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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 938 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On this episode of The Juicebox Podcast I'll be speaking with Heather. She's an adult living with type one diabetes, who made a major change in her management after finding a lump in her breast. While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. Were becoming bold with insulin. If you'd like to save 10% off your first month of therapy, use my link betterhelp.com forward slash juice box and to get five free travel packs and a year's supply of vitamin D. Make your first order for ag one from athletic greens at athletic greens.com forward slash juicebox if you're looking for the diabetes Pro Tip series, you can find it at diabetes pro tip.com juicebox podcast.com. We're beginning at episode 210 In your podcast player, and of course, don't miss the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes absolutely free 40,000 members something for everyone. Check it out Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook, but you don't have to have type one. We let everybody in this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by us med us med is the place where my daughter gets her on the pod and Dexcom supplies but they have much more than that. Head now to us med.com forward slash juice box to get your free benefits check or call 888-721-1514 The podcast is also sponsored today by cozy earth. Now longtime listeners will know I'm sleeping on cozy Earth sheets. I love my cozy Earth joggers and sweatshirts, but I just made an addition. The towels we have the waffle towels now and they're fantastic cozy earth.com Go there load up your card. use the offer code juicebox at checkout and you will save 35% off your entire order. I'm gonna tell you about those towels later. Magnificent you have no way to say

Heather 2:30
my name is Heather. I live in Yellowknife northwest territories in Canada. I am a type one diabetic and I've been diabetic for 17 years.

Scott Benner 2:41
You know when you said Yellowknife I thought a minute ago before we started recording I told Heather you don't want to tell people where you live and now she's making something up that that's nonsensical. But it's a real place Yellowknife

Heather 2:56
it is a real place yeah in the Northwest like the far the northern most territory. Is that the Yukon? It's beside the Yukon. It's Yukon adjacent.

Scott Benner 3:06
You trying to name your episode? Maybe I don't know. We already have a butthole adjacent.

Heather 3:13
Do I know I listened to that one yesterday and I died. Did you really? Yeah actually did.

Scott Benner 3:17
Oh, what a coincidence.

Heather 3:19
It is a coincidence.

Scott Benner 3:21
Let me see if I remember that one. The guest a lady had abscess. Yeah, somewhere between I don't even know what to say. Yeah. Okay. popped into my head. Man I share. I'll just bleep it out. I thought to say between the end and instead I went children listen to this if they don't need to know that. Yeah, so so near her butthole and her lady bits sort of in between she had an abscess that's sort of how she was diagnosed. Am I right about that?

Heather 4:00
Yeah, you're 100% right about that. And she was a nurse.

Scott Benner 4:02
Everyone should check out that episode.

Heather 4:04
It's a great episode. Yeah. Okay.

Scott Benner 4:06
Anyway, you live Why do you live where you live? What happened? Did you get lost in there and just decided to stay

Heather 4:12
or I had just wandered off too far. And here we are. Where you born? My sister actually lives here so she got me a job at I worked at a dental clinic so she got me a job at a dental clinic I was

Scott Benner 4:24
like oh god you're not a can can dancer Are you because there was another episode was also a Canadian.

Heather 4:28
Yeah, Canadian can can do so I listened to that one a couple of weeks ago.

Scott Benner 4:34
I was like, oh my god, is this all gonna come full circle. So are you guys are you American? No, I'm

Heather 4:39
Canadian. Okay,

Scott Benner 4:41
so you guys born in the Canada somewhere your sister migrates to the North Pole for some reason. And you decided to go because there's a job in a dental office?

Heather 4:50
Because there's a job at a dental office. Yeah. And I don't like teeth. So why not?

Scott Benner 4:54
At least you're not following a boy around. No, no, no, he

Heather 4:58
followed me. Oh, well. That's acceptable

Scott Benner 5:00
that I have no trouble with. Yeah. By the way, does it sound like I have trouble with women following men places? I don't think I do. No, no.

Heather 5:08
But you know, you're you have a daughter. I get it.

Scott Benner 5:10
I also have to fill an hour this conversation. I need to have an opinion on almost everything you say or I'm interested. Absolutely. As you ship. Yeah, well, okay, so you how long did you move there?

Heather 5:21
Um, I've been here for nine years.

Scott Benner 5:24
You really don't like teeth?

Heather 5:28
Yeah, no teeth are gross. I hate the dentist. Like I have bad dental anxiety.

Scott Benner 5:32
What do you do in the office?

Heather 5:34
I do like administrative stuff with like insurance companies and stuff. So you're not the person like out of the picture. I'm like, in an office away.

Scott Benner 5:41
Okay, you're not the person who's texting me three days from my appointment reminding me of cleaning? No, no, that's been the worst thing to happen to dental care. 15 years is there.

Heather 5:53
By the way, you have a dental appointment text one to apply.

Scott Benner 5:57
I'm gonna hold on a second. This is this is how much I hate this. I'm gonna read you the text. I want to respond back and say you're making me not care about my dental health. But hey, Scott, it's Cynthia from Dr. BLANKS office. I'm reaching out to remind you of your hygiene appointment with us for Monday at 2pm. Please call or text to confirm. Thanks. I want to respond. Leave me alone. Yeah.

Heather 6:23
Where's the opt out?

Scott Benner 6:25
I have a calendar. I know when my dental appointment is, yeah, please leave me alone. And I ignore it. And then you get like a follow up. Then you're like, Oh, God. Now I have to respond. So I just type. I'll be there without punctuation. She's like, great. We'll see you then. Have a great weekend. Leave me alone. So excited about this. Yeah. Please leave me alone. Okay, so you don't like teeth, but you work in a dentist's office, but you're in the back. You've been in the Canada for like nine years, right? Yeah, yeah.

Heather 7:00
I'm in northern Canada for nine years. I've been here my whole life. But

Scott Benner 7:02
yeah, yeah. And okay. In that part of the Canada and And how old are you now?

Heather 7:07
I'm 33. Okay.

Scott Benner 7:10
And when did you get type one?

Heather 7:12
A month before my 15th birthday?

Scott Benner 7:15
Oh, yeah. Like 18 years ago? Yeah. Gotcha. Does your sister have any of the autoimmune stuff?

Heather 7:22
No, I am the only auto immune thing. My dad has a thyroid issue. So there's that.

Scott Benner 7:32
Do you know if it's autoimmune or if it's not?

Heather 7:34
Um, I don't know. But his like his mom had it. Her mom, you know, like, it's a long line of thyroid problems. They

Scott Benner 7:42
call it hypothyroidism or, yes, he thinks

Heather 7:45
Yeah, he's on that drug that your son takes? Really? Yeah,

Scott Benner 7:51
he's on to accent.

Heather 7:53
Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

Scott Benner 7:53
I asked him about it the other day. You can get that in Canada. I think so amazing. Yeah, it's amazing. It really is. I don't understand. You don't even have roads? Right? How do you get? Oh, you imagined it as dirt? No, not even that ice. Not even Oh, yes. Just Rossi snow, and a hill. And then just the thing standing off in the distance. It's an animal I've never seen before that looks vaguely menacing, but leaves me alone. That's how I see Canada. Absolutely. We have lots of those. And then a Mountie, and then three people in a bar stabbing each other. That's pretty much how I see this whole thing

Heather 8:28
that you just described.

Scott Benner 8:31
I imagined I did by the way, but I don't know. Okay, so right before your 50th birthday. So no family history. It's not like you were looking for it. How did it happen?

Heather 8:41
Um, so I used to play competitive soccer. And this was the first year that we decided not to practice their Christmas break. And I was living my best life so I was drinking lots the typical things drinking lots. My vision when my gums were bleeding, I lost close to 30 pounds. My mom was a nurse. So she kind of recognized it but you know, denial. So we went and got my blood sugar tested and I came out at 28 which is like in the five hundreds

Scott Benner 9:28
Hi there. We're going to have a good time today. And the reason I say that is because you thought back on being 15 and just for like, you know, so I did what 15 year olds do I drank to excess and my gums were bleeding

Heather 9:40
100% Yeah, that was it. I like I remember my my one of my girlfriends tells me like I remember we went to the movies and you drank like three large pops in an hour and I was like

Scott Benner 9:54
that but okay. There's that great wish you remember she's like that's important when you're Yeah, yeah. Why the latent alcoholism? It's such a young age Heather were you just bored? Sad what was happening?

Heather 10:10
Just like chugging all the time just needed the booze.

Scott Benner 10:16
I want to say is this a Canadian thing? But I think I'm the outlier when it comes to drinking. So I'm not sure how to

Heather 10:23
know. I mean, I wasn't a drinker really high. didn't drink until I was 19. I waited until the illegal appropriate age.

Scott Benner 10:29
All this chugging was just like pop. Yeah, like my answer. I

Heather 10:35
thought you were Oh, god. No, no.

Scott Benner 10:39
What did I misunderstand? I thought you were like,

Heather 10:44
I said, I was living my best life and you thought, oh, yeah, here we go.

Scott Benner 10:46
I just thought these Canadians, all they do is stab people and drink. This must be the story. So here we go. Here's another here's another Canadian girl. Tell me about her boozing. Yeah. But okay. Alright, so you are just consuming a lot of liquids.

Heather 11:05
Yeah, just a lot of liquid in non alcoholic form. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 11:08
Okay. All right. This all makes more sense to me now. Yeah. So So do you see your you think your mom notices? But she doesn't say anything, do you?

Heather 11:19
Well, I think it was just like a, I think it was a build up, like my vision went first. And then we went, got new glasses. And that was like the whole thing. And then like, I happened to go to the dentist, and they were like, Wow, your gums are bleeding a lot. And that's abnormal, but like, carry on with your life. And then, and then the weight loss, I think was what my mom really noticed. And like in such a short period of time, they figure that because I was so active that was kind of keeping my blood sugar in range. And then because I had like, two and a half weeks of no activity.

