#638 Chile Cahcho

March 1, 2022Scott Benner

Fernanda has type 1 diabetes and she has an intersting story and a cat.

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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 638 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Today on the Juicebox Podcast we speak with Fernanda, she is an adult living with type one diabetes, who's been through some stuff. She has an interesting story, it's well worth hearing. She also has a cat that has very little to do with this. 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, or becoming bold with insulin. Are you an adult with type one diabetes, or an adult who is the caregiver of someone with type one? If you are one of those things, and the US citizen, please go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox do me the favor of filling out the T one D exchange survey. It should only take you a few moments and you can do it right on your phone. I would really appreciate it. So with the T one D exchange and it would benefit a lot of people living with type one if you would. Thank you. Music for

this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter Learn more at contour next one.com forward slash juicebox Are you looking for the diabetes pro tip episodes they started episode 210 and can be also found and can be also found is not English, but let's just get past that and can also be found at Juicebox Podcast calm and it diabetes pro tip.com.

Fernanda 1:59
I'm Fernanda I'm diabetic type one scenes 1998. I've been through a lot. I just started with some implant Omnipod actually a year ago, and before that I was using the Medtronic g 670. I started with that one in 2017. And before that I was MDI

Scott Benner 2:26
for a long time.

Fernanda 2:30
Yeah, it's just because as I told you before, I'm not American. I come from Chile. And in chiller, insulin pumps were not covered by MediCal insurances. So if you wanted a pump, you have to pay it out of pocket. And very expensive, especially for our economy. So I mean, it's a long story. My dad didn't want it to buy an insulin pump for me. He thought I didn't deserve one. Because my control was not on point. And whatever. I moved to the United States, and as soon as I could, I got one. Cool. So you've had a one C one from 10 to seven in three months.

Scott Benner 3:13
Okay. You've had diabetes like 22 years.

Fernanda 3:20
There's 98. Yeah, yeah.

Scott Benner 3:21
Okay. How old are you now?

Fernanda 3:25
I'm 35.

Scott Benner 3:26
Okay. It's okay to be 35. So you were online? Yeah, you were what? 13 ish when you got diagnosed?

Fernanda 3:38
Yeah.

Scott Benner 3:40
Your dad's

Fernanda 3:41
just starting my teenage years. Horrible, horrible age to be diagnosed. Oh, my God.

Scott Benner 3:47
When did you move here?

Fernanda 3:50
To the US, September 2016 2016.

Scott Benner 3:54
What made you come?

Fernanda 3:58
Work. I'm a physical therapist. So back in Chela, there are a lot of physical therapists, our salaries are not the best. We're not recognized as as well as we are in the United States. So I took advantage that I know English from school. And I started looking for a job in here and here I am. Wow, that's really cool. It was not easy. I

Scott Benner 4:25
can't imagine it was easy. Yeah. Are you were you Did you come by yourself? Or did you come with other people?

Fernanda 4:32
No, I came by myself. I brought my cat with me.

Scott Benner 4:36
That's a Chilean cat I saw walked by a minute ago

Fernanda 4:39
and said Chilean cat. Yes, absolutely. And believe it or not, he is able to figure out when my blood sugar is low. So he wakes me up at night if that happens,

Scott Benner 4:49
are you serious? Yes, you have a diabetic.

Fernanda 4:55
Yes, he learned by himself. So long story short in the 23 years as a diabetic, I've had a six hyperglycemic, comas. Oh my gosh. And well, and eventually, I, I don't feel those anymore until I'm very low. I feel them when I'm in the 30s. And for some reason he figures it out and every time I'm I'm going low at night, he wakes me up.

Scott Benner 5:24
Do you think he's trying to wake you up? Or do you think he's trying to test to see if you're dead so we can eat you? I don't know. I think there's little cats are looking at people. Like if I was bigger, I was definitely them.

Fernanda 5:39
Yeah, you know that there's a joke when the when COVID started, and everybody was doing quarantined, and there's a dog, and a cat. And the dog is like, good. My Masters is staying at home with me. And there's the cat bed says, and you're gonna get fired?

Scott Benner 5:56
That makes exact sense. Did the cat have any trouble with the language change? I'm just kidding.

Fernanda 6:03
I don't think so. Yeah, that's very well,

Scott Benner 6:07
what what made you want to come on the podcast?

Fernanda 6:12
So from all the all the episodes that I've been listening from you, I remember when you started with these, after our, what's the name of it after dark? After Dark podcasts. Thank you. And you have these girl coming in talking about diabetes and sex. I'm like, Okay, this is this interesting, let's talk that's lovely. And listen to it. And the thing that made me like, go and talk to you was well, you know, she was diagnosed as an adult, she was just changing from being shy of showing her gadgets talking about the Dexcom, or whatever you use, and the and the, the pump, and how she didn't want to show them and how she was interfering with, with her sexual relationships and whatever. And I said, you know, maybe you need another point of view about it. Like somebody that was diagnosed as young as me, or well, just for you to know, before I live in Miami right now, before here used to live in New York. And in New York, I have a big group of type one diabetic friends, and I love them. And two other girls were diagnosed pretty much at the same age that I was, and we met three, four years ago. And we were all talking about the same, like, how different is when you're diagnosed as a as a young woman, girl, and you're growing up as an adult, and how you deal with all your diabetic stuff. And how you don't care anymore. If your God just show up how you don't care if your partner sees them or not. What do you do with your pump when you're in the middle of sex, and you just throw it to one side, and then you throw it to the other one, and then you just take it away? And stuff like that, that make you grow up as a diabetic? You know, like, at least for me, if my partner doesn't like my diabetic gadgets, it's a no, no.

Scott Benner 8:21
Right? So are you telling me that you think that because you had diabetes longer, and you didn't get to experience sexuality before diabetes, that you kind of have the same relationship with around sex that we describe as you know, people, like my daughter's had diabetes, and she's too and she doesn't think about it the same way as people who were diagnosed when they were older. So like, kind of that vibe, but around sexuality, it kind of sticks and is similar.

Fernanda 8:51
I I'm so used to my, to my diabetes. I'm so used to my alarms. I'm so used to all of these. That for me being diabetic and having sex, it's like, they it's not a problem. It's like, um, I don't know. I'm so used to it. It's part of my life.

Scott Benner 9:15
Yeah, you ever CGM. And yes, I have a Dexcom. So maybe when it beeps, you just tell the person like oh, that means you're not doing a good job. Try harder.

Fernanda 9:27
Let's just finish this

Scott Benner 9:31
three times. You've got two minutes, buddy.

Fernanda 9:36
Hey, finish faster.

Scott Benner 9:37
I'll get you as far as I can, but I gotta eat.

Fernanda 9:40
Yeah. If you want me to stay here longer, we have to do something about it.

Scott Benner 9:47
Is it Is there any difference between a more casual relationship and a more long term relationship where you don't see a difference?

Fernanda 9:56
So one of the reasons that I moved from New York was because I broke up with my ex boyfriend. We were together for nine years. And he knew me with him doing MDI. And then he knew me with Medtronic. And then he knew me with the Omnipod. I mean, he went on the process with me. And he didn't care. He actually didn't care a lot. And I don't know if it's because he didn't care or because I didn't care that he cared. So after we broke up, and I moved to Miami, where I am right now been dating other people. And I think they don't care neither. Okay. It's just I'm very open about it. They go and they're like, Oh, is that first stop smoking is like now for my blood glucose, you know, like, right. And then I have to start explaining, and because I work in the medical field, for people, it's even easier to understand. Like, oh, this is my insulin pump. This is my glucose monitor, or if you hear beeping, don't worry, I'll take care of

Scott Benner 11:06
it. Right. Did you think that that boyfriend from New York, were you with him so long? Because you thought he didn't care? And that was special about him? No, no, no, nothing like that. Okay, like you weren't, like stuck with? Like, at least he's not bugging me about this. Okay.

