#887 Blackberries to the Rescue
Scott Benner
Liz has a son and husband with type 1 diabetes. We discuss parental pressure, seizures from low blood sugar and more.
You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio - Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.
+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.
Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 887 of the Juicebox Podcast
this is quite an episode I'm going to be speaking with Liz. She is the mother of four children. One of them has type one diabetes. Her husband has type one diabetes, her son has a thyroid thing. And she's got a bunch of different stuff that we don't really get to until later in the episode. It's very, very interesting. I wasn't quite sure what to call this, this little ditty between me and Liz. So, even at this moment, I'm not sure what the title is gonna be. You'll find out when I do. While you're listening today, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. If you have type one diabetes, or are the caregiver of someone with type one, and you're a US resident, please consider going to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox and completing their survey. Your completed survey helps type one diabetes research to move forward. It may benefit you and it helps support the podcast T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box. This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries G voc hypo penne Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash Juicebox Podcast is also brought to you today by the company where we get Ardens diabetes supplies. That company is called us Med and you can get started with them right now at us med.com forward slash juice box or by calling 888-721-1514 Getting your supplies does not have to be a hassle. Try us met one more sponsor today cozy earth.com My goodness, I am actually wearing oh I'm wearing at all right now I'm embarrassed I'm wearing. I'm always wearing them when I'm doing these ads. The joggers from cozy Earth and I've got the hoodie on today. They're both super soft, very comfortable. And incredibly. I don't know I'm never too hot or too cold or them. I don't know what to call that. We also have sheets from cozy Earth. And I'm thinking about maybe ordering the towels, you should check into them as well see what you think cozy earth.com All By the way, if you make a purchase while you're there, everything on the website is covered by this offer code juice box at checkout and it will save you 35% That's right, you can save 35% at checkout at cozy earth.com with the offer code juicebox.
Liz 3:05
I'm Liz and I have four kids. I live in Canada and my oldest son has type one. He was diagnosed when he was 12 months old. And he's 15 now and my husband also has type one he was diagnosed after our son was
Scott Benner 3:23
do you want to hear something? Bizarre? Yes. As we started to record which I can probably leave in you said that you played the violin. Is that right? Yeah. Yes, your husband plays trombone. And then somehow when you said you were from Canada, I was like they have music in Canada. That's it wasn't like a full thought in my head. It was just sort of like, oh, no kidding.
Liz 3:47
Level your eye level your Canadian jokes. Whenever there's a Canadian cast on.
Scott Benner 3:51
I wish I was joking.
Liz 3:55
It's, it's funny, because, you know, we, we do this new music festival every year in February. And a couple years ago, they actually had a like, it's really cold here in the winter, it gets like 30 minus 40. And so they had an outdoor concert with like ice instruments this composer had anyway written stuff for percussion with ice. And so just if you were gonna say how do you play your instruments in the ice while it has been done?
Scott Benner 4:29
I'm just gonna tell you, none of that surprises me what you just said. You know what I mean? Because when you're, I mean, if you were stuck in your freezer all day, eventually you would start making sandcastles and the ice cream. There's nothing to do. I mean, what do you like when you my brain pictured an iceberg with a person with a trombone standing on it? Do I know there are no icebergs in Canada? Sure, but that's not the problem for me.
Liz 4:54
Yeah, we're just like we're right in the middle of Canada. So yeah, no icebergs here but the rivers race.
Scott Benner 5:01
I grew up in the 80s, too. So basically, I have Bob and Doug McKenzie in my head. Right? I have ice. And then the idea that I don't know anywhere except for where I live. So in my mind you just live in a wasteland. I'm, I'm amazed. There's buildings there. What do you think of that? I just, well,
Liz 5:21
I'm I'm not from Canada. I'm from Washington state. So I'm still not used to the winter.
Scott Benner 5:27
That's the dorm. And I actually have Canada though, was honestly.
Liz 5:33
It was the most ridiculous thing is I have a cold allergy. And everyone always says that I'm just, you know, joking. But it's true. Like I have, it's this thing called cold urticaria, where I get hives and the cold.
Scott Benner 5:46
Makes it just leaving. Me I suggest leaving.
Liz 5:53
I know I should. But it's like it's where we both have our jobs. And, you know,
Scott Benner 5:58
you hear you get hives in the cold. Yeah, consistently, or is it come and go over days and over the year?
Liz 6:07
No, it's pretty consistent. I mean, I, I found out when I was in university, I was in Ottawa, and I was walking, there was this big ice storm one year and I was walking across the bridge, coming back from a concert, and so it was getting pelted on my face with these ice crystals. And then I got home and I like my whole face was broken out into hives, and I thought it was just an allergy to a new cream I had or something. Anyway, and then I was getting hives all the time. I didn't know why. And then I finally went to an allergist and he I told him that and he's like, Oh, well let me do the cold tests on you. So he held an ice cube against my skin and he's like, Yep, you're allergic to
Scott Benner 6:46
the cold. Alright, Liz, you've said so much here. We're never getting to your kid. First of all, leave it to a doctor. I'm making quotes around doctor in Canada. Right? Let me do the cold test. He holds an ice cube to the cold test. It's not a cold test. You're holding an ice cube on me. And I actually I also I was good guy. What do you got to say about that?
Liz 7:07
I was in this I was in the States I had come back. I'd come back home for the summer something winter. I can't remember Christmas vacation something So to be fair, the allergist was in in the States so
Scott Benner 7:20
you know it's funny when you tell me the allergist was in the States then I just think we've got meth head doctors all over the place. But when it happens in Canada, I think you found a guy who people just go to you don't I mean like he lives in a hut he's like He seems to know what's wrong. My bigger concern here is that you I don't think you have an allergy to the cold I think your body is just smarter than everyone else's. And it's really tell you why do we live here you have to move south.
Liz 7:47
So highly evolved? Yeah, I'm gonna go with that.
Scott Benner 7:51
Listen, that's what I would do your ever your thyroid checked.
Liz 7:56
Um, yeah, it's been a while. I think my doctor just ordered it but every time I've I've had it checked. It's been fine. But my so my son who has type one he has hyperthyroid.
Scott Benner 8:11
What would you say? Your your thyroids? Fine. What is your TSH come back? Well,
Liz 8:16
I know because so the last time I got it checked was probably before I heard all your thyroid episodes. So I do want to know for sure like this next time, I will ask her I'll be more specific.
Scott Benner 8:28
Um, say yes, I want your thyroid around to or under than I want. Yeah, outside. Again. We're gonna throw ice cubes at you and see if this urticaria comes back.
Liz 8:38
But I mean, I've never heard that with. I mean, I know there's cold sensitivities with with thyroid, but are there hives that appear?
Scott Benner 8:46
Listen, with only way I know this is because we figured out my son has Hashimotos because of hives, but it was heat.
Liz 8:54
Okay. Yeah. So you know, every once was so I would say like the first time I'm exposed to like the hot the first hot day if my skin is out, you know, like, say like my, like the upper part of my chest or my hands. I will get a little rash from the sun. So maybe I'm gonna get yours. I think I'm just sent I'm supposed to live in Washington state where it's mild and
Scott Benner 9:23
not hot. Not cold. There's no sun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I visited once, which you might know from listening to the podcast, and it took like five days for the mountain to come out which is kind of forever cracked me up but that was the verbiage they use to describe that it was cloudy. Yeah, I think I did hear that. While the mountain comes out. I was like what are these people talking about? I used to think so when you hear me speak oddly. Couple of things. I'm from around the Philadelphia area so I miss pronounce words but Also my grandmother was Pennsylvania Dutch, which might not be something that most people understand. I don't think I've ever said this on her. But she spoke backwards is the best way I can say it. So the explanation that's very simple, is that if you had a fence, and there was an animal on the other side of the fence, a cow, and the cow needed hay, and my grandmother was going to direct you to throw the hay over the fence to the cow. She would say, throw the cow over the fence some hay. And that was just how she spoke. So I don't know why. Maybe she was only a generation removed from people speaking German. I have no Yeah,
Liz 10:44
right. Yeah, that must be. Yeah.
Scott Benner 10:47
But anyway, it's permeated how I speak. Because I speak backwards constantly. Like when I write a sentence, I finish it and then I go, Oh, the second part should have been at the beginning. It's ridiculous. Not as ridiculous as going out in the cold when your body doesn't want you to and then living in where are you in the Yukon or something? Would you say the middle of the country? No, we're
Liz 11:10
in we're in Winnipeg.
Scott Benner 11:11
I like how you said no, you're like, No, I don't live in the EU ridiculous person. I live in Winnipeg. How did you end up in Canada is this boy you met from Canada?
Liz 11:24
He is. I ended up going to Ottawa for university. I had gone to Michigan for my last year of high school. It was an arts academy that out in the middle of the woods.
Scott Benner 11:38
Just say you were smoking weed. What are you doing an Arts Academy out in the woods is that?
Liz 11:43
I mean, it was. Yeah. It's called the Interlochen Arts Academy. And it's, yeah, it's just a an art school. So there's there's a summer camp. And then there's the the academy. So I went from my last year of high school. It's basically just like, you know, violin lessons and orchestra.
Scott Benner 12:04
Yeah. And you saw his trombone. And you were like, Oh, I have to be with this person.
Liz 12:10
I didn't know. And then so I ended up going to Ottawa for university. And then from there, I I got, I just ended up getting this job in Thunder Bay, which is a super small town in northern Ontario. And then he was he was there, my he's also from Ontario. But he was there my first year of the orchestra. And then he moved to Winnipeg, and then a couple of years later, then we then we got together and then I moved to Winnipeg,
Scott Benner 12:41
was you tried so hard not to tell me something just then I don't know what it is. But it's okay. You're like, you know, and then and then he was there. But what what is it that he then did? He got me pregnant? What do we later, by the way, it sounds like a sci fi movie. You're like, I went from Winnipeg to Thunder Bay. These are not real places. They're just they can't be It's alright. Let's get past. All right. That's fine. Real quickly. You've seen this sled dog work?
Liz 13:13
I have I have actually done it in Thunder Bay. I've been missing or whatever you call it.
Scott Benner 13:23
Alright, that can't be what you call it. But we'll find out about that later.
