I got up this morning, I took two mushrooms and two eggs. And I scrambled them together in a pan and threw them in a wrap. And I couldn't even finish it. It was just like, oh, this is so much food. And so I finished it as best I could. And later today I'm going to have like a salad. And I think I'm gonna have some shrimp. Like I'm gonna like, I think I'm gonna pan fry, like saute some shrimp and throw it on some greens. And that's probably what I'm gonna end up eating today. Yeah, you know, and I'm gonna wake up tomorrow, a pound lighter than I was today. And I'm not hungry. And it's fascinating to my wife who I will have on the podcast at some point to talk about it because she has a much stronger kind of like, I don't know how to put it like a mental drawl to food. Yeah, right.

Nanci 1:02:05
It's that voice. Right. Yeah. And that's one of one of the things that I said, and I'm sad about Manjaro is that the one thing that I did notice is that it did take it took away the voice of me thinking, you know, before I went to bed at night, what will I have for breakfast tomorrow? And then while having breakfast thinking, what will I have for lunch today? And when I go grocery shopping, what will I buy to eat throughout the week? Yes, you might when I

Scott Benner 1:02:36
my wife talks about it exactly like that. Yeah, yeah. Open your eyes. Morning. What am I gonna eat for breakfast? And then wondering about lunch while you're making breakfast? Exactly. Yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah, call that the food voice.

Nanci 1:02:50
Yeah. And I definitely felt that it Manjaro took that away from me. And now I eat pretty similar to what you just said that you eat. And it is a little bit more, because I have to, you know, I, I have a really small stomach now. So I have no choice. And I have to eat like that. But I do feel I feel I feel better about myself that I'm making those choices. And I'm not beating myself up about the choices that I make, like, so

Scott Benner 1:03:30
I can't agree anymore. Like that's, you know, to say to someone, like, it's easy to say to someone, we'll just have more self control. Right? Like, as a matter of fact, there's a whole industry out there there's, there's 10,000 podcasts making a living telling people to like you know, just be strong, you know, exactly. Which is very easy for a person who doesn't have what you just described, like, like, like an absolute pinging in your head of like, what am I going to eat next? What am I going to eat next? Like that's not, that's not a lack of willpower. That's a it's a wiring issue. You're wired exactly differently. And they don't have great willpower. They're just not wired that way. So it's easy for them, right? Just like everything else, not hard to understand. But yet it gets broken down, like haves and have nots, like the ones who are willing to put in the work and the ones who aren't willing to put in the work. And that's Yeah, I think a great many situations, that's not the case. And even if it was, I'll just say it again, that's not a good reason why your organs should deteriorate and you die prematurely. Like that's exactly not okay. Right. And so if something helps, like I just, I'm looking back at you and all I could think is somebody should have given this poor woman insulin eight years ago. Right, right. And yeah, real issues now.

Nanci 1:04:47
Yeah. I think that way too. And again, I do you know, I think to myself, How did you not learn about it or I tried to figure it out, but I, you know, I trusted my doctors and, and how I guess,

