#1161 Giddy Up

Leigh Ann is the mother of a type 1 and she has bi-polar disorder.

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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, welcome to episode 1161 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Today I'll be speaking with Leanne. She's the science teacher, the mother of two, one of her children has type one diabetes, and Leanne has bipolar disorder. 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. If you're a US resident who has type one diabetes, or is the caregiver of someone with type one, please go to T one D exchange.org/juicebox. and complete the survey. You'll be helping with type one diabetes research and only take you 10 minutes and you'll feel good about yourself when you're done T one D exchange.org/juice box don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com All you have to do is use the offer code juice box at checkout that's juice box at checkout to save 40% at cozy earth.com When you place your first order for ag one with my link you'll get five free travel packs and a free year supply of vitamin D drink ag one.com/juice box

this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. Learn more and get started today at contour next one.com/juicebox This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by touched by type one touched by type one.org and find them on Facebook and Instagram touched by type one is an organization dedicated to helping people living with type one diabetes. And they have so many different programs that are doing just that check them out at touched by type one.org. Today's episode is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes, a company that's bringing people together to redefine what it means to live with diabetes. Later in this episode, I'll be speaking with Jalen, he was diagnosed with type one diabetes at 14. He's 29. Now he's going to tell you a little bit about his story. And then later at the end of this episode, you can hear my entire conversation with Jalen to hear more stories with Medtronic champions. Go to Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box or search the hashtag Medtronic champion on your favorite social media platform.

Leigh Anne 2:40
Hi, I am Lea Anne, I'm a mom of two amazing girls. Only one of them has type one. And she was the first diagnosed in our family on either side. And we live on a little farm in North Carolina. I am a veteran science teacher that has just walked out of the classroom, this school year, animal lover all the things you're not teaching anymore, not in the public school sector, which was a huge decision for my family. And so I run a my own kids are homeschooled and have been for a while. But I do I just started yesterday actually running a science co op for homeschool kids out of my farm. And so it's super fun. I'm excited about it. But my heart is in minorities and kids that need me in public education. And so it was a hard decision to walk away but it was definitely the right decision for the time.

Scott Benner 3:31
How long had you been teaching for 12 years? Okay, how old are you?

Leigh Anne 3:35
I'm 40

Scott Benner 3:37
reservations. Thanks. Oh, seriously, you know, the alternative is to be dead. So. So you're 40 taught for 12 years. You got two girls, one of them has type one. How old is the one with type one.

Leigh Anne 3:50
And her name is Katherine and she is nine.

Scott Benner 3:54
Catherine is nine. How old was she when she was diagnosed? Five, four years ago. Okay. And for you and everybody else I'm sick. Excuse me. I'm a little sick. Might be sneezing and stuff like that as we go along. Okay, so you said there's no other type one on either side of her family. Any other autoimmune? Yes.

Leigh Anne 4:17
So I believe her dad we are divorced and have been since she was born has a like a minor autoimmune situation. I also have ulcerative colitis, which is autoimmune and that's my mom has an autoimmune disease dealing with her liver. Your mom does my mom. Okay.

Scott Benner 4:36
Do you have anything else going on? Yes.

Leigh Anne 4:38
So I have been diagnosed bipolar for 20 ish years. Okay. The other and that's really like the two the two big things for me health wise. Do

Scott Benner 4:49
they consider bipolar to be auto immune adjacent?

Leigh Anne 4:54
So I honestly can't answer that super correctly we'll say because bipolar As an ongoing, there's a lot of research that says it's genetically linked. But then there's research that says it's trauma induced from at an early age and things like that. My degrees actually, in psychology, teaching biology was a total segway. And before that I rode horses professionally. So it's kind of a weird thing, but and there's different types of bipolar and there's constantly new research coming out. So I do not know if it's autoimmune adjacent or not. That's a great question that I would should probably learn about

Scott Benner 5:27
annals of palliative medicine, which is ame groups that org. At the end of the last century, genome wide association studies revealed a significant genetic association between bipolar disorder and autoimmune diseases.

Leigh Anne 5:40
Wow. I should have known that. Don't

Scott Benner 5:43
worry, I'll tell you Fun fact, I got the Google. So why are you on today?

Leigh Anne 5:50
I love so actually, I was on the Facebook group long before I listened to the podcast. I always thought I didn't have time to listen to podcasts. Like when was I going to do that? So I started doing it on my way to and from work, I have listened to like very specific episodes that I think are interesting. I love the information. And now I'm getting off topic. But when we were die, or when Catherine was diagnosed, we did not get so much information like so many families do. And so I love this place. And I send a lot of families because I'm connected to a lot of type one families to this podcast. And I was listening to it, it was a couple of different episodes and thinking about I think it was DK on a plane, it was just like, I could cry thinking about it. Yeah, sure, um, in the mom had to a newborn and a child and had to choose and those things and got me thinking about my own struggle in in the best scenario, and the best marriage and the best home and the best health of a parent taking care of a child with type one who's young, it's hard. And then when you put layers of something like bipolar, which is something that you deal with every day, every moment and a conscious effort on my part, and a layer on top of that, there is a lot of navigating and balancing and planning to make sure that I am in a place to maintain my child's blood sugar, and make sure that I'm keeping her alive and safe. And I was like, there's other people out there who are dealing with mental health and trying to take care of their type one kid, and I would love to be able to support them shine a ray of light on that. They're not alone. And it is it's just hard. It's a hard thing to do all the way around to me.

Scott Benner 7:22
So let's give a little context of what it's like to have bipolar and then we'll like layered over top of what it's like to have to take care of somebody's health while that's going on. So sure, well, is it cyclical? Does it run for days, weeks, months? How does that happen?

Leigh Anne 7:37
I definitely for me is cyclical, but it's not a perfect cycle. Definitely there can be triggering events. Something as simple as thinking there's there's more laundry than I thought there was to do could be the last straw and sent me into a not good place. Or it could be something as a death or not sleeping for three days or something like that. That's a serious thing that can change it right. But it is cyclical for me. But it's not like I can't look on the calendar and tell you on this day. I'm going to feel this way. But it definitely goes from Pretty good. Pretty fantastic. Okay, really bad. Okay, pretty fantastic. And that order, it's just not always a guaranteed time

Scott Benner 8:17
that rolls through. So what is pretty good feel like?

Leigh Anne 8:20
I'm pretty good as today. Nothing super hard. Really? I would it's my baseline. And what I learned a long time ago is that my baseline for most things is not even near anyone elses. It's a normal day. If I if I get four or five hours of sleep, that's great. I think I did last night everything is where I'm okay with today if that makes sense. I'm not stressed out about the next hour my kids are okay right now, just for me like a normal day I can get enough done. For me though a normal day and I have realized this over the years I do more I think by like eight or nine o'clock in the day in the morning then most people do in a day. And that is not like I don't need it. That's not like Go me that's not something to be proud of. I am just a very efficient busy person. And if I have a free moment I fill it up.

Scott Benner 9:08
Okay. So is that a good thing is that like mania is it like the the up and down part of it?

Leigh Anne 9:14
I struggle with what is normal me and what is bipolar me because it's the same. And so if I wasn't bipolar, I don't know what that would look like. And so, a normal day for me doesn't feel manic for me, a manic day. To me, it feels manic where on a normal daily basis, I get extremely frustrated with everyone around me and I'm super nice about it. Because everyone in this planet moves an extreme slow motion for me. I'm always told to slow down talking when in my head I'm consciously slowing down every word all day long for the world. And that's normal and manic. I would say it's like a minimum of 50 different topics in my brain all going very quickly and I'm pretty aware of all of them while maintaining everything that's around eat the dog over here, the blood sugar on my phone, I hear something on the TV telling the kid to do this making sure this is going on. And mania is where I feel almost out of control of all of those things. It's too much on if that makes sense. But there are parts of mania that feel really quote unquote good, where I'm like, nothing's a problem. Like on another day, I might think that like, the world is ending over something. And on a manic day, I might like I'm saving the world. So I don't know if I answered your question.

Scott Benner 10:26
Is that part of it, like having a lot of big thoughts?

Leigh Anne 10:30
Like so? Sorry.

Scott Benner 10:34
This episode is sponsored by Medtronic. diabetes, Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box. And now we're going to hear from Medtronic champion. Jalen. I was

Speaker 1 10:43
going straight into high school. So it was a summer heading into high school was that particularly difficult, unimaginable, you know, I missed my entire summer. So I went to I was going through a brand new school, I was around a bunch of new people that I had not been going to school with. So it was hard trying to balance that while also explaining to people what type one diabetes was, my hometown did not have an endocrinologist. So I was traveling over an hour to the nearest endocrinologist for children. So you know, I outside of that I didn't have any type of support in my hometown.

Scott Benner 11:17
Did you try to explain to people or did you find it easier just to stay private?

Speaker 1 11:21
I honestly I just held back I didn't really like talking about it. It was just, it felt like it was just an repeating record where I was saying things and people weren't understanding it. And I also was still in the process of learning it. So I just kept it to myself didn't really talk about it.

Scott Benner 11:36
Did you eventually find people in real life that you could confide in,

Speaker 1 11:41
I never really got the experience until after getting to college. And then once I graduated college, it's all I see, you know, you can easily search Medtronic champions, you see people that pop up, and you're like, wow, look at all this content. And I think that's something that motivates me started embracing more, you know, how I'm able to type one diabetes. To

Scott Benner 12:01
hear Jay Lynn's entire conversation stay till the very end. Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box to hear more stories from the Medtronic champion community. Contour next one.com/juice box, that's the link you'll use. To find out more about the contour next gen blood glucose meter, when you get there, there's a little bit at the top, you can click right on blood glucose monitoring, I'll do it with you go to meters, click on any of the meters, I'll click on the Next Gen. And you're going to get more information. It's easy to use and highly accurate. smartlight provides a simple understanding of your blood glucose levels. And of course, with Second Chance sampling technology, you can save money with fewer wasted test strips, as if all that wasn't enough to contour. Next Gen also has a compatible app for an easy way to share and see your blood glucose results. Contour next one.com/juicebox. And if you scroll down at that link, you're gonna see things like a Buy Now button, you could register your meter after you purchase it, or what is this download a coupon? Oh, receive a free Contour. Next One blood glucose meter, do tell contour next.com/juicebox head over there now get the same accurate and reliable meter that we use. So

Leigh Anne 13:21
I got my degree in psychology, because at the time I was riding horses professionally. And the deal was my family would support me doing that if I got my finished my degree and I found behavior fascinating. And I want it to be able to be the gold star of bipolar. Like not every bipolar person has some horrible story and is hospitalized and does all these things when you look up symptoms of bipolar ideas of grandiosity is one of them. And I do see that but I also wonder because it's my brain thinking it I do think I can do great things. I don't think if I jump off the house, I'm going to fly. That's not I recognize that right? I've also sorry, go ahead.

Scott Benner 13:59
No, I was just going to ask have you done great things? Yes, I have. There you go.

Leigh Anne 14:04
Every day we're all doing great things but good human. With that being said something that I think is great today. And I think that's for any human but could be extremely I could think it I did a terrible job at it when I'm in a bad place. The other thing that getting a degree and spending I spent an astronomical amount of time and work and managing my bipolar because it was hurting people around me and that's not something I wanted to do so that really pushed me in college to learn everything I could just like type one I did with my daughter So in saying that now where I am in my life I can recognize a rational thought and I can be in a place that feels horrific in still recognize it's irrational. I can't it doesn't mean it's gonna get me out of it. But I can still recognize that it's passing and fleeting or I think a lot of people struggling with depression, bipolar mental health, have trouble recognizing that it's a temporary state So that is something that I think has been like a huge win for me in the past 20 years of being able to recognize this is going to pass, like this deep hole is passing,

Scott Benner 15:08
has any of this led to drinking or drugs or anything like that? Sure,

Leigh Anne 15:12
um, no drugs, which I grew up in a house with fantastic parents, there was divorced and remarried. But my parents on an together probably not great, but on an individual level, just champions for their kids and very supportive and my dad grew up in severe poverty growing up and is incredibly self made, but had some experiences with people in his family with alcohol. So it was like, pounded in my head, like drugs and alcohol are bad. And it wasn't till later, like, I guess, later in life, and I was like the kid that I would like to DD for friends in high school. When I'm the one with tattoos and pink hair. And I'm wild, we wouldn't have expected that. I definitely eventually did drink some in high school and college and things like that. But and yes, to answer your question, yes. When I would feel like there was medicine was working, there's nothing to do. I feel like I was never like, I don't think alcohol is ever a problem. And I will say that. And that's me saying that, that's not Cemil saying it. I had a horse Roman an opportunity to ride horses professionally at 20. And that was life saving and grounding for me. So even if I was going to drink a huge amount of alcohol and not sleep all night, I would show up for my horse the next morning, and having that responsibility was really powerful.

Scott Benner 16:20
How I'm How do you ride a horse professionally?

Leigh Anne 16:23
I know it's crazy, right? It's actually a trillion dollar industry in our country. So it's different than other sports, because you're not working with a team. So if you in short, and it's kind of a crappy way to qualify, if you're paid money to ride horses, or paid money for instruction on riding horses, technically, you get your professional status. Now, that is a massive spectrum. I mean, somebody tomorrow could say they're gonna go and teach riding and be a quote unquote, professional. But it limits you at horse shows, like obviously professionals, amateurs don't show against each other typically. So how do you do that? So people who have lots of money like to buy really pretty horses, but typically are not typically may not know how to ride them, or train them or care for them. So they pay a lot of money to watch their pretty animal perform well, and so we are Hunter jumpers, we jump over stuff. Basically, it's super, super technical, more technical than I can imagine. But if you kind of think about it on mainstream people understand Kentucky Derby, so like, these people that own the racehorses, don't ride them, they watch them and go, Yeah, so it's kind of like that. But there's also a huge industry. I mean, every little girl wants to pony. And half of those little girls want to do it forever. And so basically, I guess, to answer your question, how do you write professionally you get paid to do it in be really good at it? Usually, hopefully, in the best of cases, there are definitely people in industry who maybe any in any industry that aren't stellar, but that's the answer. Yeah, no,

Scott Benner 17:45
no. So yeah, rich people pay you to ride their horse for them. Used to Yeah, but that's the vibe. Right? Okay. I got Yeah, yeah. Okay, can you tell me a little bit about your daughter's diagnosis? Yes.

Leigh Anne 17:58
So she was five, um, we, her dad and I separated when I was pregnant with her. It was really, really rough divorce, things are much better now. So we were in the process of divorcing, you know, when she's born and things like that. And so there's already a bunch of issues with that. And so I was teaching school teaching science, and my mom would pick her up from preschool at 12 every day. And so at lunch, I would call and just how was your day? What are you doing? And my mom's like, she said, she didn't feel good or stomach hurts. None of like, the symptoms. You see, like I had not noticed more drink. He had not noticed weight loss, none of that. And I said, Well, she never complains, please call teachers and see if they'll just get her in today. Like my gut was like, just go. This wasn't like a looming thing. It was like, she's complaining that feel good. I feel like she's got a doctor. So my mom got an appointment. I'm still teaching biology or science today. And they call me from pediatrician. And they said, they think it's just a virus. I said, No, it's not. And I said, can they just check her for a UTI? So standard, and the UTI pee test is glucose and our blue blood sugar was 300. And pausing and backtracking two years before that I was teaching seventh grade, and I had an awesome seventh grader with type one and a diabetic alert dog in my class every day. And that was the first time I got super into understanding the science of it and educated for this kid because I became her person at school. Yeah, having that experience. That was actually the first phone number ever gave my teacher phone number to a parent with her mom. And so I'm at school, and my mom's telling me his information, and she's like, they're gonna send us to Brenners Hospital, which is a children's hospital here. And I was like, okay, and I knew then my child was diabetic. And I texted my former students, mom, and I said, daughter's doctor, that blood sugar 300. We're going to Brenners and having that support system, they're still incredibly good friends of mine. Today. That student is in school to be a teacher. I literally texted her this morning. So and they were really it was really great to have that, that that knowledge there. And so we go to printers for three days, and it was awful. I mean, it wasn't awful. Brenners was great. But anytime, you know, holding your kid down, that's five and doesn't understand, you know, for all the things, but we were lucky we weren't in DKA we caught this, you know, early, and the education was exhausting, and probably more so because I kept asking questions, and I wanted to understand every bit of it. And that's just not possible to do at diagnosis. And then I was in the midst of this situation with custody was oh my gosh, now I've got to send my daughter somewhere without me. Yeah. And so all of those things went on. So we were the high school about three days, and we went home. And in the weeks following that, thankfully, at the time, I was working at a phenomenal school, she came to work with me, which is not unheard of in public education, really. I stayed home with her for a little while. And then she came back to school with me some lots of pieces and all the things for her right, recognizing, you know, we do the JDRF walk. And after we did the first one, she was diagnosed in April, and the walk was in like October ish. And after the walk, she's like, we did the money, we raise the money. Is there a cure now? And I didn't recognize that I had not fully explained that to her. Yeah,

Scott Benner 20:59
she thought you were just saving up to pay for a thing that she needed some right.

Leigh Anne 21:03
And so and then in the car, and she's just like, literally breaks my heart thing about today. She was five, and we were on injections. We only started on the pump in December of this year. Oh, wait, like, it'll be a year in December. Because she didn't wanna do it. And so we weren't injections forever. So I'm always like the pro the meds. So at the time, we were doing a lot of her injections in her stomach, and she's five and I'm driving down the road. And she was like, Mom, when I have a baby or my shots gonna hurt my baby. And I'm like, at five years old. She's thinking about when she's a mom and having to put shots in her stomach. And I'm like, if she's vocalizing that, like, what else is she worried about? I mean, it just. So those things, I mean, just all the things that come with diagnosis, but that was kind of our story. And so we regrouped. And then we go into kindergarten. So she's three months into a diagnosis and kindergarten starts, I fought in court for her not to go to public school, because I know what public school diabetic care is in our area. Her school doesn't know how to nurse one day a week, and we are one of them. She was at one of the better public schools, but her dad, at the time, wanted her to be in public school. And I lost in court because the school was trained on diabetes. And, and so the first bit of her kindergarten experience was not great. She had a teacher that I know very well, but no teacher, everyone knows this can be responsible for a newly diagnosed Yeah, five and six year old in school. It was horrible. And so thankfully, that was COVID year. And so he came home. So I was now teaching virtually, and COVID was, you know, really, I hate to say it this way, because I feel for all the negative things, but it was really positive for our journey with type one. So we're now home all together all day. And so and she never went back to public school after that.

Scott Benner 22:50
I did. I had that conversation the other night. She's like, she's like, you know, I hate what happened to everybody and all the bad stuff that came of it. She's like, how great was it to be able to stay in the house? Yeah. You know, I don't know, just, she's like, I liked it. I was like,

Leigh Anne 23:08
I gotcha. So phase one, um, was my favorite,

Scott Benner 23:11
I enjoyed not being sick, mostly, you know, because I didn't have COVID. And you weren't meeting other people. So like, no colds, and nothing like that ever happened. And now, you know, sniffing now, because some dirty person must have coughed on me in public or something. And

Leigh Anne 23:26
I'm in the Bible Belt. So you can imagine we were the people that I wouldn't leave the house. And we had, thankfully, we were like, we in a good situation, we actually moved to this farm in the middle of COVID. ourselves, and when we let the movers now, and so my kids had their horses, they had everything like we didn't have to We were happy in our bubble. And I'm so and I know that a lot of people did not have that situation. And I did a lot for my students online. A lot to make sure they were okay.

Scott Benner 23:50
I'd also like to say that there's a lot wrong with not being around other people and socializing anything. I'm just saying, like there was a nice break, like I think it was, I think that's how if you're not going to be impacted by the health effects of COVID, right, where the financial stuff or all the other bad stuff that came with it, I think 20 years from now, you'll look back and think like, you remember that time we got off for two years. Like that's cool, because it's how it felt a little bit. It was a little like, Hey, you don't have to do as much for a while. I think people found that attractive for people in certain parts of their life. Like if you were 21 Just getting out of college was horrible. Awful. Yeah, if you're in college, if you're in high school, it was, but I'm old. I was like, oh, like a break. This is nice. You know, so I don't know. For me,

Leigh Anne 24:31
it was so amazing. To not have to be anywhere. I had to be on my Zoom classes at certain times. But like if my kids wanted to watch a movie at 10 o'clock at night, we just watched a movie we painted the garage neon colors because why not? And my mom who is amazing like the epitome of like a grandma, my mom is who my mother is and she's the best. So she makes slideshows for everything. So every birthday my kids from the birthday year before is where the slideshow starts. And now she YouTubes and Seven CDs and, and so she made slideshows, COVID one COVID Phase Two for all of us and it was like pictures we were sending to each other in the family because she has autoimmune disease and we had type one in our house so we were not like and but she documented all those things like in our fun what we were doing plus what's happening in the news and plus with the new restrictions are and how cool I told my kids. I was like, you're gonna use this and your history class, and 15 years like you're gonna use your your grandma's slideshow document this time. But yes, I agree. It was a magical time on some levels.

Scott Benner 25:30
So your daughter's diagnosed. She's not DKA, which is terrific. She has these like kind of deep thoughts pretty early about it. Didn't want to use a pump, which is fine was Sheila CGM. She

Leigh Anne 25:42
was. But here's the thing. And I'm grateful now. But it was awful, then. I only knew CGM is existed because I've had a student in class and I was like that thing that shows it on her phone. And I asked about that. And they're like, Well, you we don't let our patients get on for three months. I was like, okay, so reflectively I understand that, but it was hard. I mean, we got up every night at 2am fingerstick. Every night, like all the things and also to she's an extremely picky eater. Always has been She won't eat meat. She won't eat peanut butter, sweet bread. She won't eat cheese, like she's nothing. And so getting her like we weren't Pre-Bolus In the beginning. We didn't know I had to give her a shot in between meals. I didn't know she was gonna eat. Yeah. And so we did have a CGM is the short answer. But we had to wait three months. And I'm again reflecting. I'm grateful because we've had times like Dexcom sent us the wrong stuff. And so we went five days after having a CGM for how long and not having it and to being able to know what to do and just revert back to that quickly is helpful.

