#1465 Kahu Kiwi
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Jordon is a type 1 who uses weed and mushrooms - we talk about it all.
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Scott Benner 0:00
Welcome back, friends, to another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.
Ricky 0:14
Hey guys, I am Ricky and I'm a massive petrol head. I think I am. It was more about not being like, Hey, I'm working on a diabetes because, you know, that's the boring part.
Scott Benner 0:24
Nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan. Don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com All you have to do is use the offer code juice box at checkout. That's Juicebox at checkout to save 40% at cozy earth.com. AG, one is offering my listeners a free $76 gift. When you sign up, you'll get a welcome kit, a bottle of d3, k2, and five free travel packs in your first box. So make sure you check out drink ag one.com/juice, box to get this offer. Are you an adult living with type one or the caregiver of someone who is and a US resident? If you are, I'd love it if you would go to T 1d, exchange.org/juice box and take the survey. When you complete that survey, your answers are used to move type one diabetes research of all kinds. So if you'd like to help with type one research, T, 1d exchange.org/juice, box, it should not take you more than about 10 minutes. This episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. Learn more and get started today at contour next.com/juice box. US med is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast, and we've been getting our diabetes supplies from us med for years. You can as well us med.com/juice, box, or call 888-721-1514, use the link or the number. Get your free benefits. Check and get started today with us. Med, the episode you're about to listen to was sponsored by touched by type one. Go check them out right now on Facebook, Instagram, and of course, at touched by type one.org. Check out that Programs tab when you get to the website to see all the great things that they're doing for people living with type one diabetes. Touched by type one.org.
Ricky 2:32
Hey guys, I am Ricky and I'm a mess of petrol head. Wait
Scott Benner 2:35
a minute. What are you petrol head? A petrol head? Yeah, you like cars little
Ricky 2:43
bit, but not if they're electric. No, definitely not.
Scott Benner 2:47
What happens if they're electric?
Ricky 2:49
I will give them a wide berth because I don't want to burn I
Scott Benner 2:54
think you've been watching the news too much, but okay, oh,
Ricky 2:56
I think I've been watching the highways and the littering of the electric cars on fire? What
Scott Benner 3:01
kind of, what kind of? Well, first of all, I can tell by your accent. You live in Iowa, is that
Ricky 3:06
correct? Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. New Zealand. What kind of
Scott Benner 3:10
electric cars are on fire in New Zealand? Tesla's
Ricky 3:13
Nissan LEAF, to be fair, the Mazda six seems to be going up a bit at the moment. That's not electric, but the Teslas, there's a few. We've seen a few on trucks, on boats.
Scott Benner 3:23
Have you ever go tell me you've worked what I work
Ricky 3:26
in the automotive industry, so maybe I have a little bit more of an insight.
Scott Benner 3:31
So I spoke to someone once who works on a shipping container ship, right? And I guess an electric a car from a battery from an electric car caught fire on the ship, and there's just, like, there's not much they can do about it.
Ricky 3:48
Yeah, they just bury them in water and let them go. It's kind of scary.
Scott Benner 3:53
Having said that, I believe if I got the statistics, far more gasoline cars burn every year than electric cars, but that's neither here nor there.
Ricky 4:01
That would be so, right? But because I'm a petrol head, I just won't believe that. Yeah, you just,
Scott Benner 4:04
you just want your car to make noise. Is that
Ricky 4:06
right? That's right, yeah. Well, they don't have to make noise, but it's nice when they do. Do
Scott Benner 4:10
you prefer like fast cars? Do you not care? Do you like pretty cars? Do you like fast cars? I'm into drag racing, so Okay, so then I have to say an electric car would be much faster than a gas car. However,
Ricky 4:22
the fastest car in New Zealand is not an EV, really, by a long stretch. Oh yeah, what is and the EVs are much lighter too. But
Scott Benner 4:29
is it something you could could, could you afford, like the fastest car Ricky in Oh, hell no. Oh no. Because I think that's kind of one of the amazing things about electric car is that, like, you know, if you have reasonable credit and a job, you could be driving zero to 60 in two seconds. Oh,
Ricky 4:45
yeah, they're absolutely quick on the street. However, I don't like to race on that anymore.
Scott Benner 4:49
No more tea. Wait, wait, wait, you in the past, you've raced on the street for five
Ricky 4:53
years, plus probably that was what we did when we were teenagers. That's
Scott Benner 4:57
nice. What did you drive when you were teenagers? Here, many, many Mitsubishi
Ricky 5:01
Evos. How fast could that thing be? I mean, back there we back then, we thought they were very fast. But today, a Tesla would be faster. To be fair.
Scott Benner 5:10
It's really something, isn't it? Yeah. Anyways, all right, neither here nor there. This is a passion for you, or just because, I mean, I have to be honest, like, I've made a lot of these podcasts, and I believe you're the first person to be like, Hey, my name is and I love sports card trading. Like, you know, like, I don't think anyone, no one's ever led with that before.
Ricky 5:30
Yeah, I think I am. It was more about not being like, Hey, I'm working on my diabetes. Because, you know, you were like, the boring part.
Scott Benner 5:37
I imagine that is the boring part. Okay, so how long have you had type one, four
Ricky 5:41
years and a couple of months? Oh, how old are you? 38 today?
Scott Benner 5:46
No kidding, when you were diagnosed at 30 Wait, wait, stop your birthday.
Ricky 5:50
Yeah, absolutely. Happy birthday. Thank you so much.
Scott Benner 5:54
I'm honored. Look at us. I mean, I think I can sing. I think happy birthday is in the I don't think I can be stopped from singing happy birthday if I want to.
Ricky 6:02
No, you could definitely sing it. I don't know how, how much I'll enjoy it, though it might be like that thing where you get compliments and I get sung Happy Birthday on the same level. There,
Scott Benner 6:10
I'm gonna say that there's no way anyone's complimenting me if I sing Happy Birthday. But did you choose this day because it was your birthday?
Ricky 6:17
No, it was the timing. Really. It was the only one that was available before work, because it's an ungodly hour here,
Scott Benner 6:24
yeah. Oh, so it's 11am here. What time is it where you are? 5:15am, oh, my god, so we're gonna do this and you're gonna go
Ricky 6:33
to work? Yeah, yeah. I had planned to work from home today, but my boss brought me a birthday cake, and I have to go and eat it with my co workers, which you know you
Scott Benner 6:40
are going to be cursing me out like halfway through the day. She'll be right. Be like I am so tired that stupid podcast is not going to come out for six months. Talk for five minutes about my goddamn car at the beginning. Okay, well, let's get to it then. So you were diagnosed at 34 is there type 33 excuse me, was there type one in your family?
Ricky 6:59
Yes, but not in this country. I was born in England and moved here when I was very young. I have an auntie in England that is type one, and so kind of out of sight, out of mind, if you will. Okay,
Scott Benner 7:09
so there's a connection, but you didn't grow up around it. Wouldn't have known about
Ricky 7:13
it. Yeah? Okay, yeah, I knew about it, but I didn't you know. It didn't mean anything to me, not enough that when
Scott Benner 7:19
you started having symptoms, you understood what was happening, or you did exactly.
Ricky 7:23
Exactly, what was that like? Different. I actually I was diagnosed type one, three months to the day after hysterectomy because of endometriosis or endomyosis. So when all of the symptoms started, I thought the only thing that I had left I eat. My ovaries were dying, and I was like, Oh, my God, I'm going to be on HRT for the rest of my life and all the rest of it. So when I got diagnosed, I was actually kind of happy.
Scott Benner 7:53
You were, oh, because you thought, like, this is it? I know I'm melting inside. It's over.
Ricky 7:58
Yeah, yeah. I'm like, I'll just eat salad. This is way better.
Scott Benner 8:03
I thought I was dying, but I only have type one diabetes, lucky me. Oh no kidding, but that's interesting perspective, though, isn't it? Like, because you thought something more terrible was happening to you, you were happy to hear the news, yeah,
Ricky 8:18
like to the point where I had the nurse come in a few hours after they told me and be like, we're really worried that you haven't reacted to your diagnosis. This is life changing. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. My personality leans more towards like, I'm not going to cry about things that I can't change. So I kind of responded to him was like, Well, do you want me to cry? What am I supposed to do? I'm not that fast. Yeah. And it was just that that was strange. That's when I started Googling,
Scott Benner 8:44
can we pivot away from diabetes? People are like, great. Here he goes. It's six minutes in, he's going to pivot away from diabetes, but I'll come back to it. I promise totally. I want to know about the hysterectomy. What led up to that, and what made you like explain that whole endometriosis thing to me. I have always disliked ordering diabetes supplies. I'm guessing you have as well. It hasn't been a problem for us for the last few years, though, because we began using us Med, you can too us med.com/juice, box, or call 888-721-1514, to get your free benefits, check us med has served over 1 million people living with diabetes since 1996 they carry everything you need, from CGM to insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies and more. I'm talking about all the good ones, all your favorites, libre three, Dexcom, g7 and pumps like Omnipod five, Omnipod tandem, and most recently, the I let pump from beta bionics, the stuff you're looking for, they have it at us. Med, 88887211514, or go to us. Med.com/juice, box to get started now use my link to support the podcast. That's us. Med.com/juice, Box or call 888-721-1514,
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Ricky 11:17
So I'd say that I've I had symptoms from as soon as I started eating a period, so 1213, years old, which is early, probably six years before my hysterectomy, I started screaming, it's it's endometriosis, from the top of my lungs to everyone I saw. Um, I obviously there was a lot of symptoms for the four years before that, but that's a bit of a boring story. So I got to the point where I was spreadsheeting every pill that was going in my mouth, every symptom, and going into hospital every two weeks, unable to walk, couldn't drive, they put I had, at one point, I had three different types of contraceptive trying to stop the bleeding and all the rest of it, and I never wanted kids. So it was a really easy decision for me, once I figured out that I had endomyosis, which is localized in the uterus, that I would just have a hysterectomy and it'll all be fine. Apparently, the doctors think that I want to have kids, so that became a fight, a big fight, for three or four years, the first time that they ever let me into what we call here pain clinic, which means I was referred into surgical area, I had a screaming match with a woman, because she was saying to me, Oh, well, your scan says this. And I said, this is a progressive disease that scans old now, or you do another one, and it was just back and forth and back and forth. And by the end of that meeting, I was on the list. And a year later, during COVID, I had my hysterectomy, wow, and I woke up feeling like they removed a bowling ball dipped in deep heat, and that was with the huge scar in the front of me and all the rest of
Scott Benner 12:48
it, big scar. Just had a pretty massive surgery. You felt relief?
Ricky 12:51
Yeah, amazing. I felt the best I felt in 10 years. Wow, jeez. And type one did not change that. When they told me to go to the hospital. I was like, You're insane. I feel great. What is wrong with you?
Scott Benner 13:04
Hospital? Let me tell you the story about my ovaries. That's a hospital, isn't I don't even feel so. Do you have, like, a high pain threshold? Do you think because of it? I guess
Ricky 13:14
so. But I don't have too much to compare it to. I've only broken a rest ear in there and, like, I mean, I've read a lot about women that have had children and have Antibiosis, and they say that at least with childbirth, the pain stops.
Scott Benner 13:27
Did you have any like, psychological like, kickbacks? Did you like the minute it happened? You go, what if I do want kids? Like, did that happen? No,
Ricky 13:35
not that. No, I was more like, yes, white underwear. Let's go shopping.
Scott Benner 13:42
Do uh, are there any unintended or expected impacts from the hysterectomy that you look back on and go, I wish this wasn't happening, but it's worth it. Type one you think that came from that. I mean,
Ricky 13:57
the trauma. I don't think of anything else that happened between it and get sick or anything. I don't know that it's definitely right, but my blood sugar was fine by my pre work, pre blood work, and then three months to the day later, I've got a a 1c of 118 I can't convert that into yours, and my blood sugar was like 29 mmol and, you know, and we would have caught it real early, because I was all over any symptom, you know? I It's like, Oh, my God, my mouth's dry. Oh, my God, this is happening.
Scott Benner 14:25
It's really interesting. Listen, I've heard people I had a virus, I was diagnosed. I've heard people say I had a traumatic experience. I was diagnosed. I don't know that surgery wouldn't like, qualify as traumatic. You know what I mean? Egg weight on the body. Yeah, no kidding. So you get the news, I'm assuming it all comes the way you expect, thirsty, peeing that kind of stuff, crazy,
Ricky 14:50
like waking up every hour and the night, drink a liter water, go back to bed for an hour, get up, do
Scott Benner 14:54
it again. Yeah? It was bad, like an old guy, yeah? I.