Scott Benner 1:05:07
I mean, honestly, I'm How would you know, you can't look anything you can think of in the world, even with access to the Internet right now. Because there is that argument like we have, I forget what it's like we have access to more information now than the President of the United States had in the 80s. Which is amazing, right? Except, except everything you wonder about, gets monetized by somebody. And then the other side of it gets monetized by somebody else. So there are two competing arguments like, like, you know, you you mentioned, you were on keto earlier, it's a perfectly reasonable way to eat if you want to eat that way. It's not a problem until someone starts making a living coaching you about your keto, or selling keto food, because now they are going to fight till the end of the earth to defend keto. And on the other side, somebody's out there with their cupcake company being like, these motherfuckers in their queue, I gotta sell these cupcakes. And like, you know, like, and they're, and it's back and forth, and back and forth. And now people have become so adept at marketing through how do I put this through everyday interactions, they've become so adept at it, that you can get involved in what you think is a conversation with somebody that's really just a marketing ploy. And yeah, you'll never know what's happening. And I only am aware of this because I run a Facebook group that is so big. And I've watched people do it with so many different things. They'll do it with T shirt sales, they'll do it with we just had a bit we actually literally just had a mob of six accounts that were just in there starting what looked like organic conversations about comfortable footwear to sell a shoe. And it was it was well done. So somehow, someone would show up and go, Oh, hey, ladies, talk to me about comfortable footwear, because I have to go on a blah, blah, blah, and I don't know, and then they'd let real people come in and answer. And then eventually, one of their other accounts would come in and go, Oh, my God, my doctor told me about these and they're great. And they put up a link and they were selling those shoes that they had three or four other accounts that come in to prop up the conversation and keep it going. And then when it ran out of steam, they delete it so that the moderators would notice it, and then they'd come around a couple days later and do it all over again. And sneaky and and it's very common. Wow, that's my point. Like I do. Yeah, I do stuff like I have ads. But you know, their ads, like, like, it's it's not like in the middle of the conversation. I just start like going like Yeah, yeah, right, right now that's crazy. Right, right. Yeah, no, yeah, I happen to me once while I was drinking my athletic greens. Like, it's not, it's not it's not like that. I say, Look, this episode is sponsored by ag one, if you want to support the podcast, and drinky G one. Great. And if you don't, Natalie even care, honestly. It helps me if you're already going to buy it, buy it with my link that helps the podcast. But it isn't me like slipping it into a conversation trying to like, trick you into it. But that's very, very, very common. Yeah. And so my long winded point is, it's difficult to get good information. When that's not people's goal all the time. Sometimes their goal is just to get you to go by a thing or do a thing or click on a link or hire a health teacher. I don't know how you're supposed to figure that out is my point.

Nanci 1:08:36
And I and I am very easily influenced. So I can tell you that I bought a lot of stuff. I bought a lot of keto products. A lot of you know, workout equipment, different clothing, shoes, you name it. I bought it all you

Scott Benner 1:08:56
desperate to save your life. Yeah, that's terrible. Like think of it 1000s of dollars or 10s of 1000s of dollars.

Nanci 1:09:05
I mean, I probably you know, spent a good I'd say I'd spent a good $5,000 on keto products alone. That's fine.

Scott Benner 1:09:16
That's a lot of me, Nancy to feed a poodle for a year and a half. I'm sorry, if you didn't see that coming. I was setting you up for that because I was amazed. That and so and you got a surgery. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, I my assumption was you found them in Jarno, late enough that you were so far down the road for the surgery. It seemed too late to turn back.

Nanci 1:09:47
Yeah. I mean, that's exactly what happened. And I was at the point where like I was on Manjaro for about four months and my surgery date was coming up and I did struggle with it. I kind of went back and forth in my head and the the fact that I was so scared of regaining the weight after either being on Manjaro for a year, or having a weight loss surgery, I knew that the weight loss surgery was pretty permanent. And I did try to, you know, read to see what kind of studies and data there was with Manjaro weaning off of it or, you know, maintaining and there's not a lot of information out there yet about it hasn't been,

Scott Benner 1:10:38
I, I've come to the conclusion that if I have to be on a maintenance dose of this for the rest of my life, I don't even think I care. Like, like, Yeah, and if I grow a tail out of my forehead, I'll be thin as a pin with a tail on my forehead.

Nanci 1:10:56
You will look fabulous.

Scott Benner 1:10:58
I'll just accessorize it. I'll start hanging blink from it. I'll be like, that's my, that's my ozempic tail. Whatever. No, I mean, honestly, I don't. It's

Nanci 1:11:08
and then you can sell things on your podcast, like Facebook group,

Scott Benner 1:11:13
like, Hey, everybody, like us, we go V and yeah, you're gonna grow with tail out of your forehead. But here are these beautiful socks to keep them warm during the winter. And I'll just thread it into a conversation. So you'll never even know I'm selling them to you. Yeah, I mean, there are no advertisers. Right now, for any GLP ones on the podcast, I have to tell you, somebody came along here wanting to, I'd be happy to take an ad for that. But I would also tell you, it's an advertisement. But no, seriously, as far as I know, there are no side effects, the GLP is that make things grow out of your forehead. And certainly enough of the world has taken this up that we're going to find out, I think the next thing that you're going to see is doctors who do weight loss surgeries, you're going to start seeing them, like kind of chirp about these injections and tell you there's something wrong with them, because it's going to cut into their bottom line pretty heartily. Because really like ozempic, or we go Veerman jhana, what they're doing is they making you feel full faster, which is what the surgery does. But they also have the benefit of they're somehow impacting your hippocampus, they're literally telling your brain you're not hungry. And they're is some newer studies that I don't think are complete yet that are saying, also signal to your body that during weight loss to target your fat.

