#1446 Curious George
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Alisia, 20, with T1D since 8, rejected parental myths to lower A1C via an iLet pump amid weight, thyroid challenges.
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Scott Benner 00:00 Welcome back friends to another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.
Alicia 00:15 I'm Alicia. I am 20. Been diabetic for about 12 years. It'll be 12 years in January,
Scott Benner 00:23 nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan. When you place your first order for ag one with my link, you'll get five free travel packs and a free year supply of vitamin D drink, AG, one.com/juice box. Don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com All you have to do is use the offer code juice box at checkout. That's Juicebox at checkout to save 40% at cozy earth.com I'd love it if you would go to T 1d exchange.org/juicebox and take the survey. When you complete that survey, your answers are used to move type one diabetes research of all kinds. So if you'd like to help with type one research, but don't have time to go to a doctor or an investigation and you want to do something right there from your sofa. This is the way t 1d exchange.org/juice, box. It should not take you more than about 10 minutes. This episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. Learn more and get started today at contour. Next.com/juice, box. The episode you're listening to is sponsored by us. Med, us. Med.com/juice, box, or call 888-721-1514, you can get your diabetes testing supplies the same way we do from us. Med, I'm
Alicia 02:00 Alicia. Been diabetic for about 12 years. It'll be 12 years in January. How old are you? I am 20. Okay, all right. I've kind of dealt with diabetes practically on my own, because my family's more on the Hispanic side. They kind of are just trying to heal my diabetes with, like, the cinnamon tricks and medicine tricks, like herbal stuff. And I would take it. So, like,
Scott Benner 02:31 cultural stuff,
Alicia 02:33 yeah, so, like, they, they would tell me, you know, like, take, it's an herbal seed, and it's called Moringa. When they said that that cures diabetes and that it cured their friends diabetes, and most of their friends didn't specify that they were type two, right? So, like, my dad was like, No, take this and take that. And I took it, because I was a kid like, you know, they were mostly like, just trying to help me. So I I understood where they were coming from, until I hit the age of starting high school. Actually, I just kind of gave up on it. I really didn't take care of myself much. I was really frustrated. I want to be I wanted to be the teenager with hormones. I wanted to be, you know, like the, like, normal, like, without having to deal with diabetes. I wanted to eat a bag of chips with my friends because I would see them, you know, do it. Yeah, I was okay with it. And my mom didn't know half the time that I was doing it, until I got I had a cold. It usually started with, like, allergies and colds and headaches and stuff, and, um, freshman year, right before freshman year,
Scott Benner 03:43 Alicia, are you being attacked by a pack of hounds? What's going on?
Alicia 03:47 It's my dog. He barks at everything in the background. Oh,
Scott Benner 03:50 good. That'll be great for a podcast. That's good. Let me ask you a quick question before you keep going about this. I'm going back to you know, you're diagnosed the date, so you're pretty young. Obviously, you're alive still, so they gave you insulin, right? Yeah, but it was on you, though they weren't really paying any attention to it.
Alicia 04:08 It was more of they helped me with it until, kind of like they taught me to do it on my own. My mom would like send me to the bathroom. Hey, go take your insulin. So I kind of like, depend on myself to okay, they're sending me to do my insulin, but they're not really overseeing it, you know, oversee, yeah, overseeing the units. So there was a time where I would take, like, a few more units and stuff, and then my sugar would drop, and my mom didn't know why, okay? And then I would tell her, like, Hey, I did take a few more units than expected, because I, you know, we were with the family who was out of town, or whatever, so we would eat. We'd eat like out. Often, my parents really didn't consider the eating out affected my blood sugar more, because my, my family's from Mexico, so I. When eating out, we go to Mexican restaurants, and Mexican food doesn't have a lot of carbs. It has a lot of carbs, realizing, like, now I'm like, I should have spoken up about it, because I never, like, got the chance to explain, like, hey, maybe this is not a good choice for me. Yeah, I shouldn't be eating, like, a big plate of this, or a big plate of that,
Scott Benner 05:22 were you actually told that the food didn't have many carbs in it?
Alicia 05:25 Not really. When I was diagnosed in the hospital, they didn't really give a really well explanation, because my dad is not really fluent in English, okay? So to have a translator there, we really never had one. It was me trying to translate it. And
Scott Benner 05:43 as an eight year old for your parents, yeah, I barely really, as you're being diagnosed with Ivy, how long did they give you the cinnamon before they decided it wasn't going to work?
Alicia 05:52 They had me on my parents had me on cinnamon pills. Did cinnamon tea? Um, for about a few years. Actually, I was my godmother was trying to influence my mom to give me cinnamon pills and all these, you know, vitamins and Moringa pills and stuff. And Moringa pills, what is that? It's like a seed, but they would make it into powder and put it in pills for people who didn't like chewing the seed. Okay, you have to chew it. And it was a very bitter, bitter seed. And my dad was like, oh, you know, take this and take that, and it was never really a cure. So it's just like, no, like, I still have it. My
Scott Benner 06:32 question is, is, if your parents give you a Moringa pill, for example, which, by the way, is made from the leaves of the moringa tree, plant rich with nutrients, antioxidants and anti inflammatory compounds. It's often touted for its potential health benefits, including blood sugar regulation, anti inflammatory properties, high in antioxidants, lowers your cholesterol, rich in nutrients, and I think it's going to make you taller and prettier, too. It seems like it does a lot of things. They're giving this to you. You still need insulin. Like, is there a moment where somebody comes to you and goes, Hey, listen, the moringa pills are clearly not working, so we'll stop doing that now. Or do you
Alicia 07:05 know what I mean, it's so with me, I just kind of like I stopped them slowly on my own, because I was like, these are just not like, I still have to depend on so no matter what, these are not gonna work. They would sometimes regulate my sugar at the same time. I was taking it before a meal. So I was taking my insulin as well. So sometimes it would bring it a little bit lower, yeah,
Scott Benner 07:27 I was gonna ask you, do you not buy much? Instead of spiking to 300 Scott, I would spike to 275 it was a mirror, yeah? Like,
Alicia 07:35 like, it was, it was not by right, much,
Scott Benner 07:39 by the way, I don't doubt that there are, you know, supplements that people take that they see value from in a lot of different ways. But that's not type one diabetes. You see, you know, like, that's a different animal. You don't have type one diabetes. And just take a big dose of zinc and it goes away. But my confusion here is like, there's never once a moment where someone says to you, hey, I want to say out loud that the thing we told you to do is completely unnecessary, clearly not working. You don't have to do that. You just were left to regulate it on your own. The contour next gen blood glucose meter is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast, and it's entirely possible that it is less expensive in cash than you're paying right now for your meter through your insurance company. That's right. If you go to my link, contour, next.com/juicebox, you're going to find links to Walmart, Amazon, Walgreens, CVS, Rite, aid, Kroger and Meyer. You could be paying more right now through your insurance for your test strips and meter than you would pay through my link for the contour next gen and contour next test strips in cash. What am I saying? My link may be cheaper out of your pocket than you're paying right now, even with your insurance, and I don't know what meter you have right now, I can't say that, but what I can say for sure is that the contour next gen meter is accurate. It is reliable, and it is the meter that we've been using for years. Contour next.com/juice box. And if you already have a contour meter and you're buying test strips, doing so through the Juicebox Podcast link will help to support the show. 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 Arden's supplies to be refreshed, we get an email rolls up and in your inbox says, Hi, Arden, this is your friendly reorder email from us. Med. You open up the email. It's a big button that says, Click here to reorder, and you're done. Finally, somebody taking away a responsibility instead of adding one us. Med has done that for us. An email arrives. We click on a link, and the next thing you know, your. Products are at the front door. That simple, us, med.com/juice, box, or call 888-721-1514, I never have to wonder if Arden has enough supplies. I click on one link, I open up a box, I put this 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 Dexcom g7 they accept Medicare nationwide over 800 private insurers, and all you have to do to get started is call 888-721-1514. Or go to my link, us, med.com/juice, box, using that number or my link helps to support the production of the Juicebox Podcast.