Ricky 15:00
You're married, not married. I don't believe in marriage. I have a long term partner. I've been together 12 years.
Scott Benner 15:04
Ah, there's a person you let live in the house, yeah, that's nice. First of all, I don't care. I want to just be clear about that. But when you have a partner for a long time, they know you don't want kids, and that's something they're okay with, right?
Ricky 15:15
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I I'm more real open about that real early on. Okay,
Scott Benner 15:21
cool. Diabetes comes what comes next? Is it like? Because your note to me is interesting, I find it actually very interesting. Is Bad medical advice first? Is that what what you experienced first? Yeah,
Ricky 15:35
so I'd say that that happened with the endo thing, right? So I obviously was ignored for six years while I had diagnosed myself and was actually correct, and they hadn't even acknowledged it until probably a year or so before I went for my operation. So I already knew that they were going to lie when I got this, this thing. Because
Scott Benner 15:55
let me ask you, is that how you think of it, or is that how it happened? Like, do you think they're lying to you, or do you think they don't know or do you think that they don't know enough to do something with, you know, like, remove your, you know, your reproductive organs, which, you know, I mean, like, where do you think that really, it's fun to say they lied, and maybe they did. But how do you really think about it?
Ricky 16:16
I think about it like there's only so many referrals they're able to put through on a very broken public system, and you need to be pushy and abrupt to get anywhere. So I feel like, like, if I go to a GP, my general practitioner and go, I've got this problem, they'll refer you, and you'll you'll get declined lots and lots of times, except I was in the emergency department at the hospital every two weeks, unable to walk. So why are they? I don't understand like it was. If I can figure it out, I sell car parts for a living. Why can't, you know, six years worth of doctors and ED visits, and I went through 13 GPS trying to find one that would refer me. So I don't know. Maybe it is at ESC Rick,
Scott Benner 16:58
you said, Yeah, trust me, I think it might be, but you say I have a lot of pain, this is a problem. This is what I think is happening. Your general practitioner says, Cool, whatever. Here's a referral to the next thing. And then the system says, No, you don't qualify to follow through with the referral,
Ricky 17:13
pretty much. But they ply you with opiates first. So it was, here's a here's some Tramadol. Here's some morphine, here's some liquid morphine, here's some cancer level anti inflammatories that'll damage your hippies or whatever they're damaging and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This is, this is great. I think it was on 12 pills. Ricky,
Scott Benner 17:32
all those things you just listed. You tried every one of those things. Oh, and
Ricky 17:36
more. I've got a scrapbook somewhere in this house of probably, I reckon it'd be four pages of the little stickers that you get on your prescriptions, and stick them in a book, write down why I was taking them, how they made me feel, you know, all of those things to try and get somewhere. When I got to the doctor, there is pages of that. It is. It's insane. Did
Scott Benner 17:55
you say liquid morphine at one point? Yeah, or a morph.
Ricky 17:59
It's ridiculous. Why wouldn't you just fix the problem, like stop band aiding me?
Scott Benner 18:04
I think at some point you were gonna get to like, here's a big rock hit yourself in the head with it. And yeah, that would
Ricky 18:10
have been better. I mean, they gave me benzos at the Ed once and told me it was all in my head. Actually, I had that a few times.
Scott Benner 18:19
Is it a mix of male and female doctors. To
Ricky 18:22
be honest, it was at the start. It would have been more male until I figured out that I thought that they didn't know as much. So I would go to younger female doctors. And when I went through those 13 GPS, I did find a woman that was, you know, in her late 30s that was really, really helpful. She got the referral through to the pain clinic and everything given me, not too helpful? Were
Scott Benner 18:48
you met with like that? Like, 1950s like, Oh, she's, she's just got the vapor. She seems upset. We'll hysterical, yeah. Like, I hate it when they talk so much get her high, like that kind of thing. Or what do we
Ricky 19:04
I don't know if I would have thought about it like that in the setting, but most of the visits felt like a judgment. I didn't ever feel like a drug seeker, but I felt like I was wasting their time. Oh,
Scott Benner 19:18
do you think they thought you were seeking drugs? I think they would have treated
Ricky 19:20
me differently. But I'm not, I'm not 100% sure. I don't think I would have left the ED with pills or morphine if they were thought I was drug seeking. Is
Scott Benner 19:28
there sexism involved in this? I'm not usually one to blow these whistles, but is there sexism involved in this? This
Ricky 19:33
is a bit ruthless, but I think the medical industry in general is, I mean, we're still calling a hysterectomy, you know, like a hysterectomy, you still got history. And is that not from hysterical, isn't it a uterectomy? It's a uterus.
Scott Benner 19:43
That's what it means. Hold on a second. I'm sure it does. I've read
Ricky 19:46
way too many workbooks.
Scott Benner 19:49
Wait, what is the etymology of the word hysterectomy?
Ricky 19:57
Let's find out together. Yeah, it's like. Hysterical of root story books color. It has roots
Scott Benner 20:02
in the Greek comes from hysteria, which means womb, which means womb or uterus, and Greek ectomy, which means cutting out. I don't know I liked your expect I liked your explanation more, but I don't think that's where the word I don't think that's where the word comes from, but that would have been you're like, oh, they think they get this hysterical broad, let's get what
Ricky 20:23
it feels like. Since you go in there, you're like, Okay, I can't walk like you. I had sciatic limbed in, you know, like that sciatica pain and would kind of make your foot drag, yeah? So you're crazy pain, crazy
Scott Benner 20:34
bleeding, yeah, like, the whole thing, periods that just lasted forever.
Ricky 20:39
I bled for 16 weeks once. Oh, my god, yeah, that was fun. Have
Scott Benner 20:44
you had a lot of iron infusions? How do they help you with that? They
Ricky 20:48
never tested that they never wanted to give me that I did a little my own testing, and it seemed okay. I don't know how I don't like red meat. A trigger for endometriosis is red meat dairy. You know, the thing to never Oh,
Scott Benner 20:58
I'll tell you, I'm lucky you on that part, because, trust me, if you would have added that incredibly low energy, like shortness of breath, like that kind of thing to it, that would have just made it even that much okay. But somebody found somebody helped you, which is awesome, yes, yeah, I flew it through. Have you talked to other women in your family? Did other people struggle like this?
Ricky 21:17
I grew up with only the men in my family. So my mother still lives in the UK, so I didn't grow up around her, but I know that my grandmother, on my New Zealand side, had one kid, and then she had a hysterectomy, and she had a lot of woman problems, and that's as much as I know from my dad and my
Scott Benner 21:33
grandfather. All right, listen, this is none of my business, but this is none of this is any of my business. So your father left England, took you to New Zealand without your mom. So they broke up. Split up is your mom a bank robber who uses heroin. How did that happen? What's going on? That's another
Ricky 21:51
very interesting story. So it depends on who you ask. She has this version, and he's got a version. His version is that she was a drunk bitch.
Scott Benner 22:01
Okay? What's her version?
Ricky 22:03
She came home one day. He had a new partner. The house was empty, and they were on a plane. Oh, yeah. So I don't, I don't think they care enough. I only met her in 2017
Scott Benner 22:14
so I was gonna say, Have you ever dug through it or No, when I was younger
Ricky 22:17
and more nosy, definitely. So I found some court papers, but it was basically just the two women abusing each other over the phone, which is insane,
Scott Benner 22:27
his new girlfriend and your mom, yeah, to be
Ricky 22:31
fair, she became my stepmother, and I have a half brother. Okay,
Scott Benner 22:36
okay, yeah. So not just your dad's new girlfriend, your dad's wife, and he's been with her for a while now.
Ricky 22:42
She left when I was 13.
Scott Benner 22:45
Did she ride off on a Komodo dragon? By any chance? That would have been awesome.
Ricky 22:49
Oh, it would have been amazing that, you know, unfortunately, not, no. So
Scott Benner 22:53
your dad bails, all right, so your dad leaves England, and your mom with the lady. The lady becomes your stepmom. You have a step brother, but by the time you're 13, she leaves. How old were you when you left England? Three or four? Oh, she made it a whole decade. Yeah, no, when she left, did she have the same complaints as your mom, or
Ricky 23:13
didn't upkeep the relationship on that one? So not too sure. I reckon it'll be worse. I feel like she's a more dramatic person.
Scott Benner 23:22
All right, Ricky, I like you. We should. We should all live on New Zealand. It's an island, right? I can say on New Zealand,
Ricky 23:28
yeah, yeah. Well, there's two or three islands, to be fair, but yeah, absolutely, on an island. Nice.
Scott Benner 23:32
You remember that time like it's about eight, nine years ago, there was a new world map drawn, and they forgot to put it on. It's awesome. Wasn't
Ricky 23:40
that on Barbie or something? I remember people kind of about that that actually
Scott Benner 23:43
happened. Like, somebody was like, What about New Zealand? They're like, Oh, whoops,
Ricky 23:47
yeah. We don't care, as long as the big, powerful people with the guns can't see us. We're cool. Yeah, listen,
Scott Benner 23:52
am I right to say that New Zealand doesn't have any snakes, correct?
Ricky 23:56
I Oh, maybe we have sea snakes that come over from Australia or something. I've seen some in the water, but I've never seen anything.
Scott Benner 24:01
No, no, I hear you. Okay, that's where I'm gonna retire. Then, yeah,
Ricky 24:05
yeah, in the north, definitely the North. I just want to
Scott Benner 24:09
go outside, but not be attacked by a snake or a bear or something like that. You don't have any of those things.
Ricky 24:14
No, the only thing we have is like a spider. It's like one or two spiders that are a bit dodgy. But other than that, can
Scott Benner 24:21
they kill me? No. Oh, all right. Oh, and why can my chameleons live outside there? Is it warm all year round or no,
Ricky 24:30
not all year? Oh, it depends where you are, I guess. But it's, I'd say that the lowest it would be is like six Celsius.
Scott Benner 24:36
I don't know what that means. Hold on a second. Hold on. Wait, wait, I have no idea what that means. Six sells suits and others. That's really cold. Maybe it's not. Maybe you don't know. I'll take a look because you didn't know about the millimoles and the other things. Yeah, fair
Ricky 24:51
play. Oh, fourth, 42 Yeah, that's about as cold as it gets. Hurry. Oh,
Scott Benner 24:56
sweetie, I can deal with that, no problem. Don't you worry. Okay, I'm on my way.
Ricky 24:59
All right, if you go to the South Island, there's no but I'm just talking about the, you know, the winter,
Scott Benner 25:03
listen, oh no no, I won't go there. So I come there. And how much money I gotta bring in retirement to live out my days in New
Ricky 25:12
Zealand? How many years you're thinking, that's a fair? No,
Scott Benner 25:15
no, wait, that's a fair. You're making fair points. Let's say I gotta live 10 years where I can walk five years where everything sucks and five years where I'm slowly dying.
Ricky 25:30
I reckon you need at least 60k a year, okay? Yeah, for 20 years, and our money's worth less than yours,
Scott Benner 25:37
your money's worth less than mine. Well, I'll bring my money, yeah, and
Ricky 25:40
then it'll be easier, right? Because I'm talking to my money, yeah, what do
Scott Benner 25:43
I get? I don't have to trade it into whatever garbage money you're using, right? Do I?
Ricky 25:46
Oh, you, totes, do you have to turn your USD into NZD? Oh, I don't want
Scott Benner 25:50
to do that. I don't think, okay, all right, well, I'll work on I was gonna say something flippant, but I don't want people to think I would have an off I don't have an offshore account. I would never have an offshore account. I just want to say that in case anybody's listening. Okay, so I need 60k a year for 20 years. Let me see how much money I gotta save up so I can move to Australia. Sounds like a lot. Wait, not Australia and New Zealand. No, New Zealand. Sorry, it's down that direction. You know what I mean, I need $1.2 million if I want to live 20 years in New Zealand. And is the health care gonna suck for me. Is that one? Is that gonna be a problem?
Ricky 26:22
It depends how, um, passive aggressive you are, you'll be fine. How
Scott Benner 26:26
much I can push my way through it. Yeah, totally. At the moment, I still have energy. I could do it.
