#824 Haaech Bee A1c

Clare has type 1 diabetes and a delightful accent. 

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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 824 of the Juicebox Podcast

Claire is an adult living with type one diabetes, she got the diabetes while she was pregnant, and she has an amazing accent. This is pretty much what you need to know to enjoy this episode. While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan or becoming bold with insulin. If you are a US resident who has type one diabetes, or is the caregiver of someone with type one, please take the survey AT T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box it will take you fewer than 10 minutes. It will help you diabetes research and me it's a trifecta of goodness T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box. Join the registry take the survey. That's pretty much all you have to do. You can do it from your house. Wave unprecedented time left What should I do with it? I'm so indecisive today. Oh hell no, I'm out of time. All right, hold on a second.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is brought to you by touched by type one. This is a terrific organization helping people with type one diabetes, and all they want is for you to check them out on Facebook, Instagram, where it touched by type one.org This will take you look you're on your phone constantly. I know you are okay touched by type one.org Just go look, they're amazing. You're gonna get they're gonna be like, Oh my God, look at all the good stuff they're doing. And that'll be it. Sorry, The podcast is also sponsored today by ag one from athletic greens. With just one scoop of delicious ag one I start my day off every day with a green drink that fuels me and tastes good. Athletic greens.com forward slash juice box.

Clare 2:18
My name is Claire. I'm 35 years old and I was diagnosed with type one diabetes at 26 weeks pregnant.

Scott Benner 2:27
2825 years old.

I'm 3535 Excuse me. Yeah,

how long ago were you pregnant?

Clare 2:34
So that was September 2020. I was 26 weeks pregnant at the time. And I kind of found out by accident. So I went to the doctor and I just kind of mentioned Hey, you know, my skin's really itchy. And he sent me in for some other tests. But at the time, he was like, you might as well do your gestational diabetes test at the same time. So I went and I did that feeling fine. Like I really didn't have any symptoms looking back and and my blood sugar was 20 mm allel an hour after the drink that they give you. So when he seen that he knew right away that it wasn't just gestational diabetes. And when I got into the endocrinologist, she ducked pretty quickly that my mom was celiac. I had thyroid issues, so she kind of knew that everything pointed towards type one right away. So yeah, it was a huge shock. My first pregnancy definitely wasn't something that I was expecting.

Scott Benner 3:42
I guess not. What kind of thyroid you have hypo Hashimotos.

Clare 3:46
Oh, hypo. So I don't like how I found out about the thyroid was before I got pregnant. I just got bloodwork done. And my doctor said that I was borderline and just because it was trying to get pregnant, let's just put you on some medication. And so it was on a really low dose. And that went kind of up in pregnancy. And now it's I think it's like point seven, five, I'm taken daily. So like I'm just I looked up my last thyroid test here. It's 1.76. I don't know if you know what that means. But it's the range. So that's your TSH. That's my T. TSH. Yeah. So it says it's a range. I don't know. It's hard. I think that was the hardest thing for me getting diagnosed was there were so many different opinions from doctors especially that is really hard to know who to listen to and what advice to take

Scott Benner 4:45
what was happening. What were people saying.

Clare 4:48
Like a lot of stuff was kind of like, No, it can't be it's not going to be type one. Like it's likely not going to be type one and just my GP versus what my endocrinologist was See, and even the last time I went to see her was maybe six months ago when she was like, I really just don't think it's type one like it's, you know, you're not on insulin right now. Like, I don't think you know, you might never need it and, and then just from having a hypo, in the hospital I remember when I was in labor, one of the nurses telling me that maybe if I didn't drink as much orange juice, and I kind of looked after my diet, that things wouldn't be so bad, I wouldn't have the diabetes. So that was kind of a shock to the system, because it's all it's all new. And at the time, you don't kind of realize that it's out of your control, you kind of have you hear a nursery doctor tell you something, you tend to take what they say seriously, and it's kinda, you have to develop a thick skin very quickly, I find

Scott Benner 5:44
I have a question, do you drink in a strange amount of orange juice? No, I

Clare 5:49
was just drinking a little bit for a high when I was in labor, in the middle of a pandemic, with a facemask on not knowing what the hell was happening. Um, so it was kind of like not the right time, even if it was something caused by diet to even bring it up.

Scott Benner 6:05
You don't think that was a good time?

Clare 6:09
Like just bedside manners was lacking. And like, typically, I'd be very quick to kind of, you know, talk back, but I think you're a little bit more vulnerable when you're in that situation as well. Right? Well,

Scott Benner 6:19
Claire, is there anything about you like visually, that would make someone think you're not taking care of yourself?

Clare 6:24
No, I don't think so. I mean, unless I'm seeing a different version of myself and everybody else is seeing but I'm pretty healthy day to day and I don't know I think like people as well just sometimes like to have opinions maybe out of self importance and kind of don't use tact and yeah, just when someone's in labor, it's never a good time to say anything to them, like just be kind hold their hands, right?

Scott Benner 6:49
If have to be honest, if someone would have said that to me, or my wife and that situation, I would have been like she's leaving that one right there. Get her out. She's got some rock solid orange juice advice here. But other than that, I think I need her to go wow, that's, that's really interesting. Did that stick in your head? Or was the moment so crazy, you kind of were able to let it go in the moment.

Clare 7:11
Um, I in the moment, I let it go. But after my daughter was born, like that stuck with me, because I think just getting the diabetes in pregnancy. And then another nurse told me that I was having an anxious reaction to it, which I was because like, I was terrified, right? When I find out first, my first concern was like, okay, is my daughter, okay? Like, I need to make sure it seems good with her. And you feel a lot of guilt, right? Because you're responsible for this little life that's growing inside you. So I think it was after it was the postpartum period. And then just because taking insulin during pregnancy was so difficult. It felt like I was constantly trying to keep my bloods up. So when people were trying to like you think you take insulin to to stop the spikes to keep your blood down. For me, it felt like that was like the first kind of 20 minutes. And from then onwards, I was constantly eating to try and keep my blood up. And at the time, I had just kind of come off the internet and everything because I was like, I can't look up any more bad news about diabetes, like this is awful. I was looking in the wrong places. And so I kind of my idea of what it was like to live with diabetes, I think was very skewed by not understanding the challenges in pregnancy. And then after birth, just going through the process of thinking that I needed it and then not needing it anymore. And then just kind of watching my blood constantly because I started having hypose After birth, but I couldn't feel them, right. So I had this new like tiny little baby that was in NICU, and she was okay. But when I was like holding her, I put her back in the car one day, and I injected myself with insulin to have lunch and then all of a sudden my Dexcom has gone off saying I'm at 3.6 and I've taken a load of insulin thinking I'm about to eat, and I didn't feel a thing. So for me that was kind of scary, like not knowing and not to see and how quickly like you could drop that afterwards. So that kind of stuck with me the first few months with Ava then I came off insulin completely. But there was always that fear like this is gonna start again and when will it start? And like my quality of life was so gone for the 10 weeks that I had it during pregnancy, there was a lot of fear around that. So then one day, I think they stumbled like I started looking up on YouTube and you know, like different people's experiences with diabetes, but I couldn't find anybody that kind of had the lifestyle that I had which was like a lot of traveling a lot of hiking a lot of drinking wine with my friends. And then I stumbled across Jill on this podcast, and I was like okay, there's a me like I get this and she had just had a baby and every Thanks. So I think it was from then on I started like, learning a lot more about it and you know how you can manage it and that it is manageable. And for me then that was like the starting point of like, okay, things are gonna be okay, because the future is like unknown right now because I'm not on insulin. But I know that like it's around the corner. I just don't know when

Scott Benner 10:20
Yeah, I want to dig into it a little bit. And I want to find out too, just very quickly, Do you by chance live in the fairytale land of do lock? And was that nurse a gingerbread man? Because that's not

Clare 10:31
JB, but maybe it was just all the others.

Scott Benner 10:36
I think I'm just saying that I love your accent really is but

Clare 10:39
I'm going from Ireland. I live in Canada now. But yeah, that's where my accent is.

Scott Benner 10:46
It's it's lovely. And I just and you're in Canada.

