#1367 Glucagon Story: Laura
Laura saved a man with her glucagon!
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Scott Benner 0:00
Welcome back, friends. You are listening to the Juicebox podcast.
Laura is a returning guest. She was originally on episode 982 which is called from a small rock. She's 24 years old, she has type one diabetes, and about a year after she had trained to be a lifeguard, she happened upon a man on the street who was having a low blood sugar emergency, and she saved him with her glucagon. Nothing you hear on the Juicebox podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan, don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com All you have to do is use the offer code Juicebox at checkout. That's Juicebox at checkout to save 40% at cozy earth.com if you are the caregiver of someone with type one diabetes or have type one yourself, please go to T 1d exchange.org/juice, box and complete the survey. This should take you about 10 minutes and will really help type one diabetes research. You can help right from your house at T 1d exchange, org slash juice box. When you place your first order for ag one with my link, you'll get five free travel packs and a free year supply of vitamin D drink, ag one.com/juicebox
today's podcast is sponsored by touched by type one. Check them out on Facebook, Instagram and at touched by type one.org. If you're looking for an organization who's helping people with type one diabetes. You're looking for touch by type one. This episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by Dexcom. Dexcom.com/juice box. Get the brand new Dexcom g7 with my link and get started today. Today's episode is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes, a company who's working to make the invisible visible through their blue balloon challenge, life with diabetes is like doing everything in life while trying to keep a balloon in the air. The blue balloon is a powerful metaphor for the daily struggles that those living with diabetes go through. Medtronic invites you to join the challenge by taking a video of yourself balancing a balloon while doing something in your everyday life. Post your challenge on social media with the hashtag blue balloon challenge and follow at Medtronic diabetes on Instagram to see other blue balloon challenge videos.
Laura 2:33
Good morning. I'm Laura. I am about what 24 now. I do believe and I live now in Utah. Pretty nice Utah, and I'm from, not from Utah. I'm from a Caribbean island.
Scott Benner 2:48
Yeah, you don't sound like you're from Utah. No, not from Utah at all.
Speaker 1 2:52
Just moved here, actually, what? What brought you? I do have a nice, good ending story about, uh, glucagon, and the use of glucagon in the middle of just the street. So,
Scott Benner 3:04
oh, okay, we'll get to that. Then. Hey, you've been on the podcast before. Yes,
Speaker 1 3:09
I have it. Was thing we recorded about two years ago, and it came out last year in August. Do
Scott Benner 3:14
you know the number of it?
Speaker 1 3:15
Eight? 862 I believe you have to double check on that. Do you remember what I called it? Yes, from a small rock.
Scott Benner 3:25
From a small rock. It's not 862, then hold on a second,
Speaker 1 3:29
though I don't remember, then I'll find it
Scott Benner 3:32
982,
Unknown Speaker 3:34
982 isn't
Scott Benner 3:36
that something from a small rock? Laura has type one diabetes, and was diagnosed well in school. Yep, that was me, look at you, and now you're back, but you're back because you have a glucagon experience that you're going to share
Speaker 1 3:49
with me. Yes, I heard another episode a few months ago, and you were saying that you were wanting to hear more stories about how or when people use glucagon. So good. I'm glad I
Scott Benner 4:01
definitely did an appointment. Excellent. Thank you. Well, I appreciate you taking the time. So let's remind people a little bit about you. How old are you when you were diagnosed that kind of
Speaker 1 4:12
stuff? So I was 17 minus two days, so I spent my 17th birthday in the hospital. That was fun. I was in high school. I was a big swimmer, swimming about 20 to 25 hours a week. No family history at all, nothing. And yeah, I was diagnosed basically by my high school nurse who decided to just do a random blood test when my mom told her that I was not feeling too well, and I was at 457 so she told me that I was not going into math class. I was actually going to the ER, so that was fun.
Scott Benner 4:45
Your school nurse was just like, here, I'm gonna poke your finger and check you with a meter you
Speaker 1 4:50
had. Yeah, we were, it was a huge High School. We were about 1200 students, so she had a few type ones already in a school. And my mom, my mom's actually a. A physical therapist, and my high school nurse was one of her patient prior to that, so she just called her and said, Hey, like, does something wrong with Laura? And it's like, well, have her come by the office before lunch and we'll check her sugar. And I never left. So went straight to the year after that. So they're just
Scott Benner 5:18
kind of friendly, and they have a little bit of professional courtesy with each other, and she just helped her
Speaker 1 5:22
out, yeah, basically, well, she kind of saved my life, because two days before I saw my primary care and she's like, Yeah, well, it's fine. You're young and you're swimming a lot, so we'll just do a sugar free diet for a month when my blood sugar was already 322, after a fortnight, just, and she did not even,
Scott Benner 5:44
that's a significant misunderstanding of the situation, yeah, yeah. Oh, it was, it
Speaker 1 5:47
was pretty bad, yes, but yeah. So that nurse saved my life at some point.
Scott Benner 5:53
Isn't that great, really? That's really lovely, huh? Yeah, this is kind of, I don't know, fun is the wrong word, but you have a glucagon story that involves your glucagon, but it doesn't involve you having all the blood sugar,
Speaker 1 6:06
no, okay, it doesn't. So it was back in 2018 so that was exactly one year after I got diagnosed. I so I'm from a Caribbean island, and there is a sailing race that goes that leaves France and that arrives on that island in Guadeloupe called the root of the rum. And I was doing an internship at the marina, so that's exactly where all of the boats were parked at the end of the race. And it was for what a week or 10 days, it was a lot of people and just having fun looking at boats and stuff and yeah, so I was there for a few weeks for my internship. Everything was doing well, and at the same time, I was also practicing or taking tests to become a lifeguard. And five days prior to that day that I had to use my glucagon, I actually finished all of my lifeguard courses. So everything was fresh in my mind what to do when helping someone that we don't know in the middle of the street. So that was actually very helpful,
Scott Benner 7:15
helpful because you had to kind of jump into action when you saw something. Tell me what you saw. This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes, and this is Aaron. My name
Aaron 7:27
is Aaron Suchi Tori. I'm from Honolulu, Hawaii. I was first diagnosed with type one diabetes when I was about one and a half years old, and I'm 25 years old today. Who helps you keep your balloon in the air? Gone through this journey together with my mom, who's been type one diabetic for most of her life as well. What else have you found supportive having really great friends and support systems in school, I was very lucky. I had some great roommates, especially my freshman year. We talked for like three hours. I was explaining every little thing you hear this beep. It means this, there would be times where he would wake me up in the middle of the night to make sure I was okay.