Liz 13:26
I think it is. I think look at look it up smash. Possible. No
Scott Benner 13:29
one cares about Canada, more than me. And I've never seen it and I will never see it. Isabel's, like, are you ever gonna come to Toronto? Like no, like, god? No, you shouldn't? You should? I'm sure it's lovely. What am I gonna do? I can't get out of this house. You guys want this podcast? This is how it has to be. I die in this room with? Do you know yesterday, I contacted the hosting company who hosts the files for the podcast. So I pay somebody to keep the file. So you guys have access to them, right? And I said, Hey, if I die? How do I keep my podcast alive? And the person responded and said, in the event of your passing? Have someone contact us? And let us know that you've passed away. And we will continue to host your podcast for free. And I was like, Oh, that's very nice. Because then, you know, the protests will still be out there. And anyway, I got I don't know what happened to me. I got melancholic yesterday. And I'm like, What happens if I die? And I didn't ask Google or God I was asked the guy at Libsyn
Liz 14:40
Well, it's you know, it's a legacy either. Either way, I mean, it's Yeah, your your podcasts is amazing.
Scott Benner 14:49
Oh, thank you. So alright. I'm getting back to the trombone at some point, but not right now. So the this boy that you marry, he has type one diabetes.
Liz 14:58
He does. Yeah. So He and he was diagnosed after our son, which I feel like, probably saved his life. You know?
Scott Benner 15:08
I thought you're gonna say bait and switch. You're gonna say He tricked me into marrying him. And then he got
Liz 15:18
no, I was just gonna because he's not wanting to go to the doctor if he's feeling sick, you know, like,
Scott Benner 15:23
Oh, I see, I see you. So I think
Liz 15:25
knowing him knowing the signs is what made him figure it out. But yeah, it was bizarre. He he hadn't told me that he was even feeling off or sick. But he said that he was. I don't know, for like, the last month or so he thought that he had something really wrong. Like, I think deep down, he knew it was diabetes. But, you know, part of partly he was thinking he had cancer or something, you know, and then Excuse me. So the first I knew inkling that there was anything wrong. And so you taken a nap in the afternoon and he he got up and he's like, I think I'm gonna test my blood sugar. And I was like, okay, that's kind of weird, you know? And he said, he knew as he was waiting for the beat, you know, for the number to show up. He's like, for sure. I'm gonna have it. And I was like, 24 or something.
Scott Benner 16:15
It just seemed like it takes longer when your blood sugar's higher, doesn't it?
Liz 16:18
Yeah, yeah. It was probably, you know, one of those old meters too,
Scott Benner 16:22
right. But no, that's not actually accurate, but it feels like it like. Yeah. Okay, so wait, your son's diagnosed at 12 months? He's your man. He's your first child. Is that correct? Yeah. Okay.
Liz 16:37
Yeah. And that his Yeah. And his story. I mean, that was one of the reasons. Like he has an interesting, I guess. Interesting diagnosis story. So at four months old, he started being followed by miss my brain.
Scott Benner 17:02
Moose and squirrel.
Liz 17:05
He just literally lost all my all my words.
Scott Benner 17:08
Okay, take. Hey,
Liz 17:10
neuron, not a neurologist, but a brain surgeon. What's the thing that I need? Apparently,
Scott Benner 17:21
I know what your son has. And I feel terrible laughing right now. So now I know you're laughing at me. So the guy from let's start over the guy from Grey's Anatomy, who's married to Meredith Grey, who eventually dies in a car accident? He was a neurosurgeon. Is that correct? Yes. Neurosurgeons that sort of thing is that is was following your son since he was four months? Yes. Yes. Thank you. No problem.
Liz 17:46
Um, so anyway, yeah. Cuz his head was his head was growing at an alarming rate for a baby that four months old. And so anyway, they the diagnosis was he has hydrocephalus, and it would just extra water, extra fluid around the brain. And it's dangerous, because if, if there's a blockage and the fluid can't freely, you know, go up the spinal cord up and down, then it will create pressure on the brain. And he needed emergency surgery to get a shunt put in, and he would basically have that for life. And so it was, you know, sort of stressful having your first kid and they gave us this long list of side effects that we had to watch out for. That would clue us in that he would need to have emergency surgery. And so it was, you know, extreme fuzziness, lethargy, vomiting, all these all these things. And so, so many of them overlapped with the diabetes. So that's, that's how we missed we missed the diabetes diagnosis for as long as we did, but
Scott Benner 19:05
how long do you think you? You didn't say it?
Liz 19:08
I feel like he was he was definitely sick the month before his birthday. And then it was, it was a pretty, I mean, it was kind of probably slow at first, the decline, but then the last couple of weeks, you know, it was obvious there was really something wrong with them. But yeah, it was super stressful, because, you know, he was he was a fussy, fussy baby. And so every time he would cry, I was like, Is this his head, you know, is this and then we he also had undiagnosed food allergies. And so that was making him sort of spit up his food all the time and throw up all the time, but we didn't know that he was allergic to food. So yes, like, peanut tree nut, egg allergy, so probably when I was breastfeeding, so probably every time I was eating nuts or eggs, it was crazy. Seeing this issue in him, but yeah, anyway, so at around, I don't know, I'd say the month before his birthday, he started to get a little sick. And it was fluid like he's born in November. So it was sort of flu season cold season. And at that point he was, you know, he was a pretty happy baby, aside from, you know, bouts of bouts of fuzziness, but, you know, he was walking and not walking, but crawling, cruising along furniture, you know, holding on to stuff and, and crawling all over the place, you know, pretty active. And then, as he sort of, as he got sicker, he just basically stopped doing everything. Like he would sit on the floor. I give him some toys, and he kind of like, halfheartedly play with his toys, and he was extra fussy sleeping more. And so I was calling into his doctor's like, you know, there's something wrong with him. And he's like, Well, he has his doctor was great. Like, he was calling actually to check on him. But he was like, he has an appointment. And I think it was two weeks. So oh, okay, sorry. Let me back up. So we did bring it when he started to sort of show these signs we brought him in, and they did a CAT scan on him. And they're like, well, there's no change with the fluid. So his heads, okay, right now. Just keep a watch on them. And so we brought him home and, and then he started to get worse. And his doctor was like, well, it's flu season unless he has a fever. Don't bring him in, make sure he's getting lots of fluids, lots of fluids. So I was pushing the fluids. And of course, he was drinking at time. And like it was, it was so bad. So I would have to put him in his diet. Like for night, I would put him in his diaper, a regular diaper. And then I would put a cloth diaper and another like a cloth cover, like a waterproof cover. And he would still leak through those. But was my mom pushing lots of fluids. And I had also so I was breastfeeding still, but I was giving him formula, a little bit of formula. And then I switched to cow's milk right around
Scott Benner 22:19
with with
Liz 22:23
the formula. And then sorry, you just said very likes cow's milk. So that's why he's drinking so much. And that's why he's sweating this diaper. So anyway, so it was
Scott Benner 22:30
can you hear me? Yeah, obviously, you you've you blanked out from it. So I lost you after cow's milk. And then oh, sorry. No, don't be sorry. Okay. Cow's milk, cow's milk. Yeah,
Liz 22:42
so he was he was drinking, he was just downing these bottles. And I thought it was just he liked the cow's milk better than he liked your formula? Well, so yeah, yeah. I mean, here was still I was still breastfeeding too. But, you know, sometimes I give him the bottle formula. And but he would only, you know, anyway, so
Scott Benner 23:00
it really diapers. Before we move on? Can I can I stop to congratulate myself for a second? Earlier, I didn't ask you how often you had knots in your mouth. And I was really proud of myself. I wrote it down. I wrote down. I wrote down nuts. And they put a checkmark next to it. Like I did something good.
Liz 23:19
He needed a gold star for that. I
Scott Benner 23:20
mean, I really do. You've no idea how hard it is for me to rein in my stupidity so that we can make this whole podcast together.
Liz 23:35
I love it. You're like, before you go on, I thought you're gonna tell me to adjust my mic or something?
Scott Benner 23:41
To let you know that. Yeah. Plus, we need to break up the story a little bit because it's, um, it's a lot and I want to make sure people have time to take it in. So yeah. So hydrocephalus, the swelling on the brain, not a curable issue, right.
Liz 23:59
Yeah. So I mean, we were we were expecting that we were he was gonna have to emergency brain surgery at any moment, you know. And so we had brought him in for the CAT scan. That was fine. And then over the next two weeks, he was like, in a, like a deep dive decline. And I was calling his doctor as I should bring him in. He's like, no, no, no, just keep giving him fluids. So anyway, we woke up one morning, and he was like, just completely limp like he couldn't support himself. His legs were just floppy. And he was, he was pant. He was doing that panting breath. I was like, Okay, we have to rush him in. And as we're packing up the diaper bag, he was he just started projectile vomiting all over the place. And we're so in our, in our minds, we're like, okay, he's, he needs a surgery. And so we rushed him in. We give him the rundown of what's happening and they're like, Okay, we're calling we're assembling the team. We're assembling the surgery team. We're gonna give them another cat scan and then And then brush him into surgery. And I was like, he just had a CAT scan two weeks ago. Is there another test that we're missing? Should he have a blood test? We have to hurry that. They just kept saying the team's assembling and, and so finally, I was like, just just give him a blood test. I don't know what we were looking for. But I was like, There's something you know. And so the senior doctor came in, he's like, Okay, well, I ordered the blood tests, and it came back that he has type one diabetes, and we're gonna say his head is fine based on that last CAT scan. So we've put him on a glucose drip and an insulin drip. And this is what so they rushed him up to the, the pediatric ICU unit. And he so he was there. He was in DKA. And he was there for a couple of days. And then they switched over to the regular regular Ward
Scott Benner 25:54
was when they were assembling the Superfriends. It turns out, you were actually Superman. How about that? Yeah, I
Liz 26:00
was. I know, but I don't know what I was looking for. But I was just like, it's just so weird that two weeks ago has had this totally fine and not totally change right
Scott Benner 26:12
seem so bad in just two weeks. Gosh, I wonder what would have happened to them if they would have put him under NDA.
Liz 26:19
I know. Yeah. Exactly. I mean, yeah. Some, you know, I feel like because he was he was doing that panting thing. And they said, they were like, he was hours away from going into a coma. And so it was so scary. Like, just the thought of you know, had it been overnight. You know?
Scott Benner 26:38
No, I understand. It's Yeah, it's crazy. It really is. Okay, so do the the two issues ever. They exasperate each other. Exactly. Oh, exactly. Where's the word I want? They make each other worse, or do they not intersect diabetes in the hydrocephalus?