Clare 10:51
Yeah, I'm in Canada in Alberta. I've lived here seven years now. So I came here with my then boyfriend. He's now my husband. And we have our little

Scott Benner 11:01
Canadian. They're nice. And Peter Canadian.

Clare 11:04
Yeah, we made a Canadian, she's a little souvenir.

Scott Benner 11:09
You should have just got one of those pennies, you're rolling through the thing and it flattens out makes the token would have been easier, maybe. So I want to just I want to pick through the entirety of this. So you're, you find out that you have hypothyroidism? Have you ever been tested for the antibodies? That would tell you if it was Hashimotos?

Clare 11:31
I don't believe so. With that, like what benefit would that

Scott Benner 11:36
have would let you know that that's an autoimmune issue.

Clare 11:40
Okay, so it's just something I kind of should look out for my own.

Scott Benner 11:43
Yeah, I might want to know, and and you said there's celiac in your family, or do you have it as well?

Clare 11:48
My mom got diagnosed with celiac disease when she was probably in her late 40s, early 50s.

Scott Benner 11:56
So she has an autoimmune. Anybody else? My aunt

Clare 11:59
has Crohn's. That's autoimmune.

Scott Benner 12:01
Yeah, you.

Clare 12:05
I have the thyroid then. And now I have type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 12:08
But your day, but your diabetes doesn't need insulin?

Clare 12:11
No. So it's L A D A, they call it? Yeah. Okay, yeah. So apparently, it's just a slower progressing version of it. I actually never heard of it. Like I always thought it was just children that got diabetes. And there seems to be like varying speeds that it progresses at. So since I found out I had it, there's different groups. And you know, some people are on insulin right away. Some people go years and years without insulin. So I don't know where I fall. I'm on Metformin. Now the last kind of two months, and that's helped when I got my COVID vaccine, my blood started to kind of go off and they never kind of came back down. So the Metformin is helping I do spike, I wear my Dexcom all the time. So I can kind of see you know, that I do go higher than I want to go. But anytime I get my HBA one seed on, it's usually like around the 5.2. Mark.

Scott Benner 13:11
So what's a spike look like to you? Is it usually after meals or not necessarily?

Clare 13:16
It depends. So if I had like oatmeal on its own, I'd probably go up to maybe like 12 or 13. If I have like a little bit of oatmeal with like peanut butter, and I have some Greek yogurt, I'll probably stick around like the seven or eight, and kind of come back down and probably like sit between five and six

Scott Benner 13:36
here. Because the 13 is like 230. I'm trying to make sure everybody understands the sevens about 126. And a five would be 90. So if you eat certain foods, you go up to a 13, let's say how long does it stay up there?

Clare 13:51
Not long. So I think like the longest I've ever been like pretty high, like maybe a 14 would probably be like two hours. And then it just it comes right back down by itself. So where I'm at now is like I kind of know what to avoid to keep my blood in range. And I can do that, like I've gone through everything because you heard some people say and like this was hard, as well as like go low carb. And for me, especially now because we want to have another baby, I'm really nervous about the fact that I'm not on insulin because I don't know what's going to happen those first weeks and there seems to be a lot of stuff out there. Like if you eat low carb, it's really good to prolong your honeymoon, it'll you know, help you and then there's other people saying well, low carb is really bad if you're trying to get pregnant. So I'm kind of just somewhere in the middle right now. Like I would eat I think like a moderate amount of healthy carbs. And then I obviously just have treats like the odd time I'll have like a couple of beers or ice cream or something knowing that that will spike me but that it will come back down pretty quickly.

Scott Benner 14:56
Is the plan that one day when it doesn't come back down quickly you start using insulin.

Clare 15:01
Yeah, I mean, my endocrinologist has been really clear with me that like insulin is definitely in my future. It's just that she doesn't know how far away that will be. She said, like, because I got the autoimmune like the antibody test on so I have the guard antibodies. So she said like, it's just a case of time, but they don't know like, that could be 10 years, it could be a year like there's no way to tell.

Scott Benner 15:26
Right? Okay, what made you want to come on the podcast.

Clare 15:33
The big thing for me was because like, I was so distraught, just because of how how I felt on when I was pregnant with the insulin, like, I felt feel like at the time, like I couldn't exercise I couldn't, you know, do all the things that I wanted to do, because my blood was just constantly going down. And I really felt at the time that like, Oh, God, like, my quality of life is gone, like, what am I gonna do? It took me like one recommendation to hear the podcast, just to kind of have a change in perspective and understand that like things were going to be okay. So I think just for me, like there might be somebody, there might just be like one person out there in the same situation. And maybe they just need to hear that someone else has been through the same thing or find something like relatable between our stories and just kind of know, like that there's support and that there, there is like a light at the end of the tunnel, like being pregnant isn't the best time to get diagnosed? I think with anything. Yeah. You know, and especially because you go through all these like postpartum issues as well. And at the time, you don't realize that your hormones are going completely crazy. And but just I think it's just really helpful. And anybody that I hear of now that, you know, I know that they have diabetes, or that they're struggling with diabetes, I'm like, You need to listen to the Juicebox Podcast, like just listen to it. And you just, I just, I don't know, I think it's like before diabetes, like you'd really want to meet like a rock star, somebody famous. And I'm like, Oh, my God, I get to meet like, the owner of the Juicebox Podcast, like this is amazing, right? Like, you're like Barney. Oh.

Scott Benner 17:11
Well, I appreciate that. Because Because you're Irish. And because you said Bondo. That seems like it's a big deal to me. Well, thank you, I, it's an honor to meet you as well. I'm very happy to hear your story. And I, I want to understand a little more. So 26 weeks, what's the first sign that make somebody think you have gestational at that point.

Clare 17:34
So looking back now, I would wake up in the middle of the night, thirsty, maybe for about two weeks before I went to the doctor. But I had two colleagues around me at the same time that were pregnant, and they were thirsty all the time. They needed to pee all the time. They were tired all the time. And so I didn't really know anything, like I wasn't tired. I had good energy. When I say I was thirsty, it was like I'd wake up in the middle of the night once need to go to the washroom and drink water. And that would be me fine until the morning. It was the itchy legs that kind of sent me to the doctor. And he it was honestly all by chance. Like he thought it was something to do with my liver. And he just said, Hey, get your diabetes bloodwork done at the same time. And then because it came back high, he was like, Okay, we need to look at this further.

Scott Benner 18:28
How much did your legs itch?

Clare 18:30
I'm like, they were pretty bad. Actually. Yeah, I kind of felt like my skin was crawling. And apparently that's like common, there's some condition you can get with your liver in pregnancy that can cause that. But like a lot of people and that's another thing, like just trust your gut, because a lot of people were like, oh, hn is normal and pregnancy. It's fine. It's just part of it. But I think that probably was a symptom of the diabetes just kind of coming through.

Scott Benner 18:55
Were you retaining a lot of water? No, no,

Clare 18:58
no, no, honestly, like the week before I was diagnosed, I was up at 5am in the morning and I didn't get to bed I think until like midnight that night and I was like active like there was I was flying it like I was in the best health of my life. So I wasn't expecting or anything to be going on underneath the surface.

Scott Benner 19:19
Well you got lucky with a doctor being so thorough. So

Clare 19:23
so so lucky. And even just like with my endo because I've I've known of a lot of people since then that are either toll is just gestational and it's kind of forgotten about and I know of an awful lot of people as well that are given the wrong diagnosis of type two. So they spend years kind of battling with diet and you know, trying to sort it out thinking it's, you know, something to do with what they're doing when it's actually just misdiagnosed type one as well. So I was really blessed.

Scott Benner 19:54
Yeah, no, I mean, that's what I keep thinking when you're talking like this guy could have said, Oh, she's probably just retaining water and And you're itchy and whatever. Or you just said, Oh, okay, well, let's go test for this thing that he was thinking about about the liver. And then that would have come back negative and he would have been like, Oh, your legs edge. But instead, man went for it, like just did the right thing.

