#1212 Dr. Tom Blevins on GLP Medications

Dr. Tom Blevins discusses GLP medications. 

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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 and welcome to episode 1212 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Tom Blevins is an endocrinologist that Texas diabetes and Endocrinology in Austin Texas today Tom is going to come on and share his expertise so that we can better understand GLP medications I'm talking about we go V I'm talking about ozempic, zap bound, mon Jarno and more. 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 or becoming bold with insulin. You can find out more about Dr. Blevins at Texas diabetes.com If you are a loved one has type one diabetes and you'd like to be involved in research. All you need to be as a US resident and you can head to T one D exchange.org/juicebox. When you complete their survey you are helping with type one diabetes research. You're also be supporting yourself and this podcast T one D exchange.org/juice box. When you place your first order for ag one with my link you'll get five free travel packs and a free year supply of vitamin D. Drink ag one.com/juice box don't forget to check out the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes with over 50,000 members. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Omni pod five Omni pod.com/juice box if you have FUBU the fear of missing out on Omni bod. You don't have to have that any longer. Just go to my link Omni pod.com/juicebox This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the only implantable sensor rated for long term wear up to six months. The ever since CGM ever since cgm.com/juicebox.

Dr. Blevins 2:04
Hello, everyone. My name is Tom Blevins. I'm an endocrinologist at Texas diabetes and Endocrinology in Austin, Texas. I work at a clinic where there are about 12 endocrinologist and we have about 12 to 15 advanced practice providers and we see a large number of people with diabetes, especially type one. And we also see a lot of people with type two diabetes. Of course we treat people with pumps and technology and, and even just regular injections. Happy to be here. Oh,

Scott Benner 2:35
I appreciate that very much. Thank you. How long have you been an endo?

Dr. Blevins 2:39
I've been an endocrinologist since about 1986. I finished training and went to Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and got boarded in internal medicine then Endocrinology and Metabolism ultimately got boarded and lipid ology as well. So I've been in practice for about that long. I think that adds up to be about 38 years.

Scott Benner 2:58
What drew you to it initially? And is that the same thing that you do today. Of

Dr. Blevins 3:03
course, back in the 80s, when I was in training, endocrinology was kind of a different space, a lot of diabetes, a lot of thyroid, I really was fascinated by the conditions. And I saw a big potential to help people. You know, interestingly, I really liked the people I worked with who were endocrinologist and, and that attracted me. Now over time, of course, things have changed a huge amount, which is really fortunate for everyone. And diabeetus has evolved from the days of mph and ultra linty. And all that the huge fingerstick devices, which if you've seen it those made, you're probably too young to have seen those but the old iTunes and the the evolution of technology has been just incredible. And then the evolution of the therapeutic agents as well.

Scott Benner 3:52
And that's why you're here, Tom. So can I call you Tom or would you prefer to be called Dr. Blevins or Thomas? Good Thomas. Good. Okay. So you you mentioned something else though you got boarded in Lippa chronology is that right?

Dr. Blevins 4:06
Lipid ology technology. You know, like lipids, interestingly, you talk to people about cholesterol, and their LDL, the good and the bad and all that and that sounds very basic, but really, there's a huge world underneath that there's a board Believe it or not, it's that's when you study for and there's a society of lipid ology, and I'm a fellow of that group. And there was a lot of work done in Houston and that's where I trained with people like to Debakey was there the the surgeon, and the cardiovascular surgeon, then a guy named Tony Gato came in to be the person that did the lipids to help prevent some of that heart disease that they were treating, then a few other people, very smart people came in and I was fortunate to be able to train alongside them. So lipids, part of Endocrinology, really, that's metabolism.

Scott Benner 4:53
Is there any intersection between that and why you and I are talking today your understanding of lipids? No, no and how you came to, like pay attention to GLP is

Dr. Blevins 5:04
not exactly it's another aspect of metabolism. Yes, and that is what endocrinology is about by specialty the board has actually Endocrinology and Metabolism, then there's not a tight link between glucagon like peptide, one mil. It's a GLP. One meds and lipids are somewhat of a loose link, we could talk about that anytime people lose weight, of course, their lipids get better. And the GOP one meds can can help people do that.

Scott Benner 5:27
I see. So let me tell people a little bit about how I found you. For the people listening to podcast, they probably know that for about the last 13 months, I've been taking a GLP medication strictly for weight loss, I don't have diabetes. And I've lost I think 46 pounds at the moment. Since then I started on we go V I moved on from weego V to zap bound maybe a handful of months ago now. Anyway, I think not this similarly to how most people end up doing things. I was about six or eight months into this. And I thought maybe I should understand better what it is I'm injecting into myself once a week. I mean, it's working fantastically. I feel better, everything about my life seems to be better. But I'd like to learn more about it. And I'm starting to see people with type one speaking openly about the successes they're having. So that led me of course, to where any good research would lead a person to YouTube, where I found you, Tom just doing a sit down talking head describing GLP to people and I just thought you were masterful at it. And I reached out and I'm really grateful that you reach back because I think this is a great topic for people living with diabetes.

Dr. Blevins 6:35
Yeah. Glad to be here. Good. Thank you. Nice to work on the on the weight change. Weight loss.

Scott Benner 6:39
Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. The just about three weeks ago, I went to my Endo, who's the one who manages my weight. She was doing my vitals and she kept like mumbling half under her breath and half of my ear like a kid like a kid. These are great. You know about my BP my blood pressure, like just yeah, just just so much stuff that she's like, wow, this is it's incredible. I look like a completely different person. It's my aches and pains are gone and everything else that you would expect to come with weight loss. But then there's also been other benefits. One being that for my entirety of my adult life, without knowing it, I was running around with an incredibly low ferritin level, I was not absorbing iron, and my digestion was always poor and kind of off. And I guess just the slowing of the digestion. My last Burton was 170. And I'm telling you, I've been in the hospital like in the ER with a nine ferritin where I was like almost passing out. And no matter how I supplemented it, I couldn't cut it to come up without iron infusions. It literally is changing my life in ways I don't even think I know yet. Anyway, I sent off a massive list of questions from listeners to you. And you've kind of boiled it down to what you want to talk about here in our first recording. And I think if you enjoy yourself, we're going to do more. So I'm going to try really hard to make you enjoy yourself. But why don't we start right at the top like GLP one. Of course we go V and ozempic GLP one with a GI P that'd be Manjaro. And zap bound. There's others but these are just the ones that are out in the zeitgeist right now. So let's start real basically with what is a GLP?

Dr. Blevins 8:14
Yeah, GLP one that stands for glucagon like peptide one. And, and the gap that you mentioned, Scott is and let me just recommend everybody stick with the gap abbreviation it's glucose dependent insulinotropic polypeptide. Now, okay, stick with gap and actually stick with GLP. One, if you say GLP, I know what you're talking about. Actually, interestingly, people make these hormones in their body, and they make them in the small intestine, and GLP. One is made in cells called the L cells in the small intestine. And when a person eats, carb stimulates the production of GLP one. And gi P has made in the case cells in the small intestine, and in it to is produced after carb, and maybe protein can stimulate it as well. But those normally do is the GLP. One actually goes to the pancreas and can stimulate insulin production. So that's what they do. Normally, this is natural. This is what your body does all the time. So GLP, one stimulates insulin, it also can affect another cell in the pancreas called the Alpha cell. alpha cells make another hormone called glucagon. And glucagon stimulates glucose release from the liver, and actually GLP one that suppresses the alpha cells, it makes them less glucagon the Alpha cell does, and there's less release of sugar from the liver. And so that's those are two things that GLP one does. Now, I'll tell you, I'm going to skip to tip a minute. Tip stimulates insulin production from the beta cell in the pancreas. That's what it does. That's his main role. And we'll talk more about Then a bit, because there's some other things that GeoIP mimicking medicines can do. Like you mentioned mount Jarrow has GeoIP. And of course mount Jaren is up bound to the same thing GLP one does two more things, though, we talked about the insulin to glucagon all that that's good. But what it also does is slows gastric emptying. Meaning this slows your stomach down when you eat. And it slows the emptying of the carb and everything else into the small intestine. Therefore, the carb can't get in as quickly, that lowers the amount of carb that gets in lowers the sugar after you eat is what it does. And what else happens if your stomach slows down. And Scott, you've experienced this, it makes you get full fast and easily, you don't want to eat as much. And so that's one way by which a GLP one time Ed can lower calorie intake, but also it probably has a direct effect on the hypothalamic area that reduces appetite. And gap can reduce appetite a bit as well. And I'm just gonna go ahead and say GeoIP, and meds, that's the amount jarred can also seems that they increase sensitivity to insulin, which is really interesting. And so these meds, do some really good things. It turns out that people with diabetes, type two, make plenty of this stuff. And as far as we know, people with type one, make these two. But the effect in type two is, is reduced of these two hormones. And so therefore, giving people a medicine that mimics that kind of a hormone can really kind of improve things. Of course, people with type one don't make insulin, so you're not going to get that effect. A person with type one would get the lower glucagon, the gastric emptying effect and the appetite effect. I want to just step right in front and say these medicines are not approved to be used in people with type one diabetes at this point, right? They're approved for type two.

Scott Benner 11:59
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Dr. Blevins 14:41
know, the answer is these. Well, to your second question was a good way to enter back into the first part of the question your first part of the question. That is a concern with slowed emptying and suppressed glucagon. And of course glucagon and people type one your alpha cells do make glucagon and go God can help when you get low, of course, and that's what you get by injection, you know, the glucagon injections. And your your alpha cells make that and they help regulate your sugar. So if your sugar gets low, your cells kick out glucagon. Well, if you suppress glucagon, it could increase your risk of low number one. Number two, what you said is right, if the stomach emptying slow down that could increase your risk of of low also. Now back to the first part of your question. These agents have been studied in people with type one. And I'll just briefly tell you, there were two studies a few years ago, we participated in one of them here, we do quite a bit of clinical research here. One thing I didn't mention when I introduce you should have but we do quite a bit of clinical research. And we were really excited about these studies using it was liraglutide, which you know, as Victoza. And that was being studied people type one and there's large studies. And sure enough, in people with type one diabetes, who were treated with, I'm gonna say Victoza because people know this is Victoza. liraglutide is one of the GLP one meds, it's the one you had to give every day, once a day. Yeah, short duration, you have to give it once a day. And we were very excited about this people's agency did drop, you know, around point 3.4. And, and the body weight dropped five kilos or so that's good. But also and the insulin dose reduced, no surprise, but also those people had more hypoglycemia. And also, there was a little bit of an increase in ketoacidosis diabetes related ketoacidosis. And, you know, that kind of caused everybody to pause. And and these big studies were done, and the drug did not get approved for type one. If you look back into those studies, I will tell you this, just just to let you know, the ketoacidosis episodes occurred for typical reasons, it wasn't they didn't look as mysterious when I looked at the studies. And the hypoglycemia was a bit increased. But I think, you know, it's very possible that could have been mitigated with increased change in doses and things like that. Nonetheless, though, those two studies kind of stopped the whole approval process for type one in its tracks.

Scott Benner 17:21
Do you think it needs to be looked at again?

Dr. Blevins 17:23
I do. I really do. And I'll also tell you that another analysis of this whole area, kind of a pooled analysis of, of a number of studies with GLP, one meds and type one showed, certainly there was more gi side effects, we know that's going to be true. And anybody that takes these medicines are competing nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation. I always tell my patients, you know, with these meds, you could get diarrhea, constipation, nausea, vomiting, and usually gets better I tell people you don't get to choose. One of those might have some of those might happen. But if the this pooled analysis showed no differences in ketoacidosis, severe hypoglycemia between the people treated with the Met or the placebo, so yeah, I think it needs to be studied more. I think, anyone that listens to this should, you know, rattle the cage of somebody and say, Hey, we need to study this again and get this so it's approved. Right? That's my opinion. And you know, we're very cautious about this when people talk why and we'll talk about that more.

Scott Benner 18:27
Yeah, no, I appreciate you being candid. I mean, listen, I think people who listen, no, I am getting, I mean, our endocrinologist is giving my daughter GLP. Actually, she's using Manjaro at the moment, which seems to go Jive better with her. I don't know a better way of saying that. Yeah, the decrease in insulin use is insane. Yep. Yeah, I genuinely believe my daughter will use 16,000 fewer units of insulin in the next calendar year, because she's injecting five milligrams of Manjaro a week. Yeah, it's fascinating. And her her excursions, her glucose excursions are flatter. I don't. And now in fairness, she's also wearing a DIY algorithm she's using Iaps. I don't see any more instances of hypoglycemia. As a matter of fact, without the excursions high we're getting fewer Bolus is to bring her back down, I actually think it might be making less hyperglycemia than before, which isn't to say that she had a lot. I've also told you a story and sent you an episode of 15 year old girl who's gone from 70 units a day down to now, seven units a day of total insulin, a type one, my 47 year old brother went from a seven a one C with type two diabetes down into a five a one C without really even changing how he eats and he lost 35 pounds. I mean, I know there are people who are going to have results that aren't like that or that You know, they have some sort of a reason why they have to stop it. But my gosh, like everything I'm seeing just it screams for us to pay attention to this. Yeah, yeah,

Dr. Blevins 20:09
I agree I do, I do want to emphasize that, since it's not approved for people type one, where I don't want to talk about the information for type two interchangeably, it would be using these medicines and a person with type one diabetes, unless they fit certain weight criteria. And we'll talk about that more in a bit. But is off label meaning it's not approved, right. And, you know, insurance, insurance coverage is highly variable, not guaranteed, in fact, likely won't be covered. And so the doctors, your, your treating prescribing doctor can use a medicine off label if, if that doctor or provider feels like it's appropriate, and some will, and some won't. And everybody wants to be very careful, I'm very cautious, for good reason. And these are some great stories like your brother well, and you know, some people do great with these meds, and some people simply can't take them and they can't tolerate them. And I've had a person in this morning to the office who said, you know, I tried a couple of these. And I simply, she simply could not tolerate, and we can we can adjust the dose sometimes and make it work. And we can use a little bit under even recommended dosing to make it work. But they're not for everybody. Yeah, they really are, are wonderful meds for for many, many people. Right?

Scott Benner 21:25
I do wonder if in the future we won't see at boils down to be micro dosing for people with type one sometimes. Because if you're not looking for the weight loss aspect of it, or the hunger aspect of it, although, you know, when you have type one, a lot of people with type one have trouble regulating their hunger and have digestion issues. It's not uncommon, right? But you know, I want to go back before we go forward, you just said, you know, early on, one of the mechanisms of this is the fullness you feel full, go over again, the part where your brain just doesn't tell you you're hungry, because I have both implications. So yes, I get fuller, faster, right, right. That's slower digestion, that's lovely. You can eat through it, by the way, you have to you have to mindfully stop when you feel it. I can eat through it. I should say, I'm sure some people would vomit, or I've heard those stories, right. Yeah, but the part where your brain, like I have to remind myself to eat, I don't get hungry very often. And if I do get hungry, it's almost always in the last two days of the injection when I think the halflife is waning,

Dr. Blevins 22:32
right? Yeah, you know, there's a lot to learn here. We don't know all the answers. But there does seem to be a central effect of GLP. One agonists we'll call them agonist because that's what these meds are they, they stimulate that GLP, one receptor in various places, there does seem to be an appetite suppressant effect, and GeoIP probably does that too. So those two together work well together when it comes to the appetite part. So appetite could be partly regulated by feedback from the GI tract. That may be and so that could be part of it could still be linked to the to the gastric emptying, issue, or change. But also there's a seems to be a central effect. And when I tell people is, you know, you're taking the appetite, I call it Daymond you're putting into a cave, and you're kind of putting a rock in front of the cave, so won't come back out. Because appetite. Everybody has appetite. And, and I'm sure over time, appetite has been a really good thing to keep people eating. And when there's food eat. And when you're not, you're not getting enough calories eat, you know, but appetite these days, kind of throws people into high calorie intake and high carb high anything intake. And so these meds do seem to have an effect a central effect on appetite. Yeah,

Scott Benner 23:48
that's fascinating. I mean, I think not like most people, I felt impacted by it immediately. And my wife's like, Oh, it's a placebo, but I lost four pounds in the first four days. Yeah, recently, I had to go up in my dose, like I was writing the 7.5 milligram dose as long as I could with the Zep pound. And my doctor, I said, Hey, I put a couple of pounds on but I'm not doing anything differently. And she said, Well, I'm gonna move you to 10. Actually, 10 and 12 is where I see the most weight loss. She goes, I just wanted to see how much you could get out of the 7.5. And all of the little things like I was starting to have more sugar cravings. I was hungrier, all that stuff. I swear to you, I shot the 10. Four or five hours later, I said to my wife, oh, I have that feeling of like when I started the first time in my stomach, my body regulated to it. I've been using it for 13 months. So you know, in a day, I felt better. And now it's been four days since I did that. And I've already lost four pounds. Yeah, and I have not I swear to everybody listening. I haven't changed my activity. I haven't changed my hydration. I haven't eaten any differently. I just I'm losing weight now. Oh, it's absolutely fantastic. And to watch it work on my daughter's blood sugar is is magical. She I couldn't get her she's away at college. And so I, as I was switching her to Manjaro, because she was using ozempic. In fairness, we're getting this through a Canadian pharmacy. So everybody understands how it's happening. I had to ship it to her, and it was late to getting to her. And in five days past her injection day, her blood sugar's got completely wonky, we had to make all kinds of adjustments to her Basal or insulin to carb ratio to her insulin sensitivity factor just to get her through the four days. And then she injected it. And I talked to her last night and I said, Listen to me right now put all of your settings back. And we are going to be looking for lows over the next 36 hours just in case now the algorithms getting ahead of it. But as soon as the medication hit her, her blood sugar's all like flattened out and stabilized. Again, it's, it's really, it's crazy.

Dr. Blevins 25:54
That's really interesting, you said a few things are really important. One is it's not approved, so it's not going to get covered, you're getting it from Canada, which which, of course, I as a prescribing Doc, I can't write scripts, and send them to Canada, they have to be, I can write a script that you could take anywhere you want. But and that's one thing. And the other thing is, it's definitely want to be cautious because the you're right, hypoglycemia is possible, and then you treat it with oral carb, and it may not get absorbed quickly. So you know, the stomach slow down. So you got to be really cautious about that. And if a person has had diabetes for a long time, they might have gastroparesis. And that is slowed down empty, and because of some nerve involvement from the diabeetus, and then they definitely would get doubled to slower in and that would be a person who wouldn't want to take it. So we have to be very, the stories are great. And and the results can be really interesting when you're using it. And off label again, I'll say that repeatedly. Because I want everybody to know that's it as a story right now, with type one and vicious I'd be very careful about it and select people properly and can be careful about the and understand the drug itself may make it a little difficult to treat hypose And could create hypose

Scott Benner 27:08
Yeah, and it's going to be such a case by case situation not that everything about diabetes isn't right. But at the same time, like when this becomes more accepted or covered by insurance or everything, it's going to take some real overseeing by people who understand what's going on, because your transition so important. If somebody wouldn't have told me in the very beginning, hey, it feels like your food stops halfway down your chest for the first couple of weeks, you know, which is how I would describe we go via when I first started taking it. I might have panicked if somebody wouldn't have said to me like do not eat crazy. I don't anyway, but but do not eat crazy, fatty or greasy foods you might throw up, I had help moving into it. I had good direction. It's why I was able to navigate it. Because the truth is there's a lot there to navigate. I you know, people ask like what are your implications, and I had diarrhea in the beginning. But I said to myself, I know that when my body regulates this, I have a good chance of this stopping. So I'm going to try to make it through. Because I want the other side of this because Tom, I thought I was gonna have a heart attack. I'm always carrying all my weight and my stomach. I've classically ready to have heart attack, you know? Yeah, yeah. So anyway, we're gonna go back and forth here. But let's talk about the the half life and the dosing. Right. So I don't I'm sure everybody doesn't know what half life means. But you can explain it to them and tell them why it's important with us. Yeah, thank

Dr. Blevins 28:29
you for asking Half Life is you can look at it two different ways. One is the time it takes when you give a medicine for it when you stop it, the time it takes to reach half the level of the dosing. In other words, look at it as the time that it takes to reach the steady state as you give them medicine. So if the half life is a day, that means that takes about a day for the drug when you give a dose to reach 50% of the metabolized, excreted whatever. And, and so it tells you a lot about the duration of the medicine and the body. And then when you're creating dosing frequency, it tells you how often you have to give the dose I mean, if I gave it a medicine that had a half life of a day, would I want to wait two days to give the next dose? No, because you want to give it every day to maintain the level of the Med and we could go on and on about various meds. But the relevance here is that some of these medicines have very long half lives, meaning they can be dosed infrequently, and some of them have shorter half lives they have to dose more often. And for example ozempic would go v semaglutide. And that rebelliousness is the pill version of that that drug has a half life of a week. So it can be given once a week because it stays around for a long time. The medicine like the mount Jarrah And that's also observed bound. Okay, yeah, as you pointed out earlier, that one has a half life of five days. So it can be given once a week to. And we could go on and on about that Victoza has a half life of about 13 hours. So you really have to give that every day to maintain that level. So the beauty of these new meds that we're talking about the ozempic will go V set bound mount Jarrow, those meds can be given once a week, which is very convenient, really in relative to other meds. And so that that makes a difference.

Scott Benner 30:34
It's fantastic. And I know I think Novo is working on a pill, a once daily pill I got, it'll probably be 10 years before you see it. But I think that people are people by people. I mean, researchers, pharma companies, they obviously see what's going on at this point. Like, it's the amount of people who use this don't have side effects that don't stop them and are having insane kinds of, you know, transformations, both health and visually. Yeah, it's gonna be a focus. But you know, it brings me to this point that you put on your list here, like what is overweight and obesity. And I really do want to hear from you. Because what you're seeing right now, in the zeitgeist, right? The way people talk about this is you'll either find somebody who says, well, whatever works for you, that's fantastic. Good for you, which is how I think about it, or you'll hear somebody say, well, work harder, eat better. And sometimes for those people, I say, Okay, fair enough, there are plenty of people who are not getting movement and are not eating well. And they, they're overweight. But I can tell you that from my perspective, I was not eating poorly, right? My entire life. This has been my situation, I used to joke with people. If I ate like you did, I'd gained five pounds. I retain water, like a pregnant lady, I would tell people, right? Like, if you and I went out to dinner and had a normal meal, I'd be three pounds five pounds heavier. The next day, I couldn't tell you why I didn't eat differently than you did. And so can we talk about this a little bit like, you know, just weight and obesity? How you think about it in relation to these medications?

Dr. Blevins 32:07
Yes, you know, there's a lot of data that shows that as people gain weight, certain things happen. And if there wasn't some risk to gaining weight, we wouldn't care. You might not like the way it looks. But it has medical consequences. And that's where a lot of the treatment sort of motivations come from. And it turns out that as people gain weight over their usual ideal weight, then you start seeing things like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type two diabetes, insulin resistance. And you know, it's well known that people with type two diabetes have insulin resistance, some of that's genetic, some of its acquired, like when people gain weight. And so, you know, it's kind of arbitrary, when you set a cut point to say over a certain amount of weight over ideal, it is a problem because sometimes people would gain five or 10 pounds and things go to pot when it comes to metabolic things like I talked about. But a commonly accepted standard for overweight, that could cause medical issues is a BMI of 27. Now BMI, what is BMI? Everybody, I think when you go to your get a checkup, you get your weight, your height, and those two can be put together into a formula. And his body mass index, BMI, his body mass index, it's an index that takes into account height and weight. So a person who's like, you know, 610 ways to 10, that's probably okay. A person who's five, two that has a weight of up to 10. That's way over. So you takes into account height and weight, BMI. We could go on and on about that, but I'll just tell you the currently accepted standard is a 27. Plus on the BMI over 27, is overweight, and that person is at high risk for things like all those things. I've talked about high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type two diabetes, insulin resistance, and over a BMI of 30 is called obese. And there are other cuts that are higher than that too. But those are the two classics. Again, BMI is calculated by height and weight. If you wonder what yours is, you could go to a table online, when you go see your medical person and you can say what's my BMI because the EMRs calculated pretty much automatically these days. That's an adult's. I do want to talk a little bit about pediatrics a little different. There are various standards for defining obesity in pediatrics. The most accepted one here in this country is obesity and pediatrics is a weight that's over the 95th percentile. So you get out of BMI. You could use BMI a little bit but you get out of BMI. In up we're looking at percentiles that is comparing people to other people their age. There's so much dynamic changes that occur in the pediatric population. So they get older, the height changes, weight changes all that. So obesity and pediatrics is defined as a weight. That's over 95/95 percentile of other comparable people they like age matched. And those that that goes from the ages of two to 19.

Scott Benner 35:18
Is there an increase over decades in young people being overweight? Absolutely. Is that in your opinion? Like, I mean, is it a little bit of everything? Is it movement? Is it what's in our food? Is that how we eat? Is it how often we eat is? It's an amalgam of these things.

Dr. Blevins 35:39
Yes. I mean, I could expound on that. But you nailed it. Okay. It's, it's the diet, its nature, for sure. Genetics determined things, determined metabolic rate. And you can see overweight and families. But it's also nurture, it's the environment we live in. And activity changes over time. And, and what you know, everybody knows what's going on. But it were glued to the computer, or to the phone or something like that sitting still a lot. In the old days, that didn't happen. And we could talk on and on. But you're exactly right about that. Scott.

Scott Benner 36:18
So is the clinician, how do you think about it? Meaning? Maybe I should back up and ask this question. How many times in your career have you told somebody to lose weight? And they've actually done it?

Dr. Blevins 36:28
I'll answer that is many, many times, I think people understand the concepts of calories and calories in calories out. And you know, I'll say, exercise is always important. You mentioned exercise earlier, and your own particular experience. And 20% of weight loss is related to exercise, unless somebody's an elite athlete, or a very athletic and exercises all the time most people don't. So exercise is important. And reducing calories is important. But I'll tell you, I think people respond and are successful, many times, the problem is the long term part of it, people are successful frequently for a while, and on average, they tend to gain it back, we're all busy, we're exposed to calories all the time. Activity is challenging, sometimes because of scheduling or, or just understanding about the amount that you need. So I think people really handle this way on their own. And so people can lose weight on their own to keep it off and do really well then understand the medical part of it. But for the most part, it's really challenging. A lot of it has to do with the environment that we live in. My

Scott Benner 37:36
take on that is in a world where I can't impact the environment, right? I can't just it's nice to say like, I love turning on a podcast or TV show, you hear a rich person say get out and move around. I'm like, Well, you have $9 million in the bank. That's great. You know what I mean? Like, I've got to get up and sit back down and make this podcast all day or I don't get to pay my electric bill. And that's how this works. Right? Right. When that's the environment? Do you have any moral qualms with giving people medication just to lose weight?

Dr. Blevins 38:06
The answer is no. That's the answer. But you know, when I have a medicine that I think is safe, and, and effective, and I understand, then I'm much more comfortable prescribing, we've gone through all kinds of medicines over time. And some of them, we still have, I mean, GLP ones are not the only medicines approved for weight loss. Right. And, and some of them, I feel comfortable with others. I don't like the side effects. And I don't like the idea of long term, I have increasingly come to think and No, and I think most people in this area are similar, that any medicine we use is going to need to be long term. Right? And for example, I mean, let's just go look at other like type one diabetes, it's not like you can take the insulin for a while and and get off of it. And and, you know, various medicines, thyroid hormone, it's not like you can take thyroid hormone for a month or two and then get off and everything's okay. It's a it's a continuing need for treatment, then people call it chronic, chronic condition. So I think the weight loss medicine is going to have to be that way too. Because like you pointed, as you pointed out, you get toward the end of the cycle of these very effective meds and the appetite comes back and tries to come out from the appetite demon tries to come back. Yeah. And you just have to keep it where it is. And so I think chronic treatment is is is the way to go. With this type med.