Fernanda 11:23
All right. No, not at all. I usually do the same example. I make the same example. Sorry, like, I'm injecting insulin is like brushing your teeth. It's something that you have to do every day.

Scott Benner 11:35
So would you say that regardless

Fernanda 11:36
of what the people around, you say, like, you have to brush your teeth,

Scott Benner 11:40
right? Maybe it's your attitude about it that doesn't allow them to even you know, me, or maybe you pick certain people like maybe there's something about you, that leads to what kind of people surround you? That would make sense to me?

Fernanda 12:00
Maybe so it happens that for my friends, my type one difference in New York, I have one friend that also diabetic for 20 plus years, and she's always hiding her Dexcom she's hiding her Omnipod. And she's, we have a WhatsApp group that we talk a lot between us and we do all these nerdy messages that we only understand. And she was telling she texted once and she said the only time that I feel free to wear my gadgets out in the open is when I'm with Fernanda like, well, girl, there you go.

Scott Benner 12:34
Well, then, yeah, maybe my points valid. Maybe there's something about you that just lets people feel comfortable. I feel comfortable. Maybe. Thank you. I listen, I hear it from people a lot, too. They say Oh, you're very easy to talk to. Or I said something during our conversation. I never expected to say, You made me feel comfortable. And I'm like, I didn't make you feel comfortable. Like I didn't like sit down and thoughtfully be like, Oh, I'll make this person feel comfortable. There might just be something easy about you. And you have a nice like pleasant smile. And you don't even like yeah, like, that's it. You just attract good boys. Maybe some people just attract the people who are no. You're away.

Fernanda 13:23
I'm a magnet, your magnet? Yeah, exactly.

Scott Benner 13:28
No, I mean, sounds like you're not it sounds like you attract like reasonable people who don't judge people based on their, at the very least on their diabetes technology. So yeah,

Fernanda 13:37
I don't judge people at all. I'm usually very open to to everybody. And I don't know, it's I think it goes with my profession. That I'm like, you know, physical therapists have a lot of psychological component into it. We we have to spend an hour with every patient. So we we need to talk about something. Right. And you meet a lot. I tried to write Oh, yes. Oh, yes, I have.

Scott Benner 14:10
And it's intimate. Like, right off the bat. I mean, you know, I mean, if I have a thigh injury, it's more intimate than, you know, if you work Oh, yeah.

Fernanda 14:23
It's the same thing as the Okay, let's go back is the same thing as having a pump. You know, like, I don't make any difference if your injuries in your thigh or is in your low back or eating your shoulder from it's your bodies, your body and I respect it totally from your last toe, from your your your toes to your last piece of hair. Like I don't make any difference from it. Do you think usually if it's more intimate parts, I will say hey, you know what, I'm really sorry. But I I have to I have to touch it. Right? And they're like, yeah, no, no worries. But you don't make faces. You don't make jokes. You respect every part of it.

Scott Benner 14:59
Yeah, but I'm saying that's a that's an aspect of your life that you're accustomed to. And so absolutely, yeah, even that makes sense. Really? You? Is it? Alright, I'm going to ask you a question here. Is it easier to have sex with the Omni pod than it was with the Medtronic?

Fernanda 15:16
Absolutely. That Medtronic sometimes was just hanging somewhere. And I had, and I remember my ex telling me okay, what are we going to do about it? I'm gonna take it off. You know, when you take that the pump from the insertion site, there's a cup that goes over it like to close it. And it happens that if you don't put the cap like the edges of the insertion side are very sharp. So he usually had like five or six cuts in his and I think he's night table and it was like, there's a cup. Okay, I took it off.

Scott Benner 15:52
So he would actually keep the little caps the put on the site.

Fernanda 15:56
Yes. What are we gonna do about this? It's all over the place. I was like, I'm taking off. Okay, here's a cup. Okay. Thank you.

Scott Benner 16:03
Thanks. It's silly. When you hear people say I Oh, we stopped to put on a condom and it broke the mood. You're like, I had to take my insulin pump off. So yeah.

Fernanda 16:12
Oh, we heard yesterday. You know, like, we really didn't care.

Scott Benner 16:17
Do you think Omnipod should change their tagline to easier to with? In their ads? Do you think they

Fernanda 16:25
should be a good line? Like, yeah, um, it doesn't mess around with your nightlife.

Scott Benner 16:31
Say you were you were nicer. I know. I can beat myself out. So I didn't I didn't think about it that way.

Fernanda 16:38
It can put it in comfortable places that you don't have to deal with. Yeah,

Scott Benner 16:41
it's interesting. I mean, when we chose it for Arden, so long ago, she was four. And it was one of the first things that struck me I was like, This just seems more adaptable, like just not being I mean, it just seemed like common sense, like not being tethered to something seemed better than being tethered to something. I know people get used to other pumps. But there's still aspects of it that nobody talks about. So

Fernanda 17:09
that is yes. So from from going from a two pump to a Tablas pump. Originally, I didn't choose them at 2670. Yes, I chose it. But it was my doctor's preference. I had an amazing endo in New York. And so when I moved to New York, looking for a doctor and everything, it was hard in the beginning, I didn't know how to do it. And all I wanted was a pump. And she said, Well, you know, what, what if you wait for a second, because Medtronic is coming with the next pump in July 2017. And it's going to be a closed loop. And this is how it's gonna work. Like, I barely know how a pump works. But if you told me it's the best that it's going to come with i I can wait. I don't mind. I don't even know what a loop is. But sure if you say so I'm going with it. And I weighed it came, I learned how to use it. I was with it like for two years until I met my diabetic peeps. And they were all of them in loop. I didn't know what loop was and the look. The look you know what the loop? Yeah. And not the Medtronic loop the other loop. And they were saying these is really good. This is fabulous. My agency is here my agencies there I have so much control over my blood sugar's I was like, Okay, I'm, I'm willing to about because I'm so not technological. I was afraid because I didn't know how, how to manage it. I mean, I barely know how to turn on and off my computer and leave it there. And they were like, No, you will be able, don't worry, we will help you. And I was like, Okay, after like six months, insisting I said, Okay, I'm gonna try it. And one of my friends gave me a box of Omnipod and he's peed on her PDM and she's not here you are trying, like, Ah, okay. How do I manage this? And she said, Give me your numbers. Give me your ratio, your factor everything. We're going to do it together. Here you are, you're ready, go. And I tried the Omni pod like for two weeks. And I said, Okay, I love this. How I was thinking last week, it was love at first sight as it

Scott Benner 19:30
ever made before.

Fernanda 19:34
I love at first sight. And then I said okay, I'm going for the loop. And one friend said I have an extra rilink So I'm gonna give it to you use it if you like it, you buy yours and then you give it back. And that is how I went into loop just like my friends sharing their stuff with me. And I really liked it and eventually I bought my rilink I got my army part even though I was not out of The motronic yet, but because they fall under different categories inside of medical insurance, I didn't have any problem. And that is how it changed. And I'm very happy with it. Wow, he's so you know, a lot of for the first time in a long time I had my lowest I even see that it has been 6.6.

Scott Benner 20:17
That's amazing. That's very good.

Fernanda 20:19
I was Yeah, I was diagnosed with 17.4.

Scott Benner 20:24
Well, I wanted to go backwards a little bit. I don't mean to make you uncomfortable. But you said your dad said, Your dad said he that you didn't deserve a pump. Like where do you think that thought came from?

