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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, welcome to episode 982 of the Juicebox Podcast

Laura is 22 years old she was diagnosed I believe around her 17th birthday with no history of autoimmune in her family. She was in the French Navy when she was diagnosed the French Navy but she lives in Texas. None of this makes sense. You'll find out more by listening. 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. We're becoming bold with insulin. When you head to my link Omni pod.com forward slash juice box there's an option down there to take a test drive of the Omni pod you can check it out for free in your home Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. Say 40% at cozy earth.com with the offer code juice box at checkout that's off your entire order by the way 40% juice box at checkout. And don't forget to check out Check Out Check Out I've said that word too much but go take a look at juicebox podcast.com It's the website for the for the podcast and there's a bunch of stuff there. I think you will enjoy it. Just go look which will make me yes Governor this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter contour next.com forward slash juicebox. You want easy to use you want accurate you want contour contour next.com Ford slash juice box. If you want to take ownership of your health. It starts today with ag one. Try ag one and get a free one year supply of vitamin D and five free ag one travel packs with your first purchase. That's at my link. Drink ag one.com forward slash juice box 81 is sponsoring this episode of the podcast. And they're sponsoring me too in my belly cuz I take it every day and you could to drink ag one.com forward slash juice box.

Laura 2:21
So my name is Laura. I am 22 I live in Texas and I'm orange originally from a small Caribbean island last called Guadalupe which is French. But I'd been in the US for three and a half years now. And I have been in type one since I was 17 or two days before my 17th birthday.

Scott Benner 2:46
So five years with type one. Three years almost six years long, almost six years. Three years in the US. Yes. And you're from an island that even though you said the name of it. I don't know what you're talking about. Spell it for me.

Laura 3:03
It's called Guadalupe Gu Adel au or up. E it's near you most likely know St. Maarten. Oh, I do know if you notice that Martin. It's it's a part of what Lupe so it's right next to it.

Scott Benner 3:20
Oh, that's so interesting. We we normally if we go there we go to St. John.

Laura 3:26
Or yeah, it's one of the island nearby.

Scott Benner 3:29
Yeah, we just don't make it to the is that the British own side? St. Maarten. It's

Laura 3:35
St. Martin. So St. Martin is Dutch and Sint Maarten is French. So the island is a small rock divided into

Scott Benner 3:45
a small rock divided into

Laura 3:47
Yeah, the North side is French and the South Side is

Scott Benner 3:50
Dutch. Oh, that's interesting. So you were born there?

Laura 3:53
Yes. I was born and raised for 910 years and then I moved to friends for middle school in high school. Okay, got diagnosed in high school and then moved back to Guadeloupe.

Scott Benner 4:07
Your did your parents? How were you born on a tiny island like that? Were they from they're? Well,

Laura 4:13
it's let's say it's as big as Hawaii. Okay, I've been to Hawaii. That's that's the closest I can explain.

Scott Benner 4:21
But did your parents see you got stuck on the size thing? I was trying to find out if you're? You're like Don't insult the island. It's not that small. But it's no I just mean like Were your parents native to the island or did they move there as adults?

Laura 4:34
No, my my dad was on my both of my parents were born in France. But my dad was raised in Tahiti. And once he finished high school in his military service, he decided that he was no longer going to live in France because he hated the cold. So he moved to the Caribbean and that's where my parents met.

Scott Benner 4:58
That sounds much nicer Good for him and all the people who have the nerve to do the things that the rest of us talk about. And don't do. You don't I mean, yes, yeah, yeah,

Laura 5:09
he moved there, I think in 9395. And he's been there since then. Wow.

Scott Benner 5:15
That's amazing. Okay, so you are in France when you're diagnosed?

Laura 5:20
I was in France when I was diagnosed. Yes, I was in senior year of high school.

Scott Benner 5:24
Okay, and how did that happen? How did you figure out you had type one. Um, so I

Laura 5:28
was actually an athlete, I was swimming twice a day, 20 to 25 hours a week. So I was in a good shape. I was not what people would think someone with diabetes would look like. I was also I was a swimmer. And I was also in the Navy. I was at school, technically for the Navy. So every two to three weekends, a year, every Saturday, I would go to the school where everybody would join for the Navy and would just learn stuff that you usually do on the Navy. So my goal was to join the Navy, which didn't happen. Okay, so I was around. I think the whole thing started during the summer of 2016. I was Girl Scout and spend a few weeks just camping in the woods. And obviously, we got ticks and everything. And every summer I'll just take some antibiotics from the I mean, the doctor would prescribe anti antibiotics just to make sure I wouldn't get the Lyme disease. Coming back on it was like that may have been the mistake mistake that made me diabetic. We don't know what there was no way of knowing, but that could have triggered it. So that was in like August, September and October, November, we have 10 days or two weeks of vacation. spent a week doing a swim camp swimming. Yeah, for at least four hours a day. Plus some weightlifting. And

Scott Benner 6:59
let me let me ask you a question or maybe a couple. So you think that being bit by texts or the taking the antibiotics, but we kicked

Laura 7:10
it? Yeah, taking the antibiotics, because usually antibiotics would be for six days max. And after that it's us. It's too long. But she the doctor itself prescribed me three weeks of antibiotics, which could have caused or trigger diabetes, but there's no way of knowing that it's just a really long time.

Scott Benner 7:33
Is that Is that something the doctor said to you? Yes. About not? Well, she

Laura 7:37
she told me to get on antibiotics for three weeks. But she never said oh, yeah, that may have been the thing. Okay. But looking back, I was fine. Before that. I was completely fine in two and a half months after I was in the hospital.

Scott Benner 7:52
So holding down your your concern, I think is is holding down your immune system with the antibiotics. And then maybe you're thinking you got a virus after that, or

Laura 8:03
I really don't know, I don't remember being sick, right?

Scott Benner 8:08
It's interesting, it's different. Is there any type one through your family line?

Laura 8:12
No one, literally no one and the week of my diagnosis will also the diabetes month is in November. So that's when I was diagnosed. And it was also the actual week where a bunch of associations and groups would get together to spread their awareness and my grandparents were shocked that I was diagnosed and they both went to the local supermarket to get tested and all blood sugar's will find at 11am So it's not from

Scott Benner 8:43
I love your grandparents are out like we need to get out of this. They they're gonna look to us first we have to prove it isn't us. My blood sugar is fine. Leave me

Laura 8:50
Yeah, no, less than a week after they'd call me. And they're like, well, we just got tested and was fine. I was like, Yeah, I know

Scott Benner 8:56
how that's funny. How about other autoimmune stuff like celiac word. And

Laura 9:05
literally, I had no idea what celiac was before I moved to the US. Okay. I feel like more more people have those kinds of food allergies or intolerances in the US than in France, not thyroid issues. Nope, nothing absolutely nothing. I know right now that my ala Grandpa is has type two diabetes and is getting the pills but he's completely against them.

Scott Benner 9:34
He's rebelling against the bills. Oh, yeah. He's

Laura 9:36
fully rebellious. He's he's a hunter. And so he's like, I don't care. I don't want to eat. And I'm fine. It's fine. I'll just get those pills and keep eating my sugary stuff. Sweet stuff every day. I was like, Cool. Yeah.

Scott Benner 9:52
Do you think he'll take it seriously at any point? No. Like, no, I'm pretty certain to you. He won't Yeah, okay. All right. So let's think 17, five years ago, six years. Yeah.

Laura 10:04
So I was at a swim camp. And I mean, I was tired, obviously, because we're swimming a lot. And got initially got off the swim camp took a train to go to my navy school, spent a couple of days at Navy school went to my cousin's house, because it was also, I mean, still holidays, so couldn't go back home, my mom was walking. And that's when I remember my first symptoms were that I would wake up in the middle of the night to drink, which was really unusual. And it was a small vacation house. So it was really loud for me to go from my bedroom downstairs to go to the bathroom and get some water. So I would just end up sleeping on the couch and waking up every couple hours to go to the bathroom and go drink and go to the bathroom and go drink air wouldn't sleep for days, because I was just up all night long.

