#1257 Loose Wire

July 19, 2024Scott Benner

Jon has idiopathic type 1 diabetes.

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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 1257 of the Juicebox Podcast

this is John he's 43 years old, he's had type one diabetes for a handful of years he was misdiagnosed type two. And he's going to tell me today about how he's type one b He explains that at some point during the podcast, but this is just a lovely free flowing conversation for a Friday. Please don't forget that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. Okay, if you love vacation, and you love sun, and you want to meet people with type one diabetes, check out juice cruise 2025 Go to juicebox podcast.com. Scroll down a little bit, click on that juice cruise link. It'll take you right to the website where you can get more information about my cruise, cruise information itineraries and your registration register now to save $25 Whatever. Let me see what happens if you register. Yes, Early Bird registration by August 1 receives a $25 onboard credit per stateroom. There's going to be conversations about type one plenty of camaraderie and plenty of sun. I hope to meet you on the cruise

Arden has been getting her diabetes supplies from us med for three years. You can as well us med.com/juice box or call 888-721-1514 My thanks to us med for sponsoring this episode and for being longtime sponsors of the Juicebox Podcast. There are links in the show notes and links at juicebox podcast.com to us Med and all of the sponsors. 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. 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 show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries G voc hypo penne Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash juicebox.

John 2:38
My name is John. I am a type one diabetic. Basically my story starts back in 2018. And I am currently 43 years old. I just had a birthday. So I am a newly diagnosed type one diabetic. As far as a lot of other people's scenarios go

Scott Benner 2:57
Yeah. What are you about? Are you five or six years?

John 3:01
Yeah, somewhere in there. Alright. So in March would have been where you 42 When you were diagnosed? No when so I'm 43 now. So in March of 2018 is when I was first diagnosed. But I was diagnosed as a type two diabetic. In your late 30s. Late 30s. Yep.

Scott Benner 3:20
How long did you live with a type two diagnosis?

John 3:22
So it went for about three or four years? Really? Yes. Howto?

Scott Benner 3:31
Yeah, I want to hear about that. I want to hear about living for three or four years with type one diabetes be treated as a type two.

John 3:38
Okay. Do you want to start in the beginning? Oh,

Scott Benner 3:42
yeah, this is in Pulp Fiction. I don't need to start in the middle, then go back to the beginning and then go to the end.

John 3:45
Here we go. There we go. Okay, so. So I was actually, for about a week leading up to my diagnosis. I thought that I was having problems seeing, like, I couldn't read mailbox numbers. I couldn't see license plates, things like this, that were just always normal to me, I don't wear glasses. I've never really needed glasses, except for maybe close up when I was working on the computer. And that was probably three years prior to that is when, you know I had an eye exam. And you know, I started needing things to see close, but not all the time it just to relax my eyes a little. Okay. I went on a ski trip with my family. And I was talking to my wife on the drive up and I said you know, I really can't see anything. I don't even know if I should be driving. And I'm like, wait a minute, give me your glasses because she wears glasses for driving and I grabbed her glasses I put them on and I was like, Ray, I can see everything I just did not exam maybe I need glasses and it snuck up on me. went skiing for the weekend came home. I had an eye exam set up for Monday morning. I spoke to my father who calls me all the time and you know, he asked me how the weekend was and I'm like good but I gotta go get an eye exam and he goes, Hey, just out of curiosity. He's off. He's a type two diabetic. And he was diagnosed around the same timeframe of life as I was. And he goes, Hey, do you ever check your blood sugar? I'm like, no, because you really should he goes, I gave you a meter. Like, all right. I pulled out the meter. And I'm standing in my kitchen to test my blood sugar, and it's 420. So he's like, that's not good. You're start drinking some water and start walking around, because that's going to help. I said, Okay. And at this point, I really didn't know anything about diabetes at all. Yeah, except for, you know, I have a cousin who's a type one and things like that. And I know what a type two does because I, you know, my father for so long and called my doctor right away. Make it said, Hey, listen, this is what's going on. This was what I found. You have any openings today? She comes to you? No, no, no, you'll be fine. Wait till Friday. Come and see me. I have an appointment on Friday. Come see me. You'll be fine. Don't worry about it. Like, well, everything I'm reading online says I'm out for something. I shouldn't be in the emergency room right now. No, no,

Scott Benner 6:06
I think I shouldn't be worrying. Thank you. Yeah.

John 6:08
Like, no, no, you're fine. I'm like, Okay. Well, fast forward. That week, I get to him, and I'm reading taking readings and this and that. And, you know, and that for 420. That was fasting. So that was about nine in the morning. I hadn't eaten since seven the night before. Okay, so it's not like I ate a doughnut. Yeah. So then I was eating and in while I was eating, I was noticing, depending on what I ate, I would shoot up to five 600. And I'm like, Well, this is not good. Like, kept the log short log, and went to him. And he set me up with, you know, he's like, okay, so you're a type two diabetic. And this is going to be your life now. And I'm going to get you some training maybe and, you know, this and that. And I said, Okay, he goes, you're gonna, I'm gonna start you on a long acting insulin. And I think it was true Stiva at the time, okay, so he put me on that. And things seem to be a little better. I still saw spikes when I ate. But, you know, he told me that that was just a normal type two thing. And insulin was only a temporary thing just to get my pancreas back to, you know, whatever. And I said, okay, and about a couple of weeks went by, and I told him, I was experiencing a lot of papers. And he's like, Well, let's just stop the insulin, then. Fine. You're gonna take the Metformin now and this and that, and which I had started with, and then it was, seemed to be okay for a couple of weeks. And I was talking to some people and decided, you know, I don't know if I want to, I had an appointment with my doctor the following week, he said, I don't think I want to see you anymore. For my diabetes, I'd like to see an endocrinologist. And of course, then you get the, ah, don't worry, I treat tons of type two diabetics. Now, mind you, all these diagnosis was done without a blood test. Okay, this guy standing in his office telling me I know what's wrong with you? And to me that seemed like, well, you know, I'm an electrician by trade. So, I know diagnostic, right? And I'm like, well, that doesn't seem like you did anything except stand there and telling me this is what I have and throw some drugs at me. And hopefully, we can fix this, right? So he reluctantly finally agreed to say, Okay, well, you can go see somebody if you really need to. I said, Well, I would feel more comfortable, started seeing an endo. And, again, she just went off for his diagnosis. We never really did any testing.

Scott Benner 8:37
You went to a place where you thought you'd get better care, but they just trusted the doctor before you

John 8:43
kind of well, they ran the I take that back. She did run some tests. And those tests came back. And I'm not sure what tests he actually ran. And then those tests came back, and everything was okay. And we were still doing the same treatments, no insulin, just the Metformin added a couple of things for you know, whatever. I think we added maybe a cholesterol pill or something just for safety precaution. And that went on like that for almost three years.

Scott Benner 9:14
So in hindsight, were you Lada you're just having a very slow onset of type one or were you well actually they if you take insulin or sulfonylureas you are at risk for your blood sugar going too low. You need a safety net when it matters most. Be ready with G voc hypo pen. My daughter carries G voc hypo pen everywhere she goes, because it's a ready to use rescue pen for treating very low blood sugar and people with diabetes ages two and above that I trust. Low blood sugar emergencies can happen unexpectedly and they demand quick action. Luckily jeuveau Capo pen can be administered in two simple steps, even by yourself in certain situations. shunts show those around you where you store Chivo Capo pen and how to use it. They need to know how to use Chivo Capo pen before an emergency situation happens. Learn more about why G vo Capo pen is in Ardens diabetes toolkit at G voc glucagon.com/juicebox. G voc shouldn't be used if you have a tumor in the gland on the top of your kidneys called a pheochromocytoma. Or if you have a tumor in your pancreas called an insulinoma. Visit G voc glucagon.com/risk For safety information.

