#1216 April Fools

Sofia from episode 487,  From Russia With Sarcasm is back. Warning: Mention of suicide.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, welcome to episode 1216 of the Juicebox Podcast. I have a returning guest today

First things first, if you haven't heard episode 487 called From Russia with sarcasm, you are missing out. That was 14 year old Sophia talking to me about how she found the podcast, got her parents to get her devices that she needed and figured out her own world with diabetes fantastic episode 47 From Russia with sarcasm but today, it's three years later and Sophia is back to check in and a lot has happened in her life. 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're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the Juicebox Podcast private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, but everybody is welcome type one type two gestational loved ones. It doesn't matter to me. If you're impacted by diabetes, and you're looking for support, comfort or community check out Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook

this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by us med U S med.com/juice box or call 888721151 for us med is where my daughter gets her diabetes supplies from and you could to use the link or number to get your free benefit check and get started today with us med 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 it's easy on Easy Off smart transmitter and allows you to take a break when needed. Ever since cgm.com/juicebox. How old were you? The first time we did this? I was 14. So that's how I remembered it too. But then how old are you now?

Sophia 2:28
17.

Scott Benner 2:29
That part? I don't understand. It's been three years since we recorded.

Sophia 2:33
It has been three years. Yes.

Scott Benner 2:35
Oh, wow. That's crazy. I had no idea. Honestly.

Sophia 2:39
It was around this time, wasn't it? Or March?

Scott Benner 2:43
I'm not certain. I honestly, Sofia I've recorded like what episode number were you? Do you remember?

Sophia 2:50
I could find out? Yes. 400 something and you've recorded 600 More episodes since we talked?

Scott Benner 2:57
Yeah, that's the thing. I was gonna say you were 487. And I put up 1082 today. So yeah, my my like feeling for time is a little screwy. But not for you. I remember so fondly having that conversation with you. So let's recap for people just briefly in case they didn't hear 47 when you reached out the first time, it was one of those emails that I get where I'm like, There's a child emailing me to be on my podcast. And that's and now that you're 17 Do you even see that? That's weird.

Sophia 3:28
I don't think it's weird. I think I think every single teenager feels that way. But I never felt 14.

Scott Benner 3:36
I understand. So to you. You just had an idea. And you were going to try it. Yes. Okay. So we go on to have this really lovely conversation where I feel like can I give you what my remembrance is of like, if you told me like, give me the Cliff Notes of Sofia's first episode, I would say you're 14. You were living in Russia. That's where you were from. You got type one, and did not like the care you were receiving. So went online to figure out how to take better care of yourself. Found the podcast went back to your parents kind of like strong arm them into getting you technology that you needed, and then figured out the whole thing by yourself using the podcast and had like really great results. Is that pretty accurate?

Sophia 4:24
That's I'd say that's fairly accurate. Yeah.

Scott Benner 4:26
Okay. I tell you I really enjoyed the episode. What ends up happening is that the episodes called From Russia with sarcasm because you and I appear to get into like the most sarcastic conversation I've had in a really long time that goes on for almost the entire time we're doing it. Is that your remembrance? That

Sophia 4:44
is Yeah, and it's funny because recently at my college, we re listen to the episode which is how I emailed you again because I suddenly remembered that I promised you and I didn't. But we listened to Do it and everybody was like you did not change a bit. Time.

Scott Benner 5:04
Wait, who did you listen to it with?

Sophia 5:06
I just have a, like a study group. The college I go to, and we were reminiscing about the stuff we did when we were younger and for the Cure podcast came up.

Scott Benner 5:20
You were just like I was on a podcast one time. Yeah,

Sophia 5:24
that was those things what was said? Yeah, and we listened to the whole thing on two times speed.

Scott Benner 5:31
Why can't kids sit back and just enjoy an hour? How come it has to be on two times speed?

Sophia 5:34
Okay, it's final season.

Scott Benner 5:37
Okay. you're low on time. I understand. But you're in America now?

Unknown Speaker 5:42
I am. Yes,

Scott Benner 5:44
I don't You don't need to tell me exactly where you are. I'm not asking that. But how did you end up here?

Unknown Speaker 5:48
I don't know.

Sophia 5:53
It's been a few years, surely accident accidental. So we were hoping to get a visa before. Because we lived in the US briefly when I was very young. But like, the hopes were very low, because that's how the immigration process here is. And then we just suddenly get an email from the agency that was like, Hey, you can come live here if you want now, as a few years ago, that was in 2021.

Scott Benner 6:25
So maybe not be about a year after you and I actually spoke.

Sophia 6:30
Yeah, I think it was about like a year and a half. Okay,

Scott Benner 6:33
so you've been living here for a couple of years before college? In my mind. I thought maybe you came here to go to school?

Sophia 6:39
No, yeah. I graduated high school here, actually. Oh,

Scott Benner 6:43
wow. Okay. So you and your parents are all here

Sophia 6:47
is just me and my mom. It was me and my brother, but there's a situation. It's just me and my mom.

Scott Benner 6:53
It was you and your brother and your mom now? Okay, and now it's just you and your mom? Okay. Yeah, the situation isn't like horrible. I hope. You don't have to

Sophia 7:04
tell me but committed suicide a month ago.

Scott Benner 7:06
Oh, my God, Sophia. How are we? Oh, my God. I'm so sorry. That's the it's still

Sophia 7:14
in the denial phase. So

Scott Benner 7:17
you'll be dealing with it that way.

Sophia 7:19
I'll be dealing with it after finals.

Scott Benner 7:23
I gotcha. Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize I wouldn't have pushed. I thought he went back home to be a mobster. I wish, you know, maybe that's just the story. You can tell people

Sophia 7:33
that would have been a funnier story to tell, but maybe not right now in this like, climate? For

Scott Benner 7:38
sure. Oh, you know what? Yeah, forget that. I didn't say any of that. You went home to be a peacekeeper. Let's say that. Well, I'm so sorry. Was this? Can I ask you one question about it. completely unexpected, or not? Unexpected?

Sophia 7:53
completely unexpected. He was just like, we talked to a week prior to that. And like he was still attending all of his classes. And he was still because he lived in California away from us. And like, one day, we he missed our family call that we scheduled for every week. And like the next day, we get a suicide now. Through like an email. Send a text message or

Scott Benner 8:23
text message. Oh, my gosh. And by the time you receive that it was I imagined too late.

Sophia 8:28
Yeah, he was a computer science major. So what he did was he set out automated text messages to everybody that came at one same exact time. That was already too late.

Scott Benner 8:40
Oh my gosh. Well, that's, that's terrible. I'm sorry for you and your family and everybody who knew him and loved him. And that's really terrible. Yeah, okay. Well, was this before you and I set this up? Or after? It was

Sophia 8:55
I? Oh, my perception of time is very messed up right now. And I'm not sure actually it was on Halloween. Oh, it might have been a plot from my friends to distract me. If I'm being honest. Now

Scott Benner 9:10
we have the whole story. Okay. Now we understand. Do you think you can do this? Is it okay? Yeah.

Sophia 9:14
Again, complete denial stage, which I'm completely aware of. I'll deal with it after finals. Okay,

Scott Benner 9:20
what year of school you're in right now.

Sophia 9:22
I'm a freshman in college.

Scott Benner 9:24
Oh, wow. It's your first year. Oh my god. Yeah. Did you decide on what you're going to study? Are you still figure Oh, what is it?

Sophia 9:31
I'm going for a bachelor's in biomedical engineering. And then I want to transfer straight to an MD PhD.

Scott Benner 9:41
Yeah. What do you hope to do when you're all finished?

Sophia 9:45
I can't decide between endocrinology and urology because because endocrinology is very close to home and that's not great in the scientific world. And neurology is just fascinating. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 10:01
So the thing you really are drawn to, and the thing that you would like to really help with. Yeah,

Sophia 10:08
is endocrinology, to be honest. Yeah. I

Scott Benner 10:11
mean, we talked about it all the time, obviously on the podcast, they'll but there's a real need for people who understand diabetes in endocrinology, but then you'd have to do other things to be doing. You know, some of them don't by the way, some of them just say like, I do this, I don't do that. And they stay out of the stuff they don't want to be involved in. Do you think you would focus on diabetes? Or do you think you would do a few different things? diabetes comes with a lot of things to remember. So it's nice when someone takes something off of your plate. US med has done that for us. When it's time for art and supplies to be refreshed. We get an email rolls up in your inbox says hi origin. This is your friendly reorder email from us med. You open up the email to big button that says click here to reorder, and you're done. Finally, somebody taking away a responsibility instead of adding one. US med has done that for us. An email arrives, we click on a link and the next thing you know, your products are at the front door. That simple. Us med.com/juice box or call 888-721-1514 I never have to wonder if Arden has enough supplies. I click on one link. I open up a box. I put the stuff in the drawer, and we're done. US med carries everything from insulin pumps, and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGM like the libre three and the ducks comm G seven. They accept Medicare nationwide, over 800 private insurers. And all you have to do to get started is called 888-721-1514. Or go to my link us med.com/juice box. Using that number or my link helps to support the production of the Juicebox Podcast. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the only six month were implantable CGM on the market. And it's very unique. So you go into an office, it's I've actually seen an insertion done online like a live one like, well, they recorded the entire video is less than eight minutes long. And they're talking most of the time the insertion took no time at all right? So you go into the office, they insert the sensor, now it's in there and working for six months, you go back six months later, they pop out that one put in another one, so two office visits a year to get really accurate and consistent CGM data that's neither here nor there for what I'm trying to say. So this thing's under your skin, right. And you then wear a transmitter over top of it, transmitters got this nice, gentle silicone adhesive that you change daily, so very little chance of having skin irritations. That's a plus. So you put the transmitter on it talks to your phone app tells you your blood sugar, your your alert, show arms, etc. But if you want to be discreet, for some reason, you take the transmitter off, just slip comes right off no, like, you know, not like peeling at or having to rub off it. He's just kind of pops right off the silicon stuff really cool. You'll say it. And now you're ready for your big day. Whatever that day is, it could be a prom, or a wedding or just a moment when you don't want something hanging on your arm. The ever sent CGM allows you to do that without wasting a sensor because you just take the transmitter off. And then when you're ready to use it again, you pop it back on, maybe you just want to take a shower without rocking a sensor with a bar of soap. Just remove the transmitter and put it back on when you're ready. Ever since cgm.com/juicebox, you really should check it out.

Sophia 13:43
I think I would just do auto immune diseases in general. I've done that a bit. I've, I have an internship with a like laboratory at a university. And before that, even in my senior year of high school, I partnered on a research paper for a theoretical model for a cure of type one. And it's just it's everything is so interesting how it's connected to so many systems in the body that we don't even comprehend. It's yeah,

Scott Benner 14:16
all the autoimmune stuff. Have you been listening to the podcast? Since you've recorded or did you stop at some point?

Sophia 14:22
Yeah, I've I'm not listening as often because of the the moving and everything but I still do listen, you pick it

Scott Benner 14:30
up, okay. The reason I asked is because I've come to start asking people at the beginning of the, you know, at the beginning of their interview, like is there any other autoimmune in your family? And there's just so many times that someone says, oh, yeah, no, and then they think about it longer and they go and then I start prompting them. How about celiac? Oh, yeah, that there is that and then you start and then before you know what they're like, Oh, my dad has been a Lago and And you know, I have a But then here's the thing is a lot of people bring up up a family member who's bipolar. Yeah, right, that happens a fair amount. And, you know, I know that the research on like bipolar disorder, sometimes it'll skirt around the idea that maybe there's some auto immune impacts, but doesn't really ever come out and say it. But I mean, at this point now, over 1000 episodes, all these people who've said it over and over again, I keep thinking, well, that has to be connected somehow. And then what else was connected? You know, I mean, stress anxiety, like that kind of stuff.

Sophia 15:35
So basically, another recent like research area of of type one that I can see from my experience is that it's connected to your nervous system. Well, auto immune your endo system endocrinological system is connected to your IQ through a pathway, I think it's called the collagen, collagen, nergic, auto, anti inflammatory pathway. But don't quote me on that. It's effects like the oscillations in your cells, which prompts autoimmune attacks. Interesting.

Scott Benner 16:10
Well, you cut out for a second though it's connected to

Sophia 16:14
I don't want to say the exact name on the internet. He's I feel like I've pronounced it wrong. And I'll

Scott Benner 16:21
you'll be embarrassed or you'll do the right thing. Oh, I do. Remember you feeling like that. Where are you? Are you self conscious about accents still? And words?

Sophia 16:31
I guess slightly. I'm just worried that I'll say the wrong scientific thing gets

Scott Benner 16:35
somebody going in the wrong direction. But you Yeah, but you're wondering about the connection as well.

Sophia 16:39
Yes, yeah. Well, there's so much of research has focused on neuro immuno modulation, which is so interesting, because this is not what we expected when we first started studying type one,

Scott Benner 16:54
right? That these things could be connect well, how about this one? GLP medications are very, kind of in the in the news right now. And a lot of people are using them. And they start off as, oh, it's going to be a type two diabetes drug they think. And now a number of years later, as it gets more and more into the population. I'm seeing people talk about, you know, ears Danlos Syndrome. Like, yeah, I found it very interesting thread on Reddit, about people talking about how their GLP medication is making their joint pain go away. Which is fascinating. You know, just a lot of other things that it's accomplishing. See, Think like, you know, this one little medication, right, like the GLP, one GLP tube to what GeoIP? Right, I think those are kind of the the cocktail, it's in some of them. And women who have been, like, unable to get pregnant for ever, are suddenly on these medications for something else, and popping up pregnant all over the place. Yeah, you don't I mean, like, what else is connected? You know, it just because, you know, you hear all the time, like, Oh, she has type one diabetes, but she has PCOS. And those two things start to seem like they're going hand in hand. And, you know, or the, I hope I'm saying your standard was correctly, because it's spelled oddly for me. But you know, just your connective tissue being too, like stretchy basically. And you know, Pete, like when you can like hyperextend your elbows or like that kind of stuff. Like that's an autoimmune issue that even after they diagnosis for you, what, what you're told is, there's nothing you can do, except go to physical therapy, and strengthen the muscles around the joints and help support them. That's it. There's, we don't know anything else about it. So, yeah, I'm just I can't wait to figure out what everybody else figures out. And that's going to be like your generation of doctors and scientists.

Sophia 18:47
Like we're already connecting very strange things to autoimmune diseases. For example, even Schizophrenia has now been connected to autoimmune causes. Oh, yeah.

Scott Benner 18:56
Oh, please. I think I figured that out with a podcast. So I'm glad doctors were able to figure it out. Yeah, just really fascinating stuff. Or even just how many people like I know right now, it's, you know, a lot of people say that they're anxious. But I've been doing this for years, where people talk about, like, what else is going on with you? And they're like, Well, I have some anxiety or I'm depressed. We're, and it just seems to follow along. And so do you think there's a I mean, I know you're just a freshman in college, but I'm not trying to put the pressure of the world on you. But do you feel like there's a way to figure out what's happening?

Sophia 19:29
What's happening? Like, the whole picture in the whole world?

Scott Benner 19:33
No, no, like, in people's like, why are people's immune systems like just like a, and doing all these weird things? You know,

Sophia 19:43
I think that there's never going to be a complete understanding of the human body. Because it's, I can to study in quantum mechanics where we just cannot understand why something happens the way it does, but I think a lot of the human creations that we're not supposed to be constantly around our bodies have definitely caused an impact on them. And we're we're definitely being very self destructive.

Scott Benner 20:18
You're talking about pollution, plastics process. Yeah, stuff like that.

Sophia 20:24
Even technology and the constant like we, we microwaves that are around us.

Scott Benner 20:33
Yeah. So all these things are just they take time. Like you have to have these experiences over and over so people can see through lines and go, Oh, this is what's impacting that. And, you know, the GLP is a great example of it, right? Like, the first thing that the that the research shows is, it is telling your brain you're not hungry. It's making you feel full, because it's slowing down your digestion, which is impacting your insulin usage, you're using, not as much insulin, because that's happening. People are losing weight. They see it over and over again. They go, Okay, this is a weight loss drug, you know, but hey, how about people's a onesies are coming down to when they have diabetes? Oh, it's a diabetes drug. And then somebody with diabetes takes it who has PCOS, and they go, Oh, that lady got pregnant. It's only going to be a couple of years before they go, hmm. People who are having trouble conceiving if they have PCOS symptoms, and blah, blah, blah, this might help them with that. And for me, Sophia, the reason I know a little bit about it, is because I started taking it in March this year. Okay. And I've lost 40 pounds. Oh, my gosh, right. But I haven't changed anything else about my life? And it's very interesting. Yeah, yeah. So I would tell you that for my entire life, I have thought my body doesn't work, right. And I can't really put more of a fine point on it than that. Like, I eat food, I don't feel well. But I don't have celiac. And, you know, I retain a lot of fluid like you and I could go out and have a normal meal together. And I'll show up the next day, I'll be literally like two pounds heavier. I taught myself to like, restrict food through my life, eat very small, like portions of things, very specific stuff. Because if I didn't, I would just keep gaining weight and keep gaining weight and keep gaining weight. And no matter what I did, I couldn't get back to a reasonable weight. I started going along thinking, well, this is me, right? Like this is what's wrong with me. There's nothing we're ever going to do about it. And then one day, this doctor says you should try this. And I take this medication, and no lie. I look like a completely different person. And I feel different. And my body works now. And like, you know, I haven't like, I don't know, Sophia if you know the phrase run to the bathroom. But I haven't had to, like emergency go to the bathroom in a year. In a year. It hasn't occurred to me to like, oh my gosh, I'm in trouble. You know, like, we people, like, you know, a person you take them to a restaurant and then you know, they disappear afterwards. I mean, yeah, yeah. Yeah. That would have been me, like at one point in my life, like, if you go out to eat doesn't matter what I have. We should go home now because I'm going to need to go to the bathroom at some point. And doesn't happen anymore. That's

Sophia 23:16
very interesting. Yeah. Did you measure your blood markers, or anything before? And after?

Scott Benner 23:22
I did get? Yeah, complete, like blood panels done right before I started, and actually, I'm up to have them repeated

Sophia 23:27
soon. I would be very curious to see the difference. I'd

Scott Benner 23:31
be happy to send them to you. Don't worry, you're 17. But I'll give you my blood work door.

Sophia 23:35
Hey, I'm 17. But I already I didn't know I have no nothing to say

Scott Benner 23:41
to that. You're gonna say I've seen some? Is that what you're about to say? I was going

Sophia 23:45
to say that. But I decided to stop myself from cursing on the podcast.

Scott Benner 23:51
Okay, I'll curse for your door. Yes. So I just think that's insane. Like, they get a really obvious like that it's a through line. Like, now somebody needs to pay attention to it. And and see it through. You

Sophia 24:04
know, yeah, but the problem isn't just paying attention to it. The problem is the whole scientific method takes so much longer to actually even to, like release a research paper, it would take at least a year, at minimum, like most of the research papers, I finished with my internship a year and a half ago or two are only now getting, like, published Yeah,

Scott Benner 24:30
but here's why I think that's not going to matter with the GLP is because there are so many people who are overweight or who have diabetes, who are going to be eligible for the medication. The doctors are going to see it working for people. So they're going to prescribe it all over the place. And then you're gonna get these other I don't want to call them fixes but like you're gonna get these other results that nobody's looking for or expecting. And after enough people start reporting it back. It will Point science in those directions. And I think that's what's going to happen like with the PCOS with it, like, I mean, GLP is are not a new, they're not new. But in the hands of people like ozempic, we go V, mon Jarno, these ones that are like have been in the news for like last year and a half or so like, you know, when basically when famous people started turning up, then you're like, hey, what just happened, they're like, great, you know, like that when that started. And then people realize that then people with money started cash buying it, and then it started working. So now insurance companies are starting to cover it, and it's starting to go, it's starting to grow like that. What

Sophia 25:35
you're saying is that they're the new hair.

Scott Benner 25:39
Well, they're, they're definitely the new test group, and they don't know it. Because you're gonna take it for weight. And like me, then start going, hey, you know, it's funny, I don't like this doesn't happen to me anymore. Or, you know, or somebody's gonna go on Reddit and go, Hey, I started a GLP. And, you know, I have eerste Danlos Syndrome, and all my symptoms are gone. And then somebody else is gonna go Holy hell, that happened to me, too. And then before you know it, I'm looking at a Reddit thread with 15. People who think that their symptoms from danlos have been completely like removed by a GLP medication. Now, I don't know if that's true or not. But that's the that's the way that stuff starts are a Facebook group full of women who are losing weight. And then one of them just goes, Hey, I got pregnant, I've been trying to get pregnant for 10 years. And someone else jumps into the thread and goes, Oh, my God, that happened to me. And before you know it, there's 20 Women in there going I recently, like people who were not practicing birth control anymore, because they were like, you know, the world doesn't, isn't gonna let me have a baby. And then they go on a GLP medication, they all get pregnant. And then they realize while they're talking, you know, I used to have a lot of bad PCOS symptoms that I don't have anymore, either in that weird, and then boom, you've got a study group. And then it just has to get back to the scientists, and they have to do the actual research on it so they can figure out the dosing that will help people for specific

Unknown Speaker 26:57
things. Yeah.

Sophia 26:59
And that really is very fascinating, because that's not what usually happens with the release of new medications. But I think that's very exciting. Yeah,

Scott Benner 27:10
no, it's this one little caveat that we were all that so many of us needed to lose weight or had diabetes, that this one medication is getting spread out over the population in weird different ways. Now, I don't know. Obviously, I don't know the rest of it. I tell people all the time. Like if I end up growing a tail from using a GLP medication, you know what I'll tell you, Sophie, if that happens, I'll say nothing's as bad as skinny feels good. That's what I'm gonna say.

Sophia 27:34
Okay, that's starting to sound very much like diet culture.

Scott Benner 27:38
I'm sorry, I'm just gonna tell you, I don't have any. I'm just saying I don't think I'm gonna grow a tail. But if I did, I'd have to really think about it, I'd be like, I can just get close that a tail fits into. So I don't know what's going on. But

Sophia 27:51
having a tail would be really cool. So I wouldn't let me see. What's

Scott Benner 27:54
even the problem with it. Now, I don't know where I would stop horn out of my forehead. Maybe I say no to that, you know, but I'm just saying like, at the moment, you're gonna, it's gonna be crazy. And, and for type ones as well. So I know right now that that medication is not okay for type ones, but, but there are type ones taking it for weight, who are seeing significant decreases in their insulin needs. Yeah,

Sophia 28:19
it happened kind of that way with metformin, too, because I was prescribed Metformin in Russia, which isn't approved in the US for type one. And it like helped so much. It reduced my insulin needs by the 40%. And it makes everything so much easier. But when we came to the US, the doctor didn't like that, and wouldn't give it they removed it. They wouldn't Yeah. And like, my, I had to readjust everything by a factor of one and a half probably

Scott Benner 28:56
does have other impacts on you stopping the Metformin. I

Sophia 29:00
wasn't paying that close attention. I was more focused on having to readjust all of my insulin needs.

Scott Benner 29:07
Yeah, I bet 40% Yeah,

Sophia 29:11
it was a life changer in when they first prescribed it to me. And I said, to be honest,

Scott Benner 29:18
can you find another doctor?