Liz 26:59
Oh, sorry. We cut out there for a second. But were you saying to the two shoes ever? Crossover?
Scott Benner 27:05
Yeah. Yeah, actually, listen, I'm getting a weak signal thing from you once in a while. But that's fair. Because you live in Winnipeg. So yeah,
Liz 27:14
yeah. It's probably my house sometimes. Sometimes the Wi Fi is where my house
Scott Benner 27:18
itself you think it's
Liz 27:20
yeah, like where I live in this old this neighborhood with lots of old like 100 year old houses and I don't know what they're made out of. But if I'm making a call on my cell phone, there's only a few places I can actually just call out.
Scott Benner 27:34
Okay. Stand at that place while we're talking. So yeah, do they? Well, at first you miss me. Oh my God. Now we're gonna have to start over homeless like I tried to use I tried to use a word that I know what it means, but could not pronounce. So exacerbate? Yes, yeah, that's what I was gonna say. exacerbate? How come I can say it now. Okay. Anyway, I was I reached for that word couldn't find it, then you couldn't hear me. These two do they intersect with each other ever or? No?
Liz 28:08
No, I would say so. I mean, they basically, after a year they cut us off from I mean, he released us from his care. He said the only time you would need to see me in the future is if if he gets like a head injury.
Scott Benner 28:29
I'm going to tell you about one of the better decisions I made. Last year, I switched Arden's delivery of her diabetes supplies from where we were getting them to us Med and US med is more than edging out the service that we were getting from that previous company. right from the comfort of your home or office, you can join over 1 million satisfied customers who rely on us med for courteous, knowledgeable and trained Customer Care. And their representatives are going to keep you up to date with your medical and diabetic supplies. All delivered right to your door. Us med.com forward slash juice box or call 888-721-1514 To get your free benefits check right now. US med features, a litany of things that you're going to love. How about an A plus rating with the Better Business Bureau. They accept Medicare nationwide and over 800 private insurers. They carry everything from insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGM like the FreeStyle Libre three, the Dexcom G six and a little bird told me the Dexcom g7 coming very soon. They always provide you with 90 days worth of supplies, and fast and free shipping. better service and better care is what you're going to get when you go to us med.com forward slash juice box. On top of all this US med is now dispensing Novolog insulin as smart and human log insulin lispro through their pharmacy benefits. What are you waiting for us med.com forward slash juice box 888721151 For us med is the number one distributor for FreeStyle Libre systems nationwide. They are the number one specialty distributor for Omni pod dash. They are the place we got our hands on the pod fives from us med provides Arden with her Dexcom supplies. And they're the number one fastest growing tandem distributor nationwide. I mean, I guess I could say it again. But are you just already online getting it done? Are you even listening to me anymore? Where have you already called 888-721-1514 don't like the phone? Us med.com forward slash juice box. The other day I got an email from us Med and it said are you You want some more supplies? I guess it was time and I said yes. Click the button and then they just showed up. You want to do it like that. It's pretty damn easy. Us med.com forward slash juice box. Alright, let's talk a little more about cozy earth.com women's and men's apparel. Great stuff for sleeping pajamas. bed sheets, blankets. Wonderful wonderful soft made of viscose bamboo or linen your decision you pick when you get there. Like I said, I'm wearing the joggers which are I want to curse when I'm talking about them. They're awesome. I mean, so soft and comfortable. hard to put into words. Honestly, last week, I took off my bamboo sheets and washed them they look terrific. They're going back on tonight. Absolutely silky soft, comfortable keep you at exactly the right temperature. And of course, cozy Earth has been on Oprah's best. Like what does that list over puts out Oh, Oprah's Favorite Things, you know this list. Five years in a row, an item from cozy earth.com has been one of Oprah's Favorite Things. And you can get 35% off of all of this stuff and more. Whatever you can find on the website with the offer code, juice box, just pop it in and check out juice boxes all one word, and you're on your way to saving 35%. I don't know if you're getting the joggers or the towels or the sheets and the blankets, pajamas, but whatever you get, it's going to be soft, it's going to be comfortable. And it's going to be 35% off cozy earth.com.
I'm gonna get you back into the show. Before I do I want to let you know that Liz's son and husband have both had seizures from low blood sugars and we're going to be speaking about them. So get ready. Nothing crazy. I just wanted to let you know. Alright, let's get back to the show.
Liz 33:02
He would have more likely a likelihood of bleeding on the brain I think if he were to get a head injury, but yeah, so his head spin his head has been fine. And two months after that was when we found out that he had all those food allergies. Right.
Scott Benner 33:18
So So is has been fine. You kicked out for a second. And oh, sorry. No, no. And I'm wondering like visually looking at him since then you don't look and see that his head appears different.
Liz 33:31
No, I mean, when he was a baby, it for sure looked large. And he feels like he would say he's, he feels like his head is big. But you know, he's definitely grown into it. It's it looks he looks normal and fine. Yeah. I think it's probably something he might be self conscious about. But with your
Scott Benner 33:57
lesson, I don't have hydrocephalus list, but my head is huge. My head is like seven and seven, eight. Sometimes I see a photo of myself and I'm like, What in the hell? You know, like, why is it so big? And meanwhile, I don't, I'm sure I mean, you know what I mean? Like seventh and seventh, eighth, seventh and eighth, like seventh and eighth is a small hat. Like it's not, you know what I mean? It's not that vector. Not that much bigger. But um, okay. So it's something he's aware of, does it impact his life at all?
Liz 34:26
No, I don't I don't think so. Okay. No, it's yeah, it's just kind of something that he had when he was a baby. And he doesn't, I wouldn't say that he puts any thought into it. No,
Scott Benner 34:34
if he would have needed the shot, would that have changed his life significantly?
Liz 34:40
I mean, it could have I mean, I think it's one of those things where they can get infected and you can you have to have them replaced later, you know, so I mean, it would have its risks for sure. I mean, I think those I think those neurosurgeons are amazing, and they probably you know, could Do those surgeries.
Scott Benner 35:03
Yes. Fascinating like me, it's such a rare thing. I looked it up when we were talking about like 200,000 people a year are diagnosed with it, which is such a small number, you know?
Liz 35:12
Yeah. And they never knew if it with him if it was him just having an overproduction of fluid or if there was actually something blocking it, but they said the only way to know would be to go in and do surgery to explore. And they, they didn't want to do that. So and it could have it could have happened just as he was developing in the womb, or it could have happened, like we had I have kind of a crazy birth with him as well. Like he ended up having forceps and it was it was a bad delivery. But so it could have been something from that or it could have just spent genetic or something.
Scott Benner 35:49
They they were still using forceps 15 years ago.
Liz 35:53
Well, the doctor that I had, apparently, I mean, he was an old school, old school OB GYN and he was he was one of the doctors that you if you had him and you had a C section it was because there was something terribly, terribly wrong like he he was one of the few people that would
Scott Benner 36:14
still use forceps I think get it out like that. Yeah.
Liz 36:17
I think because, you know, so many, like a lot of people don't do that anymore. You know, because it's, it comes with its risks. But yeah, he was apparently a gifted forcep. Doctor. That's what I heard.
Scott Benner 36:31
You imagine, but that's a hell of a Yelp review. Yeah. Okay. Again, I guess have to say to you, please just why don't you just leave Canada, there's so many, so many things, trying to tell you to leave.
Liz 36:44
I know. I did switch to midwives after that. Because I was like that was that was pretty
Scott Benner 36:48
good. Just a bear. You don't even like whatever. Like anybody except the guy with the salad tongs who's like, Don't worry, this used to work in the 40s. And it works today. Come here. Oh my gosh, are Kelly's OB had zero personality. And the take on him from everybody in town was he'll get the baby out. Everything will be fine. It's going to be a smooth procedure. But he's going to appear to be mean for nine months while you're talking. Just he was just without any kind of bedside manner at all. Yeah. Yeah.
Liz 37:25
I mean, so started, like this guy was he was super. He was abrupt as well. Like, he was this old Irish guy. And he was he was lovely. But he was just so busy. Like, he would go up north and deliver babies up, up north. And he was always just like racing from one birth to another, you know, so he, he never He wouldn't sit and like hold your hand and say How are you doing? Are you getting along, you know. But then, I look years later, we ended up having a stillbirth. And he was my he was it was considered high risk to deliver that and he he was assigned to me and during that experience it he was completely different doctor so it was very interesting to see him change. You know, like when when he needed to?
Scott Benner 38:19
What do you pay him in like jerky and maple syrup? Like, is that how that works? You're like here like send him home on his like, yeah, yeah, this snowmobile with a bunch of stuff after you like he's like rips the babies. Like, here you go. Take this joy. Oh, thank you take our maple syrupy. And then he leaves. Yeah, I know. Don't worry. I understand what's going on. Also your your healthcare system. I am mad at right now. Because I know somebody who needs a procedure. And it's it's a simple thing. And it's taking forever. And so I'm mad at Canada right now. I'm having my own personal you know, thing, right? No one knows. Yeah, but
Liz 38:57
it can take a while for sure. Yeah, interesting.
Scott Benner 38:59
Okay, so I'm so sorry. So you had your son then the stillbirth was next.
Liz 39:05
No. So I had my son and then two and a half years later, we had another boy. And then two and a half years later a girl. And then a year and a half later was our stillbirth. And then so my youngest is four years younger than my daughter.
Scott Benner 39:26
I see. I have to tell you, you really wanted more kids because that story between the hydrocephalus and the diabetes. I don't know how you did it again. Like I know.
Liz 39:36
People have said that like why did you What did you have more but honestly, you know, all the babies after him felt so easy, because there was my second baby was like, well, you're crying because you're hungry, you're tired and you're just you're not sick. So the amount of stress that was lifted after you know knowing that they're they're healthy
Scott Benner 40:00
Right. So he gets type one. In this incredible scenario, how long was he in the hospital?
Liz 40:08
I feel like it was only about three, three days or four days. I mean, he was in the, the ICU for two. And then they moved him up to the regular room. And then we had, you know, like the sort of weekend of, of training on learning everything.
Scott Benner 40:26
What did they do 15 years ago when a peg sliding scale?
