#492 Grace Under Fire
Scott Benner
Grace is an adult type 1. Today she battles a low to tell her story.
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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 0:11
Friends, you're listening to Episode 492 of the Juicebox Podcast. And today, my guest is grace. Grace has had Type One Diabetes for quite some time. And today she does a real kindness, she tells her story. But while she's doing so her blood sugar gets low. And we continue to record as she treats, responds and rebounds from the low blood sugar, you're going to get to hear the whole thing. It's incredibly interesting. Grace. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. Please remember, while you're listening 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. I just want to say one more time. Because when we were done talking Grace was like, I'm afraid that would be boring, or I didn't. It's just it's incredibly interesting. And it's a kindness for grace to share this with us. So enjoy the conversation. learn something from the low blood sugar, and then have a great day.
This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries g vo Kibo pen. Find out more at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juice box. The show is also sponsored by the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor and you can learn more and get started@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox.
Grace 1:50
I'm Grace, and I live in the North Country of Wyoming.
Scott Benner 1:56
That sounds pretty. Why do I think that sounds pretty? Yeah, because I've been I've been watching TV shows that take place in Wyoming during this entire COVID-19
Grace 2:07
heard your interview with someone talking about that there was a younger man that you interviewed a while back. I listen to your podcasts. And he's from landers, I think. Sure Wyoming. Yeah.
Scott Benner 2:23
Well, I've been watching I I've powerwatch Yellowstone. So that oh, I very much enjoyed. I also just got done watching longmire on Netflix, I seem to be in a modern Western phase. And so I just finished I finished longmire on Netflix. And now I've jumped at justified which is available right now on Hulu. But the I seem to be in some sort of a modern Western phase and Wyoming comes up a lot and all of them except for justify which is more like Kentucky. I think that's not the point. The point is grace. It sounds it sounds remote and lovely. Where you live. And I find that appealing a little bit but you're not there right now you're in California said
Grace 3:06
yes. I'm just not a big city, lots of traffic kind of person I don't. And although it's kind of on the outskirts of the major town, traffic where my mother resides, it is annoying for some little country girl like myself. And it's just challenging to drive and deal with, you know, the beep beep in Hong Kong. So I'm going to cut you off and get in your lane and you need to have a nice day. You're not
driving on an Indy Indianapolis 500 Speedway right. Now, there was a time in the day when I did do that. But I just not up myself from most of those stresses. So tell me a little bit about how old were you when you were diagnosed? I just turned eight. You were eight years old? How old? are you now? old enough to know better but too young to care about it. I'll leave that at that for a second.
I'll tell you I'll be 50 I'll be 59 in a couple of weeks. Okay.
Scott Benner 4:17
Alright. So you're 59 you've had you've had type one for 51 years. Correct. Wow. And how old your mom 80 something changes with changes. She's 8383 No kidding. Wow. And you're you just you're you're somewhere where she is now helping her? Correct. Gotcha. Okay. Well, how did you I have to ask first I guess how you found the podcast because you you fall outside of my age demographic a little bit for listeners.
Grace 4:50
But yeah, I know that in that fun. Um, let's see. How did I find you? Oh, I just been looking. I can Did my phone to listening to subjects of interest, right? Um, and somehow, I think I found you on Instagram first. Okay, and that's how I found you. And then I started squinting to read and look in and out, I just need to go on my laptop and see if I can make this work more easily for myself. And I found it. And then I connected your podcast, listening to my phone, cuz I'll run around the house doing household stupid stuff, and set the phone in a decent location, and just listen. And sometimes I'll actually sit down and listen to your podcasts, and I found them informative, and yet not so much. Because it's some of its new on the individuals and how they went about, you know, learning to manage. And because I was raised in a military home, I was just handed the insulin, you know, it was I was not allowed to leave the hospital until I was giving my own injections. And this is how you manage it. And this is how you take care of it. This is what you have to do. It's your disease, you take care of it at the age of eight. And so it was really different for me than what I'm hearing these protective parents and, you know, different types of women. There's a few out there that are a little more liberal with their kids. And but when they're diagnosed at two, then that doesn't work. No. Well, so well, I just,
Scott Benner 6:39
I'm sorry, to cut you off.
Grace 6:41
No, no, I just find it interesting the different ways that people were learning about how to manage take care of it.
Scott Benner 6:49
So is that what do you find? Or how do you find the more? Like, not simple? It's part of the of the conversations, the management stuff? Is it nearly the way you do it? Or how, like, when we talk about Pre-Bolus thing, and and you know, I'm
Grace 7:08
learning that there are times when I do need to Pre-Bolus and there are times when I absolutely don't, for myself as an individual with 51 years of Type One Diabetes from the old glass syringes, two vials of you know, long acting insulin that never worked for me, put me into shock or DK a, I was all over the map for a very long period of time until I went to pumping. So there are times when I do need to Pre-Bolus a little bit on being bold with insulin was something I've always done.
Scott Benner 7:47
You just always that was being aggressive. Yeah. Well, so there's a lot here that I'm super interested in. I'm glad I'm glad you're on. Do you wear a glucose monitor now? I do. Yes. Which one do you have?
Grace 7:59
I just moved to the Dexcom. Six, about 60 days ago, I was on the library. And it was just giving me too many low blood sugar readings compared to finger sticks. So Dexcom working it out. Gotcha.
Scott Benner 8:18
So now that you have a CGM on that you can see continuously, where where does your blood sugar? Does your blood sugar sit stable, or does it jump around all the time?
Grace 8:30
Um, yeah, it's still pretty. It vacillates to a certain degree. It It depends on my activity, you know, activity. There's three things that manage me. That's activity, medication.
Unknown Speaker 8:47
And so, right.
Grace 8:49
However, I can go for a 45 minute walk. And I maintain a certain levels stay at 116 to 110. And then 20 minutes after my walk. I bought them out at like 35. So
Scott Benner 9:06
okay, so what insulin are you using? I'm just using noval Auto blog in a pump. And you have CGM. Okay, what may I ask your current a one c ish?
Grace 9:19
You want to tell me exactly I believe it was a 5.9 Ah,
Scott Benner 9:26
okay. lifetime. Were you able Where were you keeping it in your 40s for example, a decade ago or more?
Grace 9:37
A little higher. I was in this mid 70s. When that was what I've been on a pump for 17 years okay. And I didn't want to go on when because they were huge and bulky. Originally on they were just like oh my gosh, cumbersome. I've never gone on that for eight years. The greatest endocrinologists I ever had, which I still love and would see him if, you know, I needed to this this is not geographically desirable, because he's in California and I'm in, you know, Wyoming. But um, he suggested it. He said, Well, I'm glad you waited until the technology got better. And I said, Well, I think it's time and I was in the 15th and 16th, with my agency at that point,
Scott Benner 10:32
and back, then you're using just some some sort of a fast acting instance, I'm sort of a slow acting insulin or were you like, mph and are an are like
Grace 10:42
it? Yeah, I was you using regular insulin. And a single to double, we tried single dose of NPH, we tried double dose of NPH. And for some reason, because it took them six months to diagnose me. Okay, we were in transition in the military life that I grew up in, I'm transporting relocating been to 35 different schools probably moved 14 150 times a minute. You broke up a little bit there. What
Scott Benner 11:25
did you say? Was your father a general?