Clare 20:12
He knew, but so it's really weird because when I got my first visit with him, he was like, so let's talk about your liver. And I was like, What are you talking about? And he was like, Oh, your hepatitis? And I was like, No, I don't have hepatitis. Like, I know I don't I've had the injections. Like I've traveled all over the world. And but he was actually like, a consultant like a specialist. And I guess somebody messed up a blood results, and got confused. So I landed in with him, so it was just funny how it worked out that he was a specialist in pregnancy with conditions. And that's probably why he picked up on that as well. So quickly,

Scott Benner 20:51
did they say cholestasis? When they were talking about your liver? Maybe I can't even remember the only thing I can find while you're talking kolesar c h o l e s t a s is of pregnancy is a liver condition that occurs in late pregnancy conditions apparently

Clare 21:10
it's common. Yeah,

Scott Benner 21:13
intense itching without a rash. How about that?

Clare 21:16
Yeah. So well then it's your first pregnancy so you've no idea what's going on. Like you're really just kind of on a wing and a prayer right? Yeah.

Scott Benner 21:23
But it's so when they get your blood sugar under control. So when they get your blood sugar under control to the itching go away?

Clare 21:33
Yeah, it did it did when I was on insulin. And it hasn't really come back I had it back for a little while and postpartum but I think that was just hormones. Like just dry skin.

Scott Benner 21:44
Okay. So once he gets this test back, he starts you on what what what's the medications like? Use a Basal insulin or just a long acting

Clare 21:56
on faster actin? Yeah, so I met with the endocrinologist in the hospital the same day. I think when I was diagnosed my HPA once he was like a point eight.

Scott Benner 22:16
Look, if you're anything like me, you eat like a monster, a garbage monster. And then you lie to yourself and you say no, I fine. Well, I realized one day, that's not true. And I should stop acting like it is. If I'm not going to eat the way I'm supposed to. At least I could take a green drink. That would help me and I tried a couple and they tasted like hot garbage. So I stopped doing it until I found ag one from athletic greens. And I'm sweating. I'm sweating on a stack of Bibles. It tastes good. And trust me if it didn't, I wouldn't be able to drink it. I am that person. Anyway, ag one is lifestyle friendly. Where the Eat keto paleo vegan, dairy free or gluten free. It has less than one gram of sugar per serving no GMOs, no nasty chemicals or artificial anything's. It supports better sleep quality and recovery. And I take it because I don't think I'm getting enough vitamins in my diet. To make things even more interesting for you athletic greens is going to give you a free one year supply of immune supporting vitamin D, and five free travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athletic greens.com forward slash juice box. Again, that's athletic greens.com forward slash juice box, take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. That's what I did. You could do it too. There are links in the show notes of your podcast player. And links at juicebox podcast.com. To Athletic Greens touched by type one and all of the sponsors. When you use my links, you're telling the advertisers that you found out through the podcast. And when you do that, they keep buying ads and when they keep buying ads, I get to keep making the podcast and you get to listen to the podcast for free in that great athletic greens.com Ford slash juicebox touched by type one.org a second ago when I said that's what I did. And you could do it too. I heard the Tony Stark quote from the original Iron Man movie. That's how that did it. That's how America does it. And it's worked out pretty well so far. Anyway that has nothing to do with this. Let me get you back to Claire

Clare 24:24
when I was diagnosed my HPA when she was like 8.8 So like not like hugely over I think they say like dunk over seven when you're trying to get pregnant, I believe is what you're kind of tools. And so they started me on long action, short action right away. And my goal was to get under 6.8 mm oh well, two hours after eating. So like I would eat my blood would spike but as long as it would come under the 6.8 after eating I was told that was okay, but now I'm kind of like, like I didn't know by Pre-Bolus And I didn't know about like, there was no kind of you know, play around with your insulin like figure it out yourself and I was very much just kind of like doing what I was told but then constantly feeling like I was trying to keep balls in the air that was my blood sugar and it was just it was always dropping like I couldn't I remember one day just even going across the road to go into winners and I was finally in the office. And then I was having like a Hypo before even got to the door of winners. So that's it was just like constantly up and down. There was no balance.

Scott Benner 25:33
Can I be honest with you for a second? Yes, Your accent is so delightful that I have trouble even wanting to ask you a question. I'm just so happy listening to you speak. And I know that this is not something you're aware of. But some but you're listening. You're not the first person I've spoken to with an Irish accent right? My favorite thing about it is when you say ah ba one C because it comes out hey ah ba ba and see like that God say for everybody right now.

Clare 26:01
Hey, HBA one see,

Scott Benner 26:03
I love it. It's my favorite thing.

Clare 26:05
That's hilarious because I think I sound like a 12 year old like me voices. So I

Scott Benner 26:10
guess it sounds like you're about to grant me a wish in a field. Right? Yeah. Oh God. But, but it's the hit like if I just spell it. It's like H AECH H. And then the B is like B E but it goes on forever. And then the a one C comes out very quickly. Do it one more time.

Clare 26:32
haich D A one see my best thing you've made

Scott Benner 26:35
my whole day. Thank you for I don't even care if your story's true at this point. Although What an odd thing to make up. Right, yeah. So you make it through the last month of the pregnancy pretty well, I guess their expectations were, I'm guessing that they're not going to teach you the ins and outs of diabetes that that much and you've only got a couple more months to go. And that they probably imagined that when you're I don't know, they're not thinking, are they thinking Lada? Or are they? Are they thinking type one at that point, like I'm trying to figure out when they get here,

Clare 27:10
they didn't really know like, they had no idea what would happen and yeah, they weren't because the first hypo that I had was really horrible. And I didn't know like what to expect and and frightened to me. So for a long time, I was more afraid of hypos than spikes. Yeah. And so I think, you know, like, the nurses were really supportive, and they kind of just kind of got me through at a safe level. And we knew that my daughter was okay. You know, she wasn't like too much overweight, like, Thank God, all of her Oregon's like, everything was fine. And so they just got me kind of through the pregnancy, the labor was really easy. Like, I didn't know any different. They just hooked me up to a drip. Like, I didn't even look up my blood sugar. They were monitoring it, and it was fine. And, and then after birth, my blood was spiking when I was eaten. So they had me, you know, oh, so that's the other thing like towards the end of pregnancy, my insulin resistance, obviously, like just dropped, so my insulin needs dropped. So they brought me into the hospital thinking it was a placental failure. But I guess it was just that towards the end of the pregnancy, you don't need as much insulin. And so I think I was like, down to like one unit of long acting. Yeah, that's

Scott Benner 28:23
been everybody's story so far right as it as it begins to end, and then boom, a lot of the ladies say that as soon as you deliver the placenta, your insulin needs change.

Clare 28:33
Yeah, so that was and then but I went straight back on insulin after birth, because I was eating and my blood was spiking. And then all of a sudden, a couple of days later, like I was just going low all the time. So they took it off me completely. And I still like I go through phases, like I'll go through like maybe a couple of weeks where my blood just retire like after my COVID vaccination, it was running higher. And you know, if I'm sick, I run higher. If I'm stressed, I can run higher. So it's kind of just like riding the waves and just kind of see kind of what happens

Scott Benner 29:06
to me again, in the process, where did the antibody testing happen?

Clare 29:10
Right away, like literally the day that I went into my endo because they knew just because of the autoimmune diseases and then she also said, just kind of by looking at me, I didn't like I was pretty slender. And so they kind of thought like, just to search for type one right away.

Scott Benner 29:27
No, and I remember you saying that now. It just It slipped my mind first. You really are you have me at a disadvantage. Because I if we went on a date, I would just be like, Oh, it's fine. Claire, say whatever you want. I'm just gonna sit here. I have a hard time wanting to even speak while you're speaking. English. My husband felt like he's not gonna do that. But that's a cause to him. You sound like his mom. Probably.

Clare 29:49
I probably do. Yeah, there's a lot of Yeah.

Scott Benner 29:54
Yeah, to me, it's just delightful. I you know, I feel like Shrek and Donkey are gonna walk out of the woods. sooner we're all gonna go on an adventure together. It's really fantastic. Yeah. It's wonderful. The Metformin, when did they like when did that start?

