#1465 Kahu Kiwi
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Jordon is a type 1 who uses weed and mushrooms - we talk about it all.
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Scott Benner 0:00
Welcome back, friends, to another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.
Ricky 0:14
Hey guys, I am Ricky and I'm a massive petrol head. I think I am. It was more about not being like, Hey, I'm working on a diabetes because, you know, that's the boring part.
Scott Benner 0:24
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. 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. AG, one is offering my listeners a free $76 gift. When you sign up, you'll get a welcome kit, a bottle of d3, k2, and five free travel packs in your first box. So make sure you check out drink ag one.com/juice, box to get this offer. Are you an adult living with type one or the caregiver of someone who is and a US resident? If you are, I'd love it if you would go to T 1d, exchange.org/juice box 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, 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. US med is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast, and we've been getting our diabetes supplies from us med for years. You can as well us med.com/juice, box, or call 888-721-1514, use the link or the number. Get your free benefits. Check and get started today with us. Med, the episode you're about to listen to was sponsored by touched by type one. Go check them out right now on Facebook, Instagram, and of course, at touched by type one.org. Check out that Programs tab when you get to the website to see all the great things that they're doing for people living with type one diabetes. Touched by type one.org.
Ricky 2:32
Hey guys, I am Ricky and I'm a mess of petrol head. Wait
Scott Benner 2:35
a minute. What are you petrol head? A petrol head? Yeah, you like cars little
Ricky 2:43
bit, but not if they're electric. No, definitely not.
Scott Benner 2:47
What happens if they're electric?
Ricky 2:49
I will give them a wide berth because I don't want to burn I
Scott Benner 2:54
think you've been watching the news too much, but okay, oh,
Ricky 2:56
I think I've been watching the highways and the littering of the electric cars on fire? What
Scott Benner 3:01
kind of, what kind of? Well, first of all, I can tell by your accent. You live in Iowa, is that
Ricky 3:06
correct? Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. New Zealand. What kind of
Scott Benner 3:10
electric cars are on fire in New Zealand? Tesla's
Ricky 3:13
Nissan LEAF, to be fair, the Mazda six seems to be going up a bit at the moment. That's not electric, but the Teslas, there's a few. We've seen a few on trucks, on boats.
Scott Benner 3:23
Have you ever go tell me you've worked what I work
Ricky 3:26
in the automotive industry, so maybe I have a little bit more of an insight.
Scott Benner 3:31
So I spoke to someone once who works on a shipping container ship, right? And I guess an electric a car from a battery from an electric car caught fire on the ship, and there's just, like, there's not much they can do about it.
Ricky 3:48
Yeah, they just bury them in water and let them go. It's kind of scary.
Scott Benner 3:53
Having said that, I believe if I got the statistics, far more gasoline cars burn every year than electric cars, but that's neither here nor there.
Ricky 4:01
That would be so, right? But because I'm a petrol head, I just won't believe that. Yeah, you just,
Scott Benner 4:04
you just want your car to make noise. Is that
Ricky 4:06
right? That's right, yeah. Well, they don't have to make noise, but it's nice when they do. Do
Scott Benner 4:10
you prefer like fast cars? Do you not care? Do you like pretty cars? Do you like fast cars? I'm into drag racing, so Okay, so then I have to say an electric car would be much faster than a gas car. However,
Ricky 4:22
the fastest car in New Zealand is not an EV, really, by a long stretch. Oh yeah, what is and the EVs are much lighter too. But
Scott Benner 4:29
is it something you could could, could you afford, like the fastest car Ricky in Oh, hell no. Oh no. Because I think that's kind of one of the amazing things about electric car is that, like, you know, if you have reasonable credit and a job, you could be driving zero to 60 in two seconds. Oh,
Ricky 4:45
yeah, they're absolutely quick on the street. However, I don't like to race on that anymore.
Scott Benner 4:49
No more tea. Wait, wait, wait, you in the past, you've raced on the street for five
Ricky 4:53
years, plus probably that was what we did when we were teenagers. That's
Scott Benner 4:57
nice. What did you drive when you were teenagers? Here, many, many Mitsubishi
Ricky 5:01
Evos. How fast could that thing be? I mean, back there we back then, we thought they were very fast. But today, a Tesla would be faster. To be fair.
Scott Benner 5:10
It's really something, isn't it? Yeah. Anyways, all right, neither here nor there. This is a passion for you, or just because, I mean, I have to be honest, like, I've made a lot of these podcasts, and I believe you're the first person to be like, Hey, my name is and I love sports card trading. Like, you know, like, I don't think anyone, no one's ever led with that before.
Ricky 5:30
Yeah, I think I am. It was more about not being like, Hey, I'm working on my diabetes. Because, you know, you were like, the boring part.
Scott Benner 5:37
I imagine that is the boring part. Okay, so how long have you had type one, four
Ricky 5:41
years and a couple of months? Oh, how old are you? 38 today?
Scott Benner 5:46
No kidding, when you were diagnosed at 30 Wait, wait, stop your birthday.
Ricky 5:50
Yeah, absolutely. Happy birthday. Thank you so much.
Scott Benner 5:54
I'm honored. Look at us. I mean, I think I can sing. I think happy birthday is in the I don't think I can be stopped from singing happy birthday if I want to.
Ricky 6:02
No, you could definitely sing it. I don't know how, how much I'll enjoy it, though it might be like that thing where you get compliments and I get sung Happy Birthday on the same level. There,
Scott Benner 6:10
I'm gonna say that there's no way anyone's complimenting me if I sing Happy Birthday. But did you choose this day because it was your birthday?
Ricky 6:17
No, it was the timing. Really. It was the only one that was available before work, because it's an ungodly hour here,
Scott Benner 6:24
yeah. Oh, so it's 11am here. What time is it where you are? 5:15am, oh, my god, so we're gonna do this and you're gonna go
Ricky 6:33
to work? Yeah, yeah. I had planned to work from home today, but my boss brought me a birthday cake, and I have to go and eat it with my co workers, which you know you
Scott Benner 6:40
are going to be cursing me out like halfway through the day. She'll be right. Be like I am so tired that stupid podcast is not going to come out for six months. Talk for five minutes about my goddamn car at the beginning. Okay, well, let's get to it then. So you were diagnosed at 34 is there type 33 excuse me, was there type one in your family?
Ricky 6:59
Yes, but not in this country. I was born in England and moved here when I was very young. I have an auntie in England that is type one, and so kind of out of sight, out of mind, if you will. Okay,
Scott Benner 7:09
so there's a connection, but you didn't grow up around it. Wouldn't have known about
Ricky 7:13
it. Yeah? Okay, yeah, I knew about it, but I didn't you know. It didn't mean anything to me, not enough that when
Scott Benner 7:19
you started having symptoms, you understood what was happening, or you did exactly.
Ricky 7:23
Exactly, what was that like? Different. I actually I was diagnosed type one, three months to the day after hysterectomy because of endometriosis or endomyosis. So when all of the symptoms started, I thought the only thing that I had left I eat. My ovaries were dying, and I was like, Oh, my God, I'm going to be on HRT for the rest of my life and all the rest of it. So when I got diagnosed, I was actually kind of happy.
Scott Benner 7:53
You were, oh, because you thought, like, this is it? I know I'm melting inside. It's over.
Ricky 7:58
Yeah, yeah. I'm like, I'll just eat salad. This is way better.
