#1191 Canadian Dinner Rolls

Bonnie is 57 and was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 18 years old.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 1191 of the Juicebox Podcast

Bonnie is a 57 year old architect who has had type one diabetes since she was 18 years old. She's got a couple of things going on. I don't want to ruin all the fun for you but there's frozen shoulder a skin condition and much more. While you're listening today, please don't forget that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always please, please Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. When you place your first order for ag one with my link, you'll get five free travel packs and a free year's supply of vitamin D. Drink ag one.com/juicebox help out with type one diabetes research by going to T one D exchange.org/jukebox. and completing the survey. It's all you have to do you need to be a US resident who has type one or is the caregiver of someone with type one takes you 10 minutes your answers to simple questions will help move type one diabetes research forward. And don't forget to check out the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes with 50,000 members there is very likely someone in there you're gonna like someone's gonna have answers you need. Someone will be funny, thoughtful, kind nice. We got so much in there go check it out. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom G seven made for all types of diabetes Dexcom G seven can be used to manage type one, type two, and gestational diabetes, you're going to see the speed, direction and number of your blood sugar right on your receiver or smartphone device. dexcom.com/juice Box. 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 Jaylen, 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. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by cozy earth.com Cozy Earth is where I get my clothing, linens and towels from their incredibly comfortable and temperate. I love them. I really do love them. And I love that I can give you an offer code that will save you 40% off of your entire order. Just use the offer code juice box at checkout and you will save 40% at cosy earth.com I

Bonnie 2:59
also think that you get a lot of visual cues when you talk to people such that if suddenly you want to speak and your mouth is hanging open. I can't tell if I don't see you.

Scott Benner 3:08
I have made nearly 1300 episodes of this podcast you telling me I've been doing it wrong. Oh no, not at all. Do I get to see you or you just get to see me.

Bonnie 3:19
Oh no, you get to see me too. Absolutely. Hey, hey, also,

Scott Benner 3:24
you're gonna get to hear me. I'm gonna test my blood sugar. So while we're getting set up here, I'm recording you chat normally wouldn't do this early in the call, but I'm wearing a CGM. Very cool.

Bonnie 3:39
While you're doing that, I'll I'll do that I'm I'm at 150. So

Scott Benner 3:43
I just got out of the shower. And it's telling me I'm low. And I don't imagine that's true, although I have not eaten in a long time. So I'm going to test myself here with the contour next gen blood glucose meter contour next.com/juice box. Let's say I have struck my finger. blood is rushing to the area not really rushing. I'm getting it. Actually this meter doesn't need a lot of blood. So not a big deal. You know, maybe it would help if I put my glasses on. Old. Oh, yeah, damn thing. Okay, there's my little blood drop. And let's see what we got here for my blood sugar. What do we got? Survey says 54321 95. I knew my blood sugar wasn't well. When

Bonnie 4:32
you started counting down and you said five. I thought that was your blood sugar. I thought well, that's perfect.

Scott Benner 4:38
What do you from Canada? i Oh, no. Okay.

Bonnie 4:40
I'm bilingual when it comes to blood sugars. Oh, excellent.

Scott Benner 4:45
Yeah, so I'm looking here. So I went in the shower and it took a dip. I don't know why. I'm gonna calibrate because I don't want to hear it beep at me while you're doing this. When I say 95 You did?

Bonnie 5:00
Did silence my phone.

Scott Benner 5:01
Do that to a minute ago? It says I'm 70 now. It's like a little. I don't know. Interesting. It's been really interesting to watch because last night, I on purpose ate pizza and Chinese food. And my blood sugar like didn't move. And in the past that would have, but I'm using we go V now. So basically it's, I mean, basically it says Empik. It's the same molecule. Of course, of course. And I just don't seem like my blood sugar just won't spike anymore. Like I don't I want to be clear, I don't have diabetes. I'm not pre diabetic, or anything like that. But if I would have eaten a couple of slices of pizza and some Chinese food, some rice, I would have seen a 150 Maybe 140. So like, nothing went up to like 95. It stayed there for a couple of hours went right back down in the mid 80s. was pretty good.

Bonnie 5:51
You exercise exercise yesterday.

Scott Benner 5:53
I try not to exercise at all, so I didn't do it yesterday, either. Okay, so we're doing this, what I guess they would call bass ackwards. Because I would normally tell you all the stuff before we started recording that I'm going to tell you now, so everybody's gonna get to hear what I say to people. Before we're recording. I don't care what you say, I am not going to stop you from saying anything. If you go in a really crazy, weird direction, I'm gonna go with you. If you use people's names, please be comfortable that you can, the worst thing that could happen is that you get to the end and say, like I said, my uncle's name five times I need you to go take it out. It creates an editing nightmare. And other than that, I wouldn't be overly specific about where you live. And that's pretty much it. So usually now I say do you have any questions or concerns? Oh, no, no, not at all. Okay,

Bonnie 6:49
I'm nervous. You're nervous energy? nervous energy. Can

Scott Benner 6:53
you push your hair back away from that microphone for me? Thank you. Don't worry about being nervous. I'll make you comfortable. And if I don't, I felt so it's on me, not you. What I'll say is last thing. Don't need to use your last name in a second. Just kind of take a deep breath. Introduce yourself. Give me a couple of sentences about who you are. We'll start talking hour from now it'll be over. Well, this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by cozy Earth. And right now I'm looking at cozy earth.com to see what's going on. I got Oh, look at this bamboo pajama set for ladies. That jogger pants for ladies looks like plush lounge socks. That's one of Oprah's Favorite Things. There's the bath collection. We love the waffle towels. But there's also premium plush bath towels. Everything that you see here can be had for 40% off with the offer code juice box at checkout. Even the sheets. Now we use the bamboo sheets, you may choose different linens, I don't know what you're going to love when you get to cozier.com. But we sleep on bamboo sheets from cozy Earth, they are incredibly comfortable. And I bought them myself with my own money using my own offer code. juice box at checkout. 40% off is what I saved. You can as well at cozy earth.com.

Bonnie 8:16
My name is Bonnie and I live in the Midwest originally from Canada. And if I tell you my profession, probably everyone will know who I am. Because it's a small world of my profession. But I'm not hiding. I'm an architect. So saying

Scott Benner 8:33
that your Barney, an architect from the Midwest is going to tell people who you are. At least Oh, you're in the midwest of Canada?

Bonnie 8:42
No, I'm I live in the United States now.

Scott Benner 8:46
Oh, you live in the United States now. Okay, because I was like in Canada, there must only be one architect. That's not what we're talking about. Right? No. Okay. Well, I'll tell you what, if you get a call from somebody who's like, I heard you on a podcast, please email me immediately because I will be. I'll be baffled that that happened. Because you're I think I would be baffled as well. I think if I went on another podcast and said, my name is Scott, I make a podcast called The Juicebox Podcast. I still don't think anybody would know who the hell I was. So I'd be I wouldn't be thrilled if somebody knows you from that.

Bonnie 9:19
Okay. I mean, if I got very specific and said, I'm from, you know, this portion of this

Scott Benner 9:24
state, okay. All right. You didn't build like a really famous building or something. Did you design something really famous? Reasonably

Bonnie 9:31
famous? Yes. In the state of Michigan? Yes. Interesting. I won a competition to design a memorial for law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty. Wow,

Scott Benner 9:44
that's amazing. And I thought you're gonna say lawn furniture.

Bonnie 9:50
I was like, I don't, I don't design lawn furniture. But I know architects architects do design furniture.

Scott Benner 9:56
I thought you were gonna say designed to building About lawn furniture. And I was like, This doesn't make any sense at all. I don't think she's as famous as she thinks she is.

Bonnie 10:05
I'm not that I'm not that famous.

Scott Benner 10:09
How did you? Is that something you always wanted to do? Is it something you thought of as a child? Or do you pick it up in college, I

Bonnie 10:14
always wanted to be an architect. My father was an engineer, and I just got that way of thinking in my head, I inherited that way of thinking. I

Scott Benner 10:24
always wanted to be an architect. Do you have that engineers mind? I think so. Yeah.

Bonnie 10:30
Very linear way of thinking, a very mathematical way of thinking. One plus one always equals two type of thing, which, you know, leads me to the My frustration of diabetes having diabetes. But,

Scott Benner 10:43
yes, do you have that sort of social awkwardness that sometimes engineers have? I'm

Bonnie 10:49
not an overly social person. I'm a very visual person. I'm the type of person who likes to sort of watch, sit back and watch.

