#602 Beth from Episode 23

December 28, 2021Scott Benner

Beth was recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, she is the mother of a T1 and a former podcast guest.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 602 of the Juicebox Podcast.

I don't normally like to date the episodes, but I am recording this for you on December 27 2001. By recording this I mean the ads I think the actual recording was made some months ago. But I'm telling you because today's guest is Beth. Beth is a newly diagnosed type one who is also the mother of a child with type one diabetes. I know that Beth is the mother of a child with type one, because on July 7 2015, she and her then husband were guests on the 23rd episode of my podcast. While that sinks in please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by touched by type one, please visit them at touched by type one.org. Or find them on Facebook and Instagram. Touched by type ones mission is to elevate awareness of type one diabetes, raise funds to find a cure and inspire those with diabetes to thrive, you should check out what they're doing at touched by type one.org.

Beth 1:56
I'm Beth and I have a son who was diagnosed with type one diabetes six and a half years ago when he was two years old. Four weeks before his sister was born. And I was diagnosed with type one diabetes six months ago when I was 38.

Scott Benner 2:14
Whose high alarm was that yours or his? That was mine. Are you nervous?

Beth 2:20
I'm a little bit.

Scott Benner 2:22
You shouldn't be though, right?

Beth 2:24
I shouldn't be because I've done this once before, but yeah, I don't know.

Scott Benner 2:30
Well, don't worry about that. Take care of your blood sugar if you need to. There's so much to ask here. Where do I start? Um, you're like one of daddy's friends before the divorce kind of thing. Like I You're like you were on the podcast in the very, very beginning. Am I wrong? Like

Beth 2:49
yeah, that's that is very accurate. I think I was. I don't know if they missed 30s I think I want to say, but I can't really remember.

Scott Benner 2:58
I think so too. It was far enough back that the naming system I had for it was different. And so I can't it's not even easy for me to figure.

Beth 3:10
We were we were Jack's mum and dad. I do remember that.

Scott Benner 3:13
Okay, hold on a second. Wait, no, hold on a second. Yours was 31. This is super interesting. Episode 31 was called PI attack. Because of you know, because your married name.

Beth 3:29
Nope, that's not me.

Scott Benner 3:31
Hold a second. That's not you. That's not me. Let me Google some more. All right, hold on a second. I'll find it. I'm so bad at searching my own blog. That's crazy. I should be better at this. I just did like your first name was like a pop right up. I was like, this is definitely it. What do you think the title was?

Beth 3:52
I think I think it was Jack's mom and dad. Jack's Dad and Mom. Because both me and my ex husband were on at the same time. We were still married at the time.

Scott Benner 4:03
I have it. I have it. 23 Oh my god.

Beth 4:08
Oh my gosh.

Scott Benner 4:10
I remember you. Oh, my Wow.

Unknown Speaker 4:15
This was hoping that's a good thing,

Scott Benner 4:17
of course is July 2015. And it's June 2021. Right now.

Beth 4:24
It's been a wild six years.

Scott Benner 4:26
I was gonna say that six years ago. You totally took away my my joy of knowing how many years it's been since 2015. Don't don't apologize, but even crazier. There are two people named Beth that were on the show in the beginning who I don't think are married anymore. Oh, do you think oh, it was bad luck for women named Beth.

Beth 4:50
Or good luck.

Scott Benner 4:51
Oh, never mind. Good riddance.

Beth 4:56
Well, I'm not gonna throw anybody under the bus. You can't stand up here and find themselves, but you know, I'm in a better place

Scott Benner 5:04
for you. Alright, well. So this is I hold on a second. This is completely fried my mind. But I'm together now because in my heart, you were the other Beth. Let me just say this before we move forward to the other bath. I'm glad you don't have diabetes. But in my mind for the last six months you have so I don't know if she still listens or not, but that that is absolutely crazy. Okay. All right. So a lot has happened since then. So when you came on six years ago, you had two fairly small children. Is that right?

Beth 5:39
Yeah. Yeah, cuz Jack Jack was two at the time, or two and a half by that point. And Abby was not even four months, I think.

Scott Benner 5:53
Okay. She's, I have a picture of her. She's super tiny in the photograph. So

Beth 5:58
yeah, yeah, that was her newborn picture. And so yeah, she was she was teeny tiny.

Scott Benner 6:03
So back then Jack was to tell me again, how old he was two and a half and how long he had he had diabetes at that point.

Beth 6:13
Six months? Wasn't even. Yeah, it was like, it might have even been five

Scott Benner 6:18
was like any good at the podcast back then. Oh, yeah. It was a really? Oh, thank you. That's nice. I was certain you would say no.

Beth 6:26
No, I absolutely. I absolutely love listening and had it not been for the divorce happening a year later. I would have continued to listen, but it just kind of got to be too much. But I have caught up on four years of podcasts in four months. So

Scott Benner 6:45
well. Thank you. I just announced today on the Facebook machine that the podcast is currently averaging three and a half downloads per minute. That is awesome. I want six bath. I just

Beth 7:00
I mean, you You are the constant overachiever. So

Scott Benner 7:03
I it's funny. I don't think I overachieving anything but this I think of myself more as competitive with myself. So every time I see the number, I'm like, Ah, but couldn't it be more? And, and then I get like, I think of ways to reach more people. And but it's least it's a nice thing that competitiveness gets used in a good way. Which is

Beth 7:23
Oh, absolutely, yeah. Cuz I can. I like, especially these last, like, since I've started re listening again, I'm like, Oh, this is like getting therapy on an extra day.

Scott Benner 7:35
Oh, thank you. I should charge for that. $40 a month Patreon. There you go. I'm definitely that sounds horrible to me. Although there was somebody who came to me the other day, you know, there are business people who see that you have a popular thing. And they'll come to you and say, here's how you can monetize your ideas. And I'm like, Thank you. No, thank you. Like, I have to say, No, thank you to a lot of people. Right. But one of them was one of them said, Imagine if you would charge 50 cents for a download, or $5 a month for each person listening. And I said, I can't imagine that. Because if I stop and think about that, that will make me want to do that. Because I would like to retire to someday. So I'm like, Please don't tell me about that. I'm like, I very badly want this show to remain free to the people who are listening to it. So no, thank you. And please, please, I can't hear you. I can't hear you.

Beth 8:27
But what I'm just I think I would speak for probably most of the people listening or or all of them wanted to say we can't thank you enough. I mean, it's just it's it's not just a management podcast. It's it's a humanitarian.

Scott Benner 8:54
Hey, we might get good. I'm almost like Nelson Mandela for diabetes, you're saying? I mean, you're like, No, I'm not.

Beth 9:02
Pro tide bit. I mean, that might be going at TED,

Scott Benner 9:06
Nelson Mandela's a little too much of a shining star in this scenario. Hold on a second,

Beth 9:10
maybe a hair's breadth too far. But it's, it's it's a welcome reminder that we're not alone. And that we all have struggles, and that we all have struggles outside of diabetes, right? It's just like, it adds to it. Right. It's, it's the one more thing that nobody really wants one more thing to be. Well,

Scott Benner 9:34
I'm super happy that it provides that for you. I'm going to ask you one difficult question so that we can leap forward and ask the rest of them was the dissolving of your marriage to do in any way with diabetes?

Beth 9:47
I had a feeling that would come up. Um, I can't say that it. It was specifically to that there were a number of other probably more more heavily contributing factors. But from my standpoint, there were I can't say that it wasn't, but not directly.