Scott Benner 39:31
I've heard people describe a food noise in their head that goes away. My wife got a got hypothyroidism and it took us seven years to talk a doctor into giving her medication for it. And in that time, she gained a significant amount of weight which she's almost completely all lost on we go vino. And she describes and I'm going to have her on at some point to tell it in her words, but she describes it she would open her eyes in the morning and be thinking about food before she was even conscious and Then, as she was making breakfast, she'd start wondering what she was going to have for lunch. And she said, It's all gone. It just doesn't happen anymore, which makes it much, much easier. And then her you know, then it impacts the insulin, and that your body's using, keeping in mind, she doesn't have diabetes, right. And then the weight starts coming off, and then the metabolic stuff gets better. And that's in there. I think to me, for me personally, the most significant part is the way I ended up describing it as my body works better with the GLP. I don't really care what that means. And I by the way, I am now more active than I was before, because a I lost weight b I have more energy, my joints don't hurt like I am more active now than I was prior, it was easier to get going, it was easy to pick up weights and go, Hey, I'm gonna lift these now. It's a nice say, go ahead and lift some weights and go for a walk, etc. Except every time I tried to do something, I ended up getting a knee surgery or something like that. Because in fairness, my body was too big. And every time I tried to use it, I'm older and it would break. And so if we can all basically agree that there's stuff in the food we shouldn't be eating, and maybe stuff we're spraying on the food that we shouldn't be eating. And we're microwaving and plastic. And there's 90,000 Different kinds of oils, three of them apparently could be her one of them could apparently be an Industrial Lubricant, the way it's graded out, right. And we're eating this stuff all the time. And over time, people don't even understand what good food and bad food is anymore. In many situations, to say to people, I threw you in the cesspool, and I could pull you out, but at you should climb out. I don't understand that. Like I really don't like what is it? You're saying to people, if you're fighting against this idea now, is this ideal? It's not. But until GLP is make food come out of the ground tasted like candy and being good for you like lettuce. I don't know what else we're gonna do. Because this is where we are now. That's my opinion of it. Yeah, it's nice to hear other people wanting to be helpful for those who are are stuck in that. Also, there are plenty of thin people who are not healthy either. So you know, they're eating the same crappy food to their bodies just aren't reacting the same way as mine did, if that makes sense. Yeah, I think

Dr. Blevins 42:13
that makes sense. Yeah, your body, it was built for a certain amount of weight, your chassis, your skeleton was built for a certain amount of weight, your internal metabolics worked better with a certain amount of weight. And when we load the body with more things happen to the metabolics. And they also you pointed out, you pointed out they happen to the structural part to the knees. Cancers are higher in frequency. You know, I don't have a study that tells you when you lose weight, your cancer risk goes down. I would think that's probably true. But nonetheless, we know that overweight is related correlated to all kinds of things cardiovascular answer, all of that. And then losing weight is actually really important for some people losing 40 pounds is was needed. Some people lose 10. And they do a lot better. Yeah,

Scott Benner 42:59
time. Listen, I didn't even go to college. I have no background in medical whatsoever. I'm better off now than I was last year. Yeah, that my common sense tells me right? I've joked with people if I grow horn out of the middle of my head, and it literally says Manjaro up it. I'll go at least I'm not going to die of a heart attack. You'd have to show me some really tough health concerns about using this for me to think about. I'd be better off 40 pounds heavier. Yeah, yeah. So here's the thing like that. We don't talk about enough. Maybe you could do these medications. They started being researched in the 80s. I might is that story about the heal a monster in the Canadian researcher. Is that true? That's

Dr. Blevins 43:38
pretty true. Yeah. Yeah, they were started. The research started many, many years ago. And there was something in the heel of monster spirit that was kind of similar. And the one of the one of the early medicines that you probably remember was by Ada, which is exemplified, we don't really use it much anymore. He had a very short half life and had to get given twice a day. It was effective. It caused lots of side effects. It had peaks and valleys and peaks and valleys because they had to be given so often. And yeah, these are not brand new. You nailed it. I mean, epic has been out since 2017. Yeah, by eight it was approved long before that. And then we had a long acting by Ada kind of thing. I extended it that was by durian, you probably remember and one or two came and went because they just didn't have enough uniqueness to actually be used very much. And then along came Victoza. And we use that quite a bit that eventually got approved as the drug saxenda that the same thing for weight loss. And then you know, started people start observing, Oh, these are good for diabetes, but they also cause weight loss. And most of the drugs before that we use for diabetes, including the insulin would be associated with weight gain. And we'd say, Oh, that's good weight gain because your sugars are better, but nobody that I know Who is listening? And there's no weight gains good. Yeah, yeah, they've been around for a while.

Scott Benner 45:06
Yeah, it's tough because you lose weight when you're diagnosed with type one very frequently because you're, you know, drifting away from life and you don't realize it at first and then you reintroduce the insulin. And then you get back to the caloric intake that is normal for you, which for some people is more calories than they needed. And then they start gaining weight. And then they say, Oh, the the insolence making me gain weight. And I always try to tell people like, generally speaking, it's the calories you're taking in that help you gain weight. Now, the the insolence putting it, you know, is storing it for you. And do you agree with that generally? Or is there more to it than that? I

Dr. Blevins 45:40
agree with that. Okay, everybody, you know, people, everyone's different. And everyone, not everyone, but in general, it's still safe to say it's a good concept. Everyone has a different metabolic rate. And they deal with calories differently, frankly, calorie burn his genetic appetite is partly genetic attitudes about food are acquired. But, you know, we grew up in our families and in certain attitudes about food and amount of food. People are told, eat three meals a day, and you know, have a dessert. Yeah, we live life in real time. And we eat and so the calories, it would be kind of interesting if everybody had a custom calorie for their particular body. And that can be calculated. But But still, the environment we live in is so easy to get calories one on but you know, a handful of us has lots of calories, go look that up. I use, I use the net. And as many people do in Siri, I just say, Hey, Siri, how many calories in a handful of walnuts or something and you know, it's like, wow. And I still remember when I was in training, we were asked to have a dietician sit down with us. And I would go over to the hospital every day, and grab lunch. Lunch was, you know, an event. And, and we got time off to do it. And I was having a chili dog with french fries and a regular drink. And the dietitian calculated calories for that. And I thought, oh, it's gonna be like 450. But it was like 1000. And I will tell you that kind of feedback was a reality check. And I never had a chili dog again, I'll tell you because I just it just floored me. So if you look at what you actually eat everyone, you've done this, you do this, then you'll you'll find some interesting things.

Scott Benner 47:21
I'll tell you that I had an experience last week where I started eating something I hadn't eaten in a while. And I enjoyed it, and I ate it. And then I injected the 10 milligrams up from the 7.5. And I reached for it on the counter one day. And I actually thought to myself, Oh, I don't want this, right. Like the idea of it nauseated me. Yeah. And I was like, but But five days prior without two and a half more milligrams of this medication. I was like, Oh, this is good. I like this. It's it's it really is fascinating.

Dr. Blevins 47:52
changes your attitudes. And you know, something, there's nothing wrong with that. That's good. I mean, people, do you ask the question earlier? Is that really? Okay? And the answer is, you know, if it works, and it's, it's safe, and you tolerate it, go for it, it's what you should be doing

Scott Benner 48:06
is overweight and obesity, an issue in the type one community more so than in the regular community?

Dr. Blevins 48:11
You know, I've had people tell me, oh, overweight, it's not a problem. The type one is type two. And I look at them and go, No, that's not true. I know that because of the people I see in my office, people with type one diabetes have the same struggles with appetite, and maybe sometimes more. So as the people with type two and struggles with weight. If you look at stats, I can say, Is it 2050 or 80% of people with type one who are overweight or obese based on that definition I gave you earlier. And most people probably say 20%, I think most of the people in the medical world right now would say 50 or more. It's not at all mean, but if 50% of people with type one are overweight or obese, and I'll just say this type two diabetes, people with type two, have not cornered the market on overweight or obesity. And they haven't cornered the market on insulin resistance. People with type one can have genetics that are insulin resistant. And when you gain weight, you get more insulin resistant, whether you have type one or type two. Yeah, so it's a real it's a common issue. It's talked about more and more. And yes, we really do need some good studies, with I hope, this kind of medicine, looking at people with type one, and I'm going to tell you more about I can tell you now and there's a study that's going on, but we need more studies that look at this and people with type one, we need to find ways to mitigate risk. And we can do it. When

Scott Benner 49:34
you say we need studies. Where does that have to come from? Is it a pharma company that has to say, hey, I want to sell to these people. So I have to prove it works? Is it researchers like Who are we looking for to jump in and carry this load for us?

Dr. Blevins 49:46
Yeah. You know, it's the pharma companies. And there were these studies early on that there was a lot of optimism and we all assumed it was all going to be approved and it wasn't they have to go to the FDA and have to show the adverse events associated with medicines, and everybody has to come to an agreement, it just didn't happen. So the pharma company typically would have to put together a sizable enough study, which is very expensive, and then show effect, and then show, you know, manageable side effects. To get it through the FDA. Currently, there are some studies going on. In fact, I'll just jump in a minute and tell you about one, there's been reluctance to proceed. Of course, most people with diabetes have type two. And then there's just people who are overweight, who don't have diabetes at all. And then there are people with overweight who have pre diabetes. And that's where the numbers are. And that's where they're going for. A big part of me says, We want to go on something, and you have type one diabetes, go to the JDRF, and say, hey, please lobby for this because they have an organization. And they know how to do that. And they're really good at that. If I went to a company, and I said, I want to put 50 People with type one on this medicine, and that I probably could get funding to do the study. That's not nearly enough people, though, to get it by the FDA. So it really has to be a large study. Question is what about these weekly meds? That that's those two studies I told you about? That had the ketoacidosis and the hyperglycemia. Were in the once a day drug alert. liraglutide Victoza? What about the weekly meds we don't know, we need studies. Now there is a study going on right now. And I'll just jump in and say something about it's called car mod c AR mot that's just the name of the study. And accompany is studying a medicine such as we're talking about, specifically, in people with type one diabetes, who are either overweight or obese. This is a phase two study meaning it's going to turn into hopefully, if things look good, into a bigger study phase three. Now that's the kind of study that needs to be done. And that is ongoing. That's not from Novar. Lilly, it's a different company. And we are involved in that study, here. And in fact, if anyone is in the Austin, Texas region that wants to be with type one diabetes, who could be categorized as overweight or obese, we're looking for people for that study. So these studies, please, I've encourage everyone to volunteer for some of these studies, as you have in the past. Every medicine that's approved for type one, type two, anything, has people who volunteered to study jump on in there and help those things get approved, or at least at least get them study. They may not get approved. You never know.

Scott Benner 52:34
Yeah, Tom, I'll I'll get some information from you afterwards, I could probably funnel some people towards you that would help with that. And also, let's take a moment to chide Lilly and Novo who both in their charters say that they're around to help people with type one diabetes. So here's your opportunity, spend a little money and help them you know, the big problem here is there's not enough people to sell it to afterwards. That's the bigger problem. Yeah, there's not enough type ones. For them to think of it as a splash. But my gosh, like you're looking at really impacting people's lives. Because, listen, I think you can hear through the raindrops when Tom's talking. If he was in charge, if you were the Wizard of Oz, you'd give this to people, right? You do the study, come up with the protocol and give it to people with type one. Is that fair to say?

Dr. Blevins 53:19
And the answer is yes, I would. Yeah, I would be very, very careful. I would talk about all the things we talked about with the little part of my head saying, you know, there was a study that showed increased ketoacidosis. But then another larger kind of analysis said, probably not, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me that it would cause that I can I can come up with mechanisms. When you look at the studies, you come up with your own impressions. Yeah. And it looks like those people might have developed it anyway. But and then hypoglycemia, that one, I get that one I really do understand. And I know how to mitigate. And what you said earlier, you're you're looping your your daughter's loop. And I mean, and and even the automated insulin delivery devices from all of the manufacturers, since hypoglycemia, or since the progression towards it, and they back off the insulin. So with those devices that lots of people with type one are using, would there be an issue at all with Hypo? The answer is I don't know it needs to be studied. We

Scott Benner 54:18
live in a world where generally speaking, people with type one diabetes don't know how to accurately adjust their insulin to begin with. And often they see doctors who are not much more help it so then to say that we will I'll inject something in you that's going to lower your insulin needs. Who's going to adjust the insulin, like the user doesn't know how to do it, the doctor doesn't know how to do it, you know, like it's, that's where the rubber is gonna hit the road right there you have, you're gonna have to tell people look, we're gonna enjoy when Arden gave herself the first injection of ozempic We spent the next three days changing her settings. It was that significant and that real quick, and then after we got them right, it was fine. And that was it. So you know, anyway, Yeah, sorry, can I say about the DK thing? Yes, I bet you could have gathered all those people up and just check them for DK and came up with similar numbers without the GLP. But that's my guess based on nothing other than talking to people for years about diabetes?

Dr. Blevins 55:15
Well, I will say in those studies, there was a group on placebo and the group on treatment and the people on placebo, that is the comparison and a scientific study where you actually have people who aren't on and who are on and the people who weren't on didn't have the ketoacidosis. I can't say that interesting. And why did it cluster in that particular group? It on treatment, it tended to be the higher dose, so maybe the nausea from the higher dose sort of covered nausea from something else going on, like ketoacidosis. And people were kind of misled. It's possible that the lower insulin dose needed, made people more prone to have keto ketosis because they had less insulin going in. I don't know.

Scott Benner 55:59
And they were still eating regularly because they weren't being slowed down from eating. I wonder there's a lot in there. Yeah, there's, like you said, I think further study might prove out that that's not something to be overly concerned about?

Dr. Blevins 56:11
Well, it's something to be very careful, definitely. And what you said, is, is very important about adjusting for the first three days, the studies studies that are the one that we're talking about the karma study that we're doing, yeah, we have a very clear kind of direction as to how to adjust insulin right off the bat to be very cautious. And so we don't know if person is going to go on the real thing or not. And we adjust the insulin in a certain way. And so these studies should look not only and they are this one study, looking at not not only the effect, and the side effects, was also looking at a treatment kind of algorithm approach to reducing the insulin.

Scott Benner 56:55
Yeah. Do you have any patients of yours type one who you've given them a scrip? And they're paying cash?

Dr. Blevins 57:02
And I'll say I do? Yeah, yeah, you know, I'm writing it off, it's off label. And what I tell people is, I tell them about all the side effects, I say it's not approved by the FDA. And if you look at the approvals, many times, it says specifically not approved for type one. And, and I tell them that and give them a prescription of I think is appropriate, we we start low, we always start low, and then we increase the dose as as appropriate. It is off label. And I'm gonna say that so many times, and and I tell them, it could bring out some major gi problems, and you may really not like it, and you may not be able to take it, you may have to discontinue it. And we're really cautious. But I do have people who are overweight with type one, and I will point out and we can talk more about this later, that actually there are instances in which it could be covered in people with type one. And that would be the obesity overweight obesity indication. And and that would be the main one actually. Yeah. So if somebody and then also with what GAVI there is an indication for using if a person is overweight, or obese, and if they have a cardiovascular disease, so someone has a history of SEO, and a heart attack or stents or bypass or whatever. And if they're overweight, then there's a really, really interesting study that showed a reduction in major cardiovascular events. And people given them a govi. It wasn't that people type one. But there were a few people type one of the studies, it turns out, and they still fit that indication. I hope that made sense. Does

Scott Benner 58:41
Do you think we'll see an approval one day or a study one day for PCOS? Have you seen the people talking about that the the mass amount of women in these Facebook groups who are getting pregnant before they're losing weight on GRPs?

Dr. Blevins 58:54
Yeah, yeah. People with PCO, you know, weight loss can improve fertility and people with PCOS and without, and there are studies that have that are done small studies, there are ongoing studies. Are we going to see an approval? I don't know. I don't see a big study being done. And people PCO at this point, I may not be aware of one that's been done possible, but I think it's really an interesting thought.

Scott Benner 59:21
I think a lot of women suffer with it quietly. Yeah. And it's not looked at and it's

Dr. Blevins 59:26
highly connected to overweight. You said it right. It's highly connected to overweight and insulin resistance. And if you lose weight, the insulin sensitivity improves. Ovulation improves. Really interesting. I

Scott Benner 59:36
am going to share a story that I can't tell you who the person is, but I know them very well. And 20 mid 20s female, not you know, growing up heavy than not heavy, mostly not as an adult through college, and then suddenly in the last year, just gained 60 pounds. They're working out crazy eating as clean as they can gaining weight through the whole Then doctor says you have PCOS. We told her, go back to the doctor, see if they'll give you a week. Ovie something like that. We go, here's that bound doctor gave her we go V. She shot it on Saturday morning, over FaceTime with me because she couldn't bring herself to do it. I had to talk her through it. And she got it in and sent me a text 36 hours later that said, I've lost five pounds. I don't know what that means, or how to measure that. But that's insane. Like is that's not water weight. Do you know what he means? Like, it is probably some of it. But she stopped eating in the past for 36 hours and nothing's happened. And she's eating super clean to begin with. And she's active and everything else. Like, I don't think we have the answer yet. But you can't tell me that there's not something happening here. That's not commensurate to the idea of thyroid stimulating hormone, right? Like you My body's making it but it's not using it correctly. Like, there's gotta be something there making those those GLP receptors light up, that's changing people on a metabolic level like it maybe I'll be wrong one day, but in the moment, this is how I'm thinking about it. Yeah, yeah. Well,

Dr. Blevins 1:01:10
I mean, I'll say 36 hours, five pounds. There's a lot of water there. I think I mean, that or something? Or maybe there was a big blowout, diarrhea, I don't know. But, you know, usually on any diet when a person lowers calories. Typically the first week or two, you lose a lot of water weight for various reasons, part of its decreased salt intake and, and part of it is kind of the ketone formation thing and the less calorie in and all that type. I agree

Scott Benner 1:01:41
with you totally, but she was already doing that. Yeah, there was never a moment whether it was either a Gary has just exploded, and she just that diary, like or whatever it was, that still didn't happen to her when she was eating clean, exercising, and, and etc, and so on. Who knows? Like, I have no idea, I can tell you my daughter's acne is almost completely gone. And she was not overweight to begin with.

Dr. Blevins 1:02:04
Yeah, you know, we have a lot. Well, I will, I will say we have lots to learn. And I will emphasize to the audience, these are anecdotal, please, of course, examples of effect, not that everyone's going to get anything like that. And some people are really not going to tolerate it. And I have some people who simply can't take it as too bad. Can we talk about that people don't have and yet some people don't have as much weight loss as we're talking about either. So life is a bell shaped curve in response to a medicine is to Yeah, and we like to we tend to talk about the real yet exceptional examples. But remember, not everyone gets that that result.

Scott Benner 1:02:42
Talk to me about the not tolerating it when you don't tolerate it, what does that look like?

Dr. Blevins 1:02:46
You know, the main thing is Gi, and it's typically just what we talked about that gastric emptying, change, and maybe even some central effect can induce nausea, vomiting, it tends to get better over time, we always start with the low dose and we titrate or increase the dose very gradually, we if we increase the dose, and then a person gets side effects, we back off. And that's very doable. You have to work with your health care person when it comes to that. And, and so diarrhea, and constipation, the medicines typically slow down the GI tract all the way down, but some people can get diarrhea as well. Commonly, those those effects are tolerable or get better. I had a gentleman in this morning who told me he's taking one of the meds and that at the highest dose, he gets really tight in his abdomen and very uncomfortable. And he's backed it off, backed it off, backed off and I encouraged him to continue to and try to find a happy medium because the GI tract is in the balance here. Some people can't take it and if you look at studies for up to 8% of people on these meds discontinue because of the GI side effects. Now they're those effects can be matched with medicine. I don't like to treat the side effects of one medicine with another but it's sometimes temporary use of like anti nausea pills can help. And you can use medicines or anti diarrheal 's to same concept but that typically are temporary but not always. And so people need to be aware of that. It just happens it's not your fault if that happens. I will say this if you have nausea and maybe Anyway remember that high fat slows the stomach down to so if you add fat plus a GOP one, your chance of nausea it goes right up. So one thing to do is cut the fat back about

Scott Benner 1:04:40
Yeah, no I don't eat high fat to begin with. I don't use any oils almost at all in my life. But I was very careful about that. I also if I don't see myself going to the bathroom I add a little magnesium oxide to my supplementing Yeah, I knew how important it was to keep the process rolling once I started this, like, if I don't see myself going, going every day on this, I hydrate, I take the magnesium like I keep things moving. I know there are some, you know, people love to yell in the media about stuff like this, but have people been injured permanently from it at all that you know of like, I mean, and is that got something to do with who they were before they started? And? Or could it because I think the fear is like randomly you're just not going to be able to like, I don't know, digest food anymore. Like you mean like people get when they hear about it, and you hear them panic about it, they say kind of bombastic things like that, is there a call for concern,

Dr. Blevins 1:05:37
you can ask something, when we talked about half life earlier, I mentioned that, that, you know, the week Half Life means that it takes a week to reach 50%, I'll tell the audience, it typically takes five half lives for a medicine to get totally out of your body. So if a medicine has a long half life, it's gonna take a while for it to get out. So if you have a symptom that you don't like, and you're gonna stop the medicine, it's not like you stop it. And that just goes away with this type of medicine because of the long half life. The symptoms of like the slowed gastric emptying are gonna go on for a while, and maybe they'll go longer than that. But there's really no clear evidence that those go on forever. And some people have underlined gastroparesis, and we don't know. And, and we might bring it out, make it worse. And then after they get off the Med, they may they may get diagnosed. And I may say maybe think Well, I have this now because the answer is I think they probably had it before. And there's still a lot to learn, but there's no clear evidence out of studies that there's there's a permanent impairment. Right. Okay. And, you know, there are other side effects too, we could talk about that. That's, I think the main one that people talk about,

Scott Benner 1:06:48
I would, I would never minimize anybody's experience. But either, yeah, but I want to say this, and I want to leave with that. I've interviewed 1000s of people. And I have access to my Facebook group that has 50,000 active people in it. And so when my daughter at 18 years old, was told by a GI doctor, she had gastro precess, even though her a one C had been in the fives and the low sixes for most of her life. I didn't accept that. And we went and looked at other ideas, and added a digestive enzyme to her process of eating, which made all of her stomach pain go away. I shared that on the podcast. And I have to tell you that the amount of people with type one who I hear back from who just said to me, I thought my stomach was gonna hurt the rest of my life. I thought there was something wrong with me, my body was broken, etc, and so on. Now, I've added this, and it's all gone. It just cleared up. So we don't talk enough about when you get type one diabetes, some people get digestive problems, right. I mean, you know, they used to give Amazon out like it was like candy to type ones. But now if suddenly we don't do that anymore, so we, we ignore the possible digestive implications of having type one diabetes. And then when people talk about stomach issues, they send them right to a GI doc, who just jumps right to you have slow gastric emptying, you have gastroparesis. And I wonder if there's not, it wouldn't be helpful if people were better educated about that and spoke more about that to their patients. Do you find yourself seeing those things? Yeah,

Dr. Blevins 1:08:27
I think it was a really good point. And I think gastroparesis should be diagnosed based on you know, commonly some testing to document what's going on. And I think if anyone goes to their GI doc, please, if you're on a GLP one, tell them about that. Because everyone, you know, we we in the endocrine world, diabetes world, we're, we're all up on it. But not everyone is. And I can't tell you how many people now the GI Doc's I work with are really sharp. And they picked up on this very quickly. But I got some calls early on, from people saying, Hey, I just did an endoscopy on somebody who's on that medicine and they're still fluid in their stomach and they haven't eaten anything since last night. We've learned a lot, we've learned that that can happen. Slow gastric emptying can leave contents there for a while. And you need to be aware of that. If you're a GI doctor, and then this thing about symptoms too. I've had people go through major gi workups. And, and they're told Finally, well, everything's okay. Take these medicines, and it might help. And then they come back to my office, I go, Oh, you're on this medicine that probably cause all those symptoms. And Did y'all talk about that? And the answer is, there's been a lot learned and things have gotten a lot clearer. But But these medicines if you slow the stomach down, what happens? Well, you slow the stomach down, you could get fuller. And, and like my patient said earlier, it felt like his stomach was tight. Yeah, and that's no surprise. You can also have that gastric to juice be kind of pushed up the esophagus because there's more pressure and you could get some a soft vaginas. So it's important to kind of understand the implications of that gastric emptying thing.

Scott Benner 1:10:11
I have to tell you my acid reflux has completely gone away on a GLP. Right? Yeah, good. Is that in common?

Dr. Blevins 1:10:18
All things are possible there. They could get worse. I mean, you said it's got better for you. Yeah. And so the various things can happen. Okay. Most people really don't have any don't have an increase in reflex. Some do. And I can understand how it could get better, too. So there you go. And, and a lot of variability from person to person.

Scott Benner 1:10:39
I think we're coming up on our time. Is that right? We could go a little bit longer the longer Can I ask you about? So two things? So first of all, availability? Are you seeing it get better? I know there was a flood somewhere that slowed it down for a little bit? Like do you think that they just can't keep up with this? Do you think that so many people are using it? What Why are we seeing this? Do you think it'll clear up at some point?

Dr. Blevins 1:10:59
Yeah, availability has been a big deal. And I think part of it is related to some manufacturing difficulties. Part of it, the most of it, I think, is due just as pure demand. I mean, these these medicines are in high demand. And we almost need a pipeline, you know, there's so much that is needed and needs to be distributed. And we've seen those Olympic supply became very challenging, and it's improved a little bit in my experience will go the challenging, and maybe getting better, I keep hearing next month is going to be better. And then the next month comes in, it's not better June next month. And then now now, you know mount Jarrow has had some tight supply zapped bound as well. And of course, we as treatment people, like I want I want my people with diabetes, to have availability to the medicines they need. Right. And I like people losing weight, that's great. And so, you know, people that don't have diabetes, and you lose weight, that's important people with diabetes, big deal. So, you know, there's this this kind of back and forth about, you know, people who really needed aren't getting it really needed, what the definition of that, but that would be, you know, I think most people think those people with diabetes, again, we're talking type two, because remember, these are not approved? Yes. In general, for type one.

Scott Benner 1:12:24
I mean, listen, I, they've got to, they want to make money, right, they've got to figure out a way to get on top of it. I think one of them literally just bought a new place and down south somewhere, or they bought they bought somebody else's building and they're they're manufacturing, they're trying to get set up for it. I don't think it's because they're not trying. To me it lends to the idea of doing studies in other populations, because if it's this popular now, and you're not going to be able to stop taking it. And we have no shortage of people who could use it for diabetes and or weight, or hunger or PCOS or whatever we end up using it for like moving forward, find more people to give it to so you can make excuses to build more buildings and hire more people and produce more. I've heard of people getting it through China, like through China through a Canadian pharmacy into that was happening like that for a while. It's insane.

Dr. Blevins 1:13:13
Your your points well taken? Yeah. I think the demand surprised everyone, the potential the benefit has been embraced. And there's a shortage, which I think will cure in the next few months. Of course, I said that three or four months ago, too.

Scott Benner 1:13:29
Do you think that the demand was surprising is an indication that it works?

Dr. Blevins 1:13:33
I do? Yeah, I do. And I think that, that people understand that people with diabetes, that have the under the indication, benefit, a great deal from it. And that's really a big deal, because lowering the agency reduces risk of complications of diabetes, and helps all the metabolic issues that occur with diabeetus. And we know now that at least a few of these are approved for reducing cardiovascular risk. This studies were done in people with known heart disease, of course, but we know that too, there there are benefits all the way around. And but I think that people who don't have those, the diabeetus. And those risks still want it because weight loss is something people want. And for good reason. I can't blame them at all.