Grace 11:28
No, no, but we did relocate frequently. And it was a lot to do with family family dynamics. I'm the youngest of three. I'm the only one that's ever had, you know, any medical problems, and we just lost my sister, she passed away unexpectedly. So that's why I'm here. I'm here to help. You know, my mother manage different things in her life.
Scott Benner 11:57
I'm sorry. You're just your sister passed recently. And she had been helping your mother?
Grace 12:03
Yes, somewhat. Mom is very stubborn, very independent. And I'm going to do it myself. And we only recently convinced her that she didn't need to be driving.
Scott Benner 12:16
She stopped going for a ride in California.
Unknown Speaker 12:20
Wow. Oh, so this
Scott Benner 12:22
is this is really something because you lived in a completely lived in manage your diabetes in a completely different technological time. And now you're, I mean, you're as modern as you could possibly be right now with your care. And your it's Are you having a lot of lows that are keeping your a one c lower? Like, are you under
Grace 12:44
probably a few more than desirable, but I took all my devices, I took my PDM and my controller into the doctor's office while I was at the blood lab. And that's in Colorado, and dropped it off while they downloaded and uploaded. And then I went back to get it. And so he was like, congratulations, she says, looks like you're doing he says I like your current settings. Because I too have that stubbornness. I'm gonna do it myself. And you can just write the prescription, please. You know, it's like, he asked me one time, I told him about, you know, your podcast, he says, You're not becoming bold with insulin, are you and we just laugh, because, you know, come on. Well. Alright, so the the military doctor that once they finally diagnosed me, he said, yeah, it's just don't deprive her of any, you know, food values or going to a birthday party or whatever. He said, to just give her a little more regular insulin. So that was how we managed, you know, 50 years ago. Why should that change now? Right.
Scott Benner 13:55
Are you telling me the doctor, when you told the doctor about the podcast, he was aware of it? Correct? Oh, I want to take a moment to thank all the people who tell their endocrinologist about the podcast. Thank you. That's really crazy. This was in Colorado. Correct? Nice. I'm huge in Colorado, Utah, too, in case you're wondering.
Grace 14:14
Um, I noticed that you know, you're you've pre international my friend you really got it going on?
Unknown Speaker 14:22
Yeah, well, I'm
Scott Benner 14:24
really thrilled that you like the podcast because it says a lot to me that someone who's lived through many different iterations of type one diabetes, and who I mean and I don't mean this insultingly obviously but you're on the other side of pod listening to podcasts in general, age wise, that you found it and that you enjoy it means a lot to me. It really does like it that's a very good sign to me about the show that you specifically can listen to it, find something interesting or helpful about it is really a is wonderful. I'm so happy They were talking today. I'd love to know a little bit about, I mean, have you been married through your life? You have children, like, what's a little bit of your background?
Grace 15:11
Okay, so I did the married thing once. And we're no longer married, I was unable to have children. And the I've been a parent. I semi adopted and an open adoption for boys. So they're a major part of my life. So I'm there. If you want to know the truth there, I'm there go to girl. Things are going, Hey, Miss corpus with other relationships in their life. And, you know, we talk about it. And I listened to them. And I worked with Exceptional Children for 20 years. And so that's kind of my background with that. The marriage didn't work out because I didn't like getting beat up and tossed around. And it was just not a good situation. And I don't tolerate that very well. So
Scott Benner 16:08
that's good for you What man is like in what part of your life were you married? What age were you?
Grace 16:14
I got married at 43.
Scott Benner 16:16
Okay, choo, you are a trailblazer in a lot of different ways. And this guy was a jackass. And you were like, that's when I'm not doing this?
Grace 16:24
Well, yeah, I waited and waited, and I let him make that decision so that the financial responsibility fall into his lap race. You wait, you
Scott Benner 16:33
waited him out? For money reasons that you are a tough lady?
Grace 16:39
Not really, I'm fragile, but I don't want to admit it. You know,
Scott Benner 16:44
I'm sorry, that that's terrible that, um, that anybody would lay their hands on you like that?
Grace 16:50
Well, he did it in such a way that well, you know, when you are of his type, a government official, let's just put it that way. You could get away with things that weren't obvious.
Scott Benner 17:07
Okay. So he was a type of person who, who nobody would have thought that or would have gone after had they thought it and so he had a little autonomy to be to hurt you. Without without any repercussions? Correct? Yeah. I'm sorry.
Grace 17:26
Well, it took me a while to figure out that, you know, I was not in a good enough situation. But the funny thing is, is is that, you know, I you know, my father basically raised me, my, my mom was, you know, had raised her two older kids and was deeply and heavily involved in their life, and she had returned to school to get her medical license finished up. And I was what my dad was getting ready to retire from the military. So he raised me for the most part. And Be that as it may, I've always enjoyed guns and outdoors and horses and you know, riding the rains with motorcycles and dogs. And so it was just like, and then you know, of course, I do know how to dawn, the dressing the tends to go to a banquet, or whatever. So when I met this gentleman we met. And we talked for hours on the internet. And finally, he revealed to me what he did and who he was and had to have my background check. He had to have me background checks just to date me. So that mean, yeah, I was like, Huh, interesting. And when I told my dad, I said, I must have done something, right, because I passed with flying colors. But there was another manipulation that I wasn't really aware of.
Scott Benner 18:57
making you feel important and Exactly, yes, exactly. increase. I'll tell you, I've recorded like 500 of these and still people surprise me all the time with stories that I've just never heard before that that's going to be one of them. How long were you with him before you got out?
Grace 19:18
From dating to let's see. 13 years? Oh my gosh, yes, sir. 13 years. Oh,
Scott Benner 19:28
how did you handle like with all that going on? diabetes come into the picture, or did he? Was he basically unaware of it?
Grace 19:37
Oh, yes. Oh, yes. I've been open about my diabetes because I am. Um, I easily. My blood sugar shifts like it shifting now and I can feel it. Sometimes I don't feel it at all. So sometimes I'm a little too bold with insulin. So my I don't think I would ever be a candidate for the horizon, or the loop system, because I'm manipulate my dosage according to what's going on with me. What do you think constantly?
Scott Benner 20:15
Okay, well, so I'm sorry. So I have two questions now because I use the wrong word before but what I meant was while you were married, would you just manage your diabetes on your own? He was not involved in it.
Grace 20:27
Oh, yeah, pretty much and he would, you know, throw temper tantrums because, you know, he didn't understand why why would be taking some insulin when you know, I had drink 40 ounces of juice to come up from a low blood because the gastro precice right. So that's why it takes a while for me to respond to getting my blood sugar backup.
Scott Benner 20:55
If it drops you have gastro you have gastroparesis, too. And, and I mean, honestly, like, I'm thrilled that you found all the technology you found but if you had a one sees in the double digits through a larger portion of your life, that's what I was going to ask you. Have you had any repercussions of it? So gastroparesis is one Do you have anything else?