Scott Benner 8:03
I thought I was dying, but I only have type one diabetes, lucky me. Oh no kidding, but that's interesting perspective, though, isn't it? Like, because you thought something more terrible was happening to you, you were happy to hear the news, yeah,
Ricky 8:18
like to the point where I had the nurse come in a few hours after they told me and be like, we're really worried that you haven't reacted to your diagnosis. This is life changing. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. My personality leans more towards like, I'm not going to cry about things that I can't change. So I kind of responded to him was like, Well, do you want me to cry? What am I supposed to do? I'm not that fast. Yeah. And it was just that that was strange. That's when I started Googling,
Scott Benner 8:44
can we pivot away from diabetes? People are like, great. Here he goes. It's six minutes in, he's going to pivot away from diabetes, but I'll come back to it. I promise totally. I want to know about the hysterectomy. What led up to that, and what made you like explain that whole endometriosis thing to me. I have always disliked ordering diabetes supplies. I'm guessing you have as well. It hasn't been a problem for us for the last few years, though, because we began using us Med, you can too us med.com/juice, box, or call 888-721-1514, to get your free benefits, check us med has served over 1 million people living with diabetes since 1996 they carry everything you need, from CGM to insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies and more. I'm talking about all the good ones, all your favorites, libre three, Dexcom, g7 and pumps like Omnipod five, Omnipod tandem, and most recently, the I let pump from beta bionics, the stuff you're looking for, they have it at us. Med, 88887211514, or go to us. Med.com/juice, box to get started now use my link to support the podcast. That's us. Med.com/juice, Box or call 888-721-1514,
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Ricky 11:17
So I'd say that I've I had symptoms from as soon as I started eating a period, so 1213, years old, which is early, probably six years before my hysterectomy, I started screaming, it's it's endometriosis, from the top of my lungs to everyone I saw. Um, I obviously there was a lot of symptoms for the four years before that, but that's a bit of a boring story. So I got to the point where I was spreadsheeting every pill that was going in my mouth, every symptom, and going into hospital every two weeks, unable to walk, couldn't drive, they put I had, at one point, I had three different types of contraceptive trying to stop the bleeding and all the rest of it, and I never wanted kids. So it was a really easy decision for me, once I figured out that I had endomyosis, which is localized in the uterus, that I would just have a hysterectomy and it'll all be fine. Apparently, the doctors think that I want to have kids, so that became a fight, a big fight, for three or four years, the first time that they ever let me into what we call here pain clinic, which means I was referred into surgical area, I had a screaming match with a woman, because she was saying to me, Oh, well, your scan says this. And I said, this is a progressive disease that scans old now, or you do another one, and it was just back and forth and back and forth. And by the end of that meeting, I was on the list. And a year later, during COVID, I had my hysterectomy, wow, and I woke up feeling like they removed a bowling ball dipped in deep heat, and that was with the huge scar in the front of me and all the rest of
Scott Benner 12:48
it, big scar. Just had a pretty massive surgery. You felt relief?
Ricky 12:51
Yeah, amazing. I felt the best I felt in 10 years. Wow, jeez. And type one did not change that. When they told me to go to the hospital. I was like, You're insane. I feel great. What is wrong with you?
Scott Benner 13:04
Hospital? Let me tell you the story about my ovaries. That's a hospital, isn't I don't even feel so. Do you have, like, a high pain threshold? Do you think because of it? I guess
Ricky 13:14
so. But I don't have too much to compare it to. I've only broken a rest ear in there and, like, I mean, I've read a lot about women that have had children and have Antibiosis, and they say that at least with childbirth, the pain stops.
Scott Benner 13:27
Did you have any like, psychological like, kickbacks? Did you like the minute it happened? You go, what if I do want kids? Like, did that happen? No,
Ricky 13:35
not that. No, I was more like, yes, white underwear. Let's go shopping.
Scott Benner 13:42
Do uh, are there any unintended or expected impacts from the hysterectomy that you look back on and go, I wish this wasn't happening, but it's worth it. Type one you think that came from that. I mean,
Ricky 13:57
the trauma. I don't think of anything else that happened between it and get sick or anything. I don't know that it's definitely right, but my blood sugar was fine by my pre work, pre blood work, and then three months to the day later, I've got a a 1c of 118 I can't convert that into yours, and my blood sugar was like 29 mmol and, you know, and we would have caught it real early, because I was all over any symptom, you know? I It's like, Oh, my God, my mouth's dry. Oh, my God, this is happening.
Scott Benner 14:25
It's really interesting. Listen, I've heard people I had a virus, I was diagnosed. I've heard people say I had a traumatic experience. I was diagnosed. I don't know that surgery wouldn't like, qualify as traumatic. You know what I mean? Egg weight on the body. Yeah, no kidding. So you get the news, I'm assuming it all comes the way you expect, thirsty, peeing that kind of stuff, crazy,
Ricky 14:50
like waking up every hour and the night, drink a liter water, go back to bed for an hour, get up, do
Scott Benner 14:54
it again. Yeah? It was bad, like an old guy, yeah? I.
Ricky 15:00
You're married, not married. I don't believe in marriage. I have a long term partner. I've been together 12 years.
Scott Benner 15:04
Ah, there's a person you let live in the house, yeah, that's nice. First of all, I don't care. I want to just be clear about that. But when you have a partner for a long time, they know you don't want kids, and that's something they're okay with, right?
Ricky 15:15
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I I'm more real open about that real early on. Okay,
Scott Benner 15:21
cool. Diabetes comes what comes next? Is it like? Because your note to me is interesting, I find it actually very interesting. Is Bad medical advice first? Is that what what you experienced first? Yeah,
Ricky 15:35
so I'd say that that happened with the endo thing, right? So I obviously was ignored for six years while I had diagnosed myself and was actually correct, and they hadn't even acknowledged it until probably a year or so before I went for my operation. So I already knew that they were going to lie when I got this, this thing. Because
Scott Benner 15:55
let me ask you, is that how you think of it, or is that how it happened? Like, do you think they're lying to you, or do you think they don't know or do you think that they don't know enough to do something with, you know, like, remove your, you know, your reproductive organs, which, you know, I mean, like, where do you think that really, it's fun to say they lied, and maybe they did. But how do you really think about it?
Ricky 16:16
I think about it like there's only so many referrals they're able to put through on a very broken public system, and you need to be pushy and abrupt to get anywhere. So I feel like, like, if I go to a GP, my general practitioner and go, I've got this problem, they'll refer you, and you'll you'll get declined lots and lots of times, except I was in the emergency department at the hospital every two weeks, unable to walk. So why are they? I don't understand like it was. If I can figure it out, I sell car parts for a living. Why can't, you know, six years worth of doctors and ED visits, and I went through 13 GPS trying to find one that would refer me. So I don't know. Maybe it is at ESC Rick,
Scott Benner 16:58
you said, Yeah, trust me, I think it might be, but you say I have a lot of pain, this is a problem. This is what I think is happening. Your general practitioner says, Cool, whatever. Here's a referral to the next thing. And then the system says, No, you don't qualify to follow through with the referral,
Ricky 17:13
pretty much. But they ply you with opiates first. So it was, here's a here's some Tramadol. Here's some morphine, here's some liquid morphine, here's some cancer level anti inflammatories that'll damage your hippies or whatever they're damaging and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This is, this is great. I think it was on 12 pills. Ricky,
Scott Benner 17:32
all those things you just listed. You tried every one of those things. Oh, and
Ricky 17:36
more. I've got a scrapbook somewhere in this house of probably, I reckon it'd be four pages of the little stickers that you get on your prescriptions, and stick them in a book, write down why I was taking them, how they made me feel, you know, all of those things to try and get somewhere. When I got to the doctor, there is pages of that. It is. It's insane. Did
Scott Benner 17:55
you say liquid morphine at one point? Yeah, or a morph.
Ricky 17:59
It's ridiculous. Why wouldn't you just fix the problem, like stop band aiding me?
Scott Benner 18:04
I think at some point you were gonna get to like, here's a big rock hit yourself in the head with it. And yeah, that would
Ricky 18:10
have been better. I mean, they gave me benzos at the Ed once and told me it was all in my head. Actually, I had that a few times.