John 10:35
So I'm not sure exactly how it happened. I now have to all those years went by everything was semi Okay. Same time a year. We're going skiing again. Same symptoms. I'm like something's not right, because I I wasn't wearing a CGM. I had one for a little while then insurance was the thing. And back then they weren't enough. Not even that long ago. They didn't want to give you a CGM. If you weren't a type one they weren't going to cover Oh, for sure. And I, I wasn't paying the $300 a month when I could do a finger stick like at that time. I'm like, That's ridiculous. I don't really need to monitor it that closely. Fast forwarding got same symptoms can't see again, something's weird. I told my wife. She's like, we're going skiing. So you got to figure this out. Like now, because we're leaving without you. And I'm like, Okay, fine. So I go to the doctor on that Friday morning. I called her up. I said, Listen, I'm not feeling well. Coming right now. So I go in. I'm going to send you for some more bloodwork. Now, mind you, the doctor changed. So my endo was originally a not a physician's assistant, but she was a nurse practitioner, okay. And she was fantastic. But she retired to go spend time with her grandchildren. And I got this new Doctor Who is, in my opinion, phenomenal. She's a no nonsense, right to the point. Like, I'm not your friend, I'm here to help you stay alive. So, you know, I never saw her smile for probably three years. I didn't even know she had teeth. It's hilarious. But she's just, this is what we're going to do. Let's move on. So I go into your that morning and she's like, I'm gonna send you in for some blood work right now. Did you eat? I said, No, not yet. Fine. I go in and my numbers had been under control. I mean, my agency was, you know, at that time, I was in the high sixes. original diagnosis. I started at like nine point, I think 9.8. Okay, was my original agency. And I had brought that down into the sixes. And I was doing that with diet basically in Metformin, right. And then I she sent me in, had these tests done. Monday morning, I get back from my trip, I get a phone call. Okay, so there was some something happened and you are not a type two diabetic. I'm like, Okay, you're a type one. And you need to start taking long acting insulin today. So here's a prescription. I want you to go down to your pharmacy, pick that up, and then bring your prescription to me and I'm going to show you about injecting I said, Well, I'm already good. I did that in the beginning. She goes good. That's how many units you take every day. And then we're going to adjust accordingly. And and that long acting went on for about two or two and a half weeks. In the spikes were still there. Like there was nothing stopping by mealtime spikes. They were crazy. Then she said, Okay, let

Scott Benner 13:26
me stop you there. Gentlemen. ask a couple questions. Okay. Sure. Yep. At one point you said, you know, it's kind of like it settled in and for years, it was okay. Yeah. What did okay mean? Were you getting a one CS tested? I

John 13:40
was in they were steady, like in the mid to upper 60s. And they were telling me well as a type two, that's not bad. So you you're okay.

Scott Benner 13:50
And that's just metformin and a statin? Right. That's what you're taking at that point? That's correct. Yep. You still take the statin?

John 13:57
I still take both. What do you need the statin for? They give me that because my cholesterol levels were a little elevated. So they want to make sure that that stays under control. At

Scott Benner 14:09
some point I'm gonna get I'm gonna get an honest doctor on here to talk about that. Yeah, yeah. They're gonna tell you that. Statins became standard of care for people with diabetes and so doctors just blanket prescribed the wrong people. Yeah, I got it seemed to me The fascinating part is that you didn't die. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. So

John 14:29
now so the after that, like, the crazy thing is, when those tests came back, I'm not a standard type one diabetic. So they classify me as a type one B. So when you asked about Lada in, you know, things like that. Mine is technically not an autoimmune disease. I don't have the autoimmune markers in my blood, okay. But my C peptide is that zero, whatever, that as low as you could get. So They think that something happened somewhere along the line in my life where I must have gotten sick, like, you know, they call it idiopathic type one diabetes, which fits me perfect because my whole life people have been telling me I was an idiot. So, Greg, there we go.

Scott Benner 15:16
I didn't know that if I made this podcast long enough that people would start telling the bad jokes and I could relax. That's fantastic. Thank you. That's true. That's just true. Okay, so in type one diabetes, B cells are typically understood to be I don't know, type one diabetes B.

John 15:31
Yeah, so it's idiopathic. type one, type one, the type one B is what they classify it. It's even in my chart written that way.

Scott Benner 15:40
Okay. So very simply, let me read this. Type one B, other forms of diabetes with severe insulin deficiency, but without proof of auto immune are also known as idiopathic. Okay. All right. Yep.

John 15:54
And the funny thing is, if you read what nationality of people usually get this

Scott Benner 16:00
disease, is it idiots? No, I'm just kidding.

John 16:03
No, it's actually it's of African descent and Asian descent. Which one, are you? I'm neither one of those. There's German, German, and polish. Some other stuff, but not that. All right. So I'm like, Oh, lucky me.

Scott Benner 16:18
No kidding. How do they prove this?

John 16:21
I'm not sure I guess through the C peptide test, because I don't have the auto immune markers. But the C peptide, is telling them, Hey, your pancreas is making zero insulin, have something damaged your pancreas other than an autoimmune disease? Here's what they told me.

Scott Benner 16:40
Right? So listen, I'm just listening to your story. You just it's very new to me. So that's weird. Dr. John, two different women have told me that they tried to get pregnant by putting a friend's semen into a turkey baster and inserting it in themselves. But you're the first person to tell me that you have type one B diabetes. Yeah.

John 17:02
And that was kind of my whole thing was sharing this story with you. When I had sent you that email quite a long time ago. And I think during an episode, you had said, Hey, share your stories, I'd love to hear different things. So I did. And I'm like, I got to tell somebody because I don't know anybody like this. Because

Scott Benner 17:21
saying that to go on to CDC to type one diabetes is thought to be in effect, it doesn't. When you Google questions specifically about type one, B diabetes, you don't know nothing there, you ask you, you often don't get information back about it. It almost redirects you to a similar website, but not about that, specifically.

John 17:41
Exactly. And that was my problem for a very long time trying to learn well, how could I have gotten this? And they have no idea. But the odd thing is I do have an I know you always ask people, well, what about in your family? So there's a lot of type two in my family. And I have one cousin that is a type one who has been a type one since I think she was like 13 years old. Okay. And that makes sense to me. But for me, where it happened was so late in life, I think I also during those couple of years, I may have been in quote unquote, a honeymoon stage where yes, the Metformin was kind of giving my pancreas a little bit of a kick and I was still getting some insulin. And then it just decided it was given up the ghost and it wasn't going to do anything anymore and it was just going to chill hanging out in my stomach and or my abdomen and to do nothing. So that's kind of where we're at. Started taking the mealtime insulin and did that for with a I did it with a pen and just tracking stuff that way, or probably, I don't know, three months. And the stories I hear of people with their doctors never want to give them a pump or they never want to do this. My doctor, for me was fantastic day one. She said you want a pump. This is forever so I'll give you a pump today. If you want one. I'll get you set up. We'll get you going. We'll get ready to go and I said well I don't know if I want anything attached to me. Not sure I want to do that yet. instantly got the ducks calm. And I started on the G sex love that. I am now currently on the g7 Couldn't wait till that came out that finally came and you know it works pretty well like in saying I was living okay with what the doctors were saying at six and a half. Yeah, almost seven. I my last checkup I was at five seven. And it was a little better than that previous but kind of got a little carried away with the eating.