Sophia 29:20
So we actually we moved ones stays here and both doctors in both states are on the same page on that. That's,

Scott Benner 29:28
you know, it's funny because Arden's Endo, last year started talking and saying, you know, I think I'd like to put her on Metformin. And we were trying a couple of other things first, that just never panned out. And it was Metformin would have been Ford like to kind of reduce her insulin needs a little bit, but because she was also trying to impact like her, like, her belly pain around her periods and stuff like that, right. And that doctor was thinking, you know, in that direction with metformin, and then these GRPs became, you know, So available, and then we had, you know, I had the success I had with it. And so two weeks ago art and just started on a very low dose of ozempic. Oh, really? Yeah. Now our insurance, you know, is screwing with us and everything. So we got, the doctor gave us a, um, a sample to start with. But she's like, look, this will give us six weeks to figure out another way to handle this, but I don't think she's like, I don't think Arden is going to even be taking, like a big dose of it. So, you know, the idea would be even if you had to pay cash for it through another country, let's say that it would be a pretty small outlay of money over the entire year, because you would barely be using it. So right now we're using it to try to see what's happening for and she's hoping for, like heavy period symptoms to be impacted by it. And have

Sophia 30:49
you noticed any differences thus far, it's only

Scott Benner 30:51
been, she's done two injections. So she's like nine days into it. Okay, I think the first place we'll be able to see if something happens is the next time her period comes around. So we're waiting for that probably. Yeah. So hopefully, and then like, and she's only using point two, five micrograms, like the tiniest little bit right now, which is, is the ramp up dose to get your body accustomed to it. But on the ramp up dose of the same drug, you know, different brand name, but it's the same drug for me. I started losing weight, when I wasn't supposed to, like the doctor was like, This is not a therapeutic amount of this yet. It shouldn't be happening. And yet I lost four pounds the first week I was on it.

Sophia 31:31
Okay, so maybe that was water weight, the first definitely

Scott Benner 31:35
gonna be but that was the thing I was telling you, though, is that my body like, retains water, abnormally retained water, and I took it in and it's gone. Interesting. I'll tell you this, since we're talking about this kind of stuff. I have a number of times in my life, four or five times had to take a steroid pack for you know, something. And everybody says, Oh, I take steroids in my body, and I retain so much water. I gain weight on steroid packs. As soon as I get ramped up on a steroid pack, I can do the second day of it. I pee out all the extra water in my body. Like I'm never. Yeah, it works backwards on me. So it's very curious. I'll be a doctor and figure it out.

Sophia 32:18
Can I call you back in 12 years? Absolutely.

Scott Benner 32:20
I'll try to stay alive and you call me back in 12 years when I'm 64 years old.

Sophia 32:25
You're not gonna die by 64. Okay.

Scott Benner 32:27
Well, now that I'm thin, probably I'll be alright. But you know, I got to buy new clothes.

Sophia 32:33
That was nice. Yeah, except for the money spent. party didn't

Scott Benner 32:37
enjoy. That's right. I didn't enjoy. So listen to your friends said that your sarcasm is exactly the same. When you were 14 it is when you were 17. So what were they talking about? I

Sophia 32:48
kind of have a reputation at the college. I'm kind of the whole reason that our study group came to be in general, the one of the members, he's actually the head academic coach, like he already graduated, he just works there. And I just started making fun of you for no reason. So I'm fluent. And as a joke, and the other members from my class kind of joined in and we've been hanging around each other ever since. I just kind of think that. I haven't grown out of it very much. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. But yeah, I

Scott Benner 33:31
am a fan of it. I still use it as an adult it um, it's sometimes difficult, like personal relationships. Yeah, yeah. Nobody wants you to be sarcastic. They'd like you to be sincere. Yeah,

Sophia 33:43
I think the only thing that's changed is just the fact that I know when it's more appropriate to be used, and when it's not. You

Scott Benner 33:50
are good at it when you were a kid, but I think that was partially because you didn't know not to do it.

Sophia 33:55
Yes. That is very true. Yeah,

Scott Benner 33:58
your sarcasm was fantastic. Like, I honestly remember talking to you and thinking like, it's like talking to an adult. But you made those tell people that one thing I alluded to earlier, like you say you got type one, although How old were you when you're diagnosed? It goes left. Okay. And you went online to figure out your care on your own? How did that talk about that?

Sophia 34:26
I think a lot of it was just that I grew up during the time of the internet. It started out mostly with I wanted to understand what the sihvonen was. And then I was realizing that my numbers are not matching up with the numbers that like people on Reddit are saying are good or the Juicebox Podcast, I found it and you were talking about completely different levels of control than I was being told to. And that made me very curious and kind of frustrated in the fact that I might be doing My body farm through the care that my doctors are telling me to do. So I just tried to figure out a way that I could fix that. I didn't want to do any my body any harm, which was really frustrating, because I was doing what my doctors were telling me to do. And it was making things worse as it turned out. So I just went on the internet to see if there's any way that I could fix it myself. And I guess it kind of worked.

Scott Benner 35:34
Because you were, would you get more aggressive with insulin? Yeah.

Sophia 35:39
And I found ways to get the Omnipod out there, and the ducks calm. And I found new ways, like hearing other people do what you say to do for type ones made me feel better about doing it myself, because I wasn't the only one doing crazy control things.

Scott Benner 36:02
Okay, so the doctor tells you one thing, and then you realize that doesn't seem right. But even once you figure I'd like to try something different. The actual act of doing it feels wrong.

Sophia 36:14
Yes. Because I was in a country where nobody else was doing anything like that. And it felt risky, because everybody else who is doing what you say, feels so far away. Yeah. You know,

Scott Benner 36:29
so. So it was actually valuable to hear people's stories. Absolutely.

Sophia 36:33
And I think that was part of the reason why I also reached out back then, yeah, you're

Scott Benner 36:39
not the first like, under age person to be like, I'd like to come on the podcast, I in fact, just did this one with a Canadian girl. She's like eight or nine. You know, you get that email. And you're like, hi, I want to be on your podcast. I'm, I'm 14. Do your parents know? Like, please look them into this email. And then you don't know how it's going to go. And that's the other side of it is I want to have conversations with kids. But at some point, I don't think you'll find this hard to believe Sophia. Some of them are boring. And so it's like hard to talk to them. Because they ask a question. They're like, Ah, my goodness, the podcast, you get to talk quicker and that there's all that problem, but then you get on the recording. And before I know it, like I'm starting off, like trying to be like, Oh, I'm talking to a 14 year old girl from Russia, like this is weird. And then, before I know it, I'm actually really sarcastic. Yeah. And you know, you because you couldn't hold it in, you probably weren't even trying. I would imagine. I

Sophia 37:32
was not. I was not. No, I was very nervous in the beginning. But I think you have you make the conversations flow very easily, which I think is the reason why it came out. So naturally.

Scott Benner 37:46
Oh, good. I'm glad when you listened back to it. What was your takeaway afterwards? What did you think? Well,

Sophia 37:51
I was just trying not to cringe. Because I felt like, I don't know, I was such a kid. Which sounds probably funny to you, because I'm still very young. But everything I said is just so from such a lens of a child, in my opinion.

Scott Benner 38:13
Yeah. Even just three years later, it's interesting to look back at yourself. Yeah, it'll happen again. By the way, you'll listen to this when you're 25. And you're big. I bet. Yeah. I'm sure what was that Sophia do it. But you know, you only live in the, you can only live in your reality that you have and you you're making decisions and assessing things from the perspectives that you so far half. So I actually found myself thinking recently about how differently I see people in my 50s than I even did in my 40s. And so much so, you know, more differently than I did, even when I was younger, and like decision has been granted

Sophia 38:53
the experience to talk to so many people from so many different backgrounds that I would think that your perception of the world has absolutely changed.

Scott Benner 39:01
It's crazy. There's still some stuff that I'm just like, like, I wish I could tell you, I can't tell you, but there's a big diabetes organization that said something like made like a statement online yesterday. And I thought, What the hell are you doing? Like that's, that's wrong. Like don't do that. And I think I know you are, but I don't know how to.

Sophia 39:26
You can cut it out.

Scott Benner 39:27
I can cut it out. So all these people just get to like pick up a minute later, and I'm saying something different. They're like, Well, what the hell did he say? Yeah, I I don't know, a way to say it without making somebody sad or upset. I'll tell you when it's over. Okay, okay. All right. All right. Yes. Okay. Okay, I have a note for myself at the end. I'm sorry to everybody else. I don't want to make anybody sad. But my point was that you can see that the organization is being run by younger people, which is good. But they've taken In a position on something that I think hurts people's health, and they're doing it in the name of supporting people's mental health, it's an interesting decision to make. And maybe I'll be able to talk about on the podcast at some point. But moreover, what I think will happen is I think the world is gonna yell at them online, and they're gonna stop, and that's gonna be the end of it. So, you know, we'll say, your study group, we should say hi to them very quickly, how many people are in this group? four, or five? And you guys get together? And

Sophia 40:37
how do you pretty much live at the college?

Unknown Speaker 40:39
So do you like

Speaker 1 40:41
do you like literally read together and take, like, do practice tests and things like that? Or do you just bounce stuff off of each other? How does it work? Working kind of like a collective like that.

Sophia 40:51
We just sit together, all of us has mostly different classes, we usually just have one class in common. But I have again, the reputation of not really studying but doing everything but studying. I still get my work done. Just not there. They they're very good at actually focusing in blocking me out.

Scott Benner 41:10
So you're the problem. I am the problem. Yes. Sophia, I'm on your LinkedIn at the moment. Yeah, yeah. How do you get away with being so academically successful, but not paying attention?

Sophia 41:26
I don't think I'm academically successful. To be honest. You don't I did my best in high school. I kind of sped run high school to be honest. You why I graduated a 16.

Scott Benner 41:40
I know I know. You're too young for to be in. So so how can you say that you graduated when you were 16? But you didn't do well academically? I

Sophia 41:49
mean, I just I don't really like accepting achievements as a.

Scott Benner 41:53
I think that's how you end up being successful, by the

Unknown Speaker 41:56
way. Maybe? Yeah,

Scott Benner 41:58
maybe it doesn't feel does it feel boastful to you that you don't have a problem with that? Do

Sophia 42:04
I It does feel slightly. Things click in my head very easily. Math makes so much sense immediately to me. And I just, it's so fun to me. And that sounds so not humble when I say it, and I hate saying that out loud.

Scott Benner 42:26
Okay, well, I think it just sounds representative of who you are. But I appreciate how you feel. Let's see how dorky you are with math. Did you teach yourself Python for fun? And

Sophia 42:36
teach myself Python for fun, but I taught myself differential equations for fun.

Scott Benner 42:41
Yeah. Alright. So we all see where you're at. Okay? Because, you know, the entire time we're talking, I'm doing the math. And I was like, when would she have to be born to be a freshman at 17? That doesn't work out no matter how I

Sophia 42:54
know. Yeah, I graduated at 16. And I am going to a community college until I turned 18. So I don't move out until I'm 18.

Scott Benner 43:04
Could you get accepted at another school, but you're not old enough.

Sophia 43:07
So I could get accepted. And I could have gone. But the thing was, they have so many restrictions. The one school that I will transfer to Johns Hopkins. They have a lot of rules for underage students. So I just decided that it would be easier to transfer when I'm 18 and get some cheaper credits while I'm at it at a community college. Very nice.

Scott Benner 43:33
Good idea. All good ideas. And I love the way you just slipped in Hopkins like it was nothing like that's a humble brag right there. Sophia.

Unknown Speaker 43:40
I take that.

Scott Benner 43:44
I just said it to make you feel worse. Yes. So you'll be here with me. You're gonna be a couple hours for me when you get there. Oh, really? Yeah,

Sophia 43:50
I'm here in New Jersey, right? Yeah, I

Scott Benner 43:52
drive past. Well, my my kids are in the south right now. So I drive through that area a lot. But my son's coming home. So a little less. Okay. Arden is going to school in Georgia. So yeah.

Sophia 44:04
And she's getting like in design degree. Yeah, that's fashion

Scott Benner 44:09
design. Nice. We just spent a couple of days thrifting which was a planned event with Arden and my wife and myself. So we went to all these thrift shops, one of the boroughs in New York, and we spent like a day and a half, like just walking the city and going like from thrift shops to thrift shops. So she could like somehow pick clothing that no one would ever put together and make these like crazy outfits that like we she couldn't walk. I'm not over exaggerating. We couldn't walk for more than five minutes without somebody stopping her to tell her how much they loved her outfits. I was like, well, this. This certainly seems like she might be successful with this. That is awesome. Yeah, very cool. Thank you so much. So that she's like, oh, like Thank you. She's very nice about it. And she's like, I really, really appreciate it. Thank you very much. And then you kind of move on, but the things people say They are so like, you know, they're like, they're like, I feel how you look. Like one woman said, like, what?

Sophia 45:07
So what does she want to do with the degree?

Scott Benner 45:10
She just wants to design clothes? That's awesome. Yeah. So that's what she's trying to learn how to do. And I have to give her a ton of credit, because prior to College Art, it was not a particularly artistic person. Like she wasn't a person who sat around drawing or painting or modeling or anything like that. She just, she had a vision in her head. But she was actually, yes, by the time she was a junior in high school, she had sat us down and had this pretty, like serious conversation where she said, I either want to be an attorney, or a fashion designer. And we were like, Okay, those two things seem different. But she could have she had the grades and the aptitude for the attorney thing. And she just one day, she's like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna learn fashion. And then she got to, you know, college.

And, you know,

the first thing they do is they put you in, like, these big drawing classes. And, and we're like, are you okay? Like, you've never done this before. And she's acknowledged figure it out. And they in that first semester, like, like, she's not Picasso, like, don't get me wrong, but she taught herself to draw. And, and she's significantly better at it than you would imagine a person who had never really done it before ever, just picking it up and forcing themselves to learn how to do it was really,

Sophia 46:32
that takes a lot of dedication. Yeah, that's really awesome. Yeah,

Scott Benner 46:36
I thought so too. So that's pretty cool. But you, this just comes very naturally to you.

Sophia 46:40
It never did, up until I kind of started homeschooling myself in high school. I was never like the gifted kid in elementary or middle school. In fact, I had the worst grades in all of my classes. But at some point in high school, I just started actually looking into stuff myself. And I found my own purpose, and every subject, and for math just became my special interest, which it never was, I always thought I was, what origin never was the our ticket. I played. I was I'm a classically trained pianos, piano player. I play guitar, and I've always drawn and that the math never seemed like something that would become my thing. But it just made so much sense. And it just feels like such a beautiful language to me. Which I'm realizing sounds so nerdy right now. No,

Scott Benner 47:47
not at all. I don't think so. I think it's, it feels to me like you were like, Hey, I taught myself diabetes. I wonder what else I could teach myself? Yeah,

Sophia 47:54
I actually, I think that was the case. I think the conversation that we had really made me feel more confident in the fact that I have some ability to do stuff. And it gave me a lot of motivation to actually try in life to be honest.

Scott Benner 48:11
Wait, Sophia, I want to just take a second where if you don't want to be boastful, and it makes you feel weird. I'm okay with it. So are you saying that the conversation you and I had gave you confidence and that maybe one day you will like figure out something for people's health and I can help partially take credit for it? Is that what you're getting at? Yeah, I think so. Beautiful. Let me write that down. So I don't forget, take credit for Sofia success. Okay. Yeah, I'm gonna do that. Next time I get a chance in the kitchen with my wife, but she will then roll her eyes at me and walk away. Just so you know, you can call me and I can like, support your point. Oh, okay. I'd be willing to do that. I was reading this message from someone the other day, you know, I was cooking for myself. So I was like making I don't know how everyone else's life is. But my wife still works at home, which I really wish she would get a different job and leave because it's just too much. It's supposed to be my gig. So we had this thing of not everybody's you know what I mean? COVID messed it all up. This is my house. I lived here by myself and other people came in, in the afternoon alone time I welcomed them in, I cooked for them, and then I cleaned up. They don't need to be there all day. But I was sitting around, I was cooking for myself. I was waiting for something to finish warming up. And I had my phone out and I was working. And she's like, What do you do? And I'm like, I'm working. She goes, Are you on Facebook? And I was like, Well, for me. That's work. I'm answering people and, you know, commenting on threads. And I'm like, I'm doing that she knows that by the way. But she still she screws with me. You know what I mean? So I said I have this really lovely note here from this person who says that the podcasts really significantly change and I look over at her and she's, you know, the duck hand you can make when people are talking too much with you're like, Yeah, I look over at her to see if she's interested in hearing what the person said. She's like, I help the person like what they owe. I don't want to paint her as not. She's not unfeeling about it. It's it's lovely. But and she really does know that if you got her alone, and I wasn't there to hear it, I'm sure she would say some nice stuff about me, but not in front of me, you know? And so she's like, Yeah, you help people. And I was like, I do.

Sophia 50:23
I don't blame her. It was like philosophy

is probably frustrating to constantly hear how you get immediate feedback on your job. And she probably doesn't feel as appreciated.

Scott Benner 50:36
Oh, Sofia. That's a really good point. I do make a point of telling her all the time how good she is at what she does, though. But it probably doesn't count coming from me. You think? Well, yeah,

Sophia 50:44
because you constantly get reassurance from all of your listeners, right? And you talk to them everyday directly.

Scott Benner 50:50
I actually would like me to admit this something. I'll tell you a story. So last night, I've been having a not good time being a podcaster for the last couple of weeks. It's apple has changed something about their app, and it's screwing with my downloads. And so I'm having to like, bug people and be annoying and be like, Hey, can you check your app, you know, look for the setting, it may have changed, like that kind of stuff. And it sucks. Like I hate bothering people. I hate asking people for things like my idea about the podcast is I provide it. If you find it valuable. You listen to it. I know everybody doesn't listen to every episode. I know people don't listen forever. Like I understand all the intricacies of it. But to have someone show up one day, and basically like a gremlin crawl inside of everybody's app and turn a switch so that you don't get the the episodes. That's like it literally feels like I'm fighting with Tim Cook right now. Do you know what I mean? Like, I feel like Tim Cook's in an office somewhere going, Hey, Scott took nine years to build this type one diabetes podcast into this juggernaut that it is, why don't we with him? Like that's what it feels like. It's

Sophia 52:03
more simple than that, Scott is the fact that he just works with Big Pharma and they don't want you to control everybody's blood sugar.

Scott Benner 52:09
Oh, Sophia, you're making a ton of sense here. So you think let me make sure I understand that big tech and Big Pharma are in a meeting right now. And they've decided to impact the entire podcasting landscape to stop me from helping people with their diabetes. Yes, I believe that's true as well. I'm glad I'm glad you and I are on the same page. So anyway, as crazy as that sounds, that's what it feels like. So like, it feels like I against all odds, turned a thing that nobody wanted to listen to. You don't I mean, like conversations about type one diabetes, into a thing that reached a 14 year old girl in Russia, helped her with her health, put her on a path to mathematics, and one day will make her a Nobel Peace Prize winner. And then somebody said to me, Hey, you know, just when it was exploding, like over the last two years, my podcast is exploding. It's growing in leaps and bounds. And basically, they came in turn the dial and said, this was the average download a purse that a device was accomplishing every day. And we're gonna cut that number by two thirds, or two. So

Sophia 53:20
it sucks in general. So

Scott Benner 53:22
anyway, the new episodes are downloaded just the same way as they always have been. Because I didn't actually lose listeners, right. But when most people turn on their podcast app, they get a few episodes. And then they listen to them. Now what's happening is you're getting the most recent episode, and nothing behind it. And so you wouldn't think it was there because you don't know like, I interviewed a guy yesterday, who loves the podcast. He's been listening to it for years. And when I asked him how many episodes I put out a week, he doesn't know. So like, he just, he listens to what I give him. So when he opens his podcast app every day, there's an episode there. He listens to it. If I put out the two of them yesterday, for some reason, and it didn't give them to him, he wouldn't go back and look for it. Because he think I'd be getting it if it was there. And so that's what they've done. So now, now I have to train everybody on what happened to a podcast, which nobody cares about, like, can you imagine turning on your favorite podcast and somebody being like, Oh, my God. So here's what happened. Apple bought and you're like, what the like, I don't care about this. You mean, but it's it's impactful on the podcast. Anyway, I've been having a bad couple of weeks living in this reality and getting it fixed. And last night, I had to do a little bit of work before I went to bed. And I jumped on the Facebook group. And I just said, Hey, I'm writing this thing right now. I can answer some questions or you know, if anybody just wants to chat, and at some point in that thread, somebody said I want you to take this opportunity to tell you how much you've helped me. You know, since I know you're here right now, and they wrote me a note, and it saved my day. That's awesome. And yeah, but you're right. Everybody doesn't have the ability to do that.

Sophia 55:12
Most people's jobs don't. I think I

Scott Benner 55:16
could honestly go on Facebook right now and just put up a post and somebody would come by and eventually tell me, Hey, this podcast is really helped me and I can get like a, like a boost from that. And I never really thought about it like that before. But you're right. Well,

Sophia 55:28
I you will absolutely credit you in my Nobel Peace Prize. Oh,

Scott Benner 55:33
that'd be wonderful. I'll come. By the way if I would, like I'd get on a plane. If you know, for the metal presentation, if you want to get me in. I will, if that ever happens. Okay. So if you ever get a Nobel Peace Prize, I'll come to is it Switzerland? Sweden, Switzerland? Or they should know this? I do not know they're not gonna let you in if you don't know where it's at. Oh,

Sophia 55:56
no. Okay. Well, there goes our plan.

Scott Benner 56:00
Can you imagine if I ended up in Sweden, and it was Switzerland, Oslo, Norway. Really? Wait a minute. Norway. So Norway? Yeah. Neither of us are going to be there. No, Oslo City Hall. The Peace Prize ceremony takes place in Oslo City Hall at 1pm. On the 10th of December.

Sophia 56:16
I don't want I don't feel like going to Norway. It was two days ago. That's weird. Oh, isn't that crazy? I really need to get myself together. Oh, it

Scott Benner 56:26
literally was two days ago. Had we? Not? That's insane. I wonder what else we're talking about that we're making the world do?

Sophia 56:37
Well, we have here Scott, I wanted to ask you, what do you feel about the new eyelet bionic thinkers?

Scott Benner 56:43
Ah, I had them on had a really long conversation with them. About It, like couple hours actually, with the guy that started the company. And after hearing everything he had to say, I think that the islet pump will significantly help people who otherwise did not understand their diabetes, or were never going to put the effort into it. That is

Sophia 57:09
very politically correct wording to say that you should not get it if you're listening to this podcast right now.

Scott Benner 57:15
I mean, it's gonna keep an A one C in the sevens, right? Oh,

Sophia 57:19
you're making me nervous. I am switching to it. Next one.

Scott Benner 57:22
Are you really?

Sophia 57:23
Yeah, my endo a stick kind of? Well, how

Scott Benner 57:27
come? What what are you using now?

Sophia 57:29
I'm still on the Omnipod Oh, come?

Scott Benner 57:31
Were you looking for new pump.

Sophia 57:33
I was not really but she has a very big bias against the Omni pod. So she wants me to either switch to the T slim or the new bionic pancreas. And they just came to talk to her the whole off the whole like hospital like last month to them and got every single endocrinologist there on board. So now they're all really big fans of it.

Scott Benner 58:02
Sophia, you're saying that one sales call and they're gonna switch everybody off their insulin pump?

Sophia 58:06
Yeah, pretty much.

Scott Benner 58:08
What's your agency right now?

Sophia 58:09
I was at a five foot nine before the brother. I remember the 6.5. Now.

Unknown Speaker 58:15
Okay.