Scott Benner 11:57
You notice that all of a sudden? Yeah, I'll because of the lack of soccer. Wow, what a different story. I had you with a fifth of vodka in your hand, just bleeding from the corner of your mouth drunk in a movie theater, and really mean we can we could say that. That's what I don't want to say anything. It's not true. But, but instead you're just an athletic girl who gets a couple of months off and all of a sudden, this is how you see the diabetes come up. Yeah. Okay. And then because you're in Canada, you made an appointment, and they saw you in 14 months. Is that right?

Heather 12:27
They saw me no, they saw me like within like, three like this all happened in a course of three weeks.

Scott Benner 12:34
Okay. All right. So 18 years ago, that's pretty long gone. You're not what was the management style back then?

Heather 12:43
I was MDI, so I was on Novo rapid and Liv Amir. And then I changed to Lantis at some point after that, and then I was on trustee but at the end of my MDI adventure,

Scott Benner 12:58
but you're in a province where they didn't try to give you a sliding scale they gave you Oh,

Heather 13:02
they gave me a sliding scale they did.

Scott Benner 13:06
And how long did you stick with that? And did that mess with you?

Heather 13:09
Um, I think I only did that for a couple months. And then I got to carb ratio. And then everything was kind of golden from there. I basically like I never really honeymooned, I basically was like out of insulin. my pancreas was like, Yeah, I'm done with this. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 13:24
How long did you pay play professional soccer.

Heather 13:28
I love that. You said that. I'm a professional soccer player. So let's go with that.

Scott Benner 13:33
I was making fun of parents who are spending money on their children in sports.

Heather 13:37
Oh, God, no, no, I wasn't going anywhere. I didn't like to run. So and I was the goalie, so you know, good enough. That's like, that's the spot where you stay if you don't want to run, so. I played soccer until I was 18. Okay.

Scott Benner 13:53
Did you go to what would they call that? University? Would you call it University? And when

Heather 13:58
I did go, I went to Yeah, I went to university, but I didn't play soccer. I wasn't that good?

Scott Benner 14:04
Yeah. It's not gonna work out for most of you. That's all No,

Heather 14:08
no, I was not getting a professional career in soccer.

Scott Benner 14:12
I've come to understand that the money that my son got for playing sports in college was is almost a tip of the iceberg. For what most people get. You know, it's yeah, I never I guess I we were he was so focused on continuing to play. You had these expectations. This was going to happen as it kept happening. We're like, well, of course, the next thing happened like we expected it to. But now you look back with hindsight and you're like, because for so many people, it just doesn't work out that way. And yeah, almost random sometimes. But okay, so soccer. I mean, I don't know how you play soccer and snow but whatever.

Heather 14:50
Well, where I lived at the time there was no snow. There's no snow there. You're a liar. How could that be when you live in a small area of Vancouver, BC It typically doesn't get very much. No.

Scott Benner 15:02
West Coast. I see.

Heather 15:04
Yeah, yeah, that's where I grew up.

Scott Benner 15:06
Big TV filming area. Yeah, huge.

Heather 15:09
Yeah, it's funny. I can pick out things in movies. I'm like, oh, that's filmed in BC. I recognize those streets

Scott Benner 15:15
crazy when I interviewed Victor Garber. He was in Vancouver. Okay, they were on like a holiday break from the TV show he was doing at the time. Yeah, anyway, okay, that's not that's neither here nor there. So Heather, I feel like I should just jump in and ask you why you want to come on the podcast because your notes let me read them to people.

Heather 15:32
Oh my god. I bet they're super invigorating. Like they're just say why

Scott Benner 15:36
do you want to come? Here are the questions that are asked if I asked you to come on the podcast send you the link your relationship to diabetes. You said type one. Have you ever been in guest or have you been a guest on another type one podcast the past six months? You said no. What are some of the themes you hope to cover on your episode? Other complications from type one looping? How awesome Scott is?

Heather 15:58
Right see,

Scott Benner 16:00
there we go. I don't know if we can make an hour out of it. But let's talk about you for let's start on making August getting I wanted to talk about I guess I want to start with looping because you just went over your progress from the insulins you were using. When did you start using a pump

let me tell you about us med they have a dedicated 800 number just for Juicebox Podcast listeners 888-721-1514 use that number to get your free benefits check. You can also do it online at my link us med.com forward slash juicebox but that's not what you care about. Here's what you care about. US med carries everything from insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies to the latest and CGM like the libre three and the Dexcom G seven. They also have the libre to the G six they've got what else on the pod dash Omni pod five tandem T slim x two What am I saying here T slim x two My goodness they got what you're looking for baby. US med accepts Medicare nationwide and over 800 private insurers us med.com forward slash juicebox go check them out there the number one specialty distributor for Omni pod dash the number one fastest growing tandem distributor nationwide and so much more. They've served over 1 million people living with diabetes since 1996. And they're gonna give you better service and better care. On top of all that, US med always provides 90 days worth of supplies and fast and free shipping. Head over to the link now us med.com forward slash juice box get your supplies the same way Arden does from us med now let's talk about some comfort. Cozy earth.com I got cozy Earth sheets on my bed. I've got cozy Earth joggers on my butt. I wear a cozy Earth sweatshirt the other day kept me warm without making me hot. wasn't cold wasn't on was just comfortable. And it fit me nice and it felt good. Comfy, comfy, comfy, comfy cozy, just like the sheets just like the name cozy earth. Now what have I done recently added cozy Earth towels to the lineup here at the house. I'm getting out of the shower every day. And I got the waffle towels from cozy Earth you'll find them at cozy earth.com Go up to have bath. Click on you'll see. Anyway, the Waffle House. One side has this like Wofully I don't know what you would call it. And I use that for my first towel down a little bit of Zoom Zooms in like get off the big stuff, you know what I mean? And then flip it around to this super, super soft side. Take care of the rest. I love the cozy Earth towels, my bits and pieces love them. And I think you might love them too. Cozy earth.com Now here's the best part 35% off of your entire order at checkout, not just the first time you go buy some towels today. You go to the checkout, you put the word juice box in a checkout you save 35% You come back a week later you want some sheets, use the offer code juicebox 35 Doesn't matter no limit you use that offer code as much as you want it cozy earth.com Use that offer code juice box at checkout. Save yourself 35% Make your bits and pieces happy. There are links in the show notes of the podcast player you're listening in now. Links at juicebox podcast.com to us med cozy earth. All the sponsors when you click on my links for use my offer codes, you are keeping the podcasts free and plentiful. And I very much appreciate it. Now I'm going to get you back to Heather and we're going to continue on our journey

Heather 20:04
I started using a pump in 2019 I think 28 My life 2018

Scott Benner 20:12
Four years ago,

Heather 20:12
four years. Yeah.

Scott Benner 20:13
Okay. Did you make the leap because you weren't happy with your care, or were you just trying to make a change or what?

Heather 20:20
Um, so I actually started wearing a pump pretty quick after I was diagnosed. I was very fortunate that one of my best friends was diabetic. So he was really big on me getting a pump because he had a pump and it made so much everything was so much easier if you just got a pump and my mom wanted me to wear a pump. So I was like, alright, I'll do it. I wasn't thrilled, but I did it. But it was a Medtronic, something I don't know. I can't even remember. I understand real old and I hated being like, tubed. I hated it. I worked for a couple years. And I wore it. They labeled me as non compliant because I didn't really care.

Scott Benner 21:14
So how does that work? It sure you're wearing the pump. You don't like the pump? Do you not put it on? Do you not Bolus? Like what?

Heather 21:21
Um, I think I just wasn't. I wasn't bolusing properly. So like, basically, I was running on Basal for most of it.

Scott Benner 21:33
Okay, because you were you when you weren't on a pump? Were you injecting it your meals? Yep. What the hell changed? Heather?

Heather 21:42
I don't know. I just like I was fine for the first little while. Like I probably got it when I was 17. I want to say and then by the time I was 19. I was like, Yeah, I'm done with this. But I didn't know that. I could just say that I was done with it. So instead of telling my doctor that I didn't want to do it, I just self sabotage.

Scott Benner 22:10
Oh, they call that quiet quitting now? Yeah. It's not what they call it nowadays. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I keep up with what the kids are saying.

Heather 22:22
So she's so in tune.

Scott Benner 22:27
So you thought you would you would break up with your pump by ignoring it?

Heather 22:32
Yeah. 100%. Yeah.

Scott Benner 22:33
It didn't take to him.

Heather 22:35
It did not. No, it didn't. It didn't. It didn't end well for me.

Scott Benner 22:38
Pump kept coming over on Friday nights expecting dinner and snacks.

Heather 22:42
Yeah, and I didn't deliver.

Scott Benner 22:45
So what an odd analogy, but what So what happened then? Did your health start trending the wrong way? I would imagine.

Heather 22:53
Yeah. So I always had trouble getting my blood sugar's down to begin with. I was insulin resistant for a while. Like I took Metformin. And just to try to help and that was horrible. I hated it. But I like I want I DK like, I don't know, I want to say like, six times.

Scott Benner 23:23
Oh my god. Okay, so were you tired of diabetes? And you were taking it out? Like you were blaming the pump? A little bit of both, I think Yeah. Okay. And that went on for how long?

Heather 23:35
Probably three, two or three years, maybe? Wow,

Scott Benner 23:39
I'm gonna get back to that in just a second. But it turns out quiet quitting is an application of work to rule in which employees work with defined work hours, and engaged solely in activities within those hours. The philosophy of quiet quitting despite the name is not necessarily connected to quitting the job outright, but rather doing exactly what the job requires. Why the hell would they call it quiet quitting?

Heather 24:02
That seems like quietly doing your job

Scott Benner 24:04
quiet working? Yeah, we're focused on really completing your tasks. And just to show you how quickly these like, like monitors can fly through the internet in the last under the News tab on the Google machine, yeah, quiet quitting has 12 articles in the last 18 hours. Jesus like what why did people our obsession with quiet quitting? Doesn't seem to be going away management's answered with quiet quitting Minnesota among top five states for quiet quitting it quiet quitting as a fake trend. Why does it feel real? says

Heather 24:43
well, doing your job is what that's called.