Fernanda 20:37
So I have a hard relationship with my dad, he was not the easiest dad to deal with. Raised in America in a very military family. That was his way of raising us. And when I was diagnosed, he his his way of thinking very squared thinking he was like, this is the insulin you need, this is the carbs you have to eat. And this is how your life is going to go. By that time using NPH, which I don't know how we survived that insulin, but whatever. Um, he was very rigid with the numbers. This is the amount of insulin, this is the amount of carbs, this is the amount of insulin, this is the amount of carbs and don't get out of there. And if you have a low, why do you have a low? And if you have a high what what did you eat? Like there was always a judgment out of it. And eventually, we changed to I don't remember the the long acting insulin but it was for 12 hours. So I have to put it out morning at night. And then with him a log. And it was a it was a hard change for him to understand that numbers were not the same anymore. And that he could have more flexibility with timings that I didn't have to have breakfast every day at 7am. And I didn't have to have lunch every day at 12:30pm that I could be more flexible that I if I wanted to have lunch at three I could. And if I didn't want to eat everything I could. So it, it was all a big mess. At the same time I gained a lot of weight gain almost 70 pounds in two years. Because of this amount of carbs that I was putting in and this amount of insulin that people just thought it was the good thing to have. And it was you couldn't adjust it. Okay, so Hema came in, I tried, and I remember, he always used to tell me the same thing, and he got so angry about it. Please stop playing with insulin. And this is what you call now being bold with insulin. My dad call it playing with insulin. And he was so afraid of it, that every time that I started playing with it, he would just punish me and you are not going out with your friends. You're not going out partying. I used to do a lot of sports until today I was playing field hockey by that time. I was going into the national tournament and everything. And his way of punishing me was you're not going to your field hockey match this weekend. That's just because I wanted to get more adjusted with insulin. It sucked actually did my a one C never went down from nine or 10. He was very frustrated about it every time on a once he came in. It was another punishment because it was not an seven. He wanted to manage my insulin as much as he could, even though it was a team. And when I started asking for an insulin pump, he was like, You know what, number one is expensive. And number two, you don't deserve it because you're not showing good numbers. I was like, okay, whatever. And that is how my life went on.

Scott Benner 23:59
Yeah. Let me ask you. Did you have any idea in that management style right there? Did you have any idea how to make your agency lower?

Fernanda 24:10
Ah, not really.

Scott Benner 24:13
Yeah, I mean, so he's saying, really, you're wrong for not doing for not accomplishing this. But yet you? He doesn't know how to do it. Neither do It's just frustrating. Really?

Fernanda 24:24
It's just that I have I have one. One little issue. I love picking food. I'm really I'm not a big eater. I don't have like big plates of food. But I love having little snacks all day. And you can't be having snacks all day when you were an MPH.

Scott Benner 24:46
Yeah, but you can now right now it's not as an issue

Fernanda 24:49
now. Now I do all the time. Yeah, um, other thing it's like, um, I have a really sweet tooth. So I love cereals. I love chocolate. And every time I had like a piece of chocolate here or a bowl of cereal there, my blood sugar was all over the place. And I didn't know how to manage it, even though I tried. And I don't know, I think maybe my first hypo coma was a big mistake was because I confused insulins instead of putting 30 units of this low, I put 30 units of human like, Yeah, but the second one was, maybe because I was trying to manage while I was pouring out with my friends, and the mix of alcohol dancing food, and insulin was not in a good line. And I went home and I woke up in ICU the next morning,

Scott Benner 25:53
okay. How long ago was that?

Fernanda 25:57
The last coma was 10 years ago, I believe 10 years ago. And after that one, the doctor told me like one more and I don't know if I'm going to be able to wake you up.

Scott Benner 26:08
So yeah, so that pumps the unnecessary all of a sudden, huh? Like, not just a nice thing to have.

Fernanda 26:17
I think that when I decided to come to the United States, God in one way or the other tried to help me bringing a cat emoji sex.

Scott Benner 26:31
Listen, you can't keep saying delightful things because you already chose the episode title. It's called Love at first sight. It's just too good. I mean, you're gonna have to say something pretty amazing. from here forward to get that to get that one knocked off. Yeah, I mean, listen, sometimes things just come into your life and, and you definitely need them. And I listen, I'm not gonna defend. And after

Fernanda 26:52
two years in New York, I met all these diabetic people that they are amazing. How did you meet them? Like with capital letters? Amazing. How

Scott Benner 27:03
do you meet people like, like that have diabetes? Did you go to a meeting or online? Or how did you do that?

Fernanda 27:10
I'm kind of

Scott Benner 27:22
managing insulin is difficult enough, when you have good data. But it gets harder when the numbers you're getting aren't accurate. With that in mind, I asked you, is your blood glucose meter? Accurate? You don't know, do you? Of course you don't. Because someone just gave it to you. You didn't look into it, or ask any questions. And I understand why I didn't either. The first time somebody gave me a meter, I just took the one that doctor gave me. But now I know better. Now I know about the Contour. Next One blood glucose meter. And you can know about it as well. It's not a secret. And you have the internet I imagine. So head over to contour next one.com forward slash juicebox. At that website, you can learn everything you need to know about the Contour. Next One blood glucose meter. I'm going to tell you my favorite parts. It's easy to hold and easy to transport. It has a bright light for use at night. And the screen is gorgeous. Interesting. I'm saying the numbers are big, and they're well lit. And I can see them me and my old eyes. I know what they are. The test strips are fantabulous, they offer Second Chance testing. So if you touch a little bit of blood, but don't get quite enough, you can go back and get the rest without ruining the accuracy of your blood sugar test. And accuracy is what this is all about. Contour next one.com forward slash juice box. You can make your decisions a little less burdensome by having accurate measurements. Right? You don't want to be guessing about what your blood sugar is. You don't want to be thinking like well, I hope this meter is like close. Where did I get this meter from? The guy pulled out of a drawer. The salesperson Oh God, I don't remember. Why do we have this meter. I'd like you to not be walking around with a blood glucose meter that you can't remember how you got make a decision. Check out the Contour Next One blood glucose meter contour next one.com forward slash juicebox links in the show notes and links at juicebox podcast.com. Support the sponsors support the show. Oh sorry. That's a no data from Arden stacks calm. She's on an airplane right now. on airplanes that does not have Wi Fi. I didn't mean to interrupt us. We just put this back down. Now, by the way, Dexcom is a sponsor too. They didn't sponsor this episode, but dexcom.com forward slash juice box. Let's get back to Fernanda.

Fernanda 30:21
So it happens that once I started in the pump, and my agency started getting better, I started running. And as I said before, I've always been an athlete. But running is another monster, you have to deal with your blood sugar's for a long time while you're exercising. And while I was an MBI, I was able to run like maybe one to three miles. And then I was crashing down. I couldn't hold it. But with a pump, I figured out that I would do three miles four miles 578. And I could manage I was like, Okay, let me see how other people manage their sugars while they are running to see if they are doing better or worse or whatever. Just I needed ideas of what to bring in. So I started talking with one of my patients like, hey, I need to find a group of type one diabetics that run. And I'm googling and I can't find one. And I'm sure there has to be one because there's way too many out there. And I'm not the only one that runs for sure. I know, I'm not the only one. And she said, Well, you know, ah, Billie Jean King was a diabetic. I was like, Yeah, to 801. And he was like, Okay, we'll find one. Okay, we'll find one and eventually Googling, I found beyond type one. And beyond Taiwan. It's amazing community to you, they have these type one run community. And when you go to Facebook, and you look for them, and they suggest different type one run communities, there's the metro area of New York. And like, Okay, I'm going to join these one, let's see what the people do in this city. And shortly after I went through there, they said, Hey, we're gonna meet, we want to see each other faces. So let's come together these day, this place this time. Like, okay, let's go, you know, I don't have any issues, socializing. And that is how we met. Wow. And it's incredible. The other day, we were talking like, if we were just on our own in a bar, we have never come together. Like how we are now because we just share that we're diabetics.