Scott Benner 10:58
How long did this go on for? Oh,

Laura 11:01
that was just the end of vacation. So for three, four or five days, okay. Then I went back home and I told my mom's like, hey, it's kind of weird. Like, I don't know what's going on. And went back to school, I would sleep through all of my classes. I was really good student, extremely student. I was a may have been a bit annoying for teachers because I knew what I had to do. And I was getting good grades. So I wasn't really listening. I was like a bit of a troublemaker, but I still had good grades. So they didn't really have much to say but I would just sleep through the whole classes go to the bathroom every 30 minutes to fill up my whole water bottle and just drink it and chug it all day long. A week after went back I went back from holidays, we had a huge swim meet at our in our city. And my mom talked to one of my mom was a physical therapist, but she had no idea what diabetes was okay, she talked to one of her colleagues and she said, Well, you may want to order some blood tests because that's, that's not normal. So it was over the weekend and that during that weekend, it was one morning what didn't swim, stayed at home, watched a movie. And in two timeframe of watching a movie I had been drink I drank two and a half liters of water, which is like for like three quarters of a gallon, right? It was just by laying in bed and drinking, which was not good. So next day we go to the doctor's office, get a prescription on the Tuesday, I get blood tests do a blood test in the morning on an empty stomach without having breakfasts. And in the afternoon the lab calls my mom right away and like blood sugar is not good. You need to go to your doctor's office right now. So I'm at school I'm like, okay, cool. Well, let me just take the bus go. Go to her office, which was right next to the doctor's go to the doctor's office and stack. Yeah, it's a bit elevated. So let's oh, by the way, same doctor that told me to get antibiotics for three weeks, right? She's like, warm, it's a bit it was 322. And she's like, it's a bit too much. So let's try sugar free diet for a month and figure it out.

Scott Benner 13:16
Yeah, she doesn't seem like she knows what she's done it anything so far?

Laura 13:19
Yes. Okay, well, let's just do that. So Wednesday morning, I tried to do a sugar free with big quotes in between, because it was granola and milk, which we know now it's definitely not sugar. Great.

Scott Benner 13:38
What did you think of a sugar free in that moment? What were you

Laura 13:42
doing an athlete? I was eating really, really lean food. It was really simple. No, absolutely no fast food. That was not a thing in our house. I knew I had to have protein, carbs and veggies at each meal. No sweets, no. Drinks, of course. Yeah. Like it was really like the simplest meals you could have. That's what I was having already. Except maybe cereals in the morning and maybe pancakes on the weekend. But really simple meal. So I go to school Wednesday morning, and my mom calls the schools nurse. And she's like, Well, yeah, that's not good. So she called me into her office. I'd like 1111 30 just to get my blood tested because before I went to lunch, and I was at 457 at 11am So she looked at me like you've got your bags, right? I'm like, Yep, I was in German. I'm going into math right now. And she was like, No, you're not. I'm calling the neck I'm calling 911. Right now you are going to the ER. And just like that, two days before my birthday in between two classes. I was rushed to the ER and was diagnosed. How did

Scott Benner 14:58
you feel at that point? wasn't just physically still tired, but everything else was

Laura 15:03
extremely tired. I had lost a lot of weight. I was even right now. I'm still not back to that weight. I've never been that late. Since I was probably 12. I lost a thing indoor was, well sorted, say 20 to 25 pounds. Oh, wow. Three weeks.

Scott Benner 15:24
Oh my gosh, how tall are you?

Laura 15:26
I'm five, four. But I was I was an athlete. So it was mostly muscles, and I just couldn't do anything.

Scott Benner 15:32
I did no one mentioned that because you're in a bathing suit a lot. Did no one say?

Laura 15:37
No, actually, it was like, oh, yeah, you're looking much better now like you're, you're losing weight. That's great.

Scott Benner 15:42
I say cool.

Laura 15:43
That's that was the mentality. No, like the, what people would say is you're like, oh, yeah, you need to lose weight. You need to to look better on the swimsuit. So yeah, it was great. I think I think for a few days before I was diagnosed, I would, I didn't go to practice. I would text my coach every single day. I was like, Hey, sorry, I don't feel good. And he would just come back at me like yeah, you don't want to swim. Like you'll you think you can go to the French Championship without practicing and he would use bash me and bash me until the day I got diagnosed. And he was like, I am so sorry. I should not have said that to you.

Scott Benner 16:20
Were you able to get back to swimming?

Laura 16:22
I did. Not for long, but I did. I actually broke my own personal record two months after being diagnosed without swimming for two months. Yeah,

Scott Benner 16:33
maybe nobody just needed a break.

Laura 16:35
Yeah, just jumping in pool and break my own way.

Scott Benner 16:39
Cool. So when you don't need to practice when you said you wanted to be in the Navy, you were trying to be in the French Navy.

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Yes, okay. And with type one diabetes, that's not possible.

Laura 20:31
Well, I was diagnosed in between during that year, I spent a year going like every Saturday or every other Saturday and one full week on a Navy base during the year. And so started in September ended in May, June. And I was diagnosed in November of that year. So technically, I started, and I was okay. And I was pretty good at it. I really enjoyed it. That was my goal was usually to enroll and the marine be a Navy officer. So my command told me like, I know you have diabetes, but it's just cool. I am not gonna let you go right now, because you're one of the best ones. And I know you enjoy it, and we enjoy having you. So I'll go against what policies say because you started and you will find,

Scott Benner 21:19
so he's trying to let you work it out and see if you could do it. Yeah. And

Laura 21:23
he I told him right away. I was like, No, I know what to do. It's fine. I mean, I didn't know exactly what to do. I had choose being diagnosed. So I finished my year, I still enrolled in an officer school. That was it was a three year school. And basically, the dude on the phone was like, Oh, I saw you have diabetes on your paper. I was like, Yeah, but I'm fine. Now. Like, at that time, I had a pump already. Managing everything doctor say was fine. And he was like, oh, yeah, but I called the Navy doctor. And he said it will not be able to get diabetes, the diabetes diabetic people. So I put your paperwork in a trash, so you're not going to be in the Navy. Thank you. Bye. And he hang up the phone cheese. How

Scott Benner 22:07
old? Are you at that moment?

Laura 22:08
I was just 17. Not even. Yeah, just 17.

Scott Benner 22:11
Wow. And this is the only thing you'd consider doing as an adult, right?

Laura 22:15
Yes. That was the only my only plan that was back in March, the year after I was like, Okay, well, I've been diagnosed like, what, five months ago? My goal is to go in the Navy, navy. I'm graduating in a couple months, and I do not know what to do.

Scott Benner 22:30
Are you able to pivot away from that and find something else? Or was that a struggle?

Laura 22:34
Yeah. Well, at that point, I was still in France. And my dad and my brother were in Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. So I told my mom was like, Well, I'm gonna go back. And I'll do I think it was tourists like to walk in tourism, like go to school, and it'll be fine. I'll just go back to what I know, in Guadeloupe. And I'll just do that and walk in tourism. But it lasted a month. And I was like, yeah, that's not for me. So after a month of school, I quit. And so that was again, October of 2018. Not even a year after being diagnosed. I was like, Yeah, I'm done with school. I'm not doing that again.

Scott Benner 23:14
Okay, so you grew up you graduated from I don't know what they would call it in France, but from high school. Yeah. Okay. But then college not going to do that.

Laura 23:23
Yeah, I did a month and it was like not gonna happen.

Scott Benner 23:27
I guess I have a couple of questions. Where do you get your supplies from when you're jumping around from country to country? Like, how do you is that an easy transition? Like I'm in France, I'm getting, I'm getting diabetes supplies. I'm gonna go back to the island. Now. I'm getting them here. Like, how does that all work?