Scott Benner 10:10
Wow, you just talked all the way around that path. Okay, so I'm not asking your personal I don't want to like you understand I'm not asking for your personal details, like right about your divorce. I just want to know, did diabetes add? Is that what you're saying that it added stress on top of an already stressed issue? Yes. Okay, that's fair, I would think that it's added stress to all of us. And that there's like four people listening right now that like, my life is perfect. So diabetes wasn't that much worse, and everyone else feels that exact way. So I just didn't want to gloss over it. Because if I was listening, as a listener, I'd wonder the whole time. And I didn't want people to be wondering when I started asking you really other questions that I'm super interested in? So first of all, how is Jack doing?

Beth 10:57
Jack's doing good. We've, you know, we did struggle for a while and his agency to get up into the nines. Unfortunately, you know, there's all kinds of ways that I could talk around that, but life is distracting. And we were able to refocus, and he's now back down to 7.1. So hopefully, we'll get him under the sevens. And then within the within the year,

Scott Benner 11:27
did it become I don't want to, I don't want to attach it to something meaningless. But again, all of my examples that popped in my head are always stupid, but give me a second. So what I was thinking was, is it like when you want to do the laundry and mop the kitchen floor today, but the laundry ends up being slightly more important, so you don't mop the floor for six months? Kind of okay. So

Beth 11:52
so it's, it's, it's also one of those. You know, I acted as a single mom for, you know, a number of years. And and I, you know, I worked full time. Yeah, right. Around single, you know, single mom, me wasn't even two. It just kind of got lost in the mix. And I probably slept through more high alarms overnight than I had prior. Prior to

Scott Benner 12:29
Gotcha. And that's just the, the function of you need to get up and go to work in the next day, or you guys are gonna have bigger problems is that feels right.

Beth 12:37
Yeah. I mean, there's that.

Scott Benner 12:40
Any sadness on your part? After thing?

Beth 12:49
In regards to what

Scott Benner 12:50
did you did you go through a period of like, feeling down after the divorce? Or was it invigorating? My, I only have my mother's divorce to draw from my mom acted like she was okay, but seemed pretty sad, got thrust into a full time job that she didn't have prior to that, and then seemingly ignored everything around the house, because that was pretty much all she could handle. Right.

Beth 13:15
So I think, for me, it was just kind of, I threw myself into survival mode almost. And so there wasn't, I think any grieving that I did I did prior to the divorce. Okay. Because I had hit a point to where I I had done what I felt I could do, and I was, I was just done. And so that grieving process, for the most part happened up to the point to where the papers were signed, and then it was kind of a, you know, take a breath and

Scott Benner 13:59
move forward. It was kind of processed for you by then. Yeah, got it. Kids went, stayed. Did you have to change homes? Or did you get to stay where you were?

Beth 14:09
We did. So we sold the home that we were in and then I moved to a townhome for about a year. And then my current husband and I, we weren't married at the time, but we we went ahead and bought a house together. Yeah, and so yeah.

Scott Benner 14:31
I'm sorry. I know this is all incredibly difficult, but you must have known that when you reached out right.

Beth 14:36
Oh, yeah, no, I mean, I like I'm, I'm prepared. Like i i Don't you know, you can try to make me cry.

Scott Benner 14:45
Do you think I'm trying to make people cry? Most not to cry myself.

Beth 14:53
Although I'm sure it would do wonders for ratings. So

Scott Benner 14:55
I listen. We're not gonna make you cry. Just some where people will listen. But if that's gonna work, then we'll just, we'll pick a time in every episode and people cry together. It'll be nice. So, okay, so during this kind of transitional period would, would you say you lost focus on Jax diabetes? Or how do you describe what happened as you drifted away from where you were to where you ended up? And then what? What made you like kind of go? I gotta move this now that direction?

Beth 15:28
Yeah, so part of it was certain aspects had kind of been moved out of my realm of overseeing. Right. Like you probably should not text your ex husband at two in the afternoon and say, Hey, more insulin. That's not going to be taken. Well,

Scott Benner 15:55
does he respond back? You left me?

Beth 16:00
I never tried it. So I don't know. I

Scott Benner 16:03
see you weren't certain where it was gonna go see. So people who did not grow up in a divorce, like householder probably not going to see as much humor in this as I do. But so Jack spent time with his dad and he spent time with you. There was one set of management with you and one set of management with his father. Is that fair? Correct.

Beth 16:26
Correct. And then on top of that, he also started daycare about a month after we moved, and that took some adjusting on their part as well. Now they were they were super cooperative and very vigilant. But a lot of daycares use a lot of processed food. And then they also have snacks of things like you know, Pop Tarts or let's make fruit kebabs or you know, how many cards can we shove into your kid at three o'clock and then you're going to try and feed them dinner at 530

Scott Benner 17:07
we like to make him sleepy for the end of the day so they don't fight putting their coats back on. What we do is we pack them full of carbs and then they just kind of slow down a little bit they're less onry Yeah, I It's crazy knowing what daycare costs that that wouldn't at least come with like something that wasn't a pop tart. Terrible and you're stuck right like I think that's important for people to remember is that you're not like you're not the queen of like Wales or something I'm sure that Wales doesn't have a queen but they must have a princess or something like that. And like you're not like sitting on a pile of gold trying to decide what to do next with your fancy like you're you're out busting your ass you got a job you're trying to like keep all this stuff up in the air trying to have like a life for yourself like there's a lot going on in the tiny little space and time and so as it drifts up as a once he goes up and up are you thinking like how does it does it happen so incrementally that you don't feel it? Is it like gaining 10 pounds?

Beth 18:12
Oh no, no. Well, I mean for me gaining 10 pounds i i feel gaining 10 pounds. Um but there's there's a lot of self flagellation that goes along with it of like not doing a good job still not doing a good job Oh, I'm doing even worse job. And that I mean it doesn't really help anything right because it's still not solving the problem. Um, you know, and probably within the last two years is when we've really started to see his agency come back down so there was there was probably a two and a half year time period where it it went up and I just said That's That's enough. Like I just can't We can't keep doing this. And

Scott Benner 19:06
what's the fix then? How do you how do you jumpstart it

Beth 19:17
one meal at a time. Um, I mean really, it was just let me see if I can get one meal down. Let me just see if I can get a dinner and okay, well he's he's going to bed at a stable rate. Okay, let's see if we can get him to stay stable overnight. Which and

Scott Benner 19:44
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. No, no, that's

Beth 19:47
fine. Um, it's just the the once you want once we got him in range, right. It's easier to keep him in rage. But the the problem was, it continues to be right. If something goes a little hinky.

His blood sugar's shoots up trying to get it back down and get it back down safely.

Because when he was diagnosed at two, you know, a half a unit is in is an insane amount of insulin at that age, right? And then, you know, fast forward a couple of years and half a unit is I mean, it's not nothing, but it doesn't do the same thing. Alright,

Scott Benner 20:45
I have to say something, and then I'm going to ask a question. And please, I am not making fun of you. It's just so worth pointing out a couple of minutes ago. You meant self flagellation, which you know, means to inflict, and you say, self flagellation, which I think is something about farting. So it's very possible, very possible that you may have inadvertently named your episode, self Angelus.

