#686 Cheese and Carrots
Lorie has type 1 diabetes and was diagnosed as an adult.
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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 686 of the Juicebox Podcast
so today's episode is with Laurie she was diagnosed later in life, very much a surprise to her. But I have a little egg on my face today. This episode was recorded in April of 2021. For context you are currently listening to episodes recorded in, I think November of 2021. So, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, nine months, late and over. Ooh, geez, I'm so sorry, Laurie 13 months after she recorded this. Laurie is terrific. It's a great episode, she's got an engineers mind. And it's interesting to hear her think through her diagnosis as an adult who did not expect to get diabetes in any way. 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 healthcare plan, or becoming bold with insulin. For clarity, I just moved Lori's file into the wrong folder. And just like that, it was out of sight and out of mind, I apologize to everyone involved. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by one of our newest advertisers in pen from Medtronic diabetes. Maybe you don't want an insulin pump, but you'd like some of the functionality that they offer in pen is probably for you. Head over to in pen today.com To find out more. The podcast is also sponsored today, by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter, you're going to learn more at contour next one.com forward slash juicebox. There are links to impending contour in the show notes of your podcast player. And at juicebox podcast.com. If you can't remember, contour next.com forward slash juicebox and in pen today.com. So no you don't want your for sure. My I'm recording already and I shouldn't say this probably but my wife's been working from home now for 13 months. And my kids and I just stare at each other because she's just she yells and we tell her you're talking too loud. And she's like, am I am I like yeah, she's just much too loud. And she goes, okay. And five minutes later, she's yelling you know, you know, you know, you know back before the world was a real place and people would talk louder to somebody who spoke a different language like you know that ridiculous like thing you have. My wife appears to do that with Zoom. She just yells like it can't hear. So we've given up now we just snicker behind her back.
Lorie 3:07
I I totally understand that. Because my family tells me that I talk way too loud on the phone that I yell at zoom, I yell at WebEx. I mean, I'm super loud all the time,
Scott Benner 3:19
I have to say that I'm a little. I'm probably spoiled because it is my inclination to be loud. But I'm miked pretty well. So I can't be too loud because the microphone is doing a lot of the work. So kind of calmly but yeah, she's my wife is busy, making sure that your COVID vaccine is safe and at the same time does not appear to know how to talk to people over a computer. So
Lorie 3:44
well, let me know if I get too loud on this, you're
Scott Benner 3:46
fine, you're absolutely fine. But if you yell I will say, I will say okay, great. You go ahead and introduce yourself any way you want to be known. And we'll just start off.
Lorie 3:56
Okay, um, well, my name is Laurie. I have had type one diabetes for about a year, almost two years, actually now. I was diagnosed at 49. So clearly, you can do the math. And I'm 51. And I, it's been very interesting the past few years, I've really had to try to you know, just like everyone who gets diagnosed has to come up the learning curve and figure out oh, my God, you know, how am I going to manage this? And I guess I don't know, maybe that's probably the best introduction. I guess the thing that's interesting, that makes I guess my story a little bit interesting is that I you know, I guess a lot of people that come on the show have lots of reasons for not believing or not understanding that they were developing I diabetes, and that they had all the symptoms. I guess mine was that I thought it was menopause, which, now looking back seems utterly ridiculous. And I should have known but I just kept. I just kept, you know, thinking, Oh, well, it's this, it's that
Scott Benner 5:19
it's, well.
Lorie 5:23
It's menopause symptoms.
Scott Benner 5:25
I've recorded about 500 of these, and you are going to hold the distinction of being the first person who thought that their type one diabetes was menopause, congratulations. Oh, well, there's no truth maybe. But
Lorie 5:36
maybe it's not that common of a rationalization, then.
Scott Benner 5:42
You just it's first of all, it's interesting to hear why you think you're going to be interesting on the show, because the thing that you thought is not what I thought when I read your email. Oh, really? Okay. Well, what did you say? So first of all, you feel you feel a real need, which is somebody who has been diagnosed later in life, because I get a ton of emails about can you please have people on who are diagnosed later in life, too. And I respond to each one of those emails. And I say, I will if you know, I find people who have been diagnosed later in life who want to talk on a podcast about it's not that easy. I think people are starting to believe that I can just stand up and point at people and make them come on the podcast. So that's great. But also, that you're an engineer is Oh, that's fantastic. Because that thing that makes you good at your job. I'm wondering if it makes you bad at diabetes, and I can't wait to find out. Don't laugh. Yeah, cuz I think you don't, don't give away. Let's get to it. We'll build slowly. Also, Laurie, I know we're not I guess we're not saying and it's fine that we're not. But you know, well, first, let me ask you, if you're comfortable doing this, right, you're not nervous or anything like that.
Lorie 6:48
Oh, well, I'm a little bit nervous. But I also kind of feel like I know you because I've listened to so many podcasts. So I'm kind of like, oh, Scott Benner. You know, he's my, he's in my ears a lot.
Scott Benner 6:58
But I'm just saying, I google everybody that comes on the show at some point, and you speak in front of people I know, we're probably not going to maybe maybe that'll come up or it won't, but there's just no reason for you to be nervous. Being on a podcast, I think, Oh, okay. That helps. Thank you. Seems like you've, you've spoken in front of people before so. Okay, so let's figure out let's go slow. How about lifelong any, and really think about it any medical issues throughout your life?
Lorie 7:27
Not you know, not really, I mean, I, when I was a kid, I did have terrible environmental allergies, like, you know, dust, pollen. You know, I that was terrible. And, you know, back in the Dark Ages, when I was a kid, you know, we, you know, there were a couple I had allergy shots, like three times. And then, you know, I had a lot of ear infections, I had tubes in my ears three times also. So there was a lot of struggle with allergies until I kind of I kind of grew out of it. Um, it got I don't know, exactly why this happens. So, you know, I mean, a doctor would probably be able to tell you, but you know, I, I had, um, you know, I kind of outgrew it around 13 or 14, it all got a whole lot better. I just really didn't have problems with allergies anymore. And then, you know, through my 20s and 30s. And most of my 40s I was like super healthy, you know, because,
Scott Benner 8:33
well, a couple of things. It's really a couple things that are interesting. First of all, if you Google pollen allergies, auto immune, you're going to get a return back that says in autoimmunity there are different types of T cell T cells involved them excuse me, in autoimmunity, there is a different type of T cell involved than in allergies. In an autoimmune response, tissues deconstructed. But with allergies, the immune system overreacts to harmless allergens. So while it's not the exact same thing, it is your body overreacting to something because there are plenty of people who walk around in the summer day and whose eyes are not running and they're not banging themselves on the side of the head because of their itchy eyes and stuff like that. So I've always kind of thought of that as an immune response. That's not quite right. Yeah, you know, which I think is is interesting. And you mentioned that they just went away. Absolutely happened to me. When I was young, the worst allergies, like I couldn't go outside. Sometimes my whole family would be outdoors, I'd have to sit inside the air conditioning, you know, stuff like that. And then one day, it just stopped. It just stopped. And it just never happened again. It was absolutely amazing. And I watched it happen to my son very recently. He was fine until he's about 15 had terrible allergies for about three or four years. They just went away out of nowhere. And then a year or so later, he started having trouble with his thyroid. Oh, not crazy. So yeah, I I wonder that's what I wonder because you have a long life in front of you before type one. Any other people in your family line with any autoimmune stuff? Um,
Lorie 10:11
not that I know of. There's been some celiac disease. But really, I mean, not not. There wasn't even that, you know, anywhere, you know, not close relatives. Nobody close has had any of this stuff. There's been some and there's been allergies, there's allergies, but you know, but this, you know, nothing terrible. You know, it's not like you eat a peanut and you almost die. You know, there's nothing, none of our allergies are that bad.
Scott Benner 10:40
Yeah. But it is interesting that you, you know, I said, are there any autoimmune just said no, just celiac. Celiac is autoimmune.
Lorie 10:47
Yeah, well, I guess I forgot.
Scott Benner 10:51
It's not even that it's that it's not it's, it's, I think it's outside of the way. People think about it. Like, once you have type one diabetes, you have in your mind, the worst autoimmune thing, like the only mean, like, this is the bad one. But I think other ones for some people, celiac is terrible for some people. And you know, that kind of stuff, too. So there's a tiny bit of celiac, it's not right. It's not like your mom or your dad have it something like that. You live your whole I mean, let's Can I be honest with you first, I can't like you'd be honest with me, Laurie? I mean, 49 You thought you made it? Right?
Lorie 11:26
Well, you know, I gotta say, you know, getting type one diabetes at 49 did not cross my mind. Ever as something that I, you know, skated past? I mean, you know, I, yeah, I mean, it never occurred to me that this would happen, because, you know, like I said, nobody in my family has ever had type one that I know of, um, you know, and I, I just didn't even it never crossed my mind. Nobody even has type two. Nobody's got any kind
Scott Benner 12:03
and you're an active fit person on top of all that, is that right?