Nanci 1:12:36
Yeah, I did just read that the other day, which is amazing, because that's one of the things that they really watch after you have weight loss surgery is that you lose muscle mass. So that'd be amazing if the GLP ones stopped that

Scott Benner 1:12:53
just literally just anecdotally, but my weight is coming from places that I really struggled to get rid of it from. And so like, my example usually is with I would have just started dieting like aggressively on my own. Mike, my face would have slimmed down first. And then and then I would have like been like, Oh, my midsection is not like changing. And with this thing that was my midsection first. As a matter of fact, my face didn't start slimming down for like two months after that. And it was all coming out of my chest, my sides, my back and my stomach, which were the places like I can't even tell you that my stomach and my chest are on the same plane of existence now. Which is very new for me. That's amazing. Yeah. So anyway, wow. Well, well, okay, I'm sorry. I had to bring this back around again. I started me having these type two conversations. Because I was finding listeners who were basically like, look, I'm type two, but I use insulin. So I started listening to the podcast, and it was really helping me. And so how are you managing right now?

Nanci 1:14:05
So right now, I'm only on one medication called tra Genta. Okay, it's an it's an oral medication. And the reason being is because obviously right after I had my gastric bypass, I couldn't eat I had to it was all liquid. And so I even had a couple of low blood sugar episodes after my surgery. And so I was taken off of everything. And once I started to eat again, and I was consuming some carbs, some sugars. My blood sugar levels did start to go up a little bit. So when I had my three month exam after my gastric bypass, and I saw my Endo, he put me On the agenda and said, Well, let's see how you do with this and then we'll when you come back in six months, we'll look at your blood sugar's I wear libre, too. So I'm my monitor my sugar. And I've had, I have had some instances where if I eat something more Harvey, I've my blood sugar's have gone up some a couple of times over 200. So I'm not really sure if I'll get put back on insulin. But we'll have to wait and see what are your What are your

Scott Benner 1:15:44
fasting blood sugars like?

Nanci 1:15:47
So the last time I had my fasting, it was 121, which is, for me, I feel like really good. Now what I want do I want it to be 90 Of course, like but, and my a one C at my last check was 6.3. Which again, for me, it's really good considering when I went on insulin. It was a point nine Wow. So it's really, really come down quite a bit.

Scott Benner 1:16:26
What do you what do you give credit to here? Weight loss, a change in your diet? And the trajectory? Those three things you think are what's keeping you where you're at?

Nanci 1:16:37
Yeah, I mean, I definitely think the weight loss and the fact that, you know, I'm forced to eat protein, because of the gastric bypass, so you learn that you have to eat protein before anything else. And because I have such a small stomach, I can only eat, you know, like, three to six ounces. And eating some, you know, eating that in chicken, you get full and so I'm not eating. Maybe if we had mashed potatoes or rice that night, I'm not really eating that because I'm eating the chicken and I'm getting full. And so I'm not eating the stuff that would cause my blood sugar to go high. But I have had a couple of instances where I've, you know, said I'm gonna try buy to that sandwich or a bite of that pizza. And I've my blood sugar's have gone up. And I'm not sure if that's just my, you know, like, my body being like, Whoa.

Scott Benner 1:17:49
Alright, are you do you still have your food voice?

Nanci 1:17:53
Um, no, I don't

Scott Benner 1:17:56
just your tastes change a little.

Nanci 1:17:59
I have a food voice in that I do have to still prepare, you know, like, I can't just be willy nilly and throw caution to the wind and just hope that there's food that I can eat. I have to be prepared. So I do have to think about it in that sense. And I definitely feel like there have been times that I have thought, God, I cut my right arm off for a slice of chocolate cake. Like a job, you know, and I don't have the chocolate cake, but I do have that feeling like I really would just want it so bad.

Scott Benner 1:18:43
But work full. Okay, what could you have like a fork full of chocolate cake?