Ricky 26:32
Oh, I know where your problem will be, where if you, if you bring the kids and stuff, no OmniPods here,
Scott Benner 26:37
well, I'm not bringing anybody's kit. No, that's it. I'm I'm done. We were talking about this the other day, about how we're, like, my wife and I are very focused on, like, our kids, even as they get older, just meaning that, like, we're not the kind of people are like, Oh, you're 18. Good luck. I'll see you at Christmas. Like, you know, I mean, yeah. And my son was saying, like, how much he appreciates it. We were just talking about it actually. And actually, he was teasing my wife about something, and my wife goes say three things that I've done, well please. And one of the things he said was, like, you know, letting me live here a little longer to, like, get my feet under me before I leave. I appreciate that. And we were talking about how we have, we know people who you know are like, literally, like, I'm not going to help you with school. I'm not going to help you with this. When you're 18, you're on your own, I said to him, but I do think sometimes about, like, like, I would never do that, but if I was a person who would do that, like, what would I be doing right now? Like, what would I like, I'd have more money, right? Like, I'd have more time. I'd have like, I'm like, maybe that everything. So much. So I'm just saying that when the time comes, there is going to be like a bell, I'm going to ring, and the bell is going to be like, ding, ding, ding, it's over. We're out. See you suckers, all right. So I'm going to work on pulling together $1.2 million so I can go to seal it, just
Ricky 27:57
sell your house. That's how you're doing it. If
Scott Benner 27:59
I sell my house, I'm not going to have $1.2 million $2 million I'm sorry to say
Ricky 28:04
1.2 million New Zealand dollars. Remember?
Scott Benner 28:07
Well, no, I just did 60,000 American dollars for 20 years. How much is 1.2 million New Zealand dollars?
Ricky 28:15
I don't know exactly, but I reckon we're about 80% and then it can swing down I know somewhere between 50 and 80% or something. It swings quite
Scott Benner 28:24
a lot, to be fair. What am I losing by coming to New Zealand
Ricky 28:27
stuff? Like, we just don't have this. I've only been to Hawaii, yeah, like, actually, like, you walk into a supermarket and you're like, why is there so much stuff in here? Like, there's just too much.
Scott Benner 28:38
What is what is this? So there's no stuff in New Zealand, no extra now
Ricky 28:42
we have, like, you know, food that came off a tree and, like, there's those parts of supermarkets. I know, I've only ever seen the supermarkets in Hawaii. I haven't been to mainland America, but it's, it's strange. So,
Scott Benner 28:53
like, if you saw, like, if I see a pack of Oreos in New Zealand, they're $75 right? Oh,
Ricky 28:59
now we have, okay, we have Oreos at like, other brands, like the, the big name stuffs here, but there's, I remember going into a Walmart, and there was an entire aisle for just biscuits and stuff. I'm like, wow. Like, why? That's a lot
Scott Benner 29:13
of them, a lot of so many. So we have some medical distrust from the the hysterectomy stuff, understandable. The next thing on your list here is danger of ed
Ricky 29:28
the emergency department. Oh,
Scott Benner 29:29
thank God, because I was like so it's funny for everyone listening. Ricky's name is Ricky, but it's spelled differently. And I thought, is this Ricky, a man who wants to talk about erectile dysfunction, because that's exactly what I thought would have popped up. I didn't
Ricky 29:49
even think of it. I know my hyper boys name, but Oh, that is funny. Okay, so
Scott Benner 29:53
director a danger of the emergency department, tell me more.
Ricky 29:57
Okay, I was actually in there four weeks ago. I. Had a bad asthma flare after getting my carpet replaced in my lounge, and I told them that I'd be managing my type one for myself, because the last time I was in there, they tried to take my pump off me, and then when I argued that I wouldn't be giving them that, that they had, that I'd have to tell them every single time I put insulin in. But I'm on control, like you and like it's gonna hurt. It's happening again.
Scott Benner 30:23
It's happening. Hello, hello. What's happening again? Point two just went in. Did you guys so they hold on the basal just went from one unit an hour to point eight. Did you guys need to know that? So that's what they wanted. Yeah,
Ricky 30:37
yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then, and then they come around with their food options in there of like cereal, and I'm like, I just it makes you so angry. So I'm in there because I think I was losing my honeymoon period the time I'm talking about, which is probably a year or so ago. So I got very, what I would define as very high blood sugar, and I can't control it, and it's been a day, and it's freaking me out, and I want someone to help me. So this is the first time I went into something like, Okay, I'll go in. And actually, I contacted the i We have a team over here. You get given a team of diabetes helpers, or whatever it is. So I contacted the nurse practitioner by email. She called me, we had some conversations about what I'd been doing and things. And she sent me straight into the emergency department, which are underfunded. They they've literally got critical staff shortages. Signs everywhere. So I go in and, yeah, they'd want to take my pump because of my hold
Scott Benner 31:33
on Ricky. Are they like help wanted signs, or are they letting you know they don't have enough people? They're
Ricky 31:38
letting you know that they don't have enough people. It's scary. It's scary, yeah. And so the first thing that they want to do is, for my high blood sugars, I want to take my insulin. I'm just like, What the fuck is wrong with you? Like, um, and so the entire time that I was there, no insulin was given. So the only way it was given was through the pump that they were going to take from me, that I've had a screaming match with somebody about. And then so I get discharged with the same kind of blood sugar I had when I got there, and then they're trying to push crap food on me whilst, you know, like they they probably wouldn't have given insulin until an hour after that, because they bring food around, then they bring the insulin around, then they it's just, it's a show,
Scott Benner 32:15
yeah. Well, listen, I think this is good news for me, because now I do not need to save up 2,012,400 New Zealand dollars, because I'm not coming there. Yeah, yeah. I mean, our house. Listen, I think healthcare is probably about the same everywhere you go, because it's, you know, it's run by people. Yes, it's run by people and money. So I think you're gonna have the same problems along the way. I'm sure there are places where healthcare isn't run by money. It's run by government. Then you just have the people problem, whatever. Yeah, I like America where if I can throw a little bit of money around, I can get help if I need to. I
Ricky 32:50
want that here so bad I can't even buy FIAs if I want it, or I want me part if I want it, we don't have any of it here. It's not approved. Yeah.
Scott Benner 32:57
I mean, it sucks that it comes to that. But, I mean, I've been very clear on the podcast, like, I send Arden to a cash endocrinologist, like, our insurance covers it later, but we pay out of pocket, and then our insurance reimburses us, but it's the only way to get, like, reasonable care from anybody.
Ricky 33:14
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I had my my pump within, I think it was eight months. But again, I'm very pushy, because I knew I'd had had the experience before, so I was like, no one's telling me, no this time on, this is how we're doing it. It's my way, or I'll figure out another way. All right, so
Scott Benner 33:29
let's go back to your diabetes. You're I just imagine people listening going, Oh, 31 minutes. Yes, Scott, let's get back to the diabetes now. But we learned a lot of interesting things. I thought I like that you were able to alleviate your pain. I think it's pretty cool that you were given something up. But you You knew yourself well enough to know that you know it was the right thing to do that you fought through doctors telling you, oh no, you're gonna want a baby one day. Like, awesome. Like, what else do you know about me that I don't know? I mean, listen, I want to say I get that they don't want to take out your baby maker, and then you come back and be like, Hey, you should try to talk me out of taking out my baby maker. Like, I get that. Like, but at some point it's got to be your decision. Then you fought through that awesome you fought through a little bit of men not seeming to understand what women's lives are like when they have health issues and get that you look after
Ricky 34:18
a baby when you can't walk just a caveat,
Scott Benner 34:22
it's good. I had a baby, but I bled out on my period after the baby came, and anyway, the baby drowned in the blood that came out of me. That sounds very viable. It almost worked out. I just, I just wrote a horror movie for next Halloween. It'll be out from lions. Can you imagine? Hey, here's our movie. Doctor forces you to keep your uterus and have a baby. You have the baby.
Unknown Speaker 34:45
It's a horror movie. You're such,
Scott Benner 34:48
no, I can't finish my movie pitch because that was too funny. Diabetes comes. Sounds like you had a pretty long honeymoon.
Ricky 34:54
Yeah, it was. And this I was unwell, but I've held that insulin. Regime since two, two or three years, or whatever it was, when I went to that hospital visit like I just, I basically did a 200% profile eventually, when they weren't helping, and managed to get it down. I just didn't want to put that much in back then and then have, you know, have something happen later. I didn't understand it well enough. Yeah,
Scott Benner 35:19
you don't have hormonal shifts anymore because of the hysterectomy. Is that? Right?
Ricky 35:23
No, I do. So I I have a full natural cycle, or whatever. I just don't have a uterus, so I have my ovaries just my ovaries are like tacked to the inside of my stomach. It's gross. It's gross. When I woke up from the from the operation, I had these two weird roses. It took me, like, a week to be like, that's where they'll be. Because I have no tubes. I have no, you know, nothing else they'll they have to be there, because where
Scott Benner 35:49
else would they go? They're just all down the bottom. Wait. So they didn't take everything out, everything
Ricky 35:53
so I have no cervix, no uterus, no tubes, okay,
Scott Benner 35:56
all right. But you still have a cycle, yeah? Like,
Ricky 35:59
I don't bleed, obviously, because there's nothing for it to bleed from, but I have a cycle, yeah, so I can, does
Scott Benner 36:04
it all happen the same way you like, I don't want to say that like, I was gonna see you've got me loose and joking around. So I was gonna say something like, are you really sweet? And then horrible 24 hours later? But that's not a thing that actually happens to women, and I shouldn't say
Ricky 36:17
that. It definitely does. I can't decide if that's that or undiagnosed thyroid. I'm sure it's a bit of both. Oh, I've been wondering
Scott Benner 36:25
about your thyroid the whole time. We're talking a bit. Have you had it tested? Define tested? Did you get a TSH level, like a did you do them all the time? What's your TSH?
Ricky 36:36
Okay, so the highest I've seen it since my event when I was younger, would be a 2.6 I think it was. And then the next test, which was weeks later, was a 1.4 and yeah, so it's not extremely high, but it's bouncing. It's
Scott Benner 36:52
bouncing, but it's not a 2.6 and I don't think you're like, looking for Medicaid. Do you have a lot of thyroid type symptoms?
Ricky 36:58
I'd say all of them, dry skin, hair, bitchiness, oh, that
Scott Benner 37:04
might be genetic. Isn't that what your dad said about your mom?
Ricky 37:06
Yeah, this is true. You could be right there. I never thought of that.
Scott Benner 37:11
Wouldn't it be crazy if your whole life was exploded because your mom had undiagnosed hypothyroidism? Oh
Ricky 37:16
my gosh, she's got, I know she said, No, they've got a better health system over there. I
Scott Benner 37:21
think they have a better health system over there. I think, oh my god, better than here. Better than here. That's not saying that, Ricky, I'm sorry. We're gonna get right back to it. I just watched my chameleon eat a cricket from about 19 inches away. And even, oh my god, I was put off by how far his tongue just came out. My God, man. That's I never seen it go that far before, oh my god, 19 inches, right? I yeah, I can tell this. I know how long the cage is. I know where he's standing. Like I saw him see the cricket. And I was like, he can't reach that. And he got a little look on his face, like, I'm gonna eat that. And then, oh my god, anyway, we should all own a chameleon.
Ricky 37:57
I would never allowed them here. Oh, oh, yeah, some
Scott Benner 38:01
countries don't let you bring in like we're really green and woke here. Well, that's how you keep it. That's why you don't have any of the snakes, though, right? Yeah,
Ricky 38:09
fair play. And we, we protect our
Scott Benner 38:12
birds. I protect mine as well. Yeah, no, always, actually, even if Kelly looks a little like surly I stand with my hands in front of me.
Ricky 38:22
That's, that's, that's part of your employment contract as a husband, though, isn't it? Oh, I would not
Scott Benner 38:26
be allowed to have my chameleon in New Zealand. I don't know that for sure, but I don't know. I asked our overlords. New Zealand has very strict biosecurity laws to protect its unique ecosystem and most reptiles, especially exotic species like I don't want to say what kind of chameleon I have, because it's expensive, and you're all going to think I'm and you're all going to think I'm rich and I'm not. Are prohibited by being imported or keep as pets. How about that? Oh, I can't leave you here. Durbin, don't worry about it, buddy.
Ricky 38:50
It's because the locals get them into the into the forest and,
Scott Benner 38:54
you know, and then we'll have, you'll have Florida before you know it. Yeah,
Ricky 38:57
yeah. That'll definitely happen here. I can see it now. Drive me down the
Scott Benner 39:01
street as an anacondas eating a deer. You're like, Wait, where am I? Is this Jacksonville? Why did we put Ville, after all of our now, that's another story.
