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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, welcome to episode 958 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Bethenny is on the show today she is the mother of four children. One of them has type one diabetes her child uses on the pod five and we have a lovely conversation. 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 or becoming bold with insulin. If you'd like to save 10% off your first month of therapy, use the link betterhelp.com forward slash juicebox. To save 40% off of your entire order, use the offer code juice box at checkout wallet cozy earth.com. And to get five free travel packs and a year's supply of vitamin D, go to my link. Drink ag one.com forward slash juice box you can drink the same drink that I do every morning. If you're looking for community around you diabetes, check out the Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes there's a private group and a public page. Make sure you join both

this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter contour next one.com forward slash juice box. You can use the same quality meters that we use in this house. Find out more at contour next one.com forward slash Juicebox Podcast is also sponsored today by us med now us med is the place where my daughter gets her diabetes supplies from and you could to us med.com forward slash juicebox are calling 888-721-1514.

Bethany 2:13
Hi, I'm Bethany and I'm here to talk about my daughter Jane has diabetes.

Scott Benner 2:19
Jane has diabetes. Yes, you are the parent of more than one child though. Is that right?

Bethany 2:23
Yes, I have four children. Their three boys and one girl. The girl has diabetes. They are 863 and a half and 2863

Scott Benner 2:32
and a half into the end. Jane is how old? She is six. She's six. Okay. 863 and a half to anybody who's on the Facebook page knows I'm very sick right now. Definitely. So if I if I say something like five seconds from now, like Jane is three, you'll go no, Scott, she's six. Are you okay? That kind of thing. And she's had diabetes for a couple years.

Bethany 2:56
Yes. She was diagnosed two years ago tomorrow, actually.

Scott Benner 3:00
Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Did you set this up on purpose? Sort of.

Bethany 3:04
I mean it when I scheduled it, you know, it was during this time anyway. And I was like, oh, that's kind of that's kind of cool.

Scott Benner 3:14
How did you figure out she had diabetes?

Bethany 3:17
Well, her diagnosis story for me actually starts a couple of months before diagnosis. So it was she was diagnosed in October of 2020. And during the summer of 2020. You know, everything was in shutdown and life was insane. And I had at the time three kids and I was extremely pregnant. And so Jane had a UTI in late June. And at that point, that was when everybody was doing remote telehealth and like you really couldn't go into the pediatricians office unless it was really bad. So I called the pediatrician and she gave me some suggestions of things to do at the house and then bring her back in and a few days to see if those things were helping and so we did that and and took her in and she definitely had a UTI but they tested her urine This is how I know for sure that in the end of June she did not have any symptoms. So they tested her urine she had a UTI it was clearing said keep doing what you're doing. You're good. So don't think anything of it.

Scott Benner 4:25
You're saying that they saw her urine then and there was no talk about

Bethany 4:29
diabetes at all like no glucose, no ketones, you know, none of that and her urine her urine other than the fact of her having a UTI that was clearing everything looked normal. So then she turned four and the end of September and I had my fourth baby two days before she turned four. And that was crazy. Crazy times two. But when she turned four, the well the day that I had my fourth child you You know, of course we all my babies are born in the middle of the night. So we leave our house at the super, super early in the morning, my mom comes over to watch the rest of the kids. And when we got home, she told me she was like Jane wet the bed. And I was like, That's really weird. She hasn't done that in like over a year. But maybe it's just a fluke thing, I don't know. And then the next month was pure chaos, because I had my oldest son at the time was in first grade doing entire remote learning in Spanish. He's in the Spanish Immersion program. So everything was in Spanish. And then Jane was very sick, but I did not know what was happening. And then my next son, Levi, he was 18 months old and was literally like swinging from the chandeliers. And then I had a newborn and no sleep, you know, all of that. And I just vividly remember looking over at Jane, probably two weeks after my baby was born and and said, Jane, do you feel okay, you don't look so good. And she was like, I'm just so so tired, Mommy, I'm just so tired. And I felt terrible. Because in my mind, she was so tired because we'd moved her in to the room with her brothers. So her sleeping was not good. The baby was waking your whole house up multiple times a night, you know, I just, I already felt guilty who did not did not foresee the guilt that was going to come. But it's like, I'm just so sorry. Well, then, about a week and a half after that she wet the bed out of seven nights, she wet the bed five nights out of seven. And that that was just not, you know, the norm for her. So I knew something was wrong. I can't believe diabetes never crossed my mind at that time. But definitely why why do you what do you think? Because in retrospect, as soon as we got to the pediatrician, and they said there that there's glucose in your urine. My first thought was diabetes. She has diabetes. Like you don't have to tell me she

Scott Benner 6:56
so you know something about diabetes prior to this? Yes.

Bethany 7:00
So my, my first cousin, my mom's brother's son has type one diabetes. And so my mom has always been looking out for my kids like, Oh, they're drinking a lot of water. Do you think they have diabetes? They're drinking a lot of water. But my kids only drink water. And it was hot. We were in North Carolina. So it's super, super hot. Even in September, October. It's you know, getting up in the 80s and 90s. They drink tons of water. So I was always like, Mom, my kids are fine. Fine. So I didn't. I didn't think anything of it. I thought she must have another UTI. But I remember telling my husband, I think she has a UTI. But her symptoms are completely different this time. And so I tried to get her in on a Friday. But it was a teacher workday. All my kids were home and like didn't have anything to do. So they were crazy. And I called the pediatricians office, they didn't have an appointment. And I said, I think it's a UTI. And she said, well, let's just do what you did last time that worked and then bring her in on Monday. She already had her four year old well visit scheduled for Monday. So they said just wait until Monday and we'll check. So I'm kind of thankful that that happens the way it did because at least we had one more weekend of not insanity.

Scott Benner 8:18
It sounds like everything was pretty insane. But well, it was.

Bethany 8:21
Yes, you're right.

Scott Benner 8:23
I have questions before we move forward. Yeah, sure. We're at the second UTI theory. But let's hold that for so first of all, I heard a humble brag where you told me your son's in a complete Spanish immersion. I didn't mean and I heard another humble brag. The kids only drink water. That was nice. We hear you're a good mom. I thought for a while you must live in Utah, because you've got four kids under the age of six. I thought you were building an army for the Lord.

Bethany 8:45
Yeah, I was expecting you to in Utah, actually, yeah, I'm married to my high school sweetheart as well. So if I figured if I had thrown that in that would have sealed the deal. That's meeting in Utah.

Scott Benner 8:55
But you're but you live in North Carolina? Yes. But you're definitely a Mormon, right? No, no. Okay. Well, you check a lot of boxes in case you want to get in. Yeah, they make some good friends. I think possibly not actually being that would slow you down from getting him. I don't know how you get in. I'm sure it's probably there's probably an application process. But I think you I think they would take you in three seconds is what I'm saying. I mean, you're you're you're four fifths of the way to a basketball team. And yeah, no, they would definitely let you in. Okay, so isn't it interesting that you listen to the podcast and then thought to yourself, he's gonna think I'm Mormon based on how my life is. Do you come from a big family?

Bethany 9:36
No, actually, I don't at all. I just have one sister and each with my parents and we had one sibling as well.

Scott Benner 9:41
Yeah, husband come are a big family. Um,

Bethany 9:43
he has one biological brother one half sister when adopted sister and one sort of adopted brother so

Scott Benner 9:51
yeah, that's a yes. But he's it's not like a dominance thing. Like he doesn't jump out of bed and yell I got you pregnant again. Or? No, no. No, we

Bethany 9:59
always want Then four kids.

Scott Benner 10:00
Oh, wow. Okay, and how old are you?

Bethany 10:02
34?

Scott Benner 10:05
Wow. 34 Six. That's nice. That's a good age. I like the edge. Alright, so isn't it nice that I've given my permission that it's okay. What that will do are? By the way, people don't know, Bethany. Let's tell them here. I've said it once, but I'm gonna say it again. I'm very sick. So this could go a number of different ways. I am keeping up though. You thought that her symptoms of diabetes mimicked enough of the of the UTI that you went back again, the doctor put you on that process? Just try these things? Again? I'm assuming they didn't work this time?

Bethany 10:40
Well, no, because you know, she, she didn't have a UTI. So we ended up going in the following Monday, which was October 26. For her well visit. You know, and again, it's during COVID. So we have to wait in the car for forever. And they bring us in, I've got it's just me, Jane, and then my newborn at the time. He's four weeks old. And the nurses like okay, you're here for a while visit? Do you have any concerns? I said, I think she might have a UTI. There's something going on. And she's like, okay, no problem, we'll get a urine sample, the doctor will be in to talk to you know, about normal four year old things. So we're in that process. And then the nurse comes in and interrupts the doctor and she has a sticky note and said this was her urine. And she said, Are you sure? She said I ran it twice. And I knew right them before they even said anything. And I said, Oh, no. And she said, There's glucose in your urine. That that it it might be okay. Don't panic yet. And you know, Jane has no idea what's going on. And I'm like, already starting to cry. I'm also extremely hormonal and postpartum. You know, just like, yeah, control anything. So she's like, it's okay. It's okay. And she said, What did Jane have for breakfast? And I had no clue what the child had for breakfast. down on the floor lady. My life is insane. Right now. I said Daddy was in charge of breakfast. Janie, what did you have for breakfast, honey? She said, um, I had Cinnamon Toast Waffles with syrup and whipped cream and a pop tart.