Nanci 1:18:48
Yeah, I probably could. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:18:51
but you're but you don't think you would? If you started you think you'd? So ah, so it's funny. I can't believe I'm doing like I honestly never saw myself as a person who'd be advocating for like medication to change how you eat. I've learned a lot like in these last 10 weeks already. And I there's part of me that feels a little sad because you got your stomach made smaller. Yeah, right. Because if you could have gotten the food voice to go away with with the medication and you would have felt fuller sooner that might have helped you regulate the amount and the types of reading because I'll tell you I made a good decision after good decision this week in those restaurants. I was like I am not eating anything that's fried. I am not eating anything that you know but like I stayed away from a number of different things on purpose and I had a perfectly lovely time. Like at lunch I you know I had like I sat down and I was like, Can I get a a cup of soup and and I think it was like chicken rice soup and kind of a cup of that soup and a half of a turkey sandwich. And and she goes we only serve that At full turkey sandwiches, I was like, Well, if you bring me a full turkey sandwich, you'll be throwing a lot of it away. I'm like, you can do whatever you want. But I'm going to eat half of that cup of soup. And by the way, here's what I want on the bread. Nothing, just put the turkey in there. And I said, like one slice of cheese. She goes, it's gonna come with two slices of cheese, I was coming to one of them away. And I'm like, bring me a little like, I think I put like yellow mustard on the bread a little bit. And they brought up potato chips. And I was like, I don't want these. And she's like, well, they come with the sandwich. I was like, alright, so I had like four potato chips, I had like three quarters and a half of a turkey sandwich and half of a cup of soup. And I was like, Oh, good, like, just like two in the afternoon. And I thought, Well, that's good. I don't need to eat any more today. But I could still eat it. The same thing?

Nanci 1:20:51
Like no, and I totally understand what you're saying. And I do get sad myself sometimes. And think that if I had given it a little bit more time on the Manjaro, or if I hadn't been going through the process to get the gastric bypass, and again, it's a long process. So I mean, you really have to be committed, and, you know, to be that committed, and then, you know, at at the point where you're gonna get it to say, No, I think I'm, I'm just gonna try this over here instead. You know, it just made me a little bit like, scared and nervous, because I had felt like, I'd been on such a roller coaster for such a long time. And I just knew that, for me having the gastric bypass would give me some permanency. And in my life, like, Yeah, I know that sounds drastic. And to a lot of people it is it is like people are so put off by the gastric bypass. And I always tell people, you have to make your own decision. Like you have to do what's right for you. But I will say that I have people in my life that I have been pushing to go and get one of the GE LPs. I mean, I have been like, Look, you have been struggling, and you're, you know, younger than me, and you need some help. And these these medications help. You need to go talk to your doctor about being on this. But there's a lot of people Scott that, you know, they they really have like a negative attitude when it comes to getting anything to help with losing weight. Like they just like you said before, yeah, they they just think What's matter with you? Why can't you just do what on your own, like, get a grip.

Scott Benner 1:22:49
We were all parented poorly. But I first of all, I've become a drug pusher, I play it to other people, my family are already gotten. Yeah. And they type they had type two diabetes, like, go get this, like, you know what I mean? Right, please. And, but But your point about not wanting to do it, like the part that fascinates me, like burns right through my brain when you say that, it's like, they'll say, Oh, well, I don't, I shouldn't have to take an injection to lose weight, but they'll have gastroparesis from their type two, or kidney failure from there, type two and go well, like well as the cost of doing business. You know, it's not like like, if, if you're a person who, for whatever reason, is not eating in a way that leads to health. And you're telling me that injecting something once a week, and I can't tell you how easy it is, like I do it on the podcast, it's click, wait, click out done. I don't think about it again, I don't even like feel the needle, I don't even know what's happening. And you're telling me if you could do that, and avoid a kidney failure one day, that would be a bridge too far. And but, but the kidney failure is not like it's a it's a fascinating way to think about something incorrectly. Like I'm not saying I'm not saying it's optimal to have to take a drug to make this happen. But you know what, it's not optimal for a person with I don't know, bipolar disorder to have to take a drug not to have those issues, but that's the situation they find themselves in. So I mean, is there a phrase play the ball where it lies? Like you don't mean like yeah, you don't want to decide we all don't get to be you know, six feet tall and a muscular podcast are making $9 billion a year telling everybody to try harder like like that guy's thing. i My thing is I don't eat much food and I'm fat. Like Like yeah, not okay. You don't II mean so. Anyway, and then around type two diabetes just as well. Like, what you what you hear is, it's why I'm making that that type two series and why I'm talking to more people with type two Overwhelmingly, people think of insulin as failure. Oh, you know, if everything else fails, I'll try insulin maybe, well, 10 years from now. When everything else fails, including your kidneys, then yeah, like you're gonna think, Oh, I wish I would have used insulin 10 years ago because I guarantee Nancy, I put you in a fucking time machine. Yeah, you're out there looking for it. Yeah,

Nanci 1:25:25
you don't you don't know how many people looked at me sideways when I said, Yeah, you know, I finally went to the endo and he put me on insulin and they were like, you know, they just were like, what?