Scott Benner 18:19
Is it a mix of male and female doctors. To
Ricky 18:22
be honest, it was at the start. It would have been more male until I figured out that I thought that they didn't know as much. So I would go to younger female doctors. And when I went through those 13 GPS, I did find a woman that was, you know, in her late 30s that was really, really helpful. She got the referral through to the pain clinic and everything given me, not too helpful? Were
Scott Benner 18:48
you met with like that? Like, 1950s like, Oh, she's, she's just got the vapor. She seems upset. We'll hysterical, yeah. Like, I hate it when they talk so much get her high, like that kind of thing. Or what do we
Ricky 19:04
I don't know if I would have thought about it like that in the setting, but most of the visits felt like a judgment. I didn't ever feel like a drug seeker, but I felt like I was wasting their time. Oh,
Scott Benner 19:18
do you think they thought you were seeking drugs? I think they would have treated
Ricky 19:20
me differently. But I'm not, I'm not 100% sure. I don't think I would have left the ED with pills or morphine if they were thought I was drug seeking. Is
Scott Benner 19:28
there sexism involved in this? I'm not usually one to blow these whistles, but is there sexism involved in this? This
Ricky 19:33
is a bit ruthless, but I think the medical industry in general is, I mean, we're still calling a hysterectomy, you know, like a hysterectomy, you still got history. And is that not from hysterical, isn't it a uterectomy? It's a uterus.
Scott Benner 19:43
That's what it means. Hold on a second. I'm sure it does. I've read
Ricky 19:46
way too many workbooks.
Scott Benner 19:49
Wait, what is the etymology of the word hysterectomy?
Ricky 19:57
Let's find out together. Yeah, it's like. Hysterical of root story books color. It has roots
Scott Benner 20:02
in the Greek comes from hysteria, which means womb, which means womb or uterus, and Greek ectomy, which means cutting out. I don't know I liked your expect I liked your explanation more, but I don't think that's where the word I don't think that's where the word comes from, but that would have been you're like, oh, they think they get this hysterical broad, let's get what
Ricky 20:23
it feels like. Since you go in there, you're like, Okay, I can't walk like you. I had sciatic limbed in, you know, like that sciatica pain and would kind of make your foot drag, yeah? So you're crazy pain, crazy
Scott Benner 20:34
bleeding, yeah, like, the whole thing, periods that just lasted forever.
Ricky 20:39
I bled for 16 weeks once. Oh, my god, yeah, that was fun. Have
Scott Benner 20:44
you had a lot of iron infusions? How do they help you with that? They
Ricky 20:48
never tested that they never wanted to give me that I did a little my own testing, and it seemed okay. I don't know how I don't like red meat. A trigger for endometriosis is red meat dairy. You know, the thing to never Oh,
Scott Benner 20:58
I'll tell you, I'm lucky you on that part, because, trust me, if you would have added that incredibly low energy, like shortness of breath, like that kind of thing to it, that would have just made it even that much okay. But somebody found somebody helped you, which is awesome, yes, yeah, I flew it through. Have you talked to other women in your family? Did other people struggle like this?
Ricky 21:17
I grew up with only the men in my family. So my mother still lives in the UK, so I didn't grow up around her, but I know that my grandmother, on my New Zealand side, had one kid, and then she had a hysterectomy, and she had a lot of woman problems, and that's as much as I know from my dad and my
Scott Benner 21:33
grandfather. All right, listen, this is none of my business, but this is none of this is any of my business. So your father left England, took you to New Zealand without your mom. So they broke up. Split up is your mom a bank robber who uses heroin. How did that happen? What's going on? That's another
Ricky 21:51
very interesting story. So it depends on who you ask. She has this version, and he's got a version. His version is that she was a drunk bitch.
Scott Benner 22:01
Okay? What's her version?
Ricky 22:03
She came home one day. He had a new partner. The house was empty, and they were on a plane. Oh, yeah. So I don't, I don't think they care enough. I only met her in 2017
Scott Benner 22:14
so I was gonna say, Have you ever dug through it or No, when I was younger
Ricky 22:17
and more nosy, definitely. So I found some court papers, but it was basically just the two women abusing each other over the phone, which is insane,
Scott Benner 22:27
his new girlfriend and your mom, yeah, to be
Ricky 22:31
fair, she became my stepmother, and I have a half brother. Okay,
Scott Benner 22:36
okay, yeah. So not just your dad's new girlfriend, your dad's wife, and he's been with her for a while now.
Ricky 22:42
She left when I was 13.
Scott Benner 22:45
Did she ride off on a Komodo dragon? By any chance? That would have been awesome.
Ricky 22:49
Oh, it would have been amazing that, you know, unfortunately, not, no. So
Scott Benner 22:53
your dad bails, all right, so your dad leaves England, and your mom with the lady. The lady becomes your stepmom. You have a step brother, but by the time you're 13, she leaves. How old were you when you left England? Three or four? Oh, she made it a whole decade. Yeah, no, when she left, did she have the same complaints as your mom, or
Ricky 23:13
didn't upkeep the relationship on that one? So not too sure. I reckon it'll be worse. I feel like she's a more dramatic person.
Scott Benner 23:22
All right, Ricky, I like you. We should. We should all live on New Zealand. It's an island, right? I can say on New Zealand,
Ricky 23:28
yeah, yeah. Well, there's two or three islands, to be fair, but yeah, absolutely, on an island. Nice.
Scott Benner 23:32
You remember that time like it's about eight, nine years ago, there was a new world map drawn, and they forgot to put it on. It's awesome. Wasn't
Ricky 23:40
that on Barbie or something? I remember people kind of about that that actually
Scott Benner 23:43
happened. Like, somebody was like, What about New Zealand? They're like, Oh, whoops,
Ricky 23:47
yeah. We don't care, as long as the big, powerful people with the guns can't see us. We're cool. Yeah, listen,
Scott Benner 23:52
am I right to say that New Zealand doesn't have any snakes, correct?
Ricky 23:56
I Oh, maybe we have sea snakes that come over from Australia or something. I've seen some in the water, but I've never seen anything.
Scott Benner 24:01
No, no, I hear you. Okay, that's where I'm gonna retire. Then, yeah,
Ricky 24:05
yeah, in the north, definitely the North. I just want to
Scott Benner 24:09
go outside, but not be attacked by a snake or a bear or something like that. You don't have any of those things.
Ricky 24:14
No, the only thing we have is like a spider. It's like one or two spiders that are a bit dodgy. But other than that, can
Scott Benner 24:21
they kill me? No. Oh, all right. Oh, and why can my chameleons live outside there? Is it warm all year round or no,
Ricky 24:30
not all year? Oh, it depends where you are, I guess. But it's, I'd say that the lowest it would be is like six Celsius.
Scott Benner 24:36
I don't know what that means. Hold on a second. Hold on. Wait, wait, I have no idea what that means. Six sells suits and others. That's really cold. Maybe it's not. Maybe you don't know. I'll take a look because you didn't know about the millimoles and the other things. Yeah, fair
Ricky 24:51
play. Oh, fourth, 42 Yeah, that's about as cold as it gets. Hurry. Oh,
Scott Benner 24:56
sweetie, I can deal with that, no problem. Don't you worry. Okay, I'm on my way.
Ricky 24:59
All right, if you go to the South Island, there's no but I'm just talking about the, you know, the winter,
Scott Benner 25:03
listen, oh no no, I won't go there. So I come there. And how much money I gotta bring in retirement to live out my days in New
Ricky 25:12
Zealand? How many years you're thinking, that's a fair? No,
Scott Benner 25:15
no, wait, that's a fair. You're making fair points. Let's say I gotta live 10 years where I can walk five years where everything sucks and five years where I'm slowly dying.
Ricky 25:30
I reckon you need at least 60k a year, okay? Yeah, for 20 years, and our money's worth less than yours,
Scott Benner 25:37
your money's worth less than mine. Well, I'll bring my money, yeah, and
Ricky 25:40
then it'll be easier, right? Because I'm talking to my money, yeah, what do
Scott Benner 25:43
I get? I don't have to trade it into whatever garbage money you're using, right? Do I?
Ricky 25:46
Oh, you, totes, do you have to turn your USD into NZD? Oh, I don't want
Scott Benner 25:50
to do that. I don't think, okay, all right, well, I'll work on I was gonna say something flippant, but I don't want people to think I would have an off I don't have an offshore account. I would never have an offshore account. I just want to say that in case anybody's listening. Okay, so I need 60k a year for 20 years. Let me see how much money I gotta save up so I can move to Australia. Sounds like a lot. Wait, not Australia and New Zealand. No, New Zealand. Sorry, it's down that direction. You know what I mean, I need $1.2 million if I want to live 20 years in New Zealand. And is the health care gonna suck for me. Is that one? Is that gonna be a problem?