Scott Benner 12:12
Oh my god. That sounds like what your husband would do.

Bethany 12:15
So yeah, my kids the only drink water.

Scott Benner 12:19
You they only drink water when they're with you, by the way. Right? Right. Right. Maple syrup when they're with your husband. Exactly.

Bethany 12:27
So I was like, Oh my gosh. She said, Okay, well, she sounds like she had a lot of sugar for breakfast. It could just be a fluke thing. We're going to prick her finger. And you know, even though at the time I had a general idea of diabetes, I did not know specifics. So she was like, we want it to be around 100 up to 150 Max and I was like, Okay, and so they pick up you know, the wash your hands prick your finger was 600 and she was like, Okay, you're gonna need to go to the hospital that your baby can't go with you to the hospital.

Scott Benner 12:57
Oh, that's a COVID because the COVID one thing about COVID Why didn't get freakin sick once during COVID Bethany? Never once I was locked in my house. And now my chest hurts and my head is spinning and I'm hot and cold. COVID COVID saved us. No, I'm just kidding. Okay, see? Well,

Bethany 13:17
the irony for me was that I had a whole baby and avoided the hospital entirely. I didn't even go to the hospital when I had him. And now I'm like,

Scott Benner 13:25
wait, I'm gonna have to go to the hospital. Bethany. Where did the baby come out in the driveway?

Bethany 13:31
No, almost though. No, we used a birth center just to be able to avoid the hospital setting. And it was an amazing, wonderful experience. But the birth center is an hour away from us. And I literally thought I was going to have him in the driveway. So he came. Okay. Not 20 minutes after we pulled in.

Scott Benner 13:50
There's no way your husband could have delivered the baby because we saw how he made breakfast so

Bethany 13:54
well that's true. He although he really wanted to have the baby in the car, he thought that'd be a really cool story. So

Scott Benner 14:01
he's not wrong about that. Honestly, even the thing about me being sick is a great story. I realized yesterday when I got done like I told Bethany something before we started recording, which I don't know if I'll share with people on the podcast or not. But even as as like horrible as it was, it was a good story. You don't I mean, so. I would do it for the story too. Although you're ruining the leather I would imagine.

Bethany 14:23
Yeah, yeah, I did pack lots of towels and trash bags and that sort of thing because I really thought he was coming in the car. Oh, no

Scott Benner 14:30
kidding. You were actually concerned about it. Yes,

Bethany 14:33
I Yes. I'm very much I mean, fourth child, you know, he came real quick.

Scott Benner 14:37
Oh, yeah. girls that haven't had a baby don't know what you're talking about. But yeah, they start flying out you almost have to slow him down. You don't I mean, like put rubber bands at the undersell? Yeah,

Bethany 14:50
I was telling myself just Just don't let your water break because water breaks in the baby's here.

Scott Benner 14:56
You know how those those jets land on the aircraft carriers. Yeah, and then they hit the hook on the wire. That's sort of what they should maybe do. I don't know how you'd work that out. I'm not an engineer Bethany. But okay, so Alright, so now we're now we're, we've gotta go to the hospital. I assume you got to pass the baby off to somebody else in your family.

Bethany 15:15
Yeah, I mean that that came into a bit complication, though, because he'd never had a bottle. I didn't have any restaurants saved up. I mean, really four weeks in, so I had no way to feed him. So the nurse and the pediatrician were amazing. Like, they gave me bottles of water. They gave me samples of formula they gave me like, the little bottles to mix it all in. And so they sent me with everything that I needed. But you know, getting a baby to take formula that's never had formula is not the easiest thing in the world. So that did not go well. So it was the story of my life. During that time. It was chaos. I had my mom pick up my other two boys, one from preschool and one from my husband's work. I had my husband meet me at the hospital. I had his mom drive separately and meet us at a hospital. I had the baby in my car with Aaron's mom, and I would run down every three hours and nurse him and then go back up and she just stayed in the car pretty much for two days with him. We came home. I came home with the baby. And my husband stayed overnight while she was launching was in the hospital

Scott Benner 16:28
this day, on this exact day, I heard a knock at the door. All right at that time. I walked downstairs. I was up here making the podcast I said Who could this be knocking on my door? You know who it was? It was the UPS guy. You know what he had? Arden's Dexcom G sevens? Do you know where they came from? US mid us med.com forward slash juicebox. Why do I tell you this? Well, just a few days ago, actually on the 10th Today is the 19th. So on the 10th I got an email. It said greetings are in your next order supplies is eligible to ship and I was like oh, I click the words confirm my order right in the email. Seven days later, I got another email that said the order was on its way. And two days after that. Nine days after the first email arrived. Arden's Dexcom G sevens were in our kitchen. The next time Arden is eligible for her Omni pod supplies, the same exact thing is going to happen us med.com forward slash juice box or 888-721-1514 Use the link or the phone number to get your free benefits check and get started with us met us med carries everything from insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies. The latest CGM is like FreeStyle Libre three, and the Dexcom G seven. But if you want the libre two for the Dexcom, G six, they have those as well. They have on the pod dash on the pod five and the tandem T slim. X to us med always provides 90 days worth of supplies. And as you just heard, fast and free shipping us med.com forward slash juice box or call 888721151 for better service and better care is what you're gonna get from us med. You're using insulin, you need your blood sugar measurements to be accurate and easy. Get yourself a contour meter contour next one.com forward slash juicebox. Why do you want a contour meter? Well, they're incredibly accurate. That's the first and probably for my money, the most important reason, they also have a bright light for nighttime viewing the screens are incredibly easy to use. And those test strips have Second Chance technology. If you'd like to get more out of your data, use the free contour app and pair it with your meter just right on your phone right to your meter stores. All your data lets you make sense of it. Contour next.com forward slash juicebox. The contour next gen Contour Next One, the entire line of meters is not to be missed. Arden has been using a contour meter for so many years now I honestly can't remember how many. We absolutely love it. It's easy to hold, easy to use. And of course once again, Second Chance test strips. So if you touch that blood don't get quite enough for your fumble with the meter. You go back get the rest of that blood and you don't mess up the accuracy the test or ruin the test strip and the amount of blood you need. Very small. You're gonna love this meter. Go check out the website, you can actually buy right on the website. It's possible that the meter and the strips could cost you less than cash than you're paying right now for the meter you're using. And is that meter the one you're using right now? Is that even any good? You don't know Do you but take it from me. The contour meters are absolutely fabulous concert x.com forward slash juicebox one It's the shownotes links at juicebox podcast.com, to contour us men, and all the sponsors.

Bethany 20:24
But my mother in law and my newborn stayed in the car for probably about eight hours the first day and then probably close to eight to 10 hours the second day.

Scott Benner 20:36
Do you have like a Harvard Business degree or something? Why are you so good at coordinating things?

Bethany 20:41
Oh, well, I majored in math and taught high school math for a while. So

Scott Benner 20:46
I mean, you're you are coordinating the entirety of this thing. Plus, your plus your boobs need to go somewhere else, you know, not where you're going, did you ever consider your husband going to the hospital and you staying with the baby? Or? Well,

Bethany 21:02
he did. Thankfully, they did allow both of us to be in the hospital, which was, we weren't sure, you know, because the rules and everything we didn't know if we'd both be allowed up. But they wanted both of us there so that we could both be trained. And I knew from the very beginning that I would be the one managing James diabetes, because I stay at home. So you know, it was essential that I was there so that that part wasn't that much of an option. I mean, I love my husband, and I trust him dearly. But I needed to hear the information for myself, not from him. So

Scott Benner 21:33
no, I understand was the information valuable?

Bethany 21:38
It was, and you know, at the time, I didn't realize how, how great we had it, in listening to the podcast and other people's stories. You know, there obviously, are a lot of doctors and professionals out there who don't think the way that you think and the way that you manage diabetes, and that sort of thing. And clearly, our endocrinologist and our diabetes educator, both have very much the mind, same mindset as us. So, you know, when they were training us, they said, Okay, you know, she's so tiny, here's her ratios and everything, but right now we're gonna give her her insulin after she eats. But eventually, you want to get to the point where you give it to her before and probably even like, 10 or 15 minutes before. And I was like, Well, why? Why are we giving it to her after now? And they're like, Well, you know, because you don't always know what she eats or what she's going to eat. And I was like, well, let's give it to her beforehand, then if, you know, she starts to go low, or changes her mind or whatever, I'll give a candy. She'll always eat candy, you know?

