#609 Rocky and Bullwinkle

January 10, 2022Scott Benner

Lacie is an adult living with type 1 diabetes.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio - Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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 609 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast we'll be speaking with Lacie. She is an adult with type one diabetes, who has a very different diagnosis story. Please remember, while you're listening 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 are becoming bold with insulin. I'm not going to ruin the episode for you. But Lacey was involved in a trial as a child that identified her as having antibodies for type one diabetes. So she had five years to get ready for her diagnosis. Her story is terrific. She's Canadian, so you know she's super nice. All you got to do now is settle in, get your earphones just right. Get them where you like them. And let the story unfold. If you'd like a simple and easy way to support people with type one diabetes and support the Juicebox Podcast, take the survey AT T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. It'll take you less than 10 minutes. It's completely HIPAA compliant, absolutely anonymous, and it will actually help people.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Omni pod makers of the Omni pod dash, and the Omni pod promise. Learn more at Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. And a little later in the show. I'll tell you all about the dash and the promise. The podcast is also sponsored by Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor. You can start today@dexcom.com Ford slash juice box get the CGM that my daughter has been wearing since she was a really little I probably should figure out exactly how long she's had it. But I mean, she was tiny. So maybe 10 years at least probably more. I don't know. I'd have to look. Anyway, that thing's Great. Dexcom comm forward slash juice box.

Lacie 2:23
My name is Lacie. I live in Ontario, Canada, and I have had diabetes for 20 years.

Scott Benner 2:30
You know, see now I see. We just had 20 minutes worth of technical problems that you put up with nicely. I couldn't understand why you're being so kind.

Lacie 2:41
And now you're blaming it on the fact that I'm Canadian. I'm not

Scott Benner 2:43
blaming it. I'm saying a nice thing. Right? I love a country that only stabs each other no shooting. I like that.

Lacie 2:50
Well, I wouldn't be too quick to jump on that. I used to live in Toronto plenty of people got shot Toronto. It's

Scott Benner 2:56
funny when I if I joke like that somebody who's ever been there. And I only say there now because I'm super aware of a person who was on recently who said they live in Toronto. And now I want to say it like T R and T Yeah, oh,

Lacie 3:10
people tend to remove letters from Toronto. I usually say Toronto, but a lot of people say Toronto or Toronto or something like that. It's just Toronto. We're lazy. We're lazy with our syllables.

Scott Benner 3:21
I loved it. I was like Toronto. Damn right. I live in guaranty I don't even know how to take words out of New Jersey or letters out in New Jersey. Okay, so you were how old are you now?

Lacie 3:31
I am 31

Scott Benner 3:33
she diagnosed in year 11 Yes, and you basically lived on the rim of the earth. Just wait. So probably no health care just a walrus took care of you or something like that. How did it go?

Lacie 3:44
Ah, no, actually, I I had quite a robust health care system nearby me. And actually, this was kind of what I wanted to come on here about because my diagnosis story didn't actually start when I was diagnosed it started when my brother was diagnosed.

Scott Benner 4:01
I know I'm excited and thank you for saying about so that was really great. He said about just now and it was so Canadian and now I'm just all warm inside non-reading So

Lacie 4:12
I didn't realize that we set it any differently than I always hear the jokes about people saying a boot but I didn't think it was that

Scott Benner 4:19
like you didn't do you about like you just okay yeah, it's fantastic. I love it it's probably from years and years of running from grizzly bears. I would think it's probably changed your voice boxes because all

Lacie 4:30
the money yeah just for the extra oxygen that needs to get in for running from you know deadly predator so

Scott Benner 4:34
it makes more sense. Yeah, least you don't have snakes. You don't have

Lacie 4:38
nothing that'll kill you now. Yeah,

Scott Benner 4:40
that's how I measure snakes. Some people measure them in meters. I measure them and if you're going to stiffen up and die after they

Lacie 4:48
bite you know our snakes are nice.

Scott Benner 4:51
Canada land of nice snakes. How so your brother has type one as well as he older or younger than you.

Lacie 4:58
He is two years older than me. So he was diagnosed when he was eight, and I was six.

Scott Benner 5:03
Interesting. And how did you just always? Like, did your family just always assume you were going to get type one? Or what do you like your no.

Lacie 5:13
So back, this was pre TrialNet days, but when my brother was diagnosed, my dad is also type one. And when they saw, okay, father's type one, first child is type one. There was a study going on in England and my brother's endocrinologist really wanted to send my blood as part of that study. So they hooked me up to an IV for I think most of the day, they were drawing intravenous blood samples every two hours, I had to have a shunt in my arm for pretty much most of the day. And they did all these tests and sent it off to England, and it came back and they're like, Yeah, give her five years. She'll have it.

Scott Benner 5:58
British. Seriously, they're always yeller.

Lacie 6:04
Yeah, I I've tried to find what the study was. I can't find it. But I also might just not be very good at googling.

Scott Benner 6:12
Yeah, though, so 20 years ago. I mean, it's sort of a no brainer, right? Your dad has it, your brother has it, they're like, if we're gonna find out if this thing works or not, we'll definitely take Lacey's blood. And I'm assuming like, if you had a pet Beaver, it would also have type one diabetes sounds like everyone in the house did.

Lacie 6:28
My dad, my uncle, my brother, and I all have type one. Wow,

Scott Benner 6:33
hey, is your mother. Does your mother have any autoimmune issues?

Lacie 6:38
Her autoimmune issues didn't show up until she was well into like her 40s and 50s. And she ended up with hypothyroidism. Which I also have. And my dad also has

Scott Benner 6:50
I'm starting to think that people with autoimmune issues put out a signal that other people with autoimmune issues pick up and we don't realize that but we're like, like little beacons, maybe. Wow, that's, um, look at you. That's crazy. So your uncle, your brother, your father yourself? Yes. All have type one eat 20 years ago, before anything like trial that exists. A doctor says, Hey, I think if we get your kids but how? Why did they have to take it the way they did?

Lacie 7:17
I have no idea. To be honest. I just remember being hooked up to this machine. I couldn't move around. And they kept bringing med students in to talk to us and asking these med students all these questions. And I remember my brother to smartass that he is sorry, cursing, sorry. answering all the questions before the med students could

Scott Benner 7:40
see understood type one better than they did?

Lacie 7:42
Well, yeah. And at that point, they were asking questions about you know, our history, like our medical history, our family history, stuff like that. So he was just spouting off all the answers before they could get it out.

Scott Benner 7:53
It's interesting that as time passes and technology, even medical technology gets better and better. Like it sounds like they were basically like they tapped. Like they wanted to get the blood right from your heart or something like that. Like it was just like, and now they just take this little it's

Lacie 8:08
just a finger poke. I remember when I was a kid going to diabetes clinic when they switched over from an IV blood draw to get your a one C to A finger poke to get your a one C and how excited I was.

Scott Benner 8:19
Bet you were that you were I know Arden gets the when she does the agency in the office. They do like it's a pretty heavy poke like they do your thumb usually because it's juicy here. And and it's a pretty big drop of blood compared to like what her contour meter uses. And she's always like, wow, like even that seems like vicious to her. I would imagine having an IV put in just to get your agency done, like how much blood did they need back then to do your agency a lot, I guess.

Lacie 8:47
Oh, they took full vials, I remember, I went to it was called the pediatric medical day unit in, in London, Ontario, call out to the London Health Sciences Center. Because those guys are amazing. They'd bring you in for your appointment and they would take you in do your blood draws and do your pee in a cup stuff. And then you wait right there while they did all the laboratory and then you'd go in to talk to the doctor. So you didn't have to go for multiple appointments to get, you know, the chemistry done or anything like that. And it was it was actually pretty, pretty. A lot of blood. I remember at the beginning it was a lot of blood. And then slowly it became less about the blood and more about peeing in a cup. And then they they, when they did the a one CS they had to almost like it wasn't a drop of blood on a thing they had to like, gouge your finger like they kept running this plastic thing over your finger and like milking it for blood to get a bunch out into this little thing but they still just poked your finger so it was better than an IV drop but not by much.