Lorie 12:06
Yeah. So I've been doing, you know, marathons triathlons, you know, I'm just generally, I just like to move around. I like to hike, you know, I like to do go on walks around the neighborhood, even, you know, whatever swim, there's just, uh, I'm busy. So, you know, I mean, I'm, I'm not, I'm not overweight, I was, I've never been overweight, I've never had any other real health problems at all. So, you know, this came as a shocker. I believe,
Scott Benner 12:43
and I'm gonna be 50 this summer. And if I'm being completely honest, I'm down to worrying about, I don't want to have a heart attack, right. I want to dodge cancer if I can. And then I you know, not a slip and fall and then go as long as I can like that. I don't listen, maybe I'm weird. But I've always thought about this stuff. As I was getting older. Like, you know, in your 20s, this generally happens to people in your 30s this generally happens to people I'm even one of those people. It's like, Oh, your kids turning 13 I hope they don't become bipolar. That's about the year when that happens. Like I very strange feelings about like, so I just as so as you ascend the years, it just feels like well, am I going to be one of the people who just gets old and dies? Like, that's so cool. Like, I can't believe I made it. Like, that's how it feels to me. But I don't know, 49. If I were to get type one diabetes right now, I'd be like, Mother, You must have it.
Lorie 13:40
Yeah, that's kind of, well, when I got over the shock of it, that I was, you know, I'm like, Oh, well, I mean, it's better than getting cancer. You know, I did kind of, I did kind of go down that path, then. You know, I was kind of like, Oh, wow. Okay, at least not cancer. And, you know, I guess there's a whole lot worse things I could get that are not treatable. You know, this is manageable. I can manage this, you know, I'm not going to die. I just have a chronic disease I'm going to have to deal with. Okay, you know,
Scott Benner 14:17
well, what did you look like when it started? When it started happening? What were you what was the first sign? And how did you write it off? Well,
Lorie 14:27
there were a lot, I looked back and there were tons of signs. I just, I just blew it off. Well, I mean, when I was 47, I, you know, I was I was dying, well diagnosed or I don't know if you get diagnosed with this, but they know I had the blood work and I met with my OB GYN and she's like, Oh, well, you know, you're having hot flashes because you're in menopause. And, you know, I went through that for several years and I, you know, I thought, Oh, well, that's early. But you know, I just didn't, you know, I was just sort of like, okay, well, I guess I'll just deal with this. And, you know, everybody does that. So it wasn't a surprise, and it didn't feel like a health issue. It's not a health issue. It's just something you're supposed to go through. But I thought I wouldn't do that at 47. I thought I would do it at 55. But apparently, it's not even all that early, but you, you know, 40 sevens on the early Earth side of normal. So, I, you know, I had that. So, you know, everything was fine for a while, and, you know, all of a sudden, you know, I'm kind of 49 and I'm like, Well, you know, I'm drinking a lot of water, and I'm peeing. I'm having to get up every night and pee. And I thought, well, you know, maybe, um, you know, God, I must be true what they say, you know, you get old, you dry up old and cannot really and I'm old. I'm 49 Hmm. And so, I kind of wrote off the water and painting thing is, well, I'm, I'm somehow drying up. I'm needing more water now. And then the peeing thing. I was like, Oh, well, maybe my my uterus is prolapsing. I'm just, I'm just old.
Scott Benner 16:24
So wait, wait, was that happening? Or you just imagine that would be the reason.
Lorie 16:28
That's what I was imagining? That was not happening. Everything is fine. But I I mean, I was there was a little piece of me that was a little bit relieved. Like, oh, okay, it's not a prolapse. I'm not have any actual problems, like gynecological ly, so that's good. But I Yeah, so I was kind of writing that started to happen a little bit. Maybe I noticed it probably in maybe December, November or December. When I was I was still 48. Then kind of around that time, I kind of snuck out I'm drinking a lot of water. I'm pee and I have to get up in the middle of night and pee. And I thought, God, you know, it is it's true. What they say, you know, getting old is not for wimps.
Scott Benner 17:18
That's a boy thing, though, mon. Right, like the ping in the middle of the night. Isn't that a prostate thing?
Lorie 17:24
Well, I wasn't sure. No, I was like, well, maybe it happens to everybody. I don't know. I was. I was like, I'm fine. Don't be wrong with me. Basically. I was like, what could be wrong with me? I am. I am really unfit. I eat healthy. I'm not overweight. You know. And the doctors tell you all the time, you know, well, you know, these are things you need to do to live a nice, long, healthy life. And I was doing all those things. And so what could be wrong with me? That's kind of what I was thinking.
Scott Benner 17:59
Yeah, I Well, I mean, I kind of enjoy hearing the story. Because it's, it's demonstrative that everybody else listening that no matter what age this happens to you, most people are going to try to relate it to something else to write it off. They it's just it's just, it's it's very human and very common. I mean, because you went all the way to maybe I have a prolapsed uterus, which by the way, unless you say something more interesting in the next 45 minutes, Lori's uterus is on the inside might be the title of your episodes. And I don't think you want that. But again, congratulations on that one. But I just yay, I implore everyone who doesn't know what that means to google it later.
Lorie 18:44
I mean, it's a thing it does, you know, these things do happen. And, you know, I've had friends that that has happened to so I was, you know, I like, I don't know, my head.
Scott Benner 18:55
But at what point do you get it out of your head to come up with a reason and start thinking, I don't know what this is, but it needs to be attended to?
Lorie 19:04
Well, there were two things that made me kind of start to get a little bit scared about this.
Scott Benner 19:14
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Lorie 23:15
I was on vacation with my family. I have two husband and two kids and their their teenagers. So we were on vacation and we were driving. We had like a I don't know we were driving from one place to another on this vacation. And before we got in the car, I had a cheeseburger fries and a Dr Pepper and it wasn't like supersized any of those things. I just I just regular size, had lunch. And in the car we got in the car and then we were driving and I realized I am so thirsty. I drink my water bottle I drink my husband's water bottle and I took the water balls away from both of my kids. So I drank a gallon of water to follow up that it was literally a gallon of water I'm sorry I have to
Scott Benner 24:17
fight off a burglar
Lorie 24:18
say I have to fight off I'm depending low. Let me go ahead get let me have a couple of skittles here. Take
Scott Benner 24:25
your time. What's your blood sugar? Well
Lorie 24:31
it's 91 but I am doubled down. So
Scott Benner 24:35
is this adrenaline this adrenaline hit you like this? Some people it gets backwards. It doesn't drive them down. No.
Lorie 24:43
Probably not. I usually go up when I'm nervous. But what happened was I would just had breakfast and I may have missed my Bolus i over bolused Maybe a little bit
Scott Benner 24:54
for it. I have to tell you while you're chewing on your Skittles that I've come to realize that the older type, like the adult type ones that come on, and even some of the kids, they don't want their blood sugars to be high when they're on the podcast. I didn't realize that until a couple of people started mentioning it over and over again. Did you have any pressure like that? Like, I don't want my blood sugar to be out of range while I'm talking about my diabetes?
Lorie 25:18
I did not want it to Yes, I did not want my alarm to go off during Yes, for sure. Because of
Scott Benner 25:25
the beeping because you didn't want me to think that your weren't in range.
Lorie 25:29
Yeah, I didn't want you to think that I didn't have things under control after having listened to 300 episodes of the podcast.
Scott Benner 25:37
Laurie there 460. You better keep moving. Oh, they're saying while Lori's again, eating her Skittles. Please stop doing that. You guys come on the show you really don't. One time somebody's just gonna pass out. Like I was very aggressive before I was on the podcast. I don't. That is not necessary. But I appreciate everyone's feelings. But you don't have to do that. They take care. Let's stop your double hours down first. And how well the Skittles work for you.
Lorie 26:04
Oh, yeah. Skittles are the best. Like you feel
Scott Benner 26:07
very comfortable about the treatment you just made for even for 91 to down.
Lorie 26:13
Yeah, I have like, I have I had about seven. So I usually do that to get it to flatten out and then see what happens. Because if I eat 10 or 15 sometimes it's too much. So Gotcha. Cool. See, double down is not a good place. But oh, now I'm Oh, yeah. Now I'm starting. Okay. So yeah, I'm actually now I'm at four and diagonal down. So I probably ate about the right amount. So it was going to slow down anyway. So all right. Are you
Scott Benner 26:49
okay? I'm good. How did you figure out how to do that? Did the podcast help you figure that out?