Liz 40:31
No, they did talk about that. But, I mean, they kind of brushed over that. But we just we we were on MDI right away, and they put them on human log and Lantus. So, I mean, I feel lucky that they gave us that because knowing what they still are,
Scott Benner 40:50
yeah, sometimes different province could have been a different situation. Well,
Liz 40:54
yeah. And even this province, I mean, kids now being diagnosed or sometimes put on, put on
Scott Benner 41:03
what the they're still giving them like regular and mph sometimes. Yeah,
Liz 41:06
I think it's for school, school aged kids, like the younger ones, because they have no, there's no school nurses here. And there's no wait for the school staff to administer insulin. So I think that's, that's the way they think about it the way they get around it.
Unknown Speaker 41:24
Well, okay,
Liz 41:25
right. You did mention so when we switched cute, we got him onto a pump when he was five. And that was what they gave us that option. They're like, well, if, if you don't go on, I think no, I think it was like, if he's not able, if he's too young, you know, to administer the pump by himself. One thing we could do is take them off the pump and put them on this, like two shots a day. And I was like, No, we're not we're not doing that. So what we ended up doing was we started him in kindergarten a year later, so we pushed him back a year. So he would be so the thinking was like, by the time he starts grade one full days, he'll be older and more mature,
Scott Benner 42:12
able to help himself that mature Yeah, seen as the mature yet. Let me ask you.
Liz 42:20
Sometimes Sometimes not as much as he wasn't in grade one, but now he is.
Scott Benner 42:24
So what is it like raising a 12 month old with diabetes? Like what what was that like back then? I mean, how much insulin could you have possibly been giving him? It was so small.
Liz 42:37
I remember doing because we were on that they didn't have the pens. We were doing that in the syringes and right, we have the half unit syringes, but I would do I would try to ballpark quarter units all the time. You know, like, just barely pull it up. And you know, it was yeah, it was horrible. And then, I mean, the breastfeeding was good. And like it was if he was low, I remember breastfeeding him. But I was always wondering like, you know, does it give them too much? Or does he need like fed for a long time? Should I? You know, does he need insulin for that? Like it was just so? Yeah, yes. It was awful.
Scott Benner 43:22
And how did you there's just meters right. So you were testing with it? Yeah, just
Liz 43:26
meters. And yeah, he was just, I just remember him being high all the time. I remember I went in for one appointment. And I was saying, I think they must have asked like, what his blood sugar's were when he goes to bed. And I remember saying, Well, I don't feel comfortable putting him to sleep unless he's 15 or above. And they're like, well, that's a little high, you know? And it's like, well, if, if he's lower than that, he just crashes in the night. And then he's, he's really low. So it's like, I was purposely like, making him be 15 before bed. And, like, I just, I cringe when I think back like all the years of him being so high all the time for us younger.
Scott Benner 44:11
Wow. Yeah, I'm sorry, I pulled out my conversion calculator available at juicebox podcast.com. And 15 is an average blood sugar of 270.
Liz 44:21
Yeah, so that was that was what I was aiming for in the early days, just because probably he was taking like, you know, one unit of Glargine or something and it was too much or you know, his
Scott Benner 44:34
when did that begin to change?
Liz 44:37
Um I can't remember when he started using sort of a more normal amount of insulin. I mean, it was early days I remember a long time of him just being on like sick two units or two and a half units of long acting and then half units for a meal here and there and Everything is in such a blur. I feel like I've lost years of my years of my memory, either through self preservation or just lack of sleep, or I don't know. So I feel like there's details that I can't remember. But he got us he got onto a pump when he was five, and then he didn't sort of CGM until he was nine. And I don't know how we did that. Being on a pump without a CGM, like those those years were pretty awful to like, he was just like, he's always he's always been very swinging up and down, like fluctuating blood sugars, and he has to get seizures to like from the time. I'd say his first seizure was he was 18 months old, and he had sort of a handful of them in those early days.
Scott Benner 45:54
Seizures from low blood sugars. Yeah, yeah.
Liz 45:58
They would mostly happen during, like, say he had an afternoon nap. That was when he be waking up from his afternoon nap. And that's when it would happen. Like, say he'd been super active in the day and then had a nap. And then yeah, I think
Scott Benner 46:15
there's too much insulin. And then he dropped. And there's no way to know he's dropping, and I've seen a couple of seizures. They're, they're pretty frightening. So
Liz 46:24
yeah, they're horrible. They're horrible. And I feel I don't know if it's just something with how I process them. But I, I sort of, I don't know, I It's like, my brain plays the movie of them over and over in my head. You know, I think I had jumped onto one of your calls, maybe a year, almost a year ago, like you had one of those big zoom calls. Yeah. And I had just like, it had been like, a month of three seizures in our house like miles, had had to and my husband had had one like, right after my son. And so it was like, frazzled and fried. I was like, How do I stop thinking about these seizures?
Scott Benner 47:10
Well, they're frightening, because, I mean, you know, they call them low blood glucose, incidences. So I think they're trying to make it sound better for you. But I mean, it's your, you know, your brains running out of sugar. And it's, that's the, that's the, that's the fuel your brain runs on. So too much and you have all these other problems and too little, and you shut off and it's not the kind of shut off or you turn back on. So you you know, when someone's with you, they can help you and but it's hard for you, I imagine not to imagine your husband or your son being on the road or by themselves or someone doesn't notice and, and then yeah, story.
Liz 47:50
Yeah. And I think with the thing that's scary with my son is he's had a number of them where his blood sugar has been, like, say 3.6, which is not crazy low. I mean, he's, he's been much lower and not had seizures, but then he's also been lower and had seizures. So I, you know, that thing, they always say, like, trust what you know is going to happen. I feel like I can't, I can't do that. And I get so anxious. Like, just last night he was he dropped down to 2.8. And my eyes, I get super anxious if he's below a four. Because I'm like, a four going down could like, this is when he's had the seizures before. Yeah, yeah. So if I say trust, what I know is going to happen. I could like base it off of well, he's gonna have a seizure. Because that's happened before
Scott Benner 48:44
- You think it's happening? Now in fairness, in fairness, are you saying 65 on a CGM, or are you finger sticking an sr 65?
Liz 48:54
Both I've done it where the CGM, you know, said so 3.6 is 65. Yeah. Yeah, so the CGM has said that but it has been on a downward trend so most likely he is below that. But then also I've done it with the fingerstick because he's been why is
Scott Benner 49:14
he falling so quickly at low numbers?
Liz 49:18
I don't I it was probably just a miscalculation on you know, maybe he sometimes he forgets to pump he forgets to enter his carbs and so he'll you know, the insulin is probably working faster than the food and or miscalculating or being more active for you know, it's it's always one of those things where it's like the little things all add up to make that perfect storm.
Scott Benner 49:47
Yeah, no, I know. But.
Liz 49:50
But he's, he's looping which I am so thankful for because I feel like it saves them so much. Last night, yeah. How's
Scott Benner 49:57
that? Sorry. That was just Oh, it's good. It's great.
Liz 49:59
You I love it. Yeah. Because last night when he he was dropping, he has basil had already cut off for an hour before. So it was sort of it's just a safety net, right?
Scott Benner 50:15
Yeah, no, I mean, it's a huge help. Obviously, it's an end if you mess up so big. I mean, listen, nothing's perfect, right, you could screw up in a way that that that the algorithm couldn't help you from, but it's, I think 99.9% of the time, it grabs Arden at the very least in the 50s, the mid 50s. As as she's trying to get low, but you know, I've seen it not be able to help to you look up and later see that, you know, it had been taking basil away for hours, and it still couldn't stop the low, which, you know, is where you have to come in, but he's 15 It's a tough age, I would imagine. You know,
Liz 50:56
yeah, I mean, he's, yeah, he's 50. He's sort of a night owl. And so we were joking. Last night, he did a carb, a carb test at two in the morning. Carb ratio test. Like, that's why that's why he went low last night. I was like, Okay, well, I guess. Thanks for that. Now. I know I need to adjust your carb ratio for two in the morning for the next time you go snacking.
Scott Benner 51:22
whole generation of kids that don't sleep. i If half my problems are that Arden is like at 11 o'clock. She's like, Oh, you know, I'm gonna have a snack. I'm like, Please, no.
Liz 51:37
I know, it's so hard. And, you know, he's, for the most part, he's just so great about, you know, doing all this stuff. And, but he just he forgets to, like, I see that rise and like, what did you eat at 345? I can see it. He's like, Oh, nothing. And then he was like, Oh, right. I had six pieces of bread.
Scott Benner 52:00
Anything on it? No, just bread. I ate it. Like I squeezed it up into a ball and then chewed on it. Great. Thanks.
Liz 52:08
Yeah, so I'll be I'll be chasing that for the next while but no, I mean, he's, he's got a lot to think about. And he's, he's, for the most part good.
Scott Benner 52:17
Doing good. Yeah. I just love that. You said six pieces of bread. I don't know why. Because part of me thinks you just randomly made a lot because it sounds ridiculous. And part of me thinks it happened.
Liz 52:27
Yeah, so that might have been like four pieces yet. I overshot that by two.
Scott Benner 52:35
Reaching into the Wonder band just pulling out Brett. Oh my gosh, how do you guys even get bread there? They must Well,
Liz 52:42
I make bread. I make bread a lot. I'm on a big sourdough kick. But yeah, we do have grocery stores.
Scott Benner 52:49
No, stop. They have staples. How did you listen to this? I have a number of questions here. First of all, do you guys make a living playing instruments?
Liz 53:01
Um, yeah. I wouldn't. I wouldn't advise for two musicians to get together. But no, it's yeah, we do. We're very lucky that we're both you know, we're doing what, what we love to do and it's it's hard to get a job in an orchestra. You know, and then the fact that we both were able to get a job in the same orchestra. It's pretty cool.
Scott Benner 53:26
Oh, wow. So you do you play regularly? Somewhere? And
Liz 53:29
Excellent. Yeah, yeah, we both play in the symphony.
Scott Benner 53:32
Gotcha. Oh, that's lovely. And when who watches these children's since you're both working at the same time in the evenings?
Liz 53:39
Well, I mean, now they're all you know, miles 15 and are older or other son is 13. And our daughter who's 10 is probably more immature than all together. So yeah, it's, it's fine. But it was, yeah, it was very expensive for the years. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So we'd have to pay for a babysitter to come to the house and then for the daytime rehearsals and then we'd have evening rehearsals and then weekend days and we can eat so it was yeah, it was a lot.