Scott Benner 9:50
My wife just bought these kits on Amazon to figure out what your blood type was. She thought it would be fun. She's a very sciency person. So she saw it online. She's like, Look how interesting they are. And she bought a bunch and all The rest of us were like, We don't care what blood type. And it was a similar thing like you needed, like a fair amount of blood, but it was from a finger stick. And we're all just sitting around this weightless round table by our sofa. Like we're all just kind of around the table bleeding everywhere. Just ridiculous.

Lacie 10:17
Yeah, that was pretty much what it was like it at clinic. And

Scott Benner 10:21
now I forgot what my blood type was. So that was definitely should have written it down. So how old are you when this happens? They draw that blood and tell you you're definitely I was six. And you didn't get it until you were

Lacie 10:33

They said five years and it was five years almost on the diet. Wow.

Scott Benner 10:39
Okay. Did you live every day thinking you were gonna get type one diabetes? Or do you were there? Absolutely. Really?

Lacie 10:46
Oh, yeah. I was convinced anytime I got sick. Like if I had to go home from school because I wasn't feeling well. I would tell all my friends like, oh, yeah, I'm probably gonna come back with needles.

Scott Benner 10:57
I gotta go. I gotta pick some diabetes up at the hospital. Yeah, pretty much. Wow. So impactfully negative positive?

Lacie 11:10
Ah, hard to say. I mean, because I was so like, I guess you could say prepared, like, I knew this was gonna happen. I had already kind of gone through whatever grief stages I needed to go through before even getting my diagnosis. So when it came time for me to, you know, get my diagnosis and going into the hospital. We already had all the answers. So we just kind of give us the prescription for the insulin and send us home like we didn't really need or shouldn't say need. We didn't really want to stay for any of the additional lessons or stuff because I mean, my parents had already been through that with my brother. I had already kind of gone through it just from watching my dad and my brother with all their stuff. I remember, on the day I got diagnosed we actually had the fight with the ER doctor just kept repeating like call this doctor who was my brother's endocrinologist at the time, called the doctor. Tell him Lacey's diabetic, he'll come down and the doctor was like, There's no way you could know that this just you guys are just, you know, overreacting. It's fine. It's like, call the doctor.

Scott Benner 12:24
They'll come years ago, we send some blood to jolly old England. And I'm telling you right now I have type one diabetes. Let's get this thing going. What was your symptom? Did you catch it super early,

Lacie 12:34
super early. So I never actually had the extreme thirst and frequent urination and all that that you hear about with a lot of people. My family just made it a routine to test my blood sugar whenever I acted differently than normal. So if I was sick, I got a finger poke. If I had some sort of outburst, I got a finger poke. We were at my grandmother's house, and we were playing a board game. And apparently, I jumped across the table and tried to strangle my brother. So after that, my grandmother was like, Well, time to stick your finger and I think I was 17 at the time, which is what to you guys. 17

Scott Benner 13:19
Do you want to bring up the

Lacie 13:20
300 I've got the little conversion chart on my desktop right now.

Scott Benner 13:25
So have the conversion chart that's available at Juicebox Podcast comm

Lacie 13:29
i i Do I have the conversion chart available at juicebox podcast.com/conversion.

Scott Benner 13:33
Lazy job. Very good job. That was excellent. Are you tapping something on the table or fidgeting with your hands?

Lacie 13:43
I'm sorry, I was probably rocking in my chair.

Scott Benner 13:45
Okay, stop doing that. No, I'm just kidding. Just please. A light right now people listening to like, how did he know that there's this light tapping in my ear. And it's making me mental or mental or so tell me again. You were what you're

Lacie 14:02
eight. I was 11 at this time, and I was 17 in millimoles, which is 306 According to

Scott Benner 14:09
and a little surly, apparently.

Lacie 14:11
And I was grumpy. I was very cranky. And so they got that test and my grandmother called my dad and he asked if I had any other symptoms my grandmother's like, no, he's like, Okay, well, when I get off work, we'll go to the ER. We went to the ER but because I was still honeymooning at that point, by the time we got to the ER my blood sugar was back in normal range, I would imagine. Yeah. Which is where the the argument with the ER doctor because there's none of my tests

Scott Benner 14:42
perfect blood sugar, and they're just like, you don't know what you're out of your mind. People are crazy. That's probably Yeah. Yeah. What was your father when he was diagnosed?

Lacie 14:51
He This is an interesting story. So he was 16 when he was diagnosed with diabetes, however, because he was at the time I'm working as someone with a professional driving license, they diagnosed him as type two, because back then if you were diabetic with type one, you could not be a commercial driver of any sort, they would pull your license. So they diagnosed him as type two and put them on Metformin. And obviously, that didn't work like at all. But he stayed with that until he was in his 30s when my brother was diagnosed and one of the nurses that the hospital that was one of my brother's nurses was like, You're being dumb. They won't pull your license anymore. Just switch it get on insulin because you need this

Scott Benner 15:44
16 What was he like flying the Canadian, like space shuttle or what was he? What are you doing? You're 16 that you need a driver's license for?

Lacie 15:52
He was driving a truck like flower trucks, Flower delivery trucks.

Scott Benner 15:56
Cool thought is running guns for the mob or something like they just have French accents, right?

Lacie 16:03
I mean, kind of there's a lot of Hells Angels in Quebec.

Scott Benner 16:08
Well, that could be a great title for this episode. There's a lot of Hells Angels in Quebec. I might go with that. A little long, but damn it, if it fits, it fits. So my whole reasoning for asking was your grandmother didn't have any. Like, reference points. She didn't raise the type one.

Lacie 16:29
Not so much. I mean, at that point, she'd been around my my dad and my uncle long enough that she was kind of used to that. And also she was borderline type two. So she had a meter at her house that that's what she used to test me.

Scott Benner 16:46
Do you find yourself wondering when Metformin was made originally? Because the way you said it? Oh, it's introduced the ability of metformin to counter insulin resistance and address adult onset hyper glycaemia. Without weight gain or increased risk of hypoglycemia gradually gathered credence in Europe. And they after intense scrutiny, Metformin was introduced in the US in 95. This is interesting. You look at this 60 years of metformin use at

Lacie 17:20
a glance. So did I wonder what they gave him when he was first diagnosed? Oh, it

Scott Benner 17:24
sounds like it's been around for a long time. It's this, I have an article here. I have an article here. Put the date at the top of people learn to use the internet. Anyway, this, this article is titled 60 years of metformin use. So I don't know when it was written. Because some people don't know how to set up their websites. But

Lacie 17:51
well, my dad's not 60 yet. So then yeah, he probably would have been put on that

Scott Benner 17:55
would have been inside of that timeframe. Yeah, yeah. European Association for the Study of diabetes. put a date on your articles, please. So that's kind of amazing. I definitely didn't know that. I had no idea Metformin had been around that long.

Lacie 18:13
I knew it was an old drug I just didn't realize it was battle gets used

Scott Benner 18:16
for so many different things nowadays to there are people using it in aging studies.

Lacie 18:23
Yeah, I've heard about this, that they're trying to use it off label for quite a lot of things. And I don't know they tried to give it to me at one point and my family history of metformin having very bad reactions where we get really bad Bernie muscles like almost anyone in my family who'd ever taken Metformin has had terrible muscle burn. So I did not want to try

Scott Benner 18:45
not looking for that. I've seen it used off label for weight loss. There's this right here from the NIH Metformin is also allow Metformin also retards aging in model organisms and reduces the incidence of aging related diseases such as neurodegenerative disease, cancer in humans. The despite its widespread use the mechanisms by which Metformin exerts favorable effects on aging remain largely unknown. That's interesting. That's very from the NIH. That's the government. They wouldn't lie to us. No, not at all. I don't see why they would. Do you have a government? It's not

Lacie 19:29
we do. Yes. Yeah. Although not as crazy as yours. But yes,

Scott Benner 19:32
we do have a government that boys way too pretty to be in charge of things. I think there's a lot of people that agree with you. You must get like I would get distracted. I'd walk past I'd walk past midnight like I am so damn handsome and I would just stand there for a couple of minutes. I recorded something for the people on the Facebook page, and I put like a camera in front of me. And in the camera frame. I looked great. I thought it was good. I looked good in the mirror. I got the film back late like you know that The film listened to me. I took it to the photo mat, I moved the card from one place to the computer. And I opened it up and I was horrified when I saw myself.