Scott Benner 58:17
Your agency is gonna go up. That's don't say that Scott is going to that's it'll mean, it's the goal of the pump. The pump doesn't that I let pump is not shooting for a five or a six. I mean, they were on here saying it's targeting a seven a one C or an A one C and the sevens the idea behind the eyelet? Which I think so I'll go back to my was what I said I wasn't trying to be politically politically correct. I was actually it's what I mean. So we there are so many people in the population living with high one C's don't understand how insulin works. You know, they don't have a lot of the information that we talked about in the podcast. Either they don't have it. They don't want it they you know, maybe they have like mental health reasons they can't focus on there's a ton of reasons why like I'm not, I'm certainly not coming down on anybody for their situation. But if you're running around right now, with a seven and eight, a nine a 1011 1213, a one C and you put an eyelid on it, well, my gosh, like your life's gonna get better. Because all you have to do is say to it, you have to announce the meal, right? It's breakfast, lunch or dinner. And I'm having a small, medium or large serving those the two things you tell it, I'm having breakfast, this is a, you know, an average meal for me. You know, it's going to keep your a one C in the sevens. That is a massive thing for people. And I think most people living with diabetes using insulin. I mean, I hate to say it but I think there's more people who are living in that reality than are living in the one where you have a 591 C or you're walking around with a six two or something like that while you're in college like which is you know, everything you've been through Throw in the last couple of months on top of college and you have an agency of six and a half, that's insanely good. So I don't think that's most people's situation. That's really

Sophia 1:00:10
reassuring to hear from you. Especially because I was kind of beating myself up about it.

Scott Benner 1:00:14
No, you're doing wonderful. That's amazing. Yeah, don't don't Don't be absolutely terrific. So I've never used the eyelet personally, right. But you're going from tubeless to a tube pump. And you're a person accustomed to a five, nine a one see? Who's going to end up with anyone seeing the sevens probably?

Unknown Speaker 1:00:33
Well,

Sophia 1:00:34
I'll talk to her if I can not do that. I

Scott Benner 1:00:39
have a question. Why don't you just not tell her I'm not switching my pump. I

Sophia 1:00:43
guess I just wasn't advocating for me myself as much, because I still have the notion that maybe this doctor does know better and she is advocating for it so much.

Scott Benner 1:00:55
It sounds like to me, Sofia, that for reasons that I don't understand this lady's got what they call a bug up about Omni pod. And then somebody came in and made is that is that a term that translates? You know that one from? Yeah, okay. And then. And then someone came in and gave her a big sales push. And she's like, Okay, this is on this team now. So

Sophia 1:01:21
I came in, she was really pushing for the T slim. And she really wanted me to switch to the T firm. Now, she's really wanting me to switch the island.

Scott Benner 1:01:32
Are you on an algorithm or using dash or Omnipod? Five? Omnipod five, and you have a five nine and a six? Oh, why would you switch? You're gonna go to tubes. You're gonna go to carrying a device on you like, how come?

Speaker 2 1:01:45
I am not sure.

Sophia 1:01:49
I know. Now I'm second guessing it I had like really logical reasons. But now that we've talked I don't anymore.

Scott Benner 1:01:56
Don't forget I made you love math. The last time we spoke. You

Speaker 3 1:02:00
did this one. I'm gonna do this. The catalyst you were the catalyst?

Scott Benner 1:02:04
Sophie, I thought we agreed.

Sophia 1:02:09
For everybody listening. God will make your children love math.

Scott Benner 1:02:13
Yeah. Thank you. Good job. Well, that Oh, do you think people know math is the way? Yeah,

Sophia 1:02:18
I feel like you've said a lot on this podcast that you don't like math. I know.

Scott Benner 1:02:22
But my my son got a quantitative econ degree.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:25
Really?

Sophia 1:02:27
I did not know.

Scott Benner 1:02:29
And last night, oh my god, Sophia. Last night. He shocked that crap out of me. So he went away. He got a job. He got out of college, he went got a job. He's worked it for about a year, it was a year long contract. And at the end, he said, I'm not going to stay here. i He's living in Atlanta by himself. And he's like, I miss everybody. And I'm bored and like, you know, doesn't particularly love Atlanta. And he's like, I want to honestly the only friends he has Sophia are the gods. The people are men and women he met at work that he likes small group of friends there. And the I guess I can say this now, the drug dealers that he plays basketball with in the park. I should be more clear about that. He he said to me one day, he's like, baseballs over. I gotta get moving. He's like, I can't like he's like, I can't just keep lifting. Like I'm playing baseball. He's like, That's ridiculous. I don't need to be this big. So he's, he was like six feet tall carrying like 202 pounds on his frame, right? Like, say he was jacked up to play baseball. And he's like, so I'm gonna stop working out like this. He's like, this is how I stay in shape. So I'm gonna go play basketball. And I'm like, Okay, I was like, well, where the hell are you gonna do that? He goes on. He's like, there's parks all over the place. I'm gonna go to a park near my apartment. I'm gonna bring a ball and I'm gonna play basketball. It's like, okay, so he gets there. He said, It took him a while to like gain the trust of the people there like to actually get into a game they could see can play a little and example attic. And so then they kind of liked him and everything. He's like, but you know, the longer I've been there, I realized that most of these guys are drug dealers. Like, okay, and he's like, and he goes, they're really great guys, I guess the side of what they do for a living. And I was like, right, he goes and but he's like, at the end of the games, like, you know, we like go go back to our cars and like, change our clothes and put stuff in bags and like, take our phones out of our gym bag. He was when I'm taking my phone out of my gym bag. The other guys were pulling guns out of their gym bag. And I'm like, okay, and I said, stop going there. And he goes, they're really good games. And I was, I said, okay, and he goes, I can't find another place to play. I'm going to gain weight if I don't play basketball. So anyway, my son has made friends with drug dealers to play basketball with and he's made friends at work.

Sophia 1:04:35
But it's Atlanta, Georgia. Isn't everybody a drug dealer? I

Scott Benner 1:04:39
don't think that's the thing we should say out loud. Sophie, I don't believe everybody in Atlanta is a drug dealer. No, no, I don't think that's true.

Sophia 1:04:45
Yep. Although that might be my bluntness coming out. Also

Scott Benner 1:04:49
across the hall is apartment. This just happened again the other day. He has twice had to call the police. Oh my about screams coming from the apartment across the hall. Ah, where one man is yelling at another man, you have to let me out of here. I want to leave. So that's happened twice. By the way this the second time it happened he called 911. And do you know what happened when he called 911? In Atlanta,

Sophia 1:05:15
what happened?

Scott Benner 1:05:16
You got a message that said His call was very important, but that they couldn't pick it up right now.

And that he should leave a message

Sophia 1:05:24
that is mildly concerning. Hi,

Scott Benner 1:05:26
911. I'm upside down in the car on the expressway. What's this doo doo doo? We're sorry. So anyway, if you're in Atlanta, I'd vote for somebody who would fix that. But so he's, he's coming home. That was a really long way of saying he's coming home. And we were FaceTiming last night. And he's talking about packing. And, you know, he doesn't have enough space in his car to get his stuff home. He's selling like some like furniture and stuff like that. And I'm going to drive down to help him bring us the rest of the stuff home. So we're making plans about that. And out of nowhere, he says, You know, I think I'm gonna take a master's, I'm gonna get a master's degree. And I'm like, this is a thing that he has been like, the entire time he was in college. He's like, I cannot wait to get out of college. I'm never going to college. Again. I hate going to college, like, bah, bah, bah, and a year in the real world. And he's like, you know, if I want to get the jobs I'm looking at, I got I'm gonna have to get a master's degree. I was like, getting a master's. He thinks computer science.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:26
Nice that

Sophia 1:06:28
that would be really smart. Especially right now. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:06:32
he's been taking a lot of like, courses online this year. Python, ar, AI, Introduction to AI, stuff like that.

Sophia 1:06:41
I would recommend instead of Python, C sharp or C++, they're the leading programming languages right now.

Scott Benner 1:06:47
Is that in health?

Sophia 1:06:49
No, those programming languages?

Scott Benner 1:06:51
Yeah. But where are they being used? Mostly, most video games

Sophia 1:06:55
are either now Java based or C sharp and C++ because they are. Python is more for beginners, because the languages it uses. It's more like we talk so they're easier to comprehend. Because they are based. It's basically written like we talk. But they're not as versatile as when you use the complete vast syntax of C sharp or C++ or whatever.

Scott Benner 1:07:20
No, thank you. Yeah. So he's been doing that stuff online and getting like certifications and like growing his understanding and everything. But I think the biggest thing, is he seeing the jobs that he's looking for? They're like, you know, you need seven years of experience or a master's, or a master's he's like, so it'll take me far less time to get a master's than it'll take me to get seven years of experience working? Of course, yeah. So he's thinking about that.

Sophia 1:07:44
That's a problem. Yes, right now, because like most college students, they don't have time to get an internship or experience. But most jobs require experience right off the bat, which is why most high school students are, like, already starting to look for internships and stuff, ya

Scott Benner 1:08:00
know, it's, uh, it's certainly for anybody listening. One of the mistakes my son made in college is he was playing baseball so much that he didn't get internships. And that did screw up. Now he was able to get a good job with a subsidiary of Sony. So he got a good job this year. And he got a lot of great experience. But he's like, inside of six months of being there. He's like, I've learned everything. This job's gonna teach me. He's like, I am now just, I'm doing a task now. And I was like, okay, he goes, I have to move to get more experienced with that was this idea. Like, I'll go grab this job and build more experience here and build and build. But I think now he's thinking more like, what if I can get this master's and then kind of leap a little bit, those first couple jobs and start there?

Sophia 1:08:43
That would definitely be a really good way to go. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:08:47
that's what he's thinking. So anyway, that shocked me because the last time we talked about college, it's when he handed me his diploma and went here. You wasted a lot of money on this. And I was like, well, thank you. He said to me, after he graduated, he said, I could have taught myself everything I learned in college was six months with the internet. Yeah,

Sophia 1:09:07
yeah. Basically, what what I'm what we're learning in our associate's degree right now, it was what I taught myself last year in like, two months. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:09:16
that he was disappointed by that. And it's not it's not like a laissez faire attitude. He like, He's genuinely disappointed in the way the system works. And, you know,

Sophia 1:09:26
yeah, but you guys who don't understand you don't want like the Russian educational system, either. Or most European educational systems. There's the study. Thus far, we do not have a perfect system to be used.

Scott Benner 1:09:42
Oh, no, I think I don't think perfect. exists anywhere. It's nice to hear you say that. But I think that, um, honestly, I think it's your story. It's that your education or your opportunities are what you make of them, not what somebody gives you, not what somebody gives you. Yeah, yeah.

Sophia 1:09:59
The only reason I think I did well in high school was because I taught myself the material myself. I self studied for AP tests. And that's why I got fives and fours. Now because I took a really good class,

Scott Benner 1:10:13
right? Yeah. Same idea here, like you can take like prep courses for SATs and stuff like that, but they teach you how to take the test. Not really not, you know nothing about the information. As much it says, it's an imperfect system. But again, it does, it favors the people who are willing to put the work in have some aptitude, but also it favors people who can afford it, like so, you know, the one thing we're skipping over here is that if my son comes home, I have, there's a place for him to be like, he doesn't have to go work to stay alive. Like, we're like, look, you can come back here, if you want to go back to school, that's fine. And you know, he'll be able to do

Sophia 1:10:52
that support system, it's very important to have a support system. And that's amazing that you can give your kids that. It

Scott Benner 1:10:59
is really gratifying, honestly, to do that. I was looking forward to not supporting him in any way. But I guess I can just work a little longer. If Tim Cook would get his foot off my neck. It wouldn't be such a problem. Sofia understand. Yeah,

Sophia 1:11:14
I understand. The last time we talked by the way that was the day that our origin took her sad. Oh, was it really? Yeah, yeah. You said you have to leave to pick up the origin from her sad. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:11:28
no kidding. Well, that ended up just yet. I don't remember it ended up not mattering at all. Oh, really? Yeah. So here's what ended up happening. I don't think that art schools see a lot of interest from people who were very carefully academic in high school. Yeah. So yes. So she looked like she looked like a million bucks to them. And they were very happy to give her all the financial aid that was available to a person with her grades.

Sophia 1:11:57
Nice. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:11:58
that was very nice. Really cool. Yeah, we saved a lot of money. Because imagine, yeah, because of hardens grades in high school.

Sophia 1:12:09
So you must be really proud of her. I'm,

Scott Benner 1:12:11
I'm very proud of her. And significant actually, I'm super proud of that. She went away to college, and managed a one C so well on her own, because the one thing so you're you're living at home, like as you said, you're doing community college till you go off to college, the one thing you're gonna need to be careful of when you get off onto a campus is that the food is garbage. Yeah, yeah, it took her a lot more insulin to manage the food at college.

So you're

not going to have that kind of control with the eyelet either, by the way, I

Sophia 1:12:42
already kind of eat in a very, like low carb way anyway, because I'm both gluten and dairy free. Okay,

Scott Benner 1:12:50
well, that will actually, I mean, that'll help, obviously. And that might help you to with the pilot as well. Like, what what's your, like? What's a standard meal have as far as carbs go for you?

Sophia 1:13:01
Like no more than 10? Actually, now that I'm thinking about it?

Scott Benner 1:13:06
I mean, listen, maybe that'll work for you, then. I don't know. You don't I mean, but I don't know. I just I feel uncomfortable that that after a sales call that a doctor pushed you to change your, your insulin pump, and what did you mean that they have? She has a problem with Omni pod? Do you know what the problem is? She

Sophia 1:13:29
doesn't particularly like the control that Omni pod does. And she sees a lot of issues on her end, which I know I shouldn't be saying on your guarantee sponsored by omniva. You can say whatever you want, that's fine. Okay, well, she's seen a lot of issues with Omni pod five, PDM. DMS, like failing for especially younger children for some reason. And I think she just doesn't like the standards, it sets and house. I remember her saying how slowly it learns. Well,

Scott Benner 1:14:02
it doesn't actually learn. So I have a wonderful series about Omnipod. Five, have you listened to it? Yep,

Unknown Speaker 1:14:09
I have. Yeah,

Sophia 1:14:10
I have a great experience. The only bad five. And it's completely my fault that I got kind of manipulated into it. It's it. Well,

Scott Benner 1:14:19
isn't it interesting that you're having I mean, a five nine, with AMI pod five. And your doctor seeing other people struggle with it. And her instead of asking you what are you doing to have this success? She said, why don't you come over here with all the people that are struggling? Yeah.

What a weird thing. Yeah,

Sophia 1:14:42
I feel like that's most probably doctors. Well,

Unknown Speaker 1:14:46
I can't people think

Sophia 1:14:47
Sophia. Lead Poisoning. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:14:50
you know what? It could be that 100% i But seriously, isn't that am I the crazy one? Maybe I'm the crazy one. Why would I look at a group of people I'm struggling, and one person not struggling. And instead of asking the person not struggling what they're doing, I say, hey, come over here and struggle with everybody else. She

Sophia 1:15:09
doesn't have enough time to really get a picture of what everybody is doing. I'd say, like our appointments last, like 10 minutes with her. Do you

Scott Benner 1:15:17
think she just thinks you're low carb? So that's why you're there? Or do you think she thinks you're having lows that you're not happy? But she can see that you're not so? Yeah,

Sophia 1:15:26
I she doesn't really look very carefully. I think, anyways,

Scott Benner 1:15:31
just makes big changes to your life. Yep.

Sophia 1:15:35
I don't really listen to the changes, usually. But again, I think I just got roped in. It was also I was not in a very good like, emotional state. When we had that appointment. It was like, a week after I say,

Scott Benner 1:15:49
I'm okay, well, I'll call Scott's back. We're not going to do that. Okay, we're not doing that. Do I have to have you on once a month to make sure things were okay. What are we doing right now? Sophia? What's your level of need for me right now? Yes. Let me know. I'll be here for you. Okay.

Sophia 1:16:04
Thank you. I appreciate it. I think I'm just surprised how much blood sugars really are affected by, like, stress levels. I wish I knew in theory, but it's really, in practice much more intense than I would have assumed.

Scott Benner 1:16:20
Yeah, it's your heart, right? Just like really

Sophia 1:16:23
does. Like I, one day, I spent completely in the three hundreds and it just wouldn't come down.

Scott Benner 1:16:30
I think that's school or something that was going on in your life.

Sophia 1:16:33
I think it was just like the whole the whole package of life at that moment.

Scott Benner 1:16:40
Did you let the algorithm deal with it? Or did you put in extra insulin?

Sophia 1:16:44
No, I did. I had to put in twice my normal daily total amount of insulin, and like the next day was completely fine. And back to my usual self, but that one day just would not react. That's

Scott Benner 1:16:57
crazy. Well, it's not. I mean, I've seen that before. So if you had the knowledge and the confidence to do something about it, or your blood sugar would have been even higher than that. It

Sophia 1:17:07
probably would have because I was doing injecting so much more than I usually would in that case. No,

Scott Benner 1:17:15
well, good for you. It's good to be able to recognize it and do something about it right away. It's something people struggle with sometimes

Sophia 1:17:21
that is 100%. All credit to you. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:17:25
thank you. You didn't have to say that. We already did that earlier. Yeah, I

Sophia 1:17:28
know. I'm being serious.

Scott Benner 1:17:30
I know your thank you. I'm muddying the waters with my own sarcasm, just so everyone's off balance, and nobody knows what's actually happened.

Sophia 1:17:39
particularly enjoy.

Scott Benner 1:17:42
Thank you. I appreciate that. So few people who appreciate my, the way my brain twists up into little like not so

Sophia 1:17:49
people wouldn't be listening if they didn't appreciate it. But what if

Scott Benner 1:17:53
I gave it all to them? I don't think they can handle all of it.

Sophia 1:17:57
You should try for just one episode and like pay attention to what your Facebook group says.

Scott Benner 1:18:01
I mean, I think if I let all of me out in an episode that I wouldn't have done the next day I'd release an episode no one, they'd all be gone. They'd be like, Wait, what did he say? That's not okay.

Sophia 1:18:11
Okay, then release it on April Fool's. Oh, that's

Scott Benner 1:18:15
a good idea. That way I've got cover if I need it. Exactly. Yeah, that wasn't me. I was joking for April Fool's Day.

Speaker 2 1:18:22
What's a really good idea? Yeah, exactly. Write that down.

Scott Benner 1:18:25
I already wrote down. The thing I have to tell you afterwards, though. Yeah,

Sophia 1:18:29
I'm very excited. I think I have an idea of what it is. Should

Scott Benner 1:18:35
I call the episode April Fool's. You could good. I don't know what to call it though. I just heard Arden go down the stairs and like a pair of boots. I'm sure I paid for. They were very heavy. I assume that anything that sounds heavy. I paid for me. Yeah, I Yeah. Heavy to me sounds like expensive.

Sophia 1:18:55
Every time her phone drops? Oh, you're

Scott Benner 1:18:57
like, oh, no, no, I dropped my phone yesterday. And as it was, as it was leaving my hand, I was like, oh, no, no, no. But case, tip. So there's Tim Cook helped me. The case is the case. Save the phone. Nice. Yeah. But he's screwing me otherwise. Also, by the way, just not me. Everybody who has a podcast that has a significant invaluable back catalogue or puts out a lot of information. Because it this is basically this is happening. Because most podcasts put up an episode a week or a month. That's how most of them do it. Right. And what they do is they're when they're trying to get advertising. They put out like, I don't know how to put this exactly. They put out like crappy content like short episodes, to bump up their download numbers. So easiest way to say it is if you had 100 followers and you put up an episode a month, you'd probably get about 100 downloads. But if you put up two episodes a month, you'd get 200 downloads. So what they end up doing as they put up their episode, then they'll do one of those like five minute like, like, hey, don't forget about this thing which you, your, your app automatically downloads they get what the hell is this and you delete it, but they get the they get the number for it like so now they have extra downloads. So the app is now limiting how you see all that content. But for me, I put up five really, like well considered thoughtful episodes a week. And now it's not delivering those episodes to people. And so the simple fix is that as you go into your settings, you go to automatic downloads, you tell it like download all the episodes, everybody who upgraded to iOS 17 their app, eliminated that setting. So even if you were set up to have that happen anyway, now that's not happening. And now you'll just

Sophia 1:20:46
never go for the iOS updates.

Unknown Speaker 1:20:49
Well, it's

Scott Benner 1:20:50
too late now, Sofia, he's, he's come with his sickle and his hammer. And he's, oh, that was not a Russia reference. That was a death reference. He's come from me, he's, he's swiping up my neck right now. Now, you know, I believe that I said, the people are going to still get the interviews, hopefully they'll hear me say this and go back and change their settings at some point. But it's just it literally is, like it might sound like it's about downloads to me. But it's I took a lot of time and care building this thing up. And I was like really starting to get it into people's hands at like mass numbers. And now, this comes along. And what Tim Cook doesn't realize I'm sure it wasn't him, by the way, but is that in this specific space, you have a real opportunity to like change your health. But it's not going to happen in one episode. And so you might need to hear a dozen people's stories. And you might need to be listening for three months before you realize, oh, there's a Pro Tip series. You know, like that kind of stuff. And so you need to you need people to like kind of live in this ecosystem for a while. Until they can get to a point where they can do these things for themselves, make these bigger decisions, go find the information, and then help themselves like after all that happens if you don't want to listen to podcasts anymore, like I understand, like, that's fine with me. But I want to reach people and give them the real opportunity to help themselves. And if they're only going to see every fifth episode of the podcast, that I don't know that that's going to happen. And then that's, that's upsetting

Speaker 2 1:22:21
to me. So, anyway, yeah.

Scott Benner 1:22:25
This is what he's done to me.

Sophia 1:22:28
It's fine. You should write a very strongly worded email.

Scott Benner 1:22:32
What if I wrote all that out on a piece of cardboard just stood in front of the Cupertino? Like, gate? I was just stood out there. I was like you're ruining people's health, because that's in the end, what's gonna happen? Or by the way, if he, the advertisers don't have the foresight to be able to see oh, no, I'm still getting what I need from Scott, then they could leave. And if I don't have advertisers, you wait till you see how quickly Scott becomes the most popular cashier at Walmart and is no longer a podcaster. This all has to kind of work in symbiosis. The business side of it and the helping side of it,

Sophia 1:23:05
of course, and Yeah, that sucks. But I'm sure every single one of your listeners will eventually stumble upon an episode where you tell the issue.

Scott Benner 1:23:16
I hope so. But I don't want to say it too much. It's boring. You know what I mean?

Sophia 1:23:20
We listen to your ad reels. So I

Scott Benner 1:23:22
do appreciate that, by the way. Meanwhile, as I should give the people credit in the pot that are listening to the podcast, because in the Facebook group, I've been kind of making this pitch for about a week. And it's driven the podcast up in charts, like pretty significantly. So you guys are obviously clicking and subscribing and stuff like that, which is great. But you know, kind of needs you to get the episodes as well. So it's not just about subscribing. Like you need to actually get the stuff and listen to it or download it. At the very least,

Sophia 1:23:52
are most people really listening on Apple podcasts? And not like Spotify, overwhelmingly

Scott Benner 1:23:56
more apple podcast listeners. That's interesting. Yeah. Well, I think it's got something to do you want to hear my thought on that? I think I think it has something to do with the thing we talked about earlier. With my son coming home and being able to go to master a master's program, its financial ability and support to actually have the time to think about your health. And I think somehow that correlates to an Apple product in

Unknown Speaker 1:24:23
your home. Does that make

Sophia 1:24:25
sense? I thought you were gonna go in a completely different direction with that. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:24:29
I think I think that the people who listen to this podcast are more passionate. Yes. Yeah. And therefore they are more likely to have an Apple product. And I know that's weird, but I but I know my numbers, and they're incredibly skewed towards Apple devices, which I don't think is the norm for most podcasts.