Scott Benner 26:37
Okay, cool. She did go to a pump recently, you said

Leigh Anne 26:41
she did. Um, there's this incredible organization where we live called the diabetes family connection. And November of the year, she was diagnosed, we went to family camp for type one diabetes, which was the single best decision I did for my family for type one. You are at this camp, and every family is the thing. The carbs are listed for you at dinner. Every counselor everyone there is type one or someone in their family is. And we had this great experience. Well, then COVID happened we didn't get to go. And then we got to go back last October. And it was fantastic. And the little girl in our cabin needed to change her Omni pod. And I was asked us like is okay, if we Catherine, I watch and she said yes. And right after Shana. Kathy goes, I'll get a pump. And I was like, great. And a meet. I was like messaging the doctor from camp. I was like, Can we get a pump appointment? Like let's do it. She's in then. And so I mean, and that's been great. And it's been it's so much easier, like so much easier. There are its own issues with that. But she is on Omnipod five now. Okay,

Scott Benner 27:37
cool. Why did you want to come on the podcast to talk about the, the challenges you have. So I think we understand to some degree, how the bipolar impacts you. But like you're saying, you're having a good day today, what happens when you're having like a bad day,

Leigh Anne 27:55
every single thing is extremely hard. And I when I'm in a state like now when I'm rational and I'm happy and having a good day, it seems almost like pathetic, and irrational to even like talk about that state of mind. Because when I'm in it is incredibly real. But when I talk about everything, I'm like, Oh my gosh, like you have this amazing, blessed life, like get your stuff together. So for me what I think your question was, what does it look like? Or how does that was? Your question was, yeah,

Scott Benner 28:21
I'm wondering if you even know what it looks like. Because I Yeah, is that you? I'm talking to now able to witness a bad day and under God mean? Yes,

Leigh Anne 28:31
not a long time ago, because I put the work in. And that's the thing, too, I have to keep reiterating. It isn't every day, every minute conscious effort to manage bipolar. And that's where I think people don't get the support that they need, or the education to understand what's really happening. I can now if you'd asked me 10 years ago, I would have given you a list of what I think it feels like. But for me, it's hard to get out of bed. It's hard to take the next breath. It's super hard to go get food, it's for my kids to do normal daily things. But I think having like I would never and I say this because I'm a super loving mom. And it sounds like normal. I would never want like my bipolar two bipolar to affect my children. I know it does, because they can tell when mom's like however mom is. But I am very good. I think, in my perspective, from sheltering them as best I can when I'm having a really bad day. Or if like I'm crying. I mean, obviously I'm having a hard time. But I'm good at reaching out to my support system and being like I need you to run interference, or can you just come help me for a few minutes and that's not always an option. So

Scott Benner 29:32
a day like that is you not being able to like cope if you maybe couldn't even feed somebody or yourself like it could get to that point hard to get out of bed? I

Leigh Anne 29:45
would say I like I like yes and no. So I will push through and force myself to get up and make sure my kids are okay. Okay, but it is like a level of hard that I can't convey in a normal rational state. ate, it feels like climbing Mount Everest to get up from my bed and walk to the kitchen. Everything is like a fight to get it done. So it really depends on that that can last a very short time meaning a day, or that can last a couple of days, if that makes sense. But it's not always an option to have someone come help me. And now that my kids are a little older, and they're home, most of the time, I can delegate and be like, tell my older daughter, I really need to go to snack right now. For my younger daughter or I can now we have UberEATS I can DoorDash food to my front door and tell my kids are gonna get the food. Which sounds horrible because as a parent, I'm a super hands on involved mom and so like even like talking about it now. It's like, Wow, that's so pathetic. But I recognize like,

Scott Benner 30:47
in that moment, that's what needs

Leigh Anne 30:48
to happen. Horrible. Yeah, like, it's horrible.

Scott Benner 30:50
If Katherine's nine now hold your other 113 13.

Leigh Anne 30:56
So my name is Hayden. And we can say her name as well. She's awesome.

Scott Benner 30:59
So when my my question was, is when Hayden and Catherine are like, I don't know, four and one. And you have a bad day, then what do you do? Do you tape them to the refrigerator? So they can't hurt themselves? Like what do you like it? I mean, no. Yeah.

Leigh Anne 31:13
And that's a great question. So what how would I do though there's like a period of years, and that time that are just a blur of survival for me, I know that I was really going to make good memories, but it was more of like shutting us all in a room watching me be putting a TV on. I do. My entire family lives within 10 minutes of my house. However, as understanding as they think they are about bipolar, still does not change that they think I'm being hard or demanding or unreasonable or rude or mean or whatever, when I truly am a lot of the time being the best that I can be in that moment. My best just looks different on different days. And that's true for everyone. On

Scott Benner 31:56
one of those days while it's happening. Do you consciously think this is a bad day? Or oh, yeah, you know, okay. Yeah. It's not, it's not like, it's not like your think your consciousness is different on the same day, you understand you have a baseline understanding of what good and bad looks like, I don't know if we're using the right words. But But what these two different days look like, and then, you know, you're in, it's not like you're, I don't know, it's not like you're trapped under a building and you think this is normal? This is fine. You think I'm trapped? There was

Leigh Anne 32:26
a time I did feel that way. Okay. It's really because of I know, keep saying it, like, I had to have the understanding of this I had to recognize like, I It's truly like this is I think this will help us to help kind of make sense when Katherine's diagnose and all the things you know, when she gets low or really high, she can be hard, right? So when they were younger, she was being super mean to her sister, she like hit her or something. And I think she was really low. And I said, you know, that's a hard parenting line. And I remind her older sister that was not okay. And I said, Honey, when her blood sugar's low, she really can't help that. And she said, God still gives her a choice. And I was like, I hear you. But so it's kind of the same thing for me. The choices look different. It's choosing like, it's um, I'm still trying and choosing to do right and do those things. It's just that that best or that choice is a lot crappier choice than another day, if that makes sense. Yeah.

Scott Benner 33:21
And from the other person's perspective, they can understand the scenario that you're in, but it doesn't change the fact that they got punched. Right, right. So that's,

Leigh Anne 33:31
and that's why I started trying to be better and and being in my diagnosis, because I was hurting people around me, with my words with my actions. Completely unintentionally. It's

Scott Benner 33:42
why you hear people in family say things like, you know, I had to separate myself from that, like, I love them, but I can't be around that anymore. Yeah, yeah. So you're so you have that to worry about too, that you Yes. That you could be the catalyst for your kids one day just being like, Hey, Mom, I love mom, but I can't I can't do this all the time. Do you take any medication for this? Anything that helps you?

Leigh Anne 34:03
It's actually really interesting. So when I was first diagnosed, I went through and typical and about the time sometimes can take two years. I mean, there's bipolar is such a, an odd but complicated diagnosis, that there's not like two pills, you get to fix it different pills, order people, different combinations. And so I went through all the psychotropic drugs, and have been managed homeopathic Lee, for the most part for about eight years, which when Katherine was diagnosed, I no longer take anything to sleep. I was very I was that was a concern. I need to be able to hear alarms, I've got to go to wake up. That was a piece of it. But I was on homeopathic before that which it's just an amazing situation. And we happen to have a connection to someone who's she's a neurologists, a doctor and I like registered homeopathic whatever. And a lot of her research has shown that bipolar I'm probably gonna get half of this. I'm not shelling it a lot. I guess what I'm saying it's basically you need to feed your brain the right stuff to produce the controls you need and So it's like a really, it's a lot. It's like five pills three times a day of like, all these different magnesium. So like that. And then I do take another medication just in the morning like a Vyvanse. Like a it's like an add drug actually, which typically you don't give to bipolar people because it makes manic. That's not what it does for me, it actually helps me. Slow down kind of

Scott Benner 35:17
you do, you are speaking quickly. But there's a scenario where you're talking much faster than this even. Yeah, like right now, like, you were speaking at a pace that I would have to rev myself up for. And I speak pretty quickly. So you know, like to get like, I'm trying to think like, you'd have to make me upset or passionate. And then I could speak at your pace, but I don't think I could keep it going for more than a couple of minutes. And you are this is nor I'm watching you. This is super calm. Super calm. Yeah, you are absolutely normal right now, like, like you. But if I, but I also feel like I could take these headphones off and say, Hey, listen, tell me about yourself, and come back an hour from now. And you'd still be talking. Yeah, yeah. So you'd be missed, though. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I, it's just interesting, really. So is this a lifelong thing for you?

Leigh Anne 36:11
Yes. And I actually, it was the day I was diagnosed with bipolar was a great day for me, because it's like, wow, there's a name for this. There's a label for this. There's a reason for this. Like, I'm not just this mean person, like I'm not just so it's so but like looking back at like my childhood. God bless my mother as a saint. So yes, definitely, typically, bipolar, you get doesn't show up is the wrong word, because I think it's showing up early ages, but they don't really, really see it. So adolescence and early 20s, and things like that. But again, the research is changing from where we're understanding what bipolar is. And also there's people that are ADHD, or that are bipolar, and they're misdiagnosed for ADHD, because they're only looking at the manic part of it. And so there's a lot of that too. And then whole tangent side note, we've now know that 90% of our serotonin is made in our gut. And I have ulcerative colitis. Don't you think there's a correlation? So? Yes, sir. Yeah,

Scott Benner 37:04
no, I agree. I think I agree. I've never agreed with something so much that I didn't understand. As that's a great point. Yeah. As as the idea that somehow balancing your gut biome is valuable for you. I don't understand. Like, I mean, I know, I could probably pick my way through the understanding of it. I'm just saying, it's not one of those things that you just open up a book, and the book tells you for sure, like, this is exactly what's happening, you know, but I just think it's true. Like there's I just did a thing recently on on what was like, just like I take a probiotic every day. And for you, yeah. And I recently did like a reset kind of a thing. I'm looking for it right now. It was like a 30. Day, I stopped taking my normal probiotic for 30 days. And I took this other other one for 30 days. I'm trying to find it for you. So I can tell you what it

Leigh Anne 38:01
is. Do you refrigerate your probiotic is does it require refrigeration? I

Scott Benner 38:05
know that there's people who say that the ones that that need to be refrigerated or are better somehow, I don't buy one that does my my hippie lady says I don't have to. So

Leigh Anne 38:18
I'm a tree hugging I love it. So

Scott Benner 38:19
I tried something called body bio gut plus, it was like a 30 day thing to kind of like improve your gut function. And it wasn't incredibly expensive. Actually. It's unavailable right now on Amazon. So I must not have been the only one. Because of your Did you do the plug for it? I don't think I said anything about it. No, because I wasn't sure how it would go. I actually bought one for me one for Arden. And, and one for my son. Not for my daughter, not for my wife because my wife said I have my own probax I'm like fine, whatever. So I think this is supposed to be a daily thing. This is like somebody's probably using this as their daily probiotic. But my person said, just switch to this one for one month to see, you know what happens and it was interesting, like you could tell, like, I would tell you that my digestion. Like that whole process from when it goes in my mouth to how it feels in my stomach to how it comes out. The other side is so much different in the last two years, two and a half, three years that it was my whole life like as an adult I got through most of my life by taking fiber. And thinking that that was my concern. I probably could take a little fiber still, but I don't and I don't have a problem. I don't eat enough vegetables. So I think maybe a tiny bit would help me but I think it's the as crazy as it sounds. I think it's partly the probiotics and the in this the supplements that I take. I also think that it got better when I went on the week. Ovie and yes, it slows my digestion down. And I think that really helped as well. So, you know, I have no Oh,

Leigh Anne 40:00
no, I have a friend who has also declined us, which is weird because it's kind of rare. And she's like one of my best friends and I got diagnosed way later after her, but it was just crazy that like, we have the same thing. But she has recently gone on a It's not whiskey, but it's the same class of injection and it has helped her significantly, which is not an ulcer was good. He's done Ultra cleanses drug. But it's it's helped her because it has slowed down her digestion. Yeah,

Scott Benner 40:24
I don't understand all that. Obviously, I don't understand the first thing about it. All I can tell you is that that whole process that I described from my mouth to my, to my but it just goes better now than it used to. I used to really like, like, there were days where I was like, I would struggle with it. And like I'd be one of those people who like have to run to the bathroom. And then I wouldn't and then you know, it was great. And now it's all really fairly consistent. So I don't know, just all like all I can tell you is it was a it was a big impact for me. Jeez, it's tough because you're talking so fast. I don't have my thoughts. I'm sorry. No, don't be. Don't be sorry. Like, no, it's just interesting, because that's not a thing that normally happen. I'm usually ahead of people, when I'm talking to think

Leigh Anne 41:06
I'm from the north when I go there. And as they come I can drive a track. Yeah,

Scott Benner 41:10
I would imagine if someone talked to you, they definitely think you're from the northeast. But yeah, it's interesting because you I'm used to being pacing wise, a little ahead of the people I'm talking to, because my brain works like ne D. But you got me a little bit like you. I'm a little off balance, because I'm behind. I'm not used to being in that deposition. Think about

Leigh Anne 41:32
it. Do you ever get frustrated when you talk to people that are really slow to get to the point and barely talk slow?

Scott Benner 41:37
I gotta tell you, Leanne, it bothers me.

Leigh Anne 41:42
Yeah, that's my normal experience with every interaction times like 10 or 20. I would imagine when I it's very frustrating. And so I usually like, especially as a teacher, which I loved the last five years of teaching. It was incredible experience. I had students that have bettered my life.

Scott Benner 41:59
Can you give me one second? This? Yeah, you're good. This is Arden. This Hey, RJ I'm recording but what's going on? Don't be is this something important? Can I call you an artist? I

Leigh Anne 42:10
love you artist. Oh,

Scott Benner 42:11
this girl. This lady is yelling. She says she loves you. Okay, well, I'll be done in like 20 minutes. I'll give you a call. Okay. All right. Bye. She just saw the look on her face. She was like, I just got back from my business class. I wanted to tell you about it. I was like, Okay. She wants to share. But she but I said oh, I'm recording just Oh, I'm sorry. And I was like, No, it's okay. She this is her second day of her sophomore year of college. So that's exciting. She was really off the site, because there's no other place to put this and maybe it'll give me a chance to reset myself. So Arden for the first time. travelled to school completely by herself. Right. And so she got in a car in New Jersey and drove to Georgia, though she drove 700 miles. And we split it up for she drove like, six or seven hours, she stopped at a family friend's house. And then she moved on and she did the rest of the drive. But the poor kid got sick like two days before like I'm sick now. I think she made me sick. But that's not the point. Like she's like fever, like runny nose, driving this 700 miles by yourself and a car packed full of I want to say stuff but let me be honest, it's 85% clothing, and packed, packed, packed full of stuff. She had to make some stops. You know all that all this. And then when she arrived in Georgia, her room wasn't ready. So she had to stay with a friend another friend for a night and then get up in the morning move herself into her room by herself. Like that night she was on the phone with me like building furniture. Like not a thing garden does. So well with it all. But she's sick the whole time. And now I get on Sunday night. She's like, I didn't get any of my The one thing I don't understand about school, no matter what it is, is they they send you a syllabus. It's six days before school starts. They know everybody's coming in from out of state like and then they say on day one, you have to have this stuff completed. So now she's freaking out a little bit on Sunday night. And I'm looking at her on FaceTime like are you gotta like, calm down a little bit, you know, like, like, she's like, this isn't done. I haven't done this yet. And I'm like, I'm like you're doing terrific. I'm like first of all you got yourself there. You're alive. So much good stuff. Yeah, you moved in you went to the the storage unit. You wouldn't get your other stuff you like, you know, you're putting furniture together. Like just a plan. Yeah, go to go to bed. When she's like, Well, I still have to make art and I'm looking at you just go to bed like you don't I mean, like lay down, go to sleep wake up tomorrow. Try again. You know, so I said to her, I don't think she listened to me. But I'm going to keep telling her. I said the most valuable thing I figured out wrapped around. No responsibility as an adult is to have a flexible to do list. Just you know if you've 10 things on your list. Obviously the thing is the top is the most important. That's how you think about it. But don't think Even just the most important just think of it as as the next thing. So, if you have to move number three to number one, that's fine. You know what I mean? Like, just keep ordering things like that, and you'll be okay. So hopefully she'll do that not beat herself up on. I'm still on number one, but I gotta get to number four. You know what I mean? Well,

Leigh Anne 45:17
North Carolina is probably closer to her than you are. So she can always come here if she, I mean, it's kind of still far, but I have a friend's farm in Georgia.

Scott Benner 45:27
So there are so many people who have reached out and said, like, Oh, if there's a storm, she can come here, and I tell her all the time, and she goes, Okay, I'm gonna have one of your people murder me? Is that what's gonna happen? I'm like, I would say,

Leigh Anne 45:41
anyway, aside, we should definitely do a podcast on education and type one, because I have a lot to say about that.

Scott Benner 45:48
I bet. I bet Leann, if I said to you, so Pop Rocks, you'd have a lot to say about that.

Leigh Anne 45:55
Such that's so true. But education is something I don't know a lot about top rocks. But education is something I as a being a type a character or type one diabetes care person in a school system, working within the classroom, and being a parent to it and being a parent having to have another teacher take care of my kid, just so many in understanding the legality of cyber force and IEPs. And all the the it's that's a whole thing. But I won't tangent. But before Arden called I was saying that, how it gets annoying for me to go all day through life when everyone's in slow motion. And I'm constantly I feel like I'm being insanely patient. And as a teacher, I worked with highly motivated, I went to the most diverse school in our county, and we have a county of 52,000 students. And we are we were one of the top schools in the country, because it's a early college program where kids have to get in and apply, but it's free. And they graduate the two year degree or associate's in a high school diploma. And so we're high minority, high diversity. My kids stories are unbelievable. But with that being said, I'm very conscious in that situation. So I'm teaching, I'm teaching information. I'm fielding questions, I'm being really patient. And a lot of my kids English isn't their first language. So I'm a slow and patient and as I can't be, and so when I get home, trying to maintain living in slow motion around me, but not in my head, if that makes sense. It's really hard. And my husband and my mom, my mom's here a lot because she's close by and she used to be a lot of my childcare now that I'm home that changed. It's that's who gets lashed out at because they get so frustrated. They're like, just be patient, just be calm, you just be paid like people like let me talk and I'm like, it's been 17 minutes, you said nothing.

Scott Benner 47:33
I can explain it in from my perspective. If you're taking a lot of time in between your words. There's it's not a voice in my head, but it's this feeling of like, Oh, my God, come on. Like, I know what you're going to say. How is it possible? You don't think so I'm following the there's like a Pentameter their speech. And I'm following it along. And I know the next word, but they can't find it. And I'm like, this is fascinating, like, you know, so it starts out is when I first started making the podcast, I was I was bad at it. I think I am much better at it. Now. It doesn't bother me the same way. Like I just take a different like, I'm leaning forward talking to you. So like, because I'm trying to, I'm trying to listen to you know, I'm trying to listen to you. And but you're going so fast that I can't form my thoughts to ask you more questions. And when people are speaking more slowly, and you're looking at me today, what I'll do is I'll move the microphone here. And I will sit back and relax. Like I will take this as they're running the show. But I at least can keep up. So even though you're speaking slowly. I do know my next question. I just have to talk myself out of caring how long it's taking you to get your words out. And that I'm actually good at and there's only been a couple of people. There was one gentleman on here one time it's been so long now. He was on talking about like trying to DIY insulin. And he spoke so slowly in between his words that I when I edited it, pushed his words together and still got emails from people saying, Wow, this guy talks really slow. And but he was also trying to explain as well, he's Yeah. And so I've noticed that really, like kind of intellectual people are not very willing sometimes to blurt things out. They they choose their words very carefully. So there's a difference between speaking slowly and speaking. Thoughtfully, maybe. Yeah, it's not thoughtfully I don't think I don't speak thoughtfully. I think that my words just come to me very quickly. Like it's, you know, well, and

Leigh Anne 49:40
I would say to because I do think I'm an intellectually I do not, that was not I totally get what you're saying I think, but I am a really intellectual thinker. It's just really fast. And for me two people think like, I just don't have a filter. I'm actually using a huge filter. I would just like in a lot of things, but I'm also like, very honest and direct, but I try to do it in a kind of live refer those that can't take it. And so there's a lot of pieces to my communication. Yeah. And I communicate differently depending on my audience or who I'm teaching or what's happening. But the slow speech is a conscious effort all the time. And I hate when it comes across as like, like I've had people be like, you've somewhere to be like, I'm like, No, I'm more like, we're just talking like, I'm not like, this is not rushing. And so that is a hard piece that may seem like a petty thing. But that is hard for me on a daily basis and daily interactions. And I'm always told to calm down, take a breath, and I'm, like, totally calm right now, guys, like we can meditate if you want. And I just speak very quickly. Yeah, yeah. And so and I open everyone, I used to be a teacher, I open every class when I talk fast. If you don't know what I said, Let's start again. It's not it's, it's me. Yeah,

Scott Benner 50:45
I'll tell you what, there's this one part of it. That's a superpower. If you ever get into an argument. You can make sense while you're yelling. That's such a big deal in an argument, because most people did that. Yeah, cuz most people can't do that. So when you're like, like, lit up, and you're speaking quickly, and you're still making sense, it throws people off a little bit. And especially if it's a harsh interaction, like if you're yelling back and forth at each other, and your brain still working quickly, the other person is at a significant disadvantage. Which is That's true. Yeah. Not a thing that occurred my life much since I'm older. But you know, and

Leigh Anne 51:21
then I gotta remember, so don't forget, because there's two things. With that being said, I have a thing about certain diagnosis as being superpowers. And then also something just that made me think of someone's like, oh, I should tell them that. Oh, but when I'm manic, the the speech patterns are so fast that sometimes my words are slurred together. And I have trouble writing because I will not finish writing the word before I start the next word. And so letters get left out. I used to at school on the board, and kids were like, Oh, you left out a letter and like, you're right at it. Because my brain is working faster than I can get it on the paper. Yeah. So that is hard sometimes, but about diagnosis. So I, of course, in a school system, I've worked with kids who have autism and things like that, and I look at I use autism, because I think it's, it's going to correlate to my point, if you look at a list of symptoms for autism, obviously, it's a huge spectrum. But a lot of the things on that list, they're not symptoms, they're like gifts, if you've got heightened awareness and sensitivity, you extreme intelligence like savant stuff. And I think the same for bipolar there are definitely and then maybe that's when people like, Oh, she's delusional, delusional is on that symptom list. But there, I can multitask on a level, people couldn't even say with one of the tasks, and I don't mean that I love people, people are great, but that is something I can do. And I also can work in controlled chaos very, very well. I can go very long periods without sleep and still be solid. Not that that's something you should do. But like on an average night, I sleep about four hours a night, I get a lot done in a day. And so I do think that there are like pieces to it. And because I've taught science that for so long, I do think there are evolutionary links to things you know, there's like, the whole thing with your blood type goes to who your ancestors were, if you were hunter gatherers, if you were farmers, there's like a correlations of blood type you have and like what you're supposed to eat and stuff. And I've been a vegetarian for 35 years, and I'm supposed to eat red meat. But that's okay. So with that being said, I feel like maybe I'm totally off tangent here. I think like with autism and certain things, there may be some type of evolutionary genetic link in there for pieces of it. Does that sound crazy? I

Scott Benner 53:16
have only heard about the blood type thing one time, and I don't remember we looked into I don't remember if it was, like, if I could find validity or not. Oh, I did. I can't, I can't think back that far. There

Leigh Anne 53:25
probably is it's called Eat right for your diet. And there probably is some validity. But also, if you look at like blood type O blood is the most popular in our country. And it's the most recessive blood type. So it's really on who settled here and kept passing it down. So like probability wise, that makes sense.