Lacie 20:08
Oh, cameras are not kind, especially the digital ones now like webcams are they make you look like you're demonic. It's horrible.

Scott Benner 20:17
I felt like I looked better, but or definitely didn't anyway, I don't get to run Canada. For one of them. I'm not I'm not handsome enough into I guess I'm not Canadian, which would probably really slow the process down. Okay, so I really want to as best you can tell me because you were young when it happened? Do you think it had a negative impact on your psyche? Or Or no, do you think it was kind of nice to to know it was coming like I want to understand that piece of it.

Let's start with the basics. The Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor is a small wearable sensor that sends your glucose numbers to a smart device or a receiver every five minutes. It's easy to wear, and it's easy to use. If you're using insulin, it's likely that you'll have fluctuations in your blood sugar. And knowing that they're coming is a big deal. Being able to see what direction and speed they're moving in is amazing. receiving alerts when your blood sugar crosses over a number that you want to know about his revolutionary, my daughter's Dexcom G six tells us if her blood sugar is over 120 We're under 70. But with a swipe of my finger, I could change that number to 125 131 50 It's completely up to us. You change the thresholds that the Dexcom alerts you at it's completely customizable. So think about this for a minute. Maybe you miss and don't quite count your carbs, right. Or you get low after some activity when July to know as it's happening instead of after it's too late. So that you can make some small adjustments to your insulin or to your carbohydrates to fix these problems before they become bigger. The Dexcom will help you with that and so much more. You can actually see your child's or your spouse's blood sugar's on your cell phone, and not just you. The user can allow up to 10 followers to see their blood sugars and receive alerts and alarms dexcom.com forward slash juice box head over there now and get started today. You can see the speed, direction and number of your blood sugar at a glance with the Dexcom G six, I opened my phone, I press one button open an app and can tell you that my daughter's blood sugar is currently 142. It's that simple. Hey, are you looking for a new insulin pump? Or trying to switch from multiple daily injections or a pen? Maybe you should take the test drive. Right? Maybe the Omni pod is right for you. So if you're ready to ditch the daily injections or send your pump packing, it's time to try the Omni pod tubeless wireless continuous insulin management system. Omni pod is a tubeless insulin pump. So there's nothing connected to you understand you wear the pod, but then there's no tubing that runs to a controller. There's a handheld device sort of looks like a little cell phone that you can run your Omni pod dash with now on the pod dash. Do you know it's possible that you may be eligible for a free 30 day trial the Omni pod dash? I mean, are you kidding me? Month. Check it out at Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. Here's what you're getting a tubeless insulin pump. The ability to wear your insulin pump while you shower, bathe, swim, run, jump frolic, flip, turn, jump, whatever you do. You don't have to disconnect like you do with those tubed insulin pumps. The Omni pod has that kind of freedom. And it's important. And here's the last bit maybe you're worried. I don't want to start today with the only pod dash Scott because what if on the pod comes out with something new. I want to be eligible for that. But you are because with the Omni pod promise you can upgrade to Omni pods latest technologies for no additional cost as soon as they're available to you and covered by insurance terms and conditions apply. But you can find out everything you need to know@omnipod.com forward slash juicebox. My daughter has been working on the pod at index comm forever and they are an amazing tandem. When you're done listening today. Check them out. I don't think you'll be disappointed on the pod.com forward slash juice box dexcom.com forward slash juice box links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com.

Lacie 24:54
I think possibly long term, it led to a bit more Burn out than if I had just been kind of dropped in the middle of it. Short term, I didn't get the sudden, like, life changing news kind of thing. I didn't get the trauma from that. But because I already knew so much. And like, the first time I held a needle was the first time I gave myself an injection, there was no practice shots. They walked in with the doll as I was giving my injection for lunch, like the doll that they wanted me to practice on. I was like, No, I got this. So there was a bit of there was a bit of a perfectionist expectation, I guess I would say, where it's, oh, she's great. She's got this. And so I don't think I really was given very much assistance or support, because it was assumed that I had a handle on it.

Scott Benner 25:52
That's interesting. That's sort of like when you're a great student, and then you get into a class you don't know, but nobody wants to help you. Because like, Lacey always does great with this stuff. Like you just people yeah, get get to the point where they feel like, Oh, this is just this works. We don't have to pay attention to any more. She understands.

Lacie 26:08
Yeah, and then add on to that the fact that they also had my brother with type one. And because he was more of a traditional diagnosis story of, you know, got really skinny, you had a long history of symptoms before they finally got him diagnosed. He kind of got this label as being a problem child with behavior issues when he was young. But it was because of his blood sugars. Like he was eight years old and getting into fights because his blood sugar was probably running it 300 400 All the time, right?

Scott Benner 26:41
I mean, and as we see from you when you tried to make him eat a sorry, piece. Like I'm not sorry, it just, is that how it went? Let me let me just imagine, I in my mind, you have the yellow and the green piece. you've launched yourself across the coffee table. Your grandmother is yelling, like, what's this all about? And then you're and you're, you're like, I'm not sorry? He deserves it. Like, do you guys get the irony? These are the sorry, nevermind. Like you're making total sense, but I feel like a lunatic. Wow, that sucks. I guess. I don't know. I mean, I can't. I guess it's that like old game you play when you're a kid, when you're like, you know, if I can tell you the exact day and time you were gonna die? Would you want to know?

Lacie 27:25
Yeah, it's kind of like that, right? Like, if it's gonna cause you to just worry about it all the time, then probably not. But if you can prepare for it, then that's better. But at the same time, because I had all the time to prepare, there was an assumption that I didn't need as much support. So like, I was 11. I, I handled my diabetes, for the most part, at least, I probably had a bit of help until I would say, going into high school in grade nine. So I think I would have been 13 or 14. At that point, it was completely me. I didn't have parents telling me how much insulin to take. I didn't have, you know, any sort of assistance with trying to figure things out. And I mean, at that point, when I first was diagnosed, I was taking three units of NPH total. That was it in a day. Slowly that developed into three shots, one of mph and regular mixed, one of just regular and one of just NPH. And that was so that I didn't have to take any needles while I was at school. And then in high school, here's your human log. Here's your Lantis. Take what you need. And that was kind of it. How was

Scott Benner 28:42
the translation from regular an MPH to a faster acting meal insulin because there's a lot more to do there. They left that. Yeah, well, you know, let me go back for a second. Sometimes little girls come off very mature. Like, do you mean like, they're almost like little moms walking around and stuff like that at times? Like, did you have that vibe? Did you just were your parents just like Lacey can handle it? Or

Lacie 29:06
oh, 100% Okay. 100% I was between, you know, in my family, I was the logical, you know, responsible one. Like, I used to get teased gently by my family because we'd be watching a movie and there'd be a sad scene. Everyone in the room is crying except me. Because I'm just like, no this logically, yes, this would happen. That would happen. That makes sense. It's just like, you don't have a soul. But that kind of got applied to my diabetes as well, where it's just like, Okay, well, you're you'll get it like the doctors tell you what to take and you'll get it. And I had this weird I had this weird dichotomy in my parents. My parents divorced when I was eight. So before my diagnosis, and my mom was very much eight If you do what the doctors tell you, you'll be fine. They're very smart. They've got it figured out, just do what they tell you. And my dad, and actually, most of my dad's side of the family believe that if you go to a doctor and don't already know what the problem is and how to fix it, you're going to get screwed. So, combining those two, what I got was doctors are very smart. They're the most intelligent people. They don't have this figured out. Therefore, no one has it figured out. Therefore, it doesn't matter.