Scott Benner 1:14:19
Can I give you my my big theory? Yes. I think that after a generation of people using GLP medications, and basically learning to eat less and eat better, because they're being chemically kind of directed like that, that we might raise a new generation of people who don't eat poorly. I know that's a big idea. It's a generational idea. But how do your kids end up eating poorly? It's because you eat poorly and you maybe don't even know it. I use this example all the time. My mom who's passed now was told she was pre diabetic a few years ago, and she called me and said Scott i They Say I have prediabetes I'm gonna film to change up my diet completely. So that's great mom. And then I visited her a week later, and I opened up a refrigerator and everything she bought, couldn't have been a worse decision. Because she just didn't know the right things to eat, right. And that's the lady who taught me how to eat, right. And then I taught my kids how to eat except I got lucky, at some point and said to myself, we're doing this wrong, my wife and I were like, we both grew up very blue collar very simply, nobody understood, you know, nutrition at all. And what we consider to be good food was just the stuff we couldn't afford, that we got once in a while is a treat. And that made it good food is really interesting, like how we think about what's actually good for us. So that's my big idea. My big idea is if we take a generation of parents, and write their thinking that they might raise a generation of kids who don't get, I can see in three generations, this completely flipping the other way and forcing Agra to move with it. Because if we're not buying it, they're not going to make it. That's kind of how I feel about it.

Dr. Blevins 1:16:05
I like your idea there. I think starting early, with pretty much anything when it comes to kids is going to have long term consequences. And I think dietary, you know, approaches that early ages that are good, make make things happen. I've actually know some your young children who eat nothing but vegetables and all that all day, it seems. And they really, they do like ice cream and that but they don't. It's a treat, it's not a common, it's not something they expect, but they don't like some of the things that are really what we'd consider it to be high fat. And they're just because their tastebuds are there, they're acclimated to things that are different and, and they're healthy. And I do think you start early, whether it comes to when it comes to food or various things, like Stay away from drugs and cigarettes and all that I think you start early and you teach the kids how to how to go, it

Scott Benner 1:17:00
just becomes kind of second nature. Yeah, I do a Pro Tip series about diabetes with a with a CD or excuse me with a nude, a woman who's got type one diabetes, and is a nutritionist and her children eat fantastically, but So does she. Yeah, and that I think it just is what Liz also, I have to tell you, Tom, if you're willing to do this a few more times, I think you and I are gonna have a Pro Tip series on GLP is together because this is fantastic. I can't thank you enough for spending the time and we still have we didn't even get to the listener questions yet.

Dr. Blevins 1:17:30
So there's a lot to talk about. No, I'd love to. Okay, we'd love to. That's

Scott Benner 1:17:33
great. Kate, listen, do you accept new patients at the practice? Or would it not benefit you for us to share your information like that? I

Dr. Blevins 1:17:41
really don't see new patients. I do supervise a lot of people with advanced practice providers. We have excellent group here, who are really experts on diabeetus. But we have we're a single specialty. We have 12 doctors and three offices here. So though, I don't see any patients. The we as a practice, we see new patients all the time. Okay. In the Austin area, people come from various and we do diabeetus all endocrine so, you know, some listing that would include the practice predominantly

Scott Benner 1:18:14
and no, I Well, for sure. What would tell me the website? Yeah,

Dr. Blevins 1:18:19
it's Texas. diabetes.com. Okay. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:18:24
I'll put it in the show notes as well. And I'm not kidding you. When you get done. You send me the study information that I can share online. I'll put it in a place where a lot of people say it for you. Okay, I'll

Dr. Blevins 1:18:33
do it. Yeah, we'll do that. Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate that. Oh, my God, let's let's put off the Frezza a little bit, because, first of all, we'll probably want to do more GLP. One first, because there are quite a few things we didn't get to your right. And we need to like the muscle mass change all that stuff. Preparing for surgery, all that very practical, that the impressive thing, American diabetes is late June, and there's going to be I know there's going to be a study presented that will make that discussion more useful. Okay. And I can't talk about the results before them. So anyway, when that's okay,

Scott Benner 1:19:08
can I leave this part in you talking about it? Like that? Yes. Okay. Because what I see here on I'm going to keep recording. You're back with me in two weeks. I think we need that one and one more to get through. GLP. Okay, and, and then do a fourth one on a friends. I think that would be terrific.

Dr. Blevins 1:19:25
That'd be great. Okay, cool. Very good. All right.

Scott Benner 1:19:27
Use that link I gave you and grab a couple more recording dates. I'll do okay. All right, Tom. This has been fantastic. No, you're amazing. Thank you. Bye. It's

a huge thank you to ever since CGM for sponsoring this episode of the podcast. Are you tired of having to change your sensor every seven to 14 days with the ever since CGM you just replace it once Every six months via a simple in office visit, learn more and get started today at ever since cgm.com/juice box don't forget to get rid of that food go to Omni pod.com/juice box that's Omni pod.com/juice box check out the Omni pod five get rid of that foo today. If you're looking for community, check out the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, but everyone is welcome type two gestational, as long as you're impacted by diabetes. You're welcome in my private group. It's absolutely free and currently has 50,000 members, we add 150 new members every three days. The diabetes variable series from the Juicebox Podcast goes over all the little things that affect your diabetes that you might not think about travel and exercise to hydration and even trampolines. juicebox podcast.com. Go up in the menu and click on diabetes variables. If you are a loved one was just diagnosed with type one diabetes, and you're looking for some fresh perspective. The bold beginning series from the Juicebox Podcast is a terrific place to start. That series is with myself and Jenny Smith. Jenny is a CDC es a registered dietician and a type one for over 35 years. And in the bowl beginning series Jenny and I are going to answer the questions that most people have after a type one diabetes diagnosis. The series begins at episode 698 In your podcast player, or you can go to juicebox podcast.com. And click on bold beginnings in the menu. If you're not already subscribed or following in your favorite audio app, please take the time now to do that. It really helps the show and get those automatic downloads set up so you never miss an episode. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong way recording.com

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#1211 Poor Richard

Katie was diagnosed with type 1 at 22 years old.

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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 and welcome to episode 1211 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On this episode of the podcast I'll be speaking with Katie she's 28 years old, she was diagnosed at 22. She has ADHD and we're going to spend a lot of time today talking about her life. Her diagnosis story, which is pretty scary, actually comes at the end of the episode. While you're listening, please don't forget that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan, or becoming bold with insulin. If you or your child have type one diabetes and you're a US resident, please go to T one D exchange.org/juicebox. and complete the survey. When you complete that survey, you're helping type one diabetes research to move forward. You're also supporting the podcast and you may be helping yourself T one D exchange.org/juice. Box. When you place your first order for ag one with my link, you'll get five free travel packs and a free year's supply of vitamin D. Drink ag one.com/juice box. My cozy Earth offer code is going away in June. Well, it's not really going away it's going down it's 40% off when you use the offer code juice box and cozy earth.com until June first and then it goes to 30% So hurry up. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by ever since the ever since CGM is more convenient requiring only one sensor every six months. It offers more flexibility with its easy on Easy Off smart transmitter and allows you to take a break when needed. Ever since cgm.com/juice box. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. Learn more and get started today at contour next one.com/juice box. This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries G voc hypo Penn, find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash juicebox.

Katie Scott 2:15
Hi, I'm Katie Scott. I'm 28 years old, I was diagnosed as a diabetic at 22. And it's been a wild adventure getting diagnosed at 22 at a time where you're becoming independent and figuring out your life. But through that I've been able to start my own business Eureka aerial, which is a youth aerial dance company in Minnesota. That has been just the most magical thing. So yeah, that's kind of what I want to talk about today. All right.

Scott Benner 2:47
So let's figure out how you got to this diagnosis.

Katie Scott 2:51
Oh my god,

Scott Benner 2:53
what was the first thing you know? Because 22 You're on your own right?

Katie Scott 2:56
Oh my god. Yeah, I was on my own. I was going through yoga teacher training at the time. I'm not a yoga teacher anymore. But I was like living my healthy life. Right. Also, I was drinking so much water. I was like, This is great. I'm drinking so much water. I'm like hydrated. And you know, whatever. Well turns out like you know, the drinking water would be because I had type one. And I was like just excessively thirsty all the time. So I would say probably I was undiagnosed. I'm really not sure how long it could be anywhere from six months to four months. And it really came to a close when I was just losing weight extremely rapidly. I was down to like 80 pounds because I'm only five feet tall. So like, but also 80 pounds like I was like skeletal the water drinking that I was proud of and ended up me if I would forget my water bottle I was having like panic attacks because I was I was so thirsty. And then I couldn't sleep at night because I was constantly getting up to go to the bathroom. Okay, I had a yeast infection for like, for like four months, a chronic yeast infection that like wouldn't go away and looking back like I kept going to the doctor for it and like you know, getting getting antibiotics what or whatever. And turns out like that's one of the number one signs in women who have type one undiagnosed type one is like chronic yeast infections.

Scott Benner 4:26
Katie, the number of women who have told me they had a yeast infection. It goes into the dozens. So you're not the first person so

Katie Scott 4:32
it's horrible. Yeah. And I was like, me and my fiance. He's my fiancee now but we just only been dating six months. And he invites me out to this wedding and Colorado at the end of the summer. Okay, we're in like the highest elevation point on this mountain. I'm sitting on a hay bale during this wedding and address in the hot sun with the worst yeast infection of my life in Colorado. And I just started dating him. So I wasn't comfortable enough to be like I have a yeast infection. And like, his family was there. So I'm like I have, I'm just gonna suffer in this hot sun on a hay bale with a yeast infection. Like it was, it was honestly, the most uncomfortable I've ever been in my whole entire life. I was like, this is awful. If somebody

Scott Benner 5:20
would have thrown a roll under you, do you think you would have been like that probably fell out of me.

Katie Scott 5:25
Ah, I was like, I you know what? That's reasonable, really should have thought about because I would have been so rich if I created a business out of my yeast production, because I don't think anyone's gonna buy your yeast rolls. But okay, you'd be surprised in this day and age. In this day and age, everyone would be like, Wow, that's super woman owned business. Wow. It's made from and now I could even be like, it's made from a disabled woman.

Scott Benner 5:54
Baker. Disabled to try to. Some

Katie Scott 5:57
people say type one type one is a disability or chronic illness, but it's like it's kind of both you know, whatever. Like

Scott Benner 6:02
you're trying to get more juice for your for your Instagram by calling. Oh, yeah, I

Katie Scott 6:07
should put that in my bio.

Scott Benner 6:08
Can I ask you a serious question? Yes. You're only dating this guy for a short time? Were you intimate with Him? Yeah, it

Katie Scott 6:14
was intimate with Him.

Scott Benner 6:15
Did it occur to you to be like, maybe this guy's not clean? Like, no, no, no, no. So

Katie Scott 6:19
I actually also just get yeast infections kind of anyway. Something you do for fun if someone looks at me the wrong way. I think I can just be like a yeast infection. But his he's very clean. He's very, very clean. But like, yeah, no previous partners. I was like, You need to wash your hands like I get it. But no, like not. He's very, very clean. But ya know, like, we were intimate but like, only when like, my yeast infection would go away for a short period of time from the antibiotics then you were

Scott Benner 6:49
like it's time. Yeah, no kidding. Hey, you know, I knew this is gonna be a fun interview when you said that you were becoming a yoga teacher.

Katie Scott 6:58
Yeah, what do you want to know about that? No. I

Scott Benner 7:01
just want to know if how deep were you into it? If I said mantra and Yantra creates what would you say? If you take insulin or sulfonylureas you are at risk for your blood sugar going too low. You need a safety net when it matters most. Be ready with G voc hypo pen. My daughter carries G voc hypo pen everywhere she goes because it's a ready to use rescue pen for treating very low blood sugar and people with diabetes ages two and above that I trust. Low blood sugar emergencies can happen unexpectedly and they demand quick action. Luckily, G voc hypo pen can be administered in two simple steps even by yourself in certain situations. Show those around you where you store G vo Capo pen and how to use it. They need to know how to use G vo Capo pen before an emergency situation happens. Learn more about why G vo Capo pen is in Ardens diabetes toolkit at G voc glucagon.com/juicebox. G voc shouldn't be used if you have a tumor in the gland on the top of your kidneys called a pheochromocytoma. Or if you have a tumor in your pancreas called an insulinoma. Visit G voc glucagon.com/risk. For safety information. That contour next gen blood glucose meter is the meter that we use here. Arden has one with her at all times. I have one downstairs in the kitchen, just in case I want to check my blood sugar. And Arden has them at school. They're everywhere that she is contour next one.com/juice box test strips. And the meters themselves may be less expensive for you in cash out of your pocket than you're paying currently through your insurance for another meter. You can find out about that and much more at my link contour next one.com/juice box contour makes a number of fantastic and accurate meters. And their second chance test strips are absolutely my favorite part. What does that mean? If you go to get some blood and maybe you touch it and I don't know stumble with your hand and like slip off and go back. It doesn't impact the quality or accuracy of the test so you can hit the blood not good enough, come back get the rest without impacting the accuracy of the test. That's right, you can touch the blood come back and get the rest and you're gonna get an absolutely accurate test. I think that's important because we all stumble and fumble at times. That's not a good reason to have to waste a test strip and with a contour next gen. You won't have to contour next.com forward slash juicebox you're gonna get a great reading without having to be perfect.

Katie Scott 9:46
Oh, I don't know like Hear me out. Okay, let me tell you a little bit about that. I grew up in a dance like I grew up as a dancer, okay. I was like a competitive dancer. It was like my first love in life was my first passion was And I started teaching dance when I was like 17. And I had when I graduated high school I had, I went to community college and dropped out. And then I went back to community college, and I dropped out again, because I didn't learn the first time, which is fine. And so I was like, I didn't really I don't think I'd ever really even done yoga that much at all. And I decided I was going to, I did no research into it. And I found a yoga place offering teacher trainings. And I was like, Yeah, that's what you go to school for. Right? Like, you will learn how to like, you know, do teach yoga, I thought it would be like, an extra thing on my resume, because I was still teaching dance at the time. And, you know, I was gonna be this yoga teacher shirt. What I didn't realize is that like, well, first of all, I was like, one of the like, the youngest ones at the time in the in the room, and it was like, mostly like women 30 to 40 year old mom, 3540 year old moms, and a little older, you know, doing it as like, because they've been doing yoga forever. And they just wanted to deepen their practice and then start teaching, right. So also, I did realize like, I picked one of the most spiritual yoga studios, and I was learning all these like crazy things. I honestly couldn't keep up like, I just wanted to do the splits. And I did I did get into it, though. I did really like it. I did get a little too crazy for me and where it just it did become a little bit culty like, I joke to some people that I accidentally joined a yoga cult. Because I did like it. It wasn't like a fun one. Like we weren't doing like, you know, the fun stuff. Some I don't. It's our colds, fun. I don't I don't know. I just like imagine like, you know, like the hippies, you know, like, taking acid and like, doing whatever they do sharing a toothbrush. Like none of that. Katie,

Scott Benner 11:54
I can't keep up with you. I talk so fast. And you are so much quicker than I am. Like,

Katie Scott 12:00
really? Fail. Calm down. I probably had too much caffeine, but you're

Scott Benner 12:05
not on anything. Right? Like, like on what? Oh, Coke? No, no. Okay.

Katie Scott 12:12
I have to teach later. Today. I teach kids how dare you because

Scott Benner 12:14
no one ever said did you speak quickly? Are you like maybe just jacked up for this?

Katie Scott 12:18
I think I'm I'm definitely having a little bit of an adrenaline rush. And I drink a lot of caffeine.

Scott Benner 12:25
By the way, I'm okay with it. Okay, okay.

Katie Scott 12:28
I'm like, Oh, my God, do I sound up right now?

Scott Benner 12:30
Like, we're gonna tap a whole new market. Like, I have to admit when I watched those video podcasts that are like, you know, two young people complaining about life. And they're going back and forth so quickly. My I'm like, Oh, my God, like, slow down.

Katie Scott 12:44
That's the attention span these days. It's

Scott Benner 12:47
like seven words. And then somebody goes, Oh, my God, and then it moves on to something else. I'm like, Yeah,

Katie Scott 12:52
that's me. Yeah, that's I'm a proud I'm a product of the generation. I'm going to be honest. Oh, my

Scott Benner 12:56
God, that's good. I love that. I love I love that you were like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna learn yoga. I don't know anything about it. Yeah, I

Katie Scott 13:05
was like, I'm gonna I don't know. Like, it seemed like a good idea. And it was, it was interesting, because, you know, I kept not doing it, right. Like the chanting and stuff. Like, I remember like, they brought us through this, like chakra meditation. And like, this girl next to me is just starts bawling. And she's in a fetal position. And is like, you know, like, one person one time was like, everyone was having these like, crazy spiritual experiences in class. And I was like, dang, it's not working for me. I'm like, Am I doing this? Right? Maybe they were pretending. That's kind of what I'm thinking. And then I like, look back. Because my experience now with I've been in the I would, I'll just say creative movement for a long time, you know, growing up as a dancer, and then picking up Arial, which is like, if you guys don't know what Arial is. It's circus, basically. But I don't. It's kind of circus, but I only do the aerial portion of circus. And it's more like dancing, if that makes sense. So you're like, hanging from the ceiling on a sill, or a hoop or stuff like that? Yeah. And I've done a lot of training without stuff like that. Right? What? No, I don't teach Paul because I teach kids that kids don't pull dance. No, I mean, like they could, but I don't think that. I don't think I need to. I think that's self explanatory. Do

Scott Benner 14:22
you think it's self explanatory? Why we don't want kids to pole dance.

Katie Scott 14:25
I would hope that my the parents at the studio would say something to me if I'm like, we're introducing poll now. I would hope that they would say something, you know,

Scott Benner 14:35
your kids know how to arch your back.

Katie Scott 14:39
It's just, ya know, like, I don't know, like, I have a lot of friends that are pulled answers. And they're amazing. And it's not always it's, it really is just another aerial apparatus. And it's not always about, you know, doing a sexy dance or whatever. Like I've seen some amazing ones but unfortunately, it is affiliated with Non kid things I

Scott Benner 15:02
didn't actually mean it that way I meant like i The hanging from the silks and stuff like that like it gives me the same feeling because what you're doing is repetitive in a circle. That's all

Katie Scott 15:11
the way it took to the ceiling. There's a my my Blinky on this right now. A swivel. Yeah, it helps you spin and pull. Dancers also are on a swivel, but it's on the floor.

Scott Benner 15:21
Yeah, no, I know. I've also seen a lot of people do pole dancing for like, wellness and and fitness. Oh, yeah.

Katie Scott 15:28
No, it's a great community. Like, especially I'm in Minnesota, and the pole community here is so loving and nice, but it's just, you know, I don't specialize in teaching poll. I also prefer teaching children over adults. I've done both and I prefer children. And I just what I don't really learn things that I don't wouldn't be able to teach, if that makes sense.

Scott Benner 15:51
Katie, why do you prefer teaching children? Okay,

Katie Scott 15:53
so that's a great question. So I started teaching kids when I was 17. Actually, even before that, like, I was a number one babysitter in my community. I was like, doing all kids stuff. I taught Sunday school for a moment. I started teaching kids dance. And then I taught kids dance from 17 till I was about 24, before he opened up my own studio, and my last dance teaching job. The I had the craziest kids and I just thought I needed a break from teaching kids. So I was like, I'm just going to only teach adults, right. And then I started teaching adults, and I was teaching yoga, I was teaching Arial as well. And bar, whatever fitness classes, and I hated it. I just I felt like I couldn't, I have always had to be like, serious. And I'm just not a serious person whatsoever. And it just was weird to because I was only when I started my business. I was 23 We opened our doors when I was 24. And it just felt like, and I was like always the youngest one in the room most of the time. And it was a lot of like, women in their like 30s or 40s that were like serious about fitness. Or would trauma dump their personal issues on to me, who where it's like you're an adult, you can figure this out like it'll be okay. And they a lot of them got really obsessive about me like almost to a stalker level. Okay, yeah, it was pretty crazy. And I just wasn't, I really wasn't enjoying it anymore. And so we decided to offer a kids aerial class at the studio, and I just fell in love with it again. I was like, Oh, yes, this is much better. Because to be honest, I wait rather hear about why your favorite flavor of Jolly Rancher is cherry for 30 minutes over problems that you have in your life that you can control. You know, I want

Scott Benner 17:53
to know the what's the craziest story, some lady dumped on you in that dance studio.

Katie Scott 18:02
Um, she was complaining. This is just the first one that popped up. She was complaining that her husband hasn't been himself lately, and was just complaining about how needy he's been after he had just had a major heart surgery that he ended up being awake during the whole time for.

Scott Benner 18:19
So this man had heart surgery, and his life is changing. And he's going through something and

Katie Scott 18:26
through the surgery. He was like, sedated, but he was awake and felt everything

Scott Benner 18:31
right. And her complaint is that he's needy now. Yeah,

Katie Scott 18:35
because she had to take care of him after heart surgery and she just was like, I still haven't really processed that one.

Scott Benner 18:43
Were you disappointed to hear that? She didn't care that much about him if she had to do something for him.

Katie Scott 18:49
I don't know if I was disappointed because she was already giving red flags. She was she was really clingy. And an interesting human so I I just was like of course you know, you said that like, and it was just something like where I just kind of the conversation. I just had to like walk away because I didn't really have any input other than like, that's so sad. Like, I hope he's okay, you know, but like it was weird when they come when somebody comes to me or a situation like that out of complaining about their spouse that is needing help.

Scott Benner 19:21
Yeah, this is not the first time I've heard this by the way.

Katie Scott 19:25
I obviously have compassion for people who are like oh, it's been hard you know, he went through surgery this whatever I'm like, All yours listener. I'll help where I can but like it was really interesting how self like just it was just wild. It's like just some just the way people are. How do I say self centered like I don't want to call them a narcissist because I think that gets overused thrown around a little too much. But hey,

Scott Benner 19:51
you want to know what else gets overused? Katie? today's podcast is sponsored by the ever since CGM boasting a six month sensor the Ever since CGM offers you these key advantages distinct on body vibe alerts when higher low, a consistent and exceptional accuracy over a six month period, and you only need two sensors per year. No longer will you have to carry your CGM supplies with you. You won't have to be concerned about your adhesive not lasting, accidentally knocking off a sensor or wasting a sensor when you have to replace your transmitter. That's right. There's no more weekly or bi weekly hassles of sensor changes. Not with the ever sent CGM. It's implantable and it's accurate ever since cgm.com/juicebox. The ever since CGM is the first and only long term CGM ever since sits comfortably right under the skin and your upper arm and it lasts way longer than any other CGM sensor. Never again will you have to worry about your sensor falling off before the end of its life. So if you want an incredibly accurate CGM that can't get knocked off, and won't fall off. You're looking for the ever since CGM. Ever since cgm.com/juicebox. gaslighting? I agree. It's an off with that. Yeah. Listen, I've heard people say, my spouse got sick, and it's crimp in my lifestyle, and I don't like it. But I've actually I've, I've heard people say that, like I had plans, I didn't know I was gonna have to sit around taking care of them. And I'm like, Richard, poor sickness and health that the apart those things didn't my god, were you listening?

Katie Scott 21:36
Oh, no, they weren't listening. They were just doing it because they liked the wedding, they wanted a wedding. You know, they wanted to say Yes to the Dress, something to like, go back. And like kind of like, touch on a few things about that, especially when it comes to type one. I'm very lucky that when I was diagnosed, I was dating my now fiance's Spencer, who is just the best person ever, I'm not gonna get into it too much. But like, he's just an incredible human but, and we've stayed together. And he was my emotional support system, like, my family was not really there for me at all. So he was the only one I had, and it was like six months in, you know, I'm a part of these, like, type one, diabetes support groups on Facebook. And sometimes those are good. And sometimes, you know, I mean, as people are like, there gets to be like, crazy debates on there, whatever, which is dumb, but I have read stories about how people with type one, their partner is just completely like, getting upset if they need to help with a low or literally doing anything like for them to, like, help them through like this. And it doesn't even need to be a ton because like, it's a lot of the times the people that are talking about this, it's they're already like managing diabetes really well themselves. But it's like, you know, you have those like moments where like, you need someone who's supposed to be like your spouse to like, take over and take care of you. And instead, they're treated as needy or, like too much work. And it's almost like their partner makes it about them. And how it's impacting their lives or the fact that like, the person you love is going through something really difficult. And it's, it's, it's challenging. Katie, what

Scott Benner 23:23
you're describing is that it's simple to say you'll be there. It's difficult to actually do it when something unexpected comes up. And yeah, that's when you find out who's on your side. who's got your back, who really loves you like that kind

Katie Scott 23:37
of stuff. And that Oh, yeah. 1,000% Yeah.

Scott Benner 23:39
Hey, where are your parents? Are your parents still together? Are they divorced?

Katie Scott 23:42
Yeah, there's somehow still together like, and my mom's gonna listen to this. So hi, mom. But they can fight. It's crazy. But you know what, the highs are high and the lows are low. And they've been together for? Well, I'm 28. And longer than that to over 30 years. So they've got something figured out. I don't know. It was pretty chaotic, though growing up with the fighting, but they've stayed together. So I think they're meant for each other at this point, you know, and they're both you know, it's interesting when you become an adult, and your relationships with your parents change because you become an adult. And now, I see my parents as who they are as people other than parents, like my mom and dad. And they've become, I consider them like, very good friends. And also I love them as my parents, but like, it's interesting, how the dynamic changes. Yeah, you

Scott Benner 24:36
can start seeing them as real people and not not just your parents. Well, I have to tell you, I think if you're gonna stay married for 30 years, you're gonna have some really great fights. So Oh, yeah, I Yes. I don't know how else to how else to say they change as you get older.

Katie Scott 24:52
I'm looking forward to it. Fighting. Oh, yeah. I'm looking forward to everything that comes with marriage.

Scott Benner 24:59
Well My wife said to me the other day, why do you tease me so much? And I was like, I love you.

Katie Scott 25:06
Yeah. It is. You know, that's, that's actually really funny you say that? Because I mean, me and Spencer always like, we've built a relationship on play, you know? And it's very, very fun most the time, but sometimes it's not, you're like, Oh, you crossline we don't argue like really? About much. And when we do, it stays pretty controlled. And I've paid for so much therapy that if I wasn't regulated, I would ask for a refund at this point. So I'm, I'm confident that we can both get through those arguments with good boundaries and a good head on our shoulders. Yeah,

Scott Benner 25:47
you have to be I mean, you have to be realistic. Oh, yeah. I think that it's important to remember that there are times when you're not going to make sense. And there are times when he's not going to make sense. And then you have to give each other a pass. Because the way I think about it, like you know, there, there are times I just don't like she doesn't mean that, like we've been together for 30 years. She's just upset. Like, I'm not going to take that personally. And, you know, I hope she does that for me in return. I don't think she does. I think she takes but but but I've also I've advocated for her, I said, is there a possibility we could put like a warning light on you. And then when the light is lit, I know that you're going to take everything super personally and never let it go. And then when the lights off, for instance, I know you're gonna be like, you know, I don't want to say reasonable, but you know what I'm saying? And I'm sure the same for me. Like, you know what I mean? Like, there's times you hear something, you just like, you're out of your mind. And you're just like, oh my god, you know, and then there's times just like, that's fine. It's cool. So yeah,

Katie Scott 26:47
I think it's just interesting because with your partner, it's that's the person you're well you're supposed to be like the closest with so they can they really get to see you. So like raw, I guess. I don't know if I love the term raw, but like, you're the most vulnerable around people that you love the most, you know? Yeah.

Scott Benner 27:06
And you're supposed to be but then they can use it against you. And that's when you really find out if you're like when they won't use it against you. Like this person really cares about me. You know, so honestly,

Katie Scott 27:17
Spencer's really not, believe it or not, I'm the more confrontational one in our relationship.

Scott Benner 27:22
Why would I not believe that?

Katie Scott 27:24
I don't know. I'm just you know, it might surprise you.

Scott Benner 27:27
It surprised you.

Katie Scott 27:28
He's very gentle and caring and understanding. So ya know, I just feel like he doesn't, he hasn't really held anything against me like that,

Scott Benner 27:38
ever. Well, you guys are still young and cute. So he's not gonna like, you know, they mean

Katie Scott 27:42
how long we've been together for seven years now. Seven years? Yeah.