Scott Benner 53:40
Here's something I'll share with you. Because it seems like you would want to know, that last bit that you talked about, is the first time that I did not follow what your point was.

Leigh Anne 53:49
Okay. So that's a good, thank you for asking. Yeah.

Scott Benner 53:53
So going back through the rest of the conversation, whether by the way, not just you, I hope it's obvious when you're listening. Like, I don't care if I even agree with people who I'm talking to. I'm just there. They're explaining how they feel. And I tried to ask questions, right. But for the last 15 minutes, every one of your points that you've made, I've understood what it is you're saying. And then you started off with. I'm gonna, like use people with autism as an example. And then you went to blood types, and I have to be completely honest with you. I don't know what you're trying to tell me. No,

Leigh Anne 54:26
I appreciate that so much, because I hate it when people agree with me, and they don't know what I said. I can't stand that. Like, just ask like, and also So can I

Scott Benner 54:35
ask you just to rephrase it and try to make your point again? Yeah. Okay. So

Leigh Anne 54:39
basically what I'm saying I think with a lot of and again, my The reason Sykes, I've looked at a lot of different mental health diagnosis is things like I'm very interested in behavior. And what makes us do what we do, and in looking at a lot of diagnosis is that we have that get a negative label, like autism, like bipolar, there are actually some really strong attributes in those disorders that people who don't have them cannot do and be cut. And this is probably where I lost you, because I just sort of in my head pretended you had normal, like, not normalized, not what I meant, like a chunk of knowledge to connect this and it's my fault. No one would, unless you're in my science class, so sorry. So going back, I went off top again, there is a lot of like, genetic and evolutionary links to things we do and how we live and health and all the things and that's where I went to blood type stay with me, it's gonna make sense. Where there's like, genetic links to, if you have this blood type than your ancestors, were probably farmers, because this is what genetically works best for you. So when I say that, I think there's probably some genetic advantage at somewhere in my ancestral history, to being able to stay awake for 20 hours, okay, being able to multitask. Like the, there was a Predator movie, I went and saw, I don't know, long time ago, and the Predator, dude, alien, they wanted the most superior DNA from the planet. And that was in the child with autism. And I was like, This is my point I've been trying to make they were thinking that the most superior DNA was in this savant child with autism. And I guess it kind of like conveys my point that you can have these diagnosis is, and yes, they are very hard. And there's a lot of stuff to deal with. But I do believe there may be some piece of that that served my people 10,000 years ago, or whatever,

Scott Benner 56:27
if I can, like, you just spoke for a couple of minutes. The first thing that was really interesting that you did was you I said, Hey, can you just reframe this, and you spent the first 40 words, not talking about it? Like it was, you were like, I have a science background. And because of that, like you like, and I think what you, I think what you were saying was, I've paid attention to how past civilizations and how they lived might impact how we are now today and use the blood type thing to make the point. But but if I could boil it down what you just told me, I'm going to try to boil it down as closely as I can, you were telling me that you think that you work well on a little amount of sleep? Because perhaps the people whose bloodline you come from, we're good at that, too. Is that fair? It's fair,

Leigh Anne 57:17
I would just say like, there's a genetic advantage, like it bipolar, allows me to do certain things that I couldn't do if I wasn't bipolar, okay. But it also comes with negative things. So wherever that genetic link of being bipolar comes in, maybe that served an advantage because things get passed down. Survival of the fittest, things that get passed down, survive for certain reasons, to maybe being able to do certain things that I can do is that polar served some primitive culture well, but that could be a total leap and

Scott Benner 57:47
all that, like, it's crazy. It's it's gonna sound I don't really care about all that what I cared about was, it's interesting that like, you're you have, there are connections that you see between things that I don't I'm not aware of, right, and the way you describe them, like the way you talk, I guess, it was hard for me to see the connections that you were there. I know now, but in the through the first time, like, I didn't understand what you were getting at. And that's got to be frustrating for you, because you know, what the hell you're talking about? And you're trying to say it out loud. And I mean, listen, it's communication one way or the other. It's just, you know, there are plenty of people who don't have Bipolar who also don't communicate either. Well, but you were getting out of the words, but I wasn't seeing the lines you were drawing. And now and now I do, because I because we went back through it. But even that would be exhausting to do over and over again. So that's exhausting. Sorry. No, I was gonna say to your kids follow you. Yes, they do

Leigh Anne 58:45
most of the time. But that point is so powerful, because to me, it feels validating because I struggle with that every day. Like I all the time, I have the most amazing man in my life. Amazing guy. But he's logical. He's rational. His degrees in accounting is very linear thinker. We're having a conversation and I say something that he feels is unbelievably unrelated. And it makes complete sense the connection to me, and that is kidding, that doesn't go well sometimes. And my mom has a habit of just saying okay to things because she gets lost in my words and doesn't know as I get frustrated when I have to keep repeating myself. And yes, she's older, but she's not like, she's she's. Yeah. Right. And so that is absolutely a struggle all the time. Yeah. And I can imagine, and so yeah, there's something else. She's Oh, my kids, when I know I am, need to, like, take it back as when my older daughter is like, she gets really stressed and will be like, I can't do that. You just asked me do 10 things and I can't do them. And let me finish the other things first, and I'm like, okay, that's reasonable. I personally can handle a list of 50 things in my brain. That is not reasonable for you. I don't say that out loud. Yeah. But and then and then the other thing that I'm seeing and my child with type one is, she is the spitting image of me except that I'm her mom, and she has type one and she's had the opportunity to be homeschooled and to have a lot of fun. cuz that would have been great for me. I had great parents in childhood, but raising me was probably how are we allowed to cuss on here, harden is the opposite of heaven. So with that said, I see like my type one child does not sleep. Like at all, we did all the things like, and so I just stopped for the bedtime, she goes to bed when she's tired, no matter what she's up at six years have been for the day. If I let her go to bed before 10 o'clock, she's up at 2am for the day. And I just can't do that. And that's something too I think that ties in to being bipolar. There's very little time that I'm alone or an adult, or away from children. And I do feel like I'm with my kids more than most parents. And that's what I want. And I love that I'm highly involved in their lives probably do involve sometimes, but not getting your words like we'll just do they go to bed because at my students are pushing for me to do a podcast, another conversation. But I'm like, when would I do that. And there's just very little time that I'm alone, because my kids are awake, mostly my younger child. My older one was like that. But now that she's a teenager, she sleeps. So she just and so I do wonder all the time, like have I passed this on to her? I don't know. And but I also handled her with so much compassion, that it annoys my older daughter more than I think a normal sibling, because not only there's type one there, but there's also I get her. And I remember not being gotten as a kid, and not understanding Oh, she's just a wild free spirit. Like, oh, that word can be a great word. But it's thrown around.

Scott Benner 1:01:26
Oh, sorry,

Speaker 2 1:01:27
no, no, I wanted I just couple things. I like you, I had a thought in my head. And you you almost get you almost beat it out of me. But I held on to it. So I love that you're drinking Mountain Dew, by the way, because of all the caffeine, it makes me.

Scott Benner 1:01:40
So there are a number of things that you you do well, that I wouldn't have expected when we started. So like when I jump in and start talking, you remember where we were before that that's not a thing I would expect from a person with bipolar. And you are not chomping at the bit to talk when I'm talking. You are you're listening to me. I've had conversations with people with bipolar before and it feels like it's them talking. And then them begrudgingly waiting while you're talking. And then them talking again, like and so you and I are having a conversation. It's it's, it's cool. Like, would that be on a bad day? Could you do that too?

Leigh Anne 1:02:16
I could I would be more like I wouldn't. Depending on our relationship at the time. Like, I would still be polite. And I may not be as listening. If people take too long to talk. I process other things in my head because I get bored. I've already thought about everything in the background of your room. Yeah. Because if you're not talking slow, I recognize that because I have the ability now to recognize what appears normal for other people, if that makes sense. If you do not talk like slow. So what about on a bad day? On a low day, like sad, everything's hard. It would have been very hard for me to show up. I would just have come across as like, well, maybe normal to you. But to me, I would have looked like a sad, depressed person. And I kind of just got off track again, after you said I was good at keeping up something about oh, gosh, what was the original question? Look, I've already messed it up. No,

Scott Benner 1:03:04
it's fine. I was saying that you were when I'm speaking. You're not I do. Listen, you are listening to me. Yeah. But

Leigh Anne 1:03:10
I do struggle with that. Because people think I'm not sometimes because I can do other stuff while I'm listening. And this is Oh my God. My little Katherine did this the other day. She was listening to her social studies video while she was doing her math. And I was like, you can't do both at the same time. Like, you know, she's a mom. She's like, I'm smart like that. And I was like, What are you mean, and she could repeat everything in the video and do her math correctly. I'm like, Oh, my gosh, she's me. She's really me. And you can imagine how public school was for a child who they just thought I was add, like, and like hyper or like, obstinate and my dad was superintendent of school system. So I'm supposed to be like, you know, look,

Scott Benner 1:03:43
yeah. Does it worry you when you see her act in ways that you do? Do you get concerned about that?

Leigh Anne 1:03:49
I think it's a loaded question. Concerns come with being a parent concerns come with type one concerns on bipolar. So yes, but I think I take comfort in knowing that if she is going to face having bipolar. She has a mom who's highly educated on it, and well equipped to have the places things in place to support her. But I also look at it and I have like, done amazing things. I have incredible friendships, I have a great support system. These are things I've had to work out, obviously. So of all the things this is also a now I'm probably under those things where you might miss the connection, but you're with me. It reminds me of her diagnosis, because when she was diagnosed, the endocrinology floor was full. So we were put on the pediatric cancer unit. And I'm sitting there mourning and grieving the life that was and how many keep my kid alive. And there's kids, they're walking around dying of cancer with no hope. And it was like, You know what, we've got type one. I've been prepared for this by my student two years ago. I know more about it than I ever would have because of that student. And we can treat this. We can't treat because some kids are walking around that can't be treated. Yeah. I have a situation where I can buy insulin. I have a place where I can get her mental health needs she's going to be so Surrounded by animals and outdoors, she's outside probably 10 hours a day, almost every day, she runs barefoot and builds forts and rides your pony and lays on the ground with her dog and gets dirty. And all of those things are very supportive of healthy mental health, whether you're bipolar or not. And so does it concern me? Sure, because it's hard. It's really hard. But she has gonna have to face hard stuff. And everybody has heard stuff. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:05:21
that's a great answer. Cool. Is there anything we didn't talk about that we should have? Do

Leigh Anne 1:05:27
you really want to answer that question? How do you like,

Scott Benner 1:05:29
well,

Leigh Anne 1:05:30
I'd be going 70 tangents.

Scott Benner 1:05:31
I mean, I'm up against time. So I'm just want to make sure I didn't get out of here. Anything that like really like you wanted to get to that we didn't get through. Yeah, I

Leigh Anne 1:05:39
just would say like, people that have other people with strong mental health challenges, whether that be depression or bipolar, like, you've got to recognize sometimes that their best may not look that great. But sometimes when I look like I'm being a raging mean, horrible person, that is the best I can do in that moment. And it is requiring so much self control, like I need grace, I need support. And if you're, especially for people that are close to you, it's just like the kid that comes home from school and is the perfect student and then falls apart at home. Like it's a safe place to explode. So that and also like, managing your mental health, it sounds so cliche, if I don't take care of me, I cannot take care of blood sugar. Right. And that felt very selfish for a long time. And it still does sometimes, but being aware of like, you know, what, if I don't take medicine, if I don't do what I need to do, if I do things that I know, trigger me, I can not be available. And it is not just being a bad mom or a not great mom, it is my kids blood sugar, and that's keeping her alive. So I think that that's important. It's amazing.

Scott Benner 1:06:36
Okay. Well, thank you. I really appreciate you doing this. When did you start listening to the podcast? So

Leigh Anne 1:06:42
really great question. I honestly don't know. But it had to be a long time ago because we scheduled this almost a year ago. So yeah, it had to be. I mean, probably maybe like two ish or three ish. You know what, maybe because that because I was on that, like I said, was on the Facebook group. Very early on a diagnosis. I joined all the things. But the podcast. Let's go with like two and a half to three years. Okay. Yeah. Okay, cool.

Scott Benner 1:07:04
Have I ever done other interviews with people with bipolar that you've heard? Not that I've heard? Okay. All right. I think there's some in the after darks, but and you're gonna get mad,

Leigh Anne 1:07:15
I will not mad, you're great. Sometimes I can't do them unless I'm in a really good space. Because the ads or which I saw the subscription saying coming, because I need the information or the information I want. isn't coming to me fast

Scott Benner 1:07:27
enough. So an ad throws you off. Yeah,

Leigh Anne 1:07:32
it doesn't throw me off. It's just so long. Not on yours. In general. Everybody's,

Scott Benner 1:07:35
yeah.

Leigh Anne 1:07:36
someone taking a breath is I interrupt them, because I think they're done talking.

Scott Benner 1:07:41
Interesting. Well, that's amazing. Yeah, I can't make the podcast without ads, we'll all be in trouble.

Leigh Anne 1:07:49
But like, for me, listening to the podcast, just even opening the first time I did was a step. Like there's a lot of books I want to read. And I don't read them. Because I have to be so focused to read the words and it feels slow and boring, because there's just it's hard, but I want the information. So I love the podcast. And I think it's incredibly great resource for a lot of people actually, when I went to pump trading, and this family was needed some help. And I sent them to it and I sent my my students that graduate with type one and stuff like that, like I try to get as much supports in college as I can because there should be a you have to take type one class before you leave home. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:08:22
I gotcha. All right. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. No, that's

having an easy to use and accurate blood glucose meter is just one click away. Contour next one.com/juicebox That's right. Today's episode is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. Jalen is an incredible example of what's so many experience living with diabetes. You show up for yourself and others every day, never letting diabetes define you. And that is what the Medtronic champion community is all about. Each of us is strong, and together, we're even stronger. To hear more stories from the Medtronic champion community or to share your own story, visit Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox And look out online for the hashtag Medtronic champion. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoy my full conversation with Jalen coming up in just a moment. If you're not already subscribed or following in your favorite audio app, please take the time now to do that. It really helps the show and get those automatic downloads set up so you never miss an episode. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong way. recording.com. Thanks for hanging out until the end. Now you're going to hear my entire conversation with Jalen don't forget Medtronic diabetes.com/juice Vox or the hashtag Medtronic champion on your favorite social media platform.

Speaker 1 1:10:04
My name is Jalen Mayfield. I am 29 years old. I live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I am originally from Waynesboro, Mississippi. So I've kind of traveled all over. I've just landed here in the Midwest and haven't left since.

Scott Benner 1:10:19
Nice. How old? were you when you were diagnosed with type one diabetes?

Speaker 1 1:10:22
I was 14 years old when I was diagnosed with type one diabetes

Scott Benner 1:10:26
15 years ago. Wow. Yes. Okay. 14 years old. What are you like? Do you remember what grade you were in?

Speaker 1 1:10:31
I actually do because we we have like an eighth grade promotion. So I had just had a great promotion. So I was going straight into high school. So it was a summer, heading into high school

Scott Benner 1:10:41
was that particularly difficult going into high school with this new thing?

Speaker 1 1:10:44
I was unimaginable. You know, I missed my entire summer. So I went to I was going to a brand new school with, you know, our community, we brought three different schools together. So I was around a bunch of new people that I had not been going to school with. So it was hard trying to balance that while also explaining to people what type one diabetes was,

Scott Benner 1:11:04
did you even know? Or were you just learning at the same time,

Speaker 1 1:11:07
I honestly was learning at the same time, my hometown did not have an endocrinologist. So I was traveling almost over an hour to the nearest you know, pediatrician, like endocrinologist for children. So you know, outside of that I didn't have any type of support in my hometown. Was

Scott Benner 1:11:26
there any expectation of diabetes? Is somebody else in your family have type one?

Unknown Speaker 1:11:29
No, I was the first one to have type one of my family.

Scott Benner 1:11:32
And do you have children? Now?

Unknown Speaker 1:11:34
I do not know.

Scott Benner 1:11:35
Do you think you will one day, still

Speaker 1 1:11:37
thinking about it? But right now, I've just been traveling books at all my career myself. So

Scott Benner 1:11:42
what do you do? What's your career? Yeah, so

Speaker 1 1:11:44
I am a marketing leasing specialist for a student housing company. So we oversee about 90 properties throughout the US. So I've been working for them for about eight years now. And you get to travel a lot. And that job? Yes, I experience a lot of travel. It's fun, but also difficult, especially with all your type one diabetes supplies, and all your electronics. So it's a bit of a hassle sometimes.

Scott Benner 1:12:06
What do you find that you absolutely need with you while you're traveling? diabetes wise,

Speaker 1 1:12:11
I have learned my biggest thing I need is some type of glucose. I have experienced lows, whether that's on a flight traveling, walking through the airport, and I used to always experience just being nervous to ask for some type of snack or anything. So I just felt, I felt like I needed to always have something on me. And that has made it my travel a lot easier.

Scott Benner 1:12:32
So growing up in the small town, what was your initial challenge during diagnosis? And what other challenges did you find along the way?

Speaker 1 1:12:43
Yeah, I think the initial one, I felt isolated, I had no one to talk to that it was experiencing what I was going through, you know, they were people would say, Oh, I know, this is like hard for you. But I was like, you really don't like I, I just felt lonely. I didn't know you know, people were watching everything I did. He was like, You can't eat this. You can't eat that. I felt like all of my childhood had been you know, I don't even remember what it was like for life before diabetes at this point, because I felt like that's the only thing I could focus on was trying to do a life with type one diabetes,

Scott Benner 1:13:17
when you found yourself misunderstood? Did you try to explain to people or did you find it easier just to stay private?

Speaker 1 1:13:24
I honestly I just held back I didn't really like talking about it. It was just it felt like it was just an repeating record where I was saying things and people weren't understanding it. And I also was still in the process of learning it. So I just, you know, kept it to myself didn't really talk about it when I absolutely had to,

Scott Benner 1:13:42
did you eventually find people in real life that you could confide in? I

Speaker 1 1:13:47
think I never really got the experience until after getting to college. And then once I graduated college, and moving to an even bigger town, that's what I finally found out as people were I was like, Okay, there's a lot of other people that have type one diabetes. And you know, there's a community out there, which I had never experienced before, is

Scott Benner 1:14:08
college where you met somebody with diabetes for the first time or just where you met more people with different ways of thinking.

Speaker 1 1:14:13
So I met my first person with diabetes, actually, my freshman year of high school, there was only one other person and he had had it since he was a kid like y'all once this was like, maybe born, or like right after that timeframe. So that was the only other person I knew until I got to college and I started meeting other people. I was a member of the band and I was an RA. So I was like, Okay, there's, you know, there's a small handful of people also at my university, but then, once I moved to I moved to St. Louis, and a lot of my friends I met were like med students and they were young professionals. And that's where I started really getting involved with one of my really close friends to this day. He was also type one diabetic and I was like, that's who introduced me to all these different types of communities and technology. is and which is really what helped jumpstart my learning more in depth with type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 1:15:05
Do you think I mean, there was that one person in high school but you were young? Do you really think you were ready to build a relationship and around diabetes? Or did you even know the reason why that would be important at the time?

Speaker 1 1:15:16
I didn't know, you know, I honestly didn't think about it, I just say, Oh, there's another person in my class that's kind of going through the same thing as I am. But they've also had it a lot longer than I have. So they kind of got it down. They don't really talk about it. And I was like, Well, I don't really have much to, like, connect with him. So sorry, connect with him, ya

Scott Benner 1:15:36
know. So now once your world expands as far as different people, different backgrounds, different places in college, you see the need to connect in real life, but there's still only a few people, but there's still value in that. Right?

Unknown Speaker 1:15:48
Correct.

Scott Benner 1:15:49
What do you think that value was at the time?

Speaker 1 1:15:52
I think it was just what making me feel like I was just a normal person. I just wanted that. And I just, I needed to know that. Like, you know, there was other people out there with type one diabetes experiencing the same type of, you know, thoughts that I was having.

Scott Benner 1:16:07
When were you first introduced to the Medtronic champions community? Yeah,

Speaker 1 1:16:12
so about two years ago, I was, you know, becoming more I was looking around, and I noticed stumbled upon the Medtronic community. And I was like, this is something I really, really, I kind of need, you know, I said, I, all throughout these years, I was, you know, afraid to show my pump. You couldn't, I would wear long sleeves. Like, I didn't want people to see my CGM, because I didn't want people to ask me questions. And you know, I just felt so uncomfortable. And then I noticed seeing these people really, in the Medtronic community just they embraced it, you could see them, they weren't afraid to show it. And that was something I was really looking forward to.

Scott Benner 1:16:47
How is it knowing that you're diabetes technology is such an important part of your health and your care? And having to hide it? What did it feel like to have to hide that diabetes technology? And how did it feel to be able to kind of let it go,

Speaker 1 1:17:00
I will refuse to go anywhere, like, Hey, I would run to the bathroom, I just didn't want to do it in public, because I felt like people were watching me. And that was just one of the hardest things I was trying to overcome. You know, I was fresh out of college, going into the young, professional world. So you know, going out on work events and things like that. I just, I just didn't think I just didn't think to have it out. Because I was so afraid. But then, once I did start, you know, embracing again and showing it that's when the curiosity came and it was actually genuine questions and people wanting to know more about the equipment that I'm on, and how does this work? And what does this mean? And things like that, which made it kind of inspired me? Because I was like, Okay, people actually do want to understand what I'm experiencing with type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 1:17:45
What did you experience when, when the internet came into play? And now suddenly as easy as a hashtag, and you can meet all these other people who are living with diabetes as well? Can you tell me how that is? Either different or valuable? I guess, compared to meeting a few people in real life?

Speaker 1 1:18:02
Absolutely. I think if you look back from when I was first diagnosed to now, you, I would have never thought of like, you know, searching anything for someone with, you know, type one diabetes. And now it's like, it's all I see, you know, you can easily search Medtronic champions, and you see people that pop up, and you're like, wow, look at all this content. And I think that's something that that kind of just motivates me, and which is how I've kind of came out of my shell and started embracing more and posting more on my social media with about, you know, how I live with type one diabetes. And I think that's something that I hope can inspire everyone else. What

Scott Benner 1:18:36
was it like having more personal intimate relationships in college with type one?