Clare 30:10
That started two months ago. So just Yeah, after the COVID vaccination my bloods kind of yours just sticking around like the 10 Mm, oh well Mark constantly. And that was maybe kind of for a period of two weeks. So they were my endo was just open to try and metformin because it kinda like it has helped other people with La da. And it has helped me like I definitely I'm back in the range I was before starting it and I even kind of eat like I'll get away with having a slicer tools on its own now, whereas beforehand that would kind of Spike me so I haven't had any side effects with it or anything, it's just been easy for me to take

Scott Benner 30:53
he went, he went right to the Metformin, he didn't say maybe more insulin, or did you not use more insulin because you're still experiencing times when you don't need it.

Clare 31:02
I'm still experiencing times where I don't need it. And also, like, I don't really, I want to avoid going on insulin just for as long as I can. Like, I have a really busy toddler right now like she's running around everywhere. I know that if I started on insulin now like my blood still goes like there's sometimes my blood is down like at five or like 4.8. So I just feel like, I'd rather go on insulin with my blood is higher than I kind of know that I needed. And maybe I don't have to deal with hypose as much because they kind of frightened me a little bit.

Scott Benner 31:39
It's interesting, isn't it? How this process changes you because a 4.8 is an ad six. And if I was wearing a CGM, and my blood sugar was always at six, I'd be so happy. Yeah, right. But it's

Clare 31:53
not always like it'll go there for a little while. And then it's usually kind of around the five and six mark.

Scott Benner 32:00
Right. But your your concern is I'm imagining that if you were using insulin, you would, it would be difficult for you to maintain this, this 4.8. And that you might get start getting low at a time where you're trying to raise so you're just kind of trying to cheat the system for a little while, right? Like,

Clare 32:17
why not cheat the system for a little while, like I just I want to, you know, like, learn how to be a mum first when my daughter like that was the biggest thing as well after birth was just not having to manage learning about insulin whilst trying to learn how to be a mother. That's kind of where I was at. And just like the freedom as well, right that I have now like, go go for drinks with my husband. And like, I know that once I start insulin, there'll be a learning curve there that I'll have to learn how to navigate all those different things in my life. So yeah, that's kind of like, the longer I can avoid it, the better.

Scott Benner 32:55
So are you? What's my question? It seems like you're in a really interesting place, right? Because someone's told you look, at some point, you're gonna have type one diabetes full blown. But for now, it's it. I mean, it's Lada. So it's taking forever and ever but one one day, you're gonna have that that insulin need. Is that comforting? And you're slipping into it slowly? Or is it upsetting, and you wish it would have just come on all at once, three years from now.

Clare 33:26
After the birth of my daughter, the first six months, it was really upsetting because I had my CGM and I was always watching my blood go off. And if it spiked at all, I was kind of thinking oh my god, tomorrow is going to be the day tomorrow is going to be the day I'm not ready. Now I've just gotten more used of the idea of it and and kind of grateful for the time that I have now that I don't have to kind of stress about it. Yeah.

Scott Benner 33:55
How long did it How long did it take for the panic part to go away?

Clare 33:59
Oh, gosh, like a good six months after and my daughter was born for sure. Like because I felt guilty for her as well. Like I was struggling with nursing and then oh gosh, some other nurse had said to me like you know if you breastfeed like it's really gonna help like her maybe not get diabetes down the road and that kind of thing. And of course, like I believed that straight up so I killed myself to make sure that I could nurse her and so I just yeah I'm the fear as well around her getting it was kind of was pretty strong. But I think as well, you know, that's, I might have never had diabetes and still felt like that like that could have just been postpartum and the middle of the pandemic, so, but I definitely think like, it just makes you stronger as a person as well and more appreciative like one thing I'm very glad about is that I know how vulnerable your health is earlier on in life rather than finding out about something when you're 60 or 70. Like I try to live more purposeful now and I kind of tried to Appreciate what I have rather than kind of worrying about silly things. And so yeah, I don't know. Like, there's good and bad to it.

Scott Benner 35:09
Yeah. Were you breastfed as a baby? No, no. I see.

Clare 35:14
No, I wouldn't have been. But I mean, like, once I kind of realized that, like, Look, if breastfeeding George diseases like, half the population wouldn't be sick, right? Yeah,

Scott Benner 35:25
there's that thing, right? Like, it's everywhere. You know what I mean? Like, you see, like, I don't know, you see something or like, yeah, there's this tea drink every all the famous people in Hollywood drink. It's why they're so thin. I'm like, well, that if that was the answer, you just think we all don't know about that. Exactly, exactly. Not that it's wrong to do. I mean, breastfeeding is wonderful. It's just to your point. It's not it. I mean, there are plenty of people in the world who have diabetes and were breastfed. So

Clare 35:53
exactly. So. But yeah, and then after that kind of six months, I kind of got a little bit more used to but I do get nervous. I have bloodwork coming up now next week. So I always kind of get a little bit anxious about that just beforehand to see like, Is this the time that I'll go back on insulin? But I don't know. Like it is what it is, right? There's definitely worse things to have.

Scott Benner 36:16
Yeah. Have you reconciled yourself with the fact that the big shift hasn't come yet?

Clare 36:23
At moments, yes. And then there's other moments that I panic, and I'm like, I'm not ready, I'm not ready. So I'm like, I tend to kind of overvalue things. So we're going on holidays back to Ireland soon. And I'm like, this has to be the best trip ever. Because this might be my last trip home without insulin, and I kind of turned them into, like, you know, put too much pressure to make them into really big good events, and then I just kind of need to talk it out with my husband, and he's like, look like, you're still gonna have the good holiday on insulin, like, you're still gonna do all the things you want to do. It's just gonna be a learning curve. So yeah, it's just, I mean, I think that's just human nature as well, right? Like, you get a bit panicky about the unknown.

Scott Benner 37:04
It's funny how we ascribe like, I don't know, like it was better here, or, you know, I want to do it this way. Without that, or I mean, that's just an interesting, you're gonna have plenty of holidays, they're gonna be just as wonderful as the one you're about to have. And you'll, and you'll have them and you'll be, you know, you'll be using insulin and have type one. And it'll be the way that you know, other people think of it, you'll be using basil all the time, and injecting for everything you eat, and, and you're still going to have a wonderful vacation.

Clare 37:35
That's it. And I think that's where the podcast helped as well, because my version of diabetes was always just up and down, up and down, up and down. So then when I started listening to people's stories, and seeing that, like, they could live their day to day lives and just stay steady. I was like, oh, it's not actually what I think it is. Right? Like, I didn't actually realize that it was something you could have a totally normal life with. Like, when I was pregnant, I thought, Okay, this is it, I literally just have to try and keep my blood up for the rest of my life. Like, that's what I'm gonna spend my time doing. But I didn't realize like, there was hormones at play. And there was all these other like, skills that you could do like Pre-Bolus and and just reducing your basil if you're exercising and all this kind of stuff, ya

Scott Benner 38:19
know, it's, it sucks. Because because that is at its core right now what diabetes is like, once you get type one, and you're given insulin, and someone doesn't tell you how the insulin works, you're already mismatched, you're unbalanced, right? Like, you're gonna see spikes and crashes and spikes and crashes. And then that only has to happen for a certain certain amount of time before you accept it is your reality. And then if you don't have a physician who will step in and say, no, no, no, it's it's not it doesn't need to be like that. We just have to, we have to move some things around here and make it work better than that's it you often live your life like that. And you can spend that is, I mean, you've watched it over and over again with people who have come on who've had diabetes for decades. It's it's draining it takes it out of you, and eventually you lose your fight. And then

Clare 39:10
that's like what I couldn't imagine because like we were backpackers, like we love traveling to like far flung places. And I at the time as well, everyone was like, you know, you're going to be a mom, like, Oh, this is going to change but that wasn't registered. And in my head, I was like, how am I going to go to like South America and like, carry my insulin and be up and down all the time and not be like I really thought like, Oh my God, my life has changed forever. Yeah. So then it was kind of just when I went on, I think as well like on the internet, like there's a lot of bad stuff and a lot of you know, stuff you should just stay away from like it was so refreshing to just find the podcast and hear people that had strategies like actual strategies to get over the hurdles and there was something you could do about it. You just weren't listening to people. Like complain about how how hard it was like there's ways to fix it. So I think that was really helpful.