Lorie 26:55
Oh, of course. Well, yeah, I mean, I Well, yeah, I mean, I am yeah. You know, you don't have to stick to this stuff. They tell you like, oh, you know, you gotta have 15 And wait 15 minutes. And you know, you don't have to stick to any the podcast helped me kind of relax and be like, hey, you know, it doesn't have to, you don't have to follow these rules. You can you can figure it out for yourself. And then, you know, now sometimes I screw it up real bad. No, don't get me wrong. Oh, of
Scott Benner 27:33
course. Of course. Everyone messes it up. That's, that's, you know, that just happens. I've had, I've gotten Arden through pasta the last couple of days really well. And I was like, wow, I was even, like, just happy when it was over. Like, I wouldn't want people to think that. It's just like, oh, okay, this this one. I mean, she ate something difficult. And I thought I hope I get this right. And it's worked. And it worked out. And I was like, hey, you know, it's it's not easy. But so you're basically even though you're two hours down, you're using like bumping techniques, like you're just trying to bump yourself back up. You've given yourself enough of something to stop the arrows. Without over treating yourself. That's the goal right here.
Lorie 28:13
Oh, yeah, that's and that's always the challenge. Yeah. So yeah, yeah. I mean, I, I've had enough, I guess I've messed it up enough to, to, to know not to over treat. Because then you end up kind of going up and down. And it's just awful.
Scott Benner 28:31
Yeah. Chasing though I think chasing is the worst thing that you can do. Because you just you can never win when you're chasing, unless you're just, like really so good at it that you can, I mean, there's a way to stop those bounces. But it's not easy to do if you don't understand the whole thing. And it comes in time. Like in time everybody can figure out how to do it. But in the beginning, if you're chasing, you'll chase forever, and I see it happen, there are some people who will get caught in that loop and never get out of it their whole life. Just this is diabetes, I'm always out flying up or I'm always flying down. I'm always scared. Or I'm or I always don't feel good. So it's it doesn't need to be that way. So I'm sorry. So the question, you know, this was listen, if you can't have a low blood sugar on this podcast, there's nowhere in the world for you to do it. So this
Lorie 29:21
story, I mean, everybody's gonna understand this. Yeah.
Scott Benner 29:23
One person judging you right now. Everybody's just like, oh, Laurie, slow. Well wait for the answer to that question. That's fine. Yeah, so the question really is, is what what pushed you to actually go to a doctor to hey, I don't know what's happened to me.
Lorie 29:35
Yeah. Okay. So so one part of the story was, you know, I, I realized that day, I was sitting in the car, and I drank everybody's water. I took water away from my children. That
Scott Benner 29:48
was thirsty, mommy's thirsty. You are
Lorie 29:51
not certain you're not as thirsty as me. So and then, of course, we had to stop three times so that I could pee Of course, you know, that was the So then I was kind of like, man, that's weird. You know, that is weird. You know, but I kept thinking, wow, that's weird. And because it was so dramatic that time. You know, I was like, wow, that's dramatic. Okay, the second thing that happened was that when we were on that same vacation, I was like, Man, my jeans are loose. What is with this? You know, I, you know, am I losing weight? Right? So in my husband was kind of like, yeah, you know, maybe you are losing weight, you do seem a little thin. But, you know, we don't have a scale. We don't have a scale, because we're active. We've I just my weight has been really, really stable for a really long time. And I we just don't have to scale the house. So I never weigh myself. But we're on vacation. The gym at the hotel had a scale, and I'm like, you know, I'm gonna step on the scale and see what my weight is, right? So I started on a scale and I'm like, Ah, you know, so I'm five, five, and my normal weight is about 125 130. So, you know, I mean, I'm thin, but I'm not super skinny. And so I get on this scale, and it reads 115. So I'm like, oh, wait a bit, lost some weight. That's why my jeans don't fit, you know, or, you know,
Scott Benner 31:36
pounds on your frame would be would be obvious. I would think it's just tough when you're around people all the time. It's hard to see. You don't I mean, doing you see somebody every day, you don't notice it like art and look like I look back now. And I didn't look like a two year old runway model. You know, like, you could see our ribs and it just it was it was shocking to look back on it afterwards. But I couldn't somehow see it coming.
Lorie 32:01
Yeah, yeah. I well, I you know, and I think my husband didn't notice either because it was just gradual. It was a No Okay, time or whatever. And my kids, of course, didn't notice they're teenagers, they they have better things to worry about. And then, you know, I didn't notice until my jeans were loose and my clothing not fitting is a big, noticeable thing. Right.
Scott Benner 32:25
So but then does that make you think I have cancer?
Lorie 32:30
Well, it made me think that, you know, that is not a symptom of menopause. I'm like, I don't think weight loss is part of something that happens in menopause, or age or whatever. I'm like, everybody that I know that has gone through menopause. They got heavier, not less heavy, you know, they didn't lose weight.
Scott Benner 32:55
This is your engineer brain way you realize that right? That you're not leaping you're walking through step by step but it's, it's you're lucky you didn't kill yourself going through the 9000 steps that were possible before you got to what you do what you like, Okay, check that off. That didn't work. Now we're going to turn screw number 367 1000 to see what happens there. Like you really are going through it so slowly, but I imagine that's what makes you good at your job. But, yeah, so Okay, so menopause. No weight loss doesn't come with menopause. I'm gonna go to the doctor.
Lorie 33:30
Yeah, so I'm eating six more Skittles. Hey, listen, make sure that this flattens out. I want
Scott Benner 33:38
to tell you no one's ever passed out on the show. But I do believe it would be a ratings grabber so I but I don't want you to do are you okay? Do you need like
Lorie 33:50
yeah, I'm just still dialed down. And are you are you 74 Now I'm 78 diagnose anyone really?
Scott Benner 34:00
Any no one's Laura urine in an emergency situation so you don't have time to be impressed that I knew your blood sugar even though we don't know you just scenario but the people listening right now like god damn Scott newer blood sugar.
Lorie 34:14
I know that's pretty good. And if you're dialed down, we can calculate in the new amount of time we've been talking how what her blood sugar probably is at this point.
Scott Benner 34:26
That's fascinating between you and I didn't calculate anything. I'm unaware of the time. I just have a feeling for it. Like when I when you said when you were doing you were stopping double down arrow double arrows down with that many Skittles. I thought that's probably not going to work. And then you leveled out and I was like, Alright, maybe she knows better than I did. But then when you said you were going for another Skittle? I was like, yeah, she's got to be 2020 points lower now. Like maybe 50 points lower now and it's a diagonal. It's a diagonal down arrow B Because you did take the, the ass out of those arrows a little bit like you took, took some of the momentum out of it, but you didn't, you didn't squash it. So you still have if you did seven, and maybe seven more, do you know your carb ratio off the top of your head?
Lorie 35:16
Um, at this time of day, we'll see it's 930 this time of day, I'm six to one. So it's but um,
Scott Benner 35:28
so I'm gonna say you probably used to units too much in your meal or you didn't Bolus eat in Pre-Bolus. Enough, and you use the little too much. Which do you think? Well,
Lorie 35:40
I was high at the start of my meal. So I was like, so I went up. So yeah, so it was complicated morning for me, which is why this is happening. Sure. So I swam this morning. And then and when I and I was a short swim, but it was still 30 minutes with insulin off. And then when I and what happens always immediately after I plug back in and then I Bolus because you have to Bolus the mist in the mist basil. And then that I miss a lot. And then I was nervous about the show. So there was a little adrenaline so that that drove it a little higher after the swim. And then I saw I was about to I was to 40. So then I
Scott Benner 36:33
you Bolus. You and I started talking and you got more comfortable and the adrenaline part went away and you started the insulin leftover plus the meal Bolus.
Lorie 36:43
Yeah, that totally makes sense. Yeah. It's probably
Scott Benner 36:48
just saying no, if it's not okay, but can I say where I think you work?
Lorie 36:54
Oh, of course. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I was gonna mention that later. But
Scott Benner 36:57
let's get to it now, because it's insane that you're nervous. Do you work at NASA?
Lorie 37:01
Yeah. So I well, I work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is a NASA laboratories.
Scott Benner 37:07
JPL? Yes. Yeah. Right. Is that that's where you're at? Yeah, that
Lorie 37:10
Yeah. The Jet Propulsion Lab. So it's in Pasadena. Yeah. And so yeah, we I worked on, I actually work with people from all over NASA. And so you know, I, I do contribute to the human spaceflight aspects. And then also, the stuff that JPL does in house, which is the Mars missions and all the robotic missions that that JPL does, that you often hear about on the news and stuff. So it's, it's it's fun. It's a fun job.
Scott Benner 37:46
But you were but you were nervous about coming on my rinky dink podcast about type one diabetes.
Lorie 37:52
Yes, because, yes, because I'm like, Well, you know, I'm new to diabetes. I'm like, that's doing I've been doing engineering for a long time for NASA. And that's just you know, a day at the office.