Laura 23:43
Yeah, it's kind of a struggle. So technically, right now, I am a student an F, where it gives an international student on a visa. So I'm still French. I'm just here for a little while for my studies. And the plan is technically to go back to France, which is not going to happen. But

Scott Benner 24:04
we'll tell them about that later.

Laura 24:05
Yeah, I just married three and a half weeks ago, and he was citizen. So

Scott Benner 24:11
Oh, wait. Okay. So it's so funny, because, you know, when you start speaking, and I hear your accent, I think you're like, I'm in Texas. I think like, I can't wait to find out how she made it in Texas. And you know, it's a

Laura 24:23
fun story with a bunch of circumstances that made me end up here.

Scott Benner 24:30
Yeah. Let me ask you before we get into it, what were what was your level of training and education around diabetes when you're diagnosed? And was this a thing that your parents were involved in? Or did it fall to you immediately?

Laura 24:44
I had absolutely no idea what it was. My mom seemed she had heard about it but knew nothing about it until a few days after diagnosis, so I was still in an ER in pediatric er because I was still technically 16 Huh. So I was actually really funny because the school had called that Jana was coming in. And I mean with my school bag on on my shoulder or just walking into the ER. And they were waiting for me because at that point I was at 457. It was pretty high. And they just opened all doors for me. And I walked through the yard and didn't stop and got admitted right away when you could see just toddlers and babies and throwing ups and crying in the waiting room. And I would just, I was fine. I was just walking in. And so all of the parents got angry, obviously, seeing that someone just walk in and get admitted right away, but it's invisible. So they had no idea that I was on the verge of going into decay.

Scott Benner 25:48
How long did you stay in the hospital for?

Laura 25:51
It was really long, because I stayed for full week.

Scott Benner 25:55
Like seven days.

Laura 25:57
Yeah, I went in on a Wednesday got out on the Wednesday.

Scott Benner 26:01
Did they teach you anything valuable while you were there? Or were they just salutely?

Laura 26:04
Not? Oh, that's the that's the wall. So the Friday was my birthday, November 11. And it's a day off in France. So in hospitals, you had no no doctors, only nurses. And technically the doctor is teaching me not the nurses. So the nurses would just keep me alive for Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So I had technically only the Thursday of learning English. And then nothing for three days, I will just lay in bed and do nothing for three days. That's why it took so long for me to get up out of the hospital because I just had to wait for the doctor to come back.

Scott Benner 26:41
Oh, so you had to you had to stay for the first three days just to the doctor could take the weekend. And then oh, yeah,

Laura 26:46
absolutely. Yeah. That's crazy. That's crazy how it all works.

Scott Benner 26:51
Yeah. Oh, wow. So by the time you're there four days before somebody really even starts to talk to you about it.

Laura 26:56
Yeah. I remember getting a doing my first shot myself on the Thursday. So less than 24 hours after being diagnosed. admitted. I was doing my first shot. My mom was with me, I think. Yeah, that was one of the the one and only shot that she ever gave me was in the hospital. And she didn't do anything after that. No kidding. How long has she asked you to do everything myself?

Scott Benner 27:22
When you get out of the hospital? Do you think you're honeymooning at that point?

Laura 27:26
I was not. I had no idea what honeymoon was okay. They didn't teach me anything. The doctor was like breakfast lunch and dinner. You're getting eight units snack? You're getting four units. That's it.

Scott Benner 27:40
Okay, so they gave you an amount of insulin to shoot? Did they give you a number of carbs? D?

Laura 27:45
Oh, no, absolutely. I had no idea what that was. That's how French like diagnosis is how crazy that is. It just I had to be admitted again for a full week for them to figure out my insert incident EUCOM ratio. Oh, you had to be admitted for a full week for that.

Scott Benner 28:06
Wait. So you were there for a week? Did you ended up back in the hospital?

Laura 28:11
I should have but I didn't because I never had the time for that. Okay.

Scott Benner 28:14
But yeah, so in a full week, they came up with an insulin to carb ratio for you

Laura 28:19
know, they came up with a number for me to use give myself for every meal. That's it. Yeah. Had that hadn't said anything about I didn't know the difference between carbs and sugar. How did you mean it was just no sugar, but not calm? So then

Scott Benner 28:35
where do you learn about this? Is that a private, like outside of the hospital with a doctor? Eventually?

Laura 28:42
When I moved here to the US, I went to see a dietitian and I had to get blood tested and stuff. And that's when she told me Yeah, well, you can change your incident every single single meal, depending on what you eat. I was like, what? I don't have to have eight units every single time

Scott Benner 29:01
or how many years? Is that? That you looked like that? Probably two years. And were you what kind of technology did you have in those first two years,

Laura 29:09
I had the Omni because I was swimming a lot. I decided to had to jump on the Omnipod right away. So in two months after being diagnosed, I went back to the hospital for a week. So they could teach me how to use it and monitor me for a week or five days, I guess. Well, that

Scott Benner 29:27
seems excessive, too. But I mean, did you did you need to be maybe maybe it didn't need to be there that was that helpful. The second week where they taught you how to use the pump?

Laura 29:36
Well, it was mostly for the problem. It was still not for management ideas. Yeah, it was mostly to find out my Basal rate, but every other week, I'd be back in the doctor's office to change themselves so she could look at my graphs and very cool. You're swimming from that dam to that time. So we're gonna do a low Basal, like couple hours before so you don't drop low. Obviously it was still dropping low in the middle of practice. is so it was kind of a pain. But yeah, I was on the PA Omnipod for two months after diagnosis and I'm still on the board right now. And I was still doing fingerprints.

Scott Benner 30:12
I've one question about that for clarification for me. So when you go to the hospital to learn how to use the pump, do you live at the hospital for a week? Yes. Full time. Is that Is that common?

Laura 30:24
In France? Yes. That's how it works. Okay, that that is crazy. Now that I know that like two year olds, three year olds here, just someone comes home comes at the house and explain to them how the pump works. Change the settings and then you're good to go. And if I had to stay from Sunday night to Friday, midday,

Scott Benner 30:43
yeah, Laurie, you could have called me I could have got your basil set up for you. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's okay. So now you have the pump. And I'm assuming your basil is perfect since they spent seven days getting it set up. But absolutely

Laura 30:57
not. It was it was crazy because I was swimming. And then I was at home and I was eating a lot because I mean, I was moving so much that I had when on the days that I was swimming in the morning, I would wake up around five 530 have a small breakfast, swim from six to eight, have another breakfast, the school from 830 to 5:30pm. Have lunch in between. Then after school, I had another snack that I would go back in the pool from six to 8pm and then have dinner afterwards. So I will eat like six times a day.

Scott Benner 31:32
Were you getting low or high a lot.

Laura 31:34
I really don't remember much. But I just remember having half of my backpack dangerous candies and snacks and juices and crackers that I didn't want that had had to have, but I couldn't eat whenever I wanted. Right.

Scott Benner 31:49
Wow. So she's and you're testing just with a finger stick at this point. Are you actually testing frequently testing your blood sugar with?

Laura 31:58
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. My fingers were destroyed. Okay,

Scott Benner 32:01
so you were testing? I

Laura 32:02
was? I was checking probably at least eight to 10 times a day.

Scott Benner 32:08
Okay. All right. So. So you live like that for two years. And you're living at home at that point with your mom.

Laura 32:18
Yeah, I was with my mom until the next summer. So less than a year. Then I moved to back to Guadeloupe for a few months. And in January, I decided to go for six months in Toronto, Canada, and live in a host family. That's what we call them. Sure when you school in the morning, and just leave with a family in the afternoon. And that's what I did for six months. And that's actually where and how I learned English.

Scott Benner 32:47
Really? You've only you just picked up English a couple of years ago. Oh, yeah. Is that why at the beginning, before we started recording, you said you hope people can understand you.

Laura 32:56
I know like as soon as I introduce myself to people just like friends that don't know me or family friends like Oh, hi, like, Oh, where are you from? Like I just said, Hi. How would you know that I'm not from here?