Scott Benner 24:45
So I just assumed quiet quitting was like you just don't do your job until somebody walks up to you one day and goes alright man, fine, leave, and then you can then you can go I don't know what happened. They just fired me. But It turns out that this has to do with what you were doing with your Yeah,

Heather 25:04
nothing to do with it. So I definitely wasn't like you were not quite quitting, but staying within

Speaker 1 25:10
you. So do people know you're in your late teens or early 20s? While this is happening, is that right? Yeah. Okay. Does anyone notice it? The doctor a family member somebody?

Heather 25:21
Yeah, my doctor did she, she like I went to go see her. I was still seeing a pediatric Endo. And she, like, Oh, let me see your pump. And I'm like, you know, I've written out all of my blood sugar's to give her and then she like, looks into the cab, but I want to see your pump. And I'm like, okay, an answer. And she's like, why are there no boluses and I'm like,

Scott Benner 25:46
it's more of a Basal machine. It

Heather 25:49
just like all I can see is Basil. Like, it never even occurred to me that that's something that she could look at. Like, I don't know, I just was like, oh, like she's just gonna want to see what my blood sugar's have been. Here's a piece of paper with it all.

Scott Benner 26:00
This is more of a niche pump. It only does this. Yeah, yeah. So when that happens, like this, the person the doctor looking at you horrified and go, Heather, you're killing yourself, or what did they do?

Heather 26:14
She was like, really angry. And she labeled me non compliant and then I never went back. I'll show you. That was my problem to that. I was like, fine. I don't need to see her.

Scott Benner 26:27
She's gonna be so. So honest about what's happening. Did you know I am completely compliant. I'm just not paying attention to it. I know. I'm supposed to be

Heather 26:40
willingly not doing what I want to do.

Scott Benner 26:43
What was your What was your diet like? During that time?

Heather 26:46
I ate whatever. It didn't matter. I you know drink slushies Ay,

Scott Benner 26:52
ay, one C and the elevens twelves.

Heather 26:54
Oh, yeah, easily. I have. I don't know what my agency was when I was diagnosed. But it was only like, just in the last like, four years since I've changed back onto a pot. It's only like, come down from the tents in the last four years. So

Scott Benner 27:14
other being serious from it. Do you have any, any hindsight idea about what was happening?

Heather 27:23
Probably I just was not happy that I was diabetic. Like it not that it was difficult, but I just, I just want it to be normal. Okay, I didn't have to think about it. And I know my friend too was diabetic. He like he was diagnosed when he was four. So like, everything was like second nature to him. But you know, he never known anything different. But I think because I was like, I was almost 16. So I had 16 years of just not having to worry about anything like that. And then to kind of have it piled on really sucked.

Scott Benner 28:00
But you said doing it wasn't difficult. So then this was no,

Heather 28:03
no, it was oh, no, it wasn't difficult. It just was like an extra step that I just didn't want to have to do. And I didn't think that I thought that if I ignored it nothing. Like what could go wrong?

Scott Benner 28:15
Yeah. So it's it's a psychological? Oh, yeah, for sure. In nature, okay. Yeah. Do you find help for that? Does it run its course. Do you have a scare?

Heather 28:29
Uh, no, I, I think I just kind of, I found an endo pretty quick after not being allowed to or not going to see the other one. And she was really great. I think she kind of talked some sense into me. Where at least and then I like she just was like, Get off your pump. You don't want to be on a pump, get off the pump. Like, that's fine. You can go back to MDI. And I was doing that. And my blood sugar's weren't good. But I had always in my mind, like, oh, well, my blood sugars are always high. That's just the type of like, that's just how my diabetes is.

Scott Benner 29:08
Okay. And so her idea was, you don't want to use the pump. So get off the pump. We'll go back to this, but that changed anything immediately. I can't. Or

Heather 29:18
I think I was well then I was bolting obviously. That I would.

Scott Benner 29:22
So there's that. So when it was pushing a button, you were like, bridge too far. But when it was to draw up a needle or using pen, you're like, Yeah, this is fine. I'll do this. Yeah, yeah, there you're gonna make some guy very unhappy one day

Are you well, that was the wrong word. Hold on. I'm going through a list of synonyms in my mind. I'm just gonna go back to my original word. Are you difficult in other ways?

Heather 29:54
I mean, I don't think so. Probably.

Scott Benner 29:57
Because like this is either like I don't have diabetes, right? But this is either a kind of deep rooted psychological, you know, Wall you've built around yourself. Yeah. Or it's you doing the like, like you're getting to hear art in a couple of weeks be on the podcast where she tells you that, like, she has no trouble taking her thyroid medication, for example. Sure, I'll take it every day, I'll take exactly what I'm supposed to I have no trouble with it. If somebody reminds me to do it, the first thing I want to do is not take it. And yeah, is it just that? Is it, um, call it self sabotage earlier? But do you mean that like, in the strict definition of it, were you trying to hurt yourself? I

Heather 30:38
just think that like I didn't think like, I didn't think that anything. Like it was like, Oh, I have diabetes, but like, I could see that my friend was fine. And he was doing what he was doing. And I I think I just didn't understand why. Why I was struggling so much, and why my blood sugar's were so high and why I couldn't do all the things like, you know, he could go and chug a Slurpee, or slushy or whatever, and he would be fine. But that's because he's boasting properly. Whereas like, I just didn't understand it. I don't think and I think I was just, I just didn't think that like, it didn't matter. Like, oh, I've diabetes, no big deal. What's the worst that could happen?

Scott Benner 31:20
Were you angry about it or depressed about it?

Heather 31:23
I think I was angry about it. I wouldn't say that I was depressed about it. Now,

Scott Benner 31:29
what's interesting, because you're thoughtful, and articulate and bright. And you're all the things that I would associate with, you know, wanting to push through it and help yourself. Yeah, I think there's no rhyme or reason for why it strikes people. Yeah, you know what I mean? It's interesting. Do you see any of these personality traits in your mom or your dad or other people in your extended family? Nope, nothing? Nope. No, like, kind of? Like, I don't mean these words. By the way, when I say, say stuff like, difficult, I don't mean in the 1950 sense. Like, Oh, yeah. Give her a second to sit down. She's difficult. I don't mean like, I just mean like, you're brusque against things. You're pushing back. You're, you know,

Heather 32:14
yeah. And like, this is like, I want to say that, like diabetes is the only thing that I've ever really pushed back against. I'm usually like, pretty like, chill.

Scott Benner 32:22
This is the thing you pick.

Heather 32:23
Yeah, this was it. I was like, Alright, this is the hill. I'm gonna die on Yeah.

Scott Benner 32:27
Literally, literally, literally. You know, normally, I just do what I have to do. But on this one thing I was, yeah, maybe I'd give myself a mountain of health problems. So did you give yourself a mountain of health problems? Or what happened?

Heather 32:42
Um, well, I have kind of, I have a lot of autoimmune stuff going on to begin with. So I had I think it's like, any, like, this might be part of it, too. Like, I was diagnosed with scoliosis, when I was 13. So I had to wear a brace for a year and a half. Okay. So like, wasn't thrilled about that. So then it was like, then the next I got it's called Kyary. One for me malformation. It's where your cerebellum space is too small. So the little tail on your brain can fuse to your spine.

Scott Benner 33:24
What now called Wait a second. What's that called again?

Heather 33:27
Chiari one malformation.

Scott Benner 33:35
Holy glare thing. Typing. Is, is it serious? But that's, that's the sad. No, that's the first that's the first question. Yeah. Which means that everybody who gets told this, the doctor is like goes to their phone. They're like, Oh, yeah. The severity of it. malformations can vary from person to person, but generally are not considered life threatening.

Heather 34:03
Well, yeah, no, yeah. So like, as long as I think because they caught like, so the the way they caught it is because my spine curved to the left instead of to the right first, and that's not typical of scoliosis. So that led them to do like an a, an MRI, and then, you know, they focused in on the old, the old brain and they're like, Hey, what's going on there?

Scott Benner 34:29
Carry malfunction. Type one occurs when everything you get as type one occurs when the section of the skull containing a part of the brain is too small or deformed, thus putting pressure on and crowding the brain. Does your brain feel crowded right now?

Heather 34:44
With knowledge,

Scott Benner 34:47
the lower part of the cerebellum at the tonsils is displaced into the upper spinal canal to problems with your tonsils.

Heather 34:57
I used to get tonsillitis all the time. Thanks All right.

Scott Benner 35:00
So what did they do for this?

Heather 35:04
Nothing, they just watched it. Um, but I feel like it was just like, so I had those two things. And then like, a year later, I get diabetes. And it was like, really,

Scott Benner 35:13
as a young person, the scoliosis is tough. And then because the brace couldn't have been fun, everybody probably saw it, but all that. And then this thing, which involves your brain, so even if you're not worried about it, you're a young kid that doctor's office, and they're like, hey, her brain is crowded. Really great. And then the diabetes. Yeah. All right. Heather, you had had enough?

Heather 35:37
Yeah, yeah, I think so. That's why diabetes kind of was like, Yep,

Scott Benner 35:40
I'm done with this. You kind of can't throw the other two things away. Yeah. Interesting. Well, you guess you could have took that back brace off, but it's probably too late. By then they probably held they probably actually.

Heather 35:51
I mean, aside from like it being a back brace and like I had to wear it in high school and like, traumatizing not really traumatized. I didn't really care but like, I loved it. It was so comfortable. Really, like when I just stopped wearing it. I still wore it because it was just like cozy. Like, at night. I'd like sleep in it. Do you like

Scott Benner 36:09
to wear like a tight shirt? Like an Under Armour or spin? spandex? Oh, I

Heather 36:13
don't know. I don't but I guess then maybe I do. Like,

Scott Benner 36:16
interesting. I'll tell you my back is sore. Sometimes. Maybe I'd wear a brace.