Scott Benner 38:06
But but was new. But engineering about rockets that shoot people into space. Not like not like engineering about whether my, my my door unseats when I crack the door handle on my car, like real like, you see what I'm getting at, don't you? Okay, yeah. How did this
Lorie 38:26
require some much more precision? Yes,
Scott Benner 38:28
you would imagine. How did I do with my interview with April? Did you hear it?
Lorie 38:35
Yeah, she was she the one that was at Johnson Space Center. She's the one in Houston.
Scott Benner 38:40
Yeah, she's she was the advocate here that was not on control officer. Yeah. Yeah, it was I too geeky about space there. Do you think
Lorie 38:49
it was fine. I thought that it was fine. It was really it wasn't really interesting. Podcast actually. The area in which she works, the mission control aspects. I don't know anything about that, that so that all of that stuff was it was really interesting how she got into that. And you know, her work, I thought, yeah, that was a great. That was a great one. I did hear that.
Scott Benner 39:13
I just want I just wanted to know if like you were just like, it was terrible. He did such a bad job asked all the wrong questions. But your again, your engineering brain is so obvious here. So it really is. And the the part that's fascinating to me is I don't understand why you like the podcast if that's how your brain works. How are you and I jiving together. This is the thing I'm really interested in?
Lorie 39:38
Oh, um I Oh, I don't know. Actually. I haven't ever thought about that. You don't
Scott Benner 39:45
think in pictures right?
Lorie 39:50
I don't think in pictures i It depends. Well, graphs. Yeah. Um,
Scott Benner 39:57
so is there a part of me that's totally cool enough that you Do you see what I'm saying? Like I talked about like, I don't know, use more insulin, pump it back this way, nudge it over there. Like none of that is how your brain works for for engineering and it seems in your personal life because we kind of listened to you try to figure out that you had diabetes, the way an engineer would try to figure something out. And so then you bumped into a podcast, where a fast talking guy who doesn't have type one diabetes, is saying things like, oh, just trust that you know, what's going to happen is gonna happen. And you're like, right on. Like, I don't like I don't understand how you didn't go, No, this isn't for me. I gotta go.
Lorie 40:32
Well, I guess I don't think your show is not technical. I think it is technical, I think. I mean, well, I, I'll tell you what, I don't like the end, your show doesn't do this. What I don't like is, you know, the minimal to zero information that I got from my endocrine from the medical establishment, I guess. I, I, you know, oh, you know, give it take 15 grams of carbs to get over your low and wait 15 minutes? Well, you know, I did that at first. And that's terrible. I'm like, that doesn't work at all, you know, your way sometimes. Sometimes it's not enough. Sometimes it's enough. Right? Or, and sometimes it's way too much. And so I guess what I feel like I learned from the podcast is really the, the, the idea that no, no, go and figure out what is working for you and what's not, and pay attention to? What happens when you take more car, you know, when you are when you when you're watching your Dexcom data, you're watching yourself drop. Look at you know, how fast are you dropping? And you know, what has happened in the past and try to figure out, okay, what makes sense for me to do in the next 10 minutes to fix this, either go up or go down or whatever, but don't just be static about it. So I guess that idea is not in the medical establishment. I mean, they want to give you a formula, which, you know, when you're first diagnosed, yeah, a formula makes sense, and is easy to understand, and people can connect with it. But really, you know, there's a lot more sophistication. And, you know, even if it is a experiential sophistication that you get by, you know, just just testing things out with yourself. I mean, that's much more engineering than a cut and dried formula that you would learn in maybe the ninth grade.
Scott Benner 43:08
So when you when somebody hands you a formula, and it doesn't prove, then you don't trust it anymore. You know, it's it doesn't work. Right. And that's it. How are you? How are you? How's your blood sugar by the way?
Lorie 43:19
All right. Oh, yes. Funny, because gosh, I was like, Wow, can you see me swiping my phone to get my
Scott Benner 43:25
No I can. I can hear your concern. And you stammered a couple of times, which you didn't do in the first 20 minutes. So that's why I'm asking if you're alright.
Lorie 43:32
Oh, I am fine. Well, what do you think it is? Let me ask you.
Scott Benner 43:36
Maybe you can well, so how many how many skills did you have the second time?
Lorie 43:40
Um, I had, I think I had five or six.
Scott Benner 43:46
I'm gonna guess your 85 to 89 and stable.
Lorie 43:53
Okay, I am stable. But um, I leveled out at 77 or
Scott Benner 43:57
- Still, okay, let's see what oh, I'm
Lorie 44:00
on level at 77 which is good. But no, I
Scott Benner 44:03
did you check with a meter? Or do you do a lot of
Lorie 44:06
hesitating in my speech anyway, so that may not be related to a lower
Scott Benner 44:11
Do you Do you want to check with a meter? Are you comfortable?
Lorie 44:14
Oh, no. The Dex is always accurate. So like
Scott Benner 44:18
it you love it? Excellent. Dex. comm.com forward slash.
Lorie 44:24
Well, if they need if they need me to talk them up, I will.
Scott Benner 44:28
Well, well then. So okay, so you go to the hospital, you get diagnosed, they don't give you great information you leave with needles and a meter?
Lorie 44:36
Oh, no, it was nothing like that. Actually, I called my general doctor and said, You know, I need to come in. They were like, Okay, you can have an appointment in two weeks. So in two weeks I went in. And then the rest then what happened from that point forward was extremely similar to another guest that you had on that was diagnosed is it 44 I think her name was Carrie. That was, I think that episode just came out a couple days ago or last week. But anyway, um, I went in, they were like, Oh, you're you know, you're really healthy. You look great, you know, you're not overweight, they checked me for all the same stuff I had been thinking about, you know, that I knew we're good. You know, you're, you know, you look great. You know, why are you here? And I'm like, Well, you know, I've been paying a lot. And I also drink a lot of water, which, you know, maybe I'm just hold I tried to want I, when I was sitting there, I kind of wanted to poopoo it because it sounds so ridiculous, saying I have a lot and I'm pregnant, a lot of water. But and I said, But you know, but then, you know, I started I realized I had lost about 15 pounds. And the doctor got up and ran out of the room and yelled at the nurse, can you bring a blood meter in here? came and took my blood sugar. Oh, it's 413. So he looks at me and he says, Well, you have diabetes, and I'm like, what?
Scott Benner 46:16
But But I didn't do the stuff they said not to do.
Lorie 46:20
What the hell? Yeah, I. So I
Scott Benner 46:24
would imagine that's how a nonsmoker feels when they get lung cancer. They're just like, Wait, are you kidding me? Like I didn't do the thing that supposed to make this happen? And God, how was it in that moment? He says those words, how do you feel?
Lorie 46:39
I was I wanted to tell him that that was ridiculous. I was like, There's no way that I have diabetes, because I didn't know anything about diabetes. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, Well, I ran a marathon three months ago. And I, you know, I, you know, I'm swim I bike. I you know, triathlons. I'm active. I'm not overweight. You know, I'm thinking, I was I was like, I there's no way I have diabetes. And I'm not. And so what I actually said to him was, well, isn't there more to this diagnosis? I mean, you just check my blood sugar with a meter. Isn't there more you need to do to diagnose it. And he was like, nope.
Scott Benner 47:25
Sorry, lady, you have diabetes. Great.
Lorie 47:28
I mean, I was like, Well, that can't be right. And he looked at me and he goes, You know, I really don't think you have type two. But I don't know. And I'm going to have enum like, type, type two, type one. You know, I was confused. I had never researched this. I kind of vaguely heard about this and but diabetes
Scott Benner 47:52
Wilford Brimley, that's what you know. Yeah. Right, right. The guy kind of looks like a walrus with a big mustache. He has diabetes. That's diabetes. I don't know what the hell the rest of this is. That's interesting. Yeah. So he, what he do, he went looked for?
Lorie 48:07
Well, he. He didn't say anything. He goes, Well, look, come back. Tomorrow, we do bloodwork here in the office, come back in the office, and we'll do a blood draw, make it a fasting blood draw. So I'm like, okay, and then I'm like, How can you check my cholesterol to you know, while you're at it, because, you know, 49? So, he's like, Yeah, of course. So, um, so I go in, I get my blood draw. And he's like, Okay, two days later, he calls me and he says, You need to come back in. I go back in. He's like, Well, you're a one C is 13.1. So your blood sugar has been real high for a really long time. So you are pretty sick. Do you feel okay? And I'm like, you know, I'm like, Yeah, you know, I guess, you know, when you he's like, are you tired? You know, do you feel nauseated? Do you feel anything? You know?
Scott Benner 49:08
I feel irritated. You didn't ask me this two days ago, like I tell you that much.