Scott Benner 40:04
Yeah, I think in fairness, I take your point, and I agree with you. But in fairness to the internet, everyone's just exchanging their experiences, right? They're just saying, This is what's happening to me right now. And you know, we just talked about it a second ago, the up and down nature and not knowing how insulin works. And that feeling faded completely. Like this is just what's going to happen. That's, that's people getting into that spot, and then going out online and being like, I can't believe this is what my life is. Yeah. And the problem is the next newly diagnosed person that sees that thinks, oh, we'll see. That is what diabetes is. Yeah. And then there's a different group of people who I'm trying hard to influence, which, you know, I want them to say, oh, it turns out if I Pre-Bolus my meal a little better understand how insulin works, or how fat impacts your blood sugar like these things. That doesn't need to be the case. I mean, you're still putting in all the same work, you just have to put it in different places. So you get better outcomes. It's just, it's just the nature of the internet. So you can't be not that you're mad, but you can't be upset that people share their, their wonky experiences, because it's the same platform that allows me to share my experiences.

Clare 41:16
Yeah, it means be helpful. Maybe like when you get the little booklet that you get from the hospital, like the first line is just like go to the Juicebox Podcast. That would probably just help everybody.

Scott Benner 41:28
Theory. Nice to say that if you would just use some of your LepreCon magic and make that happen. Sure, diabetes. Yeah. You don't seem willing to do that. So it's fun. Where what are some places you've hiked that you just were like, Oh, I can't do this anymore.

Clare 41:43
Well, because I would like go low just by walking like, we're where we are in Alberta. We're right beside the Rocky Mountains. So we we would hike up there a lot. Like we are for our honeymoon, we were in the Middle East. And like I remember reading about Syria, we we visited Syria when we were going through there and just like people, like if you have diabetes there, you most people don't have access to insulin, like they don't have access to the care that they need. And I just like that hits you as well. Like, especially when you have a child and you're like, oh my gosh, like I'm so lucky that I live where I live that I have access to you know what I have access to because there's people I get agents like That's disgraceful in this day and age as well, that there are people that don't have access to the care that they need to help them with a disease. It's like all over the world. But for me, I was like, Well, I can't imagine go back to these places on holidays now, but yeah, we'll see. I mean, I've a toddler now. So I can't really imagine going anywhere on a peaceful holiday.

Scott Benner 42:44
It's not gonna happen. Yeah, it's your life's over. I mean, you understand, right?

Clare 42:50
Like, I was like daydreaming I was like, Oh, I'd love to be by a pool in Mexico. And I was like, No, that would actually be horrific.

Scott Benner 42:56
Think of having a baby, as a job that lasts like, I'm gonna say, like, 25 years at its real core. And that you're always thinking like, oh, I can't wait till the weekend comes. But then the weekend never comes. Right. And then one day where I'm at right now, believe it or not, I'm there. This is the weekend for me. My son is graduating from college in three days. And you're probably heartbroken. Oh, it's a whole thing's terrible. First of all, you shouldn't be this old and this shouldn't be happening. And I don't want him to leave and go places and all that stuff. That's not my point. My point is, is that if I'm at the weekend, I got there, right. I had a baby. 22 years ago. I've been waiting for the weekend. The weekends here. It's still not a weekend. It's still not. Yeah, the weekends never coming. Unless you're gonna go get loaded somewhere and check out and ignore your children. This is the game Claire. So that's

Clare 43:49
not gonna Yeah, no, I wouldn't change it for the world, though. Like it is. It's the best thing and even knowing like, if I was to do it all over again and know that I was gonna get diabetes. Like I would do it 100 times over.

Scott Benner 44:01
I agree with you. I would I would as well. I mean, do you think the pregnancy threw you into the Lada?

Clare 44:09
Like, nobody can tell me like, I know that my blood work was normal in previous years. I guess. Like, I mean, you pee on a stick, like 500 times when you're pregnant, right? Like nothing ever came up about high blood sugar. So I really don't I have no idea. Like maybe it was just there in the background. I know your incident requirements go up when you're pregnant. Or maybe the pregnancy just triggered it like I don't

Scott Benner 44:33
know. Sure. It's funny. I mean, we don't think of it that way. Like some some people get gestational and then never develop diabetes afterwards. So yeah, so yeah, I don't know. It's an interesting thing. I'm gonna have to see if I can find out I mean, we talked about all kinds of other things that you know, move your move your immune system towards, you know, doing the wrong thing. I've never heard anybody say pregnancy before, but maybe yeah,

Clare 44:57
I don't I have no idea. I'm interested like I I'm interested to see what will happen my next pregnancy and like what that will look like after as well. But I think you just kinda, we'll just have to figure it out as we go along.

Scott Benner 45:11
Yeah, I see you're gonna do this again.

Clare 45:13
Oh, I'm gonna do it again. Yeah, definitely. So yeah, I don't know, like, I know that the first kind of few weeks of pregnancy or, or the critical part just when the organs and stuff are forming. So I've gotten ginger, I forget her second name, but I've gotten her book about diabetes and pregnancy. So I'm studying that. And I'm trying to prepare myself and we'll just hope for the best.

Scott Benner 45:37
Yeah. And, and Jenny's the co author on that book, I believe.

Clare 45:42
Yeah, yeah. So I know, like, I might actually reach out to them and just see if they've had any similar kind of patients that take might be able to help me along a little bit to navigate it. And but yeah, it's just I suppose it's just totally out of control. Like I don't know if my blood sugars are going to stay as they are early in pregnancy, if they'll go high, if they'll know. But like, my endo was really good on my diabetes educator. They're a phone call away all the time. So that's reassuring.

Scott Benner 46:09
Are you have you had that thought? Like, should we sneak a baby in right now before this thing goes haywire? Or would you prefer that you had kind of full blown type one and you knew how to manage it before you got pregnant? Um,

Clare 46:23
I think we're gonna, so I'm gonna wait till we come back from Ireland because they don't want to be in another country and having to navigate it. And then we're probably going to because I'm 35. So I don't want to wait, like too much longer. And I think I don't really have a choice. Like I'd probably prefer to be on insulin and navigate in it and understand it, but I'd rather like I want another baby. It took us a little while to get pregnant with my daughter now, so I don't I don't know how long it would take. So we're just gonna jump right into it.

Scott Benner 46:55
Oh, does that that's not a euphemism. You mean it? You're getting right to it? Yeah. Wow. Well, good for your husband. I mean, that's nice.

Don't know, I the last time we made a baby. It happened so quickly. I felt ripped

Clare 47:14
off. Like he just sneezed and it happened.

Scott Benner 47:18
I was like, come on. That's not fair.

Clare 47:21
Yeah, right. I've heard a few people say that.

Scott Benner 47:24
This felt like a shakedown to me. I was like, nevermind, even if we just started a number of days later. I might have at least gotten a month out of it. You don't need me. Yeah, yeah. was just too soon. Boom. Pregnant. Great. Perfect. All right. Well, anyway, I'm waiting for that weekend to come back to it's not coming either, Claire.

Clare 47:45
No, no. Here's to tired all the time.

Scott Benner 47:49
Oh, well. That sounds like your response. I understand. I don't feel that way. There's nothing that I could never be too tired. Claire, do you understand what I'm saying?

Clare 48:00
You can never be too.

Scott Benner 48:03
I've tried to explain before. I think it's been a long time since I said this. But if I was in the middle of a mall, and my mom was there, and my wife was like, Do you want to have sex? But we have to do it in front of all these people, including your mom. I'd be like, Yeah, sure. Oh, God. I'm sure I really wouldn't need to worry about that scenario. I'm sure I really wouldn't. But I feel like I could is what I'm trying to say. Nevertheless, it's over now Claire, I'm old and the boys old and the girls old Arden's go into her prom this weekend. And

Clare 48:36
so crazy. It just goes by so fast. Like that's the thing that I can't believe about it like one second, you've got a little baby curling up in your chest, and the next minute, they're, I don't know, like trying to drink out of the toilet bowl or whatever. You're crazy.