Scott Benner 30:30
Though, I thought you were gonna say that you decided that doctors are gonna just screw me really, in a way because they're super smart, but they're gonna screw me over. So you just felt like no one had an answer.

Lacie 30:44
I felt like no one had an answer. And I mean, back then CGM weren't really a thing. Pumps, I remember going to a couple meetings about possibly getting a pump. And then them telling me I would have to test my blood sugar more because of the pump. And that seemed to dissuade me. So I was never really put on a pumper anything like that when I was a kid. So yeah, I just got into this headspace of, there are no answers. No one has this figured out. Just do the best you can. But don't really stress about it, because why stress about something that no one has an answer to anyways.

Scott Benner 31:22
So does that make it feel like your life is more finite? Didn't actually I probably should have put it did. Like, there's where my common sense would have really come into play. But I want to stop on it for a second. Because I think it's interesting back then, with with the technology that existed, the insulin that existed, it really was more of a management situation. And by management, I mean, like, let's just keep this as you know, with as much at least volatility as possible, I guess the end, we'll see how long we can keep these people alive. They'll put some insulin in the morning, like they didn't know faster insulin was gonna come. They didn't know that, you know, like, there was a moment in time. Like, really, I say it every time somebody brings it up, but you would just shoot some insulin in the morning, eat on schedule, and then shoot some insulin at dinner. Right? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. And so that was just like, you're putting this baseline of nebulous insulin in you that's going to maybe if you're lucky, holds your blood sugar down, but nobody's testing anyway. So you wouldn't really know if you were using enough or not, or if you were having foods that were so high glycaemic, you know, index, load, etc, that it wouldn't have mattered if the sun wasn't in there with enough power, like there was no nuance to it whatsoever. Now, this whole

Lacie 32:41
idea of like sugar surfing or meeting, you know, the need with the insulin, like there was none of that because you didn't have the data that you needed. And I'm a very data driven person. So for me, like testing three times a day, which was the recommendation at that point. Not even every time you ate, or every time you took insulin just three times a day.

Scott Benner 33:02
Not enough,

Lacie 33:03
it's not enough. So I was looking at it going, I can't use this. What is this? Like, you want me to try and figure out what needs to change or what needs to happen, but I don't have enough information to make that call. And even the doctors like when I'd go in. And they'd look at things, then they're just like, well, I don't know, we'll try doing this and see what three months. But I was a kid like I was I was changing so fast that that wasn't enough. So I got to a point where, because the data that I was getting from the testing three times a day wasn't enough, and it wasn't really doing any good. I just stopped testing.

Scott Benner 33:43
Yeah, because what was the point? Right, what were you getting out of the number? Yeah,

Lacie 33:46
why would I cause myself pain when I'm not really getting any useful information out of this, I'll just go by how I feel if I feel crappy. I'll take a little bit more. If I, you know, thinks I need a bit more clarity on what my number is. I'll test but like, I think I had strips going expired. Because of how infrequently I was tested. I

Scott Benner 34:07
wouldn't bother. Yeah, I have to say, that makes sense to me. It really does. I mean, I don't know how often I would do something like that if the information coming back wasn't helping. So you said you got human log in your teens?

Lacie 34:22
Yeah, I think it was 13 or 14 When I went to high school. So essentially, my elementary school didn't want me bringing needles to school, and didn't want me know when at the school was well, not that I needed them to inject me because I could inject myself but no one really wanted to take responsibility for that. So we did the nNr while I was in elementary school, because it allowed us to do one in the morning before I went to school, and then the other two when I got home later on in the day, but for high school, it was less of an issue. There's a lot more autonomy, and my high school didn't have a problem with me bringing the needles to school because it was probably an easier way for them. Manage, they didn't have to do anything about it so they didn't really care. And I was already on an IEP which is a guest kind of like your guys's legal documents for our 401k or whatever it is Wait that's a retirement plans.

Scott Benner 35:20
Why do I say that? podcast a 504 plan off the top my head, I'm in trouble. No, I get that vibe because that's one of the ways I got this. The the school to just leave us alone was I said like, look, you know, if she's texting me, you're out of this, like you haven't made any of these decisions. And they're staring at me. And I was like to be more candid. Let me be blunt. If she drops dead, it's my fault, not your fault. And they were like, Oh, that we like and then they, they just like yeah, sure. texter. Like get us out of this. You could see how excited they were to be out of the process.

Lacie 36:08
Yeah, you know, in elementary school that worked out as you know, just take the needles outside of school hours. And then when I got to high school, it was a combination of the school was okay with me bringing needles to school. I already had an individualized education plan for other things. So adding this to it wasn't that big a deal. And also, there was a cafeteria at school. So it gave me more flexibility to be able to like because I started getting lunch at the cafeteria. I love my mom. She hates cooking. So when she had she had the ability to just give me money and stop making lunches. She was like, great. Here's 20 bucks. There's your lunch for the week.

Scott Benner 36:50
I can't accept it enough. I that making lunches, doing homework? Like when that stuff stops you like Oh, thank god like it was yes, it feels like so much. I don't know why I just hated that part of being a parent.

Lacie 37:04
Yeah, it's so she's like, there's a cafeteria. Great. Here's 20 bucks lunch costs about I think it was at that time, a fries of burger of some kind and a drink were $3. So she's like, you can spend $3 a day on lunch? And you've got $5 Extra if you want to get treats. All right,

Scott Benner 37:22
cool. You me out of this? Yeah, pretty much the same thing is the school with the care. They're like, listen, let me just, I want to step away quietly. So. So when this when this occurs, this changeover occurs and you're older, and now you're shooting at meal times. Is that a big change? Like, in the way you think about diabetes?

Lacie 37:45
No, because it was still with the just testing, you know, a few times a day. So to me, it was just changing from three times to four times it didn't really feel any? Well, I guess five times if you include the night time one, it didn't really feel any different to me. Okay, so I still wasn't really thinking of it as this can give you more control. Because there wasn't the data for the control. It was just this, this is the new regimen, you know, you do at mealtimes. And then whenever you eat something, take this much. It took forever for us to even get like carb counting or a sliding scale in place. It was just kind of a very static. This is how much you take it each meal kind of thing. Okay,

Scott Benner 38:29
so regimens the exact right word, right? It's just yeah, do this, then do that. Do this and do that. Now we're going to do that a little more frequently. And what was the outcome? What were your outcomes? Like? Like, were you having a one seat? Like, do you know?

Lacie 38:44
Oh, not great, not great. I remember when I was diagnosed, my a one C wasn't diabetic yet, because they caught it so early. It was like 5.2 or something like that. And then it slowly increased while I was in the pediatric endocrinology. I think my taco was 10 by the time I exited into the adult system, because there was just it was just my body slowly given up the ghost, like it was just my pancreas slowly, deteriorating until the point where there was no insulin helping out anymore from my body. And the control just was not there.

Scott Benner 39:26
Yeah. 10 anyone sees equivalent of like, 240 average blood sugar.

Lacie 39:31
Oh, yeah. And it was swinging. I was swinging wildly.

Scott Benner 39:35
So you think you were even higher? You were in the three and four hundreds of times? Oh, probably. Yeah. I don't doubt that. But you probably didn't get low very frequently. Like dizzy, I guess dizzy?

Lacie 39:45
No, I didn't get low very frequently. Although I may have but I developed pretty severe hypoglycemia unawareness. That was in. I found out about that later on when I was in college. But yeah, it was. It just kind of slowly devolved. Like there was no real. There was no control. At that point. It was just like you said management, maybe management of symptoms, but not really control

Scott Benner 40:17
that unawareness thing. We never really dig into that for some reason, it may be you know, because it happened to you. Does that mean your blood sugar's super low, and everything else about you is fine, or your blood sugar's super low, and you're just not having symptoms, but to an outsider, you look altered.