Lorie 49:12
Well, I Well, and then then there was a beat, you know, there's like a pause in the conversation. He's just looking at me and I'm like, you know, I, I feel okay, you know, whatever. I gotta go pick up my kids. So, you know, is there something I should do? And he looks at me and he says, I'm trying to decide if I should send you to the hospital or not. Right? And I'm like, the hospital. That's ridiculous. I'm, you know, I walked in, I drove over here, walked in the office. Why would I need to go to the hospital? Well, so he's like, he just said, Okay, I need you to contact. Here's an endocrinologist. You know, I know this. You know, he talked about this. He knew he knew this endocrinologist. So Call them see if you can get appointment as soon as humanly possible. And I want to see you in three days. Okay? And don't eat any carbs at all. Eat no carbs, you're gonna have no sugar and no carbs. I'm like, Okay, so, you know, does that just leave me with bacon or?
Scott Benner 50:22
Exactly, so it's already in ham. I'm eating like, what? Could you be more specific? Yeah, especially you just asked about your cholesterol too. He's like, go home and have a cheeseburger. Don't put it on a roll.
Lorie 50:33
Yeah, actually, my cholesterol was fine. So he goes, Yeah, your cholesterol fine. So you know, we're gonna have you can have the meat part of the burger. I'm like, the meat part. What's going to hold the mustard, you know, kind of. So I call the endocrinologist. I radically changed my diet. So then, of course, I felt terrible, right? I mean, because I'm eating only meat and cheese.
Scott Benner 51:00
Yeah, your stomach. I'm sorry, did your stomach not do okay with that?
Lorie 51:08
No, my energy level just tanked. But you know, I got you know, he, he hooked me up with a meter. So I take Metformin, and here's a meter. So I start taking the Metformin. I call the endocrinologist. And now I'm checking my blood sugar with a meter, you know, you know, twice a day, three times a day. So I'm religiously three times a day checking my blood sugar, and it's 300 to 50. I'm like, Oh, it's 250. That's great. It's low.
Scott Benner 51:39
Coming down. I'm fascinated that he was pretty certain you didn't have type two diabetes, but gave you Metformin. And didn't know that if he sent you to the hospital, you'd leave the hospital with insulin. It's like he knew some of it, but not enough of it.
Lorie 51:54
Right? I think he just really did not want to. Well, he really wanted me to go to this endocrinologist. And I'm like, Why call the inter endocrinologist and they say, I can have an they said they have an appointment available in six weeks. So I called him back and I'm like, Can this wait six weeks? You know, I was kind of at this point. I was scared, right? Because I'm like, Oh, God. I don't know what this is. I don't know what to do. I've read stuff on the internet. I've watched the YouTube videos, I'm like, What am I gonna, you know, what does this mean? So he, so he calls the endocrinologist and gets me an appointment for a week later, and he goes, come back to my office, I went back and then he gives me Lantis. So he's like, I, I, the blood tests that I ran show that you have autoimmune diabetes. So that's type one. And he talked about the blood tests and told me what it was and but you know, he and so he said, Okay, so take a shot, take 10 units of this once a day at bedtime, which is the same thing that they told your other guests carry, which is funny, because when I heard her story, I was like, wow, that is super similar.
Scott Benner 53:16
Why? And also, oddly, why not in the morning? Like, why tell you to take insulin that you're not 100% sure how it's gonna work on somebody and then tell them to go to sleep. That seems weird to me, too.
Lorie 53:27
Yeah. It's super scary now. And there's another super scary thing about this that happened, which is, I asked him, I said, you know, I've heard that people on insulin have kin go low and they're exercising, you know, is that possible? And he said, No, this is such a low amount of insulin that you cannot go low on this. So I'm like, Oh, okay. And I should have said, You know what, hold my beer.
Scott Benner 53:54
Are you certain? Cuz I bet you I can tell me something. Now, what's your Basal rate now that you're on a pump
Lorie 54:05
what is my Basal rate? Oh, my Basal rate. I'm I'm a half a unit an hour,
Scott Benner 54:10
half an hour. So you're getting about 12 units of basil a day? Yeah. All right. Oh, he might not have been far off. But still, it's not the point. Like you know, when somebody gets diagnosed and they go to the hospital, you put on an insulin drip you get brought down very slowly. You know, they get your level and then they start working on insulin. You just don't throw it in and you know, I don't know. It sounds like your doctor knew enough to be dangerous and not enough to help you. It's interesting and not that's not uncommon. It's not even a dig on him but just his or her just this how it it's how it goes. Really. So did you get low off your 10 of Lana's? I imagine you did because now you're right away. Yeah. So I eat low carb too, right?
Lorie 54:52
Well, yeah, so I'm eating no carbs. Now I'm eating no carbs. And you know, my pancreas is still kind of wet. Looking a little bit, you know, and mine was still kind of honeymooning kind of period. And I, you know, so I'm eating no carbs. I'm trying to run. So what happened was I got like, I think I had been on it one or two days. And I am I get I run, I managed to run about a mile and a half away from the house. And I, you know, I'm feeling bad. So I get my meter out. I have my meter with me, I get my meter out just blood. I'm like, Oh, crap, it says 55.
Scott Benner 55:38
That's lower than 250.
Lorie 55:43
Okay, so I didn't know what to do. I'm like, I don't think I can make it back to the house. And I of course, I didn't have any sugar with me, of course. Didn't know what you're doing. Yeah, I didn't know what I was doing. And he told me I couldn't get low. So
Scott Benner 56:00
it was like he said, he's like, he hands you a 22 and goes, it's just a 22. You copy can't kill yourself with this. Good luck. And you were like, oh, yeah, watch this. What did you do? Did you call an Uber? Or did you
Lorie 56:11
call my husband I call my husband to come get me. You know, come get me. I'm telling him where it was. The game got me. And I'm like and bring like, so I again, didn't think I could eat carbs. So I was like, bring bacon or I can't aren't cheese? I don't know. I can't tell you to bring some kind of thing with no carbs in it. Right? So,
Scott Benner 56:32
you know, this is not funny. And yet I can picture your husband rummaging around for a cheese stick or something in the in the refrigerator. Before he goes to pick you up probably thinking to myself, like what is happening? You're just scared. And did he come with cheese? Please help me I
Lorie 56:49
did. He did. He brought he brought cheese and like, like a carrot or something. So
I now I look back on that because now you know when I run or swim or bike or do anything I am
Scott Benner 57:09
you know, I'm don't bring a cart with you. Why don't we
Lorie 57:12
uh, Karen, you know, I bring my Skittles I bring my goo I bring you know, Gatorade. I mean, you know, I would never, you know, do this. I mean, oh my god. So yeah, so it was super. You know, it was I just didn't know what I was doing.
Scott Benner 57:30
I just laughed so hard my nose ran I'm sorry. I just I don't know why like the the vision of this poor guy like, you know, you're sitting on the sidewalk and he's digging around frantically for probably the last thing in the world. That's gonna help you bring it like it's the it's the Messiah lifesaver for you. Here here's cheese, which doesn't even have meat in it. So it's not like you could eat it and like later, turn it into glucose. It would just, it would just go in there forever and sit there. I mean, it's just fat.
Lorie 58:00
Yeah, I know. I mean, I think he brought it he might have brought it carrot or something. But like it was like something else that would take a long time. A lot of fiber Have you ever have neither?
Scott Benner 58:09
Have you ever seen a movie where somebody gets loveless? That's
Lorie 58:14
always Steel Magnolias. Right?
Scott Benner 58:17
Like, he didn't bring your own shoes or something like that. Alright, so Okay, well, that's insane. How do you make it to the endocrinologist then?
Lorie 58:26
Yeah, so I get to the endocrinologist and they're like, and they were great. You know, they were like, okay, so yes, we're gonna keep you on the Lantus they gave me you know, so I'm on the pins, right. So they're like, but no, no mention was made of bolusing. Right. I mean, nothing. They didn't say Bolus. They didn't say honeymoon, I had to find out about honeymoon on my own. But they did you know, a real thorough checkup and, you know, check my blood sugar at that time. And I don't know, I mean, I guess, you know, they, they helped me in some ways, but in other ways, they didn't. So one thing they did tell me right away, which, of course, by this point, I already knew is they're like, Oh, you need if you get low, you know, eat sugar, eat fast sugar. You know, and then they explained to me what that was. But, you know, I still meet with a diabetes educator. I've never met with a diabetes educator, which is just everything I've learned I had to learn on my own. So I went home, I watched YouTube videos. I read stuff online. I started listening to your podcast, which I accidentally found because I don't have any friends. I nobody I knew had this right. I
Scott Benner 59:53
accidentally find the podcast real quick, just so I know how to make other people accidentally find it.
Lorie 59:57
Oh, um, well, I I found it online. I saw I was doing an online search. And then I found Arden's de Juicebox Podcast website. Good. And then I'm like, oh, there's a podcast.