Speaker 1 1:18:41
I think it was kind of hard to explain, you know, just, for example, like, no one really knows, understands, like what alo is. And I think that was a very hard thing for me to explain, like, I, you know, it can happen in any moment. And I'm sweating. I'm just really like, not all there. And I'm trying to explain, like, Hey, this is what's going on. I need your help. And I think that was something that was hard for me to, you know, I did talk to people about it. So when this happened, they were like, oh, you know what's going on with you? I'm like, I'm actually a type one diabetic. This is what's going on. I need your help. What about

Scott Benner 1:19:19
once you've had an experience like that in front of someone? Was it always bonding? Or did it ever have people kind of step back and be maybe more leery of your relationship? After

Speaker 1 1:19:32
I would tell someone I had type one diabetes after some type of event or a dynamic they were kind of more upset with me that I didn't tell them up front. Because they were like, you know, I care about you as a person I would have loved to knowing this about you. It's not anything you should have to hide from me. And that was a lot of the realization that I was going through with a lot of people.

Scott Benner 1:19:49
Okay, let me ask you this. So now we talked about what it was like to be low, and to have that more kind of emergent situation but what about when your blood sugar has been high or stubborn, and you're not thinking correctly, but it's not as obvious maybe to you or to them. Yeah.

Speaker 1 1:20:03
So I also I go through my same experiences when I have high blood sugars, you know, I can tell like, from my co workers, for example, I didn't really talk to, you know, when I go out backtrack. When I visit multiple sites for work, I usually don't announce it. And so sometimes, I'm working throughout the day, I might have snacks, forgot to take some insulin, and my blood sugar is running high, and I'm a little bit more irritable, I'm all over the place. And I'm like, let me stop. Hey, guys, I need to like take some insulin, and I'm sorry, I'm not I didn't tell you guys. I'm a diabetic. So you may be wondering why I'm kind of just a little bit snippy, you know, so I like to make sure I do that now going forward, because that's something I noticed. And it was kind of hindering me with my career because I was, you know, getting irritable, because I'm working nonstop. And I'm forgetting to take a step back and focus on my diabetes, right?

Scott Benner 1:20:55
Hey, with the advent of new technologies, like Medtronic, CGM, and other diabetes technology, can you tell me how that's improved your life and those interactions with people? Yeah, I

Speaker 1 1:21:06
can. I feel confident knowing that it's working in the background, as someone and I always at least said it, I have been someone that's really bad with counting my carbs. So sometimes I kind of undershoot it because I'm scared. But it allows me to just know that, hey, it's gonna it's got my back if I forget something, and I think that allows me to have a quick, have a quick lunch. And then I'm able to get back into the work day because it's such a fast paced industry that I work in. So sometimes it is easy to forget. And so I love that I have that system that's keeping track of everything for me.

Scott Benner 1:21:39
Let me ask you one last question. When you have interactions online with other people who have type one diabetes, what social media do you find the most valuable for you personally? Like? What platforms do you see the most people and have the most good interactions on?

Speaker 1 1:21:55
Yeah, I've honestly, I've had tremendous interactions on Instagram. That's where I've kind of seen a lot of other diabetics reach out to me and ask me questions or comment, and we're like, Hey, you're experiencing this too. But I've recently also been seeing tic TOCs. And, you know, finding on that side of it, I didn't, you know, see the videos and different videos. And I'm like, I would love to do stuff like that. But I just never had the courage. So I'm seeing people make, like, just the fun engagement videos now, which I love, you know, really bringing that awareness to diabetes. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:22:24
Isn't it interesting? Maybe you don't know this, but there's some sort of an age cut off somewhere where there is an entire world of people with type one diabetes existing on Facebook, that don't go into Tik Tok or Instagram and vice versa. Yeah. And I do think it's pretty broken down by, you know, when that platform was most popular for those people by age, but your younger people, I'm acting like, I'm 100 years old, but younger people seem to enjoy video more.

Speaker 1 1:22:51
Yes, I think it's just because it's something you see. And so it's like, and I think that one thing, and obviously, it's a big stereotype of our diabetes, if you don't like you have diabetes, and that's something that I always face. And so when I see other people that are just, you know, normal, everyday people, and I'm like, they have type one diabetes, just like me, they're literally living their life having fun. That's just something you want to see it because you don't get to see people living their everyday lives with diabetes. I think that's something I've really enjoyed.

Scott Benner 1:23:21
What are your health goals? When you go to the endocrinologist, and you make a plan for the next few months? What are you hoping to achieve? And where do you struggle? And where do you see your successes,

Speaker 1 1:23:31
I'll be honest, I was not someone who is you know, involved with my diabetes, I wasn't really focused on my health. And that was something that, you know, you go into an endocrinologist and you get these results back. And it's not what you want to hear. It gets, it makes you nervous, it makes you scared. And so I personally for myself, you know, I was like, This is my chance, this is my chance to change. I know, there's people that are living just like me, everyday lives, and they can keep their agencies and their blood sugar's under control. How can I do this? So I go in with, you know, I would like to see it down a certain number of points each time I would love for my doctor to be like, Hey, I see you're entering your carbs, I see your, you know, you're not having lows. You're not running high too often. That's my goal. And I've been seeing that. And that's what motivates me, every time I go to the endocrinologist where I don't dread going. It's like an exciting visit for me.

Scott Benner 1:24:20
So you'd like to set a goal for yourself and then for someone to acknowledge it to give you kind of that energy to keep going for the next goal. Yeah,

Speaker 1 1:24:28
I feel as a type one diabetic for me, and it's just a lot to balance. It's a hard our journey. And so I want someone when I go in, I want to be able to know like, Hey, I see what you're doing. Let's work together to do this. Let's you don't want to be put down like you know, you're doing horrible you're doing it's just, it's not going to motivate you because it's your you're already fighting a tough battle. So just having that motivation and acknowledging the goods and also how we can improve that sweat really has been the game changer for me in the past two years

Scott Benner 1:25:04
in jail and I appreciate you spending this time with me this was terrific Thank you very much absolutely thank you if you enjoy Jalen story check out Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box

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#1160 Off By Two Gummy Bears

Beth is the mother of a type 1; a neuroscientists and a professor.

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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 1160 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Today I'll be speaking with Beth who is the mother of three children, her 12 year old son, who has a twin has type one diabetes and was diagnosed at nine years old. Beth is a professor of biology, and she used to be a neuroscientist. I think we're going to talk about neurons and brains and stuff. 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. Don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com. All you have to do is use the offer code juice box at checkout that's juice box at checkout to save 40% at cosy earth.com. If you have type one diabetes, or are the caregiver of someone with type one and a US resident, the T one D exchange is looking for you. T one D exchange.org/juicebox. Take it 10 minutes to fill out their survey. It's all they want. They have simple questions about type one diabetes, and your answers can help to further type one diabetes research. P one D exchange.org/juicebox.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by us med U S med.com/juice box or call 888721151 for us med is where my daughter gets her diabetes supplies from and you could to use the link or number to get your free benefit check and get started today with us met. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by ag one drink ag one.com/juice box. head there now to learn more about ag one. It's vegan friendly, gluten free, dairy free, non GMO, no sugar added no artificial sweeteners. And when you make your first order with my link, you're going to get a G one and a welcome kit that includes a shaker scoop and canister. You're also going to get five free travel packs in a year supply of vitamin D with that first order at drink ag one.com/juice box. This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries. G voc hypo Penn. Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash juice box.

Beth 2:41
My name is Beth. I am a mother of three and a college professor and my oldest child has type one diabetes diagnosed in October 2020 2020.

Scott Benner 2:53
How old is your child? Now?

Beth 2:55
He's 12. He was nine when he was diagnosed just going into the fourth grade.

Scott Benner 3:01
Okay son or daughter? Can

Beth 3:02
we say son he has a twin sister. So I have two daughters and a son. Oh, he's a twin. He's a twin. That's

Scott Benner 3:10
identical. Or the other one?

Beth 3:13
No fraternal it's boy girl so identical. You

Scott Benner 3:17
know, that makes a lot of sense. Sorry, hold on a second.

Beth 3:25
I do get that question a lot.

Scott Benner 3:28
I'd understand if everybody shut this off now. Hey, have you listened to a podcast the guy just asked. Boy, okay, hold on. I'm sorry. I'll do better.

Beth 3:40
No, no, it's fine. It's fine. You know, if you don't think about it right away that there boy girl and that, you know, it just doesn't

Scott Benner 3:47
there was a light my eye and I just shut it off. I'm gonna blame that. Keep moving. My gosh. So are they identical? No. I just said one of them's a girl and one of them's a boy. They don't look exactly alike. Okay. Do they look oddly alike? No.

Beth 4:02
You know, all of my kids look very different from each other. And I think that's because my husband is from India and my background as you know, you're Irish Scottish. So blond hair, blue eyes. So we have an interesting mix of traits in our children.

Scott Benner 4:22
I just want you to know that when you said my husband's from and you paused my husband, I thought you're gonna say isn't all their fathers are going at first? I was like, how could this make a difference? But anyway, alright, so he is all their fathers. He

Beth 4:39
is all there but yeah, we're very sure on the on the first two because we we went through some years of infertility. So the twins were the result of in vitro fertilization, so we're absolutely positive.

Scott Benner 4:52
And if I'm not good, I'm sorry. Go ahead. No, no, please.

Beth 4:55
I was gonna say my son is like a carbon copy of my husband but with lighter skin It's

Scott Benner 5:00
so interesting. So all of your husband's features more all

Beth 5:03
of Yes, it looks he looks at people have a lot of trouble understanding what race he is. I don't think I'm gonna say his name on the podcast. It's a very distinctive name. We did give them traditional Sanskrit Indian names. So people are confused, especially if I'm with them and their names, you know, and yeah, they youngest daughter has blond hair, blue eyes.

Scott Benner 5:31
Oh, yeah. No, they definitely think you still those kids, that's for sure. Yeah, exactly. There are people making photos like I'm seeing human trafficking at the Macy's right now. I know for sure. You gotta come now there's a white lady stealing some oddly caramel Indian children. I don't know what's happening.

Beth 5:46
You know what they they're not Carmel. They're white.

Scott Benner 5:50
Oh, wait a minute or so white. Oh, no kidding. Is your so I'm not going to know the names. Although my daughter's friends has them around me all the time. And I don't pick them up right. But is your husband darker or lighter? He's

Beth 6:04
lighter. He's from I guess his mom is from Delhi and his dad is from Gujarat which is a city in northern India. So his sister has hazel eyes. So he does have a lighter skin but he's clearly Indian you know,

Scott Benner 6:19
so we're gonna get off this now but your son looks like I took a picture of an Indian person put it in Photoshop and move the contrast all the way the wrong direction.

Beth 6:28
Yeah, he does have the darkest skin of the three kids but his skin is lighter than what you would expect for an Indian child.

Scott Benner 6:36
Could you make a new drinks good for you? Wonderful. Okay, now I'm going to test myself because I prepared for this a tiny bit. What do you do for a living? If you take insulin or sulfonylureas you are at risk for your blood sugar going too low. You need a safety net when it matters most. Be ready with G voc hypo pen. My daughter carries G voc hypo pen everywhere she goes because it's a ready to use rescue pen for treating very low blood sugar and people with diabetes ages two and above that I trust. Low blood sugar emergencies can happen unexpectedly and they demand quick action. Luckily, G voc hypo pen can be administered in two simple steps even by yourself in certain situations. Show those around you where you storage evoke hypo pen and how to use it. They need to know how to use G vo Capo pen before an emergency situation happens. Learn more about why G voc hypo pen is in Ardens diabetes toolkit at G voc glucagon.com/juicebox. G voc shouldn't be used if you have a tumor in the gland on the top of your kidneys called a pheochromocytoma. Or if you have a tumor in your pancreas called an insulinoma. Visit G voc glucagon.com/risk For safety information.

Beth 7:59
I'm a college professor, I actually teach at a community college I was a scientist for many years. And then once the twins were born, my husband and I both quit our jobs and moved to Ohio to be closer to family. So

Scott Benner 8:14
nice. But what did you do when you were in an industry? And what's your what's your thought when

Beth 8:18
I was doing research? Yeah,

Scott Benner 8:20
what I'm trying to get at what your educational background is, I guess? Oh, so

Beth 8:23
I have a doctorate in neuroscience. So I I spent many years studying the neural circuitry of motivation and addiction. And it's so strange because I actually was trained in an obesity research center. And everyone around me was working on a cure for obesity and also diabetes. Got it

Scott Benner 8:46
right. My hands now Beth, I have to take it after we record.

Beth 8:50
I know. The funny thing is, are you talking about well, govi I'm holding the Go V right now. Yes, yeah. So there was a grad student when I was in grad school, she was working with a GLP one agonist. And I still remember like she was she was investigating its effects and anxiety. We work with rodent models. And I remember the rats were like jumping off this plus maze, which is insane behavior for rats. Okay, so they were it was whatever, I can't remember if she was using something that activated or blocked that receptor. So it was either something like we'll go V or the opposite. But anyway, the rats were jumping off the maze, which meant that this was an incredible anxiety reducer. It needs animals.

Scott Benner 9:37
Oh, I wasn't hurt. Oh, Beth. I'm sorry. I'm cutting you off, but I wasn't following it first. So you took their anxiety away so much. They were like I could jump off of this. Yes. Exactly what

Beth 9:48
explain how plus maze works but I don't think people would be interested in that all. They like to stay in dark places. They do not typically jump off of elevated mazes. Wow.

Scott Benner 9:59
Give them the right thing. They're like, I can't do anything. I'm Superman on my cell phone. Yeah, you don't even have to let them watch a video game, they still thought they could do it. That's excellent. Well, I'll say this, I'm holding my like, I'm at a therapeutic dose now. So I'm using 2.4 milligrams weekly, I'm going to actually inject it, I do a little diary about it. So I'm going to record with you that I'm gonna open my diary up and uncheck this and record the diary. But I'll tell you, I'm down 31 pounds. I started in March, all of my measurables are going in the right direction, with the exception of muscle mass, which I expected because I'm losing weight. Right. And so I'm beginning to add, like exercise in to try to move that in the other direction as well. But it's fascinating. Like, I don't believe that I'm eating that much differently now than I was before I started taking it.

Beth 10:53
So can I ask you something? Because I'm actually really curious about this just based on what I used to. I used to work on the motivational circuits, and I was sort of like the expert in food motivation. Before

Scott Benner 11:05
you ask your question. Let me just tell people a little tease. I don't know if you've ever heard tickle your to the feather. But I'm going to ask Beth a lot of questions about about having low blood sugar and your brain later. So everybody, yes, yeah. Hang on. So good. I'm

Beth 11:20
excited to talk about that, too. But first, they ask and high blood sugar, right? Oh,

Scott Benner 11:25
why not? We're here. Yeah, go ahead. Good.

Beth 11:28
So my question is, do you feel like, do you feel not hungry? So when you take will go V? Do you lack that sore? Are you not getting as much reward from the food that you eat? I

Scott Benner 11:42
guess, yeah. So it's, it's a bit of a process, like because you start on a very low dose, they titrate you up, etc. The hunger piece, hit me immediately. So you don't feel physically hungry. I didn't, I should say feel physically hungry, almost ever, meaning like in your stomach, like a grumble or an emptiness in your stomach, that kind of thing. Never never felt that. Also in your head. Not hungry, like your brain is not saying, Hey, we should eat. In the first couple of days, I had to set timers to eat like like alarms. Because I was getting to like three, four in the afternoon. Like, I'm dizzy. Like, why am I dizzy? And then I thought I have not eaten anything today. So it's

Beth 12:25
so amazing, because that those were the things that I was working on. And my colleagues were working on when I was in graduate school and and during my postdoc, and you get to a point where you tried so many things, and you think none of this is ever going to work unless we're able to inject it directly into the brain. A lot of things just don't work because they can't get past the blood brain barrier. But it seems like they found something and I'm wondering if it actually is going to be useful for other addictions, too.

Scott Benner 12:52
That's what I'm seeing papers popping up about. Is this going to help you with other addictions? Is it going to also the idea that maybe people have GLP deficiencies? Eight Yeah. And that's the one thing that I start leaning towards, because I listen, it's been a week since I took this injection. I've lost like two and a half pounds this week. Okay. In this week, I have eaten crab legs and fries at a at a bar. Now there's like a pound of crab legs. And, you know, I had a couple of French fries. But, but I did that Arden had a moment one night at like 1030 where she goes we should go get cookies. And we drove like across town to this like all like cookie plays about crappy cookies and ate them at like 11 o'clock. Yesterday, I had a big sandwich, like an eight inch turkey roast beef, provolone sandwich, and a handful of Doritos. Okay, and I lost two and a half pounds this week. So it's,

Beth 13:53
it's so strange. It must be affecting, you know, something on the metabolism side as well. So I don't know enough about it. I was just curious about the motivation aspect.

Scott Benner 14:06
I'm holding this in a hit my hand I'm telling you unless this gives me some sort of debilitating disease or it rots my brain from the inside out. I'm gonna take this for the rest of my life.

Beth 14:15
Every everything that I've seen come out and I'm very skeptical when things first come out like this. Everything that I've seen has been positive.

Scott Benner 14:24
Yeah, so my brother's taken ozempic My brother has type two diabetes. We're not related by blood, but he said that his resting blood sugars and his spikes are so much lower on ozempic than they than anything else that he's tried. He's never tried insulin but anything else that he tried and his haste lost like I think he's lost like 40 pounds or something like that. Wow.

Beth 14:47
That's amazing. It's insane.

Scott Benner 14:48
Like I'm I started in March, it's September I weighed 31 pounds less. And I don't think I'm done. By the way. I think I easily I think this stuff easily gets me to 180 At some point, and I started, I started to 34. That's crazy. Yeah, no, I

Beth 15:08
mean, that's great. I'm so happy for you that is, and anybody that's having those kinds of results, it just think about, you know, how that's gonna look for your health in the future. I was just thinking about my husband's pre diabetic, and but He's thin. So I'm thinking what a drug like that even work for him, he forgets to eat on a regular. He just doesn't. He's like missing that part of his brain that tells him it's time to eat. So

Scott Benner 15:33
I don't, I don't know that it's for everybody, obviously, but I can just tell you through my life. diabetes comes with a lot of things to remember. So it's nice when someone takes something off of your plate. US med has done that for us. When it's time for art and supplies to be refreshed. We get an email rolls up in your inbox says hi Arden. This is your friendly reorder email from us med. You open up the email. It's a big button that says click here to reorder. And you're done. Finally, somebody taking away a responsibility instead of adding one. US med has done that for us. An email arrives, we click on a link and the next thing you know your products are at the front door. That simple. Us med.com/juice box or call 888-721-1514 I never have to wonder if Arden has enough supplies. I click on one link. I open up a box. I put the stuff in the drawer. And we're done. US med carries everything from insulin pumps, and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGM like the libre three and the ducks comm G seven. They accept Medicare nationwide, over 800 private insurers. And all you have to do to get started is call 888-721-1514 or go to my link us med.com/juicebox. Using that number or my link helps to support the production of the Juicebox Podcast. Taking care of your health isn't always easy, but it should at least be simple. That's why for the last three years, I've been drinking ag one every day, no exceptions. It's just one scoop mixed in water once a day every day, and it makes me feel energized and focused. That's because each serving of ag one delivers my daily dose of vitamins, minerals, pre and probiotics and more. It's a powerful, healthy habit. That's all so powerfully simple. Before I was taking age, you want to get that brain fog in the middle of the day and I just couldn't seem to get on top of it. But now that doesn't happen anymore. By starting my day with ag one I found focus and a renewed ability to perform at my highest level all day long. Drink ag one.com/juice box when you use that link, you're supporting the production of the Juicebox Podcast. I drink age you want in the morning, but you could use it as a coffee replacement before workout or in your smoothie. If there's one product I had to recommend to elevate your health it's a big one and that's why I've partnered with them for so long. So if you want to take ownership of your health start with ag one try ag one and get a free one year supply of vitamin d3 k two and five free ag one travel packs with your first purchase exclusively at drink ag one.com/juice box that's drink ag one.com/juice box check it out. The joke I've totaled on here and I've sent it through my personal life forever and ever. I retained water like a pregnant lady. Like like if I go out and have if I would have eaten this sandwich and chips yesterday not on Weibo V I would have woken up to pounds heavier, and I and bloated but not excessively eating anything. It just it just never. I don't know my body never seemed to work correctly. is the best like my digestive systems better like everything's better. And so I don't know what to tell you other than I'm in my renaissance right now. I feel like I'm gonna live at home like 95 There was just a some preliminary talk the other day about it reducing heart disease. Right? I made

Beth 19:05
something about cancer to my God. I don't know. Maybe I'm making that up. I never

Scott Benner 19:10
die Beth. That's, I'm just saying this maybe I could live forever and be thin like a model. Yeah, be pretty, you know, great all around. Yeah, I would have liked a sunken cheekbones. And they'll have to Rouge me up so I look alive now. I'm just kidding. But I am it's and I'll tell you the the thing I've learned more than anything. Is that artists, she showed me a video that she goes oh my god, look at this. Remember when this happened? This just popped up on my timeline. And she showed me this video of me just I don't know, I was doing something stupid in the kitchen. And she's holding it up and I'm trying to listen to the words. But all I can think is Oh my God, look how fat I am in that video. Oh no. I was like, Oh my God. Is that what I looked like last year? And then I was like it was a little like defeating because you learn to be setting, it's like it's like that slow drip water torture like you Next

Beth 20:03
up on, you know, and our bodies are you know, as far as homeostasis of body weight goes we're kind of made to gain about a pound a year, which I that one of my one of the guys I worked for used to say it's a potato chip a day, that's how much we're off like one single potato chip a day 1313 calories, I think is towards the positive side, that ends up being a pound a year. And you know, it's just that's the way we're, that's the way we evolved.

Scott Benner 20:36
So all I can tell you is that I'm all for this now for intervention. I'm going to try I'm trying other things that I'm not even ready to talk about on the podcast yet. And I am fully expecting that in six months, when I go back to the doctor to talk about how this is going. I'm going to ask them for testosterone to build my muscles.

Beth 20:54
Yeah, that's what I was gonna say the one worrying finding is the muscle mass and that, I think for you, it's probably fine. But for people who are older, I mean, having enough muscle mass is is really important. And you know, bones breaking and yeah,

Scott Benner 21:10
I'm just telling you we go V has taught me I can't beat mother nature, so I'm gonna help it awesome out of this. Yeah, man, I'm gonna be I'm gonna look good. For one moment, my life. You guys will know what I'm happy. I will take a photo of myself every 16 minutes. And like, tell all my family and friends like, please just keep these for my funeral.

Beth 21:30
You know, we don't see like, I mean, I see pictures of you. But I don't see you on a regular basis. So I probably wouldn't even know that you'd lost weight. If I saw you.

Scott Benner 21:40
The other really disappointing part of it. Is that so? Well, no, actually, I should say this. It's lovely. Okay, but my kids don't see that I've lost weight. Like I saw my son after I lost like the first 15 pounds. And I'm standing there like it's Christmas morning waiting for somebody to hand me my gift. And my gift is going to be oh my gosh, look, you've lost 15 pounds. He did not notice that I looked any different.