Scott Benner 33:11
Well, we can hear but it's not that but I understand everything you're saying just so you know. Good. Yeah. I've not had any moment where I thought I don't know what she's talking about. So you go to Toronto, and then where do you head after that?

Laura 33:25
I went to Toronto for six months, then went back home helped my dad he had a business so I walked with him. I walked in a scuba diving center, literally just down the street from my house. That was actually pretty great because I learned English. So now I could speak English to clients and I walked in that business for a few months.

Scott Benner 33:48
Do you know what your agencies are? In those first years?

Laura 33:51
I think I was in the eighth in the eighth. Okay, I got the libre in June, like nine months after being diagnosed. That's when the French government decided to to cover it. So I had the libre one in June.

Scott Benner 34:05
They didn't make you go to the hospital for a week to learn how to use it. Did they?

Laura 34:09
Not that one? Okay. Luckily, I was fine with that one. But that helped a lot. Because I was waking up really early in the morning being in the three hundreds. And my doctor felt that I was getting low in the middle of the night without knowing it and my body would use counteract it and got high but no, it was just no Basal was completely messed up.

Scott Benner 34:30
Right. Well, they probably just needed a couple of more days to figure it out. They would have got it all straight. I'm sure. If you would have just stayed for 14 days. I think they would have gotten it all right. Yeah, I

Laura 34:39
would have. I mean, my high school was hating me because every other week I'll be gone.

Scott Benner 34:44
Yeah, that's insane. Well, okay, so and just for clarification, because it matters. Your mom and dad are not together.

Laura 34:52
No, they're not okay. All right now No, no, no. So we all I got diagnosed in November and December for Christmas. I went to Guadeloupe to See my dad and my brother. And the first thing that my dad said was, why are you giving yourself insulin before you eat when you don't know what you're going to eat? I was like, I don't know. That's what he told me. Well, why don't you just see what you eat? And those after I was like, I guess I could try and I would just shoot up. Like, I had no idea. I was just trying.

Scott Benner 35:23
Yeah, you really didn't have any direction whatsoever.

Laura 35:26
I didn't know what Pre-Bolus thing was until a couple years ago. Yeah,

Scott Benner 35:32
I definitely find that there's that age, right around 18. When parents and even doctors can think, Oh, they're old enough, they can do it. And meanwhile, you don't know what you're doing. And it's not like, it's not like you're gonna go home and sit down and figure it out or go online. It's just you're gonna do what you're told. And as long as you're not passing out, you're gonna you're gonna think you're okay. And that's pretty much it.

Laura 35:56
Yeah, I my mom had the only thing she would do almost he say was, what's your blood sugar? What's your blood sugar like 20 times a day. And that pissed me off really quickly. Yeah, it's not fun. My dad My dad had still now he has no idea how my diabetes life is going. What my pod Dexcom insulin is that he has no clue. How does that feel?

Scott Benner 36:21
That the people around you that are close to you don't understand anything about something that you're existing with constantly?

Laura 36:29
I'm used to it now, I guess. So it just doesn't bother me. I won't. I don't live with them. I like I haven't seen my dad in three and a half years. So it's fine. They're far away. They don't know. But my husband, for example, he has he follows my Dexcom he changes my God. He knows like when I'm high when I'm low what to do. So he's the closest to me. So he manages it with me, which is pretty great. But my parents leave so far away. It's just it doesn't seem

Scott Benner 37:01
useful for them to even understand it. Yeah. Well, how did you make it to America?

Laura 37:08
Um, well, after Toronto went back home. And I had a friend who was like, hey, it's pretty cool. What you're doing in Toronto, like, like, you just live in a family for free. You go to school, and you just live your best life? Like, yes, that's pretty sweet. So she's like, Well, how do I do that? But what if you want to do it, there's something a program called au pair, which is a living nanny coming from abroad that you could do in the US for at least a year. And then if you want to stay a bit longer, you can stay for two years. And she's like, Oh, that's pretty cool. But if I do that, you come with me? Like, yeah, sure. Okay. Let's do it. So just like that, I did my paperwork. And thing was like seven or eight months after coming back from Toronto, I was back again, back to the US.

Scott Benner 38:03
Where are your personalities? More like your father's?

Laura 38:06
I think so. Yeah. It's more like you want to try something? Go for it. My mom's like, why would you do that? Like, but why do you want to do that? You shouldn't you shouldn't have to do that. I was like, I'll go to like,

Scott Benner 38:18
why not? No, I see your you've kind of got just wander lost a little bit. And I mean, it seems like that's how your dad was like, I don't like this anymore. I'm gonna go all the way over here now. Oh, yeah,

Laura 38:27
absolutely. And my dad has, like, one of my dad's dream when I was little was to live in the US. So we came to the US, mostly Florida for a while, like on an archer zoo, we could live here and he could learn English and figure out like how it walked in. But because of 911 visas were much harder to get so he couldn't do that. So that's why when I told him, Hey, I want to go to the US for a year old. He was like, okay, cool. Yeah, he was excited.

Scott Benner 38:57
Yeah, right. Well, okay, then you make. So being an au pair. So your friends gonna be an au pair you go along with Are you an au pair as well? Yes. Okay. And so

Laura 39:10
I ended up in San Francisco. Okay. Oh, right next to San Francisco. She ends up in Los Angeles, which is far but still close for the US. And would you go about our lives and that's actually a pretty sweet life. Well, it's basically you live in a house, you are paid, not that much, but you're still paid weekly. You work for the family. And you just enjoy your life.

Scott Benner 39:39
And in the time you're working, you're looking after kids or making meals or things like that.

Laura 39:44
Yeah, that's the whole goal is to look after kids. So I had I lived in different families throughout the program and yeah, had in each family I had three kids to look after. So from babies to teenagers, like well, okay, let's go to dance break. kids go to school, go to the doctor's go to the playground. And it just, that was my life for basically two years. Okay.

Scott Benner 40:07
Did you find that a good experience?

Laura 40:12
It depends for who but I think if it's for the right people, it's amazing. Okay, I would I would never be and do what I'm doing right now, if it wasn't for those two years that I spent alone, just learning about myself.

Scott Benner 40:28
So you had enough free time to be introspective, and you didn't really have to make too much money, because I'm assuming you were driving their cars and living in their house and things like that. Yeah,

Laura 40:37
the whole problems. It's, it's a steep and it's not really a pay. It's a steep end of just a bit less than $200 a week. Okay. We do walk up to 45 hours a week, though,

Scott Benner 40:48
but but there's very few things you actually need that aren't being provided. Yeah, I

Laura 40:53
didn't need to pay for anything. But for my travels that I wanted to do any personal stuff out there myself, but the phone the call the house, the bills, everything was paid for.

Scott Benner 41:03
Yeah. That's a great time of life to do stuff like that. And, and the organization you did it with was reputable. And you had a good experience.

Laura 41:11
Yes. To come to the US. You have to go through an agency that sponsors a visa. If you don't have that you cannot come to the US. So yeah, the agency took care of my flights, my insurance,

Scott Benner 41:24
and then place you did you move through a lot of families into yours? Did you stay pretty much

Laura 41:30
I did. I moved through, I worked for four families in total. And I loved it, I was I'm not good at staying in one place or doing the same thing all over again for a long time. So it was great to just change down in Asheville. My first three families were in the Bay Area. So it was really close. But I changed the kids, they will younger, older, the schedule was different. The activities were different. So it was it wasn't great for me. I know some people hate it, but I absolutely loved it.