Ricky 26:22
It depends how, um, passive aggressive you are, you'll be fine. How
Scott Benner 26:26
much I can push my way through it. Yeah, totally. At the moment, I still have energy. I could do it.
Ricky 26:32
Oh, I know where your problem will be, where if you, if you bring the kids and stuff, no OmniPods here,
Scott Benner 26:37
well, I'm not bringing anybody's kit. No, that's it. I'm I'm done. We were talking about this the other day, about how we're, like, my wife and I are very focused on, like, our kids, even as they get older, just meaning that, like, we're not the kind of people are like, Oh, you're 18. Good luck. I'll see you at Christmas. Like, you know, I mean, yeah. And my son was saying, like, how much he appreciates it. We were just talking about it actually. And actually, he was teasing my wife about something, and my wife goes say three things that I've done, well please. And one of the things he said was, like, you know, letting me live here a little longer to, like, get my feet under me before I leave. I appreciate that. And we were talking about how we have, we know people who you know are like, literally, like, I'm not going to help you with school. I'm not going to help you with this. When you're 18, you're on your own, I said to him, but I do think sometimes about, like, like, I would never do that, but if I was a person who would do that, like, what would I be doing right now? Like, what would I like, I'd have more money, right? Like, I'd have more time. I'd have like, I'm like, maybe that everything. So much. So I'm just saying that when the time comes, there is going to be like a bell, I'm going to ring, and the bell is going to be like, ding, ding, ding, it's over. We're out. See you suckers, all right. So I'm going to work on pulling together $1.2 million so I can go to seal it, just
Ricky 27:57
sell your house. That's how you're doing it. If
Scott Benner 27:59
I sell my house, I'm not going to have $1.2 million $2 million I'm sorry to say
Ricky 28:04
1.2 million New Zealand dollars. Remember?
Scott Benner 28:07
Well, no, I just did 60,000 American dollars for 20 years. How much is 1.2 million New Zealand dollars?
Ricky 28:15
I don't know exactly, but I reckon we're about 80% and then it can swing down I know somewhere between 50 and 80% or something. It swings quite
Scott Benner 28:24
a lot, to be fair. What am I losing by coming to New Zealand
Ricky 28:27
stuff? Like, we just don't have this. I've only been to Hawaii, yeah, like, actually, like, you walk into a supermarket and you're like, why is there so much stuff in here? Like, there's just too much.
Scott Benner 28:38
What is what is this? So there's no stuff in New Zealand, no extra now
Ricky 28:42
we have, like, you know, food that came off a tree and, like, there's those parts of supermarkets. I know, I've only ever seen the supermarkets in Hawaii. I haven't been to mainland America, but it's, it's strange. So,
Scott Benner 28:53
like, if you saw, like, if I see a pack of Oreos in New Zealand, they're $75 right? Oh,
Ricky 28:59
now we have, okay, we have Oreos at like, other brands, like the, the big name stuffs here, but there's, I remember going into a Walmart, and there was an entire aisle for just biscuits and stuff. I'm like, wow. Like, why? That's a lot
Scott Benner 29:13
of them, a lot of so many. So we have some medical distrust from the the hysterectomy stuff, understandable. The next thing on your list here is danger of ed
Ricky 29:28
the emergency department. Oh,
Scott Benner 29:29
thank God, because I was like so it's funny for everyone listening. Ricky's name is Ricky, but it's spelled differently. And I thought, is this Ricky, a man who wants to talk about erectile dysfunction, because that's exactly what I thought would have popped up. I didn't
Ricky 29:49
even think of it. I know my hyper boys name, but Oh, that is funny. Okay, so
Scott Benner 29:53
director a danger of the emergency department, tell me more.
Ricky 29:57
Okay, I was actually in there four weeks ago. I. Had a bad asthma flare after getting my carpet replaced in my lounge, and I told them that I'd be managing my type one for myself, because the last time I was in there, they tried to take my pump off me, and then when I argued that I wouldn't be giving them that, that they had, that I'd have to tell them every single time I put insulin in. But I'm on control, like you and like it's gonna hurt. It's happening again.
Scott Benner 30:23
It's happening. Hello, hello. What's happening again? Point two just went in. Did you guys so they hold on the basal just went from one unit an hour to point eight. Did you guys need to know that? So that's what they wanted. Yeah,
Ricky 30:37
yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then, and then they come around with their food options in there of like cereal, and I'm like, I just it makes you so angry. So I'm in there because I think I was losing my honeymoon period the time I'm talking about, which is probably a year or so ago. So I got very, what I would define as very high blood sugar, and I can't control it, and it's been a day, and it's freaking me out, and I want someone to help me. So this is the first time I went into something like, Okay, I'll go in. And actually, I contacted the i We have a team over here. You get given a team of diabetes helpers, or whatever it is. So I contacted the nurse practitioner by email. She called me, we had some conversations about what I'd been doing and things. And she sent me straight into the emergency department, which are underfunded. They they've literally got critical staff shortages. Signs everywhere. So I go in and, yeah, they'd want to take my pump because of my hold
Scott Benner 31:33
on Ricky. Are they like help wanted signs, or are they letting you know they don't have enough people? They're
Ricky 31:38
letting you know that they don't have enough people. It's scary. It's scary, yeah. And so the first thing that they want to do is, for my high blood sugars, I want to take my insulin. I'm just like, What the fuck is wrong with you? Like, um, and so the entire time that I was there, no insulin was given. So the only way it was given was through the pump that they were going to take from me, that I've had a screaming match with somebody about. And then so I get discharged with the same kind of blood sugar I had when I got there, and then they're trying to push crap food on me whilst, you know, like they they probably wouldn't have given insulin until an hour after that, because they bring food around, then they bring the insulin around, then they it's just, it's a show,
Scott Benner 32:15
yeah. Well, listen, I think this is good news for me, because now I do not need to save up 2,012,400 New Zealand dollars, because I'm not coming there. Yeah, yeah. I mean, our house. Listen, I think healthcare is probably about the same everywhere you go, because it's, you know, it's run by people. Yes, it's run by people and money. So I think you're gonna have the same problems along the way. I'm sure there are places where healthcare isn't run by money. It's run by government. Then you just have the people problem, whatever. Yeah, I like America where if I can throw a little bit of money around, I can get help if I need to. I
Ricky 32:50
want that here so bad I can't even buy FIAs if I want it, or I want me part if I want it, we don't have any of it here. It's not approved. Yeah.
Scott Benner 32:57
I mean, it sucks that it comes to that. But, I mean, I've been very clear on the podcast, like, I send Arden to a cash endocrinologist, like, our insurance covers it later, but we pay out of pocket, and then our insurance reimburses us, but it's the only way to get, like, reasonable care from anybody.
Ricky 33:14
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I had my my pump within, I think it was eight months. But again, I'm very pushy, because I knew I'd had had the experience before, so I was like, no one's telling me, no this time on, this is how we're doing it. It's my way, or I'll figure out another way. All right, so
Scott Benner 33:29
let's go back to your diabetes. You're I just imagine people listening going, Oh, 31 minutes. Yes, Scott, let's get back to the diabetes now. But we learned a lot of interesting things. I thought I like that you were able to alleviate your pain. I think it's pretty cool that you were given something up. But you You knew yourself well enough to know that you know it was the right thing to do that you fought through doctors telling you, oh no, you're gonna want a baby one day. Like, awesome. Like, what else do you know about me that I don't know? I mean, listen, I want to say I get that they don't want to take out your baby maker, and then you come back and be like, Hey, you should try to talk me out of taking out my baby maker. Like, I get that. Like, but at some point it's got to be your decision. Then you fought through that awesome you fought through a little bit of men not seeming to understand what women's lives are like when they have health issues and get that you look after
Ricky 34:18
a baby when you can't walk just a caveat,
Scott Benner 34:22
it's good. I had a baby, but I bled out on my period after the baby came, and anyway, the baby drowned in the blood that came out of me. That sounds very viable. It almost worked out. I just, I just wrote a horror movie for next Halloween. It'll be out from lions. Can you imagine? Hey, here's our movie. Doctor forces you to keep your uterus and have a baby. You have the baby.