Alicia 10:49 Yeah. So my dad would kind of just like, keep on telling me, hey, you know, take this and take that, and my dad's stubborn. I'm stubborn, he would tell me, and I'm just like, it's not it's not it's not gonna work. It's not gonna go through. Sometimes, there was times where he was like, hey, you know, like, maybe you should try this instead. And I'm like, I've explained so many times I have to depend on insulin for the rest of my life. I've talked to my doctors. I've told them, you know, the things you you have me take. And even my mom was like, yeah, the doctor said, you know, that's just not gonna work. And my dad's like, well, how does this person I'm like, because that person probably has pre diabetes or type two diabetes to where they're able to reverse it, you know, like, for me, it's not reversible, yeah.
Scott Benner 11:36 Also, if you can find me one person that told me that they had pre diabetes or type two diabetes, took cinnamon and more ring appeals, and it just went away magically. I would love to talk to them, right?
Alicia 11:49 So, like, it was just, it was very confusing,
Scott Benner 11:54 yeah, yeah. And you're, you're your little kid too. Like, that's the thing that, like, throws me off. It's cultural to some point, right? Because it's just gonna sound like I made this up. But years ago, I'm not making this up, by the way. Years ago, in a, like, a Walmart parking lot, I don't know how I met a person in a parking lot who, like, looked at me and like, said, Excuse me. And I said, Excuse me. And then she was like, Are you the guy from the like, she heard my voice and knew I was from a podcast, which was freaking weird. But, like, we started talking, and then she started telling me she's, like, my son has diabetes, type on diabetes, and I have a real struggle. My mom doesn't want him to have insulin. And she started telling me the story about, like, you know, I keep fighting for him to have insulin, but my mom doesn't want him to have it, and my ex's parents don't want him to have it, my ex doesn't want him to have it. And I'm like, I don't understand what you're telling me. And she said, Oh, I think it's an Hispanic thing. And I was like, okay, like, I didn't know. I mean, she was just sharing her story with me in a parking lot, but that's what she said. She said everyone in my family, they were all Hispanic. She said, everyone in my family just believes that we can, like, just get rid of it some other way,
Alicia 13:07 with herbs, with herbs or some type of seed. Yeah,
Scott Benner 13:13 I can never, I'll never forget this girl, because she was the only thing standing in between that kid dying and not dying, like, because right everyone around him didn't want him to have the the insulin anyway. Okay, so this is your life. It's not it's not going great. Are you managing with injections, pens and insulin pump?
Alicia 13:34 So I was managing with pens, and because I wasn't, I just kind of like, gave up the hormones, puberty, everything hit. I did fall into diabetes coma once, and the paramedics thought it was a overdose, because I did take ibuprofen for a headache.
Scott Benner 13:53 You thought you OD on ibuprofen? Yeah, I gotta get you away from the adults you're around.
Alicia 13:59 They took they took it as an overdose. They did it give me Narcan, because that I was practically already in DKA. So they were, you know, giving me CPR. My mom was freaking out. And once they arrived to the hospital, the nurses and the doctors gave the paramedics hell. They gave them how? Like, no tomorrow, yeah, and we're yelling at them, because they were like, No, this is not an overdose. This is diabetic coma. She is in diabetic coma. How do you guys like, not see like, her body is in in shock. Her body's trying to, trying to wake up and not waking up. What are you guys not seeing?
Scott Benner 14:40 They come into your home, your parents, the first thing they say Isn't she has type one diabetes, yeah,
Alicia 14:44 so that's what my mom said. My mom told them she is diabetic. She took some medicine for a headache. I just got back from the store because I went to go get her some tea. She wasn't feeling good, but you
Scott Benner 14:55 had a headache because your blood sugar was 700 or whatever. Yeah. How? How do you get there? How did did you stop taking care of yourself? No,
Alicia 15:03 so I when I was sick, I was trying to give insulin, and from my with my body, I've noticed is when I am sick, I cannot control my blood sugars, trying to give insulin, and it wasn't going down. And I was sleeping more than half the time without alarms. Okay, so just kind of waking up, checking my blood sugar, seeing it was how I give insulin, go back to bed. What
Scott Benner 15:25 kind of illness like, like a flu or a head cold, or what did you have? It
Alicia 15:29 was a cold that I had, and it was, from what my mom told me is, it was like a cold that I guess went around the house, because everybody was sick that week. So it was a it was a strong cold. My body just wasn't able to fight I guess because COVID, same thing happened to me. I didn't fall into DK because I called the ambulance myself and I told them in type one diabetic, I can't control my blood sugars. COVID is really taking over my body. At the moment, I need to go to the ER, and my family has COVID as well, so the whole house was in COVID. So ambulance came and they saw my blood sugars were just going up. I wasn't even eating. I was trying to just control it, and I couldn't. So when I first fell into DK, it was a very traumatizing moment. That's when I kind of was like, Okay, I need to get a hold of this. I need to take care of myself. My mom noticed that. She was like, Okay, I need to start watching her. My dad's a very busy, busy person, so half the time he's not home, and we've had those arguments like, maybe you should have stepped in, because I tell them, like, I see so many families on the type one juice box group, be so involved. I was like, you have to understand that herbs and and seeds are not going to cure it, right? What's going to help is you being involved. You checking on my blood sugars the way my mom was, because after that, she would wake up in the middle of the night because she heard my thing go off a few times, and she's like, Hey, what's your blood sugar? Is it low? Is it high? Correct? If it needs to, she'd even open my phone, because she's like, I know you're not going to check your phone. She's like, I know you're not going to wake up, so I'll check it for you. There was times where she even tried to, okay, so we're going to go here and eat, take your insulin before we leave the house, because by the time we get there, you know you're you'll be able to eat comfortably.
Scott Benner 17:29 She was reminding you to do these things throughout your life.
Alicia 17:32 Yeah. So throughout I was I was on pens because high school, she was constantly checking on me. She was constantly, uh, texting me and stuff. So she, she became more involved until I was like, okay, but she would try to, like, over push it. Sometimes. I'm like, Mom, there is a point, you know, there's a boundary of like, okay, I got this like, I understand you're trying to make sure, because I'm your daughter, and I know we had a very traumatizing situation and stuff, but there is a boundary,
Scott Benner 18:01 yeah? So let me make sure I understand the timeline correctly. You get sick, you go into DKA. That freaks your mom out. She gets more involved. Yeah, okay. Are you taking care of yourself at that point? Because earlier you said you kind of burned out during high school and stopped taking care of it. When was that?
Alicia 18:16 So that was right before freshman year. Was DK, high school. I was, like, trying to give insulin, but then enjoy all the snacks with my friends, and I'm like, having to give insulin again. So, like, my sugars were kind of like a roller coaster, and my a 1c was still high. It was at, I believe, a 10, okay, at the time.
Scott Benner 18:38 Can I ask, did you go to doctor's appointments regularly. Did your parents go with you? Yeah.