Scott Benner 27:46
What are you trying to say? You think he's sick of you? Oh,

Katie Scott 27:49
I think we're both sick of each other. But we love each other. I think that's kind of what that is. Right? Like you. I mean, it is better than when we were first dating because I had a yeast infection all the time. But it's not as exciting. You know what I mean? But like, I mean, we have so much fun together. So and I do genuinely just love the guy.

Scott Benner 28:07
It's gonna morph. It's gonna keep morphing. If you're lucky, it'll keep morphing as you go. I'll

Katie Scott 28:12
keep you updated. You'll have to have me on the podcast again in 10 years, and I'll give you might update.

Scott Benner 28:18
Yeah, I'm gonna get more sleep before I talk to you next time. You know, it's interesting. You want to hear some stuff about yourself? Yeah, when your stream of consciousness, you're, that's when you're going faster. You're good at telling a story when your stream of consciousness, but it's like, it's really fast. But when you slow down, if I asked you a question, and you start thinking about the answer, you get really slow when you're talking. Okay,

Katie Scott 28:41
I'll start thinking more. Do you know that about yourself? Um, no, I didn't know that about myself. Yeah, I mean,

Scott Benner 28:48
I've only known you for 25 minutes. But that's the vibe so far. When you stop to think like, like, for example, if I said to you, do you think you answered my question about why you enjoy kids? As a teacher more than adults? Do you think you actually answered the question?

Katie Scott 29:03
I did a little bit, but I could go into that a lot more. And

Scott Benner 29:07
the answer was, I don't enjoy adults because of all the drama they bring. And I don't like that. You told a story. I liked it. Actually. I like what you did.

Katie Scott 29:17
Oh, thank you. Okay. I wasn't sure where you're going with this. I was like, okay. Yeah,

Scott Benner 29:21
no, you told a story. You were like I said, Hey, do you like teaching kids? And you basically were like, look, they're kids and they're adults. Here's why I don't enjoy being with adults, which was the answer of why you but I don't know if that means you enjoy teaching kids or if you just like it better.

Katie Scott 29:35
Why do I love I love my students ideal. They're just the best. I didn't

Scott Benner 29:39
know if you just meant that you liked it better than those adults who are like, you know, in the middle of their drama and somehow think you're their barber and take it to tell you about it.

Katie Scott 29:47
Yeah, gosh, I should call my hairstylist and send her a thank you now but

Scott Benner 29:55
I realized recently, the same person has been cutting my hair for like ever. She does didn't remember me like any more than, well, here's what I mean by that, Katie. I'm doing this new series, right? And so I've, I've like power recorded like eight episodes for this series for next year. So I've recorded them all in the last four weeks. And I was talking to my editor this morning about something. And he brought up one of the episodes and I was like, I don't remember that. And he goes, dude, you recorded that, like three weeks ago, I was like, I do not remember it. I think my hairdresser has the same thing going on. She sees so many people over and over again, hear so many stories, that when she looks at me, she's like, you're Scott, I know that you have a child, another child, a wife, I cut your child's hair. And I know, like high level ideas about our interactions. But if I quizzed her about things that I know that we've spoken about, she would not know the answers to those questions. Oh,

Katie Scott 30:50
no. I mean, like, Okay, I'm going to weigh in on this for two reasons. First of all, I as a business owner, and I'm teaching kids, and I choreograph, and I choreograph with CO teachers and stuff like that. And a teacher that I'm teaching with will teach a move, and I'm like, Oh, that was really cool. I like that. And they will go, oh, you taught me this. And I'm like, what? You know, I think when you're going through, like, certain motions of the day, you know, it's hard, like, or whatever it is harder, but I will on the other hand, so my mom's actually a hairstylist, and I, okay, so I grew up with hair stylists in my life constantly. And my mom's a hairstylist, her best friend, Mandy, who is, we can maybe talk about this later, but I own my business now on my own, but she was half of my business. When I started out, she's another mom to me, basically. And she owns a hair salon. Okay. And I also worked at that hair salon for a little bit. And those women do jack and Lee care. And they listened the amount of times that my mom has come home, and talks about her clients, like her clients have sent me graduation gifts, I can name a few of her clients off the top of my head. And my mom gets really upset when like, she doesn't have another person come back because she genuinely cares. And that's how it is for a lot of the girls. And that might just be like a man woman difference. Kind of a thing for like, you know, with you have to understand like to like their I don't I can't speak for your hairstylist. But I think you'd be surprised with how much she would say about your life.

Scott Benner 32:27
I know. I imagine. It's just It's funny when you get back together. And you're like, we just talked about this six weeks ago. And she's like, I don't remember that. And I'm like, No, I just feel like she talks to so many people. And I can commiserate because for sure. Like I'm listening to you right now. Like very intently, actually. And I'll remember you all day and and a couple of days from now and then your episode will come out. I'll be like, Oh, I remember talking to Katie. She was terrific. And like, I'll feel all that again. It's just it's so much information. You you can't keep it all. I'm

Katie Scott 32:55
gonna quiz you on something good. Do you remember how many times I reached out harassing you to have me on your podcast? Oh,

Scott Benner 33:05
okay. So a lot of people do that, though. So I've

Katie Scott 33:09
been I messaged you, I think multiple times on both my Instagram accounts and my email and you finally caved. And I was like, I was like,

Scott Benner 33:19
I wonder if you mentioned your business upfront. It made me feel like you wanted to come pimp your business. So maybe once I realized when I felt like you didn't want to do that, then I was okay with it. Oh,

Katie Scott 33:28
yeah. No, I don't want to print my business because I don't I don't have a type of business that like, you can buy a product from me. You have to like come to St. Michael, Minnesota and be a child and go upside down. It's not. Oh,

Scott Benner 33:42
I don't know. I might have some people listening in St. Michael, Minnesota. Okay, well, hello to them. Hi. Oh, now you're all sweet. You're like, Oh, wait.

Katie Scott 33:49
10% off with discount code. juicebox. Your first class?

Scott Benner 33:54
Wait, seriously? Let's do are you willing to do that? What Yeah,

Katie Scott 33:58
if you Okay, so I would love it. Yeah, I want to give 10% off your first like aerial session or like workshop or something like that, for sure.

Scott Benner 34:06
If they come in and mention they heard you on the Juicebox Podcast, I will make a coupon

Katie Scott 34:09
code and I will write it down right now. Okay. And if you type in at checkout, we'll just do juice box pod or all one word. Yeah, okay. But let's just say juice box because that's way easier. And I that's what I usually do. Yeah, let's just do juicebox and let's have it be all lowercase.

Scott Benner 34:34
Okay, if this happens, I want you to tell me I will.

Katie Scott 34:37
I definitely will. Okay, I do have a student that's type one, two, and it's we have more in common she's she's just turned 10 But I have more in common with her than a lot of people.

Scott Benner 34:50
You have a more in common with with a how old girl 10

Katie Scott 34:53
year old diabetic who does aerial? She's. Yeah, she's pretty awesome though.

Scott Benner 34:58
All right. Well, I'm looking here. are in the last couple of, yeah. last few weeks, maybe eight weeks. I have 20,000 downloads in Minnesota. So somebody might hear. Hey, all right. I definitely want to know if that happens. I'm not charging enough for my ads. That's what I know for sure. So yeah, no, yours are free for you. But you definitely have to tell me Okay,

Katie Scott 35:23
I will. I will just read your DMS. Don't ignore me this time. Also,

Scott Benner 35:29
I don't ignore people. I'm busy.

Katie Scott 35:32
I'm giving you a hard time because I think it's funny, but it is. I'll let it go. I'll let it I'm gonna let my eye I'm gonna let it go. Okay,

Scott Benner 35:44
thank you. Appreciate you and I can be together because you're gonna let this go. But if we weren't together, you wouldn't let it go. Right? you'd hold on to it forever and ever. Oh,

Katie Scott 35:54
no, I think I just have a feeling we may talk again in the future. And I'll probably bring it up at some point again, I'm going to be

Scott Benner 36:01
honest, maybe why do you think we'll we'll speak again in the future?

Katie Scott 36:04
I don't know. I just have a good feeling about it. Okay, I'm having fun so far. I'm using my yoga chakra manifestation. Alright, listen,

Scott Benner 36:11
let me ask you about your diabetes a little bit. Oh, yeah. Seems like I should. Why do you know about the podcast? Because if Oh, I love this. If I met you on the street, and talk to you for five minutes, and then you walked away? And somebody said to me, Hey, $50, does Katie, listen to your podcasts? There's no, I'd be like, No, there's no way she cares about me. But why do you know about it? I

Katie Scott 36:35
can't remember where I heard about you first. But it was earlier in my diagnosis. And when I was diagnosed, I kind of said my family wasn't supportive. My mom tried to be, but everyone else kind of ignored it. But my mom tried to do it in ways where like, she was really adamant of me being on the keto diet. And it she didn't realize how much that hurt me were like, for one, like the keto diet, I don't love. And to like, I was like, also just struggling with being a young newly diagnosed diabetic and all the changes of that. And I didn't also want to have to, like go on this extreme diet, and also be different. I just wanted to feel as normal as possible. My mom probably listened to you more than I do. Be. And it's actually healed our relationship a lot, because I got to a point where I was like, you know, like, I can't talk to you about my type one anymore. I don't want you to even mention it, because you don't have the right information. And so I sent her your podcast, and she's been listening ever since. And it's been amazing for our relationship. So, um, was able to, like learn and you know, because people put so much garbage out there. Yeah, about whatever. And she was actually able to, like, really figure out like, learn

Scott Benner 37:54
enough that she could speak to you about it. Mm hmm. Oh, good for her. And congratulations to both of you like for you for speaking up and her for listening.

Katie Scott 38:03
Oh, yeah, no, my, my mom and I are very, very close.

Scott Benner 38:06
Excellent. But it was hard to hear her say things that you knew weren't valuable. You weren't seeing you didn't feel seen. And at the same time, you were trying to figure out your life, which seemed completely upside down.

Katie Scott 38:17
Oh, my God, it was horrible. It was so horrible. Like, okay, so and I'm going to be fair to my family. So when I was diagnosed, I have two older sisters, one of my older sisters was dealing with in a very aggressive alcoholism. Like, I don't know how else to explain it. But she was like, to the point where her organs had failed three times. And as an adult, like we couldn't force her to go into a rehab facility like you have to like, prove that they're going to die. I don't know why I didn't, the first two times her organs failed, wasn't enough proof to get them to get her into a rehab facility. And also, it's harder to get women with addiction issues into rehab facilities because there are less beds for women because men have a higher rate of addiction. So there's more beds for them. Like they're more more in demand, I guess. And so, like, the same week, I was diagnosed, I had to visit my sister like, a few days after my diagnosis, I had to visit my sister in the hospital, where she was just like, on her deathbed. Like it was crazy. And when I was diagnosed, I almost felt like I, my parents were betrayed in a way because I was from what I've gathered, I feel as though like, they were betrayed, because now that they, they had to worry about me or they like, you know what I mean? Like I used to, like have it more together and now I don't right. And it was, it was really lonely.

Scott Benner 39:48
So you said something earlier that I don't know if this combined with what you just said now, but you said that, you know your mom tried, but that other people didn't seem like they did. No, I wonder It just doesn't feel like it's too much.

Katie Scott 40:01
That's kind of where I'm at with it. I think my dad, my dad actually yelled at me when I was diagnosed because he like, first of all, I don't want people to be hating on my dad, because I didn't even know about type one diabetes at all. Like, I also like, that didn't even have any information, really to share with them when I was diagnosed. And everyone was convinced that it was type two. So he yelled at me for drinking too much pop when he found out and I'm like, It's not type two, it's type one. But for some reason, getting diagnosed at 22. Like they can't wrap their heads around it like that it can't not be type two. And then we never really talked about it again. And it's just been, it's kind of weird, like at family, like in my older sisters, really just have not said anything about it, or care.

Scott Benner 40:44
I feel like Katie that sometimes people, if you think about a glass that's completely filled with water, and one more drop, and it'll spill out, I think that's how most people's lives are.

Katie Scott 40:56
I have 1,000% agree with you, I and that's why I'm saying to like, don't hate on my family for this, like they. But it is I will also say it is sad when you're struggling and like the one drop of water would be to overfill their thing would be to have show some compassion and care for you. It was a little hurtful, you know,

Scott Benner 41:16
maybe we could give away some of that space to something less important and have some for you.

Katie Scott 41:21
I don't know, it was really, really strange. But you know, it's I'm working on it. Like we're working on it. I think I don't know, going back to my mom, when she was forcing, not I don't want to say forcing but she was trying her best to get me on the keto diet. I had, like, you know, gained a bunch of weight when I was introduced to insulin again. And then also, I gained more weight during that like a bunch. But I'm just saying like, I used to be like, so stupid saying this, but like, I feel like I was I'm only five feet tall. And I've been like 95 to 110 pounds, like my whole life since then. You know, they mean? Not anymore. And weirdly, I just felt like I was valued for my smallness. I don't know why. And I kind of felt like my mom valued me for that.

Scott Benner 42:09
What have you heard in your life that made you feel that way? competitions with

Katie Scott 42:13
my cousin at Christmas of who has the smaller hands brought on by my aunt, and my mom, like happy that I'm smaller? Why would that matter? And it's just weird stuff.

Scott Benner 42:24
Why is having small hands a thing that we want? I don't know.

Katie Scott 42:27
I honestly like I tried. I like took piano lessons growing up and I never was good. With an I couldn't reach an octave with my tiny pa hand. So it's really more of more of a setback. Couldn't be honest. My tiny Paul, but I think to like my mom, like I'm the youngest. And both in my older sisters are both 5556 You know, and like that's a great like, they're beautiful. They're super beautiful. But like, I just feel like my mom just like really like thought of me as like her baby smallness. You know what I mean? Yeah, and then

Scott Benner 42:58
winning like winning something felt good.

Katie Scott 43:01
I don't maybe I guess I don't know. Like, she wasn't like, like, super happy that my hands were smaller. But it was just like, a weird thing. I felt like that was a little bit more on my aunt, where it was like, why are we even having this competition like, and like, she would like preface it by being like, no hurt. There's no ways read his hands are way smaller. And I'm like, oh my god, what

Scott Benner 43:24
are we all talking about?

Katie Scott 43:27
That's something like at the time, it felt what? Fine. But now looking back, and like that's just really weird. And so when I saw I gained weight through COVID, because I was well stressed. And everyone did also like I don't think people talk about this. But I am like a firm believer that women go through their second puberty is mid 20s. And like my body was changing. Yeah,

Scott Benner 43:47
like, yeah, hips, thighs, that kind of stuff. Right? And I think it

Katie Scott 43:51
was hard on my mom to see me like really looked like an adult. And it felt to like the Keto thing. Not only wasn't my diabetes, but also like, she wanted to get like her like little girl back. Weirdly. So that was kind of a mental. I'm gonna be honest, in

Scott Benner 44:08
your mind. She was like, Oh, I wonder if I can help her with this blood sugar thing. And at the same time, thinner down. Yeah,

Katie Scott 44:14
and for some reason, everyone, like thought that I was like, living this chaotic lifestyle, like not taking care of myself all the time. And that's why because I honestly like I get sick pretty easily because that's because I work with kids, too. Like my immune systems weird. I've gotten better at like taking care of myself. So my immune system is not as messed up the stress of like going through COVID owning your business through that. And then you know, running like just everything in life. Like I was getting sick a lot like I was getting knocked down a lot. And a lot of people were like, just like she was accusing me of basically like not taking care of myself, which is like the worst thing you can say to a diabetic that's trying. You know what I mean? Yeah,

Scott Benner 44:58
no, I Yeah, yeah, you You're describing nobody around, you're really understanding diabetes to begin with. So they think you must have done something insane to get it. And then they start judging everything about you that they can see thinking, well, that if she was doing something crazy like that, I wonder what else she's doing? And yeah, and then you nobody understands nobody's supporting you, your body's changing. There's a lot going on, and you're by yourself. Yeah.

Katie Scott 45:23
Oh, it was horrible. I'm gonna be honest, but like, so everyone listening out there. I definitely 1% Think if you're thinking of starting a business, do it. But I'm going to be honest. It's like having a child

Scott Benner 45:38
that I don't drink is a good miracle. Like, just like you. You guys just hear me make the podcast like, like, have the conversations. The rest of it isn't?

Katie Scott 45:47
Oh, my God, that's the worst part is the rest of it. Oh, my

Scott Benner 45:50
God, you have no idea. Like

Katie Scott 45:51
when I'm not in the studio at my job teaching like, people think I'm not working. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no.

Scott Benner 45:58
Last night at 11 o'clock, the person who helps me with my private Facebook group sent me a text and said, are you there? And I actually responded, where else would I be? I'm sitting at my desk and making this podcast. It only means like, Where else would I be? I meant it. I meant it funny. She took it that way, too, by the way. Yeah,

Katie Scott 46:18
no, of course, it was funny. Yeah,

Scott Benner 46:20
I'm like, I'm gonna finish this last thing. And then I'm gonna pass out, like, is there anything like that needs my attention, like, right this second, because if it does, like, let's do it now, because I'm almost cooked. You know what I mean? And the pressure about keeping the lights on and making the money, it's just, it's my God, it's horrible. It's never ending.

Katie Scott 46:43
Okay, and that's something I actually wanted to talk about on here is having is setting boundaries as a business owner, with type one, and what that looks like. And just, but also not even just the type one part, like just setting boundaries as a business owner, where it's like, you are so passionate about this podcast, and it's like, your purpose in life in a way, right? It's one of your many purposes. And so if you really, really care about it, I feel the same way about my business, and what it's like to like, get a text at like, 10pm on a Saturday. And not respond also, probably because I'm not in the right. mind frame of mind, you know, what am I doing on 10pm? On a Saturday? I don't know. But also to like, having that like boundary of like, okay, what is it appropriate to contact me? And, and I'm not like, perfect at this. So I'm not whatever. And I'm different with my employees than I am with my clients, I guess you could say. And it's just, it's really hard to balance the like, okay, am I doing too much giving too much of myself right now? And I'm going to end up burning out, or is this necessary for me to respond right away? And what's the appropriate action? Like, how much of myself can I give?

Scott Benner 48:01
Yeah, you want to hear the sad truth? What, take a play off someone scoring a touchdown on you? That's i

Katie Scott 48:07
No, no, no, that's okay. And that's another thing too. That sucks. Because I was going to bring that up as well with like, type one. It was interesting, because I've applied to a few podcasts. And a lot of the email responses will be like, Hey, don't be be patient with us. We're, we're sick. Like it was like a chronic illness podcast or a few different ones. And we're sick. So like, just basically, like, respect us, like we're dealing with chronic illnesses. So we take a longer time to get back. And I wasn't, I think that's great for them to be able to have that boundary and take care of themselves like that. But that's just like,

Scott Benner 48:45
right, go ahead, say what you're gonna say. Unfortunately, that's

Katie Scott 48:49
not how that isn't how it works. Yeah, life works even even with your disability. And I think that's the thing or chronic illness. And that's like, the hardest part about having type one is, the world doesn't stop for you. Yeah. So what does that look like? What does that look like for you? And how are we going to persevere through it? You know, Katie?

Scott Benner 49:08
Katie? Yeah, yeah. So from the from the specifically the business perspective of it. Excuse me, why readjusted my seat? I don't disagree. You have a chronic illness and you're sick right now or whatever, you can't do it. I understand. But you don't have a podcast and you have a hobby.

Katie Scott 49:24
That's so true. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Nothing

Scott Benner 49:26
wrong with it. Like, no, no, genuinely, right. It's fantastic. But you're not running a business. You're running a hobby. This year alone. There are two stretches of episodes in this year where most people would hear this and go Scott, just take some time off. Like yeah, but there are no there are two stretches in this year where you will listen to me you will have absolutely no idea. I am dying with COVID and one of them and in another one I have. I can't even remember whatever else was wrong

Katie Scott 49:55
with me. Sometimes you just having a bad day. You can't even you know like That's the worst. Sometimes my blood sugar is at 400. And I'm on my period and I have to go into work. I just hate it. Yeah, yeah.

Scott Benner 50:05
And like, but But no, I'm

Katie Scott 50:09
sure you're very nice to the children I am. I'm like, way nicer to my students than I am anyone in the world, I think people are like, not that I'm not a nice person. All the most, I tried to be nice all the time. But right. I just take on a different role of like a very nurturing loving person, you know, especially around my students caring understanding. And with, I guess, with adults, I'm just like, not the same. I'm just a little bit more if

Scott Benner 50:33
you go back in the podcast, and find episodes that are called glucagon stories. I think there's like three or four of them at this point. I recorded them the day my mom was dying. Oh, God, I'm sorry, please, you're very kind. But I and thank you. But I recorded those the day my mom was dying. I knew my mom was gonna die that day. Yeah. And you know what, I recorded those episodes, partly to take my mind off it and partly because there's an they were on the schedule, and it's my responsibility to do it. And you will not listen to those episodes and hear a sad person or a person who's distracted like, because when I was doing that, I was doing my job. And there are four or five episodes that are in this last year, back in 2023. By the time people hear this, where I am like I am COVID fevered, like falling apart.

Katie Scott 51:25
Unfortunately, I can't go in fortunately, actually, I can't teach kids while I'm sick. But it's a little different, though. I'm still doing the back. stuff. What do I kind of the background things? Yeah,

Scott Benner 51:36
I'm just I'm just supporting your point that if you if you have a business, you have a business all of the time.

Katie Scott 51:43
It is like having a child like you can't take a day off from being a parent, you can't really take a day off from being a business owner. And shoot, I'm losing my train of thought again, but oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I totally just lost that train of thought. Um, give me one second. What were we talking about before?

Scott Benner 52:02
Let me just say words. Yeah. Okay. Responsibility. Business Owner. drawing boundaries. Mm, diabetes. Yep. diabetes, not supportive parents. People don't understand.

Katie Scott 52:18
All right, yep. COVID. Oh, okay. Your mother dying. Okay, perfect. was the one that jogged my memory. They, hey, one of my students, Molly, she told me that when I forget something, I should go back to what I was doing before. And I was thinking about your mother, unfortunately, not fortunately. And unfortunately, with going through, like, hardships like that. And I've recently gone through some, some similar experiences, in a way like you can't, there's definitely like times to grieve, and you should be grieving and you should, your everyone deserves that experience. But also, like, I don't like, the thing about people passing away, that's always just been the most crazy to me is how nothing stops snow. The world doesn't stop. And it keeps going. Like and it will just keep continuing. Like when I was recently one of my students, previous students passed away, like about a month ago, a little under a month ago. And it was it was devastating. And it was shocking. And also having people know in my life that that's what was going on, and how much they still expected me to be the same person. You know, and in a way though, to like, that was hard, but also at the same time, like it is still good to like participate in life during these hard times, even though it's much more difficult to but it is good for you to like, remember that like you're here for a reason and like things are going to keep progressing and moving on. You know,

Scott Benner 54:00
Katie, have you ever seen the Shawshank Redemption? Is that

Katie Scott 54:03
with Morgan Freeman and the one guy that looks like it's Timo

Scott Benner 54:08
is a Bill Murray Tim Robbins. Looks like Bill Murray to you. That's interesting,

Katie Scott 54:11
or was it or is it Tom Hanks? No. Tim Robinson looks like Tom Hanks. Okay, I think or it's, uh, yeah, I don't know you're talking about anyways.

Scott Benner 54:19
Have you seen it? Yes. You remember when he says Get busy living or get busy dying?

Katie Scott 54:24
Yes. Yeah.

Scott Benner 54:25
Have you ever heard somebody say life is for the living? Yes. These are all ways of saying life goes on. Oh, yeah.

Katie Scott 54:32
C'est la vie.

Scott Benner 54:33
Yeah, you have to take a place. I mean, I'm, you're forever changed through the experience, and you'll be a different person moving forward. But your turn is going to come to so you should get to it.

Katie Scott 54:46
And oh, yeah. 1,000% right.

Scott Benner 54:49
It's just sucks it is what it is.

Katie Scott 54:52
I am I am a 1,000% believer in that. Too much positivity can be toxic like toxic positivity, right? And I just really love that you just said it sucks, because it's like, yeah, it sucks. It's nothing good about it. There's really nothing else more to say about it. Other than that it sucks. You know,

Scott Benner 55:08
I used to have this nightmare when I was younger if it's a nightmare now, but it was a dream. And in the dream, there was a cliff. And everybody was lined up to the cliff in my family by age.

Katie Scott 55:24
And oh my god, and

Scott Benner 55:25
I Yeah, and I would, and I would feel how far I was from being the next person to go off the cliff. Oh, my God, that yeah, that's, that's, oh, that's how I, but that's watching too much TV. That's what I think of about, about like, lifespan and dying like, like, you know, when my mom died, I thought, Oh, come next.

Katie Scott 55:48
Damn, that's crazy. Okay, you're

Scott Benner 55:49
too young for that. It doesn't matter to you.

Katie Scott 55:53
But you know, we never we never know, though. Like, it's just kind of always looming. Like it's always a possibility. Yeah, I'm not saying you can't. But you can also think like up today, I might die. Who knows? You can't wake up put that kind of a mindset. Oh, no.

Scott Benner 56:05
You don't want to live like couldn't Minnesota? No, nobody. There's Minnesota Northstar SE. Could that fall on your head and kill you absolutely could. But that's not the point like a plane could drop on your head. But it's probably not going to a North Star. What

Katie Scott 56:17
do you mean a North Star?

Scott Benner 56:18
That's what the hockey team used to be called before they move? Yeah, a hockey player falling on my head. I don't know something could happen. I bet that if they

Katie Scott 56:25
had skates on it, it could be CKT if

Scott Benner 56:28
if a professional hockey player fell on your head from high enough up wearing skates, you would definitely die. Yeah, I

Katie Scott 56:33
definitely would. I just that's just an interesting I just now I have another new fear unlocked.

Scott Benner 56:38
We don't want to plan for that. That's not going to happen. We live our lives. I'm saying if things go about the way we expect my aunts and uncles are dead. Right? Yeah, my mom and my dad are gone. I'm next. So this time is precious. Like I'm done now. Like it's it's fun to philosophize about when you're in your 20s. And you're in your teens. And you know, when you're like 30, and your kids are a few years old, like, that's all well and good. It's real. Now. Like, I'm next. I have as many years as I have left. And I don't know how many there are going to be, I can't spend a lot of time worrying about the rest of this, which is all just academic. In the end. Yeah. While you're living it when you're younger, you're building a morality, and you're building an ethos. But once you're built, and you're now you're coasting at the end, that none of it matters. That's why you see, oh, people just get like, I don't care.

Katie Scott 57:36
Like seriously, right? Well, right. I mean, and another thing too, like, and not not to get too morbid, or anything like that. Part of the living experience of dying, of course. But I think another thing that people don't realize too, is like, how much your impact on this world affects generations? Forever? After you, you know, I mean, they called the I mean, generational trauma is an example. But also there's, there's an opposite to trauma, right? Like, every every impact you make on people are going to then be passed on with other experiences through. Right. And I just think I think that's a really beautiful part about living that even when we pass regardless, if you really realize it or not, like so much of you is still going to be lived on through people.

Scott Benner 58:26
I agree. Absolutely. You know, what I also think about all the time about like, you know, this is very strange, but I think Benjamin Franklin said that I think that a lot. Because Because, because he's been dead. I know you're laughing right on let's find out. Like you

Katie Scott 58:44
just like set it in. There was a pause and I was like, yes, he's

Scott Benner 58:51
gonna find out what he died for you.

Katie Scott 58:52
Okay, thanks for the reminder. By the way, no, I'm sad. Benjamin

Scott Benner 58:56
Franklin died. April 17 1790.

Katie Scott 59:00
Oh my god. That's my sister's birthday.

Scott Benner 59:03
Your sister was born in 1790. No, she was born on April 17. So like, close. Well, that's the day he died. He was born on my wife's birthday, January 17. Oh my gosh, that's weird. Ben Franklin, born in 1706 live till 1790 which in and of itself is insane. He was 84 years old when he died in the 1700s. Right. But this is not my point. My point is, is that he fundamentally changed the world in a number of different ways. Right?