Sophia 1:24:52
That does make a lot of sense. Yeah. Yeah, I think especially with the demographic group in your face. This book. Yeah, you can see that a lot. But most people, I've kind of been a salesman for your podcast on the side here. So I'm kind of also reaching the other part of the population and a lot of Spotify users should have been in should have noticed, like at least three in the last few months. Well,

Scott Benner 1:25:26
there's more than that. But thank you. And I do have a, like, Spotify is my second app, like my second most popular app. It goes, Apple, Spotify, and then some, like third party apps, overcast iHeartRadio. Amazon music, Firefox, cast box Pocket Cast, these are all like, apps that people use to listen. But overwhelmingly, the numbers are with Apple.

Sophia 1:25:55
That doesn't make a lot of sense. I thought you were gonna say just because the it's so much easier. It's already installed on your phone, or? Well, I

Scott Benner 1:26:05
think that's part of it as well, is that people know how they don't have to know that's the other thing is that I bring a lot of people to podcasting, to listening to podcasts that don't listen to podcasts. Yeah. So I bring a lot of new listeners in, and they are going to go with what's in there. What's in their hand when they when they do it. But I'll, I'm looking back at the last week give you a fairly on. Okay, out of the last 1.2 million downloads that the podcast has gotten. A million of them are on an Apple product.

Sophia 1:26:38
Oh my gosh, that's way more than I thought it would be. Yeah, it's

Scott Benner 1:26:42
overwhelming. Like, yeah, of those million 1.2 million 50. Call it 60,000 of those downloads or Spotify.

Speaker 2 1:26:53
That's insane. That difference? That is

Sophia 1:26:57
really huge difference. Yes.

Scott Benner 1:27:00
Yeah. And by the way, there's nothing saying that the person listening on Amazon music or you know, I Heart Radio isn't on an iPhone as well. So it's overwhelmingly app. So Apple is they could make or break me if they wanted to. Do

Sophia 1:27:15
you think it has something to do also with the fact that Dexcom is so much easier to get on an apple?

Scott Benner 1:27:23
I mean, that's that's not unreasonable, either. Or why so many people complain when stuff comes out? And it's not available for iOS? In diabetes?

Sophia 1:27:29
Yeah. Yeah. Because we're used to having the Dexcom app on on iPhone. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:27:37
that's, I mean, Arden. The one thing that Arden didn't like about Omnipod five is that it didn't have an an iPhone app.

Sophia 1:27:46
Yeah. So that's why I prefer the right we'll include To be honest,

Scott Benner 1:27:51
she's using it now. With a dash pod, so you don't even need the link anymore.

Sophia 1:27:56
It's pretty cool. Oh, that's awesome. I might look into that.

Scott Benner 1:28:00
Oh, yeah. Well, because you did looping for a while. Why did you switch? When we

Sophia 1:28:05
moved to the US? The doctor kind of said, This is not FDA approved. And I can't really support this. Unless you switch to another bump. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:28:12
they told us that they couldn't support it either. And I went, Okay, thank you. Yeah.

Sophia 1:28:17
But like we didn't coming to

Scott Benner 1:28:24
that I didn't have that part going for me or that like, oh, look, these people just showed up and look what they're doing that kind of thing.

Unknown Speaker 1:28:29
Yeah.

Sophia 1:28:32
Especially because the doctrine has never seen that before.

Scott Benner 1:28:35
You were the first person to show this. Oh, yeah. Wait, would you come here and move into the woods? Oh,

Sophia 1:28:44
that state was Florida.

Scott Benner 1:28:45
Oh, I don't know what that means. I don't I a lot of people listen to Florida. I love Florida. I'm not saying that.

Sophia 1:28:50
You love Florida. I can't be friends with anyone. You

Unknown Speaker 1:28:55
didn't enjoy Florida. No.

Sophia 1:28:57
There are there are people who enjoy Florida.

Scott Benner 1:29:00
I'm sure there are Floridians that enjoy Florida. It's hot. It's humid. And Florida. Well, yeah, the Florida man thing. I just want to say like for the record, Florida is my third most downloaded state. I love you all in Florida, and I don't Oh, yeah. Yeah. I don't agree with

Sophia 1:29:21
Sofia at all. You're just being politically correct again. Well, that's

Scott Benner 1:29:25
how I gotta roll in this one. I mean, California is the biggest state obviously because it's just so many people on it. But then from there it's Texas. Actually. Florida is for Texas, New York, Florida. Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan. These are my top like downloads, but allow I haven't done this in a long time. There is no state where somebody doesn't listen to the podcast with some significance. That's pretty cool. Even overseas is going like incredibly well

Sophia 1:29:59
with The podcast. How many listeners do you have in Russia? Well,

Scott Benner 1:30:03
at least one last now. Yeah, yeah, you've ruined it for me.

Unknown Speaker 1:30:07
I did. Retargeting

Scott Benner 1:30:09
very well in Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Germany, South Korea, Sweden, China, Spain, Brazil, Norway, Ireland, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, India, Belgium, Turkey, Hong Kong, Argentina, Colombia, Israel, Finland, Hungary, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Romania, Slovenia, Nigeria, Iceland, Egypt, Lithuania, Zimbabwe is a new one, by the way that just popped up recently. Is that Qatar? Or Qatar?

Unknown Speaker 1:30:39
Out? Have they said? No.

Scott Benner 1:30:41
Okay, there Bahrain, Nepal, nem,

Unknown Speaker 1:30:45
Namibia,

Scott Benner 1:30:46
Botswana Cayman Islands Liberia Russia not on the list right now. I'm not charting in Russia doesn't mean there's no downloads. They're just not charging there at the

Sophia 1:30:55
moment. I was honestly slightly surprised that you were still up for doing the episode.

Scott Benner 1:30:59
When you wanted to come on originally? No right now. Why?

Sophia 1:31:05
Because of like, the whole registration.

Scott Benner 1:31:08
Did you invade the Ukraine? I don't think you did. Right. It wasn't you? Was it? Wait, oh my god, Sofia, wasn't you was it? No comment. Okay. No, I mean, you. You have nothing to do with that would be like not wanting to interview somebody from Canada because something that the Prime Minister did, like, what would that have to do with anything?

Sophia 1:31:29
That's very fair. But see, that's a bit too logical for the general population.

Scott Benner 1:31:34
No, you're just very interesting. I don't care where you're from. That's meaningless to me. Yeah, that doesn't matter to me at all. Yeah, I'm a little light in Russia since you left. Just gonna say I think you killed my downloads there.

Sophia 1:31:45
Man. I should have stayed there just for you. Yeah, you

Scott Benner 1:31:49
definitely should have just stayed just for that. Yeah. We should I think Australia is the biggest non US cut actually, Canada, Canada, Australia. Do a fair amount of downloads.

Sophia 1:32:04
I would imagine. So I would imagine the primarily English speaking countries.

Scott Benner 1:32:09
Yeah, United Kingdom is pretty huge for me to actually United Kingdom often competes and beats Australia for downloads. So we'll see. Anyway, Sofia, what have we not talked about that we should have?

Sophia 1:32:22
I think we've covered pretty much everything's all done.

Scott Benner 1:32:25
Exactly. Alright. You go off into the world and be my Emissary. Okay.

Sophia 1:32:30
I will let you know when it's time for you to show up for the Nobel Peace Prize, which

Scott Benner 1:32:34
we all know happens in Norway. That's right. Not Switzerland. The city. Why is wait. Norway is its own country, right? I don't want to I'm number one. I'm number 51. In Norway right now. I should probably go like I know you guys replaced Don't worry. Don't you get mad at me. I don't need people mad at me. You had like

Sophia 1:32:54
people on the podcast from Norway?

Unknown Speaker 1:32:58
Yeah. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:32:59
don't tell them that. I don't remember. Okay.

Sophia 1:33:01
Okay. I think they will probably hear that for themselves.

Scott Benner 1:33:05
Oh, you're right. Let's stop the recording. And I'll tell you the thing that I was gonna say that I can't say. All right, yes.

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#1215 Cold Wind: X Ray Tech

"Lindsay" is an X Ray Technologist with 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 1215 of the Juicebox Podcast

gonna call today's guests Lindsay. She is an x ray technician who has diabetes, and she's going to tell us a little bit about what she sees in the medical field. From her perspective, 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. When you go to cozy earth.com Don't forget to use my offer code juice box to save big at checkout that's juice box at checkout at cozy earth.com 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 help out with T one D research at T one D exchange.org/juice box go over there complete the survey. That's all you need to do you have to be a US resident who has type one diabetes or is the caregiver of someone with type one, you'll be helping yourself helping the show and helping everyone else living with type one T one D exchange.org/juice box go fill out that survey this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom G seven made for all types of diabetes Dexcom G seven can be used to manage type one, type two, and gestational diabetes, you're going to see the speed, direction and number of your blood sugar right on your receiver or smartphone device. dexcom.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 penne Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash juicebox. Don't forget everybody. This is a cold wind episode. So we've changed the name and the voice of the person that I'm talking to. All right, Lindsay, what is your background? workwise? What do you do for a living?

"Lindsay" 2:31
So I am an x ray tech, technically, it's a radiologic technologist, if you want to get specific, there are many different modalities, but I just do

Scott Benner 2:41
X ray. Okay, and what kind of education do you have to have for that.

"Lindsay" 2:46
So you have to have an associate's degree, they go back and forth, if it needs to be a bachelor's, because it's actually three years you have to have a year prior to starting the program in prerequisites. And then it's two full years of clinic and classes. So but it is an associate's degree, and then you have to take a national registry and pass the boards in order to get your license. And then many states most states, I think it's like 45 states in the US require a state license. So it's just taking that national license and registering it with the state.

Scott Benner 3:21
I say, Do you have the accreditation to read the X rays or what is your exact job?

"Lindsay" 3:27
So I do the procedure, the exam, I take the x rays, in order to read the X rays, you have to be a doctor. So a radiologist reads any imaging modality and you have to go to medical school and then go through a residency and radiology and then do additional multiple years in order to read them.

Scott Benner 3:49
I know a doctor who told me that a buddy of his is a radiologist. And it is the fattest job in the world. He said he sits at home, waits for images to come reads them, writes up the notes puts them back in it's his whole life.

"Lindsay" 4:06
Yeah, so there is a few companies that do it digitally. It's becoming more and more especially with the pandemic, they let them have more licensing, openness in order to do it from different states because just like medical practice, in order to do a home health visit with somebody that's in another state, you have to be licensed in that state. I say interesting. So there are some companies that I'm not sure how they go about this and how they do it. But like because our doctors don't want to work overnight. We send it to an off site company and they're specific companies that do that and have the radiologists reading from home or wherever. But there is also procedures that radiologists do in the hospital as well. So we do have radiologists on site as well. Yeah,

Scott Benner 4:59
no, I I'm just saying there's like a job now like to work from home like you imagine being a doctor making a doctor salary and not having to leave your house or talk to patients, right?

"Lindsay" 5:09
There's always a joke about radiologists being mushrooms because and not having people skills. There's several specific doctors that were like Yep. Well, you see why there are radiologists because they sit in a dark room looking at computers all day.

Scott Benner 5:22
I can't believe I didn't get the mushroom reference right away. As soon as you said darkroom, I was like, Oh, why did I not see that? That's nice, though. Maybe they're fun guys.

"Lindsay" 5:31
They are? Absolutely. All right.

Scott Benner 5:36
Well, please, it's hard to mess. It's a ham fisted dad joke from 1973. What made you well, we'll hold on a second. Do you have type one diabetes? Are you the parent of someone with type one? Neither.

Unknown Speaker 5:47
Really?

"Lindsay" 5:49
How do you find yourself to me?

I have type three see?

Scott Benner 5:54
Oh, they snatched up your your business right out of there. How did you lose your pancreas function?

"Lindsay" 5:59
I have neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer and they removed up 30% of my pancreas. I have six remaining tumors that were watching I get treatment every month to they've been stable for seven years. The thought is eventually I'll have the rest of my pancreas removed. But for right now it's stable. So we're keeping it as long as I can.

Scott Benner 6:21
Lindsay, can you hear the conspiracy listeners right now?

"Lindsay" 6:24
The X rays got her right. I actually got it before I started X ray. Ah, yep, X

Scott Benner 6:31
rays are let's be clear with people though, like X rays or give you cancer if you're not shielded from them. And you get them too much, right? Like it's a lot of radiation. Am I right?

"Lindsay" 6:40
So yes, and no good. Clean film X ray, like just going and get a chest X ray or an abdomen or you break your foot and you get foot X ray? is very, very low dose. Okay. Why don't you 30 years ago, when it was film, it was higher. Um, now we know more about it. And with the switch to digital, it's like a quarter of what it used to be. And you get radiation every day of your life from existing. So our bodies are actually very good at recovering from small doses. There's a thing that they called time distance and shielding. So the longer time you're exposed, the more risk, the more exposure in a small time, the higher risk. But a chest X ray, if you go on a six hour plane flight, you actually get more radiation than you do in a tube you chest X ray, interesting, I appreciate you spend a day at the beach, you get more radiation than you do in an x ray. However, when you go to the other modalities, like CT, that is actually hundreds of X rays, taking it in succession. So that CT does give you more radiation. And you do want to be careful not to get too many CTS too close together. You get like one a year your body should be able to recover from that. But if you get one a week, you're gonna get cancer from that.

Scott Benner 8:01
No kidding. My lovely moan when you said day at the beach wasn't because I was like, oh my god go to the beach. And this is how much radiation I just like, oh, maybe we should just go to the beach today. That'd be amazing. Yeah, yeah. Okay, great. not warm enough for that yet. But keep going. I'm sorry, this is fascinating. Tell me as much about this as you, as you know, and you would like to tell me, yeah,

"Lindsay" 8:19
if you go into the O bar and have certain procedures done, sometimes you get some X rays in that they use that we call fluoroscopy, which is Live X ray, it's pulses of X ray. So it's not continuous. Like in CT, it's like you can set it for like three pulses per second per second, or 10 pulses, depending on what they're looking at and how clear and crisp they need it. But usually it's within a few seconds. They do it for a few seconds at a time. So you don't really get that much from that mammography uses X rays. But that is it's more than a plain film X ray. But getting it once a year, it's pretty low compared to a CT. Nuclear Medicine uses a different type of radiation than what you use an x ray. And that can get up to higher doses. So those are things that you want to be careful about getting in succession, and your doctors really should be paying attention to that. And every single different nuclear medicine test is going to have a different dose. And the nuclear medicine technologists are really dialed in to how much dosing I know a lot more about it than I do. And then an MRI doesn't use radiation that uses magnets so you don't get any dose in that. You just get claustrophobia. Exactly. And ultrasound is not radiation, it sound waves.

Scott Benner 9:42
Okay, those are the ways those are the ways we image people right now modern medicine.

"Lindsay" 9:47
Exactly. And every single one of the modalities looks at something different. So it's not like you can say, oh, MRI doesn't use radiation. So that means I never want to get a CT I always want to get get an MRI, but an eye MRI looks at different tissues than CT does. So if your doctor is ordering one or another, it's probably because that is what is best for that specific,

Scott Benner 10:07
right? I can't get I can't get an MRI for a broken ankle.

"Lindsay" 10:13
But it's not going to be it's going to be more expensive. Your insurance, you're gonna have to fight your insurance for approval, because the CT is better and while they'll see the brake, it's not going to be I mean, it's just more involved

Scott Benner 10:28
the values with the actual x ray for that for that injury for example. Okay,

"Lindsay" 10:32
exactly there they would look more like muscle and tendons and things like that in memory.

Scott Benner 10:37
Okay, let me ask you a couple more questions about your own health then we'll move on to your job. Sure. You said there are some tumors left that they're keeping an eye on what does that mean? 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 vo Capo pen can be administered in two simple steps even by yourself in certain situations. Show those around you where you store Chivo Capo pen and how to use it. They need to know how to use G Bo 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 been 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 trip. 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.

"Lindsay" 13:24
So I have, I think six tumors right now I get a monthly injection it is every 28 days, right into my butt. It's a deep subcutaneous injection, and it's a subnet of statin analog, which is a hormone that fills the receptor sites on the tumors and does some kind of magic. It is actually off label for tumor suppression. But it's actually supposed to be used for symptom control. But because it whatever it does, it keeps the tumors from growing. That's why I say I've gotten seven years without any growth. And so they'll just I get scans every year to watch the size of it. And once it either symptoms get too bad for me to control or size gets too big, then they'll take the rest of pancreas out.

Scott Benner 14:17
What are the symptoms? Oh,

"Lindsay" 14:18
it depends on what kind of tumor it is. So I have several. Right now I don't know of any hormones they're producing. But as you know, the pancreas produces insulin. If you have an insulinoma your blood sugars will go well. If you have glucagon, Noma, then your blood sugars are gonna go high because it's producing too much glucagon. You also get some rashes. You can have acid producing tumor, so you end up with heartburn. Well, of course my mind is going blank. I actually am pretty well versed in all of the different hormones but

Scott Benner 14:51
you are here I'll ask you a question while you kind of reset a little bit. Yeah, okay. So they give you the injection of the injection for the lack of a term that is technically correct. Keeps the tumor happy. And in its current state, so it doesn't grow or or act up. Is that about right? Yep. Okay. Otherwise you can see any number of those other things that you just brought up. Yep, that can make you feel all different kinds of ways. My question is, why did they take some of the pancreas but not all of it? Originally, because

"Lindsay" 15:22
I didn't go to a specialist. Prior, I just went to a local hospital. And that was the recommendation because I didn't know any better

Scott Benner 15:30
when they're done with that procedure, your type three, see, at that point,

"Lindsay" 15:34
I wasn't actually it was several years before I was the medication that I use suppresses my pancreas. So even though it's suppressing the tumors, suppressing all of the tissue, so my agency has slowly gone up slowly over the years, when it was about 6.5. I tried to get a CGM. And so I could start watching and seeing what was happening. And I was told I wasn't diabetic enough. And so to just keep fingers sticking, I would do good for a few months, and then my numbers would be pretty good. And so I would give it up until I started feeling crappy again, and I'd start finger sticking again and watching what I was eating. And then, about a year ago, I was just really fatigued, really sick. I went in for my shot by a doctor did routine bloodwork, which he did about every three months, and my fasting blood sugar was 363. And they didn't even call me I just happened to see it on the portal, when I went to send them a message. And so I started finger sticking and the next day, my fasting glucose was 430. And so I went to the walking clinic, they took my blood sugar and said, You need to go straight to the hospital right now. On the way my PCP called me back and said, Oh, no, I'm gonna save you an ER visit. Don't do that. I'll put in a prescription for you come to my office, we'll do some blood work. That was on a Friday afternoon, Monday, I still didn't have the results or any medication. Wednesday, they finally gave me a prescription for insulin. And I went and picked it up. And there was no pen needles. So it took until Thursday before I could get a prescription for pen needles. So it was almost a week after my

Scott Benner 17:31
senior doctors, like let me save you an ER visit and then didn't get back to you with the things you needed for six days. Yep. Perfect. Yeah. So today, what's the reasoning behind not just going in there and cleaning out the pancreas and getting rid of the tumors?

"Lindsay" 17:46
I just talked to a surgeon and I told him, You know, I'm insulin dependent. Now I'm on a pump. And he says that yes, well, I do have to control my blood sugar's it is pretty controllable, it's pretty easy for me to handle. If my pump gets occluded in the middle of the night, I can just take it off and go back to sleep. And I'll be okay. In the morning. If you takes my whole pancreas, I will be struggling a lot more, it'll be a lot harder to control. And I'll have to be very much on top of it. And because of all of my other medical issues, he doesn't want to make any of it more complicated and thinks that we should continue to wait.

Scott Benner 18:26
What do you think? I mean, because there's the trade off, right? Like you could basically remove your cancer or have the balance of help from the pancreas. Yeah, what do you think's the best thing for you?

"Lindsay" 18:36
I don't know, I am going back and forth. Because the reason I have this cancer is because of a genetic disease, and which my dad, my grandfather, my great grandmother all died from all from metastasis, which it right now, I am stage one. It's only in my pancreas. And if I could have it taken out and know that I will never have a metastasis, I would do it right the second year. However, they know that even people that have it taken out, it's possible that those cells have already left and implanted in the liver, and just aren't big enough to see. So it's possible it's already spread. And even if I take it out now, it won't save me.

Scott Benner 19:16
I say I'm sorry to ask you this. But how old were your family members when they passed away? They

"Lindsay" 19:21
lived a pretty full life. My dad was 72 and actually died from COVID. My grandpa was 78. My great grandmother was 32.

Scott Benner 19:31
Oh, great grandma. So a couple of generations ago. Yes. You got the magic juice. Now they're, they're popping in your butt. So yes, yeah, exactly. Okay. I appreciate you going over all that with us. So we understand your your context, and your perspective, because I think that's going to like help me pivot into this next bit. Right. So, yeah, you're on a cold wind episode. So obviously, you're here to talk about what you see working in healthcare. My first question is going to be based on the thing You're about to tell me about what you witness at a hospital. Does that impact your ability to be comfortable with your care for your tumors? Like, do you not see doctors the same way I would if I just walked in off the street and I was like, I'm here, I need help. You're the magic guy in the coat, tell me what to do. Absolutely,

"Lindsay" 20:16
I am angry on a almost daily basis about the fact that these people are supposed to be the people helping me. And they don't care. They don't care about my symptoms, they don't care about my quality of life. They just want to check their boxes to say that they saw me in there doing what they should they order my scans, they order my blood tests, I frustrated and angry on a regular basis, about how I know what I need, from being in support groups, being online, doing research, talking to other people dealing with it, who have doctors, who are on the frontlines of creating new treatments. And knowing that there are things out there that could make my quality of life better. But I'm not allowed to give it to myself, because I'm not a doctor. Only a doctor can prescribe that only a doctor can order that. And I spend multiple days a month at doctor's appointments in tears, begging people to

Scott Benner 21:26
help me. Do you think that that perspective of they don't want to help me? Is that coming directly from your experience with your doctors, for your disease in your problems? Or is it because you see them treating other people? You then kind of juxtapose that on to what your doctors must be thinking while you're talking to them? Does that make sense?

"Lindsay" 21:48
It does. I think in my my very specific situation, I have multiple rare issues that they don't see on a regular basis. I think that I demand a higher quality of life, I don't accept, just because I'm sick, this is how I have to feel. And I want the newest, most aggressive treatments there are in order to live the fullest life I can. And even when my doctors do want to help me with that, a lot of times it's outside of their comfort zone, because they haven't done it before. And it's easier to say it's not available, or I don't know enough about that to feel comfortable than it is for them to risk it and do something and get in trouble.

Scott Benner 22:46
Yeah, wonder where their sense of exploration is? You know what I mean? Like, I mean, listen, not for nothing. But Lindsey, you've got a number of people in your family who have died from this thing. You've got six tumors on your pancreas? Like, what's the like, what are we hurt and trying something? You don't? I mean, that is

"Lindsay" 23:05
exactly how I feel. Yeah, exactly how I feel. My PCP is great, and wants to help me. But she admits that a lot of this is outside of her scope. She is a general practitioner. And this is complex, and not something that she learned. Her job is to send me to the other people that do. So

Scott Benner 23:26
the one person you're able to talk into kind of like paying attention to your bigger ideas and concerns is powerless, and the people who are powerful? How do they treat you when you bring it up?

"Lindsay" 23:37
So I actually have had an appointment with a world renowned endocrinologist at one of the top teaching and research hospitals in the US that specializes in one of my issues. He seemed very kind he was very, how are you today? What's been going on? I know it's difficult to get here. You've traveled far, what can I do for you? So I was very hopeful first walking in and talking to him because he did seem very concerned and like he really wanted to help. And as soon as I brought up anything that was outside of what the book says, what The Book says was, that's not helpful. That doesn't really work. He told me that he has patients with this disease that are doing perfectly fine running multimillion dollar companies. And so he's not sure why I'm struggling so much. It must be my diet and exercise or

Scott Benner 24:35
the diet and exercise answer is for everything. They'll say it about anything.