Scott Benner 1:25:40
Well, let me say this for you fuck them. Okay, right. Yeah. I care if you stay alive. They care if you airway. Yeah. If you don't do it the right way. Then what what's the point? The point is being alive, you moron. It's crazy. Your walk around Nancy and thing? A lot of people can't think. Yes.

Nanci 1:26:01
Daily. What is happening daily.

Scott Benner 1:26:06
It's so lost in the wrong part of a conversation.

Nanci 1:26:10
I don't know. I let me let me lay it

Scott Benner 1:26:14
out for people listening. Staying alive. That's first. That's the goal every day, the goal? Free Day. It's your first goal. Gotta stay alive next day. Stay alive and be healthy. Okay, yeah. And be nice to people do things, the blah, blah, blah, work. I want you to work hard. Like, don't get me wrong. Like, I don't think that it's a valuable thing. Or if I ever said this, I assumed this was obvious. But I don't think it's an it's a valuable thing. To you know, eat every horrible thing in the world. And think, well, I'll just inject this and it'll it'll counteract it. By the way, that's not how this stuff works. It's, it's not like it does not like it makes it go away. Like I could eat too much food today, my stomach would hurt. And I would probably gain weight. And so the drugs not going to stop that from happening. I could physically pushed through it just like you could physically. There are plenty of ways to cheat around the surgery you had?

Nanci 1:27:14
Well, not really. I mean, you get pretty sick. That's, I mean, that's the one deterrent that is is a little bit different is

Scott Benner 1:27:23
you haven't heard you get all blending down like well, crap. Yeah, I'm drinking them and stuff like that.

Nanci 1:27:28
Yeah. But um, I will say in my own personal case, and I pretty much know, I you know, like, I've taken a bite of something that it just didn't sit right. And yeah, and you know, you your body gives you a reaction, whether it be just like you get really, really hot. And you almost feel like a little bit like dizzy. You know, some people have like, they'll throw up. Luckily for me, I haven't had any of that throwing up thing, thank goodness. But just a really like, Dizzy, hot feeling of not feeling good at all. And I And again, you know, a lot of people will listen to me say that and be like, and you have to live your life like that. You're gonna be like that for the rest of your life. But, you know, don't feel bad for me. I made the decision. And I I'm okay with it. You know, I'm fine with it.

Scott Benner 1:28:35
Also, the alternative was what happened your mom?

Nanci 1:28:39
Exactly, yeah. Yeah. I mean, and

Scott Benner 1:28:42
it's everybody wants things exactly the way they want them. Right. So it's like, well, I You should be able to eat whatever you want. And be healthy. I'm like, Okay, well, in the that's not working.

Nanci 1:28:52
Right and fantasyland. Right. Right?

Scott Benner 1:28:55
So I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go for like, anything I can do to stay on. Listen, you would never, I think good for you that you got the surgery. Like, if that's what you want to do, man. Good for you.

Nanci 1:29:07
You know? Yeah, I mean, that's what I say to you know, other people. And I also say to, you know, all the naysayers, it's like, you know, you have to make a decision that's right for you, ultimately. And I'm, I'm happy for all of the people that are having success with the GLP ones. And again, I've like you, I felt like, you know, I'm pushing drugs on people, but I have also been like, look, y'all need to get this good stuff. But, and I answer questions for anybody that has them about the gastric bypass. You know, it's not for everybody, every everything is not for everybody. But you know, we're all just doing the best that we can and try and you know, to be here and live our lives and I have two beautiful granddaughters that you know, absolutely adore and I just want to be around for them. Men want to watch every moment of their life and be involved in it and be healthy. And so, you know, for me, it was the best thing to do.