Scott Benner 8:03
How did it feel when people knew how to use your Medtronic technology?
Aaron 8:06
Great to know that I had people that had my back.
Scott Benner 8:09
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Speaker 1 9:44
Yeah. So I was supposed to just give out flyers to different restaurants and like buildings around the marina, just to let them know of what to expect for the next couple weeks. And on my way to the first restaurant, there was someone just. Laying on the on the sidewalk. His friend was right next to him, and he had a Coke, an open Coke, in his hand. I was like, what's what's going on? Can I help? Like, I'm a trained life guard. Like, can I help you? And he's like, Well, my friend here, like he wasn't feeling well. He asked me to go grab him some sugar. And when I came back, he was passed out. Was like, Oh, do you know anything about him? Was like, Well, yeah, he's got diabetes. Like, okay, so if he's passed out, he's got to have type one. And the friend really didn't have much knowledge of anything, he just said, Well, he's got the diabetes. He's got the diabetes. And I came back, he was passed out. So my office was only, I don't know, maybe 200 yards away, and so I was while talking to the guy, a few people came over and just asked for their help. One of them was also a first responder, but he was just, he didn't have anything on him, no materials or anything. He just had his knowledge in himself, basically. So I asked him to put the that guy on its side, so he would be safe by the so I could run back to my office, grab my meter, grab my glucagon for my bag and run back to him. I checked his blood sugar, and he was at zero, 49 oh, which is not that low, okay. I mean, two nights ago, I was at zero, 38 and I was fine, but it's not an example. Don't do that. It's not safe. Oh, zero, 49 I was not really shocked. It was just yeah, he was low. But he Well, he was he was passed out. So the first responder that was here right next to me. He was like, Okay, what? What do you want to do? I was like, Well, I've got the glucagon here. Gotta get that going. I remember that guy had very thick jeans on. He was pretty on the heavier side, and I couldn't go through his jeans with the needle, yeah. So I was like, well, just lift his shirts up. I'll just do it right in the belly, because that's the easiest spot I can access right now. So I had that big orange needle at that point. I didn't have, I'm not even sure the nasal spray was a thing at that point. So just, yeah, I
Scott Benner 12:14
don't think the nasal spray for sure, or the G VO, or G VO, K hypo, yeah,
Speaker 1 12:18
right, no, especially not in France. At that point, it was, I had the old school couple inches long needle. So I did that was the first time I used it was push the liquid in the powder, mix it up, put it back in the needle, and just stabbed him right in the belly and injected everything. And in the meantime, we have like 50 people around wondering what I'm doing to this guy. And
Scott Benner 12:45
remind everybody, too, you've only had diabetes for a year. At that point, you're basically you're 18 years old.
Speaker 1 12:50
I was, I was just 18, and, yeah, I had type one for a year. But with all of the knowledge that had gotten for the past weeks prior with my live call training, I was able to basically assess the situation, move people around, ask for help, like you do this, you do that, you make sure that he doesn't move. You make sure to call 911, and because we were in a spot with a lot of pedestrians, we could hear the sirens, but they were not getting any closer. We knew they were coming, but they were still way too far away to do and like do nothing. So I had to to act Yeah. So yeah, I did the glucagon shot in his belly and just waited for him to wake up. And it took a while. I was gonna
Scott Benner 13:36
say, How long did it take for him to respond?
Speaker 1 13:39
It took a good, I don't remember, but it was definitely not within seconds. It took a good, like, 10, maybe 15 minutes for him to fully, like, start waking up. Because he started waking up when the first responders got to
Scott Benner 13:55
me. He's not seizing or anything, right? He's just out. No, yeah, he
Speaker 1 13:59
was completely out, okay, not seizing anything. So I would just, yeah, he was still on his side. And what, what I had learned was just to basically have him, like, squeeze their hands and say, Hey, come on, wake up. Squeeze my hands and wake up. Come on, you'll be here. It's okay. And just keep talking to him to start waking him up. But it took a while. He was still out, when the firefighters got to us, and they took over from here, but the crazy thing was that they didn't have a meter, they got to the guy, and he was passed out. I had told them exactly what happened when I took the blood sugar. What was the blood sugar? And he just like, Okay, can you check his sugar again? Because we don't have anything, like, really, like, you're waiting on me a little nobody to just check his blood sugar.
Scott Benner 14:50
I've made Laura, apparently the savior of the town. Yeah, pretty much. Did you test his blood sugar again after you gave him the glucagon? Yeah,
Speaker 1 14:59
I did. He. Didn't know 100 at that point. So so it had gotten better, but he was still out, and he stopped, really slowly, started coming out of it with the firefighter, firefighter next to him, and yeah, he it. It took a good half hour, 45 minutes, of him just waking up before he could just come back to his senses and be able to talk to us. Did
Scott Benner 15:23
you get to speak to him? Yeah, I
Speaker 1 15:25
did. He came back, actually a few days later to look for me, but I was off that day, so I didn't get to actually meet him afterwards. But he came back and he wanted to just thank me for what I did, so it was pretty nice. But Yeah, unfortunately, I wasn't there. When he came back, what
Scott Benner 15:41
was the conversation like after he woke up? I mean, was he actually able to converse, or was he he
Speaker 1 15:46
was pretty out of it, but yeah, he was like, Oh, I wasn't feeling good. He remembered asking him his friend for some coke or whatnot, and but after that, he was like, I don't know. I just, I just fell Yeah, that's crazy. But yeah, so yeah, the firefighters asked me to check his blood sugar. He was completely fine. And the the firefighters asked his or someone around us to go grab a plate of pasta from the first restaurant we could, just to give him some calms.