Scott Benner 32:31
Yeah, how would you know who's who really are? You know? That's a really, that's excellent. Really cool.

Fernanda 32:37
Hey, we're like 20.

Scott Benner 32:38
Does it turn into a social? Guide? I'm sorry. Yeah, it does it turn into a social circle. Besides running? Absolutely. Yeah. What's it? Absolutely. I have to ask you what it's like to be young, in New York with diabetes. It's just, I mean,

Fernanda 33:02
thank you for the young part. I love it.

Scott Benner 33:05
Listen, you've been there for a while, right? So obviously, go back in your memory. Really? No, no, but But seriously, like, that's a single even Miami's a bit of a I mean, Miami, sort of like New York, but, you know, closer to Cuba, basically, you know, like, so. It's a it's a very, I mean, I there's similar kind of aspects to the social lives. So, I mean, how much do you think about it? Having diabetes while you're being social? I'm not a match. No, you don't. Because you were had it when you were young, actually for saying

Fernanda 33:46
I don't care at all. It's like part of my life. Um, the easier thing about loop is that you can control how much insulin you put in or suspend or whatever with your cell phone. So nobody knows if you're putting insulin or sending a text message.

Scott Benner 34:05
It's excellent. It's very cool.

Fernanda 34:07
Because I'm because I'm very there because I'm very obvious with my with my Omnipod. I sometimes we're both in the same arm, or I wear my G six, seven on my chest, the six g six on my chest all the time. So people seed and they're like, Oh, the same as I said before, it's just smoking. I was like, nope. And I have to start telling me no, I'm diabetic. But I'm, I'm cool. So let's go porting

Scott Benner 34:34
Hey, listen, I'm gonna You're a little noisy. I'm gonna stop your video. Just to see if that helps us, sir.

Fernanda 34:41
I can stop it. Yeah, thank

Scott Benner 34:42
you. Hopefully, it'll just give us a little more bandwidth. But I want to go back for a second so people understand you were your G six on your chest. Do you mean? Is it on your breast or is it up on your like, up on higher on your chest?

Fernanda 34:56
aids like, two three fingers under my clavicle?

Scott Benner 35:00
Okay, that's a perfect guy, but I

Fernanda 35:03
use it everywhere. I mean, last week I had it on my, on my, on my lower leg.

Scott Benner 35:09
On your calf.

Fernanda 35:11
On my calf. Yeah,

Scott Benner 35:12
yeah. I've seen people do use it everywhere. Yeah. Do you find it works better in one place than the other?

Fernanda 35:20
Oh, the chest for sure. That is my gold standard place.

Scott Benner 35:23
Okay. Interesting. Arden loves it on her hips.

Fernanda 35:27
It does. It doesn't bother. I so right now I have it on my hip. The only problem is that every time I want to go to the bathroom, and I put my pants down, I feel I'm gonna take it away.

Scott Benner 35:40
I I've heard her say that before. Yeah, I the biggest. I would say if Arden has any issue with her hip. It's that if she side sleeps, sometimes it could give her a compression low. Oh,

Fernanda 35:56
for sure. So the Omnipod right now I have it in the inner part of my thigh. Four days ago, I have it on the outer part of my thigh and I'm a side sleeper. And I couldn't sleep to that side. Because I feel it like digging into my tie.

Scott Benner 36:11
Yeah. Hey, the inner how far? Or how far on the inner part of your thigh? Like, what if we talked about the top of your thighs? Like the crown? Is it all the way? By 90 degree? No,

Fernanda 36:23
no, it's not the way it's not the way in. Because my legs are a little chunky. And I don't want to walk with it between my legs. But it's like, let's say two fingers in the upper part of your thigh. Like, it's, if you put your legs together, it won't go in the middle.

Scott Benner 36:46
That's how I understand. Okay, pod bra. Yeah, you don't want that. Right?

Fernanda 36:51
No, not at all. Well, you figure it out with time. I used to put it on the lower back. Before and it's very comfortable when you're standing up. And when you're sitting down. You want to kill yourself. Okay.

Scott Benner 37:03
Oh, I see. Yeah. I can imagine because it's always gonna hit a chair, especially anything with like lumbar support. And it would probably be

Fernanda 37:12
Yeah, I used to put the Dexcom like in this role that I have, like, on my, my mid back, like we're the the bra goes on the back. There's a I have a little roll of fat roll in there. I used to put my my Dexcom in there. It used to be very comfortable until I decided to take off one of my T shirts. And he came out with it. I was like, Ah, forget it.

Scott Benner 37:39
You're very adaptable about everything really? Why do you think that is?

Fernanda 37:45
I try. Um, you know, it took me 15 years to recognize my condition. I neglected it for a long time. I was very frustrated about my numbers. My first depression episode or diagnosis, I don't know how you want to call it was because of diabetes. And I think that when I moved to the US and I was able to take care of my life for myself for the first time. And I had the chance and the money and the opportunity to have a better control life. I just wanted to enjoy it as much as I could. So I don't feel ashamed of it. I'm very proud of managing it as best as I can. And the long road that I have been going with it. And I tried to just be flexible with everything because I don't want it to to be like a like a I don't know, like stop point in my life.

Scott Benner 39:08
I have a question. Should was, was your father right to be worried? Or was the way he was? Did his the way he acted? What put you into that feeling that you just described?

Fernanda 39:25
No, I think he was just extra worried. And my mom was to both of them where it's just that my dad was more militant about it. How would you? Yeah, he was really good at punishing and screaming and shouting and this very terrifying image of it. Actually, I stopped talking with my dad like five years ago and start talking to him again. Two months ago. I took me time To forgive him for all of what he did. Yeah, and yeah, right now I'm good. I think I, I, I went a long process with my psychologist and my psychiatrist to stand up again and say, Do you know what this is who I am? And here I am. Here's what I come with. And let's go.

Scott Benner 40:25
What would Excuse me? Sorry. From your perspective, what? What parenting tactic would have been valuable to you? What do you mean? What could your dad have done that would have helped your health back then, and given you a more healthy outlook as an adult? Like if you were done punish

Fernanda 40:50
me because my blood sugar was high? Yeah. Don't punish me because I was gaining weight. Don't tell me like that. I look like a cow. Because I'm 170 pounds. Don't promise me gifts, if I lose 30 pounds? That is not the way of doing it. You know? Like, if I'm low, you don't punish me. Yeah. Okay, here you go corrected. Let's see what happened. The next time you put one unit lies. If you want to eat the whole lasagna thing. Go and eat it. I just want you to finish with 100 of blood glucose, you know, let's see how to do it. Yeah, man. No, he'd never had that psychologist, I that psychology? I think that when you love somebody so much, sometimes it's it's bad. Because you don't let them grow.