Scott Benner 1:30:09
Yeah, plus, someone's got to cover that nut on that poodle. When the people working, I mean, right, exactly. To deal with you guys die. I don't know, trust me, it's gonna, it's gonna, it's gonna eat their shit out the backyard. That's what it's gonna do. And it'll be fine, by the way, probably right? You let that pool out of that house right now? It would be Yeah, it'd be like, it'll be alright.

Nanci 1:30:39
Yeah, life goes on. All right.

Scott Benner 1:30:42
I really appreciate you doing this very much. It's a great conversation. And, you know, I just I'm trying very hard to I don't want to say stupid things that people say all the time, like D stigmatize, and like, blah, blah, blah. I just want people with type two diabetes, to feel comfortable asking questions, finding answers for themselves, and doing something that's going to make a meaningful impact on their life, not something that maybe will help them eight years from now after they try weightwatchers keto 19 Other things and then go, oh, by the way, none of that work, and now I'm starting to have bad bad health impacts, and I still am no closer to an answer. So, you know, I don't know it just,

Nanci 1:31:27
and I totally, totally appreciate the fact that, you know, obviously, you started this podcast for type one, and, but I can't tell you how much I appreciate that you have taken the time to talk to, and listen to type two diabetics and do exactly what you just said is, you know, erase some of the stigma around it. And, and make people you know, feel like they're just not failures, I've really appreciate because I felt like such a failure a lot. And then I listened to a lot of your podcasts. And even though, you know, is mostly for type ones, I got so much helpful information, and also just learned so much and thought, wow, there's just this world is so big, and there's so many people out there. But there's so many people like me. So

Scott Benner 1:32:25
absolutely. Well, I appreciate you saying that. I am evolved enough now not even make a stupid joke. Say something about me. My first inclination, that little child inside of me wants to say something very dumb. The first thing I thought to say was, well, yeah, I'm terrific. You don't have to say. I just appreciate that it's reaching people. And that it's yes. And I'll say this, like, Look, you should be eating better foods, simple foods, like you know, don't don't eat a ton of processed food and flour and sugar and all that stuff. And you should be getting some exercise, right, like, Get out Get moving like all that. Yep. But if that's not working, adding something is not. It's not some sort of a sin. Yes, exactly. And the people around you who like Nancy, like ran into who are gonna give you crap about it. I will tell you the same thing. The same thing I send to a mother. Recently on the show mother called, called in. Yeah, like it's a ham radio. Sorry. Where was it there just a mother comes on the show to talk about her kid being like bullied at school, right? And she kind of went with the like, you know, hippie, like, Yo, well, you have to understand Baba Mon, I was like, fuck those kids. I was. I was like, I said, you know, try this. And by the way, I heard back from her. And rainbows and hippies worked for her kid, which is terrific. But my perspective. Part of my perspective was, is we don't care about people who don't care about us. Yeah, like right so if you need to do something, Nancy to better your life. And there are people around you who would give you crap about it. I don't care what they think. I gotta be like, they're gonna be alive. Like like, Yeah, I'll be dead and what they'll be happy with how I accomplished it. Like what do you write? Do you care what other people think? I just don't think I think it's insane. Like if anybody came after me and said like, you can't take we've taken we go Vyas cheating, I'd be like I don't hear you. What, here's what I hear. My chest and my stomach appear to be on the same line. I feel better. I move better. Right knee doesn't hurt as much. And I couldn't possibly care. What any, there's no, there's no one that could come to me now. And shame me about what I'm doing. That's awesome. Yeah. And by the way, if I do grow a tail out of the side of my forehead, 10 years from now, you know what, I'll say I'll go Huh? Huh, maybe that was a misstep. But but but But if I'm healthy and alive, I'd be like, You know what, I'm alright, because I don't know what's gonna happen. But I know that men, especially men who are shaped like me and carry their weight, where I carry my weight, tend to die of heart attacks. And I also exactly happened to know because my wife forced me into looking into my birth my mother years ago, that my birth mother became despondent after giving me up for adoption, which led to a life of obesity. And it led to her on a table trying to get your surgery. And she and she coded and died during the surge in are 14, that's terrible. And I can tell I feel badly telling it dispassionately because I don't know her as my mother obviously. But, but that So okay, so she had a heart attack from like, bah, bah, bah. So what am I doing? Like, I don't want that to happen. Like you said earlier. I've got kids and I might have grandchildren one day or right, you know, like, maybe not, but also I want to see what like the iPhone 25 looks like and what you want to see if they can put like a nuclear reactor and an electric car. I'm dying to see if that happens. You know, like, I'm trying to stay here. The alternative. Yes, it's over. Like that's it. And for those of you who think like there's an afterlife, that's great. I also don't want to be chubby in the afterlife. Okay, so I'm trying to I'm trying to get all right, well,

Nanci 1:36:27
you want to be a spelt ghost?