Scott Benner 22:35
It'll be fine. I'll let my husband cook for it'll be okay.

Bethany 22:38
Exactly, exactly. So. So they gave me a lot, a lot of good, helpful information, and were very supportive. So she was diagnosed on a Monday, she spent Monday night, thankfully, she was not in DKA. We caught it very early. Her agency was 7.3 diagnosis. So it was not, you know, I didn't know at the time, how good or bad that was. So, in retrospect, it was pretty good.

Scott Benner 23:09
For everything that was going on Bethenny, I think it's astonishing that you picked it up. Like, really, it's well done. You know what I mean? Like, and it's funny, because you're gonna tell me soon, I imagine that you feel incredible guilt about something which, you know, but it sounds like you've figured this out very quickly.

Bethany 23:25
Yeah, I mean, I am thankful that we did catch it so early. I do feel like I could have caught it two weeks earlier. But honestly, two weeks earlier, probably wouldn't made that big of a difference for Jane. And it would have made my life significantly more difficult and having had a two week old. But yeah, so she came home on on Tuesday, she only had spent one night in the hospital. So that that was good. And then we came home shots and finger pricks, we did not get a Dexcom in the hospital. But they told me about it. And they said, We want to get you on one as soon as possible. So let's make a you know, in office endocrinologist appointment on Friday, and we'll get you set up with that. Also, say this. So our family in general, our immediate family, like my children, and my husband and I are typically very healthy people, you know, we get the common cold and that sort of stuff. But we before diabetes, we did not have a single prescription that we were ever taking on any of us, you know, never had to go to the doctor except for well visits basically. So my husband's self employed and my insurance works. It was astronomically expensive to have insurance for us and for children. So we looked into all the options and we at the time we had decided to be on a Health Share Plan, which I don't know how much you know about that,

Scott Benner 24:48
but help help share, Health Share, share, okay, yeah,

Bethany 24:52
like a Medical Health Share Plan. So basically, you pay a much lower rate every month and and they cover well visits, they do cover sick visits and illnesses and things like that. But they have a lot of rules and a lot of things that they don't cover. And at the time when we decided that, obviously, we did not know that Jane was going to get diabetes, so we were like, Oh, well, we don't have any of these chronic conditions. We're not gonna have any of these products, we'll be fine. So one of my first thoughts, when as soon as I realized diabetes, I was like, Oh, my gosh, or that helps share doesn't cover diabetes, like you barely covers anything. Yeah, yes, they won't cover insulin, they won't cover anything. So of course, like, not only am I trying to figure out the logistics of maneuvering all of my children and keeping everyone safe. I'm also like, on the phone with a company like, can we go to the hospital? Can we get insulin? Like what can we do? So that was a nightmare in and of itself?

Scott Benner 25:52
Definitely. What what does your husband do for work that he can support six people, and he's doing it on his own as he like a drug me a little or something? Mexico or something? Or when

Bethany 26:04
he sells cars, he's a car dealer. Like he's got his own car lot.

Scott Benner 26:08
I see. Okay, that sounds like wow, that's well done. If you can afford to keep unless you're living in the middle of literally nowhere, and it's super Free to live. But North Carolina's is not a cheap place to live. So I was impressed by your resume. I was impressed. I'm not impressed with how he feeds your children. But I am very much. I am pretty much impressed with the rest of it.

Bethany 26:27
I'm pretty I actually haven't even told him that I'm doing this. So yeah.

Scott Benner 26:31
Then don't tell him he doesn't know. Right? Just Just tell him to keep making the money. You got bills. That's right. He doesn't have time to listen to podcast. Yeah, you're busy buddy. Get in there and sell a car. Do you ask him Hello? At the end of the day? You say hello? Or do you go how many cars you saw?

Bethany 26:49
Oh, no, I say hello. I typically I've gotten the point now so many years now that I don't even really ask him how many cars the kids will ask Do you sell a car today?

Scott Benner 26:58
That's that's just it's really nice. Listen, I have I'm basically a small business owner and most of my day is spent going don't let everybody down. Don't let you know. Yeah, I understand. Okay, so Well, Jesus, that's a lot. Yeah, you did you handled as well as it sounds like you did or how are you doing on the inside?

Bethany 27:20
I'm on the inside. I was not okay. Literally, I just I felt like I was drowning. And it just was like, okay, just survive. We're just we're just going to survive, everybody. Everybody's gonna get through this. There's this old song. I don't even know when it's from or who sings it. But it's like, I don't want to sing on here. But like, Oh, child, things are gonna get easier. Yeah, sure. You have an old song? Well, it's old for me. I think.

Scott Benner 27:51
This is another humblebrag that you're younger than I am. Hold

Bethany 27:53
on. No, no, no,

Scott Benner 27:55
I can't speak spirally my kids drink water.

Bethany 28:00
Now, now we have juice in our fridge all the time. Looks like such so ironic.

Scott Benner 28:05
Hold on, I got the lyrics. Okay.

Bethany 28:08
I feel like it's probably from this song

Scott Benner 28:11
by five stairsteps 1970. Yeah. Oh, they use this in the sea. My brains not working right now. Because I'm dying. Guardians of the Galaxy. Don't they use this think guardian? No, I haven't seen that. What the hell are you doing with your time? What are you taking care of those taking care of kids? Ooh, child, things are gonna get easier. Ooh, child, things are getting brighter.

Bethany 28:34
Yes. That song popped up in my head when we were in the hospital. And literally, I had just had that on repeat those two lines. That's all I knew. But I just it's gonna get easier, it's gonna get brighter, it's gonna get easier, it's gonna get brighter. But then, so then things got really bad for me shortly thereafter. So

Scott Benner 28:55
the song Good work.

Bethany 28:58
Yeah. It helped with my mental state, probably. But physically, I started having some problems. So Jane had got her Dexcom on Friday. And that was so helpful. Like, I was so nice that I still I was not sleeping at all because between the baby and then diabetes, you know, just like, constantly, like not sleeping at all. And so probably about two, four weeks after Jane was diagnosed. I was having tears. Like, I did not know what was happening to me. But I remember standing in the kitchen holding my baby and looking at my husband and saying something is not right with me. I am not okay. And he was like, Be more specific. Tell me what's going on. And I was like, I feel like I'm about to have a heart attack. My heart is racing all the time. I cannot sleep even when I am allowed to sleep. You know, like when there's three hours in the middle of the night. Yeah, yeah, like I can't fall asleep. Just like ever. thing is crazy. I'm losing tons of weight, even though I'm eating everything in sight, but like, I don't know what's going on. And so he had an Apple Watch. And he was like, start wearing this to monitor your heart rate, because that's what I'm concerned about the most. And like, even just completely resting heart rate sitting down holding the baby, my heart rate was 150 beats per minute. And so I'm not okay. So I went to my midwife that used to deliver Noah, and was like, I something's not okay with me. And I don't know if it's just sleep deprivation or what. And she felt my thyroid and said, Your thyroid is really enlarged, you need to go to an endocrinologist. And she was like, I think you have postpartum thyroiditis, which I had never heard of before. And so I was like, okay, so then, you know, I call every endocrinologist around us, and I did not realize how hard it is to get in with an adult endocrinologist. So I finally got an appointment, maybe like a week later. And the lady will not say where she was or her name, but she was so incredibly rude. And, and it took me very off guard because Jane's endocrinologist was the best of the best. And in hindsight now James endocrinologist has left which I literally cried when she left. But and we've had a terrible, terrible experience ever since. So I did not realize at the time how amazing it was that we had a great endocrinologist with James, but I walked in and the lady was like, I don't even know why you're here. You just are stressed because your daughter has diabetes, and you're not getting enough sleep. You just need to go sleep. I was like,

Scott Benner 31:44
Okay, this Endo, they weren't. Were they like a thyroid specialist? Or just Yes, really? Yes. And heard your symptoms and was like, that's not that.

Bethany 31:54
Oh, she hadn't even heard my symptoms yet. She just walked in and said that she's like, you don't need to be here.

Scott Benner 31:59
She doesn't drink enough water. If you were her mom, she'd be happier. That's right.

Bethany 32:04
Yeah. So I was like, whoa, I'm gonna advocate for myself and say that I'm not leaving until I have some bloodwork done, and anything else that needs to determine what's going on with me. And so she was like, well, so she listened to my symptoms. And she was like, Well, I really just think that you're just stressed and overtired. And you need to go home and sleep, but I'll agree to doing blood work. But she she literally said, but I know it's gonna come back normal. And I was like, okay, so I had bloodwork done. And then you know, within 24 hours that was up on where I could get it in my chart or whatever. And I don't I can't remember like, which ways the numbers go but it whatever it was supposed to be. It was like completely opposite like ostrich heart, where you hyper or hypo, I was hyper. Yeah. And so that's my, my heart was racing. I was having restless leg. I wasn't sleeping the anxiety, like on top of already having anxiety, you know, just it was, yeah. That that and so then she messaged me, and she was like, Well, you were right. Thank you.