Scott Benner 16:14
Did they take him with or did he stay on the street? He
Speaker 1 16:18
stayed well. We had brought some like, Sun covers and chairs and stuff for him to just sit down and relax for a minute. I do believe he did leave with the firefighters to go to the hospital afterwards. It's
Scott Benner 16:29
interesting. It's really something. Now you were, you feel like your lifeguard training because it had happened so close to this incident. You feel like you had a ton of, like, self confidence around this. Do you think you would have, yeah, do you think it would have been different for you had you not had the
Speaker 1 16:45
training? Oh, definitely. The part of the Hey, like, squeeze my hands. It's gonna be okay. Keep talking to me, and then just keep squeezing hands, like I kept just telling his name. Was like, Come on, let's go. It's time to wake up. Come on, we're here. Like we're helping you. Your friend is here, everything's gonna be okay, all of that, I would not have the confidence to to say that, or just even to act. I'm not sure I would be able to actually just jump in action in the middle of nowhere and just not knowing that person
Scott Benner 17:14
back then. How did you get your supplies, like, through private insurance.
Speaker 1 17:19
So France is nice. It's, everything's covered. So I just, I just go to my Endo. She writes me a prescription, and then, yeah, we have, we have a supplier. At that point, she was coming, just dropping everything off at my house every month.
Scott Benner 17:32
Okay, so you didn't have to explain. I used my glucagon on a stranger. No,
Speaker 1 17:37
I had, I think I, at that point, I had at least three or four in my house. And always one on me, always one in a fridge at home. And just yeah, one at my mom's, one at my dad's, and just travel with one at a time, every time. So
Scott Benner 17:52
I mean, obviously you're a person who has glucagon around. And, I mean, those kits aren't available anymore, but you still have some more modern glucagon now. Um,
Speaker 1 18:00
now, yes, I actually got the nasal spray. So I got my third one, so I now have one in my backpack, one at home, and one that's always like with my husband or whatnot. But now I switched to the nasal spray, and I've only used the big glucagon once, the big needle that was the one and only time I've used it.
Scott Benner 18:22
Did the incident that you just explained? Did it impact how you think about anything? Like, did it change your overall understanding of even your own health? Or, like, I'm trying to find out if it had any lasting impact on you, other than the kind of craziness of the moment? No,
Speaker 1 18:37
not really. It's just the fact that he was at zero 49 and out. And like, some people like, it's just how the body reacts, depending on the blood sugar, depending on, like, two different people can have two completely different reaction at zero 49 I could be completely okay. I'm like, Well, I'm just low. Let's just grab some candy and be good to go. But obviously, for him, that was way too low. So I'm thinking he was completely like not managing it correctly. And sometimes when you just run high for too long and get back into range, like I felt low if I was in orange, because my body was not used to having that much sugar anymore. So I think that may have happened for him. It's just It got a bit too low, and his body was not used to that at all.
Scott Benner 19:26
I mean, people have explained to me that I could pass out or have a seizure, but I didn't, like, really think it was gonna happen. But like, when you actually see it happen to somebody, does it make it, like, more real?
Speaker 1 19:37
Not really. No. You see I've, I've gotten very, very low. A couple years ago, down to zero 21 and three weeks later, I was at zero 20, and I was still functioning.
Scott Benner 19:50
How does that translate to to American standards, the zero 49
Speaker 1 19:57
trying to think, well, it's 49 or 20. Well, in minimals,
Scott Benner 20:01
yeah, in so you're saying that he was, he was 49 milliliters per deciliter. Yes, okay, okay, so I wanted to do it for people. So for other people, that'd be 2.7 in millimoles, just so people know, like I was trying to, like, be just and that's not, listen, 5049, I take your point like it's low, but it's interesting. I wonder how maybe accurate your test even was. I think
Speaker 1 20:27
it was pretty accurate, because, well, so the firefighters asked me to check again. So I had to check a second time, and, well, he had had some pasta and and I checked again, and he was a third time, and he was climbing up very quickly. He was in the 180s yeah, by the time, like, he was basically completely out of it, and just like, completely woken up and passed the low phase, yeah. But it was that that was the the meter I was using every single day, so I trusted it. So, yeah,
Scott Benner 21:02
it's just, it's very, it's just very, it's crazy, like that you were there and not somebody else who couldn't help Yeah, I know, yeah, especially if EMS was going to eventually arrive and say they didn't have a blood glucose meter. You got a thing like, what all
Speaker 1 21:16
you have done? Yeah. And so I still have a picture on my phone of just the day, of how it happened, and I have a picture of the firefighter chief that was there. And once we knew that the guy was going to be okay, he came to me, and he was like, Hey, thank you for what you did. Have you ever thought about becoming a firefighter? I was like, Yeah, but do I need to remind you, I have type one, and you're not allowing me to be an EMT? And he was like, oh,
Scott Benner 21:45
right, they wouldn't let you there. And we were living at the time. So
Speaker 1 21:50
I was the year I got diagnosed. I was in senior year of high school, and I wanted to become, I wanted to go into the Navy, the French Navy, and I got rejected because of type one, and it was exactly the same for them, like they wouldn't like physically speaking, they would not have been able to allow me to do that because of diabetes. Okay, now the laws have changed, so it's a bit different, but yeah, in 2017 2018 I would not have been able to become a firefighter and go in the navy or some kind of military in France or even become a cop. World Champion a few years ago in judo, like the martial art, was French type one world champion. She couldn't become a cop like that. There's something that's not that's not okay here, yeah,
Scott Benner 22:43
you would think that. I mean, it's pretty modern, especially with CGM now, right? Like, yeah, interesting decision, I guess. But
Speaker 1 22:50
yeah, I think the law has changed a few years ago, so now it's not a definite, no. It's more of a case by case basis, which is
Scott Benner 22:58
better, at least they're paying attention to it and letting some people through. Yeah, what did you end up doing for a living?