Heather 36:20
Like I sometimes wish that I still had it because like sometimes my back hurts. And I'm like, man,

Scott Benner 36:24
it was comforting. No kidding. Okay. All right. So let's, again, with very little education, and absolutely no training. Let's track. Let's chalk this part up to just getting a lot of stuff lumped on you at the end of your teens. And then when you went out on your own, you were like, you know, I'm going to just cut something out of my life. With all this, and but you never thought in that time be honest with me. Did you ever think I know I'm hurting myself? Or did you not even think of it that deeply?

Heather 36:57
Um, I knew like of complications that could happen, but I just was like, yeah, that's not gonna happen to me. It's fine.

Scott Benner 37:03
Gotcha. That'll happen to other people. Yeah,

Heather 37:07
and I was wrong. You were

Scott Benner 37:09
wrong. So what's the first so what snaps you back in? Like, what makes you put the pump back on and pull things together? Four years ago?

Heather 37:16
Um, I found a lump in my breast.

Scott Benner 37:21
Oh, I thought you're gonna say Jesus. I did not find I found Oh, she found God. That's like know, something worse was this lump? Yeah.

Heather 37:34
Yeah, so I found a lump in my breast. In like 2017, like in December, right before Christmas, perfect time to find a lump in your breast.

Scott Benner 37:47
It's Easter. Christmas, but I see what you're saying. So what were you self checking?

Heather 37:53
No. So as you know, I live in Yellowknife. It gets really, really, really cold here. And I was outside, like coming inside from my car into my house. And for whatever reason, my arm brushed against the side of my boob. And I was like, That, like, that's not right. Like, that's really hard. Like, my nipple shouldn't be that hard. I was on the outside for a second. And I'm wearing a jacket

Scott Benner 38:22
for context. And normally, I have to be honest with you, 700 some episodes. I've never asked this question. But are you like chesty? No, no. So through a jet. Oh, okay. I'm actually asking for a reason, because I'm first trying to figure out how you bump against the side of your boob. If you're not like,

Heather 38:42
Okay, well, like, I don't know, I'm not like a double D. But like, you know,

Scott Benner 38:46
there's some. If I was looking at you from the back, I might see some curves on the sides. Okay. I can't believe this is what we're doing. So, so you're wearing a jacket, and you live in wherever the hell it is. You live. So it's, um, you're probably wearing a thick jacket, and my point of like, dragging this all out is like that. It was obvious through the jacket.

Heather 39:06
Yeah. Yeah. Like it was like, rock solid. And I was like,

Scott Benner 39:10
is that wow, that's scary, huh? Yeah, we're at that point where you just like, oh, yeah, sure.

Heather 39:19
Like, oh, like it's cold outside. Yeah. It's like, okay, that's cool. And then like, you know, a week later, I'm like, okay, that's still there. And then I'm gonna go to a doctor. And then yeah, and so then I made a doctor's appointment, and they didn't exam and then they were worried. So that made me more worried. And then I got in for a mammogram pretty quick. Which is a terrible experience.

Scott Benner 39:51
I've never done it, but I've heard stories.

Heather 39:52
Yeah, well, especially when you have a lump, like

Scott Benner 39:55
and they're smashing it in that glass plate, right? Yeah. Like a glass vise

Heather 39:59
like who Well, thanks, I feels really great. And then they do a biopsy. But it was inconclusive. And we, because of where I live, we're not really like a we're not a big city. No, really? Yeah, no shocking. It a lot of our medical treatment gets sent down to Edmonton. So I had to fly down to Edmonton to get a biopsy done. And of course, the guy that's doing my biopsy is like, fresh out of school, doing a rotation. It's his, like, first day there. He's gonna biopsy me and like, it was horrible. It was brutal. Like, it took him like, eight tries to get like, a quality piece. Or like really, really like I'm all for like edgy. Like, I'm all for it like, but like, can we put a limit on the amount of times he's trying to butcher me? So

Scott Benner 41:06
he's, he's botched this three times, right? Why don't we get the other guy in here? Right? Yeah, I flew here for this, by the way. Yeah, you know, what I'm imagining is one of those planes with pontoons on the bottom right where you can land in a lake.

Heather 41:22
They do have those things, but that wasn't

Scott Benner 41:23
that wasn't the point you're on. Okay. So what was the lump?

Heather 41:27
So it came back as they called it, diabetic mess. Stop with it, which is something that I had never heard of.

Scott Benner 41:34
That's new Heather way to bring something new to the podcast.

Heather 41:38
Right? No one there's like no real like, I obviously, like looked it up right away, because I was like, that's that. Um, and there's no real cause for it. I would imagine it had something to do with my high blood

Scott Benner 41:58
sugars. Yeah, you might imagine. Hey, when you hear something funny while we're talking about lumps in your boobs, which there's nothing funny about you said you said diabetic neuropathy, or whatever you call it. You said it so quickly. I didn't catch the second word. So I googled diabetic boob lump and it came up. So anyone who ever gives Google crap like I mean, maybe they're stealing our information or taking over our lives, but it new diabetic boobless That's insane. Way to go. diabetic neuropathy is an uncommon complication of diabetes characterized by tough masses that develop in the breast. Yeah, okay. They can be mistaken for tumors. These lesions which are painless and mainly consists of primary fibrotic and inflammatory elements can be misdiagnosed as breast cancer. Do you have them removed?

Heather 42:50
Yeah. So I had one I had that one removed pretty quick after that, like, probably within a month, and then a year later, I got another one in my other breast. So I got that one removed.

Scott Benner 43:01
Wow. And then since Okay, did that and since then, nothing but did that put what pushed you into taking care of yourself? That was like, I gotta have was it? Was it the lumps are the guy just man handling you for eight tries? A little bit of? Like, I don't want this. This doesn't have to happen anymore. I don't want this to happen. Oh, my God, that's insane. You know, there'd be nothing. Okay, about calling this episode diabetic boob lump. But, I mean, right. You know, I know you would be because I've known talking for 40 minutes, and I feel like there's very little you wouldn't be okay with. Actually, you seem like a fun date. Heather. Like a time? I don't think there's a lot of questions and Heather immediately goes, No, today. Yeah. How we're gonna do that. Yeah. Okay, well, that's horrifying. Yeah, I only know how to joke through these things. If we talked about this seriously, I'd be crying by now. I'd be like, Oh my god, like, like I would I would picture you as a young child and being overwhelmed by your health issues and not having enough support or fortitude or emotional maturity to take care of yourself and then all this comes after that. And you're you're still kind of fighting through it. It's amazing. I am thrilled that something happened. That wasn't life altering that got you back to taking care of yourself. Yeah, that's, that's really good news. So let's talk about that a little bit. You have your second fibrotic and inflammatory element mass taken out of your boob you're like, Okay, this is probably got something to do with the fact that I don't Bolus from my meals and and your agency is like really high. that points though, right? Yeah, it was probably still in the tents. And still doctors don't try to help you. Well,

Heather 45:07
so. So up here there again, there's not a lot of like, there's no endos up here. I see a diabetic team. And that consists of like a regular GP, a diabetes educator, and a nutritionist, and I fired the GP pretty quick. She told me that if I took tumeric, everything would be fine.

Scott Benner 45:36
Tumeric Yeah, so that was like a thing you cook with?

Heather 45:40
Yep. Yeah. If you take a she's like a very, like nap. She does like all that, like natural stuff. So like, she was like, Oh, just take tumeric and you won't have to take as much insulin. And I was like,

Scott Benner 45:54
Yeah, listen, I don't think that's right. And if anybody's listening.

Heather 45:57
Yeah. So I was like, Yeah, I don't want to see her anymore. So I saw the diabetic educator, for I've been seeing her for six years. And she's amazing. And like, I mean, she's been trying to get she's I mean, she's done. She's done an amazing job with my diabetes. So yeah.

Scott Benner 46:21
Listen, I don't think there's anything wrong if you want to take Tumeric but I don't think I should assume that it's gonna take the place of your insulin if your pancreas doesn't work, right. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah,

Heather 46:31
it's not a one stop. Thanks all.

Scott Benner 46:33
I mean, if that was working on your food, it's fine. To imagine if that was true, right? That we wouldn't be talking about a type two epidemic and there wouldn't be so many people with type one because we'd all just be I, by the way, couldn't if you put Tumeric on my tongue, I wouldn't know what it was. Yeah,

Heather 46:49
I was like, why am I like, what? Why is that gonna fix? Okay, sure, lady. You're

Scott Benner 46:54
crazy. Again. I'm not against it, if you

Heather 46:55
think Oh, absolutely. I mean, tumeric works for you. Good for you. Yeah.

Scott Benner 47:00
What your need for insulin if you have type one diabetes.

Heather 47:02
You still gonna need to take that insulin with it, though. Yeah. Okay. Well, it's

Scott Benner 47:05
good to get rid of her cheeses. Heather, somehow we're doing happy and sad at the same time. I know. It's so exciting. It's overheating me a little bit. I'm wearing a sweatshirt. I didn't realize. What's your story? I think it might just be hold on a second. Yeah.

Well, maybe there's a malformation on my skull. It's squeezing my brain. literally sitting here thinking, wow, this is very emotional.

Heather 47:46
Really hot. It's just so emotional.