Scott Benner 41:48
Yeah, and he did. He obviously didn't know how to help. I mean, you know, it's a tough, he didn't Yeah, I mean, you're using regular mph. And it would have been difficult for anybody. But the rest of it doesn't make sense. Like listening to it. I don't know how he goes from, Hey, eat all this. Because you're supposed to eat all these carbs to you're gaining weight. That's your fault to like, don't gain weight. Exactly. Yeah, eat all this food, don't gain weight. Okay, you know, like, exactly. What am I supposed to do here? And you're young. So

Fernanda 42:20
I was a teenager, hey, I got my first period when I was 15 years old. And let's just try another roller coaster. You know, I didn't get it. But he never. He never assume any part of it. He just said, I'm doing what I have to do. But she's not collaborating. So that's why the numbers are so messed up.

Scott Benner 42:44
Yeah, like it's your fault. Because he probably couldn't imagine anything else. He didn't know what was going on. So I guess if you're if

Fernanda 42:54
I already I already forgive him about it. Yeah, um, the last episode that I listened from you was this guy. Mike, Max, he had all these complications because of being diabetic and having his high a onesies for so long. And it's like, it made me kind of worried a little bit. Because my avsc was up in the tents for more than 15 years.

Like, I hope, I hope that I'm not gonna have any of these. I hope.

Scott Benner 43:28
How are you so far?

Fernanda 43:32
So far? I'm really good. All my numbers are coming out fine. My eyes are working beautiful. My crediting levels are on point. It's just that complications come without advice. So

Scott Benner 43:49
yeah, no, when they show up there,

Fernanda 43:50
I hope I'm standing up when that happens.

Scott Benner 43:55
Hey, he said, you're speaking to your father again. Did you? Did you tell him? Yes. Like that? Was that part of the process? Did you tell him how you felt back then?

Fernanda 44:05
No, because I know his answer. And I don't want to deal with it.

Scott Benner 44:07
I gotcha. So you just moved on. You just kind of Yeah, yeah. New life start over.

Fernanda 44:13
Yes, yes. Absolutely. He's gonna blame it on me.

Scott Benner 44:16
Gotcha. If you go back and tell him how you feel. It's all gonna start over again. I hear you.

Fernanda 44:21
Okay. Yes, he will. He will say I did everything that I had to do. You didn't do your part. Okay, he's very narcissist. Alright, so I'm not gonna I'm not gonna go into that. into that part of my life again. It's not worth it.

Scott Benner 44:37
Yeah, no, I mean, I think it's, I also think it's healthy not to hold on to resentment about things. So it's good for you. You know, they mean to Yeah, let it go.

Fernanda 44:47
I'm already made. I'm already in charge of my own things. And I'm happy about it.

Scott Benner 44:55
Yeah. Cool. That's excellent. Do you think you want to do You think you want to have kids?

Fernanda 45:03
I would love to, I would love to have kids. But I'm already because of all this complication things that we were talking. I'm in the position that if they come, I'm very happy to have them. And if they don't, they just don't.

Scott Benner 45:21
You know, you're not actively, you know, chasing a boy around trying to make it happen. You just live in your life. Yes, yeah. Gotcha.

Fernanda 45:30
Yes, yes, yes, I come from a very conservative family. I, if I have kids, I would like to have you know, I'm not gonna say a husband, but at least a partner to have a father image to my kid, you know?

Scott Benner 45:45
I say, yeah, it makes sense to me. Are you do you? Do you date? With that in mind? We're like, how do how does a single person I've never printed a Listen, I've never been single really? Like you don't I mean? Like, I was pretty young and, and things like that. So how does a single person like yourself? Like, how do you even find people? And when you find them, like, does it become obvious very quickly, who wants to get married? And who just wants to date? And how does that all work?

Fernanda 46:21
Well, I think there's a difference between dating when you're 20. And when you're 30. When you're 20. You're just dating and having fun. And whatever it happens, it happens when when you're 30 year old, really very straightforward. You meet somebody you have fun or just talking and then the question just pops up, like, Hey, are you planning to marry one day have kids or you want to be single for the rest of your days? That is a question that I do right away. I am not shy about it at all.

Scott Benner 46:57
And you don't care what their answer is. You just want to know.

Fernanda 47:01
Yeah, I don't care about their answer. I just want to know exactly. Like, it doesn't have to be with me. I'm just asking in general, like, what is your plan for the rest of your days? You know? It's just to be wiser with whom you're spending your time when it comes to date with? Are you already it was nine years of my life, that I was with the same guy that originally he told me no, I don't want to get married. I don't want kids. I don't want anything. And I had this idea, of course, as every women saying, Ah, you will change his mind. Of course you never did. And after eight years, we were fighting a lot. So when things were already bad, we've refinished and he decided that he wanted to married now. And he wanted to have kids and he kneeled actually, he gave me a ring. And I said, I'm so sorry. It's too late.

Scott Benner 47:59
You're that feeling kind of left you? Like what was? Yeah, was there a time when you would have married him?

Fernanda 48:07
Absolutely. If he asked me maybe two years earlier, or three years earlier, when I just came to New York, a booth I was I was in love. I was sealing in love. But after, you know, some disappointments on enough i It was no

Scott Benner 48:29
did the fighting did the fighting sour it.

Fernanda 48:35
Like, more than the fighting, you know, um, he started showing personality issues that were very, very similar to my dad's. Okay. And when I saw them coming, like the shouting in the undermining, um, all these bad words coming out and everything I said, you know, and I know, this is a very, very red flag. I need to get out of here. Now.

Scott Benner 49:08
I've done this once. I'm good. I don't need to do it again. Thank you. It took me

Fernanda 49:11
time to figure it out. It took me like seven years to figure out real because I was in love. So I didn't I didn't see the bad things. But well, I saw the red flag, it was like almost on my nose. And I said, Okay, I'm out of here. And I've met like very nice guys on the way. So I'm very thankful that I was able to realize it on time.

Scott Benner 49:35
Do you think about guy's backgrounds when you're dating or do you not care? Where They're From

Fernanda 49:46
what do you mean like country profession family?

Scott Benner 49:49
I think maybe I mean, all of it. And I'd be happy to pick through it like so let's start with you know, do you look at their prospects their, their professional prospects? How long until them Yes, I

Fernanda 50:00
do. Yeah. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. I'm a very competitive person when it comes to talking knowledge. I like to talk about politics. I, I like to talk about the Nils. I like to talk about a lot of stuff. And I want a man by my side that can tell me hey, yeah, absolutely. Or no, I don't think this is the right thing.

Scott Benner 50:31
Do you want them to be able to make a certain amount of money?

Fernanda 50:35
Huh? No money. So donation, you know, money comes and goes, Okay, today, you can be a millionaire today. Tomorrow, you can have nothing.

Scott Benner 50:43
How about just like, cultural backgrounds does dues? Do you? Are you looking for similarities to your own? Or does that not matter?

Fernanda 50:53
No, not really. You know, I've had a lot of boyfriends. I mean, not a lot. I'm gonna say. I got like seven boyfriends in my life since I started dating, but they all have different backgrounds. And that is funny. Okay. I I dated a Brazilian I dated a guy from Holland or Netherland. I dated a guy from Dominican Republic. That was my ex. I was with a guy from England. Yeah, I really don't mind about their background.

Scott Benner 51:27
Gotcha. Religiously doesn't matter to you.

Fernanda 51:31
Not really, I'm Catholic, but I don't remember the last time I went to church.

Scott Benner 51:35
Gotcha. Yeah, I mean,

Fernanda 51:39
I believe in God and the Virgin Mary.

Scott Benner 51:42
But if I, let's say you and I meet, and I don't believe in any of that, um, I just come right down. I tell you, I'm an atheist. Can you date me?

Fernanda 51:50
Absolutely. It's a thing of respect. If you respect that I believe in God and the Virgin Mary. And I respect that you don't believe in anything that we're fine. Now, if you're going to start judging me, because I decided to start going to church on Sunday, then we're going to be in a problem,

Scott Benner 52:03
right? No, no, I would expect that. Yeah, I just didn't know if they had to be similar. Of all those guys with different backgrounds. Was that the cat?