Speaker 1 23:04
When I finished high school, I did one month of university in Guadeloupe, and I said that was not for me. So I moved to Toronto, Canada for six months to learn English. After that, I went back home, and I was like, hmm, kind of bored. And so I moved to California to be an au pair, and that was in March of 2019, and I have not left since. But now you're in Utah. Did the family move? No. So I did one year in California, one year in Texas as an au pair. Then I got married. Well, went to university, got married, finished university late last December, and then we moved to Utah with my husband, and now we just bought a house a week ago. Congratulations.
Unknown Speaker 23:53
Oh yeah,
Scott Benner 23:55
what made you decide that going back to university was actually the right thing now you just feel more mature, ready? Or did you have
Speaker 1 24:02
any No, not at all. It's just I needed a visa to stay in the US. You got a degree so you could stay. Well, it mainly I needed a visa to stay then, yeah, eventually I got a degree from it. But I, yeah, I needed a visa, and I was not ready to get married at that point. So told him, I really like you, buddy, but I'm not gonna marry you right now. So let's find another way to stay here. So yeah, I gotta got another visa. And within that, those three and a half years I was in university, I we got married.
Scott Benner 24:32
Interesting. Do you use the degree now or no? Yeah, kind of
Speaker 1 24:35
it's I have a bachelor's in geography and French. I completely cheated my way through French. I'm not gonna
Scott Benner 24:41
lie, is it because you're a new French, you didn't really need to pay attention?
Speaker 1 24:45
Oh yeah, I was fully every single day. Uh, correcting my French professor, you
Scott Benner 24:52
must have been a lot of fun. Oh, gosh,
Unknown Speaker 24:53
she hated me.
Scott Benner 24:54
How about because you were an au pair for so long. You know, when you work in a bakery, you stop eating sweets like. When you're an au pair, does that make you want kids or not want kids?
Speaker 1 25:04
If you ask me, no, if you ask somebody else, they may say yes,
Scott Benner 25:07
but, but for you, no. Thank you.
Speaker 1 25:09
No. Thank you. I'm good. I like, I like the freedom of just being able to do what you want on a whim.
Scott Benner 25:17
Yeah, it doesn't really exist when you're raising kids. That's for
Unknown Speaker 25:20
sure. You would know something about that. No, no, there's
Scott Benner 25:22
a lot of just sitting here going, all right, well, let's all stay alive another day. Yeah, at
Speaker 1 25:26
that point, it's not just kids. It's kids with diabetes that is mainly scaring me right now. Oh, really, it's just I would hate myself if I had a kid with type one. Well, some at some point, would that develop type one, because I know it comes from me. So if I were to adopt a kid with type one, completely fine, because the kids are already here, and someone needs to take care of that kid, so I would be 100% for that. But having a kid on my own, and
Scott Benner 25:59
I know it's on me. If the kid has type, you don't want the guilt, the guilt that would come with it. Yep, yep.
Speaker 1 26:04
I would. I would really hate myself for that. What about this
Scott Benner 26:07
guy that stuck with you through the whole university thing and married you eventually? Does he want kids? He
Speaker 1 26:14
does, yes. So we gave ourselves five years since we got married to not think about it, because we just think we're too young, and honestly, we don't have the money for that. So yeah, we gave ourselves five years, and then reassess the situation in five years. Good, good for you.
Scott Benner 26:32
That's very adult. Because, I
Speaker 1 26:33
mean, I moved here in 2019, I was like, There's no way I'll get married. And five, four years later, I got married. So I know things change. It's just, I cannot think about that right now. You don't
Scott Benner 26:43
want to rush it. You're still, you're very young. Yeah, that's,
Unknown Speaker 26:47
that's what I think, too. So
Unknown Speaker 26:48
is he your
Speaker 1 26:49
age? He's, uh, two years older than he's definitely older
Scott Benner 26:53
because he was respond, he gives a mature when you told him to wait five years.
Speaker 1 26:58
Yeah, well, it's not like he really had a choice. Oh,
Scott Benner 27:02
I see. Well, it's no. I mean, you're so in sorcering, he couldn't possibly say no to you. Is that, right? No, we,
Speaker 1 27:10
he'd known since day one that I had told him I was not looking for kids. So he he's, he knows that, but yeah, we just, it's like there's no way it would happen right now, and we need to be in different situations. So if the situation arrives at some point where we have, well, now we just got a house, and once we have the financials in order, things will change and might be getting better at some point. And I don't know, genetics is going to be better, health insurance is going to be better, hopefully. Knock on wood. So that would
Scott Benner 27:44
be, well, good for you. I like that. You're taking your time. I listen. I just talked to some younger people, younger people. Oh, my God, I sound like I'm 95 years old. I spoke to some young folks the other day, what am I running for office? I was standing around with some people who were in their 20s, and they were asking questions about being a parent. And I was like, You will never be, like, ready for how much it costs? Like, it's a massive amount of money. It never stops, and you're gonna think about it 24/7 so and college is, like, if you're gonna send your kids to college one day, like, I mean, hopefully it's different 18 years from now, but right now, it's massively expensive. That even for the most, most inexpensive education, it's still incredibly expensive. You know?