Lacie 40:35
Um, for me, it was a combination of not having the capacity to notice the symptoms, so that someone from the outside might notice, but because my brain has already been shut off by the low blood sugar, I couldn't notice.

Scott Benner 40:52
Okay, so you were functioning but not functioning well, but unaware of it.

Lacie 40:57
Yeah. And I think that there was a combination of that with also just a minimization of symptoms, like my body didn't respond as dramatically. Because there was some time there was actually one time when I was in college, I was on a bus coming back from work, and I thought it was high. I was like, Man, my stomach's really upset. Like, I bet you any money that I'm high, I should probably take a correction. This is at the point that I'm starting to gain control over my sugar's again. Like I should probably take a correction. And I was seconds away from just taking a couple of units, like not even checking my sugar. And I was like, You know what, no, I'll test because I feel really bad. And if it's too high, then I'll know I need to take more. I tested and I was 1.6. Which is 29. Oh, wow. Yeah. And I was ready to take more insulin because I thought I was I was high. There was no way that I was low. So at that, that was actually the the incident that made me decide to go Dexcom goes that that happened? Maybe seven years ago. Wow. Yeah.

Scott Benner 42:11
So 13 years into diabetes. And you were still like, I have this. I hope Arden hears this one one day. I hope Arden hears them all one day. I don't know if y'all realize this or not. But this podcast is just a time capsule for my kid. I'm glad you guys. Oh, absolutely. And I hope she hears this one one day, because when she was little she be like, I don't need to test I feel fine. And I would always I always say the same thing. I'm like, Listen to how you felt was important. There wouldn't be any meters or glucose monitors or anything. You just do stuff when you felt a certain way. I was like, that's not how this goes. But that's fascinating. Like you just had a symptom. You assumed it was a high symptom book. I'm glad you're tested. Yeah, me too. I mean, growing luckily,

Lacie 42:56
luckily, the bus had just stopped at a stop outside of McDonald's. So I ran in and scarf down as much food as

Scott Benner 43:03
major blood sugar 500. Yeah, pretty much. I think back to driving with my friend, Mike, when we were younger. And it was always known that whoever was in the front seat while Mike was driving, you had to sort of be driving as well. Like you were just

Lacie 43:19
paying attention to Mike's symptoms. Well,

Scott Benner 43:22
we always just, you know, it's funny, we knew so little about it. And he wasn't, I don't think he knew very much about it. But it was just the idea that sometimes like you know, you'd make a right turn and you wouldn't get all the way into the lane. He just would reach over sometimes it just nudge the wheel a little bit. You'd be like, Oh, wow. But it wasn't constantly sometimes he was fine. And sometimes he had, you know, but he would get surly. And I look back now and I realized that his blood sugar was high. And that people just thought he was like jerk I didn't even personally personality, but he didn't is such a lovely person. And but that's really that's really something else at the time you got the human log did meters get more portable, at that point to

Lacie 44:06
the meters were decently portable. They all came in a little like nylon cases or whatever. So I could fit one of those. Like, I could fit my meter in my back pocket, and I could fit my syringe and my bottle of human walk in my front pocket. And that was just kind of how things went.

Scott Benner 44:22
Yeah. Yeah. Mike had this little like, pouch and everything was just in it. He didn't carry a meter though. Interesting. Wow. Okay, so seven years ago, you almost Bolus when you're incredibly low. You realize I gotta pay better attention to this. And you find seven years ago is is pretty close to the beginning of Dexcom. So it's not like they existed for long and you were ignoring them, right? No, so

Lacie 44:47
that was oh, maybe it wasn't seven years ago. Maybe it was more recently than that. It was when I was in college, which would have been 20 1220 13 Yeah, so like, seven, eight years ago, so yeah, I guess there's that. Um, but yeah, at that point, I was actually starting, I had already started to kind of be like, Okay, this, this isn't good. Like I need to, I need to sort myself out. I think after high school, I pretty much stopped going to endocrinologists and stopped getting my UNC checks and stop testing and stop doing everything still took my insulin that was about it. stopped doing any of that until I got to college. And specifically until I moved in with my now husband, who was like, wait, don't you have to go to a doctor about this? And I'm like, Yeah, but I don't have one here. And I don't know where one is. Then he just kind of one day was out driving and texts me. And he's like, there's literally an endocrinologist office, three blocks from our place, like, call them.

Scott Benner 45:51
Well, that's loving Good for him. He's like, I like this girl. I don't need to start over again with another one. So yeah, let's keep you good. And so this is your first how long ago was this? Now when you this? When you say this? Is this seven years range?

Lacie 46:07
Yeah, it's about eight, a little bit before this incident happened. It was about eight years. So I went into this new endocrinologist office. Turned out it was a great clinic. There's LMC actually, I think you had someone earlier who was from Ontario who went to LMC. They're fantastic. And I, what's gotten with them? What was our

Scott Benner 46:28
first step of like, making the shift? Like you come in from this experience that we've been talking about for, you know, 45 minutes now. And now suddenly, you're going to be you know, quote, unquote, take better care of yourself. How does that start?

Lacie 46:41
It starts with a very good CDE. Because I originally was like, just give me my a one sees, I'll handle it. Like, I was convinced that no one had any answers for me. So there was no point in really having the discussions. And when I started talking to her, I realized, oh, you know, some stuff. This is good. Tell me everything, you know.

Scott Benner 47:05
So it's a reeducation. Really. Yeah. And it was

Lacie 47:09
finally finally finding like the information that I had been just convinced didn't exist.

Scott Benner 47:15
And willing, I was gonna say to hear it, not just say, Oh, no one knows. Because I see people get lulled into that after long periods of diabetes, especially people diagnosed right around your time, right in in the past. You just had this experience for so long, not only do you believe no one knows, this is what you think it is. And even when someone comes along and says, Hey, you know what, not for nothing. But if you just turn this dial on, do this here, and why don't you try Pre-Bolus thing? This, this would be a six a one see you It's hard to believe, right?

Lacie 47:47
Oh, yeah. And as soon as I started talking with her, I was just like, you know, this, you know, what's going on? She didn't have diabetes, but she she understood enough of it that she could talk about it intelligently. It wasn't a we'll just do this, everything will be fine. It was no like this is this is hard. This is constant, you have to be paying attention. And I understand how much brainpower that takes and how much energy that takes. So let's try and make this as easy as possible. And as low in energy as possible, so that you're actually able to, to follow through,

Scott Benner 48:24
through remember how that was accomplished. Like how did they How did she make it easy?

Lacie 48:29
First step was, she gave me a physician's Dexcom so one of the ones that I could see the results, but I had to get it back at the end of the 10 days, or whatever it

Scott Benner 48:39
was. Yeah. Yeah.

Lacie 48:42
So she gave me pens, she's like, you're gonna stop using syringes you look at the drug dealer, here's some pens so that you're actually you know, don't look scary to people when you have to take an injection let's get you a good tester let's get you let's get this Dexcom on us so that we can check your levels and make sure your your stuffs correct let's you know, get your carb ratios dialed in. It was kind of a slow process. They pretty much took what I had been doing previous previously which was the same regimen I'd been using since I was a teenager at that point. And just started from there and then just dial that in.

Scott Benner 49:21
Yeah, how far away from where you ended was what you were doing. Like were your Basal is that much different where your ID

Lacie 49:29
Oh, my Basal is didn't change a lot they adjusted slightly. I was taking way too much mealtime insulin though, like twice as much mealtime insulin as I needed.

Scott Benner 49:38
So were you just getting level a lot. I was driving myself

Lacie 49:41
into the ground because I couldn't feel it. I didn't know.

Scott Benner 49:46
How freaky was it to see the Dexcom data the first time.