Beth 21:14
Hi, Dan, because I actually had a good one in the back of my head, you're

Scott Benner 21:18
gonna have to come up with something way better as we move forward to knock that out of my head. Now. Now, speaking of getting something knocked out of your head, it's occurring to me as I'm putting this timeline together, that you have a very young son diagnosed with type one diabetes, in that first year, we all know that time to be chaotic. And then you get divorced, which I'm assuming puts kind of a pause on your ability to dig into the type one. So is it almost like when your head comes up above water? Is it almost like he was just diagnosed? Or am I wrong about that? I mean, you still dealt with it day to day, but I mean, if we're being fair, and at the nines, there was some stuff being missed in there. So

Beth 22:03
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. It was going through some of the education again. Right, it was, you know, kind of reintroduction of like, looking at what we can, what I considered to be high, readjusting my expectations. Because, you know, when you're, you know, I guess I kind of only had so much bandwidth. And so then I was hitting that, like, Oh, it's just 180. It's okay. Oh, it's just 200? Well, it's, it's not it's still under 200. It's okay. Right, and then those creep away from you.

Scott Benner 22:48
Yeah, you just keep raising the ceiling.

Beth 22:51
And then I, you know, it was just kind of hitting this point of, you know, that's it, that his agency is not going any higher than this. And we're, we're gonna go about this the way that I was going about it at the beginning, and hopefully we see some more success.

Scott Benner 23:11
And how did that how were you able to impact the split household situation? Or has that changed since then?

Beth 23:17
It hasn't been but you know, my, my husband is really great. He actually helps me manage mine as well.

Scott Benner 23:30
wait to get to that part. Yeah. The only podcast in the world where people are super excited that you got diabetes, but go ahead.

Beth 23:38
Right. Yeah, so he he helps out because he, he's a stay at home step dad. So he helps out with school time, he helps out with after school. You know, he kind of takes care of the overnights for the most part. And so he was able to, you know, because Jack was still the last time that he was actually in a school was first grade. But he was able to call up to the nurse and say, Hey, go ahead and up his Basal and give him a Bolus of you know, point seven five

Scott Benner 24:24
are you supporting at this point? The four of us I've just I spent a lot of time being a stay at home dad feeling like I don't make any money. I always felt I felt very badly about it. But I'm just teasing. I don't think that law I think that stay at home parents do an amazing thing. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Okay, so you're getting help from from another person. Now. How long have you been remarried?

Beth 24:52
Since February. Oh, so coming up on four months here.

Scott Benner 24:57
Oh, wow. It's very new. Congratulations. Thank you. Should we book six months from now? You can tell me about your third husband are there six years?

Beth 25:05
Let's say six years. I want to give this one.

Scott Benner 25:08
Good rule first. Now, that's really wonderful. Congratulations. How did you guys meet? I'm interested in how how you meet during a pandemic and get married.

Beth 25:19
Um, well, we actually, were sort of college sweethearts we did in college for a few months. Kind of sorta kept in touch with each other. Off and on. And as I was going through the divorce, we reconnected and yeah, so we've we've actually been together. Yeah, since later on in in 2016.

Scott Benner 25:51
I see. Oh, yeah. You didn't meet on like, Grindr? Tinder? I don't know. I'm not sure which ones are appropriate for you. But I think there's one now called hinge if I'm not mistaken. Oh, actually interesting. Yeah. Yeah, I should never get divorced as I will not be able to find another human being through an app. That would be a horrifying thing. Can you imagine? Yeah. Is it? Is it hard as an adult with two kids to say to somebody like, Hey, look at me, I'm a package like, is that scary or not with the right person? That doesn't?

Beth 26:23
Um, I don't think with the right person a you know, with with Jordan, it was, you know, all cards are out on the table from the get go. And I was like, Look, dude, I got a kid with a chronic illness that's not going away. So, you know, you want to continue this, you just need to know what you're signing up for. And, you know, I sent him I think like a pancreas and sugar surfing in the mail. Cuz he actually was living two hours away from here as well.

Scott Benner 27:04
Anything in your life easy?

Beth 27:07
No, no, because, you know, when you also second thinking about it, My diagnosis was in the height of the pandemic. Yeah,

Scott Benner 27:14
I just want to know, I was getting ready to jump into that. I felt the vibe. But I want to know is did he? Did you get married? And then you got type one, or did you get type one right before you got married?

Beth 27:29
So I got type one. And when I was in the ICU, and they were asking for next of kin, I tried to put him down. And they were like, What's your relationship? He's my life partner. Yeah, no, that doesn't work. What's your mother's name?

Scott Benner 27:46
We dated in high school.

Beth 27:49
Oh, it's just like, Ah, okay. And, you know, I let him know that and we had kind of been talking about getting married, but then that was kind of the impetus of like, Alright, let's go down to the courthouse.

Scott Benner 28:06
Oh, so wait, so this isn't a good guy. He thought he was gonna get your stuff. I know. I guess that's not it. You wouldn't trade taking care of a kid with diabetes for like a DVD player and 20 movies? Probably I don't think. Yeah. So okay, so how did you alright, I guess how did you figure out you I type one what happened?

Beth 28:26
Um, well, and we actually think that I may have had lotta that I ignored for years. But it kind of started with a yeast infection,

Scott Benner 28:41
as every good story does,

Beth 28:43
right. And I am not prone to yeast infections. I think I've had to my entire life. And this one came on and was not going away. I mean, I think I struggled with this for four months. Wow. And I was seeing doctors, I was I was getting, you know, I was getting antifungal oral medic medicine. I was getting topical medicine. I was getting internal creams. And it just would not go away. And the lab results were not coming back positive for ease. So we kept thinking, I've got cancer. Right? Yeah. And then they re ran the yeast culture. And it came back positive. And my immediate thought was, oh, shoot. sugar feeds east.

Scott Benner 29:55
Did you did you say it out loud. You're like, Hey, I've diabetes. Did you tell somebody or did they figure it out on their own?

Beth 30:04
Well, I, I figured it out. I called Jordan into my office, because I've been working from home. And I said, I, I think this might be diabetes.

Here, he's looked at me and said, Okay, well now like I said, Well, let me test my blood sugar after lunch.

So I had a salad and the world's tiniest cookie. And an hour later, check my blood sugar was over 300. Right? Yeah, check it again. Oh, still over 300

Scott Benner 30:43
Try different finger. Maybe all the sugars in this one finger.

Beth 30:51
Ah. So I call my mom and I'm like, hey, my blood sugar's over 300 I think I have diabetes. And she's like, No, that could be that could be any, any number of things. I'm in a meeting, I got to go by. Okay. So then I call my doctor. I'm like, Hey, ah, so I checked my blood sugar. I had a salad and a small cookie, he's like, You can't check your blood sugar after you've had a cookie. Like

Scott Benner 31:25
cookies, don't make your blood sugar 300. If your pancreas works, I hope everyone understands that even though your doctors and your mother don't seem to.

Beth 31:36
So, so he said, Well, send me a fasting blood sugar in the morning. And this is an empirical question. And I'm a very logical person. Normally, um, and so I'm like, Okay, there's like some facts around this. And he wants to. He wants to measure that he knows his control. So okay. So I struggled through the rest of the day, send him have blood sugar in the morning. And it's 257. I want to say, somewhere around there. And he's like, Okay, well, I'm going to send in a prescription for Metformin for you. And we'll have a consultation tomorrow,

Scott Benner 32:22
even though your kid has type one,

Beth 32:25
if that was what he and I said, so you don't think you so you don't think this is type one. He said no, it nor type one normally presents with higher with a higher blood sugar.