Katie Scott 59:34
And he's still dead. Oh, yeah. No, he's he

Scott Benner 59:38
didn't get to live longer.

Katie Scott 59:40
Like an A list celebrity in our world. He

Scott Benner 59:42
didn't get extra time. Like nothing he still got sick. His body got second he died. And and most people don't think about Ben Franklin. Most people don't. He has. If you go back and look at his writings, most of the colloquialisms that people still live by Today are written down by Benjamin Franklin under a pen name, by the way, he didn't even use his own name. So

Katie Scott 1:00:05
with people not even realizing they're you're being affected by him, everyone. Benjamin Franklin, I love that for him. You've said things

Scott Benner 1:00:13
today that I guarantee you stem from Ben Franklin. Oh, I wouldn't, I would not disagree. And there are going to be people 300 years from now, who are going to say something that stems from something that you and I have done?

Katie Scott 1:00:28
smaller scale, probably? Yeah. Oh, for sure. That's kind of my goal here. Right. I mean, like, I do own a business, but like, I own my business, because I'm passionate about what I do. Right. I'm not like your typical, I don't know, I don't know what a typical business owner would look like, actually, anyways, but like, it's just, I'm really hoping that I can be a positive impact on my students. And that will, like live on through them. Like, I don't need to get Benjamin Franklin level, I really don't need to. But, you know, I think that's an important thing for people to, you know, think about, especially when they're, you know, remember it or grieving or dealing with a loss. It's remembering, like, how much of that person lives on through you. And we'll continue to and you'll be able to do that too. And it's your decision if it's going to be good or bad, honestly. So

Scott Benner 1:01:23
we got way off track here. Hold on. That's my fault. Is it my fault? No, I think it's your No, no, no,

Katie Scott 1:01:27
I very much my fault, too.

Scott Benner 1:01:30
I don't think it matters. I think this is this is what podcast sound like now for young people, by the way. They're like this. Like, all the time, they're incredibly popular. My daughter showed me one the other day of these two guys talking and I was like, I hate this. And she's like, I love it. I'm like, I really, really hate this. And she's like, Why do you hate it? And I said, they're doing a cheap rip off of Howard Stern from 30 years ago. And

Katie Scott 1:01:55
she's like, Who's that? Yes. And

Scott Benner 1:01:57
that's what she said. Your heart broke a little bit. Now she knows who it is. But that's what they're doing. And then I thought, that's what everybody's doing. Like everybody's just doing and Howard Stern was ripping off somebody that he heard on the radio in the 40s when he was a kid, like you don't mean like, like, it's all like, it's all the same that and then you add something to it and add something to it. Hopefully you keep adding to it. There are times when I see stuff just become derivative. And then it's that irritates me, especially when it becomes popular. Because I'm like, oh, people don't know there's better out there than this. But they'll they won't find it. That's okay. I guess.

Katie Scott 1:02:32
Yeah, you know, and you have to just let that go and let people enjoy things for what they are.

Scott Benner 1:02:36
I let it go. I puts it on. I laugh with her. She's like, Come watch this. I sit and watch it with her. I'm there for

Katie Scott 1:02:42
oh, no, it Yeah, you're just you just sound like a dad and I. And I can't judge you too much for that. Because I've been finding that I've been on my way to work. my fiance's truck has Sirius FM, the radio station. And I like flip through like the pop station, like you know, the whatever is popular now. And I spend a majority of my drive like just hating on whatever music is out today.

Scott Benner 1:03:09
I do my best to keep up with whatever my kids say is good. And

Katie Scott 1:03:13
I'm like, Oh, that's terrible. And I like realize I'm like, oh my god, I'm getting old. And I understand you now though, I understand you for being like, there is better stuff out there. Right. Unfortunately, that's, you know, out of our control. But

Scott Benner 1:03:27
sort of back to your your your initial statement, like an hour ago when you said that there's you found diabetes advice in the world. That was terrible. Oh, yeah. But and the problem is that some people won't ever know that what they're listening to is, is either bad advice, or, or could be better or you know, any number of things. It's the thing they found and now there's they're stuck with it now.

Katie Scott 1:03:49
So when I was also diagnosed, it was a really just horrible experience. So I went in, and my primary care doctor that I had had since I was growing up, like really, I came in and I was like, Hey, I think I have type one diabetes is one time I Googled my symptoms, and they were correct, right. The only time she was like, There's no way I was she even weighed me I was like 80 pounds right? I was frail looking, you know, it was like it wasn't like I was so sick. And she like caved in got my blood tested it which was like she begrudgingly did and my agency or not my agency, my blood sugar came up. It was so high I was undetectable. I later found out like it was like almost 700 Right. She freaked out I think because she was I look back now and I realized she was like covering her tracks right? She gave me long term insulin. She didn't give me mealtime and she was like reading the box. is how to do it to like in front of you like to like give me an injection. She then told me she locked me, Gina lock me but I was done just like but after finding out I type one. I just sat in the room. room for four hours by myself after finding out the news. And that's yeah, she just left me alone for four hours waiting for my blood sugar to go down. So I went back and got tested like twice, but I was just like alone. And it still didn't go down. Right? Like I should have been sent to the hospital, honestly. And then I She's like, well, still not going down. I have an appointment for you tomorrow with a dietitian, not an endocrinologist, a dietitian, I just drove home myself. And I found that I type one. And I like was like, it was so weird. And at first I was like, relieved to be like, Okay, I'm gonna like, you know, take a pill and get better. Like, it'll be fine. No, the next day I go to this crazy dietician, thankfully, Spencer could make it with me because they said I should have one person with me. And this dietitian specializes in people who can't read like farmers who can't read that have type two. I'm going through yoga teacher training at the same time. And she's teaching me how to work out in a chair. On this little slice, yeah. And I'm like, What the what? And like, she was, bless her heart. She seemed like a nice woman, but like she was trying to like make the situation light. And she kept being like, you're gonna take a shot and your rump rose and then she like grabbed your button. She's like, I have a huge rump row. And it was like, shoot shoes. Honestly, she's probably very fun to hang out with, but like, it was just so like, crazy. And when I found that I had to like inject as much as I had to like, it was hurt. Like it was just awful. Right? And I don't I don't know. Like why. Why? So I find out yet I find out horrible, life changing news. And like, this lady's just like grabbing her butt in front of me. And she did have a pretty big run, bro. So I'll give her that. Yeah, I can't go to the lake. When I'm like grocery shopping. And I see like a rump roast. I just can't I have a flashback. Take a picture of it and send it to Spencer. So

Scott Benner 1:06:57
I'm, I started to laugh because oh my god, hold on a second what the goal is? No, no, no, because because I've been to physical therapy. And I've seen older people go to physical therapy. And when you're like they work you out a chair is like, Oh God, I know what she's talking about. Because no, I was laughing silently for two minutes. I almost died.

Katie Scott 1:07:20
I'm like, I'm like, I my body is like I'm physically okay. It's my pancreas. I'm

Scott Benner 1:07:24
like God. So anyway, I've watched those people and I thought, Oh, God, this is what Getting old is like, like moving your arm up and down the chair. And people are like, go good. Look at you go Mike. Oh, dear God, that's not okay. So you got me on that. But then as you

Katie Scott 1:07:39
just kept getting worse. Yeah, it's gonna get more worse. I'm just gonna let you know. So

Scott Benner 1:07:43
I felt bad enough that they like somebody was like, I don't know, let's see how much of this insulin we should jam in this girl. Boom, sit here by yourself for four hours. We'll see if it gets better. It was

Katie Scott 1:07:52
horrible. Yeah. And so also my doctor coached me before I left. She said somebody's gonna call you tonight and ask you if you're okay in when they get their labs back. And you need to tell them you're fine. Why would I? Why? I don't know if she was covering I think she made she was covering up some mistakes she made like she It was horrible. So then,

Scott Benner 1:08:11
so I'm doing good. I'm sorry. Keep going. Please. No, it's okay. Yeah,

Katie Scott 1:08:15
I don't know. The whole thing was awful, right. And like, I hear other people's like stories, but like, they got to go to the hospital and get on a pump almost right away. And I was just like, I they're like, here's some novella, and some whatever and have fun, you know, have figured out you know, test strips, whatever. So God bless the dieticians heart. She was she was great. But like, I mean, like, not what I needed. So next time, I went and visited my doctor who had diagnosed me, I said, Hey, I don't want to see this dietician anymore. She's, it's not helpful for me, right? She's like, Oh, well, there's a huge shortage of endocrinologist, and it's likely that you won't get one. So I'll just manage it from now on. So she decided she was going to manage it. My agency was a seven. And that's also likely because I was newly diagnosed I was I think I was still kind of in the honeymoon period, you know, where I was maybe producing a little bit of insulin here and there. She's like, You're doing just whatever you're doing keep doing she told me, which is like, what so I believe her for two years. It was horrible. It was so lonely. I had no idea what I was doing. I felt awful all the time. And I now I've did go to a different ice finally ended up being like by and going to an endocrinologist, which was he was older and he was like, nice, but like, was super like Medtronic forward. And that's a whole story in itself. And now I see my one Endo. I'm gonna give him a shout out. His name is Christopher team Michael at the sharp Dylan and Cox and Elena associates. And he's amazing. So I just wanted to give that a little shout. But um, what's his name again? Christopher T. Martin.

Scott Benner 1:09:52
Alright, Chris. Good job.

Katie Scott 1:09:53
Yeah, Chris. You're great. Yeah, that whole clinic is amazing. Honestly,

Scott Benner 1:09:57
he's not the cold guy though. Well, he's not the guy from Coldplay, though, right?

Katie Scott 1:10:02
I haven't asked. I'll ask him that. Seriously.

Scott Benner 1:10:04
Wouldn't it be amazing if you're, if you're I know was also the lead singer, Coldplay?

Katie Scott 1:10:08
I feel like you know what diabetes is worth it. This is great. I'm Katie, can

Scott Benner 1:10:13
I say something? Can I just make an admittance? I hate Coldplay.

Katie Scott 1:10:18
I like that one song. Of course, sang yellow. Everyone loves that one. I think no, the people have done the, you know, I'm not gonna sing. No, keep going. No, I'm good. No, it's okay. I'm okay. Yeah, no, it was the first No, I went she was really strange. They're like, very much into Medtronic. And they like, got me on this Medtronic. CGM, which was a nightmare. i They say you can put that on by yourself. But like, I, me and Spencer. Were doing it together. And it was just impossible. The steps you had to go to and you still have to check your blood sugar to calibrate, which was what's the point of a CGM, then you know, I hear you there. Like we want it to be more accurate. You

Scott Benner 1:10:56
know, I'm gonna say that they've made a massive improvement with their new CGM. Yeah,

Katie Scott 1:11:01
I believe that no, no, this is okay. And I will say I'm not hating on them now. But like this was in 20 while ago Yeah, no, I understand. Like, and diabetes technology, it improved so quickly, which is great. But it was really strange. They had me like, as soon as I was on it, like, they had this like event at a hotel where they were like, like a speaking event about getting on Medtronic. And they asked me if I would go speak. And I had been on it for like, two weeks maybe. And I got like a they gave me like a Visa gift card for $25. Which was nice. But I it was just I was speaking to like a room of like 67 year olds with type two about why to get on Medtronic CGM. I met someone there who wanted to make me like the face of Medtronic with my aerial like, have me be on like a campaign or something like that with aerial and using me for that. And then, you know, that didn't really work out. And I'm, which is fine. I stopped using that CGM. And a few months go by like maybe six months and I got reached out again to be like, kind of to do stuff with me being an aerialist and a CGM, like Medtronic where I wasn't wearing that CGM. At the time they convinced me to go back on it. I'm not really sure. It it's a little bit of a blur. But it was a little bit of a slap in the face. Because what they meant, which wasn't clear is that they just wanted to use all of it at this point to I was living paycheck to paycheck because of diabetes, and affording paying for their CGM, right. And they wanted to use all of my content and my stories for free. Like, they just wanted to use me for their marketing for free.

Scott Benner 1:12:45
They didn't offer to compensate you for your time or your effort or anything. No, no, that sucks.

Katie Scott 1:12:49
I know. And I was like, this is a little weird that I'm paying to be on your product. And you're using my content for free. You know, and I wouldn't have asked for much, but I was like I just said, I ended up just saying no, at the end of the day. Okay, that's still that's fair. And then that's when I eventually moved on to the next Endo. Good. It's been pretty good sense. Yeah. All right.

Scott Benner 1:13:09
Well, I'm glad you found that endo that you enjoyed. But, and I. So I don't know much about that world of like, like the influencer thing. Like, I don't know, if they're accustomed to those the people they're working with. They're also trying to build a brand. So they look at it as like free publicity for them. But if you weren't, I'm not sure. And I know a person who does this at Medtronic. I could ask actually, but that's interesting.

Katie Scott 1:13:33
Yeah, it just Yeah. I mean, they could have changed that by now to wonder,

Scott Benner 1:13:37
this is years ago, you're saying it was just a little bit of like,

Katie Scott 1:13:41
okay, so you want to use my aerial photos and my story and like, everything that I've actually, like, put time into creating, you know, and you, you know what I mean? Like, if they could have just thrown me a couple 100 bucks, like, I'm not even asking for like, a ton. You weren't trying to get rich off of it? No, no, no, no, I was just like, anything to like, or like, some free product, honestly.

Scott Benner 1:14:04
You know, like, Yeah, I'm pleased. Yeah,

Katie Scott 1:14:07
something I'm like, okay, you know, but, ya know, so that was a little bit weird of an experience. But like I, I do believe that it's gotten much, much better. But I do use Omni pod index comm now. And it's a great combo. It's working really well, for me.

Scott Benner 1:14:21
I'm glad you're enjoying what you're using. I have to ask you, Katie, if there's anything we haven't talked about that we should have?

Katie Scott 1:14:26
I can't think off the top of my head right now. So I'm sure there are. So I guess I'll just have to come back sometime and say them.

Scott Benner 1:14:35
Can I ask you a couple of questions before we end up before we end? What are your goals for your diabetes?

Katie Scott 1:14:41
Okay, okay. This is a great, thank you for asking this question. You're very good at keeping me on track. I think I

Scott Benner 1:14:46
don't know about that. But go ahead.

Katie Scott 1:14:50
So basically, what I'm trying to get into a little bit more, so I did this a little bit before COVID. So I actually was asked to speak at the Capitol During when Minnesota was trying to pass the Alec law, which is an emergency insulin act, where if you can't afford insulin, or if you don't have any, like, you can get on a program to get it right. And it was named after a 26 year old little Alec from Minnesota, who died after getting off his parent's insurance. And I was close in that age. And I had been invited on a podcast previously to talk about diabetes. So they found me through the podcast. And as they called me, like a day before this, like, meeting for to pass the bill to like, ask if I would speak at, like just a little tell my story, it didn't seem like a big deal. And so I wrote my note card, I got my note cards out, I wrote in Purple Magic Marker, I get there, the day of the next day, the Capitol, and it's like, all the news outlets are there. We're in like, the room like the, the like golden, you know what I'm talking about, like the whole conference go right under? Yeah, dude, it was crazy. And I also, when I went to tell my story in front of all those people, they like, I couldn't see over the podium, like my chin was cut off. So the photos of me are hilarious. If you want to look them up, I'm just saying. And that really, like, got me into wanting to advocate more for people with type one, whether it's being a support system for people struggling just with the disease itself, or finding the care they need. Because I've made a lot of mistakes or on the on the way and like I've learned from, you know, the hard way a lot with figuring out how to get the care you need. Or also just inspiring people, it's type one to not let it stop you. And although it will look different for you, you can achieve your dreams. And it's going to have an element to it that a lot of other people don't deal with. But it's so worth it. And I just don't want people to think that their life stops when it comes to type one. And I want them to know, too that like, we deserve better than what's going on at the moment. And I'm you know, I just want to be more of an advocate. So I'm trying to reach out to other podcasts and kind of make a name for myself. I was recently included in a children's book of inspiring people for type one diabetes. And I wrote a little story about you know, my life, but it's like in kid form. And that's really great. And I'm just looking to do more projects like that. And hopefully, you know, impact lives. Okay, then let that live on. I

Scott Benner 1:17:28
think that's wonderful. However, I was wondering what your goals were for your diabetes.

Katie Scott 1:17:32
Oh, my own Oh, okay. So that's, you know, I love that I answered that way because I, my mindset is for my diabetes. I like, maybe don't think about my diabetes as much as I should. But that's because I can't. My goal for my diabetes is to keep my blood sugar and range as much as possible. Don't let me figure out ways to help the spikes of my blood sugar when I get really stressed out. And just feel as healthy and happy as I possibly can with it. You know, managing that.

Scott Benner 1:18:06
What are your like, Where does your low alarm set your high alarm set on your CGM?

Katie Scott 1:18:11
My low alarm is set at like 70. And then my high alarm is it's my highlighter was anything over 200

Scott Benner 1:18:21
ad Katie, are you gonna tell me it's over? 200?

Katie Scott 1:18:25
Is that what you're doing? My? No, because? No, I don't want to sleep. I can't sleep at night when it's going off over 150. So I have it at 200. What

Scott Benner 1:18:34
if we get your blood sugar not to go over? 150 That is a wonderful goal. I

Katie Scott 1:18:38
think you're very, you have a lot of good

Scott Benner 1:18:40
ideas. Have you listened to the Pro Tip series in this podcast? No,

Katie Scott 1:18:44
I haven't. And they should. I will. Did your mom tell you about that? Yeah, no, my mom has. So like I have. I'm on your mom's side. Now. Wait a minute, you know, you should be on my mom's side. She's great. Um, I will say my when I listen to your podcast, I go and I look at things that I'm interested in, like the after dark and stuff like that.

Scott Benner 1:19:04
So everything can't be fun. Katie, sometimes we have to take care of ourselves. I do take care of myself, right? There's a great afterdark coming up this weekend. By the way with jewels. I'm putting out an episode on Saturday because I put out a bunch of content this week for management. So there's some extra stories. Don't miss jewels on after dark. But that's not the point. The point is that you should just listen to the Pro Tip series. It's between Episode 1001 1026 Okay, I will. I promise what is your excellency right now? Will you tell me? Um,

Katie Scott 1:19:34
it's like 7.0 Got it? I'd have to look at my chart. A

Scott Benner 1:19:39
little over seven. How would you like it to be in the low sixes?

Katie Scott 1:19:42
I wouldn't be a fan of that. But that's like, you know, no, that's definitely like something that I'm working towards. Um,

Scott Benner 1:19:49
I'm not asking you to do anything but listen to the Pro Tip series. Okay, that's fine. That's a very good trade. Don't promise me anything. Don't even Nothing. Listen to the Pro Tip series. And then and tell me if six months from now your agency is not in the sixes? Okay, that's all you have to do. It's absolutely

Katie Scott 1:20:05
what you know, people use the discount code that I just gave out. And

Scott Benner 1:20:09
tell me about that as well. Also, there's a code in the in the Pro Tip series, there's a code for free meter. If you want a free meter, go ahead and do that, too. Okay,

Katie Scott 1:20:17
I'll look into it. Is it the contour? Next Gen

Scott Benner 1:20:22
contour? Next Gen. That's correct. Yeah. Free meter.

Katie Scott 1:20:24
So I think I have listened to your podcast.

Scott Benner 1:20:27
I don't think you haven't. But but I'm telling you. Listen, Katie, let me tell you this.

Katie Scott 1:20:32
You're just you're just you're wanting to help. You're being a very good dad right now.

Scott Benner 1:20:35
I'm not I'm telling you. I made a pact. This is May I finish? I'm gonna finish. Okay. Okay, you can finish I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna wrap it up. Okay. I don't think it works for everybody. Meaning that there are some people who might listen to not understand and that's fine. But it's a concept, not a plan. And you listen to it. And then the results are the results based on people's responses to me, are unmatched in the diabetes space. I'm not asking you to eat a certain way. I'm not asking you to make a big change. Right.

Katie Scott 1:21:10
I know. Right? I'm excited to listen to it.

Scott Benner 1:21:13
I think to me, Katie, no,

Katie Scott 1:21:15
I'm not lying. Okay, because race just always sounds like this. Because you're, I'm very dry. I'm a very dry person. And there's not a lot of fluctuate, like, it doesn't flux

Scott Benner 1:21:25
fluctuate, is that the word we're looking for? Because You almost said fluctuate. Yeah, you almost said fluctuate. And I was like, That's not a word for sure.

Katie Scott 1:21:32
I that. I definitely, I think to like being type diagnosed at 22 and getting so much bad advice. It's been hard for me to really branch out and focus on my diabetes when it's anything other than when I'm working with my Endo. Because of honestly, it was like a traumatizing experience having to, you know, really figure it out on my own and all the misinformation, but I will listen to that. And I think partially to like, maybe sound hesitant, because it's, as somebody with type one, it's just hard to think about a lot. You know, you have to sit there and process a lot of things, you

Scott Benner 1:22:10
know, yes, listen to the protests. It'll just work for you. All right,

Katie Scott 1:22:13
I will and I am going to alright, I'll get back to you on it.

Scott Benner 1:22:16
I am going to read you a random review of the podcast right now. This podcast is a game changer. 25 years as a type one diabetic, and only now I am learning some of the basics, Scott brings useful information and presents it in a digestible way. Learning that Pre-Bolus thing doesn't just mean Bolus before you but means timing your insulin so that it's active as carbs become active, took my already decent six and a half a one C down to 5.6. Over the last eight months. I've never met Scott. But after listening to hundreds of episodes and joining him in the Facebook group, I consider him a friend listening to this podcast and applying it has been the best thing I have done for my health since I was diagnosed. That's one of 1000 reviews that all say about the same thing.

Katie Scott 1:22:58
That's honestly so incredible, right?

Scott Benner 1:23:00
And I'm not asking you to do anything, you don't have to pay for it. You don't have to do it on a certain time schedule. Just listen and watch your a one C come down.

Katie Scott 1:23:10
I will. And I think that's just such a wonderful thing that you've been able to create and do for people. No, no, you don't don't that's okay. No, I really just think it's just really amazing. What you've been able to do, you

Scott Benner 1:23:23
know, you're very kind and I agree with you on fantastic. That's not what we're talking about, though, what we're talking about.

Katie Scott 1:23:27
I know, I just you know, I just want to give you a little credit where credit's due, what we're

Scott Benner 1:23:31
talking about is you like doing something you're you've only been at this for a couple of years. You're really young, you haven't even started your life yet really I know you think you have but you pretty much haven't yet, like like you're just you're just getting ramped up, you have an opportunity to set your mindset around diabetes in a way that you don't even have to think about it. It'll just happen because you'll know what to do. And you have no idea how that will change the ripples in your life. So if you being nice to a kid in a dance class might help somebody 200 years from now, then you being nice to yourself right now will help you throughout your entire life that is elastic, and impact things that you don't even know yet. Like try to imagine that if today you learned how to keep your blood sugar not under two, like not think of 200 as high but think of like, I don't know, 160s being high. How that may be one day, 20 years from now, when your kid is doing something crazy. And you look over at Spencer, you can sick of him because you've been looking at him forever. Instead of saying something crazy because your blood sugar's really high or it's been bouncing up and down all day. What if you have a better response in that moment?

Katie Scott 1:24:44
That would be Yeah, that's that's the goal. For sure. That's,

Scott Benner 1:24:48
that's all I'm saying. Yeah,

Katie Scott 1:24:50
I'm going to definitely listen I'm excited to and invest a little bit now like a beautiful paradise Honestly, even after having to look at Spencer for three to yours, you know

Scott Benner 1:25:01
what Ben Franklin would say, Katie? What a penny saved is a penny earned.

Katie Scott 1:25:06
Um, okay, that. That is true. He did say that. I just have to ask you one more question. Before we wrap up is Benjamin Franklin, your Roman Empire?

Scott Benner 1:25:17
I don't know what that means. Because I'm not a kid. You know, you haven't seen the whole like, oh, how often do you think about the Romans

Katie Scott 1:25:23
to do is that is that your Roman Empire?

Scott Benner 1:25:25
I don't know. I don't think about Ben Franklin.

Katie Scott 1:25:27
Every day, Franklin is I think you think of him a lot more than other people do, which I think school when

Scott Benner 1:25:32
his wife passed away, he was traveling. He was he was traveling in the 1700s. He was like in Europe like he was also I want to be clear, apparently, Katie was also a womanizer. But like,

Katie Scott 1:25:43
I know, he liked older women from what I remember.

Scott Benner 1:25:46
And let's keep in mind also that he was like poetically thoughtful in a time where maybe a lot of people hadn't had a chance to be yet. Do you know what I mean? So yes, he sometimes is saying simple things, but try to remember he was one of the first people to think that

Katie Scott 1:26:02
simple thing. Yeah, he's he's the OG right.

Scott Benner 1:26:05
So you go be Ben Franklin for yourself. What are we going to call this episode? Tiny Paul hands?

Katie Scott 1:26:11
Yeah, that would be great. I love that. Are we going to call it I'm gonna take I'm gonna steal that sometime. And Name something you said. It's not tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny palm hands. You

Scott Benner 1:26:21
know you said it. Not me. Right.

Katie Scott 1:26:23
I know. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:26:24
I love that. Yeah, either. either. I call this one tiny Paul hands or poor Richard. And you don't even know why I would call it Poor Richard, but people who know Ben Franklin will

Katie Scott 1:26:33
understand. Okay, well, I need to read one you'll listen to your podcast series and read more about Benjamin Franklin. Seriously

Scott Benner 1:26:42
KB if you do those things get back if they help you at all get back to me. Okay, let me know if I if they don't help you. I don't want to hear from you again.

Katie Scott 1:26:48
Okay, okay. I won't I won't follow you. Oh block you won't even know. You'll forget about me. Exactly.

Scott Benner 1:26:53
Thank you so much.

I want to thank the ever since CGM for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Learn more about its implantable sensor, smart transmitter and terrific mobile application at ever since cgm.com/juicebox. Get the only implantable sensor for long term wear. Get ever since Arden started using a contour meter because of its accuracy. But she continues to use it because it's adorable and trustworthy. If you have diabetes, you want the contour next gen blood glucose meter. There's already so many decisions. Let me take this one off your plate. Contour next one.com/juice box. A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G voc glucagon, find out more about Chivo Capo pen at G Vogue glucagon.com Ford slash juicebox. you spell that GVOKEGLUC AG o n.com Ford slash juice box. A diabetes diagnosis comes with a lot of new terms, and you're not going to understand most of them. That's why we made defining diabetes. Go to juicebox podcast.com up into the menu and click on defining diabetes to find the series that will tell you what all of those words mean. Short, fun and informative. That's the finding diabetes. If you're not already subscribed or following in your favorite audio app, please take the time now to do that. It really helps the show and get those automatic downloads set up so you never miss an episode. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong way recording.com

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#1210 Rebrand Your Belly

Jessica is a tattoo artist with type 1 diabetes.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.

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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 and welcome to episode 1210 of the Juicebox Podcast

Jessica was seven years old when she was diagnosed with type one diabetes. Today she's a 30 year old tattoo artists you can find at Jess Fox tattoos on Instagram. Today Jess and I talk about growing up with type one diabetes and then we spend quite a little bit of time discussing the problems that she had feeling like she belonged. Guys you got to hurry up my offer code juice box at checkout at cozy earth.com Is it 40% But just until June when it drops to 30% Get your stuff now cozy earth.com use the offer code juice box to save something depends on when you hear this. When you place your first order for ag one with my link, you'll get five free travel packs and a three year supply of vitamin D. Drink ag one.com/juice box. If you or your child have type one diabetes, please go to T one D exchange.org/juice. Box and complete the survey. This survey will take you about 10 minutes it will support type one diabetes research it also may benefit you, it's definitely going to benefit me so go fill out that survey completely AT T one D exchange.org/juicebox. Let's move everything forward. And don't forget to check out the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by touched by type one a fantastic organization who is helping people with type one diabetes. And very soon their in person event will happen with me. I'll be one of the keynote speakers at touched by type one, go to their website touched by type one.org. Go to the Programs tab and get yourself those free tickets. I'll see you in Orlando, you can use the same continuous glucose monitor that Arden uses. All you have to do is go to dexcom.com/juice box and get started today. That's right, the Dexcom g7 is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Today's episode is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes, a company that's bringing people together to redefine what it means to live with diabetes. Later in this episode, I'll be speaking with Jalen, he was diagnosed with type one diabetes at 14. He's 29. Now he's going to tell you a little bit about his story. And then later at the end of this episode, you can hear my entire conversation with Jalen to hear more stories with Medtronic champions, go to Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox or search the hashtag Medtronic champion on your favorite social media platform.