Scott Benner 19:46
Now you're doing terrific. What What a story of of getting involved in it. It's really something Did you ever say? I have a cousin with type one diabetes, or did you mostly tell Have a story about my dad has type two diabetes when you were in office?

John 20:03
No, I had mentioned that I had a cousin with type one. That didn't really seem to, you know, do anything but I also have hypothyroidism, too. You have other autoimmune issues? Yeah. Yeah. And I take Synthroid for that.

Scott Benner 20:20
Yeah. What's your TSH? Do

John 20:21
you know, though? I don't know. I? Honestly, I don't pay attention

Scott Benner 20:26
to that your boy, John, I don't expect you to know these things. Don't worry. Do you take it every day?

John 20:31
I do. Um, how do I take that religiously up? Do you have

Scott Benner 20:36
any thyroid symptoms, even though you take it?

John 20:40
Not really, other than I was really tired for. And that's kind of where the testing went. You know, I was just exhausted all the time. I couldn't have it. I'd had like, no energy. And I'm not sure if that that is it. That's the thyroid. Yeah. Yeah. So then they they started me on this stuff. And it seems to work well, but that I mean, that's been going on now for I would say 12 years, I've had

Scott Benner 21:04
much longer. Yeah. How about throughout your families or more thyroid through your family or celiac or anything like that?

John 21:10
See that? No, not that I'm aware of. No, just a lot of type type two diabetics. Okay. Okay. And then one cousin with a type one and then me with the nobody knows what, a

Scott Benner 21:23
lot of type twos with the German side.

John 21:26
Yeah, it's all on my father's side. Yeah. Okay. You close to your dad. Yeah, very, yeah. Yeah,

Scott Benner 21:32
he must have been so upset when you didn't use that meter. And he gave it to you anyway. He's, you have to really think about that. Like, he went to the trouble of like, I'm gonna sprinkle a blood sugar meter on this kid, because we all have type two diabetes, and he's gonna get it to one day, and this is gonna help and then you call, you know, like, I don't feel good. And he's like, you can use a meter. Right? It's one of my biggest concerns. Not something that's in my head constantly. But then I spent all of this time understanding all of the things impacting the people in my family, and I know they're gonna move out of the house and ignore all of it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Sons of bitches. I know it's gonna happen. And so sorry, okay. Okay. So once you get that all straight and you start using insulin, things sound like they they're going okay. Is that fair? diabetes comes with a lot of things to remember. So it's nice when someone takes something off of your plate. US med has done that for us. When it's time for art and supplies to be refreshed. We get an email rolls up in your inbox as high origin. This is your friendly reorder email from us med. You open up the email, it's a big button. It says click here to reorder and you're done. Finally, somebody taking away a responsibility instead of adding one. US med has done that for us. An email arrives, we click on a link and the next thing you know, your products are at the front door. That simple. Us med.com/juice box are called 888-721-1514. I never have to wonder if Arden has enough supplies. I click on one link. I open up a box. I put the stuff in the drawer, and we're done. US med carries everything from insulin pumps, and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGM like the libre three and the ducks comm G seven. They accept Medicare nationwide, over 800 private insurers. And all you have to do to get started is called 888-721-1514 or go to my link us med.com/juice box using that number or my link helps to support the production of the Juicebox Podcast. This episode is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes, Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box. And now we're going to hear from Medtronic champion Jalen. I

Speaker 1 23:53
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 with 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 24:26
Did you try to explain to people or did you find it easier just to stay private?

Speaker 1 24:31
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

Scott Benner 24:46
you eventually find people in real life that you could confide in. I

Speaker 1 24:50
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 They're trying to champions, you see people that pop up and you're like, wow, look at all this content. And I think that's something that motivates me started embracing more, you know how I'm able to type one diabetes, Medtronic

Scott Benner 25:11
diabetes.com/juice box to hear more stories from the Medtronic champion community?

John 25:19
Yeah, yes, things to me are on the diabetes side of things, I feel that I do a fairly decent job of keeping myself alive, I use your terminology of my endocrinologist has now become my drug dealer now, and not so much a doctor because we go there, or I go there, and I see her. And the last time I was there, everything was good the time previous to that I had gained a little bit of weight. I'm a small guy. I'm five, eight. And I've always weighed, you know, under 170 pounds. Well, I was up to like, 189. And she's like, okay, we're not talking about your diabetes today. Because that point, my agency was still at like a 5.4. And she's like, you're doing great. Keep up the good work. But you're fat. I'm like, Oh, thank you. So what she said, he literally said, You're fat. And this is not good in you're gonna have other problems. So can we please get this under control. And then I did, I lost a bunch of weight. And I went back a once he went up a little bit, but the the weight and so she asked me how I do in how I'm controlling it. And I kind of explained it, and I said, if I see my numbers are creeping up, or I see this, I said, I adjust my pump and listen, that listening to your show helped me really take control of it, and not be afraid to go and ask my doctor and say, Oh, if I touch this, I'm gonna die. Like you're not gonna die. Just a little bit more candy or whatever. If it's a little high, then you know, you got to add a little more and you know, nudge it and pump it and do what you got to do to get it to there. And she told me Listen, it's like a driver's license. She goes, I gave you a pump. I set you up with training. Now you have your license. You're on your own now. Like, do it. Yeah, do what you got to do. If you have big concerns, call me but don't call me daily and ask me how to adjust this work. Should I move my numbers? Just do it.

Scott Benner 27:12
I think we need more doctors who call people fat because that I like the attitude. Like I don't listen. I'm a little stunned. They called you fat like, but like, it would have been a nicer way to say that. But I like the assertiveness that I hear in the rest of the story.

John 27:25
Yeah, she's very, she's very good. But I think I can handle her type of bedside manner. And I'm sure a lot of people can't.

Scott Benner 27:35
What part of the country you're from.

John 27:36
I live in the Northeast. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 27:38
was gonna say you're around here, right? I'm in New England. Yeah. And I can I can almost hear that. You think Tom Brady's a good person? I can. I can hear in your voice. I don't

John 27:47
watch football. I know who you are. Yeah,

Scott Benner 27:50
trust me. Wade Boggs. I can get to where you live. There

John 27:53
you go. Yeah, well, a little south. But yeah, actually, I would, I would say a little. It would be a little west of Wade Boggs territory.

Scott Benner 28:01
I'll tell you, John. I think it's nicer living like this. I love your response to it. You know, like you're walking, you're up 10 pounds. Hey, we're not talking about your diabetes today. Because you're fat. And we got to fix this. And let's go and you don't go Oh, no, don't call me fat. That's mean. Like, you're just like, Alright, okay, you know, right into it. And then the same thing with the diabetes. Like, look how valuable that directness did you lose the weight?

John 28:25
I did. I got down to I'm at a comfortable 174 right now. So

Scott Benner 28:32
I'm going to tell you, I wish someone would have looked at me at some point and said, Hey, Scott, you look fat. Yeah, yeah. Would have been nice.

John 28:38
You're gonna have other problems. So can you just fix this? I'm like, Yeah, okay. Well, then I just cut out some stuff that I was doing that I probably shouldn't have been doing anyway. And, you know,

Scott Benner 28:47
can you imagine being married to her?

John 28:50
Oh, I don't even know. I mean, she's a great doctor. But again, like, we're, we're at the point now, I've known her long enough. How I had said, I never saw her smile before. Yeah. He was laughing during our last meeting, because she's, you know, she's starting to open up a little I've known her long enough. You know, now like, she gets my humor. I get heard. And we have a really good doctor patient relationship. And she's, she's great.