Scott Benner 32:36
Now, if you catch it sooner, right? Well, and

Beth 32:39
the other thing too, which retrospectively, I think had I not already been in? In DKA. I would have thought through this a little bit more. But I had checked my ketones as well. And they were 5.6 on a blood meter. Oh, my God,

Scott Benner 32:58
this guy's sending you Metformin. Where do these? Do they just hand these license out? Now, at this point, are there too many hot colleges making doctors what's happening? I'm an idiot, Beth, let's be clear about that. And I could have diagnosed you off the things you just say. I mean, my goodness, that's terrible.

Beth 33:19
And here's the funny thing. So that was that was a Tuesday. And so I had an appointment with my therapist who happened to have been, who have who did a research project on exercise in diabetes at the Joslin Institute, um, when she was younger, and so I kind of, you know, she had been aware that we were concerned about cancer, and I said, Well, I'm 99.9% sure that I don't have cancer. And she was like, Well, that's good. And I said that I'm 99.9% sure that I have diabetes. And I think if she could have crawled through the computer screen, she probably would have. Because I mean, she was totally floored. And then I told her what was going on. And she said, you don't have type two. She said that this is type two. I'll eat my hat.

Scott Benner 34:17
Yeah, honestly, how long did it take your poor vagina bounce back after?

Beth 34:23
By that time I had been through, I think eight rounds of an oral antifungal in three rounds of creams. And by that time it finally had healed up thankfully.

Scott Benner 34:37
Yeah, I mean, I don't have one but that seemed horrible. So

Beth 34:42
it was it was pretty awful. Like it was I mean, actually it to totally TMI or graphic here but again on my legs that was starting to not be skin anymore.

Scott Benner 34:52
Oh my god. Yeah, it's not like if you break your wrist, you can just put it in a cast and let it heal. You still got to use that thing. Right away. least what basic stuff and hopefully the other stuff

boy, you're quite a catch. I can see how you guys ended up married. This is something,

Beth 35:13
right? I just come with all the bells and whistles.

Scott Benner 35:16
You're like, listen, here's what I have to offer. I got two kids, one of them has type one diabetes. I think I have diabetes. My my hooch is pretty busted up. And. And I'm in a townhouse. So come on over, sign the papers. We must really love you.

Beth 35:34
He's a pretty stand up guy. Yeah, sorry.

Scott Benner 35:37
That's excellent. All right. So you do you even end up in the hospital over this? Or do you even make it the Metformin guy?

Beth 35:43
I do. So I don't make it to that for my guy. Because this is, this is Tuesday. This is 10 days before Christmas, too. Because we don't you think simple here. And I'm, I'm trying to avoid going to the hospital because there's a pandemic going on? Yeah. And I just don't know how much insulin to give myself is really where I'm at. Right? You know, cuz I've got to, at this point, I have an eight year old and I know what works on an eight year old isn't going to work on 38 year old. So I don't really know.

Scott Benner 36:23
Did you just try? Like, I feel like I would try.

Beth 36:27
I probably in retrospect, should I have this hearing what I dealt with at the hospital? Oddly enough, my brother in law three, my husband, his my my husband's sister? Husband has type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 36:47
Brother in law. You said brother in law, which I understood, and then you described it a different way. Right? Yeah. Like my brother in law than you like my husband's sister. Yeah, your brother.

Beth 37:01
There's no blood relation? Like, no, right. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so he has type one. And so my husband is messaging back and forth with his brother in law saying, Hey, he's like, Well, you could always try just give it her five units and see if it drops. And I'm just, you know, and I'm thinking about what five units says to Jack and I'm thinking you're not getting near me with five units. Insulin, I don't know what that's gonna do. And I don't have a continuous glucose monitor. So there's no way.

Scott Benner 37:32
That's funny. That's interesting. I was wondering like, where you would fall? Like, like, how it would feel? That's the part of your story. I think that's, that's we haven't tapped into yet that I'm super excited to talk about, which is did any of what you understood for your son translate to you? Oh, absolutely. Just scaled up. Just Not That day, when you were like, hey, what's great here? Okay, so you end up in the hospital then?

Beth 37:58
So I do, because, you know, it, I had hit a point to where we'd realize that I was, I was too far gone to mess with it at home, I say. Because at that point, we really, I had also dropped about 35 pounds in three months. You know, and I had thought I had been being super healthy by drinking all this water. And that was what was making me pee so much, right? All the classic signs finally kind of clicked. And that was the point to where I just, you know it and I think I'd had a low carb dinner for I'd had a low carb dinner that night, and passed out on the couch. And Jordan just kind of looked at me and was like, you were gonna go to the hospital one way or the other. Even if I had to toss you in the car and then throw you out of it. Into the

Scott Benner 38:58
horn. Come get this one. I'll take the other two. Oh, diabetes and checker which just drove Yeah, fix all the stuff I need and make sure she doesn't die. And they just drove away. Because of the COVID again, yeah, right. Yeah. Okay. So you go into the car.

Beth 39:19
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So and we had, you know, we're, we're in North Dallas. And so there's a number of hospitals to choose from, right. And so we, we saw one that had an endo attached to it. Is that okay, we'll go we'll go to this one because they have a specialty available, that will probably mean and so I go into the ER, and like I have, I have diabetes, but I don't know what type and I needed diagnosis. Which is probably not the right thing to say but it was really what my brain Get out at that point. And so they're like, Yeah, okay. And the ER comes in. He was like, So what's going on? And I said, Well, I have I tested my blood sugar at home, I have diabetes, but I don't know what type. My son has type one. I'm pretty sure it's type one. But if we could run the antibody tests, that would be great. And, obviously everything else that you guys need to do. And he just kind of looks at me, he's good. Okay, well, we're going to verify that we're gonna run your ad and see like, Okay, sure. And then, you know, they draw blood and have you piano cap and all of this. My agency was 11. So they're like, yeah, you've got diabetes. Okay, thank you. And, you know, and there was, you know, there was glucose in my urine. And I think when they did a finger stick, it was 287.

Scott Benner 41:05
Okay, well, yeah, you had the low carb meal. Right, right. Yeah.

Beth 41:12
And so they, they start getting me hooked up to stuff and I'm still asking for the antibody test. Oh, they'll pull that for you in the ICU. Okay. But you probably have taped to like, and I'm just, I'm sitting there going. Like, I know, I need to lose a few pounds here. But you haven't taken my medical history. Right?

Scott Benner 41:38
It's, you know, it happens to everybody right path, like, I know, just like they go, Hey, you have weight to lose, you have type two diabetes, Hey, you don't have weight to lose. Just can't be type two diabetes, that people are just like, I mean, it must be. Here's what I'm saying. Medical school must be super easy. That's what I mean. I what I'm figuring is I'm a six hour course away from being able to take out your spleen. That's all.