Fernanda 52:15
No, no, that was me saying no. Oh, I

Scott Benner 52:17
was like, you were like, I speak I spoke over. So listen, for people to understand, like, my voice has pumped up in my ears a little bit. So sometimes, like, it's hard for me to. It's always like, it was me hour and No, and I just didn't know which way I wasn't certain. And then let me thing. Okay. And I thought that I was disappointed because the cat didn't have an accent. So I was like, Ah, that's a letdown. Oh, have the boys that you mentioned from all the different backgrounds? Did any of them. What's the one I want to ask you? Were was there any background that's more passionate? Less? Like they did they around in different ways?

Fernanda 53:05
I'm gonna say that the guy that I was dating from the Netherlands, he was the most romantic for sure. in kind of a kind. He learned how to cook. He learned how to cook Chilean food. He would just get me out on dates out of the blue. He was very nice. Maybe wasn't because we were both in our early 20s. I don't know. But I have really good really good memories from him.

Scott Benner 53:27
Right? He was trying hard.

Fernanda 53:31
Oh my god. Yes. He was so cute.

Scott Benner 53:34
But you guys were too young. That wasn't gonna work out. Right.

Fernanda 53:37
Super. Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Benner 53:40
Which, if you could go to one of those backgrounds now to start over with which one would you choose?

Fernanda 53:48
Um, maybe him because I we have really good memories together.

Scott Benner 53:52
Yeah, it's not so much. To me.

Fernanda 53:54
I I don't mind a lot about backgrounds. I I just enjoy good company.

Scott Benner 54:01
Yeah, it doesn't matter. Right.

Fernanda 54:03
It doesn't matter. Okay. It actually doesn't matter at all.

Scott Benner 54:08
I feel the same. I just was interested to see if, you know, there was just one thing that that stuck with you all this time. And if if you felt you felt if you felt like it was cultural or not, that's all.

Fernanda 54:22
No, not at all. I don't know if you want to know a freak thing. These guys that I was dating from Brazil. We were together like for six months, maybe seven. And he never told me that he was diabetic until I saw one human like planning his table night. I was like on the table. And like, what is this about? You're like, Oh, that is mine. No, for sure. It's yours. It's not mine. Wait, why didn't you tell me that you were diabetic? And he was like, I don't tell anybody.

Scott Benner 54:51
Did he know you were Yes. That's That's weird. Right? Yeah. I didn't like that. Oh, am I gonna write down where I said? No, I said again.

Fernanda 55:07
That is one of the free things that have happened to me dating.

Scott Benner 55:11
Give that's insane. Did that like, did that change the relationship?

Fernanda 55:17
Ah. And I'm not going to face a red flag, but it is for sure a yellow.

Scott Benner 55:27
We could say yellow.

Fernanda 55:29
Like something. So something that is going to be with you for the rest of your life. Why don't you share it? You know?

Scott Benner 55:37
I wonder if that's just that he is like, I wonder if I wonder if that's an indication of how long you thought he was going to be with you? Or if he really didn't? Do you just didn't tell people.

Fernanda 55:48
And sometimes I stayed with my patients a lot. They don't like sharing their medical background because they don't like to be judged. And I use my diabetes as my I don't know how to say it in English like my Troy horse. Your church? Yes, that they are like, Hi. Well, I can do exercise right now because I'm diabetic. Oh, my god, me too. Let's go.

Scott Benner 56:15
Ah, that's your way. Yeah, yeah. I guess. I mean, obviously, I have a podcast where I talk a lot, but I don't think about that stuff ever. Like, I would never think to hide something about myself if I was having a conversation. Like, it just all seems everything seems pertinent to me.

Fernanda 56:34
A lot of people hide their stuff, if they are HIV positive. They don't make them people to know if they have cancer. If they have Ms. I don't know, a lot of people are afraid of being judged. And I think that my way of being so obvious about my diabetes is a way for them to tell them. Look, you're not alone. You know, we're a lot of chronic. There are a lot of people with chronic illnesses out there. Yeah, it's not just you, I try

Scott Benner 57:04
to say that there's way more than you think, you know, like it, it feels so limit, it can feel so limiting. And singular, because I think partly because other people don't share or light, you know. And so

Fernanda 57:18
I'm so lonely. And there's something that we all share. I'm not saying it's diabetics, but as a chronic ill people, we all share the burnout. We all share these being tired, and whatever it comes with it. Like we are not the only ones that we stopped putting insulin when we are done with our we don't want to be diabetics anymore. There are people with cancer that they stop doing chemo because they're done with it. There are people with HIV that they stopped taking their medication because they're done with it. There are a lot of people that with chronic illnesses that they stop taking their medications and their treatments, because they're done. And then we feel so bad that we're all coming back and say please give me my insulin back. Yeah, but we all go through that process because it happens we get tired.

Scott Benner 58:11
No, makes sense. I have a question from earlier. It's kind of a question for me, not for you. But you said that you recently listened to the the after dark episode with Mike about his complications. And that it made you concern for yourself? Yes. Put yourself in my shoes for a second. What was making that episode the right thing for me to do? Absolutely. Okay. All right. So absolutely. So even though it made you worried, it was still it was still important for you to to hear?

Fernanda 58:47
Well, I think we all know where where we are hearing if we don't take care. And I think the reason why I have so many hyperglycemic comas was because my dad was very afraid that I was going to lose my kidneys if I was high all the time. So he rather had me low. It's just that he didn't know that every time I had a Hypo coma part of my brain was shutting down until one of the doctors told him Look, you are killing her brain like this. So after that, he realized and he said, Oh, okay, so capably semi comas is a short term issue. Well, DK A's are a long term issue. I never had a DKA I was not diagnosed by DKA. The first DKA I had it two years ago, and I really, really felt like I'm sorry for the word but I felt really bad. But because of that, I think that long term problems have been solved. behind my head because my dad always repeated to me, you have to have your blood sugar low because if not, you're gonna lose your kidneys, you're gonna go blind, you're gonna lose your feet, I'm gonna blah, blah, blah, and all that stuff. And working in a hospital as a physical therapist, believe me, I have at least once a day, a patient with diabetic complication, open ulcers in their feet, an amputation. necrotizing Charles, or whatever that is. So I have I have to remind them, they're reminder all the time. But didn't say Oh, those are type two. They don't care. There's 200 pounds, whatever. But when I I, like you start in the back of your mind. But when I heard Mike, I was like, I don't want to please God help me.

Scott Benner 1:00:52
Were you glad you heard it? Absolutely. Okay. Yeah, I just, I mean, you can try to imagine that. You know, I'm trying to build a narrative with a podcast. It's pretty wide sweeping. And I feel like that that was important to do. But it's odd, because I don't have type one. So I'm the one Oh, but I'm the one making the decision to put that out there. And it's, you know,

Fernanda 1:01:17
but remember that out there. Mike is not the only one. Yeah, he was the one that decided to talk. But a lot of people are dealing with complications. So is the same thing as I'm doing right now telling everybody, everybody that I'm diabetic. He's telling everyone, everybody sorry, that they are not the only ones having complications,

Scott Benner 1:01:33
right? No, I listen, I obviously thought it was the right thing to do. I was just interested in how you felt about it. You're the first adult that I've spoken to. Who's heard it since it's been up. So like, Oh, okay. On the podcast, you know, I mean, I've spoken to people privately but being recorded. Yeah, I think it was, um, I mean, I took my cues from him. He felt like it was incredibly important to do. And I thought he was a good arbiter of that decision. So

Fernanda 1:02:00
yeah, when he said, Well, now that I hit my a one to five, and I'm not getting out from there, I was like, I'm gonna aim for that. Number two, just give me time to

Scott Benner 1:02:10
keep trying. Right.