Scott Benner 1:00:08
Gotcha. I'm just I'm just, I'm just okay. I'm just reminding myself to keep my search engine optimization up. Because that's how you found it. That's how you googled it and found it because it has the site has strong SEO. So it pops up earlier in, in searches like that. That that's simply you live in California, right? You said? Yeah. You're not from there, though. Are you?
Lorie 1:00:36
Know, can you tell where I'm from? From my
Scott Benner 1:00:40
I want to say you're from somewhere between Texas and North Carolina in that space?
Lorie 1:00:48
Yeah, that's good. Guess and south? Yeah, I'm actually I'm from Texas originally. Yeah, I'm from Dallas.
Scott Benner 1:00:55
And so you don't you don't speak like you're from California? I mean, you do a little bit, it seems like it feels like you took Texas and ran it through like a scrubber a couple of times is how it feels. But, but also also you don't speak the people who are from California talk quickly, like people from the East Coast. And you don't have that as much. That's like, that's not where she's from. But I don't know why I care about that. Just I probably just didn't make myself feel like oh, wow, you are right, Scott.
Lorie 1:01:26
Yeah, you can people ask me about that a lot. Actually. I mean, I've lived here for 25 years, but I actually I'm originally but I didn't, I came here as an adult to California. So
Scott Benner 1:01:40
you're just the blend? And I would say I would have guessed you have lived in California for a long time. But yeah, that's but my point is that you're not going to like a free clinic on the same street with like a methadone clinic, right? Like you're going to a doctor's office that you would imagine you'd be getting some sort of valuable information from.
Lorie 1:02:01
I really wish that now, you know, I of course, I have great insurance. So you know, I really wish that they had sent me to the hospital. Because if they had if my original my my general doctor, if he had just sent me to the hospital that day that he was thinking about that, that would help a lot, I would have gotten a ton of information and help.
Scott Benner 1:02:27
And how much time passed between that moment. And when you started getting it together.
Lorie 1:02:36
Pray a couple of weeks.
Scott Benner 1:02:37
Would you looking back? Would you describe that time as stressful, painful? Like how would you think of it?
Lorie 1:02:47
This price, it was pretty stressful. I was. I was scared. Because I didn't know, I knew I didn't know what I was doing. I knew I needed help. And I did not know the best way to get it. I did not know what I needed to insist on. So all I knew to do was to educate myself. So I actually read a couple of books in that time period to which helped. And then you know, I did stuff I you know, online, you always gotta be so careful. Because sometimes stuff is just stupid online, you know, or, but the YouTube videos helped, right? I mean, I was I was really stressed. I was kind of sad and scared that I had this. But you know, I'm like on YouTube, I go to YouTube, and I'm like, Oh, well, if diabetic Danica can be this cheerful and cute, and, you know, be informative. Well, I guess I could probably survive. You know, I had to kind of really, I just remember being hopelessly distracted. You know, I couldn't work. I really couldn't do much with the family. I was really focused on this for a couple of weeks. But at the end of it, I knew what I wanted. So when I got to the endocrinologist, you know, they were like, Yeah, you know, you have type one and a BA and they were explaining it and I'm like, I want to see I want a Dexcom Can I get the G six? And they were like, Oh, well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. And I'm like, No, we're getting ahead of ourselves. I want done, you know, if my insurance will pay for it, then I want this. And they were like okay, well since you're running and all that. Sure. So I got the decks calm right away. I mean, like, I think I was maybe six weeks in. I had a Dexcom real quick.
Scott Benner 1:04:51
That's excellent. Yeah. And because you educate yourself and you push for it, and you thought if there's a girl on YouTube that can be bubbly about this then like And I'd be happy to
Lorie 1:05:01
fish. Yeah, I was like, look at all these people on YouTube. They're like, living normal lives. They're fine, you know,
Scott Benner 1:05:10
a rocket flying slightly to the left right now because of the strategy where?
Lorie 1:05:15
Maybe? I don't know. So far, they haven't linked it to me.
Scott Benner 1:05:21
We were trying for Morrison, we hit Venus. That was weird. What happened? Laurie got the diabetes a couple of years ago. Oh, my gosh, well, that's Well, good for you. I mean, honestly, being serious, the amount of effort that you needed to put into it, like, listen, we could say everybody should put that kind of effort in, but everyone's not going to put that kind of effort in, you're a success story. And that moat, and you have to understand that most people don't end up having that success, they fall apart somewhere through, you know, you keep throwing Robox up in front of people. And telling them, you know, you're the doctor, you understand and things start going badly for them. They just imagine that's life. And, and then you lose those people. And, and maybe some of them never find their way out of it again, you were, you know, Europe, a studious person to begin with. So you just kind of turned that on to diabetes, and picked your way through it. But of all the things that you found. I'm the best thing, right.
Lorie 1:06:26
You're one of the best things, because I just like you have taught me is that, you know, it's it's timing and amount. That's a big one. And, you know, and also, you know, you might develop rules for yourself for different things, but always be questioning that and gathering data. And you can either write it down, if you can't remember or keep it in your head. But basically, you know, try to pull all of your experience together to help figure out what to do when you're low or high or when you're faced with a food that's difficult, right. And I, I, I still make a ton of mistakes, but it's a lot easier when you don't feel like well, the doctor said I can't correct for this correction. I mean, well, I'm 300. And I, because I overcorrected. My low. And now I've got I guess, according to Dr. I have to sit here for four hours, you know, before it'll slowly start to drop down by itself. Why do that to your you know, that? Why is that the rule don't make that the rule. So I yeah, I mean, not that's
Scott Benner 1:07:54
why I'm really thing. It shouldn't look like yesterday was Easter. The day before I got up in the morning. And I got an email from a woman about a week or so ago. And she's like, I have a four year old. You know, I'm in trouble here. I don't know what I'm doing. Can you help me? And I thought the issue hit all my heartstrings like you know, and I'm getting ready to say sure, like, send me your number. I'll call you. I can talk you through it. And instead I said, can I talk you through it while we record it? And she said, Yeah, sure. So Saturday morning, I talked to her for 45 minutes or an hour. And I tried really hard to just talk to her the way I would have spoken to her on the phone, not like him because when you're on the podcast, you you're trying to be polite. Because there are different people in the world. You're not trying to hurt anyone's feelings. But if I'm talking to you one on one, I'm I mean, incredibly Direct, which you may be thinking, Oh, gods, how are you not being direct on the podcast, there's more directly. I'm incredibly direct. And so I got on with her. I tried to pull out of my head that I was recording myself. I walked her through it. And I said, Alright, send me your CGM. I'm gonna watch it. And then we'll get back together in a couple days, which we're going to do, I think tomorrow the next day, and we'll record again just for 20 minutes to kind of button it up. Well, it turned out as I'm talking to her, that her son isn't just for and hasn't just not, you know, had diabetes for just a handful of months, but he's also autistic, and not that verbal. And you know, she's got a lot of other challenges going on. And I am going to tell you that I made a small adjustment to the kids, Basal insulin kids, MDI. I explained to her how to Pre-Bolus the meals because she's like, I can't Pre-Bolus And I was like, Yeah, you can and I told her how to do it. And the chart that I looked at this morning when I woke up versus the one I saw on Saturday is could you just could be two different people. And so if it can be explained to a tired exhausted scared mother of a four year old autistic kid is at diabetes for five months, by my dumbass in an hour. And then someone else ought to be able to accomplish that for a person like you 49 years old standing at a doctor's office. That's all I'm saying. If that's unreasonable, I'm, then I'm unreasonable. But I think it's just everyone's not trying hard enough. Seriously. I mean, how that, can I do it and your doctor can, Laurie, I missed 53 days in my senior year of high school, you understand what I'm talking about? Right? Like I'm we didn't get a space on me is what I'm saying. That isn't happening.