Ricky 39:14
Okay? Strange power movie titles,
Scott Benner 39:17
all right. So hold on a second. I gotta, I can do this. It's Monday. I haven't recorded it a couple of days. I'm doing the whole thing in my head, the baby and the stuff and the home, the periods and everything, diabetes. Oh, I got it. You had kind of a long diagnosis, right? Do you think you were a lot of for a while
Ricky 39:35
because of my medical distrust, everything that they tell me, I debunk. There's only one thing that they've told me so far that I believe to be true, which is that alcohol causes low blood sugar.
Scott Benner 39:47
I'll tell you one thing they've said, Scott that I can tell you 100% is true. Yeah,
Ricky 39:52
that one definitely. I mean, the the setting for the test was, was good, I thought, but it didn't pan out how I had planned. So, yeah. Yeah, we'll leave it there. So what was the question? Again? I lost myself. It
Scott Benner 40:06
doesn't matter, because you're just like, I know for sure, booze makes you low. I can tell you, that's right. And they told me that, how many times have you tested that?
Ricky 40:14
Oh, like, I I've drunk a little bit here and there, but I did a binge. So we did. I went to a a general practitioner doctor's birthday party, 40th birthday, and started drinking at 5pm and I didn't stop until, well, the last thing I remember is nine o'clock the following morning through that. And the reason I don't remember is because my sensor came off and then I went hypo, and my partner wasn't there, who's amazing with all this kind of stuff but he happened to turn up to collect me the next morning, and I was passed out somewhere, and he managed to get some sugar into me and all the rest of it, so that, that test, I believe, I reckon, it's a tequila. What do I find if I didn't have tequila? Tequila is what did you Yeah, that was at 8am and I remember being conscious, like, aware enough of being like, I need juice and that
Scott Benner 41:00
wait you were having, you were drinking tequila at 8am yeah,
Ricky 41:04
of juice, but we hadn't slept, so it was, like, just a continuation of the night before.
Scott Benner 41:09
Was it hard to take in like, sugary juice after drinking like that?
Ricky 41:12
No, because I was so drunk, you just
Scott Benner 41:13
didn't know. You're like, I think it's possible My stomach hurts, but anyway, someone get me liquid morphine. I know how to fix this.
Ricky 41:21
Yeah, yeah. So two ambulances came for that, yeah, and that's the only like, proper low blood sugar. I've needed help that I've had
Scott Benner 41:31
really awesome. That's really something, okay, Jesus, this has gotten off the rails. I'm also you said something when I said, Oh, I probably couldn't come there because I couldn't bring my chameleon. And then I said, that's probably why you guys don't have a lot of snakes everywhere. And you said, you responded, in a way. And I thought, What a neat colloquial like phrase that is, I'm literally gonna go back and find out what it is. Actually forget it. I'll just leave this here for Rob. Rob, when you're editing this, whatever she says after I say that, I want to make that the title of the episode, then it'll just be in the notes after it's edited. It's not It's magical. Thank you, Rob. Sounds fun. Okay, how long does it take you to get a pump? Eight months. You said, Yeah, eight
Ricky 42:19
months. But I, I'm relentless. I really could
Scott Benner 42:22
have taken longer had you not been
Ricky 42:25
Oh, I know people that have been trying to get one for five years. Yeah. So I, I went online, found the criteria for pumps in New Zealand and how they give them to people, and I found that you could get one on a low criteria. So I just started faking lows at the gym. Scott my doctor, and said, I'm not going to exercise anymore. I can't and don't pump.
Scott Benner 42:47
I got a bottle of tequila. I went to the gym and I got my pump right away. Is that basically, so you just showed them a lot of low blood sugars and said
Ricky 42:55
it's them. I didn't even do them. Oh, you just lied.
Scott Benner 42:58
Awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I had already paid
Ricky 43:01
for because we have only just started funding CGM here as of last month, so I was already paying for Dexcom. So it was, I think that helped, because obviously control, like your basal G IQ had just came out then, yeah. So yeah, that's how I got and I wasn't going to say, No,
Scott Benner 43:17
are the pumps covered by government insurance? Everything is everything. So Dexcom, no, you don't pay money for that stuff.
Ricky 43:24
I spent 15k on Dexcom over three years, up until a month ago, they started paying for it, and I cried in the pharmacy when they gave me, like, three months of life. And
Scott Benner 43:32
they were like, here, these are yours now. And you're like, don't you need 1000s of New Zealand dollars from me? You don't call them New Zealand dollars, probably. But you know what I
Ricky 43:39
mean? No, that's what they're called, New Zealand dollars. Wait, they really are, yeah, yeah, NZD.
Scott Benner 43:43
I don't call my money American dollars. It is, though I know, but Well, I don't, I mean, okay, it's USD, I know it is, but nobody says that. They just say dollar. Also, nobody says, right, I gotta be honest here. Mostly what happens is people double click the side of their phone, hold their phone in front of their face, then hold their phone up to the cash register, and then it all just happens.
Ricky 44:01
So, oh, yeah, good point. We do that a little
Scott Benner 44:04
bit. What's it like figuring out diabetes as an adult?
Ricky 44:08
Scary. So because of my lack of knowledge of what type one diabetes is, as soon as they told me I was diabetic, I was like, sweet. I'll go keto. It'll be gone. And then, paired with the advice from the people that discharged me from the hospital, again, I was very pushy. I wanted out of there. I think I only spent 30 hours in the hospital. So the advice was, if you are over 12 mmol, inject five units. If you're not, don't but
Scott Benner 44:38
I had gone keto, so that was the whole of the advice,
Ricky 44:42
oh and 16 units Atlantis, because I they just charged me with pens.
Scott Benner 44:46
Okay, is it? Are you supposed to follow up with a different doctor?
Ricky 44:50
I had three appointments, or like, three different specialist appointments every month for six months after that. So it was dietician, endocrine, all. Just a nurse practitioner, but they kind of taught you the prime your needle and don't inject in the same place. And I was pushing for carb information because I had that point, you know, I'd already started Googling, and I'll go, I need, you guys need to put me on Daphne. I figured out what Daphne was, which is a course that we have here and in Australia called Daily adjustments for normal eating, right? So it's, that's basically what I'd call, like, the introduction to type one, like I wanted that, but they wouldn't let me do it for a year. And that's when I started getting annoyed, and the things that they were trying to teach, and all the rest of it, and finding that all of it was probably most of it was wrong, like I was high or low. There was no in between, right? It was nothing. Ricky,
Scott Benner 45:39
you couldn't do Daphne for a year because there was no availability, or because they didn't want you to have the information. They didn't want me to have the information for the first year.
Ricky 45:47
Yeah, for a year, apparently it would be overwhelming. And I'm like, You do not know me, isn't
Scott Benner 45:52
it great? It's not overwhelming to be low and then high and then low, and then high and then low, that's not overwhelming. But you know, yeah, just this, wow, boy. Well, okay, well, okay, so we go to another place, another time, another country doesn't matter, same. Well, actually,
Ricky 46:08
I had a way around it. In the UK, they've got an amazing online resource. So I did an online card counting course through the UK. NHS, okay, yeah. So I did that, and that kind of gave me a bit of a, you know, a bit of information, and then I just started learning more. And I'm, I don't know, I I'm not scared of dumb things, I guess. So I'd just put an insulin and out for the best. And, you know, like, oh, wow, some sugar will fix that. I didn't know, you know, I hadn't listened to podcasts at this point or anything, but I knew that car was a bring it up, and it can't be that bad. Anthony will help, if it does help.
Scott Benner 46:42
How do you find this podcast? Because it's, I have to admit, it's way more popular in Australia and New Zealand than I would ever expect. So do people share it there? Yeah,
Ricky 46:53
so I had somebody tell me about it. So I I help a lot of people try and get a pump that aren't pushy enough. I met this lovely woman that lives north of me, and she told me about it. So I joined the Facebook group and asked some questions on there, I think, or was lurking on there. And then I noticed the information about the podcast. And I'd never, ever listened to a podcast before, and it's the only podcast I've ever listened to since then, and that was probably to be a year ago, I think a little bit less, yeah. And now my a 1c i don't know our a 1c is really different to yours, but so I was 118 at diagnosis. I was 60, doing it my own way, you know, learning myself or whatever. And now it's 37 which is an equal to a 5.5 Wow.
Scott Benner 47:40
Good for you. That's awesome. Yeah, for you. Look at you just going out and just figuring the whole thing out on your own. You know, you
Ricky 47:48
have no choice, really, it's the thing.
Scott Benner 47:51
But still, a lot of people would hear, Oh, I take 16 units of this a day, and if my blood sugar is over this I shoot this much, and that's what I do. And that's okay, because that's what they told me. And I guess I get low and I get high, and this is my life now. Yeah, I can't, yes, well, no, you're definitely not the kind of person who's gonna just be like, Oh, that seems okay. Is it possible? I don't want to try to high side something kind of this terrible. But is it possible, had you not gone through all this stuff with the and I know it's, I'm sorry I forget the word. It's not endometriosis, it's, it's
Ricky 48:23
the same thing. Endomyosis is the localized and the localized. Had
Scott Benner 48:28
you not gone through all of that, do you think you would have known to fight about your diabetes? Absolutely not. No, you wouldn't have.
Ricky 48:35
I would be in the, you know, like in the eight, say, 1c range. I'd be having complications in 20 years and blindly agreeing to everything. These well meaning people are telling me they're well meaning.
Scott Benner 48:48
Apparently, they told me, that's it. They said. They said, Ricky, I have your best best interest at art. Please don't Bolus unless your blood sugar is over 12. By the way, I'm not great with that either, but 12 is I, yeah, hold on a second. Where's my little magic machine?
Ricky 49:07
Well, over 200 I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure it's over 250 that's
Scott Benner 49:10
when you should I can look I have actually Juicebox podcast.com, go to the top, click on a one cm blood glucose calculator. Then what I do is I click on millimoles, and then I put in 12, and then it tells me it's a 216, that's crazy. Yeah, that's when you should and by the way, not five units, yeah, yeah, not, not a measured amount, just, hey, go with five. Like, yeah, yeah.
Ricky 49:31
My, my insulin, like, my carb ratio, it was, is one to, like, 20 grams as well. So I'm quite sensitive to insulin. When I went keto and put in five units because I was over 12, that did not go good.
Scott Benner 49:48
Just you don't like your blood sugar being high at all. I don't I, I'm
Ricky 49:52
I'm starting to correct 6.5 I don't know well what that is in your family, I'm
Scott Benner 49:58
going to guess, like around 100 And 10 because
Ricky 50:01
yeah would be Yeah, because I had one way of control, like he wants me 117 so you,
Scott Benner 50:05
oh, look at you. Oh, you're a disciple. Now, that's awesome. Yeah, yeah, okay, listen, I'm gonna pick you up as my daughter, because, you know, this one doesn't listen old, maybe a bit old, but that's okay. Seems like, I think people listen when they get older. Yeah,
Ricky 50:21
it's a good point. Actually, I if I had got this in my 20s, I think I might already be dead. I was so out of control, like, it just, there's no way, really, that's when I had my first dash with my thyroid was in, I think it was 22 and ended up in hospital because there was a big lump on my neck, and I couldn't stop vomiting, and I had Graves disease, thyroid toxicosis flare up. I had no idea what any of that meant, and they discharged me with all of these pills, and there was too many of them, so I just
Scott Benner 50:51
didn't take them. You do have great you do have an issue with your thyroid. You have great I do
Ricky 50:56
yeah. So in my 20s, I got diagnosed graves, and then in the last six months, I've had positive Hashimotos antibodies. Oh, so it's coming. It's coming, yeah, and I'll start fighting now for when the symptoms really come, then they might
Scott Benner 51:10
medicate me smart. Yeah. Do you have any other autoimmune issues? Yeah, no,
Ricky 51:15
asthma and endo is the only other long kind of problems I've had. Asthma
Scott Benner 51:19
is your other problem is your your mom's English? Is your father from New Zealand? Yes, yeah. What does that make you if you're New Zealand,
Ricky 51:26
I'm jewel national. Actually, I have a British passport and a New Zealand passport. I'd call myself a kiwi, though, but plainly my accent and I I fit in here. That's
Scott Benner 51:38
what I put it that way, like I'm from the United States, I'm an American, I'm from England, I'm British, you're from New Zealand, you're a kiwi, a kiwi, that's a fruit, too, a bird. Oh, also, it's a fruit. It's a kiwi. Is it's a person, a bird and a fruit. Yeah? Awesome. American. Just one thing,
Ricky 51:57
yes, yeah, yeah. I think it's because we're all obsessed with our bird that can't What is it? It's blind and it can't fly. Wait, it's our national bird. Is that true? Is that true? Google kiwi, they're useless. It
Scott Benner 52:13
says it's not. I love what you mean. I just love that you don't. Kiwis aren't blind, but their their vision is quite limited compared to other birds, vision
Ricky 52:22
is quite limited. Blind. What can you do with limited vision? Anyway, I
Scott Benner 52:29
don't know. I'm just imagining someone coming in and being like, I need a battery. And you're like, here's some windshield wipers close enough. It's a nocturnal animal. So it's, it's, yeah, oh, it sees better in low light conditions. You
Ricky 52:40
don't see them any, you know, like, it's pretty rare to see one. They are flightless, yeah. I mean, look how small the wings.