Alicia 18:42 So my mom would take me with and go with me. She was kind of like my voice at the doctor's appointment. Okay? And it was very difficult to communicate with the like the doctor myself. How come we would tell her, like, what I'd eat. We'd let her know what's going on with my life, stuff like that. So it was very not helpful. Yeah, it was because my mom would try to, like, communicate with her more than I would and stuff. And my doctor did, kind of, like, was like, oh, okay, you know, because my mom was involved. But you know, she wasn't with me all the time. So yeah, for me, like, sneaking little snacks here and there, not
Scott Benner 19:22 Bolus, sing for them, stuff like that. Let me enjoy it. What was your understanding of a, 10, a, 1c and what was your mom's understanding of it? My mom
Alicia 19:30 was like, Okay, we need to work on it more. She was like, Okay, give insulin this time and this time and this time. I've always had a difficulty with my ANC, until about two years ago. Okay, my UNC skyrocketed really high because I had um, two losses in my family. So very important people give
Scott Benner 19:55 me a second, somebody, somebody, people passed away. And then, yeah. Tell me how that affects your a one thing
Alicia 20:03 that affected me really, really difficult, because it was two of the most important people who who were in my life, my grandmother, who taught me how to cook and how to make meals and stuff like that. I didn't want to do anything. I kind of, and I was in my technically second senior year, because I had to take another year to graduate. I fell behind. I kind of just slapped Do
Scott Benner 20:33 you think that you were depressed? Do you think that your blood sugars were just so all over the place and high that you were cloudy? Do you think there was a mix of that happening? I think
Alicia 20:41 it was a mix. For me, I didn't want to do nothing. And then two weeks after that, we found out that my godfather went missing. And in Mexico, it's, it's, it's a lot different. So in Mexico when, when, you know, somebody went missing, you know, like something happened to them. For me, it was, I was just like, done. I was kind of like,
Scott Benner 21:03 did you ever know you were sad? Did you ever think about hurting yourself during that time? There
Alicia 21:08 was times where I just wanted to kind of give up, not like, hurt myself, but like, because I knew I was diabetic, I was just like, okay, maybe if I just stop the insulin, um, that'll fix it for me. Yeah,
Scott Benner 21:23 it wasn't like you just needed a break and you need to give something away. So you gave away, thinking about the diabetes to lessen your burden. It was more than that.
Alicia 21:33 It was, yeah, it was, it was more. It was, I just kind of wanted to give, give up on life, okay, not just like life, just like, not worried about anything my health. It was more worried about my family. My family was hurting. I was hurting right?
Scott Benner 21:48 So you had more to think about than you had space for Yeah, okay, and you kind of gave the diabetes away. Then you're like, Okay, I'm not gonna pay attention to this. This will be one less thing for me to do,
Alicia 21:59 yeah, and because my body was really kind of what my endo only was, my body was kind of already immune to a high, A, 1c, that my body was just kind of used to it kind of used to being
Scott Benner 22:13 high. That's the wrong word. I hope he didn't say immune.
Alicia 22:16 Well, not immune, but like, just being used to it, yeah, your body
Scott Benner 22:19 tries to adjust to the bad things happening to it so that you can feel better. But you know, what it ends up doing is you feel normal when your body is in trouble. And so, yeah, right, okay, just as long as the doctor didn't say you your body's immune to high blood sugars. Now, because I would just like, I'm gonna come take you away and like, adopt you if that happened to you? Okay, right? But two years ago, things changed for you. You started doing better, like, what happened that shifted you? So
Alicia 22:47 I did meet my boyfriend, and I was still kind of in the dark stage, and I was telling him, You know, I am diabetic. I haven't been taking care of myself. Not gonna lie to you, I was like, I'm gonna be completely honest, because I've seen diabetes pass away from not taking care of themselves. My auntie passed away from type one diabetes because she wasn't taking care of herself. She had a really high one, A, 1c her whole life, she passed away at the age of 40.
Scott Benner 23:17 Oh my gosh, this your mom's mom or your dad's mom, it was my mom's cousin. Why didn't they give her cinnamon? Do you think
Alicia 23:25 my mom's side of the family is not really Hispanic? They're Philippine my dad's side is the more Hispanic side to where, okay, they would tell us, like, take cinnamon. I got it. Came to the realization, though, my auntie did tell my dad, like, my son's diabetic, you know, I've tried to tell him to take cinnamon in it. It doesn't it doesn't help. My dad's like, oh, but, you know, it could help. And my Auntie's older than him, like, that's his older sister. And she was just like, No, just give up on it. Let her focus on insulin, and you focus on just supporting her because you're not helping.
Scott Benner 24:04 Um, Alicia, are you crying when you talk about your your life, or are you just, it's
Alicia 24:09 just realizing that I didn't take care of myself, kind of like a hit in the face, like I should have.
Scott Benner 24:15 Oh, well, you know, though, like, listen, you're young, so you don't let me. Let me try to help you a little bit here. I don't know if you know the term. I'll give you a couple. You can tell me which one you know, dumpster fire show. Have you heard these things? Yeah, okay, I like to say you started out. You didn't start it in a hole. They went to the bottom of the hole, dug another hole, threw you down in the sub basement of the hole, then threw the dirt over top of you, then threw a lot of cinnamon on top of you, and then said, let's see if you can climb out of the hole. And then you got out from under all from under all the dirt. You're like, oh my god, I'm still in a hole. And they were like, Yeah, let's see if you can get out of that. Now listen, deference to your parents, like, you know, if they didn't know, they didn't know, and cultural stuff can really, I mean, can really, really manipulate people. No one was helping you. And eight years old is too young to figure out how to take care of yourself with type one diabetes. 80s by yourself. So
Alicia 25:01 yeah, it was, you know, go ahead and take your insulin. And I'm like, Okay, so like, like, Yeah, they did teach me how to poke myself with syringes and stuff and whatnot. But then I was like, Okay, I'm still young. I'm still trying to adjust to it. Sure,
Scott Benner 25:16 there's a lot more to it than that. Yeah, definitely,
Alicia 25:19 living in a Hispanic home, there's a lot of things. Like, if you went to bed as a kid, you know, like Something's just not okay, or whatever, well, I'd get in trouble for it. Realizing that they didn't know I was diabetic yet. I threw up in my grandpa truck. We were in California. They didn't know I was diabetic yet. There was so many symptoms that they missed. We kind of like realize it now, like you guys missed that, you know, high blood sugar, a pee constantly, and because I was a little kid in a bed, wetting the bed was, like, something that happened, and you guys didn't really realize it, I got in trouble for it, right? Like, a really difficult situation, because I kind of like, make fun of my friends. Now I'm like, you know, I got in trouble for, like, technically, being a diabetic without you guys knowing I was diabetic. Are you mad at them? No, it was just more of like, paying attention would have really helped, because I feel like I was type one diabetic before I got diagnosed, and realizing, like, now I was just like, wow, I was type one diabetic for a while without them realizing it. I was wetting the bed, like, constantly. So it was, like, kind of confused about because I was like, why? Like, I'm trying to get up and wake up and I can't. And then when I threw up, I was just like, Why do I constantly feel sick? I was going to the bathroom locked in, and my mom was questioning it, but kind of just like, like, she'd question it, but then just forget about it, if that makes sense, yeah,
Scott Benner 26:48 there's no follow through, yeah, yeah. Like, you'd leave the appointment. She'd say, we have to do better. But then nothing actually happened after that, right?