Scott Benner 10:59
Interesting, you know, you said that you were a little nervous. I don't normally do the podcast with video on. And we have it on today, right? And I've lost so much weight over the last nine months. My brain doesn't always remember if that makes sense. So I'm sitting here, I spent the first couple of moments we were talking, trying not to obsess on whether or not my stomach look big in the video. I don't

Bonnie 11:26
know why I'm not watching your stomach.

Scott Benner 11:28
But you're looking at me now. Do I look heavy in the front? Not at all. No, you know, I think I do. Oh, I'm wired from having been overweight a lot of my life. So just see this line on my shirt? Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's apropos of nothing. It's just the way my shirts hanging. But I think it's showing you a delineation of where my stomach starts and stops.

Bonnie 11:52
Well, we all we all have a stomach. So

Scott Benner 11:56
if I stay on, we go be much longer. I'm going to be a skeleton, and then I won't have a look at.

Bonnie 12:00
That's not good, either. I mean,

Scott Benner 12:02
I'm not gonna go that far. But no, I just I wanted to let you I actually the people in listening to in on that, like, there's just a wrinkle in my shirt that my brain is telling me. Hey, that makes you look fat. Adjust yourself. Not crazy.

Bonnie 12:18
I think we are all very self conscious people. Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Benner 12:22
It's really something anyway, I just, you know, it's a podcast, if I don't share these things, then that it's not a podcast anymore. It's just, yeah,

Bonnie 12:30
I mean, we don't get the visual when we listen to you. So we have to kind of make up what we think you're doing where you're sitting. At least I do.

Scott Benner 12:38
Yeah. That whiteboard behind me has the secrets of the podcast for the next five years on it. So all the things I'm going to do like literally 123 new series, a bunch of different topics we haven't gotten to yet. There's a note over there for me to pay my taxes. Do I want to get the book rights back to my book? Which by the way I do, but I don't want to do it badly enough to put any effort into it. In case you're wondering. It's all the list of advertisers. Actually, there's new advertisers out there that people don't know about yet. And then there's this tree art in Germany, it says big ideas. And then each leaf has a different little like idea about things I should maybe think about during the podcast.

Bonnie 13:20
That's an interesting mnemonic. Yes. Yeah. So

Scott Benner 13:23
art enjoyed from the last time she was she also wrote the date on it. And she says, every day, change the date, it's good for you. And I was like, Yeah, I'm probably not going to do that. It said, it said July for a really long time. And then I changed it. I thought recently, and I just looked at it since November 3, it's the 17th. So apparently, I'm not on top of that. Anyway, what made you want to come on the podcast? I

Bonnie 13:47
think a lot of different reasons. But you know, I used to think of myself as just sort of an ordinary person dealing with diabetes, and I just wanted to come on the podcast and say that, you know, we're all kind of dealing with it every day. 24/7 nonstop. And yeah, just sort of get that out there and get it out there that frustrations with it. That sort of thing I've been dealing with it for Oh my goodness. 39 years, really? So yeah. How

Scott Benner 14:21
old are you? Can I ask? 57 Oh, wow, you look terrific. Oh, thank

Bonnie 14:26
you. It's a good good hair jeans.

Scott Benner 14:31
You know, Bonnie, you and I have a lot in common. I am steadfastly believe I look younger than I am because my hair is nice and dark. Exactly. It really is the whole thing until you're if you get pale and then the and then the lines right around your eyes. Yeah, the worst part. Yeah. Okay, so

Bonnie 14:48
the problem you're gonna have as you lose weight, you're gonna start to wrinkle you know, I mean as as we get older and you know, our faces stay nice and plump you don't see as many wrinkles

Scott Benner 15:01
I'm very near you in New York. I'll get Joan Rivers doctor to pull me back. There you go. They eventually killed her at night. Nevermind. I'm

Bonnie 15:08
just gonna use some drafting dots. Do you know what drafting dots? I do?

Scott Benner 15:11
Yeah. Just like in a sci fi movie, they'll actually be things on my face pulling my face backwards. It's not a bad. That's hilarious. Do you know they killed Joan Rivers. This episode is sponsored by Medtronic. diabetes, Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box. And now we're going to hear from Medtronic champion. Jalen.

Speaker 1 15:33
I was 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, I was going to 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 16:07
Did you try to explain to people or did you find it easier just to stay private?

Speaker 1 16:12
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. Did you

Scott Benner 16:27
eventually find people in real life that you could confide in,

Speaker 1 16:31
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 take when diabetes. To

Scott Benner 16:52
hear Jay Lin's entire conversation stay till the very end, Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box to hear more stories from the Medtronic champion community. The Dexcom g7 is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast and it features a lightning fast 30 minute warmup time, that's right from the time you put on the Dexcom g7. Till the time you're getting readings, 30 minutes, that's pretty great. It also has a 12 hour grace period. So you can swap your sensor when it's convenient for you all know that on top of it being small, accurate, incredibly wearable, and light. These things, in my opinion, make the Dexcom g7. a no brainer. The Dexcom g7 comes with way more than just this. Up to 10. People can follow you, you can use it with type one, type two, or gestational diabetes, it's covered by all sorts of insurances. And this might be the best part, it might be the best part alerts and alarms that are customizable, so that you can be alerted at the levels that makes sense to you. dexcom.com/juicebox links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com to Dexcom. And all the sponsors, when you use my links, you're supporting the production of the podcast and helping to keep it free and plentiful.

Bonnie 18:13
What do you mean they killed?

Scott Benner 18:15
I don't think it was a like a vast conspiracy. But she was getting, you know, plastic surgery pretty, pretty constantly. And she was in a surgery center. And she I don't know what happened. She She threw a clot or had a like a heart attack or something. But the surgery center was not prepared to handle that level of a medical issue. Wow. There are people who think that if she was in a hospital, that they probably could have stopped it. Oh, that's interesting. That's interesting. So when I went and had my toe I surgery on my toe this year, and it was like, you know, a half an hour, they cut it open, they cleaned it out. I get drilled a bunch of holes in the bone and my toe or whatever, which by the way, seems like it's working. As they were like doing the pre op stuff. The nurse comes over. And I said, How are you set up for? You know, heart issues. And she goes, we don't handle heart things here. And I'm like, no, no, no, I'm sorry. I misunderstood. I'm like, what if I have a heart attack? You? Yeah, you got like a like clear. You got one of those things. Do you guys know what you're doing? Is there like a girl here who really gets it? And she goes, that's not gonna happen. I went, That's what Joan Rivers thought, Oh, God. She goes, what? And I said, Joan Rivers died in a surgery center like this. And she goes, No, she and I was like, Well, yes, she did. And I was like, so if I like, are you gonna be able to help? And she said, Oh, yeah, it's fine. By the way. I did not believe her.

Bonnie 19:36
Of course, she's gonna tell you it's fine. Like,

Scott Benner 19:38
don't worry, we'll just call 911. I was like, again. That's what they told Joan. Anyway, she really didn't believe me. I went in I got the surgery. I woke up like, you know, you wake up. You're like parked like used cars with a bunch of other people. I'm like coming to I barely have my focus. And this girl is like at the foot of my bed and she goes, Oh my god. You weren't kidding. Joan Rivers did die in a surgery. had heard I was like, Is that what you guys have been talking about while I was getting my toe fixed? And she goes, yeah, and then we just, I woke up and we started chatting about it. But anyway, I don't know. But yeah, anyway, but But yeah, my eyes, it's really around your eyes. If I could just have my eyes just came up a little bit, it would like change everything it really would. About how I look. Yeah. Anyway, I'm not gonna do anything about it. Can you imagine? How much would you be willing to spend? I mean, obviously, you're a very famous architect $5 million. But um,

Bonnie 20:32
I don't practice architecture to make money.

Scott Benner 20:37
I'm so sorry to hear that. But I always like think like, how much like, what percentage of your yearly income? Would you be willing to give away like, if you could, to making a major change to your physical appearance? You don't I mean, like, well, how much would seem like too much? Oh,

Bonnie 20:58
I could not tell you as a percentage. I think the bigger sacrifice for me would be sort of the time and effort and the recovery and just getting potentially major surgery, like I was a wreck when I had to have a colonoscopy when I turned 50. You know, I mean, I had a commission for days. No, it was kind of I was still on sliding scale MDI. And I'm kind of like, How the hell am I gonna do this?