Scott Benner 52:50
Wings do they have? Wait, do they have wings? I'll find out. I like that. You and I are finding out together. Hold
Ricky 52:55
on, yeah, obviously I it's not a car. I don't care for that much. They have
Scott Benner 52:59
wings, but they're extremely small and functionalist for flight. Their wings are two inches long and are usually hidden under their dense hair, like feathers. These tiny wings don't support flight. I want to see one flip well. Now I want to see what I don't even know if I know what it is, oh, oh, I know what that is, yeah. Oh, it's probably called a kiwi because it's the shape of kiwi.
Ricky 53:23
Oh, my God, I never thought
Scott Benner 53:24
of it and the color, holy, it really is, right? Wow, yes. So okay, so then let's slow down for a second. Why are people from New Zealand called kiwis? The country's national Well, I know the national bird is a kiwi, but how does that happen? The nickname started to be used for New Zealanders, especially during World War One. New Zealand soldiers adopted the Kiwi as a symbol. The Kiwi bird, native to New Zealand, is unique to the country. Flight wasn't easy, recognizable. Imagine you're in the war and you're like, we need to, like, let us strike fear into the hearts of people. Let's be tough. What are we going to call ourselves? And somebody was like, kiwis. And then somebody went, Yeah. And then I assume they all died in the war. Like, I mean, I don't Yeah, they
Ricky 54:13
definitely would have, they, I imagine they would have, that's Yeah, wow.
Scott Benner 54:17
All right, just wow. Oh, okay, sorry, that's interesting. It's funny. You just think it's funny. It's also like, it's like, four in the morning there. So you're like, I don't know, Scott, what time do you have to leave? You have to get out of here. Oh, I've got another hour before I need to leave. Alright, well, I won't keep you that long. Don't worry. I just don't want you to, like, I don't want you to like, have to go to work and be like, I'm late because I was making a podcast. And then say, What was it about? And you're like, was about my uterus, kiwis, electric cars and how they burn. God. What was this about?
Ricky 54:49
I think they'd be very used to that. My last job, when I woke up from my surgery, the first thing I did was send a picture of the removed organ to my boss. Is
Scott Benner 54:59
that what you did? I'm sorry I couldn't come to work today. Here is a picture of my removed uterus. Yeah, here's my medical certificate. Please take this in lieu of a note. Did he accept that photo?
Ricky 55:10
Oh, he loved it. Yeah? Automotive voice mate. Hey,
Scott Benner 55:15
I just want to say sadly, approximately 18,000 New Zealanders died in World War 140 1000 were wounded out of 100,000 that served. That's a big number. Yeah. See, population only of about a million. While you guys only had a population about a million, you sent 100,000 people to fight, lost 40,000
Ricky 55:32
of them. It seems counterproductive to send people to fight. Were they gonna like, we're so little and tucked away? Are people even gonna come at us here? Yeah, I don't
Scott Benner 55:41
know. I wouldn't, yeah, I wouldn't. I just, you got to get involved. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, true. I don't know. You know, what a pretty big moat. Oh, that sounded sexual to me.
Ricky 55:57
Hey, to be fear. It's got sharks in it, if you come through the Australian side, no, it's just
Scott Benner 56:01
funnier. Okay, you wait. There's a side of your little, little pile of dirt that you can swim on where there's no sharks, probably not.
Ricky 56:10
Oh, I've never seen them. I've never seen one dragon come at me. And I swim a lot. You do go in the ocean frequently? Yeah? Beach at the bottom I arrived. Beach at the top of my road is, yeah, well, beaches are everywhere. You've
Scott Benner 56:23
only been to Hawaii, other than New Zealand and living in England when you were younger.
Ricky 56:28
Now, I've, I've been back to England a few times. I train every two years or so. I did a little side holiday to Lanzarote last two years ago. But I haven't done mainland America. I will do at some point, I want to come and have a look at some of your fall at some of your four lane drag
Scott Benner 56:44
strips. Oh, there's a drag place near me, I believe. Oh
Ricky 56:48
yeah, there is in Jersey. Yeah, there's one in South Carolina. I want to see it's got everything. I think there's like, a NASCAR track, because we've got a guy in your NASCAR series now that seems to be carving up a little bit, really. No, there's be cool to come. I don't
Scott Benner 57:00
want to say where this race truck is. It's so close to my house that, you know, badly you might, you might be showing up, but, yeah, there's a number of them in New Jersey. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, that'd be weird if you travel here to see drag strips. I I've done it
Ricky 57:13
so many times. The first time I went to England, this is really bad. So I went over there to meet my mother, and I said, Look, I'm coming for two weeks, and for the first week, I'm going to be visiting tracks. Do you want to come? And she did. So I met her at the airport, and we did all of the good tracks over there. We drove. Like she seen more of England with me than she has the whole time she's been living there such a tiny country, yeah.
Scott Benner 57:34
Oh, that's awesome. Was that? That was the one time you met her as an adult? Yeah? Like
Ricky 57:38
there had been a little bit of contact when we were younger, a few letters and phone calls here and there, but I'm really out of sight, out of mind with stuff like that. I'm quite a, I won't say emotionless, but you know what I mean, like, I just Well
Scott Benner 57:50
that might happen. Do you think that happens a little from being raised without your mom? Yeah, probably, yeah, yeah. Did you guys get on when you were when you were together? Yeah, absolutely,
Ricky 58:00
I'd say, obviously, it was a massive thing for her. She was crying and all the rest of it. And I was trying to not be insensitive about that, and but, you know, the once we got to the accommodation and we kind of sat down and had a drink, it was, it was fun. Did
Scott Benner 58:15
you find her to be and I'm quoting you from earlier, a drunk bitch. No.
Ricky 58:19
I mean, she likes her alcohol. No, not really, okay, no, but she is much older,
Scott Benner 58:27
to be fair, much older than what? Oh,
Ricky 58:29
then, then when the drunk bitch coming,
Scott Benner 58:33
she's grown since then you're saying maybe, yeah, yeah.
Ricky 58:35
Like, I can think of me at that age, and I would have been a drunk bitch too.
Scott Benner 58:40
Has your dad kept up with her at all? Oh
Ricky 58:43
no, not at all. I mean, I brought her back to New Zealand a few years ago, and they had a small interaction, but, yeah, other than that,
Scott Benner 58:50
a small interaction. But did it go like this? Hey, hey, yeah.
Ricky 58:53
She was like, she's Yeah, now we'll leave it, yeah,
Scott Benner 59:00
that's awesome. Oh, I like that. You brought her back there. Like, hey, you should come see Dad. Do you think that all of those New Zealand Army people would have? Do you think they were throwing those little Kiwis as grenades? Maybe that's why they weren't doing so well. Then just as they were just throwing the birds of people, and they're
Ricky 59:18
like, yeah, the long baked bit,
Scott Benner 59:21
my God, all right, I want to go to the last thing on your list. Yeah, I've shuddered to ask you about this the entire time, because I don't know what you're going to say, but on your list, it says how to manipulate the prescription pad.
Ricky 59:32
Oh, we're talking about my GP and my endocrinologist. So,
Scott Benner 59:37
Oh, so you're just talking about how to manipulate the doctor specifically not get drugs that you need.
Ricky 59:41
Yeah, no, all. I mean, insulin, okay. I mean, they'll give it to me. But, um, well, that was more about how I got my pump manipulated. Oh, description, grades, all right.
Scott Benner 59:52
Oh, good, good. So we've talked about that already. Then not, not that yet. I was like, I thought you were gonna give us all, like, some advice for, like, you know, fake. Hip pain or something like that. I wasn't sure what was going on exactly. I will finish with that, right? You, you've mentioned a number of times, just not giving up, being pushy, that whole thing, like, what did that look like? Functionally, chasing
Ricky 1:00:13
everything up twice a week, email, phone, like the squeaky wheel gets the oil. I've always said that before I got unwell. So if they say no, you come back with a reason why, they'll be saying yes every single time. And if they cancel an appointment on you rebook it, just don't lay down. And if there's a criteria, find the criteria and meet the criteria. However you need to do that. You do that
Scott Benner 1:00:39
be undeniable no matter what is said to you, that's it absolutely. Just keep pushing good for you. That's awesome. I mean, I find that to be the case. I don't know how long I forget how old I was at some point, but I had a series of, like, not great jobs when I was younger. And finally, I'd been working so hard in like, cold, dirty buildings, I just always had to get out of there. And a friend of mine got me a job collecting credit card debts, and I've talked about on the podcast, you know, before I did it for like, a year, I was way too good at it. It made me feel bad. I got out of it as fast as I could. But I will tell you something that is good practice for what you were talking about, like that, you know, like, Hey, pay your bill. I can't. Yes, you can. No, I can. Yes, you can. I can't afford food. Buy fewer things to eat. I don't know what to tell you, you've made a debt here, like that, kind of like that, not and it sucks, because, trust me, I never once enjoyed that job like I really did. I did, did hate it, but nevertheless, it did teach me how, like, you don't give up, because people start saying, like, more and more heart wrenching things. And I mean, there was a moment in my life where someone said to me, I can't pay for this car. My husband has cancer, and I had to respond, make a payment by the 15th, or someone's gonna come tow your car away. And not good for my soul. But it does teach you how to like, hear something off putting, and persist, if that makes sense. And I think that's what ends up happening, is that somebody tells you you're not sick that didn't hurt, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and you said, No, you Yes, I do fix this. I'm not going to stop here's an extra email. Here's another phone call. You're not going to ignore me. Somebody help me.
Ricky 1:02:23
Yeah, yeah. Just turn up to wherever the most expensive so I think that's emergency department here. That's like, there'll be 1000s every time that they admit you there, they have to talk. You're on a book.
Scott Benner 1:02:33
Good for you. I think that's awesome. It's a great story. It really is. Happy birthday. Thank you. You're very welcome. I hope you have a great day. Hope you enjoy the cake. I bet you it's gonna suck and you're gonna smile and act like it's not dry, but that's good for you totally. But it sounds like you do really like the people you work with, though, yeah, yeah.
Ricky 1:02:50
No, I love the I have a couple of jobs, but I just, I love the automotive industry is quite an interesting bunch of people.
Scott Benner 1:02:56
Do you love cars so much that it doesn't matter what you drive? Or do you have a car that, like, you're like, This is the perfect car for me.
Ricky 1:03:03
Oh, I have orcas, yeah, um, there's definitely the perfect car. I just can't afford
Scott Benner 1:03:10
it. What would you drive if you could afford anything, a 1963
Ricky 1:03:15
Mazda, Cosmo sport, very, the first of the rotaries
Scott Benner 1:03:19
to kind of go back to when you were a kid. Yeah,
Ricky 1:03:21
even I'll be, it'll be negative 20 years from to be fair, I think the only person that I know that has one's Jay Leno.
Scott Benner 1:03:29
Oh, he's got his YouTube channels, if you like cars, his YouTube channel, awesome.
Ricky 1:03:33
It's amazing. He has got a collection.
Scott Benner 1:03:37
He one time brought out. It was like, it looked like a carriage. And I was like, What is this? And he's like, this is the first electric car from like 1911 I'm like, wait, what? And then sure enough, it had batteries in it, and it like a little thing, and you turned it and the thing, and it was like a I was like, Oh, my God, that's insane. Yeah, have
Ricky 1:03:54
you seen him drive that tank on the street?
Scott Benner 1:03:56
No, there was a tank. He's got a tank
Ricky 1:03:59
thing. Like, maybe it's a union I don't know. It's some war vehicle. It doesn't look like it should be on a road.