Scott Benner 47:49
It got cold here this morning. I put my sweatshirt on to take the dogs out. I didn't. I didn't take it back off. Okay. Really, if at this point anybody listening is thinking why am I listening to this guy about my diabetes, you might have a point. Although I love the story, although although Heather, I got a review on the podcast yesterday, it was a very good review. But the person said that the newer episodes are more talking and less management. I was like, okay, that might be fair, but there's all the management like sprint like there's all the series now like I put them together for you in different places. So we could have these conversations. And I think the person was being like saying I really liked the podcast, just know if you're looking for management stuff. You might have to go find the series or go back earlier into the conversations where he talked more about no like management stuff. And I would have been fine with all that except she used the word banter, which for some reason made me feel like we don't like her. Well, I did I did like the review actually. I thought it was a good review. I just wish you wouldn't have said banter, banter. I don't know I wanted to banter seems frivolous to me. And I our conversation about I don't find oddly enough if you want to look into my mind I don't find our conversations today frivolous No Yeah, I think we we we had a serious conversation so far in a frivolous manner but I don't think the contents for it was but anyway, neither here nor there. I'm a bit of a word snob I didn't enjoy banter in that exact city. Didn't like the use literally it was a terrific it was a terrific review five star she loves the podcast the whole thing.

Heather 49:27
I just wish she doesn't like your banter.

Scott Benner 49:29
I could have taken a couple of minutes on Google found a different word than banter. I think I would have been better with it. But that's neither here nor there. And I appreciate the reviews. So Alright, so let's get to before we figure out how you I just decided we're gonna take a bit of a left turn here. I love it before we before we talked about what you did to bring things together for yourself. Talk a little bit about how amazing I am.

Heather 49:54
Where to begin? You know you just you you I have the same personality that I have, which is why I feel like this is going so great. At least I think it

Scott Benner 50:04
is. We probably wouldn't do well married Heather, we'd be both think I Right?

Heather 50:07
Like we have the same humor. You say you say funny that man. I laugh a lot when I'm listening to your podcast, like a lot. What's wonder, Am I supposed to? I don't know. But I do.

Scott Benner 50:19
I don't. I don't know. I appreciate very much. I also think it's like, like you were doing like a low key brag when you talked about that. You could see your boobs for the back. Like I even though we were talking about health issues. Like she is still telling people I have a nice full breast. Like maracas formidable. And just like in the middle of telling a story, which by the way, at that moment, I wasn't sure that wasn't going to end with breast cancer. And so I was a little freaked out. And, and you're you still were like, no, no, no. Yeah, you can see them from the back their fault. Yeah, yeah, he's decent. Anyway, all boobs are terrific. I just want to say that right away. I've seen them. Yeah, from the teeniest tiniest, to the ones where you're just like, I don't understand how you're standing. And does your back not hurt? They all have a place in the world. And that place is equal. Yeah. So anyway, not the point. The point is, is that I'm terrific. But yeah, but it's, I'm more seriously asking you like, like, what about the podcast works for you?

Heather 51:25
Um, I think like, odd, like, I mean, like, a lot of the things that you've talked about aren't things that I've like, never heard before. But the way that you deliver them, I'm like, huh, I should try that. And like, you know, like, a Pre-Bolus. Scott, I've only just started doing that in the last like, year. So we were, I've been told to Pre-Bolus my whole life, but like, what's the difference? What's the, what's 15 minutes gonna make? Well, a big difference.

Scott Benner 51:58
Yeah. Well, person sent me a graph the other day, and they were like, what do we do about this? And I'm looking at it, there's been a big spike in a meal and it comes out gets crashy low. And I said, Is there a Pre-Bolus in this? No, he doesn't do that. I said, Well, you could try Pre-Bolus thing. And a person says, I mean, he's 16. He's not going to do that. I was like, I don't know. Like, what do you want me? What do you want from me? Like, it's like, it's like, she drove into a wall. And she goes, What should I do about this? And I say, step on the brake. And she went, I don't want to, I was like, Well, what else could I do not to crash into this wall? I'm still gonna go with stuff on the brake, because it seems the most, like reasonable here. I mean, I guess you could swerve or drive slower? Or I don't know, but just step on the brake, you know? And yeah, it's just it's super interesting. How resistant people are to doing the little things that make the biggest difference for themselves. Pre-Bolus thing just doesn't stop you from spiking, it stops you from getting a low later. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And it levels your whole day out. It makes everything easier. You literally put 10 minutes worth of thought into something to save yourself eight hours. Yep. And yet, and the person knows that, because they're literally saying Help me. I don't want this to happen. I was like, Oh, you have to do the right thing. I can't do that. Okay, yeah. I mean, I don't know where to go with that. But it's interesting that you brought this up. And I was, you know, didn't know what you're gonna say. But I was at dinner last night. With I don't want my life to sound too amazing. Because this is the first is maybe the fourth dinner in eight years that anybody's ever taken me to because of the podcast. But I was having dinner with some people from the tea one day exchange. And we were just talking about the exchange and and how I've been able to put, you know, get people to take the survey and they were so thank you dinner, if I'm being perfectly honest. That's what it was. Right? And so we were just talking about bigger ideas. And I said during the course of the conversation, I was like, you know, there's a couple of things I'm proud of around the podcast, I said, one of them is just the longevity of it. And then I've been able to keep it going in a way that it's not just helping people, but it's growing. I said, I think that's a big deal. I think you don't see a lot of a lot of content. Because I guess technically I'm a content provider, right? Like so it's hard to keep something like this going for for eight years, especially at the volume that I put out stuff. And I'm and I sit but the other thing is, I think I'm most proud of taking. I'm like if you're being honest, I'm not saying anything that people don't know. I'm just saying something that people don't say, or when they say it, they say it in a way that when it's heard, the people who need it most are just like, Oh, I'm not doing that. Or I'm not yes, it's just you know, like, I always in my mind, go to glycemic load glycemic index. It's such an important concept. It's so incredibly easy to understand. But it has a big weird name. And it sounds like it's gonna be more trouble than it is. So doctors don't talk about it. And when they do, people don't listen. Yeah, and that's it. And there's simple. Again, over and over again, I'll tell you, the podcast should be five minutes long. It should be one episode, it should be five minutes long. It should say get your settings right. Pre-Bolus your meals, understand the impacts of your foods. Don't stare at a high blood sugar don't over treat a low go color of your life. Like it really is. It's that you know, and, and anyway, I'm proud of being able to deliver it in a way that gets to people, especially hearing your story. Because your your, um, your heads. It's thick, like a rock, Heather. So I'm well aware. It took a lot to get through there, I imagine.

Heather 55:55
Yeah. And it's like, it's so funny. Like, it's just like the simplest things like I think the first, the first episode I listened to was the one with I think his name is Kenny Fox. Is that right?

Scott Benner 56:08
Kenny? Yeah. Fox in the loop house.

Heather 56:10
Yeah. So I was following I wanted to loop. I don't even know how I stumbled upon looping. But I did. And I was like, creeping on their Facebook page for probably a solid year. And then somebody had posted that Kenny was on your podcast, and I had seen your podcast, probably a year before that. And I had like, bookmarked it on my phone. And then I just hadn't ever listened to it. It was there. And I just like never, I just forgot about it carried on with my life.

Scott Benner 56:41
Sorry, buddy. No. That's how it works, by the way. And then

Heather 56:45
and then they were like, oh, Kenny's on this doing this podcast, you should listen to it. And so it was like the second one. And I was like, well, there's got to be a first one. So then I wanted to find the first one first. So I listened to it. And I think he said something like, it was like, you guys were talking about Basal rates. And it was like, Basal insulin, like the insulin. You take now is for later and Lola insulin you took before us for now. And I just was like, light bulb, like, Oh, like that never even occurred to me. Like, I just assumed insulin goes into me. And it's now like, boom, that's it. So like, all these times, I was like, my blood sugar's high. And instead of bolusing, I'm increasing. I'm doing a Temp Basal, like a Temp Basal increase by 50%. And it's like, why isn't my blood sugar coming down? I don't understand why my blood sugar will come down. And like, just wait. And then just like hearing that sentence. It was like,

Scott Benner 57:41
okay, so important. I just, I was on stage a week ago for touched by type one. And they put an amazing event in, in Florida. And it's one of the things I stopped and made sure people were hearing. It was like, you know, I'm like, insulin does not work. Immediately, I went through a whole discussion. So they would understand that it doesn't work. Immediately, I talked about how you can Bolus for a meal and where insulin hits along the way. And then I just said, look, the truth is that insulin use now doesn't work until later. But that's not the way to think about it. The way to think about it is that the insulin that's working for me right now, was used earlier, like what came before is what's happening now is the way if you think of it that way. For some reason, it's simpler.

Heather 58:26
Yeah, it just like honestly, like unlocked, like, I don't even know, a next level in my brain. And I was like, oh, okay, all right.

Scott Benner 58:35
I just I told those people last night, I said, I said, if I've done anything I've turned, I think I've turned complicated diabetes ideas into t shirt slogans for the lack of a better phrase. Yeah, and it really, it makes things easier, because life's hard and you're busy. And if you can just remember something simple, like, trust that what I know is going to happen, it's going to happen, then you can just have that 12 Second thought and move on instead of you know, instead of sitting down and trying to dissect exactly what's been going on with your blood sugar for the past 18 hours and making yourself crazy trying to do computations, that the truth is, like, even our best algorithms at this point, don't completely understand. Yeah, you know, and now you're trying to figure it out while you're working in a dentist's office trying to avoid people's teeth. 100% was a lot of work. A lot of work. What Yeah, do you guys ever, it's not fair to ask you what you do in the dentist's office, but I always imagine that sometimes something's really disgusting. And you guys have to get together in a room and you're like, Oh, my God, look at this.

Heather 59:43
They do I don't I can't look at tool. Teeth are gross. Like I don't want to see. I don't want to see I don't want to see it. I don't want to see it.

Scott Benner 59:51
Well, how how far does this two thing go with you say you and a person were kissing and your tongue hit their tooth. With that So that's

Heather 1:00:01
fine. It's just like, Yeah, I just don't want to see like, because like, the dentist isn't taking picture of nice teeth. You know, sure enough, he's taking pictures of like teeth that are rotting out of somebody's mouth. And I'm like, Yeah, I'm interested in saying that that

Scott Benner 1:00:12
bothers you. Okay. Yeah, but you can lick a tooth. If it's clear. Yeah. Like, it's you, Heather.