Beth 42:04
That would not surprise me. Yeah,

Scott Benner 42:05
I just need to learn online. Apparently, kids don't even have to go to college anymore. I'm just sitting in this chair away from being a surgeon as well. I'm thinking I don't, I don't know how, with something as prevalent as diabetes, there couldn't be an extra 20 minutes worth of education about it for doctors. I just like put them all on the same page. Like how hard would it be to put everyone on the same page about type one and type two diabetes? Hey, don't judge people by their body shape. Here's how you figure it out. Like I don't know. I don't understand why we can't fix little problems in the world. You know, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, it happened to you. But still,

Beth 42:44
I mean, it. I knew I knew when I went in there. I was like, This is gonna be I didn't think it would be as much of a fight. As it ended up being. Yeah. But I knew that I would have to try and convince somebody. Right. And so they sent me from the ER to the ICU. Because, I mean, I was I was pretty far gone into DK at that point. And my electrolytes were totally out of balance. So they're hooking me up to all kinds of bags. And I asked for the antibody test again. Oh, no, no, we're not going to do that here that that would happen in your regular room. But you've got type two diabetes. Okay, why are you? Well, you're 38. Okay, you can get type one any age and they're like, Yeah, but this this isn't type one, you can get DK and in type two. So I'm just, you know, I'm like, Alright, pick and choose my battles. I'm not going to get anywhere these people find I'll wait until I get down to the regular room get moved down to the regular room. And the overnight doctor was the first one who actually said hey, all of that sounds reasonable. You have a very close relative with type one. You're not overly obese. Um, um, you know that I would be considered obese. Anyway.

Scott Benner 44:21
Knock out the other title with not overly obese.

Beth 44:25
I mean, I'm overweight, but I'm not. I'm also not the picture of a couch potato either, right? Like I I go hiking, I go walking. I am not an inactive person. And so she seemed totally fine. ordered the test. The morning doctor the daytime doctor, remove the orders from my chart. Really, really? That's fine. Top. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 45:01
hate to have to edit that out. But that's really great. So you got to the right. You did. By the way, I appreciate how you handle this. You ask everybody, then you assess who are the decision makers in the room. Recognize that this isn't going to go anywhere. Keep moving. Keep asking find the person who finally makes sense. And then the next chucklehead comes in and takes it off again. Yeah, so your 344 Bed doctor so far. You've er, I see you overnight. Morning. And you found one. Yeah. And the other ones that knocked that one right out of the convention? Yeah. Interesting. Go ahead.

Beth 45:42
So, um, then we move about the day and these they've switched me off, you know, cuz they've moved me out of ICU. I'm no longer on insulin direction. I'm not on pins. So, um, you know, I think the first meal that I ate was a dinner. And I, you know, I said, Okay, how many carbs? Because I'm thinking, I don't know how much you guys are shooting me up with and you guys aren't checking my blood sugar as often as I'd like anyway. So I'm definitely not going to under eat this first go around. And they said 40 to 60. Well, okay, so I'm gonna order 60 carbs because I don't trust a single person in here.

Scott Benner 46:26
Except the guy and he's gone now. Or the way she was the overnight doc, a woman or a man. I'm sorry. It was it was a woman. Okay. She's gone now. Right?

Beth 46:35
Yeah. And so then my, so my blood sugar went high overnight. And they're like, Okay, you know, how much how much did you ask them? Well, you told me to cover, you know, up to 60 carbs. So I ordered 60 carbs. Oh, let's try and knock that down to 40. Okay, so I had an omelette and a bagel for breakfast. And by lunch, my blood sugar went up to 400 something.

Scott Benner 46:59
Yeah, hospital bagels are not even like grocery store bagels. Which are not even bagels. And for those of you who don't live on the east coast, you have no idea what a bagel is. And that's a judgment straight from I really probably

Beth 47:13
don't. It's thinking Siri like, my exposure has been Texas April's Yeah, so

Scott Benner 47:19
it's not even a thing. You don't even understand what you're doing. Right? So it's great. So when my brother tells me he's getting pizza, you're not getting pizza, you're in Wisconsin. Stop it so okay. So they've successfully jacked your blood sugar back up again.

Beth 47:38
I'm blaming me because I shouldn't be eating a bagel. I'm nevermind that they're they're giving me insulin. So I don't think the bagel is the problem. I think it's the lack of insulin. But you know, that's fine. And at this point is when the arguments with the daytime Doctor really start? Because I was very insistent on getting this test. And she just refused to put it. And I hadn't realized that she had removed it from my chart. Or from my orders.

Scott Benner 48:14
Yeah, how would you know?

Beth 48:16
And so, um, I'm, relatively speaking, a fairly mild mannered person. But it hit a point around four o'clock that afternoon during shift change, where there were two nurses, and both of the techs in my room as I was shouting, that if only there was some way to figure out which type of diabetes I have. Oh, right. There's a king test. Why don't you order it?

Scott Benner 48:56
You were yelling this?

Beth 48:57
Yes, with the door open. So I'm sure I was like, very well looked upon by the rest of the hospital staff at that point, but I didn't care. I wanted my test I wanted. The only reason I walked into the ER was to get a diagnosis and to get my blood sugar down. Right. Right. And they weren't really doing either one of those things.

Scott Benner 49:20
They were they still charging you though? I imagine you were getting billed every day. $10,000 a day to be there. Oh,

Beth 49:26
thankfully, I have pretty good insurance. But I did see what the original amount was. And I was like, There's no way your guys are getting that money out of me.

Scott Benner 49:36
No one's paying that for your scattershot help. What what what ends up being like, do you figure it out in the hospital like this somebody save you or how does this end up at an endo?

Beth 49:50
So pretty much what ended up happening was the overnight doctor came in and I'd made so much noise the nurse actually asked her about the The test and she said, Well, I ordered that last night, why wasn't it drawn? So they drew the they put the order back on, and made sure to have the blood drawn before the daytime doctor came in. And she was super thrilled when she found out that I had done this, that I worked my way around. Um, and then I was out of the hospital, I think two days after that. And somehow and during this time, you know, my husband was calling in those around town trying to get me in somewhere. And there was a doctor who could see me first thing in January, I think, I was like, You know what, they're gonna give me enough insulin to get me through January will be fine.

And got out of the hospital on a Saturday. Monday, I got a call from the endo office saying, Hey, we had a cancellation. So tomorrow, can you come in? Oh, heck, yes, I can.

Scott Benner 51:10
You might, by the way, I'm sorry. Are we gonna get to the end of this office and find out that these people are inept, too, or is this somebody?

Beth 51:18
A good story? This is Yeah, no, the end was great. And it was fantastic. Excellent. And so I go in and, you know, I'm explaining to him the situation. He was like, they didn't do any diagnostic tests. And I said, Well, I had to beg and plead for the antibody tests, but it hasn't come back yet. He just kind of sighs he said, Okay, well, we'll order a C peptide. And we'll order an in antibody test. And I got the results from the endo before I got the results from the hospital.

Scott Benner 51:52
I want to jump ahead a little bit, but I do have to ask you, did you ever go to the doctor that cancelled the orders have you sent them like, like a card that says I have type one diabetes, you suck or something like that?

Beth 52:04
I know what I did file a formal complaint against her with the hospital, and I let them know that she misdiagnosed me. Fun times.

Scott Benner 52:11
Good for her. Yeah, try harder. So now, how long ago was this? Six months?

Beth 52:18
Yeah, a little less than six months. But yeah.

Scott Benner 52:21
How is it going for you? What how are you finding the transition for yourself versus what your experience was with your son?

Beth 52:30
So it's been a little, it's had both it's seamless parts, and it's less seamless parts. So you know, once I got the official diagnosis, I was able to go into my endo and say, and actually, when I had gone into him the first time he I said I want to I came in here for two things. I want a diagnosis and a Dexcom. And I left with the Dexcom. Yeah. So that was pretty awesome.

Scott Benner 53:00
Did they give you the whole setup, or did they give you that Hello? Dexcom thing?

Beth 53:04
No, no, they gave me a transmitter and sensor.