Scott Benner 54:15
Do you have to pay a hydrocephalus tax when you get a babysitter? Are they like, Yeah, I'm gonna be pushing that up. 20% here. We're like a diabetes tax. How do you find a babysitter that can help you with a diabetic infant?
Liz 54:28
You know, it was we were pretty lucky. Like we somehow we found we found great people and I remember I remember interviewing a bunch of people. And I would go through the whole you know, because like, I have to show him how to use an EpiPen and talk about all the allergies and then you know, all the diabetes stuff and there was there was only one girl who was like, This is too much for me. I don't feel comfortable. And, you know, I I commended her for You know, being open and honest about that, because it would be a lot for, but most everybody else was like, okay, just show me what to do. And
Scott Benner 55:09
yeah, that girl yeah Mandersohn Is that correct?
Liz 55:15
Yeah, so like
yeah, no. Yeah, she came on her dog sled No. Yeah. So we yeah, we've we've had great babysitters, and we had, if you want to hear a crazy seizure start like this was, I still have huge amounts of guilt over this. So the one so our son was six, and need had sort of basically a full time nanny. That was like the full babysitter. And she was so great. Like she, she would do his sight changes, like no problem. She she had a great sense of, you know, just managing his diabetes. So we'd had her for a year and the orchestra was going out of town for three days to Ottawa. And like, we went back and forth for a long time. We're like, Can we do it? Can we do it? Maybe one of us should go and we're like, you know, she's, she's good. And we trust her and it'll be fine. And so we were everything was good. We were in Ottawa. And, excuse me, the last, the last day, we had our, our concert. So we both spoke to her backstage. And she say, oh, yeah, everything's great. You know, the kids just had a big dinner. And you know, we're just going to play and then go to bed, so everything was fine. So we turn our phones off to go on stage. You know, you can have your ringers on. We play our concert. And then both of us just forgot to turn our ringers on. And we didn't check in with her because everybody was asleep, you know, and like, we both forgot to turn our ringers on anyway. The next morning, we get a phone call from the front desk in the hotel, and they're like, we're connecting you to someone, and it was our babysitter in tears. And she's like, I've been trying to reach you all night. Miles has had a seizure. And the ambulance is here at like she was just so frantic. And so what had happened was after after the dinner, he I don't know if he'd picked up the stomach flu or if you've just eaten too much, whatever. So anyway, he had had a huge amount of insulin, huge amount of food, and then he threw it all up. And then he couldn't. He didn't want to take in any more carbs. And she couldn't get them to eat or drink anything. And how old was he there? I'm sorry. He was six. Yeah. And so. I mean, she was amazing. She gave him she's like, well, you're not eating, I need to give you this shot. So she gave him the glucagon. And she wasn't sure if it all went in or not. And, and, or maybe she just felt like she needed to take him in. So she called her dad over to watch my other son, and she drove him to the hospital. And they, they put him she's like he needs to be put on a glucose drip because he has all this insulin in him and no food. Please put them on a glucose drip. And they're like, no, no, it's fine. It's fine. There, we'll give him some gravel because he was throwing up and they're like, just, it's okay. He's good. He's stable. Just take them home and just make sure you tests blood sugar every three hours. Just like she was begging them to do something, you know. So anyway, so she, she took them home and she tested him. Luckily she tested him every she was testing like every 20 minutes or something. But by this point, she was exhausted and tired. And she woke up at five in the morning to him seizing and then she called the ambulance. And then that's that's when we got the phone call. How old was I? She was 12 I feel like she was 24 Wow. Yeah. Well, yeah. She was she was great. And then so we were we were speaking to the paramedics and they're like, well, his his blood sugar's I think six or seven or something. You six and he's stable. Do you want us to transport him to the hospital? And they're like, Well, no, I mean, he's, we feel comfortable with him home with with her there. And anyway, so we hung up the phone and we're getting in. We're like, hey, just check in with us keep testing him. So she was giving us updates, you know, and then we're getting on the plane to come back. And we're like, just checking in, we just have to turn our phones off, how's everything going? And she was freaking out. She's like, he's in another seizure. He's been seizing for 15 minutes. I don't know what to do. And she was at this point, she was frantic. And so we're like, I was asking, I'm like, have you call the ambulance and I couldn't understand anything. She was saying she was just Yeah. And so I ended up calling the ambulance from the plane in Ottawa, and then they dispatched it to Winnipeg. And they're like, Okay, we've sent it, we'd sent the ambulance and then the flight attendants are like, you have to turn off your phone. And we were wondering if Steve is going to have to get off the plane to keep talking to her anyway, so they, they actually taxied for a little bit longer and let him talk. And then they, like, you're gonna have to turn your phone off. And then they Yeah, so we had, I think an hour and a half of not knowing how he was like, knowing that he'd been in a seizure for 20 minutes and not knowing if the ambulance and anyway, so they, they were great. And they updated. They kept updating the pilot, and they would come back and say your
Scott Benner 1:01:09
list, you broke up again.
Liz 1:01:12
Using what they were able to do. I'm so
Scott Benner 1:01:14
sorry. You broke up ago,
Liz 1:01:15
they updated on guilt on that episode is is still.
Scott Benner 1:01:19
Oh, let's hold on your internet connection. They updated the pilot. I'm sorry. Yeah. And then they kept coming back then you were gone.
Liz 1:01:30
Yeah, they kept. They just kept giving us updates on the plane. So that was, that was great. I was so scary.
Scott Benner 1:01:39
Well, besides the fact that that's horrible and frightening. I'm amazed that you were able to talk them into driving an airplane around on the ground, so you can keep talking. But you couldn't talk a doctor into putting him on a like a you know what I mean? Like it's such a it's ridiculous. Like she had him at the right place. Like she No, she did the right thing. And no one
Liz 1:01:59
had Yeah, exactly. Had they just done what she had said, I mean, she was she knew she was like, this is going to happen. And she was just sort of waiting for it to happen that.
Scott Benner 1:02:10
Oh, it's terrible. Well, you made me sick. I'm nauseous now. Okay, so I can't imagine like, did you? I don't even know what to say like, did you think of just like getting off the plane? And like being like, we have to get off the plane or?
Liz 1:02:29
Well, I mean, yeah, my husband is considering just staying off the plane just to just to be able to communicate with her, you know, just but. So when when we had to turn our phones off, it was like, we knew that the ambulance was called. And it had been dispatched. So
Scott Benner 1:02:49
he was okay, after that long seizure.
Liz 1:02:52
Yeah, so Yeah, cuz he'd had the one. Earlier, he had had the one earlier and then. And based on that, because his, you know, he didn't have a CGM min. But based on the fact that he the last blood sugar reading that he had was, I don't know, like a 4.7. Before the seizure. They're like, well, we better rule out that it's, it's, there's nothing else going on besides the I mean, I was I knew it was blood sugar related those ones, but they did the EEG just to make sure there was nothing else and it was fine. And they actually just repeated that because he'd had the the seizures in the fall when his blood sugar was not super low. And they just wanted to make sure that there was nothing else. And so they just, they did that. And it was fine. It was normal. So I think there's just something with him that he drove whatever reason he can seize at a different time or a different number.
Scott Benner 1:03:52
Has he had one since he's had a CGM?
Liz 1:03:55
Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So he's had, he's had a few like, he had one. Right before I started looping the way started looping in 2019. And he'd had one and that was sort of a catalyst for me starting loop. And then he, I mean, he's had lots of near misses for sure. Like where I've caught it in time. But I could tell like, you know, how to caddy. Had I waited he would have gone into one but and then those two in the fall and I Yeah, the one was, he was napping in the afternoon. And he had had he was super emotional that day. It was the day before school started. And he'd had his I taken his computer away his laptop away for the summer. And then I gave it back to him the last day before school and then he'd forgotten his, his code to get in and he was very upset. And then I think just nervous from school and then he'd probably He just slept hard and didn't. Didn't feel it didn't wake up.
Scott Benner 1:05:05
Geez. Why did you take the laptop away? Was it porn?
Liz 1:05:11
No, but it was just just poor choices.
Scott Benner 1:05:16
Was he building a bomb? Alright, well then nothing too bad. That's fine. Wow, holy crap. I didn't know we were going here. That was that's terrible and crazy. And and so do you just have a different target? Do you target him more like 110? Or 120? Or what do you do?
Liz 1:05:38
Yeah, I have this his target at on loop, I have it 5.2 to 5.5. And then I'll often use a override that's like I call it my pasta override where I all the settings are the same, but it's up to a target of seven. So I'll throw that on if he's if he's sort of going lower eating, you know, a bunch of bread or pasta.
Scott Benner 1:06:06
I have Hold on. So first of all, for people 5.2 I was 94. Still. Okay, so you're not targeting that. Hi. And now you said I can't believe we haven't gotten to this yet. But your husband was diagnosed with type one when
Liz 1:06:23
so Myles was about. It was about 18 months after he was diagnosed.
Scott Benner 1:06:29
Okay, so he's your husband's had it for 13 years or so? Yes. Well, yeah. And he's had Yeah, sure to.
Liz 1:06:37
Yeah, he's had a couple as well. Like he had a really severe one. About a year after he was diagnosed. And then he had one just last follow like, you know, after a couple days after miles had had one so I was pretty frazzled. Have yet.
Scott Benner 1:06:59
I want to get back to you in a second. But have you gone to a doctor and been like, hi, these are the two boys in my house that keep having seizures. Can you please figure out why?
Liz 1:07:10
I mean, I think that, you know, they did check. They did check miles out, like just making sure that there was no underlying, you know, I guess epilepsy or something, but and, you know, maybe maybe it is there hydrocephalus. Maybe it's a sort of holdover from? I don't know. I mean, they never said that, that would be a possibility. But
Scott Benner 1:07:33
I'm gonna ask the question, and you're gonna take it the right way. Okay. Thank you. Is there any chance you're just bad at this?
Liz 1:07:44
Well, maybe, you know, like, when he was young, and
Scott Benner 1:07:47
well, yeah, that is a show. Like, that's for sure.