Lacie 49:50
It was strange. It was so strange. I was for one I didn't realize I spiked that high after eating because it had always come down but it next Time I tested and then I didn't realize that I was going low that frequently.

Scott Benner 50:06
Yeah. It's so interesting to hear you say that because that's right about the time, I figured all that out for Arden and saw those first CGM graphs. And I was like, wait a minute, you know, the way I tell the story is that I used to put art into bed at 180. And she'd wake up at 90. And I thought I was a genius. But she would go from 180 to like 50. And then she'd sit at 50 for hours. And then I guess her liver would probably kick in, and then drift her back up while she was sleeping to 90. And I would I would just test her before she went to bed. 180 That's her setting for going to bed. You know, you make her highs so she can get through the night. And then look, she's 90 in the morning. It's perfect. She had to be 180 because she finished perfectly at 90. I never realized how low she got or everything else that was going on. And once you see it represented visually, you're like, oh my god, this is all wrong. I'm doing everything wrong.

Lacie 51:03
Yeah, yeah. So we got all that sorted out. And then the next step was getting me on a pump. Luckily, in Canada, well, at least in Ontario, I'm not sure if this is Canada wide or not. We have a it's called the assistive devices program, which pays for the pump, upfront costs 100%, and also gives you a grant every quarter to help cover the cost of this plies. So they got me hooked up with that they got me at the time it was the Animus ping got me on the pump. We talked about getting me on Dexcom. But at that point, nothing covered Dexcom. Like it wasn't the insurance companies didn't cover it, there was no government program to help with it. And I just couldn't afford it as a college kid. So they at least got me the pump. And with that came the ability to make those micro adjustments where I was like, okay, I can make these adjustments, but I need the data to make the adjustments. Therefore, I'm going to test 15 times a day now. And that's what I did. I just upped my testing to you know, as soon as I got up, you know, when I ate after I ate literally every second, I was trying to test my blood sugar to see where I was at. Because I actually had the control with the pump that I could make the adjustments if I had data, right. So it went from I don't want to test my sugar. So I don't want to pump too. Oh, this is what the pump can do. Okay, I'll test my sugar.

Scott Benner 52:33
See, do you listen to the podcast? I do. Yeah. Okay. So when I'm doing the ads for Omnipod and Dexcom. Specifically, do you just sit there and think? Yeah, yeah, that's right. That's right.

Lacie 52:43
Um, so the only thing that you have an ad for that I don't already have is the Omni pod because I'm now on the tandem. Right. And the G voc because I don't think it's available in Canada.

Scott Benner 52:56
Thank you. And I hope the advertisers are listening. But that's not what I'm like, I just you know what? We're done. Now. I didn't realize you didn't have it. No, no, I know, I just meant, like when I'm talking about the benefits of pumping, and I'm talking about the benefits of seeing your data, like that 100% of stuff saved your life changed. Yeah. Functionally changed how you live?

Lacie 53:18
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

Scott Benner 53:20
Which, you know, can I ask?

Lacie 53:22
Last test was 6.0. Okay, two,

Scott Benner 53:26
very well done. That's excellent. I believe that's different than 13. Oh, yeah.

Lacie 53:31
That's, that is quite a different level. And I didn't realize how much better I feel with the lower agencies. So when I got to LMC. They tested my agency and it was nine. Just from like, the education that they gave me. We got it down to eight. With the pump. We got it down to mid sevens with the CGM, which I got. Four years ago. I got the Dexcom G six when as soon as it came to Canada, that's what I got. I got that down to mid sixes. And then your podcast got me down to six.

Scott Benner 54:11
Nice. Oh, that is excellent. You I am excited for you. You must be thrilled. I love that you talked about feeling differently. Arden went swimming with friends the other night. So she was away from the CGM for a while she got a little low. She was like 63 ish when they got out of the pool. And I texted her and I was like, hey, you know your blood sugar's low or she doesn't matter. We're coming home. I was making pizzas. I can make pizzas from scratch. It's not a big deal. I was making pizza for her and her friends. They were going to come back from this friend's house, etc. And so Arden's like doesn't matter. We're on our way home, perfect. Like in her mind, she's like 63 Pizza Pre-Bolus This is perfect. And you know, like so she rolls into the house, but I didn't realize they were further away than I thought they were so by the time she got home She was like 55. And so again, whatever she starts eating the food, and we just get the Bolus in wrong. I don't know another way to put it, there was a lot going on and we just kind of botched the Bolus. And our blood sugar ended up in like the 200 range. And it took us a couple hours to fix it. And by the time she went to bed, Dad, my legs hurt. My legs hurt so bad where you come from my legs, rub my knees from my ankles, and she's like, I don't understand why my legs hurt so much. I was like, it's from the higher blood sugar. I know. You went to 200 It's 200. I know it's just 200 it doesn't seem like a big deal. But your body's so accustomed to being in a real like I can pull Arden's blood sugar up right now. It's like I'm doing an ad Hold on a second Arden's blood sugar 78. And if I go back 12 hours, the highest it's been. Let me take a look here. The highest Arden's blood sugar has been in the last 12 hours is 135. And it was basically between 120 Yeah, we had kind of a time, where overnight where it took us a while to get from 120 back down to under 100. Again, maybe three or four hours. And I don't honestly don't know what that was because she and I were watching the movie last night together. And she was like 77. And I was like, this is perfect for going to bed. Which is so weird compared to before. And I was like if we just make her 180 then. But then, as the movie ended, she started to drift up a little bit, but 107 I thought I had it. And then I didn't. Yeah, but since my gosh, since it's it's almost 11 Now since 5am Arden's blood sugar has been between 178 Yeah. So that's what she's accustomed to. Oh, yeah.

Lacie 56:48
And as soon as you go outside of that, like you feel it. And that's the one thing that I've noticed is that now that I'm used to blood sugar's that are stable and a lot lower than they used to be when I do spike up to 15, which is 270 for you guys. Like I feel terrible,

Scott Benner 57:07
right? Like, really, I'm, like, difficult to function. Terrible.

Lacie 57:11
Yeah. And just, I'm nauseous and I don't feel good, and I can't think properly. And it's just I get angry. That is one thing that has not gone away. My high blood sugars put me into a blind rage sometimes. And it's just I'm not, I am not in a good place.

Scott Benner 57:29
Well, well, I if you ever listened to Jenny on like the Pro Tip series and stuff like that, you can tell by listening to her. She's a careful, like, eater, a healthy eater. And I think part of that is because she does not like how she feels when her blood sugar gets higher. Yeah, you know, it's just, it's just is what it is, you know, it's I mean, you have diabetes, you're gonna have to make some, you have to pay attention to some things, or you're going to have this other stuff. And I just don't want people to get in a situation where my legs hurt is a normal part of my life.

Lacie 58:02
You know? Yeah. And I mean, eventually your legs stop hurting, which is crazy. Yeah, well,

Scott Benner 58:06
then you're kind of really in trouble. Because yeah, then your body's making allowances that are internal that are going to lead to other issues. Do you think about that ever? Like, like your father, you said is still alive? How's his health?

Lacie 58:19
Ah, it's okay. He is just starting to see a little bit of retinopathy, he said, to get a laser on his eyes to just kind of stop up some bleeds. Other than that, I mean, he's got high blood pressure, high cholesterol and a host of other issues outside of diabetes. But he is a full time like, he goes out he has a farm that he works on all day. Like he's, he's physically capable. He's very busy and he doesn't feel badly.

Scott Benner 58:55
For my farming snowballs, there's got to be a lot of work.

Lacie 58:59
Actually, beef cattle, we got a lot of cows up in our prairie area. It's not

Scott Benner 59:03
that it's icicles. He's a cattle farmer. Yeah, in northern Ontario. Wow. That's kind of cool. That sounds like like something I would want on my LinkedIn profile. But I guess the cattle farmer wouldn't have a LinkedIn profile. So whatever. Actually, I

Lacie 59:18
think they do. I mean, farming is big business. No, no, I

Scott Benner 59:20
know. I just didn't think they would be bothered with it. It just seems like that would people to me. I guess I wanted to make that bad joke so badly.