Beth 22:05
Oh, well, you're expecting way too much there. So I could dye my hair purple and no one.

Scott Benner 22:13
I mentioned it to him. And he said, Yeah, I don't think of you as a fat person. Oh, that's nice. Yeah. So and by the way, I didn't think of myself that way, either. Until I lost 30 pounds. And now I look in the mirror and go, Oh, what were you doing? Like, yeah, but not your fault,

Beth 22:30
though. I mean, again, the way that the you know, your genetics and yeah,

Scott Benner 22:35
I mean, I usually preface all this by saying like, if you got a picture in your head of me, like eating like a bag of chips every day. And you know, like handfuls of I don't know what I it's just not who I am. I just my body just held on to weight. Like crazy.

Beth 22:51
So yeah, I mean, if you look at your your adopted, though, right, I was gonna say if you look at your parents, you can pretty much tell what you're going to look like. I was

Scott Benner 22:58
purchased at a at a bargain bin situation. So I they tell me I was adopted, and maybe I was human trafficking. I mean, look at your story from earlier where you stole those white Indian children. So, okay, so Beth, tell me, like, let's just dive into it. Like, let's not talk about your son, or diabetes or anything like that. You, I think possess knowledge we need to get to, because one of the No pressure, one of the most often asked questions that I don't know how to answer is, How low is too low? And what's it doing to my brain?

Beth 23:33
So the reality is that the research on this topic is not excellent, because you can't, you can't do this, the studies that need to be done, you can't take people you know, and make their blood sugar low and see what it does to them. Well,

Scott Benner 23:49
not in this country at this time. Let's just say, right, right. Right. So,

Beth 23:54
you know, and when you read the pay, I've read a lot of papers, because obviously, you know, after my son was diagnosed, I dove into the research. And what I came away with is that being severely hypoglycemic, like having a seizure, you know, below, you know, 50 for like an urgent low, that's not good. For the brain, like the brain needs to have a constant supply of, of sugar of glucose, neurons, that's the only thing that they can use for fuel. And when they don't have enough they're gonna start undergoing like cell death. And once you lose neurons, you know, except for a few places in the brain, you're not you're not going to make any more so it's, it's not good to to have severe hypoglycemia especially repeated.

Scott Benner 24:46
And so what what the severe mean? That's a

Beth 24:50
good question. So you know, it doesn't it doesn't say in most of the papers, they don't define it. Well, I think typically they're talking about severe enough where the person needed help in some way. Either they had a seizure, or they were,

Scott Benner 25:06
you know, so we're not talking about a blood sugar of 65. No. And,

Beth 25:11
you know, I, you can't say that for sure, because there has not been a study where they've looked at long term outcomes of people that, you know, allow their blood sugar to go into the 60s. But I will tell you what I think is just as bad as having those severe hyperglycemia is, I think that blood sugar variability, so the ups and the downs, I think, is actually more dangerous, especially for type ones. I think one thing that people do that that is actually very harmful is to leave there, especially this, this is from a parent perspective, but it could be you know, type one, you know, to keep their blood sugar high, because it feels safe. Because what that does is it causes the brain to adjust the way that it takes in glucose. So if you are bathing your brain and high blood sugar, the brain is like, whoa, that's too much. And then it reduces the number of transporters, so that it's kind of trying to keep out the excess sugar, which is harmful to the neurons to the brain cells. And so it down regulates the number of transporters. And then what happens when that person that individual inevitably will have a hypoglycemia, because, you know, oftentimes, when you're keeping your blood sugar high, you eventually, you know, are yo yoing. And then the hypoglycemia is, I think, more dangerous because you don't have enough glucose transporters because the brain has gotten used to the high blood sugar. And then, you know, you feel you often hear people say, Well, I feel low at 100. And, and you're like, Oh, well, that's not a real low, but it is for them, because their brain is not getting enough blood sugar, because they don't have enough glucose transporters because they've been existing at this higher level for so long. And it is dangerous. And I've read a lot of things where the highs followed by the lows are, you know, the repeated highs followed by the lows are really, really bad. downrange, just

Scott Benner 27:15
Yes. So the bouncing is dangerous, because your brain is like, Alright, you're gonna keep your blood sugar high, I'll adjust and then zoom, it's low all the sudden, and

Beth 27:25
it can't, it can't, you know, it can't change that fast. Like it does have an ability, your cells have an ability to like change how they interact with these things. So it can change the amount of glucose it's taking in across the blood brain barrier, but it can't, you know, the blood sugar. If it falls really fast, it can't adjust fast enough. And then you basically are starving your your brain cells of sugar. And so some people say, Oh, well, I don't want to, you know, keep my child at a normal blood sugar range, because then they don't feel their lows. And they're talking about they don't feel the 60s in the 70s. But, you know, if you look at a normal person's blood sugar, sometimes you're in the 60s or 70s.

Scott Benner 28:05
Yes. See, there was a man named Rick that came on once. Have you ever heard Rick lives on a boat?

Beth 28:10
Oh, yeah, I did listen to that one. And Rick

Scott Benner 28:13
says something to me. Hundreds and hundreds of episodes ago that has never left me. He said, You know, if you test people's blood sugar, who don't have type one diabetes, sometimes their blood sugar's in the 60s for more than an hour a day. And I went, Wait, really? And he goes, Yeah, and I thought, I'm gonna believe right? He sounds smart. I didn't do any research, that

Beth 28:32
there is some research on that there's I forget the name of the article. But the first author was Shaw. And he looked at CGM in non diabetic healthy individuals. And he his argument in his paper was that we should change the, you know, what we call low because it was normal for people who don't have diabetes who have you know, normal glucose metabolism to be in the 60s a couple times a day. And after I read that paper, I you know, put on a Dexcom myself one of the you know, transmitters that was going out, I put it on I'm like, let me see about this. I was in the 60s frequently, not low 60s But I was oftentimes in the high 60s and I would double check it with a finger stick and go fine. So I just you know, to me that 6068 That's not a low blood sugar. To me.

Scott Benner 29:28
The way I think about it, it like is I say it a lot but I'm eight like Arden's budget is she's sleeping right now because she's leaving in two days for school. So I think she's taking up the rest of what she calls her puddle time, which is she comes home and melts into a sleeping puddle and we take care of her again, as she goes. I revert to a princess for three months during the summer. So she's sleeping right now her blood sugar is 85 in any focus that I can tell you, that's my goal, right about 8085 That's what I'm shooting for. I think of it 120 as action time, if it's rising, I begin to think of high as 130. A 150 to a 180. Blood sugar constitutes a pretty big miss for me, as far as like a meal or a spike, right? And then on the low side, I don't care if she sits in the 70s. All night long, est a stable 70 is fine for me a falling 70 I'd be concerned about right. You know, and if she were to I mean, she's using an algorithm if she was in the 70s. And it was to dip into like 65 and branch and the algorithm took away insulin and brought her back up. I wouldn't think twice about that. Quite honestly, like low is, in my heart low is when she's altered, right? But if you asked me what number do you not want your daughter under? I would say 70. Like, so that seems conflicting, but I don't think it is like if she bounces down to 65 and comes back up, I'm fine. If we get a falling low, and we catch it, and she dips into the 50s for a second and comes back up but never feels it. I think okay, well, good. Good job. We caught it. giving an example. Last night Arden and I recorded a podcast together. It's our third podcast we've ever recorded together.

Beth 31:17
Oh, awesome. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that one.

Scott Benner 31:20
You're not gonna hear some of it. I'll tell you why. So. So we're we recorded for like 90 minutes. And we had been out that day and she had had. So here's how the day got mucked up. She spent the night at someone's house unexpectedly while she was sleeping in the morning. Her pod round of insulin, Oh, no. I was asleep. And she was asleep. And we both kind of woke up at the same time. And I was like, hey, her blood sugar has been rising for like two hours. So I texted her, I'm like, where are you? And she's like, I know, I'm on my way home. And I was like, Okay, so like, be clear. She was writing in the 80s for like, 12 hours. We just started a new algorithm. It's working really well. And I was like, I was actually like, and I'm like, Oh, I'm gonna get like a 24 hour graph where she's like, not over 110 and not under 70. I was like, this thing's crazy. Then I wake up and I flip my phone open. And she's 250. And I'm like, Wait, that doesn't make any sense. And I'm looking, I'm like, why is the thing not Bolus thing. And then I'm like, oh, cuz the thing doesn't have access to any insulin anymore. So I, you know, I'm trying to wake her up. She's like, I know, I'm on my way. So anyway, it was kind of bad. She didn't have insulin for two hours. And her blood sugar had up to 320. Before we could fix it and bring it back down. Did it pretty quickly. I mean, she got the new pod on, I think we pushed nine units through it. And by the way, we just went with what the algorithm said, I was like, let's see what happens. It made her it got her down fast, but it couldn't catch it. So we had to catch it with a little carbs. There's no problem. But then we had to eat. So we went into that like low drop, can't really Bolus here's food spike again. 200 gets it back down. And now it's eight, nine hours after this all started. And we're sitting in maybe 12 hours after this all started. And we're sitting in here recording a podcast. And she's we we start her blood sugar's like 110. It's still kind of drifting back down. It's all good. But we're talking for like an hour, hour and 15 minutes, and we're getting ready to wrap up. And neither of us are looking at our phones. Our phones are muted, because we're making a podcast. And I I asked her one more question. And as she starts answering, I'm like, Why is she being so mean? Like no. And like, and none of it hit me. I have to be honest with you. I was like, is she trying to be funny and missing the mark because she's 19 You know what I mean? We're talking and she's like, you know, and she's been like, now she's, she's starting with a kernel of truth, like a thing she believes. But as she's defending it, or explaining it, she's being cruel. And I was like, I'm actually thinking, no one's gonna hear this. I'm cutting this out for sure. Like, like that protect her. But then she goes, Hey, we got to stop. And I'm like, what? She goes on low. And she's like, I don't I don't feel good. And I was like, okay, so we went downstairs, and we got her some food and all this stuff, but it was one of those lows that stuck with her for a while like it didn't come right back up again. Okay, yeah. And then we started talking when she was okay. But as soon as it came back up, her knee started to hurt her ankle started to hurt. Like she got all achy all over, we had to stretch her out and everything and I was like, I think this is from the high low, high low thing today is that I mean,

Beth 34:31
I That makes complete sense to me. I just you know, I don't I there's no research that you can point to or study that that is going to definitively tell you that but to me, the ups and downs I think make you feel like crap. And like just from a you know, looking at my son when we because we have bad days like that, too. I think everybody does it when that happens. He doesn't. He doesn't feel good and he's not him. Self. Yeah, yeah, no. And is it high or low? You can tell from his because he's such a sweet kid. Just so kind and funny and just so just such a great person and if his blood sugar is high, he's mean. Like, if it's above 200, I, you know it, he's not he's not, he's a different person. And if he's low, he gets silly. And then, you know, he can be mean. And two, I think it depends on the situation. But it's

Scott Benner 35:32
fascinating because as she's sitting there going, like, I'm not okay. Like I said, Oh, I just hit stop. She was that was an abrupt way to stop the podcast. I'm like, I don't care about the podcast, like, you know, like, I get up and I turn the ceiling fan on to like, hopefully like to help her as we're moving out of the room. And then it's feels good. And she just sits there. And I thought, Oh, wow, she would sit here and die if I didn't just tell her to move. Like, oh, my God, and we have to get on switch. Because put the fan feels good. I'm like art, and we, you need to go eat something like, let's go. And she wasn't like, I don't know, if she was gonna get through a seizure. I don't think it was I honestly, it wasn't that kind of drop, but it got lower than she should have been. And it hit her. Alright, I

Beth 36:12
wonder if the brain hadn't, you know, sort of, I don't know how long it would take for the brain to acclimate to high blood sugar. I was thinking more of someone who sat in the two hundreds all the time. But you never know. I mean, maybe you're in the two hundreds for a few hours, and it changes your brain chemistry a bit. And then you're more, you know, you're more susceptible to those lows at higher blood sugars,

Scott Benner 36:35
no idea. But all I can tell you about is that she was like Arlen's not a cruel person. Like we like I asked like a question that I thought was gonna make her introspective. And instead, she just took the side of the argument that she agreed with. And then everyone else was an idiot. And I was like, this is not her. Like this. This is not how she talks about how she thinks it's not how she it's not how she breaks ideas down. And it just took me a minute, like to go like what's happening, but I was also trying to like, interviewer, so I wasn't thinking of her as that person with diabetes. I was, you know what I mean? I was like, where's this going? Like, you know, that kind of thing. It was very interesting. Anyway, I'm sorry. So there are high blood sugars. There are low blood sugars, and there is stability. And those are kind of the focuses the way I think of it at least. So let's ask you for a person who's read all these things and has a deeper understanding of them. What's the blood sugar you're trying to keep your son under?

Beth 37:32
Well, that, you know, I would love it. If I could keep my son in the 90s. I think that's where where he sort of is at his best, maybe, you know, below 110. He's on tandems control IQ. So that's not really

Scott Benner 37:48
it's more of a 112 and a half target. Right? Yeah,

Beth 37:52
I mean, we keep him in sleep mode. And that sort of is a little bit more aggressive. His settings are aggressive, that works well for us, I wouldn't recommend that for everyone. But his his average blood sugar is typically somewhere between 105 and 110. So, you know, we do pretty good, if he's when he's with me, and I am bolusing for him, and, you know, doing the bumping and nudging kind of in the background, he's in he's in range 100% of the time, and he just basically is gliding along, you know, kind of like an aeroplane with very little spikes. But when he's away for me, it gets more difficult. And he I don't think I mentioned this, but he is he does have dyslexia. And he has been diagnosed with ADHD, but he's a different kind of type of kid. He's, he he has a very, he has a very high IQ. And they call these kids this sounds terrible, like I'm bragging or something, but it's not bragging at all, because it's actually very challenging. They they labeled these kids as twice exceptional, because he

Scott Benner 39:04
did what they call being in school. academically talented, you know what I wasn't, I was not academically talented.

Beth 39:12
Probably you may have been twice exceptional to You bet.

Scott Benner 39:16
Let's just say I was not academically talented, but I was twice exceptional to write that down. And that's what they should have called me, by the way. Also, you shouldn't tell a five year old they're smarter than other people. That's not a good idea, either. No, it's

Beth 39:29
never a good idea. It's the whole the whole way. They do gifted programming, and at least in the public schools around where I am, it's just a complete nightmare, but I won't get into that.

Scott Benner 39:39
Let's get into it for a second. The lady that was talking to me was a big dummy compared to me. She didn't know how to talk. I'm just kidding. She didn't. She didn't know how to talk about these things. But no, it was um, I mean, I'm old. So it's in the 70s. And they were like, you're academically talented. We're gonna put you in an 80 class and I was like, okay, and the way that it was six Explain to me when I was five word for word is Scott, this man thinks you're smarter than the other kids. You don't use I'm a parent, that's not a thing you tell people. So

Beth 40:09
right, yeah, that's not not a way to get the best data. If that's

Scott Benner 40:13
the thing you think you keep that to yourself. But anyway, so now they're saying twice exceptional. What's

Beth 40:21
exceptional is for children who like he, you know, when they give the, in our school, they give a test for to, you know, figure out whether someone's gifted or not, which is sort of like an IQ test. And both, all three of my children, you know, qualify as, quote, unquote, gifted. I'm not sure how we can tell someone's gifted in elementary school, but what they're not profoundly gifted, like they're not Mozart, or doing calculus or anything like that played a

Scott Benner 40:48
piano with their butt while they're doing calculus with their toes. Yeah, you

Beth 40:51
know, they're not like that, but they have, you know, relatively high IQs. But then my son wasn't, he wasn't learning to read, it was the strangest thing. And you know, he had a twin sister. So she's, she's reading like, chapter books. She's reading Harry Potter in the second grade, and he's not able to read like the easy readers, right? So I'm going up to the school and I'm like, he can't read, like, something's wrong. And they're like, oh, no, his test scores are great. He's fine. And it was just, it was very strange. So, you know, it took three years to get him on what we call an IEP for his dyslexia. And we had to get like outside evaluations. And that's when we learned about his his twice exceptionality, which what it looks like on an IQ test is that he has really high highs and really low lows. So his fluid reasoning is like genius level, but his processing speed is, you know, below average,

Scott Benner 41:51
I can't do anything that you would think of as academic. So but I guarantee you when the monsters come, I'm going to be alive and you're all going to be dead. Because I can, I can on a on a on a

Beth 42:05
pinhead. So my son could build a car engine like today, like if I put if I gave him all the pieces of a car engine and said build this, I have no doubt in my mind that he could build it. But he still can't read very well. And, you know, that's just who he is. He says he's a smart guy. But it did pose a bit of a challenge when he goes to a special school now for kids that have his type of, you know, he's dyslexic, so he needed extra help with reading. So it's a private school. And when he he actually started there, and then the month after is when he was diagnosed with diabetes. So it was kind of a weird timing.

Scott Benner 42:44
I will tell you that. The I think the only thing I'm good at is thinking, Oh, really? Yeah. So when I sit and talk about like big ideas, I can hold on to all of the extraneous impactors. And I can see how they hit each other. Yeah. So if I talk to somebody who's too black and white, and I start explaining an idea, they get focused on an aspect of it. And I'm like, No, you don't get it. I'm just like, there's this thing over here that's impacting this other thing. And then, three years ago, this happened, and that's why this is happening over here. Now. Yeah. So you were

Beth 43:20
academically talented? Because, like you're able to think outside the box.

Scott Benner 43:25
I can't. I can't do algebra. I don't understand. I don't understand science. I so every, everything they were measuring me on I was like, I don't know what this is. But again, like I can think things through really quickly and maintain a vision of other people's perspectives or other impactors. I actually, I never really say this out loud. It's why I'm good at managing the Facebook group.

Beth 43:51
Oh, yeah, you're really good at that. I would be dreadful. Know how you do that. And I just, it's because you know, kudos to you for your ability to cut, like, some of the times you come on there. And I'm like, wow, that was so well said.

Scott Benner 44:06
It's because I see everybody's perspective. And I understand their perspective. I don't agree with them, but I understand them. And I operate on the fundamental idea that everyone's right, and everyone's wrong, and it doesn't matter.

Beth 44:20
Yeah, it's great. It works really well. Yeah, I, I get on there sometimes. And I'm like, Oh, that's not right. You know, or like a scientific perspective. And I'm like, let me share this journal article with you. It's really not the right approach on Facebook. Now,

Scott Benner 44:35
there's a lot of different ideas in the room, you just have to try to keep focused on the goal. What's the goal? Yeah, you know, the goal is that a person needs to leave here with more information than they came with. They need to be comfortable and live a healthier, happier, more productive life from something they took from here. The goal is not for you to tell them how you feel about the thing they asked.

Beth 44:53
Yeah, I mean, I have to tell you, that group I wasn't a big Facebook person before diabetes. I I would post like, pictures of, you know, family stuff for my family, but I wasn't in groups like I didn't do. I didn't have a group thing. And, and I found the Facebook group must have been a couple months after he was diagnosed. And I joined a bunch of the diabetes groups like I joined all of them that I could find, especially the ones that I thought were geared towards parents. And I was in those groups for about two weeks. And this was like, right when he was diagnosed, and I was in a really bad place, as you know, as you are. And I left all these other groups, I couldn't stand them. I was like, these people are crazy. And all the graphs that they're posting, were just giving me like, I don't know, I just felt like everybody was in such a bad place. And it was so depressing. And the juicebox group was the only one where I felt like people were actually giving real advice that was useful. And I don't know, I found it very helpful. Prior

Scott Benner 45:57
to that all you use Facebook for was to put up photos, so that your husband's family would say there are 700 million Indian ladies here and he found an Irish girl. Great. Is that what happened?

Beth 46:09
If you're just talking, honestly, Facebook's really big in India, and I have all these family members that I don't know. And friend me. They have my husband's last name, and they look like my husband. And I'm like, well, that must be a family member.

Scott Benner 46:24
Actually, the podcast is exploding a little in India. Oh, really. It grows and grows. They're constantly it's very, very cool. That's great. Anyway, so All right, you and I are chatting in a good way. It's fun, by the way, because usually a person usually I cringe a little somebody's coming on. And they have like a real scientific understanding of something like Oh, they're not going to be conversational, but you're very conversational. So that's terrific. You're, you're gonna end up back on this podcast if you keep doing such a good job.

Beth 46:51
Well, thank you. I appreciate that. But I don't know this was hard for me to do to be honest. Really? Yeah, it really was because I've not like I I'm not an active bench scientist right now. And I, you know, I've read a lot of papers, but I'm not like an expert on who's

Scott Benner 47:11
an expert on it. Who would be an expert on it. On type one diabetes? Yeah. This this type? No, like, so my point is this, you have this educational background, and you're motivated by your son's diagnosis, and you went and read a lot of stuff. I want to hear what you think. I mean, if you know what I mean. Like, if we go to some person who did research, like, they're not going to know, to say something like, Hey, listen, 65 like, you know, right? Yeah,

Beth 47:38
there is something to be said for when you do when you do have that personal connection to the disease. When you're reading the papers, it's much more engaging. I will say like I, you know, I read, you know, 1000s of articles. i This is a funny story. When my son was when my son was diagnosed. They, he, he went to a, you know, a major university, we're in a city that is known for hospitals, and so he has very good care providers. But I had already pulled up the lancet article on top lism AB, well, he was being diagnosed, and I'm like, we need this. I like this. I'm like, Where can I get an infusion of this for my son? And then, you know, they're like, how do you know about that? And I'm like, uh, we need a Dexcom right now. And, you know, so I don't know, no, did

Scott Benner 48:29
differently, you get treated differently? Because they think you know, something?

Beth 48:32
Yes. And my husband's a physician. So he, you know, we just get treated a lot differently. I think it's not fair. Right. But but we do.

Scott Benner 48:40
By the way, I stopped myself from saying, of course he is because he had no choice. That's what his family told him. It was gonna be right. That's

Beth 48:48
exactly right. That's, you know, what he does is a hobby. He's, he's basically an ID, he should have been an engineer, which is, I mean, that would have been the second choice of career but he he makes medical devices as a hobby. And he has some patents. And he's actually very, he's a very smart guy. Sounds like he made this. So I, I am the one that takes care of the diabetes. I'm like the full time diabetes manager in our house. And so when our son, you know, has a compression low at night, I'm the one that gets up. And we have a bedroom on the ground floor and I have we have a rather large house, and I have to walk up a flight of stairs down two hallways into his bedroom climb up into this loft bed, which I wish we'd never got him but he has a loft bed get hit by a ceiling fan. Oh, this just to roll him over because he doesn't wake up. And so I was, you know, very tired. And I'm like, there has got to be some way we can get this kid to roll over. And so my husband created we call it the buzzer, but he created this device that my son wears on his on his pants and it buzzes me and tells him to roll over. And I think it's a great like invention, really. And he has it patented. I'm like, why? He's like, Well, and you do clinical trials and this and that. And I'm like, Well, I feel like this doesn't need a clinical trial. I think we should just, I think we should just sell it. And we actually live pretty close to the guy that does the sugar pixel. Okay. Yeah. And I'm like, let me just figure out who that guy is. And you need to talk to that guy about, you know, getting this thing out there.