Lorie 1:10:32
You know it. I mean, I make my own fate. I am bold enough to I make my own Basal changes. I'll calculate it myself. My endocrinologist was like, Oh, you made your own changes. I'm like, Yeah, because here's what's happening. Here's my calculation. Here's what I figured out. You know, does that seem right to you? And she's like, oh, yeah, that's what I would have done. So yeah, we're good. But actually, I mean, anybody can do it. It's not even hard. But you have to know that you can that you that you should that you need to ask or push even for for it. You
Scott Benner 1:11:13
know, what else is hard? For people? It's the, it's the duplication of percentages. I'm saying, I'm not saying that wrong. But there's something about the multiplier that throws people off. So I'm helping a friend right now somebody I know personally, who's, you know, teenage kid hasn't. And kids about 130 pounds, and I'm talking to him, they got the Basal at point four or five. I'm like, that doesn't seem right to me. So kid in his teens growing 130 pounds, like, I don't understand how point four, five could be enough insulin, you know? And they were like, well, yeah, the, you know, the doctor said, we can move like, we tried to move it up a little bit. I was like, how far do you move it they move it like point one at a time. And I was like, I don't know, I'd make the basil of like, one unit an hour. And let's see what happens. Like I'm like, let's, let's just try it and see what happens this afternoon. And, yeah, it was because it was more than double it. I might as well I've said, you know, we should try. Let's hit him in the head with a sledgehammer and see if that fixes it. Like she was scared out of her mind when I said one unit. And I think it's something about the multiplier. Like if I would have said point six, I think that she could have handled, but I mean, but there's and that happens to a lot of people somehow, like oh, that's a that's twice as much. And I'm like, Yeah, but if he needs it, it's not twice as much as the amount of needs and, and lifelong, lifelong type ones. Fight with that, too. Like, I'm gonna find a way to have a conversation just about this. The idea of, I think of myself as a bad diabetic if I'm using too much insulin, but how much is too much, I don't know more than I more than this amount. So they use a little bit have higher blood sugars and higher a one C, but for some reason feel fulfilled because they didn't use much insulin. And then if you get them to use more insulin than they get, then they're like, Oh, this feels weird. There's a guy that was on the show long time ago, who I know won't mind me mentioning his name, who just went through this again, Donnie, he's fantastic, right? He said diabetes a long time. He's an adult. And he told me we were messaging privately. He's like, it seems like so much I have to get over that. It feels like I'm using too much insulin. You're using the amount that your body needs. That's that. Yeah. You know, I don't I don't, I'm not encumbered by that. But a lot of people are.
Lorie 1:13:30
Yeah, people have been scared to death, I guess. So this obviously didn't happen to me when my doctors like, oh, yeah, you know, here's some lamp says you're fine. Just here, just go run. But I guess I meet people who actually, you know, got educated and had help, you know, got scared out of their wits about it. And that's one of the things that I am not afraid of that. And I guess because I had to educate myself on this. Because I mean, I mean, I'm not I'm not all that afraid of it. I mean, I'm like, Well, if my you know, if my Basal is too high, I'm going to notice in the middle of the afternoon, when I'm drifting down for no particular reason. It's hours after I've eaten it's hours before I'm going to eat and I'm drifting down. Why would that be? Well, probably my Basal is too high. I mean, I'm not. Or I'm drifting down in the middle of the night, right? I mean, so you're going to know, but see, I guess. You know, I've never been so low. That because then maybe this because you know, I had a CGM so quick. You know.
Scott Benner 1:14:43
I have to say your low 91. Two arrows down. You've only had diabetes for a couple of years, right? Yeah. You were incredibly calm. Are you alone in your house right now?
Lorie 1:14:54
Um, no, because everybody's my son's still doing virtual school. So he's upstairs. So my husband's working from home too. So he's upstairs, but you were
Scott Benner 1:15:03
you're incredibly calm. Like, what is your blood sugar now? 90
Lorie 1:15:09
is 107.
Scott Benner 1:15:12
Good. I mean, 9095 100 Right there, you're perfect. Like you handled it really well. Most people would have eaten everything. Those arrows, they would have been like, yeah. And then they just would have, you know, most people would be in a situation right now their blood sugar would be 251 arrow up. You know, and then you can't get away from that. But But your point is good, which is that, you know, you got it as an adult, you understood the concepts quickly enough. And so you're not running and you haven't had a bad low, so you're not afraid. And that's not to disrespect people who've lived with this, prior to this technology, who are always just going to have that memory of I passed out in a restaurant. You know what I mean? Like, how are they going to get up? How are they going to shake that? I wouldn't know how.
Lorie 1:15:57
Yeah, I mean, you would have, you know, post traumatic stress disorder from that. I would think, you know, because that would just be Yeah, that would be pretty horrible. I mean, I've had low lows and I have eaten the kitchen before I've done that. It's just
Scott Benner 1:16:13
do you think the Bolus afterwards?
Lorie 1:16:16
Oh, yeah. You know, like, I'm like, Okay, I'm now diagonal arrow up. So now it's time to Bolus right away.
Scott Benner 1:16:23
That's a lot of people can't make that leap.
Lorie 1:16:26
But it is it you know, it's, yeah, it I, I mess it up. I make a lot of mistakes. So maybe that helps. But I don't know.
Scott Benner 1:16:39
You're not afraid to make the mistakes and try to figure it out the next time?
Lorie 1:16:42
Well, you can always I mean, with the CGM. It just gives you a lot of latitude. I mean, I just really feel like it's, that allows me, you know, I would not be doing all of this stuff without a CGM. at all I would, I would be a lot more conservative. So I'm, I don't have to be
Scott Benner 1:17:05
good for anybody who can afford it, or get their insurance to cover it or whatever. I mean, it would be my it would be my absolute advice to get a CGM. Like it just it makes everything a lot easier. Yeah, it really does. Is there anything that we have not talked about, that you were hoping to talk
Lorie 1:17:23
about? Um, you know, I guess the only thing you know, I still I, you know, so I'm, I don't know how this is gonna go. But I'm gonna I'm signed up for Ironman in November. So I'll be doing an Ironman this year. So I've started training for that. And so really, you know, they talked about how triathlon is three disciplines, right, you have the swim, the bike and the run, I got swim, bike and run. And now I have diabetes. So I really have four disciplines in this because I've got to be on top of it for the entire race. So if you're, if you're not familiar, Ironman is a 2.5 mile or 2.4 mile swim 112 mile bike ride, followed by a marathon. And you do that one day. So I have a lot of challenges ahead of me. So I have to try to I mean, people have done this with diabetes, so and some of them have done it successfully. And I am going to try to do it this year, hopefully.
Scott Benner 1:18:36
Have you ever done it before?
Lorie 1:18:37
I know not a full I've done half. I've done marathons and I've done half half Ironman races,
Scott Benner 1:18:45
why are you doing it? Like just to prove to yourself because you want the tattoo? Which is it? Exactly.
Lorie 1:18:52
I don't know I might get the tattoo. I'm actually I'm mostly because I just want to see if I can do it. It's an interesting physical challenge, you know, you know, other races are too, but this is even longer and harder. And it's going to be a really big challenge at diabetes. Hopefully, I won't have to curb sit, which that's, you know, which I have occasionally happens still where you have to sit down, you've had too much insulin on board. When you left the house, you're going to sit on the curb until your blood sugar comes back up and eat Skittles. But, you know,
Scott Benner 1:19:33
so using or using a T slim
Lorie 1:19:37
Yeah, I have a T slim and yeah, yep.
Scott Benner 1:19:43
Did you want to ask? Cuz you mentioned that you had to disconnect at one point. So I was like, okay, tube pump. And then I just thought, yeah, rocket lady, she's gonna have a T slim, not a Medtronic. That was that was my thought process.
Lorie 1:19:57
Yeah, yeah, I really I do like Pretty slim, but yeah, I do disconnect to swim. I've actually swam with it before, which they tell you not to do but it's it's no problem. Okay? They'll tell me you said that. Waterproof and
Scott Benner 1:20:13
people jump in a pool your T slim. And if that was working it's not my fault you call. That's not my fault either. Yeah, call call. I'm not saying that. I've never heard that before. Don't blame me. Thank you goodbye. No, I didn't know you. I said what did they call it? What are proof not what are or what? Oh, I forgot what the terms
Lorie 1:20:33
mean. Exactly. I mean, it's anyway, it's, it's more than splashproof I guess is what I want to say. submerge it. It's kind of be okay. Or mine was maybe it was accidentally okay. They
Scott Benner 1:20:45
call it anyway. They call it watertight IPX seven tested to a depth of three feet for up to 30 minutes. This is from support that tanam diabetes that
Lorie 1:20:57
well, I've tested it longer than that for deeper than that. So.
Scott Benner 1:21:00
Okay, well, they just they're just talking about like, it's peace of mind for their pomp in the event of an accidental submersion. So yeah, yeah. Laurie is just like, whatever. I shoot,
Lorie 1:21:12
I have not I've not dropped it in the toilet. But, you know, I'm sure that's what they were thinking of.
Scott Benner 1:21:17
That kind of an idea. Well, yeah, you know, you're right, that it probably is what they were thinking of, like, how do we how do we keep this thing safer when it takes a swim real quick. That's, that's, that's interesting. Okay. You did you I'm sorry. So you're gonna try this Ironman? How do you how do you practice for it? How do you try to see if you can? Well,
Lorie 1:21:39
I have a long training plan. So you know, the training plan is just like anybody else's training plan. There's nothing special. But you know, I need to be able, during the race to eat and Bolus because I can't, you know, I can't go the entire day. Even though it's intense exercise and long endurance exercise, I will have to eat you can't go all day without eating. And I'm also going to have to Bolus but the Bolus is really different. Right. So you know, it's so I have to I have a lot of things in my training plan that are extra that I put in there, for example, long hikes, I put a couple of long hikes that are you know, eart what I call urban hikes, because I live in near Los Angeles. So what's easier is just a walk out the door and walk down the street, walk a cup, you know, walk for five hours, but, you know, i The idea is that I can practice and figure out how much less Bolus to give myself to account for the exercise. With Basal by itself, I know what to do because I have on my pump I've programmed in reduced Basal for exercise that I do you know, that's shorter that's like on a regular daily basis. But I need to know what how I can Bolus when I have when I'm in the middle of activity. So that I don't over Bolus myself or under Bolus myself.