Unknown Speaker 34:45
It's a horror movie. You're such,
Scott Benner 34:48
no, I can't finish my movie pitch because that was too funny. Diabetes comes. Sounds like you had a pretty long honeymoon.
Ricky 34:54
Yeah, it was. And this I was unwell, but I've held that insulin. Regime since two, two or three years, or whatever it was, when I went to that hospital visit like I just, I basically did a 200% profile eventually, when they weren't helping, and managed to get it down. I just didn't want to put that much in back then and then have, you know, have something happen later. I didn't understand it well enough. Yeah,
Scott Benner 35:19
you don't have hormonal shifts anymore because of the hysterectomy. Is that? Right?
Ricky 35:23
No, I do. So I I have a full natural cycle, or whatever. I just don't have a uterus, so I have my ovaries just my ovaries are like tacked to the inside of my stomach. It's gross. It's gross. When I woke up from the from the operation, I had these two weird roses. It took me, like, a week to be like, that's where they'll be. Because I have no tubes. I have no, you know, nothing else they'll they have to be there, because where
Scott Benner 35:49
else would they go? They're just all down the bottom. Wait. So they didn't take everything out, everything
Ricky 35:53
so I have no cervix, no uterus, no tubes, okay,
Scott Benner 35:56
all right. But you still have a cycle, yeah? Like,
Ricky 35:59
I don't bleed, obviously, because there's nothing for it to bleed from, but I have a cycle, yeah, so I can, does
Scott Benner 36:04
it all happen the same way you like, I don't want to say that like, I was gonna see you've got me loose and joking around. So I was gonna say something like, are you really sweet? And then horrible 24 hours later? But that's not a thing that actually happens to women, and I shouldn't say
Ricky 36:17
that. It definitely does. I can't decide if that's that or undiagnosed thyroid. I'm sure it's a bit of both. Oh, I've been wondering
Scott Benner 36:25
about your thyroid the whole time. We're talking a bit. Have you had it tested? Define tested? Did you get a TSH level, like a did you do them all the time? What's your TSH?
Ricky 36:36
Okay, so the highest I've seen it since my event when I was younger, would be a 2.6 I think it was. And then the next test, which was weeks later, was a 1.4 and yeah, so it's not extremely high, but it's bouncing. It's
Scott Benner 36:52
bouncing, but it's not a 2.6 and I don't think you're like, looking for Medicaid. Do you have a lot of thyroid type symptoms?
Ricky 36:58
I'd say all of them, dry skin, hair, bitchiness, oh, that
Scott Benner 37:04
might be genetic. Isn't that what your dad said about your mom?
Ricky 37:06
Yeah, this is true. You could be right there. I never thought of that.
Scott Benner 37:11
Wouldn't it be crazy if your whole life was exploded because your mom had undiagnosed hypothyroidism? Oh
Ricky 37:16
my gosh, she's got, I know she said, No, they've got a better health system over there. I
Scott Benner 37:21
think they have a better health system over there. I think, oh my god, better than here. Better than here. That's not saying that, Ricky, I'm sorry. We're gonna get right back to it. I just watched my chameleon eat a cricket from about 19 inches away. And even, oh my god, I was put off by how far his tongue just came out. My God, man. That's I never seen it go that far before, oh my god, 19 inches, right? I yeah, I can tell this. I know how long the cage is. I know where he's standing. Like I saw him see the cricket. And I was like, he can't reach that. And he got a little look on his face, like, I'm gonna eat that. And then, oh my god, anyway, we should all own a chameleon.
Ricky 37:57
I would never allowed them here. Oh, oh, yeah, some
Scott Benner 38:01
countries don't let you bring in like we're really green and woke here. Well, that's how you keep it. That's why you don't have any of the snakes, though, right? Yeah,
Ricky 38:09
fair play. And we, we protect our
Scott Benner 38:12
birds. I protect mine as well. Yeah, no, always, actually, even if Kelly looks a little like surly I stand with my hands in front of me.
Ricky 38:22
That's, that's, that's part of your employment contract as a husband, though, isn't it? Oh, I would not
Scott Benner 38:26
be allowed to have my chameleon in New Zealand. I don't know that for sure, but I don't know. I asked our overlords. New Zealand has very strict biosecurity laws to protect its unique ecosystem and most reptiles, especially exotic species like I don't want to say what kind of chameleon I have, because it's expensive, and you're all going to think I'm and you're all going to think I'm rich and I'm not. Are prohibited by being imported or keep as pets. How about that? Oh, I can't leave you here. Durbin, don't worry about it, buddy.
Ricky 38:50
It's because the locals get them into the into the forest and,
Scott Benner 38:54
you know, and then we'll have, you'll have Florida before you know it. Yeah,
Ricky 38:57
yeah. That'll definitely happen here. I can see it now. Drive me down the
Scott Benner 39:01
street as an anacondas eating a deer. You're like, Wait, where am I? Is this Jacksonville? Why did we put Ville, after all of our now, that's another story.
Ricky 39:14
Okay? Strange power movie titles,
Scott Benner 39:17
all right. So hold on a second. I gotta, I can do this. It's Monday. I haven't recorded it a couple of days. I'm doing the whole thing in my head, the baby and the stuff and the home, the periods and everything, diabetes. Oh, I got it. You had kind of a long diagnosis, right? Do you think you were a lot of for a while
Ricky 39:35
because of my medical distrust, everything that they tell me, I debunk. There's only one thing that they've told me so far that I believe to be true, which is that alcohol causes low blood sugar.
Scott Benner 39:47
I'll tell you one thing they've said, Scott that I can tell you 100% is true. Yeah,
Ricky 39:52
that one definitely. I mean, the the setting for the test was, was good, I thought, but it didn't pan out how I had planned. So, yeah. Yeah, we'll leave it there. So what was the question? Again? I lost myself. It
Scott Benner 40:06
doesn't matter, because you're just like, I know for sure, booze makes you low. I can tell you, that's right. And they told me that, how many times have you tested that?
Ricky 40:14
Oh, like, I I've drunk a little bit here and there, but I did a binge. So we did. I went to a a general practitioner doctor's birthday party, 40th birthday, and started drinking at 5pm and I didn't stop until, well, the last thing I remember is nine o'clock the following morning through that. And the reason I don't remember is because my sensor came off and then I went hypo, and my partner wasn't there, who's amazing with all this kind of stuff but he happened to turn up to collect me the next morning, and I was passed out somewhere, and he managed to get some sugar into me and all the rest of it, so that, that test, I believe, I reckon, it's a tequila. What do I find if I didn't have tequila? Tequila is what did you Yeah, that was at 8am and I remember being conscious, like, aware enough of being like, I need juice and that
Scott Benner 41:00
wait you were having, you were drinking tequila at 8am yeah,
Ricky 41:04
of juice, but we hadn't slept, so it was, like, just a continuation of the night before.
Scott Benner 41:09
Was it hard to take in like, sugary juice after drinking like that?
Ricky 41:12
No, because I was so drunk, you just
Scott Benner 41:13
didn't know. You're like, I think it's possible My stomach hurts, but anyway, someone get me liquid morphine. I know how to fix this.
Ricky 41:21
Yeah, yeah. So two ambulances came for that, yeah, and that's the only like, proper low blood sugar. I've needed help that I've had
Scott Benner 41:31
really awesome. That's really something, okay, Jesus, this has gotten off the rails. I'm also you said something when I said, Oh, I probably couldn't come there because I couldn't bring my chameleon. And then I said, that's probably why you guys don't have a lot of snakes everywhere. And you said, you responded, in a way. And I thought, What a neat colloquial like phrase that is, I'm literally gonna go back and find out what it is. Actually forget it. I'll just leave this here for Rob. Rob, when you're editing this, whatever she says after I say that, I want to make that the title of the episode, then it'll just be in the notes after it's edited. It's not It's magical. Thank you, Rob. Sounds fun. Okay, how long does it take you to get a pump? Eight months. You said, Yeah, eight
Ricky 42:19
months. But I, I'm relentless. I really could
Scott Benner 42:22
have taken longer had you not been
Ricky 42:25
Oh, I know people that have been trying to get one for five years. Yeah. So I, I went online, found the criteria for pumps in New Zealand and how they give them to people, and I found that you could get one on a low criteria. So I just started faking lows at the gym. Scott my doctor, and said, I'm not going to exercise anymore. I can't and don't pump.