Scott Benner 50:28
I can give you his email address if you want. Yeah, that'd be great.

Beth 50:31
I mean, I could probably, he's on the Facebook page sometime. I've seen him. Yes, yeah. But my husband is. So he's just he makes all these things. But he doesn't, you know, they never go anywhere. Because he just, he doesn't have that entrepreneur. side, one of

Scott Benner 50:47
my brothers in law, he one day, he builds things with his hands. And I'm always like, This is amazing. Like, what are you doing? Like, why do you work where you work, like, get a job with nerf or something, you know? And I don't know, he's like, he's like, check this out. And it's like a, like, I don't know, a gun that shoots like a potato. And it does, like all this stuff. And you're like, that's a you made that. And then I'm like, I don't understand what you get the woody. So I took an old cutting board and I caught and I'm like, wait, you've made this out of a cutting board? I'm like, I don't understand. You know, and he just he but if you said to him, You should go do that for a living or salad. He'd be like, Nah, yeah,

Beth 51:24
that's exactly my husband. You know, I told him. This was when we first when when I was first dealing with trying to help our son manage while I was like lecturing and things I'm like, it would be great if I could just see the numbers on a screen or something. And he built me a whole screen. He all it is is like a wooden box. And it has it projects Nightscout. I mean, we kind of probably could have used, you know, anything else. But it's so nice. And he built it for me. And oh, he's very talented. And that

Scott Benner 51:53
way I can tell me you married him and let him give you babies and everything. So you must have liked him. Yeah, he's

Beth 51:58
a great guy.

Scott Benner 51:59
That's pretty cool. I just I know, I just know a number of Indians. And the idea of like, my mom told me I'm going to be a doctor, or nowadays, it's cybersecurity. Coding, like, like, knowing how to, like, do Python and stuff like that, like that kind of stuff is very popular in in the with kids. My daughter. I

Beth 52:21
mean, it's my my husband has two sisters. One is a dentist and the other is an ophthalmologist. So

Scott Benner 52:29
they're just out there doing it, whether they want to or not. And that's that. That's fantastic. Okay, so I'm sorry, we did not get back to my question. Again, I like you. So you're shooting for a 90 blood sugar people like remember when you asked her about the blood sugar? Can you? You're shooting for 90. The algorithm keeps them more than like the 110. So what's this a one C round? 6162? Normally, it's

Beth 52:54
five. It's I think the last few times it's been 5.5

Scott Benner 52:58
by five. So how are you doing that? Well,

Beth 53:01
I so we keep His settings. So his his total daily insulin. I know what that is, because I can look at the history of the pump about what he's getting every day. And I will set his what what he's getting. And then I'll look at 50% of that. And I will set his basil higher. So that, you know, instead of setting the basil to what he should be kidding, I'm setting it a bit higher. And then that tends to make the algorithm that works for me. I don't want anybody else to take away the idea that here

Scott Benner 53:36
on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. So go ahead. Yeah. But yeah, but tell me what you do. You're not telling people what to do. If you by the way, if anyway, you're listening, and like, I'll just do it because Beth said, so. Whatever, do whatever you want, but it's not best fault. And it's not mine if it doesn't work out. So, so you're being more aggressive with his basil. Yeah,

Beth 53:56
so his Basil is pretty aggressive. The correction factor is not as big a deal for us because we don't we don't use the mode that he gets auto corrections, but that is set more aggressive at times when I know he's gonna have these rises like early in the morning. In general, it's a very set I have his settings very simple. They're just you know, one or two Basal rates a day one or two correction factors. But the key for us was really look at what he should be getting, you know, Basil wise, which is around 10 units, 12 units and increase that by about 20% in the settings. And then because we know the pumps going to suspend sometimes, right? The other thing that I do is I A lot of times I'm pretty aggressive with boluses I would rather overshoot it and him need like, like I just texted him this morning. He had a doughnut for breakfast and his blood sugar went from like he woke up in the one And hundreds and he went down to 70 of the Pre-Bolus. And then he went up to one 130. He had a glazed doughnut from the bakery. And I had probably over Bolus a little bit because we were running a little late and he just had to eat to gummy bears to stay in range. That

Scott Benner 55:17
sounds pretty close to me. Good job.

Beth 55:19
Let's Yeah, go kill gummy bears. I feel like if you're off by two gummy bears, you know, some people are like, Oh, they went low. And I'm like, well, two gummy bears. It's not. Yeah,

Scott Benner 55:29
so we should definitely call this episode off by two gummy bears. I'm writing that down. It's excellent. No, I think that sounds terrific. I glazed donut not over 130. And you only had to correct with with? What? Six carbs?

Beth 55:42
Yeah, so that's pretty good. Right. I mean, that's every morning doesn't look like that. But that's, you know, Matthew, calling

Scott Benner 55:49
that pretty good. It's the humblest brag, since you told me all through your kids are really smart. So that's pretty good. It's better than pretty good. That's amazing. It's really terrific. But you're saying when he's on his own? He can't quite accomplish that. Yeah,

Beth 56:01
I It's, and the reason is that he, he relies on me right now. But mainly because when he's at school, I want him to be focusing on learning and not on managing his blood sugar. So he doesn't Pre-Bolus his lunch, which is, you know, that can that can cause problems. His because he goes to this different type of school where there the school is designed for kids with ADHD and dyslexia, they tend to be much more active, like they might take the kids out for like an unexpected recess, or, you know, when they're learning to read, they might be doing something like jumping around in the classroom. And so I never know what his activity levels going to be. So because of that, because I don't know if he's at home, I know he's going to be outside playing basketball, I'll turn his pump down a little but can't do that, you know, when I don't really know what's going on? Sure while he's at school, so it's

Scott Benner 56:53
excellent. I mean, that this is terrific. The good doing so well. Do you know that? Or is it a thing where you're like, Oh, we're struggling? How does it feel to you?

Beth 57:01
Know, I feel like we're doing really well. And I didn't feel like that in the first year. It was a real struggle. So anybody that's listening to this, that's newer, I just want you to know that it is like this is achievable. But it I feel like it takes a lot of trial and error, especially with bolusing. So it took me a long time to figure out how to Bolus for that donut. The timing, like looking at the waking blood sugar and seeing where it is and looking and seeing how much Basal the pump was giving him. And it's like a calculus problem, trying to figure out all these different variables and, and then I just don't go based on the carb ratio anymore. I take into account all those things. And then I put in the number of carbs that give me the amount of insulin that I know will work at the right time you

Scott Benner 57:48
learned that from the podcast, or did you figure it out? Absolutely.

Beth 57:51
I think that is the key to the podcast is is, for me at least was giving me the confidence to go in and do what I knew I should have done anyway. Because this is all like as a scientist, this is what we do, like trial and error is how we work in science. It's like, oh, that didn't work. Let's change this and try it again. And you know, so once I started looking at it like that, and being more flexible it it was it got much easier. Good.

Scott Benner 58:19
That's excellent. I just think again, like I want to like circle back. You're in a unique situation. So I really do just want your opinion. So you're shooting, you'd be happy if he was 90 all the time. You don't like him over 130? Is that about fair? 121 30? And I'm actually

Beth 58:36
good. I'm good under 1/5 150? I think and what do you what are you at school? Yeah,

Scott Benner 58:43
and what do you call low

Beth 58:44
65 is what his settings are. But we you know, I don't generally the goal for me is to not let him get to 65 So no, I

Scott Benner 58:54
understand. Yeah, like

Beth 58:56
the gummy bears that I gave him more when his blood sugar was 85 but I could see that he was going to be heading down so but

Scott Benner 59:02
you you call 60 in your mind. See I'm I'm worried about worried about I'm trying to illustrate how you think about it. So you think of 65 is low? Where are you comfortable with him sit? How long were you comfortable with him stable? Like if he was 70 all day? Would you say a word?

Beth 59:16
Oh, that would be great. I I'm fine with a 70 stable. I mean, that's where my blood sugar was when I had a Dexcom on. Yeah, so I think that's great. You know, that's, that's where that's where a non diabetic person would be. So to be there's really no reason to not be happy about a normal blood sugar.

Scott Benner 59:38
What's the number that makes you go Oh, hell we messed up.

Beth 59:43
Oh, you'd be like a high low. Start

Scott Benner 59:45
with a low first. You see that number? That's not okay. Oh,

Beth 59:50
anytime I see that he's in the 60s with like a diagonal down arrow. Like I can see that I'm not gonna be able to catch it. You No, like I missed it or something, and I could see he's going to be heading into the 50s, that makes me feel really bad. So

Scott Benner 1:00:07
what low number makes you think about all the research, you read and go, Oh, I hope I'm not frying this little brain,

Beth 1:00:12
anything below 50. And that's when that's when it that doesn't happen very often for him. But that's when I anytime I start to notice that he is different. And to me, when the behavior becomes different, that is when the brain has been impacted. So, you know, that's that to me, you know, some people are going to have those symptoms at a higher number. And I would argue that's because their brain has become tolerant to higher blood sugars. So it's, it could just be different physiological differences too. But for my son, you know, anything below, like the low 50s or below that is really not good. So if

Scott Benner 1:00:52
I'm wrong, you stopped me. But do you think that the phrase feels their low has been kind of CO opted by something that people don't understand? Does that make sense to you? What I just said, maybe not.

Beth 1:01:05
I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean by CO opted, but I think people use it incorrectly. Okay. So I, you know, I feel like it's because sometimes I'll say, Oh, I like my son to have, you know, normal blood sugar. And then someone will be like, Oh, it's bad, because they can't feel their lows. And I'm like, but he can't feel slows. It's just his lows are different than, you know. Yeah. So

Scott Benner 1:01:27
that the scale is weird in their head, right? So they are keeping higher blood sugar's so that it's 70. They feel a low because they think if we catch a low at 70, then we can stop it from like being a real like medical emergency. And yeah, and so that idea puts into their head that 70 is low. Yeah.

Beth 1:01:46
And they're also people get they get so stuck on the numbers, when what they really should be paying attention to is the arrows because you know, the number like it, who knows exactly what that you have your Dexcom stuck on your thigh? Or what, you know, it's measuring interstitial fluid, which is the fluid between the cells in, you know, the subcutaneous fat on your thigh? What does that mean to the glucose in your brain? That has always been like a question for me of and even the, you know, the blood that is coming out of the capillaries in your fingers? Like, how is that relevant, relevant to the blood sugar that's going into your brain? So

Scott Benner 1:02:27
it's just the best measurement we have? Exactly.

Beth 1:02:31
It's, you know, it's a correlative. The arrows are really the most important thing. So 70 horizontal arrow, I think that's awesome. I would not touch that with anything but 70 with a down arrow, that is a major concern for me. So the arrows are so important, and I think, especially newly diagnosed people, they get so focused on the, the exact value instead of thinking about the trends and the graphs and the arrows, and

Scott Benner 1:02:57
yeah, am I right? Am I falling? How do I exactly right? Yeah, you almost wish that, again, it's people who think very black and white, and I understand that, but it's the idea of like, Oh, there's the number 68 is a great example. 68 is low, we're in a panic right now. 6868, if you could, like you said, somehow put a sensor in your brain? How do you know the level of glucose in the brain is not 72? And oddly enough, that would make you more comfortable? Yeah. I

Beth 1:03:28
mean, the levels in the brain are very highly considered like the it's, your brain is probably the last thing to go, I would imagine. The body is going to make sure that your brain has sugar

Scott Benner 1:03:40
as best they can. Yeah, yeah. So like, if you're

Beth 1:03:43
if this is, again, I don't have any data to back this up. But I think if the, you know, fat cells are, you know, at 68, your brain is probably a little bit higher. But that would just be my guess.

Scott Benner 1:03:55
And Beth, let's just be clear. You work in a community college. We don't believe you at all. So don't worry. I'm just okay. The community college. Okay.

Beth 1:04:03
Let me tell you this, though, because there's a lot of stigma around community college, you know, I quit my job, which I was on the tenure track. I had a research lab. And you know, I was in state school in Maryland. I was doing really well. And then when the twins were born, my husband and I both quit our jobs and moved to Ohio. And I don't regret that because I so I stayed home with my kids for three years. And then I took this job at a community college, and I make more money. Now, like twice as much money as what I made before and I work less I don't have to work on Fridays. If I don't want to I have tenure. Yeah, they can't fire me. And I love my job because I am. The people that I interact with are absolutely amazing. I teach biology and anatomy and physiology. So I have a lot of pre med pre nursing and it's just it's a very Well, rewarding job. And I have to say everyone that I work with, they all have PhDs, they all left industry or, you know, research in some way. So,

Scott Benner 1:05:08
well, I want to be clear, I barely got out of high school, and I did not go to college at all. I'm not discouraging anybody. I took one community college English slash writing class when I was 23. Maybe I got to like an, you know, a great grade in the class, like an A plus, in the class, I got done. I was like, there and my wife's like, see, you could go to college. And I was like, all this tells me is I don't need to go to college.

Beth 1:05:33
Yeah, I mean, not everybody needs to go to college, a lot of the people in my classes are like, you know, switching careers, or, you know, just,

Scott Benner 1:05:41
it's just a different way of thinking like I was, so I started, you know, I grew up very Baroque. So, I never thought like college was never presented to me by anybody, like, what was presented to me was you make it through these 12 years, and then go get a job. And that that's how life was presented to me that I met Kelly, who'd gone to college and you know, had aspirations about things. And she's like, you know, you're very smart. You could just do this too. And I was like, I don't think I need to. And in her mind, she's like, No, you absolutely have to everybody has to go to college. Like that was her perspective. And mine was, I think I'll be all right. And how well, you've done well, I have a podcast, but I taking that class and doing well on it. Like were it to her, it was like, see, you could do this, you should go do it. I thought, Oh, see, I can do this. I don't need to do this. Like it was a really interesting moment. Like, where I think she was disappointed, actually. And I was like, No, I this just tells me I'm okay. I'm where I thought I was. Yeah, interesting. No, I

Beth 1:06:42
think that's you. You may or may not believe this, but we have very similar backgrounds. As far as that goes,

Scott Benner 1:06:49
Why would I know? Huh? Why would I not believe that? I don't

Beth 1:06:53
know. I mean, you know, people think, Oh, she has a PhD. She must have you know, okay.

Scott Benner 1:06:57
I thought You thought like, maybe I thought you were lying to me. But no, no, no,

Beth 1:07:01
no, no. I mean, I grew up like, I don't think I was poor. Well, I take that back. I mean, we I grew up in Kentucky. And you know, neither my parents went to college, and I was not expected to go to college. So, you know, I, there were people in my family that had addiction issues. And that's kind of what led me on the path that that I went on,

Scott Benner 1:07:27
oh, to learn the look into the brain and addiction, how that works. I was

Beth 1:07:31
going to fix people. Were ready to ready to find a treatment. And I didn't, but you know, I learned a lot of things along the way. So were

Scott Benner 1:07:41
you looking to help them? Or were you also worried that if this happens to me, I might, maybe I can stop this from happening to me?

Beth 1:07:47
Oh, no, I was going to fix them. Was my main goal. Are

Scott Benner 1:07:53
they alive now? Or no? Yes.

Beth 1:07:55
Very much. So doing well. But I yeah, I even I have a paper I wrote in the eighth grade about alcohol addiction. And I found this. I found this really old book in our public school library on the genetics of alcoholism. And I got a really bad grade on that paper because the teacher didn't like what I was saying. But it was you know, I was I was held in to, to figure that out. And, you know, it sounds

Scott Benner 1:08:26
like your teacher was an alcoholic.

Beth 1:08:29
I don't like you know, the town. The town I grew up in it was you couldn't they didn't sell alcohol was a dry county.

Scott Benner 1:08:38
So Well, that just means you have to drive drunk to another county to get

Beth 1:08:41
your booze. That's exactly right. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:08:43
that's not a great idea.

Beth 1:08:44
Which caused me a lot of problems when I was younger.

Scott Benner 1:08:48
Did they send you for the booth? No. You had to go get them when they were in a ditch?

Beth 1:08:54
No, I mean, it just led to some, you know, some some issues with you know, jail.

Scott Benner 1:09:02
Oh, I don't know. I say, Well, I see why you gravitated towards a smart man. You were like, I'm getting the hell out of this. Not that. I want to say not that smart. People can't be alcoholics. That's not my point. But yeah, yeah. Oh, interesting. I love this. This is great. Okay, so I so I think I have your ideas about highs and lows and what you're thinking. I hope we went enough into the idea that I don't think we did actually they did if you could find a way to disconnect yourself from the number because none of this stuff is like there's no God level absolute about your blood sugar. Exactly. And you have to let that go. It

Beth 1:09:46
just Yeah. You know, people on the on the Facebook group that posts, they're like, this is my Dexcom number. And these are my five meters that I have and you know, they're all there. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:09:57
Which one of these is right? I'm like, oh, i You're never gonna know. And it's a weird thing because I was lucky enough. I didn't see it as lucky at the time. But I was lucky enough to have that experience in the hospital during artist's diagnosis when they tested her blood sugar with the crappy bubblegum meter, they gave us the take home, and with the $10,000 thing that the hospital uses, and the numbers were wildly different. And I said to the nurse, I don't understand which one are we going to dose off of? And she goes, Well, the one you're taking home and like, what, what I'm like, good. I'm like, give me that one. She was this one cost, like 10 grand was like, I don't care. Like, I'll take that one. Right? And she goes, No, no, it's okay. And I'm like, It's okay. By the way, she didn't know what she was talking about. But the experience made me realize this is what we have. Like, this is the thing I have screw the number. I gotta figure out where the number correlates to how she feels. Yeah.

Beth 1:10:56
And you're so smart for figuring that out. So early on. I, you know, I think that was pretty impressive. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:11:06
well, guess what, Beth, I knew that. And I couldn't do anything else with it. Because without a CGM, you're just constantly testing and testing and plotting in your head and trying to be like, he was this here and this here, and like, you know, but it was more

Beth 1:11:17
Yeah, I cannot imagine. I remember when we were in the hospital. I'm like, Yeah, we need this thing, this Dexcom thing. Yeah. And they're like, well, we'll send off a prescription. But you might have to wait on your insurance. And I mean, we are lucky that we don't have to worry about that. Because we could just pay out of pocket and I'm like, I, I need you to send this in. Like I can't sleep without having having this data. So we had a Dexcom. Like the instant that we got home. And I am so grateful for that. I do not know how people do it without the constant monitor. I just, it'd be very hard.

Scott Benner 1:11:51
I you know, the the modern conversation is, I don't understand how am I supposed to wear an algorithm if the Dexcom might be wrong. And I actually saw it happened to somebody recently, like their blood sugar was reporting higher than it was. And their, their algorithm delivered insulin. And then they thought I don't feel right and tested their blood sugar, and they were much lower than the CGM said. And that brings in a host of people going see you can't do this. And I'm like, you're thinking about this backwards? In my opinion. Like, like, that's a one off. Like, that's

Beth 1:12:23
a one time thing. Yeah. And if you didn't have it, and you didn't have the algorithm, your blood sugar would be up and down and all over the place, and your brain definitely would not be doing good. So I agree. I, I you know, sometimes there is going to be a disconnect where I, you know, my son's been wearing T slammed with Dexcom for, I don't know, three, almost three years now. And we had that happen one time that I can think of.

Scott Benner 1:12:50
So I mean, I really think I've seen it once or twice. I actually think yesterday was part of it. Like she was coming down from being high it was probably reporting higher than she was and still Bolus thing and she got low from it. But guess what, she also wasn't 300 for five or seven hours, which happens to a lot of other people like so. I'd rather stop a lower falling blood sugar than fight with a high one. I make that into a t shirt, but I don't think anybody would buy it. And

Beth 1:13:13
it's so harmful to to like I think a lot of parents have fallen into this trap of just letting their children hang around and the two hundreds even the high one hundreds at school. Yeah. And and thinking that's okay, and that those children's brains are not functioning, you know, like they would otherwise it's just not okay. It's

Scott Benner 1:13:32
a tough it's a tough decision to make, especially if you're don't have the equipment don't have the stock and don't work the understanding or the time like it. Listen, you just said a very white lady thing that I said what I said a white guy thing this morning and texted Isabel, I just said a very white guy thing here. I'll pull up. I'll pull up the I'll pull up the text. So I can show you. So Isabel text me this morning. She says good morning. She goes, Oh, I hope it was fun recording with Arden last night and I was like yeah, it'd been it was until it wasn't. And then I out of nowhere said hey, did John Lennon coined the phrase life is what happens when you're busy making other plans or did you just use it in the song and she goes, I'm not sure I said I'll figure that out today. And she goes, please let me know. And I'm like, okay, and then she said, Hey, I just want to let you know when you do this, like back. It's background stuff you guys don't know about like, once you do this telling me I'll put up a post about that. I said I will. I told her when I record today, and I said I recorded 11 and at 330 today and Arden's packing for school so I have a lot going on and then I thought about and I said oh my god I'm so white packing and podcasting such a full day I have a Caucasian thing to say I I don't know how I'm going to get through today. I have to record two podcasts and put my daughter stuff in a bag. I

Beth 1:14:48
know you know, I just listened to a like a new duly released podcast by you this morning and the guy was talking about how you couldn't afford insulin and he was having to buy the Walmart insulin and I did I mean, I can't imagine I know that there's a lot of that out there. And I know, you know, in other countries, people don't have the ability to get a pump right away or to get a pump at all or, you know, so it's

Scott Benner 1:15:12
we're in the infancy of spreading this stuff throughout the world. And it's, it's very, it's very, you know, again, it's in its infancy, everybody doesn't have the stuff they need, or they deserve. And it's, but I've just found myself like, laughing at myself, I'm like, did I just complain about having to record two podcasts and help Arden pack today, I was like, What a ridiculous thing to say out loud. And she goes, Hey, by the way, podcast, packing, and podcasting, it's a good episode title. So write that down. But if somebody doesn't have these experiences with this technology, and those people don't go back and prove to their doctors how valuable it is, and those companies then don't make money, and then they can go to insurance companies and make claims and try to push things through insurance. And by the way, that the what many people don't understand is that the way to get your insurance, if you're, if you're a manufacturer of a device, the way to get an insurance car and pre company to cover it widely, is to first get the government to agree to get Medicaid, and Medicare to agree. Yeah, and so it is going to slowly help everybody, it's just doesn't happen as quickly as you know, you would like because people's health is declining as they don't have these things, obviously. But you have these conversations and and you spread it around and and slowly you matriculate towards better. And, you know, maybe it's horrible to say, but maybe a generation from now, it won't matter how much money you have. Or if you have insurance, you'll get diabetes. And somebody will say Here, put this CGM, your

Beth 1:16:44
pump with the algorithm, here's your glucose monitor 100%.