Lacie 59:32
You've worked so hard to get that in there and

Scott Benner 59:37
I don't care. I'll give away the editing time for this. Well, so that's good, but And how about your health?

Lacie 59:46
Oh, it's it's much better since I've managed to get everything under control. I mean, COVID kind of messed up my whole gym routine, but beyond that, like, yeah, my just went for an idea. doctor's visit. And he looked at my eyes. He's like, wait a second, I saw in your chart that you're diabetic. It's like, yeah, it's like that. Oh, okay. I would not have known that otherwise, which is what you want to hear, right?

Scott Benner 1:00:10
100% A The only thing I would want to hear more as Yeah, I found a podcast after that, because I just I'm looking for a spread of word. But that's not. I think that's amazing. I think that's super exciting for you. Because there's no doubt that on the path you were on, you wouldn't be here that much longer. I don't think,

Lacie 1:00:27
no, I still don't know how I frankly, survived from the age of about 18 to 23. I got someone looking out for me up there, because there was no other way that I didn't put myself into a coffin.

Scott Benner 1:00:41
Wow. Yeah, I do. It's such an underserved time. For Type ones. Is that college age? And really, you call it college age, if you want. But you know, that last part while your brains forming still? Yeah, like right in there. It's it's your outside of your parents purview? You're 100% sure that you know everything about the whole world, not just diabetes. You know, like I love I love during political cycles listening to like, 20 year old people. Like this is the first time they they think they're the first people who, who ever noticed that the world might not be exactly right. It's like, none of us knew we're big dummies, you figured it out. Great job. Yeah, in that moment, you know, and you just think, yeah, I guess you do really feel either. Like you need to put this thing aside and not deal with it. Because it's too much. You don't know what you're doing? Or you feel a little invincible or a mixture of those things, I guess. But yeah, that's a scary time. From my perspective, at least.

Lacie 1:01:47
Oh, yeah. And I mean, at that point, I thought I was bulletproof. Right. Like I went on a six month volunteer program to BC and then Ukraine. Wow. Wow, having absolutely no control over my blood sugar's I'm saving

Scott Benner 1:02:02
the beaver population.

Lacie 1:02:05
In BC, it wasn't beavers, what were we working on? We did do a lot of environmental work when I was in DC. And then in Ukraine, I was doing work for a university over there. Again, kind of environmentally focused, but a little bit less, because they still don't have like regular recycling programs and things like that. So

Scott Benner 1:02:25
well, well, you're like a decent person on top of all this.

No, I mean, like I didn't, like you know, like, that's a kind thing to give your time to. Where'd you meet the husband? Guy? Where'd you find him?

Lacie 1:02:40
Ah, through friends at college. In Toronto.

Scott Benner 1:02:44
It's a setup, like a blind date.

Lacie 1:02:47
Not so much. It was more. One of my friends was seeing one of his friends. And so we went over to their apartment. And those two kind of wandered off and Morgan and I were just kind of left there being like, Hi.

Scott Benner 1:03:05
This is awkward. I'm not showing you my vagina like she's going to do. So you know? Oh, yeah, pretty much actually. That's 100% what happened? So she brought you you were you were the wing woman, you were brought along for cover, so that she could safely go off and do whatever it was she was thinking of doing? Yeah, pretty much, and then you got bored. But that boy boobs is that about what?

Lacie 1:03:28
Not that day.

Scott Benner 1:03:31
Try to imagine how funny this is gonna sound bleeped out when I'm talking. Because then people will fill in like right now all of you listening. Whatever you filled in. That's how you feel just because you don't know what I said. I might have said, keychain. You have no idea how long you guys been together?

Lacie 1:03:55
We've been together for nine or 10 years, and we just got married almost two years ago.

Scott Benner 1:04:02
Congratulations. Thank you. You're right before COVID You got married.

Lacie 1:04:06
Literally September of 2019. Right before COVID

Scott Benner 1:04:09
snuck it in. You're probably a super spreader. You didn't even know it.

Lacie 1:04:13
We have a lot of friends who are kind of family friends who now they were trying to get married in 2020. And all our parents are just like, Thank God, you guys got married and

Scott Benner 1:04:24
my son was supposed to go to a wedding in the middle of COVID which of course got pushed. And he's like, Oh, I got another invitation for when I said they're gonna break up before they get married. So much time, you know, good. Oh, I know. I feel so bad for these people. It really is crazy. Are you guys thinking of making any little Canadians or what are you doing?

Lacie 1:04:46
Well, that was part of the reason why I found your podcast. I was looking for podcasts on diabetes management to get ready for pregnancy. So yeah, we are in the process

Scott Benner 1:04:59
of You're having a lot of banging constantly, Scott. Nothing's happening. I don't know. I frankly am tired of it. Oh my God, is he gonna do that again? Again, buddy. Read a book. What are you doing? I can't We can't do it the same way every time. Oh god. That's interesting. Did you hear the episode that Jenny and I did for the pro tips?

Lacie 1:05:27
The pregnancy one?

Scott Benner 1:05:28
Yes. It's good, right? It is. Yeah,

Lacie 1:05:30
all the pro tips have been really good.

Scott Benner 1:05:32
Well, I wasn't looking for that. But I appreciate you saying that. How about listening to Sam attr trimesters was that help? She was

Lacie 1:05:38
actually the first episode that I found was I think her second trimester was the the first episode that I ran across. And then from there started listening to the rest of the

Scott Benner 1:05:48
let me correct myself, Samantha. It's a, I would call her Sam. And she'd be like, Samantha, I'm like, I'm sorry. I don't know why I can't, I would write it down in front of myself. I really am. Like, I'm probably like four IQ points away from falling over, you know, just get right in front of myself. I'd look at even when you and I were messing with technical problems at the beginning. Like your your zoom comes up. I'm assuming your name and your husband's name together.

Lacie 1:06:13
Yeah, it is. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:06:14
I know. You're Lacey. And I'm still saying your husband's name bom bom like fighting with a thing. I'm like, once I got it done, I was like, am I gonna bring that up? And now just let it go. And for all the things I understand, it's fascinating how dumb I am about other stuff. But anyway, is there anything that we didn't talk about that you were hoping to get to?

Lacie 1:06:33
I don't really think so. No, I think we covered everything.

Scott Benner 1:06:35
Cool. I enjoyed this. I love you. Fine. Yeah, I know. I know. You're just human like me, you just live slightly north of me. And there's really nothing different, except you said a boot and a couple of other things. But I just I don't know, I always enjoy my Canadian conversations. I always feel bad that it takes longer for you guys to get your technology when it comes out.

Lacie 1:06:56
Yeah, that's that's mostly just to do with our more rigorous testing processes. I mean, your FDA tends to let things through pretty easy. Ours is a bit more complicated. So we always get delayed.

Scott Benner 1:07:07
It's funny. It's funny that you that you see it that way because I think Americans would see the FDA as a long process to since

Lacie 1:07:14
Oh, it absolutely is. And doing the FDA processes probably makes everything else quicker. But I mean, there's a lot of stuff you guys have that they've just said no up here too. So

Scott Benner 1:07:22
yeah, well, if you just get an uglier Prime Minister, things might go better. Yeah, we'll see. Just the next time. Just pick the oldest beat up person on the list. Just be like, That guy doesn't look like he never looks in a mirror. This woman hasn't seen a mirror in 20 years. I'm voting for her. Do you get?

Lacie 1:07:37
Um, yeah, we we vote? Of course we vote?

Scott Benner 1:07:40
I don't know. Of course you vote. It's Catala you live on Mars in my world? I don't know you could be living under martial law. I have no idea. I don't know if that. In my mind. There are penguins telling you what to do. So I don't

Lacie 1:07:53
run into the planet. But during the winter.