Scott Benner 42:47
I got a bottle of tequila. I went to the gym and I got my pump right away. Is that basically, so you just showed them a lot of low blood sugars and said
Ricky 42:55
it's them. I didn't even do them. Oh, you just lied.
Scott Benner 42:58
Awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I had already paid
Ricky 43:01
for because we have only just started funding CGM here as of last month, so I was already paying for Dexcom. So it was, I think that helped, because obviously control, like your basal G IQ had just came out then, yeah. So yeah, that's how I got and I wasn't going to say, No,
Scott Benner 43:17
are the pumps covered by government insurance? Everything is everything. So Dexcom, no, you don't pay money for that stuff.
Ricky 43:24
I spent 15k on Dexcom over three years, up until a month ago, they started paying for it, and I cried in the pharmacy when they gave me, like, three months of life. And
Scott Benner 43:32
they were like, here, these are yours now. And you're like, don't you need 1000s of New Zealand dollars from me? You don't call them New Zealand dollars, probably. But you know what I
Ricky 43:39
mean? No, that's what they're called, New Zealand dollars. Wait, they really are, yeah, yeah, NZD.
Scott Benner 43:43
I don't call my money American dollars. It is, though I know, but Well, I don't, I mean, okay, it's USD, I know it is, but nobody says that. They just say dollar. Also, nobody says, right, I gotta be honest here. Mostly what happens is people double click the side of their phone, hold their phone in front of their face, then hold their phone up to the cash register, and then it all just happens.
Ricky 44:01
So, oh, yeah, good point. We do that a little
Scott Benner 44:04
bit. What's it like figuring out diabetes as an adult?
Ricky 44:08
Scary. So because of my lack of knowledge of what type one diabetes is, as soon as they told me I was diabetic, I was like, sweet. I'll go keto. It'll be gone. And then, paired with the advice from the people that discharged me from the hospital, again, I was very pushy. I wanted out of there. I think I only spent 30 hours in the hospital. So the advice was, if you are over 12 mmol, inject five units. If you're not, don't but
Scott Benner 44:38
I had gone keto, so that was the whole of the advice,
Ricky 44:42
oh and 16 units Atlantis, because I they just charged me with pens.
Scott Benner 44:46
Okay, is it? Are you supposed to follow up with a different doctor?
Ricky 44:50
I had three appointments, or like, three different specialist appointments every month for six months after that. So it was dietician, endocrine, all. Just a nurse practitioner, but they kind of taught you the prime your needle and don't inject in the same place. And I was pushing for carb information because I had that point, you know, I'd already started Googling, and I'll go, I need, you guys need to put me on Daphne. I figured out what Daphne was, which is a course that we have here and in Australia called Daily adjustments for normal eating, right? So it's, that's basically what I'd call, like, the introduction to type one, like I wanted that, but they wouldn't let me do it for a year. And that's when I started getting annoyed, and the things that they were trying to teach, and all the rest of it, and finding that all of it was probably most of it was wrong, like I was high or low. There was no in between, right? It was nothing. Ricky,
Scott Benner 45:39
you couldn't do Daphne for a year because there was no availability, or because they didn't want you to have the information. They didn't want me to have the information for the first year.
Ricky 45:47
Yeah, for a year, apparently it would be overwhelming. And I'm like, You do not know me, isn't
Scott Benner 45:52
it great? It's not overwhelming to be low and then high and then low, and then high and then low, that's not overwhelming. But you know, yeah, just this, wow, boy. Well, okay, well, okay, so we go to another place, another time, another country doesn't matter, same. Well, actually,
Ricky 46:08
I had a way around it. In the UK, they've got an amazing online resource. So I did an online card counting course through the UK. NHS, okay, yeah. So I did that, and that kind of gave me a bit of a, you know, a bit of information, and then I just started learning more. And I'm, I don't know, I I'm not scared of dumb things, I guess. So I'd just put an insulin and out for the best. And, you know, like, oh, wow, some sugar will fix that. I didn't know, you know, I hadn't listened to podcasts at this point or anything, but I knew that car was a bring it up, and it can't be that bad. Anthony will help, if it does help.
Scott Benner 46:42
How do you find this podcast? Because it's, I have to admit, it's way more popular in Australia and New Zealand than I would ever expect. So do people share it there? Yeah,
Ricky 46:53
so I had somebody tell me about it. So I I help a lot of people try and get a pump that aren't pushy enough. I met this lovely woman that lives north of me, and she told me about it. So I joined the Facebook group and asked some questions on there, I think, or was lurking on there. And then I noticed the information about the podcast. And I'd never, ever listened to a podcast before, and it's the only podcast I've ever listened to since then, and that was probably to be a year ago, I think a little bit less, yeah. And now my a 1c i don't know our a 1c is really different to yours, but so I was 118 at diagnosis. I was 60, doing it my own way, you know, learning myself or whatever. And now it's 37 which is an equal to a 5.5 Wow.
Scott Benner 47:40
Good for you. That's awesome. Yeah, for you. Look at you just going out and just figuring the whole thing out on your own. You know, you
Ricky 47:48
have no choice, really, it's the thing.
Scott Benner 47:51
But still, a lot of people would hear, Oh, I take 16 units of this a day, and if my blood sugar is over this I shoot this much, and that's what I do. And that's okay, because that's what they told me. And I guess I get low and I get high, and this is my life now. Yeah, I can't, yes, well, no, you're definitely not the kind of person who's gonna just be like, Oh, that seems okay. Is it possible? I don't want to try to high side something kind of this terrible. But is it possible, had you not gone through all this stuff with the and I know it's, I'm sorry I forget the word. It's not endometriosis, it's, it's
Ricky 48:23
the same thing. Endomyosis is the localized and the localized. Had
Scott Benner 48:28
you not gone through all of that, do you think you would have known to fight about your diabetes? Absolutely not. No, you wouldn't have.
Ricky 48:35
I would be in the, you know, like in the eight, say, 1c range. I'd be having complications in 20 years and blindly agreeing to everything. These well meaning people are telling me they're well meaning.
Scott Benner 48:48
Apparently, they told me, that's it. They said. They said, Ricky, I have your best best interest at art. Please don't Bolus unless your blood sugar is over 12. By the way, I'm not great with that either, but 12 is I, yeah, hold on a second. Where's my little magic machine?
Ricky 49:07
Well, over 200 I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure it's over 250 that's
Scott Benner 49:10
when you should I can look I have actually Juicebox podcast.com, go to the top, click on a one cm blood glucose calculator. Then what I do is I click on millimoles, and then I put in 12, and then it tells me it's a 216, that's crazy. Yeah, that's when you should and by the way, not five units, yeah, yeah, not, not a measured amount, just, hey, go with five. Like, yeah, yeah.
Ricky 49:31
My, my insulin, like, my carb ratio, it was, is one to, like, 20 grams as well. So I'm quite sensitive to insulin. When I went keto and put in five units because I was over 12, that did not go good.