Scott Benner 1:16:48
Like I mean, that really is you're not going to educate everybody. Like some people aren't going to be available to it. And some people aren't going to even know to look and some people might not care. And there might be psychological issues that stop people from doing these things. So why not try to get to a place where you can automate it in a way that will just help their lives. And you know, and forget that they can't like when Arne and I are talking last night, I said to her at one point, you know that without this algorithm, your life would be more intensive. And she was he asked that I know, I used to manage diabetes before algorithms. And I was like, I'm like, Yeah, well, if you really feel it, though, and I realized, she she knows, but she's not impacted by it like I am, because she doesn't have like a 17 year memory of all this. She just knows there used to be more to do. And now there's less to do. And if you you know, that's That's all she knows. Like, and you know what? That's good. Like some people would say, oh, like she she needs to learn the history of this. So you get it. Who cares? Like Like she's trying to live her life not feel bad about the diabetes got easier for you underneath me. Like

Beth 1:18:00
if I could put a system on my son that did like everything for what I was telling my husband the other night is like, why is this system not not smart enough to look at the arrows and tell him like how many carbs he needs to take in to stabilize his blood sugar? You know, like, I don't understand why that it said. It's just like, warning that soon. It's like, This is so stupid. It seems like such an easy thing to put. I don't know, I'm not a computer coder, but I do follow a lot of the

Scott Benner 1:18:30
Yeah, why? Think about it. Yeah, I

Beth 1:18:34
feel like these things can be done. I feel I think in the next decade, these these algorithms are going to be absolutely insane. Especially if AI comes on board. I really, I don't see diabetes management being the hard slog it is yeah, now teach

Scott Benner 1:18:51
that machine to pivot on a pinhead. And then that's going to Well listen, by the way, I think the algorithm to say this is how many carbs I think you should eat right now probably exists already. And I'm gonna guess that like somewhere between the FDA and liability there, it's, you're not going to see it as fast as you want to. But yeah, I mean, that. Again, I know very little about programming, but that seems like a no brainer. To me.

Beth 1:19:14
It's so simple. Like if my brain can figure it out. Yeah. And I feel like a computer should be able to do it.

Scott Benner 1:19:20
When can it start to learn and remember and like exactly

Beth 1:19:23
like, Oh, you took in? You know, you ate two gummy bears last time. And it wasn't enough this time have three?

Scott Benner 1:19:29
Oh, no, it's it's I interviewed somebody recently who was talking about algorithms that are like, even with like, geo locations are going to be able to say, Look, I know you said this is pizza. But the last time you were at this geographic location and ate pizza, it took 20% more insulin than when we were at that geographical location and ate pizza. So when I'm when you're at, you know, I don't know when you're Verdoux cheese. We're gonna go 20% heavier and when you're at this one, you know we're gonna go 20% lighter, or whatever like that's not crazy. Yeah, that is not crazy. So, you know, and listen. Does that mean that there'll be a whole generation of people who don't have my granular level of understanding about managing this? Yes. And if you think that's a bad thing, I can make an argument for it being a good thing, too.

Beth 1:20:18
So yeah, no, I think it's better to just put people on these systems. And, you know, not I don't understand the need to make everybody go, you know, MDI for six months, or whatever it is, I think that's ridiculous. Unless they want to, I feel like it should be a choice, of

Scott Benner 1:20:34
course. But that's exactly right. There are gonna be people who want to understand it like this. But here's the thing that you don't know about me. I don't want to understand this, like this. Hilarious. I just had to, yeah, no, I get it. I get if you think that like, Arden and I were talking last night, she said diabetes for 17 years. If you think 17 years ago, I was like, You know what I'd like to put a lot of my focus on, I want to figure out how french fry fat slows down digestion so that I need another Bolus 90 minutes after our needs. That's what I really want to understand. That's not what I want to understand. I wanted to write movie scripts, by the way, when I was younger, that's not happening at all. Maybe you should start doing it now. Sure. But what I'll do is I stopped making this podcast to write a movie that'll go well, and which I think, by the way that I don't know if I'd be any good at it was just something I wanted to do when I was younger. I tried it once. It's a different story. I'll tell you at the end, but But my point is that like even last night, Arden said you love talking about diabetes, and I said no, I don't. And she goes, Yes, you do. I'll bring mom up here. She'll say the same thing. And I'm like, Oh, God, you guys misunderstand. I don't love this. But you have to write Yeah, you think I love this? Oh, my God, you don't think I could make a podcast about something more fun? And it would be more fun for me? And she goes, I don't know. I'm like, Oh, I definitely could. I mean, right now, I

Beth 1:22:01
have to agree with you there because I actually am a person that listens to podcasts. So I like you know, listening to a lot of science podcasts, and some other ones in there. And you are very, you're I listened to even now and I feel pretty good with diabetes management. I listened to all of your podcasts just because it's enjoyable to listen to. Not so much that I'm you know, looking for management tips or anything. And plus, I think people with type one, or parents of type ones, they just end up having really interesting lives for some reason. I don't know, if you just

Scott Benner 1:22:37
made my day. I and I want to tell everybody, I don't know how mature it is to tell everybody how mature I am. But I want to tell everybody how mature I am now because you started talking and I thought she's gonna say a good podcast diabetes or not, that you're good at making a podcast and I almost jumped in and said, Oh my god, are you gonna say I'm good at making a pocket, but I stopped myself. I just stood here. I clenched my fists. I was like, don't say anything, let her talk. Let her talk. And so

Beth 1:23:04
I mean, you you really are I have other like, My children have other issues like one of them is autistic. And so I I've listened to other podcasts just merely to get information. And, like, really bad patch.

Unknown Speaker 1:23:20
Oh, you know, it makes you tell yourself, oh, the

Beth 1:23:23
sound quality is not good. Or, you know, they're they're just so boring. But I'm listening to it to try to glean some piece of information. For

Scott Benner 1:23:33
I saw a clip on the tick tock this morning. Some lady telling a story about how she like this woman looked like she was in her. Listen, what do I want to say she looked like she was in her mid 50s. But her plastic surgery made her look 48 And she's telling a story about bedding an 18 year old and and how this kid took i don't i By the way, I don't know who this person is. You might all be like, Oh my God, that's I don't know. And like how the kid took a selfie while they were in bed. She didn't have her makeup on. And she was so upset. And she sent it to friends and I don't like my stuff being out there. And I'm like, I'm listening to a woman tell a story about having sex with a kid. 40 years younger than her it looks like and she somehow making it boring. Like, as she's talking like, You're so bad at this. Like if that was my story. We'd all be gathered around the campfire going oh my god, and then what happened? But instead she's telling it and I'm like, Oh, you're terrible at this. Like, like really bad at talking in so it's a I would never call it a skill. I think it's just the thing I'm randomly good at. But

Beth 1:24:40
I do think it is a skill like I feel like it because I've listened to your podcast from the beginning. Like I after I started I started with the technology ones and then those were the only ones I listened to it first and then I started listening from the start and all the way through. And I feel like you've gotten better. I'm getting it but they were always good. But well, listen,

Scott Benner 1:25:03
I started off as a person who if you put me in a room full of people, people would gravitate to me while I was talking.

Beth 1:25:09
Yeah. And yeah, it used to be you talked more, right? You know,

Scott Benner 1:25:13
I'm learning to listen to people.

Beth 1:25:16
Know, you're great at interviewing, I think that you asked really good questions. And you're always good at like bringing the topic, you know, back back on topic, but not, you know, not avoiding the, you know, side topics that are really interesting.

Scott Benner 1:25:31
We were talking about blood sugars in like neuroscience, and somehow I know your family's problems with alcohol in the law. So. So that that turns into that's one of my superpowers that people like to tell me things. Yeah, it happens in my personal life, too. So,

Beth 1:25:49
so you have a lot of secrets, then people

Scott Benner 1:25:51
tell me a lot of stuff. And I'm just like, like, I heard a woman the other night, say, online, she goes, I don't listen to those after dark episodes, because they don't have anything to do with me. And I'm like, you are making a major mistake, if that's how you're thinking about that. Those things are the best one. Oh, they're fascinating. But but she's like, well, I don't have a heroin addiction. So why would I listen? I'm like, Oh, you got that all wrong? You are thinking about that bass, ackwards as my mom would have said. And so yeah, like there's where? I don't know. I don't know. I love talking to people. I am unendingly interested in people and where they come from, but not in a judgmental way. Yeah, my wife and I just had this like, weird conversation the other day where she's like, you're very judgmental, and I'm like, I'm not judgmental. I'm just accurately depicting what I'm hearing. That is

Beth 1:26:41
so funny. I had a conversation, I actually listen to your podcast. Sometimes when I'm cooking dinner and my husband, that's the only time he hears it, because he doesn't listen, otherwise, he's the son of God. There was a girl on there. And she was saying something that was a little bit like, it was scientifically inaccurate. And I could tell that, like you knew, but you weren't, you'd never tell anyone you're wrong about that. And let me tell you how it is. And instead, you let people tell their story in their perspective. And oftentimes, it leads to something, at least for me that I was not expecting about why that person feels that way, or, you know, the what brought them to that opinion. So I just find it very, thank you. I don't know, I think you have good interviewing skills, I don't think I would be able to do that I would stop them and be like, actually, let me educate you on this.

Scott Benner 1:27:32
I think of that very much the way I told you earlier, I think of other things. So that I used to think of it when I was younger as a tree with never ending branches that created more never ending branches. And I don't know a way to, to explain that by I should probably not deep dive into this without being able to explain it to people. But But I think of life as I started in a spot. And I took a step forward. And then I was presented with two branches. And I could have gone left or right. And I went left. And then there were two more branches. And then I went again. And that keeps happening. And so I think about existence and expansion like that. This is going to be I don't have big words back because I didn't go to college. But so my point is, is if I if I would go back to the start and make a right. I don't think I'd be a wildly different person. But I would be a different person. And wouldn't it be interesting to see where that person ended up? Or if you made a left on branch 9 million, like that kind of thing instead of a right. And so when people are talking, I want to hear how they got there. And and why they think this not to tell them they're right or they're wrong. Because the truth is, is that for them, they're right. They believe what they're saying you don't get anywhere telling someone, hey, the thing you hold in your heart. That's not right. Because it's right to them, because they made 9 million decisions that they didn't realize, after they took their first step. And so this is this is their reality. They live in a world where this is all true and right. And you can't tell them they're wrong. I mean, there are some notables, right. Someone picks up a piece of aluminum that says this is cold rolled steel, you know, no, it's not. It's aluminum. Like that's, that's a thing. But when you're talking about people's feelings, and their experiences, it's the only way you're going to quote, unquote, fix the world is if we all understand how we get to where we are. And then somehow in my mind that feeds back into you doing better with your diabetes?

Beth 1:29:35
Yeah, no, I think it's great. That's one of the reasons I like listening to the podcast. So

Scott Benner 1:29:42
I really appreciate it. It's very kind of you to say that I swear to you, you made my whole week. I because because just the fun part of me. I think I make a good podcast. And by that I mean enjoyable to listen to something you want to go back and find again. Yeah, that's how that's how it occurs to me and then I I've said it before, I'll tell you, I think my job around diabetes is to trick you into paying attention to your diabetes and learning stuff about it that you would never learn otherwise, because it's, it's really boring. And who would take the time? Exactly right. So that's my job. I'm here to trick you into taking care of yourself. By saying something funny about you making translucent Indian people, I don't know how I tell I get to that's how I get to the end. You guys can like it or not like it. Honestly, I couldn't possibly give it. So I'm doing this for me. And my kid who will never listen to this. I guarantee she told me last night, but she goes, if you somehow turned this podcast into a $20 million a year organization, I'm like, right? She goes, and you retired and said, Here, take the podcast, you can be the host now she'd go, I wouldn't do that. I was like You motherfucker. Like, like, What do you mean? Like soonish? Yes, you wouldn't. She goes, I wouldn't. Just like it's just not a thing I'm interested in.

Beth 1:31:00
Oh, my God, that sounds so much like my son. He is like, last night at dinner. He He's obsessed right now with climate change and global warming. And I don't know, he's in science club. And he's, he's absolutely obsessed with with solving climate change. So that has led him to an obsession with nuclear fusion. And just talking, I was talking about vertex opening the factory for the stem cells, I'm like, isn't this great? You know, I'm like, I'm like, you know, maybe and you know, a couple decades, there'll be a stem cell, you know, cure for for diabetes, he's like, that doesn't matter. Because diabetes is so insignificant.

Scott Benner 1:31:41
Just like you have diabetes. I have to tell you, I want to say this out loud. The podcast is not worth $20 million a year if it was, you know, because I would probably tell you, I would probably start instead of like, Hello, friends. And welcome to the IB. Like, Hey, guys, welcome back to my $20 million a year podcast. I did it like I'd probably every day say that just so you all know what level of trashy I would probably be if I had $20 million every year. But I was like, Wow, you really wouldn't. And I, you know, in the end, I was proud. I was like, I raised the kid who is interested in what she cares about, and interested in the thing she's passionate about. And this is

Beth 1:32:22
not so like, yeah, they don't have diabetes on their mind. 24/7 I think that's always good. Michael, it's like, if you could just not have to think about that all the time. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:32:32
I mean, there's part of me that I actually said to her later, because her blood sugar was a little low when she said that, apparently, no, I said it were later on, like, I gotta be honest with you. I think you would do the podcast, because you know, oh, yeah, money. And she goes, No. And I'm like, Yeah, that's 19 year old. You saying that? I was like, Wait a 30 year old you. That's your house? Like, how much is a car? I was like, wait, wait, do you realize that little thing we do you realize that like car payments are like a thing. And then there's insurance, and then you have to gas them. And then they need oil and tires. And that's just your car. When you realize that the house doesn't stay cool by itself, or worn by itself or the food. And like when you get all that in your head? I'm like you. And by the way, here's the other crazy thing that I think if Arden took this podcast over, it would continue to help people in a completely different way. And I think it would keep the management conversations alive so that people could go find them. And but I would definitely be a different perspective, right? You have no idea she'd get on here and be like, What is wrong with you people? And then she would just she just like, I saw you do this online? That's ridiculous. Don't do that. She'd be much she told me last night she goes, you're more. You're not the same in real life as you're on the podcast. And I was like, no, no, I wouldn't imagine I am. And, and I was like, how? And she's like, I don't know, like, you're more like you're like, I'm like, Do you think I'm nicer to the people in the pocket? Because you're definitely nicer to the people on the podcast. And I was like, Oh, I probably am more direct in my real life. Well, maybe we'll do that at the end Beth, where I, where I just get really direct, and blow everybody up for the last couple of years. That's how it will go out. But I don't in the end. I don't feel that way. Like I don't think that's how people learn in your personal life. I mean, you know, I talk obviously, I drag Erica on here to talk about all the time because I'm trying to figure it out. Like we don't people don't communicate well. And I'm, I'm no different. So I'm just better at communicating on this. Anyway, I'm not going to tell you about the time I tried to write a script, and all I ended up doing was getting 20 pages into something that completely resembled a Bridge to Terabithia. Which is which is, which is the saddest, which is a book I had never read. And Oh really? Here's the two minute here's the two minute drill. My early 20s Kelly and I are just married. I make this like proclamation. One. day when I wake up and we're all getting ready to go to work, and I said, I have a great idea for a movie script. I'm calling out sick and writing it. And she's like, go ahead. And because we were young, like now she'd be like, you want to get out there and make some money, leave in your stupid ideas. And so, I stayed home, I put like a 20 page treatment together started writing the beginning of it came home, she reads it. She goes, this is very good. And I said, Thank you. She goes, have you ever read a Bridge to Terabithia? And I said, I don't read books. Probably. I said that. It's funny. I had never read it. And I said, No. Why thinking she was gonna make like some like, oh, you know, she goes, Well, you're writing it right now is a movie. And I was like, Are you kidding me? And that was so defeating to me, Beth, I stopped trying to do it. It was a great movie, though. Well, I this was long before the movie came out. Oh, really? Yeah. This was back when it was just a book. So I had written this treatment about these kids who live in this old creaky house. And there's this property behind them with a fence and beyond the fence is Forest and woods and in the woods were magical creatures that I like, I literally like had that going for 20 pages. I had never heard of that book in my life because I am an illiterate basically. So anyway, that depresses me so much. I stopped writing things. Well, maybe you'll go back to it. I don't know about this podcast pretty popular. I think we should keep doing this for all right. I appreciate you doing this very much. Thank you. Yeah, sure. No

Beth 1:36:24
problem.

Scott Benner 1:36:24
Hold on for me for one second. Okay. Okay. A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G voc glucagon, find out more about Chivo Capo pen at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. you spell that GVOKEGL You see ag o n.com. Forward slash juice box. A huge thanks to us med for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Don't forget us med.com/juice box. This is where we get our diabetes supplies from you can as well use the link or call 888721151 for use the link or call the number get your free benefits check so that you can start getting your diabetes supplies the way we do from us med. I'd like to thank ag one for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast and remind you that with your first order, you're going to get a free welcome kit, five free travel packs and a year supply of vitamin D. That's at AG one.com/juicebox. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. If you or a loved one was just diagnosed with type one diabetes, and you're looking for some fresh perspective. The bulb beginning series from the Juicebox Podcast is a terrific place to start. That series is with myself and Jenny Smith. Jenny is a CDC es a registered dietitian and a type one for over 35 years. And in the bowl beginning series Jenny and I are going to answer the questions that most people have after a type one diabetes diagnosis. The series begins at episode 698 In your podcast player, or you can go to juicebox podcast.com and click on bold beginnings in the menu. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong way recording.com

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#1159 Weight Loss Diary: Ten

The tenth installment of my weight loss series. I've now switched to Zepbound.

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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 1159 of the Juicebox Podcast

Welcome back everyone who's following my weight loss journey I know we've been calling this week govi diary like number one number two etc last one was we go read up we go very last one was we go V diary number nine except I'm not on Weibo V anymore. So we're going to call it Zep bound diary. Now, where am I going to change it to weight loss diary GLP weight loss diary. I don't know, I'll figure it out. Nothing you here on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. If you're a US resident who has type one diabetes, or is the caregiver of someone with type one, the T one D exchange is looking for you. And they would like you to fill out a survey, it is just a 10 minute survey. They want to ask you one question you don't already know the answer to T one D exchange.org/juicebox. Go do that you'll help other people living with type one diabetes, you might help yourself, you're definitely going to be supporting me. And you're going to be doing a good thing. T one D exchange.org/juicebox. If you all went and did it right now, you'd never have to hear about this again.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Dexcom dexcom.com/juicebox. Get the brand new Dexcom G seven with my link and get started today. Welcome back, everybody. It is January 13. This is my I think second Saturday injection check in. I've moved my injection date from Tuesdays to Saturdays. And of course, I've moved my medication from we go V 2.4 to zero bound. And I'm starting with the five milligram I think when we look Yep, five milligrams. Apparently it goes up, like seven and a half 10. I go up to 15. I'm not sure. But I got the five here. As you all know, if you don't know, I guess I should say, Go listen to the other nine diaries about my journey with weego V from March of 2023. Until January of 2024, where I've lost just about 38 3940 pounds, it was dancing around there, I was putting all along back and forth. I had, as they say in the business plateaued. And that plateau went on for quite some time. And so I asked my doctor about options, and she switched me to zap bound. Zap bound, of course, is the weight loss version of Manjaro. No. And they of course are the same exact drug just branded differently for insurance purposes, and dosing reasons. I am here to report that I have weighed in this morning. But before I tell you about that weigh in, let me tell you about this first week on zap bound now this is after being on bigoli for quite some time obviously. I didn't have a ton of like changes in my body. I did start going to the bathroom more frequently than I was in the last few weeks with we go up the bathroom being the number two poo you understand I'm saying and so that frequency I think helped keep things moving. And my stomach feels emptier than it did on egoriy I don't know exactly how to explain this yet. When I started we go V i got it started with this full feeling like it felt like food almost stopped like eight inches below my neck that went away eventually. And now with that bound when I wake up in the morning, I have an actual hunger in my stomach like my stomach's churning. Like it's empty and I can feel it. It's not like mentally dragging me to the kitchen or anything. But oh my god, I should eat for sure. But this is my first physical sign of hunger because Enrico via didn't have many physical signs of hunger. Today's episode of the podcast is sponsored by Dexcom and I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about the continuous glucose monitor that my daughter wears the Dexcom G seven the Dexcom G seven is small. It is accurate and it is easy to use. And where Arden has been wearing a Dexcom G seven since almost day one of when they came out and she's having a fantastic experience with it. We love the G six but man is the G seven small the profile so much closer to your body the weight, you can't really feel it and that's coming from me and I've worn one. I've worn a G six I've worn a G seven I found both of the experiences to be lovely. But my gosh is that G seven and tiny and the accuracy has been fantastic Arden's Awan C's are right where we expect them to be. And we actually use the Dexcom clarity app to keep track of those things. That app is built right in to Arden's Dexcom G seven app on her iPhone. Oh, did you not know about that, you can use an iPhone or an Android device to see your Dexcom data. If you have a compatible phone, your Dexcom goes right to the Dexcom app, you don't have to carry the receiver. But if you don't want to use the phone, that's fine. Use the Dexcom. receiver, it's up to you. Choice is yours with Dexcom dexcom.com/juicebox. Anyway, I weighed myself this morning. Now last week, on the sixth of January, I weighed 294.8 pounds. Today, on the 13th 192.6 pounds. Now I don't know how you guys are with the math 194.8 192.6. That's 2.2 pounds, my little friends. I don't know the last time I lost two pounds in a week. Let me go all the way back to the beginning. My first week of weego VI was to 33.4. And then I went down to 32.6. That is not quite two pounds. The following week, I went to to 29.4. So the following week, yeah, to 29 to 3031 32. I lost like 3.2 pounds that week. All right, fair enough. Well, geez, if I lose three pounds next week, that'd be crazy. Anyway, I was saying to a friend this morning who listens to this. So hey, Vicki, how are you? I was saying to her friend this morning, that the first 40 pounds are like life changing for me. But these last, what I expect to be 15 pounds, I think are going to be just mind numbing. I look really hard at myself in the mirror today. And I can see places where I am. I'm fat. Like it's not like, Oh, you could lose some weight Scott or blah blah, like there's, you know, deposits, bags of fat on the front of me still a bag, there's a bag of fat on my stomach. So I'm holding it in my hands right now. It's talking to you. Hello. I'm squeezing like Jim Carrey in that movie. What do you do with this, but I'm doing it with my belly. So I've got what I would consider to be four handfuls of fat on my stomach, like the equivalent of once that's gone. I don't have I don't I can't think of another place on my body where I'm going to be like, Oh my god, this is unhealthy. So then I think it's going to really turn into a maintenance and, you know, strengthening situation. But let's go through my other numbers, which I have not looked at yet. I'm gonna look at them with you right now. Let's see what the Renfro scale said happened to be this week. Well, obviously my weight dropped. My BMI went from 28.8 to 20.5. Body fat 26.4 to 25.8. My body water measurement went up significantly. About that. From 53 to 53.6 doesn't usually climb like that. That's so interesting over this last week, it's gone up really drastically. Same with skeletal muscle 47.5 47.9. I BMR dropped from 1778 to 1769. That free bodyweight. Wow. 140 3.6 to 140 2.8. That's like a half a pound there. subcutaneous fat 23.1 to 22.4 Ooh, my visceral fat dropped for the first time and for Hold on a second. Damn. Last time I visceral fat dropped it dropped from 13 to 12. On September 8, it has been riding at 12 that whole time. Now it's 11. We take that we like that. Muscle mass is holding 130 5.8 from 130 6.4 bone mass holding 7.2 protein rows 16.7 to 16.9 and metabolic age. Well, that's still 56 and I'm 52 Or we're getting there, right? Anyway, I still got a long way to go well on the main screen. I'm tracking all those things just easily color coded green, blue, yellow, red, you know, levels of okay adness I have, let's see of the 369 1213 things it's tracking. I am now in the green and seven of them. Yellow still in three, which you know, they're the big ones subcutaneous BMI and weight. And my body fat, of course is still in the red at 25.8%. All right. Well, there's a lot more green than yellow and in red, so that's good. But my weight, my BMI, my subcutaneous fat and my body fat are all you know, I'm obese still, I've lost 40.8 pounds. Since I started this thing. I've lost 9.2% body fat. My BMI has gone down. 6.1 and I'm still obese. Okay, well, I'll see you next Saturday. I'm zip bound and down, loaded up and trucking. We're going to do what they say can't be done. Hey, nobody steal that. And Eli Lilly, if you're listening, you go get the rights to that song. And don't cut me in your mother. That's right. You know east bound down from what does that is that the I have to shoot the bounce. So is that the what is that? The band? What goddamn movie? Am I thinking of what Burt Reynolds? How come I can't fit? Oh my god, hold on a second. Burt Reynolds is smoking the bandit. God dammit. I can't believe it. I typed it in and then I remembered it. Now you feel like I looked it up. spoke in the back. There's that song Eastbound and Down. Right. Well. Let's find the lyrics is found and lyrics. God bless Google unless they're stealing our souls. Jerry Reed Eastbound and Down loaded up in trucking. We're going to do what they say can't be done. We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there.