Scott Benner 21:22
Well, you were doing sliding scale, like seven years ago. Oh, yeah. Okay, why don't we talk about your diabetes? How old were you when you were diagnosed?

Bonnie 21:30
I was 18 and a half. Okay. Still in Canada? Oh, yes.

Scott Benner 21:35
So they gave you NPH and regular? Absolutely.

Bonnie 21:37
drawing up a ticket twice a day, I used to have to draw up the regular the clearer than the cloudy because in case I accidentally injected the clear into the cloudy bottle, it wouldn't ruin the bottle. But if I accidentally injected the custom cloudy into the clear, it would ruin the clear bottle. That's

Scott Benner 21:56
what you were thinking about. What province were you in when this happened? Ontario. All right. They are a little different. I know that

Bonnie 22:06
I was 18 and a half. I was in my last year of high school because at that time, we used to go to high school for five years. So that was the equivalent of grade 13. We say grade 13. Not 13th grade. We don't use orden. We didn't use ordinals. In Canada,

Scott Benner 22:26
you're trying to use fancy words. Do you know I don't know what an ordinal is?

Bonnie 22:30
I wouldn't ordinals like first second third as opposed to 1230.

Scott Benner 22:36
Anyway, word for word. No, no, no, don't don't say anyway. I'm interested as service. Short for ordinal number ordinal number. Oh, look at that. defining things position in a series first, second, third. I look at you smarty. Okay, whatever.

Bonnie 22:56
I will tell you, I'm a real detail person. And I will go off on a tangent as well you so we could go off on some interesting tangents.

Scott Benner 23:06
I'm recording three times today. So one thing you can be sure of is I'm going to be a little more focused today. Although it's been 18 minutes, so maybe not but but your regular mph. You're still in school, even though you're you're almost 19 I'm sorry, keep going.

Bonnie 23:22
Yes, I am almost 19 it was timber such that I just finish started my final grade of high school. It was September when I got sick. I was hospitalized for 10 days. And basically, in terms of my diagnosis, I started to lose weight. So I'm five foot four and a half I weigh 120s and the 120s. And I was down to 95 pounds at the time, which meant I was looking pretty skeletal Yeah. And I remember being thirsty all the time. And I had a wicked when I say wicked. That was an understatement. I had a wicked yeast infection. And my mom took me to her gynecologist, and he took one look at me and said you're going for a glucose tolerance test. And that afternoon, you know, I drank like 12 or 16 ounces of pure sugar and felt like absolute crap afterwards. And I think my blood sugar was over 30 which would have been in like five 540 ish.

Scott Benner 24:39
Is there other diabetes in your family any chance? Nothing, nothing. Okay, no autoimmune. Nothing. You know, if you don't say something incredibly interesting in the next 45 minutes you're episodes called wicked yeast infection, right?

Bonnie 24:53
I hope to

Scott Benner 24:58
do your best Okay

Bonnie 25:02
because I will not want to be known.

Scott Benner 25:05
Okay, you might have trouble them

Did they give you I mean put you on insulin, they mentioned the hospital all that stuff happens.

Bonnie 25:18
Absolutely. I was admitted to the hospital almost immediately for 10 days and they started to put me on insulin almost immediately monitor my blood sugar, which meant not fingerprints because at the time, there was no such thing as a as a glucometer. We called it you know, I used to do urine testing. And the way they took blood, my blood sugar was they would actually take venous blood, which means they were poking my arms at least four times a day. I think I counted in 10 days I was there. I had blood taken out of my arms. I look like a druggie with all the tracks, you know, with track marks up and down my arm so they were taking blood at least four times a day, sometimes more. How

Scott Benner 26:03
long did it take for the dinner rolls to stop falling out of your pants? Isn't that interesting?

Bonnie 26:08
Oh, okay.

Scott Benner 26:10
I love your I love your I love your like, I watched her. I watched her little like mathematical mind go those words don't have anything to do with what we're talking about. That was very interesting. Did the yeast infection clear up pretty quickly?

Bonnie 26:20
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, okay, got that. We're speaking metaphors.

Scott Benner 26:28
I don't really know how to speak clearly. So we're gonna have to go that way. So that clear up very quickly with the introduction of the insulin. Absolutely.

Bonnie 26:37
I will say as I once told my husband, which could be the title of this show, metaphors are not my cup of tea. So

Scott Benner 26:46
funny. Okay, that's fine. I gotcha.

Bonnie 26:49
I am very, I mean, I think abstractly, spatially, but I don't think abstractly when we speak. I'm a very literal person. And so

Scott Benner 26:58
no, I know, I could see the look on your face. You were lost. You were like, how is this guy talking about you listen to this podcast, right? Oh, absolutely. You didn't you still weren't falling. You're just like, I'm done. Don't know what we're talking about. Okay, so.

Bonnie 27:12
So I'm hospitalized for 10 days. Yep. They put me on did not start on beef and pork insulin at that time, this would have been 1984. I made notes. And I was on what they called human insulin or recombinant DNA. And I guess I did pretty well on that. And, you know, and stayed on that for a long, long time. I could not tell you when I went on to MDI. But I know I started Lantis and Kuma blog, I'm gonna guess right after whenever lent as soon came out. Okay. And was on a sliding scale,

Scott Benner 27:53
sort of like the late 80s 89. And their summer.

Bonnie 27:57
Well, I it was, I want to guess it was after I moved to this country, which would have been in 90, yes.

Scott Benner 28:04
Oh, so they didn't Oh, you left Canada. That's how you upgraded your insulin, because they would have kept me on that regular and mph forever. Probably. Quite likely,

Bonnie 28:11
because things get tend to get approved there much later than they do

Scott Benner 28:17
here. Right. Right. Okay. So, what did you move for was for school? Yeah. Graduate School. Okay. Not a boy. Oh, good for you. Not yet. Oh, there's a move in here somewhere that involves the boy.

Bonnie 28:31
Oh, no, no, no, no, it's just yeah. met met him in graduate school. But yes, scotch? Oh,

Scott Benner 28:35
not yet for him. So you moved from Canada to what was the thing you noticed? You remember, going from regular and mph to just MB, you know, to Lantis and Humalog? Or something like

Bonnie 28:46
that? I don't remember. But it was more shots per day, because the regular you know, mph, you know, was only a twice a day thing. Yeah. Do

Scott Benner 28:55
you recall if that seemed like bothersome work? At all? No, no, it

Bonnie 29:00
was funny, because, I mean, so I became diabetic at 18 and a half. And I was telling a friend of mine, a gentleman I know who is a type two researcher here at the big university in my town. And I was telling him the story. And he said, when I said I became diabetic at 18 and a half, he said, Oh, what a great age to become diabetic. I'm like,

Scott Benner 29:24
okay, usually the argument I get is everyone says the opposite of their thing. So if they're young people go, Oh, it's terrible to be diagnosed. When you're young, it'd be better if you were older, you'd have more time to live without it. Bah, bah, bah, you go find an older person that was diagnosed when they're 40. And they go ah, you know, being diagnosed when you're older is terrible. Because you you know, this life without diabetes and life would have been much better if I was diagnosed when I was young. Everyone thinks the opposite of what happened to them would be better. So that's course

Bonnie 29:51
yeah. So yeah, being diagnosed 18 and a half and he said, What a great age to become diabetic. I think he was just thinking King in terms of not going through the teenage years of rebellion?

Scott Benner 30:03
was my thought it's a valid observation for sure. Not arguing with him. Yeah.

Bonnie 30:10
So for the most part, at least, when I was in the hospital, I remember meeting with a dietician, you know, my mom and I, and I was still living at home, obviously, I was in high school at 18 and a half, you know, and my mom did the cooking. And so we met with a dietician who sort of organized, you know, my life and my day and what I would eat. I mean, it wasn't a matter of telling me what I needed to eat, it was more of a matter of, what do you eat? And how can we kind of tailor that based on your insulin? You know, every meal was kind of like, you know, one, one carb, you know, one serving of bread, two servings of fruit, and told me all the sort of free veggies I could eat, which were green leafy vegetables and broccoli. And my mum said to my mum said to her, Well, what if we all ate this way, and we were never bad, poor ears, just saying, my mum asked her what if we all ate this way, and she said, you'd all be very healthy people, and

Scott Benner 31:09
go for that, then you left the country to get away from it. You're like, I'm getting out of here, all this.