Scott Benner 33:08
She didn't say I was wrong, because that would have been the more appropriate response, right? Yeah, no.

Bethany 33:14
And she's like, I'm gonna send over some medicine. Well, then, of course, like, because I'm nursing a newborn, I look it up in the medicine, it specifically says like, not to you to take it if you're breastfeeding, because it'll lower your heart rate and the baby's heart rate and like it was just one thing after another. So I had to figure out all of that. But then, she told me, she said, most likely, this is postpartum thyroiditis. And so you'll start in hyper and you'll stay in hyper for a period of time, then you'll go into hypo thyroidism. And then if you're lucky, you'll come out and you'll be normal. But a lot of people stay in the hypo stage.

Scott Benner 33:53
The house like okay, so she didn't know what she was talking about. She was just a jerk. Yes. Okay. Exactly. Well, listen, that's better than her being a jerk and not knowing what she's talking about.

Bethany 34:05
That's true, I guess. Yeah. Right side, things will get brighter.

Scott Benner 34:11
So you're probably singing like crazy and that appointment. Things are gonna get easier.

Bethany 34:18
Oh my gosh, it was it was crazy. So

Scott Benner 34:21
should have asked her she knows that song be like, Listen, I need someone to come through for me. I am. I'm fascinated by that. Like all this has happened to you. And your birthing person so far as the most. I'm assuming they don't have a degree.

Bethany 34:39
No, not I mean, not in thyroid. Yeah,

Scott Benner 34:42
they they like sell cars with your husband on the weekends or something. And then they make the babies come out. And I mean, so you have a good experience at the hospital. But I always wonder about is it just people who work with children? Are they in a default Mr. Rogers setting you know, they mean like if you got them a alone would they just be hard with some of them be like real jackasses too, but they're just in that chilled like, you know what I mean? Because you always hear people say, you know, when we lost our, our child's Endo, we realized how terrible blah blah blah like that story is really common right my child's endo was great. But I think people just mean like pleasant, like, look at look at our line of what we're expecting, like just human, like people are human and they say hello and smile and look in your face. And don't treat you like an idiot when you ask a question. And that we call good. The bar is pretty low. I have to say, we've all we've come to expect nothing. For some reason. I'm sorry. So she, she she tells you about this whole swing. That's probably going to happen. Yes. puts you on. Huh? You're hyper at that point. What did she put? Yeah.

Bethany 35:52
Honestly, I don't even remember it that long. Yeah, so I was I was not on it long. So I, I ended up only taking half a dose because I was concerned. So then then I talked to the pediatrician. And I'm like, Okay, I'm supposed to take this medicine. But I'm nursing. It says not to take it when nursing, but all of the ones that lower my heart rate, because that was the biggest concern was my heart rate at the time. What can also lower the baby's heart rate. So what do I need to do? So then on top of monitoring everything else in my life at the moment, pediatricians like, you need to get a pulse ox monitor and monitor your baby's oxygen levels and your baby's heart rate. Like okay, great.

Scott Benner 36:33
You're rethinking these kids at this point, right?

Bethany 36:36
Well, I also I was like, you're getting a vasectomy. Like we already scheduled this. It was scheduled the Friday that Jane got her Dexcom that was the day that my sister in law tech, my husband to get his second like we're not happy.

Scott Benner 36:51
Let me say something here. If people don't think you're a good person, this is the moment when they know you are because you have four children. All these things happen. And you are still having sex with your husband. You're such a nice lady. Well, I can't

Bethany 37:07
really poor timing because then he was down for like a whole nother week. And

Scott Benner 37:11
what a baby. Are you kidding me? Bethany? You're going through all of this. And his vas deferens get cut and he can't stand up for a week.

Bethany 37:21
Yeah, but it was okay. We we made it we did get easier. Yes, the guy easier. So. So yeah, I'm, I only took half a pill for for a brief amount of time. I feel like it was not even a full month. And I could just tell my own, you know, I'm just very in tune with my body. So I could tell, okay, I feel like I'm going into hypo. So I stopped taking the medicine because the endocrinologist wasn't helpful. And then I knew I was in hypo everything, you know, everything slows down. And then you're dealing with low heart rate, low energy, depression, you know, all of that kind of stuff. And I'm sure Wait, bounce when you got Yes, unfortunately, that was the nicest thing about being in heifers like oh, my gosh, I'm losing the baby weight. So easy. This is great. And then it was like, Oh, wait, it's all coming back.

Scott Benner 38:13
Thing. By the way, Bethany with the isn't it interesting? The the entirety of the planet seems to struggle with their weight in some way or another, but your thyroid just gets turned a little too far. One way. Yeah. And it's 50 pounds drop off. You're like it's nothing?

Bethany 38:27
Yes, it is. It is bizarre. Yeah. So So yeah, that all came back and stuck around.

Scott Benner 38:35
Doesn't seem to be leaving. Yeah. What? What are your level? Are you still medicated or did it

Bethany 38:43
this? No. So I never actually started taking anything for the hypo. Mostly because I went back and did more bloodwork. And she was like, Yeah, you are in hypo. And I was like, Okay, well, what do we need to do? And she was like, just wait it out and see if you come back up into normal levels, or if you're gonna stay here forever, and I was like,

Scott Benner 39:02
Okay. Like, solid advice. I know. Yeah. My son was in that same situation. And and he was like, well, we'll medicate you. And if, if the medicine starts pushing you the wrong way, then we'll stop not we'll just let you suffer until we see what's going on. Right. It

Bethany 39:19
was very frustrating. Yeah. So So thankfully, that stage did not last very long either. And it was just a, maybe I can't even remember maybe a couple weeks up to maybe a month. I know by probably shortly after Christmas. December, probably by the end of January, I would say I was back into normal range. And now you know, I'm pretty adamant about having my levels checked at least once a year and thankfully, I've stayed in range one spot,

Scott Benner 39:51
so Okay, so it did actually resolve. Yes, yes. Do you when they check your levels do you have do you have somebody physically Check your thyroid as well.

Bethany 40:02
Um, yes, good. I do.

Scott Benner 40:06
That's excellent. Look, as you're taking care of things,

Bethany 40:09
trying to take care of me, you know, put the mask on yourself first before taking care of the

Scott Benner 40:13
phone. I mean, especially in your situation, because their husband he wants, you know, apparently he still expects sex all the time.

Bethany 40:19
He really is an amazing husband. I don't.

Scott Benner 40:22
Not in my mind. I'm having fun making fun of him. I don't know. I'm sure he's delightful. I just, I don't feel good, Bethany. And my, my humor stick is only it's only so powerful today. So I have to go with what's right in front of me. Because if I even take too much of a deep breath, I'm gonna go into a coughing fit that disgust you and everybody listening. I'm recording with my window open, which I've never done before. Because I need the fresh air so I don't pass out. That's all good, though. Don't worry, I'm fine. And you have a ton of energy, which is really helpful today. Because if I had to drag this story out of you, I don't know what I would do. I'd be like, yeah, that's it, huh? Okay.

Bethany 41:04
Don't do that anyone has described me as having tons of energy in probably about

Scott Benner 41:08
eight years. You are chatty as a mother. I don't know the how

Bethany 41:11
well I don't get to talk to adults very often.

Scott Benner 41:16
Geez, you're upsetting if you're counting me as an adult. I'll tell you that right now. Like you might need to get out.

Bethany 41:25
Trying what would you do for fun if

Scott Benner 41:27
you didn't have those kids? Oh, you don't want to know I do actually want to know what would you do something like?

Bethany 41:32
Well, right now in my spare time I quilt me quilt.

Scott Benner 41:37
I thought you were gonna say heroin for sure. But do you know, quilting? Okay. Yeah.

Bethany 41:42
I'm basically a grandma.

Scott Benner 41:44
How long have you been that way? Probably all

Bethany 41:47
my life that I mean, I've been quilting for, I don't know, 14 years, maybe.

Scott Benner 41:52
The first time my son asked me, I came and saw us saw a baseball game. I College. He's not in college anymore. But he said, Can you give my girlfriend a ride home afterwards? And I was like, Yeah, sure. It's the first time I had spent any, like time with her. And she pulled out like knitting needles. I'm like, aren't you like 21? You know? And she's like, she's doing this whole thing. And I don't know what it is. And she just goes, Ah, this isn't wide enough. And I went, Okay, like, I don't know anything about it. Then I watched her disassemble the entire thing. Just pull it apart. Yeah, just start over again. I was like, I couldn't even understand how you make the two like knitting needles turn into like a blanket. But when she pulled it apart, I was like, that's amazing. I would I would just quit. Like I know for sure if I got the thing. And I was like, oh, it's not wide enough. I'd be like, I don't need any more. That's exactly what I'm jumping over now.