Jessica Fox 2:44
My name is Jessica Fox, and I am a tattoo artist out of Buffalo, New York. And I've been living with type one diabetes since seven years old. And I'm 30 now so little over maybe 20 years at this point,

Scott Benner 3:00
just gets 23 years. But that's neither here nor there. Don't worry, you pause and I was like, is she not doing the math or she wasn't sure I was having also do you care about football or No? No. And I won't tease you about what the bills did last night.

Unknown Speaker 3:14
i Oh yes, I heard.

Scott Benner 3:17
I don't care about the bills. And I was horrified by what happened. So yes. You're a tattoo artist? Yes. How do you become a tattoo artist?

Speaker 1 3:26
Yeah, so everyone's journey is a little bit different, you know, depends on I guess what we're living. For me, I had a formal apprenticeship, I did that for about two years under the supervision of someone so basically, I kind of went around from shop to shop, it was just looking for an opportunity to just really just help out sweep floors and you know, just be involved in the community and then finally found someone to teach me you kind of start off basically on fruits and melons and stuff like that. And then eventually human beings,

Scott Benner 3:59
what kind of melons literally all

Speaker 1 4:01
all kinds great fruits, melon, anything really that kind of just can like, you know, replicate the skin essentially. So you can learn how to like hold straight lines and and all that kind of stuff. So are

Scott Benner 4:14
you actually using color when you're practicing? No, it's

Speaker 1 4:17
more so just to kind of build like muscle memory and stuff like that. So you can use color but you want to use that on like maybe some of the like they have like silicone fake skin you can buy and that stuff will actually like hold color.

Scott Benner 4:28
Oh so you can actually see yourself doing it because it's a hell of a leap right like if you're learning to like do life drawing or something like that you just throw away paper if you mess up but like do you have friends who let you practice on them?

Speaker 1 4:42
Yeah, so usually like your first tattoo when you have like a formal apprenticeships either like on yourself or your family or your tattoo mentor. My tattoo mentor was definitely lucky enough and lucky enough.

Scott Benner 4:54
Did you not do a good job?

Speaker 1 4:55
I don't think I did. No, definitely, definitely not. I needed some more time in the Some great, I think.

Scott Benner 5:01
So how long have you actually been doing it professionally?

Speaker 1 5:04
So this is my seventh year, it'll be eight years in February.

Scott Benner 5:09
Is it a thing that you notice yourself constantly getting better at? Or did you plateau? And you're like, I'm good at it. And this is what happens every time I do it.

Speaker 1 5:18
Yeah, definitely not. I think that it's something that like, constantly has to be, like, tended to, you know, I feel like I'm always going to school where I'm like, Okay, I have to go attend a seminar, or I have to go kinda do a guest spot to just really like, seek out some more information and work next to people. So it's just definitely like a slow burn. And it feels just like a lot of studying and seeing how other people do things and try to wrap your mind around, if that will help like, the way you're you do it. You know, it's

Scott Benner 5:47
interesting. Have you ever, like, been doing a tattoo? What I'm doing is doing the right word? Yeah, yeah, you're doing it. And I'm just like, there might be another word there. And you've done and you know it, you feel it your heart, like, Oh, I did. That's not the right thing to do. Do you? What do you do? When that happens?

Speaker 1 6:08
Yeah. Yeah. So like, they they teach us like, you know, a good tattoo artist knows how to hide their mistakes, you know, it's really a, you know, we think of it. And maybe clients think of it this way too, that it's like, such as this permanent thing. And it is, obviously, you know, you can't finish a tattoo and erase it, but it's a lot less permanent than people think. So for example, if I, if I'm, you know, lining a letter, and I accidentally, maybe go a little bit outside, I'm gonna be able to maybe go through and make everything just like a hair thicker, where to the like, regular clients eye, they might not be able to notice that. But like, I'm going to notice that, otherwise, it's going to just stick out like a sore thumb. I mean, there's certainly been times, you know, just historically speaking with people who've, you know, just really bombed it. And you're just like, yeah, that that person shouldn't even maybe be tattooing just yet. Like, they need to learn how to draw a little bit more, that should have never became a tattoo. There's like, definitely an interesting pipeline to between, like, the art that gets like, created on paper, and then like, what's possible in the skin? So I think it's important for an experienced tattoo artist, you know, even before the tattoo hits the skin to have those, those conversations with the clients just so there's, you know, realistic expectations. So they can, you know, both be met on on both ends.

Scott Benner 7:32
Yeah. What do you do when someone comes in and asks for something that you just think I would, I don't want to do this. Like, it's, it's weird, it's ugly, but it's not your it's not your opinion, that matters. Right? Right.

Speaker 1 7:45
Yeah. You know, I really try to come from a place where, where people will come to me for the art that I put out there. So like, I mostly specialize in a lot of like, illustrative black work, and black and gray, like, you know, style tattooing. So sometimes, for example, have someone come in and they're like, hey, I want like a full color portrait. And I'm like, I'm sure you do, but maybe not for me, because it's just, I'm not really great at it, you know, that's not what I specialize in. So I try to, you know, show them examples of my work, and then see if I'm, like, really the right fit for them. And if I'm not, you know, then I'll try and kind of push them to the person who is in the area. And I think a huge part of it, too, is like, there's definitely different calibers of people who do tattoos, you know, you can definitely walk into any shop anywhere in the United States and get quite literally, you know, a name or a date. So I tried to work from like, a position of where I'm like, okay, like, let's create a mood or a story or like, you want to like Memorial, like a memorial tattoo, for example, like, how can I, you know, really honor this person who's, who is so important to you? What were some of their favorite thing, so I kind of just like reaching out to grasp a little bit more. And that kind of opens the door of possibilities in a way that maybe like someone wasn't thinking about before. So I'm typically pretty good at that part. Like, it's almost like a consultation that I'll have with the client, where if they don't have like, a super creative idea, I can be like, hey, like, that idea. Sounds good. But like, what if you know, we did this, this or this? And let them work through it with you? Yeah, definitely.

Scott Benner 9:20
So here's a question. Do you have a style or are you mimicking tattoo styles? Does that make sense?

Speaker 1 9:27
Yeah, absolutely. I think I have a style. Yeah. Although the blanket terms of the styles could be like, yeah, like illustrative or Blackwork or Neo traditional. I think that what I do, like, it looks like I drew it, whereas like, you know, someone could come to me and just be like, Hey, I just want like a name in this type of font. And that's not really going to have my like, I guess like, artistic identity like thumbprint attached to it, but you know, I guess it just definitely depends on like, you know, what you're getting from me? Um, no, stranger to like doing that kind of stuff to, you know, a lot of the beginning of my career I've done like a lot of the like, they call it like walking style tattoos where, you know, someone comes in for a date or name, or just something real small, like a heart. And, you know, I've just been able to kind of, you know, produce those tattoos and, you know, not really stray from exactly what they were looking for. So, you

Scott Benner 10:21
just made me do something I have never done before. So I have a few tattoos. And yeah, I got my first one when I was 19. I'm 52. So 2939 49. My first tattoo was 33 years old. That's crazy. When I got it done, I got it done by this guy who you know, is very famous in the area around Philadelphia where I grew up. And he was already an he was an older but he was older than me. You don't I mean, like he was 30 at least. And I just looked and not only does he still work, but the place is still there. And the people that he worked with when I was there are still there. Is that uncommon?

Speaker 1 11:02
No, not at all. Yeah, I think it comes from a place of usually these reputable studios, especially the ones like you said, you know, reputable place guys got a really great name for himself. Usually, those people, you know, they're gonna stick around. And, you know, that's just how it goes. Yeah, you know, I think tattooing is one of those jobs where it is definitely a bit more accessible now. But I think when I first started, in retrospect is not that long ago, it was still really hard to get into. Now, there's a lot more information out there. But the people who were taught, it was like they knew and that that that stayed within that circle. Yeah.

Scott Benner 11:38
Is it a tight community? Like, is there a world where I mentioned this guy's name? And you could be like, I know of them? Or does that not? Does it not travel from state to state like that? Oh,

Speaker 1 11:49
no. Yeah, definitely traveled. I feel like we all know each other, if you are, especially someone from a reputable place, and yeah, it's like it's a pretty tight knit community. Like I said, it's it's definitely more accessible now. Like, there's more shops, obviously now than there ever has been, which I think is like a really awesome thing. But the people who've been here for a really long time there, and they're still doing it. Yeah. You know that there's a reason for that. And that's really awesome as well. So yeah, I probably know the person you're talking about. That's so

Scott Benner 12:19
funny, because I just thought now to say who it was. And then I thought, I don't want to do that. Because you know how when you You know how when you suggest a movie or a TV show to somebody, and then they come back a week later, and they go, yo, thanks a lot. I hated that movie. I spent all weekend there, and it cost me 25 bucks and like, you have terrible taste in movies. I would be mortified if I said my tattoo artists name out loud and you wouldn't got a tattoo from him. And then later we're like, this sucks. Like you don't I mean? Yeah, yeah. Oh, I

Speaker 1 12:48
know. Yep. Yeah. You know, you never know. It's, I totally get it. So I'd

Scott Benner 12:53
be very afraid to say that funny. I say a lot of stuff. But by the way, I see a lot of stuff without thinking on this podcast after I say it. I think I should probably cut that out. I never do. And this one thing. I was like, I don't think I'm going to tell anybody this.

Unknown Speaker 13:06
That's totally fair.

Scott Benner 13:08
I'll tell you afterwards. I'm not telling these people that they're gonna go get a tattoo and be pissed at me.

Unknown Speaker 13:13
You know what I mean? Right, right. Yep.

Scott Benner 13:15
He's also an older guy. So his style is more classic, maybe? I guess I don't I don't know how they're, they're broken down. But like, you know, it doesn't look like there's his tattoos don't look like they have like, got no texture. Like, by the way, how did they do that? Even? Like, that's insane. When you see that? Yeah.

Speaker 1 13:31
Yeah, I think it's so different. Now. You know, especially it just viewing the last maybe like, you know, like I said, I've been here now for seven years, I've been getting getting tattooed, at least for 10 Just seeing the technology differences, you know, there's wireless pens, and you know, we're no longer using like those like, screaming loud coil machines. Some of us are, of course, but yeah, you know, someone who's got like a more, you know, classic style to them, you know, American, traditional, all that kind of stuff. You know, they might be using that kind of stuff just to get that same result. But you know, I think

Scott Benner 14:04
this episode is sponsored by Medtronic. diabetes, Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box. And now we're gonna hear from Medtronic champion. Jalen.

Speaker 2 14:14
I was going straight into high school. So it was a summer heading into high school was that particularly difficult, unimaginable, you know, I missed my entire summer. So I went, I was going to a brand new school, I was around a bunch of new people that I had not been going to school with. So it was hard trying to balance that while also explaining to people what type one diabetes was. My hometown did not have an endocrinologist. So I was traveling over an hour to the nearest endocrinologist for children. So you know, I outside of that I didn't have any type of support in my hometown.

Scott Benner 14:47
Did you try to explain to people or did you find it easier just to stay private?

Speaker 2 14:52
I honestly I just held back I didn't really like talking about it. It was just it felt like it was just an repeating record where I was Saying things and people weren't understanding it. And I also was still in the process of learning it. So I just kept it to myself didn't really talk about it.

Scott Benner 15:07
Did you eventually find people in real life that you could confide in. I

Speaker 2 15:11
never really got the experience until after getting to college. And then once I graduated college, it's all I see, you know, you can easily search Medtronic champions, you see people that pop up, and you're like, wow, look at all this content. And I think that's something that motivates me started embracing more, you know, how I'm able to type one diabetes. To hear

Scott Benner 15:32
Jay Lynn's entire conversation stay till the very end, Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box to hear more stories from the Medtronic champion community. The Dexcom g7, is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast and it features a lightning fast 30 minute warmup time, that's right from the time you put on the Dexcom g7. Till the time you're getting readings, 30 minutes, that's pretty great. It also has a 12 hour grace period, so you can swap your sensor when it's convenient for you. All that on top of it being small, accurate, incredibly wearable, and light. These things in my opinion, make the Dexcom g7. a no brainer. The Dexcom G seven comes with way more than just this. Up to 10. People can follow you, you can use it with type one, type two, or gestational diabetes, it's covered by all sorts of insurances. And this might be the best part, it might be the best part alerts and alarms that are customizable, so that you can be alerted at the levels that makes sense to you. dexcom.com/juicebox links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com to Dexcom. At all the sponsors. When you use my links, you're supporting the production of the podcast and helping to keep it free and plentiful.

Speaker 1 16:52
There are so many different styles of tattoos right now and stuff growing every single day, I think there's going to be even more styles by the the next five years. And the stuff that's possible now compared to what it was in maybe like the early 2000s. And even like the 90s is just like astronomically different. It's almost like oil painting. I'm like, How did how did they make it look so real? And it's in a living, breathing human being? It's crazy.

Scott Benner 17:20
I'm stunned by how well they, how they look how the tools have come along in the end the artistry. And I'm also stunned by how sometimes I'll see my tattoos in a mirror and they'll startle me. Yeah, because I forget that I have them. Which is actually has happened to me once for sure. Like where I actually swatted at my shoulder. Like I thought there was something I was like, it was like what the hell. That was just there's a giant tattoo on my shoulder that I somehow forgot I had. And the reason I have more than one is because I initially got one on the side of my calf. And one day toweling off after a shower, it gave me this weird feeling that it was floating and disconnected. So I put more stuff with it and attached it to itself in a ring. Because I don't know, like that was actually my artistic thought was I don't know how artistic it was. But like it visually looked wrong to me for this just one thing to be there like that. Yeah,

Speaker 1 18:14
definitely. That's like, I feel like that's a totally common thing. I hear that often. Or I'll hear people who want to, like, make everything perfectly symmetrical. So not too far fetched.

Scott Benner 18:24
And I'm like, it's funny. I'm almost I don't know, I'm not embarrassed by my tattoos. But they are definitely indicative of how old I was when I got them and what was popular at the time. And like all that stuff. It's interesting. Yeah, you look at somebody who's like 75 years old, like they have Popeye on their arm. How do they how did that happen? Like, how did they not know not to do that? And now I look at my tattoo. And I think Oh, that is definitely what someone thinks when they look at my

Speaker 1 18:51
Yeah, they're like, little like, I don't know, time stamps of little things that like meant something to you at that time, or, you know, a moment in time that like felt, you know, really great or, you know, whatever it can mean to anybody but I, you're you're preaching to the choir here I have, I have lots of tattoos from different times. And I, I started getting tattooed, I had a fake ID and instead of like going to the bar, I would like go to tattoo shops, and I would like try to get tattooed at like 16 and 17. And the legal age here is 18. And all of those tattoos, I will confidently say I absolutely have either gotten covered up or removed because I'm just like, yeah, those weren't great ideas.

Scott Benner 19:35
Your parents must have been thrilled. And by the way, this is what happens in Buffalo. It's freezing and there's nothing to do right. That's right. Yes, sex are good at that too, I guess are pretty much your options. Uh huh. I so I guess for people who don't know, I have Calvin and Hobbes on my right leg.

Unknown Speaker 19:53
That's amazing.

Scott Benner 19:54
Oh my god. It started off with just the cover of the baby. If people know the books the baby sitters club, the two of them are just standing together looking mischievious like next to each other. But I also have a spaceman, spiff. And when he's the giant, and when he gets in a time machine, which is really just a cardboard box and a couple of other things all like spun together, I basically took the the popularity at the time of tribal tattoos and did it with this instead and just put like a ring. And honestly, it looks old now. Like I should probably either get my leg cut off or have it colored or something like that. I don't know exactly what. But anyway,

Speaker 1 20:31
you should just leave it. Yeah, you should, you should leave it because I feel like you're gonna look back at that and be like, remember when I did that really silly thing.

Scott Benner 20:37
I remember two things about getting a tattoo. One of them was my mom telling me that it would never come off after I got it. I said yeah. And I remember saying to her Oh, thank you. I wasn't certain of that. That was my sarcastic reply. I was 19. Yes. And when my kids talk about getting tattoos, I'm oddly against it. Yeah,

Speaker 1 20:57
that's fair. I feel like it's a rarity. Now to not have tattoos. I feel like everyone has at least one or one small one. And I'm like, I think it's so cool. When I come across someone who's like, I've actually never had a tattoo. And I'm like, Wow, that's crazy.

Scott Benner 21:10
Just to go, let's offend people for a second. Sure. What's the difference? And if I'm wrong, then you'll just tell me I don't see it this way, Scott. But what's the difference between someone who just wants to get ahead too, and somebody who's making a tattoo part of an aesthetic or a look?

Speaker 1 21:24
Yeah, I think I think it's different for everyone. You know, while some people think it's like, so for example, I'll tattoo people all the time, who are like, I'm never gonna get anything on me. Unless it means something to me. And I can totally respect that. And then there's the total opposite side of the spectrum where people are like, I'm really uncomfortable in my body, and I want to get this tattoo to maybe, like, have me like this space. There's definitely a common misconception, for example, with people who have like, like, even I've done this, like, people carry, like, some extra weight, like on their stomach and they're like, ah, you know, like, I don't want to get my stomach tattooed. Unless it's like, flat or like washboard abs and I'm like, Nah, you know, like, maybe if you got a tattoo on the spot like you like an image that you really like, it might bring you some some peace in how you feel or kind of like rebrand it for yourself. And it almost comes from like a similar maybe like a body modification or like, people who will go and get like, to a medical spa and like, get something like that done. So it's definitely just in the in the sense of like, it depends on what someone's looking to get out of it. You know,

Scott Benner 22:29
I'm I call your episode rebrand your belly. So Exactly. Oh, my gosh, alright. Well, we've talked about this more than we should have. I'm sorry, diabetes, when you were seven. Are there other people in your family? You have type one or are other autoimmune issues?

Speaker 1 22:42
Yeah, so no other autoimmune issues, but my aunt's on my dad's side is also type one, but she didn't get hers until a little bit later in life.

Speaker 3 22:51
Okay, in like her 30s or 40s 50s. Yep. Yeah. 30s 30s. Okay, so you're the only one younger? Did she get it before you? Where did you get it first? Yeah,

Speaker 1 23:02
she got up before me. I think it was even before I got mine. So I grew up kind of knowing I spent a lot of time with her. So I grew up knowing a little bit into that world.

Scott Benner 23:14
It's interesting. So when you were diagnosed, you immediately like, oh, that's what my aunt has.

Speaker 1 23:18
Yeah, I didn't quite understand it. Because I was, of course, I was I was seven, I think at the time, so it was like, very confusing to me. You know, I remember going right into the doctor's office with my parents, I had a, you know, the same same, you know, song and dance that everyone kind of, has gone through of like, really thirsty, sleeping a lot, something was wrong, losing some weight, you know, and then going to the doctor or getting that news of having to, you know, go to the hospital, that kind of whole situation. So I didn't understand it. And I was like, you know, seeing my parents reaction. I was like, oh, no, something is wrong.

Scott Benner 23:51
So that was probably like, my sisters fault. This my sisters.

Unknown Speaker 23:55
Yeah. All right.

Scott Benner 23:59
But no other autoimmune stuff.

Speaker 1 24:00
No, yeah. In surprisingly, like, you know, I'm very blessed to have like, everyone else. My family is like, we have a really, really great bill of health. And I'm grateful for that. But yeah, so when reality kind of set in, and I was in the hospital for like, a week or so, that was almost like the bonding factor of like, your aunt has this and she's living with this and you are going to be able to live with that too. So that was like, although really young, I was like, okay, like, if she can do it, I can do it. You still recall that as being helpful. Yeah, absolutely. And like, it wasn't as like alienating as it felt because it was like, Well, Mom, do you have this? No. Well, does dad have this? No. So I'm like, Okay, well, then why? You know why? Why? Trying to wrap your head around that as like a seven year old kid. It just It doesn't? It doesn't happen. So a lot.

Scott Benner 24:52
No, I don't I don't know how you would do your brothers and sisters. I'm sorry. I forget if I asked.

Speaker 1 24:56
Oh, no, that's okay. Yeah, I'm an only child. So Nothing to reference there either. So

Scott Benner 25:01
interesting. Alright, so, diagnosis seven, there's no way you have a pump 23 years ago,

Speaker 1 25:06
right? No. So yeah, I grew up during a time where it was all manual injections and manual finger pricks. And that was really, really hard because as a kid to intuitively lean into having a feel yourself, you know, fluctuate levels, and especially just starting out. It was really, really confusing for me.

Scott Benner 25:27
Are you regular an MPH? 23 years ago? Are we using 11? Lantus? levemir? Yeah, I

Speaker 1 25:33
was using Lantis in human log at the time. Okay. That's what you started with. Yep. Okay.

Scott Benner 25:37
Did they have you counting carbs? Or were you doing an exchange diet?

Unknown Speaker 25:41
I was counting carbs. Yep.

Scott Benner 25:42
Okay. Do you recall if it worked? Like, do you recall, the doctors were happy or not happy with your results? Were you were your parents? What was it? Like, you know, dealing with all that?

Speaker 1 25:52
Yeah, it was really hard. You know, it was like fluctuating, there are times where like, things worked out really great. But I think what the most challenging part was just like, a kid wanting to be a kid, you know, I remember like, not understanding certain holidays. Like, why can I have Halloween candy? Why can't I have cake on my birthday? You know, just, hey, like, you know, my friends are having a sleepover. And, you know, my parents were like, AF, I don't know, if I trust that, you know, you're going to be able to go over there and like, make it through the night without like, sugar low? Can we trust that the parents know how to handle this? So a lot of that was always really like, the harder part for me. And then I know, like, for that for the actual, like, I don't know, what am I trying to say the results themselves? I think it was, it was always mixed. Because it I mean, again, like if I was having a hard day, or if I'm being a starboard kid, and I'm not trying to finish my dinner, that would mess everything up. And at the time, you know, my parents did the best they could. But again, I was a kid being a kid, and, you know, I'm running around all day, I'm having a sugar low, or I want to go play outside having worked for flow. And I remember there would be times where, you know, I want to do things that other people were doing, you know, I couldn't do it. Because it was just gonna mess with my sugar a little bit too much. And my parents were like, Eff, you know, we can't, like we can't have you be, you know, out doing that kind of stuff. And it was like, it was hard for me to digest, because I was like, you know, How come everyone else gets to, like, do all this stuff. And I don't, you know, but I think the the return on that was like, I had a really huge sense of like, learning responsibility. And like, learning how important it is to be, like, intuitive with your body. And like, how that feels. Yeah. And that was like, amazingly helpful for like, other areas in my life. Just

Scott Benner 27:47
Were your parents scared? Or were you were they reacting to some real problems that they were seeing, and they just didn't know what to do about them?

Speaker 1 27:55
I think it was definitely both, you know, I think probably them just being like, new parents. And then like, you know, trying to juggle this, like, you know, for lack of a better word, a wrench just thrown into, like, what is probably already hard. So I don't I don't have kids, but I can imagine having a kids probably really hard and then having to deal with like an illness like that on top of it was probably just like, a lot, just day to day. And there's like, yeah, there's, there's times you know, when I was a kid, I remember having like some really bad lows, some really bad highs. And, you know, there was like, lapse with them. So, you know, there'll be times where I'll be like, Okay, I worked all week, I'm exhausted, we're ordering pizza, I don't feel like cooking, you know, and then the, you know, all the problems that can come with that. And then I'm having a sugar high. And I think like anyone to be like, perfect parent on it. 24/7 is like unrealistic. So I think it was just like, trying to find that balance. And then trying to also be a parent on top of that, which like, made the varying results of like, sometimes my blood sugar would be amazing. And my agency was on point. And, you know, everything was like really great. And then I'll have like, a streak of like, you know, having a couple bad months and like, I'm kind of off the track here. Like, I remember even just going through puberty like that was like, that was a huge wrench in my blood sugars, because I've all of a sudden, everything was just like, your blood sugar is crazy high or, you know, you all of a sudden can be doing everything perfect. And you just wake up one day and it's like, Nope, this is not working out. So

Scott Benner 29:31
well. I get that also, were you an only child because that's what they wanted or were they having trouble having kids?

Speaker 1 29:38
I think that's what they wanted. Yeah. And I I think after having me they're like, I think this is enough.

Scott Benner 29:47
Are you a problem?

Speaker 1 29:48
I don't think I was but I think it was just like probably a lot for them to kind of to juggle at the time. So and like where I came from, like my parents were together for a little bit now. After but a little bit like some time had passed, and they ended up, you know, getting divorced and splitting up. So it was like, you know, most of the time I was spending time with mom and mom's like a single parent and trying to raise me with all the extra things on the on the track here. So yeah, it was just I think, a difficult for both of them.

Scott Benner 30:18
Yeah, no, I take your point. Anyone ever asked you for a tattoo? And you did it. But even now, in your head, you think they shouldn't have done that? Like, if I was in charge? I wouldn't have done that. Like this one popped into your head when I say that? Yeah,

Speaker 1 30:33
of course. I think there's like tons of tons of examples of this. It could be like, a placement thing. It could be like, you know, the couple who just met and they want to get each other's names on them. You know, this, this was definitely something that like I experienced more so in the beginning of my career, when, you know, when you're not as confident in what you do, you try not to show it, but I think that it can be easy for people to come in and just be like, hey, I want to talk to you can you do script, I saw that you you know, had it in your portfolio. I want my girlfriend's name, you know, on my neck, and I'm like, that's not really good idea. You know, how long have you guys been together? And they're like, you know, we absolutely not, you know, but when I was, you know, there's so many different personalities that you deal with, with with tattoos, you know, I've tattooed anyone from a lawyer and a doctor to someone who, you know, walks a completely different opposite end of that spectrum.

Scott Benner 31:30
Well, what if they're drunk or high? Would you say no, then Oh, no.

Speaker 1 31:33
Yeah, absolutely. Not, like, definitely, like liability issues, but also like, like, usually, if someone if they're drinking can bleed more, and then it's just never. Yeah, it's just never gonna, like heal, right? And I don't need them coming back and being like, I regret this. Can you cover it up? And I'm gonna be like, No,

Scott Benner 31:53
what I was getting tattoos. It was a Yo, you brought a bottle for the new artist, like, you know, and it was just that thing you knew to do. Like, it was the, like, the strangest thing. I don't even know how I knew to do that. Yeah, then, you know, you're an hour into it. And you realize this guy's like, he's getting pretty wrapped. And you're like, should I really be letting them do this, but then just it seemed like it was this happy place. He just was I don't know if he still does that like that or not? I'm not sure but but I remember like having a thought like an hour into it. Like, maybe that was a mistake.

Speaker 1 32:28
Yeah, all worked out. Very weirdly common thing with like, especially just like, you know, old school tattoo artists, you know, things are very different before. Yeah, the boom of like, the internet, like Instagram and even, you know, even MySpace, geez. You know, like, tattooing was very much kind of like a gentlemen's handshake. While there's like definitely magic in that, it's obviously great that like, you're not going to go into your, you know, local tattoo shop and hopefully find someone who's drunk ready to talk to you. I can't guarantee that, but I would

Scott Benner 32:59
hope just like it's gotta be we'd nowadays right? Yeah, so that is what I prefer that thank you.