Scott Benner 29:17
Sounds perfect. Honestly. Yeah, it does really sound perfect to me. Yeah,

John 29:23
it works well. And, you know, I can too. I think I drive my wife crazy. I tend to if there's anybody who's willing to listen to me talk about diabetes. I do. I know that my kids look at me and they're like, Ah, here we go. He found someone they

Scott Benner 29:39
were gonna think that no matter what, John don't worry about that. Yeah.

John 29:42
I got it. I got it. Being so late in life and having you know if I'm gonna have this disease in live with this, I'm glad that number one. It happened in this day and age, not 1970 Because technology I I don't know how people did it and how people can sit there and their endos will tell them to wait. And they don't want them to have a pump. They want them to learn how, why would you do that to someone? It's horrible to me. I don't understand

Scott Benner 30:08
either. So when you find yourself wanting to talk to people about it, what's your driver there? Are you hoping to find somebody who needs help, like you did. And maybe you can say something to them, that will make them think, oh, I need to help myself, or you just trying to spread awareness.

John 30:24
Both To be honest, I would love to get involved in more, you know, helping people, if I could, my time does not allow that right this moment, but with work and kids and you know, sports, but I would love to be able to help more people, or just even if telling my story of how this happened to me, get someone to think, Hey, maybe I should have something looked at, then. That's great.

Scott Benner 30:48
That's nice. It's very nice. You're worried for your kids.

John 30:54
You know, I do worry about them. And maybe getting this. I'm a little less worried because of what my diagnosis is. Being that it's from what they tell me, it's not autoimmune. I'm not as concerned with it. And it's not like, you know, hey, I had the COVID shot. And then I got diabetes, like this was well before COVID When, when my whole journey started. Yeah.

Scott Benner 31:24
Do you think you were sick before it happened? Do you think back or is it you probably don't even really remember, I would imagine. Do you have any virus, a virus of any kind? I've

John 31:34
never heard the story except for once my mother told me when I was a baby. So I was born in 81. So it was the beginning of Lyme disease back then it was, you know, kind of a big deal. And you never hear of it really anymore. But they claim that I had Lyme when I was probably two years old. Okay. Now, did that do it? I don't know. I don't know of any other type of situation that I might have been in where I had a virus or anything crazy. I mean, like every kid chickenpox, right? You had that? In? You know, the Lyme disease went away. Apparently, after they gave me all kinds of, you

Scott Benner 32:12
know, stuff back then a lot of antibiotics. Yeah,

John 32:15
probably. Yeah. I don't remember that. I remember 90% of my life, and I don't remember anything about that.

Scott Benner 32:21
You think you were beat up? Did you ever talk to your parents about that time? As far as why do you not remember that portion of your life? I

John 32:30
have no idea. I bet that I don't I mean, at two years old. I do remember things

Scott Benner 32:34
but because your age? No, I'm sorry. Okay. Huge. Yeah. Okay.

John 32:39
It's an interesting, I kind of have like a unique story. I'm not really that unique of a person. But I think in this case, you know, talking to a guy like you, you've heard 1000s of stories of people, right? Yeah. Have you heard this one? Like, I mean, this is new.

Scott Benner 32:54
I told you. I've heard two stories about Turkey base. There's one story about type one B in less. I've heard it and I forgotten it. And then I'm going to get somebody online is going to tell me a Scott, that was another this other episode, but I really don't feel like I've ever heard that before. Yeah, so

John 33:08
yeah. So you just you kind of get your roll with it, right? You do what you got to do. And life goes on. You can't let it kill you. You can't let it get the best to kind of just, and that's how I try to look at it like, hey, this really sucks. Like, it really, really sucks that I have this can't stop you from doing things, either. No,

Scott Benner 33:29
I appreciate that.

John 33:30
I've been doing these things my whole life. Like, you know, but again, I'm fortunate that I wasn't well 13 years old and develop this disease of

Scott Benner 33:39
course. So you manage now with you have G seven and what do you what pump? I'm

John 33:43
sorry, I used a tandem?

Scott Benner 33:45
Is that the x 2x? Two? Yep. Nice. Do you enjoy that that algorithm? You know,

John 33:52
I do. I don't really watch my pump the way that some people do. I kind of set it up and then I'll watch the trends over the few days. And then if I need to make an adjustment to my, my basil, I will. It seemed for a while that that was working great. And you know, I was having a nice smooth line. And I had my Basal dialed in where it needed to go. And then all of a sudden, I don't know if it was stressed at work or something. stuff got wacky, you know, all whacked out and now my line is like I can't unlife me get it to move back out the way that it used to

Scott Benner 34:31
be. I mean, are you do you weigh more than you did when it worked better?

John 34:36
No, I'm about back to where I was when I started. Yeah. Okay. So I didn't know what that was. And I you know, I was fighting a sinus infection for a little while and stuff and I know that I'll do it. I know you always say, Oh, you got to change your Basal you got to do this. You got to do that. And I have been trying to do that. But I also think the other thing I noticed is the g7 Their algorithm. And

Scott Benner 35:01
that is horrible. Tell me what you don't like about it. So

John 35:05
in talking to, actually, there's a local guy who's a rep for Dexcom, in my, he lives in my town, and he was the first guy I talked to, once I was diagnosed, and they, you know, I was gonna start using the G six at the time. And what had happened was between the G six and the G seven, they removed, I believe, and I may be talking out of turn, but the flattening algorithm, or the flattening portion of the algorithm, where it makes your line look smoother. And they took that out. So the G sticks, wearing that neck to the g7. You can tell that that one had a smoother line, because I did it for 10 days, I had an overlap. Can

Scott Benner 35:50
I ask why that matters? It doesn't matter to me, I guess

John 35:53
as much as I mean, I like to smoother line because it made you feel better. It was a false a false sense of security. Right? Like, wow, look how good I'm doing. And now it's like, up, down, up, down, up, down and, you know, jumps around all over the place. If

Scott Benner 36:07
that's more accurate. Would you not prefer to know? Oh, no.

John 36:11
Yes, I do. Okay, I kind of do like the fact that it shows but I think that's where some people, because you see it on online on the Facebook groups and things and people complain about the G seven. It's not as good as my G six. I'm going back. And it's like, well, it is as good. It's better. Yeah,

Scott Benner 36:30
it's just the way people talk about things is very interesting to me. Like you said, it's worse. But it sounds like to me that they were like, look, we're gonna give up the smoothness of the visual of the line for a representation of what your blood sugar is. And people are like, this thing don't work is good. I'm like, that sounds backwards. Yeah,

John 36:49
it does work good. It's working better. It's just, you're at the point now where, you know, it doesn't make you feel good. And people want to feel good, that facade

Scott Benner 36:59
that your blood sugar is just dancing around like a ballerina very slowly from 156 to 154. You know, like, yeah, where it might actually be that you are, I don't know, 120 and then turn around a corner and somebody jumps out and scares the hell out of you. And then you're 140 and then it goes back to 120 again, or something like that, you know? Yeah, yeah. Well, it's just it's funny. Language is so funny. Like, it's worse, it works better. But I was like, Wait, stop. I'm not sure what we're saying. I

John 37:29
was a little confused. But it seems to be worse, because it doesn't make you feel good. And I think a lot of people need to feel good.

Scott Benner 37:35
Interesting. So you know, there's value in in the lie a little bit.

John 37:42
Probably, if you want to believe that, right? If you want to believe who you are. I think it's great. I love the warmup time. I love the I love the grace period. That's a that's like, amazing.

Scott Benner 37:54
I watched my daughter chew up every second of that grace period yesterday.