Bonnie 31:14
So, you know, my mom, and I get this from my mom, my mom and I are really, you know, rule followers, right? And so it became my way of life. And I never, I was never the type of person to love, like giant, sort of pieces of cake with icing that's two inches thick. I was just never that type of person. And my mother always used to say, you know, thank goodness, she wasn't that type of person. Because, you know, according to her, she couldn't eat it now. You know. And, you know, according to my mother, I would rather which is true for me. Of course, I would rather eat a piece of pound cake than a piece of cake with a ton of icing, you know, regardless of the density of pound cake. No, no, I

Scott Benner 31:57
understand. I absolutely understand. I prefer, and I have like a sweet tooth when I get involved in that stuff. Like I can avoid it forever. But if you said to me, I think Oh, pancake. That's good. But I think of pancake is having icing on it. So I I don't Yeah, and you don't that's it's very interesting. Honestly, some people just have that, like, you get lit up by sugar. And so I think some people like almost have the opposite to it. It puts them

Bonnie 32:22
off. Oh, sure. You know, I won't pass up a piece of dark chocolate if you gave it to me. But small quantity, it's not like I will eat a whole chocolate bar of it. Yeah. All right. Candy Bar, as you call it. In this country, we call them chocolate. We used to call them chocolate bars. So I

Scott Benner 32:40
got overwhelmed by a pound of fudge recently, was brought in to the house. Then eventually, when it was gone, my wife goes where the hell's that fudge? I was like, you shouldn't have left it here. And she was where I'm like, in the house. Like, it's, it's not here anymore. But it was having like a little piece of it every once in a while. And then I looked back over, like the two weeks that it took to eat. And I was like, every once in a while, man. Anytime I walked through the first floor of the house. I was like, Oh, look, the fudge. Yeah, well, good. You're not You're not burdened. So no big deal. Did you make the big switch in your eating?

Bonnie 33:16
I did, you know, I kind of cut out, you know, a lot of fat in, you know, I used to sort of butter my bread. And I cut that out. You know, I mean, I learned that, you know, protein and fat can slow down the absorption. I mean, I have to say I was pretty, I thought reasonably educated until I listened to your podcast. No.

Scott Benner 33:36
So how long does that go for? Your living? Like sort of the way you just described? Oh, currently as well. Forever. When did you find the podcast? During COVID? Oh, just

Bonnie 33:48
a couple of years ago? Oh, yeah. Probably only two, two or three years ago. Alright. So

Scott Benner 33:53
you were MDI for a while eventually need to get to a pump. only like two years ago. Oh, okay. So you were MDI the entire time we were using Lantus and human log the whole time? Absolutely.

Bonnie 34:03
Through two pregnancies. Wow. You have

Scott Benner 34:07
to How are your kids? 18 and 2525. Oh, that's pretty close to mind. What was your control? Like through that time? No CGM, by the way.

Bonnie 34:17
No. Okay, so I've only been wearing a CGM, probably for five years. Okay.

Scott Benner 34:24
So what were your A onesies like? 18 years old till a few years

Bonnie 34:28
ago? Five years? Okay. 18 years old? I have no idea because I not pay attention. Well, who the hell could look up their medical record when when you're 18 years old? Oh, yeah.

Scott Benner 34:40
So it's like you're alright or you're not alright. When you go to the doctor's, it's either like, everything's fine. Or,

Bonnie 34:46
I mean, now they do a fingerprint when I go to the doctor, and they test my agency, and they come back and tell me, you know, 10 No, and that's only been in the last five or seven years when they can do an agency in the office. Before I would get a blood draw, never look up my medical record until I have no access to it on my phone before that I had no idea what my a one C was. Okay, that said, I, you know, as a rule follower, you know, I have to think I was in pretty good control. So up until the last five years, I mean, my a one CD was probably in the 60s low 70s.

Scott Benner 35:21
That's a guess you really don't know. Oh, no, I

Bonnie 35:24
looked at my age. Okay for you in 2019. And I had an A one C of 6.6. Okay, great. That's terrific. And then 6.8 7.2 and 2020. I was hitting 6.1 So it's always been in the sixes. And then I went on a pump

Scott Benner 35:42
are all those a onesies with a CGM? Yes. So you don't know what it was prior to the CGM, though. Okay. No, gotcha. You don't have any complications. Well, that's

Bonnie 35:54
a that's a sort of another story. I have other issues. Yes.

Scott Benner 35:59
diabetes related.

Bonnie 36:00
I would like to think, why would you?

Scott Benner 36:04
Why do you want to thank you.

Bonnie 36:05
I think I've had issues that are more prevalent in diabetics, but not an exact result of diabetes like solar or isn't shoulder

Scott Benner 36:15
see the cameras on I saw you reach up towards your shoulder so I know you're gonna say touch

Bonnie 36:19
my shoulders. Yeah. skin condition called granuloma. And you larae The

Scott Benner 36:26
dark spots, little rough patches of skin. Are they dark, their

Bonnie 36:33
little red, bumpy patches. It kind of looks like someone once said to me, oh, it looks like you because I had it on me on my legs, a few spots on my legs. So it looks like you've gotten to the poison ivy, it just looks like red, little bumpy, bumpy patches

Scott Benner 36:48
granuloma. annulare is a benign skin condition characterized by small raised bumps that form a ring with a normal or sunken center. The cause of granuloma annulare is unknown and is found in patients of all ages, condition tends to be seen in otherwise healthy people. Alright, I'm gonna go to the pictures.

Bonnie 37:08
Oh, that's interesting. It's amazingly innocuous. Like it doesn't bother me in any way except it just little rough patches of skin that for the most part are on my abdomen that I can hide. So

Scott Benner 37:21
it's not constant, though. Is that correct? I

Bonnie 37:24
have had spots of it for months at a time. And then they'll kind of fade away and reappear in other places.

Scott Benner 37:34
Do you do anything to them? Cortisol and cortisone or something like that?

Bonnie 37:41
Nothing. They don't itch sometimes, though. Ah, but really? Absolutely. Nothing. super interesting. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

Scott Benner 37:49
But you think it's, but I don't see anything here about it being diabetes related.

Bonnie 37:53
Okay, then maybe it isn't.

Scott Benner 37:56
I mean, I gotta be honest with you. There's no reason. If you're taking a picture of an old person's skin condition on their arm, there's no reason their bare breasts needs to be in it, too. I just want to tell that to Google right now. Little TMI. There's significant change. Like some people have it everywhere. And then some people don't. It's just like little patches. It's interesting.

Bonnie 38:20
Which is what I have. I have small patches here and there. Okay. Okay. Randomly located.

Scott Benner 38:25
Your kids have it? No. Okay. Would they tell you if they did as an adult? I always wonder that like, you know, you spend so much time connected with your children. Then they get older. Like, if something happened, they're not going to call you and be like, Yo, guess what? Like you stop learning about it. You know what I mean? Oh,

Bonnie 38:41
absolutely. Oh, I think my daughter at 18 She would probably still tell me things.

Scott Benner 38:47
Yeah. Okay. I gotta get rid of this elderly breast. Excuse me. All right. Yeah. That was enough of that. That made me feel older.

Bonnie 38:57
I've had Oh, yeah. Well, welcome to my world. Yes.

Scott Benner 39:00
That's not how I remember.

Bonnie 39:05
My endocrinologist has said, oh, yeah, like I've had other issues with I've had conditions with my eyes, which was not for the squeamish. But

Scott Benner 39:15
did you have to get the needles? No,

Bonnie 39:17
I had something really bad done to my eyes, which I have. I shouldn't say have Thank goodness. Touchwood I had a condition called Map dot fingerprint dystrophy.

Scott Benner 39:30
What the hell I'm gonna keep my browser open. If you're gonna keep talking. I'm gonna that's fine map dot dot fingerprint door it came right up. Not a lot of things. Is it serious typically, will flare up occasionally for a few years and then go away on its own with no lasting loss of vision. How does it appear?

Bonnie 39:51
incredible pain in your eyes because basically what happens is your cornea is made up of a series of layers and the outer Most Leia kind of comes away from the surface. And my ophthalmologists told me oh yeah, your your cornea is like a rug on a hardwood floor, flipping around, and I had a condition. So I had that condition. I was in extreme pain, I could not tolerate light, I had to wear dark glasses sit in dark rooms, until I had what's called a super k in both eyes, which is a super keratectomy,

Scott Benner 40:33
which, you know, offers procedure to remove the FFP meal and any redundant tissue.