Liz 1:07:51
So, I was so bad. And I was he was always high. And like, they were happy when his agency was, you know, eight. And, you know, he's just high all the time. And yeah, I mean, we still have, we have lots of bad days, like, he's looping and he has all this great technology. But if he forgets to Bolus for something, or if his settings are a little off, I mean, he's growing so much. Like he's, like, you know, he's like, a foot taller than he was last year. Yeah, sure. Yeah. So it's like,
Scott Benner 1:08:25
it's, I don't mean bad. Like, listen, I'm assuming now somebody's gonna be mad at me. But I mean, if you listen to podcasts this long, you know what I mean? But it's, you know, like, our settings bad? Are we just flat out not bolusing for food and then making like crashing, you know, corrections later? Are we not? Are we not checking at intervals? Knowing that after we do these things, we really have to look at 90 minutes are we you know, whatever the time is for you? Like, are you just are you not doing the things that would stop you from having these problems? Or these problems just magically, like overtaking you because you're describing, what 20 years ago would have been called, like a brittle diabetic? And I don't know that that's a real thing. And that's where I'm stuck trying to talk to you about this. I'm not sure what to say like, the stories are fascinating. But I mean, I'd love for you never to have a story like this again. So I'm not certain. I mean, I'm not there, obviously. But like, how much is the way your son for example?
Liz 1:09:30
He's about 120 pounds. Okay. And it was, yeah, what he was 112 like he's taking Vyvanse for, like, add when so when he's in school, he takes the Vyvanse better over the summer. He doesn't so he's gained. He's put on some weight over the summer. Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, I feel like I never feel like I have. Like, I can never I always Feel like I'm on edge because I'm like, Well, this might happen. This might happen. I'm checking all the time. But
Scott Benner 1:10:06
oh, I'm amazed you just walked off into the wilderness like, you're, you seem kind of amazing to me. By now, it would have been like, Hey, I gotta go. You other three want to come? That's fine. But trombone and let's name are staying. I'm not taking you with me. You're like I get it. Just, it's a lot. And you're describing a situation where you must be in like, flight or fight constantly.
Liz 1:10:34
Yeah, I feel I kind of feel like I am and with, with Steve. I mean, it's he's so frustrating. Because He's so stubborn. And so old school. Like, I finally just convinced him last year to wear a CGM, and we have cub, we have great coverage. It's not the fact that we can't afford it. We have it. But he would for the longest time. He would not wear a CGM us like I'm always 4.5 I'm looking. I'm always great. I don't need a CGM. Like save it for somebody who needs it? And it's like, well, you've had a seizure. You know,
Scott Benner 1:11:10
boys? Yeah, yeah. And
Liz 1:11:13
so he and he, you know, he had had a few scares, for sure. And so anyway, he I finally convinced him to wear one. And then he's like, Oh, I guess I'm not always 4.5 Look at that.
Scott Benner 1:11:28
Lesson lesson was I test twice a day, and at the same exact times, and I'm always employed by
Liz 1:11:35
Yeah. And I mean, he did keto for about a year and a half. And he was, you know, hardly taking any insulin and, and then he told me, you know, a year after he started keto, the reason why he started keto, is because he had this big scare with, like, we were at my parents place, and there's a little mountain behind our place. And we were hiking up with the kids and Miles had had some lows on the way up. So he'd eaten all the low snacks. And then I took everybody else down. And Steve decided to go out the rest of the way with with our daughter, who was six at the time. And he he started to feel super low at the top, and he and he knew it was a bad one. And he was in his mind preparing. It's like, how do I get my daughter down the hill after I lay down and have a seizure? So he was coaching her to remember the way down, you know, you might I'm getting pretty tired, I might just need to have a rest, you know, can you remember the way down and you'll tell grandpa to come up with this track and give me a ride down thinking that you know what he would find. And so along the along the way, there's blackberries at my parents place. And so he found he found a good patch of blackberries and just started shoveling them in his mouth. And he was able to get down the hill. But he didn't tell me that for about a year. And he was like, and that's the reason why I decided to do keto because I, I just was, I didn't want this big spike of insulin. You know,
Scott Benner 1:13:16
if you try to avoid active insulin during activity, it'll help you with Lowe's. Like you know this stuff, though, like you really do listen to the podcast, right? Oh, yeah. Okay. Is there a lack of planning? Like, you mean with with Well, in that scenario, like we're
Liz 1:13:33
gonna, with Steve, I don't know what happened with him, you know, like, and I don't manage his diabetes. Like he's, he is usually really good. Like, he is on top of it, but there's always the, you know, like, maybe he had had a big piece of my mom's pie and, like, gave himself too much insulin for it, and then didn't realize that he was gonna go up the mountain, you know? Yeah, yeah. So I, I might, in my mind, I'm like, I could set you up with loop. I, you know, I have my developer's license, I could get you on. You know, I'm like, please let me do this for you. And it would take your your mental load off, but he's too stubborn. I asked him today. I was like, Can you remind me of like, the top five reasons why you don't want to go on loop? And he said,
Scott Benner 1:14:19
because I don't want to make me and you're not my mom. Back? And is he 45 years old?
Liz 1:14:30
Yeah, he's 49. Yeah.
Scott Benner 1:14:33
Hey, you. You named the kid after Miles Davis, right?
Liz 1:14:36
No, no, we didn't. Everybody always asked that. But no, we didn't really. It was just one of the few boys names we could agree on.
Scott Benner 1:14:42
No kidding. Well, that's interesting. Well, listen, you have to be stubborn to play the trombone. Because be because when you're a child, and you look at it, I mean, who looks at it and goes, that's what I'm going to do. That's what I want to do. Yeah, it's gonna be that one right there. Did he get stuck with it isn't like my story where I wanted to play the cello, but they gave me a saxophone.
Liz 1:15:05
No, I mean, he chose it. I guess he Yeah. Okay. loves it. Yeah, he's great. He's a great player,
Scott Benner 1:15:12
I imagine. Yeah. I mean, people don't pay you to play music. If you're, if you're bad at it, that's for sure.
Liz 1:15:17
Yeah. But I mean, yeah, it's, it's gotta be interesting to having, from his perspective, having diabetes, like being a professional musician, you know, because he's, he's ran into scenarios where he's on stage. And, you know, he starts to feel the drop. And he's like, somebody go get me a juice, you know, or, you know, know, and you have a big solo coming up. And, yeah, that's gonna be scary, but he is really good. Like he, for the most part, he's great. He hasn't been wearing the CGM for, let's say the last two months because our insurance they were paying for it. And then they're like, we actually need a letter of necessity from your doctor and
Scott Benner 1:15:58
podcast.
Liz 1:16:01
So he's just been lazy. And not going into get the letter from his doctor. But he's, I do want to go back onto it. Because,
Scott Benner 1:16:09
yeah, yeah. I don't know why. Oh, my God. All right. You fried my brain. So let's, let's take a break for a second. Do something fun, and then I want to ask you how you are. Okay. So here's what we're gonna do. I have a website here of the most famous female Canadians, and I'm stunned by the list. So first of all, there are people on the list who are not Canadian. So I don't know who made this list. And it's literally fit. But do you believe Rachel McAdams is the most famous Canadian female? No way, right.
Liz 1:16:46
No, I mean, she has she has a she's a current, famous actress, I would say
Scott Benner 1:16:52
being girls was a while ago. Then they have Afro Levinas, too. Okay. Her time has passed, but whatever. Now we get to a couple of people. This is fascinating. The third person is from Bulgaria, whom and then it's and then it's it says birthplace, Bulgaria. And then she's, I guess she lives in Canada, Nina dobro, or something like that. But but but not the point. You can't be a famous Canadian actress. If you were born in Bulgaria. You're a famous Bulgarian actress. No. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Then Celine Dion and Colbus molars somehow end up under they're all from Bulgaria. I don't understand that at all. This one threw me off. Shania Twain isn't from the south of the United States.
Liz 1:17:38
Yeah, I forgot that. I mean, it kind of sounds vaguely familiar, but I yeah, I thought she was from states Catherine
Scott Benner 1:17:43
O'Hare. Okay, I know, Sandra Oh, threw me off. I didn't realize she was from Ontario. Evangeline Lilly I knew was from Canada. Here's another made up word Fort Saskatchewan. that can't really be a real place. Because I noticed now I scroll I scroll I scroll. Alas, mindset. I don't know how she should be number one. I did not realize Emily VanCamp was Canadian. Now. Here's the crazy thing. Top 20 number 16. Now number 17 is Joni Mitchell. Okay, but number 16 is a porn star. How do you think Joni Mitchell feels about this list?
Liz 1:18:21
Yeah, that's not fair.
Scott Benner 1:18:22
I don't understand. I just anyway, it goes. Nothing wrong with being a porn star. But I say that I'm saying Joni Mitchell is gonna be like, I don't rank higher than pornography. Like, okay. I don't know. I'd be thrown by this. Anyone under that? I don't know. I'd be upset. I didn't know Margaret Atwood was Canadian. That's cool. All right. Anyway, here's another one. Jennifer Tilly birthplace Los Angeles, California. How does this kit
Liz 1:18:53
usually just lives in Canada
Scott Benner 1:18:55
doesn't make you I don't listen. Do you have to be born in the place? Well, I guess you could get your citizenship you know? That doesn't count you know? It doesn't count and I know it doesn't. Anyway, anyway, this this list is like a who's who of people you would not know.
Liz 1:19:16
I still think it's funny that my kids are from Winnipeg, you know? Like
Scott Benner 1:19:20
you think you actually think it's a it's crazy?
Liz 1:19:24
Yeah, it just always Yeah, throws me for a loop sometimes because I'm like, oh, yeah, my kids are Winnipeggers
Scott Benner 1:19:30
where you were born in in Washington State. Are you Canadian? Now did you do the thing where you sign up? No, I
Liz 1:19:38
need to get I need to get it. I'm just I'm just bad at doing adult things. Sometimes. It just takes me well, because I'm guess I'm just thinking about blood sugars.
Scott Benner 1:19:48
Yes. So back to you. Oh, my favorite Hannah Simone. Do you watch new girl? Yeah, yeah, I watched that was pretty sure CeCe is my favorite character on new girl followed up by I Schmidt in the early years, and then anyway, my least favorite is the main character. I'm sure she doesn't care what we Yeah, so easy Chanel, there's something about her that makes me she can you know, I'm just not just talking about new girl. We shifted off of that. I want to ask about you before we're done. Okay? Because you are in a, in a bizarre scenario like Vic, you have three other kids on top of all this. So you're a working musician, like it's not a standard nine to five job, obviously, your husband has type one, and your son has type one, and they're both prone to having seizures. And I just imagined you as like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Is that how you are?