Scott Benner 42:04
Any kids you didn't like,

Laura 42:05
not the kids, the kids were always great. It was never the kids fault. It was mostly the parents fault. If something went wrong, it was because of the parents,

Scott Benner 42:14
okay, they treat you like they owed you or they just weren't thoughtful or how do

Laura 42:18
they go? Depends on of the family on the families, like the last couple of families were amazing with me and treating me like a human being an adult and not like a toddler in the house. But the first one was, I was just a made for them. The kids, it was not the kids fault. I love those kids. But I had to switch family. So families because it just I was they were overwhelming me. And it just, I didn't have a life and because of diabetes, like I couldn't eat when I wanted. I couldn't eat what I wanted. I had an awful schedule, and I would sleep less and I would not sleep and I would stop eating and it was just not like, well, for my own health, physical and mental. We need to do something.

Scott Benner 43:09
And for health insurance during this time period. How did you get that?

Laura 43:14
For the agency? They provide us with health insurance through eight now. Okay, which paid for everything.

Scott Benner 43:23
That's pretty amazing, actually. But But I guess the one downside of this, you're not able to amass any savings.

Laura 43:30
I did actually, oh, I'm not a big spender. Like, I'm not going shopping every day. I'm not going to start I don't go to Starbucks or stuff like that. So I was able to keep a bunch of money and travel a lot. Like, in two years. I think I've visited 15 or 16 states.

Scott Benner 43:48
No kidding.

Laura 43:49
Sorry. I've lived my best life. Yeah.

Scott Benner 43:53
I mean, you're only the way you're talking about it. I feel like you're 50 But you're 22

Laura 43:59
That's what a lot of people tell me they'll be I have an old soul.

Scott Benner 44:03
You get a lot accomplished in a short amount of time. Alright, where do you meet this boy that you marry? Where does this happen?

Laura 44:09
I met him through mutual friends in the Bay Area. He was at school in break they 2025 minutes away from where I was living. Funnily enough I met him on Bumble and on one of his pictures I so someone that I knew that. That's weird. Why do I know that guy on this profile? Young Bumble as so? Well, we started talking and yeah, now we're married.

Scott Benner 44:35
Alright, I gotta tell you Bumbles the first word. I wasn't certain what you were saying, but I figured it out. Don't be sorry. I was like, I'm like, What is she saying? I'll get it. I'll get it. There. It was. So okay, you met him through friends. But on an app, you noticed him in a picture with somebody that you knew.

Laura 44:54
On his profile. I was scrolling through his pictures and I was like, hey, on that picture. I No, that guy. Oh, that's funny. And they ended up being at the same school on the same year and their dorms were like two or three rooms apart, right? So

Scott Benner 45:10
your age? He's two years older. Okay? Did you sit now this is the first thing that did you want to get married because you seem like you don't want to be paid to

Laura 45:21
me not like I moved here. I was like, I'm just gonna live my best life. And I was, I was in a state of mind, like before coming to the US where I'm like, I don't fit in any boxes that people want me to fit in. I'm not. I didn't go to school after high school. I didn't want to just settle in my parents village. I didn't want to have this small call that everybody has. I just I was dreaming big. I was I was like, my, I want to have a big SUV. I want to have a big house. I want to have a boat. And I was like, I'm not doing that stuck in France in a small village that it's just not walking.

Scott Benner 46:01
Interesting. Okay, so does a job. Take him to Texas?

Laura 46:05
Yes. So we, yeah, we will together for quite a while in California. And then he finished college just during the pandemic. So finished. Yeah, he's last semester at home online. And that same friend, I was on his Bumble profile, moved to Texas a year ahead of him and got a job here. And it was like, well, they're looking for engineers here. So why don't you come down and apply for a job. So he applied or moved or plan on moving? And I was like, Well, if you're moving there, I might as well find another family and just move there with you. So go on Facebook, and I found that family that lives 20 minutes away from where he was gonna live. Their family name is exactly the same as his. The mom is a nurse and their eight year old is also a type one diabetic.

Scott Benner 47:03
We're not going to say your name out your last name out loud. But the last name that I'm seeing is your married name. No, that's not it's not. Okay. You have the most Caucasian name for a lady who's got such an interesting background. Really, like your names like right out of a 1950s TV show? And yeah, it's just such a simple name. But anyway, that's not the point. The point is this. You're doing all this not having a great grasp of how you're supposed to be taking care of yourself. So at what point during this process? Did you start figuring out I don't know enough about diabetes,

Laura 47:40
mostly when I moved to Texas to that family with a mom who's a nurse, okay. And the kid who is was eight, type one diabetic in the US diagnosed that five, and US diagnosis few months after me.

Scott Benner 47:54
Okay. And so did they come to you? Or did you notice? Like, did you notice that like, wow, they do this differently than I do? Or did they say something to you?

Laura 48:04
From the beginning, I had talked to them. And I had met them. I took a weekend trip to Texas choose to meet meet them. And the so the kid had the Dexcom, which I was still on a Libra. I was like, it's amazing that you can have it on your phone every five minutes. And you don't have to scan it to know your blood sugar. The mom was getting his alert on her phone. When he was at school on daycare. He says like the moms like Yeah, I know his blood sugar from wherever I am. Like, it's amazing. He had also the Omnipod same as me. So I was like, Well, if you need help with that, I know how I know how to change it. I know how to Bolus I know how to do all that. I see. When we had lunch together. And at the end of the lunch, she was like, Yeah, we would really love to have you with us for however long, right?

Scott Benner 48:55
And then so while you're together with this, this child, you guys are managing together a little bit. Yeah, I

Laura 49:03
was. So when he was not at school, I was managing his blood sugar. So it's like, he had kind of a different approach to bolusing on the parents had the mum knew exactly how much units he needed for each plate that he was eating and not how many grams of carbs it was, I say. So she would look at the plate and she's like two and a half.

Scott Benner 49:24
It just like and you were you weren't even doing that much right. You're

Laura 49:28
in no, I wanted to learn from them how to cop count as like, won't teach me and she was like We don't like oh, I guess I need to go to doctors and find out but because she was a nurse and she had a type one kid. She she had an endocrinologist office in her building. So one day she was like, well, we're gonna drop the kids off at school. You're coming with me and I'm gonna get you an appointment with the best endocrinologist in my building.

Scott Benner 49:57
And then you'll learn that way and that's how you learn From this endocrinologist,

Laura 50:01
that's how I mostly learned also from them that it was not about sugar. It was about carbs. And at that time, I still didn't know that protein and fats had to be Bolus form. I learned it on the podcast take less than a year ago.

Scott Benner 50:16
How did you find the podcast after all this?

Laura 50:19
I found mostly I found the Facebook group first. I was not that much into listening to podcasts at all. Actually, I was not at all until a few weeks ago. But my husband is a big podcast fan and he started listening to it. I was like, Hey, you should listen to it. You would learn a lot. I like Yeah, but I don't know when and I don't know how. And I was not really tech savvy. So I was like, well,

Scott Benner 50:44
So Laurie, your husband's listening to the podcast? Yes. For you, for you are to try to learn

Laura 50:49
a bit of both. I think. I didn't really ask him. But you listen to the pro tips. And it was like, Hey, I heard that they just listened to the podcast and tell me what you think. Like, okay, cool. I'll listen to it. And he left for on this morning. And I told him like, Hey, listen to the new one that just came out. It's a pretty fun story. Like you will like it.

Scott Benner 51:09
Wow, that's amazing. So he's trying to find a way to help you. He finds the podcast. You don't necessarily want to dive into it too much. But how long have you been listening? Because you had to sign up the record this like six months ago?

Laura 51:22
Actually, no, I emailed you. Oh, Laura, you're

Scott Benner 51:25
the one you want to. Laura is the lucky one in 2022. You really are. That's the time frame that wasn't making sense to me. You got a link and someone cancelled. And there was one day left.

Laura 51:40
Actually, I was double lucky then because you sent me the link. And you're like, well, it's now before like June 2023. I was like, oh, that's fine. I can just wait. And I go on the link. It was like, hey, there's an appointment for that date, which was actually yesterday. Yes. But I'm at school, and it's at 8am. And I have class at nine. It's just not gonna walk. So I was like, Well, I'm just gonna wait. And I'll figure it out later. And then a week later, I go back on the on the link and I see that there's a slot for today. I'm like, Well, I don't have school on Wednesdays it's doing

Scott Benner 52:12
you are parked on my my pack. This was going to be my packing day because we're taking Arden just to college and a few days. And when the person cancelled, I was like, I'm not going to fill that. But I also didn't go back and block it. So when I saw you take the the time I was like, that's fine. We'll do that. That's why okay, this makes better sense now. So you're just starting with the podcast? Really?