John 37:59
Yeah, yeah. And you're like, okay, okay. Are you doing okay, what, what are we doing?

Scott Benner 38:04
I texted her. I was like, Hey, are you gonna change your CGM? She was why. And I said, Well, there's three hours left in the grace period. And she goes, Oh, I guess I will then I was like, okay, so she's in the middle of her finals. Today's her last day. Okay, we talked to her last night. She sat on a sofa in her dorm room, with the camera on us with her knees at her face rocking back and forth going, I say, Oh, my day is over. And I'm like, we're like you alright? Their kids. She's like, I'm not sleeping. And so she told us that in the last like, she expects to sleep for 15 minutes at a time, maybe for a collection of just a couple of hours over the last two days or finals. Well, that's wrong. She's not sleeping at all. And her blood sugar's are stunningly good for what's going on. Yeah, like genuinely. I don't know how people like if I showed you Ardennes last 24 hours right now. It's not pretty. Okay. But it is mainly between 70 and 130. There are there for excursions over 120 There are two excursions over 200. But she is literally not sleeping. She's like, I'm not sleeping. I'm barely eating like, everything's a mess. Like, I just need to get through these next couple of days. For the life of me, you know, when she was in high school, she was like, I'm either gonna go to take a pre law track. Yeah, or I want to learn how to make clothing. And somehow she ended up in art school learning about fashion design, and it seems like it would have been easier to become a lawyer. So it's very, very interesting. But anyway, I heard craft looks choppier, but I don't care. And but the rest of it's amazing because now she's in the middle of class. She's like that I'm in my car. She's calls me she's like, I'm on my way home. I'm was killed no lady wasn't my fault, but she's okay. And then by the way that story is going, isn't it a different episode? If you want to hear it, it's, it'll be out around the time Jonathan says, oh, okay, and then she's like, I have to go home. And then I'm like, I'm gonna do this. And I'm like, and you're gonna change your CGM. She's gonna change my CGM. And bah, bah. And I put she took it right. What is it? It's 12 hours past 10 days right now. Right? Okay, she wore that thing. Like the math the Oh my Oh, my God, I was I kept looking like is she going to forget that she fall asleep that she dropped dead? Like what's happening? You know, and boom, she changed at the very end. And I know that'll piss some people off that she worked for the entirety of the time. It was never that sensor was terrific.

John 40:39
Like, yeah, see, I had some problems with that, though, in the beginning of the g7. That was my only complaint truly was the first four that I put on? Well, the first one I put on, I couldn't even get it to connect to my on my phone at all. It would just not nothing. So that one got ripped off through I put that one aside. I put on the next one. That one worked. And that worked for four days, and then it quit. It was just sensor issues. central issue nothing. I don't think let's see in the past. I'm gonna say I've worn now. Six or seven sensors. And I've had one. Let me like, accurate all the way to the grace period. Yeah, most of them start getting the we're experiencing brief sensor issue for you know, we'll say the last day and it just hour after hour. And after a while I just get sick of it and rip it off. When it gets worried. The great thing with Dexcom is you call them and they send you one.

Scott Benner 41:35
And you're hydrated John? Yeah, yeah.

John 41:39
I tend to be fairly pizza yellow. No, no, no, not really.

Scott Benner 41:45
Listen, I just in the end, I just believe that people's body chemistry is different. And that I haven't said this in a while. But this would be for any CGM technology. Honestly, if cannulas too, but I think it's important to remember that we're inserting a piece of inert material into your skin to measure your interstitial fluid so that you and you know if some of you can only get six days, and some of you get eight days, some you get nine days somebody can go 10. Like, I know, it's frustrating because the box says 10 days, right? Like, I mean, do we not see the magic that it is? Generally mean? Like, like, if you said to me, this thing could last up to 10 days, but for me, it lasts six days, and they replace them. I'd be like, right on like, okay, yeah, that seems fine to me. I don't know. It's a weird not seeing the forest for the trees reaction. I get the frustration though. So I'm not. I'm not downplaying that. And I'm lucky that Arden just as never had an incompatibility with Longwear or

John 42:48
even even the adhesive. nevers bothered me, right. And you see people with these burns and things and you know, and then you hear stories about people. And it really, it kind of breaks my heart to think that there's people out there that need this device to live in. They're restarting it six times. Yeah, it sucks. And they're not moving it. There's a reason why they say 10 days or 14 days, like it's not supposed to be there that long. And you hear it ah, you know, I'm going on day 30 of the same sensor. And it's like,

Scott Benner 43:19
when people were resetting the G sixes. I'm sure they still do. The thing about like, adhesive allergies. It's an allergy, right? You're evident, you're allergic to the adhesive, you have an auto immune issue. It's not crazy that you have allergies to that's the part that breaks my heart about the double unfairness of the whole thing is like, I have this autoimmune disease. So I have to wear this thing. And oh my god, I'm allergic to the tape. Like, you gotta be kidding me is Jesus Christ. So it sucks. Yeah, yeah, no, I hear.

John 43:52
Especially the little kids like, you know, these parents they can afford. Maybe, you know, and you hear it, you know, they can't afford proper insulin, or they need the CGM. But, you know, they're afraid that if, if they take this off, they can't they don't have another one available. Or, I mean, and then they can't afford another one. Yeah, reusing it. And

Scott Benner 44:14
the people that are allergic are like, well, just, you know, can you change the adhesive so that, you know, I'm less allergic The problem is, it seems to me is when they, when the adhesive is whatever less it is, and it doesn't interact poorly with, you know, more people. It also tends to fall off at that point. Yeah. Yeah. Like I've had long conversations with people. I don't know if you ever remember this guy came on from Omni pod one time. And I asked him about that idea of like, could there not be different adhesives like a sensitive one and the the sound and his voice about he's like, he started talking about the things I understand about it. He's have now after working at this job, he's like, it's mind numbing. Yeah, the amount there is to know about this and the formula Relations and he's like I've seen and worn you know, all these different kinds. And when they're more like this, they're less like that. And he's like there's is there's no perfect balance. There's always a trade. Right? You know, then the people who don't have adhesive allergies are like, How can I, you know, what are they going to say when their thing starts falling off? Right? They're gonna say there was nothing wrong with this. Why'd you change it right? You can't win. And it's it's like frustrating, again is a good word. The I mean, it just in the end it is what it is. You know, I just had ever since just came on, they have an implantable CGM, right? And I'm like, oh, maybe you know, now right now it doesn't pair with pumps, but I assume in the future will like so maybe that's, you know, maybe that's an answer for some people. But who knows, you know what I mean? But options are what's important.

John 45:45
I mean, there's still a sticky part part of that with the Eversense.

Scott Benner 45:49
So the interesting thing about that is as I went through a training so that I could talk about it better, because often doesn't use it, but the sensors implanted, right, like you go into a doctor's office. It's interesting, they do a little local, like a little tiny needle to numb the spot as little incision, the thing goes in, it's closed with like a butterfly bandaid. It's not a stitch, right? Yeah. And then the transmitter goes on over top of it. So you're still wearing a thing on your arm. But that thing is, it's every day, I guess there's like, it's almost like a silicone adhesive. So it's very, very much not, you know, you're not gonna see a lot of allergic reactions from it, and it comes off every day. So you just pop it off, toss it away, you put another little silicone thing on the transmitter sticks to it. And the value there is you can pop it off and jump in the shower, if you want to like it, and then throw it right back on again without like, you know, like that kind of thing. It's very able to be removed and put back. Yeah, yeah. Over and over again. So because you take the transmitter off to charge it too, right? It gets a different setup. But very cool. And the transmitter vibrates. Well, if you were going somewhere and you wanted it to be completely quiet, the actual they call it on body vibe. Well, that's interesting. Yeah, you set your levels and it vibrates to tell you high or low. And it's cool. Listen it. I don't know if it's for everybody. But as soon as I started putting the ads out, I started getting notes from people. Oh, I can't believe he took Eversense ads. These are great. I've been using it forever. And I'm like, okay, there you go. Like everybody needs arms. Yeah.