Scott Benner 49:48
Just you don't like your blood sugar being high at all. I don't I, I'm
Ricky 49:52
I'm starting to correct 6.5 I don't know well what that is in your family, I'm
Scott Benner 49:58
going to guess, like around 100 And 10 because
Ricky 50:01
yeah would be Yeah, because I had one way of control, like he wants me 117 so you,
Scott Benner 50:05
oh, look at you. Oh, you're a disciple. Now, that's awesome. Yeah, yeah, okay, listen, I'm gonna pick you up as my daughter, because, you know, this one doesn't listen old, maybe a bit old, but that's okay. Seems like, I think people listen when they get older. Yeah,
Ricky 50:21
it's a good point. Actually, I if I had got this in my 20s, I think I might already be dead. I was so out of control, like, it just, there's no way, really, that's when I had my first dash with my thyroid was in, I think it was 22 and ended up in hospital because there was a big lump on my neck, and I couldn't stop vomiting, and I had Graves disease, thyroid toxicosis flare up. I had no idea what any of that meant, and they discharged me with all of these pills, and there was too many of them, so I just
Scott Benner 50:51
didn't take them. You do have great you do have an issue with your thyroid. You have great I do
Ricky 50:56
yeah. So in my 20s, I got diagnosed graves, and then in the last six months, I've had positive Hashimotos antibodies. Oh, so it's coming. It's coming, yeah, and I'll start fighting now for when the symptoms really come, then they might
Scott Benner 51:10
medicate me smart. Yeah. Do you have any other autoimmune issues? Yeah, no,
Ricky 51:15
asthma and endo is the only other long kind of problems I've had. Asthma
Scott Benner 51:19
is your other problem is your your mom's English? Is your father from New Zealand? Yes, yeah. What does that make you if you're New Zealand,
Ricky 51:26
I'm jewel national. Actually, I have a British passport and a New Zealand passport. I'd call myself a kiwi, though, but plainly my accent and I I fit in here. That's
Scott Benner 51:38
what I put it that way, like I'm from the United States, I'm an American, I'm from England, I'm British, you're from New Zealand, you're a kiwi, a kiwi, that's a fruit, too, a bird. Oh, also, it's a fruit. It's a kiwi. Is it's a person, a bird and a fruit. Yeah? Awesome. American. Just one thing,
Ricky 51:57
yes, yeah, yeah. I think it's because we're all obsessed with our bird that can't What is it? It's blind and it can't fly. Wait, it's our national bird. Is that true? Is that true? Google kiwi, they're useless. It
Scott Benner 52:13
says it's not. I love what you mean. I just love that you don't. Kiwis aren't blind, but their their vision is quite limited compared to other birds, vision
Ricky 52:22
is quite limited. Blind. What can you do with limited vision? Anyway, I
Scott Benner 52:29
don't know. I'm just imagining someone coming in and being like, I need a battery. And you're like, here's some windshield wipers close enough. It's a nocturnal animal. So it's, it's, yeah, oh, it sees better in low light conditions. You
Ricky 52:40
don't see them any, you know, like, it's pretty rare to see one. They are flightless, yeah. I mean, look how small the wings.
Scott Benner 52:50
Wings do they have? Wait, do they have wings? I'll find out. I like that. You and I are finding out together. Hold
Ricky 52:55
on, yeah, obviously I it's not a car. I don't care for that much. They have
Scott Benner 52:59
wings, but they're extremely small and functionalist for flight. Their wings are two inches long and are usually hidden under their dense hair, like feathers. These tiny wings don't support flight. I want to see one flip well. Now I want to see what I don't even know if I know what it is, oh, oh, I know what that is, yeah. Oh, it's probably called a kiwi because it's the shape of kiwi.
Ricky 53:23
Oh, my God, I never thought
Scott Benner 53:24
of it and the color, holy, it really is, right? Wow, yes. So okay, so then let's slow down for a second. Why are people from New Zealand called kiwis? The country's national Well, I know the national bird is a kiwi, but how does that happen? The nickname started to be used for New Zealanders, especially during World War One. New Zealand soldiers adopted the Kiwi as a symbol. The Kiwi bird, native to New Zealand, is unique to the country. Flight wasn't easy, recognizable. Imagine you're in the war and you're like, we need to, like, let us strike fear into the hearts of people. Let's be tough. What are we going to call ourselves? And somebody was like, kiwis. And then somebody went, Yeah. And then I assume they all died in the war. Like, I mean, I don't Yeah, they
Ricky 54:13
definitely would have, they, I imagine they would have, that's Yeah, wow.
Scott Benner 54:17
All right, just wow. Oh, okay, sorry, that's interesting. It's funny. You just think it's funny. It's also like, it's like, four in the morning there. So you're like, I don't know, Scott, what time do you have to leave? You have to get out of here. Oh, I've got another hour before I need to leave. Alright, well, I won't keep you that long. Don't worry. I just don't want you to, like, I don't want you to like, have to go to work and be like, I'm late because I was making a podcast. And then say, What was it about? And you're like, was about my uterus, kiwis, electric cars and how they burn. God. What was this about?
Ricky 54:49
I think they'd be very used to that. My last job, when I woke up from my surgery, the first thing I did was send a picture of the removed organ to my boss. Is
Scott Benner 54:59
that what you did? I'm sorry I couldn't come to work today. Here is a picture of my removed uterus. Yeah, here's my medical certificate. Please take this in lieu of a note. Did he accept that photo?
Ricky 55:10
Oh, he loved it. Yeah? Automotive voice mate. Hey,
Scott Benner 55:15
I just want to say sadly, approximately 18,000 New Zealanders died in World War 140 1000 were wounded out of 100,000 that served. That's a big number. Yeah. See, population only of about a million. While you guys only had a population about a million, you sent 100,000 people to fight, lost 40,000
Ricky 55:32
of them. It seems counterproductive to send people to fight. Were they gonna like, we're so little and tucked away? Are people even gonna come at us here? Yeah, I don't
Scott Benner 55:41
know. I wouldn't, yeah, I wouldn't. I just, you got to get involved. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, true. I don't know. You know, what a pretty big moat. Oh, that sounded sexual to me.
Ricky 55:57
Hey, to be fear. It's got sharks in it, if you come through the Australian side, no, it's just
Scott Benner 56:01
funnier. Okay, you wait. There's a side of your little, little pile of dirt that you can swim on where there's no sharks, probably not.
Ricky 56:10
Oh, I've never seen them. I've never seen one dragon come at me. And I swim a lot. You do go in the ocean frequently? Yeah? Beach at the bottom I arrived. Beach at the top of my road is, yeah, well, beaches are everywhere. You've
Scott Benner 56:23
only been to Hawaii, other than New Zealand and living in England when you were younger.
Ricky 56:28
Now, I've, I've been back to England a few times. I train every two years or so. I did a little side holiday to Lanzarote last two years ago. But I haven't done mainland America. I will do at some point, I want to come and have a look at some of your fall at some of your four lane drag
Scott Benner 56:44
strips. Oh, there's a drag place near me, I believe. Oh
Ricky 56:48
yeah, there is in Jersey. Yeah, there's one in South Carolina. I want to see it's got everything. I think there's like, a NASCAR track, because we've got a guy in your NASCAR series now that seems to be carving up a little bit, really. No, there's be cool to come. I don't
Scott Benner 57:00
want to say where this race truck is. It's so close to my house that, you know, badly you might, you might be showing up, but, yeah, there's a number of them in New Jersey. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, that'd be weird if you travel here to see drag strips. I I've done it
Ricky 57:13
so many times. The first time I went to England, this is really bad. So I went over there to meet my mother, and I said, Look, I'm coming for two weeks, and for the first week, I'm going to be visiting tracks. Do you want to come? And she did. So I met her at the airport, and we did all of the good tracks over there. We drove. Like she seen more of England with me than she has the whole time she's been living there such a tiny country, yeah.
Scott Benner 57:34
Oh, that's awesome. Was that? That was the one time you met her as an adult? Yeah? Like
Ricky 57:38
there had been a little bit of contact when we were younger, a few letters and phone calls here and there, but I'm really out of sight, out of mind with stuff like that. I'm quite a, I won't say emotionless, but you know what I mean, like, I just Well
Scott Benner 57:50
that might happen. Do you think that happens a little from being raised without your mom? Yeah, probably, yeah, yeah. Did you guys get on when you were when you were together? Yeah, absolutely,
Ricky 58:00
I'd say, obviously, it was a massive thing for her. She was crying and all the rest of it. And I was trying to not be insensitive about that, and but, you know, the once we got to the accommodation and we kind of sat down and had a drink, it was, it was fun. Did
Scott Benner 58:15
you find her to be and I'm quoting you from earlier, a drunk bitch. No.