Grace 21:14
Um, yeah, I've had multiple eye surgeries, hand surgeries. That, you know, with the triggering fingers. I have neuropathy in my feet. pretty severely at times, you know, I get rested. I take Tylenol for the discomfort and once in a while and gabapentin but I'm not fond of that. Because it just makes me so what's the word I want? puts me into lala land and I don't care for the double vision or the side effects are worse than the relief that it semi helps with.
Scott Benner 21:58
I just had a little bit of noise on your end. So I didn't hear the second medication that you're saying you don't like to take what was it?
Grace 22:04
It's called Gabba Gabba pinton It's a neurological it's it's a for pain and it supposedly is to help neuropathy.
Scott Benner 22:18
I see it here anticonvulsant anti-convulsant and nerve pain medication it can treat seizures and pain caused by shingles and apparently gives you double vision and doesn't make you feel good. Is
Grace 22:32
it makes you groggy and it does meet some people. I mean, they take it in the hands for have by handfuls and it's perfectly fine. No kidding. Oh, I
Scott Benner 22:41
see the uses for Scott while he uses restless leg Fibromyalgia or they use it for a lot of different things. sciatica. Okay, sorry, I went down a little rabbit hole there on the internet. I got a little lost. Alright. So what is it like when you've lived your life with a onesies that are higher and and then all of a sudden, you've got this pump? And then now more recently, you have a glucose monitor? Is it like how do you feel physically? First of all, do you feel any differently than you have in the past?
Grace 23:21
Um, yeah, I physically, I still feel pretty good. For someone that's had it as long as I have, and you've been through, you know, the traumas and the the changes of control as versus I feel more in control of it than I have ever. That's excellent with the CGM. And the you know, I, I don't know if it's okay to say I'm pretty sure it's all right to let you know that I am using the Omni pod. Dash.
Scott Benner 23:59
I heard you say PDM earlier. So I figured you were using Yeah,
Grace 24:03
right. So and I haven't been using it all that long. I've only been on the on the pod dash for a couple of years. But when you are used to wearing you know the tubing and you have enough accidents between you know, getting cut or caught on something, you're not aware of it and it's disconnected and you all of a sudden you just fall out and they're you know lifting you into an ambulance and you come through and like what happened and very good. It looks like your tubing got good. So that gets to be too dangerous for somebody that remains active. Yeah, as myself. I'm not as active as I would like to be or once was but I just I'm not ready to give up yet. No. It's just not there.
Scott Benner 24:56
You don't sound like somebody is gonna give up to me. But I take your point. It's funny, like, you know, when I when I do the ads um, you know, I'll say sometimes like, you know, you don't get your tubing caught on a doorknob and get it your site ripped out or, but you're even saying that can happen and you just won't know what happened. And then
Grace 25:12
I had it I had it happen a couple of different times in different ways. But yeah,
Scott Benner 25:17
yeah, that's not good, because now suddenly, you do not have any insulin that you think you do. And I guess that that quickly escalates to very high blood sugars. I was talking with somebody yesterday, who had a malfunction with their pump. And they said, like, you know, what'll happen if I just don't take insulin till I get the new pump tomorrow as I get I'm probably dead. You know, like, you can't not have insulin. It's I'm always fascinated by by how little sometimes people understand that insulin they're getting, you know, if it's slow acting through injection is the is the is the thing, keeping them going. You know, like, the minute you take it away. It's It's It's a bad it's bad news, you know, and, but I never thought of it that way. But you lived in a different time with diabetes. That really is interesting.
Grace 26:10
Yeah, we had to boil my glass syringes, right? They had the disposable needle caps that were like 10 Penny nails to an eight year old child was like,
Scott Benner 26:24
little big, those needles weren't as fine as those little ones are now I guess.
Grace 26:28
Yeah. Oh, goodness. No, absolutely not. And, you know, the only way that they could test my blood was to draw intravenously. And that was even more traumatic for me. I was like, that my dad had to just sit me in his lap and wrap his legs and arms around me while they you know, someone else held my arm out for them to draw it. And I'm still I hate that I hate hated I hated
Scott Benner 26:59
blood draw in general just doesn't work for you. Because of all the times when you were younger.
Grace 27:05
And I'm scarred. I'm scarred. I mean, physically. There's scars on my arms. From you know, the drawing my blood. So, yeah, well, military hospitals were not up to date.
Scott Benner 27:19
You were probably just an end. It's a it's a it's a kid of a someone and you have diabetes. And it's got its, I mean, I'm just I haven't even done the math, but 50 years ago. 1970 ish. Is that Yeah, about you when you were diagnosed? Maybe 1969 69.
Grace 27:38
Yeah, it was in March of 1969. I remember like it was yesterday. Because I was sick. I had been sick. Well, we had relocated from the east to the west, literally. And it was you know, I don't know if you're familiar with I got a treat for a little bit low. They
Scott Benner 28:04
can we take a take a U turn for a second? What number you What number are you trading at?
Grace 28:12
It's dropping rapidly. I'm at 70 that's what did it say? It's at 80. I knew I said 71. So I'm gonna go ahead and choose here. Yeah, the puppy already he starts
Scott Benner 28:34
a dog they're way ahead of time. issue a dog there with you or you're getting low and confused and you're talking to yourself which is going on a little bit of both. g Volk hypo pan has no visible needle, and it's the first pre mixed autoinjector of glucagon for very low blood sugar in adults and kids with diabetes ages two and above. Not only is chivo hypo pen simple to administer, but it's simple to learn more about. All you have to do is go to G Volk glucagon.com forward slash juicebox g vo shouldn't be used in patients with insulin, Noma or pheochromocytoma. Visit g Vogue glucagon.com slash risk.
The first time I ever heard about the Dexcom was years and years ago Arden's nurse practitioner told us that there was this device that you could see your blood sugar in real time on and it was called a Dexcom. She said, Are you going to get a Dexcom and I was like, I don't know what that is. So she explained to me that she had a kid in the practice who was super excited to get a Dexcom so that they could learn how to eat their favorite snack, this this thing that they had struggled with constantly with a spike. And they thought that by seeing their blood sugar, you know, they might be able to make better decisions with insulin. And what a What a fun thing to think back on back when that was just like a an idea in someone's head like maybe if you could see it, it would be easier. Oh, what an understatement, huh? Well today, many years later, I can tell you that that absolutely turned out to be 100% true, and a lot more actually. So the Dexcom gs six allows you to see your blood sugar in real time, not just the number, but the speed and direction. And this information is invaluable. It helps me every day to make amazing decisions about Arden's care. It could help you to I think dexcom.com forward slash juicebox alerts where you want them, you want to be alarmed when you go below 90 you can do that. You don't want it to happen until you're below 80. You can do that 70 it's up to you. You want to hear a rise alert. I like mine at 120 on Arden's phone, it's 130 these distinctions are yours to make. And you can decide who if anyone you want to share your data with. So Arden's data is shared with me and my wife. But it could also be shared with up to eight more people, right so Arden can see it plus 10 more people of her choosing. Now if you're an adult, maybe that's your husband, or your mother. If it's for your child, it could be anybody daycare provider, school nurse, it's completely up to you choices yours dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. I'll tell you this, were these results are ours and yours may vary. But my daughter has zero diet restrictions, sheets, a fairly classic American diet. And her a one C has been in the fives for seven years. I think a lot of that has to do with being able to see the data, being able to see where her blood sugars going, and how fast it's getting there. I hope you check it out. dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. There's links in the show notes to that. And all of the sponsors. You can also find those links at Juicebox Podcast comm
Grace 32:23
Well, he he moved himself from one position to the next and came in lay next to me by my feet. And he just kind of groans at me if I'm up and about but if I'm not awake, he scratches me off the bed and he'll sit beside the bed and start barking and let me know.