John 47:26
Yeah, that's, that's interesting. I mean, I would try something like that. But the whole reason I wear what I wear is because it works with my pump, and it works well million percent. The only issue and that I have with it is my phone can be 30 feet away, and it'll pick up readings, if I put my sensor on the other arm, because I wear it on my arms fully. I don't like it anywhere else on my body, only because it gets in the way of like, my belt and my jeans. And you know, it just seems to work the best on my arms. But if I put my pump my infusion site on the left side and put like sensor on the right side. Like, it can't get through my palm through my body. It's like how does that work on my phone is 30 feet away, and it's working fine. Like, I don't know. So

Scott Benner 48:11
even that is like a thing that I've said to myself like Arden's never had connectivity problems with g7. But she's also pretty connected to her phone, right? Like so if you're a person who's like a little older, and you put your phone down and walk away from it a lot, then maybe you have different issues you don't I mean, like it's, again, it's a personal situation. And

John 48:31
mine is never really with the phone. Like my phone's always in my pocket because of what I do for work. But my pump is that that will disconnect if my pump is on one side, and my sensors on the other, okay, I tend to try to run the course of, hey, these 10 days, I'm going to have at least three infusion sites. And I'm going to put him on that side. So I alternate sides of my body. Pretend days with my pump. So 10 days on this bike 10 days on that side. And they both work together.

Scott Benner 49:04
Nice. Listen, I think algorithms are astonishingly terrific. Yeah, like really? Like, I mean, using Arden's last 48 hours as an example, if she didn't have an algorithm. I mean, you got to think her blood sugar's would be crashing and flying up and crashing and flying up over and over again. Right. You know what I mean? It just makes sense to me the last I'm looking at her last six hours, never over 17 Never over 110 No, never, never under 70 Never over 110

John 49:37
You know, I could not say the same for myself. Now, this is where trying to dial in my my settings a little more on my own. Like I said before, I had it to a point where I was really good. Yeah, and I was really comfortable living around 100 all the time. I was between 95 In 110, for like six months, it was awesome, okay, and occasionally would go up because you know, I Bolus late or this and that. Now it's all over the place. Like, you know, now that I've adjusted my settings in for me, I'm fairly sensitive to insulin, which is pretty good, I guess, cuz it's better than having, you know, less sensitivity and you need so much more. But point 01 of a unit on the tandem, you can go 1.01 If you wanted or whatever, or point nine, five or, and I think right now I'm at like point nine for an hour. If I went to point nine, five, I would see a lot more lows below 80. I don't like the feeling at 75. Like, that's bad for me.

Scott Benner 50:50
Did you try adjusting your insulin sensitivity? So it's a little weaker?

John 50:54
I don't know if I've ever even looked at that on my palm. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 50:58
as you were talking earlier, this is what it occurred to me to talk to you and talk about it at the end here. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So if you're having stability with your basil, like, right, like you're not seeing it turn off a lot or a rank ramp up a lot. And you have some, you know, you have some nice stability and a number you're happy with. But then during the day, you know, you think your insulin to carb ratio is good. But you still have these excursions that he's up and down excursions, you're having some lows, and you're having peaks, like maybe you're just not giving the pump enough autonomy to make adjustments, and that would be insulin sensitivity.

John 51:34
Now, I go into my tandem, and I open this up. So right now I'm sitting at like 115 with point three, three units on board. Okay, it did shut off at one point around right at the time of our, our start of our call my Basal shut off for a little while. And then it came back on and I am I'm sitting steady since I don't know, for the last hour, I've been sitting steady at 115 less

Scott Benner 52:06
than that. There's nothing wrong with that. But what's your target? Is it what's 110? Right? That's what it's targeted for

John 52:13
problem with the tandem pump, you can put in your target as 100. But control IQ takes over. And it doesn't really tell if I was at 100. And I went to his I think their target is 110 Regardless of what you set it as if you went at one at 100. And I said okay, I'm gonna go eat this meal, and it's 45 carbs. And I put that 45 carbs in. It will give me a reduced Bolus based on the fact that I am below 110. Yeah, no matter how you set it, or what you do to it. That's the only bad thing versus like looping and everything I've read about looping and obviously Arden's been doing that forever from, from the episodes and everything I've heard, you can set that number, and that's the number, right. It's

Scott Benner 52:59
you can set. I mean, I think the low is there's a low number on all of them, like, you know, but they're much lower, like you can choose.

John 53:09
But I mean, like if you were if he was at 100, it won't lower her Bolus. Because, you know, if you said hey, I mean 40 carbs. And she would normally need, let's say, 5.3 units.

Scott Benner 53:23
And she was 100. No, it wouldn't change anything. I mean, unless it thought she was going to get low in the future. If it predicted that then it would but if it didn't predict, if it didn't predict a low, then it I mean, Arden's target, I think right now is 85 or 90. So,

John 53:39
so my settings right now just for whatever, like my lowest that at at my highest set at probably too high, because I have it at like 180 but it would be on off all the time until like, I kind of moved that I had it at like 160 for a long time. But I mean, right now I'm at my Basal is point nine, six an hour, My correction factors 148 or one to 48 my carb ratio is one to 15 and my target blood glucose level is 110. And if you click on that you want to change that it never allows you to change that below one time. Yeah, it just says when control IQ is set on your target, blood glucose is fixed at 110. In order to edit that you have to turn off control IQ. They don't want you to be below 110 I guess that's like, you know that doctors magic number, right? I feel great at 100. Like, that's where I feel the best. I don't get sick when I get high either. Some people do my cousin she gets really, you know, icky and gross feeling. She's above let's say, I think she when she gets above like 160 She gets pretty bad. And I'm probably wrong with that number but with me I can be at 220 and I wouldn't feel horrible at all.

Scott Benner 54:56
Do you what's your total daily insulin usually Like 30 Something units? Really? Yeah, let me see. That's total. That's Basal embolus.

John 55:07
Yeah. Are you low carb? No, no. I mean, well, that's cool. I don't know. Does that sound? No,

Scott Benner 55:15
I just do it. I mean, it doesn't. If your point nine, six an hour.

John 55:20
Let me see. So in the last, I can tell you this injury because that

Scott Benner 55:24
means because John 23 of your unit today is Basal. Yeah, you're only using seven units a day for meals

John 55:33
and your one to 15. Well, like so today, for example, my basil has been 7.5. And I only Bolus who for breakfast was like 4.38 units, or point three. And then Yes, yesterday I was at 32.99. And it's almost even yesterday. My Basal was 17.11 units by Bolus was

Scott Benner 55:59
15.8. But your agency is 6.55757 right now. Okay. Yeah. Geez. Listen to John. I. Oh, I don't know. We shouldn't be arguing. I think you're doing great. Yeah, but

John 56:15
yeah, I know. I mean, it's crazy. And then even on like on March 12. So what day was that? That was Tuesday, I had 18.75 units of basil. In my Bolus was 12.1 for the day. 12.1

Scott Benner 56:27
and your one unit for 15? Carbs? Yeah.