Bethany 42:47
I'm done. Yeah,

Scott Benner 42:48
I'm not restarting this. It's over. But anyway, I guess it's super relaxing for people. It is. Yeah.

Are you nervous? Or about this interview? No, like, Do you Do you knit or quilt to relax?

Bethany 43:02
Um, yeah, just to slow down, I think because, you know, my wife is still fairly chaotic and full of lots of loud noises and messes and, you know, small children and all of their stuff. So, it's calming, yes.

Scott Benner 43:19
You know, I'd love to tell you that it'll get better when they get older. But it just changes the heart just morphs into something different. So there's no getting out of this. You'll be paying for these kids till you drop dead. Yeah, in one way or another I'm sure Yeah, either. It'll be financially emotionally with your body. Your Spirit something Yeah, yeah. worth it though. Oh, yeah. I mean, of course they are. Yeah, it's a joy. That's so funny. It's a joy it's absolute joy. I remember the part when they were little being delightful you know, let me give you a story. Yesterday, I guess I am going to talk about this. I was recording a special episode for zeros zeros is the company that makes Chivo Capo pen I am it's Jenny and I and and four people two people from the company two people from a PR agency all on this call together. I am a sick as a as I don't know why people say sick is the dog my dog hasn't been sick one day and it's freakin life as far as I can tell. I mean the closest my dogs come to looking sick is rubbing their ass on the ground a little extra so anyway, I don't know where to sit. Alright, hold on a second, Bethany. Now we got to find out where sickness comes from one second sick as a dog. Adam ology. Don't be impressed that I know etymology. The origin of the phrase sick as a dog can be found in the early 1700s When it was common to compare undesirable things to dogs. But the explanation for this isn't that people didn't like dogs. It is that diseases such as the plague are often spread via animals like rats, birds, and unfortunately dogs Oh, sick as a dog. Got it. All right. Well, anyway, Bethany, I was sick as a dog yesterday, my fever broke during the recording of this episode, I was sweating in sheets, not in drops, but in like my, the entirety of my body was wet the whole time. There's a massive amount of information that has to be delivered in two specific ways. The first specific way is it needs to be conversational. It's not just a reading of a list. So you're taking actual things that need to be said sometimes word for word for legal reasons, and weaving it into a conversation. This is not normally how Jenny and I work, but we frayed or we can do it. So there's that task. The other task is that I'm being watched by a number of people, which I don't usually do that I wasn't bothered by so much anyway, I literally hit record, say, Hey, Jenny, say testing for me Testing, testing. And then my phone rings. And I look over because it you know, it's muted. It's hard. And I'm like, Hey, guys, I'm sorry, this is my daughter, I'm gonna answer this before we start. I pick up the phone. And she goes, now I was worried, Bethany because I had received a text from her just moments before that, which I was seeing at the same time as the call. Let me see if I can find the original text. Because I think it makes the story better. Okay, oh, I'm going to kill myself. Oh, no. So you know, I don't have a lot of confidence picking up the phone, right? And I pick up the phone. And I'm like, Hey, what's wrong? Dad, I was getting off the bus. And I started walking. And I realized I lost my ID. Oh, and I turned back around to look for it. And I went on the bus and the bus driver goes, Are you looking for your ID? And I said, Yeah, how do you know that? Because I watched it fall out of your pants while you're walking down the street. Somebody picked it up. So I ran after a bunch of people and I was yelling, hey to somebody pick up my ID nobody answered me. I look like an idiot. I can't buy lunch. I can't get into these buildings. I can't do anything. I can get back into the room. And she's going on and on in the like I have her on speakerphone. While all these people are listening. People who I'm trying to enact a business relationship with, right and who b I've just told five seconds prior Hey, I'm incredibly sick. But don't worry, you won't notice while I'm recording this. Except I'm literally look like I'm kicking heroin as it's happening. Right? Like so. You know, so this is not a great start. And she goes through the whole thing. I said, Listen, I'm working right now. Here's what you should do. Call security. Ask them what to do call your RA. And she goes, but but I'm like Arden, figure it out. Like I didn't hang up on her. But we say goodbye. Right? And then Jenny starts laughing. She goes, what a parental thing to say. I'm like, What do you want me to do? She lost the plastic card. She should figure it out. And then like, I don't know, three hours later. I'm like, are you alright? You got your card and everything. She's like, Yeah, I got a new one. It's fine. And then out of nowhere, she goes is the world effing with me? And I was like, why? And she said somebody found my card and is trying to give it back to me. And she's like, but that was the activator. Now I don't need it. I was like, Oh, they're trying to be nice. You should let them give it back to you. Anyway, if that's what you're saying about kids are great, then. Yeah, sure. They're terrific. That's the only interaction I had with my daughter yesterday.

Bethany 48:39
That's so funny. I can't even imagine my kids that old. Like, that seems like it's forever away. I know. It's not.

Scott Benner 48:46
But yeah, it happens really fast. But yeah, it's very strange. Like my wife and I were in the kitchen yesterday. We're all sick. So it's a lot of fun. Like, we're up to the part of sick rulers like dishes in the sink. And people are like, I don't care. Like I don't I don't care. I don't even think we worked very hard for this house. But if it falls apart, whatever, I can't do anything about it. I'm sick. And my wife says art has been gone for so long already. And she's really been gone. Like, six weeks maybe? Yeah, you know, and she's like, I very badly need to give Arden a hug. Oh, I was like, Oh, I know. I was like, We know we're gonna go get her pretty soon. And she's like, don't you feel like that sometimes. And I was like, I do but I do. Like, I do things like, like I watch TV shows that are that I watched together and stuff. Like when she's not here and like I do little things like that to make me feel like she's around. And, and she's like, do you feel like that about Cole ever? I was like Cole was different. Like Cole was playing baseball like he like he was doing the thing he really wanted to be doing and super busy so I never worried about him like that. Although I do get I get like very upset if called Don't get sick. And I just think that's because Arden has diabetes. Yeah. When Cole gets sick, I get real. I get like, like, viscerally upset. And so I think I don't want him to get type one. If I'm not, I understand that. Yeah, I'm not a therapist, Bethany, but I'm pretty sure that's where the feeling comes from. What have you done so far? Like, are you like, Are there cameras on the other three kids? Have you done trial net or something like that? What do you

Bethany 50:31
I ordered the kits for trial met shortly after Jane was diagnosed. And they honestly have just been sitting in my closet me trying to decide if I want to know I can't decide if it's better to know or better to not know. I mean, now that I do know all of the symptoms, I check all of my kids blood sugar's on a pretty regular basis. And so I try not to worry too much about that. I think. I don't know. I'm so torn is which which is better, but I haven't sent them in. So other than that, it's mostly just like, my husband makes pancake breakfast on Saturday mornings. So it seems, right. So I'm like, Okay, we're all gonna take our blood sugar's now. So there was one time where my oldest son's blood sugar was, like, 197, or something. And my husband and I both looked at each other and sort of panicked. And I was like, go wash your hands. He was like, What did you just eat? This was not after pancake. This was like, in the middle of the day, randomly, you know, and washed his hands, and then checked it. And then it was totally normal. It was like, 92 or something. I was like, what was on your hands? He was like, Oh, well, I just ate a banana and had it all over me. And I just wiped it on my parents was like, okay, that explains it.

Scott Benner 51:49
honest answer. Boys. I like my hands on my pants. Mom. Just so you know, this is my this is my cleansing process right here.

Bethany 51:58
Okay, thank you. So but I really, you know, I go through times where I am very worried about that for my other kids. And then other times when I just realized I can't control that. So I need to not worry about it and just be on the lookout for symptoms. So yeah.

Scott Benner 52:14
How about did you dig more into your family? Because now you had a thyroid issue? Your daughter has type one. Did you find other autoimmune stuff?

Bethany 52:24
Yeah. So you know, I knew that my cousin had type one. But I didn't realize until listening to the podcast that which I started very early on after her diagnosis, but about the association with other autoimmune diseases. So then I asked, you know, our parents and my husband's mom has thyroid issues. My husband's brother has thyroid issues. My mom's mom had thyroid, there's just like a lot of thyroid. There's no other diabetes in our like immediate family history. But on my mom's side, like her cousins and things like that, there's a lot of have type one and type two, but specifically type one. So I think that, you know, not that we were doomed to have it but we just have a lot of autoimmune diseases. So

Scott Benner 53:14
well, Bethenny, you're the first person I'm going to ask a follow up question to that sounds like this. I'm adding this to my repertoire. Okay, how about anything, digestion, constipation.