Speaker 1 28:29
Yeah, I know I went through that not so long ago. So yeah, I remember making these payments in August and January of just well now I gotta eat rice and beans for a couple weeks because I ain't gonna buy anything else.
Scott Benner 28:41
Yeah, all the money's gone. I just sent it off to the French and geography degree that I got. Jesus, yeah, yeah, that's not
Speaker 1 28:51
I do use my geography degree a bit now, because I am working for no solar panel company and I'm doing a lot of scheduling, so it's a lot of, where do you live, and where is the crew around you, and how to make them get to your house on time. A little helpful, kind of nice,
Scott Benner 29:12
yeah, hey, do should I be getting solar panels? Should we be getting solar panels, or is it only financially viable for some people?
Speaker 1 29:19
Well, there are multiple, honestly, I'm part of the end of the process on the chain for solar panels. But once it gets to me, it is fully 100% useful, unless you cannot pay for it. Which would make it should have been, yeah? Well,
Scott Benner 29:37
what about earlier you just bought a house? Are you gonna put solar panels on
Speaker 1 29:41
it, that's the plan. Yeah, we have, we have a house and a detached garage, and the goal would be to put it on the detached garage, because it's not visible from the street, so it's less of an eyesore. But first we need to get a new roof on it. So that's another, like, few $1,000 to spend. And before we can get the panels on,
Scott Benner 30:01
what's the cost to put the panels up?
Speaker 1 30:04
It depends on how many panels you want on, if your roof may need some structural upgrades, if what type of panels you're getting, if you paying cash, or if you'll need financing. It depends on a lot of different things, but I've seen, I've seen some like this week you have a crew well down in Orlando, Florida, installing 76 panels on the roof. And that's a big one. Yeah, that's a big week long job.
Scott Benner 30:34
Will they make their money back? And how long does it take people to recoup their investment?
Speaker 1 30:39
That's a good idea. I have no idea, like we saw, some people have only a power bill of, I don't know, 80, $90 a month, right? So that the panels would cover 100% or even more. Sometimes, sometimes the family or the owners make more money than they spend, yeah, which is nice for them, but I've seen one today. The power bill was almost $1,500 a month, and I'm wondering what they're running in the house, because that's a lot of money.
Scott Benner 31:10
Yeah, they're growing weed in the basement, for sure, and those lights are just running and running. I hear what you're saying. So or a big, a big property perhaps,
Speaker 1 31:18
I just got a screenshot of the electric electricity bill. And I was like, whoa. Like, I need to Google that house, give me the address. And I was not able to get to that, but
Scott Benner 31:28
wow, $1,500 a month for electricity in a home.
Speaker 1 31:33
One of my crews has installed panels on a Holz barn, and it was, yeah, about 60 panels, I think, but it was just a flat roof that was just waiting to create power because it was here already. So it's just for some people, it's useful, especially if they live in a state that has pretty like a lot of sun. Some others decide to get panels. I'm like, yo. I don't know if that would make sense in your situation, but because
Scott Benner 32:01
on if you're having cloudy days, then you're not going to
Speaker 1 32:06
designers at the beginning of the process to get panels. Will they have a specific site, I guess that will give them the annual sun exposure form the the house in itself, and basically each side of the roof has a different exposure to the sun, so they are able to determine where would the panels be to get the most sunlight, and how many panels they would need in order to have closer to 100% offset. Yes, so it's kind of shitty fun. It's a fun process that
Scott Benner 32:39
sounds like it, but could it? Could solar panels cost somebody $10,000 could they cost them 50? Like, how does it fall?
Speaker 1 32:46
It goes, it goes from Yeah, 1015 for, like, a normal sized house, to Yeah, I've seen one $120,000 and it was just crazy. Like, why?
Scott Benner 32:59
Why are you doing that? Yeah, pretty
Unknown Speaker 33:01
much. Because, I
Scott Benner 33:02
mean, listen, if I'm paying $1,500 a month for electricity and I gotta pay $20,000 for the panels, then I say, I get my money back pretty fast. But if I gotta pay 60 and my electric Bill's $400 I mean, that it's gonna take,
Speaker 1 33:18
I know, and most people through financing, they have, well, they finance it for closer to 25 years, really. So in the end, per month, it's, I don't know, it could be $120 a month. So it's cheaper per month than their electricity bill, oh, but, but they still have to pay that for 20 years, 20 years, 25 years,
Scott Benner 33:42
I see, oh, I do see. So they stretch it out so far that it doesn't cost anything in the moment. And you the hope is that you save so much money that you cover the interest when it's over. Yep. Oh, so, okay, so if I was paying $200 a month for it, and I was paying and I was paying for 25 years. Is that what you just
Speaker 1 34:02
said? Yeah, most of them are 25 years, 300
Scott Benner 34:06
payments at $200 a piece is $60,000 Oh, no, I never thought so they can you get low interest loans for solar panels?
Speaker 1 34:15
Our company uses different loaners, basically that they have different like some have basically an 18 months delay. So the first 18 months they don't pay for their panels. They only start paying it after the 18th month after the institution. So that just gives them some time to recuperate from the whole thing interesting. And then they start paying in 18 months later. But some, it really depends on the on the financing that they decide, decide to use. But some pay cash, and then they're good to go.
Scott Benner 34:47
Okay, I'm gonna listen. I'm old, so you just said a loan term that I don't know that I'll outlive. It's like, I was like, so I'll be 83 when I pay for my solar panels. I don't, okay, I'll. So I think we're gonna move. So I wouldn't want to do it here.
Speaker 1 35:04
I know where you live, I think the state. I know the state where you live, and we are not in that state. So depending where you move, we might, if it's a new state, we might be in there. All
Scott Benner 35:13
right, I'll let you know I'm gonna move somewhere that doesn't have harsh state taxes, like those that I live in right now.