Fernanda 1:02:12
Right, ma'am. And 6.6. And I feel like I'm wanting, I don't know, like a gold medal, but I can get even higher.

Scott Benner 1:02:18
Now you could definitely get a gold might give you a gold medal for 6.6. That's amazing. Especially from where, you know, yeah. I mean, from where you came from, and everything you've been through like that. You even found the courage to try it is a big deal.

Fernanda 1:02:32
Yeah, for sure. But I'm gonna tell you in the in the back of my mind, I'm very afraid that one day, another hypokalemia is gonna come. Yeah, I was gonna that that one gets me that one gets me. Yeah. I was wondering. It's not funny to wake up one morning in an ICU, like not knowing what happened. And yeah, I have my cat. But he can wake me up. But um my mom tells me every time that I had a Hypo coma, I was having seizures. And I was not waking up. So for sure, if I'm having seizures, My God is not going to wake me up.

Scott Benner 1:03:10
Do you have glucagon now? And because, yeah, I

Fernanda 1:03:13
have glucagon. But what's the point? If I can put it?

Scott Benner 1:03:16
Yeah, if it comes on too quickly, right.

Fernanda 1:03:19
You know, like, all the times that I needed a glucagon My mom put it in. And but yeah, I tried to share my Dexcom my Dexcom numbers with my brother. Oh, my family's in Chile. I try to share them with my brother in Chile. And I couldn't for one, I don't know what's the reason but Dexcom doesn't allow you to share numbers outside of the US territory

Scott Benner 1:03:41
internationally. I just figured that out recently, when I offered to help somebody with their child and they were Canadian. And I had them send me their thing and I couldn't do it. I didn't realize

Fernanda 1:03:53
no you can't. You can tell right now I'm trying to find a peep here in Miami that I can have the confidence to say. Do you want to hear my alarms at 2am?

Scott Benner 1:04:05
How would you like to be irritated by me even when I'm not with you?

Fernanda 1:04:12
I'm still trying to look for that. BFF Yeah, that wants to share the burden with me.

Scott Benner 1:04:18
Do you think it would take another type one to want to do that? Or?

Fernanda 1:04:26
I don't know. So I found the father of type one here. Let me play beach volleyball together. And I asked him if he was willing to do have my numbers in his cell phone you know and he said sure, yeah, sure them to me, whatever. But the last time I saw him was like a month ago so I was like, forget it. This is not gonna work right now.

Scott Benner 1:04:49
It definitely it's a strange ask because now suddenly, like if you asked me to do it, I think well, now I feel responsible to make sure you're okay. And that's

Fernanda 1:04:59
it. No, right? Because it's weird. That's why I'm saying I'm finding like a BFF. They don't know they don't have to come, they just have to call 911.

Scott Benner 1:05:07
That's all. I don't even want you to like, leave it bother calling me just send an ambulance to wherever I Yeah,

Fernanda 1:05:12
exactly, exactly. If you call me and I don't answer the call 911 You don't even have to get up from your bed.

Scott Benner 1:05:18
Is that more of a? Is that more of a fear based on your past history or your current situation?

Fernanda 1:05:26
I think if you're based on my past history, absolutely.

Scott Benner 1:05:28
Especially because if you're looping, then I mean, not that it's foolproof. But you have you noticed on loop that it's pretty hard for your blood sugar to get under 50. If things are set up pretty well, like that loop does a pretty good job of, of stopping, like, super low lows. Do you agree? Yes,

Fernanda 1:05:47
I had one incident with Luke three months ago that killed me. I don't know how it happened. But it bothers to 15 units or two in the morning. And that when I don't know how it happened, I woke up at 3am with so you know the Dexcom when you're going down it first gives you a very, like a normal sound alarm like a beep, beep beep and you're okay, I'm low. But because I don't feel the lows. Sometimes I could just look at it turn around and continue slipping. And then the second bit comes and it's a little bit lower. A little bit higher. Sorry. And if you don't turn that one off, the third one is going to wake up the whole building.

Scott Benner 1:06:33
Yeah, that panic. Well, and the one yes, like I don't know how to like it's like, it's like, if you can almost hear it yelling at you get up, get up pay attention. Like that.

Fernanda 1:06:45
Yeah, absolutely. It's a it's a very loud alarm. And then when I woke up, I was like, Okay, what's going on in here? And I was in 32. Like, okay, I'll go, I need something. And I went to the kitchen, I got like a glass of sugar, water, whatever. And I started drinking. I was like, how on earth did I get to 32. And I started looking at the look numbers I need. I don't know if it had a glitch. And it sent me a Bolus of 15 units.

Scott Benner 1:07:12
It should be able to limit how much it can Bolus. I'm not sure if that's for sure. But it has.

Fernanda 1:07:23
So you have a max delivery for your Basal and you have a max delivery for boluses. Yeah. My Max delivery for Basal is a top of five units. But the max deliver for ballers. I have it on 15. And for one reason, I don't know which one it is. It gave me 15 units at once. And it was scary as hell

Scott Benner 1:07:45
yeah. No kidding. Did you have um Is there any chance you woke up and gave yourself insulin? Like or did it in your sleep? I'm not I'm just trying to figure out how that could happen.

Fernanda 1:07:59
I don't know. Um, you know, to get into the loop up, get into the insulin part, press 15 Getting my face recognized by my cell phone and actually put it in

Scott Benner 1:08:13
would really be something and there are a lot of steps to kind of slow you down. No, that sucks. But no, I mean,

Fernanda 1:08:21
the first one last time it happened never again.

Scott Benner 1:08:23
Okay. All right. Cool. I, I you know, I don't think anything's perfect. But I mean, for No, not

Fernanda 1:08:33
at all, but I'm very I'm very grateful for a loop for sure. Yeah. Very, very grateful. accident happens all the time. Every everybody commits accidents. Like I don't know, you crash your car or whatever it is. Nobody does it on purpose. But loop has helped me so so much.

Scott Benner 1:08:55
Yeah, no, I agree. I it's been a big deal for us too. I mean, we're, I think the biggest deal for for algorithms in general like forget loop like for all of them. It's just the idea that you're going to get to sleep more it's such a big deal. You know, like like MMA.

Fernanda 1:09:10
No, you won't you don't think so? Yeah, I still wake up at two or three in the morning. Different issues or is that high or it's a low or it's my cat or it's I don't know.

Scott Benner 1:09:23
Well, the cat the loop can help with the cat.

Fernanda 1:09:28
So before when I was in MBI don't know how this happened. But I was having constant lows when I was using a it was the long acting Basal the 12 hour long acting by that time that was very long acting. With the human log. I don't remember the name of the insulin as soon as I can. I will let you know that insulin was supposed not to have pigs at all. It was a Basal 12 hours beautiful lantai no Lantus is 24 hours just before lunch is

Scott Benner 1:10:00
not Atlantis lent Tae

Fernanda 1:10:04
unlimted Yeah, exactly. There you go. That's not it. Okay. It was a 12 Yes, that is it. It was a 24. It was a 12 our Basal beautiful, no peaks, you can just use it with him along and you were fine all day. Somehow that insulin, yes, it had a peak. But the peak was like, three, four hours after you indicated. And during the day you don't figure it out because you're just eating and snacking and whatever and the life life is happening and you don't see it. But at night, I was having these lows a two three in the morning down to 30. Then then they just bounce back up to 180 out of the blue. And I will wake up in 121 30 I didn't have a CGM by that time. But I remember that I woke up one night 30 I woke up the second night 30 The third night 30 I was like, Okay, this is weird. Then I would just sleep the whole night. And if I didn't wake up, it would go down to 30 and then up to one a by its own I didn't even have to treat it. And eventually the doctor is something that something she needs. She divided like okay, you're going to put two thirds in the morning and 1/3 at night and whatever and then it just stopped happening. But yeah, loads at night have been my thing.