"Lindsay" 24:43
And you're gonna laugh at this one. So I also I had cancer on my adrenals as well. So I had my adrenals removed. So I'm adrenal insufficient. It's not adolescence, because it's not autoimmune. But it's basically the same acts are similar, right? Yeah. So I was asking him if He knew anybody that would do cortisol pump. And he told me that infusion pumping is a matter of choice. And it's just what you want. It doesn't actually help even for diabetics on insulin pumps, it doesn't give you better control.

Scott Benner 25:17
Wait, he said an insulin pump doesn't help you more than MDI. Yes, speaking about diabetes. Yes. And so I mean, can you inject cortisol? You can, but not as specifically, and particularly with measurement and stuff like that. Yeah,

"Lindsay" 25:33
in order to do that, you have to have a doctor order some specific tests, because your cortisol isn't a straight level like insulin. Yeah, there's a range that you want to keep it in. But cortisol peaks at certain times of the day, and then tapers off. And so trying to find that balance, you need somebody willing to do serial tests throughout the day in order to find the correct dosing. And he's just like, well, the average is between 15 and 25. So you go ahead, and the lower you're on the better, so reduce it until you don't feel well. And then when you don't feel well stay there. Or if you don't like this, or you don't feel this, then try this. And it's like, no, it's just up to me just to figure it out. Do

Scott Benner 26:19
you feel like his answer is, I don't know. Dexcom g7 offers an easier way to manage diabetes without finger sticks. It is a simple CGM system that delivers real time glucose numbers to your smartphone, your smartwatch. And it effortlessly allows you to see your glucose levels and where they're headed. My daughter is wearing a Dexcom g7 Right now, and I can't recommend it enough. Whether you have commercial insurance, Medicare coverage, or no CGM coverage at all Dexcom can help you go to my link dexcom.com/juice box and look for that button that says Get a free benefits check. That'll get you going with Dexcom. When you're there, check out the Dexcom clarity app where the follow Did you know that people can follow your Dexcom up to 10 people can follow you. Right now I'm following my daughter, but my wife is also following her. Her roommates at school are following her. So I guess Arden is being followed right now by five people who are concerned for her health and welfare. And you can do the same thing. School Nurses, your neighbor, people in your family, everyone can have access to that information if you want them to have it. Or if you're an adult, and you don't want anyone to know, you don't have to share with anybody. It's completely up to you. dexcom.com slashed use Box links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com. And when you use my link to learn about Dexcom you're supporting the podcast.

"Lindsay" 27:47
I honestly I don't know I left really upset. And I am not sure where it's coming from. But the thing that pisses me off the most is his name is all over the treatment recommendations that teachers medical art teach in medical school, I say that's what doctors are taught is the correct treatment is being as on them. So

Scott Benner 28:13
everybody's being taught with this with his lens. Yes, yeah. Now, in your job. You sent me a thoughtful note here about this. You said? Can I just I'm gonna say what you said. Okay, you were to remember it was Oh, dear. Okay. Health care behind the scenes working in a hospital. Health care workers are human like everyone else. They have different personalities and different ways of going about treating people as well as different experiences that affect their ability to treat. And I was like, Oh, I wonder if this person doesn't want to come on and talk about like the other side of this conversation. And then you said, in the end, it's a business. And they are just a single entity of a larger system. So as much as they want things to be a certain way the system is against them. So okay, so they're operating inside of a system, they don't have a lot of autonomy, the larger goal is to make money and keep the company open every day unnecessary exams are ordered. Now, do I think those doctors are ordering them to increase revenue? No. But the system is set to cover your ass and support unnecessary testing. So I hear this argument all the time in these episodes, and I find it fascinating because to me, it's parsing words, right? Doctors order these tests, and they're unnecessary. But it's not them trying to make money. It's the company they work for trying to make money, but they know what they're doing. They know they're ordering tests they don't want the answer to but that the protocol tells them to answer. So I mean, complicit is it. I mean, at the very least you're complicit I understand if you can't go against your employer, but it's not like they're like Mary Poppins and the employers the Big Bad Wolf and Mary Poppins doesn't know that the wolf seat and the pigs, you know what I'm saying? Exactly. Okay. All right. There's a difficult balance to be a good provider and not dissolve into despair. Discuss Dr. Death and nurse Colin and how the system they worked in didn't disclose or remove their license. They ignored and covered in order to save their hospitals from negative press, the biggest information that I want to share is that patients must be part of their own, be advocates basically be involved, be heard, you need to feel valued, and understand their medical needs to get the care they deserve. So let's talk about all this for a bit. Okay, let's start with unnecessary tests. What do you mean? What do you say?

"Lindsay" 30:38
So if you come in with a complaint that I have a cough, alright, so I work I work in a hospital setting right now. And if somebody comes into the ER, they walk in, I said, a cough, let's go chest pain, you walk in with chest pain, the triage nurse, in order to get through and get results as fast as possible to find out to make sure you're not having heart attack is going to put in a list of things that's, you know, that they need to run some bloodwork a chest X ray, you have chest pain, you're getting a chest X ray, because I'm not a nurse, I don't know all the things that they put in, but then you get put into a room. Now, the order for chest X ray is put in an F, sometimes it gets made ready for me to go take the chest X ray before the patient's even seen a doctor, okay, in order to try and expedite things and get some answers. However, if you're having a heart attack, the chest X ray isn't going to help very much. Yes, you can see the heart shadow, you can see the size of the heart, you have congestive heart failure, you might have some fluid around it or an enlarged heart. So it is useful. But I've seen multiple times that I go do a chest X ray, take the patient back, and in the notes later find out that the patient fell and hit their ribs. And it's not actually chest pain. It's actually their rib. And so they didn't need any of that blood work. And instead of a chest X ray, they actually needed a rib X ray. They didn't tell the triage nurse all of that because they were just trying to get the basic information. Yeah, in order to get triaged into a room.

Scott Benner 32:15
Okay. So sometimes the the pace of how it works ends up putting people through testing that they don't need if somebody could have triage them better. Yep. Okay.

"Lindsay" 32:24
There's also multiple times that a doctor will put in an order and we'll go check with them. And they're like, We have low suspicion, they fell, they said that their hip hurts now, or their butt hurts. Now, we all know it's not broken, because they're walking on it. But because they're in the ER, everything has to be thoroughly checked out and need out. And in order to 100% verify that they don't have a broken hip, they have to go get a hip X ray. So

Scott Benner 32:49
is that an unnecessary test? Or is it necessary based on society, the system that somebody's going to come back and see you later if you get it wrong? Like it's a little bit of it like that kind of cya. It

"Lindsay" 33:01
is the way to make sure that you are thorough, even though it's mostly, I mean, you could say it is necessary that it's due diligence. But I think that if doctors didn't have that protocol, there's a lot of times that they would skip that. And even if you go into your PCP, if you're complaining about something, and they're not really sure what it is, and they think it's because you're overweight, and you need to eat better, and exercise in order to get you to shut up. They'll just order some tests, just so they can say that they've done something, even though it's not a test that you need. It's just something so that they can say until you well, we looked, we did blood work and everything came back. So see, it must be because you need to diet and exercise.

Scott Benner 33:43
You think that there are some times when there are tests that are run, just that they can shut you up and tell you the thing they want to tell you. Yes. Interesting. And maybe this perspective that they have is what stops them from actually doing like, kind of extraordinary or things like like you're asking your doctor for it, because maybe they just have this experience so often, where the person comes and going, I know what I need, I know what I need. And they're just like a like, you know, you're in a Facebook group. And the Facebook group said that, like it's not real. I went to medical school, even though I went to medical school 35 years ago, and I don't see the need for that. And so, because I wonder if it wasn't for insurance, and it wasn't for people's propensity to sue each other. I wonder if doctors would be more in inclined to just go what you want to try. Yeah, fine. I don't care. Let's try. Absolutely, yeah.

"Lindsay" 34:34
If it wasn't if there wasn't the fear of malpractice and ambulance chasers, I think it would be a lot better. Yeah.

Scott Benner 34:42
People who listen No, I've been taking GLP for weight loss for like over a year now. And I had a real plateau on seven and a half milligrams of zinc bound. And it wasn't even just a plateau like my my weight was creeping up and then going back and it was just I was like, starting to vacillate between like in a fight. pound range, which had not happened the entire time I was on it. I go to a good doctor. I go, I tell her that and she goes, Oh, we'll move you up to 10. That was it just up to 10. Now I'm two pounds lighter. Three days after starting 10 milligrams, most people would get told something not helpful, not accurate. This doctor is saying, Look, I've watched people use this stuff all day long. I see more weight loss at 10 and 12 milligrams will move you to 10 and see what happens. You're tolerating the medication, fine, who cares? You know, it's another couple of milligrams right a week. And I get great results right away from talking to a person who's not afraid. And who is paying close attention to the thing that they're doctoring. They have, like, an intimate understanding of it in a modern sense. But that's not most people situation, like most people are so busy. Like they're part of the mill at this point. Like you don't think of doctors that way. Right? But it's a machine and now they're just a cog in the wheel. Exactly. Yeah. Right. And so they're just trying to do the thing and keep it moving. If you

"Lindsay" 36:04
go in and say, Well, I'm in this Facebook group, or I'm in the support group, or I read this on WebMD, or Dr. Google. I mean, every time you go to WebMD, it tells you, you're gonna die, right? So you come in with all of these expectations and ideas of what it could be. And you say that to the doctor, and I understand why they're getting taken aback and step back a little bit. And it's like, oh, yeah, cuz you read it on the internet, you know, better. And I fully admit that I have been wrong in my assumptions. When I have gone in, there was one of my surgeries I had, I hadn't had a period for like five years because of a pituitary tumor. And I had my adrenal removed. And in the hospital, I started my period. And I started freaking out and called the nurse and was like, I'm bleeding. I'm bleeding. And she just rolled her eyes and was like, Yeah, you started your period. Everyone does it. And I'm like, No, but I don't, I don't, I'm telling you, something's wrong. And it was it was just my period. But you

Scott Benner 37:10
had five years of experience this. It's not, it's not unreasonable for you to not think that was happening right then and there.

"Lindsay" 37:16
And being scared about complications of a surgery that was just pretty invasive. So I mean, I've made mistakes, too. And I've definitely, and so I get why they're on the defensive. I see people every day come in, because there has been hurting for three years. And today was the day they decided to come in and have it looked at instead of talking to their PCP, and things like that. And so I think that you had hit the nail on the head complacency, getting in the day and day groove gets overwhelming. Yeah,

Scott Benner 37:51
I would imagine I listen, I have a family friend who has been an ER nurse for seven years. And in the beginning, their travel nurse, they would actually go to places where there was like more crime because they were looking for like to learn more like gunshots and knife wounds and stuff like that, like really critical stuff. And now seven years later, I was talking to her the other day, and she's like, I gotta get out of nursing. I can't do it anymore. Like, that was like seven years. And she's like, cooked, you know. And so I take that, and I and I'm very respectful of it. And at the same time, it doesn't help you, or me or somebody else in the moment when I'm in the ER having a real problem. And I'm, and I'm faced with a nurses cook. And they're just like, I don't care. Like just follow the checkboxes. I gotta get out of here. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, I asked her, I was like, what happened? She goes, you don't see the people like people anymore. And I was like, she goes, you just you lose your empathy at some point. And she's not on purpose. You know what I mean? It's not like you give it up. It's just how much of it can you possibly take, so I have a ton of compassion for them. But you have such an interesting perspective. Because you work in the setting. You see the stuff happening, right? You see how the doctors are doing what they're supposed to do, or what they're told to do, and how it's not always valuable. But yet, you're on the other side as a patient, and you know what it's like to be ignored by one of those people. So it's interesting, because I don't know if you realize this, but in a half an hour, you are fairly successfully arguing both sides of the argument. I

"Lindsay" 39:24
absolutely know that and it is absolutely insane to me. How many times in a day in an eight hour shift. I judge a patient before I see them. You had started to ask me earlier how I got into this field. And it was because I was a patient. I had an MRI, and the tech was short, and I was 19. I was by myself. I was scared. I didn't know what to expect. The Tech was short and rude, and it made the whole situation worse. And then the next similar I had a couple of years later, the tech was kind took an extra three seconds to explain what was going to happen to me, told me everything is going to be okay. And it alleviated my fears. And it was so easy. And I decided, I'm going to be that person for other people. I see them on their worst day, I'm going to be the comforting word. I'm going to tell them. It's okay, we got you. And that's why I got into it. So the fact that I do still that I do it on a regular basis, will read a patient notes before I go get a patient judged the patient, like, oh, my gosh, why are they here for the seventh time in two months? You know, we have regular frequent fliers, and oh, that person again. And then I get down there and realize, oh, yeah, they are human. And they just want somebody to help. And I'm being the asshole that I hate. Yeah,

Scott Benner 40:56
that's something being a person is complicated. Right? Well, this is interesting lens, isn't it? I like this. I like this perspective. Because you're you're also by the way, and I mean, this not poorly. But you're also at a level in the hospital where I bet you're a little invisible to doctors, too. Yeah, yeah. So they'll be in front of you. And you get to say it. Yeah, I thought that, okay. So

"Lindsay" 41:21
one of the things in my know was, how difficult it is, and how you have to lose some of your humanity in order to continue to do this. And because you do see people in awful situations on a daily basis, and if you took all of that home with you, you would implode, you literally can't save everybody, you can't fix it for everyone. And so you have to compartmentalize things, you have to shut yourself off, I have been in a trauma room with somebody dying on the table. They had a LUCAS device, which is a CPR device, it's like, you know, electronic compression machine, with the patient coding. They're intubating. And the doctor and the nurses and myself are in a conversation about how the director just left and I wonder who's going to take their place it like completely, like not even thinking this is somebody's family member dying on this table right here.

Scott Benner 42:26
You're having a workplace water cooler conversation around this event. Cuz the the machines doing the compressions. You've done everyone's done everything they can do. And now we're just waiting to see what's going to happen. And you guys are basically like, did you guys see the they have turkey sandwiches today in the cafeteria? Yeah. Yeah. About that.

"Lindsay" 42:44
Yeah. So we're waiting for his start heart to start pumping by itself again, so that I can take my X ray and check the intubation tube. And the next sentence after Oh, so and so left, I wonder who's going to replace them as All right, well, we need to get the family in here and explain that he's not gonna make it through this. We can't keep bringing him back.

Scott Benner 43:03
And that person past? Yes, yeah. But your point is, and I think it's an obvious point, but worth repeating. You can absorb all that as a human being over and over and over again and not lose your mind. So you disconnect from it.

"Lindsay" 43:18
I do recognize that if somebody lost their dad and brother and husband that day. And that is sad. And I am sorry to them. But I mean, yeah, I am a little emotional about it right now. But in the moment, completely cut off on emotional. I'm not thinking about it, because I still had to go take X rays for another four hours. I still have to see other patients. Yes, they still herself.

Scott Benner 43:46
Yeah, yeah. No, you you can't go on carrying the weight of everyone's world on your shoulders. That would be That's insane. I don't think any reasonable person's asking a doctor to do that. But you can't disconnect yourself to the point where you're not doing your job anymore. You don't mean or you're not hearing people when they're saying the things. For example, you're saying in your doctor's appointment, that you're being told in response, like no, sorry? No. When I'm off having a different experience with a doctor who's listening to me, am I watching my life exponentially get better, because I have a good back and forth with it. By the way, this is not a doctor who would just blindly say yes to anything I've asked. I've asked questions before to and she'll look and go, I don't think you should do that. And I'll go okay, and then I won't do it, you know, like or like that. I can see that that might be helpful. And it wouldn't be harmful if you tried. So go ahead and try. Like everything's not going to work out. But the things that aren't going to hurt you if you want to try them, try them and you need a person there to help you understand what's the stuff that's worth a shot and what's the stuff that it's not worth the risk.

"Lindsay" 44:51
Yeah, yeah. So another example that I have so I without my adrenals I don't die once electrolytes. Well, I tried drinking electrolytes. But I was having trouble, I had a ton of fatigue. So there is a medical spa where I could pay $150 to get IV fluids. So I started doing that once a week for three months, and my life significantly changed my fatigue. I went from not being able to work 40 hours a week, to working 60 plus hours a week, not even 40 hours a week sitting at a desk to back in the hospital running around the hospital not sitting down for eight hours. And I couldn't have done that without IV fluids. It literally is sailing. Yeah, how it does that much? I don't know. But it did. I have tried to be like, Oh, it has to be a placebo effect. I'll just go a few weeks. But if I go more than two weeks, I am back on the couch. And well, I was paying out of pocket $150 a week. That's not sustainable for me. And I have insurance that I pay 1000s of dollars to get I meet my out of pocket deductible of $7,000 By February, every year.

Scott Benner 46:03
And for $600 a month. They do almost anything that the formulary covers. Yeah, like they would do all that but not the thing that you're actually finding valuable. So

"Lindsay" 46:13
well the leave uncovered that if I could just get a doctor to order it.

Scott Benner 46:16
Oh my god, seriously key? Yes. Okay, go ahead. So

"Lindsay" 46:19
I asked my PCP and she said, No, she wasn't comfortable about it. She didn't understand the benefits of it. And so she wasn't comfortable. And I said, but look, I am going to do this, whether you prescribe it or not, but by you prescribing that I will save some money. And she said No, it's my medical license. If you came in here and told me that doing cocaine made you feel better. I wouldn't give you cocaine. So you can expect me to do do whatever makes you feel better.

Scott Benner 46:49
Wait, she correlated cocaine and acetylene? Yes. Oh, what an order. A great word Smith. That one was

"Lindsay" 46:59
when I saw my oncologist. A couple months later, he went, Oh, that's gotta be expensive. And I went it is he goes, how about I order it for you? I said, Thank you. So I'm getting it covered by insurance now. But it took months.

Scott Benner 47:11
Did you ask him for cocaine too?

"Lindsay" 47:14
No, I didn't. I should next time. I know. He

Scott Benner 47:17
definitely would give it to you.

"Lindsay" 47:18
I'm not sure.

Scott Benner 47:20
I mean, based on your other doctor's

"Lindsay" 47:21
opinion, since he gave me saline, why wouldn't you give me?

Scott Benner 47:26
I swear to God, if someone said that to me, I would just I'd start banging my head on whatever hard surface I was closest to. And then I would say out loud, you're looking idiot. And then I would leave? Oh my god. So anybody can become a doctor. I think it's important to say that

"Lindsay" 47:46
these get degrees, right? These are

Scott Benner 47:48
you're gonna say these nuts. For some reason. I was like, where's this going? Did you go back and tell that doctor that you got another doctor to do it?

"Lindsay" 47:59
No, I'm sure she gets the notes. I haven't seen her again.

Scott Benner 48:03
Oh, I would I would call her on the phone and tell her. Yeah, I'd be like, Yeah, I found a compassionate person. And I'm taking the $600 a month and I'm putting it in the bank or buying food with it or whatever. Well, I mean, the way the world is right now getting a sandwich.

"Lindsay" 48:17
Yeah. Went to the grocery store once and got half a cart. Yeah, I think we

Scott Benner 48:21
live in a world where 20 $25 an hour is the new like minimum wage for what everything costs, you know? Yeah. Anyway, what are we not talking about that we should have so far? Do you have a from work story that if you told it that people listenings balls would shrink to the size of raisins and run back up inside their body? Are you more of a big picture? Yes.

"Lindsay" 48:45
So I mean, the whole reason that what I thought I was going to come on and talk about was, I mean, we've covered most of the points that this gives. But when I first got my license, I

Scott Benner 48:57
Lindsay masterfully because I'm an amazing host. And I've stepped us through this in a very entertaining way. I don't know if you've noticed or not. But oh, thank you. I'm just teasing. I just needed a second take a drink. That's all gonna be take a drink and then I want to hear this guide you you go down that road. Let me hear it.

"Lindsay" 49:16
Alright, so when I first got my license, I actually worked for a physician owned company that had different divisions and I worked for the radiology division. So I worked directly for the radiologists. It wasn't actually taking x rays. I was actually working behind the scenes doing scenes doing administrative work, making phone calls, connecting them to doctors making sure orders were correct and things like that. And this is kind of when I realized that medical is just another business. I got to know those radiologists very well. They know my medical history. I had amazing radiologists that sat outside the CT radiologist cave when you watch TV and use the hungriest Anatomy, the neurosurgeons sitting in the CT waiting for the patient images to come up. That's absolutely ridiculous. They don't walk in, they don't go in those rooms at all. It's a tech. So I actually had a radiologist know, I was getting an exam. And so she actually did Wait, not in the CT ring, but like at her desk right outside and sit down with me and go through the images, I got a very good relationship with several of these doctors. And because I knew them, so Well, I knew that they meant the best, they wanted to do the best for what they were doing, they are trying to diagnose and take care of things. However, they have a business to run and to make money. And the more money they make, the more they all get paid. And they do a lot of great things. They do a lot of charities, charities and stuff. But ultimately, that's what it boils down to. And they would run reports monthly, and wait the different exams, because you can read an x ray a whole lot faster than you can read a CT and body CT a lot faster than you can read a brain MRI. So they wait the average time it should take to read each of those studies, and then pull reports on how many each radiologist completed and tell them this is how many man hours you completed last month. And then they would take all of the people and they would average it and anybody that was below it would have pressure to work faster. Yeah, to go faster, you took more than 30 seconds to read an x ray, that's not good enough, you need to get pumped out more numbers. And there's this constant pressure on them to do more, get more complete more. Because if we're not completing all of the exams, then we're gonna have to hire another person on which is going to reduce the revenue that everybody else is making. Sure, if you want to do less work, and everybody wants to do less work than we can bring on 10 more employees 10 More radiologists split the work between them, you can work less hours, but you're also going to cut your paycheck in half, right? So there's this constant pressure and actual arguing between some of the radiologists that other person's not pulling their weight. Well, I read 359 hours worth of exams last month and you only build 250. So why are we making this thing? Right?

Scott Benner 52:19
Yeah, and keep up or they're gonna hire somebody else that is going to cut in all our money.

"Lindsay" 52:24
Yeah. So that brings it to things getting skipped things getting missed, because you're in a rush, because you've been staring at a screen for seven hours without a lunch break. Because, you know, and every those styles and personalities come into it. There's one radiologist that wants you to code down the image as small as you can to barely get the anatomy because anything extra they're now responsible for, and then other people that want you to get a full picture.

Scott Benner 52:53
And that's the difference between somebody who wants to do a good job and somebody who wants to keep their numbers up, right?

"Lindsay" 52:59
Yeah, I believe they all want to do a good job. But there's outside pressures pushing on them. And after years and years of the same, you've got to hurry up, you got to hurry up, you've got to get more the more we get done. Oh, now this hospital is bringing on another MRI, which means we're now going to have 27 More exams in a day that we have to read. So now you have to squish that in before we get another radiologists.

Scott Benner 53:28
So it's funny because I don't want to see people lose their jobs. Right. But is there not going to be a waiver, like aI kind of thing can read these images much better in the future than a person can? Or is there something about it that needs a human touch?