Speaker 1 35:18
Ah, that's actually getting better. Trust
Scott Benner 35:22
me, I'll save more money leaving this state than I will by getting solar panels ever in my life. My electric Bill's been going up and up and up over the last like 18 months,
Speaker 1 35:31
but you're having less and less people at home. Yeah, I
Scott Benner 35:35
did buy a chameleon, though it has a light on it. Do you think that's Do you think that's worth $100 a month in electricity? I don't think so, right?
Unknown Speaker 35:41
Were you able to find a name to you? I
Scott Benner 35:44
ended up calling. Yes, I did name them. I named so there's two. And I named the male Durbin, which is after the guy who bred him. And because that man, this is very boring for people, but that man bred a type of chameleon that is very difficult to breed. He did it for years, and he's stopping. And I thought it was, like, kind of respectful to name it after him, because I don't think he's going to breed anymore after that. Oh, that's nice. And then the other one, I called Big Mama.
Speaker 1 36:13
So I remember when you were asking people on on the Facebook group, or some names, and everything was type one related, and in the end, you just didn't even go that route.
Scott Benner 36:23
What am I gonna do? I'm gonna call a chameleon Bolus, like, age. I don't know. Why not? Can I be clear? Or I don't think a chameleon needs a name. I mean, I'm not talking to them. They're not like, They're not answering me. They certainly don't hear the name and go, Oh, I think he's talking to me. Like, so, you know, it's just so that you can refer to them as something. And so, you know, refer to them as, like, the kind of chameleon they are. Or one's a male, one's a female, say, the girl or the boy. Like, sometimes, but like, you know, I don't know, it's not like a dog. We yell his name. He's like, Oh, my God, the guy wants me, and it comes
Speaker 1 37:03
over. Oh, I know my husband's very good high school friend moved to U turn out so long ago, too. And he has, I don't even know, honestly, what it is. It's a big, very big lizard that has a blue tongue, but it's about like a foot long, okay? And his name is Jabba, from Jabba the Hutt,
Unknown Speaker 37:19
okay? Star
Unknown Speaker 37:20
Wars. Hold on a
Scott Benner 37:21
second. Let's see if we can figure out what kind of a lizard is a foot long and it has a blue tongue. Do we have any other diabetes stuff to talk about? Um,
Unknown Speaker 37:28
I don't, I don't know. Hold
Scott Benner 37:30
on a second. What type of lizard is about a foot long, it has a blue tongue.
Speaker 2 37:34
The lizard you're describing sounds like a blue tongued Skink. They are known for their distinctive blue tongues and can grow to about a foot in length. They are common in Australia and are popular as pets.
Scott Benner 37:46
All right, there it goes. Seems to be the answer. That's chat. GPT four. Oh, my new best friend. Yeah,
Speaker 1 37:51
I think that's what it is. I just Google it too, and it looks pretty much the same, yeah.
Scott Benner 37:55
No kidding. All right. Well, then we got it. Mine is not a blue tongue Skink, but I do have chameleons. I just, I really do like them. They're very relaxing, like, I don't know another way to say it. They move so slowly and so specifically and particularly that I find, I just find looking at them to be relaxing. So they're in here with me. And every once in a while, I turn around and I'm like, Oh, look, they are so chill. And like, it's gonna walk from there to there. It's gonna take, like, 20 minutes. And it doesn't care. It doesn't feel like, Oh, I haven't posted an episode today, or I didn't send out the newsletter, or I have to put up an Instagram post. It's just like, I'm gonna walk over there now it'll take about a half an hour. And I love being nice, huh? Oh, man, I want that so badly. My life is very frantic. So, yeah, anyway, I appreciate you coming on and giving me this glucagon story. Listen, between me and you and everyone listening, I started doing this is a two fold reason, right? Like, the first reason was I was doing these in person events, and the more I spoke to people, the more I realized people don't not just carry glucagon. They don't know what it is. And that freaked me out. And then, you know, I started working with jivo hypo pen, and you know, you're in a meeting with them. They buy ads for me. You talk to them, you ask them what their goals are, that kind of stuff, you know, and, and I was like, What's your biggest hurdle? And then they said the same thing. People don't know about glucagon. And I'm like, Get out of here. I'm like, That's what I think, too. I was like, you know, I talked to a lot of people, and I keep seeing that. So one day I said to them, I'm like, I'm gonna start doing like, you know, very well. May not be involved with you, like, you know, with with jivo. But I'm like, I'm gonna start doing these, like, glucagon stories. I want to hear about people using glucagon so that other people can hear the stories and think, yeah, you know, maybe I ought to get one of them.