Alicia 26:55 There was times like, it'd be like, a week or two or three weeks, like, okay, constantly, take your insulin, take your insulin, take your insulin, and then just after a while, you know, just stops. She wouldn't push as much and stuff. But also,
Scott Benner 27:08 just take your insulin. That's not actually valuable. It's just somebody bugging you to take take your insulin,
Alicia 27:15 take your medicine. Yeah. It's like telling somebody to take their medicine, yeah.
Scott Benner 27:19 Like, did you know why you had to? Like, let's go back a little bit. Did you understand what the insulin was doing? Did you understand how it worked? Or was it just as simple as like, Please count this young
Alicia 27:29 kid. I just knew that it was just gonna help me. Okay, I just knew that it was gonna help me live. Because the way that the doctors kind of explained it like as an eight year old, you think, huh? Like, what? What do I have now? Like,
Scott Benner 27:45 yeah, you understand it as a child. You're like, what is
Alicia 27:50 my body doing to me? You know, because you don't know your body at a young age. So for me, it was like, what?
Scott Benner 27:57 What's your level of understanding right? Now, of it like, and where did you get that understanding from? You meet the guy, it sounds like you felt guilty almost. You're like, look, you're gonna, if you're gonna like me, I should let you know I might die. That's what you did, right
Alicia 28:10 as a diabetic, because I didn't really comprehend everything until I did more research, until, because my auntie would even be like, oh, you know, there's medicines on the black market. No, no. She, she tried so hard, and I love her to this day because, you know, she, she does worry about my diabetes, but not in the same way as, like, because she's like, anti government type. So it was just more of like, I'm like, You don't understand. Like, I have to live with it. So when I explained to my work, and I was like, it's something I have, something I have to take before I eat, to help my pancreas live do its work, because my pancreas is not producing, so I have to take an insulin for it. He actually kind of like, looked into it. He's like, okay, he goes. Now I understand the difference. He goes because I thought maybe it was because of eating. And I was like, No, that's type two. I'm like, type two is more of you kind of just screwed yourself
Scott Benner 29:12 up. Type Two is insulin resistance of some kind, right? Yeah. So some, yeah. Listen, there are plenty of people who you know, have type two diabetes that you'd look at and they don't look like they eat an extra calorie all day long, and they have type two diabetes, right? It runs a spectrum of people who have it. It was just helpful enough, because that's how he thought of it, right? Like what he thought was, if someone says they have diabetes, that means they ate too much food and now they need right insulin,
Alicia 29:40 right? So that's what he kind of understood. I was like, no for me, I was diagnosed with it at a young age, and it can happen to anybody. I was like, in I have to make sure my portioning is proper and stuff like that. Because that's when I was kind of, like, looking into it more he was, he was supporting me. Who's asking me, Hey, what's a normal blood sugar? What's a high blood sugar? What's a low blood sugar? So I know to this day, like, even he knows, like the sounds. He knows every sound of everything. He's
Scott Benner 30:12 paying attention. He's doing what you asked your dad to do. Yeah.
Alicia 30:15 So he he's like, Okay, I know your blood sugar is high use. What is it at? Let me help you. He's like, go ahead and take your insulin. We'll go for a walk or make sure to drink plenty of water. He's looking out for you. He constantly was doing it, and I just, I felt like, Okay, if he's gonna help me, I need to help myself too.
Scott Benner 30:36 Alicia, is it fair to say that you just felt alone, and once you didn't feel alone anymore, it felt more doable. Yeah, okay, definitely. Let me ask you a different question. You listen to the podcast, right? Yes, okay, you know Jenny, you listen to any of the pro tip stuff or any of that? Yes, okay, in your mind, just make a scale in your head and put Jenny somewhere on the scale of understanding diabetes. Right now, if Jenny, let's put Jenny to 100. Okay, and let's say the scale goes from zero to 100 Where are you on that scale? Where's your boyfriend on that scale?
Alicia 31:07 So that's a we'll
Scott Benner 31:11 make your dad zero. Your boyfriend 100 where do you fit?
Alicia 31:14 I put myself maybe at a 75 okay,
Scott Benner 31:18 by the way, people should know Alicia, and you should know too that for reasons that I can't quite understand, I'm holding my hands apart, making a scale, even though no one can see me. Why am I doing that? All right, I'm gonna stop. Don't stop doing that now. Okay, so you're just why it was I doing that? Are you at a 75 where
Alicia 31:36 do you put your boyfriend, like, right next to me? Probably, like a 74 so
Scott Benner 31:40 you and he kind of have a similar understanding of it at this point. Yeah, so Okay,
Alicia 31:44 he's gone to doctor's appointments with me. He sat there. He's asked questions. He's a Curious George. He's a Curious George definitely, because he's asked the doctors, like, what can I do to prevent her from going high, because stress has affected my blood sugars a lot. So he's like, What can I prevent her from, like, trying to stress out or trying to freak out, because I don't want her to go to a high blood sugar because I'm
Scott Benner 32:14 a mean diabetic. Because you're mean when your blood sugar gets high, I am so mean. Um, he's not curious, George. He's scared, George, actually, yeah, I just want to say, Alicia, had you said curious Jorge, we would have had a title for the episode. But no, it's okay.
Alicia 32:29 That even works too, because he's like, and when she's low, she is shaky and she feels lightheaded and stuff, and she feels like she's like a person I don't recognize. You've been with
Scott Benner 32:41 this guy two years now, right? Yeah, okay, in those last two years, you've gotten the eyelet though, when did that happen? So the
Alicia 32:48 eyelet happened about, I want to say, 10 months.
Scott Benner 32:52 Okay, let me make sure I understand. A couple of years ago, you start dating someone. You think I'm going to do better for myself. You go out, you try to learn more then, right? And you're at that point, your a 1c is in the 10s or greater. So
Alicia 33:04 it spiked, and then it went down to about a 12,
Scott Benner 33:08 okay, when over a 12 came back to a 12, you try to figure things out six months later. So 18 months ago, before the islet, where's your a 1c so
Alicia 33:17 before the islet, it was that 12 okay? Because it was, we were trying to work with it, with the just the insulin pen, and there was times where I was just because I was working in a very difficult area, where they didn't understand my diabetes either. My job was very questionable, like, why I'd go to the bathroom to go get my insulin often? Because I worked in a kitchen for two and a half years, it was very Why do you need to go constantly to the bathroom to go get insulin? Well, because, you know, my body depends on it. My blood sugar is running high, so I have to make sure that it is controlled. They weren't so supportive of, like, because I did the Omnipod for a little bit, they weren't supportive of it. They're like, um, why do you have that on and why are you so like, you got a lot like, customers about it. Because customers did ask. They were like, Oh, what's that on your arm? How is that working for you? They were curious about everything. So I'd explain to them, like, in the simplest way. And they were just like, Why do you have to explain to everybody what it is and and very difficult with me. So I was just like, you guys don't understand my health is more important than this job.
Scott Benner 34:33 Can I ask a question here? I know you're young still and everything, and it's you got a crappy start with all this, and you're you're getting it together. But how does a person forget you for a second? I can't wrap my head around having a 12, A, 1c, like, Were your settings wrong? Were you using not nearly enough basal insulin? Was your carb ratio way off? Like, How was that possible with
Alicia 34:55 mine, they had my carb ratio one unit per five carbs. Okay? And I would give the insulin, so I'd give it about 15 minutes earlier than when I would have to eat. Sometimes it was, like, right before I would eat, because we didn't have a lunch break half the time at work, okay, I didn't know, like, the next time I was gonna pretty much eat, it would still spike after I gave my insulin. How much basal were you taking then? For like the Lattis, it was 54 units. She had me up. You
Scott Benner 35:25 were using 54 at least. If I ask your weight, are you comfortable answering?