Scott Benner 1:04:05
All I know is he's one of the people because of this car thing that he does on YouTube, which I very much enjoy. I hate to see that he's getting older me too. It makes me sad. Yeah,
Ricky 1:04:17
yeah, absolutely. I don't know there's no replacement. I
Scott Benner 1:04:20
think it's because, it's because driving, to some degree, really does count on you having, you know, being agile and aware and good vision and all that stuff. And you can see how much he loves driving, but you can actually see as he gets older that it's more of a chore for
Speaker 1 1:04:36
him, I guess. Yeah, it's sad. It's really sad. It really does break
Scott Benner 1:04:39
my heart. I don't know if it just makes me feel like, am I going to be able to drive? Like, when I get older, like, if it's that feeling of your loss of freedom or not, I have to say this though, I will tell you that I am a huge proponent of anybody and all. I mean, a lot of companies are doing it, but them trying to teach those cars to drive themselves. Because I do genuinely believe that there's going to. An age where, if I want to go visit my kids or be independent, there might have to be a world where I can get into a car, sit down and say to the car, like, hey, take me to the grocery store and it doesn't. Or, yeah, absolutely, you know, I don't know. It's me kind of hoping that, you know, somebody finds a way to put a bandage on me being old one day. But yeah,
Ricky 1:05:18
they're already nearly there. I used to work for Volvo, and we had a self drive car, you know, like, it's, it's pairing features together. It definitely, you can't put a GPS in yet, but it'll, it'll drive without you doing anything a long distance. It's quite scary.
Scott Benner 1:05:32
I've experienced the tel, the Tesla self driving, and it's insane. Like, yeah, it is insane. How well it works. So who knows where it's all going to go to, but hopefully every car manufacturer pays attention to stuff like that, and you don't have to end up just going to one or two, you know, companies, if you want to do something like that, would be nice if they, if they all, put some effort into it, but let's keep the cars gas for you so you can be happy. Yeah,
Ricky 1:05:57
that's all maybe they'll make a cool EV, Monday. All right, hold
Scott Benner 1:06:01
on one second for me, okay.
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Scott Benner 0:00
Friends, we're all back together for the next episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Welcome.
Jordon 0:15
My name is Jordan. You could also call me Jomo, if you'd like. And I am a type one diabetic.
Scott Benner 0:22
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. AG, one is offering my listeners a free $76 gift. When you sign up, you'll get a welcome kit, a bottle of d3, k2, and five free travel packs in your first box. So make sure you check out drink AG, one.com/juice box. To get this offer, don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com All you have to do is use the offer code juice box at checkout. That's Juicebox at checkout to save 40% at cozy earth.com Are you an adult living with type one or the caregiver of someone who is if you are, I'd love it if you would go to T 1d exchange.org/juicebox and take the survey. When you complete that survey, your answers are used to move type one diabetes research of all kinds. So if you'd like to help with type one research, T, 1d exchange.org/juice, box, it should not take you more than about 10 minutes. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes and their mini med 780 G system designed to help ease the burden of diabetes management, imagine fewer worries about mis Bolus or miscalculated carbs thanks to meal detection technology and automatic correction doses. Learn more and get started today at Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box. I'm having an on body vibe alert. This episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by ever since 365 the only one year where CGM, that's one insertion and one CGM a year, one CGM one year, not every 10 or 14 days ever since cgm.com/juice
Jordon 2:17
box. My name is Jordan. You could also call me Jomo, if you'd like. And I am a type one diabetic.
Scott Benner 2:24
You say I could call you jumbo Jomo. Oh, damn, I love Jumbo. But I'll go Jomo if you need me to. You've actually been
Jordon 2:32
saying something about fumo. And I'm just like, it's act. It's FOMO. I'm Jomo. I know it's FOMO.
Scott Benner 2:40
It's so funny. How that? I guess marketing people probably love that it's grabbed so many people's attention. So we all know it's FOMO, but what Omnipod was doing was saying like fomu, right? So fear of missing out on Omnipod and I was joking around, going, is it fumu or fomu or like that? I guess it really worked.
Jordon 3:00
I should probably start doing it. Caught a lot of attention, for sure, I
Scott Benner 3:04
should start doing that ad again. Apparently, you guys got very upset. I got no, I genuinely got notes. People are like, it's faux Moo, and I'm like, and they're like, well, you're saying it's FOMO, but you're saying Moo, so it's faux Moo. And I'm like, yeah, yeah. I know. Like, I okay?
Jordon 3:20
Yeah, I thought the whole conversation around it is just funny, because I really don't care, but everyone else does, and it's like, Whoa, there. I mean, people care about so many different things.
Scott Benner 3:30
They really did care about that one. Yeah, that one was interesting. It took me by surprise. I'm not gonna lie. How old were you when you were diagnosed?
Jordon 3:37
I was diagnosed at the ripe age of 35 oh gosh, how old are you now? I am 37 not too long then, huh? Nope. It's been about a year and a half.
Scott Benner 3:48
Okay, all right, you sent a comprehensive list of things you want to talk about. Oh,
Jordon 3:53
I was probably super manic at the time when my hormones were rebalancing. I don't even remember what I wrote, but looking back and listening to some more episodes. I'm like, jeez, I probably rambled
Scott Benner 4:03
on. Oh, we'll see. I don't I mean, listen you, it's all laid out for me here. I don't have a lot to do, but my it's gonna be an easy lift for me, as they say, fantastic. Tell me first, is there any other autoimmune in your family or with you? I
Jordon 4:19
do not have any other autoimmune disease. I've actually been pretty healthy all my life. So this was quite a surprise, and it took me about six months of asking my mom, are you sure? Are you sure no one's type one diabetic? And then she finally figured out all of the people on her side of the family that were type one diabetic. So I have two cousins with type one diabetes, and one of those has a child with type one
Scott Benner 4:45
so no one except for these three people, correct and me, yeah, and you, so now four, oh, your mom's on top of it. Is it just the thing where, when you ask people in the family, do you think they limit it in their minds to like themselves, their parents? Parents and that's it?
Jordon 5:00
I don't think so, because our families are pretty close. They grew up pretty close. Like my mom knew of it's her niece who had type one, so she always knew that she had type one. But you know, I asked everyone, I was like, even like, rheumatoid arthritis, does anybody have anything? And the answer was no across the board, until
Scott Benner 5:20
the until the answer wasn't no, and you dig a little bit. So people kind of stay private, and these are just cousins. You didn't know that well, maybe my
Jordon 5:27
parents and my my parents family are a lot older than I was, so I did spend time with these cousins, but she she actually got diagnosed at six years old, and she's almost 65 years old now. So she's almost 60 years with type one diabetes, I didn't know the other ones. Oh,
Scott Benner 5:43
good for her. That's, that's, that's a nice little run. Okay, so how do you figure out you have it first?
Jordon 5:47
I just want to state that when I was diagnosed with type one diabetes, my a 1c was 18% so I was quite sick for a very long time leading up to my diagnosis, I would probably place it. You know, when you're diagnosed, it's just this huge rush of what actually happened. When did this actually start? Because by the time I actually went in, I couldn't walk, right? So I remember it was like, I don't know, 2021 I guess, and all of these COVID vaccines are coming out, and all of the news, like, all these dangers, blah, blah, blah, this vaccine gives blood clots in your legs. That's the one that stuck out to me. And at that time, my legs had started to cramp significantly at night time, especially, like they wake me up in the middle of the night, and I feel like my leg was about to, like, rip off. Okay. I was like, Oh no, maybe I have blood clots from this vaccine. And, you know, I just kept watch on that. I just kept thinking about it the whole time, but the symptoms kind of started to build from there. So, okay, that's the earliest I could place, like, really significant symptoms.
Scott Benner 7:04
When you look back Jordan, I mean, an 18 A, 1c is, is pretty significant, even, like a DKA diagnosis. So how long do you think this was all going on for?
Jordon 7:12
I'd say probably about two years leading up until I finally went into the doctor.
Scott Benner 7:17
Oh, you you think you had, like, a lot of on set, and you just didn't do anything about it for that long.
Jordon 7:23
Yeah, I like to say I gaslit myself through the honeymoon phase. You
Scott Benner 7:27
were like, I see some people saying about this, this vaccine, it's probably got me, yeah. And then you're like, so you you'd follow any idea if it got you out of looking deeper at what was happening,
Jordon 7:39
absolutely. And, you know, there was so much going on in life around those few years. I was moving cities for jobs and, you know, all the lockdown that I honestly just thought I was exhausted. I was in my 30s at this point. I'm like, oh, maybe I'm just getting old. And this is what it's like, yeah, then there were some just symptoms that I couldn't ignore. That's
Scott Benner 8:03
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Jordon 10:19
were a few that lined up right towards the end. I wasn't able to go more than 30 minutes without having to use the restroom, and I was not always around a restroom. So there were often times where I'd have to pull over on the highway and use the side of the road, or I'd have certain corners of my route home that I knew I could sneak into and no one would bother me. But it got to the point where I was also like falling asleep on the road while driving. I was thinking I was tired, you know, stop in to use the restroom. Get a coffee. Drive for 30 more minutes, stop in for the restroom, grab a Coca Cola this time. You know, it's like the coffee's not working, maybe the Coke will, yeah, downing a huge coke. And then, you know, how long is your commute? Jordan, My commute is short, but I do a lot of driving tasks for work. Okay? I live in Orange County, so I have to drive up to La often or down to San Diego often, and it's just a significant time, yeah,
Scott Benner 11:19
no, actually, in the car for many hours and but constantly stopping, recharging yourself with some sort of caffeine, taking a an incredible, wicked piss, and then moving on again, pretty
Jordon 11:29
much, yep. And that just got to the point, you know, in at night time, it was really bad. But really the thing that sent me over the edge was back to my legs. They just really stopped working. I live on a second floor, so walking up the stairs and walking down the stairs like my tread wasn't correct, it wasn't normal. It was getting stuck, and I actually feared that I was going to fall down and hit my head. So no kidding,
Scott Benner 11:55
in your mid 30s, you're like, My legs aren't working anymore. Yep, had you never been sick before that. Like, did you live a pretty unencumbered life prior to this? Absolutely,
Jordon 12:04
I never got sick, maybe once every couple years. Never got the flu. If anything, it was more physical injuries. But I'm not used to, I was never used to being sick.
Scott Benner 12:16
Yeah, so you're not particularly a person who's just ignoring things. It just feels like it just feels like this can't be what's happening to me, right? Well,
Jordon 12:25
I didn't know diabetes existed at that time. I did. But you know, it just jumping forward to when they hand you that pamphlet in the diabetes education and I'm reading it, and I look up at the nurse, and I'm like, Oh my gosh, why didn't I know this before? You know, all of the shaky legs off balance, like I could have dealt with this a long time ago,
Scott Benner 12:45
like, this is crazy that this didn't occur to me sooner.
Jordon 12:48
I mean, immediately I was like, you've got to be kidding me, this is the answer to all of these problems that I've been experiencing for the past two years.
Scott Benner 12:58
Right? Were you able to let go of the I mean, was there guilt around it, or did you let that go?
Jordon 13:02
I mean, there was so much guilt for things not health related, you know, all of the things that uncontrolled diabetes over two years does to your personal life and your relationships, I felt very guilty about those. You know, what sorts of things happened, having to move often during the pandemic was very difficult, and I was just married in 2019 to my beautiful wife. She's an Irish citizen, so she actually did the 90 day fiance thing to get here. Okay? So I was moving her around the person that she met. I was clearly not that person. My I had a short attitude. I was clearly not able to comprehend situations very well. I was, you know, short at work, I had an attitude. I, you know, things that I never experienced before. Looking back on it, I'm like, I was absolutely unhinged for quite some time. So my guilt was more around treating people poorly, okay, but once I understood that I was kind of out of control, and that was kind of a symptom, I guess, of uncontrolled diabetes, yeah, kind of let that go. I did immediately apologize to everybody, you know, I even called my parents. I was like, Look, I'm so sorry. You know, I forgive you for never figuring this out earlier. You know, I didn't know what was going on, especially right as my a 1c was dropping. You know that the six months after that, it was just a whole whirlwind of emotions and experiences and forgiveness and, you know, figuring out how to give grace to myself. And, yeah,
Scott Benner 14:42
that's interesting. Did you do like, a, like, a 12 step tour? Did you go around and apologize to people in your life? Pretty much,
Jordon 14:49
pretty much. I mean, it was even things that I was, I work in a theater. I work in technical theater. Things were really stressful opening up the theater after the pandemic, too. You know, nobody. He was coming back to work, there was so much to do. Part of why I was ignoring the symptoms. I was like, I'm just overworked. I'm tired. I'd create accidents. Like, nobody got hurt, they got I'm so grateful for that. But, you know, I I'd cause accidents, and
Scott Benner 15:13
I've never done that. Give me an example of how. So we
Jordon 15:17
work with heavy theatrical equipment, you know, like a big theater light, and they go on, like a boom base, like there's a heavy weight on the ground, and a pipe screws into it, and then you clamp a bunch of lights on it, okay? And, you know, I clamp too many lights that it would be top heavy, and it would eventually just fall over. And
Scott Benner 15:36
you think, because you just weren't, like, you didn't have the mental focus,
Jordon 15:41
yeah, in between having to go to the restroom while doing all these tasks, it was really difficult to give it the concentration that you really needed to make everything safe.