Scott Benner 53:07
Yeah, but did it did the box say hello? Dexcom on it. Do you remember? So? Yeah, that's a new program. They have were doctors or have those in their offices? Yeah, that's interesting. Cool.

Beth 53:19
It was it was pretty awesome. I have to say like it was. I was like Christmas came early. I'm

Scott Benner 53:26
actually late because then this all happened six months. Like right but right at Christmas.

Beth 53:30
Right? It did. The Endo. I had my first very first appointment with the Endo, I think two or three days before Christmas.

Scott Benner 53:41
Oh, well. Oh, so that whole story happened very quickly, then. Yeah, gotcha. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Well, then Christmas did indeed come early.

Beth 53:49
It is awesome. Like, hey, I can actually eat on Christmas because I can feel my blood sugar is doing it. Now I have an insulin to carb ratio. So I can actually figure out how much insulin I need for stuff.

Scott Benner 53:59
Yeah. Are you using pens though?

Beth 54:01
I am not. That was another issue was that they sent me the hospital sent me home with with pens, but no needle caps. And when they sent the prescriptions in, they send a prescription in for pens which weren't covered by my insurance and did not send in any needle cap prescriptions. So they were super helpful. I ended up having to use Jack's insulin in leftover syringes when when he was still on MDI.

Scott Benner 54:31
I'm just laughing because you just imagined at some point his story, something would go right. And you're down into the nitty gritty now right of like, the the syringes they gave you and you still it's fascinating it really and and I want to bring this up. I've been thinking this for 30 minutes now. You're a younger person who has a child with type one diabetes. Imagine you're 55 years old, don't know anything Think about diabetes, this exact the health thing happens to you. You are in your house right now taking Metformin thinking you have type two diabetes? Oh, yeah. 100 Well,

Beth 55:09
or if I had gone to the hospital, because at that point, I would have been comatose. You know, I've been back in the hospital because they didn't send me home with insulin that I could use or anything to use it with

Scott Benner 55:23
right now. Yeah. You You basically are the, the source of all information in this scenario, right? No one else is helping you. Except the one doctor who apparently they only let work when the sun's not up for somebody.

Beth 55:39
Right? Yeah. Go on her actually talking to the patient. Yeah, right. Good idea.

Scott Benner 55:42
She might she might figure out what's wrong with them. Oh my gosh. Wow. So so you're sorry. Are you using a pump now?

Beth 55:55
I am I Yeah. So I got into an omni pod. I think two days before my wedding. So that would have been February 10.

Scott Benner 56:07
Wow. And your son uses which pump? Omnipod? Oh, you just have a big stack of them.

Beth 56:12
Right? We have interchangeable matching equipment. We use everything the same except for our insulin.

Scott Benner 56:18
Okay. Really? What insulin do you use? So I want Novolog. And

Beth 56:22
Jack, if I'm Hema luck,

Scott Benner 56:24
really? Is that?

Beth 56:26
It's yeah, it's insurance. Funny enough, we both have Blue Cross Blue Shield, but we have two different versions of BlueCross BlueShield.

Scott Benner 56:33
I say? I say Wow. Is it scary? Or giving yourself insulin? Or let me say that in English? Is it scarier? Giving yourself insulin or giving it to a kid?

Beth 56:49
To a kid? Okay.

Scott Benner 56:52
Do you know why? Um yeah,

Beth 57:02
I guess it's the idea of if a train is coming at you, and you can throw your kid out of the way first. That's what you're gonna do. Right?

Scott Benner 57:11
Right. So you feel like if there's the possibility, you're going to make a mistake. You feel less frightened about making it on yourself than on him? Yeah. Okay. Do you use a lot more insulin than he does? Are you honeymoon? Oh, yeah.

Beth 57:25
No, oh, no, no, I straight went to 30. When I was still on NDI, it was 30 units of love Amir. Like from the get go, okay. And, and

Scott Benner 57:40
was that hard for you? Like, because the number.

Beth 57:43
I mean, the first couple of times, I was just like, whoa, this better go right. And then it went right a couple of times. So I was like, okay, you know, I mean, height, weight, age. Here we are. And then it was, I think that also allowed Jordan and I to kind of reassess, like, Okay, this is where we're going like, this is where Jack's going to get to at some point. So we know that there's just going to be incremental increases along the way.

Scott Benner 58:13
Ah, oh, good. So it gave you some insight that because that's where people struggle a lot. Their kids get bigger, and they don't use any more insulin. And they're like, I don't understand his blood sugar's are going up now. Like, well, yeah, weighs 12 more pounds than he did last year. And you're still having 1.35 Basal rate, you know, like, that kind of thing. Oh, so that was helpful eye opening for you for that. Yeah, absolutely. I hear adults all the time. Tell people like with kids who have type one, they're like, Wait till you see how much insulin you use when you're older. It's gonna freak you out. And yeah, you know, what's the biggest Bolus? You've made it a meal? Um,

Beth 58:51
I think I've probably done 25 or 30 units for a meal before.

Scott Benner 58:57
Do you feel like are you like superior in that situation? You like Jack? Look at this.

Beth 59:01
I have shown him a couple of times because, like, he'll see a five unit Bolus. And like, that's a big meal for him. And I'll be like, hey, hey, come here. Look at this. See? Mommy's getting 25 units. I just, you know, big as pastors.

Scott Benner 59:17
We still little too, right. Like, what is he? 10? Ah,

Beth 59:21
he'll be nine in September actually.

Scott Benner 59:23
Yeah, I mean, that's the son still have like a little kid. How Yeah, was it? I just like stuttered through 18 sounds and didn't make one word. Everyone go back and listen that again. I was like, this felt stupid while I was doing it. How's his reaction been to you having type one.

Beth 59:47
So that that's kind of a funny thing in itself. As we were heading out the door to drop me off at the ER because it was a family adventure. I'm here says to me, honestly, Mom, I'm kind of scared. But I'm kind of excited to not be the only one in the house with diabetes anymore. I understand that. And there was sort of part of me that kind of wanted to go, well, Merry freaking Christmas kids.

Scott Benner 1:00:18
Listen, I gotta tell you something, I see where this would bring you comfort, but I'm really hoping it's not that.

Beth 1:00:25
Well, and that that was kind of the other thing, too is, is, I was kind of hoping it was type one. Because I didn't want to have to learn another disease.

Scott Benner 1:00:36
Right? Understand. I

Beth 1:00:38
mean, you know, I know that sounds kind of weird. Because everybody's like, no, no, shouldn't you hope that it takes you because you can make that go away? And I'm like, Oh, God, I've got to relearn everything. If it's that, like, if it's type one, just slap the stuff on me. And let me go. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:00:53
At least you didn't need a coochie ectomy. Right, yeah, or whatever would have happened. The I don't obviously, know. I'm not an OBGYN. by trade. I have what you might call a tangential understanding of the area, but nothing medical. Yeah, no, I get that like, well, at least we'll have to learn something new is a reasonable like thought, honestly. And has it brought him comfort? Do you think?

Beth 1:01:22
I think so. Um, you know, we were going through some periods where he was screaming pretty loud with his car changes. And, um, you know, I had him do a couple not do my power changes, but I had him activate them. Yeah. And, you know, I would just look at them, I wouldn't make a sound. I was like, Alright, I'm doing this every three days. Why are you screaming? And it's kind of allowed us to kind of reframe some of that for him of, you know, this. It's, it's something that we just have to do. And there's times where it's sex. There's times where it definitely sex. And there are, there have been, I say, there are some days where I don't want to diabetes. And those are the days where, you know, I probably eat more cheese and nuts, and salami, that is really healthy. Um, because I just don't want to mess with my blood sugar. I just don't want to. I know, I'm going to have to eventually because of the protein and the way all of that works. But I don't have to mess with it the way that I would like eating a sandwich.