Alicia 35:30 Yes, go. So I was at a weight of one, 170, okay. When I was doing the 54 units, and I gained quite a bit of weight, trying to take care of myself, trying to get my ANC down. I tried to cut out, like, the carbs more, and try to just, you know, like, limit my carbs, because my sugar was still going high. Recently, about six months ago, I found out that I could be insulin resistant as well.
Scott Benner 36:05 Well, yeah, hey, Alicia, thank God I didn't have to bring this up, because, yeah, rough math on basal insulin at your weight puts you somewhere between like 31 and 39 units a day, and you're using way more than that, and having an A 1c in the twelves. And, I mean, and you're a one for five carb ratios. I mean, it's pretty heavy, you know what? I mean? So, like, it's not like they were way off on that. So somebody finally, I mean, listen, does this story end with you getting a GLP medication? Because it feels like this is where this is going, or no,
Alicia 36:35 right now, I'm on the pump. I've been on the pump for a little bit. My a 1c dropped from a 12 to a nine.
Scott Benner 36:41 That's on the the eyelet took you from a 12 to a nine. So what
Alicia 36:45 happened at first was the they put me on the islet, which, it works great. It works wonders. I'm a full time college student. I'm a full time worker. So both of those were just like, because I got a new Endo, and she completely changed everything for me. She's like, No, she's like, you're insulin resistant. She's like, for your insulin, you you take insulin and you're still high. Yeah, she was, and they had you at a 54 unit, the one that's that used to be my endo is now above her, and she's like, how do you let Alicia, you know, get to a high ANC like this, because I have her out of nine right now they, they kind of like, did comparison? Like, I dropped her for a 1c because I put her on a pump, and she's like, Oh, I tried putting her on her pump, and I was like, You pushed me to do an Omnipod, which obviously didn't work, because I'd have to switch out the pump within a day and a half, I was
Scott Benner 37:42 gonna say you were using up too much insulin. Yeah, did you say your mom's side is Peruvian? No, they are Filipino, Filipino. Okay. I mean, between that and Mexican, you can't be more than five 3am. I Right?
Alicia 37:53 Yeah, I am five. But exactly, yeah, it was good. Okay, all
Scott Benner 37:57 right. So, yeah, you didn't have, like, the hype gene on your side is what I was getting at. So you're using that amount of insulin. You're having that outcome. Something about getting on the eyelet, changing your your settings is making a dent in it for you, but it is not but you're also gaining weight using more insulin, right? So, yeah, is it fair to say that you are you taking in more calories a day than you need.
Alicia 38:21 Like, as a young kid, I didn't focus on that, and I just focused it on the car, focus on the carbs and the sugars. Now me and my boyfriend, are we? We kind of, like, realized this, like, a year in. We're like, wow, like, the calories kind of do make a because he would eat out a lot, yeah. Now he okay, maybe we should stay. And he goes, I don't want your blood sugar going high. So we kind of noticed, like, it is a big difference, because my boyfriend has gained weight as well. Yeah. He goes, it's because, you know, I'd eat out, and now that I'm like eating in with you, and we're cooking healthier meals, and sometimes we do, like lunch out on the weekends, we noticed the calorie difference, and we noticed the weight because we both got told, like, you guys have gained so much weight, and it's like, well, he gained weight because of relationship. I gained weight because the insulin.
Scott Benner 39:10 I'm making that boy happy, and that's why he's getting fat. Okay, yeah, it's
Alicia 39:15 a huge difference. So with the calories, we kind of just were like, we noticed, and we're like that. Like, damn. Like, this is, this is a lot.
Scott Benner 39:24 Are you excited to have figured out a thing that cult that that may be culturally but definitely familiarly You Didn't Know About right? Like, so,
Alicia 39:32 oh yeah. Definitely, it was like, Uh, I wish I could tell my parents. Like, Hey you. You guys know that y'all never really cured me.
Scott Benner 39:43 But like, Listen, I'm not cured, and you didn't teach me how to eat for damn sure. What did you guys do exactly? Also, I'm working full time while I'm in college. I don't feel like anybody's really covering my ass here. But no, seriously, like, now you have, you have a different idea of the world, like, you have a different idea of, like, how to fuel yourself and, like, what. Many calories. Listen, I'm going to tell you like I just looked online to get a window. If you're an active person at your height and weight, you need maybe 1800 2000 calories a day. And if you don't do much exercise, you're more like 1400 or 1500 and big difference. Oh, well, yeah. I mean, just track your calories for one day to get an idea of what's in what you're eating, right? It could be startling. It could be a lot different than you think. If you put yourself on some sort of a, I don't know, whatever, like you know, if you put yourself on some sort of a regimented system that got you around the caloric intake that you that you needed, I don't know what you actually need, you'll find out, but when you dial it back to a number where you start going backwards with your weight, you'll know that you're in a bit of a caloric deficit, and then you know you're gonna start losing weight for being in that deficit. Yeah, yeah. And then you will, like, Listen, you will 100% use less insulin as you lose weight.
Alicia 40:54 So I switched insurances currently, and now they're not wanting to cover so my my endo put me on trulicity right now, okay, to see how it affects my weight and affects my blood blood sugars, just like this week I found out that they don't want to cover it.
Scott Benner 41:15 Oh, I started getting so excited. I was like, Oh, this is good. We'll see how this goes. Like, yeah, so I want you on ozempic. Or, like, Well, they'd give you we go v, if your insurance covers GLP medication, you will qualify for your weight, right? You could go back to your doctor and say, Hey, I'd like to take step bound. Or we go V based on my body mass index. And can you please? Like, don't even mention my diabetes, just that. That's what I want to see. And if your insurance covers it, you're going to get it right. Yeah.
Alicia 41:44 So, because I was looking into it and stuff, and I noticed trulicity depends on your body weight, and it depends on because it said max weight you lose is 10 pounds. I was like, that's my time. You're like, much? You're like, Great, yeah, it's gonna help me a little bit, but it's not gonna help me, right, completely, like, I need it to, because right now, currently, I'm over 200 pounds, like, the pump, she was like, oh, you know, put in that, you have to take a meal, and it'll cover your insulin. And so when I was doing that, it, it would last me a day. And I was like, 160 something units is not gonna that's gonna make it worse for me. She was like, oh, you know, she said, explained it as, like, a small reset on my eyelet. And I was like, it's not a small reset, because it's gonna get used to giving me that 160 units a day. She wants
Scott Benner 42:39 you to push more insulin so that the pump starts to try to use more insulin, because she thinks that'll keep your blood sugar down. I'm going to tell you I I wouldn't think about it that way. I would think about it, yeah, like food. I mean, I would wonder, have you ever had your thyroid check too? Yeah.
Alicia 42:54 So she checked my thyroid right away when she first became my endo and my thyroids are abnormal, just by a bit. And they put me on medication for they gave you, like, Synthroid, yeah, okay, and then they were normalized. She said that everything was fine with my thyroid. You stayed
Scott Benner 43:15 on it, though, right. No, oh, hold on, if the medication fixed, it doesn't give in the medication away. Medication away, put it back again.
Alicia 43:24 She put it as like, 90 day supply, and just until my next appointment. Pretty much, because my my appointments are every three months. Okay? And this was my with my old Endo. This isn't the new doctor, yeah, okay. The new endo checked my thyroid again and it looked normal. Did you tell her? That's
Scott Benner 43:41 because you just got done taking the medication for 90 days? I
Alicia 43:43 told her. I was like, Well, I was on a medication before it, but she had me stop it because I guess it was not needed anymore. She's like, well, your thyroid came back normal, which I don't understand, because thyroid runs in my family. Yeah, quite bad.