Liz 1:20:52
Um, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I you know, people say to me, like, Oh, I'd be so stressed. And I am so stressed all the time. I feel like I probably should be in therapy. And I'm not but I don't know. It's It's stressful. For sure.
Scott Benner 1:21:10
Therapy, you should be drunk many hours a day was I don't want to i not i understand alcoholism is not the way to treat a problem. But you might be able to get like a some sort of a card or something like that. Seriously, I don't know that heroin is not right for you. There's like, how are you dealing in reality all the time?
Liz 1:21:32
Well, I don't know, actually. And, you know, poor, poor miles. Like he has all the stuff and the other kids don't have anything. I mean, they had a little bit of like viral induced asthma, all of them, at one point needed a inhaler when they get a cold. But it's not like they have to use it all the time. But he has, you know, he gets the diabetes and the severe food allergies and the thyroid, and
Scott Benner 1:21:59
so you don't get to think about yourself because they have worse situations than you.
Liz 1:22:06
Oh, yeah, I turned it away from me, didn't they? Yeah, I just I yeah, I guess I'm just focused, focused on them and trying to keep the peace. You know, like the kids. Just for them. They sometimes will fight and just trying to keep things calm. But
Scott Benner 1:22:24
because you're so not asked, answering my question.
Liz 1:22:29
I just, I don't know. I don't know how to manage it. Really? Because I guess.
Scott Benner 1:22:34
So is the answer that you're not? Or you're just like,
Liz 1:22:39
Yeah, I mean, I do feel frazzled and tired all the time. You know, like loop definitely helps me get more sleep than I did before. Like, before I was a complete basket case. I feel like, and I do. I do feel like I joke about it. But I do feel like there. I've missed I'm missing parts of my memory. Because I like, I'll be having conversations with people and they bring up something that I've said before happened, or people I've met, and I like literally no recollection of it. And I always feel I always feel bad when I'm talking to somebody. I'm trying desperately to remember details, because I don't want to seem like I'm, you know, not caring about what people say. But then I feel bad if I don't remember things or like, and literally like I you know that face blank. You hear people say they have face blindness? Where? Yes, they just think yeah, I don't know if it's some something I have like maybe a little bit of that or like I'll be I'll be I'll meet somebody at a gathering. And I'll have a full conversation with them. And I'll be talking to them for I mean, it could be half an hour or an hour. And then if I need them. I don't know I meet them six months later, and I have I would be like, Oh, hi. How are you? You know, like, was nice to meet you. Like they're like, we've had we've talked?
Scott Benner 1:24:07
Do you really think is is it possible? You have that? How do they diagnose it's called I just feel like I'm sleep deprived. Okay, so you just exhausted? I think so. Do you how much do you sleep?
Liz 1:24:21
Um, well, I don't know. I mean, I, I try to go I usually tend to fall asleep around midnight, but then, because I like to sort of see what's happening, like, what his last snack is going to do or whatever and then, or I'll hear him up at midnight and I'm like, Oh, he's gonna eat something. So I have to sort of be on extra alert. And then I you know, I have my alarms and alert.
Scott Benner 1:24:50
So, Liz, I'm stalking you online right now.
Liz 1:24:53
Here's something I wake up and check it a couple times a night.
Scott Benner 1:24:57
Okay, hold on you. You blipped out at this The craziest moment so I didn't hear oh, sorry. No. Wait, do you hear what I said? You use headphones. No, no, it's not your internet connection. I get a I get a signal here internet connection gets bad, but so you're staying up later at night checking on him. And then I didn't kind of get the rest of it.
Liz 1:25:20
Oh, yeah, I just I think I have trained myself to even if, even if I think he's going to be steady, I just trained myself to wake up and check it anyway. So I check it a few times. And it's great. You know, I have I have the loop on I charge his watch next to me. So if I have to give him insulin or put an override on I can do that from my bed. I don't have to get up.
Scott Benner 1:25:42
Right. But you're getting a lot of broken sleep. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Very bad for you. Okay, so what I was gonna say is what I did say when you couldn't hear me, which was wide felt creepy, is that I'm stalking you online at the moment. And so you're, you're a thin person. Is that right? Yeah, but when you were married, you were thin but not that thin. Not as thin as you are now. So are you like, lizard? So? I've always been thin. Okay, maybe it's just a photo. You're like, oh, I looked fat at my wedding. Great. Is that what you're saying? It's not what I'm saying. You looked more like a youthful, like, I don't know what to say. Yeah. Adorable. But
Liz 1:26:21
the bitterness wasn't there.
Scott Benner 1:26:27
What's your mouth seeing Scott? Balding a trade of life?
Sorry. Now we're getting to it. Liz. So, are you so I was just gonna say are you naturally like lean? Or are you out of your mind? Thin? Do you know what I mean? By the two things?
Liz 1:26:52
Yeah, no, I yeah, I feel like I'm just not like, yeah, naturally lean,
Scott Benner 1:26:58
okay, because there's a thing that happens like, like, like, there are some stressed out people are sometimes either really thin or heavy. Like they go in one way or the other. Right? Like they eat a lot because of the stress or they don't eat anything because of the stress. Right? But you would
Liz 1:27:13
start I started taking I have like chronic migraines and stuff. So I've been taking this medication for the last little while and they've they've upped it. I didn't notice anything for the first nine months when I was taking it. And one of the side effects is weight gain, but I didn't notice anything until they just upped my dose recently and I have I think gained about six pounds.
Scott Benner 1:27:36
Okay, well, what does that make you? 91 pounds? Like? Yeah, okay, so you're not gonna get any compassion out of me on that one? Listen. If I lost six pounds, you'd look at me go Scott looks exactly the same. But But okay, so being like being serious, if I can be I don't know, because you really cracked me up with a bitterness statement. Like, that's amazing. You're Are you not okay, but you're just telling yourself you're okay. Like, are you willing yourself to go on? Or do you actually think, like, Is there is there going to be a moment your life when you look back and go, I wish I would have taken care of myself differently.
Liz 1:28:19
Yeah, maybe? I mean, I, yeah, some days I feel like that for sure. Other days, I feel fine. And I'm just sort of, you know, going along, things are fine. And then other days, I feel like Yeah, super stressed out. I mean, I mean, my my job is like, our job is kind of stressful as well, like I you know, we're not working right now. But we'll start back up again in September. And it's kind of a high stress situation, you know, like, preparing music that has to be, you know, at a concert level and,
Scott Benner 1:28:55
and then doing it how many times a day once you're working?
Liz 1:28:59
Um, yeah, it depends on what what kind of concert we're doing. But yeah, we'll have we'll have a few rehearsals and then the concert and then probably yeah, sometimes it's like two programs a week like different music that we have to prepare. Can you
Scott Benner 1:29:14
enjoy it playing the music? Or does it feel like work?
Liz 1:29:19
Yes, and no, I mean, I feel I'm always in pain when I play. I mean, I there might be something I feel like there might be something going on with me and I just haven't figured it out. Like I'm in constant pain when I play. So I don't enjoy it as much as I know I would if I wasn't in pain, your joints muscles so much my joints and muscles might like I have I'm, I have one leg that's I've one leg that's a little bit longer than the other one. And then I have a little bit of scoliosis as well. So I feel like I'm and then playing violin is so you know, it's not very good than that. What it's all it's all cricket like you're over developing and using. Anyway, so I probably Yeah, it's probably just a posture and muscle thing. But even if I take, say I take three months off or two months off, which doesn't happen very often, but if I, you know pain almost, you know, it's, it's more when I play but
Scott Benner 1:30:30
so when you take time off because you've looked out for a second when you take time off the pain kind of lessons a little bit, but it's still there. It's still there. I've never like it's very infrequently that I think this but you should probably smoke weed. Like I probably should. Yeah, of all the people I've talked to in the last 30 days, I'm putting you at the top of my Canadian, not Canadian ladies who should smoke weed list. Yeah. So and you've gotten me so relaxed. Now. I like you so much that when you said I have one leg longer than the other?
Liz 1:31:05
Can I make so much fun? I have
Scott Benner 1:31:07
scoliosis I thought to say braggart because my like my real sarcasm is like it's bubbling to the top now. Like, I give you guys like 8% of my sarcasm, because I don't even believe you would like me if you heard it all. So I just had an incredibly sarcastic thoughts all the time, which I then distill down and try to turn it into thoughts while I'm talking on the podcast. But Oh, listen to her bragging. Yeah.
Yeah, I don't know, I'm worried for you. I know.
Liz 1:31:46
Part of me thinks I'm like, maybe I have fibromyalgia because I'm always tired. And I'm always sore. And why would
Scott Benner 1:31:52
I write first about that? Yeah. Right. I mean, especially if your son has hypothyroidism and there's autoimmune in your family. I know your husband has type one, and so does your and so does your son. But that doesn't mean that it can't be something on your end it also, you know, you're so used to looking for people being sick. Because of your scenario, I find myself in this sometimes if something happens in the house, I'm like, that's probably definitely a rare type of blah, blah, blah, because you're just used to things like that happening. And then sometimes it's like, oh, no, that's not it. I just have a cold, like, you know, like, and so, I mean, like, because you're like, I might have fibromyalgia, you also might have scoliosis, and just be uncomfortable, because you're contorting yourself playing a violin, right? So, and you're getting older, and you're under a ton of stress, and you're not sleeping. Right. So I don't know, what would happen if you just like took off for days and slept?
Liz 1:32:47
Yeah, I don't know, either. I think I would, I would just, I would get more stressed out. Just giving all the control over, you know, like, I would I would be worried that something would happen? My answer would be no.
Scott Benner 1:33:06
Is there a control thing going on?
Liz 1:33:09
Well, though, I mean, yeah, I realized that how that sounded. I mean, maybe like
Scott Benner 1:33:13
he realized how it sounds. It sounds like what you said. Yeah. So, I mean, it sounds like you're being very honest. For a second. You don't want to troll? I don't know, your family safety to be out of your hands.
Liz 1:33:28
Yeah, I feel like it would just stress me out. Giving all the all the burden to Steve to to handle. And then, you know, after, after that thing that happened when he was six, when we went to auto we for sure could I mean, Steve would love to go away just the two of us. But I was like, that's never going to happen again.
Scott Benner 1:33:52
Well, it will someday.