"Lindsay" 53:43
So there are actually some, especially with breast imaging, they do have some AI software that goes through and will like highlight areas of concern. There will always be a human person over looking at. But there is you know, there's that constant caveat of might miss it too. How long is it going to be before you start trusting that software more than your eye? Oh, because it didn't catch anything. Now you're not going to look at it with the same Yeah. attitude or it is in the works. Yeah,

Scott Benner 54:16
the thing you just described, like, I want to be clear, I don't have anything it's people making money. And doctors, you know, and they're making more than other people but I mean, God bless them. They went to college like you don't I mean, like they they're set up a business they're following the structure of how the world works. I don't have any problem with that. When you're knowingly telling people to go faster. And you know, that means do a poor job. You don't mean to do less quality work, then you have to say okay, well when we can't make as much money or we gotta hire better people are more people are that's a weird decision to make like in you know, we'll skip quality for quantity.

"Lindsay" 54:55
But you just because I played devil's advocate and like you said this whole Interview, I'm playing both sides. And they do have a quality department, they do do quality checks, they will randomly pull exams and have a second person look at them to make sure and if one person is starting to miss too many things, or if they do get a doctor to say, come back years later that something was missed, they do a quality review. And they do a root cause analysis. And so they do the things to catch the other side as well. Yeah. And so it's just they're trying to find a balance. And me as a patient, before going there, assumed that the doctor was taking as much time as they need to thoroughly go through my history and see exactly what they're looking for, and spend the hour or however long I thought it would take to look through my scan. And that's just not the case, they get a few snippets of details about while you're getting the scan, they can if there's something confusing, or if it's complicated, they can go back into your medical history and get more information. They do spend a lot of time consulting with doctors and back and forth. I'm not saying it's completely on an island. But it is not as much as I expected.

Scott Benner 56:15
Yeah, so here's where I'm going to say to you, Lindsay, that people are people, and it doesn't matter what walk of life we're judging them in, you're gonna get about a human job out of them. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm not judging anybody. But you know, there's in every possible thing that we could focus on, you're going to hear stories like this, that mean, part of the reason I started doing this, is because I wanted people to hear from doctors, from nurses from people in health care, whatever. I wanted them to hear like the truth, because people have that feeling that you started with, which is, there's like, there's special different people. And they're, it's just not true. They're not special and different. They're just people like everybody else. And they have shortcomings, and some of them are lazy, and some of them aren't. And some of them care more about money than people and some of them keep care more about people than money. And there's a mix of those people out in the world. And my point is, you don't know which one you're getting. But it's a disservice to you to always imagine that the one you're getting is the bestest one ever. And so you have to pay attention. That's where we end up saying to people, like you need to be your own best advocate. But that's also insulting. Because if I hire a plumber to change out my hot water heater, do I stare at him for six hours while he's doing it to be my own best advocate in case he doesn't sweat a pipe? Right? Like, no, right? Like, you know, watch

"Lindsay" 57:40
a YouTube video before he shows up so that you can make sure he does every step. Right.

Scott Benner 57:44
Right. Exactly. And right. But maybe that is what's happening in health. Yeah, is that people are coming in with their information. And some of its right and some of it's wrong. But ironically, some of its being ignored when it would be very valuable. by a doctor who hasn't heard about this, you know, hasn't, he's been out of school for 15 years. And now suddenly, as hard as it is to believe if you're a physician, there might be someone in a Facebook group who knows more about cortisol pumping than you do. For example, or you might be faced with a person who says, I listen, I listen to a podcast, and this guy told me I should Pre-Bolus like 15 minutes before a meal. And that might not be a thing that you would tell somebody to do. It doesn't make it wrong. And if you're not willing to dive deeper into that, to find out if the thing they're saying is actually right or not. That's where you're doing the disservice. Like I get saying what you heard on a podcast like, oh, boy, let's slow down. i Great. Like I get that if I was a doctor and someone came in and said, I heard on a podcast, I'd be like, Whoa, slow your roll. But I would just dismiss them. In less. I was so burned out that I couldn't. And are we just caught this loop. It's why I genuinely believe that you're going to see people have like personal AI assistants. And it might be for more than just health care, but for health care, and where eventually I think I think it's possible medicine turns into a thing where you go to a physician and you say, Look, I've been plugging in everything. It's been happening to me for the last two months. And my algorithm thinks this is what's going on. And then the doctor is going to be more of less of a physician. You know, a person who sits there and tries to help you figure out what's going on and more of a button pusher says okay, well what's the algorithm think we should do next? Let's try it. And then they'll they'll go over it and say, Okay, I see how it came to all this. But I think the truth is, is that you're going to be able to if you just stop on its face and think about what AI is. It's just like what's chat GPT right. It's a thing that basically has read everything that's available on the internet, and a doctor is up person who we sit in a room for eight years and try to push as much information into their head as we possibly can. Well, you can push more information into AI than you can into a person.

"Lindsay" 1:00:08
And things change, we learn about new things about the body,

Scott Benner 1:00:13
right? And doctors don't generally speaking, even those in like, in specific categories where they're like, I'm only going to pay attention to this, those people end up usually knowing more, because they're surrounded by it all the time. But once you start pulling back, like, you know, a PCP like me, what are you saying, like, they haven't been at school and 25 years, they don't know, they know what they know, they don't go home every day, and continue to read the Internet or continue to take in all the studies. Whereas you can just have this AI just continually keep training itself on new NIH articles and published data and, you know, all kinds of stuff that would actually help you make a better decision. I think you're gonna see healthcare get a lot better in the next 10 years.

"Lindsay" 1:00:56
I sure hope so. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:00:58
but here's gonna be the problem. There are a lot of people making a great living being doctors right now. And they're not going to want to see it happen. And I understand that. I genuinely do. I bet you the my guy who picked up the garbage got really pissed when the trash truck learned how to pick up the cam by himself.

"Lindsay" 1:01:14
My argument about that all the time when people say, Oh, technology is going to take jobs is, but somebody has to do the technology. There has to be somebody behind the scenes, making the algorithms, feeding the software, teaching it new things, still doing the research to add into it. It's just trading jobs. It's not taking jobs, and

Scott Benner 1:01:35
I'll give you a Yeah, but yeah, yeah. But it's like when they told coal miners, don't worry, we'll retrain you for tech jobs, you really think you're gonna take a 55 year old coal miner and teach them how to write Python? That's true. Yeah, that's not gonna happen. You have to recognize that we're not. If we're not in forward motion, then we're here forever. Yeah. And so it's a personal thing, you have to say, Oh, I'm going to become obsolete inside of my adult like money making lifetime, that's going to be tough. That's going to be bad. But instead of worrying about it, I say, I don't know, listen, it's easy to say like, we're moving towards Star Trek, like, don't just want to get up in the morning and put on your foil suit and do whatever you want to do.

"Lindsay" 1:02:13
Have them come scan you with a wand and tell you exactly what's wrong with you

Scott Benner 1:02:17
not want a magic wand. Is that what you're against? No, no. But you know what I mean? Like, like if these things in the short term are taking jobs from people think that's obviously going to happen. Yeah. But that's where you'll start getting involved in the idea of like, both things just happen, you know, maybe people won't need jobs. And listen, we could go down another road and say, Oh, then people are going to become lazy and not do anything. And but there's going to be a lot of growing pain around this. And it's going to go on for 150 years. Yeah, that's true. But in this moment, you are not going to stop the progress that this is. No and and so I think you're watching doctors as an example, just like in a lot of other jobs, you are watching people become obsolete, for good reasons. Because people can't do as good of a job as this thing's going to be able to do at some point. And, you know, that causes a lot of concern. I understand. I would also like a beach house. I don't have one, but I can see where it would be nice. It would be nice. But the point is, is that like you're not stopping this train. There

"Lindsay" 1:03:23
are people out there that are progressiveness, and I just need to find them. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:03:29
Well, that's that's always the tough part. Like me, even finding the doctor that helps me like it was not easy to do. And by the way, she doesn't take new patients. Of course not right, because she's a she's a cache doctor. And then I mean, we turn into our and it's, we're actually very lucky, I pay her cash, and then we get reimbursed like 90% or something like that. So it's not a problem for us financially. Just have to have a little money in the beginning to get, you know, to pay her until it comes back. But the problem is, is like I almost had to like crowbar myself into her practice. And once you get a good doctor like that, and they fill up with enough people, they're not out there in that mad scramble that you were talking about. Because this is a lady who's not trying to become wealthy. She's trying to help you just trying to help the people. She's helping. Yeah. And she's very comfortable and happy doing it. And so she does it. You know, lovely woman, like, I mean, I've seen her home, she's not living in ostentatious lifestyle. She's just helping, she's doing a really good job helping the people she helps. And so I think you're gonna see more of that you're gonna see more of these cash doctors split off. But then the problem becomes is that you're better doctors are going to do that. And then it's going to leave the system full of people who aren't capable of doing that because nobody be interested in paying them. And then, you know, then that maybe is where in the short term you see things get a little worse. Anyway, this has been horrible. Like every one of these episodes makes me feel horrible, right?

"Lindsay" 1:04:52
So I wouldn't mind growing up I had the respect your elders and you know a lot Just respect for other people, I had high expectations, I was the top of everything that I did. And I had the expectation that everybody else was like that. When you walk into the doctor's office, the doctor knows everything about your health, because they went to school for 13 years. They know. I mean, it's so much. So I had this expectation that I thought if I walked into the Home Depot, and said, I need this tool, that any person in that building would be able to walk me straight over to that tool, show me how to use it, tell me exactly everything I needed, because they worked in Home Depot, so they must know every single thing.

Scott Benner 1:05:36
You grew up, sheltered deer. Yeah, very much

"Lindsay" 1:05:41
so. And becoming an adult and realizing that that is not life was a little earth shattering. But also, for people that don't have a lot of medical issues. And they go to their PCP once a year for their annual checkup and say that, yep, you're good. That might still be the case, they might still feel like when they walk into the dark, the doctor's office, their doctor knows everything. Every four years, they get a cold, or a flu, and they go in and they get some antibiotics, and they're better and their doctor fixed everything like that still their life, they still have the expectation that their doctor knows everything. Anybody that has a rare disease, that actually has to go to doctors on a regular basis, starts to realize that they are just human, just like everybody else. And that this is just a job. They only have the knowledge of the experiences that they've experienced. And that's when you have to learn to advocate for yourself to learn to fight and learn the information on your own to take back right and

Scott Benner 1:06:39
plenty people go to the home store and just need a screwdriver. And the whoever they bumped into knows where the screwdrivers are. And they all leave saying, Oh, I had an amazing experience. I'm going to end on this. But this is the thing I've learned one of the things I've learned making the podcast, if you ask people about their health, how's your agency? Oh, it's it's seven and a half. I felt okay. Not bad. Also could come down, right? And you talk for a little while longer. They don't quite understand how their insulin works. They've got some shortcomings and their management ideas, blah, blah, blah. And then you ask them about their doctor. How's your doctor? Oh, I love it's great. Oh, she's fantastic. I just part of my family, like a URI one. C 7.9. You love your doctor. That would be like saying, I went got my tires changed and they put on I don't know, almost all the lug nuts when they put my tires back. And when I said how did you like your tire experience? And oh my god, amazing. Great guy. Why? Because he chatted you up while you were there. Because they had the magazine you liked in the in the waiting room? Like why? Why do you like a person who's not doing a good job for you? Well, they're great. I'm like, okay, they're great. The job they're doing subpar. But that's not how people see people over and over again. I see people do that. They say my doctors fantastic. And no, I drill down with them their cares, not good. Yeah. And I'm like, I don't understand why you told me your doctor was fantastic. They don't know any better. Yeah, they will. And then you know, and then like you said, then people who are not really sick or don't need like, care that that's ongoing. If you ask them how their doctors are gonna say they're fantastic. This is what happens. It's why you can't trust people's reviews of things. It's why people have different experiences when they get there. I just want to end on this because I always want to say this at the end of these episodes. No matter what you heard here today, you fall you break your arm, you have a pain in your chest, go to the goddamn emergency room, there are plenty of things that hospitals are fantastic at and you want to take advantage of those things. Don't become anti doctor, just pay attention and learn more so that you can be you can be more aware of what's happening to you. That's all I'm saying. And

"Lindsay" 1:08:42
take a family member with you. Especially if you're older. Have a second person in the room to listen because if you aren't feeling well, or you get bad news, you're you're shut off and you don't listen. Yeah, anytime you're able have a second person I

Scott Benner 1:08:57
agree. 100% All right. Well, Lindsey, if that is your name, which it isn't. Thank you very much for doing this. I really do appreciate it. And I want to wish you good luck with your with your medical issues.

"Lindsay" 1:09:08
Thank you very much. I want to thank you for everything you've you've done with this podcast. I've been going back and listening to episodes in the hundreds and every single episode I thoroughly enjoy. So thank you for all of the time that you put into this. You really are changing people's lives.

Scott Benner 1:09:26
You made my day. Thank you. That's very nice of you. Hold on one second. Okay.

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 forward slash juicebox you spell that GVOKEGLUC AG o n.com. Forward slash juicebox 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/juicebox Today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom G seven, which now integrates with a tandem T slim x two system. Learn more and get started today at dexcom.com/juice box. If you're living with type one diabetes, the afterdark collection from the Juicebox Podcast is the only place to hear the stories that no one else talks about. From drugs to depression, self harm, trauma, addiction, and so much more. Go to juicebox podcast.com up in the menu and click on afterdark. There you'll see a full list of all of the after dark episodes. I just want to remind you one last time what a big deal would be if you went to T one d exchange.org/juicebox and completed the survey. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back 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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#1214 Queen of Pointless Stories

Johnna has type 1 diabetes.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, welcome to episode 1214 of the Juicebox Podcast

today I'm going to be speaking with Gianna she's got like four kids, she made them all in like a very short amount of time. She has type one diabetes, and I don't know what to tell you this episodes about, but I did really like jhana 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. 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/juicebox Want to help Of course you do T one D exchange.org/juicebox complete the survey. That's all I need from you. That's all the T one D exchange needs from you but they might give you a little bit more back than that. You're gonna have to go find out T one D exchange.org/juice. Box complete the survey. You need to be a US resident who has type one or is the caregiver of someone with type one. If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the Juicebox Podcast private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes

Alright, I'm gonna have to pull back the fourth wall for a second on these ads. It's coming to my attention online that a lot of you think I don't know how to say FOMO and in the Omni pod ads I'm mispronouncing it. It's the fear of missing out on Omni pod. More O's mu right. So you don't go fo mu that sounds weird because it sounds like fo F a UX mu so you go full mu. I mean really like Don't come at me in the messages. Okay. This this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Omni pod Do you have FOMO fear of missing out on Omni pod? Well, you don't have to go to my link. Omni pod.com/juicebox Get rid of that. FOMO so many emails and messages. Scott, I just want to let you know I think you're you're mispronouncing FOMO. 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. Hello,

Johnna 2:37
my name is Jana sullair. I live in Chicago. I'm 42 years old and I have four kids and I'm a type one diabetic.

Scott Benner 2:44
Gianna, do you know that while your setup for audio was not the longest it's ever been for me with people? It was the most amusing. I'm very happy to hear that. Thank you. I really appreciate it like those little latter part. Those, what would you call this? They're not kerfuffles? Are they? No, no, those moments are more frequent than you would think. If you're listening to the podcast, and people get on and they're just like, I don't know how the machine works. Like like that happens sometimes. And sometimes it goes on forever and ever. But yours was different. Most people's go almost exactly the same. This was a first for me. So thank you very much.

Johnna 3:22
You know, the last time somebody they didn't thank me, but I had to say you're welcome that I remember was when, after my the birth of my first the resident was like, well, now I'm all wet and I have to change my scrubs, which I've wanted to do a couple hours ago. So thank you.

Scott Benner 3:42
It's not really a compliment and you didn't really help. Exactly. I just sorted that's pretty nice. Oh my God, what did you do that poor person?

Unknown Speaker 3:52
I was in a certain position.

Scott Benner 3:54
The wrong one apparently. My gosh. Well, he learned something too. Okay, so you have type one diabetes for how long? I

Johnna 4:02
am at what is this? 20 2311 years now? Wow.

Scott Benner 4:07
23 years? 11 years for you. So what do you do your math

Johnna 4:11
on this one?

Unknown Speaker 4:11
I got 32 Yeah,

Johnna 4:14
so I was diagnosed right before I turned 31. Okay, gotcha. The year I turned 31.

Scott Benner 4:20
Is there any diabetes in your family? There

Johnna 4:23
is not an actually in front of me. I got this out yesterday because I knew you would ask that. I'm adopted. Oh, and so I have very little background for my family. But I have these papers because it was a private adoption, closed adoption. And I have these papers from 1981 that talk about the medical background of my birth parents and the only thing on here it has for my birth father asthma. I believe in his father. It has for my mother epilepsy on her with her sister. Yeah,

Scott Benner 4:58
useless. Those things are once your pinkie. They come up to a person is giving their baby away and like, is there any medical trouble in your family and like the guy was probably like my grandpop don't breathe good. And you know, like,

Johnna 5:13
the hands like died of heart attack died of stroke. But yeah,

Scott Benner 5:18
what does that mean? Did they smoke all the time? Well, and

Johnna 5:21
here's the one that got me on my dad's side, it says mental retardation, rather than special ed classes for reversal problems. He sees things backwards. And I was like, wow, they call dyslexia mental retardation in 1981,

Scott Benner 5:36
and 81. And you see things backwards. Yep.

Johnna 5:40
which I would consider to be dyslexia, which, you know, now is so common. That's gotta

Scott Benner 5:44
be what that meant, right? Yeah. I don't know. I show him an eight. He sees an eight. Where do you know what state you were adopted out of? I

Johnna 5:55
don't want to make fun of people. Sorry. No, that's okay. In Illinois.

Unknown Speaker 5:58
Oh, is that a place where people don't know things?

Johnna 6:03
Depending on what zip code you're and I would say yes. And maybe even block

Speaker 1 6:07
the AES though. I guess you're right. Like Dick's dyslexia, get a designation. Dyslexia

Johnna 6:14
did not become big until I would say mid to late 90s. And then it kept growing. Yeah, cuz I was, I went to I, my undergrad, I did teaching and I started learning more about dyslexia. And like I didn't even learned until after. So it was in the 2000s. I learned there's like, at least three different types, if not more,

Scott Benner 6:37
I have to tell you that you just said that dyslexia didn't become big until is maybe the funniest thing anyone's gonna say to me today. You were like, do you remember when Van Halen really took off? Was that eruption solo, by the way my googling of dyslexia when it began only returned. A Omari isn't enthusiastic is enthusiastic about vegan cooking, and wants to dispel myths about the meat free food is bland and boring. The hell that has Oh, he's a young dyslexic vegan chef, someone, someone with no conscience named this blog post young dyslexic vegan chef in a vain attempt to get clicks and I'm insulted by it. That's all well, kids got a lot of juice on the internet. Good for you. Oh Mari she's He's everywhere. Somebody here back like this kids, like incredibly famous. I'm the only one that doesn't know who he is. Anyway. So you're you have no family background to speak of as far as what could be or what can be that make you ensure you have 1000 kids? So did that make you interested in like doing, like trial and error testing for them?

Johnna 7:51
No, it did not. But I don't know if I would want to do because I've been thinking about that. Because I'm already like, oh my gosh, you peed a couple times more than usual. Yeah. Is this going to continue? You know, I guess if we got negative results, I would be very excited. But if we had more factors, I would be like just waiting even more for the shoe to drop. I think today's

Scott Benner 8:17
podcast is sponsored by the ever since CGM. Boasting a six month sensor. The ever sent 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. Do you sleep with a bat next to your bed? Is your husband a Viking? How'd you have four kids what's going on? Catholic God Gotcha. What happened?

Johnna 9:42
I wanted a big family and I set out to meet that goal and met it will get you

Scott Benner 9:49
good just setting goals and breaking right through them. It's like the one goal in life that you would think that by the second time you start going yeah, it was I think

Johnna 10:01
My oldest was not old enough for me to own while neither of the two oldest were old enough for me to rethink that.

Scott Benner 10:07
Would you do them in two packages? Are they like kids and kids?

Johnna 10:10
They're just all about two years apart.

Unknown Speaker 10:12
Oh, wow. You're on a schedule. Yeah, yeah.

Scott Benner 10:16
Are you done now? Or is your husband set to have sex again? And nine months? What's going on?

Johnna 10:19
No, I plan to be done. He actually brought up vasectomy. So we'll see if he follows through on that and reaches that goal. But

Scott Benner 10:28
I bet you thought about that. While he was very tired at work one day.

Johnna 10:32
You know, like, oh, yeah, right. He sleeps through the night like nothing. You know, at three I was like, Yeah, you know, what's, what's one more guys, you know? And now that I have four, I'm like, you know, if we have a fifth, we have a fifth. Really? Hopefully we don't. Wow, I will actually work to not have a fifth.

Scott Benner 10:48
Just man you married. Is he super handsome or something? What's going on?

Johnna 10:52
We do make beautiful babies for you. Okay. gratulations.

Scott Benner 10:55
It's nice. I'd be sleeping with a bat next to my bed. If I was you. I'd feel the blankets move. And I'd be like, no, no, no, no, it's not happening.

Johnna 11:03
I'm hoping that with the more kids I have at least one that will take care of me as I get older. Oh,

Scott Benner 11:08
that's a valid plan, too. You think one of them could make a couple of bucks. And then you see that one being smart. And that's where you really lay the Mommy loves you thing. I got you. Daddy didn't want you I fought for you.

Unknown Speaker 11:24
Oh my god, that seems like so many kids to me.

Johnna 11:28
It's a lot of kids. It really is. When I had my third, I was consistently worried that I was going to leave one somewhere. Yeah, I can't imagine not. And at this point, I just don't care.

Scott Benner 11:38
I'm gonna say a thing. That's not anybody's business. But I grew up around a lot of baseball and softball, as a parent, right. So I know it's a weird thing to say I grew up around, but I became a parent. And my kids, my son played baseball since he was honestly just before it was four years old. And then, Artem began to play softball when she was five. So I've been around, like meeting families that you wouldn't otherwise meet, you know, for a long time. Some of them are just incredibly lovely. And honestly, most of them are except for a couple of the monsters and these lunatics that think their kids are going to play for the Yankees like other than that, like everybody's been really cool. This one lady who is as sweet as could possibly be, had four children. The youngest one, whose name I wish him the best nickname in the world that I can't share with you because it'll literally say Who exactly he is if somebody's listening, but he was the youngest. And I can remember being at like baseball fields, I don't mean once or twice, where someone says, Hey, where's blank? And she'd go? I don't? Did I bring him she wasn't joking. She wasn't certain if the child was in her physical presence at the baseball field or at home. This kid must have we thought he was feral. Like the way he just kind of moved around, you know, but if I'm being honest, I think he's the most solid of their four kids. And I don't know what that says about them. Exactly. But um, but this they never knew where he was. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, I've watched them look for him for 30 minutes, only to figure out that he was in another location with a different person. So that I don't think is an unfounded fear for you. I think that just it becomes a numbers game at some point. But what about the money and feeding them and putting clothes on them? Did you just wrap them in like brown paper bags? Or,

Johnna 13:31
you know, that's a good idea. No,

Scott Benner 13:35
you're actually buying them clothing. All right, well, you listen, you're independently wealthy. I didn't understand who I was talking to. But okay, I gotta go.

Johnna 13:42
Yeah, I wish and Well, the thing that works out is the oldest two are boy and girl so the younger two can just live in all the clothes they have. No so it's like we only have two kids you know? It's just the the food thing

Scott Benner 13:56
to kids that you care about and to kids that you just wrapping swaddles whatever they I got you, you know, hey, I want to just say to strong possibility that we call this episode young dyslexic vegan chef.