Scott Benner 48:52
Well, I can I can share with you that a couple of weeks ago, my son played his last undergrad baseball game for college like he might keep playing after this. But it was his last college baseball game of his you know, his undergraduate as first four years. And the next day I woke up Saturday. He's still at school, and I'm at home. And I'm distraught, like genuinely distraught because he's been playing baseball since he was like three. And now he's 22. And the end the season ended on a day they didn't think it was going to end on SO. His last at bat, for example, I didn't know was going to be his last at bat. And I found myself thinking like all the bizarre things that people think like had I just known I would have. I don't know I would have watched it differently or like I don't even know what I would have done but I felt like I didn't do the right thing because I wasn't aware that it was over. And no

Clare 49:49
it's the pairing felt like you feel like you wish I remember when a like my daughter was little I would wish away the middle of the night. It's like you'd be up for hours you'd be crying And then it's over. And then you're like, oh my gosh, like, I wish I knew that was the last night or like, I wish I could have this back again at the time. You're just trying to get through

Scott Benner 50:09
it to your exact point, Claire, if someone woke me up at two o'clock in the morning tonight and out of a dead sleep, and handed me a six month old Cole or Arden, it would be the best thing that ever happened to me. Yeah, you know, it's crazy. So I'm so I go for a ride the next day to kind of try to clear my head. And on my way home, I passed the field where my son played baseball when he was little when he was six years old. And it's a park and I pulled in. And I kind of sat there from and I got out I went for it was a nice day, I went for a walk around the fields. And I must have lingered, because I'm going back to my car. This gentleman says to me, can I help you? And he was there with his kid getting ready for a baseball game. And I said, No, I just saw my son just played his last baseball game. And I'm just here remembering when he was six. And I pointed to a son as like your, like your son's age. And I said, I'm gonna say something completely just trite to you that I said, it goes so much faster than you think it's going to. Yeah. And he's like, I know people say that. And I said, you don't know. You know, like, I don't I must have sounded. I don't know how I sounded to be perfectly honest. I said, I know. Like, cognitively you think you understand what I'm saying? But you don't. And you're going to be standing here before you know it where I am. So um, you know, I didn't say this. But I in my mind, I was like in hell, I'm gonna be dead. You know, like, like, by the time that kid that guy's kid is playing his last college baseball game. I'm gonna be like 75 And try not to pee before I get to the bathroom. So anyway, the whole thing sucks, Claire. That's what I'm telling.

Clare 51:54
It's so crazy. Like you spend so much of your life just wishing time away. Like you're always wishing for the next best thing. And then like, all of a sudden, you're like, Whoa, wait a second. Yeah,

Scott Benner 52:04
time and reality, don't dive in. Like, you can't make sense of them together. So and you're never going to know until you know, and when you figure it out, it's going to be too late. So

Clare 52:17
that's a one thing like with the kind of silver lining is that I do appreciate life a lot more now in the little things. And just you know how important it is to take care of yourself and like, like, treat yourself well. And don't always be like, wait until you get to the next day. The next best thing or the next big thing, like just take it all in because like it just kind of taught me to like value my health a lot more as well.

Scott Benner 52:42
Yeah, I think that people imagine that there's something better or more complete over the horizon. Yeah. And then every time they get to the top of the hill, they see another hill.

Clare 52:55
You just keep moving the goalposts on yourself.

Scott Benner 52:57
Yeah, yeah, I guess one of the best ways I can explain it is, I feel fortunate that I had to hold Arden's hand so much in the middle of the night to check her blood sugar. Yeah, because I got to see your hand get bigger over time. Yeah. And it's not so

Clare 53:15
lonely. Yeah. To be so proud of me. Now. I love him. Because anytime I hear anything about little kids or anything, I always just get so emotional. He's always laughing. I'm even I'm like the law of like, your heart just expand so much like it's crazy.

Scott Benner 53:28
It's an experience that people don't have. And I only have it because of diabetes. Yeah, that's it. I've held my daughter's hand, probably almost every day of her life. And, and I've noticed it get heavier and her fingers get longer and it changed and look more mature. And it's an experience I have that other people don't get and most of the people listening to this podcast get to have that experience. But I wonder if they appreciate it.

Clare 53:57
Is it scary for you now seeing her go out into the world like with the diabetes as well or, like I can't imagine my daughter going into the big bad world, let alone kind of having something to manage like that all the time.

Scott Benner 54:11
I'm excited. Because I think she can do it. And I'm a little I'm a little confident because I think I can help her if she can't. Yeah, you know, and she's so like, you really don't know Arden but she's so like forward in a good way. Like she's moving forward constantly. And doesn't matter if she's got health problems or if things aren't going well. She doesn't sit back and curl up in a ball very often like she she's moving forward. She's this thing she's excited about. She's excited to go see if she can learn it like she actually picked something to go to college for that. I don't know that she's 100% Certain is going to work out But she's gonna go try. And my only concern at this point is that the things that she doesn't know about diabetes, because they only happen when she's asleep, that I, that there's no good way to explain them to her like, I'm still looking for the way to explain to her that once a month, for reasons that I still can't nail down her blood sugar goes into the 50s. And it won't move. Yeah, and that I have to give her more carbs than normal to get it back up. And that this is a thing that happens at two o'clock in the morning. And she's going to need to do that, and then she'll be tired the next day. And that if she over treats the low, it's going to, it'll ruin the entire next day. And like, like, I don't know, if I should just let her experience it, and then hope that she adjust to it. Or if I should try to explain it to her ahead of time, I think I'm going to try to explain these things. So at least when they happen, maybe she's like, Oh, this is the thing he talked about with the getting low, you know, or something like that. But overall, I'm not nearly as upset as I, as I imagined I was going to be when she was younger, which is again, what we're talking about here like I was, you know, I think there's an episode of the podcast that I titled worry is a waste of imagination. Because when you're worrying about something, unless it's literally standing in front of you, if you're imagining a thing that you think might happen, and very often it they never happen. And you waste now worrying about later. And then when you get to later, there's a real thing to worry about. That's not the thing you imagined. And I think I did that with diabetes a little bit. And I don't know,

Clare 56:41
it's hard not to do that though. Like I think you need like, um, you're saying about Arden as well and like what a go getter. She is like that's credit to you and your wife as well. Right? Because she got that from somewhere, right?

Scott Benner 56:52
I don't know, you think Claire?

Clare 56:55
I don't know why? Well, I hope like, I don't know, maybe it might be better for my daughter not to pick up on some of my habits now that I say that. Like

Scott Benner 57:02
when my when my wife and I had kids, and we talked about we're young, we talk to each other. And we and we used to we'd be like, what are we what are our goals here for Cole, you know, when he was young? And I said, I just don't want him to be an ass. Yeah, you know, and she's like, What do you mean? I said, I said when a group of people stand together and they disperse, I don't want them to look at him and think kids a dick. He wasn't one. Yeah, like like that's, that's I think that's my, my real thought here is that I don't know where he's going to go or what he's going to be or how he's going to turn out. But wherever that goes, and whatever that ends up being. I just hope he does it. Nicely. Yeah, no, I

Clare 57:45
get that for sure. That would be my hope as well. Right now though, with an 18 month old My hope is to stay keep her safe every day because there is no surface on the house that is safe. She's climbing on everything is crumbling everything trying

Scott Benner 57:58
to run her head in the face. Yeah, just you

Clare 58:01
know, I'm one step away from Robin Hood and bubble wrap.

Scott Benner 58:05
You think she hears you and thinks that lady sounds like a leprechaun?

Clare 58:10
She like she's my many like my husband. Like, I'll be saying something about her. And he's like, yeah, like the Apple did not fall far from the tree. Like, this is your attitude all over. So nice.

Scott Benner 58:20
It's nice. Now when she's like, 17 it won't be as nice. You'll be sitting there going like, oh my god, I sometimes I look at my wife and I just laugh. I think to myself, like Does she not see this in herself? Probably not. Right? You know, or, or whatever it ends up being. Listen to I'll tell you my kids are, are generally really decent people. And it's still very hard.

Clare 58:46
I can imagine. Yeah, you just like it's everything is a new phase, right? You think like, oh, like, the pregnancy is hard. And the birth is hard. And then you're like, No, that's actually not the hard part.