Scott Benner 15:50
You're rushing around to go back to the bathroom again. I
Jordon 15:53
mean, we use these scissor lift genies that go up, you know, 30 feet in the air and come back down. I couldn't make it halfway up sometimes before I have to come back down. It was really bad. Listen,
Scott Benner 16:03
I could probably just stay in this the whole time. I'm not going to. But it is fascinating how consistent these stories are with people that, you know, their health is just deteriorating, you know, and crazy things are happening to them, and they're just like, I'm probably just getting older, you know what I mean? Like when you were 20, if I would have said you, hey, you know, in your mid 30s, you're gonna have to pee every 20 minutes. That's part of getting older. You go, I don't think that's right, right?
Jordon 16:26
It's like, why is everyone keeping this a secret from me?
Scott Benner 16:30
So funny. Yeah, exactly. Why won't people tell this story about the peeing? But okay, so you get your diagnosis, you're newly, newly married, and you kind of work out your life stuff, which is fantastic, and people were receptive to your apologies.
Jordon 16:44
Oh, my God, so much. So absolutely. And in fact, you know, the situation in my house was rather difficult that, you know, we had decided to go to therapy and go to couples counseling to figure out, you know, what my problem was now that looking back on it and time just lined up so perfectly that I was diagnosed a couple days before our first therapy session, and we sat down, and I'm struggling with this diagnosis, and my wife is struggling with having lost Her husband, that she said something that really stuck out to me, and it's really helped me the whole time. And she basically separated the situation from itself. She said what you were dealing with was this, like third party you you had a mistress that was in the shadows that you didn't know was there. Both of you didn't know it was there, but it was causing difficulties. So she really helped me separate, you know, the uncontrolled diabetes and the diabetes from who I am as a person. And that's just really helped me with this whole journey.
Scott Benner 17:54
Yeah, very con and not just kind, but, you know, a lot of emotional maturity there from her, for sure, she was great. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Okay, let's look at this list. Do you feel like the COVID vaccine had something to do with your diagnosis? I mean,
Jordon 18:08
a little bit in a way, like, I know I'll never know what did, but considering that, I can pinpoint a moment in time, like, I don't think I'm just correlating something, even though it's clearly a correlation, I think they're connected significantly.
Scott Benner 18:24
Let's start with the dates first. So you you think it's possible that this health trend was happening over two years. When was two years like, what point in time is does those two years begin?
Jordon 18:36
I was diagnosed with type one diabetes, officially on 420 2023
Scott Benner 18:44
okay, but you think it may have been going on since 2018
Jordon 18:49
No, not 2018 this would have the symptoms would have been going on since about 2021
Scott Benner 18:55
since 21 okay, sorry, okay, so you were diagnosed about a year and a half ago. Can you look at like, when you got there the vaccine and when that two years falls? Are they do they those dates fall close to each other?
Jordon 19:09
Yes, they absolutely do. So it would have I'd received like, you know, the second half of the first vaccine in March of 2021 and then I was diagnosed in april 23 so it was a year, and, like, a month, and the in the timeline, and like I said, I just remember all the news about the blood clots, and I took them seriously, like, you know, I and let me just say that I've had every single booster since. So I'm not, like, trying to say the, you know, it's causing type one diabetes.
Scott Benner 19:39
That's not the, yeah, that's not the conversation. I'm just, I'm trying to get, like, just through your, you know, through what happened to you and and I have some things to say about it as well, but I'm trying to get all the information out first. So what was your reaction? Like, you know, sometimes people get inoculated for something, and then they they'll get sick. Like, some people get the flu vaccine, then they get the flu. Did you get Were you sick after you got inoculated? Yeah. Nope,
Jordon 20:00
never got sick. Never got sick. The things that started were, I remember peeing at night time, and I remember my legs starting to give up on me. So do you ever get COVID When I was diagnosed and I got the A 1c of 18% I didn't know what an A 1c was at that time. So I went to Google and I learned that all of the charts only went up to 14% and I was like, so 18% it's obviously not It's not real, like, this is fake. So I'll go back when it's convenient, and get retested. Then I got COVID for the first time. Okay, so I got COVID right after my first a 1c result.
Scott Benner 20:41
Gotcha So, your a 1c was creeping up. Actually creeping up is the wrong word, was flying up. I'm clearly not a doctor, right? But a lot of people's diagnosis come after a virus. And, you know, I can speak for my daughter, specifically, she had Coxsackie, and then her onset happened. This is not uncommon, like, this is a very well understood way that type one can kind of get thrown, you know, into the forefront. So you are likely walking around with some auto antibodies that are indicator, a marker that you could get type one diabetes, yep, you know. So you get, you know, a virus. It kind of like kicks your immune system into gear. You know how it goes, right? It goes and they go, you know, the the T cells go, find your beta cells instead of finding the, you know, the illness or whatever. And I mean, I think we all understand that, that when you get a vaccine, the vaccine, you know, is trying to get your body to respond to listen again. This is outside of my purview, but they put the sickness in there so your body goes, Oh, this is bad. I'll learn how to get rid of this. And then that's what a vaccine is supposed to be, right? If it gets that response going, and your body is is in, is ripe to, you know, for those T cells to go get your beta cells instead. It doesn't sound crazy to me, you know, it certainly doesn't, yeah, and
Jordon 22:07
I'm also not going to discount the fact that if I were to have gotten COVID, I'd end up in the same place. So, you know. But that didn't happen. I understand. Okay, okay.
Scott Benner 22:16
I just wanted to understand from your list. All right, I like this list here, ungodly a one sees cholesterol on type one. What about your cholesterol? Yeah.
Jordon 22:23
So I'm a really skinny dude. You know, I had even lost 25 pounds. I was down to like 120 pounds when I was finally diagnosed. I'm not one that gets sick often. So I received an actual phone call from my doctor. And I was like, did doctors normally call people. Is this? What's going on? Yeah, but when she told me about the odd A, 1c she also told me that my LDL was really high. And I know nothing about cholesterol either. I know that I was a really skinny dude, and having really, really high cholesterol was super bizarre as well. So those were the two results that I'm now learning are quite connected the high
Scott Benner 23:01
glucose and has your cholesterol gone back to normal?
Jordon 23:05
So they put me on a statin, and I avoided taking it for about six months, and my cholesterol did come down a little bit. I don't really know how the numbers work, but my LDL was like 190 or something like that. And with in six months with just insulin, that came down to about 160 almost a year on statins, and you know, it's back within range. I'm below 90 now. So how's your diet? I'm a vegetarian. I was been vegetarian for like, eight years, and after my diagnosis, I was having a hard time with protein. So we've introduced fish back into our diet. Okay,
Scott Benner 23:39
what does that make you a what it's not now, you're not a vegetarian. You're,
Jordon 23:44
I guess it's a pescatarian. Technically, my wife goes, if you hear me talk about food, I never say what I am. I just eat. And I'm like, okay, that makes sense, too.
Scott Benner 23:54
So I'm looking here. Type one diabetes can impact LDL, cholesterol levels with overall lipid profiles in several ways, glycemic control, poorly managed blood sugar levels in type ones can lead to higher LDL. Hyperglycemia can alter lipid metabolism, promoting an increase in LDL, particularly in the more harmful, small, dense LDL particles. People with type one, insufficient insulin, can affect the liver ability to regulate cholesterol, inflammation, oxidation chronic high blood sugar can cause inflammation, oxidative stress, which oxidizes LDL particles. If type one diabetes leads to kidney complications like neuropathy, LDL levels can rise further. So that's what I can find about that. I can also tell you that in one of our episode somewhere, Jenny goes off on on a bit of a rant about type ones getting statins when they don't need them. So, but it sounds like it helped. You. Will you try to get off of them? Has the doctor talked to you about that?
Jordon 24:53
You know, my last a 1c check, my last round of blood check, they didn't call for a lipid panel. So I asked. To for them to write a script for it. So I'm going to go in and get that done. I have a feeling I really do not want to take statins for the rest of my life. Yeah. But every single endocrinologist I've talked to, and I've talked to more than just my primary Endo, they just look you dead in the eye, and they're like, No, this is you just
Scott Benner 25:19
should yeah, again, not a doctor, not advice, and I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but if pharma companies run around saying, Hey, here's some obvious reasons, like some of the ones I just read, why people with type one diabetes should use a statin, then why not give them to them? And then it kind of becomes the standard of care. And then I don't know if people think about it as much as as if they just say, well, this is what we do. So here, take it so, I mean, I don't know, man, if I was you, I'd get it rerun. If my LDL looked good, I'd say I'd like to come off this medication and try again, you know, in an appropriate amount of time to do another blood test and see if it stays that way. Because, I mean, if the things I just read were what impacted you, and you were maybe in the middle of, like, a lot of diagnosis over two years that culminated in an 18 A, 1c, then, you know, now that you're doing better, maybe you don't need that anymore.
Jordon 26:10
That's completely the route I'm planning on taking. If my LDL has dropped since my last one a year ago, I'm gonna get off of them until my next, my next round of tests, just to see I'm not going to tell anybody about it. I'm just going to do it
Scott Benner 26:25
now. Listen, you know what I'm saying? Tell your doctor, etc. This part of me wants to jump ahead on your list, and part of me wants to keep going in order, because you've done such a nice job of laying it out here for me. You said my frame of mind post diagnosis about how to view this new chronic illness in my life. You're calling it like a new shot at life, and I'm interested in what you mean by that. Yeah,
Jordon 26:48
so I don't know really how to get into this, but I guess when I was sitting there in the doctor's office after my a one, after my official diagnosis, and I do want to say that I had my a 1c of 18% and I wasn't put on insulin until 28 days later. So
Scott Benner 27:08
wait, wait, hold on, they didn't rush you to a hospital. No, Scott,
Jordon 27:11
they let me ignore phone calls, and I went on March 23 for my first test. I didn't go back to get retested until April 14.
Scott Benner 27:21
So they just, like, they called you and you just didn't call
Jordon 27:24
back. No, I talked to them. I was like, Yeah, I don't believe this test result is correct. I'll come in and get
Scott Benner 27:30
it retested. But like you said, you were altered at that point. I was completely altered at that point. Yeah, yeah. Listen, I can commiserate with this, because if you've heard enough of the podcast, you'll know that I had very low iron at points in my life, and it was difficult to talk to me about things like I had a very short fuse, about nothing, it completely and utterly connected to the low iron. Yeah, so if you're foggy in your head, it's hard to respond to things, you know what I mean, and
Jordon 28:00
the fact that I got COVID Very soon after that first test, it just completely washed me. I had no idea what was going on, but I did spend that time between March 23 and April 14 looking into it more and kind of connecting the dots that Jordan you might actually have type one diabetes, because that's what she said. She told me, she goes, I've never seen an A 1c this high before, and she's a young person, so I doubt she's seen I don't know if many people have seen an A 1c like this, but she was like, I talked to some colleagues, and they're like, if your test results are confirmed, you have uncontrolled type one diabetes. I'm just like, you've got to be kidding me, like I'm 35 years old, I don't have diabetes, you know? And then I go off and get COVID, and then I look into it further, I learn what ketones are. So I asked my wife to pick up some ketone strips while she was out, and, I mean, they were just black as could be, yeah? Geez, man, oh, you're lucky. I'm so lucky. And that's kind of to your original question is that I was sitting there in the doctor's office. They're finally giving me insulin. I have no idea what's going on. My wife is sitting there. Has no idea what's going on. We're reading this information. It says like, if your blood glucose is over 300 you need to go to the emergency room immediately. And I just poked at 369 and I hadn't eaten in 18 hours.
Scott Benner 29:28
300 I could do that standing on my head. I mean,
Jordon 29:30
at that point, I was like, What am I some super human I honestly felt like the most diabetic person in the entire world, at that moment when everything was kind of coming to like fruition. When I was understanding it more clearly that this was like something really significant and life changing.