Speaker 2 14:12
Because I could use the clicker. It has the most clicks. I can use the clicks

Scott Benner 14:16
to Alright, anyway, can you imagine if that guy got back to me? And he was like, Hey, man, that's my thing, not yours. Get away from it. Alright. Okay, so you're you've but you were diagnosed as an how many kids did you have when you were diagnosed?

Johnna 14:29
Euro

Scott Benner 14:30
Wait a minute. You've had four children and 11 years? No,

Johnna 14:33
I had four children in six years.

Unknown Speaker 14:36
Six years. Oh my God. Are you okay?

Johnna 14:40
I don't know.

Speaker 1 14:42
You got arrested? Jesus. God didn't cry at the end. We did it. But you said the the the OB had to change. No, no. Wait, didn't you get the OB all wet when you gave birth? Oh, that

Johnna 15:00
was the first Resident so I go to a teaching hospital so it's completely different doctors every time I deliver, okay,

Scott Benner 15:05
I was just making a joke about Gotcha. The OB had to change

Johnna 15:09
like somebody else had to see me in general. change their clothes on

Scott Benner 15:14
the you ruin that joke that was set up. I know it was so good. You have no idea like it made. It made squeamish people upset but they're still like, I get what he's saying. And everyone else is cracking up and then you mess it up at the end. Okay, it's on your phone. Don't worry. We'll get past try not to do it again. We're gonna get past it. We're just gonna let it go. Oh, by the way, before we move on, let's tell people the problem when you were setting up the app is you needed to swipe one way and you were swiping the other way.

Johnna 15:42
Yes, swiping left and right is not my thing. I do not swipe. I'm

Scott Benner 15:45
like it says swipe, swipe left. Like that doesn't work. It doesn't work. But you were moving the thing. Oh my god. Anyway, let's not get over that onto that. But sometimes people move their finger one way. Think about them. Anyway. It's not important. All right. So your what's your oh my god, I've

Johnna 16:01
never been diagnosed as dyslexic so well, not yet.

Scott Benner 16:03
Oh, my God even put that together. Where am I on this? I'm giving you crap for not following it. I'm not following. It was all set up for me and I let it go. Okay, wow. So you were diagnosed with type one diabetes at 31 years old? How did it come on? Let's talk about the first couple of years. And then I want to hear about making all these babies with diabetes. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Omni pod five. And this is for all of you who wrote to me. I'm just gonna say pho mood this time instead of foo, although I like FOMO. But whatever. A lot of people in my private Facebook group, talk about their love for Omni pod five. Have you ever seen those posts and thought, Oh, I wish I could have that experience with an insulin pump too. If you answered yes, you might be experiencing FOMO fear of missing out on Omni pod symptoms may include but are not limited to dreaming about walking past the doorknob without getting your tubing caught. fantasizing about jumping into a swimming pool without disconnecting from your insulin pump first, and wishing you could wear outfits without pockets. There's good news. You don't have to suffer from FOMO. any longer. You can see what you're missing by trying Omni pod fi for yourself. Just visit Omni pod.com/juice box to get started. Is everyone happy now?

Johnna 17:29
Oh my gosh. So this is the other thing. I was like, let me be on this podcast because I haven't heard the story. But then I fully realized I am late. I'm one to come to realizations later on. So I started listening to your podcast maybe a year ago. And I was like, Oh, he's got a lot. I haven't. And then more recently, I was like, I haven't heard any diagnostic stories like mine. Okay, let me you know, get on this. And then I'm like, wait, he's got like, over 1000 podcasts. Now. I

Scott Benner 17:59
may not have just heard that. Well, listen, I'm gonna tell you somebody said something to me yesterday, I had never heard before. And in 1100 G's probably 1200 times recording the podcast. No one's ever swiped the wrong way. And were absolutely sure that they weren't. So you know, new stuff happens all the time. Don't worry about so what's your story? Tell me.

Johnna 18:19
Okay. So I was in my doctorate level program, doing some not fellowship work, but something like fellowship work. We were doing stuff over the summer, we were preparing to do or maybe we were doing it, I think we were already doing it. I don't remember the line of events. I just specifically remember. It was the year my best friend and I, at the time in graduate school had created this preschool program. And so we were running that. And we had to get different clothes, or we didn't have to get different clothes. We just decided like, let's make ourselves wear this like uniform, which was yoga pants and a T shirt. You know, working with three year olds. So we did that. And I don't know if it was right before, right after. But I was an I had lots of dogs at the time. So no kids, lots of dogs. And I would take them for walks. And I'd be like, I'm so out of breath. And even we I would walk across the street to this like dog park lat thing. Just just an empty lot, not a true dog park and let them run around and just walking across the street. I was like, I'm so out of breath, what's going on? And then I started being thirsty and going the bathroom a lot. Nothing registered. Nothing clicked for me. And this was going on for a few weeks. I'm like, let me try drinking some different things. Let me try. I don't know why. But I remember eating licorice. Like red. Twizzlers? Yeah. I don't know why, you know, and looking back and like, Oh, I was drinking orange juice and Twizzlers that really helped. So I'm drinking water going in the bathroom like two The point where I'm like, Oh my gosh, I'm gonna pee my pants I did once. And then a couple times, I was like, I think I'm going to pass out. Well, before that I was also teaching online. So during graduate coursework, so I had to look at the screen and grade papers and things like that. And then one night, I was looking at the TV screen. And I'm like, the TV screen looks a little blurry. And then the next day, I get online to do my course. And I can't read it at all. And like, it's the I'm like, I cannot read, I have to go to the eye doctor, we have like this. Like, I thought I problems were gradual. I don't have any glasses, no context, no vision problems. In 30 years. I'm like, here it is. So I go to a LensCrafters.

Speaker 2 20:45
I don't know why it made me laugh. So I know, right?

Johnna 20:49
Like, go to a LensCrafters. The doctor walks in and examines my eyes. And he's like, here's your prescription. I also remember afterwards, reading all the things on the wall. One of them in particular was about how diabetes affects the eyes, he gives me a prescription for glasses. I go home with them. The next day, I don't need the glasses. My vision is back to normal. And

Scott Benner 21:14
yeah, you're like, oh, this are those self healing glasses. They're fantastic. So

Johnna 21:19
my vision keeps changing. And really soon after. I'm to the point where I'm like, I'm going to pass out. And my husband's like, I'm taking you to the hospital. I don't think you look great. And at the time, we were not married. We did not live together. But he lived in the same building. I did. And I'm just like, okay, so we go to the ER at, it's like, late at night. But we're in Chicago. And at the time, I didn't have health insurance. So I go to Cook County, sitting in the emergency room for hours. I think it's like five hours, and probably like one or two in the morning. Well, you couldn't

Scott Benner 21:59
see the clock. How do you know how long it was? Yeah,

Johnna 22:01
exactly. So I don't know if it was before they sent me to the waiting room, or I had to wait this long to, but I get to like the lady where she was like getting my info and stuff. And she pricks my finger. And as I was thinking about this to tell you, I don't know, if she was telling me like diagnosing me you're diabetic? Or asking, like, asking, like how long you've been diabetic, right? And so I think my blood sugar was somewhere around 800 G's. So that's, you know, I learned in the emergency room, and they're like, we're gonna put you in a bay and get your blood sugar down. And then you can come back and meet with the diabetes team. On what you know, next week, whenever it's

Scott Benner 22:49
fascinating when we went to the little kiosk at the emergency room where we took art, and I remember that we created that confusion unknowingly by saying, Our daughter has diabetes. And what we meant to say, Well, what we meant to say was we just figured out that our daughter has diabetes, and we're bringing her here. And there was like this moment of like, pause I remember pause and confusion, while the person behind the things like do it like that. So what about diabetes? And we were like, oh, no, wait a minute. You know, and then like we just figured out I have a couple of questions. The first one I don't want to sound disrespectful, but it's probably going to be

Johnna 23:24
that's okay, I'm not easily offended. We'll find out.

Scott Benner 23:28
What the hell did that story have to do with you wearing yoga pants?

Johnna 23:31
Oh, because I had lost like, over 20 pounds. And so the size of yoga pants was drastically different than what I like would have gone to buy like if I would have said hey, go get me like this size yoga pants. That's not what I needed. I needed like two sizes smaller. And it didn't dawn on me I'd lost all this

Scott Benner 23:52
weight. Did I not hear you say that? Are you setting up to say that and then never said it? I don't think I ever said it. Yeah, I was like baffled. So I literally just like the yoga pants have to be key important to this episode. By the way keep when I say key important. I'm making fun of Paula Abdul on the first season of American Idol. Anybody old enough to know that? Enjoy your laugh right now. But I thought this must be incredibly important. Like she's telling you like exactly what she was wearing. And then it never came back up again. I was like, it was upset. But my other thing is I think you're the first adult who's admitted to paying themselves before diagnosis. Yeah, so you were right. You wouldn't do anything new. Well, but not then you hadn't even had four kids by then. Don't try to like I saw it you just did there don't try to blame that.

Johnna 24:43
No, I'm like at this point. You know anything goes for me. Yeah,

Scott Benner 24:47
also, I might just call this episode busy decade so serious and

Johnna 24:52
awful. Like the first five years of my 30s my early 30s were like the worst in my life. Because

Scott Benner 24:57
of this diabetes diagnosis or other First, it

Johnna 25:00
started with that. And then I lost both my parents.

Scott Benner 25:03
Oh my god way to bring down podcasts. Okay, how did that happen? How do you lose both your parents in a short amount of time.

Johnna 25:09
So my dad had heart problems in general, he died of a heart attack unexpectedly, but expectedly like, we expected him to have a heart attack at some point, just not as when he did. And then three months later, my mom died of a heart attack. And they actually called it a broken heart. Because she literally had the syndrome where her heart gives out because she misses her husband.

Unknown Speaker 25:31
How old was she?

Johnna 25:32
She was born in 53 and died in 20s 60 370-393-2000 360

Speaker 1 25:37
something right? Yeah, I want to say something right now. This

Johnna 25:45
is 64.

Scott Benner 25:47
I know. We're only one generation removed from your parents. I better not die in my 60s. I better not. So, God, I'll be pissed. Like, I just I've been through so much. And I have fought so freakin hard. And I'm almost there. And I swear to God, oh, if I die in my 60s, I'm going to be I'm going to be so I hope if I die in my 60s, it happens so fast that I don't have a moment to go. You have to be kidding me. Like I just Oh, please, please, either let me live longer or a bus that I don't see one of the other. Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I was also confused by the statement. We knew my dad was going to have a heart attack. Isn't that something we could have gotten ahead of? If we knew was happening?

Johnna 26:33
No. Like we tried. He it was just whatever the issues were with his heart. Like he was it. I don't know if he actually got diagnosed with congestive heart failure. But his heart was going to give out and there wasn't anything they could do. Like with his age and everything else. He was in Vietnam. Oh, oh, he smoked for so long. I don't think he would have ever made it to a donor list if that was even possible.

Scott Benner 27:00
Was he ever near the spring in Vietnam? I don't know. Do you ever talk to these people? Your parents?

Johnna 27:07
I don't know. My dad would not talk about anything related to Vietnam.

Unknown Speaker 27:12
Oh, no. Okay. Yeah.

Johnna 27:14
But I will tell you he he definitely had plenty of monologues, in his drunkenness as I grew up. So I did get a lot of information from him. Just not about his time in Vietnam. PTSD.

Scott Benner 27:27
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm sure the drinking was prevalent.

Johnna 27:31
Yeah, at least maybe maybe just trauma. I don't know if actual PTSD, possibly I don't diagnosis. So don't know all the criteria. The VA

Scott Benner 27:39
recognizes ischemic heart disease as being associated with exposure to Agent Orange.

Unknown Speaker 27:45
So yeah, maybe

Scott Benner 27:48
isn't crazy. Oh, my gosh. But your mom did she? How long were they together? They

Johnna 27:53
had celebrated their 25th anniversary. So they were married in 74. I think they got together maybe a couple years before that. So 7080 92,000. So 30 years? Yeah. I

Scott Benner 28:05
mean, I was born in 71. Well, I was Yeah.

Johnna 28:09
They had to be 30 years because my brother and I were both in our 30s is your brother 40 years? Yes. Yes, he is. His story is crazy. I'll try to make this short because I extend stories longer than I need to

Scott Benner 28:20
know. Just make sure you tell me what he was wearing. And then never tell me why it's important that I

Johnna 28:26
can do that. Although now he's got this trench coat. I think he finally got rid of it. Maybe your

Scott Benner 28:31
brother's a flasher? No,

Johnna 28:35
maybe, but you won't tell us about it. He so my aunt and uncle lived three hours away. My uncle worked as a manager at a grocery store. And one of the baggers said his girlfriend was pregnant. They didn't want to raise the kid because they didn't think they could give it a good life. And my uncle as the manager was like, I actually know people who are looking to adapt, and they worked it out. And that's how my parents got my brother.

Scott Benner 29:02
Well, ironically, if the Bagger would have bagged it, he wouldn't have gotten somebody pregnant. Thank you. I'm on a bad job roll today. Everyone enjoy it. By the way, when you told me that the grocery store was three hours away, I thought this better be pertinent to the conversation. And it wasn't no, no. Have you ever heard me tell the story about my uncle telling stories?

Johnna 29:31
No, do I want to he would ruin as bad as my telling stories. I don't want to

Scott Benner 29:35
know he would ruminate for minutes. But so first of all he could he owned a business. So he would capture us he's dead now. So I can do this without problems. He would capture us like during our break times. You couldn't do anything. He was the boss you know what I mean? So everybody was like Oh, here he comes. Hi. He you know when everybody's really like, please leave me the up. That's my 15 minutes like leave me alone. But he'd come over and hold court wasn't as good at it as he thought he was and would go into like telling a story about going for a ride. And the point of the story was where they ended up, but somehow would spend so much time on the ride and get caught up in what year the truck was that they were driving in. He couldn't quite remember he might go back and forth, he get to the end, and it had nothing to do with the truck. It had nothing to do with what year the truck was. And the voice in my head was sit there going, Oh my god. Why did we just spend 10 minutes on what year that truck was? I want to know, and there was never a reason and you're making me feel that way.

Johnna 30:37
I'm terribly sorry. Do

Scott Benner 30:39
this all the time? Or is this just since you gave away so much of your body to developing for human beings inside of it?

Johnna 30:45
No, I was labeled the queen of pointless stories in high school. Oh, and Queen.

Scott Benner 30:54
Pointless stories is definitely the title of your episode. Congratulations. Let's keep going.

Unknown Speaker 31:02
So this is an affliction you have

Speaker 1 31:05
currently, how many people do you think do this? I wonder? Is this a thing?

Johnna 31:11
I'm not sure. You wouldn't know better than me. You talk to more people. Yeah. So

Scott Benner 31:15
I'm gonna start keeping a checklist next to my next to my desk here. I am so purposeful. When I speak even though it doesn't sound like I am because I do this like, like sing songy back and forth, like Pulp Fiction timeline talking. But I don't waste words. I'm setting stuff up or getting ready or thinking about stuff all the time. But yeah, I don't know. I love you. This is great. Let me ask you another story. So I want to hear more. God, I want to hear more pointless stories. Let's go. So when you're diagnosed, back then what kind of technology do you get?

Johnna 31:49
I was doing vials of insulin and needles, vials and okay, I had no technology. Well, actually, they diagnosed me as type two. So I got pills. And then when I went, I think I went in for a follow up within like a week, because they wanted to see how I was doing. And the nurse was like, we think you might be type one. The doctor wants to do a blood culture or urine culture to check for whatever enzyme in your liver or something. And they're like, Yep, you're type one. So you're gonna need insulin. And then it was the needles, and then I did the pens. And then I switched, actually got a job in insurance and switched hospitals and doctors and then I went to a pump in 2015.

Scott Benner 32:39
John, are you are you? Are you purposely trying to only use words that are important to the story right now? Could you just slow Okay, cuz you slowed down when you were talking? I was like, Oh, I got in her head. I don't mean to do that. I'm sorry.

Johnna 32:49
No, I was trying to think. Okay, yeah, yeah. So. So I went to the pump and 2015 did not do a duck's calm. And then I've been trying to remember I'm like, did my doctor suggest this? And I refused. Like what happened? Because in a lot of your episodes, you guys talk about, you know, the fear being instilled in people. And I do not remember. And maybe it is just how I take things. But never once was I ever scared that I was going to die of giving myself too much insulin. And I remember them asking me every appointment. Do you have somebody that sleeps next to you? Do you? Do you live with somebody? And I'm like, Why? Why does that matter? And they would tell me because you know, at night, you could go low and this could happen. But I was never feared. I never feared that I would die.

Scott Benner 33:44
So you're you're with your husband, but not married to him at that point. Like how did you think of like it? Did you think you were were you living together? When

Johnna 33:52
I was diagnosed, we were not living together. And then we started living together. Maybe a year later. You guys,

Scott Benner 33:59
by the way are either really really in love or incredibly sexually compatible. I wish I knew which one it was. Am I right?

Johnna 34:07
I don't maybe both at some points. I don't know the if the incredibly in love continues every day. No,

Scott Benner 34:13
no, after a couple of years. Don't ruin it for the young people. You'll feel like this forever. Don't worry. You'll never walk into a room again. All right. No, no, I just I mean, like you were you guys waited into your 30s to get married?

Johnna 34:34
Well, we didn't need each other until we were almost 30 Is that because

Scott Benner 34:38
you were chasing the perfect person or a career? Both? Okay. And then I'm trying to say something without saying it. I shouldn't do that. But an adult who waited that long to get married who still marries a person who's diagnosed with a chronic illness. I figure either really loved you really love to have, you know what I mean? Like, so like I'm trying to think, because, yeah,

Johnna 35:05
he really loved me and loves any interaction with me, I would

Scott Benner 35:10
imagine. I just keep thinking you must look like a supermodel as we're talking. And not because people can't. Like, I want to be clear, I don't think people can't love people with chronic illnesses. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that this specific mixture of variables waited a long time older, more mature, maybe more likely to do the math on what this might cost, like, financially. Like, there's a lot of reasons why someone might have backed away, but but they didn't, which I feel like means you were with a really good match. And I'm just trying to figure out what that was. So

Johnna 35:43
I think it's lack of thinking things through.

Scott Benner 35:47
The two of you aren't paying attention. Yes, gotcha. I gotcha. Oh, he's like, No, this will be for kids. So then he did he not? Did he never understand the seriousness of the type one. In the beginning.

Johnna 36:01
It's hard. It's really hard for me to say I think he does. But it's just kind of like it is what it is. I think we have a similar attitude. And you know, this is serious, but we're going to deal with it.

Scott Benner 36:13
I'd say your personalities match up well. Yeah. And you never thought of anything of it. No matter how many times you're like, are you sleeping next to somebody? Are you going to be safe? That kind of stuff? It didn't, you didn't make the leap to wonder why they're asking me if I own a handgun basically.

Johnna 36:28
Well, I mean, they, they mentioned that and it wasn't also it wasn't immediately in the context of if you give yourself too much insulin, you could die, you know, especially during the day, but I just never, I think it was one of those things like, well, that's not going to happen. Yeah, I think it was a denial thing.

Scott Benner 36:46
Okay. Isn't it interesting to you, you kind of cruised over it for a second, but I wanted to go back to it. You said it's maybe in my personality, that I wasn't, like scared by it. I always that's one of the things I wonder about constantly is people's different reactions to the same information. Like what like how can you say something to one person, and it scarred them forever? And another person is just like, Wait, it might kill me. Alright, I'll be careful. And they just keep going. Like, that's fast. You know?

Johnna 37:15
Well, I definitely when they told me I, they wanted to check that I was type one, that type two. That definitely made me go full blown tears crying in the doctor's office, because I was like, what that means I'm going to lose my, my arm or my eyesight or you know, I'm going to be amputated. And you know, if it's type two, I can do better and this and that. And get rid of it. And they're like, no, no, no. Like, you know, and so then I learned more about everything because I knew very little about diabetes. Yeah.

Scott Benner 37:45
Are you the kind of person that watches the show called Chicago Med by any chance? I used to? Does anyone want to give me a minute? Right now? I don't know. You can't send me an award through the the internet. But I heard your reaction to that information and was able to surmise that you would watch Chicago Med. Everyone just wonder how that happened forever. I'm not going to tell you where my brain got that information from? Also, maybe we call this one bad jokes, and pointless stories. I'm still working on. Consider I'm workshopping that still. Oh my god. Okay. So when do you figure out that like type one? When do you How long does it take you to think I know what this is. I know what I'm doing. All these things. I wondered at the beginning. You know, some of them are valuable some of the more how long does it take you to get comfortable with it?

Johnna 38:32
I think it ebbed and flowed after, or right before I started having kids. And it's gotten progressively better since I started listening to your podcast. And how

Speaker 2 38:44
long ago is that than a year ago?

Johnna 38:47
Around there?

Scott Benner 38:47
You've been dumb luck in your way through this for a decade. Yep. Well, and

Johnna 38:51
let me tell you, I found your podcast because I was listening to a podcast, the vagina blog podcast, and you were on that I was there. And I started listening to your podcast. Oh,

Scott Benner 39:00
you must have really liked me if you like me on that podcast. I was very silly on that podcast.

Johnna 39:05
Yeah. Well, there you go.

Scott Benner 39:07
I have to ask you something you so you're already listening to a podcast called The vagina blog podcast, when they bring on a male not a doctor. Do you think why is this happening?

Johnna 39:20
No. Well, for me, I think it's perspective. Right? So I'm a type one diabetic. And that's what you were on there is to talk about type one diabetes and the menstrual cycle with your daughter. Yeah,

Scott Benner 39:29
you must have been the only person who wasn't wondering why am I listening to this? Don't you think though? Other ladies were probably like what's going on here? This is stupid. I don't ever like this guy. Like, he didn't know anything about our vaginas. I just knew about hormones. And yeah, so you found me on that podcast, and then came to this and now this is going to sound like I'm fishing for a compliment. I'm not. I'm asking the question because you literally lived 10 years with diabetes randomly and now It seems like you have it. Like, what's your situation now versus a few years from now? ago? I

Johnna 40:06
would say when I started my agency, I was able to look back at my charts. So 2013 I think my agency was around eight. And then I got the pump in 2015. It still stayed around eight, it might have come down a couple tenths of a point. And then it really came down when I started trying to conceive in 2017. Okay, and since then, it's been, I would say no higher than 6163. And sorry, there's my six week old

Speaker 2 40:37
lady that kids six weeks old. Yes.

Johnna 40:41
So, one of my pregnancies, my agency was 4.9.

Scott Benner 40:46
I love you. I just want to say that out loud right now. Are you gonna breastfeed that baby while we're making this podcast? Or what's going on here? Do you give that up? Uh, well, I got ready to eat for at least another half hour. No one's ever breastfed on the podcast, just saying I bet you know of. Well, I would hope if they were a good podcast guests, they would say, Hey, by the way on breastfeeding, so that I could say stupid stuff about it. And we can have fun. So well, wow, I didn't realize that your youngest was that young? Yeah. You are like a bag of surprises. Okay, hold on a second. First of all, I want to commiserate with you and everybody else this has ever happened to how upsetting is it to go from injections to a pump, and it doesn't move your a one se.

Johnna 41:32
So at the time, I was not even aware or caring about what my one C was? I was aware of it. I just didn't care. And like not to not because I was like lip balm compliant? Yeah. I just, I had no reason to like, you know, my doctors would just say like, oh, you know, you're doing great, blah, blah, blah. They weren't like honing in like, you need to bring your agency down. You need to bring these numbers down.

Scott Benner 41:57
You are a unemployed mother of three living in the United States of America with an eight something a one see, and no one was giving you any direction about that? Nope. I hope everyone's embarrassed. Okay. So, and you had had children with higher frequencies?