Scott Benner 44:00 At least listen, here's what you need to do. Just scream and run in a different direction till you until you've gone as far as you can, and start over again in another place. I don't know what to say. I've
Alicia 44:10 been back and forth with because this is the general hospital in New Mexico. So it was very, very difficult, because now that I'm on the Blue Cross, they don't want to cover my sense. My sensor. They don't want to cover your CGM, yeah, so thank God I have, you know, test chips in a meter. But I'm like, where's this
Scott Benner 44:30 insurance coming from? Who you getting it through Blue Cross and Blue Shield? Yeah? But why? Like, through your job, or through someone else's job, or,
Alicia 44:37 no, my, my mom has me under her Medicaid.
Scott Benner 44:41 Okay? Well, Medicaid should definitely cover a CGM.
Alicia 44:45 So I was like, Wait, what
Scott Benner 44:49 the I'm almost cursed. Tracy. Hold on a second. Hold on a second. You gotta teach me. You gotta teach me some Spanish curse words so I can get away with them. Hold on a second here,
Alicia 44:59 because. Was, I was, I was with my boyfriend yesterday, and I was like, they're not covering so I opened the mails like, they're not covering the trula city anymore, because I'm supposedly not type two diabetic. They stopped covering the Dexcom g6 and I was like, This is my thing to monitor my blood sugars constantly for a reason, because we're
Scott Benner 45:20 not giving that away. Because, by the way, your CGM, your your your pump needs it
Alicia 45:25 exactly. So I was just like, what? So I tried calling yesterday, and they're like, Oh, I tried calling in the pharmacist yesterday, and she's like, your insurance is not wanting to cover it, so we're trying to talk to your doctor to see why it's not being covered and stuff. And I was like, this is something that I need. This is not like my pump relies on my Dexcom. Without my pump, I can't wear my pump, and then you guys can't kill my insulin. What's gonna happen then,
Scott Benner 45:56 yeah, you can't say my pump is covered. If the pump needs the CGM, if the pumps covered, then the CGM is covered. Like Boy, I'll tell you what thinking is not people's strong suit. Okay, so here's what I've learned using the internet a little bit. So Medicaid should cover CGMS. That shouldn't be an issue. Medicaid Part B covers therapeutic CGM like Dexcom g6 FreeStyle Libre under specific conditions, beneficiaries with type one or type two diabetes. Who have need for insulin dose daily and regular blood sugar testing requirements are often eligible. There's no way you shouldn't be able to get your CGM. And then Medicare Medicaid coverage for GLP medications for weight management such as ozempic and we go vary by state. I try to figure out if New Mexico was covered. It says Medicaid offers limited coverage for GLP medications, specifically for weight management, that's perfect. That's what you need. So however, this coverage often has conditions including prior authorization and verification of other weight loss efforts. Okay, well, we can get a doctor to say that there have been other weight loss effort like it should take one motivated physician with a pen and three brain cells to make sure that you have CGM and a GLP medication, right? Yeah. So
Alicia 47:04 with that, I was, I was very like, you guys are joking, right? Because this is ridiculous. I've had my sensors covered. I've never had an issue, and we just switched to Blue Cross and Blue Shield because they said that they cover more. I believe this is like a few to your face right now, because I've had this covered my whole life, so I shouldn't have an issue with it.
Scott Benner 47:28 I just want to be clear, you can't afford this stuff in cash, right? No, okay,
Alicia 47:32 it is I work at work at a Walmart. It is not. That's where I met that lady, and it's in and I'm in college, so paying for textbooks is already a struggle, yeah, and paying for other stuff, and to be driving to a far campus right now is is a struggle. What are you studying? I'm studying Pharmacy Tech, so, like, realizing, like, everything. I'm like, Okay, I'm not gonna, like, yell at the pharmacist, because it's not their fault, but it's also like, have this comfortable life, this not
Scott Benner 48:05 be an issue. Yeah, you need the doctor to come to your rescue here and to set this up for you properly, right?
Alicia 48:10 So I was just like, I was explaining, like, insulin by itself is so expensive. I've seen people struggle buying insulin here in New Mexico, the Dexcom alone is $300 where am I going to pull $300
Scott Benner 48:25 from? Would your parents be helpful or no, my mom
Alicia 48:29 told me, you know, for right now, if anything depend on on the the test strips and the meter, she goes, but we should be fighting this. We shouldn't be having to pay for something that, if
Scott Benner 48:41 it should be covered, it should be covered. Yeah, we
Alicia 48:44 were so just irritated this morning, because we're like, ridiculous, and then to be on the phone and wait and wait for somebody to answer. I was already irritated. I was like, You guys are just messing with my mind. And then for my endos office, it's more of we have to leave a message, and then they'll get back to us. I'm like, This is an emergency here. Yeah? Like, yeah, right. Just asking a question. This is more of my health at this point matters, because what if they don't even want to cover my insulin? Yeah? Because
Scott Benner 49:17 now you're worried that everything's going to go away. At least listen, between you and I, your doctor's office should see your weight as an emergency. It should see your insulin uses as an emergency. It should see that the CGM not being covered as an emergency. They should not be putting you on trulicity. They should be trying. There are clear medications in the world that work great for this. Or I've lost 52 pounds in the last year and a half, right? I know people who have lost 85 pounds. I know people who have lost 70 pounds. I know people have lost 100 pounds. Like, there's a world where, if you could get on this, this medication, it would listen, it's going to slow down your hunger, like, probably significantly, which is going to curb your it's going to curb your appetite. You. It's gonna you're gonna take in fewer calories, you take in fewer calories. You're gonna lose weight, you take in fewer calories, you're gonna take in fewer carbs. You're gonna need less insulin as you lose weight, you'll need less and less insulin. You keep it, you know, the eyelet, you know, hopefully can kind of keep up with that. You know that adjustment as you lose weight. And there's just no reason why. Literally, six months from now, you couldn't be, my God, you probably could be 40 pounds lighter six months from now, and on your way to doing something using a lot less insulin. Your a 1c would probably be down into this, you know, you would imagine the two sevens at that point, and you could be in a completely different situation.
Alicia 50:36 I've been dreaming of, like, yeah, since I realized, like, I really want to get to a seven. I've seen so many diabetes happy, more of like, a an excitement. For me, it's just like, Okay, I'm at a nine. I still gotta go down. Yeah,
Scott Benner 50:50 well, I want to say this, going from a 12 to a nine is pretty awesome, like, short term, if that is fantastic. I cried.
Alicia 50:57 I cried like a little girl, because I was like, finally. Like, I begged for this pretty much, I've, I fought for it, so, like, for me, like, even my boyfriend was like, Oh my gosh. Like, holy crap. Like, you, you did it yourself. Did you
Scott Benner 51:11 ever try, like, a low carb lifestyle?
Alicia 51:14 Yes, I've, uh, I went on pretty much the kind of like veggie, light protein type diet. So it was consist of, like, broccoli, carrots, small amount of carrots, because I realized I was like, Oh my gosh, like these even have carbs, like this is ridiculous, celery, brussel sprouts, stuff like that.
Scott Benner 51:37 What about protein like animal meat proteins like chicken, yeah, beef, fish.