Laura 52:35
I Yes. I had been I stone it? Well, I think the first actual podcast, I listened to it a year ago. But I wasn't really into listening to stuff at that point. I was just, it's easier for me to read it or see it. So it's hard to just listen to podcasts. And I didn't have time, I didn't know how old mostly when or where to listen to those podcasts. So I was like, Well, I'm just gonna go on the run, and we'd be not that long, like 1015 minutes, and then I would be done. So I would never end up finishing the podcast.

Scott Benner 53:08
I see. But your husband listens more frequently.

Laura 53:13
Right now. Yes. Because I figured out a way to and a time to do it. Interesting. When I go to school, I just put in my car and and there it is. And there it is, you know,

Scott Benner 53:24
why did you want to come on?

Laura 53:26
Because the French diagnosis is absolutely awful. And so different to what I know now from the US and

Scott Benner 53:34
like, are you in my private Facebook group?

Laura 53:37
I'm on the on the Juicebox

Scott Benner 53:39
Podcast, you are in there. Okay, so I'm going to look very quickly to see if you're there because I'm gonna say something that

Laura 53:47
yeah, that's that's how I learned about the whole thing. And now that I know that I had no idea. I've had the Omnipod for five and a half years. Okay. But I didn't know what extended Bolus was I had never used it

Scott Benner 54:04
right. Okay, so I'm sorry I see you I see you're here. So do you ever notice online that a person named Isabel helps me with the Facebook group?

Laura 54:14
I don't really look at the names like with how Facebook is set up right now. You see the group name and then the person's name is so small. See it anymore.

Scott Benner 54:24
She's French and she lives in Toronto. And the one thing I'm going to give away a little bit about about Isabel she it makes her upset when when she hears bad things about Canada and I've never heard her hear anything bad about France so I'm wondering what happens when she when she hears you say that it's if it's gonna she has such a national pride I feel like but but it's it's interesting. I think you're the first person I've talked to who was diagnosed in France and I mean, the the experience is, obviously needs refinement. If this is if your experience is a common experience. It's it's not Great, that's for certain.

Laura 55:01
Well, that's how it works in France a yield diagnosed for a you stay in the hospital for a weekend and you have to go back to get a pump and you have to go back to learn about carb ratio. And I was supposed to do that. Basically, I was scheduled a month after I landed in the US. I was like, Well, no, it's not gonna work. I'm not gonna go back to France for a week tissues to spend it in the hospital.

Scott Benner 55:25
Yeah, no kidding. Well, interesting. So you just, you just wanted to blow up France. On the podcast. That's what you're shooting for? Well,

Laura 55:35
the thing is, I've listened and read so many stories about kids in the US like, well, we stayed in the hospital for three days. It was awful. Like, dude, I stayed there for a week. As a 17 year old. I spent my birthday in a small, sterile room with three of my family members. My aunt actually made me some sugar free cupcakes. Oh, it was muffins. I think your birthday. Yeah. And so I had a sugar free muffin and an applesauce for my birthday.

Scott Benner 56:08
Oh, happy birthday.

Laura 56:11
It was so sad. Yeah, I bet it was awfully sad. And my own actually gave me two. So I had one on my birthday. And the second one I would I kept it on my night table. And I'm still pissed at that. Because at 4am when they came to check my blood sugar, they took it away from me and didn't give it that

Scott Benner 56:28
my gosh. Someone stole it. The only thing you had.

Laura 56:33
No, I knew it was the nurses because I saw them. They saw it on my nightstand and they were like, she cannot have that here that she cannot eat that. It's sugar free. And they told me you cannot eat sugar. Like it doesn't have sugar in it. Well, it does have carbs but I didn't know that. I

Scott Benner 56:49
didn't know that at the time. Right. So oh my God, what did my muffin Gil Cohen guys. They're French muffin thieves. That's exactly what they are.

Laura 57:00
Yeah, my aunt also got pitched was like Well, I I checked online to make sure that you could eat it and there's no sugar in it.

Scott Benner 57:08
Yeah, and at that time, that's all they were saying it was Sugar, sugar, sugar, nothing about carbs. Gotcha.

Laura 57:13
Yep. Nothing about carbs and definitely nothing about protein and fat.

Scott Benner 57:19
Right? What is your A onesies? What are they like? Right now? Right

Laura 57:23
now? I've been at five for for the pastic year and a half or two years. Every time I check. I'm faithful.

Scott Benner 57:30
That's terrific. What do you think the secret to how it's going is for you? Just take

Laura 57:35
literally on my phone on Dexcom like every 10 minutes. So you're I cannot live without it's awful to say but I cannot live without my phone. Okay, because I'm constantly checking my blood sugar.

Scott Benner 57:49
Now, are you checking it and finding that it's leaving the range you want to be in and you have to adjust it or you just feel like you're being vigilant.

Laura 57:57
Oh, right now it's perfect. It's a straight line for the bus. That's what I said to my husband and couple nights ago like for the past two or three days? I have not been high. I have not been low. Like it's amazing.

Scott Benner 58:10
Are you noticing it different times of the month? Is it different?

Laura 58:15
Yes. Usually. It's a few days before I'm on my period. It's Hi Ron. Hi aren't straight. But our and Hi. When I say hi, it's above like around 161 ad. Okay, so I have to reach Bolus so I can go down. But as soon as I eat something, you just like, oh, yeah, no, let's just go back up.

Scott Benner 58:33
Because once I go back and this is before your period during your period, is that different? No. I run No, during. Okay. And then how about after the periods over?

Laura 58:43
I think it goes back to normal back to

Scott Benner 58:45
you get a normal range at that point. Yeah, you know what, we've just started doing something with Arden, where we're we're putting we're choosing her sites for her pump. Based on where she is in her cycle.

Laura 59:00
I don't have that much choice. Since I used to put my pod on my arm, I start making my legs and then I figured out that my arms didn't really work anymore. So I switched Jani legs and stomach, okay, and now my legs don't work anymore. So I have like four sites on my stomach around the belly button. And they just switch in a clockwise Yeah. Are you over? Go low and then they change I go right low and then they change I go high low a high rate.

Scott Benner 59:28
Right? Where do you think you've overused some of your sites? Do they need or just need a break?

Laura 59:34
No, it I don't really know. But as soon as I put it on my legs, I know I'm gonna be high and like, I'm just gonna try again. Yeah,

Scott Benner 59:42
so that's not that's not uncommon. So some people will use their legs and then use a different Basal profile. For instance, you know, a little more aggressive. Arden's legs are her least effective spots. So she gets more out of her arms, back of her arms and her belly. So we've been using her to just like you during her period, her blood sugar is much easier to maintain. So we've been using her legs during her period. And then when the period stops, we're moving to her belly or arms for ovulation. And, and belly or arms in that spot right before the period when you you start to get that, that resistance to Yeah, I just figured why not match up the you know how effective the site is with the need?

Laura 1:00:31
Yeah, I mean, I was I was actually talking about it last night. I just, I can see so much. So many scars on my stomach now from the pods, especially when those pods like heard of it, and then they bleed a lot, or as they bleed a small amount, but it just leaves that small bruise that's as big as the cannula basically. And those calls never go away. So I have the dots, red dots on my stomach. But I know that's the only place that my, like Todd walks. I tried to put it on the back of my like, no back. But it would burn me to a point that it would be itchy and I had blisters on my back from the pads.

Scott Benner 1:01:13
Have you have you tried? Do you pinch up when you put it on? Yes. Okay. And that spot doesn't work for you.