Scott Benner 1:36:30
Well, yeah. Okay. Yes, that's what I want. Dammit. I want to look nice when I'm dead and floating around the house. We're like Casper are more like, like embodiment? I don't

Nanci 1:36:45
know from the movie Ghost. You want to be more like Patrick Swayze?

Scott Benner 1:36:49
I don't think I'm getting there. But he's a handsome man. Although his brother not nearly as handsome. Really? You don't know his brother? I do not. I feel bad. I believe he's still alive. So let's not go too far down. But before we leave Patrick Swayze he's brother.

Nanci 1:37:11
Apparently he did not get the good looks. His name's Dodd family. Okay, John.

Scott Benner 1:37:16
Okay. John. Dan, God bless you. You're never gonna hear this. But Don looks like Patrick. But made out of spare parts. I don't know how to say that.

Nanci 1:37:33
Well, now I have to immediately go on when you

Scott Benner 1:37:37
really see a super handsome person. And I mean, for male or female, a very handsome person like their eyes, their forehead, their nose, their lips. They all match. Right? Right. And then Don Swayze looks like at the end of the day, God had about five face parts. They were all attractive but didn't go together. And he was like, listen, we gotta get out of here. Just stick these on this one and let's go. Right, like so he looks like Patrick, but it's not as smooth. She's so funny. By no means xenon. Attractive, man. But if you only knew Don Swayze, you'd think as a handsome guy, but you're standing next to Patrick Swayze. And all of a sudden, you're like, What the hell happened to that guy? Right. Like, which is unfair, because Patrick Swayze looks like, I mean, he's dead. But he was like,

Nanci 1:38:22
yeah, he's good looking man.

Scott Benner 1:38:24
Are you handsome man is what? I'm sorry. That's all. I just don't think I'm gonna get that handsome. I think I'm gonna look like I'm gonna look like Don Swayze. When I get fit. Okay. Yeah. Which, God bless I go for that. Yeah. All right, man. See, I know for one for sure you and I had a conversation about weight that most people don't have in 2023. And I loved it. So

Nanci 1:38:44
me too. Good. I'm glad it was amazing.

Scott Benner 1:38:46
Hold on one second.

I hope you're enjoying the Type Two diabetes stories. I know I enjoyed talking to Nancy. Thank you very much to contour for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast contour next.com forward slash juice box. Check out that contour next meter and those Second Chance test strips and of course, touched by type one.org. Come out and see me on September 16. It's completely free and we're gonna have a great day, I promise. Hey, if you're just finding the podcast now you have pre diabetes or type two diabetes, check out Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. It's a private group. It's more than its name suggests. We have a ton of type twos there. Come find out more.

If you have type two or pre diabetes, that type two diabetes Pro Tip series from the Juicebox Podcast is exactly what you're looking for. Do you have a friend or a family member who is struggling to understand their type two and how to manage it? This series is for them seven episodes to get you on track. up to speed. Episode 860 series intro 864 guilt and shame episode 869 medical team 874 fuelling plan, Episode 880 diabetes technology episode 85 GLP ones metformin and insulin and an episode 889 We talk about movement. This episode is with me and Jenny Smith. Of course you know Jenny is a certified diabetes care and education specialist. She is a registered and licensed dietitian and Jenny has had type one diabetes for over 30 years. Too many people don't understand their type two diabetes, and this series aims to fix that, share it with a friend or get started today. When you support the Juicebox Podcast by clicking on the advertisers links, you are helping to keep the show free and plentiful. I am certainly not asking you to buy something that you don't want. But if you're going to buy something, or use a device from one of the advertisers, getting your purchases set up through my links is incredibly helpful. So if you have the desire or the need, please consider using Juicebox Podcast links to make your purchases


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