Bethany 53:28
Well, my dad has a lot of digestion issues, and he's had them for years. And I actually think it was listening to one of your podcasts that I realized, oh, he doesn't have just digestion. Digestion is good. I can't even speak today. Digestive Issues. It's his his type two I didn't mention he is type two diabetic. And he maintains that he has good control of his diabetes, but and listening to pretty sure it was an episode from of yours about, oh, it was Arden's episode about her the supplements that she takes and everything and how, just in that I realized, oh my gosh, like, my dad doesn't digest his food, because he has had such poor control. Not that I know art. And that was not her situation. But you talking about that made me realize the association between type two and those issues. But other than that, not Not that I'm aware of. So okay, my family's pretty.

Scott Benner 54:30
They poop on a schedule?

Bethany 54:32
Oh, I don't know about that. They don't talk about it. So I'm not sure

Scott Benner 54:35
you and your kids don't get together and chart out the poops. Oh, now my kids talk

Bethany 54:39
about poop all the time. But I think that's just because kids are gross.

Scott Benner 54:43
You said they were great. And

Bethany 54:46
they're they're so wonderful. And they're so discussing policy.

Scott Benner 54:49
I was gonna say I don't know, you find other people who you described as great. And have you ever had a conversation with them about them being in the bathroom? I don't think so. Well, that's true. Although I had a conversation with Jenny about it the other day, and she just, she was looking at me. Jenny's the only person I look at when I'm recording with them. For the most part, like sometimes like, you know, somebody comes on from Dexcom or something, I see them, but like you and I are not looking at each other right now. So I'm talking about Arden's digestive stuff with Jenny, we did an episode, which you'll hear six months before this comes out about, you know that, that that T shirt proud owner of a dead pancreas or use that so we did not accurate, right, it's not accurate. So we did like an episode that explains what else your pancreas does, which specifically helps you digest food. And so we're going over all of it. And sort of at the end, I think I tagged on to what we were talking about by telling her that, you know, I realized after watching Arden that I had a lot of the issues that she had. So I started taking the supplements that are taking and and I said something like you could see on her face, she was like, don't talk about when you go to the bathroom. Like she was looking at me like just I know where you're going. Just why don't you stop thinking? Like, I'm sorry, I'm gonna cough. I felt like my mom was looking at me for a second. She's like, What are you doing? And I was like, I get up in the morning now and right away, just like the rest of you. And, and I said that that was not my life for a while. But anyway, the whole time I'm talking she's just looking at me like, you should stop now. Don't tell people about your bathroom habits. I'm like, I'm going to Jenny. It's happening. We were talking with her eyes. I'm like, I'm absolutely gonna do this. Because I think because Bethany like it was it took me like two years to kind of like, suss out Arden's problems, right, and her digestion or poor digestion than poor elimination, where I think was really impacting her in a lot of different ways and ways. We're still finding out I think some of our joint pain had to do with this, like, you know, like a lot of different stuff, you've got guessing. And I felt like I told Jenny, I feel like I feel like an internet hippie. I'm like, I balanced dardennes gut and her knee doesn't hurt anymore. You know what I mean? Like, it seems like a crazy thing to say. And I'm aware of that. But it does seem to be what's happening. So you know, like, so I want to share it with people. You have no idea the the people I've heard back from already?

Bethany 57:18
Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. I mean, the things that people don't talk about are often the things that the people that are in need me to hear about, you know,

Scott Benner 57:26
yeah, so I tell people when I moved because of the thing, that's all I want you to poop better. Seriously, because you don't know what else is going on? Like my back's hurt for my whole life. Like, is it going to stop? Yeah, like, you know, is that inflammation like you don't even because I took a steroid pack one time for a bug bite. It's a weird story, Bethany. But it happened. And I'm and my back stopped hurting. My back hurts my whole life. Like my whole life, since I'm 20. It's hurt. And I get bit by a bug. Do you know this story, Bethany, I don't know that I do. I'm gonna give you the highlights. Okay, lawnmower breaks, I'm on the ground, putting the belt back on the pulley, I must get hit by something. I wake up the next day with this lump on my hand kind of between my thumb and my forefinger on my right hand, very itchy, but only if I touch it. If I don't touch it, it's not itchy. So I'm a boy, what I do is I don't touch it. To the extent of how I'm going to handle it. The next day, a bomb pops up on another finger and another and they're starting to get like systemic on my hand. And I'm like, Well, this is interesting. Whatever bit me is powerful. And now of course, again, boy. I started imagining my spider man powers. I think I'm probably only about 12 hours away from being able to walk up a wall. So I'm not upset at all. Until Oh, Bethany, I feel so bad. But you because you're a lady, but you've got kids that her husband so until my testicles start to itch. Okay, and not itch. But like if they brush against something, or touch something like with the bump, vicious itching. And then if you start rubbing to it, you don't quell the edge, it just gets worse and worse and worse. This goes to other stuff around my testicles. I am now in a panic again on a boy bumps on my hand. I don't think twice everything. It just couldn't bother me. You start touching my penis, things are going to get fixed immediately because I got some needs and that thing is one of them. So I'm right off to urgent care. And now I'm standing there trying to decide how much of this I'm going to tell to the poor, right you know, nurse practitioner who's now in a four by four room with me. You know, and I'm like, Listen, you don't need to see my balls, right? She goes no, I don't think so. And I was like, I don't want to show him to you. I don't feel like you want to see them. You don't I mean like let's say she goes I'm gonna put you on a steroid pack blah blah anyway. The farm missus screws up the steroid pack. By giving me directions that are too strong. She's got me taking too many steroids at the beginning of the thing. I figured out like four days into it, but I'm getting this super dose of steroids is what I wanted to explain. My heart did race a lot, which was not pleasant. But my back these bumps on my hand like Magic Zoom, gone, all the itching, gone. My back felt amazing. I had all of my flexibility back, like, everything was fine. My bowels like like my limb, everything started working better. And I was like, oh my god, inflammation has to be has to impact me in a really significant way. Because the minute you know, I can't take the steroids forever, obviously. But the minute we took inflammation out of my body for a couple of days, the 10 best days of my life. I felt like Superman. That's crazy. Yeah, really just, it's insane. So I'm getting better now. Like the the supplements are helping. My back is starting to loosen up a little bit like it's all kind of going in the right way. So yeah, your stomach. What do you know? Crazy, right? It's crazy. Yeah. All right, Bethany, what have we not talked about that you wanted to?

Bethany 1:01:14
Um, well, we were on MDI for 13 months, which I feel like it's pretty long time, especially for a probably us listeners of your podcast. And I was able to kind of take what you do with pomp and kind of translate it to shots. But I told Jane, from the very beginning, you know, she was only four, she didn't want to have anything on her body. I said, Dexcom is not negotiable, you have to wear it, you have to wear it every day, I have to see your numbers. But I was like, We can wait and get a pump whenever you're ready. So she about a year after diagnosis that I think I'm ready. So it took a little bit of time, we got real insurance once we were allowed to actually get insurance. So that was good. And, you know, it took a little while to like get the approval process and everything for a bump. So we started with the dash. And we've actually been on Omnipod, five for what since June. So June, July, August, September, October, so about five months now. We really like it a lot and your series on Omnipod. Five is very helpful. And we worked with, we actually worked with Integrated diabetes, not specifically with Ginny, which was someone else there but to get to get even their original Omnipod dash that we were on, set up in the settings dialed in and everything. Use them mostly just because her endocrinologist office kind of fell apart after our endocrinologist left. So we've we've had very good success with that. And I have been able to sleep through the night for the first time ever Well, not ever the first time in two years, being on Omnipod five. So that's been very, very nice.

Scott Benner 1:02:55
That's amazing. So tell me about first of all, MDI. So you kind of followed the way the podcast talks about using insulin, but you did it just with four shots. Is that how you handle it?

Bethany 1:03:07
Yeah, so basically got to the point where, you know, the first couple of weeks of injections were terrible, but after that Jamie just kind of gave it and was fine. And it even got to the point where she would give herself shots after a few months. So I was just doing a lot more shots had did not feel bad about it, because it was helping manage her control so much. So we split the Lantis dose and did half in the morning, half in the evening. And then for her meals, you know, we would Pre-Bolus with a shot and then just just in general being more bold with insulin giving corrective doses sooner, not being afraid for her to have a snack because that road require another shot just giving her a shot, she wanted another snack, you know, that sort of thing. So we maintained a low six, a one C on shots, and then have also stayed and our last one was a 6.0 on Omnipod five, so I'm really, really trying to get down in the fence, even if it's just a 5.9 I want to break that barrier. So we go next week, and I'm hoping that that maybe will be in the fives.