Scott Benner 1:23:15
Yeah, I would imagine to so that if you aren't going to have a situation where there's active insulin that it doesn't happen while you're in a body of water to
Lorie 1:23:25
well, for the swim. Yeah, so I kind of know what to do at the beginning of the swim because that's first luckily, that's first because I will have my pump with me. I will I'll have my decks calm. But you know, I can't get I won't get readings. So with the swim, I pretty much know I've done that swim distance before by itself. So I know what to do with that. But it's the what I am most worried about really is. I'm worried about you know, the really long bike ride, I'm going to eat like a sandwich. Maybe Maybe twice on the bike, like a small piece of a sandwich, not a big honkin hoagie or anything but like a little sandwich. And you know, I'm, I won't be, I'm gonna have to Bolus and I need to figure out well, how much is protein? Sugar?
Scott Benner 1:24:21
Yeah, it's gonna be interesting. So you're just gonna go out and go on like, kind of intensive hikes and try to test them there.
Lorie 1:24:29
Yeah, and the long bike rides. So there's training bikes and runs that are really long and I have done I did a like a 50k run once and for that. I just kind of snapped the whole time. And so I actually did have to Bolus a couple of times, just for I was just correcting. I was just responding instead of thinking ahead, so I wasn't Pre-Bolus thing I was eating Cheetos. Sorry. Like I can Eat, like I found out, okay, I can eat like eight or 10 Cheetos, you know, the crunchy ones, you know, I could pop those in eat those, and then, you know, maybe 30 minutes later, I could watch what's happening. And then I would correct a little bit, not what I would normally correct from sitting. So I've, you know, that I'm going to have to figure out on and so I've planned in hikes that will help me do that. I think also, the long bike rides, there's lots of long bike rides, where, you know, it's like three, between three and six hour bike rides, there's a lot of those in a training plan. So for those I'll be eating and trying to experiment. And then there's also long runs in the training plans, I'll be training, you know, I'll be trying to figure out how to eat with those as well. And so it's, it's going to be kind of, you know, I don't know, you know, other people have kind of done something similar there. What I, I've learned from I've, one of my internet searches led to type one run. So some of the people that I know they're in on their Facebook page, I was able to kind of get a little bit more information about what other people do for long distance training and racing. And, you know, they're kind of doing the same thing. They're kind of, they're like, Well, I experimented with this or, you know, they may have had other people that said here tried to do this to this to this when you get out of the water from the swim. You know, Bolus, the mist Basal. If you don't, you're going to spike even though you're on the bike, even though you're, you know, you're Yeah, you know, adrenaline is cranking you're, you're and also you've been without Basal for that time. Put it right there Bolus,
Scott Benner 1:26:55
I would be interested to listen, I'm never doing an Ironman. I think you're insane. So keep that in mind. But But I would be inclined to talk about like, how do you tap the Basal back prior to the swim so that you create a black hole of Basal during the swim. So that when you come out of the water, the Basal is immediately back already? And there's a way to do that with timing. Does that make sense to you? So if you're gonna swim from 1pm to 3pm, I'm making up a number. Okay, yeah, for two hours, then I would turn the basil back at 12pm. So that it has time to titrate back so that by the time 1pm comes, you don't have any impact from the basil. And then I'd let that run that Temp Basal, I'd let it run from 12 to one to maybe two or 230, and then have it come back on so that by the time it hydrates back up again, you're out of the water three. Like that's how it would occur to me, I have no idea if that's right or not. But if you asked me to, to make a plan for that, that's how I would think about it.
Lorie 1:28:06
Yeah, I hadn't thought of that. But that would be maybe a good thing to do. I don't, you know, yeah, there might be a better way to do it so that you don't get a spike,
Scott Benner 1:28:15
you're not doing the rob Peter to pay Paul thing, you're just right, you're just kind of you. So I think of doing that as creating a like a pothole or a black hole in the future. So you take the basil away now, so that it's completely gone in the future, when the expected impact is coming. That way, you kind of just sort of float like in a suspension tank instead of dropping down. Yeah, because there's nothing there to there's no insulin there to pull down. So while your body's trying to, because the activity drop your blood sugar, there's no insulin there, so your blood sugar can't drop because there's just not there or can't drop as drastically, right? And then but you have to have it come back on. Because you know, when you set a Temp Basal increase at noon, even if you made it 150% increase, you're not going to start getting the impact from it for a half an hour or more, because it's still just builds up slowly. So you can take it away, slowly create the black hole, put it back in before the swim is over. So the black hole is gone by the time you come out of the water. That's how I think of it. Like I actually thought what you talked about with the swimming this morning. It sounded like you found a way to get through it, but that's not how I would have done it.
Lorie 1:29:29
Okay, yeah, that's true. Um, yeah, there's probably I mean, I'll have to think about how to get that how to do that about it,
Scott Benner 1:29:41
like Pre-Bolus thing. So right, so you Pre-Bolus A meal at 12 because the insulin is going to start working around 1215 And it's really going to start pulling around 1220 1225 And you're going to begin to eat it. I don't know, you know, 1215 So you put the insulin in are always The insulin gets a head start so that when the food starts impacting the insulin is already up to power. With a with a Bolus for activity like this, you take the Basal way so that the Basal is not there. So when the impact of the activity comes, there's nothing there to add to that to that drop. That makes sense.
Lorie 1:30:18
Yeah, that's yeah, that's good. I will. Yeah, let me figure out how to get that done. But yeah, yeah, I think could fire up like, I mean, I can swim with the pump, I can, I mean, I have a little like, waterproof bag thing. I can, I can swim with it. If I could swim it that I could probably get it to also
Scott Benner 1:30:45
don't necessarily need it during that time, either. Because if you temp down before, right, then you could mix then you could bastardize. These two ideas you could tempt down before, bag the pump when you swim, which is I'm assuming what you end up doing with it, and then swim with it off. And then get out, hook it up and do a Bolus instead of a Temp Basal instead of the Basal coming back on before the swim is over. Just put the Bolus in. You'll probably get a similar, you'd probably get a similar thing there. Yeah, I don't know. I'd be interested to hear what you figure out. That's for sure.
Lorie 1:31:21
Yeah, okay. I'll experiment with that. Because even the short swims, I always have a spike. And I know it's coming. So I always get the spike afterwards. Yeah, I get a spike afterwards. So
Scott Benner 1:31:31
coming away while you're swimming? Yeah. Yeah, I hear what you're saying. There's, there's a way Look, it won't be easy to figure out. But there's a way in there somehow. Because in the end, all you're trying to do is put the insulin you need in the places where you need it. Right. That's it. That's all you're trying to do. I kind of think like an engineer, Laurie? Is that what you're saying?
Lorie 1:31:54
Yeah, that's that's what I'm saying. Yeah,
Scott Benner 1:31:58
I'm taking that as a bonus, and we're stopping the episode right here. That's my trophy. What do you think of that? Anyway, I were having a nice time talking. So we're running in the fear of place of going on forever. We've been talking for an hour and a half. But But I want to thank you very much for for doing this. And I tell you that I that your stories is different than most people's. And I really appreciate your sharing, especially. And I know all the people who have had this happen to them, appreciate it as well, because the notes I get from them are they seem kind of desperate to hear from somebody that's in their situation. So thank you very much. Yes, well, thank you very
Lorie 1:32:37
much, too. It was my pleasure, for sure to talk on the on the podcast. I
Scott Benner 1:32:42
appreciate this. I really do. Plus now I'm basically to NASA people in I'm kicking ass on that. Yes, for sure. Doing great. I also think what you do is really cool. So I appreciate I love that there are people wondering about things that are that are so much bigger than than just that day to day stuff. So let's face it to No kidding, I think it's amazing.
Well, first, I have to thank Laurie for being very, very, very patient. 13 months later, this is Lori's episode. Thank you very much Laurie. I am very sorry. I'd also like to thank Ian pen from Medtronic diabetes and remind you to go to ink pen today.com To learn more about the ink pen to find out how much it could cost and to get started. After that you can go to contour next one.com forward slash juice box and get the best darn little blood glucose meter that I've ever used. Contour next one.com forward slash juice box. And if you get the chance and you're a US resident who has type one or cares for someone with type one, head over to t one D exchange.org Ford slash juicebox and take the survey. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.
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