Heather 1:00:18
I don't like go out and like, like people's teeth for fun, but like, yeah, cut

Scott Benner 1:00:22
Heather. What I like about your line is that it's very squiggly. You're like, dirty tooth can't see it. I don't overcome it. You know, like, would be happy to lick your tooth though. If your tooth is 30. I do want to be healthy, but not enough to take my insulin. Yeah. Although, if something bumps through my jacket at me that might get me to do this. might really Yeah. What about your mom? Who's your mom said a nurse. She said, right. Yes. Were you just diagnosed at a time in your life where her interaction with you and diabetes was short lived?

Heather 1:00:59
Ah, yes. She I mean, she was pretty involved. She, you know, she understood it. I feel like more than I did. You know, I like she would tell me when to take my insulin when I was first diagnosed and stuff like that. And I would do it and like I was taking insulin at school. Like, that wasn't an issue. It was just like, it was like, I hit 19. And I was like, Yeah, I'm done with this. I don't, I don't care anymore. It can't control me. I'm going to control it. And I was wrong

Scott Benner 1:01:28
by stuffing it down this little box and never look. Yeah, I'm

Heather 1:01:31
gonna Yeah, no diabetes, complications are ever gonna happen to me.

Scott Benner 1:01:35
You think that was just immaturity? Yeah, for sure. All right. Okay, so you figure out all this and you get back on a pump. And you're not listening to the podcast at that point. That's four years ago. So what did you do? Was it was it as simple as you just started bolusing for your meals again.

Heather 1:01:56
Um, I think it's, um, I also started wearing a CGM at the same time. Okay, how quick Oh, I thought that CGM is we're still well, so I had that. When I was on that first insulin pump. I had the like, paradigm one that comes with Medtronic. That thing it was like, It was horrific. I hated it to go in. It was not pleasant. So I thought that they were done. And then I got a libre first. And I liked it. It was okay. I like I like seeing the information. So like, that was exciting for me. And like I was somebody that would check my blood sugar all the time. Like I wasn't just like not checking.

Scott Benner 1:02:41
Wait a minute. You weren't Bolus thing, but you were checking. Oh, yeah. So you just be like, Yep, my blood sugar's 358. Cool.

Heather 1:02:48
Yeah. Cool. Sick moving on. Yep. That's just like, it was like, oh, that's where I'm always like, I'm never like, I sat in like, the three to 400 range comfortably for probably 12 years.

Scott Benner 1:03:04
Wow. What's the first thing you notice? When your blood sugar started coming down? It felt like, you didn't like it when it was coming down?

Heather 1:03:12
No, it was really bad.

Scott Benner 1:03:13
How long did that last?

Heather 1:03:14
Um, probably a couple months. There was like a slow progression, like they didn't want because I had ran so high for so long. They knew that, like, I would go and see them. And I'd be like, I don't feel good. And she'd be like, Yep, we're just gonna, like, you know, we'll increase your Lantis a little bit, we'll increase your, your carb ratio a little bit like that was a very slow progression. To get it to where I like, didn't feel like I was low at, like, 200.

Scott Benner 1:03:42
Yeah, so a nice slow process, especially with a high blood sugar for that long. You really could cause like, damage if you came down quickly. Yeah,

Heather 1:03:51
so like, it was probably a couple months before it came down. And even then, like, I still was like, My target was, like, 180. Okay.

Scott Benner 1:04:04
So once you get past that part, can you reflectively look back at how you felt and how you feel now? Oh,

Heather 1:04:09
yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't feel good at 200 ever, or whatever, like, at 400 or whatever. But I just like, I don't know, I just had it in my mind that because that's how it had been forever. That's just the that's just the type of diabetes I had. I just had a hard case people didn't. We just didn't know how to do it. Well, like they didn't know how to do it. I just wasn't listening.

Scott Benner 1:04:32
Yeah, that's so fascinating. I, I'm sorry, this happened to you. But I appreciate you sharing the story. Yeah, because I think it's common, and it's something that we could all be looking out for with our loved ones as they're growing through this, you know, certain stages of their life, I guess. And that, you know, you can't just I don't know like, Yeah, I think you have to understand it. Tell me if I'm wrong about this either. I'm stopping and starting so much, but you needed help. And if someone would have tried to help you, do you think you would have listened? Like if your mom showed up on your door and said, Heather, I just talked to your doctor, I didn't realize about your agencies, I want to help you. Do you think you would be receptive to that?

Heather 1:05:17
I'm probably but I don't think that it was. I don't think that like, really it took like, it took a lot. I don't even know what it was that like made me click that like, yeah, I really need I really need to get this together, like because I mean, I started even coming down from like, the four hundreds, even before I found those lumps. But I still wasn't like, you know, with my agency at 10. I don't think that anybody even really explained to me how an agency works. Like I realized that it was like a three month picture of like, what your average is, but like a 10 in my mind is like Oh, like that means that my average blood sugar's 10. That's, that's good. That's okay. But like, that's not the case. That's like an average blood sugar of 14 or whatever it is. So I think that that was a little bit confusing. For me, that took a really long time for me to understand that like, oh, 10 is not good. Like, what should I be aiming for? Then? Where do I Where should I be sitting? So I think like, and my mom was very involved. She, you know, as as a nurse, she wanted to help me as much as she could. And I think I don't think that she could have done anything that would have pushed me to where I am sort of thing.

Scott Benner 1:06:45
You understand why I'm asking, right? Like I'm trying, trying to figure out if this is a thing that happens to some people, and they either trip their way to a resolution or they don't. And they're again there Mike from like, the diabetes complications after dark episode, where he just lives his whole life that way. Like, is it is it just as is it just as random? Is that Is that something doesn't happen that I

Heather 1:07:11
shocked? I honestly think it was like a random like, oh, like, just one day. It was like, Yeah, I really need to get this together. Wow.

Scott Benner 1:07:20
Yeah, it's super interesting. I'll tell you that much. Okay, so you brought it down slowly. And then, I mean, just got it down. And we're like, good. I can do this now. And you just, you've been doing Yeah.

Heather 1:07:32
Um, so then I, because I'm 33. I, me and my boyfriend have obviously been talking about children. And so like, I know that an agency of nine isn't great for having kids. So I went in to see a guy No, and she was horrible. Sorry,

Scott Benner 1:08:01
cold hands. Trying to figure out what makes a guy No horrible. It's the first thing I thought, oh, no, she

Heather 1:08:08
was like, I mean, she she was just like, because I mean, I was only like I was there for information. Like I just wanted to know like, where do I need to be? What am I blood sugar's need to be at like, and she was very, like doom and gloom. You can't have children, you your blood sugar is out of control. And like, at this point, I think my blood sugar was like, or my agency was 8.2, which was like the best it had been. And I was like, okay, lady.

Scott Benner 1:08:39
Got this down from an 11. But thank you, right, like,

Heather 1:08:41
you're looking at like, one one picture here. And she, she, yeah, she was just like, like, I realized that there's obviously like, a lot of things that could go horribly wrong. But like, there was no like, 00 sunshine. Like she just was basically like, you shouldn't have children. And you shouldn't live where you live. If you want to have children. She's not from here. So she was like, you can't have children in this town.

Scott Benner 1:09:10
Where did she want you to live? Oh, she

Heather 1:09:12
didn't. She told me that I needed it because I was diabetic. I should be. If I was going to have a kid I should be like, somewhere down south. So because of health care. Yeah. Because like they're not equipped to deal with it, but like they are, to a degree obviously, like there is a chance that if I get pregnant, and things aren't looking good that I would have to go down to Edmonton and have my baby there. But that doesn't mean that they wouldn't be able to do it here. There's just no like there's no NICU here.

Scott Benner 1:09:41
I wonder. Wonder if she partially also meant please don't have a problem around here. I can't handle it.

Heather 1:09:46
Yeah. I don't want to deal with this. Yeah. Seemed like

Scott Benner 1:09:50
a problem. Heather. Why don't you fly somewhere else and make a baby? Yeah. Leave me alone. Yeah. So so on paper, even Though you were doing better to a new doctor, you still look like a dumpster fire.

Heather 1:10:05
Yeah, she wrote in with my so I, at the time, I was like talking to my diabetes educator almost like weekly, or she would like send me a text or whatever. And she, she was like, Oh, I just got your report from the guy. No. And she said that I'm doing the best that I can with the tools that I have. And I was like, wow, wait, she's like, I'm, like, offended by that. And I was like, You should be the

Scott Benner 1:10:31
second. The doctor is talking to another doctor. Yeah. And her report. Yeah. was saying, Listen, don't put this girl's health on me. I'm doing my best.

Heather 1:10:45
Yeah, no, yeah, she No, she said that, that my diabetes educator was doing the best that she could with the tools that she had. Is that is that regarding my health?

Scott Benner 1:10:57
Yeah, but are the tools quote unquote? Are they you? Were they what

Heather 1:11:02
I think like, yeah, like me and like our area, because like, we don't have an endo here. And like, that sort of thing. Like basically saying that, like, yeah.

Scott Benner 1:11:15
Between where we live, and this girl's effort, I'm we're getting don't don't look at this poorly. This is actually pretty good. Yeah. Oh, did you find that insulting?

Heather 1:11:25
I yeah, I felt that like, because I mean, like, like, the A one C before that was like 9.5. So like, in a three month range. I've dropped it, like a whole point, like so like, okay, like, you're looking at one day, but you're not looking at the big picture. And so like, I was offended by that, and like my diabetes educator was to

Scott Benner 1:11:49
was the doctor aware that you were at zero effort at one point? Yeah, I told her. Okay. And then I don't know why the I don't know why the the, the notes wouldn't reflect a change of heart and a change of enthusiasm. And that thinks we're going in the right direction. Yeah, that would be that would seem to be how you would talk about that.