Scott Benner 58:57
You know, I don't know if you heard a few weeks ago, Jen came on. It's an after dark episode. She talked about her son Nolan who passed away from an overdose. And oh, I didn't hear that. And all I could think while she was talking is like, well, this lady got it. Like from all sides. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's not just the I mean, because raising kids is hard enough. But then you add. I mean, the poor kid had, I think he had bipolar disorder. And he was addicted and and you just think like, how are you supposed to manage that? You know? Yeah. How do you get back? Imagine it's something you know, and especially when you everyone starts out the way you are right now. Look at me. I'm like I'm putting in your head. Your kid's gonna do heroin. I'm not I don't mean it like that. But I'll make you cry clarify on the podcast by Mormon.

Clare 59:44
You Howleen on the podcast.

Scott Benner 59:48
So just draw some lines she's about to she's like 18 months old. Oh, my God. But, but but being really seriously, like Jen had a great outlook and her UPS it's terrific. If you haven't heard it. But I just thought like, I mean, how many things can you stack up against the person to this boy? Like how many things are stacked up against him and then her as a parent? And you know, at what point do you just say to yourself, like, I don't know how to get back from this even?

Clare 1:00:15
Yeah, just the strength that she has to come on and speak about it and like, help other people like it's, I don't know, I can't imagine. Like, what that would be like, ever. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:00:27
After I got done with her. I thought, I'm so grateful people do this. And I don't know why they do it. Like, there's like, No, I, Claire. I don't, it's may now, in 2022. Just for context, I don't think I can. I just booked somebody on the podcast the other day for 10 months from now. Like, that's how far out you have to go if you want to be on the podcast. And then after you record it, it takes six months for your episode to come out. And there's no shortage of people who want to come tell their stories.

Clare 1:01:02
Well, people probably like you probably don't realize the impact that you have had on people and like, it changes people's life, right? Like, if you go from a place that you're really dark, and you're kinda like, you feel like you're always failing, and you don't have that quality of life to just like, you help people so much. And everyone that comes on helps people. And I think like, people just want to pay it for it because it makes such an impact on their life. Right? Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:01:30
it's wonderful. It really is. Because the podcast is it doesn't exist anymore without people. Yeah. You know, like, it's, I mean, how long? If you hear me back in like, the third season, you'll hear me Muse out loud. Like, I don't know how long I can keep this going. And like, I know, you guys like it, and it's helping you. But I mean, how many things could I possibly say? And it just occurred to me along the way, I was like, people stories are like the core of the show.

Clare 1:01:54
Yeah. And they're relatable. And like, you probably don't realize as well, like, it's probably just the smallest little thing that means nothing to you could change somebody else's life. Right? Like, you know, yeah,

Scott Benner 1:02:07
I see that about about it. That's why I think conversational is the way to go. It's why I think not pre planning. It's the way to go. And it's why I don't give the show specific titles. Because if I make yours, Lada during pregnancy, then only pregnant people are gonna listen to it. Yeah. Right. So and look at all the really like maryada things we've spoken about today. And so I don't know what I'll end up calling this episode. You know,

Clare 1:02:35
not like leprechauns, Shrek parenting advice.

Scott Benner 1:02:38
There's nowhere to go. Claire, you're magically delicious. Maybe I'll just say that. Okay. And so, I don't know. But whatever it is, I won't name this show something that will stop someone from hearing the conversation. And yeah, and I think that I think that you have to just like, there's no lie. 20 minutes into this. Like, I've been making the show a long time, right. And 20 minutes into this or so I thought there's not enough here about diabetes to fill an hour.

Clare 1:03:10
Oh, yeah. Right. Like, it's just, I have

Scott Benner 1:03:12
to learn about cleaning. Like, that's what I thought like, I have to learn about Claire now and see where this goes. Because I mean, it's the only way it becomes valuable to people. Because otherwise it's you coming on and going, Hey, I got pregnant and then it turns out I had diabetes crazy. My blood sugar got low a little bit. And now we're waiting for it to, you know, happen all the way up again. Yeah, I'll see you like was that eight minutes? You know, so, I mean, I really think that it's the little moments that you can't title that ended up being the most help to people. And I only know that because I get so many. I get so much like contact from people, they send me like letters and notes and write to me online and things like that. And the things that they told me they loved. I'm always like, Oh, wow, like somebody heard that? You know, like that. 30 seconds in the middle of that episode. They heard that that's, that's really cool. So everyone needs something different. And hopefully, that whatever they need exists inside of these conversations somewhere.

Clare 1:04:15
Well, yeah, that's the whole point. And like, for me, I find as well it's just like finding someone that is, you know, relatable that has the same, like, we're all just going around living our lives. Like it's just, it's nice to know you're not on your own I think sometimes as well.

Scott Benner 1:04:30
Yeah, no, I agree with that. It's not feeling alone. It's a big part of this. And you're in a scenario where the people who are actually around you, I mean, the likelihood that your neighbors gonna have type one as well or I mean, jeez, where are you gonna find another person with a lotta you know,

Clare 1:04:47
yeah, anybody out there?

Scott Benner 1:04:50
Nobody's coming to Canada.

Clare 1:04:53
I would love to know somebody that was in the same situation as me and then got like pregnant again like for me that's I would love to find somebody that had that story just to, to hear, like how they navigated that, but I mean, it's like finding a needle in a haystack. Right?

Scott Benner 1:05:08
Well, you've come to the right place, because yesterday show is with Susan. And Susan is now very good friends with another person who's been on the podcast previously. And they found each other through the podcast. Oh, cool. So maybe you'll get one. It will find you a lot of pregnancy. That that reaches out and says a little bit. You're not? Are you on social media?

Clare 1:05:29
I am. Yeah, I am.

Scott Benner 1:05:31
Are you going to my group?

Clare 1:05:33
I'm in your group. How come my name is spelt in Irish. So my surname is different.

Scott Benner 1:05:40
That's how you tricked me? Because I tried to look earlier to see if you were very pale and short. And

Clare 1:05:48
I think I'm covered in fake Tom and my profile picture.

Scott Benner 1:05:52
You're covered in white, fake tan tan. Yeah. I have to be honest with you. I did not hear fake tan the first time.

Clare 1:06:01
Oh, Jesus, like do I want to know what you I don't even know what you said. I was like,

Scott Benner 1:06:05
What did she say? And then all of a sudden, I think I thought, I think she said fake tan. I said, Where did I get that from? Oh, my gosh. Well gets good. So when we post your episode, you know, six months from now, you if you want to jump in to that into that thread and say, hey, look, that's me. I'm looking for people. If you're here, maybe you'll find somebody. I listen, there's a story in that Facebook page recently, of a person walking out of a Costco wearing a Juicebox Podcast sweatshirt. And someone looked them in the face and said, I listen to that podcast too. How crazy is that? Yeah,

Clare 1:06:41
it's cool. Like I feel like, even because I ran into somebody the other day, and they were wearing like a Libra and I was like, Oh, I've got my Dexcom on and it's like you just kind of boom. It's a great conversation starter.

Scott Benner 1:06:52
Yeah. No, it's It's the only way you can find people sometimes. So like, like, don't get me wrong if you know if if a guy walking out of a Costco was wearing a Joe Rogan t shirt and somebody else said I listen to Joe Rogan. I'd go Yeah, well, like sort of, like 15 million other people like that makes sense. But just two people who listened to a podcast about diabetes, randomly walking past each other. It made me think it made me think one time my wife asked me, she goes, Do you ever sit in crowded places? And think, I wonder if someone in here would recognize my voice? And I have thought that before? Like I

Clare 1:07:30
were very distinctive voice as well. Like, I feel like Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:07:34
but you only need like, like, even like bigger picture. Like it just is there a person like I make this thing in a room? And I put it on the internet? Is there a person here who's heard it? Like, you know what I mean, and it's happened, like I've been approached in airports and, and places like that before. But it's an odd feeling to look around and think I might be doing something that's valuable for someone in here.

Clare 1:07:56
Might like you are doing like all over the world. Like that must be a strange feeling to think that like you start in the literal room and like now you're helping people the other side of the world that you've never met, right?