Scott Benner 32:41
Is he on alert dog? Or does he just
Grace 32:43
Yes, he is. He's, he's a da da diabetic alert dog. As I stepped down my orange juice,
Scott Benner 32:55
do you see are you give like a straight arrow down or diagonal? Or when you're Dexcom? What are you saying?
Grace 33:02
It's a straight arrow. it'll drop even more even after I get the juice on board.
Scott Benner 33:08
Because the gas your prices, you won't pick the juice up as quickly.
Grace 33:11
Correct. And I can always what I typically do now that I've found works is I'll drink my juice and I'll open up for a sugar packet and just absorb that through my cheeks, gums your cheeks, right. So even the gel tubes don't get on board as quickly or something like this. So, how,
Scott Benner 33:35
how frequently do you have to do this?
Grace 33:39
Usually about daily. But I'm just too bold with insulin sometimes because when I see it when I'm rising rapidly, I correct right away and it kind of gives me that opportunity.
Scott Benner 33:55
Get too aggressive at the wrong time. So you have trouble I guess Pre-Bolus and because the gastro priestess you don't always know how quickly the food is gonna get taken up. Right? Yeah. Have you tried? Have you tried Pre-Bolus Singh some but not all, and then putting in the rest as soon as you see the food hitting you.
Grace 34:17
That idea is very new to me. Um, but I've heard you, you know, on your podcast, talk about them here because I thought Hmm, you know, that might be something worthwhile for me.
Scott Benner 34:31
100% So, I'll talk for a second so you can take a break, but like the way I you know, I've said this before, but I had someone with gastro precice contact me privately to try to talk through this idea. And I really didn't know what to say obviously. And as we were talking about it, I thought the closest thing that I imagined to her situation and yours is the idea of a young person, a toddler who people say well, I can't Pre-Bolus because I don't know if they're going to eat or not. So I just changed that in my mind to I can't Pre-Bolus because I don't know if the food's gonna be there or not like working, you know, hitting my blood sugar. And so what I always tell young people, you know, parents of young people is I would put some in, you know, pick an amount that feels safe. And then as soon as you see the rest of it hitting, like, go ahead and put it put it in. And I don't know that that's not a great idea for you to try at least because, because maybe in some situations, you'd notice, well, I don't need it right away. And it could end up being it could end up being in a long amount of time, right before the food hits you. And then other days, it depends
Grace 35:38
on the type of food I'm consuming as well. Pizza versus, you know, vegetables?
Unknown Speaker 35:46
Or is it
Scott Benner 35:48
like this? Or it depends on your system to?
Grace 35:53
Yeah, it does. It depends on the time of day and how much activity and did I go for a walk? Or did I not? Am I packing up my car to go on a 1700 mile trip? How many steps I'm taking, right? And it's the day before, so the activity doesn't normally hit my body right away. I found that to be very interesting as well. And I'm, you know, the gas trio preseason has been happening since I was in my late 20s. It was diagnosed in my late 20s.
Unknown Speaker 36:38
I'm
Grace 36:41
sitting back down because if I'm if if that's a problem with headphones, I tend to be active tend to get a little like, Oh, I need to pace your walk away. And I probably shouldn't because you know, my blood sugar's now at 61. But I don't believe it's entirely that low.
Scott Benner 36:57
Do you want to test out let me listen. To be perfectly honest, somebody's having a low blood sugar on a podcast about Type One Diabetes is content. It's you're not wasting my time. So right now people are like, I wonder what this lady is gonna do. But do you want to test with a meter? How are we gonna do it?
Grace 37:14
No, I'm fine. Sure. Yeah, I don't. It's because of the interstitial fluids. If I'm leaning or tapping, or there's, you know, if I were a tighter sleeve around the CGM. I feel like it's just possibly be that low, but I'm not, you know, passed out or babbling and
Scott Benner 37:40
where do you usually pass out? out? And secondly, do you want to give me your location so I can call 911 for you if you need me?
Grace 37:47
Well, the dog is not blocked the door he won't let me leave the room. He's like, yeah, I'm moving over here. Cuz, you know.
Scott Benner 37:56
So he wants you to stay still and handle yourself now. Yes, he knows that you took in carbs.
Grace 38:04
Yes. And I completely. I went to I have, you should see my PDM you'd love this. What I did when I saw it, I've moved to I'm not hungry. So for an hour, I won't be getting any insulin in a Temp Basal.
Scott Benner 38:25
So you did a Temp Basal decrease, like all the way down like 0% for an hour? Yes. Will that cause the high blood sugar later or not necessarily.
Grace 38:37
What I'll do is I'll I'll cancel and eventually, as I see the new bunch of CGM start to come back up. Yeah. I look at it a lot. Because in my work allows it if I'm working, if I do, if I'm working a contract from home, I can, you know, manage my diabetes better. If I'm out in the field, doing inspections, it's a little more challenging, because I'm more active. And it just, it's just nice to have this. It's just a big help from my lifestyle.
Scott Benner 39:15
Yeah, well, someone like you who's had so much experience prior to this, just being able to basically flip a switch and shut off your Basal insulin. must be pretty exciting, honestly.
Grace 39:28
Oh, it really is. It definitely is very exciting. I didn't you know, because I looked, I studied technology. And I have a couple of degrees in AI but that doesn't mean anything because, you know, data technology, I saw it come into play and just become so dynamic so quickly, so rapidly. I knew I went I'm never going to be able to keep up with set this point. You know, so I'm I'm glad I have that education. But I'm more happy about it being available to treat diabetes type one.
Scott Benner 40:11
No, I agree. I think that it's, it's pretty amazing how far we've come so quickly. And even though we talked about, you know, 50 years is being your lifetime with diabetes, that seems like forever. And it really is for you personally, you know, in, in the grand scheme of things in the way technology moves. In the last decade, things have moved exponentially faster than they did the, you know, maybe the four or five decades prior, we've gone farther quicker. And it Oh, absolutely, yeah, it seems to just, hey, last night, one o'clock in the morning, last night, I got up to let my dogs out. And as I'm coming back upstairs, I get a notification on my phone, that, you know, astronauts are about to enter the International Space Station, and I push a button, and five seconds later, I'm watching astronauts go from, from a spaceship into a space station on my cell phone while I'm walking up my stairs. And I'm Listen, I'm in my late 40s. And I had a computer when I was 12, or 13, probably 13 or 14, I had one of the very first like, two E's from Radio Shack first, and we'd like common words, and you know, and and so being a person who's been right there it computing from the very beginning. I'm still going to tell you that I still had a moment last night where I was stunned that I was looking down at a crystal clear screen watching astronauts float into the space station. I thought oh, my gosh, that is really an exceptional leap that we've made, that they can do that and that I can see it, you know?