Alicia 51:42 We're not too much on the, like, red meat side, because my mom did get diagnosed with heart failure last year, okay, and it was due to, like, smoking cigarettes, and she did have a high blood pressure, and it runs through the family, so she had that for quite some time. Well,
Scott Benner 52:00 that's even another reason to help you, because, I mean, we could easily pull together a couple of articles about GLP medications, lowering heart attacks, strokes. So
Alicia 52:10 that's what I explained to my end of because my mom went on the off brand of ozempic,
Scott Benner 52:20 okay, like she listened to your aunt, but on the black market, what are we talking about?
Alicia 52:24 No, so she she talked to a doctor because she was diagnosed with heart failure and she had high blood pressure, and it was very difficult for her to lose the weight. So when she spoke to the doctor about getting the weight loss medication, they gave it to her. But she does have to pay out of pocket. She has to pay, I'm not mistaken about 175 for the medication, and she's lost a ton of weight, good, okay, for her ton of weight, she's moving around more. She's, you know, she's healthier. Her appetite has gone down almost completely. So I was like, okay, you know, that's something I want to speak to my doctor. Because I tried the gym. I was working out about five times a week. I was on the treadmill. I was trying to, you know, try to just lose the weight somehow, some way, because I always struggled with it, but because I was taking care of myself, and the insulin just kept on going. The scale did not move. It moved like, maybe three pounds, and that was about it. And I was so irritated, because when I first got out of my doctor's appointment with the weight of about two something, I was like, Okay, let me go to the gym. I didn't weigh myself until another three months, and it only moved a few pounds down, yeah. So it's like, something is wrong. And that's when my new end was like, Yeah, you have insulin resistance. You need a medication. She's like, I'm not for sure gonna give that to you yet, because I want to see how your sugars are. And I'm your new Endo. I do have all your, like, old paperwork, but we need to see what's going on.
Scott Benner 54:02 Yeah, tell her I said, and I'm nobody, but tell her I said that, let's go. Okay,
Alicia 54:07 right? So I was kind of like, okay, you know, wait, my mom's like, No, you need to go on a weight loss injection, like, something that can help you forget the whole insulin resistance thing, because that's what your body's really like.
Scott Benner 54:21 You're fighting too many battles. At the moment, I don't think you're gonna over. You're not gonna be able to overcome all the things. Like, even if you work out like crazy, eat ultra low calorie, you know, low carb, like, on a line, you know, with a with a site on trying to lose weight and trying to get down. You know, your insulin needs. You know, insulin resistance comes with fat, like, it just that's part of it, like, so you're just, you're kind of behind the eight ball. Now you need something to kind of boost it, yeah, give you a little help. Yeah.
Alicia 54:49 So I was just like, this is not working. This is just, so when I went in for my last appointment, I told them, I need a weight loss. I need something, because this is not helping. Yeah? This is not helping at all. I was like, I've tried, tried losing weight. I've tried going on just like a no carb for like, constantly, like, like, I would do, like no carbs, pretty much I do, like, Max, maybe 15 carbs out of the day, right? My body, it felt great, but it felt still horrible, because my sugars are still moving like a roller coaster. And I was like, I haven't even eaten that many carbs today, like, so it was just a lot. And I was just like, I need something. And so she put me on the trulicity. And then instead of nowhere, I was like, where's my trulicity? It's not coming yet. And
Scott Benner 55:35 then they tell you, that's no good. Listen, the Trulicity is a nice idea, but it's not gonna, it's not gonna make a dent in your situation that big, yeah,
Alicia 55:42 when I realized, like, I looked it up, and I was like, What's side effects? Just to, like, kind of prepare myself, the max weight is, like, 10 pounds. Like they, they really put me on this, even if it
Scott Benner 55:52 would help me out. You need something to help you with a number of different things, like with the insulin resistance, hormonal stuff, you know, as you gain fat, excess fat, like that, visceral fat, around like they people get around their stomachs. Like it interferes with insulin signaling pathways. I'm not real good at all this like, but like, it increases, like, an inflammatory response. It increases insulin resistance in a number of different ways, and it's not something that's just gonna, like, magically go away. You're not like I mentioned it earlier, right? Like no one taught you how to eat growing up. They didn't teach you how to take care of your diabetes, right? And now this is what's happened, right? And now you're paying attention to it, and you're, you know, as an adult, you educated yourself, and you're trying to learn more. There's nothing wrong with giving you a boost here. Also, I don't understand the thyroid medication thing. Like, if your TSH was elevated enough that the bad doctor thought to give you the thyroid medication. Well, my God, you know what I mean, because that doctor didn't, didn't understand much, my guess is your TSH was really high, if they saw that and was like, Here, take medication. So then, great, the medication works. You need to stay on it to keep it down again. I'm gonna guess if you go back for blood work right now, your TSH is high again, and that's probably another reason why you're having trouble losing weight, right? Yeah, also, that makes using insulin more difficult, too, by the way, yeah,
Alicia 57:10 because I explained to them, like, the high blood pressure thyroids, type one diabetes does run in the family. Yeah. I explained to them, maybe I was like, could it be my thyroids? Because my mom's on thyroid medication, right? I was like, and she's been on thyroid medication for a year now, because they noticed her thyroids were high.
Scott Benner 57:30 Yeah, Alicia, can I say if I was you, or if you were my kid, I'd go with you to the doctor, and I'd be like, I know she's 20, but I'm here. And then that would be that. And then I would say, I want her labs redrawn. I need you to get her a GLP medication, not trulicity. I don't want a pill. I want an injectable. I would like munja. I would like the Z bound. If you can't give me the Z bound, I'll take the ozempic. I want to go on a schedule like I'm supposed to. I want to take it for a month. I want to make sure I'm okay. I want to move up for a month. I want to move I want to keep going. I'm trying to lose trying to lose weight here. Don't tell the doctor. It's, you know, don't tell the don't tell Medicaid. This is for my diabetes. This is for weight loss. I mean, my rough math says your BMI is, like, close to 40. So you qualify under any BMI that I know, as long as the insurance company covers the medication. You should qualify for it, right? I don't want to hear that. It's like, oh, it's not good for type ones, because that's not true. Like, you know what I mean? Like, so,
Alicia 58:29 so many times I'm like, No, you guys just don't want my
Scott Benner 58:33 Synthroid back. Okay? Like, go if you need to test me again, that's fine. But if my TSH is above two, I want my Synthroid back. And if you want to know why I'm saying all this to you, my mom has heart failure. That's going to be me. I don't want that. You know what I mean, like. So these things will stop that from happening. These are the things I need please make this happen right now. And I need your help. You might need to write a letter to the insurance company. They might say to you, has she tried exercise? Well, I have you might need to write that down. I went to a gym. I did all that. It didn't help. I tried trulicity. It didn't help. Like, now, like, let's go. I'm telling you, one motivated doctor should be able to set you right,
Alicia 59:12 right. Yeah. My last appointment was August 26 and with the whole, like, not covering my my stuff. I called this morning, and I specifically said, I just need to speak to my Endo. That's it. There's a concern. My medications aren't wanting to be covered because the islet communication wise with the beta bionic company is very, very stressful, very
Scott Benner 59:42 difficult, because I'm interviewing them. Soon, I'll tell them, tell me what you want me to tell them.