John 56:33
Okay. I'm not low carb. And trust me, I don't eat nearly as healthy as I should? or would like to, you

Scott Benner 56:41
know, I heard another doctor talk to you. I'm just teasing. Has your exercise or activity level gone down recently?

John 56:50
Um, would that mean that it would have had to have existed before

Scott Benner 56:55
I even at work? Were you like working on the road? Now you're working in an office or something like that? I've

John 57:00
always know. It's kind of steady, like, depending on how much I'm moving around and walking and Bunker Hill? Yeah,

Scott Benner 57:07
I mean, what are your spikes at meals? Like?

John 57:11
Oh, like so it depends on what I eat. And I probably could Pre-Bolus a

Scott Benner 57:15
lot sooner. That's where I was going with this, John. Yeah, okay. Yeah, no, I

John 57:20
know. And my whole thing is, I get I'm too afraid to Pre-Bolus. And I'll tell you why. So with my job, so I'm an electrical contractor. Okay. I run the business with my two partners. And we have a bunch of guys that work for us. So I don't have a lunchtime, or a break time in the morning. I have a where am I going? And can I swing into here and grab something, whether it's a sandwich or a hamburger or slice of pizza or whatever, whatever you're having?

Scott Benner 57:50
John, I can't get you to pack a meal. No, I know. No, no.

John 57:56
They probably would. Yeah. But so the Pre-Bolus is, if I was to Pre-Bolus, and I've done it, and then something happens, and I have to be somewhere and I didn't have a minute to stop and grab something. Yeah. Then there's an issue. So I tend to not Pre-Bolus As much as I should I try to do 10 to 15 minutes earlier if I can, but it always doesn't always work out. So so it depends on what I eat. Like let's say, let's say I had, I don't know. Like last night I had steak. And probably two cups worth of you know, potatoes. A mashed potato, John, not a mashed potato, just like a Yukon Gold cut up diced with oil. No oil. Good for you.

Scott Benner 58:43
Look at you, John. You're doing oil. Good.

John 58:45
Right. So so but then that if I didn't Bolus soon enough, that could put me up over. You know, one ad?

Scott Benner 58:54
Yeah, no, for sure. I think so. Listen, just Pre-Bolus your dinners at the very least. And yeah, consider packing a healthy lunch and having it with you. Sure. These two things change your life significantly, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I mean, listen, I also had pizza this week. So yeah.

John 59:15
I had pizza yesterday. So

Scott Benner 59:17
it was so good, too. I had it was sausage on it is like a very thin crust. If you don't live in the northeast, you don't know. But it's amazing. Yeah. Anyway, I mean, listen, I'm not telling you what to do. You're certainly doing a great job. I'm just saying if we're going to talk about these things, these are the little fixes. I always think about if anybody's heard the episode with Jenny, where I asked her, like, hey, when you go on a road trip, like, you know, how do you eat on a long like, say your family who's gonna drive eight hours like how do you eat and she's like, why pack food and bring it with us? I'm like, you don't just pull over on the side of the road and grabs on. She was like, oh, no, I would never do that.

John 59:52
And I was like, oh, but she's different. She's very like, good. Like, she's, she's a healthy eater. She's I'm not that guy. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:00:02
No forget no for sure. Um, like you've never gotten like a candy bar in a gas station. She was like what? Oh,

John 1:00:09
yeah. My favorite part of

Scott Benner 1:00:11
a road trip is getting a Three Musketeers bar and a gas station. Well, that's

John 1:00:15
the thing like yesterday, I had pizza. Well, there's one Papa Geno's, in my state. Okay, and I don't know if you guys had Papa Geno's, where you are? I

Scott Benner 1:00:24
don't know it. But it sounds like something that when you're near it, you get it because you love it. And it's infrequent. They

John 1:00:29
used to be everywhere now. Okay. Okay. I mean, I live in Connecticut. I don't care if anybody knows where that is. But, but they were everywhere in Connecticut through the 80s. You know, all the way growing up as a kid through the 90s in high school like it was there. Yeah. Then all of a sudden, all but one closed. And, you know, so anytime I have a chance to get to that part of the state, and I haven't something to go look at it a job. I'm stopping there. And I'm having pizza. I

Scott Benner 1:00:56
understand. I was just in Connecticut. Last weekend. I did a speaking thing there. Oh, you did? I was in Stanford. Maybe?

John 1:01:02
Oh, Stanford. That's just about New York. That's far from me. That's that's like, with crazy with traffic. Yeah. I've

Scott Benner 1:01:09
also been to Connecticut one other time. And as soon as I got off the train, they were like, let me get you some pizza. And then they brought me to pizza. That doesn't look like the pizza I eat. And it was good. Yeah. Where were you in New Haven? I want to say maybe that's right, because I got off the train. Yeah, you probably were in New Haven, or Yeah. took me to this little hole in the wall and the Pete I remember the pizza being square was good.

John 1:01:32
Oh, yeah. So that was more of a deep dish probably Haven style. And I mean, we have good pizza. So But see, that's where I'm very fortunate like pizza for some people. If I know a couple of people, they have one slice of pizza. Boom. 300 days over. I can eat if I Bolus for it. I can eat four or five slices of pizza. And it's fine. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:01:55
Part of me thinks you must have really good digestion. Do you have a Can I ask an uncomfortable question? Are you very regular, take what you would consider to be a lovely crap that you'd be happy to share with other people because of how lovely I would tell you.

John 1:02:07
If you asked my wife. There's always a bathroom emergency in our house. Like I'm always like, Oh, no, gotta go. So it's

Scott Benner 1:02:16
not it's not a beautiful process. You're sometimes you're like, I gotta go. This is like an emergency.

John 1:02:21
Right? Right now, like, we're in a store. She's like, and I'm like, she's like, again, like, Hey, I don't know what to tell you. My doctor always told me that. You know, I have a digestive system of like, a three month old baby. Whatever it goes in. You gotta make room for it. And it comes right back out. Like, I'm more or less rent my food. I don't really

Scott Benner 1:02:41
I mean, it's such a weird question. I don't know how to like, I don't know how to use. I don't know what words are right. Okay. Are we talking about like a, a properly firm?

John 1:02:52
Oh, yeah. It's not like it's not running. I mean,

Scott Benner 1:02:56
yes. Okay. Okay. But that is what I want to ask. I have, by the way, the crazy thing is that in an hour, I'm recording with a gut health specialist. Oh, okay. And so I was very, I very much think that people need this conversation, right? And so like, but how do you make it conversational, so that they can understand what's happening. So I said to the guy, I'm like, you know, I'll tell you what, you come on and talk to me, and help me and then you give me stuff to do. And then you can come back on and we'll talk about it again. And if it helps me, then I'll be comfortable telling other people about it. Right? Sure. And but now, I realize as this day approaches, all I can think about is I'm gonna have to discuss my bowel movements with this guy. And like, all this stuff that I'm like, Oh, why did I agree to this?

John 1:03:41
That is one thing that are somehow at our house. And I don't know why I've made because it's funny. It always leads to, we'll call it potty talk. Like, somehow Christmas dinner will lead to the other day. And it's funny, it's just the vagina. My God,

Scott Benner 1:04:00
can I call this one potty talk? Probably almost.

John 1:04:05
There you go, John.

Scott Benner 1:04:06
You feel like you have good digestion there. Your stomach doesn't hurt effete.