Scott Benner 1:11:28
What insulin do you use now? Chemo okay.

Fernanda 1:11:34
But I'm very eager to try a freezer, because I hate the highs and I have such a hard time bringing them down.

Scott Benner 1:11:43
Okay, she's gonna try the V inhalable insulin. Yes, yeah.

Fernanda 1:11:49
I want that to 30 to be one in 100 in five minutes

Scott Benner 1:11:54
that somebody is able to

Fernanda 1:11:56
do that. Hey, I'm gonna pay for

Scott Benner 1:11:58
you to give it a try. Yeah, I people asked me to have someone on about it. And I always just think like, I don't know, it seems like such a leap for me about the inhaling it. And I know people say it's been around for a number of years now. But you know, I don't know it feels. I feel a responsibility not to say something out loud. Unless I can be pretty certain about it. I so hard hard for me. I have

Fernanda 1:12:22
one of I have one of my diabetic peeps in New York. He's, uh, he's been using a friend for a while. Yeah, I can say once he's like in 5.1. I don't know Kyle. He is my go to. I want to be like him. Okay. Yeah. 5.1 just on a frozen. I'm so impressed on that.

Scott Benner 1:12:41
Does he use those like a Basal insulin as well?

Fernanda 1:12:46
I think so. I think he's into Ziva. Okay. You will have to call him and ask him. No, he's incredible.

Scott Benner 1:12:53
Is there anything that we haven't spoken about that you wanted to talk about?

Fernanda 1:13:00
No, not really. I just wanted to clarify that, uh, you know, like, having having sex and being diabetic is not a bad thing.

Scott Benner 1:13:13
Well, I think that I think your point, it's interesting, because if I look back at your, you know, about your intake about what you want to come on in the show and talk about, like, we didn't really talk about it very much. But I think you just made the point very clearly, like, you know, I understand how an adult who's been diagnosed as an adult might feel super, you know, you know, awkward about their technology, but I don't feel that way. And I mean, even if you're not diagnosed as an adult, or as a kid, like people feel differently about it. So I'm glad you gave a different perspective.

Fernanda 1:13:44
Yeah, these are my gadgets, they come with me and they will be with me the rest of my life. So I'm fine with it. Actually, if you want to know a funny story, I had one of my patients in New York, he was part of the comedy of JD RF dirty. Yeah, that's the name of it, right? Human on diabetes Research Foundation. And he saw my G six on my arm. And he said, You know what? Like, we're working for and then the next five years, the Dexcom is half its size. And I was like, Oh, really? Cool. Well, let me tell you something. I hope that in five years, I don't have to use nothing at all because we want to be diabetic anymore.

Scott Benner 1:14:32
Like, I've got bigger goals here, buddy.

Fernanda 1:14:35
And he just he couldn't answer back and I was like, hey, well, just for you to understand a little bit what we want. We're fine with the technology, but we need a cure for this.

Scott Benner 1:14:47
Yeah, keep moving in all the I think they I mean, I think that it's all important, right, like making making your CGM work better making it smaller making insulin work better. Like all that's important. You No and and yeah, you should also be looking at the other stuff too. I just interviewed somebody the other day, who's in a trial for encapsulation, you know, where they put the cells inside the pack and everything. And that was really interesting to hear about. I'll get that up as soon as I can. But um, yeah, I think I would like it if everybody was working on everything. You know what I mean? Like, work on a cure work on a stop gap. You know, the, maybe it's cells inside of a pouch, make make this stuff work better make it better, like do an oral kind

Fernanda 1:15:30
of super fast, fast, fast insulin that will bring my 200 to 100 in two minutes and not

Scott Benner 1:15:36
make me low an hour later, please. Yeah, get on exactly. Everybody get going. Take care of it right now. Yes. Well, you were really terrific. I appreciate you doing this very much. I never asked your cat's name.

Fernanda 1:15:54
Gotcha. Okay, now it's complicated. Yeah. P AC H O kachel.

Scott Benner 1:16:01
ca ch Oh, okay.

Fernanda 1:16:06
It's a Chilean Islam.

Scott Benner 1:16:07
I'm just gonna I'm looking at that right now. Hold on. It's a dice game, bro.

Fernanda 1:16:12
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So it's a dice game. Yes. It's like it's a dice game. But his name is not because of that. I gotcha. So I catch you in Chile is like something that you have. And but it has like a sentimental value. So you don't want to throw it away?

Scott Benner 1:16:33
I gotcha. Oh,

Fernanda 1:16:35
yeah. I don't know. It's something that you have, but you don't know what to do with it. And that becomes a catch all. And that happens because my character rescue my brother rescue him from like, from the garbage I'm gonna say when he was pouring out with his friends. And he just brought him home. And here we are.

Scott Benner 1:16:59
It has different meanings in different I'm looking online here in different languages to a little bit.

Fernanda 1:17:08
Yeah, you can have like the horns of the bowl. Their goal catches too. You have the game. You have like the tip of a mountain. It could be a catcher. It means a lot of things.

Scott Benner 1:17:21
That's cool. That's very nice. All right. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate you doing this. Did you have a good time?

Fernanda 1:17:27
Yes, I did. Thank you for for the conversation. It was a very cool conversation.

Scott Benner 1:17:33
I had a great time I right before we started recording you said you like sometimes you will have trouble finding words like in English did. Did you feel okay, while you were talking?

Fernanda 1:17:47
Yes, I felt really cool. Sometimes. i The verbs that I use are not in the in the correct. Time. But I figured out right away and I tried to correct myself.

Scott Benner 1:18:02
If it makes you feel any better. I'm not 1,000% sure what a verb is, so don't even worry about it.

Fernanda 1:18:09
Yeah, you're fine. I think people understand the idea of what I'm talking about.

Scott Benner 1:18:14
No, I thought you were terrific. I really did. That's why I was like, thank you so much. I was I was I was a little confused that you were even worried. Because I thought it went. I thought it went really well. Alright, well,

Fernanda 1:18:26
let me because I see it every day. Yeah. Well,

Scott Benner 1:18:28
if I ever have a physical therapy question, I'm gonna ask you,

Fernanda 1:18:32
please. Yeah, no. Absolutely invited to us wherever you want.

Scott Benner 1:18:46
First, I'd like to thank Fernanda for coming on the show and telling her story. Thank you very much. I also want to thank the Contour Next One blood glucose meter, and remind you to go to contour next one.com, forward slash juicebox. Don't forget to also, in addition, T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. take you less than 10 minutes to take that survey. And just imagine when you're done, you see two things in your head. One. People living with type one diabetes who have been helped by your generosity, and to me smiling. Those are the two things you should see at the end. They don't actually show you those things when you finish the survey, but if they did, I would have this smile on my face. You can't say it but I'm smile. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. If you're looking for something else to do today, you should check out the Juicebox Podcast private Facebook page Juicebox Podcast, type one diabetes now with over 22,000 members just like you will you might meet a friend or learn something or I don't know. Maybe just look through people's conversations and never say anything. Maybe you're creepy like that. I don't judge you