Grace 41:47
Yeah, especially because we're watching the after effect on genius, black and white screen TVs that was, you know, one of the best TVs available. You know, we showed,
Scott Benner 41:59
we showed Arden Arden Sala an old console television the other day. She's like, What is? Her first question was why is the TV on the floor in this picture? mounted to the wall? She's like, why is it on the floor? I'm like, it used to be part of furniture. Yeah, then we found like, then we found a piece of a picture where you could see like, inside of a console television, let's hop in the bot and the back. And she was just like, what is all that? Red tube? Right? There were tubes and big like circuit, it was no circuit boards, you know, tubes and all this stuff. And she and now our television is is whisper thin, you know? And it's I mean, I basically have a TV now that's just a it's it's basically a piece of glass with a small computer attached to the back of it. I mean, honestly, that's kind of what it is, you know, with this?
Grace 42:52
Yeah, absolutely. Because the circuit boards are so paper thin. And they're you know, they're made of, you know, copper, and aluminum. And, you know, the circuit boards. I used to work after school. for IBM, I was I worked for an independent contractor that we wired, these, I forget what they're called now. But I would follow this, you had to be able to detect your colors, you need to know what red, yellow and blue. That was it, you know, you could do that you can read the diagrams and follow the wiring, and then switch it. And they were huge. They were big. There was just an after school job I made, you know, like 250 an hour. Right? Yeah. And this was I wouldn't, you know, rope these wires, this wax string together and send these this diagram in multiple directions, and then add the connecting ins to it. And it would go to a different department after I did that in my, you know, my supervisor would come by and he says, I need 10 people just like you that can do this so that we can increase production. I said, You know, I said look at what it's doing to my hands. He said, Oh, we need gloves on you. And I said yeah, something. So a friend of mine wanted to earn some extra money after school too. So I said, Hey, Robin, you want to go check this job out this for me, my employers, my supervisors looking for you know, more help. She said, Sure. So here we are two of us girls, and the rest of them are men and they're these, you know, huge, big, gigantic, enormous guys working around us and like we can't keep up with these young women. They're doing a better job than we was just for extra cash. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Benner 45:02
Wow, extra cash at 250 an hour. You must have been rolling.
Grace 45:06
Oh my goodness. Oh, yeah. Hey, how are you feeling? Oh, I'm still low, but you know, it's not beeping anymore.
Scott Benner 45:17
What did you Dexcom? Say? I'm 49 it says 49. So now are we at the point where we think if we test you're more like 60? Or do you think you really are 49?
Grace 45:27
I think I'm gonna go ahead and give it a finger stick
Scott Benner 45:29
god, I'm just do it. You're not going anywhere? No, where am I going?
Grace 45:34
Can I walk without falling down? should see the look on the dog's face? Are you crazy moment because when we're out walking, he'll tap me in the knee. Right on the knee. Right? And say, Hey, you know, this is not good. We're in the vehicle. He has a compartment in the back where he rides or this mat and he's tethered in. It's like, they'll start whining. And he'll he'll pout at me from an Aussie. I'm in the rearview mirror. And I'm like, is it blood sugar? Right now pull over a tree. I may have to take another pack of sugar. But let's see what we get here.
Scott Benner 46:33
That's the Contour. Next One meter you have right? If you have it, you got it with a dash. Correct? Yeah, it's good meter. We're gonna get a good number here. Let's see.
Grace 46:52
Yeah, it says I'm 73. So you know that still any? I don't know if it's my scanner, where I put my the transmitter in the sensor?
Scott Benner 47:07
Well, I would tell you that if you were dropping quickly, and I would expect this. So I expected you to be higher than the number on the CGM when you test it. So you're dropping quickly. You caught it with some fast acting sugar, which I think means that your body's that the actual reading inside of your body is going to come up probably five or 10 minutes before the CGM can can really figure it out. Because it's all kind of happening so fast. I don't think you're putting your sensor in a bad place. I just think that you know CGM Technologies a tiny bit behind real time. And you were speaking Okay, like I didn't think you were 49 the way you were talking. I know you probably don't feel great, because you're probably still feeling the low. You haven't gotten the benefit of it coming back up. Yeah. Is that right?
Grace 47:55
Yeah, I'm still. I'm stuttering.
Scott Benner 47:59
Right. Don't listen, unless you listen back to this one day and end up saying, I never worked in a place where I worked with technology and wonder where I came up with that story.
Grace 48:11
Oh, no, you kidding? I grew up with an engineer from Ford aerospace, my, my cousin, my cousin's dad, my cousin, my first cousin, my second cousin, my second cousin, my third cousin, second, third cousins. Yeah, he was an engineer for Ford aerospace. And then my stepfather was a he worked for the skunk team at Department of Defense's, an engineer. So he was a lot of fun. He and I got along great. But he my brother and sister did not like the guy. God rest his soul. But he I understood him and I liked him. And we enjoyed some of the same things. Watching, you know, television and DVDs and you know, yeah, he was brilliant.
Scott Benner 48:58
That's nice. That's Oh, yeah. Well, are you I want to make sure you're feeling okay.
Grace 49:04
Oh, yeah. I feel pretty good. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not running around. I'm sitting down and trying to behave myself. So that.
Scott Benner 49:14
So tell me a little bit about Let me ask you a couple of little interesting questions that are interesting to me. Can you tell me about how much you weigh in what your basil rate is?
Grace 49:24
Yeah, my basil rate is 13.2 a day? Yes. Okay. So I weigh about 110 112 pounds, some five foot 313 divided
Scott Benner 49:41
by 24. Are you getting? point? 5.55 an hour?
Grace 49:47
Just Yeah, about that. Point 5.55 an hour. That's my favorite Basal.
Scott Benner 49:56
What's your favorite?
Grace 49:56
Pick it up, pick up, pick it lower. If I'm going to go out exercising, walking? Or if I'm going to take the dog to the park
Scott Benner 50:05
overnight, how do your graphs look overnight? Are they stable and lower? Um, they vacillate a little bit. How about how much? Just the ability is there? Like, overnight? Are you up and down? Are you in a straighter line?
Grace 50:25
I'm in a straighter line for the most part. Yeah, that's my trickiest moment. You know, right before I get sick, like if I'm going to get the flu or if I'm going to get bronchitis typically late. Winter, I come down with it on a pretty regular basis. I'll have a severe low the day or two before, I'm really sick. Okay. Which is a big indicator.
Scott Benner 51:00
Yeah, the illness is coming. Right? I think Arden has that same thing if Arden gets like a head cold, or you know, nothing like stomach related, but like a head cold, or one of those things where you're functioning, okay, but you don't feel well. She seems to need less insulin during those times, as well. But it's interesting that you get, like stubborn lows, and then then you see the illness. a day or so later. That's interesting. Well, I'm just I'm just trying to understand, like, so you have a couple of different, you know, challenges, obviously, one of them is the gastro priestesses. That is, I would think the biggest one, the idea of how do you stop spikes at meals if you don't know when the meals are going to impact you? Or if they ever well, right? Or if it'll be hours and hours later? And then it sounds like during activity, you can drop pretty easily. Like those Do you think of those as your two biggest kind of hurdles with diabetes? I do. Yeah. You know, I was a swimmer. Imagine that. Like that, you're laughing at the idea that you were a swimmer.