Johnna 42:17
No, by the time I started having children, I had brought it down to

Scott Benner 42:21
six. And that happened because the doctor said you have to have a lower one, see if you're going to be pregnant. So the focus has

Johnna 42:28
never and still is not on my agency. Like they take my agency every three months. But it's never like I have to ask what my agency was for them to tell me. You live in a like forest with my agency again.

Scott Benner 42:41
Especially what do you live in the forest? What's going on?

Johnna 42:45
Don't know. But it was the sole conception. You know, I read a few books and the doctors were like, We want your fasting blood sugar to be below 90. And your postprandial is to be you know, less than 120. And so I worked really hard to do that.

Speaker 1 43:01
Oh, they gave you a guideline. Okay, so they gave you God? Did they tell you why? To decrease

Johnna 43:07
birth defects? Risk factors?

Scott Benner 43:10
That's it. That's all somebody had to say to you was? And so why were you able to so effortlessly adjust from eight and a half to six?

Johnna 43:18
I was just paying attention to what I ate. I think better.

Scott Benner 43:21
That's it. It was about us around food. Not even around? Yeah. Yeah,

Johnna 43:25
definitely. Around the food.

Speaker 1 43:27
Are you eating? I don't mean it. Like, what was your diet? Like?

Johnna 43:31
I do not really, I the only thing I remember is, I ate a lot more spinach with my first and probably like, portion things out better. But I don't know that I really changed. Like what I was consuming

Scott Benner 43:47
a Europe for a party. I can tell.

Johnna 43:52
You know, I've, you know, as I've had the kids, I'm like, Well, let me just eat whatever. And now I'm more. It's more about the insulin and controlling things.

Unknown Speaker 44:01
Okay. Are you in my Facebook group?

Johnna 44:04
No. Oh, my

Scott Benner 44:05
God. I'm very upset by that. I definitely wanted to see you. I was just I wanted to go find out who exactly I'm talking to right now.

Johnna 44:12
That's fine. Back on the Facebook. I will join 44,000

Scott Benner 44:15
members 120 new posts today about diabetes. What would you do with that absolutely free by the way.

Johnna 44:23
I would never look at it because I have four kids. And I can only listen to podcasts. Yeah, no,

Scott Benner 44:29
I don't. I mean, quite obviously, you're doing two things with your life and neither of them involve your phone. i Well, maybe one of them does. Who knows? I don't know what you're doing over there. You did not answer me if your husband is incredibly handsome.

Johnna 44:42
I did not answer you.

Scott Benner 44:44
And you're still not going.

Oh, you know what? Don't answer me, John. Now I'm dying out. It'll fuel my entire day wondering if he's just really handsome and you didn't want to say anything? Or if you don't want him to hear that you don't think he's six Did I just let's leave it there? I just want that's what I wanted. That's where I want to live. There's no way my wife thinks to me is handsome, right? Like literally like 27 years we've been married. Now I looked the best I've ever looked right now, by the way,

Johnna 45:13
I think I I'm sure she thinks you're handsome. Oh, no,

Scott Benner 45:16
I think she's just happy that the kids look the same. I think that's why I got this day, actually, because I think she wanted an other kid. And she didn't want them to look oddly different. That was it. There was some time in there. When I was younger. I'm sure she was just like, I'll let this guy hang out a little longer. So the kids are the same. Like that's for sure what she was doing. Oh my gosh, now she's just like, getting pretty successful with that podcast. Maybe I'll see what see what he can buy me when I retire. Maybe that's what she's thinking now. Don't you think? Probably. Do you think young people are like, wait, what's happening? What's gonna happen to me? Oh, that's probably just. Yeah.

Johnna 45:51
I hope she's thinking that Yeah. Oh, randomly.

Scott Benner 45:54
It's probably just Gianna and Scott who have this experience. My experience will be different. Yeah, you're always gonna be an Instagram real Don't worry.

Johnna 46:03
Yes, exactly. Right.

Scott Benner 46:07
Suckers. Okay. Will be whatever you make it. Watch me watch me. prove the opposite point though. Gianna. Would you trade your husband for anything? Pancreas, I was gonna say such a long pause. I said didn't go the way I expected. She was I thought you were doing math. I thought you're going like, like, maybe $400,000.

Johnna 46:31
Oh, no, no, no, I would that? Of course not.

Scott Benner 46:35
But it doesn't make any of the other stuff untrue. Just so everyone listening is focused on what I'm trying to get at. It's gonna be a show, but not so much that you'd want to trade it for something else, which doesn't make any sense. But you'll figure out why

Johnna 46:48
later. Yep. Yeah. And you'll understand why, you know, after 1020 years,

Scott Benner 46:52
yeah, no. 100%. And here's why. In a nutshell, you bought so much stuff? How are you going to move it all out of here?

Johnna 46:59
Well, yeah, you know, unless you want to be the one to move

Scott Benner 47:02
out if you can't afford it. By the way, I think that I think that famous people divorce more frequently, because they can. But that's a really sad thing to say,

Johnna 47:14
Oh, 100% agree with that.

Scott Benner 47:18
Like, because they don't like like, when when t Swizzle moved into the Kelsey boy's house in Kansas City, or wherever the hell that just happened. My wife said, God, that was fast. I was like, she doesn't have to move the stuff. The cost of moving it is meaningless to her. She just said out loud, take some of my stuff that Kelsey is house, I'm gonna live there. And if it goes wrong, she'll just say out loud, Hey, everybody, go get my stuff out of that house and bring it back to here. Like she doesn't have any like, you know, speed bumps at all around that. And I think that allows people to follow their their like knee jerk reactions instead of like actually sitting around and like saying, like, well, let me be thoughtful about this relationship. They don't she doesn't have to be. I mean, God bless her off, but you don't you mean? Exactly. Yeah, I didn't think I'd say anything thoughtful while we were recording, but there it was. By the way, I got a haircut yesterday. And the head set feels so much different on my head. It's freaking me out.

Johnna 48:20
But I'm okay. Little things in life. I

Scott Benner 48:22
had a moment yesterday, I walked into the person who cuts my hair. I'm gonna just tell you. I do have my hair cut in a salon, but I have beautiful hair. So you should all know that. That's why I don't have like a guy's like, you can't just like, hit me with some scissors and everything's okay. I've like wavy curly hair. I need a lady that you

Johnna 48:40
have beautiful hair. You're not balding. But you host a podcast where nobody can see

Scott Benner 48:47
it. Nobody can see it. So it doesn't matter. Meanwhile, yesterday, she's running her new team you can brag about oh, yeah, no. And I have nice broad shoulders too. And again, you don't get to see that either. But I saw like, she's going through my hair. She goes My God. She goes, you have all your color. She's like, you still have so much curl. And you're so lucky. She's like, never complained about this. And I was like, I won't complain about it. She was okay with you and pay you for it. I don't know what she was thinking. I think she was going to eat me or like lock me in a basement hole or something. But I was like, I was like, She's lovely. By the way. She cut my hair for years. I sat down she was what are we doing today? After she told me like how lucky I was. I was like, I hate my hair. We have to get rid of it. So what's wrong? I said, Look how big my head is. So I do have a I do wear a bigger hat like a seven. I don't know, like seven eighths maybe like a bigger hat. Right? Okay, and my head is bigger than some people's heads. I really I hated saying that out loud because I think everybody who listens but hates me secretly is like, oh yeah, we know you have a big head like but that's fine. Like that's good pay. I'm talking about physically My head's a little bigger than it should be. And now that I'm skinny, or it's more noticeable and when my hair gets all fluffy and curly. I will locked in. I was like, Look at how big my goddamn head is. And she's like, I don't know what you're talking about. I was like, look at it. And she's like looking. And I think she thought I was kidding. I'm like, I'm not kidding. My head is huge. I turn and give her my profile. And I'm like, look from the tip of my chin to the top of the back of my head. That's too long. She's like, What are we talking about? And then she looked for me, and she goes, Oh, I see what you're saying. And I was like, right, right, right. And then she just, like, goes into her bag. And she goes, Can I go really tight on the back and the sides and I was like, I honestly don't care what you do. I was like, I'm so I woke up this morning. I was so irritated with how my hair looked. And so I made a last minute decision yesterday. Randori. And I was like, do this. I didn't even have an idea. I was like, just changed my haircut. So anyway,

Johnna 50:45
my head is now I love your haircut, and

Scott Benner 50:48
my head looks more normal. So I'm being my point is I'm vexed. I've got beautiful hair is gorgeous. I don't want to lie to you. It's absolutely fantastic. When it gets too long. I look like I don't know, I look like a dry Q tip that got stuck in your ear. Does that make sense? Is that a visual? Everyone understands. Oh, goodness. Alright, so anyway, my head is too big. And now I have to keep my hair short. Because I lost weight. I don't know. I don't know why I told you that.

Johnna 51:19
I don't know better keeping your hair short than gaining the weight back. Oh, yeah. Oh, listen,

Scott Benner 51:23
here's what I've learned. Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels. That's a real thing. Yeah, I don't I went. I told this story in a weego V diary. What will be like six months ago now. It actually made me cry. I'm going to tell you I literally like sitting by myself recording a five minute diary entry. I unexpectedly started crying. And that was really crazy. I'm not I don't feel like I'm going to cry now. But

Johnna 51:50
and you felt so good after, didn't you?

Scott Benner 51:52
Oh my god, I've made my whole day better actually. Yep. I've had a lot of stress about work recently, which I know sounds crazy because I make a podcast but I have. And. And so we went out this past weekend, Friday night. We're just gonna do I think we're just gonna go on like a little shopping jaunt. My daughter actually likes shopping for clothes and not even buying them. She just likes looking at clothing. And so I was like, I'll go with you. Like I've had a long day I need to get out of here. So my wife and myself and my daughter, we all went went to a mall where you're walking around. And I said, I need some new shirts. And Arden's like, well, let's go get you clothes. Then we went into a store and we started shopping and I've probably never shared on the podcast, but I hate clothes shopping. And it because it's because I grew up like a fat kid. And it just it brings back so many terrible memories. I hate the way I look in clothes. I don't like looking in the mirror about it. Like like a lot of like those feelings that people have. They probably don't tell other people about, but I have them like, you know, like my mom bought me jeans at Sears that had elastic waist bands. So that's a tough one. And like like that kind of stuff. But I looked good in the clothing and in colors and and patterns I would never have put on. And I was just so like, happy. I've never once enjoyed shopping for clothing. And I had such a good time. And I was so pleased when I left and and all that anyway, I start telling the story in the week OB diary. And it hits me of how horrible I was to my mom while we were clothes shopping all the time. And I started thinking oh, I wish my mom was alive. So I can apologize to her about this and explain it to her. And then she's not. And then I started crying. And I was like, diary about my weight loss. Like how did this happen? Anyway, I don't know what the hell we're talking about anymore. You got to pump. And you got to CGM making the babies brought your agency down. But what do you mean? Like you got your agency down to make the kids but what so you had three babies without me and one baby with me? Is that right? Yes.

Johnna 53:56
What was the difference? And the agency or in

Scott Benner 53:59
your experience? Your experience having a baby, pre and post podcast listener? It's

Johnna 54:05
hard to say because I think there's more factors. So I use a tandem pump, which has the control IQ technology. And it's not recommended for use in pregnant mothers, or pregnant women. So with my third I had it turned off. So it was just whatever settings I had, that's where I was running man. Most likely, if I remember correctly, I probably adjusted what I was eating, or we just adjusted my settings based on what I was eating. So when I'm pregnant, I messaged my doctors weekly and I'm like, here's my numbers, tell me what settings to change. And they always say, you know if this keeps happening, change it yourself. And then with this one, I had a new so it's always the doctor and then the nurse practitioner. And so it was a new nurse practitioner. Because my previous one who was amazing our first child, we each had our first kid. They have the same birthday And she had three kids, once she had her third, she stopped practicing. And I was so sad. And so all of our babies were born about the same time. So, in getting pregnant with my fourth, I had a new nurse practitioner that was following up with me, in addition to the doctor, and she was not as aggressive as the previous one. Okay, so I started making more adjustments on my own, and less paying attention to what I ate. I'm just like, Oh, I'm gonna make these adjustments. But I will say also, and the adjustments came, also due to listening to your podcast.

Scott Benner 55:29
Okay, so I gave you the courage to make adjustments to your settings.

Johnna 55:36
Is that it? More? Yeah, a lot more

Scott Benner 55:38
frequently than I was prior. And you were focused on it, because you knew it was important for the baby. Yes, for sure. Wow. You're a bright person. I'm so this is gonna sound wrong. I am so stunned that it took all those years for you to like, and then for those confluence of things to come together for you to like, pay attention to it. Like now that you're, you've given birth to what I'm going to assume is your last baby, but God knows. Are you going to keep your agency in the sixes Do you think?

Johnna 56:08
I would hope so. Yeah, that's my goal. What would stop you some other giant health thing? Well, I guess if it were me personally, and it was a health thing, I would then make sure my diabetes was kept in check, and a little agency to not affect that other health thing. But let's say one of my kids develops diabetes

Scott Benner 56:25
or something, it took your attention away, because like, Oh, what, but then maybe,

Johnna 56:29
maybe it would be easier for me to keep mine because then I'd be so focused on what they were eating to keep their agency and stuff. But, you know, management for myself. Unfortunately, I don't follow the aeroplane rules to put the mask on yourself before you put it on others. Yeah,

Scott Benner 56:43
I don't think anybody I don't think anybody does that. That's just the thing we say because it sounds by the way, most of advice in the world is centered around things that we all really know, but don't do. And then we hear somebody else tell us and we think, Oh, they must do it, I can do it, too. And I think that the only difference between a lot of people just talking crap and, and trying to get clicks and downloads and this podcast is like, I'm actually telling you what we do. And those things actually work. And so like, give me like, if you're a podcast listener, you know what I mean? Like, it's easy to turn, like, you know, like, get up every morning at five o'clock and run 20 miles and you'll look like me. Well, yeah. Okay, thanks for the input. I didn't know, I didn't know that being an ultra marathoner would make me in shape. But you've crystallized that for me with your explanation, like there's. So there's a lot of, there's a lot of self help out there. That doesn't actually help anybody. It preys on how you feel, and what you know, is wrong with what you're doing. And you listen to it, because you feel like well, if I listen to this, if I read this, I'll do it. But that's not how it works. And I'm really fascinated and thrilled, by the way that you're so honest, that you're not 100% Sure, if you're a one C will stay in the sixes. And you don't know why other than to say that this is your personality. It's how you deal with things. And it's how you interact with your life. That's pretty much it. Right? Yeah. Well, I

Johnna 58:04
think it will now that I'm, you know, just bolusing more and like, Oh, I'm trending up. So let me get myself a little Bolus. Did you

Scott Benner 58:13
not understand, years ago that an eight and a half a one C was going to contribute to poor health? Or did you know that?

Johnna 58:20
Actually, I don't know that I'd been told that. I don't remember ever really hearing any of my doctors or educators or anybody harping on or even discussing a onesies. You know, it's always about food and post granules and fasting blood sugars. So

Scott Benner 58:38
they're reading to you out of a book. Oh, I'm sure yeah, this is not coming from some personal experience or some like well thought out. Advice. This is absolutely no, I learned this in medical school. This is what I'm supposed to say to you. Wow. Yeah. That's crazy. Listen, I know it's not crazy. I've right. You know, I've been doing this a long time. I know it's almost expected. I Jenny and I are literally six episodes deeper, recording another one this afternoon into making a whole like series about talking to doctors about what they should be saying to people.

Johnna 59:09
And with being pregnant. A couple things that I had never heard the doctors never said, I somebody was on your on one of the podcasts and said at the beginning, the first trimester, your insulin needs go down. And I didn't know that. I also did not experience it with the first three kids. So no doctor has ever said that to me. It did not happen. My fourth it did happen to the point where I was working and they had to call the paramedics.

Scott Benner 59:39
So for three babies in a row, you didn't have that drop in insulin need first and second trimester. And then it bounced up in the third but it happened to you on the fourth kid. Correct? That's bonkers.

Johnna 59:52
And then another thing that I also mentioned to the nurse practitioner and she's like, Oh, as like she didn't know this In your third trimester, not even your third trimester, but like the last six weeks to a month, a month to six weeks of your pregnancy, your insulin needs also go down after drastically going up during the second trimester. Right? And ended the third ping

Scott Benner 1:00:14
pongs. Yeah, you have to really stay. And then did you have in any of those pregnancies, any of them in any of your myriad of pregnancies? Did you? Did you notice your needs? Jump right up after you delivered the placenta?

Unknown Speaker 1:00:30
No, no. Well,

Johnna 1:00:31
I will say the the recommendation was to change everything by 50%. So I did that. But with my second and third, will actually with all of them. I was like, Well, I still need to, you know, change things. And then with my fourth, I was like, I'm not going to do quite 50% Because I seem to be higher than I wanted to be.

Scott Benner 1:00:51
After the baby was interesting. It was so different for you. All right. Definitely the same father for the fourth one. I'm just kidding. Yeah, I would have would have nothing to do with it. But I just yeah. Wow, is that something? I will say this, you're not gonna have any mental health issues around your diabetes? Because you go with the flow? For sure. You really do. By the way, that's something we haven't dug into enough. You have four, four children, and have a job, right? You have a husband, a job for children. You listen to the podcast, you know, many people tell me I don't have time to listen. I'll say to them, like, Look, you don't have to be like to listen to every episode. But check out this bowl beginning stuff, or, you know, dive into the Pro Tip series. I think it'll really help you. And they'll say, I don't have time to do that. And I'm like, What do you like, running a small country by yourself? Like, what? And then you so why do you have time?

Johnna 1:01:44
I don't know, it became when I had two kids. Things were really easy. But you know, when whatever number of kids you have you think that's really the hardest thing ever. And then you have more kids, and you're like, Oh, one last was way easier than this one. So I will say when I had three kids, it was definitely hard. Now that I've got four, you know, he's only six weeks. It's about the same as having three. So what's one,

Scott Benner 1:02:06
you have perspective now that you didn't have before, but

Johnna 1:02:09
the with two I was listening to I would put the kids to bed and then go do the dishes. And I'm the dishwasher, we don't have a dishwasher. So that's when I would listen to podcasts. And then during any commutes my previous job, I used to travel a lot for work, so I could listen to podcasts and traveling. And now it's every once in a while. So when I take the kids to school, I can sometimes listen usually not. But then once I dropped them off, and I'm on my way to work, I can get about 20 minutes in and same thing when I leave

Scott Benner 1:02:41
the next time you feel your husband's hand sliding under the blanket, I want you to say out loud, not until I get a king dishwasher. That's exactly what I want you to say. Okay,

Johnna 1:02:51
well, I ready for one we've been I've been fighting with him on this for the fight. I didn't want one. I'm like our kitchen is too small. We're not you're not putting a dishwasher in here because he could do it himself. But now I'm like, yeah, let's get one.

Scott Benner 1:03:05
No, you say it in that setting. You'll have one the next day. That's the first thing I want to tell you and tell him to let me let me say this. You want a little extra money spent on a Bosch because they're silent. Okay. Okay. You don't care where he gets he better go rob a bank if he doesn't have it. Because a nobody coming on this side of the bed till I get a silent dishwasher. I will tell him that anyone listening, I've just given you the best advice you've ever gotten in your entire life. A silent dishwasher is a few $100 more and will change the next decade and a half of your life. And you're welcome. There. I've done that. This should be my podcast where I just say things you don't know. And they're like three minutes long. Yeah, can you imagine if you flipped on a podcast and the guy's like, Hey, welcome to the podcast. Today's advice. Get a silent dishwasher. Goodbye.

Johnna 1:03:57
You might get more listeners if they figured they could have time to listen.

Scott Benner 1:04:00
Yeah, don't worry. I actually already have a series of short episodes in the works we're working on right now. But seriously that I did it and it isn't done. And then here like a disco Clang, Clang, Clang, clang clang for an hour in your house, is you don't realize how much noise pollution is. I can't believe I just use the phrase noise pollution but it's absolutely true. And there are dishwashers that you cannot hear the inside while they're running.

Johnna 1:04:23
I'm telling you do it. Well. I have four kids. So it might be hard to hear a dishwasher in general

Scott Benner 1:04:27
those kids are going to leave. When they're gone that dishwashers

Johnna 1:04:32
gonna be playing in this house by the time they leave. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:04:35
well that's another thing you can say when you hear the hand move and you go whoa, give me a better house. You made the space problem. Fix it. Oh my god. I don't know what you're doing over there. If you have another baby, I'm gonna yell at you. I just want to say I don't know you've ever defined you and be like China. What are you doing?

Johnna 1:04:56
Well, you know I do have to go so I can catch my husband. On his lunch break, so we can try making that next day.

Scott Benner 1:05:02
Right now. All right, well, you obviously have to go feed that baby. But I have one last question. I'll let you go. We're over time because let's be honest, you couldn't figure out which way was left and right. Are you named after someone in your family? Like your name is literally Gianna? You

Johnna 1:05:18
are correct that I am literally named Gianna. I am not. So here's the story with my name. Nobody in my family is John. They wanted a J name. So both of my parents name started with A J. My older brother who was adopted, they named him his name starts with A J. But he's five years older than me. Six years school. Is that fine? Or no? Yes, six year school wise five, age wise. So when he was in school in kindergarten when they got me, and they realized there were like three other kids with the same name. And they're like, Oh, that's too common. We want our daughter to have a J name, but not common. And like Jennifer was really common at the time. And I don't know what else they were considering. And I guess they were asking around and somebody mentioned Gianna, and they went with it. I'm gonna

Scott Benner 1:06:05
tell you two things that I'm gonna let you first thing is this exact same thing happened to us. We chose Cole. And then when he got to kindergarten, there were like three or four holes. And that's how we got to Arden. We did the same thing. It was like maybe that we thought Cole was different, but I guess it isn't. The other thing is, and this is just, this is food for thought for you to take through your day. The detail about whether or not your brother how old he is more than you? Yes, completely not important to what you just told me. I had to throw it in there. But it doesn't matter. I'm just telling you. I don't think you're going to change and I'm not asking you to. You're pretty perfect the way you are. John, don't don't change. But no, seriously, but that's what I'm talking about. Like you dug into a detail with 10 or 12 words that had no impact on the story.

Johnna 1:06:52
I can't help myself.

Scott Benner 1:06:55
I really do. Love you. I just met you an hour and six minutes ago. You're my favorite person. Thank you so much for doing this. Can you hold on for one second for me? Yes.

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/juice. Box, get the only implantable sensor for long term wear get ever since if you're looking for an omni pod dash or Omni pod five, use my link Omni pod.com/juice box. If you click on the link, I'll say fo mu mu. It doesn't really matter to me, we're making up a word. So call it whatever you want. 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 the hydration and even trampolines juicebox podcast.com Go up in the menu and click on diabetes variables. And don't forget, if you have type one diabetes, if you're the parent of someone with type one and you're a US resident, I implore you go help with T one D research by filling out the survey AT T one D exchange.org/juice. box you have to fill it out completely. And when you do you'll be helping me and people living with type one diabetes.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:23
Let me say this.

Scott Benner 1:08:25
It's not going to take you more than like 10 minutes. So the next time you think you know I'm gonna go take one of those Buzzfeed quiz. You don't even like a Buzzfeed quiz. Instead of doing that, go fill out the survey T one D exchange.org/juice. box you'll be helping out. And I mean, then you can take the Buzzfeed quiz. You're just sitting on the toilet anyway. If you were 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 II s a registered dietitian 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, where you can go to juicebox podcast.com and click on bold beginnings in the menu. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back 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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