Scott Benner 1:04:19
Wow, good for you. First of all, good for you. That's terrific. And good for her. You know, seriously Jane being able to handle some extra shots along the way and and toughing it out like that. That's pretty cool. What What about so I'm assuming that what helped you go on on the pod five and get your settings right was that you were being neat. It's funny we talked about aggressive like it seems like that's excessive but it's not really aggressive sometimes. Just means you know I mean if if everybody's going to be okay with like a seven and a half a one C and you start using enough insulin to get a six a one C are you being aggressive or using the proper amount of insulin you don't I mean so So you found a way to to use the proper amount of insulin use it where it needs to be. Right? So then when you translate that total daily insulin to Omnipod, five, you had good success with it. Like, pretty quickly, it sounds like,

Bethany 1:05:16
yes, the thing that was the hardest for me to figure out and I'm still tweaking with it, as you know, Jane's body, she's so tiny, even at six. And so different locations on her body are a lot more sensitive to insulin than others. So when when she was on the dash, you know, I had different Basal programs. And so if we put it on her leg, she had more basil, if we put it on her stomach, she had a significant less amount of basil, because her stomach super sensitive. But you can't do that with Omni pod. And with that with a five, you can't Yeah, and so when it's an automated mode, at least, and so I was finding like, Okay, if her pod has been on her leg for the past, you know, two or three pods alternating between spots on her legs, and her daily insulin is like 18 units, she's going to need significantly less when I now have to move it on her body and move it to her arm or to her stomach. And so we would experience a lot of lows. And then in the reverse, if it had been on her stomach and then moving it to her leg, we would experience a lot a lot of highs for that, that transitional pod. So I figured out to do a couple of different things, I changed her insulin sensitivity factor pretty drastically depending on where it is on her body. And then I also change actually change her goal number, you know, I hear a lot of people in the in the diabetes community, especially people that are looping actually built loop in between as they go dash and getting approved for Omnipod. Five, and was planning on looping. But then we got approved for Omnipod. Five, and it's just, it's just less work. I mean, it just is so but do you hear a lot of people in that community I'm in the you know, the looping Facebook groups and everything too. And they all kind of not shame Omnipod five, but are a little disappointed that the lowest setting you can put it in like the goal is 110. But I will say we have found a lot of stability below 110 on the Omnipod five, and there are times when like today, I had to change her pod last night and before she went to school today, I changed her goal to actually be 130 instead of 110. Because I moved it just like I talked about last night it was on her leg and then I had to move it to her stomach. I knew she was going to be more sensitive. I didn't want her school to be having did it. She's in kindergarten this year. I didn't want them to have to be dealing with her going low. So I changed it to 130. And she's just cruising real steady. You know, she's well, she just ate snacks. So she's going up a little bit, but it works really well. She does she does not go low very often. And even though the goal that I have for her right now is win 30 She stays closer to 100 By doing that, so depending on where it is and what her ratios are, and everything but

Scott Benner 1:08:10
Cory talked about that in those Omnipod five episodes, I did write that it's just because it's a target doesn't mean that's where your blood sugar is gonna be.

Bethany 1:08:17
Yes, yes. But I think that's, you know, can can be misleading. When you don't hear somebody say that specifically like, oh, well, it's gonna keep me at 130 the whole time? No, it doesn't. It doesn't even keep you at 110 The whole time when we, you know if I kept it at 110 on her stomach, right after it had learned, you know, because the algorithm learns from the previous pod if the previous pod had been on her leg, and I said, Okay, keep her at 110 on her stomach, it's going to keep her at probably at which, you know, the nurse, she's got active insulin, she's running around at recess, whatever. That's, that's not where I wonder I wonder a little higher than that at school. So just had to kind of tweak and learn about it, but you figured

Scott Benner 1:08:58
out a lot for yourself. Yeah, it was excellent. Yeah. Well, we had last night. So I get in bed. I'm like, I'm going I said, I made a general announcement as I walked through the house. Nobody cares. Because everybody's sick. I'm like, I'm going to bed. I can't do this anymore. I'm sorry. I texted Arden Arden's looked like she had eaten something like at 10 o'clock at night. And so I texted her, I was like, listen, like, she was like, she had dinner, she rose up to like, 150 and then ate again. And I don't know, I'm like, I don't know what shade I don't care. I'm like, but you gotta crush this number because I'm going to sleep. And I don't want to be involved in this like, Oh, bother me. Yeah, you take care of this. So I'm now I'm laying in bed, alternating between freezing and sweating. And I'm like, I can't sleep and her blood sugar. It looks like Lupe is making these aggressive boluses but I'm like these are too aggressive to be loop like she's What is she doing? So she's busy doing homework and trying to like she just sees her blood sugar going up and she's not completely Have you focused on so she's making these boluses. And finally, I texted on my garden. Listen, I know you're doing this on your own, but you're, you're making a mistake here and it's gonna get worse. I'm like, your bolusing. And the algorithm sees your Bolus as too much insulin. So it's taking your basil away. All right, your problem is, is that your carb count for your last meal wasn't big enough. Like so it believes there's 20 carbs in there, it believes it's giving you it's given you the insulin for the 20 carbs already. And any extra you put in despite the number that your blood sugar is, it thinks that's gonna make you low. So here's what you need to do. You know, and I gave her three options because I personally thought I was gonna pass out. And I forgot what I said to her. I said, you can do an override, you could do fake carbs. You could like I gave her these three different options to do. And I don't know which one she did. But the next time I open my eyes and look, her blood sugar was just going by now she had taken away so much basil, she's 220 Jumping up. So I'm like texting her. It's late at night. I don't know what schedule she's on. I can't freakin figure it out. Like, you know, that's like one o'clock. And I'm like, are you awake? And she goes, No. And I was like you have to do so I'm like, forget what you think, do this right now. And I told her to set an override for like 180% Make her targets like 85 and Bolus two units. And she sets the override and falls asleep again. So I wait like a half an hour. I'm like, why is this freaking I did I know this works. Like I know. I'm right. You know, right. I'm gonna cut down on the guy from the podcast like I did. I did the right thing. And so I look back. I see she doesn't make the Bolus. So I felt bad. I woke her up at like three in the morning. And I was like, I need you to Bolus two units. And she goes that I don't think I need two units. And I said, well, a you're asleep and be your blood sugar's 240. So Bolus. And so she did. And it came down the way I expected it to would have happened in our sooner if you know, she wouldn't have fallen asleep in the middle of it. But she's been super stable for the last almost six hours or so. So, and Oh, hold on a second. She's Oh, this is so interesting. Arden is texting me now. She is going to pick up her insulin for the very first time in her life. Oh. In your car? Yeah, she doesn't have a car. Oh, sure. I, you know, I don't know what you think's going on over here. But you got that kind of money. Send that a car to, to, I guess. College? Yeah. I'm supposed to say where does she Where did she joke about going? Oh, yeah. She's like, Oh, she said, Chicago. I'm going I'm going to school in Chicago dad tell people that and I was like, okay. All right, hold on. I have to, I'm searching an email for her Endo. And because I know the addresses in there, and I'm sending it to her now.

Alright, so I sent her the address. So Arden is going to pick up her insulin order for the very first time in her life because it's always come to us in the mail, actually. And I said, Okay, well, Bethany, first of all, I, I'm going to be bringing this bell a lot this year, I sent out into school with enough insulin to get her through 10 weeks. Oh, good. The food at school is so I almost cursed the food at schools so terrible. That she texted me like a week ago. And she goes, I'm not going to have enough insulin to get home. And I'm like, How is that possible? And I started looking at everything. And I'm like, okay, alright, I'll know I'll take care of it. So I send an email to the Endo. And she goes, Arden hasn't been here in a year. I can't write you a prescription. And I was like, whoa, wait a minute. I'm like, Arden hasn't been there and a year. That's not right. We go religiously to the endocrinologist so much so that when we leave artigos Why don't we come here so so so I started thinking about it. And I realized that we've been working so hard on Arden's digestive issues over the last year, and her got about hormonal stuff and everything. I didn't take her to the endocrinologist. I blame COVID being serious, right, you know, for putting us on this like, because, you know, you go to the Endo, and at the end of it, you walk out you hand over your paperwork, and they go when do you want to come back and you set up another appointment? Right, but when you get off a zoom with your Endo, they don't go make an appointment. And I was like, Oh, fair enough. So I'm like, listen, I promise we didn't do this on purpose. I'll make an appointment right now if you send her insulin, and she's like, okay, middle of of October, I couldn't get an appointment till January 3. Oh my gosh, you know, and I felt like I was signing up for my own podcast. Yeah. So so far in the future. But he has that interesting. Like, you know, in the time of this podcast, it used to be like, Hey, Dad, I'm at lunch. Now I'm going to gym and now she's like, I have to go pick up my insulin at college. Yeah, must feel like people who listened must feel like, I don't know. Must be interesting for them to hear somebody get older like that. Anyway, all right. I'm sorry. We were talking about Omnipod. Five and algorithms and everything. Yeah. So you're enjoying on the pod five.