Speaker 1 39:52
Because, well, actually, I met you in Austin last year, and at that point I didn't know what the name. Spray woods. Okay, so I was like, I did ask a question, like, what do you think would be good now? Because the glucagon I'm carrying right now is expired and I have no idea what to get. Yeah, that's what you told me about the nasal spray. So now that's what I
Scott Benner 40:16
have. It's perfect. There's the there's the back, back, send me the nasal spray. There's jivo glucagon, which is the the injection. And like, my daughter uses gvoke, you know, carries it. She's never actually used one, but she carries it, and it's everywhere, you know, like you said, there's one at home, there's one on your person, you know, she goes to school. There's one at school, like, you know, because, I mean, listen, it sucks, right? It sucks to buy something and then just throw it away. But I also think maybe it's like the greatest day of the year when you take your glucagon and toss it in the trash and open up a new one and think to yourself, Well, I'm so happy I didn't have to use that, you know. But if you get to the point like, imagine the guy in your story is walking along with his buddy, he gets woozy, and instead of going, Hey, go find a Coke, says to me, says to the guy, like, look, here's, you know, a pen like you need to hit me with, or maybe he could have done it himself. Even I just got done interviewing a woman, she's got a glucagon story that's crazy, like her, her co worker helped her. You know what? I mean, like she had set up, basically a delegate that she worked with explained it to her. She had an emergency. Somebody came over and helped her. And, you know, nice. You're not planning for something bad to happen. You're planning for if something happens. And I just makes a lot of sense to me. So yeah,
Speaker 1 41:28
I'm glad also now that on social media, people are not even not scared or ashamed to just be like, hey, look, I've got type one. That's, that's what my life is and a lot of people are just happy to see that they're not alone. Yeah, no,
Scott Benner 41:46
I agree. I think, you know, I think that sharing, you know, we're doing this thing. I don't know when this will come out, so this might mess everything up. But, like, I announced a cruise, right? Like, you know, I'm gonna go on a cruise, and you guys can all come. It's in June of 2025 it might be too late to buy tickets by the time you hear this. I have no idea. But point is, is that when I did it, I was like, oh, you know, it's like everything else I set out to do. I'm like, I think there's enough people who would be interested in coming. And, you know, we'll give talks on the cruise on like the sailing days and stuff, and people can vacation and meet each other and etc, and it'll be nice, but then you actually say it out into the world and watch people talk about it. And what they talk about, overwhelmingly, is getting to meet other people with type one diabetes. Oh, yeah. Like, that's really, the really exciting thing for them. Like, my kids can meet other kids. You know, I'm an adult. I want to meet other adults. Parents can meet adults who have been living with type one forever. And that's the thing that they are overwhelmingly excited about when I hear them talking about it. Well,
Speaker 1 42:46
that's exactly what happened to me. So I moved to Utah, what, six months ago now, and I met a girl whose twin sisters, Beyonce is type one, got diagnosed at 17, just like me. We're the exact same age now in the police force, and started so I got to meet him, and I was actually very nice to meet an adult with type one and also my age, because the only people that known were usually younger kids. He started sweat school, and on day one he had a very awful pump malfunction. Ended up in the ER with liver and heart condition due to the high blood sugar, and he was not able to treat it on time because he was getting himself incident, but the pump was just not giving it to him, and he didn't know. And so that's when I talked to him about the Omnipod, and he really wanted to now his insurance rejected it, so he switched his pump, and now he went from the libre to the Dexcom. And every time I get to talk to him, I kept see him now every week or so, and I just like we were laughing yesterday on Fourth of July. I was like, Hey, we're eating some very crappy food. How much insulin did you get? And I kind of just bother him, because he's just, it's actually fun. Like, he will bother me too. Like, hey, I hope you get enough incident for that, because your diabetes is not going to help you. Like, well, yeah, so it's actually nice to be able to just share, like, those little fun moments that would not be fun for my husband to hear that every single day, but it's actually nice to be able to share that, yeah, that's awesome. I even told him about podcast insulin. Please just
Scott Benner 44:23
talk about the podcast I did. All right, what else did you tell him about? It's fine.
Speaker 1 44:28
No, he had no idea that insulin could be like the I get. We both have the human log u1 100, but there's the u2 100 that exists because he uses about eight or 300 units every two days, okay, in his pump. And he was like, I cannot get the Omnipod because I I need more insulin, because the omnipot is only 200 units in each and I was like, Well, if you ask for the u2 100, it's it's more concentrated, so you need. Less incident to have the same effect. And he was like, what great idea blew his mind, yeah. But again, the insurance said no. So now that's another side of the problem,
Scott Benner 45:09
yeah, no different issue. Also, a GLP medication could maybe lower his needs too. Yeah.
Speaker 1 45:14
So he's well, he's doing much better. Like, when the first time I met him, he was very skinny and not using a lot of or not enough insulin, and was running very, very high, and since I've met him, yeah, he put on a lot of weight and looks way more healthy,
Scott Benner 45:32
well, healthier now, and he's using the right amount of insulin that he needs, yeah, but he
Speaker 1 45:37
had some other things running around with on top of diabetes, which was making his figuring things out a bit more complicated. But now, yeah, I think he's, I'm pretty sure he's also very happy to be able to just ask questions that he's not just asking his wife.
Scott Benner 45:53
No, I It's that's exactly what I take away from that, is that you meet this, you have a chance meeting with somebody, and look at how it benefited him just to be able to talk to somebody else about it and hear ideas that he hadn't heard before.
Speaker 1 46:07
We were on the actually, in the parade for Fourth of July, and he was like, Hey, I hope you have enough juice boxes for the both of us, because I don't have any. I'm like, Don't worry, I've got you like, if you need something, just tell me, I'll throw you one to you. And
Scott Benner 46:20
also bring Juicebox. Do you think maybe two little kids with diabetes on my cruise will end up married one day? I need to know the story. Then, when I have to keep this podcast going for like, 20 more years, because I'm going to want to hear those stories, can you imagine if I'm like, I'm like, 70, and I'm like, another episode is just my point, and I can barely get the words out because I'm old, and then I have two people come on and they're like, We met on your cruise in 2025 and I'll be like, That's crazy. That's what I want. I just want people to meet each other and to like, I'm just trying to imagine the comfort that would come from looking up and seeing a sea of people who have diabetes, right? Like, you get that real diabetes camp feeling, but in this cruise setting where you're just like, wow, like, everybody's just running around having a good time. They're swimming, they're dealing with what people are gonna their stuff's gonna fall off, and they're gonna have problems, then they're all gonna deal with it, and they're all gonna know how to like note. They're not gonna have to once explain themselves to anybody. I think that's really cool. That's
Speaker 1 47:20
That's what I like about this group of friends I've made here. It's just because they knew that one guy was type one. They didn't even have to just like, Yeah, another one. What? What now? So, yeah, we do. We do some games and stuff. And they're like, Well, we are not gonna put that drink for everybody, because two of them might not end up in the right piece of vibe at the end of the night if they drink it. So they just, they know that whenever we have a cookout at home, they Well, we're not gonna have just pure sugar. We're gonna have, yeah, sugar free juice. That's excellent.