Alicia 59:47 Because my doctor tried to communicate with them to ask, because she could see my blood sugars and stuff, and like, the doses and all that on the Omnipod, but she could not see it in. Through the I let beta bionic she had so much trouble trying to reach out to someone in Colorado who was an educator on the islet beta bionics. She tried reaching out to the one here in New Mexico. Nobody reached out to her until, I want to say, a month after my appointment, and then that's when she called me. She's like, Hey, okay, so now we can communicate about this. But nobody reached out to her. She sent several emails, tried to call and nothing. She was having a very difficult time seeing, like everything that was happening on my island, until they called me, and they were like, I heard that you guys needed some help. Was like my Endo, she cannot see anything through my eyelet. It's only shared to one of you guys as the educators of eyelet, beta bionic, but it needs to be shared with my Endo, because my endo can't see it. I was like, my endo can only see my Dexcom blood sugars, but not my eyelet. So why is that like not happening? And she's like, let me going on.
Scott Benner 1:01:07 I'm not sure about that, but I mean, I can ask somebody to see if I can get an answer.
Alicia 1:01:11 After a while, she reached out, and my endo was like, after so long, though, and for you to have to be on a pump, because at first, my pump was lasting me a day and a half again, like the Omnipod. So I was like, it's only lasting me a day and a half. Like, this is just not like I I love it because it's changed my ANC, but it's making me gain the weight. It's only lasting a day and a half, not even two two half days.
Scott Benner 1:01:40 I'm gonna, I'm gonna say something here, like, I don't know, like, you have a lot of different implications, right? But the one thing that we can kind of control on our own here is the is the caloric intake. So insulin, letter of the law, insulin doesn't make you gain weight. Calories do so if you're able to eat a lot and keep your blood sugar down, because the pump is pumping so much insulin, that's not the insulin making you gain weight. It's, it's the it's the caloric intake, right? So do you have, I know you haven't looked at the calories in your food, but is there like, can you tell me, like, a genuinely, like, kind of average day of eating looks like for you,
Alicia 1:02:14 an average day would be like a really small, like, breakfast usually, which is about eggs. Sometimes they heated up sausages, because I'm usually running inside and out the house. So usually it's just a small breakfast lunch I usually eat, like at work. So usually it was like, pre made sandwiches right from Walmart, like they have, like the lunch box, I guess now, okay, so it comes with, like, a small sandwich, carrots, a cheese stick.
Scott Benner 1:02:50 I'm looking at it here, like an, like an All American half sub kind of thing.
Alicia 1:02:54 Okay, all right, like a simple, you know, like, lunch box, usually, or sometimes I'll eat like a fruit bowl because I'm, like, craving sweets, and that's like, my my go to if I don't want to eat a payday bar or something. Yeah.
Scott Benner 1:03:10 I mean, that sandwich is only 360 calories,
Alicia 1:03:13 like, the protein, which is like, the the meat, cheese and crackers, yeah. It just depends on all three of those. Or sometimes I'll get, like, the the chicken from the from the heated up area, and I'll take off, like the breading, because I don't know, crispy chicken tenders always have made my sugar go, just have it spike,
Scott Benner 1:03:33 yeah? So the bread and the breading, and then it's greasy, because it's deep fried, so it pushes up your blood sugar, then it holds it up, because the fat holds it up. Yeah? So
Alicia 1:03:43 I'll do those, yeah, keep going. And then dinner wise is usually a chicken with veggies, and then like a side, like rice or mashed potatoes or Yeah. So that shouldn't, like, carb Yeah,
Scott Benner 1:03:58 so Alicia, that shouldn't be the issue. Then the food, it's not the issue. You don't think, no,
Alicia 1:04:02 like, I feel like, because when I do eat, there is times where I do snack on, like a bag of chips or a bakes good, because in the cold, there's, there's quite a bit of sweets. Not
Scott Benner 1:04:16 gonna understand? No, I listen. I understand. I really do. I mean, listen, I know what I said, what I think already. I think if you could get those couple of items, they would make a big difference here. I think you'd come back on the show a year from now and be like, Oh my god, Scott, I weigh 125 pounds now. You know what I mean, like mine, I'm not using nearly as much insulin, and my a 1c is lower, and I feel amazing, and my thyroid is better. And I think that's very doable for you. You just got to get somebody that's willing to help
Alicia 1:04:42 you, right? Yeah, that's what I I've told because my endo was like, you know, it's technically still, because I'm 20, they still have it as, like, your like, the children's No, no, what are we doing? Well, they're focused on, like, just the diabetes. And I'm like, I'm 20 years old. You guys gotta understand, there's so. Much more with my body now that I understand that, that I know I need, yeah, so she's like, Okay, we'll move you to, you know, like the adult type one. This is, this is
Scott Benner 1:05:11 bull. This isn't going to help you. What I said earlier is what you got to do. You have to call the doctor and say, listen to me. I am in crisis. My mom has heart failure. How old your mom? My mom is 42 okay, my mom, who is 22 years older than me, is in heart failure, and I am following right along in her footsteps. I have Medicaid. I want you to get me this and like, stop asking them. Tell them what you want. Be nice, but tell them what you want. Tell them you need help getting through the system. This needs to happen immediately. You're gaining weight at an uncontrollable rate, and you don't know where this is going to go. Every day is dire. I need your help. I need you to help me save my life. That's what I would say to her and then, and I would say, Please, like, let's stay on the phone right now and work this out. I need a GLP medication. I would prefer Z bound, because I think it'll help me lose more weight, but if you can only get me, we go v, then that's fine, but let's start with Z bound, and then I want my labs redrawn. I want you to check my TSH again, and if it's above two, I want my Synthroid back, because I have hypothyroid symptoms I can't lose weight, like, but like, we probably have other ones too, right, right, yeah, right. And I have a familial issue with that. My mom is also on that, and you need to make sure I get me I'm keeping my CGM here because this pump brought my a 1c down three points. And if you help me lose this weight, my a 1c is going to come down three more points. But I need to stay on the CGM, and I need to keep this pump, and then just make sure that happened. Like, do not stop until that happens. I'm telling you those three things you're going to save your life definitely. Yeah, go get them. Okay, thank you. I'm sorry you're dealing with this when you're 20. My daughter's 20. If I told her I have to do all this, she'd be like, I'm I don't how am I gonna get this done? But like, you're a little you're a little more, I think you've been on your own a little longer. So if you need anything, write to me on the Facebook group. If you want me to outline this again or say it again, if you want to try to help, get people to help you, get language. There's a girl in the Facebook group that could write a great letter to your insurance company to help you with your GLP and your CGM. If you need help, like you, let me know through that Facebook group if you need help, okay, alrighty. Thank you so much. You're very welcome. Hold on one second for me. Don't hang up. Okay, the conversation you just enjoyed was brought to you by us, med, us, med.com/juice, box, or call, 888-721-1514, 887211514, get started today and get your supplies from us. Med, having an easy to use, an accurate blood glucose meter is just one click away. Contour, next.com/juicebox That's right. Today's episode is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the Juicebox Podcast, private, Facebook group, juice box podcast, type one diabetes. But everybody is welcome type one type two. Gestational loved ones. It doesn't matter to me. If you're impacted by diabetes and you're looking for support, comfort or community, check out Juicebox Podcast. Type one diabetes on Facebook. Okay, well, here we are at the end of the episode. You're still with me. Thank you. I really do appreciate that. What else could you do for me? Uh, why don't you tell a friend about the show or leave a five star review? Maybe you could make sure you're following or subscribe in your podcast app, go to YouTube and follow me or Instagram. Tik, Tok. Oh gosh, here's one. Make sure you're following the podcast in the private Facebook group as well as the public Facebook page you don't want to miss. Please do not know about the private group. You have to join the private group as of this recording, it has 51,000 members in it. They're active, talking about diabetes, whatever you need to know. There's a conversation happening in there right now, and I'm there all the time. Tag me. I'll say hi. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrongway recording.com, you.
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