Bonnie 40:42
So basically, they take a Dremel move, okay, and this is where if you're squeamish, just stop listening. They basically take a Dremel like instrument and remove the outer layer of the cornea of my eye,

Scott Benner 40:58
they grind your eye down a little bit,

Bonnie 41:01
which you don't feel okay. They gave me they gave me some valium for it. And then they put a bandage contact lens over your eye to kind of protect it and you regrow that outer layer in about two days. However, it's two days of like it in your

Scott Benner 41:20
high as a kite, right? It was like, hey, I'll just stay alive and not feel this. Ooh, I'm sorry, I need a second. That's terrible. It really took me like the Dremel thing. Like, I know what a Dremel is. But I was wondering if people didn't know what they were thinking but like, just like a, like a rotary sander, almost Yeah. Do you get to see it? Or is it healed? But

Bonnie 41:44
I it's just blurry.

Scott Benner 41:46
I mean, that by the time they uncovered, is it healed? Or do you see it like bloody or weird or anything?

Bonnie 41:51
It's, it's not bloody at all. Okay? I mean, it's basically a five minute procedure in the ophthalmology sort of center, and I go home, and I then take Viking in for two days. Because if you've ever gotten a scratch on your cornea, sure, and you know, the pain that that causes, imagine this pain and multiply it by about 1000.

Scott Benner 42:13
Every after you your eyeball just got tattooed. You know what I keep thinking, who thought of this? Like, who was the first physician who said, you know, we can do for people with this condition? Why don't we grind a layer of their cornea off? Somebody else went, Oh, what a wonderful idea. Let's do that. Like, seriously? Who's the because it helps you? Right? Oh, oh, yeah. Who thought of that? That's genius.

Bonnie 42:38
I mean, there was one point when I was in so much pain before I had the procedure done. I was like standing in my living room that night. And I said to myself, I was in so much pain. I said to myself, if I throw myself through this plate glass window, okay, I didn't want to kill myself. And I said, if I throw myself through this plate glass window and cut myself with these shards of glass that might take my mind off the pain I'm having in my eye. Geez,

Scott Benner 43:07
I can't imagine that. But that's not necessarily from diabetes, either. Is it?

Bonnie 43:13
I don't think so. I know my my ophthalmologist says, Oh, this is really common. I'm like, oh, common in your profession. Yeah, but not for the rest

Scott Benner 43:22
of us. The rest of us don't find this common at all. No, not at all. Okay, she gets a little skin thing. You got the eye thing. You got the diabetes. What else?

Bonnie 43:30
frozen shoulder shoulder? Yeah, I mean, that's probably about it right? At this stage of my life.

Scott Benner 43:37
Almost said right now. Oh, it's interesting. Because you're in a really, you're in a really kind of flux place. Because the way you stayed so long, and that Humalog Lantis. No CGM thing was and then you're saying the podcast made you? Did you get the podcast before the CGM or the CGM before the podcast?

Bonnie 43:56
CGM. I was on the FreeStyle Libre before the podcast. Yes.

Scott Benner 44:02
And when you got that was it to you just merely like, oh, I don't have to, like poke my fingers anymore? Or did you see the bigger picture?

Bonnie 44:09
It was mind blowing. Because I was, you know, I was on MDI for four shots a day, sometimes five, because just to maintain better control. And it was mind blowing that I could see my blood sugar constantly. It was

Scott Benner 44:29
so you liked the numbers. Obviously, you've brought this up already. So what what did having the data do for you?

Bonnie 44:35
It just brought me in better control. I mean, it just, you really added another layer to to my my ability to control things.

Scott Benner 44:45
It's funny because I asked that question to see if someone will pop up and be like this exact thing happened and this is what led to this, but it really isn't. It's just seeing it and then being able to see cause and effect more visually. Right and Don't you just start making different decisions because you know what's gonna happen? Exactly.

Bonnie 45:04
I mean, the amazing thing is your podcast. Oh my goodness. Now that I'm 57 and no longer sort of, you know, at the control of my being affected by hormones.

Scott Benner 45:19
Oh, okay. That part's over now. Oh,

Bonnie 45:23
yeah. No one ever told me that hormones could affect my blood sugar. Nobody ever told me you lived

Scott Benner 45:31
all that time not knowing what all that fluctuation was correct. How did you manage through pregnancy then? Because insulin needs really racking Oh, they don't even know. I guess then. Well,

Bonnie 45:42
I yeah, I didn't have a CGM, then I had really good. Lots of dogs, you know, because I was in a high risk clinic, not just with my son who was born when I was 32. So I was at a high risk clinic with him. And then when my daughter was born, I was 39. So I was sort of hit the

Scott Benner 46:01
were they turning your insulin up during the pregnancy? Oh, absolutely. Okay, but they were just doing it based on bloodwork.

Bonnie 46:08
Based on my little form, you know, my little blood glucose thing book I would fill out. Oh,

Scott Benner 46:16
oh, okay. So you were you were testing with a meter writing down your book, and then they were they it was as simple as these numbers are a little high, we're going to give you more insulin. That's all it was. Kids came out, okay. Were they real big or anything?

Bonnie 46:31
Um, my son was the size of a two month old.

Scott Benner 46:36
That's pretty common, especially back then for people with diabetes.

Bonnie 46:39
He was and you know, they were not alarmed by it. He was 10 pounds. 15 ounces. Okay. Yeah. And so they said, you know, he'll be fine that he was in the PICU for the first 24 hours because they wanted to watch his blood sugar's. And they said, you know, he will gain weight, like every baby does. But at a slower pace. All the other babies will catch up to him pretty quickly. Yeah, right. Exactly. And my daughter was not that big. And yeah, I mean, basically, my doctors told me, and then they took pretty good care of me, except for my endocrinologist went on vacation, and I had some other someone else, you know,

Scott Benner 47:15
bye, bye, I'm leaving.

Bonnie 47:18
On vacation, he went on vacation for a week or two. And someone else had to fill in for him during one of my visits, and I would go see a doctor, like every week, if not two weeks, you know, every week or two. And I was in a case. So he went on vacation, and someone else was filling in and he said, Oh, yeah, we're gonna change your insulin. And we're gonna do this, this, this, this and this. And I looked at him and said, No, you're no

Scott Benner 47:42
wait for the guy to come back. Don't worry. Where do people vacation from the Midwest? Would you go to a lake or something?

Bonnie 47:47
I suppose you could you go south where it's warm. I was gonna say, because

Scott Benner 47:51
you don't have access to the, to the beaches and like, or you got to go on long flights to get to water.

Bonnie 47:59
We have the Great Lakes. You

Scott Benner 48:01
don't know. It's not the same thing. It's like I had a little. I had a little girl from Canada told me about a bagel she was eating. And I was like, Have you ever been in New York? And she goes, No, I'm like, you've never had a bagel. You never know what you're talking about. Seriously? You don't know if you haven't in New York bagel is a different thing.

Bonnie 48:13
It's like a mantra. It's like a Montreal bagel.

Scott Benner 48:16
Yeah, well, we'll say. But I'm saying like, when you're on the coasts, people vacation generally speaking on islands and at the beach and things like that, because that's the kind of like, it's close. And it's accessible. Every time I've met somebody who's coming from the Midwest, the first thing they were like is, can we see the ocean? And I'm like, Yeah, me if you want to. It's only going to be exciting for 20 seconds. So

Bonnie 48:40
yeah, for the most part, we do vacation by airplane.

Scott Benner 48:44
You have to write like, you can't like just drive somewhere. So anyway, it's not the lakes

Bonnie 48:48
up there in COVID. So we did vacation, a little Airbnb, just to get away. Just to get away, which was like 20 minutes from here on the lake. Let's

Scott Benner 48:57
drive to a different house and sit inside of that one for a while. Okay,

Bonnie 49:00
well, those are the lakes.

Scott Benner 49:03
So okay, so you're using a CGM, things are coming together for you. But you're not making any big leaps. Right? Like

Bonnie 49:10
not huge, significant. Yeah, my blood sugar mighty onesies are probably down in the sixes.

Scott Benner 49:15
Yes. That's amazing. That's really fantastic. But are you still a good eater all these years later? Oh, hell yeah. Yeah. Then stuck. That stuck with you that one conversation with that doctor? Absolutely. And did your mom changed the whole family over like she talked about?

Bonnie 49:30
Oh, yeah. Oh, it wasn't like she was gonna cook for me separately.