Scott Benner 47:54
Hey, there's the guy you met. Does he carry glucagon?
Speaker 1 47:58
I showed him the nasal spray, and he had no idea what it was, so I do believe he has some. Now I don't know what it is, but because he's in the police force, like basically he was told, and he has very thorough checkups every so often to make sure that he still takes care of himself, which is pretty nice, good. But I also showed him those little test strips that we can put in the drink that turns brown if it has sugar. And his mind was completely blown away. And I love that thing. It saved me a few times. Just
Scott Benner 48:28
great. It's just great to be able to share things we see that's the kind of stuff like, you know, somebody said, like, what are some of the talks going to be like? And I said, it'll be like, there's going to be a talk for kids. Like, where you can, I'll be able to speak with kids and talk to them about questions they have, and, you know, make them understand where their parents are coming from, that kind of thing, which I think is important. But I even love this idea of sharing things that other people know about, that maybe everyone wouldn't know about, like, you're making me think that I should get like everyone to like I don't know, like, submit, like, here's, here's a I don't know a thing I use that's fantastic, or an overlay patch, or, like, a tip, or a trick, or something like that, and then let people talk about it in front of each other. Because what a quick way to dump a whole bunch of information on a lot of minds all at once. Actually, I'm going to make a note about that. That's such a nice idea.
Speaker 1 49:19
Okay? And when you do that, just give everybody a mic, or whoever talks, get it, get them, gets it, and make a podcast out of it. Well, listen, that seems like a lot of work,
Scott Benner 49:30
but I'll figure out a way to make it a podcast. Don't worry. Okay, all right. Well, Laura, I really appreciate you doing this and coming back again and sharing that story with me. It's, it's an exhilarating story of you just wandering down the street, all jacked up on like, I'm a lifeguard, I'm gonna save somebody, and then all of a sudden, you're like, oh my god, there's a person here to save, and no water, pretty
Speaker 1 49:47
much. The funny thing is, during that lifetime, lifestyle, not lifestyle, life guard training, we were obviously in the pool, and there was already a lifeguard at the pool, because. Is that was the requirements, I guess. And as soon as the guy saw that I had some kind of weird stuff on my skin that would potentially keep me alive, he was basically following me, like next to the pool, walking next to the pool, next to me, to make sure that if I would where to pass out, he could jump and save me. And I was like, buddy, I was training. I went to the friends championship in swimming. Like, I'm pretty sure if you follow the other guy next to me, you may have more chance in saving him than just walking next to me, because I'll be fine. It's not because I've got type one diabetes that I will pass out in the pool. So somebody
Scott Benner 50:40
saw that, and then you think they just sort of became like your guardian angel in their own
Speaker 1 50:45
Yeah, no. They were scared that I would pass out. Oh, and as soon as they saw me swimming like 100 yards or whatnot, they're like, Yeah, we should be good. So
Scott Benner 50:55
interesting. Why is that? Everybody's everyone's so interesting. Somebody said to me the other day, like, don't you run out of things to talk about? I'm like, Oh my God, no, are you not like, fascinated endlessly by people? And they're like, No. And I'm like, Oh, I am. I was like, I
Speaker 1 51:07
think in that situation, it's just that they didn't know, they didn't know much about diabetes. You can just know that. Yes, you can figure it out even if you swim in the water like it will be fine,
Scott Benner 51:18
but that's interesting. Oh, my God, all right. Well, thank you. How long were you a life card for? By the way,
Speaker 1 51:23
I actually never got to use my diploma because I moved to the US, and it's something that I would need to renew every year, but it was a fun experience. I have the knowledge. I don't have the actual like certificate because I have not renewed it, but I have the knowledge so
Scott Benner 51:40
always be useful. Maybe you can come on the cruise and be the lifeguard at the pool.
Unknown Speaker 51:44
Hey, there you go. Send me the details. All right.
Scott Benner 51:47
Thank you so much. I appreciate doing this absolutely. Take care.
The conversation you just heard was sponsored by Dexcom and the Dexcom g7 learn more and get started today at dexcom.com/juicebox, today, we heard from Aaron who will be participating in his own blue balloon challenge. Follow at Medtronic diabetes on Instagram and use the hashtag blue balloon challenge on social to see inspiring videos from Aaron Leah and other people like yourself living with diabetes. You can also join the challenge, make your own video, or get your support squad together and show how you're keeping your balloon in the air on top of everything else in life. Touched by type one sponsored this episode of The Juicebox podcast. Check them out at touched by type one.org on Instagram and Facebook. Give them a follow. Go check out what they're doing. They are helping people with type one diabetes in ways you just can't imagine. The Diabetes variable series from the Juicebox podcast goes over all the little things that affect your diabetes that you might not think about, travel and exercise to hydration and even trampolines. Juicebox podcast.com go up in the menu and click on diabetes variables. Hey kids, listen up. You've made it to the end of the podcast. You must have enjoyed it. You know what else you might enjoy? The private Facebook group for the Juicebox podcast. I know you're thinking, uh, Facebook, Scott, please. But no. Beautiful group, wonderful people, a fantastic community Juicebox podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook, of course, if you have type two, are you touched by diabetes in any way? You're absolutely welcome. It's a private group, so you'll have to answer a couple of questions before you come in, but make sure you're not a bot or an evildoer. Then you're on your way. You'll be part of the family. I can't thank you enough for listening. Please make sure you're subscribed, you're following in your audio app. I'll be back tomorrow with another episode of The Juicebox podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrong way recording.com, you.
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