Scott Benner 1:03:00
Yeah. I mean, I've seen Arvind, do that. Like, just be like, I'm just having a salad for dinner? Because I just, I'm not up for this today. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, I can understand that. Do you ever see Jack do it.

Beth 1:03:16
Um, he hasn't really hit that point. And I think that's because we haven't really transferred any of the ownership of it over. You know, I mean, he's still eight. So we will have him Bolus himself sometimes. But we don't have him try to count off the carbs or anything. Although he did get really excited when I showed him the food library. Up in the dash, because he was like, Oh, I can show this to dad. And now when we get McDonald's, we can just go in here. And I can bring it up down the menu.

Scott Benner 1:03:53
You're like, what? Could you not go to McDonald's? Would that be easier? Please help me someone helped me. Anybody? Help me. It is a nice feature to have that do you find the food library comes pretty close for the carbs.

Beth 1:04:07
It comes relatively close. Usually what happens with us is almost without fail when we're doing this higher carb meals is it'll be on a day where we've had more activity. And so Jack and I will end up you know, snacking on something later. So we're still trying to figure that out. We've done a few family hikes and it took a couple of those for us to kind of really realize okay, we just need to cut the Basal like in half for the duration of this. So it is kind of one of the things where I feel like I'm helping him learn more quicker. Um, because he also sees me doing it.

Scott Benner 1:04:59
I have to be Be honest, I'm just thinking I joked earlier about it, because I was just being stupid. But now I definitely want to keep the podcast going for like six more years and have you back again, because I can't wait to figure out what you guys figure out together. Like as he heads off to college, and right, you know what I mean? And you're like, it's just, it's, it's gonna be like a strangely fascinating journey, especially that you're diagnosed after him. I don't know why I find that to be more like unique.

Beth 1:05:30
It's not super common is is what I've picked up on. It's happened. You know, there's a, there's a few people in a couple of Facebook groups, but it's not super common for whatever and and to have the ages be so spread, right? Because like, you don't have a ton of two year olds being diagnosed. And then you don't have a ton of 38 year olds being diagnosed either.

Scott Benner 1:05:57
Yeah, you guys got both?

Beth 1:05:59
Right. Yeah, I have actually said to people, I was like, Don't try and throw any kind of, you know, numbers or statistics at me because they just don't apply to this house.

Scott Benner 1:06:11
Do you guys have any other autoimmune stuff?

Beth 1:06:15
Well, that's actually why we thought that I might have ended up having lotta that I ignored because I also, within the last six years developed asthma and eczema.

Scott Benner 1:06:29
Yeah, those are both like autoimmune, right? Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Look at this. Wow. Well, what a little train wreck this is, I enjoyed this conversation very much. Does the kid look nervous? The baby is she like, Hey, you dodged with your diet.

Beth 1:06:50
I mean, she, you know, she don't know.

Scott Benner 1:06:53
But I mean, are you gonna?

Beth 1:06:54
You guys know? She absolutely 100% Like, oh, to say so. So I'm, I've been in counseling for five years, right? And Jackson in counseling for three or four Emmys been in counseling for a couple of years. And I just part of that with me is, you know, I have on top of everything else, I have bipolar and EDD. And so mental health is something that is very important to me. And trying to set the kids up for success with that as well. Because it's, I mean, just the odds are one of them's going to end up with this other fun disease as well.

Scott Benner 1:07:41
Trying to be ahead of it. That's really good. I actually, hey, you know, you're, you've got to be like, I gotta be five or six people deep into type one and bipolar. People just bring like, they just comes up more and more. Have you heard the bipolar episodes?

Beth 1:07:58
I haven't caught up to those yet. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, I did. I did listen to Danny's on trauma and addiction. Yeah. Which was super cathartic. That was a really great one to hear. And then I have kind of said, oh, I need to get to these other ones, but I'm very particular and what and listening to everything chronologically.

Scott Benner 1:08:25
I don't want to get in the way your craziness you do whatever you need to do. That's fine.

Beth 1:08:30
We're all a little crazy. It's just which brand are you?

Scott Benner 1:08:33
Whatever works for you. I'm 100%. Okay, with as long as you're subscribed in a podcast app, downloading new episodes and listening, you can do it in any order you want. But and and if Daniel hear this, and he'll be very happy to know that the the episode was valuable for you. But But yeah, I mean, I'm. So what you'll hear me do when they're on is I'm googling you know, at points. And there are doctors who see bipolar as autoimmune kick, you're like why not?

Beth 1:09:09
You know, chunk it in there.

Scott Benner 1:09:11
One of the more recent discoveries in the study of bipolar disorder is that autoimmune disease may play a role in the conditions Development Studies have found that having an autoimmune disease or suffering a severe infection increases the risk of having bipolar disorder. That's all that's all I know. But I all I can tell you is that the number of people who are on the show, who mentioned bipolar, are starting to stack up. So it's sort of like it's not quite up to the speed of like, and I have hypothyroidism. Right. Yeah. Which is just like I bought this purse, and I got this great handbag. To put it in, like a that just seems like at this point, like one goes with the other for most people. Right? It's not quite up to that, but I am noticing people mentioning it. Yeah. Anyway, it's interesting. At the very least Not the people who are fighting with it to them. It's hard. But it's interesting.

Beth 1:10:04
It really is. And I'm actually coming off of this is my last week of a six week leave of absence due to a depressive depressive episode. So

Scott Benner 1:10:15
is it? Can you feel it? Like, I'll let you go after this? Because we're over time. But do you like notice it happening? Are you like, do you feel like warning signs coming? And you can get, like, at least make plans to be ahead of it a little bit? Or how does that work?

Beth 1:10:30
Yes, so some of them I can, um, this last one was pretty detrimental to the point where I, I have been able to sustain most of my mental health for about 10 to 13 years without medication. And the this last episode, I needed to go back on medication. And so that this last one really kind of hit me. I don't want to say out of nowhere, but it was. There wasn't a foreseeable trigger to it.

Scott Benner 1:11:16
Okay. Does the medication impact your blood sugar at all?

Beth 1:11:21
Um, oddly, if it does anything, it makes it easier to control and it drops it. Oh, okay. And that that might also be so I also got, so I'm on an anti psychotic, which I'm sure my exes would all say like, yeah, that fit. So I'm on anti psychotic and a stimulant for a DD. And so it's kind of hard to tell which one is doing, which. But my blood sugar has definitely been easier to get lower.

Scott Benner 1:11:55
Okay. Can I ask one question and then just preface it by saying you don't have to answer it. Like, we can just end up at like, I'll ask it. And if you want to answer it, you can. And if you don't want to answer it, I'll skip to saying goodbye to you. And I'll cut out the part where I asked it. Okay. Did you have some sort of a trauma earlier in your life?

Beth 1:12:14
I actually have complex post traumatic stress disorder. So

Scott Benner 1:12:19
got it. Yes, yes. I see. Alright, because Danny's episode was a weird one to call up for me like it you got that out of you pulled that one out of left field when I was talking while you were talking? And also, if bipolar can be triggered by an infection, you had bipolar before you had type one, which is what made me ask? Yeah, got it. Okay. Wow, Beth, you up for this again? In five or six more years? Sure. Just get you on the calendar right now.