Scott Benner 49:33
There's no special chef coming in and handling the different. Oh, no, no. Okay. So you find the, I guess, you say because of COVID. You found the pockets. You're just bored.

Bonnie 49:44
I do like to exercise and I'll go for long walks. And I used to go for walks while watching you know, shows on streaming services. I don't know if I'm allowed to say whatever. They're good. You know, Netflix.

Scott Benner 49:59
I'm sorry. I didn't realize Go ahead. I got you know, yeah, I

Bonnie 50:01
would watch a show while I walked outside. And then I realized, yeah, this is a little dangerous when I'm walking on streets. And so I decided I need to find podcasts to listen to so I'm not impacted visually as

Scott Benner 50:16
a person walking along watching television on your phone in front of your face. Did you ever walk into anything? No. Ever get hit by a car or close? No, I

Bonnie 50:24
mean, you know, I had a few mishaps on sidewalk, you know, on curbs and sidewalks.

Scott Benner 50:31
Midwest could have been a tractor. Who knows? It's so Okay, so you you look for Park is it? Is that thing that I hear people say that that happened? You were they go? It just hits them one day they go, oh, there's podcasts about everything. I bet you there's one about diabetes. Finger. Yeah. That's how it happens. Right? That crazy.

Bonnie 50:48
Finger. And so you know, my search for that then led me to, you know, the Facebook search and this group on Facebook, the private group on Facebook. And it's absolutely amazing. So yeah, so through this podcast, you know, learning about pumps, and I'm like, oh, pump. Oh,

Scott Benner 51:07
no idea. Interesting. Yeah. Which pump do you have now?

Bonnie 51:10
I use Omnipod. Okay. Yeah, five.

Scott Benner 51:15
So I saw I basically I sold that to you. So if they're listening right now, they should keep buying their ads. Yeah. Right. But But yeah, that's amazing. So because because you're so I mean, so many decades into it. Right? It seems uncommon that you would have made like the modernization happen. But what happened? You heard people talking about it, and you were just like, why am I not doing this? Or?

Bonnie 51:38
Yeah, and I'm a real researcher before I do something, so I have to do a lot of research, which means internet research prior to doing something but at the same time, you know, I love to exercise and I used to, you know, currently I will walk four or five miles a day, every day. That's my, those are my off days was that take an hour and 10 minutes ish. And which is a perfect amount of time to listen to your podcast, and that's on my off days and on my on days, I will bike ride, I will row I will cross country ski. I used to be really avid rower until I had hip flexion hip flexor issues. I can go off on a whole tangent about rowing. But you know, I used to, and I still do. I used to always hit lows. Well, I would do intense exercise, I would always go low. Okay. My endocrinologist said to me, she said, you know, we can help that and I'm like how she said, a pump. I'm like, Okay, so after her telling me that for a couple visits in a row, I finally decided, okay, let's do a pump.

Scott Benner 52:51
Go for it. Wow. Let's do you think you'll do an algorithm ever? I do. Oh, wait, you're doing Omnipod? Five Omnipod? Five. Oh, not that the sun. Okay. I'm sorry. And that is helping you with your exercise? To a degree. Yeah, it's tough. Even if you do if you do a really vigorous exercise, there's still things you need to do. Yes. Listen, Arden got low last night packing her room up to leave college. All she was doing his packing bags, like doing dishes, loading her car. And she's like, Dad, I got low overnight. And she's like, it was hard to get it back up. And I said no, I I thought so I said we probably should have done something little restriction of your insulin. And she's like, didn't the algorithm and because she's using Iaps right now. And I looked and it had been taking her it was taking her Basal away for ever. And still the exercise like, you know, got got to her got her like to like a 55 blood sugar at some point. Oh, yeah,

Bonnie 53:49
absolutely. Like me washing my car or doing yard work. I will always go low. Okay, that said, I love to run low. Hello. I mean, I love to run low. I love to run in, you know, the 90s. I mean, I don't run as in go running. I love to stay low. But for me, too. And I will go into the 60s almost every day, once, at least once a day. Because for me, it's easier to control blood sugar in the 60s and just nudge it back up, then for me to deal with high blood sugar and bring it back down.

Scott Benner 54:22
So it's something you learned on your own or something you heard from the podcast,

Bonnie 54:26
for the most part learned on my own. I was doing that. Sorry. No, no, no, I

Scott Benner 54:30
don't I mean, that you. My expectation is that in 30 years, you would have figured that out. Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah, by the way, I'd like to be really clear about something in case I haven't been. I'm not saying anything magical in the podcast. It's just that kind of common sense stuff about insulin management that people don't talk about, so nobody hears about it. So the next thing you know, it's 30 years later, and they, you know, been just been doing it like this forever. That's what you

Bonnie 54:57
are saying. Things that like I said Add things my doctor never told me, right? Yeah, like, here's another example Pre-Bolus I

Scott Benner 55:06
am always stunned by how few people have ever thought about timing their meal and so

Bonnie 55:12
39 Well, I've been Pre-Bolus thing for a while now. Okay, so let's say, I've been Pre-Bolus thing for two years. Seven years, no one ever told me to Pre-Bolus

Scott Benner 55:24
just match up your insulin a little bit over the phone. What I meant was that it's not like, it's not like I got on the podcast, I'm like, Alright, everybody, listen, I'm going to tell you how to jump from universe to universe. It's, you know, like, I mean, it's not, it's not crazy, like, Oh, my God, only this one guy knows these things, like people, people, the problem I found with the diabetes space, is that people come in, obviously, they don't know anything. They're mostly left to figure stuff out on their own, some do, and go their own way. And some don't and live in a struggle. Neither of those two people are telling everyone else, Hey, have you considered Pre-Bolus And your meals, like you either don't know when you're gone, or you, you know, figured it out, and you're back to your life, and it's not your job to tell other people. I just was in candor, I was just one of the first people with a wide audience who was willing to say, this is how insulin works, you should probably understand this, you know, and nobody else would say, by the way, I knew people who understood it, people who had diabetes, who were in the diabetes space and writing blogs, and like making money and doing all the things, but they would never tell people how they manage their blood sugar, and they would hide behind. Well, everybody's different. You know, and I'm like, That's not why you don't want to take responsibility for saying this out loud. That's what this is, you know, just like through the same goddamn reason some doctors won't tell you and they know. Well, yeah, it's

Bonnie 56:48
the same reason I don't go on a job site and tell tell a contractor, they're not OSHA compliant. You know, I don't want the responsibility of it. Just

Scott Benner 56:55
look the other way.

Bonnie 56:56
It's fine. No, no, basically, no, serious. No, I

Scott Benner 57:00
understand. Yeah. No,

Bonnie 57:02
I mean, I don't want the liability. I mean, there's actual liability.

Scott Benner 57:06
Yeah, one of the things that actually, you know, I say sometimes some of the little things you'll never realize that help people with diabetes through me, cell phones, cell phones, were a big deal, because I can now talk into this microphone, and you can hear the thing without too much trouble or expense, like so having cell phones, proliferates, podcasts that ends up helping people with diabetes, being podcast becoming something that people are like, understand now and their normal allows me to say nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. And then we're all kinda like, like, in this day and age, we're all good with that. We all have agreed as a society, we know what this means. There is, you know, maybe no shortage of 10s of 1000s of podcasts telling people how to manage their health. And at some point, during each one of them, somebody goes, Hey, this isn't advice. I'm just telling you what I do. But 20 years ago, if you would have written a blog, and said, Hey, here's how you're Pre-Bolus, someone would have come along and said, You can't give medical advice to people. And if you would have said, I'm just sharing my experiences, they would have said, No, you're giving people medical advice, because society hadn't gotten to this point yet. So it's one of those simple ways that I now get, I mean, uncountable numbers of messages, emails, and you know, whatnot about people are like, Oh, my God, look, my one see a six one, like, so cool. Like, I've never in my life, I didn't expect to hear you saved my life 1000s of times. Because, I mean, who knew that was gonna happen? But on the other side of it, I don't feel like I did. I feel like I just pointed when you should know about that, you know, so. And,

Bonnie 58:50
yeah, and It shocks me that the that my doctors, I mean, I haven't had a huge number of doctors not tell me this. And I don't mean to diss my doctors either. Don't, don't get me wrong. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 59:02
want to say I don't take you that way. And I also hope that doctors don't take it that way. Then Jenny and I are recording a series right now. We're pretty far into the recording of it. It'll come out next year. I'm going to actually tell you how far we are into it right now. It's in this folder here. And then this but there's a lot of folder so that all these folders, I actually have a folder that's called needs organizing. Do you think that's good news? It's not it's bad news. Jenny and I have now 1234 We've now recorded five episodes of something that we're going to call Grand Rounds, which is just talking to physicians about what people with diabetes need from them. And we don't imagine that every you know, we're going to be able to attract all the doctors, but some will. And the conversations are set up so that they're talking to To the doctor about like, Hey, this is what you should be expecting, and what you should be doing and what these people deserve. But at the same time, if you listen from a patient's perspective, what you're hearing is, this is what I deserve. This is what I should be asking for. This is what I should be expecting. And, you know, Jenny gets fired up, like for people who've only only, like, heard her like, in, like pro tips or bold beginnings, and she's all like, you know, Wisconsin and like, Oh, it's okay. Like, like it all sweet and everything, you shouldn't see how upset she gets when she thinks about people with diabetes not being given reasonable information. And as we're having this conversation, it's ringing in my head, are we going to turn doctors off to this? And what I eventually figured was, they need to, like, take their part of this responsibility here, like I can't hold their hand and tell them they're doing a great job, because a lot of them just aren't. And if hopefully, some of them will hear it is, you know, my expectation. Yeah.