John 1:04:09
Nope, nope. I don't feel that I have any of those other like, just Yeah, sure. Yeah, whatever that other people tend to have. So that's good. But

Scott Benner 1:04:18
you what you're saying is you you offload when you unload? That's correct. Gotcha. All right. Here's my last question. I'm gonna let you go. Okay. I got a guy out of the house because I got some lights outside my house and they stopped work. Yep. And they're, they're these terrible like, you know, the lights that you think are a good idea. Like it gets sun it gets dusk and they come on and the sun comes up and they go fix it. They never fret and work for a long, you know, so I haven't come out of replacement like just put some regular lights on a Switch comes out. He does it works great. Three weeks later, doesn't work anymore. Okay. It's not the circuit breaker. It's not I changed the switch. It's not the switch. Like, I have no idea where to look and I've had a falling out with the person and I can't have them back. Okay. And by the way, I'll never be able to explain. I'm

John 1:05:09
going to ask you a dumb question. Go ahead. And it's not did you turn it off and turn it back on? Again? I'm not the cable company. What kind of a fixture did he put out there?

Scott Benner 1:05:18
I mean, there were put on a number of places on the house, they work everywhere else. It's just these three that are connected don't work all at the same time. It's just it's just the like, it's a ground. Yeah, yeah. Well, they're, they're just like, not not a flood. They're what you might consider, like something you'd see on the other side of her front door or something like

John 1:05:37
that. Okay, so a wall sconce?

Scott Benner 1:05:40
Yeah. Simple. Simple one bulb?

John 1:05:42
Are they led?

Scott Benner 1:05:45
No, they're screw in bulbs. Right. But

John 1:05:47
are they a screw in LED?

Scott Benner 1:05:49
I'd have to look.

John 1:05:51
Because I mean, anything can happen. But are those the only three controlled by that switch? Yes. So it's either the first one in the line? Because they would have had, you know, it's all daisy chained together. Right? Usually, odds are he didn't run three separate lines out there. It's all Daisy. Yeah, so odds are behind one of those fixtures, you could have a loose place. You could have, it could be a whole number of things. So depending on how handy you are, there's a lot of things you can check. You can check right, right in the light itself. You can carefully if you have if you have the prop, if you have a tester a meter, you can go in the light socket, touch the center pin and touch the outside and CPU voltage. There's a bunch of things you can do. Oh, okay, you could definitely call me on another day. And I could walk you through it. I

Scott Benner 1:06:42
need to figure it out. I just I, I'm not usually like a, we were having another thing. Like we had to have an outlet put in outside. Sure. And so I said, Hey, while you're out there, like let's replace these sconces. They suck. You know what I mean? Yeah. And he's like, okay, great. And then boom. Alright, so I'm looking for I'm looking for a loose wire, basically,

John 1:07:02
I would start with check for, first of all, very simple. Take the light bulb out, put it in a known area, that lamp and your house, make sure that doesn't work. Okay, if the light bulb works, then you know, that's not your issue, right? Then you have to check and see, do I have power. So go to the go to the fixture that's closest to the switch. Pull that off. And you can have some, you know, put a tester on it between the black and the white. And that's the important part, don't go to the bare copper wire. Because if one of your blood if your white wire is broken, or not made up good and not a good splice, you'll end up with an issue there too. And if you went from black to ground, you'd be like, Well, I have power. Well, you do. But you don't have a neutral.

Scott Benner 1:07:48
I have to tell you, I know that electricity is a simple concept. But anytime in my life, it's been explained to me. I don't follow it at all.

John 1:07:55
It is it isn't it isn't? I mean, think about it. This is the job that you can do, that I've been doing for about 25 years. I started while I was in high school. And one guy said to me once, why would you want to work with something that you can't see smell? Or feel that will kill you? Every day? Right, so

Scott Benner 1:08:19
Melania insulin, right? Oh, my God. All right, John, I appreciate you coming on sharing your story with me. I really do. This is fantastic. Yeah,

John 1:08:29
no, I, this has been kind of, I don't know, I should say I'm geeking out about this right now. But I it's been such a such an, you know, well, I don't want to say an honor. But kind of exciting for me for for you know, the time that I've when you reach out and hey, you want to be on the show till now. I almost couldn't wait for it. And then all of a sudden I

Scott Benner 1:08:53
don't know why you can't say it was an honor. But okay. Well,

John 1:08:56
I don't want to you know,

Scott Benner 1:08:58
I know it's just like, I was just teasing you. I don't I don't think it's an honor to be Oh, my God, unless, you know, you're at Yeah, at a story to a more to a larger quilt of information and conversations. And I think it's really important. So yeah, I appreciate you taking the time to do it very much.

John 1:09:18
No, thank you.

Scott Benner 1:09:19
I don't know if I'm calling this one loose wire or potty talk. But I want to remind people not to take John's electric advice because you end up dead I don't want to hear about it. That's right. Yeah, that's that should be a disclaimer. Nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. I feel like it's covered anywhere you go. And I can't wait to dig into more about statins too. I'm glad you brought it up Jenny. I brought up the Jenny recently I don't know if the episodes out yet. But she kind of said like, don't get me started on that. And then she got started a little bit. So was national

John 1:09:52
funny thing too is these drugs that that people are all prescribed? I mean, my doctor, right? I've explained I love She's great. She won't take me off Metformin,

Scott Benner 1:10:02
when he just stopped taking it, although maybe it's helping you, she said that

John 1:10:07
there is because I said, Look, you know, I'm taking this medications and I take like seven pills a day. Okay? All kinds of stuff from, you know, whatever. Stuff that I don't even need to talk about more personal items too, but, but it's like, it's a lot of it has to do with diabetes. And I'm like, alright, but I'm also taking Metformin, which is a type two diabetic thing, and can we get rid of this? And she goes, Well, to be honest, the negative impact or she she's what she said was the positive impact far outweighs any negatives of you taking that medication. Well, she

Scott Benner 1:10:43
might like it for other reasons. Hey, listen, Metformin therapy may reduce the high risk of cardiovascular events and pre DM patients by reducing coronary a deal with Fikile iron dysfunction. Yeah, what uh, but I've heard over and over again, listen, there's a lot of bro science guys that take Metformin because they think it's a pill that helps you with longevity.

John 1:11:03
Yeah, weight loss, I think too, right? Yeah, it

Scott Benner 1:11:06
helps also a little bit. I don't want to say your for your weight. I was surprised about your totally total daily insulin. So maybe the Metformin is really helping you.

John 1:11:15
And it might Yeah, I don't I let's be honest, I I did lie a little bit when I said I take all my prescriptions where I'm supposed to, but the Metformin is the one that I always forget because that alone, that twice a day, I'm supposed to take it in that's an at night all by itself one and I always forget the nighttime

Scott Benner 1:11:36
really cracked me up. I don't know why. All right. Take your pills and find out what your TSH is to make sure you're medicating yourself properly. We'll do all right, man. Have a great day. Hold on for me. Thanks, Scott. My pleasure. Bye.

Jalen is an incredible example of what 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. A huge thanks to us med for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Don't forget us med.com/juice box this is where we get our diabetes supplies from you can as well use the link or call 888-721-1514 Use the link or call the number get your free benefits check so that you can start getting your diabetes supplies the way we do from us med. A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G voc glucagon, find out more about Chivo Capo pen at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. you spell that GVOKEGLUC AG o n.com. Forward slash juice box. Don't forget to check out juice cruise 2025 at juicebox podcast.com. Just scroll down a little bit. Click on that and choose Cruz logo. And you're going to find everything you need. Spaces are limited. I'm not trying to pressure you honestly you could. I hope you come but if you don't I understand but space is limited. Make sure you check it out right now. If you're not already subscribed or following in your favorite audio app, please take the time now to do that. It really helps the show and get those automatic downloads set up so you never miss an episode. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong way recording.com