Beth 1:12:52
It seems like we might have to as far out as your book,

Scott Benner 1:12:55
you know? Well, first of all, this won't go up for like six months. And that has nothing to do with you. But do you know that yesterday? Yesterday, June 8 2021. Someone booked a recording for June 6 2022? Oh my gosh. And I felt kind of like, proud when it happened. Oh, yeah. This thing is so busy. People are like, I can do it in a year. I'd love to no trouble at all, knowing full well that they're going to wait a year to say something that won't be heard for 18 for 18 months from the day that I was really touched by like, proud in a like a, again, a humbled way. Like I was really touched by the idea that someone that it would mean enough for someone to be on the podcast for them to go through those kind of machinations to do that is really cool. So I'm glad you reached back out again. I'm super sorry, you got diabetes. But great story.

Beth 1:13:53
Well, thanks. Yeah, no, I'm I did. I did say to my husband, you know, if there was gonna be one of us in the house, to get it to make Jack feel more included. I'm glad it was me.

Scott Benner 1:14:13
Yeah. No, I understand that. Well, you're going to provide a real great comfort for him that you might never fully appreciate. But yeah, he's like his mom. You know what I mean? Right. Yeah, it's pretty great actually, in a really strange way. Not like people talk about diabetes the way I do.

Beth 1:14:32
Hey, you know, I, I always said to dec, everybody's got something we found is out early, and we found out a few of mine a little bit later.

Scott Benner 1:14:42
You know, one day I'll get it and you'll just hear me go kicking and screaming like, when it happens to you. I'm like, you know, it's great that your son's got a it'll happen to me one day and I'll just be on here for three hours just mumbling into the microphone like him. It got me it got me You know, I won't, I won't handle it nearly as well as I talk about it. That's for certain.

Beth 1:15:05
Right? Well, I think if it happened in any year besides 2020, I would have had that same reaction. But given the entirety of 2020. Like, once it hit in December, I was just like, oh, this thing here is yeah, this is this is how 2020 And for me,

Scott Benner 1:15:20
why not? I thought a meteor was gonna hit the house, but this is just as good. Cheese. Wow. Well, you've got the most interesting story at Christmas dinner next year. That's for certain. I mean, oh, yeah. Virtual Christmas dinner? No. Oh, God, I hope that this Christmas, do you know, let me let me I do have to go in a second. Actually. I'm recording twice today. So I have to go collect myself before I do this again. But it's super boring story. I had to replace the pressure valve on our hot water heater yesterday. Those of you who think I'm famous, now realize I'm not. But I met the Home Depot. And I believe I was the only person wearing a mask in Home Depot. And that took me by surprise. I'm vaccinated. But I just like, I was like, I don't know. It's in the car. Like I put it on, you know what I mean? Like, just seemed right. Like I I'm super happy to have not had a cold for the last 18 months really sounds like, you know, Oh, yeah.

Beth 1:16:13
No, no, I mean, you know, there, there are things about the Northeast that I'm very, very much jealous of right now, because I am not. I'm originally from Wisconsin, when Wisconsin was a very blue state. And I currently live in Dallas, Texas.

Scott Benner 1:16:36
Do you think it's do you think it's politically motivated by people's mask wearing?

Beth 1:16:41
I think some of it is. And I think I think here, specifically, it has been okay.

Scott Benner 1:16:50
I have to admit, I pick it up. And I'm like, I don't know if this is really necessary or not at this point. But what the hell? I don't feel right forced to do it. I'm just like, why? I mean, it hasn't bothered me. I've been doing it for a while. It really doesn't bother me. And so, but I'm vaccinated. And I was like, yeah, like, I mean, I don't know. Like, it just didn't occur to me, I'm sure one day it won't. Having said that I was with my son somewhere a couple of weeks ago, in a place where it's like a private place. There weren't a ton of people in it. And you had to prove if you were vaccinated or not. And if you if you were good enough to where I'm asking if you weren't, you did, and I went in there without a mask, and I never thought twice about it. I know. It seems it's all kind of arbitrary. I don't really know how I feel about any of it to be honest.

Beth 1:17:35
Yeah, I mean, at this point, it's, you know, I think I'll feel better about it when I'm able to get the kids vaccinated. Cuz that that's always been, that's always been the leading factor for me is

Scott Benner 1:17:52
is their health right soon, right, though? By age. You can. They're eligible. Right?

Beth 1:17:57
I think. I think Well, Jack will be eligible before Eddie, because he'll be nine in September. But me still six.

Scott Benner 1:18:05
Really? It's Texas, I thought you're allowed to do whatever you wanted?

Beth 1:18:09
Well,

Scott Benner 1:18:10
the one thing you're not allowed to do.

Beth 1:18:12
That's the one thing you're not allowed to do, apparently? Well, I

Scott Benner 1:18:15
think if you could put the vaccine on a bullet, you would be allowed to shoot somebody with a go. That's thinking. I don't know if that would work how the vaccines work exactly. Again, not a doctor. So I'm not

Beth 1:18:26
here on the Juicebox Podcast is medical is should be considered advice, medical or otherwise fairly

Scott Benner 1:18:31
common sense is definitely not medical advice. Well, I really appreciate you doing this and taking the time. I want to thank you. No, thank you very much. It's been a joy. getting back together with you again, I can't believe you were on like, seven years ago. It's insane that I kept this going. But it's even more insane that you're like aware of it still. And that's crazy. Oh, oh, I'm so happy. It's just hard for me to fathom. Like, you have to put yourself in my shoes. Did I mean like, I'm like, I'll do a thing had seven years later. It's like oh, comes out three times a week and listen to like, constantly by like all over the world. And that was I didn't think all that was gonna happen. You know, I definitely didn't think like back then I was I probably was like, I can't believe I trick these people into coming on my podcast and nobody listens to and but but for you coming on you helped build it. But here's a great story. Great stories in the beginning that that helped build the podcast. So it it should be interesting for you to know and then I will let you go. That in the first 24 hours that your episode is out. It will it will be heard more than probably your first episodes entirety. Oh, wow. Isn't that weird? Yeah. The podcast gets more downloads a day now than it would have taken four months in the first year to get as many done I get a day now. That's bizarre, like I'm flabbergasted by it still, like I will never be accustomed to it.

Beth 1:20:08
And still, it's a testament to the good work you're doing.

Scott Benner 1:20:11
I just want more. That's nice you to say, but I just I want, I wanted to reach more people. I want to win. I don't even know what I'm trying to win. Whatever it is, I want to win it.

Beth 1:20:21
You're trying to win diabetes.

Scott Benner 1:20:22
It's probably an illness. that competitive nature is likely. I've probably bumped my head when I was a little kid. But but in honesty, I really if the podcast is helpful to people, then it feels incumbent to try to reach more people. So that's how it feels to me for real one, I'm not joking about it.

I'd like to thank touched by type one.org for being a longtime sponsor of the Juicebox Podcast, and reminds you to check them out on Facebook and Instagram, and go see what they're doing at touched by type one.org. Also want to thank Beth for being a returning guest after seven years, and sharing her story as it grows. Maybe I'm gonna have to have on some more return guests. This was really interesting. I like catching up with that. If you're enjoying the Juicebox Podcast, please leave a fantastic rating and review wherever you listen. And don't forget to subscribe and follow in the podcast app that you're listening in right now.

Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.