Heather 1:12:12
Yeah, yeah. So diabetes educator, like we should get shirts that say, doing the best we can with the tools that we have

Scott Benner 1:12:22
an arrow pointing to your head? Yeah. Dummy doing best can thank you. Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's crazy. That really is not. Alright, so is there any big secret to taking good care of yourself?

Heather 1:12:37
Um, I mean, listening to you. And yeah, and then I started looping. So like, that was like, huge that like, game change? Everything.

Scott Benner 1:12:48
So you just so you were doing okay. And being serious. You found the Podcast, the podcast was helpful for you? Oh, 100%. Helpful. Yeah, get some ideas together and some big concepts, and then say, Alright, I'm going to employ more technology. And now what's your agency now?

Heather 1:13:03
Um, I got it done in June, and it was 6.5.

Scott Benner 1:13:11
Down from 6.6. In February, right. Yeah. Is it weird that I know what your agency is?

Heather 1:13:16
No, because I'm pretty sure I posted it.

Scott Benner 1:13:21
Okay, so that's Well, first of all, congratulations. That's wonderful. Yes. Yeah. Really good for you. Someone should tell you that the tools you have seem like they're perfectly acceptable. Yeah. And maybe even better than that. Yeah, I

Heather 1:13:35
think that it's amazing. And like, it's like, little things like even like, even in the last like two weeks. I don't know, I feel like you were talking to somebody and you were telling them. You're asking them what their Dexcom High was. And they were telling you and you're like, Oh, you need to lower that. And I was like, oh, I want to remain is so then I like look in mind. It's like, set it to 50 Yeah, that's and I'm like, oh, I should lower that. So like now I haven't set at 180. But like, in a couple weeks. I'm gonna lower that I

Scott Benner 1:14:11
had a you broke up. Hold on a second. Finally, the cannula call like Heather, the candidate? Caller. Sorry, you cut out? Yeah, it's kind of a problem. So. But you, you just said I'm going to lower it to and then you're

Heather 1:14:29
sorry, I lowered it to 180.

Scott Benner 1:14:32
Right. And then after that.

Heather 1:14:35
And then like so that way like I am at least stopping the high before it gets high. Right.

Scott Benner 1:14:40
Are you thinking of a lower number in the future? Oh, yeah.

Heather 1:14:42
I mean, I want it lower than that to cool. I want it I'd like to get it down to like 150 Yeah, that's a good high.

Scott Benner 1:14:48
Yeah. 150 is terrific. Yeah, that's a great spot.

Heather 1:14:52
Is that what you have Arden set at 120 for your phone, right? Yeah, it's

Scott Benner 1:14:55
120 on my phone. It's 130 on her phone. Yeah, and And but 150 is very Listen, you're a person who had like a 12, a one C five years ago, you're doing Yeah, you know. And if you need to take smaller steps to it, I actually don't think those are small steps 180 to 150, you know, what I generally find is you kind of get what you expect. And you get what you're paying attention to. So it doesn't matter. It's a two step process, right? If you're alerted at 180, then you'll keep your blood sugar's under 200. If you're alerted at 150, you'll probably keep your blood sugar's under 170. The amount of effort the same, although with a lower number use, you know, less insulin, and less insulin should cause fewer lows. And on top of that, if you're paying attention, big picture, you should start seeing, hey, I'm reaching 130 and having to correct this is only happening after meals, maybe I'll make my insulin to carb ratio a little stronger. Or this is drifting up on me overnight. Maybe I'll make my basil stronger here, like and then eventually you'll make those little tweaks and then all of a sudden, you kind of don't see 130 Yeah, it's just the process. Yeah, no, you don't? Yeah, like

Heather 1:16:11
even just like, so I've lowered it. It's been like a week and a half. And like, I've been like, 90% in target. Since I did that. Yeah, like, just like, because it's just like, oh, it's gonna start doing something,

Scott Benner 1:16:24
I fully expect that that's exactly what I expect you, you get what you expect, you know, you the tighter the tolerances are, the lower your agency should be, the less variability you should have if your settings are pretty good, and you're understanding the timing of the insulin pretty well. And then after that, excuse me, it just sort of becomes second nature at some point, and you almost don't find yourself thinking about it anymore. to the same degree. Oh, yeah. That's really cool. I'm glad I could help. Yeah, you're killing it. Yeah, well, please, wait, no.

Heather 1:16:54
I don't want to your horn. But like, we

Scott Benner 1:16:55
shouldn't say it too loudly. But podcast is at 8 million downloads the other day, killing it. 8 million. Do you know how many it had at the beginning of the year?

Heather 1:17:06
Ah, um, no, like to 2 million.

Scott Benner 1:17:10
I think it had like four at the beginning. And I think it might end the year with nine. That's insane. So that was crazy. I didn't expect that. I had a month, my biggest month ever, like last month over a half 1,000,030 days, which was just insane. The first month of the podcast have 1300 downloads for perspective. This is crazy. Yeah. And it's and it's still it's still striking people the way I hoped. Yeah, I mean, like, like, that's, it's not easy. If you not anybody gives up. We've cursed a lot in this. So anyway, but not that any of you really give up. But it's not as easy as you might think, to start a thing. And then to scale it and to grow it. And to not lose at its core. What it is. Yeah, absolutely. A bit of a balancing act. Yeah, for sure. And it's a it's just, it's pretty. It's pretty terrific. The other day, Heather, by the time this comes out, we'll know if this happened or not. But a major media company contacted me the other day. And they were like we're launching a podcast. I was like, Okay, what is this about? And it's a podcast being made by a pharmaceutical company who only deals with difficult disease states. And it sounds like they're going to make a limited run series, where they're going to talk about each disease state and an episode. I was like, okay, and they said, you know, we don't know how to grow the podcast. So we're going to, we were wondering if we could drop our diabetes episode, or type one diabetes episode into your feed. I was like, really? And they said, Yeah, I said, I don't know about this. They said, Well, we would pay you and I was like, well, then it seems completely reasonable to me. Yeah. How much? Yeah. And I said, well, first of all, just so you all know, the first thing I said was, I need to hear the episode first. Like, I'm not just not going to just say yes to you, like delivering blindly, whatever you want to my the people who listen to the podcast. And they said, Well, plus, you can put an opening on it, you can let them know upfront what it is. And that way if they don't want to listen, they can. They can just shut it off. And I'm like, alright, and I got off the phone. I don't know if it's gonna happen or not, you know, and I thought, it's my podcast that big. That Bloomberg media is contacting me about how to get a podcast off the ground. I was like, is that really happening? Cuz it's just me. Like you don't have there's no one else here. I mean, I don't want to say Isabel is very, very helpful online with the stuff on the Facebook group and we've actually started we kind of deputized a couple of you people to answer questions because the Facebook group is getting out of control. It's so freakin it's so big, it's just so big. It gets to the point now where if I put up a post people ignore me and I'm like, Hey, I used to be the one that was like, if I listen, people, people were like, Hey, that guy's here, you know. And now it's like, listen, there's, you know, there's a lot of posts every day. And so they can kind of get, we don't want people's questions to get missed. So now we have people who are watching and saying, look, here's your question. I think these episodes that are leaving you links like, these episodes are good for your question. Which is really cool. So, so I'm not doing it completely by myself. But I'm making the podcast by myself. And it was just strange to have like, you know, a PR person from a third party company hired by Bloomberg calling me saying we need, we need help from you to get this massive thing off the ground. And I was like, wow, okay. That's crazy. Cool. Yeah. And then I told him how much and I don't know what's gonna happen or not. But I can tell you, I was telling somebody the other day, they're like, Would you do that? I said, would I do that? I said, I would punch my mom in the face. For a certain amount of money, the amount of money. I said, I'd let her know when I'd split it with her and everything. You know what I mean? I'd still be like, Mom, listen, bear down. Because rules of engagement million bucks. Come on, Mom, I gotta give you I gotta give you a couple knuckles that are far heavier. By the way, if it was a million dollars, I wouldn't even tell her. Yeah. I just I just punch her. And when she woke up, I'd be like, hey, we'll go we got a million dollars. But it was not a million dollars in case you're wondering.

Heather 1:21:43
But it was shoot I got you gotta shoot was enough

Scott Benner 1:21:45
money that I thought, well, this helps support the podcast. Yeah, you know, and that's the goal. Like the goal is just funny. I put it up online. I said, Would you guys mind if I did this, like just trying to get some feedback from people and everybody was lovely. And mostly they were like, did go for it. One person said, I wouldn't mind if you did it if you donated the money. And I was like, do this my job. Like I said, Do I come to your work and say, Hey, let me see your paycheck. give that away? Which

Heather 1:22:15
you don't know, I earn a living. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:22:17
yeah. And I get the inference. Like you're making money off of diabetes, which, I mean, I guess you could say that, but I feel like I'm helping people with diabetes and giving them information for free, but whatever. And, um, but But I saw the point. And I just thought like, well, who does it? Like, who does he work for? Because he worked for a sneaker company. Like, should I say, hey, once you get paid should give all the money? Those kids, it's those sneakers together? Yeah, we're like, What? Are we all gonna just start giving our money away? Heather, what do you do? Go find people who need teeth and give your money away to them? Because you're making money off of dentistry? I'm like, kind of thinking is that?

Heather 1:22:56
Yeah, that's a ask backwards if you

Scott Benner 1:22:58
give it away. If I give it away. I'm not doing it. I got a limited amount of time, man. Yeah. I started thinking like, is everyone not out there trying to make money every day like to feed themselves? Am I the only one is yeah, you are?

Heather 1:23:12
You are Scott, the rest of us are just out here for free. And

Scott Benner 1:23:17
I'm just like, Oh, what am I the bad person? Everybody else is just out there. Like, oh, I'll just give away my time for everybody for free. And you have any idea how hard it is to make this podcast? You? Yeah, that's I was really. I let it go pretty quickly. Because I was like, I understand that. I understand. Like the I mean, the idea. But yeah, but my gut reaction was like, you're trying to work in here.