Scott Benner 1:07:56
The point I'm trying to make is I understand penguins don't live in Canada and yeah, when I when I think of Canada, I think of penguins. Dudley do right? Beavers, bears moose, part of me believes you ride a moose. Like there's just I'm Oh no, I stay

Lacie 1:08:14
very far away from most things scare the crap out of me.

Scott Benner 1:08:17
No kidding. And then when you said you went to the Ukraine, do you have any idea how hard it was for me not to do a moose and squirrel impression in that moment. But I held it in. That's all. I wonder how many people are like moose and squirrel. What is this guy talk? I'm old. I know about cartoon cam bowling. Before people were born, I know stuff. I know useless stuff. And nothing about Canada. I'll go there one day. I know this is gonna happen. I know one day someone's gonna be like, come to Canada. Talk about it. I'm going to show up. I'll land on an airplane. I get out of the plane. I'll be like, this looks like everywhere else I've ever been.

Lacie 1:08:50
You live in New Jersey. That's just like a hop, skip and a jump away from us. Like it's very, very similar.

Scott Benner 1:08:57
I just know I'll like walk. I'll be so disappointed. One day I'll walk outside and like I won't be attacked by a bear. And I'll be like, god dammit. This is the same as everywhere else. No, that's what's gonna happen. Anyway, that's why I'm not going I don't want the illusion ruined.

Lacie 1:09:11
Oh, we're like a magical fantasy land to you. You can't you can't really see the reality.

Scott Benner 1:09:15
That's your policemen are riding on horses. In my mind in big red coats. I think it's lovely.

Lacie 1:09:21
I mean, they usually only do that to clear the drunks off King Street in Toronto.

Scott Benner 1:09:26
So those people do exist though. They do Yeah, they use the horses

Lacie 1:09:29
to they go like breast a breast across the street and just drive all the drunk people home

Scott Benner 1:09:36
there's that many drunk people

Lacie 1:09:38
on King Street in Toronto? Oh yes. King streets like the the entertainment district. There's a lot of bars on King Street.

Scott Benner 1:09:44
Well, listen, I wish you luck with the making the baby thing. I mean, you're fed up with this sex. You're like, it's enough already. Let's be done.

Lacie 1:09:56
Or you just gotta just gotta try different things that keeps it fun. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:09:59
no, I know. You know, it'll take the fun away. Oh, baby. Yep. There's, there's no, there's nothing that so conflicts with itself as the process. Although your husband will look back on this time later and feel lucky about this that it took, like, I remember when we had Arden first time, she got pregnant the first time and I felt ripped off in a way that is difficult to put into words. It's just like, how could it have happened the first time

Unknown Speaker 1:10:30
process just completely cut short. And we didn't even do this was supposed to

Scott Benner 1:10:34
be fun. I might have put this in my book, but we did it like rushing out the door to go trick or treating with my son. Like, she was like, this is when we should start trying and I was like, okay, she's like, well, he's putting on his costume upstairs with your mom. This is so dirty. She's so we ran to the Arden was conceived in a basement. I just want to say that right now. And that's right, Arden, in case you didn't know. And you're like 30 years old, listen to this now. But you know, it wasn't a I wouldn't call it, you know, a loving moment. It's more of like, I think we can get

Lacie 1:11:08
this in your on a time schedule. Yeah, by the way, there was.

Scott Benner 1:11:11
There was no pun intended there. But I think we can get this in before we leave for this for the triggers and the readings. And then we did and then she was pregnant and like no time and I was like, Oh, come on. That was I don't know. All right. Well, I'm gonna let you go. You're probably sore.

Lacie 1:11:30
Yeah, I got to go do some stretches. Now.

Scott Benner 1:11:32
See, Canadian women have a great sense of humor. This one from the podcast, but I'm not kidding. By the way. I've totally learned this from the podcast. Not that other women don't but you guys are.

Lacie 1:11:43
Well, we're the butt of everyone's jokes. You kind of have to get a good sense of humor. Eventually.

Scott Benner 1:11:47
We Canadians.

Lacie 1:11:49
Have you have never watched a comedy special from any American comedian like Canadians are always that show.

Scott Benner 1:11:56
I mean, really, all we really know about you is that movie strange brew. There's nothing else. That's probably part of the problem. I mean, you sent us that Dave Coulier a guy you should have sent somebody better. I don't know what to tell you. I mean, I didn't mean

Lacie 1:12:09
we did send you Brendan Fraser at one point, which was he was pretty awesome

Scott Benner 1:12:14
for five seconds. And Alan Thicke was fine, but then he made that boy, now I'm stuck with him. Robin?

Lacie 1:12:21
Yeah, yeah, we try forget about that one.

Scott Benner 1:12:24
I am. I will say this before I go. I am endlessly fascinated that hockey is not more popular in America than it is such a good sport.

Lacie 1:12:34
It's great. But the problem is it's so bloody expensive to try and put your kids in it.

Scott Benner 1:12:39
Oh, playing it's tough baseball. Yeah, baseball similar here. You have to because it's not just something you can get. Just pick up a ball a ball and do it. You have to have a future mindset, a field and etc. And it makes it

Lacie 1:12:51
Yeah, I mean, I played baseball, softball, because apparently girls can play baseball in Canada. But it wasn't that expensive. Like all I had to bring was my glove my cleats. coaches were the ones who had to bring bags and bags of bats and everything else and

Scott Benner 1:13:07
hockey's the skates and the pads and the you have to have a ring

Lacie 1:13:10
and God forbid someone has a kid who wants to play goalie.

Scott Benner 1:13:14
All that stuff, too. Yeah. All right. Well, I guess you're I'm just telling you it's as a spectator sport goes. Hockey's amazing. Oh, hockey. It's great. But I don't know you guys are having trouble marketing it. And you put that handsome guy on that and see what you can figure out.

Lacie 1:13:29
Also, I think you guys have a harder time sitting in a cold arena.

Scott Benner 1:13:33
I'm cold was working out for a college one day baseball in the bathrooms were in the hockey rink next door. And just walking in the outskirts of it to the restroom. You needed a jacket. It was the middle of summer so cold in there. I mean, it makes sense. I'm not an idiot. Like, I know there's trying to keep ice frozen. But I can't imagine being a parent having to sit there. Like no matter what time of year it is, like bundled up to watch a hockey game, I guess.

Lacie 1:13:59
Yeah. So we're used to it. I mean, when it gets to be winter here doesn't matter where in the country you are, you're cold. So it's just like, oh, that's fine. But I imagine people living in you know, South Carolina might not be so interested in sitting in a freezing cold

Scott Benner 1:14:15
or making a point. Well, yes, no ball farmers are not bothered by the cold. That's for certain. No, they definitely aren't. That's all. Alright, but this was lovely. You're delightful. Thank you very much. Thank you. It's

Lacie 1:14:26
great talking to you. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:14:27
I agree. It was great talk note is great talking to you too.

I'd like to thank Lacey for coming on the show today and sharing her story with us. And I also want to thank Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor and Omni pod makers have the Omni pod dash and the Omni pod promise for being sponsors of the Juicebox Podcast. Don't forget to check them out at Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox and tech comm.com forward slash juice box. When you support the sponsors, you're supporting the show. If you're a US resident or the caretaker of a US resident, and you have type one diabetes, T one D exchange.org, forward slash juice box, take the survey, less than 10 minutes support people living with type one, and again, support the Juicebox Podcast. I want to thank you for listening today and remind you to subscribe and follow in an audio app. While I have your attention. Let me let you know about the Facebook page for the podcast completely free. But private Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes 20,000 members and growing people just like you looking for support community and maybe sometimes a virtual hug or a little bit of advice for another type one Juicebox Podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook. If you're enjoying the show, please go into that audio app that you're listening in and leave a fantastic five star review. It helps other people to find the show and to get started. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.