Bethany 1:15:40
I am very much getting more sleep. And I've gotten it a very long time, which is so nice.

Scott Benner 1:15:45
Oh, that's. Tell me about that. So how long have you been doing on the pod five? And how was your life changed with the sleeping?

Bethany 1:15:52
Um, let's see. She started the end of June. So five ish months now going on five here. And it's been great. I mean, obviously, we still have days that are not good. We still have days that, you know, unforeseen other circumstances. She goes through a growth spurt or I mean, she just the past, probably like a week ago, I guess she probably had whatever I have. Now. I got it from her. But she overall is my healthiest child like she does not show symptoms when she's sick. So like the poor child when she was a baby. She had strep throat. She wasn't lady she was toddler. She had strep throat. And I didn't know until she broke out and a rash all over her entire body. And I took her to the doctor. And they were like, Yeah, this is scarlet fever like that. Didn't that die? You're like hundreds of years ago.

Scott Benner 1:16:47
CW show I watched a bunch of young kids.

Bethany 1:16:51
Yeah, I was like What in the world? They were like she it starts with strep throat. If it goes untreated, it turns into this. And I was like, she was acting completely normal. So she's always been, she's such a tough little girl. And so, you know, I won't know that she's actually sick, except for the fact that she's all of a sudden eating tons and tons more insulin, which then that also can kind of throw off the next pod algorithm if she all of a sudden kicks it and it's fine. But we're figuring that out. But But yes, I mean, for the most part, unless it's like that where she's having a growth spurt or is sick every once in a while, we'll have to wake up in the middle of the night and go in and give her an actual Bolus instead of just letting the algorithm take care of it. And it will even if I left it, it would bring her down. I just don't want her staying high, you know, for several hours for it to bring her down, when she's fighting something like that. But for the most part, I've been able to sleep through the night, which has literally been life changing. So

Scott Benner 1:17:50
good. Yeah, I think it's a huge piece of all this, and we don't pay enough attention to it. I think it's one of those slippery slope things, where at first you're like, I'm not sleeping as much. And then it's like, I'm getting tired all the time. And then then eventually you realize this is never gonna stop. And until you start making those stupid jokes, like, oh, I don't need that much sleep. Like I'm okay. And then before you know it, you're decimated. And you don't realize it.

Bethany 1:18:16
Yes, yes. And you know, before, when we were still doing especially, we were still doing NDI. I mean, I just remember telling my husband like, I don't think I'm ever going to sleep again in my life. And I'm not going to be okay, if I can't get more sleep from this. But it's been it's been so so nice.

Scott Benner 1:18:34
Good. I'm glad. That's wonderful. And, you know, hormonal impacts will get, I'm interested, like, as she gets older, I'm interested to see how Omnipod five helps. Where, where it needs help, you know what I mean? Like that kind of stuff. They all do. Like I mean, Arden's obviously last night needed help, and she's looping. And that thing set up about as aggressively as it can be, you know, and oh, my gosh, tandem bike control, like you same issues. It's just not a perfect system. It's a great system. It's amazing. You have to learn how to use it. Like I, there's times when I thought and I still believe that the introduction of these algorithms to people is going to be I'm just gonna say fraught with but but it's going to encompass years of people learning how to use algorithms, right? And that's going to have to permeate the space. So that people understand, like what I talked about with Arden, like you can't just Bolus while the things in auto mode because it thinks that that's extra insulin. I know, you know, it's not, it doesn't know it's dumb. You know, it's, it's following settings. So, if people will learn and then the word spreads, and that's how, you know how you educate a group of people. So cool, Bethany. If there's nothing else, I'm gonna go pass out. Okay. Well, I did

Bethany 1:19:59
want Just tell you, thank you. Thank you for the podcast. And thank you to you posted, maybe like a week or so ago, a 24 hour graph of art. And I've heard Dexcom and she's been high the majority of the time, and you talked about a lot of the reasons why she was high. But for some reason, that sounds terrible, maybe. But that was so comforting to me to see because, you know, you listen to the podcast and you're so great about managing it. And Arden you know, you always talk about Arden's great agencies and everything and, and I am kind of a perfectionist, I guess to things and I tried to strive for better or better, better, like, let's get it in the fives, you know, and, and I showed that to my husband, and I was like, see even even Arden has bad days. And he was like, of course she does. Everyone does. You have the same a one Z? Well, not me. But Jane has the same a Wednesday that Arden has had for probably a while like you're doing just as good as he is not not bragging on myself, but just the realization of like that. Arden does have a great one agency, but that's not without some highs, you know? So just just realizing that it's okay, if we do have spikes or if we have a sickness and James hanging out high. What matters is that we go and we take care of it. We don't let her stay there for forever. So that but you posting that was just really encouraging. As weird as that sounds. So

Scott Benner 1:21:21
it was a very popular post on the Facebook page. I know. Yeah. And the sentiment rang through just like you said, like people were oddly thrilled to see Arden's blood sugar high. Sorry. And, and I, I mean, I can't make you understand, like, I can't make this podcast and every day, say, Well, don't anyone think that this means Arden's blood sugar is always at seven or something. Right? Right. Yeah. So you're, you're it's conversational. And, and so it can't be said constantly, but I always assume it's just understood. Like she eats a variety of carbs. She's got, you know, hormonal impacts, she, you know, struggled with hormone problems. Like she's, you know, she's at college. Like, I don't know what, like, I get it. Like, I understand why people look and go, Oh, I thought it was perfect all the time. But yeah, I have no trouble sharing that. You know what I mean? Like, it's just, it's what it is. So, I mean,

Bethany 1:22:18
yeah, nice, nice to know that, that, you know, we're all in it. And everybody has some highs, and that's okay.

Scott Benner 1:22:25
So well, if my daughter's paying makes you happy, then by all means.

Bethany 1:22:29
I didn't mean it that way. But truly, thank you so much for the work that you do on the podcast. And, you know, I learned so much in those early days. And I am convinced that that James helped is significantly better because of the knowledge that I learned from your podcast. So

Scott Benner 1:22:44
Oh, that's wonderful. And I appreciate you saying that so much. Thank you. Me, Scott. Chi Jane.

Bethany 1:22:51
Yeah, now go take a nap. Yeah, no, please.

Scott Benner 1:22:54
I might just pass out on the floor when I turn around. I'm holding it together. I think admirably Yes. But if I talk too long, my chest is like we're gonna cough. And I'm like holding it in.

Bethany 1:23:07
Yeah. And if you hold back a cough and you basically die, so So what happens? Well, you know, have you ever done that before? It's usually like, in the middle of something that you have to be incredibly quiet in and you like, try to hold down a cough and then it becomes like a massive coughing attack and you can't control yourself at all. I have

Scott Benner 1:23:25
a psychological for people. Really, I saw Yo Yo Ma once and the man in front of me. Because there's breaks there were breaks in between the the pieces that they were playing. And during the playing the whole time the guy in front of me right? The playing stops. There's no reason we have to be quiet for the entire break. The man's silent. The bell goes off the lights them we're gonna come back on. I'm like, Oh my God. You're a lunatic. Like like so to this person. It was it was the anxiety. I think. You know what I mean? Like,

Bethany 1:24:10
the thing happened to me at the last funeral I went to I was trying not to like not to make a tiny little cough, you know, just like keep it in. And then all of a sudden, it's like, oh, my gosh, I've literally am dying coughing so hard. I had to leave and go to the reception area and get something to drink because yeah, it was.

Scott Benner 1:24:32
Was it at least somebody in your husband side of the family. She didn't

Bethany 1:24:35
know it was one of my friends that she didn't know it was fine. She's not at my friend's funeral. My friend's father's funeral. So

Scott Benner 1:24:43
one of my because you're in your early 30s. I call we're being very blase about a woman in her early 30s. And oh, see one of your friends fathers. Yeah, you were there for moral support, or did you know him?

Bethany 1:24:56
No, I'd never met him just moral support. So When he told me years and years ago that you go to funerals for the living, not for the dead, and that's always stuck with me.

Scott Benner 1:25:06
Oh, you're lovely. You went to your friend's father's funeral and you had never met him? Yes. Wow, you're a nicer person. I just realized that while you were talking your gums Oh my god. Can you imagine if one day this is pulled out of an archive? This is like the last time I recorded. I hope I did a good job. This is great. Good. Oh, I didn't know you're gonna say something nice about me. All right, I would have I wouldn't have talked to you. Thank you very much. I really do appreciate this

a huge thanks to Bethany for coming on the show today and sharing her family story. I also want to thank us Med and remind you to go to us med.com forward slash juice box or call 888721151 for check out the contour meters at contour next.com forward slash juice box your meters and test strips may be cheaper in cash than you're paying right now through your insurance. Get yourself an accurate meter. Get a contour meter contour next one.com forward slash juicebox. And don't forget to check out the Facebook page and the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. What a great community. You're gonna love it. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.