Heather 1:23:46
Listen to like, it's that episode, like what does it what does it do to you, man? I

Scott Benner 1:23:51
just was like, I was unbelievable. I don't know not unbelievable. With Do you understand what I mean? Like it was yes, it was off putting for a second not the idea of giving money to charity. But the idea that my money that I earn shouldn't be mine. But the money you earn is yours. And I'm like, Okay, I don't know. It's Listen, for people who might not believe this, because this sounds like I'm just dicking around with Heather for an hour and a half. But my entire day, every day. Like like the way you go to work at eight in the morning and come home at five in the afternoon, my entire day, every day and often on the weekends and in the evenings is spent in one way or another making this podcast. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So if I can find a way to make money off of it, maybe just say, good for you. Yeah, yeah. And let's be done with it. Anyway, this sends the part of the story where Scott pitches about nothing. Heather, is there anything we have not talked about that you wanted to?

Heather 1:24:53
Um, I think I just wanted to tell you a really great story I had recently with our local hospital

Scott Benner 1:24:59
It's gonna be better than you bumping into your own boobs and finding a medical problem. I

Heather 1:25:04
don't know if it's gonna be better, but I don't know. Anyway, so a couple months ago, I foolishly forgot to pick up insulin from the pharmacy. And of course, it was a pod changing day. And of course, it's 1030 at night. So we don't have 24 hour pharmacies here. They all close at 10 o'clock. So I was like, like, my pods already been beeping at me for like, two, like, I already got the two hour notification two hours ago, like, you know, so I'm like, Okay, so like, I got six hours before this thing starts screaming, and then I don't have any insulin, and I don't know what I'm gonna do. So I'm like, oh, I'll just like, I'll just call the ER and see if they'll give me insulin because, like, if they don't, then I need to figure out how I'm gonna get hold my pharmacist. Right, right, right. Um, so I call and I get put through to this nurse. And he was very nice. I was like, Listen, I'm a type one diabetic. I were an insulin pump. I'm out of insulin, and I need to replace my pump. And he was like, Oh, okay. What is what does that entail? And I was like, entails me getting insulin, and I don't have any. So if I come down to the hospital, like, I'll wait in the waiting room, I don't care. I realized that there could be people dying. Like, I realized I'm not priority one. But like, I'll wait. And then like, Would you guys give me 80 units? Because I just need 80 units to fill the pod. Yeah. Can

Scott Benner 1:26:37
you hear me? Yeah, yeah.

Heather 1:26:39
He was like, Oh, I don't know. Let me I don't really understand diabetes. Let me just go ask another coworker, Kevin. And I was like, great, Kevin, Kevin's gonna know what's up. He goes, and he asks Kevin, and I can hear it. Like, he's clearly holding the phone away. And he's talking to Kevin from a distance, and I can hear the conversation. And Kevin's like, we'll just tell her not to drink a juice. And I was like, Oh, Sweet Jesus. So he comes back on the phone, and he's like, listen, me, I've talked to Kevin, and we think that you're going to be okay. And I was like, okay, but like, you realize that, like, in six hours, I'm not going to have any insulin in my body. And I am diabetic. And they were like, Yeah, we just think if you just don't have a snack or anything, and you just like, wait until the pharmacy opens, they all open at 9am. And I was like, again, so you just Just so we're clear. You want me to go eight hours without any insulin like you think that that's a good idea. And he was like, Yeah, I mean, if you really feel like you need to come. I was like, Yeah, I'll be there in five.

Scott Benner 1:27:45
What position did Kevin and his friend hold on when you got there? They were orderlies. They were cleaning the floor. What was going on? Oh,

Heather 1:27:52
they were nurses in the nursing station in the back. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 1:27:56
Yeah, type one diabetes. Do you think they were clear about that?

Heather 1:27:59
I don't know. I just don't think that they thought. Like, I was like really clear about how like, I would have zero insulin and they were just like, well just don't eat and I was like, yeah, it doesn't matter if I eat or not like,

Scott Benner 1:28:13
you're gonna see me one way or the other tonight. By the way, either. You're gonna give me insulin now or give it to me later when I'm in the Yeah. So

Heather 1:28:19
I like I get to the hospital. And I go to like, check on it in and triage. And I get this lovely lady. And she's like, What can I help you with? And I'm like, I just called and heard from Kevin. And I told her the situation. She was like, so wait, all you're asking me for is insulin. And I was like, yeah, and she's like, I don't really understand how insulin pumps work. Could you explain it to me? So I explained it to her. And she was like, I'll be back. So she like goes to the back. She talks to whatever doctors on staff. And he also doesn't want to give me insulin. He's like, No, oh, and they also weren't sure that they would have enough insulin. And I was like, first of all.

Scott Benner 1:28:56
They weren't sure if they had enough for just for you. Or they're saying if you took 80 Everyone said

Heather 1:29:01
that if I took 80 units of insulin, there wouldn't be they didn't think that they even had 80 units. And I was like, believe me you have 80 units and they were like no I don't think and I was like yeah, do you do I know you do

Scott Benner 1:29:12
this this message is provided to you by the travel Council of Yellowknife.

Heather 1:29:19
Someone come on, they want

Scott Benner 1:29:21
you to know that if you go there, you're going to get at best dubious health care.

Heather 1:29:26
Yeah, so she anyways, she was great. She went back there. He didn't want to give me any insulin and she was like, listen, either we give this woman insulin now or she's gonna be back here in three hours when her pod dies, and in an ambulance and we have to give her insulin then so why don't we just you know, take this one. Like, this is easy enough. She can do it herself. Let me grab a vial of insulin. And he like begrudgingly gave it to her, like annoyed about it and like gave it to her.

Scott Benner 1:29:51
The mayor of yellows knife looks like she's like 15 years old, by the way. Oh yeah. Rebecca AlTi you know? Yeah,

Heather 1:29:59
this is how small All y'all know,

Scott Benner 1:30:01
the place you are. There aren't less there are fewer than 20,000 people living there. Yeah. Wow. Do you like go to you like you might? Like no Rebecca from like the grocery store kind of Oh yes. No, no kidding. Oh yeah. Interesting. 57 degrees there right now by the way, and humid. Yeah. Cold, humid, small. nurses don't understand what insulin does. Yeah, it's great place great place. What's the house cost? $35 What are we doing?

Heather 1:30:35
Stupid expensive. Really?

Scott Benner 1:30:37
I have to overpay.

Heather 1:30:38
There. We just bought our house that we live in and we paid $400,000 And it's a two bed two bathroom and it's a modular home. So most houses up here are like trailers but they're not trailers. Yep. Love to hear your series serious. Yeah, I'm 100% serious. Don't think like trailer trash like a trailer.

Scott Benner 1:31:00
I know what you mean. Yeah. I gotta pay $4,000 No offense to live in Yellowknife?

Heather 1:31:06
I know. Are you serious? No.

Scott Benner 1:31:10
How close am I to where Santa Claus lives at that point.

Heather 1:31:13
I mean, he's about four, four hour flight, I'd say.

Scott Benner 1:31:18
Uh huh. Uh huh. I'm not even kidding. By the way. Neither.

Heather 1:31:25
I think it's like a to get to the Arctic Circle from here. It's like

Scott Benner 1:31:28
700 miles. Take surprise. Yes, the this is driving it would take me 47 hours to drive from Yellowknife to the North Pole. Oh, yeah.

Heather 1:31:37
Because you gotta go like back into like B you have to drive down into like BC and then like, go back up through the Yukon and come it's a weird. There's a lot of like, direct route that goes straight through.

Scott Benner 1:31:48
There's a lot of origin never going to hear me say on my map. My Google Maps. The Yukon, by the way. All right. This is insane. Heather, can I ask you a question? Yes, please. Why don't you move?

Heather 1:32:02
The money is really good up here. Really? Yeah, you're paid really unpaid. Really? Well, my my. The owner of my dental clinic is like, he's the most amazing man. And he pays us all very well.

Scott Benner 1:32:16
I don't understand anything you're saying. Yeah, it's amazing. It's the

Heather 1:32:20
money Scott the money. He's keeping

Scott Benner 1:32:21
you in Yellowknife? Yeah, yeah. Because I don't mean this pejoratively, but you're doing like billing and paperwork in a dentist office. Yep. And you own a $400,000 home? Yeah. That doesn't sound right. I don't know why. But it is there a movie theater?

Heather 1:32:44
Yeah, but like it's no Cineplex or whatever you guys have done there. It's pretty sad.

Scott Benner 1:32:52
Do I get to see the lights if I live there? Yes. Yes. That sounds nice. Yeah, so

Heather 1:32:59
like we have we get the 24 hour daylight in the summer. But we don't get full darkness luckily and Yellowknife so we do get like a four hour window usually in the winter where the sun is up.

Scott Benner 1:33:15
Wait is that maddening? After a while?

Heather 1:33:18
Um, I don't find it. I find it like a you get tired in the winter. My boyfriend really struggles with the, with the darkness and the light he like has a hard time adjusting every time. Is he from there? No, he's all he's from the he's from BC to British

Unknown Speaker 1:33:36
Columbia. Yeah, he followed you there.

Heather 1:33:39
Yeah, well, we met here in Yellowknife. He was working up here. And then he went back and then I convinced him

Scott Benner 1:33:44
convinced him How did you not want it? No, nevermind. I have a short list of things you'd have to do to get me to move. And none of them are something I can repeat here on the podcast. Yeah. All right. Well, I think we're done Heather. That was terrific. Thank you.

I want to thank Heather for coming on the show. And I'd like to thank us med for sponsoring this episode us med.com forward slash juice box, or call 888-721-1514 and of course cozy earth.com use the offer code juice box at checkout to save 35% There's more I wanted to say here but in complete honesty, this file got corrupted and I just spent the last three and a half hours of my life getting it fixed. So I'm fried. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back again very soon. If this doesn't kill me with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.