Bonnie 1:00:57
You know, I mean, I don't know how open doctors are to critique. And as architects, we are always open to critique. But yeah, I mean, I haven't gone through this for 39 years, I'm amazed at what my doctors haven't told me. But by the same token, I understand that, you know, they're looking for like, you know, they're looking, I want to say for big picture, serious things like, Have I lost circulation my feet, I mean, you know, yeah, no issue, then, by

Scott Benner 1:01:27
the way, you might not lose the circulation your feet, if you tell me how to Pre-Bolus My friggin meal. Like, it's and that's the thing we talked about this series is how, thank you how they're so willing to see you in a in an emergency room situation and go, oh, this person, man got a high once he blood sugars all replaced, they don't know what they're doing. They gave up they don't even understand like they're willing to talk about people like that. But they're not willing to take responsibility for not putting the person on the right path. 20 years before they ended up in the emergency room. Being proactive. Yeah, it's your fault, not their fault. Anyway, that's what that series is going to be like, and she gets, I think it's, sometimes we're all upset. We like stop the recording, we sit back, like, Oh, my God.

Bonnie 1:02:08
I remember when I was pregnant, and they said, you know, it's critical that you check your blood sugar two hours after a meal, and that it'd be within normal range, like around, you know, 90 to 110 or something like that. And I'm like, okay, but you haven't told me how to do that. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:02:23
I do that. Yeah. Thank you. Is there a way you would say that would work for that? Because I've had diabetes a while and it's never gone that

Bonnie 1:02:31
way. Right? And so yeah, let's, you know, tell me means and methods. And I'll, I'll give you an outcome, right? Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:02:38
i It's all I say, it's all I'm saying, by the way, and I'm not. You know, it's funny, as we talked about how, how the Internet matured society about their expectations about what was being said to them, you things change. I would say as recently as four years ago, I would be told by doctors that I was Doctor bashing. Oh, and I guess that would have actually, there's a great episode called listen to the doctor where an endo comes on, and admits to listening, lovely woman comes on to tell me how she started to listen to the podcast and was like, Oh, my God, this guy's Doctor bashing, and then kept listening. And eventually says in the episode, you know, a large part of how I now treat my patients with diabetes is from you in this podcast. And I was like, that's so cool. But anyway, that nobody tells me I'm Doctor bashing anymore. Because society's moving forward, like all of a sudden, you know, back then it was like you're complaining, you're blaming us? And I'm like, seems like you have some responsibility in this. And only four or five years later, people don't think like that anymore. Now they're like, Yeah, I deserve for someone to give me good information. I'm dragging people's expectations into the future is what I'm what I'm trying to do like, like you should expect better than what you're getting. Yes, you have to put the work in, but to your point, which you've made like six times now, if I don't know the tools, I can't write, I can't do the work, you know, right. That's it super simple. It's all very simple. People would just listen to you and be fine. But no, one of my house listens to me. Anyway, I can't wait to put this series out and hear through the grapevine. How I'm making fun of doctors, but

Bonnie 1:04:21
I think people need to understand that, you know, people are critiqued at least, you know, as architects, we critique each other. We go through school getting critiqued, and, you know, critique is not necessarily positive or negative. It's just here's, here's an analysis. Yeah, this is

Scott Benner 1:04:43
my perspective of what you're doing the thing you're doing. I listen, I gotta tell you for any doctors listening. I don't mean to curse because you've been so nice lately, but I take it pretty frequently from people are like this podcast. He doesn't do this right. He doesn't do that. Right. Why does he talk so much? How come you won't Let them talk. I'm like, yeah, I gotta hear you gotta hear it. How's that?

Bonnie 1:05:08
I can. I can be salty if you really want me.

Scott Benner 1:05:11
You're a Canadian in the beginning. So I know you guys are savvy, you don't shoot people. You like to curse. That's pretty much what I know about Canadians

Bonnie 1:05:18
I can I can get pretty salty when I'm coxing races.

Scott Benner 1:05:22
You have to hear the episode that came out today. It's called Canadian clown car. It's nine year old little girl. So her mom sets up the recording like it's for her. And you I mean, you've now been through this with me. I don't put almost any effort into making sure you're here. So it's really on you to show up, you know? And so the microphone comes on. I go Hello. And it's this little girl's voice. And I was like, I'm like, going through my notes real quick. I'm like, I'm online. Talking to a little kid on that like, what's going on? I think the mom just set me up like she just booked for herself and then stuck the kid on the show. This conversation it's a really great actually with this like nine year old little girl. But she's Canadian. And you know, I do all my like better Canadian humor. Whether I was like, you know, dog sleds, that's how you get things places. They don't grow apples in Canada, do they? She's like, Yeah, I've been to an orchard. I'm like, they're no orchards and Katelyn. She's like, it's their arm, like, I don't understand. I'm like, Can let's just a big piece of snow. And I was like, I don't even know how you're on this call with me. You live in an igloo. And you know, like, that kind of stuff. And I was like, at one point, I go, and I was like, oh, wait a minute. I'm like, your Santa lives. She goes, No, that's the North Pole. And I'm like, those aren't the same place. And she's like, here's what we're doing all that. And at some point, she says something about the cars in America. And I said, How do you know there are cars in America? And she goes, Well, there are and I was like, if you ever been here and she goes, No one I'm like, Are you sure? And I got down to like an existential moment with a nine year old where she goes, Yeah, I guess I'm not sure that there are cars in Canada. And I was like, right? As like, for instance, are you in a room right now? And she goes, yes. I said, is the door closed? And she goes, yeah. And I said, Is there a clown on the other side of the door? Oh, boy. And she goes, You should hear she goes, No.

Bonnie 1:07:15
She's, she's had nightmares. There

Scott Benner 1:07:18
might be and I was like, right. Anyway, I love Canadians. Alright, so I am on a super tight schedule today. So I wouldn't I need to ask you the question a little earlier than I normally would. What we haven't talked about that we should have. Oh, no,

Bonnie 1:07:34
I think I think we hit everything we did. Okay. 10, tangents and otherwise, three words. I

Scott Benner 1:07:41
don't know. I didn't write them down. Because I didn't want to be like, did you say starkly? At some? No, not starkly. extact? What did you say at 1.0? I

Bonnie 1:07:49
can't remember all tangents. Is

Scott Benner 1:07:51
that what you did? I know. That was insulting. Like, she's like, Oh, does he not know tangent? Okay, you're

Bonnie 1:08:01
asking me to recall. You don't have to, I'll go back that I learned, you know, orally and I'm a visual learner. So I have to think now.

Scott Benner 1:08:12
I just thought of the worst joke that I'm not gonna say. Maybe just horrifying. I'm not gonna say I'll tell you when we're done recording. So, but yeah, we haven't missed anything big picture stuff like, like, you know, it's funny. I meant to say this earlier. I asked you why you wanted to come on the podcast. And really your answer was, I've just had experiences I'd like people to know about them. I think that would help them. Yeah, I always think someone's gonna say something like, super specific. And they never really do. It's always just like, I think if people listened to what happened to me, it might help them. And which I think is lovely. You know? Yeah, yeah. Here's some free advice for other podcasts. I think were some other podcasts go wrong is they decide this episodes about this specific thing. And then they try to talk about this one idea for an hour. And I'm like, that's like four minutes A Conversation. You know what I mean? Like, you can't, you can't break this thing down that far. Like it just it's boring. Oh,

Bonnie 1:09:09
I know, I know what I wanted. That when I first went on the pump, I was on dash. Because the Omnipod five algorithm was out. And I was shocked beyond belief that my blood sugar could be straight lines.