Grace 52:14
You know, I dive and we would practice in a 50 yard pool, lot of flips, a lot of back and forth, back and forth. two miles of exercise is swimming, you're using every body muscle that you possess. And my favorite sport was Polo waterpolo. Because I, I just enjoyed, I enjoyed it, it was fun. So um, but competitively I was, you know, like, on the D team, the slowest swimmer, I, I could do length, I could swim forever. But I couldn't compete because I wasn't fast, I wouldn't stay on the surface. Because when you're swimming competitively The idea is is that you use the water to move through it at the level of the water. That's the idea that there's a lot of resistance, you know, if you're not swimming streamline, so as is for most of us, you can't, you know, teachers become instructors and teachers. If you can't do it, make it work for you, you become a teacher of the art. And that's how I figured it out. You know, and I started working with Exceptional Children in the water to practice my art, because I'm better instructor of it that I am a swimmer of it because when you watch me demo is like, that's a butterfly stroke. It looks like you're you know, you've been hit with stroke lady. You're sure you're not having a stroke in water.
Scott Benner 54:10
I think you misspoke. You're not showing us a stroke, you're having a stroke. And listen, I wonder too, when you were younger with the higher blood sugars, if maybe you physically just weren't able to move as quickly as maybe you could have as well a well could have been very well. Isn't it fascinating? Isn't it fascinating that that so many people and you're just a good example of it right now but who lived prior to this technology and honestly who lived today without it? Our I don't know what to say like I don't know how you would put it but it sounds to me while I'm listening that you were your life was was restricted in ways that probably after a while you didn't recognize where restrictions but that your physical, you're physically and maybe mentally Because of like low blood sugars or high blood sugars, were being held back and you didn't even really know I guess you just doing the best you could with the information you had and, and the way things were done back then, do you look back on it? Is it sad to look back on it? Or you just have
Grace 55:16
that where you are? It's not sad. It's what I knew. Yeah. Okay. So what I think is probably, The disadvantage is that my parents were not educated any differently, either. Right. Growing up on military basis, until I was 19 years old. And then, you know, moving from that? Well, yeah, because, like I said, My father is basically the main parent. He was the main parent in my life for a very long time. And we he let me drive the golf car. You know, that was always fun. I didn't play golf, but he would send me on the putting course you'd say, my daughter's putting for me. You had a bad ankle, you know. And so his, they were just they loved it. They loved that, you know, I could put, and I was pretty daggone good at it. So you know, it was like, okay, you're up there. And I would just straight out there with his putter. I would make the putt and they would be sitting over standing over on the sidelines, making their bets
Scott Benner 56:47
about whether or not you think about
Grace 56:50
Yes. He would say, Hello, no, she sees that roll. I don't think she sees that, that turf the way I'm seeing it because I'm in a different visual advantage. And he would cue me in a little bit. He said, you when you sink this putt, and you know, you can have anything at the clubhouse you want.
Scott Benner 57:18
He said, Look, if I think this but I'm taking half this money, you ain't How's that?
Grace 57:22
Money was never no money. My sister, my sister was driven by money. I've never been driven by it. Yeah, you got it. You got it. You don't you don't. It's just it's never been a force. For me. If the more I have, the more I spent it, any of us?
Scott Benner 57:44
I don't know. I like to try to save some money.
Grace 57:46
Anybody can make money. It's keeping it. Yeah, oh, investing it properly. That's the ticket. That's the hard thing to do.
Scott Benner 57:57
not spending it is a is the thing. They don't tell you that you have to teach yourself. I you know, it's funny, we were just talking to my son the other day. And he asked if he wanted to try investing money a little bit. He had, you know, his a couple of his friends are doing it. And he wanted to try as well. And so for Christmas, he asked for a little bit of money that he could like, instead of a Christmas present, he's like, Can I just have some cash, I want to try this thing. And so he and I were talking about it. And I told him I was like, you know, when you were little, you know, people would give you money for your birthday or for Christmas. And you were our first kid. And you know, mom's first reaction was, well, we'll put it in the bank for him. And I said, Let's let him keep some of it. And like we can put some in the bank. I said, but you know, we'll teach him how to put some aside. I was like, but let's let him have it. Because I found that my concept was that given a kid $20 or $40, or sometimes, you know, $50 that come in a birthday card. And given them the ability to spend it so that he could see what happens to the money once it's gone. Like let him experience having it Yeah, right. And then suddenly not having it and then seeing that, oh, I have this thing now. And then realizing Three weeks later, I don't even know where that thing is right. I'm not as interested in it as I thought I was. But the money's gone now. And if I would have held on to this 50 and put it to this 50 and this 50. And on and on, I could have actually gotten something substantial. So we sort of use that money as a teaching tool. Almost. Yeah, I'm almost imagining that maybe it'll be $1,000 over their childhood, right. And they'll probably lose it, it'll probably be gone. But that the the lesson will be more valuable than the money. And I have to say like both of my kids are very good with money. Like even if you take art and shopping for clothing and she picks out a couple of items. You'll see at the very end of the shopping trip. She looks at it again and she puts some of it back. It's just very like oh you know what, I picked these three things that I like but as I'm living with them here and wandering around, I realize I just want this one thing to put the other two back. It's, um, it worked out like I should knock on something because it worked out really well. Letting them use it ended up being more valuable than making them save it, because they wouldn't know what they were saving it for, you know,
Grace 1:00:16
what I did the same thing with my kids that my dad did with me was like, you come you, you come up with 50% of the cost of the item that you want. And I'll put in the other 50%
Scott Benner 1:00:34
It's nice. When my son
Grace 1:00:35
left, whether it was closed cars, no matter what cameras, it didn't matter, you know, it's like, here's how it works with me. And I still like that principle because it taught me how to manage money.
Scott Benner 1:00:46
Yeah. Now we did that when, uh, when Cole was leaving, like the middle school age, you know, 1314 he was heading into high school. And he, his hands were getting bigger. And he said, I my hands, not gonna fit in my baseball glove much longer. And he wanted to get a new outfielders glove and a new infielders glove, but they were very expensive. And he's like, I can just get a cheaper one I can afford the cheaper ones, say, but I want to get a good one and use it all through high school. Maybe I can even have it for college. So I said, Okay, look, you pay for half and I'll pay for half and we'll get you good gloves. And he an infielders glove that he got when he was 15 years old, maybe 14 years old. He still wears while he's pitching in college. And it still holds up for him because he has he and now he sees I spent a little extra money I got something of a higher quality. And look. Six years later, I still have it. You know? Yeah, I'm
Grace 1:01:47
all about the quality. Forget the quantity. Give me the quality over the quantity any day. I'd rather you know, hold out and get you know this item. pay a little more for it because I know what's going to lie. Yeah, no,
Scott Benner 1:02:04
I call that the dollar store theory. I would rather have one $500 item than $501 items. Yes, any one thing that I can really sink my teeth into. So how are we doing with your blood sugar? What's going on? Now? I hear I hear rappers.