I'm eastbound just watch old bandit, Ron. Here's what you do. You change eastbound zip bound. It's genius. Right zip bound and download love and truck and we're going to do what they say can't be done. We've got a long way to go in a short time to get there. I'm zip bound just watch little Scottie run. Alright, let's shoot this thing. Seriously, Lily, spend the money. sell those AP round. Cut me in. That was genius, also by an ad. Alright, so this one's different than the GUI. You guys. I did it one time before I'm gonna do it again. Last time we got a little drop of blood at the end. But it was the teeniest tiniest little bit didn't hurt really. So you pop the cat

and then you put the little thing on the belly which of course we still have to get my glasses on because I don't want to hit alright, I can't believe I'm saying this. I don't want to hit a stretch mark they they can not feel good. All right, I got a spot. I'm gonna use the lucky spot from last week was worth 2.4 2.2 pounds. You hold that on there. Then there's a little lock on the end you click the lock lock is now unlocked. But the business on the Jimmy, some of you like send me like it doesn't hurt. And I'm like, No, but if it did, who cares? 40 pounds ready

let's go. A little bit of pressure. You don't feel the needle you feel the pressure the juice going in. But that's that life Givens that bound juice? Who cares? And I got no blood this time. I'm out. January 20. It's a Saturday I'm here. I have my little app in front of me. I go back to the sixth. Just to tell you that on the sixth of January. I was 190 4.8 then of course you heard from me on the 13th now on the 13th I was 190 2.6 That's a week ago today. I thought wow, this is great. Like motion, right? Do you want to guess how much I weighed today? Well, this morning, I was one 90.8 And two days ago hit a low of 190 but another guy ate enough the day before so I ate a little more you know had some more protein and everything and whatever anyway one 90.8 versus the 13th when I was 190 2.6 that is just about two pounds in a week on this EP bounder not bad at all. Not bad at all. Body fat fell. I think a significant amount point for body water rising skeletal muscle rising from last week. From 47.9 to 48.2. All right, what else we got here fat free body weight is down from 142 Eight to 142 to subcutaneous fat down from 22.4 to 22.1 visceral fat stayed the same. Doing well here. Okay, listen. Let me tell you what I know so far about this outbound from this week. Good job with my hunger was never hungry. I still experienced that empty or feeling when there's nothing in my stomach but it's not painful. It's not like oh no, you know, just I can lay down and feel like oh, there's not a lot going on in my stomach right Up, bathroom being consistent every day. That's good. And I've eaten a cup my wife's 50th birthday was this week. We had cake. I think I had sorbet two nights ago. Last night for dinner I had rice and like a concoction of rice, steak, shrimp and chicken that I sauteed up, made myself. What else have I been eating a lot of eggs. I eat a lot of eggs in the morning. I don't even scramble them. I whip them up and then I kind of put them in the pan flat and instead of fluffing them I fold them so almost like a fat omelet. I mixed in some sausage once this week with it had bacon once this week. I don't need a lot of vegetables had some salad. Shrimp. Fair amount of shrimp. coconut yogurt. What else did I eat this week. Trim coconut yogurt shrimp. Something out the freezer can't think of what I took it out of the freezer. Anyway, I'm not hungry. I look great. All the weight that I've lost over the last couple of weeks has come out of my midsection. I got no complaints. We're going to try zip bound again today of course. five milligrams pop off the cap. Cap is off. Look down at my ever shrinking belly. Choose a spot. I could use a glasses for this. My spectacles. Want to make sure I can see what I'm doing. Oh, I see a spot I like all right, turn off the lock. Cross your fingers and hope for two more pounds. If I get into the 180s That's gonna be insane. I genuinely don't know the last time I weighed 180 something pounds. I have no idea. I 20 years old maybe has to be I don't think I've ever been this low. You can see a real let me shoot this little tight. Hold on ready. That was a little pinchy. Whatever. I mean, up until the Zep bound where I've got motion again. And I mean, you know, five pounds lighter than I was like three weeks ago, may have lost weight everywhere. But I'm starting to see like, definition in my thighs. That's crazy. And weight is still coming out of my midsection. And my um, what would you call this here? side boob? Yeah, that's almost completely gone. I almost don't have any side boob. Pretty impressive. I know. Fat on my back is going away. I still have a little love handle stuff here. But mostly it's love handle. I'm squeezing myself as I'm talking to you. So I can tell you love handles, belly from like, sternum down. I have more of like a hanging belly than like, turtle shell classic, like your belly. You know, I think I described it as like four handfuls the fat the other day. It still is but it's for smaller handfuls, the loose skin on the inside of my thighs is disappearing. And the loose skin under my arms and to Mike like, under my bicep. Like when you make the Popeye thing back into my armpit. There was a lot of hang there, but there's significantly less. I can't tell you how excited I am to like, I wish I could fast forward two months right now I'd love to see where I'm gonna be. Anyway, have a great weekend. Arms up bound and down. Saturday again, kids. Today is January 27. I am Scott. And this is my zip bound diary. I don't have a lot of deep thoughts this week. Other than Well, I went to get a pair of glasses today to you know, place I've been going forever actually happened to know the doctor. So I don't see him very often, but we're friendly. He knows who I am, you know more than just a little bit. And I walked in and the guy at the counter. He looks up he goes Hello. He looks again. He goes Scott Hello. And I said hey, how are you? And he said, have you lost weight? And I said yes. And he goes since I've seen you last and I said yeah. He said Oh you look great. Thank you very much. And we started having this conversation turns out the lady behind the counters using we go we've no ozempic for her type two diabetes. She's only been using it for about five weeks. We spoke for a while I gave her some pointers. Then the doctor comes out of the back. Oh my gosh, I haven't seen him in a little bit. He looks at me and he goes, Scott, you look like a completely different person. And he's not wrong. It was really nice to hear. Today is the 27th as I said I have lost points 6.8 almost a pound since last week. I was one 90.8 on the 20th Today I'm 180 9.4 You have no idea But yesterday I was 180 8.61 88.6 I couldn't believe when it went to 188. Anyway, I don't have a lot to say other than somebody said, I looked like a whole new person. I told them, I feel like a whole new person. I explained what I was doing. I'm not embarrassed or ashamed. It was nice to be able to educate people, instead of listening to them say the rather, ill informed stuff I hear about these GLP medications from people who just want to say stuff like you should try harder, have some willpower, stuff like that. People who don't get the big picture. Anyway, I got some Zep bound here. five milligrams. Got to put it in the belly right now. kept coming off. Unlocking the pen. Looking for that spot? Who calls out look? I just touched it with my dirty finger. Now I can't use it. Different spot. You're like what's on your finger? I'll tell you this. Right? On the spot looks good. But it's dark in here. I want to make sure there's no stretch marks. Don't like to shoot the needle through a stretch mark. That's not good. I don't have like crazy stretch marks. But you know, better safe than sorry. Okay, body still reshaping very nicely. I look terrific and close. I've had to start wearing like a little bit of a compression shirt to I don't know, I think that's vanity actually, because I don't actually have to, but I'm trying to train my body to you know what I mean? Tighten up. Anyway, is that bound five milligrams in 4321. All done, baby. All done. This week. There was a meal like a big meal. Other than that, I was pretty good. I don't think I eat enough food this week, if I'm being honest. So I'm going to try to rectify that get back on a good way. I think what happened was my wife's 50th came up, we went to a restaurant, and I ate some stuff. I was like, I shouldn't eat that. And then the next day I kind of like didn't need to make up for it, which wasn't the right thing to do. I should just get back on my schedule. So I'll do that tomorrow. I promise I will wake up. Have me a couple of eggs and get my day on the way. I will see you in a week. I'm set bound and down. February 3 I did what I said I was going to do I ate more eggs for breakfast. Add some protein with it a number of times this week. I did just eggs with shrimp like precooked shrimp. They were from another meal. I did eggs with

I don't think I had bacon this week. No, but I feel like I had something else at one point. Maybe in a wrap. Might have put it in a wrap with mushrooms one time shrimp. Anyway, it was doing that for breakfast. Throughout the week. I had last night I had Chinese food. Not a ton of it. But I did. I had some generals chicken fried rice. And I had sorbet last night as well. Two days ago I had a cookie. And this week I also had chocolate at some point this week like a half of a

handful of like chocolate chips. They were good. I don't remember when dinners this week. We did pasta with sausage, meatballs. We did a shrimp thing like stir fry.

What else we do this week I cold sandwiches in one place at one point deli deli sandwiches. I ate them a couple of days this week because I like had one and I saved the rest of it. And I think I had pudding this week. Like when I was having a sweet moment. Think that's it. Anyway, wait, do you hear how much weight I lost? It's crazy. Let's not stretch it out. I weighed 188 pounds today that is 1.4 pounds less than last week. That's like a pound and a half almost. It's binoculars. I was gonna say redonkulous I don't know what happened there. March 28. I weighed myself for the first time came on here. And since then, that's 2023 Today's February 3 2024. I am 45.4 pounds less than I was on March 28. My BMI is down 6.8 and my body fat is down 10.2%. My visceral fat is an 11 now, which is like acceptable, acceptable, like it may be an acceptable fat free body weight. Now acceptable at 141 and a half. Got some other things here still getting a lot more green on this scale. Body water bone mass protein BMR muscle mass all green visceral fat, green fat free body weight green. still a ways to go on weight BMI subcutaneous fat body fat. My skeletal mass is climbing still just a little low. The next time it moves I'll be in a standard range. My metabolic Age Of course is still three years older than I am, which I don't love. Not for nothing. Another great week bumped into some more people I haven't seen in over a year, five minutes after they asked me how I was they were like, how do I get that? What is that? Exactly? They had type two diabetes, we're all interested in it. I'm going to go out today, I have to buy new pants again, I'm gonna go to a waist size that I don't think I've ever worn as an adult. That's incredible. Like, really crazy. Large T shirts that three weeks ago I thought oh, I shouldn't bought these too soon. And now they fit. This is just my own theory. But I've been wearing kind of restrictive undergarment like almost like a spandex, almost like as like a spandex shirt to hold my like midsection in I'm hoping that helps with like, you know, shrinkage and tightening. I really think I'm prepared to do some exercise. Finally, I've done a number of things around the house recently that have not resulted in any wind deadness no sore knees, no coughing, like really, my feet haven't hurt in a while. So I feel like I can get into that slowly. Eating was fine this week. Like I said, kind of a boring week here working. I don't think I was out this week. Besides the takeout last night that we had. Yeah, I didn't I don't think I was in a restaurant this week. Pretty much it really other than to say, I'm still a little put off by people saying you're gonna lose too much you have to stop, you know, then I have to point out to them. I am not healthy. Still, my body is not at a healthy size. I'm just thinner than you're used to seeing me. My face I think is holding up which is good. I don't have droopy skin on my face, which I guess I was a little concerned about when this all started but it hasn't been a problem. I'm seeing more tightening under my arms have loose skin inside of my thighs is tightening up more. All in all, it's going amazing. And I've lost. I mean, the Jumpstart from the switch from we go V TOS up bound is is hard to put into words but I think over seven pounds in what is it been six weeks now. That's beautiful. I have a lot of episodes coming up in the podcast with people with diabetes using GLP medications, type twos and type ones, they'll be spread out over the year. I really hope you catch them teasing out for you. One of them is a teenage girl who has had type one diabetes for three years and is down to now only injecting Basal insulin and the significant drop and even the Basal insulin is insane. Definitely a type one really, really cool story she'll be on well her mom will be on to tell us about it soon enough. I hope you check that out. If you're finding this and you don't normally listen to the podcast, you should probably try the Facebook group to Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes great conversations going on there about as epic and Manjaro No, we go visa bound GLP is etc. It's pretty much it kids. I'm going to shoot this and go live my life. Got some Zep bound here five Milly's. Take off the cap. Unlock the pen. Find a place. I don't want to move from the place I've been doing. Feels like it's good luck, though. I don't believe in that. though. I don't believe in that. I'm absolutely going to do that. All right, I'm set bound and down. Here I go. That was easy, wasn't it? Little blood that time. Little drop a dot? Boop. Boop. I gotta get a tissue. A tissue. You're not from Philly. You don't know that. But tissue. Oprah is Oprah. Bill Cosby, but I guess we don't talk about him anymore. Angles, water, Bagel, Wawa. Alright, there's another set bound in the trash. And another week on my way, hopefully of losing another pound and a half. I have adjusted my goals. Again, in my app, I've put my goal weight to 169. I don't know if I actually get there or not. But I had my goal previously set at 180. And I'm 188. Now figure well, pounds. Maybe I can get the 180 in a couple of months. Right? Maybe I'll be down this stuff's might be magic. You know, I want to mention, and I'll get out of here quick. I know it's not gonna work for everybody. And I hear people online like I saw somebody had a bowel obstruction and I saw and I'm like, I get it like everything's not going to work for everybody. If it's you tried it, it didn't work for you. I'm sorry, I really am. But to say you're gonna get a bowel obstruction. You know, because you heard it on the news once is a little ridiculous. We can't take into account Everything we don't know when people tell stories like that. That's why I'm trying to tell you everything I'm doing here, you know, what my situation was prior. If you already had gastroparesis, and you tried to use one of these drugs, I mean, I could see where you might end up with some real digestive issues, because your digestion is already, you know, very slow from the gastroparesis, and the medication slows it down more, you know, I can see where you could end up with, with a problem. You also don't know if people are supplementing correctly, if they're drinking enough water moving around enough. You don't get people's honest, sometimes you don't get their honest evaluation of what they were doing just I use this thing and then I had a problem doesn't work. See that all walks of life. But you know, before you go running around telling people not to do something or not even to look into it, you might want to have some real, either personal experience or, or listen to somebody who does. I've been using this now for a month shy of maybe two months shy of a year. Different GLP meds started with the we go V switch to zap bound about six weeks ago. Like I said, I'm 45 pounds down. The changes to my actual life are amazing. And I don't just mean like that I look better. I feel better. It's psychologically It's freeing. There's a lot going into this, my body's working better, my elimination works better. I'm retaining my nutrients more efficiently. But I'm also you know, I'm taking vitamins that drink at one I'm not just I didn't just inject the stuff and then head off to eat the way I you know, have a cheeseburger and go I can't believe this didn't work. I just did along with it. If you're interested in finding out more, I would if I was you and pressure your doctor, if they don't seem interested send them this if you like, you know don't sit idly by if you think this can help you give it a whirl. Okay, this is the last entry for this episode. And I have a surprise. Not a great surprise but an interesting one. So today should be February 10. Saturday, but I forgot to take my injection yesterday. So instead today is February 11. Sunday. Now yesterday I got up I was on the right path to jump on the scale. So I'd have my number. So when I recorded I know how much I weighed, weighed 187.8 pounds, which was just point two pounds fewer than the week prior on the third. I had a moment during the week where I was 187. But you know a pretty uneventful week as far as weight loss goes. I did start adding in bodyweight squats into my my routine this week. But other than that, not a lot. didn't really do much. I missed my breakfast a couple of times this week because I had to record early. So I was eating like twice a day instead of three times a day. probably drank more of most like carbonated water I have once in a while instead of regular water. Anyway, that's not where the surprises yesterday. Saturday I got up. My whole family kind of slept in and I did things i replanted

like plants into different pots. And then I got it into my head to make homemade potato chips for the Super Bowl today. So I spent a few hours cutting up you know, potatoes, soaking them salting, frying the whole thing like you know, it's, I find it relaxing. I'll probably have a handful of potato chips tonight. But I found it relaxing. I enjoy. This is not the point. The point is that I didn't eat breakfast. And then, you know, maybe two o'clock my wife and my son like we went out to lunch. And I had a half of a sandwich a half a Cubana sandwich. So what does that ham ham pork, right pork pickle piece of cheese, mustard. Bout peppers about like that right? At half of it. I couldn't eat the whole thing. It came with french fries. I had three French fries. And I had a bowl of lobster bisque. Not a big bowl. Came home. I had about 20 jelly beans in the afternoon. Somebody had jelly beans as their habit I jelly beans in law. And I had a little bit of sorbet at night. This was not a great eating day. This is not my point of telling the story. It's also not a bad eating day. He drank iced tea unsweetened during the day and might have had a can of diet soda at some point, because we were out thirsty and that's all that was available at this place. Again, this is not the point. You want to know what the point is. I woke up this morning I said oh I gotta do my injection. I want to record the episode I've gained. If you've been listening to this for a while you've heard me talk about that. I feel like I might have a GLP deficiency or something is being replaced by something in this GLP I haven't been able to explain it my entire Life I just eat like a normal person and I gained weight, right? So I didn't inject it on Saturday like I should have. So I'm at the end of a seven day like this meds basically out of my body now. And although I guess I shouldn't just say that I don't really know what the half life is, of the Med, maybe I should check before I say that out loud. Half Life bound. But I'm gonna guess. Yeah, here we go. This is from Lily. Time and body after discontinuation because the half life of desert Repatha, whatever they want to call it. It's a medical word is approximately five days. If you stop using it, it should be gone from your alone. It should be gone from your No, I'm not a healthcare professional. Can I just get on the page, please? Is it not going to give me the information because I'm not a healthcare professional? Come on, slowly. All right. So I had to go from the blurb on Google, but it looks like yeah, HalfLife, Manzano. Again, I'm here and five, it says five days here. So I'm shooting it every seven days, which probably means that the last two days are less efficacious to begin with. But by the seventh day, it's, I guess it's gone. Anyway. 180 7.8 Saturday morning, even though I didn't shoot the medication. This morning, I got up, went to the bathroom. So you know, offloaded anything I could 180 9.4 I weigh almost two pounds more today than I did yesterday. I'm not a doctor, I'm not a scientist. But that is something I saw my whole life. And this is the first time I've missed this medication. Since I began in March of 2023. Missed it, meaning didn't shoot it seven days, like I was supposed to. So this is the eighth day. And I know that was I just thought that was amazing. And you guys would enjoy this. This is gonna be the last entry into this episode. So I'm gonna put it up soon for you. And start a new one where you'll find out, I guess what happens seven days from now. So I'm gonna uncap the pen. Unlock the pen. By that little spot that I like to shoot Lynn on the other side today, I think there we go. In 321 Ooh, let's go that bound. Get in there do the good work. Anyway, the maze, not quite two pounds was a 1.6 pounds. But I just say that's a lot. I mean, I just didn't, I didn't eat as far as calories or quality of food goes or anything like that any, you know, anything that I haven't eaten while I was on the medication. So anyway, I'm set bounded up today. But I imagine the next time I talk to you, I will weigh probably three pounds less than this today. I guess we'll find out. Thanks so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

I'd like to thank Dexcom for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. And at the same time, I want to remind you that seeing your blood glucose levels in real time, not only the number but the speed and the direction is going to help you in ways that you maybe can't imagine right now. You should definitely check it out at dexcom.com/juicebox. I know that Facebook has a bad reputation. But please give the private Facebook group for the Juicebox Podcast. A healthy once over Juicebox Podcast, type one diabetes. The group now has 47,000 members in it. It gets 150 new members a day. It is completely free. And at the very least you can watch other people talk about diabetes, and everybody is welcome type one type two gestational loved ones, everyone is welcome. Go up into the feature tab of the private Facebook group. And there you'll see lists upon lists of all of the management series that are available to you for free in the Juicebox Podcast, becoming a member of that group. I really think it will help you it will at least give you community you'll be able to kind of lurk around see what people are talking about. Pick up some tips and tricks. Maybe you can ask a question or offer some help Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. That Juicebox Podcast is full of so many series that you want and need afterdark s gotten Jenny algorithm pumping bold beginnings defining diabetes the finding thyroid, the diabetes Pro Tip series for type one, diabetes variable series, mental wellness type two Diabetes pro tip, how we eat. Oh my goodness, there's so much at juicebox podcast.com. Add up into that menu and pick around. And if you're in the private Facebook group, just go to the feature tab for lists upon lists of all the series. always free. Always helpful. If you're not already subscribed or following in your favorite audio app, please take the time now to do that. It really helps the show and get those automatic downloads set up so you never miss an episode. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong way recording.com

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