Speaker 1 33:06
Yeah, I was gonna say like, especially if you're on like the West Coast, like, I spent a little bit time I lived out in California for a bit. And I worked at shops, and they would just, they'd have a bong on the table, and the artist would finish the test. You walk out there and just be like, ripping it all day. I'm like, how do you guys not have?

Scott Benner 33:29
I just can't imagine. So listen, I'm not artistic. And I mean, this like, like, physically, I can't draw or I don't see dimensioned. Well, like all that stuff, right? Like I shading, I'd be bad at all of it. As a matter of fact, Arden's in a class right now where she had a, she had to do a self portrait, it had to be on a big piece of, of medium. So I think it was like, I don't know, but it must have been like three feet by like two feet, like a big piece. You know, she's like, I'm in a rush. I don't have a lot of time to do this the way I want to. So I'm going to sit down and get it done. And like a couple of days later, it was finished. And I said, How many times just start and stop this. And she's like, What are you talking about? Like this is this is the one like I just did one. And I can't even imagine how to like, do that without, like making so many mistakes that it has to be crumbled up and thrown away. Like I don't have that ability. And then to take that feeling inside of me. And think like, to make it permanent on somebody, I'd be out of my mind. I wouldn't be able to do that. But I have no skills either. So my question is, what kind of art were you doing before you were tattooing?

Speaker 1 34:34
So before I was tattooing? I did I painted every night at my table, and I was lucky enough to know that I wanted to be a tattoo artist. I kind of like grew up around people who had tattoos. So once I realized that, you could do that as a job. I kinda, I wanted tattoos and I wanted to tattoo so most of the things that I was drawing were already tattoo related. And when I first started tattooing, I was really hyper focused on life. American traditional, so anything that I could get my hands on, you know, I would go to the bookstore and I would grab anything that had the word tattoo on it, if it was like a magazine or like an old, you know, Sailor Jerry book, like the little sailor just like designs, and I would just take tracing paper and just trace every page. And then eventually, I would take the tracing paper and put it on like a watercolor paper and create these, like, you know, what, what would be now tattoo flash. And then once I realized that I really wanted to be a tattoo artist, I wanted to learn the styles that were like, you know, at the forefront of that. So I could make myself essentially, like, valuable to a tattoo studio. So, you know, I would take charcoal, and I would, you know, try and draw from life, there was a rose or something outside that I saw, you know, and even before the American traditional stuff, I would just, I was always drawing even as a kid, for as far as I can think back. I really enjoyed drawing. It changed when you know, the thing that I love doing that essentially could have been my hobby or therapy turned into a career. Yeah.

Scott Benner 36:10
So yeah. How long did your apprenticeship last?

Speaker 1 36:13
There was about two and a half years. And so I apprentice here in Buffalo. And then right after that, I moved to Los Angeles. And I was living there for a little bit. And I was a shop manager at a really, really busy street shop. It was like 14 artists, it was like upstairs and downstairs. So answering phones running all around and setting people up tearing them down. And then on my off days, I would work like in the valley, taking like in a street shop, just taking like all types of just different walk ins. That's where I learned how to tattoo, I would say the apprenticeship was great. And working as a studio manager was great. But being thrown into that fire and like dealing with hard personalities and time constraints and challenging areas. That's like really where the pressure like was on me. Hard

Scott Benner 37:04
personalities. Sounds like the name of your podcast where you tell a different story about an asshole that you've tattooed every

Unknown Speaker 37:10
week. I could probably write a book. Yeah.

Scott Benner 37:14
If you started doing this, at what age Tell me again, I'm sorry, that

Speaker 1 37:18
was 2016. So I think I just turned these I think I just turned 21 maybe 20 or 20. Okay,

Scott Benner 37:26
you were doing it? Like you use Control IQ now, is that right?

Unknown Speaker 37:30
I do. Yep. Right. You

Scott Benner 37:32
do control IQ. You have G six Dexcom? Because it's still not ready for G seven as of us talking. So, but you're not wearing that? Seven years or years ago, right?

Speaker 1 37:43
No, so I did. Yeah, I was doing manual injections.

Scott Benner 37:47
And what was that? Like? Because the work is intense. You can't be stopping and starting. I wouldn't imagine you're on your feet, then you're sitting down. You're moving your hand constantly. Was it hard on your blood sugar? And how did you handle it without a CGM?

Speaker 1 37:59
It was horrible. Yeah, it was so bad. My blood sugar was out of whack all the time. You know, and it really was horrible. I'm in mental health as well, because I would you know, as tattooers we usually start, you know, our lives are polar opposite then like a nine to five. So we're starting our first tattoo usually at 12 o'clock. So at this point, I've already had breakfast, and I'm, you know, getting ready to have lunch. And I would be like, Well, I don't even want to eat lunch. Because as soon as I sit down to do this tattoo, I know my blood sugar is just gonna go really crazy high. And there is no worse than like tattooing with high blood sugar. It is so hard. You know, tattooing, in general is pretty tough on your body. I'm not someone that will prioritize money over doing a good tattoo, because then it's just my reputation would be shot. So you know, I can't put my bad day on someone else. So you know, there's been times you know, if it's really bad, I have to be like, Hey, I can't touch you today like my my blood sugar is out of whack. I can't get it out of the three hundreds I feel horrible. I don't want to like do that to you. So that was definitely front and center stage for a lot of the beginning points in my career and then just running around like crazy that you know, even polar opposite like when I was at that studio, as the shop manager, you know, I would be running upstairs setting a bunch of people up and then I have to go back downstairs and I'm running up and down stairs like all day not eating and then I'm like, Oh, of course my blood sugar's low. I didn't have any snacks or anything but the days going by so quick and I had so much to do and so much to look after that I would like put myself on the back burner. Okay, so once that CGM came out and like I was able to pair that with, like the pump technology, like not only has the like quality of my life gotten better, but also like the quality of my work as well, like in 10 folds. You know, just having that alarm go off. I'm like, Oh, I have to put my Self first, right now, I can take a brief a pre like a pause, and, and be present with myself, or if I'm starting a tattoo, and I can't rip my gloves off, like, at least I know that like, if I'm like heading up after a snack or something before I start, you know, I'm gonna get that control IQ technology. Whereas before, it was just like a slippery slope of just kind of like, years and years of like, okay, like, what's gonna happen, what's going to happen and either I'm not going to eat all day, because I'm running around like crazy, or I'm going to be able to, like, have more time to check into this and be, you know, present with myself.

Scott Benner 40:35
When you say it's difficult, are we talking about like confusion, like or foggy head or being tired or irritable, or what parts of it made it hard for you, I mean, hard enough that you canceled.

Speaker 1 40:47
So I'm someone that like before control IQ and before having like a CGM, I would definitely run a lot higher. And a lot of that also, too, is like paired with a lot of my personal anxiety, I could probably speak for every type one that like, you know, lows are super scary, and they feel really intense, where, like, I would purposely almost run a little bit higher when I would go into work and stuff just because I didn't even want to deal with it. And I'm like, Ah, you know, I've got more tokens in the bank here, you know, I can, I can maybe like, pop into work at 200 run around all day. And then like, it'll kind of go back into where I want it to go like 151 30. But, you know, on the on the flip side of like playing those, like dangerous games, and being young and doing that, and less structured, I would just run the risk of running high. So, you know, if I was high for too long, you know, if I'm high, having a high from 9am to two in the afternoon, then I'm like, potentially getting ketones, and now I'm having insulin resistance. And then pairing that was like a manual injection, hoping that like, it's still not going up per my last like injection, it just was so so much harder to handle. And quite frequently, it would just be like, if I don't feel good enough, like, you know, I'm feeling like tired or exhausted or I it's really hard to focus right now. Because I'm feeling like, you know, just like dehydrated or like, just like, very off and to like, be present with someone make sure that they're like, like, you know, tattooing hurts. So, you know, a lot of my job too is like making sure that they're as comfortable as they can be in that environment. And then the added layer of like, if I have a really large appointment, sometimes people are coming in getting really meaningful pieces, they want to talk about it. So while I'm tattooing, you know, someone can be like, trying to have like a really hard to heart moment with me or like talk about something that's potentially like traumatic. And if I can't be present in that moment, I'd like never want my client to feel like I don't care about that. So yeah,

Scott Benner 42:47
it feels to me too, that you have like two different jobs. If somebody wants to have a heart to heart conversation with you, you have to be able to listen, respond and continue to make the tattoo the right way. Yeah, that's two different thought processes at one time.

Speaker 1 43:00
Yeah, 100% and then trying to like, play mathematician and hope that like you're feeling your best on top of that, intuitively without any like, that's a lot. It was so hard. Is

Scott Benner 43:12
this a thing? You You can make a I don't know how to put this can you make a good living doing this?

Speaker 1 43:17
Oh, yeah, absolutely. And it's definitely a job that like what you put into, it's what you're gonna get back, you know, so, I'm at the point now, where I have owned two studios, right now I own my own studio. So I've got some other people working for me, you know, I've been able to teach people. So like, you know, at the, at the position where I'm at, I think that like, you know, I just want to be able to pass that on to other people. So they can also have like, a really good life. Man, I don't know if I would bother doing anything else. That's why like, full circle to it is so important that I like, take care of my body right now. So I can do this for as long as I can

Scott Benner 43:54
be able to go for a while. Hey, if you have your if you have your own place, and there are people working there, do they work for you? Like they're an hourly employee? Or do you take a piece of the work they do? And you kind of give them a space? Yeah, it's

Speaker 1 44:07
kind of like a like independent contractor type thing. So you know, there's like commission or there's booth rent, that's typically like how it goes, Booth rents usually, like reserved for people who are like, for lack of better word, like a veteran, you know, someone who has their own clientele. They've been doing it for 10 years, and they're just kind of looking for a space. Yeah. Whereas like, most of the situation is like commission based. I prefer commission based with my employees anyways, just because I have a little bit more control over like, the quality of tattoos that happen, as well as like, the supplies we're using, like, there's no question on like, you know, we were not ordering for example, our stuff from like, Amazon, like, we want to make sure that we're like giving our clients like the best like that they can receive. So like in doing that, like, you know, the Commission employees almost essentially pay for that pay for booking system like a shop manager, all of that stuff that kind of just get gives us like a little bit more of an edge on like, you know, making the experience better.

Scott Benner 45:04
I would think also, you don't want somebody in there just renting a space doing a bad job, and then the stinks on you because they're gone. Yeah. And your place is still there. Right? Yeah, you know, there's hairdressers around here that I've started noticing. They're basically like, we work hairdressers. And you know what I mean by that like, like space that you rent. So you see somebody coming to get their hair cut, and at the same time, they're arriving, the hairdressers arriving, right? They go into a space that has everything they need, the hairdresser usually has their own like tools with them. They cut their hair, and then they leave again, like the hairdresser doesn't work there. It she's just Richier here just renting this space. And the place is just always open and available. So they like put in a code they go in and they use the space and they leave again. Yeah,

Speaker 1 45:49
yeah, that's similar to kinda like how the booth rent situation works. And like, I can see the appeal to that in the freedom sense and how like, you know, other artists want those things or like could benefit from those things. But yeah, it's it's very, very similar. hairdressing and tattooing. It's

Scott Benner 46:07
crazy. I never know, is there a license you need or anything like that? Yeah.

Speaker 1 46:12
So everywhere is different. You know, some of the more stricter places, for example, is like actually in like Portland, you have to actually go to a tattoo school and have a certain amount of

Scott Benner 46:22
good, they're doing the road and everything. I'm just kidding. It sounds like a good idea, actually.

Speaker 1 46:28
It like, yeah, it's a whole thing. And then there's other places where you don't even need a license, which is really strange. Like the health department doesn't get involved at all. That's not at all. Yeah, it's very, very strange. So like, for example, where I'm from, if you have $50, you can go to the Health Department. Take like a 10 question quiz. And if you have a shop you can use that will let you know, have you then you're licensed for that studio.

Scott Benner 46:58
Jessica? Is it a quiz? I'm guessing I could get right. And I've never tattooed anybody? Yes, yeah. 100%.

Speaker 1 47:06
And, you know, with anything, of course, there's like just so many issues with that, you know, there's no CPR training, there's no blood borne pathogen training. You know, like, it's wild to me that, you know, if you want to be like you said, like a hair stylist or barber that you have to have a certain amount of hours to like, cut hair that grows back. But if someone comes in and they're like, hey, I want my eyelids tattooed, like I can fully do this essentially procedure on somebody that's permanent, right? That could really hurt them if done incorrectly. And it's like, totally fine. Well, yeah,

Scott Benner 47:41
definitely a procedure. I mean, you're really having something. I mean, if if you've never had a tattoo before, at this point, like everyone has one, but I guess that's not really true, but it hurts. Yeah, it doesn't feel good. And it doesn't stop hurting as it goes along. It's just your your body becomes more like hamburger as it's happening. So it's a different pain as it gets older. Yeah, there's nothing like I do know some people who enjoy it. And I'm not here to judge them as I will admit to you I like getting a root canal there's this part and I've had a couple of I'm so sorry that I have bad teeth. But I've had a couple of root canals in my life. And they're after they take out the like the root from the canal. They kind of go in and clean the canal out with this. It's almost feels like a burr that's bumpy and when it's in there you it almost feels like it's bouncing up and down and people were bothered by this or having a like a like a massive stroke right now as I'm talking about it. But as that thing's in there turning and bumping. I love that feeling. Yeah,

Speaker 1 48:42
that see, I don't know. I don't know. I hate all in every case. Like you wouldn't think so. I'm I'm pretty much covered head to toe and tattoos and I've only ever had like wisdom teeth pulled. So I'm like, I don't know.

Scott Benner 48:55
I also I sleep. I sleep through dental procedures. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 48:59
see, I could never lay

Scott Benner 49:00
down and I'm like, how are you? Oh my god. Oh my God, no one's gonna bother me. It might be a function of being a parent. Jessica, I'm not sure. But like, you're there and you're like, No one's counting on me. Like I'm here for an hour I'm here for 90 minutes whatever I put my headphones in. I look at him and I go just jack me open. I'm going to sleep and they put like this rubber. Like, I don't know what they call it like a jet like a wedge in your mouth to hold your mouth open because I'm not going to be able to hold low myself because I'm Daddy going by by I'm taking the that I lay down. I actually I get like the I feel them like shaking my shoulder to wake me up and I'm like, Oh, we're done.

Speaker 1 49:35
Yeah, you know, I get it. I've got some clients like that. I'm like, couldn't be me. But like, again, more people. Like yesterday.

Scott Benner 49:44
Would you say that people sleep through a tattoo?

Speaker 1 49:47
Oh, yeah, for sure. Like people. I mean, they don't like go to sleep. But you can tell they're in that very comfortable, like meditative state where like, you know, you just kind of gotta like, shake them up and be like, hey, you know we're finished up here. Yeah, what's

Scott Benner 50:00
your line racist stuff? Like, yeah, somebody came in and wanted something like oddly like, just offensive. You'd be like, I'm not doing that. Yeah,

Speaker 1 50:10
no way. Like I even like, even like borderline stuff of like, I'm not I'm not doing a confederate flag. I'm not doing any of that

Scott Benner 50:17
kind of stuff. Let's be honest. You're in Buffalo someone's asked for that, right?

Speaker 1 50:20
Oh, yeah, for sure. I luckily I've made my studio like, pretty loudly known, like, you know, there's stuff on the door like, Don't come in here. You're gonna be you know, racist or homophobic or sex like any of that stuff. Like, yeah, don't be Don't be weird. And you know, that's Don't

Scott Benner 50:40
be weird. We can get through this. Yeah, exactly. You charge by the, by the time it takes or by the intricacy of the piece, or do you just charge as much as you think you can get away with.

Speaker 1 50:50
So it's kind of tough. So I since I've been doing this for so long, and I have had a lot of like, street shop experience. My studio is kind of like a hybrid studio. So although we take walk ins, we also are mostly by appointment only. Right now, I do charge hourly. But it's really tough because I'm a really fast tattooer. So, you know, for example, these people will come in and be like, Alright, we're going to start a sleeve. And I'm like, outlining a whole sleeve and like four hours. And, you know, I'm sure my clients are like loving that, that they're getting, you know, a lesser, lesser, expensive experience. You know, there's there's certain things where I'm like, Okay, I know, this only took us three hours, but you need to pay for the, for the fact that, you know, I scheduled you all day for this. So it I think it needs to turn into like, almost like you can either pay hourly for this, or, you know, let's discuss what this is going to look like as a flat rate. Because

Scott Benner 51:44
May I make a suggestion? Yeah, hourly with a minimum of and then you and you add the minimum then so you look at the piece and you say, look, I gotta make $500 Here, or I'm screwing myself. So it's our, you're gonna pay my hourly rate, but it's a minimum of this many hours. I don't know how much you get an hour, but then it's a minimum of this many hours. If I get it done sooner. That doesn't matter. You're still paying the minimum. That's how yeah, see? That's brilliant. That's what I would do. Okay, I'm glad I can help today. Yeah, control IQ. How long have you been using it?

Speaker 1 52:19
Oh, this is my fourth year with it. I briefly switched to Omni pod for a little while. And this This is like, hilarious. But scary story. I went to my enduro and what I went on to Omnipod. And I was like, you know, very excited about it being to Bliss wanted to give it a try. And I remember sitting with her and setting it up and she goes, she goes, we don't need to put the safety on this. Like you've been doing this for so long. I'm sure you got this. And I was like, Yeah, you're right. You know what, I got this. And I'll never forget it. I sat down at dinner. I typed in 15 units. And of course it was it was supposed to be 15 grams of carbohydrate.

Scott Benner 52:54
Hey, give yourself 15 units that said,

Speaker 1 52:57
Yep, so it was it was exactly, you know, I'm looking down my sugar's 140. And, you know, I've got 15 active units in and I'm, like, you know, immediately panicking, you know, and I, I went to like, the local hospital, and I'm like, Hey, like, I need to do something. Now. I don't like I don't know what to do. And I'm just watching my Dexcom like, go from like, you know, slightly dropping to, like, double dropping. And I remember the, the hospital front desk was like, well, here's a sandwich and an apple. And I'm like, Oh, that's not going to be enough

Scott Benner 53:34
for too far into this now. But um, why did you not man, I asked, like, why did you not just take your insulin to carb ratio and figure out how many carbs you needed to combat the 15 units?

Speaker 1 53:43
Hey, you know what, I don't know. I think it was just like, I was out. And I was I was I was with some friends. And I was just like, being, you know, kind of like careless with it. And I was like, oh, you know, like, in the middle of dinner, having a conversation and, you know, I'm drinking a cocktail to on top of it. And I, you know, I was just getting lost in the sauce. And I, I just, you know, typed in 15 You know, like, I normally would on my other pump. And I just, yeah, immediately, immediately made a mistake. And I was like, oh, no, you

Scott Benner 54:11
end up in the hospital because by the time you pulled yourself together to do something, it was kind of too late to do anything else.

Speaker 1 54:16
Yeah. So I actually walked out of the hospital and I had a friend who is also type one, and she also tattoos and she, she put me on to those. It's I guess, a glucagon that like is like, the powder that you can like put back so yes, yeah. Yeah. And that honestly saved my life. You know, I grabbed that. I went around and got some juice and my partner and I, we called an ambulance and the ambulance just kind of sat with us and I really didn't have to do much and that that immediately took care of everything. I think I got to like 50 It was pretty quick and then I took that and it just turned it right around. And I'm so lucky I had that on me and my you know on my health insurance didn't cover that I paid out of pocket for it. But I'm fairly happy I got that. Because, you know, who knows what happened, I probably would have ended up in the hospital and they would have been a big thing. And yeah,

Scott Benner 55:11
you know, I'm proud. I'm proud of you for having me, especially if you have to pay cash for it. Because it's a, it's a thing that, you know, people are like, Oh, I'm never gonna need it. But you know, it's like a seatbelt when you need it. You're, you don't have time to put it on later. It's like you have to have it. Ready to go. Yeah, in the moment. I'm not coming down on you here. But what's your insulin to carb ratio?

Speaker 1 55:30
So right now it's every 10 unit, or any every 10 grams is one unit. With that

Scott Benner 55:35
math, you would have needed 150 carbs to combat the 15 unit Bolus.

Unknown Speaker 55:39
Yep. And that would have been really hard.

Scott Benner 55:44
Are you tiny person? Yeah.

Speaker 1 55:45
I'm not a tiny person. But I don't have a huge appetite.

Scott Benner 55:49
Not a big eater.

Speaker 1 55:50
I just feel like, you know, it would have been like, I don't even know I would have had to been having some like, super bad food.

Scott Benner 55:57
Oh, you would have needed like a would you have needed like one of those iced coffees with like caramel in it and a slice of pizza that might have done it for you at that ratio?

Speaker 1 56:08
Like, IV drip of like regular Mountain Dew.

Scott Benner 56:15
Regular Mountain Dew in a long time?

Speaker 1 56:17
God, yeah. Yeah. So like I said, I was, I was lucky to have that, you know, again, I grew up with the, with the red one where you had to like, it was like a manual shot. And I've never used that knock on wood. And that was my only time and my entire life that I had to do something like that. And after that happened, I was like, I'm going back to my tandem pump.

Scott Benner 56:40
So that's interesting, though, because it didn't really have anything to do with a different pump. It had to do with your, like, uncomfortable, like Miss with a newer pump. And you're exactly nurse practitioner who for some reason didn't think safety settings were important, right? But because what's your biggest Bolus? Usually?

Speaker 1 56:55
It's a little bit tough for me because again, I don't really eat too too much. Mostly my meals are around, like 30 to 40 grams.

Scott Benner 57:04
Oh, so you only use like three or four units at the most? Yes. Oh, 15 must have scared the king out of you. Yeah, yeah, I get it now.

Speaker 1 57:12
Never seen those numbers. Okay. I'm horrified. Yeah, like double digit numbers. I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm gonna

Scott Benner 57:22
like, Oh, I just killed myself say Goodbye, everybody. Yeah, no, no, I get

Speaker 1 57:26
I remember. Like, I looked down. And again, I was like, my friend was like, Hey, are you okay? And I was like, Oh, no.

Scott Benner 57:35
And she has type one as well.

Speaker 1 57:37
No, no, I literally, that wasn't the person that was Yeah, I was just with some of my friends. The other person I was talking about was someone who was like, Hey, you should carry these around on nice. And I'm, I'm happy because my my doctors didn't tell me that was even an option that I could get those things. You know, they just had prescribed me again that like syringe method.

Scott Benner 57:56
Yeah. Which by the way, you're never gonna get to use one of those because if I think I'm right that next month they're done. I think eel I think Lily stopping making them. Like this year.

Unknown Speaker 58:07
I'm pretty like switching over

Scott Benner 58:09
I think Lily is getting out of the game. Oh, wow. She voc hypo pen back shimmy. I think those are the two retail versions at this point. There might be another mixed one like, like the red box still from another company. But I think it's one of those competent, maybe Novo makes one. But I think they're just not common. People don't have them. I think they'll get overtaken in the market as my expectation. So I think I think you're gonna see nasal like, powder or heipo. Pen, one of the one of the two. Yeah, you know what, I can't believe I haven't asked you in an hour. Two things. One of the things I'll ask you in a second, but the one I can't believe I haven't asked you is I actually have an episode with a paramedic, I think because I at one point, like people love to share their diabetes tattoos online. I'm sure you're aware of that. And oh, yeah. Yeah. And it's cool. Like, you know, like, I think some of them have some really great tattoos, but some of them are counting on their tattoos as an indicator to paramedics or, you know, medical people that they have type one diabetes. And I thought, I wonder if that's really a good idea. So this paramedic on, and she said, we are trained not to look at that stuff. And I was like, oh, okay, and she told me if I remember the episode correctly, it's jewelry around your wrist mostly is the best place maybe a necklace, but you could have, hey, I have type one diabetes written on your forearm and a paramedic might never look at it. Yeah. So do you know that and you tell people that I've

Speaker 1 59:40
actually like never weirdly had anybody come in to get any sort of like medical it tattoo. But I know that people do get them. But I didn't know that. paramedics were trained to not look at it. I guess I can understand probably why because what if it was a tattoo for someone else? Yeah, and you know, what if they treat you for something you don't have, I guess, you know?

Scott Benner 1:00:08
I know what you're saying you're like, you're like, oh, no, we can't do anything this this lady has blah, blah, blah, you're like, No, that's actually that was for her sister. And no, no, I got you know, yeah, I forget her exact explanation, but she said, do not count on tattoos to be seen by, by emergency services people. I was like, Oh, no kidding. Yeah. Okay.

Speaker 1 1:00:28
I believe that. I, you know, and again, too, I weirdly don't I like I said, I'm covered head to toe. And I don't have anything like that. And I also don't wear anything. I mean, I know I have my phone and stuff like that, that has that option and stuff. And I have, you know, my pump and stuff like that on my arms. But yeah, that's so that's so strange. I didn't even I didn't even think about that. But I have seen them. I've you know, I'm in a lot of the groups online and stuff like that. And, you know, people will definitely have them, but if they do, I'm gonna let them know that. So

Scott Benner 1:00:59
you said you're covered head to toe? Yep. And do you? Have you it sounds like you're dating. But I feel like I heard you say partner at some point. But have you ever had an experience where like a potential mate was either turned on or turned off by them?

Speaker 1 1:01:15
Yeah, definitely. I think it's like, sought out sometimes. And vice versa. You know, there's, there's tons of things like, a lot of people don't like tattoos, for personal reasons, or religious reasons and stuff like that. I think like, you know, my partner is also really covered in tattoos. She's not a tattoo artist, but she has a bunch of tattoos on her. And I think, I don't know, it's so strange, because I feel like I live in my, my small bubble, and I hang out with other tattoo artists, and I'm at my studio all day. And if I leave, I go do a guest spot around other tattoo artists. So to me, we all kind of like, look the same. You know, I'll go out in public in certain places. If I go to dinner, or I'm traveling or something like that, I realized quickly how tattooed I am. I'm like, Oh, wow. You know, my, my world is, you know, I've created my world in this way. But I realized pretty quickly, you know that I look different than a lot of the other people around, you know, I face tattoos. And you know, my neck is tattooed. And my hands are tattooed. Even if I'm really covered up and stuff at home people, people see them. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:02:22
it's interesting when it's your world, you don't think anything of it. And but I just saw a meme the other day, that was basically it was it was not basically this is what it was this guy with like, all these kind of like, I'm gonna tell you they were bad face tattoos. And the top of the meme it said something like in 1986 This was a crackhead. And then on the bottom, the same picture and it says in 2023 This is a famous singing artist. Yeah. And I was like, Oh, that's right.

Speaker 1 1:02:52
Oh, 100% It's so strange. And like, even when I started tattooing, like, you did not tattoo your hands, face and neck that was like, you know, like moral that was even taught on to me, you know, if someone, the young kid comes into my studio, who doesn't have a career that is, you know, something in the arts, you know, I'm probably not going to slap a big tattoo on the side of their face, like, you know, I'm not, I'm here to kind of honor these people. And not that I'm here to tell anybody what, what to do, or, you know, dictate their body and anything like that. But, you know, I have to kind of be almost like a gatekeeper in that sense. And, you know, it's like, again, I'm not here to, like, tell anybody anything, but, you know, I don't want to put something on someone that they're going to regret or like, a bad job, you know, so, yeah, you know, the person who's like coming in, and like, hey, I want my brand new girlfriend's name on the top of my eyebrow. I'm like, yeah, it's not happening, you know, from just having them think a little extra step on that hand tattoo that they think they want so badly.

Scott Benner 1:03:51
Also, there's a lot of, I was gonna say, there's places you can't really do tattoos because they were off like, you can't do the soul of your foot. But first of all, it feels like I think that that would really hurt. But like, if you did that, like, wouldn't the skin just regenerate so quickly that it would go away eventually. And isn't that true on like, your palms, your hands and other places, too?