Grace 1:02:19
I'm having a Welch's fruit snack. Oh, yeah, it's still not great.
Scott Benner 1:02:26
So the CGM still reads lower.
Grace 1:02:30
went down and then yeah, it was weird, because then I was riding at 49. Now it's leveling off at 44 went from 49 to 42. And now it's,
Scott Benner 1:02:44
yeah. Now if you do you think if you feel low, or do you feel
Grace 1:02:49
I'm a little shaky, but I know that it's gonna come back up. Because I've treated it's just with the kasriel preseason. It can take me an hour to come back up to like 93 and then right out at 93 to 102 for a while. Right.
Scott Benner 1:03:05
Wow. Yeah, it's and you dude, like, I'm not asking you to do it again. But do you think if you did a finger stick again, you'd be lower than the 70 some that we got the last time
Grace 1:03:17
we can check it out. Don't mind toasting, for the podcast. Well, just for you guys. I call you Scotty i like i like Scotty you
Scott Benner 1:03:26
do refer to me as as Scotty in your private life, even though we
Grace 1:03:30
do yeah, I listen to Scotty. And they're like who you're talking Star Trek or what?
Scott Benner 1:03:38
Hey, I gotta be honest with the grace. It's way better than that app on taking that.
Grace 1:03:46
Well, a friend of mine. I used to hang out in this group of people. But she's still my friend. Her son was diagnosed at the age of two. And he's camping out with some friends over this one weekend. And all of a sudden I get this phone call. Then you come over we need your Oh, we have. We have Andrew for the weekend. His parents are out of town and like, well, don't panic. I'll be over No. Don't panic. Is he still breathing in and out? Yeah, here we are. It's dropped on. It says it's now at 69 when we had originally tested it was 73.
Scott Benner 1:04:43
So you bounced a little and you're leveling off but drifting back again. Yeah, you could feel that enough that you knew to just have the first tax.
Grace 1:04:54
Yeah, so danger danger will Robin I went to Costco like, I got. I think there's 90 packs. Yeah, there's 90 of Welch's fruit snacks. So I got
Scott Benner 1:05:11
that bill socks if you get that big 40 pound box of food snack. Yeah, I think everybody listening knows that box of fruit snacks. Because when you buy him in the grocery store, you have to end up paying $10 for like 30 packs. I'm it's a ripoff. I mean, it really is. It's not even food. It's just like, whatever it is, you know. But it's interesting, too, because, you know, obviously the gastro priestess is at play. Because those things hit really quickly. I mean, those fruit snacks are there like later
Grace 1:05:45
in the day? If I'm out walking? Yeah, they're gonna get on board quicker, because it might, you know, my body is heated up and I'm moving around. It's going to get into my system more quickly. It's interesting.
Scott Benner 1:06:01
Interesting. Well, I have to be honest, this didn't go any way like I thought it was going to and yet I find it really interesting. And I think people are going to enjoy listening to it.
Grace 1:06:11
I like you engaging with questions. Ask Me Anything that you really want. Yeah. Go ahead.
Scott Benner 1:06:19
Well, no, I appreciate I, you know, obviously I've been trying to, to go a little slower because you're because you're doing what you're doing over there. But I guess I guess my biggest thought is what would you tell people who are diagnosed now with this technology? But don't want it but can't afford it? Like, would you say like, if if I put you in charge of the world? Would everyone who has type one diabetes have this stuff? To the world? Oh, my goodness, I give you the magic wand. Grace, you'd be in charge for a second?
Grace 1:07:00
Yeah, I would definitely. strongly encourage them. Yeah, to consider it. I mean, now, I'm well educated in your, you know, podcasts. Right. I was born with a visual problem. Okay, I live with it all my life. So it's nothing new. So I'm very intent listener. When I listen to, you know, podcasts of all sorts, I retain that information much better than I would if I had read it. Okay. So, I would suggest to them and strongly encourage anybody with, you know, type one diabetes. First of all. Find a good endocrinologist, and get a prescription for an insulin pump with a CGM. Just now I see advertising and I don't have TV at home, I just have, I have a big screen and I play dv DS, but I don't subscribe to any internet. I have internet but I don't have, excuse me. I don't watch cable TV. Okay. I've been watching Internet TV for almost 10 years now. And so I would have seen it here because of where I'm staying there. The labor is encouraging type one and type two people to try their device and giving them a free test drive of it. You know, subscribe to it and test drive it and see if it works for you. You know, doesn't matter what CGM. They're all about the same. They do. You know, every five minutes they test they give you a reading, you can swipe, you can use your phone, you can use your laptop, whatever technology there is, at least try that. You know, and then, you know, maybe an insulin pump would help you because some people are so good at what they do on you know, Lantus and multiple, you know, injections daily, that they would not benefit from it.
Scott Benner 1:09:26
Oh, I agree. No, I know a number of people who are MDI that do have amazing outcomes, and they're really on top of it, but having the technology, I just I was just wondering, because you're a person who has not had it. Plus, you didn't even have insulin that worked well, you know, nearly as well as the insulin you have now. I mean, honestly, Grace's, if no vlog existed 50 years ago. You probably don't have gastroparesis right now. Don't you imagine? The nerves and other nerve issues?
Grace 1:09:56
I would imagine. Yeah, I would have had better tighter control. But I was very liable and brittle from the get go. I was in. I was passed out in DK for a very long time. When they finally got me diagnosed, I mean, it was that severe. My parents had taken me into the clinic three times on the fourth time, I was just gone.