Scott Benner 1:08:09
It is an odd feeling. Yeah, I would not be able to tell you otherwise. It's it's I was I was writing with Well, I've become friends with Charlotte Drury, who was on the show recently, and we've been texting. And yeah, and now many, many teenage girls who hear this are like, that's not fair. I want to be I want to be friends with Charlotte. But you can't be I am. So that's it. But we were we were talking back and forth. And she found some stuff I was doing online. She was telling me what she thought of it. And I told her like I said, my overarching goal is to just change the way like people think about diabetes, like Yeah, like people, and then maybe to one day have an impact on how doctors talk to people about diabetes. Like that's how I think of the show like that. If I have like a, like a master plan, it's that. I don't know if I'll ever bring it to fruition or not. But then day to day, I just want to help people. And I think if I can keep helping people day to day, that maybe that bigger goal could maybe come true on day. So

Clare 1:09:15
yeah, it's like the little steps. Hey, to get to the bigger the bigger picture. Well, yeah, you're doing like, I mean, you've helped me and then I've given the Juicebox Podcast name to anybody that I hear of. So I think that's lovely as well that everybody just spreads the word and it doesn't really matter, like how you feel or what support you need. It's just that like, everybody seems to genuinely want to help everybody else. There's no stupid questions. There's no stupid feelings. Like it's everyone just seems to be really supportive, which is, you know, that's the way the world should be right? Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:09:48
No, I'm insanely proud of how that Facebook page works as an example, like, it turns out that if you all like when people listen to the podcast, they get a similar feeling about diabetes than when they Come together. There, there's less of that kind of bad advice you can see online sometimes, you know, and people know when they don't know when they lay back, which is also really helpful. Anyway, listen, Claire, you're right. I'm terrific. I hear what you're trying to say. Thank you. I appreciate you. You're welcome me to go downstairs now to the people who I'm related to who do not think I'm terrific in any way, shape, or form. And one day, that little bundle of joy you raise will probably not care about you. I know.

Clare 1:10:33
Oh, my gosh, like, Yeah, I can't imagine what that's like. All like the the thing that was like, I'm like, bouncing around. And I felt like Peppa songs in my head constantly.

Scott Benner 1:10:44
Okay. Oh, Arden had a Peppa Pig birthday once. But I think it was ironic, cuz she was older.

Clare 1:10:51
She was older. And my daughter is obsessed with Peppa Pig. Like, I don't know why she chose pep out of everyone she could choose. But it's Peppa.

Scott Benner 1:10:58
That's amazing. All right. I want to thank you very much for doing this. I want to ask you if there's anything we didn't talk about that we should have?

Clare 1:11:05
No, I don't think so. Thank you for letting me do it.

Scott Benner 1:11:08
Are you kidding me? This is amazing. I didn't know you were gonna have this accent you made my whole day. For clarity, I believe the episode is going to be called HBA one. See? All right. Okay. One more time just for everybody.

Clare 1:11:27
Hey, HBA onesie. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:11:29
that's what I'm gonna do it.

Clare 1:11:30
Like I have to hear like myself say it and I record it because I don't know how I'm

Scott Benner 1:11:36
saying, Oh, well, that's the best part of asking you to say it over and over again. Because I think your brain hears HB a one say,

Clare 1:11:43
well, that's like I don't say three. I say tree. Like I think it's just an Irish thing. We've pronounced things differently.

Scott Benner 1:11:49
You said thanks. Oddly, a second ago. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Clare 1:11:53
There's a lot of like, when I moved to Canada First, I would be saying where it's people would not know what I was talking about. So yeah, it's funny when you hear hear from people the other side of the ocean, right?

Scott Benner 1:12:07
Hey, real quick. You have a different perspective. Because you lived in Ireland, right? Yeah. Okay. The icy hellscape that I described when I talked about Canada and when I anywhere near being right.

Clare 1:12:21
I think it's colder in Ireland when it's like minus one or two than it is in Canada when it's minus 15 in Alberta, because Alberta is really dry. And Ireland's really humid and wet and the cold goes through you. But yeah, when it's like minus 30 It's not. It's horrible.

Scott Benner 1:12:43
And have you ever seen a beaver just walking down the street or anything like that?

Clare 1:12:46
I know. But there's like deer will cross the road and we get like bobcats and stuff in our gardens. Okay,

Scott Benner 1:12:53
well, then I'm right. Okay. Good enough. I'm right. Let's just say I'm right that, okay. Deer and bobcat. It's minus 30 degrees. Frozen. hellscape. Okay, I've got it. Well, I'll

Clare 1:13:05
tell you a story. Like my dad laughed so hard because in Ireland, there's like lots of farms and there's cows and the sheep and everything. So we were hiking out here one day, and we thought we seen a bear. And we were kind of like, okay, like, it's a bear. Like, this isn't ideal. But we've got our bear spray. We kind of know what to do. It wasn't a bear. It was a gang of cows in the middle of the fart like the forest in the mountains. We had not got a clue what to do. Like we were kind of shimmy and pass them afraid they would attack us. So my dad like laughed so hard when he heard that because I grew up around cows, we mountain cows, just like regular cows. I don't know what they were doing in the middle of like the night.

Scott Benner 1:13:45
Come on cattle and get it together. It was really strange. But yeah, get your cows where they belong. There was someone on recently from Ireland who talked about those long haired cows that lived in the woods near her house. Oh gosh, I don't know what they are. I forget now. She's been on twice. And I love her and I can't think of her name off the top of my head. I'm so disappointed. Actually, you know what? She was on episode 10 originally 10. Oh, yeah, I'm gonna look at her names. It's called Teddy's mom. She's an and I don't think I made the next episode. Easy to find. I don't know if that makes you. If that comes as a surprise to you or not anybody listen, I don't know which one but she was just on in the last couple of months again to revisit because it was really interesting to have her back on. Like she was on the 10th episode of the podcast. Like I made a podcast in 2015. And this woman reached out and she's like, I'd like to be on your podcast and back then try to imagine I was like, I barely have a podcast but okay. And then, eight years later, she was back on the show. Yeah.

Clare 1:15:00
That's so crazy. I'm gonna find that episode and listen to it.

Scott Benner 1:15:03
Alright, anyway, long haired cows. That's what I heard when she was talking. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't drink during the podcast. So I trust my memory on this. So all right, Claire, this was wonderful. Thank you hold on one second. Okay. Sure.

Well, I want to thank Claire. First of all, she was absolutely just delightful. I also want to thank touched by type one and remind you to find them on Facebook, Instagram, and at touched by type one.org. They really are a absolutely amazing organization. And I do want you to go check them out. Of course, athletic greens, right, they make a G one. It's a green drink that tastes good. That's got all the vitamins and goodness in it that you need athletic greens.com forward slash juice box, I use it every day, I actually think you'll like it. And that's why they're a sponsor. So go check them out. Athletic greens.com forward slash juice box.

Hey, I'm doing a survey about the podcast. It's pretty cool. And it just sort of tracks what people think of the show as far as their diabetes and health. Basically, you know, is the show helping you or your doctor is helping you more you know, where you're getting your your best support from? It's a great little survey, we put it together ourselves that already has over 500 responses. And I have not spoken about it yet on the podcast. I've so far just made it available through the private Facebook group. But now I would like to tell the people listening to the podcast to see if you're interested in going and filling out the survey. It's just telling me about the different series, what'd you think of them, your rating, your doctors, the podcast, other diabetes help, this information goes nowhere. It's completely anonymous. If you want it to be, you don't have to put your information in to connect you to it. But that's it. I'm just doing a survey to see how the podcast is going. If the data proves out, we might share it with some doctors offices, show them how the podcast helps people so that maybe they'll take a look at it. And probably use some of the data on social media posts and things like that. We're just trying to let more people know about the Juicebox Podcast and your answers to these questions will help me do that. So now here's the thing, the links a little a little funky. It's yeah, I'm gonna put it in the show notes for you because it's like s dot survey planet.com forward slash WGJV f x dx and all the gear to remember that. So I'll just put the link right in the player for you here. I hope you guys check it out. It would be really cool if you could take the time. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

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