Laura 1:01:20
Gotcha. Yeah. So now I'm just I know, it works only on my stomach. So I'm fine with it. And I have the Dexcom I don't want my arms on my chest.

Scott Benner 1:01:30
Okay, when you do your arms with the pod, were you doing the outside facing out or back facing back?

Laura 1:01:35
I was facing that. But I hadn't done hurt like last time I did my arms was probably two or three years ago. Okay. All right. Yeah, I stopped that really quickly.

Scott Benner 1:01:44
Yeah, when Arden was little we put put it on the back of her arm. But now when she wears on her arm, she likes it sort of more on the outside of her arm.

Laura 1:01:52
Although I don't have much going on on my arms like moment. It's just bones and skin. So I think that's why it slowly adjust.

Scott Benner 1:02:00
Well, you said you said you haven't put all your weight back on, right?

Laura 1:02:03
No, I actually since I moved to Texas, in that family, with a diabetic kid, it helps me mentally to get better with my eating at it. So I lost I started losing weight, which was good for me.

Scott Benner 1:02:18
How so? What were your eating habits like before you met the family?

Laura 1:02:22
I was I was not forced. But I forced myself to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, even when I was not hungry. When when I moved to that family and like, what do you want to eat? And when do you want to eat? I was like, Well, I'm not hungry. I just want to eat a salad. And the whole family would have pasta and pizza and whatever. And it was like move. I'm just gonna have a sudden, and I didn't feel ashamed to eat something else all to be like, Well, no, my blood sugar is high. I don't want to eat pizza right? Now good for you. What do you think hungry I don't want to eat and that that changed a lot also in my mental health because I was not ashamed of doing something else because of diabetes. Like they understood. As soon as they saw me they were like, oh, yeah, so you were high all night, or you were low all night, or the kids blood sugar was high all night. So you were also awake all night. And so they gave me a break don't like just go sleep do they are and then you're good to go. And it was easier for me to manage it knowing that they knew what I was going through.

Scott Benner 1:03:25
So you think that the change for you was meeting people who understood your situation?

Laura 1:03:30
Oh, yes. Because the first families like, it's not that they understood it. They just they were okay with it. But they didn't try to help. Or they didn't try to understand it better. I'm like, Hey, if you do that, is it good or bad? They would just let me figure it out and didn't even ask anything. I'll just tell them. It's not contagious. I know how to deal with everything. I know what to do when I'm high and what to do when I'm low. I'm not going to show the kids the needles. I'm not you know, any like baloney stuff all over the place like money neat and clean. And these

Scott Benner 1:04:07
are these were all things you were concerned about or worrying about previously.

Laura 1:04:12
I didn't know that was but yes, looking back back. Yes. I was hoping not trying to hide it. But I was trying to leave the same as everybody else when, like if I'm high I will not eat pizza now when before I was like, Well, I'm high but they're all eating pizza, so I'll have to eat pizza.

Scott Benner 1:04:31
Is that because you didn't want to be the kid? You didn't want to be the girl with diabetes? Who couldn't have pizza? So you just had it anyway?

Laura 1:04:37
No, because I've always told anyone and everyone like yeah, I'm diabetic and okay, it just that's who I am. But I didn't want to have them go out of their way to be like, well, we're gonna buy you more salad or we're gonna buy you like sugar free stuff. Okay, I moved here to Texas. They were like, oh, yeah, like the first day I went to the grocery store with the dad and you was so we have sugar free milk. I was like Sorry, what? That is amazing. And we have we don't have chips, we have that kind of chips because it's slow carbs. I was like, Oh my God, I need to relearn everything in the grocery store grocery store, because it's just, there's so much stuff that I had no idea about. And that yeah, they made me sleep. They made me grow up a lot into my diabetes knowledge.

Scott Benner 1:05:27
Do you feel like in a in a kind way they parented you about diabetes? Oh, yes, yeah.

Laura 1:05:32
I mean, first day when the dad took me to the store, and the week after, when the mom was like, Hey, let me call your insurance to see if you can have the Dexcom. I was like, Well, I'm not even sure I don't. I didn't know how it works, right? Because their insurance in France is completely different here. You have to call your insurance and like, hey, I need this to leave. We didn't give it to me.

Scott Benner 1:05:55
And now that you're married, you still know that family. Yes, you do you maintain a friendship.

Laura 1:06:01
We moved since then. So we don't leave that close from them. But I still text with that. That diabetes kid and the parents were on the group chat together

Scott Benner 1:06:11
pretty great. That's pretty great. Well,

Laura 1:06:13
he calls me randomly out of nowhere. I was like, oh, yeah, we're going to the park. Oh, just had marshmallow ice cream or like, oh, cool, buddy.

Scott Benner 1:06:20
How old is he now?

Laura 1:06:21
I think he's 11. Okay.

Scott Benner 1:06:25
Wow, cheers. This is, you know, your story is really interesting. It's very different and fascinating to see somebody in a short amount of time go from no real understanding of what they're doing. To, you know, a clearer understanding of it. It's,

Laura 1:06:41
yeah, it changed a lot when also when I learned how to do the extended boluses. I was like, Oh, my God, that's what I needed the whole time. And I didn't know it was right here under my nose.

Scott Benner 1:06:52
Right. Yeah. And now you're learning about fat and protein and things like that?

Laura 1:06:58
Yes, I'm trying. So well, yeah, we got married like three and a half few weeks ago. And I wanted to fit in that dress. So I tried to for the month after to eat a bit poorly low carb, low Tinoco. And so it was a lot of protein and veggies, mostly mostly, like, Well, why do I go high when I have just a burger? And salad? Like, that just doesn't make any sense until like, we listen to the pro tip bus podcast. I was like, huh, that makes more sense.

Scott Benner 1:07:32
I'm glad it's helping. That's really excellent. Wonderful. Is there anything that we haven't talked about that you wanted to I don't want to skip anything or miss anything. I was just

Laura 1:07:41
about traveling. Because I've traveled a lot. I know a lot of families, especially during the summer like hey, well traveling here. We're traveling there like what do I do? And a lot of people will scared about flying and going through security and stuff. And a lot of parents are like, well, you can go on the side. They don't have to you don't have to go through that whole like scanning machine. You don't have to put your bag through it. Like I've I've never done anything different than anyone else. I just went through just put my my I have the bag that says make all of my diabetes mag. And I put all of my stuff in it. And with also jukeboxes pass in the I go on planes with juice boxes. Yeah. When you need people like no, you're not allowed to make warts, medical medical device.

Scott Benner 1:08:36
Yeah, you can get through TSA with juice boxes, you just have to do let them know what they're for. Then they, they swab them to make sure there's no explosives inside of them. Right.

Laura 1:08:45
And that's what they do the first time like, oh, you cannot go through that. Like, yeah, I can. Cool. So again, good for you. I was like, Whoa, and because I have my plan, and it just did some like yo, yo, my hands just swap them. I know, another drill. And my incident go through everything. I don't put my incident in any cold stuff. At home. My what? I have my incident in the fridge at home, right? But it's only for the past like what, two or three months before that for the past three years. It's been just in a drawer, and I never put my incident in the fridge

Scott Benner 1:09:22
in a temperature control building though, right? The building's not

Laura 1:09:26
always around like 7072. Right?

Scott Benner 1:09:29
And how much well how much insulin do you have on hand at a time?

Laura 1:09:33
Well, mine so I get everything from friends. I email my endocrinologist every time I do blood tests. I'm like, hey, everything's here. I send you my graphs, my blog, my agencies that merge, everything's fine. I still have some dogs gums, I need more insulin and she writes me a prescription. I send it to my mom who has my insurance gone and everything goes to her next door neighbor who's the pharmacy goes to the pharmacy Seems like well, we didn't go and sit in follow her. And then she just sends me a box. So I usually get about a year of insulin at a time. And in between eight and 12 months of bugs index comes at a time. So yeah, when I get a box, it's a huge box and I have 20 year she vials of insulin at once.