Scott Benner 1:10:21
Yeah. Well, you've read other people's diagnosis stories that are similar to yours, right? They go in, they think it's one thing they think it's another thing. Nobody ever checks your blood sugar. And you know, you get on
Grace 1:10:32
even to this day when I had all the classic symptoms, but my symptoms were not all that classic. And here's the, here's the here's an area. That's questionable. Okay. And it happened with my friend's son, too. He was two years old. I was eight years old, immediately following my vaccines. Right. I became sick. Okay. Yeah. And I got sicker and sicker and sicker and sicker. So vaccines have been linked to autism. They've been linked to other things. But changing, you know, the government's idea of is this a benefit? Or is it? Can it cause problems? Right? How many people in friends of mine, I get this phone call. This was in 2006 565 2005. I get this phone call. Now. This man is a triathlete. He has two daughters, that are very healthy and vibrant and a wonderful wife, this family. And they get back from Germany. And I get this phone call. He's like, Grace, how are you doing? I'm doing pretty good. I said, What's going on? Because he was originally talking to my husband and my husband hands me the phone. And he says, Tim wants to talk to you. So he hands me the phone. I said, Tim, what's going on? Cuz I was, you know, I'm in the kitchen, and we're in the motorhome and I'm cooking up, whatever I'm cooking up. And I could overhear the conversation because it's not a very large space anyway. And I'm nosy. I admit it. So I said, What's, what's going on? He says, I've been diagnosed with type two diabetes. And I thought, No, you don't have type two diabetes. I said, That's impossible. Right? I said, I doubt very seriously, it's type two, they're Miss diagnosing you. Well, they put me on and so they put me in the hospital in Germany is at the base, but we inositol they gave me insulin to bring my blood sugar down. And now they've got me on Metformin. And I don't feel right. Right. He's an athlete. Yeah. You know, he was in the army. And now he's, you know, a contractor with the Department of Defense, or it's just a gang of people that we know, we hung out with. And he, I said to him, I said, Make an appointment with an endocrinologist and ask them to do a C peptide serum on you. By the way, please, please. He says, What is that called? So he said, Denise, write this down. She's got his What? So there's this four way conversation going on? c peptide serum will determine what is actually going on with you. And the next day, I get a phone call. He says yeah, I have type one diabetes. With in 30 days, both daughters were diagnosed with Type One Diabetes. Very active young family. The youngest one was first and then the and I was shocked. So I'm on this flight, and I'm coming back. I think I was going coming back from being somewhere. It's hard to see done a lot of travel. And I ended up having a conversation with a service member. And we just engage in Type One Diabetes conversation. He says yeah, he says we're finding out because I'm I've known several people that have been given 100% disability while in the military when they become type one diabetic, right? Because they're not accepting the responsibility of it. But suspected that certain vaccines can wipe out the eyelids of linger hard, which make the insulin for your body.
Scott Benner 1:15:10
So you think these are vaccines that they're giving? The military members? Maybe? overseas and stuff like that?
Grace 1:15:18
Correct? Yeah, that's Yeah. And it's interesting, but there's also vaccines that we get as children that may be causing it.
Scott Benner 1:15:29
Yeah. And so the, I don't know, obviously, I don't know anything, but I wonder if it's the vaccine causing something or if it's the idea that you're getting vaccines that are causing your body to mount an immune response suddenly to something. And then a lot of doctors offices like to give multiple vaccines at the same time. And I wonder how much how taxing that is on your, your system, you know, to give it all these different, you know, things that it has to mount an immune response to? And if it doesn't take people who already have the markers for type one diabetes and throw them over the edge, it's it's all it's all very interesting. And
Grace 1:16:08
what are markers she that's something I'm unfamiliar with? What who already has these markers, and what are they? Yeah, never. So I've heard that use, but I don't know what that means. Yeah, yeah. There's,
Scott Benner 1:16:19
I'm gonna run out in my head. What people are laughing at me now, we've been on the show a number of times. It's a really common set of words, and I'm just flaking out on
Grace 1:16:34
what has to do with the intercom system. It's something that like, Yeah, well,
Scott Benner 1:16:38
so there's this there's this thing called trial net, right. And, and trial that can, you know, obviously, I'm not a doctor, but they they take a blood sample. And they can tell you, if you have certain markers that indicate that you're more likely to get type one diabetes, and I think there's five I think there's five of them. If I'm if I'm getting this right. And, you know, the more you have, I think it's, the more likely it is that you're going to get type one at some point. And then if you know, then it's up to whatever, like, you'll hear some people will, you know, I got inoculated for something. And then I got type one a little while later, or I got really sick. And then I got type one later, my daughter got coxsackie coxsackievirus. And then we noticed like a month or two later, she had, it seemed like she had it again. And coxsackie is not something that should return. So the possibility exists is that she never really got rid of it. Because when she got coxsackie, maybe her immune system just, you know, ran full steam at her pancreas instead of at the coxsackievirus. I have no idea. But I think I think obviously, Arden had genetic markers that made her more likely to have type one diabetes, and this coxsackie, you know, Firestorm kind of threw her over the edge? So I don't know. Like, I think the way you said it, it's like there's something in the vaccine that makes type one diabetes? I don't, I don't think that's the generally understood, like medical idea, I think the medical idea is, is that it your immune system mounts a response. And then you have these markers already. And it goes after, like you said, your pancreas instead of instead of the thing it's supposed to be taken care of. But again, that's a laypersons understanding of it at best. I'm not nearly an expert on it. But it's still fascinating, you know, that that can happen like that?
Grace 1:18:37
Yeah, you sound you sound proactively protective. In other words, that's really a compliment. It's supposed to be I'm heating up some hot water so that I can help get this food on board because my blood sugar is still not really great.
Scott Benner 1:18:59
We've been at this longer than I expected to be. So I'm, I'd like to like, let me let you go and see you can you can manage yourself and get yourself together. And and you don't have to be worried about me.
Grace 1:19:11
Oh, yeah. Well, I do appreciate your time and taking the time to you know, work with me and interview. I like the stimuli of the questions. I just, you know, what? The idea of the markers See that's new to me. And I although there's another word that is at both our tips of our tongues, we're not able to come up with at the moment, which is fine. It's just interesting to me, because how did you know a father and two daughters end up? Because obviously they had to have something in their system, but they had gotten these vaccines inoculations prior to going overseas.
Scott Benner 1:19:56
Yeah, no, I I really believe that could be the thing that That fast forward the whole thing you should check it out. It's trial net.org. They they explained very clearly there, what they do and what they're testing for and trying to
Grace 1:20:10
sound familiar. Yeah, I don't fit any of the, you know, there's plenty of drug testing trials out there. But when I read all the, you know, qualifications, can you be on this drug trial or this trial or that trial? You know, I don't fit the qualifications for some reason, you
Scott Benner 1:20:30
know, this is just this is like Risk Screening, monitoring and prevention studies like that, that kind of stuff. But yeah, no, check it out sometime. But I want you to take care of yourself first. So I appreciate you doing this. I appreciate you powering through a low blood sugar and letting everybody kind of see it happen. I think it was pretty fascinating. So but I'm gonna let you go so that you can see you can get yourself back to where you want to be.
Grace 1:20:54
I appreciate that. And well, I don't know if you'll actually produce this or not, but hey, everybody out there if I can live through it the way I've lived through it, you know, the dinosaur ages for type one diabetes have changed. Incredibly, over the years crazy.
Scott Benner 1:21:12
You think I'm not gonna let people hear this in your mind. You have to edit it to some extent. I'm not editing this. This was amazing. I you, you were 49 and taking care of yourself with gastroparesis while we were being recorded. I think it's fascinating.
Grace 1:21:30
I think I'm at 65 I'm doing is coming up slowly. It just it just takes a while for I was actually surprised. I didn't think that you know, I would drop again. Hold like that
Scott Benner 1:21:41
lower. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, you go ahead, take care of yourself. And I will I will send you you one day you'll turn your podcast player on you'll be on there.
Grace 1:21:50
Oh, good happen. All right, Scott. Thank you. Have a good day. Thank you to
Scott Benner 1:22:05
a huge thank you to one of today's sponsors. Je Vogue glucagon, find out more about chivo hypo pen at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. you spell that GVOKEGL Uc ag o n.com. forward slash juice box. I'd also like to thank the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor, find out more and get started@dexcom.com forward slash juice box and of course, a huge thank you to grace for sharing this very personal look into her life with Type One Diabetes.
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