Speaker 1 1:04:08
Yeah. So I actually have my palms done, and they stay. So there is a way to getting them in. And it's basically like, you know, we call it sewing it in. And it's it's essentially almost like a controlled blowout. So it's really horrible to receive getting done, and they don't always stay. You know, everyone's body metabolizes things differently. Interesting. So that's why you see in tattooing a lot of different like, gimmicky stuff. That doesn't make sense. Like there's creams that can remove your tattoos and it's just like, scientifically, not even possible, right? So, like, stuff like that, like, you know, getting it to stay like yeah, you can get a palm tattoo or maybe a tattoo on the bottom, but that might require you to go through and do it in multiple sessions. So the body can like build up that ink that like, you know, each time it's almost like another layer that can left. But luckily for me, you know, when I did my my palms and my hands and stuff like that, it stayed the first time. You know, I didn't have to go back to do it. But it was, it was horrible to get and like my healing sucks 10 times worse than like a regular person just from being a type one diabetic. So, you know, there's been tattoos I've gotten through the years that just haven't been super great to heal. And even to this day, the one area that like I don't have tattooed are the tops of my feet. And that's just because I'm so nervous about, you know, just the potential risk of that.

Scott Benner 1:05:34
Have you noticed healing? Does it change when you're a one sees more stable and lower? Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 1 1:05:40
Yeah. And since again, like the control IQ technology and the, you know, having the pump and stuff like that, like my agency has dropped, like, almost, you know, perfect range. So like, I'm like, Okay, I'm getting all the tattoos I like, you know, have like, considered not getting. I have, like, you know, some challenging areas. But, yeah,

Scott Benner 1:06:00
my first idea for a tattoo was to have the soul of a sneaker tattooed on the bottom of my foot.

Speaker 1 1:06:04
Oh, my goodness, yeah, it would hurt.

Scott Benner 1:06:07
I said, I was like, I said, like, I hear my ideas. And when I say that, when he goes, You don't do that. And I was like, Okay, that'll hurt a lot. And I was like, Okay, so, but and he's, but it was my first like, odd thought. I was like, what if I put the soul of a sneaker at the bottom? I thought that'd be weird. But I don't know. Like, I just don't have like, I don't think I'm a person who looks like they have tattoos. First of all, like, like, yeah, you know what I mean? Like, I just I'm not I definitely I don't I shouldn't say I think I don't look, I know I don't look like somebody who has tattoos. So often when people see them, they're kind of like, stunned that I have them at all. And I have a giant like circuit board on my shoulder. Yeah, that looks like it's like under the skin kind of feeling like it looks like the skins burned around it. And it's like exposing this hole in my shoulder. That's a circuit board. If you told me to go get another tattoo right now. I would never be able to i There's no way I would think of anything except like my kids names. Yeah. And if you asked me, Hey, here's your tattoos that you've been living with for 33 years. Would you get them again? I'd be like, yeah, probably not. Because I'm different. It's really, really interesting. Hey, if I came into you, and I said, I want authentic prison tattoos. Could you make them look like prison tattoos? Sure.

Speaker 1 1:07:19
Yeah. I mean, that's, that's like definitely a style. Is it? Really, you know, just, yeah, absolutely. There's all different types of that, you know, there's, like, if you wanted them to look really like they're like sticking poked in, you know, that's, that's definitely a style or if you're like, I want that like, single needle fine line, like, you know, full black and gray back piece with like, prison imagery. You could do that, too. So yeah, definitely.

Scott Benner 1:07:48
How many times have you tattooed the word Metallica on somebody?

Speaker 1 1:07:51
I think maybe twice. Not too bad. No. In my town, we had like mandatory Metallica from like five to six on the radio growing up. So we have lots of Metallica fans here.

Scott Benner 1:08:06
The little Ride the Lightning guy with the electric and is here. You must have done one of those.

Speaker 1 1:08:10
Right? Yeah. Yep. With the like. Yes.

Scott Benner 1:08:14
Yeah, no, you're exactly and I think the same thing. I just want to say before I forget episode 387 with ginger Lok, who's a paramedic called somebody called 911. And it's all about how she identifies type ones in emergency situations. So it's actually really cool. But anyway, okay, so Jessica, I got fascinated by talking to you about your tattoos and everything and your job. So is there anything about diabetes in general that we didn't talk about that you wanted to bring up today?

Speaker 1 1:08:40
I don't think so. Yeah, I feel like we nailed all the points which is just like yeah, like what it was like working you know with it before and you know, the format was so awesome to know because I had no idea so yeah, I feel like there's tons of really great things in here shared so Oh, I

Scott Benner 1:08:56
do I really do. Do you want to share your your shop or a handle online where people could find your anything?

Speaker 1 1:09:01
Yeah, definitely. All my stuff is just through my Instagram. So if you go to it's at Jess Fox tattoos, you can find all my stuff there and there's like, links with everything. You can see my work.

Scott Benner 1:09:13
Alright, I'm gonna look at it right now on che e ss Fox. I wish I wasn't able to say this, but I'm so pleased with myself that I spelled tattoos correctly. I can't even because there's something about the Double T and the double O that I just my brains like No, no, you're doing it wrong. But I gotta write on the first shot. I just want to say that oh, this one so I

Speaker 1 1:09:33
get that all the time. Like when I'm like paying a bill or like giving my email to like, where they're like always spelling it wrong. So you did great.

Scott Benner 1:09:42
And I was really pleased with myself then I so much so that I said it that the tattoo with the girl with the rows in her hair. Is that somebody specific or is it just art? It's actually

Speaker 1 1:09:51
based off a sculpture. So it was like a pose from a sculpture and then yeah, just like a flower with like a little like ornamental thing on the bottom and that's I. So if you look at most of my works like a lot of like, dark art and black and gray, but as of recently, I've been having a lot of fun dipping my foot into like, color new Neo traditional. So it's

Scott Benner 1:10:13
also very smart of you to take video of them because until art and started in art school, I didn't realize that being sent like a static flat image of something really is not the same as even just somebody taking a camera and just kind of rolling it around a little bit. So you can see a little more like from different perspectives. When she was gone the first time I remember her sending a picture of something. And when she brought it home, I was like, oh my god, it looks so much different in person than it did it like statically and I anyway, so that was cool the way you were doing it with a camera right. Thank you, actually. Oh, look at all this. You're terrific. Good for you. This is wonderful.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:47
Thank you. I appreciate that.

Scott Benner 1:10:48
Do you still use deodorant to pull the ink off of the paper of the tracing paper? Yeah,

Speaker 1 1:10:54
so it's definitely like it's the same stuff but formulated just in a more like sterile way. So yeah, like a Speed Stick? Absolutely.

Scott Benner 1:11:08
No, I remember the first time it happened to me. I was like what's going on right now?

Speaker 1 1:11:13
Yep. This one? Yeah. Look at you. Just put up fancy label on it. And so

Scott Benner 1:11:20
is the girl with the with the snake on her leg? Is that is that the girl you're with? Are you just posing with something you did? Hands

Unknown Speaker 1:11:28
on? What photo? If it was like

Scott Benner 1:11:31
the stairs? She's going up the stairs? You're sitting seated on the stairs? Yeah, yeah, that's my partner. Oh, lovely. Oh, look, did you do this work on her or no,

Speaker 1 1:11:39
this snake I didn't. But the other leg we just started like this year. So we're in the middle of kind of like working on a really huge leg sleeve.

Scott Benner 1:11:45
Interesting. Oh, this is like the dating equivalent of making somebody pregnant. They can't get away from you after you've done something like this to them.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:52
That's right.

Scott Benner 1:11:54
Like, you can wave if you want. But every time you look at your leg, you're gonna remember me. Oh, my God. All right. Well, I really do appreciate you doing this. Can I ask you one last question? What made you want to come on the podcast? Yeah,

Speaker 1 1:12:08
I love all your work. And like I said, I travel a lot for work. So a lot of the times, like, you know, I feel like a lot of diabetes education comes from other people and just like different experiences that they have gone through. And, you know, there's been things that I've dealt with like, specifically, like I was having a lot of stomach issues for a little while. And that's like, how I found you folks, and just hearing your stories, and everything you are going through as a parent and stuff like that. And it's been so helpful for me again, and learning all different types of stuff that like, you know, I was like, Man, I would love to talk to you someday. So wow, that's

Scott Benner 1:12:42
so nice to have you. Well, first of all, just let me tell you this before I answer my follow up, my is my follow up question. My wife just texted me. I was pizza for lunch. I'm going to assume she said, Man, I want pizza for lunch. And I've responded right now. I was a monkey in my dream. Let her try to figure out why the hell I said that. Okay. Oh, could we call your episode I was a monkey nuts too long. So what was wrong with your stomach? You were having digestive issues? Yeah,

Speaker 1 1:13:10
I don't know. It was really strange. I, I took a trip to Iceland. And it was like, super awesome. I came home and like for six months, I had really bad stomach issues. And my doctor was like, you must have got something from there. Like, you know, it had to have been from there had to been from there. And it was like, every time I ate just everything was like really horrible. And it was just like the blanket statements all the time. Like, must be you know, gastritis or guest to processor. Yeah. And nothing was helpful. And then you had a episode on here with a couple of different things. It was like supplements. I can't remember what it was like,

Scott Benner 1:13:51
supplements or something like that. Right? That episode. Yeah. Yep.

Speaker 1 1:13:55
And I did that. And it was actually incredibly helpful. And then you had a couple and like, I had been going for months seeing specialist and everything and like nothing was helping me and it was like, Okay, I need to talk to somebody who like, maybe understands it in a way that like, you know, what I deal with on a day to day basis? Because it just was yeah, it like the the whole situation that I was going through with them. They were just kind of just prescribed me like, here's an antacid try that. Here's this try that and like nothing was helping. And I was like, I think this, like there's a root of this problem. You know,

Scott Benner 1:14:32
I'll get a guy on a podcast to help me. Right? Yeah. And it's like

Speaker 1 1:14:36
so crazy because I was just like, you know, I was like, Well, what I what else do I have to lose? Like, you know, I can take a supplement. Maybe my stomach's gonna hurt. Who cares? My stomach already hurts. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:14:45
What would you do magnesium? Yep. digestive enzyme.

Speaker 1 1:14:50
Yeah, it was the one I'll never forget it because it tastes horrible is the won't the bore bile in it?

Scott Benner 1:14:56
Oh, yeah. You're not supposed to smell them sweetheart. Any your way you Get your mouth real good throw it and just boom knock it back as fast as possible yeah they put up yeah poop in them there's poop in them so

Speaker 1 1:15:09
so whatever bacteria or whatever we I put back into my stomach I think it just totally made everything better and the whole time I was like there's no way I picked up anything and like another like country like it just you know it wasn't like I was having all this exotic food.

Scott Benner 1:15:23
Maybe your digestion slowed down or something but although I did Google Reiki avec food poisoning and there's a lot on Reddit so maybe so maybe Iceland issues urgent warning as frozen frozen items so there's a lot don't Google right here Vic food poisoning because you're gonna see that maybe maybe something you ate killed the your gut bacteria or something like

Speaker 1 1:15:46
that? Yeah, yeah, it could have been so I'm gonna

Scott Benner 1:15:49
do so much more around some supplements in the coming months. My hardest problem to defeat is to get a quiz I either have to have the experience on my own enough that I'm comfortable speaking about it, or I need to get somebody on it knows what they're talking about. But there's so much bro science around supplements that it's hard to know if people really know what they're talking about. Or if they've Googled something and now they're trying to make money off of people. So it's, it's a hard thing to talk about, but it's right here on my whiteboard. Where's my whiteboard scatterbrained ideas, do a series called bitch sessions where I have type ones come on, and give each 110 minutes to complain about diabetes. That's one of my ideas. I love that it's gonna be great. By the way, no one steal that. Because if I see I hear this on another podcast, I'm going to clip your podcast I'm gonna put my audio of me saying on it. I'm gonna call you out on why. And then I have like Grand Rounds. We're working on that now. But supplements and nutrition is on my list with like a big line underneath of it. Because I know if you get if you get good information, it can really help you. So anyway, I'm glad you found it and that it was helpful and thanks for sticking around and continue to listen. I appreciate that too.

Unknown Speaker 1:16:57
Yeah, absolutely.

Scott Benner 1:16:59
Oh, hold on a second for me.

A huge thanks to touch by type one. Don't forget to head to touched by type one.org and get your free tickets to the big event. Touched by type one.org. Today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom g7 Which now integrates with a tandem T slim x two system. Learn more and get started today at dexcom.com/juicebox. Jaylen is an incredible example of what so many experience living with diabetes, you show up for yourself and others every day, never letting diabetes to find you. And that is what the Medtronic champion community is all about. Each of us is strong and together, we're even stronger. To hear more stories from the Medtronic champion community or to share your own story, visit Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox And look out online for the hashtag Medtronic champion. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoy my full conversation with Jalen coming up in just a moment. Thanks for hanging out until the end. Now you're gonna hear my entire conversation with Jalen don't forget Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box or the hashtag Medtronic champion on your favorite social media platform.

Speaker 2 1:18:18
My name is Jalen Mayfield. I am 29 years old. I live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I am originally from Waynesboro, Mississippi. So I've kind of traveled all over. I've just landed here in the Midwest and haven't left since

Scott Benner 1:18:33
ice. How old were you when you were diagnosed with type one diabetes?

Speaker 2 1:18:35
I was 14 years old when I was diagnosed with type one diabetes

Scott Benner 1:18:40
15 years ago. Wow. Yes. Okay. 14 years old. What do you like? Do you remember what grade you were in?

Speaker 2 1:18:45
I actually do because we we have like an eighth grade promotion. So I had just had a great promotion. So I was going straight into high school. So it was a summer heading into high school

Scott Benner 1:18:54
was that particularly difficult going into high school with this new thing?

Speaker 2 1:18:57
I it was unimaginable. You know, I missed my entire summer. So I went to I was going to a brand new school with, you know, our community, we brought three different schools together. So I was around a bunch of new people that I had not been going to school with. So it was hard trying to balance that while also explaining to people what type one diabetes was,

Scott Benner 1:19:18
did you even know or were you just learning at the same time? I

Speaker 2 1:19:21
honestly was learning at the same time, my hometown did not have an endocrinologist. So I was traveling almost over an hour to the nearest you know, pediatrician, like endocrinologist for children. So you know, I outside of that I didn't have any type of support in my hometown.

Scott Benner 1:19:39
Was there any expectation of diabetes? Is somebody else in your family have type one? No, I

Unknown Speaker 1:19:43
was the first one to have type one in my family.

Scott Benner 1:19:45
And do you have children now? I do not know. Do you think you will one day, still

Speaker 2 1:19:50
gonna validate but right now I've just been traveling books at all my career myself. So

Scott Benner 1:19:55
what do you do? What's your career? Yeah, so

Speaker 2 1:19:58
I am a marketing leasings specialist for a student housing company. So we oversee about 90 properties throughout the US. So I've been working for them for about

Scott Benner 1:20:06
eight years now. And you get to travel a lot in that job. Yes,

Speaker 2 1:20:10
I experience a lot of travel. It's fun, but also difficult, especially with all your type one diabetes supplies, and all your electronics. So it's a bit of a hassle sometimes. What

Scott Benner 1:20:20
do you find that you absolutely need with you while you're traveling? diabetes wise,

Speaker 2 1:20:24
I have learned my biggest thing I need is some type of glucose. I have experienced lows, whether that's on a flight traveling, walking through the airport, and I used to always experience just being nervous to ask for some type of snack or anything. So I just felt, I felt like I needed to always have something on me. And that has made it my travel a lot easier.

Scott Benner 1:20:46
So growing up in the small town, what was your initial challenge during diagnosis? And what other challenges did you find along the way?

Speaker 2 1:20:56
Yeah, I think the initial one, I felt isolated, I had no one to talk to that it was experiencing what I was going through, you know, they were people would say, Oh, I know, this is like hard for you. But I was like, you really don't like I, I just felt lonely. I didn't know you know, people were watching everything I did. He was like, You can't eat this, you can't eat that. I felt like all of my childhood had been, you know, I don't even remember what it was like for life before diabetes at this point, because I felt like that's the only thing I could focus on was trying to do a life with type one diabetes, when

Scott Benner 1:21:31
you found yourself misunderstood? Did you try to explain to people or did you find it easier just to stay private?

Speaker 2 1:21:38
I honestly I just held back I didn't really like talking about it. It was just it felt like it was just an repeating record where I was saying things and people weren't understanding it. And I also was still in the process of learning it. So I just, you know, kept it to myself didn't really talk about it when I absolutely had to,

Scott Benner 1:21:55
did you eventually find people in real life that you could confide in.

Speaker 2 1:21:59
I think I never really got the experience until after getting to college. And then once I graduated college, and moving to an even bigger town, that's what I finally found out was people were I was like, Okay, there's a lot of other people that have type one diabetes. And you know, there's a community out there, which I had never experienced before, is

Scott Benner 1:22:21
college where you met somebody with diabetes for the first time, or just where you met more people with different ways of thinking. So

Speaker 2 1:22:27
I met my first person with diabetes, actually, my freshman year of high school, there was only one other person. And he had had it since he was a kid like young once this was like, maybe born, or like right after that timeframe. So that was the only other person I knew until I got to college. And I started meeting other people, I was a member of the band, and I was an RA. So I was like, Okay, there's, you know, there's a small handful of people also at my university. But then, once I moved to, I moved to St. Louis. And a lot of my friends I met were like med students, and they were young professionals. And that's where I started really getting involved with one of my really close friends to this day. He was also type one diabetic. And I was like, that's who introduced me to all these different types of communities and technologies, and which is really what helped jumpstart my learning more in depth with type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 1:23:18
Do you think I mean, there was that one person in high school, but you were young? Do you really think you were ready to build a relationship and around diabetes? Or did you even know the reason why that would be important at the time?

Speaker 2 1:23:30
I didn't, you know, I honestly didn't think about it, I just was i Oh, there's another person in my class that's kind of going through the same thing as I am. But they've also had it a lot longer than I have. So they kind of got it down. They don't really talk about it. And I was like, Well, I don't really have much to, like, connect with them. So sorry. Connect with them all. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:23:50
no. So now once your world expands as far as different people, different backgrounds, different places in college, you see the need to connect in real life, but there's still only a few people, but there's still value in that. Right? Correct. What do you think that value was at the time?

Speaker 2 1:24:05
I think it was just what making me feel like I was just a normal person. I just wanted that. And I just, I needed to know that. Like, you know, there was other people out there with type one diabetes experiencing the same type of, you know, thoughts that I was

Scott Benner 1:24:20
having. When were you first introduced to the Medtronic champions community? Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:24:25
So about two years ago, I was, you know, becoming more I was looking around and I noticed stumbled upon the Medtronic community. And I was like, this is something I really really I kind of need, you know, I said I, all throughout these years, I was, you know, afraid to show my pump. You couldn't I would wear long sleeves. Like I didn't want people to see my CGM because I didn't want people to ask me questions. And you know, I just felt so uncomfortable. And then I noticed seeing these people really, in the Medtronic community just they embraced it. You could see them they weren't afraid to show it and that was something I was really like. came forward to

Scott Benner 1:25:00
how is it knowing that your diabetes technology is such an important part of your health and your care? And having to hide it? What did it feel like to have to hide that diabetes technology? And how did it feel to be able to kind of let it go,

Speaker 2 1:25:13
I refuse to go anywhere, like, Hey, I would run to the bathroom, I just didn't want to do it in public, because I felt like people were watching me. And that was just one of the hardest things I was trying to overcome. You know, I was fresh out of college, going into the professional world. So you know, going out on work events and things like that. I just, I just didn't think I just didn't think to have it out. Because I was so afraid. But then, once I did start, you know, embracing again and showing it that's when the curiosity came. And it was actually genuine questions and people wanting to know more about the equipment that I'm on, and how does this work? And what does this mean? And things like that, which made it kind of inspired me? Because I was like, Okay, people actually do want to understand what I'm experiencing with type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 1:25:58
What did you experience when, when the internet came into play? And now suddenly as easy as a hashtag, and you can meet all these other people who are living with diabetes as well? Can you tell me how that is? Either different or valuable? I guess, compared to meeting a few people in real life?

Speaker 2 1:26:15
Absolutely. I think if you look back from when I was first diagnosed to now, you, I would have never thought of like, you know, searching anything for someone with, you know, a type one diabetes. And now it's like, it's all I see, you know, you can easily search Medtronic champions, and you see people that pop up, and you're like, wow, look at all this content. And I think that's something that, that kind of just motivates me, and which is how I've kind of came out of my shell and started embracing more and posting more on my social media with about, you know, how I live with type one diabetes. And I think that's something that I hope can inspire everyone else. What

Scott Benner 1:26:50
was it like having more personal intimate relationships in college with type one,

Speaker 2 1:26:54
I think it was kind of hard to explain, you know, just, for example, like, no one really knows, it understands, like what alo is. And I think that was a very hard thing for me to explain, like I, you know, it can happen in any moment. And I'm sweating. I'm just really like, not all there. And I'm trying to explain, like, Hey, this is what's going on, I need your help. And I think that was something that was hard for me to, you know, I did talk to people about it. So when this happened, they were like, oh, you know, what's going on with your mate? I'm actually a type one diabetic? This is what's going on? I need your help. What about?

Scott Benner 1:27:32
Once you've had an experience like that in front of someone? Was it always bonding? Or did it ever have people kind of step back and be maybe more leery of your relationship? After

Speaker 2 1:27:45
I would tell someone I had type one diabetes after some type of event or anything like they were kind of more upset with me that I didn't tell them up front? Because they were like, you know, I care about you, as a person I would have loved to knowing this about you. It's not anything you should have to hide from me. And that was a lot of the realization that I was going through with a lot of people.

Scott Benner 1:28:02
Okay, let me ask you this. And now we talked about what it was like to be low, and to have that more kind of emergent situation. But what about when your blood sugar has been high or stubborn? And you're not thinking correctly, but it's not as obvious maybe to you or to them? Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:28:17
So I also I go through my same experiences when I have high blood sugars, you know, I can tell like, for my co workers, for example, I didn't really talk to you know, when I go out backtrack, when I visit multiple sites for work, I usually don't announce it. And so sometimes, I'm working throughout the day, I might have snapped, forgot to take some insulin, and my blood sugar is running high, and I'm a little bit more irritable, I'm all over the place. And I'm like, let me stop. Hey, guys, I need to like take some insulin, and I'm sorry, I'm not I didn't tell you guys. I'm a diabetic. So you may be wondering why I'm kind of just a little bit snippy, you know, so I like to make sure I do that now going forward, because that's something I noticed. And it was kind of hindering me in my career because I was, you know, getting irritable, because I'm working nonstop. And I'm forgetting to take a step back and focus on my diabetes,

Scott Benner 1:29:08
right? Hey, with the advent of new technologies, like Medtronic, CGM and other diabetes technology, can you tell me how that's improved your life and those interactions with people? Yeah, I

Speaker 2 1:29:19
can. I feel confident knowing that it's working in the background as someone and I always at least said it I have been showing that's really bad with counting my carbs. So sometimes I kind of undershoot because I'm scared, but it allows me to just know that, hey, it's gonna it's got my back if I forget something, and I think that allows me to have a quick, have a quick lunch, and then I'm able to get back into the work day because it's such a fast paced industry that I work in. So sometimes it is easy to forget. And so I love that I have that system that's keeping track of everything for me.

Scott Benner 1:29:52
Let me ask you one last question. When you have interactions online with other people who have type one diabetes, what social means Do you find the most valuable for you personally? Like what platforms? Do you see the most people and have the most good interactions on?

Speaker 2 1:30:08
Yeah, I've honestly I've had tremendous interactions on Instagram. That's where I've kind of seen a lot of other diabetics reach out to me and ask me questions, I comment and be like, Hey, you're experiencing this too. But I've recently also been seeing tic TOCs. And, you know, finding on that side of it, I didn't, you know, see the videos and upload videos, and I'm like, I would love to do stuff like that, but I just never had the courage. So I'm seeing people make like, just the fun engagement videos now, which I love, you know, really bringing that awareness to diabetes.

Scott Benner 1:30:38
Isn't it interesting? Maybe you don't know this, but there's some sort of an age cut off somewhere where there is an entire world of people with type one diabetes existing on Facebook, that don't go into Tik Tok or Instagram and vice versa. Yeah. And I do think it's pretty broken down by, you know, when that platform was most popular for those people by age, but your younger people, I'm acting like, I'm 100 years old, but younger people seem to enjoy video more. Yes,

Speaker 2 1:31:05
I think it's just because it's something you see. And so it's like, and I think that one thing, and obviously has a big stereotype around diabetes is you don't like you have diabetes. And that's something I always face. And so when I see other people that are just, you know, normal, everyday people, and I'm like, they have type one diabetes, just like me, they're literally living their life having fun. That's just something you'd want to see. Because you don't get to see people living their everyday lives with diabetes. I think that's something I've really enjoyed.

Scott Benner 1:31:34
What are your health goals? That when you go to the endocrinologist, and you make a plan for the next few months, what are you hoping to achieve? And where do you struggle? And where do you see your successes, I'll

Speaker 2 1:31:45
be honest, I was not someone who is, you know, involved with my diabetes, I wasn't really focused on my health. And that was something that, you know, you go into an endocrinologist, and you get these results back. And it's not what you want to hear. It makes you nervous, it makes you scared. And so I have personally for myself, you know, I was like, This is my chance, this is my chance to change. I know, there's people that are living just like me, everyday lives, and they can keep their agencies and their blood sugar's under control. How can I do this? So I go in with, you know, I would like to see it down a certain number of points each time, I would love for my doctor to be like, Hey, I see you're entering your carbs, I see your, you know, you're not having lows. You're not running high, too often. That's my goal. And I've been seeing that. And that's what motivates me, every time I go to the endocrinologist where I don't dread going. It's like an exciting visit for me. So

Scott Benner 1:32:33
you'd like to set a goal for yourself. And then for someone to acknowledge it to give you kind of that energy to keep going for the next goal.

Speaker 2 1:32:40
Yeah, I feel as a type one diabetic, for me, and it's just a lot to balance. It's a hard, hard journey. And so I want someone when I go in, I want to be able to know like, Hey, I see what you're doing. Let's work together to do this. Let's you don't want to be put down like you know, you're doing horrible you're doing it's just, it's not going to motivate you because it's you're you're already fighting a tough battle. So just having that motivation and acknowledging the goods and also how we can improve. That's what really has been the game changer for me in the past two years. John,

Scott Benner 1:33:18
I appreciate you spending this time with me. This was terrific. Thank you very much.

Unknown Speaker 1:33:21
Absolutely. Thank you.

Scott Benner 1:33:23
If you enjoy Jalen story, check out Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox. Once there was a time when I just told people if you want a low and stable a one C, just listen to the Juicebox Podcast. But as the years went on, and the podcast episodes grew, it became more and more difficult for people to listen to everyone. So I made the diabetes Pro Tip series. This series is with me and Jenny Smith. Jenny is a Certified diabetes Care and Education Specialist. She's also a registered and licensed dietitian and a type one herself for over 30 years and I of course, am the father of a child who was diagnosed at age two in 2006. The Pro Tip series begins at episode 210 with an episode called newly diagnosed or starting over and from they're all about MDI Pre-Bolus Sing insulin pumping, pumping and nudging variables exercise illness, injury surgeries glucagon long term health bumping and nudging how to explain type one to your family. Postpartum honeymoon transitioning all about insulin Temp, Basal. These are all different episodes, setting your Basal insulin, fat and protein pregnancy, the glycemic index and load and so much more like female hormones and weight loss. Head now to juicebox podcast.com. Go up in the menu at the top and click on diabetes pro tip. Or if you're in the private Facebook group, there's a list of these episodes right in the feature tab. Find out how I helped keep my daughter's a one C between five two and six two For the last 10 years without diet restrictions juicebox podcast.com Start listening today. It's absolutely free. If you're not already subscribed or following in your favorite audio app, please take the time now to do that. It really helps the show and get those automatic downloads set up so you never miss an episode. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong way recording.com

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