Scott Benner 1:10:22
Okay, and so when you travel, you don't you only take what you need with you.

Laura 1:10:27
Yes, I used to be like, well, what if my pod fails? And what if I go into water and it dies? What if? And what if, and I just ended up traveling with so much for just a two day weekend? It's just crazy. I know that I'm not going to use all of that. I don't need to Dexcom for two days.

Scott Benner 1:10:47
So you bring a little extra but you don't bring so much. Yeah,

Laura 1:10:51
I in my backpack to go to school or to go anywhere. I always have a pen and a couple of needles. But I don't have my meter all the time with me. I never have Dexcom arms. I never unless I'm travel. But on a daily basis. I have just my PDM a pen and a couple needles.

Scott Benner 1:11:11
Where did you just get married? Yes. Like in the last couple of months?

Laura 1:11:17
Beginning beginning of the month? Yes. Okay.

Scott Benner 1:11:19
I just watched your wedding video. Oh, like in the background while you were talking? I ran up behind. Like what I'm looking at? Yeah, that's amazing. Good for you.

Laura 1:11:28
So yeah, we're going through actually switching my insurance right now. And I need to see if they would if his insurance would cover up the Omnipod. Five, which would be pretty cool.

Scott Benner 1:11:42
Yeah. Are you thinking of doing that

Laura 1:11:44
or everything since because I'm getting married in the US. My French insert insurance won't walk anymore.

Scott Benner 1:11:50
Right? Right. Yeah, you're gonna have to go on to his.

Laura 1:11:53
Yeah. But so far, his insurance has been really great for him whenever he needs to go to the ER or doctor's office.

Scott Benner 1:12:01
Okay. Are you working? Are you going to?

Laura 1:12:05
I'm a student on a visa. So I cannot walk. I can walk at school, but I will seven or eight hours a week.

Scott Benner 1:12:12
Are you trying? Are you hoping to get some sort of? Like, is there a degree you're looking for something you're thinking of doing in the future?

Laura 1:12:18
Yeah, right now I'm doing a double major in French and geography. And I'm a junior level right now.

Scott Benner 1:12:25
Okay, what do you want to do with it? You know, if I use mostly to

Laura 1:12:29
French, I can do teaching, but I'm not I can do but I don't really want to. I would love to do some translation. I can walk in communication, a bunch of stuff like that. If I do geology, I can do GIS, planter. Urban Planning and range of different things.

Scott Benner 1:12:48
How long till you've got your degrees?

Laura 1:12:50
I'm planning on graduating early in December of next year.

Scott Benner 1:12:53
Good for you. Congratulations. So big thing. How do you handle seeing your parents? Is it just FaceTime and things like that?

Laura 1:13:00
i My mom came for the first time in the US for the wedding. But in the past year, three and a half years. That was the third time I saw her and I talked to her on the phone. Yeah, pretty often. But in real life was the third time I haven't seen my dad since I left in February of 2020 2019.

Scott Benner 1:13:19
Is that pretty comfortable for you? Or do you find it difficult?

Laura 1:13:22
Yeah, I've never been that close to my parents. Okay. Since the beginning, even before diagnosis, I was just like, yeah, just I'll do my own thing. And I'll be fine.

Scott Benner 1:13:32
It does seem like you don't really need any help. So

Laura 1:13:37
no, well, from them not, but because I know they they cannot do anything from where they are.

Scott Benner 1:13:44
Yeah, I meant big picture. You just feel like you're okay. And even when you don't know what you're doing somehow you just just can't seem to come across the answer. So,

Laura 1:13:54
yeah. For the big picture. Yeah. For the small picture. There's you ask my husband and like, well, he knows when I'm high just by looking at me and looking at what I say and how I do things. And so he he walks on boats. So he's gone for half of the time. He's gone for a week and a home for a week. So when he's on the boat, and I'm on the phone with him. He knows when I'm low before my Dexcom something. That's how crazy that is.

Scott Benner 1:14:23
All right. Well, I just I really appreciate you doing this. Thank you for taking the time to record with me. Well, I was glad to come on. Yeah, you were terrific. You really were I'm so glad you slipped in here on my day off. It was a it was really it was really a nice way to spend an hour.

Laura 1:14:38
Good luck in college for Alden. Oh, thank

Scott Benner 1:14:41
you. I'll tell her she's very excited. She I think she would have left two weeks ago if she could.

Laura 1:14:47
So if she has really good professors like I have, I usually try to make them laugh about diabetes the first day. That's what I said last week to my professors. I went to each and every one of them and I was like hey For international students, I'm also diabetes. So I'm trying not to pass out in your class producer, you know, if I do, that's because I'm diabetic. And usually they laugh and like, well, it never happened. So that shouldn't be fine. But I just let them know if I'm on my phone. I'm not texting. I'm just making sure I'm still alive.

Scott Benner 1:15:18
Yeah, here. We've been talking about that recently, how she's going to approach professors and explain things and the school so far has been really terrific about it as well, allowing her to have like a smile.

Laura 1:15:29
I talked to the Office of Disability and thought, Okay, we've got a couple people that could do that. And I'm not ashamed of being diabetic. I'm not ashamed of I don't hide it. I actually just laugh about it. Like, yeah, I have a Dexcom. Well, you don't know. It's the Dexcom. It's just a GPS so my husband know where I am at all times.

Scott Benner 1:15:50
Keep it drag me, that's all. Alright, well, Laura, thank you. Hold on for me for a second. Okay.

Laura 1:15:57
All right. Thank you so much.

Scott Benner 1:16:05
Hey, I want to thank Laura for coming on the show and sharing her story with us. And I want to thank ag one for sponsoring this episode of the podcast drink ag one.com forward slash juice box. Take ownership of your health and get the five free travel packs in the year supply of vitamin D when you make your first order at drink a G one.com. Forward slash juice box. I also want to thank the contour next gen blood glucose meter and remind you that all of the contour meters are incredibly accurate and easy to use. And you can learn more about the end make your purchases at contour next.com forward slash juicebox. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

If you were a loved one has been diagnosed with type one diabetes. The bold beginnings series from the Juicebox Podcast is a terrific place to begin listening. In this series, Jenny Smith and I will go over the questions most often das at the beginning of type one. Jenny is a certified diabetes care and education specialist who is also a registered and licensed dietitian and Jenny has had type one diabetes for 35 years. My name is Scott Benner and I am the father of a child who has type one diabetes. Our daughter Arden was diagnosed in 2006 at the age of two. I believe that at the core of diabetes management, understanding how insulin works, and how food and other variables impact your system is of the utmost importance. The bold beginning series will lead you down the path of understanding. This series is made up of 24 episodes. And it begins that episode 698 In your podcast, or audio player. I'll list those episodes at the end of this to listen, you can go to juicebox podcast.com. Go up to the menu at the top and choose bold beginnings. Or go into any audio app like Apple podcasts, or Spotify. And then find the episodes that correspond with the series. Those lists again are Juicebox Podcast up in the menu or if you're in the private Facebook group. In the featured tab. The private Facebook group has over 40,000 members. There are conversations happening right now and 24 hours a day that you'd be incredibly interested in. So don't wait. So don't wait. Check out the bowl beginning series today and get started on your journey. Episode 698 defines the bowl beginning series 702, honeymooning 706 adult diagnosis 711 and 712 go over diabetes terminologies hit episode 715 We talked about fear of insulin in 719 the 1515 rule episode 723 long acting insulin 727 target range 731 food choices 735 Pre-Bolus 739 carbs 743 stacking 747 flexibility in Episode 751 We discussed school in Episode 755 Exercise 759 guilt, fears hope and expectations. In episode 763 of the bowl beginning series. We talked about community 772 journaling 776 technology and medical supplies. Episode Seven at treating low blood glucose episode 784 dealing with insurance 788 talking to your family and episode 805 illness and ketone management. Check it out it will change your life