Ricky 58:19
I mean, she likes her alcohol. No, not really, okay, no, but she is much older,
Scott Benner 58:27
to be fair, much older than what? Oh,
Ricky 58:29
then, then when the drunk bitch coming,
Scott Benner 58:33
she's grown since then you're saying maybe, yeah, yeah.
Ricky 58:35
Like, I can think of me at that age, and I would have been a drunk bitch too.
Scott Benner 58:40
Has your dad kept up with her at all? Oh
Ricky 58:43
no, not at all. I mean, I brought her back to New Zealand a few years ago, and they had a small interaction, but, yeah, other than that,
Scott Benner 58:50
a small interaction. But did it go like this? Hey, hey, yeah.
Ricky 58:53
She was like, she's Yeah, now we'll leave it, yeah,
Scott Benner 59:00
that's awesome. Oh, I like that. You brought her back there. Like, hey, you should come see Dad. Do you think that all of those New Zealand Army people would have? Do you think they were throwing those little Kiwis as grenades? Maybe that's why they weren't doing so well. Then just as they were just throwing the birds of people, and they're
Ricky 59:18
like, yeah, the long baked bit,
Scott Benner 59:21
my God, all right, I want to go to the last thing on your list. Yeah, I've shuddered to ask you about this the entire time, because I don't know what you're going to say, but on your list, it says how to manipulate the prescription pad.
Ricky 59:32
Oh, we're talking about my GP and my endocrinologist. So,
Scott Benner 59:37
Oh, so you're just talking about how to manipulate the doctor specifically not get drugs that you need.
Ricky 59:41
Yeah, no, all. I mean, insulin, okay. I mean, they'll give it to me. But, um, well, that was more about how I got my pump manipulated. Oh, description, grades, all right.
Scott Benner 59:52
Oh, good, good. So we've talked about that already. Then not, not that yet. I was like, I thought you were gonna give us all, like, some advice for, like, you know, fake. Hip pain or something like that. I wasn't sure what was going on exactly. I will finish with that, right? You, you've mentioned a number of times, just not giving up, being pushy, that whole thing, like, what did that look like? Functionally, chasing
Ricky 1:00:13
everything up twice a week, email, phone, like the squeaky wheel gets the oil. I've always said that before I got unwell. So if they say no, you come back with a reason why, they'll be saying yes every single time. And if they cancel an appointment on you rebook it, just don't lay down. And if there's a criteria, find the criteria and meet the criteria. However you need to do that. You do that
Scott Benner 1:00:39
be undeniable no matter what is said to you, that's it absolutely. Just keep pushing good for you. That's awesome. I mean, I find that to be the case. I don't know how long I forget how old I was at some point, but I had a series of, like, not great jobs when I was younger. And finally, I'd been working so hard in like, cold, dirty buildings, I just always had to get out of there. And a friend of mine got me a job collecting credit card debts, and I've talked about on the podcast, you know, before I did it for like, a year, I was way too good at it. It made me feel bad. I got out of it as fast as I could. But I will tell you something that is good practice for what you were talking about, like that, you know, like, Hey, pay your bill. I can't. Yes, you can. No, I can. Yes, you can. I can't afford food. Buy fewer things to eat. I don't know what to tell you, you've made a debt here, like that, kind of like that, not and it sucks, because, trust me, I never once enjoyed that job like I really did. I did, did hate it, but nevertheless, it did teach me how, like, you don't give up, because people start saying, like, more and more heart wrenching things. And I mean, there was a moment in my life where someone said to me, I can't pay for this car. My husband has cancer, and I had to respond, make a payment by the 15th, or someone's gonna come tow your car away. And not good for my soul. But it does teach you how to like, hear something off putting, and persist, if that makes sense. And I think that's what ends up happening, is that somebody tells you you're not sick that didn't hurt, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and you said, No, you Yes, I do fix this. I'm not going to stop here's an extra email. Here's another phone call. You're not going to ignore me. Somebody help me.
Ricky 1:02:23
Yeah, yeah. Just turn up to wherever the most expensive so I think that's emergency department here. That's like, there'll be 1000s every time that they admit you there, they have to talk. You're on a book.
Scott Benner 1:02:33
Good for you. I think that's awesome. It's a great story. It really is. Happy birthday. Thank you. You're very welcome. I hope you have a great day. Hope you enjoy the cake. I bet you it's gonna suck and you're gonna smile and act like it's not dry, but that's good for you totally. But it sounds like you do really like the people you work with, though, yeah, yeah.
Ricky 1:02:50
No, I love the I have a couple of jobs, but I just, I love the automotive industry is quite an interesting bunch of people.
Scott Benner 1:02:56
Do you love cars so much that it doesn't matter what you drive? Or do you have a car that, like, you're like, This is the perfect car for me.
Ricky 1:03:03
Oh, I have orcas, yeah, um, there's definitely the perfect car. I just can't afford
Scott Benner 1:03:10
it. What would you drive if you could afford anything, a 1963
Ricky 1:03:15
Mazda, Cosmo sport, very, the first of the rotaries
Scott Benner 1:03:19
to kind of go back to when you were a kid. Yeah,
Ricky 1:03:21
even I'll be, it'll be negative 20 years from to be fair, I think the only person that I know that has one's Jay Leno.
Scott Benner 1:03:29
Oh, he's got his YouTube channels, if you like cars, his YouTube channel, awesome.
Ricky 1:03:33
It's amazing. He has got a collection.
Scott Benner 1:03:37
He one time brought out. It was like, it looked like a carriage. And I was like, What is this? And he's like, this is the first electric car from like 1911 I'm like, wait, what? And then sure enough, it had batteries in it, and it like a little thing, and you turned it and the thing, and it was like a I was like, Oh, my God, that's insane. Yeah, have
Ricky 1:03:54
you seen him drive that tank on the street?
Scott Benner 1:03:56
No, there was a tank. He's got a tank
Ricky 1:03:59
thing. Like, maybe it's a union I don't know. It's some war vehicle. It doesn't look like it should be on a road.
Scott Benner 1:04:05
All I know is he's one of the people because of this car thing that he does on YouTube, which I very much enjoy. I hate to see that he's getting older me too. It makes me sad. Yeah,
Ricky 1:04:17
yeah, absolutely. I don't know there's no replacement. I
Scott Benner 1:04:20
think it's because, it's because driving, to some degree, really does count on you having, you know, being agile and aware and good vision and all that stuff. And you can see how much he loves driving, but you can actually see as he gets older that it's more of a chore for
Speaker 1 1:04:36
him, I guess. Yeah, it's sad. It's really sad. It really does break
Scott Benner 1:04:39
my heart. I don't know if it just makes me feel like, am I going to be able to drive? Like, when I get older, like, if it's that feeling of your loss of freedom or not, I have to say this though, I will tell you that I am a huge proponent of anybody and all. I mean, a lot of companies are doing it, but them trying to teach those cars to drive themselves. Because I do genuinely believe that there's going to. An age where, if I want to go visit my kids or be independent, there might have to be a world where I can get into a car, sit down and say to the car, like, hey, take me to the grocery store and it doesn't. Or, yeah, absolutely, you know, I don't know. It's me kind of hoping that, you know, somebody finds a way to put a bandage on me being old one day. But yeah,
Ricky 1:05:18
they're already nearly there. I used to work for Volvo, and we had a self drive car, you know, like, it's, it's pairing features together. It definitely, you can't put a GPS in yet, but it'll, it'll drive without you doing anything a long distance. It's quite scary.
Scott Benner 1:05:32
I've experienced the tel, the Tesla self driving, and it's insane. Like, yeah, it is insane. How well it works. So who knows where it's all going to go to, but hopefully every car manufacturer pays attention to stuff like that, and you don't have to end up just going to one or two, you know, companies, if you want to do something like that, would be nice if they, if they all, put some effort into it, but let's keep the cars gas for you so you can be happy. Yeah,
Ricky 1:05:57
that's all maybe they'll make a cool EV, Monday. All right, hold
Scott Benner 1:06:01
on one second for me, okay.
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