Liz 1:33:55
Yeah, I don't know. So we're actually we're waiting to hear any day. We should hear if he's going to be approved for alert dog. So
Scott Benner 1:34:05
your son or your husband?
Liz 1:34:07
Our son? Yeah. Yeah, so we started the process three years ago before COVID And then it's just sort of sort of finally wrapping up now to see if he gets it but
Scott Benner 1:34:21
yeah, so listen, you need proof of all that you remember the Jackson juice they put Michael Jackson to sleep with that's what you need. You need to go night night for like a while like, I know this is not legal, but it's you need you need.
Liz 1:34:40
A couple years ago, I needed I needed surgery. It was like
Scott Benner 1:34:44
best day your life. Yeah. Like a
Liz 1:34:47
hernia, like you know, leftover stuff from like muscles separating from the birth and stuff and I was joking with the nurse after I was like, can you just can you give me extra so I stay asleep for a long time because I never get to sleep at home. No kidding. I mean, they actually did. Did they really? Yeah. They're like, yeah, we felt sorry for you. So because I
Scott Benner 1:35:10
left you out a little longer.
Liz 1:35:13
Yeah, I was, at one point, I was like, you know, I woken up and and I was sick. So what, what sort of time and they'd left me there, I was there all day sleeping, like kind of just come pick me up and they're like, Oh, you can go home anytime we just, you know, just wanted you to.
Scott Benner 1:35:33
Please let me tell you, you've painted a picture today of a health care system in shambles in Canada. You've you by the way, if you ever get divorced, there's no way anyone who hears this is going to marry you. So you're not gonna be able to get
Liz 1:35:45
that one leg longer. I'm super stressed out.
Scott Benner 1:35:48
I remember, I'm waiting for when you're like, my vagina is actually on my thigh. And I don't know. It's just Yeah, it's sort of like midway between my knee and my hip. It's sort of on the outside. I don't know why it's there. Like you, but but still, I'm more focused on you not sleeping.
Liz 1:36:06
Yeah, I mean, it is
Scott Benner 1:36:07
a big deal.
Liz 1:36:08
It is. For sure. Better with loop. But yeah, I it is it's just hard. You know, like the, the last time that Steve had a seizure, it was in the middle of the night. And that time, I mean, I still I feel guilty about that, because he was actually high. He was wearing a CGM at that point. And he was super high before bed. And he had given Can you hear me?
Scott Benner 1:36:33
Oh, yeah, I'm listening. Sorry.
Liz 1:36:36
He had given himself a big correction. And, or I just figured a normal correction, actually. But I had told myself, I was like, I'm going to be hearing his high alarm for the next couple hours. And I psych myself, I'm like, don't listen to the ill I was telling myself don't listen to the alarms is just as high alarms. Because I was trying to, you know, just tune it out. And then it was actually his low alarm was going off. And I wasn't listening to it. Because I in my, my brain had switched it around thinking that he was just Hi.
Scott Benner 1:37:08
Any people in your life pass away, that you feel any kind of attachment to?
Liz 1:37:17
Um, no, I mean, I've had a floss gram, but but I haven't. Like, I haven't had any sort of tragic losses like that
Scott Benner 1:37:27
your guilt is like is, I understand it, like, don't get me wrong, like, I get where it comes from, and I understand why you have it, and I understand why you're worried and why you feel like you can't sleep, but it's so untenable. You know, like, is there any way you could talk yourself into it that way, like, you're not going to be around as long as you want to be for these people. I mean, not to say you'd be dead, but you might be so like, useless was the word I was gonna lose. Like, you might just, you might SAP yourself down to the point where you can't be helpful to them. And then that's going to make you feel bad. Like you're gonna have to, like, do something for yourself. And then now to get to the later if that makes sense.
Liz 1:38:12
Yeah, yeah, you're right. Yeah, for sure.
Scott Benner 1:38:14
Because this went in so many directions. Do you didn't expect this? I imagine.
Liz 1:38:19
I didn't know what to expect. I mean, I knew Yeah, I I guess I was nervous about you know, making sure that it was I had something of value to say, you know,
Scott Benner 1:38:32
well, you definitely do.
Liz 1:38:36
Yeah, cuz I get so much out of the podcast and if it's even if it's something that is not relate, not related at all, to my situation, I there's always some sort of nugget in there. That's helpful. But
Scott Benner 1:38:51
well, that's great. I'm glad I this is my favorite part of the podcast, and somebody says something nice about me, so I didn't want to didn't want to talk over you while you're talking. Like, keep going. And, and what else did I do?
Liz 1:39:05
Yeah, no, I, I really, I love I wish I you know, I'm so happy when I hear people that find you and the group and the podcast, you know, like, even when they're in the hospital, you know, or within the first couple of months or the first year even or it's just I I so wished that I could have had what you what you provide to people when he was first diagnosed, because I feel like it would have things would have been so different. And I mean, he's, he's doing great now like he has, you know, he has ups and downs and roller coaster days, but like he he's not having tons of lows right now. He's at like 1% Lowe's. And he's his last two agencies were like 5.7 and 5.9. So and he's been in the sixes for for a long time, but Um, yeah, there were definitely like, years when I just didn't know, having a a Wednesday, if eight was a bad thing you know,
Scott Benner 1:40:13
was, here's what I want for you. And I hope you'll listen. Yeah, set everybody's target at 120. And, like on a Friday afternoon, disappear into a room with like, blinds that go dark and just like sleep the weekend away. And just try to get yourself like, rested. And take five minutes to go to the doctor and get yourself a, you know, a checkup, have them run some blood work, tell them everything that you've been feeling. See if they can find out something simple. Tell them your kid has hypothyroidism you want your, your your thyroid levels checked, get your iron checked, like do all those little things that you know we don't do for ourselves. You could be tired from I mean, you're a menstruating age woman you could you could have low iron. You could have hypothyroidism yourself, you might not. There are just some simple things you could do to help yourself like I just feel like you're you're existing and you're not taking care of yourself at all. Yeah, am I right?
Liz 1:41:24
Yeah, there's definitely interest in there and yeah, yeah, you're right. Yeah,
Scott Benner 1:41:31
just take just take a weekend, like look at them and go, I am trusting the two of you not to kill yourselves or each other. And by the way, take care of these other three. Actually, if I was you, I'd put the other three in charge of those two, but I mean, you know, yeah. And. And your husband and your son. They're very much like the type ones.
Liz 1:41:52
Yes, yeah. They're, and they
Scott Benner 1:42:01
and they disappeared less.
Liz 1:42:03
And I think probably they're both too stubborn to admit that.
Scott Benner 1:42:08
Gotcha. Okay, so they even look alike, don't they?
Liz 1:42:12
Oh, sorry. You just cut out for a second. Oh, actually, you cut out
Scott Benner 1:42:15
but they're back. Yeah, no. So I asked if they were like you said they're both both stubborn. And I just that they kind of look alike, too, don't they?
Liz 1:42:25
Um, I'm kinda I mean. Yeah, all the boys. All the boys have red hair, like various shades of red hair. And Steve has like dark. I say it's black. He says this brown. Right.
Scott Benner 1:42:38
Oh, it's a lovely family. You have I would like you to get some sleep so you can see it and remember their faces a couple of weeks. You ever forget the kids names? Oh, I,
Liz 1:42:49
I mean, I know their names. But I always start all of you know if I'm saying I'm trying to save Felix, I'll go through the first syllables of everybody else's name. So it's like, we have miles Felix, Hazel and Quincy so I'll be like, hey, my Felix or fie. My Hazel.
Scott Benner 1:43:09
Yeah, this are you and your husband about the same age?
Liz 1:43:12
He's four years older.
Scott Benner 1:43:15
Okay, yeah, you're too young to not remember everybody's name. You're exhausted. Yeah. And you don't know it?
Liz 1:43:23
Oh, I to know, I
Scott Benner 1:43:24
know. But I mean, like, you don't know it enough to be like, I have to stop. You like you're like I'm exhausted. But look at me. I'm doing it. You know what I mean? Like, I used to be like that. I used to have that. Like, oh, I'm handling this. Like I'm handling sleeping four hours a night. I was not handling it. I just lied to myself and told myself I was. So I don't know it, just please take care of yourself. We're never going to talk after this list. So I'm going to worry about you. I'm going to be like this right now. I feel like I'm on the plane. And they're telling me we're going to take off and I'm like, I gotta shut my phone off. And I'm not going to find out if Liz does, okay. I mean, I'm worried I'm not. I know, it's, I don't want you to feel bad because we've only known each other for an hour and a half. And my takeaway is, this is gonna die, and I gotta do something. But I really want you to do something for yourself. I hope you do.
Liz 1:44:13
Oh, thanks. That's nice. Well, maybe maybe in a year or something. Steve will come on the podcast. And by that time, he'll be able to report that. He's looping. And he's wearing a CGM. And I'm sleeping.
Scott Benner 1:44:28
Yeah. Well, that would be that would be lovely. And I'd like to hear that story about him walking up the hill, because that almost made me cry when you were talking about that.
Liz 1:44:36
Yeah, I think that's why he didn't tell me for so long because he had a really scared him. Yeah,
Scott Benner 1:44:41
no kidding. I would imagine. All right, well, I appreciate this. I'm sorry. I kept you much longer than I said I was going to but Oh, that's okay.
Liz 1:44:47
No, thank you for letting me ramble on. Sorry.
Scott Benner 1:44:51
You didn't ramble. You were good. Don't worry. You were very good. I have an episode that anyway, I'll Tell you what, let's stop it. I'll tell you in a second
A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G voc glucagon, find out more about Chivo Capo pen at G Vogue glucagon.com Ford slash juice box, you spell that GVOKEGLUC AG o n.com forward slash juicebox. I also want to thank cozy Earth and remind you that you can get 35% off at cozy earth.com with the offer code juice box at checkout. And of course us med us med.com forward slash juice box or call 888721151 for art and gets her Dexcom and Omni pod supplies from us med you could too they also have tandem and Lee brain go check them out. I want to thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Don't forget to subscribe and follow in an audio app like Apple podcasts Spotify, Amazon music anywhere where you get your audio find the show hit subscribe or follow depends some apps ask you to subscribe some say follow whichever your says that's what you do.
Please support the sponsors
The Juicebox Podcast is a free show, but if you'd like to support the podcast directly, you can make a gift here. Recent donations were used to pay for podcast hosting fees. Thank you to all who have sent 5, 10 and 20 dollars!