Scott Benner 1:09:27
The first time it happens, it throws people off.

Bonnie 1:09:32
Loop shock. I mean, quite literally, you could have picked my jaw up off the floor. I

Scott Benner 1:09:41
have a graph, a graphic when I speak in person and I go, Hey, here's a graph, 24 hour graph and this little girl, and it's pretty choppy, like really choppy kind of all over the place. And I said I spoke to her mother privately and we fixed her Basal insulin and then the next graph comes up and I go in, that's her blood sugar. Next 24 hours. And they are people are just like, wait, what? And I was like, yeah, so it's bowls them over when they first see it. It's all about timing and amount. So, absolutely.

Bonnie 1:10:10
I could not believe I could ever have blood sugars like that.

Scott Benner 1:10:15
Yeah, it's not that difficult to accomplish once you know how to do it, have a couple tools and get me takes time. Don't get me wrong, it's not easy. It takes time. And

Bonnie 1:10:23
you know, my, my endocrinologist is really good at sort of really sort of on a granular level really dialing up and down my Basal at least at the time when I was not on an algorithm, really dialing my basil up and down to get me that straight line. utterly shocked. Yeah, so yeah, so the people that insolate I have to say and other pump makers. I applaud you that said, you know, don't you know, when I go low, don't take away my basil forever and ever. Well, don't you know, it's frustrating because I'm on so little insulin a day, I probably take on average, like 22 units a day total insulin. And so when I go low, you take away my basil, but I don't need the basil. Now when I'm low. I need it like in an hour, and you've taken away all my basil and I'm like, Oh, I'm gonna It's too it's

Scott Benner 1:11:15
too late now. Yeah, yeah. Well, the algorithm Listen, first go round for these algorithms. I can't wait to see them in a few more years, sir. So

Bonnie 1:11:23
absolutely. So the low life intern who's sitting and listening to all your podcasts?

Scott Benner 1:11:28
Make a person listen. Also, don't call them a low life. I know some of them. They're lovely.

Bonnie 1:11:34
I'm sure they are. I'll say I'll say the love. Yes, exactly. I'm sorry.

Scott Benner 1:11:41
So you believe that in every company by the way, this is true. I know this is true. But in every company for people who've never thought about this, there's somebody whose task it is to listen to this podcast. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that happens. And then they talk about it in meetings and, and stuff like that. I have a great story. I wonder if I'll ever be able to tell it about how Medtronic became an advertiser. I don't know off to see if I can tell that stuff to think about. All right. Thank you so much to go. Hold on one second for me.

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. A huge thanks to Dexcom for supporting the podcast and for sponsoring this episode dexcom.com/juicebox Go get yourself a Dexcom g7 right now using my link. I'd like to thank cozy Earth for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast and remind you that using my offer code juicebox at checkout will save you 40% off of your entire order at cozy or.com. That's the sheets, the towels, the clothing, anything available on the website. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong way recording.com. A diabetes diagnosis comes with a lot of new terms, and you're not going to understand most of them. That's why we made the finding diabetes, go to juicebox podcast.com up into the menu and click on defining diabetes, to find the series that will tell you what all of those words mean. Short, fun and informative. That's the finding diabetes. 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. Thanks for hanging out until the end. Now you're gonna hear my entire conversation with Jalen don't forget Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box or the hashtag Medtronic champion on your favorite social media platform. My

Speaker 1 1:14:25
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 ice.

Scott Benner 1:14:40
How old were you when you were diagnosed with type one diabetes?

Speaker 1 1:14:43
I was 14 years old when I was diagnosed with type one diabetes 15 years

Scott Benner 1:14:47
ago. Wow. Yes. Okay. 14 years old. What do you like? Do you remember what grade you were in?

Speaker 1 1:14:52
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 this Summer, heading into high school

Scott Benner 1:15:01
was that particularly difficult going into high school with this new thing? I

Speaker 1 1:15:05
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 1:15:25
did you even know? Or were you just learning at the same time, I

Speaker 1 1:15:29
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, I outside of that I didn't have any type of support in my hometown. Was

Scott Benner 1:15:46
there any expectation of diabetes? Is somebody else in your family have type one? No, I

Unknown Speaker 1:15:51
was the first one to have type one in my family.

Scott Benner 1:15:52
And do you have children? Now? I do not know. Do you think you will one day filled, you're

Speaker 1 1:15:58
gonna validate. But right now, I've just been traveling books at all my career myself. So

Scott Benner 1:16:02
what do you do? What's your career? Yeah, so

Speaker 1 1:16:05
I am a marketing leasing specialist for student housing companies. 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 in 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 1:16:27
What do you find that you absolutely need with you while you're traveling? diabetes wise,

Speaker 1 1:16:32
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 1:16:53
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 1:17:03
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 1:17:38
when you found yourself misunderstood? Did you try to explain to people or did you find it easier just to stay private?

Speaker 1 1:17:45
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 1:18:03
did you eventually find people in real life that you could confide in?

Speaker 1 1:18:07
I 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 that was 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,

Scott Benner 1:18:28
is college where you met somebody with diabetes for the first time or just where you met more people with different ways of thinking. So

Speaker 1 1:18:35
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 this day. He was also a type one diabetic. And I was like, that's who introduced me to all these different types of communities and technologies, and which is really what helped jumpstart my learning more and with type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 1:19:26
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? I

Speaker 1 1:19:37
didn't know you know, I honestly didn't think about it. I just was i 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 them. So sorry. Connect with them all.

Scott Benner 1:19:57
Yeah, no. So now once your world expands as far as their From 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 1:20:09
Correct.

Scott Benner 1:20:10
What do you think that value was at the time?

Speaker 1 1:20:12
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 1:20:27
When were you first introduced to the Medtronic champions community? Yeah,

Speaker 1 1:20:32
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, 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. How is

Scott Benner 1:21:08
it knowing that your diabetes technology is such an important part of your health in 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, I

Speaker 1 1:21:21
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 a 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 it 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 1:22:06
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? Absolutely.

Speaker 1 1:22:23
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'm able to type one diabetes. And I think that's something that I hope can inspire everyone else.

Scott Benner 1:22:57
What was it like having more personal intimate relationships in college with type one?

Speaker 1 1:23:02
I think it was kind of hard to explain, you know, just, for example, like, no one really knows, it 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 1:23:40
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 1:23:53
I would tell someone I had type one diabetes after subtype of Evander endemic, 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 1:24:09
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 1:24:24
So I also I go through my same experiences when I have high blood sugars. You know, I can tell like, for 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 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 in 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,

Scott Benner 1:25:15
right? 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,

Speaker 1 1:25:26
I can. I feel confident knowing that it's working in the background, as someone and I always at least said it, I have been showing 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 going, 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 1:25:59
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 1:26:16
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 be like, Hey, you're experiencing this too. But I've recently also have been seeing tic TOCs. And, you know, finding on that side of it, I didn't, you know, see the videos and upload 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.

Scott Benner 1:26:45
Isn't it interesting? Maybe you don't know this, but there's some sort of an age cutoff 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 1:27:12
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 is you don't like you have diabetes. And that's something 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'd want to see it because you don't get to see people living their everyday lives with diabetes. And I think that's something I've really enjoyed.

Scott Benner 1:27:41
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 1:27:52
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 scare and so I have 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. So you'd

Scott Benner 1:28:40
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.

Speaker 1 1:28:48
Yeah, 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 you're already fighting a tough battle. So just having that motivation and acknowledging the goods and also how we can improve. That's what really has been the game changer for me in the past two years.

Scott Benner 1:29:25
John, I appreciate you spending this time with me. This was terrific. Thank you very much.

Unknown Speaker 1:29:28
Absolutely. Thank you.

Scott Benner 1:29:30
If you enjoy Jalen story, check out Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box. I appreciate you listening all the way to the end. So this little bit is just for you. Hello, friends. Hello friends. Hold on. I'm getting there.

Alright, let's try this again Hello friends and Hello friends. No hello hello friends Hello friends and welcome to episode 1191 of the Juicebox Podcast.

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