Scott Benner 29:47
You were like, I have the most diabetes anybody's ever had in
Jordon 29:51
this very moment. I sure did feel like it. I
Scott Benner 29:54
mean, you were in DK, they, I imagine they share that with you, right? Scott,
Jordon 29:58
I have spent. Year and a half trying to figure out what DKA is. And, you know, I gaslit myself through two years of ladder. Chances are I was absolutely in DKA. I mean, I don't, I don't know how they test for that, how they determine that, but, yeah, I mean, I was throwing up my dinner. I was, you know, you
Scott Benner 30:15
never landed in the hospital, not once. They just gave you insulin. A month later,
Jordon 30:20
they gave me insulin 28 days later, yeah,
Scott Benner 30:24
I don't think you were treated well, in case you're wondering, well, and
Jordon 30:27
here's me thinking I was treated so well, and my life was saved by these people. And then, you know, a year later, you look back and you're like, Oh, my God, they're so lucky. I'm not dead.
Scott Benner 30:36
Yeah, they should have tackled you and drug you to a hospital. That's what it sounds like,
Jordon 30:40
I mean, knowing more about it, I'm kind of a little upset, but I'm well, so that's all that matters.
Scott Benner 30:47
We're gonna move on. You say you feel like something really awful could have happened to me, and it kind of gave you that renewed idea of, like, this is another shot at my life.
Jordon 30:56
Well, no, like, in a like, let's get a little metaphysical here, but I'm sitting there and they're given teaching me about Lantis, and they're teaching me about Humalog, and they walk me through giving my first 12 units of Lantis is what they give me first. They're like, here's how you drop insulin. Here's 12 units of Lantis. And I'm telling you, Scott, the second I put that syringe into my stomach for the first time, like the whole world around me, like melted and spun and everything transformed in like, this weird sense that I can only now, like, place it as, like, I jump timelines. What do you think happened? I think I had this realization that I've been like diabetic my entire life, and that there wasn't a day of my life that I had lived where I wasn't a type one diabetic. I mean, even looking back to childhood and everything, I'm just like, Whoa,
Scott Benner 31:49
that poor kid. Why do you think that, did you have symptoms throughout your life? Well, I don't think so. Maybe, no, you're you are talking more about like, kind of like spiritually, then, yeah, like
Jordon 32:00
spiritually, like that person is dead, like the non type one diabetic version of Jordan who lived his life without type one diabetes is gone forever from this world no longer exists. How
Scott Benner 32:13
much weed or other stuff were you using when you had this thought? Funny,
Jordon 32:18
I do smoke a lot of weed, which makes it really ironic that I was diagnosed on 420 I'm not sure if you get that reference, but it was my favorite holiday up until a while ago. It's funny enough, when I checked my blood sugar for the first time on the glucose meter, you you open up your glucose meter and you had the first question it asks is, what time is it? And you look up at the anatomic clock in the doctor's office, and it just clicked over to 420 it was 420 on 420 when I took my first gluco stick, and I was like, my blood sugar is going to be 420 it ended up being 369 but what a bummer. I know I was a little upset, but my wife is over here. Like 300 you need to go to the ER, I wonder what 400 would have done.
Scott Benner 33:03
400 probably would have sent you to the ER, on your back. How long have you been smoking?
Jordon 33:10
A very, very long time, probably since I was, like, 18 years old. I'm 37 now, so almost 20 years daily.
Scott Benner 33:16
Oh,
Jordon 33:17
yeah, regularly,
Scott Benner 33:19
okay, which means, like, wake and bake a lot of times. Yeah, okay. And then throughout the day, you like, how do you do it? Do you like, hit a joint a couple times? You smoke the whole thing, like, just
Jordon 33:32
a couple it's, I usually use a pipe, and it's like, one or two hits in the morning. And then when I get home
Scott Benner 33:39
from work, how do you describe to people what it does for you? You know, people don't really ask. I'm asking. It
Jordon 33:45
makes me feel good. It makes me enjoy things. It makes me I give a lot more grace. I have a lot more patience. I have a lot more creative thoughts.
Scott Benner 33:57
The Weed couldn't cut through the high blood sugars, though, huh? Well,
Jordon 34:00
I see it must have been making me feel good the whole time, because I was just ignoring all the symptoms of the illness. But,
Scott Benner 34:07
you know, people listening here to think, if you weren't hot, you would have figured out you had diabetes two years
Jordon 34:11
since, yeah, I'm sure I would have,
Scott Benner 34:16
was your access to weed part of how you tricked that lovely girl into marrying you from Ireland.
Jordon 34:20
No, get this. We actually met on Tinder in Dubai, of all places. So is very much a place where you do not smoke weed. Oh, can I ask why you were there? I was living there. I was working there, and she was also there, living and working at the time.
Scott Benner 34:36
So you swipe, catch her. You guys meet there, and you start dating in Dubai. We start
Jordon 34:43
meeting in Dubai. We're there for a few years. Then I get another job in Doha, Qatar, right next door, and she gets a job there. We move there. And then that project that I was working with ended in. So I moved back to Seattle, and we had been engaged before then, so we just figured it was best to come this way, as I had work, and that's kind of how that all started.
Scott Benner 35:09
You can't smoke there, though, right where in Dubai, yeah, no, you can't. So what did you do while you were there? I had friends
Jordon 35:19
who were Arabic, from Egypt, from the from around who were a little more risk adverse than or I was a little more risk averse. They were a little more comfortable with it. So I, you know, had friends. You always have friends.
Scott Benner 35:33
So you do this completely privately. Then, Oh, for sure, yeah, for sure. What were the risks like? What would have happened if you got caught? I didn't
Jordon 35:41
look into it, but I'm sure I would have been, I mean, and I don't really know how it works, but as an American citizen, I had a lot more lenient than a lot of people from a lot of other countries, but I'd pretty sure they would have put me in jail for a long time,
Scott Benner 35:55
severe legal penalties, possession, use or trafficking of cannabis can lead to long prison sentences, fines and deportation, even small amounts or trace residues can result in four years in prison. Yep, wow. Can you imagine being diagnosed with your type one? Would that have lined up by any chance? What's that? What if you got locked up in Dubai? Would you have gotten type one during the four years in prison?
Jordon 36:18
Jeez, 2018 to 22 Yeah, you'd probably be
Scott Benner 36:23
dead then, Oh, for sure, yeah, you get be deported, serving a sentence. You'd be blacklisted from returning to the UAE. Oh, wow, that's interesting. I like how you handle you handled it like a like a stoner, though you're like, I just didn't look into it. It was fine. Yeah. I mean,
Jordon 36:38
you know, you always find a way
Scott Benner 36:42
life. Finds a way Scott and so does weed. I've been a lot
Jordon 36:44
of places, and I've found weed in every single one of them. I would imagine.
Scott Benner 36:49
I would imagine it's everywhere. You said in your list here, you use psychedelics as well. What kind
Jordon 36:54
I do use psychedelics, you name it. I've done all of them, but mostly I and, you know, leading up to my diagnosis, I was micro dosing on psilocybin mushrooms.
Scott Benner 37:07
How does that work? The micro dosing, so
Jordon 37:09
the micro dosing is very, very small amounts of it to where it has no psychedelic effect on you. Have you ever had, like mushroom coffee or any of those mushroom supplements kind of gives you, like an energy boost.
Scott Benner 37:22
I haven't, but I I've heard of them. Yeah, they it's kind of
Jordon 37:27
like an energy boost, like a clean caffeine, so to say. But that's kind of the effects of, like, a micro dose of mushrooms, okay? And you usually mix it with other like non psychedelic mushrooms, like Turkey's tail or Lion's Mane mushroom, they have, you know, really great properties in terms of like brain health and in connecting neurons and things like that. So,
Scott Benner 37:52
okay, is there a difference in using these things pre and post insulin? Yeah.
Jordon 37:57
So that is a story in itself. Go ahead, my first blood work was done on March 13. But two weeks prior to that, I actually did my largest dose of mushrooms and had a complete ego death then as well. So I was, you know, through this whole diagnosis process, I was probably still living from, you know, living the thoughts through that, during that, that mushroom journey. We call it a journey. And, you know, I do not really use these recreationally. Sometimes I do, but it's more so for, like, therapeutic sense, if that makes sense, I don't know how someone who doesn't use psychedelics really views them, but it is a very therapeutic and healing medicine. They're referred to as medicines in my house. But I did have my largest mushroom journey about a week prior to my first ANC result, where I had kind of lost the ability to navigate the psychedelic realm in the same way that I was used to, and instead I was kind of presented with, I met a couple gods. If that sounds I mean, I guess that tracks right? Do mushrooms? Meet God. I
Scott Benner 39:11
want to hear all about this. So because you already said ego death, and I met some gods, and it feels like you're gonna have, like a definite, like Little Red Riding thing, where you meet three different pigs. They're building different houses or something like that. So I want to hear about all actually, that's not three little that's not Little Red Riding Hood. That's what is that pigs, that three little pigs, mixing up my stupid references for a second. But I want to, I want to hear all about this. So like, let's start at the beginning. How long have you been doing using psychedelics to go on these journeys in
Jordon 39:42
a therapeutic sense, in more of a therapy sense, it's probably been since about 2020,
Scott Benner 39:48
How'd you learn about them? I was introduced
Jordon 39:51
to psychedelics when I was in college. We used to pick field mushrooms out of the couch and dry those. And have some tea. Okay?
Scott Benner 40:01
And so somebody, somebody at school, told you about this. You did it at first recreationally, but then you've kind of, I guess, paid more attention to it, spoken to more people, and you're using it more now for for what, really
Jordon 40:14
just for a sense of healing, trying to figure out. So really the main purpose is it kind of removes the conditioning that we've built up in our minds for you know, all of the years that we've lived. It opens yourself up to other possibilities. If you're struggling with something like if I'm struggling with grief, I can focus my my session on dealing with this grief and trying to learn whatever lesson the mushroom world is going to teach.
Scott Benner 40:43
Okay? I mean, walk somebody through that who doesn't understand like the mushroom world is going to teach. So, what's the what's the experience like?
Jordon 40:51
So the experience is rather scary. If you don't know what's going on. I'm not the one who is working with the mushrooms, like, I'm not the mentor. I'm kind of just the like, I don't know, what are you? If you there's a therapist, and then there's the patient, I don't, you know, people aren't
Scott Benner 41:12
going to understand that. So, like, you kind of have like, a, almost like a shaman, to get you through your your journey when you're using the psychedelic. Is that, right, correct?
Jordon 41:21
It is all in a very controlled environment. It is not really something I do by myself very often, though I am fully capable of it, but when I am seeking help or guidance, I do go to, yes, a shaman,
Scott Benner 41:34
okay? And by shaman, we mean a guy named Gary, right? Yeah,
Jordon 41:38
we'll just, we'll just call her Laura. Okay. You know very you, you would never assume, if you met me or Laura, that this would be part of any of our lives. You
Scott Benner 41:49
know, everyone who doesn't live in California is like these are these? These are the LA stories I hear. But how long does this process take? Like you, you show up at her place at 9am and you Leave when
Jordon 42:03
you know, around four o'clock, five o'clock,
Scott Benner 42:07
six, seven hours. And so you you ingest the mushroom. It takes a while to do what it's going to do. And then, do you feel like you're still in the room? Do you like do you go away in your head? Do you feel like you're somewhere else? Yeah,
Jordon 42:22
it's a mix and mash of all of that combined. There are moments where you're kind of stuck in your head, you know, like how you've seen movies where, like, the walls start to transform, or the colors start to melt, and all of that stuff is real, and that's the visual aspect of psychedelics, but if you close your eyes, your brain is actually just going absolutely crazy. And the probably the best way that I could describe most of my experiences, especially when I close my eyes, is like, imagine you are a student and a film student in an art school, and you're asked to make a 15 second short film to represent life, but you can't have anything recognizable about life, and you're just watching 1000s of those take Place, kind of in no particular order, it's just these visuals, these things, that are coming out at you, and you do your best to remember it while you're in the moment, so you can take the lessons of whatever these things are with you, in your back to your conditioned mind.
Scott Benner 43:35
Do these journeys help you with anxiety, stress, trauma, like, is there anything you can point to that says, like, prior to trying this, I felt this way, but now I feel differently.
Jordon 43:48
Yeah, for sure, I I remember the first time, and this is recreational use, but the first time I ever did LSD, I came to the realization that there was probably no film director in Hollywood who has not done a psychedelic because filming a cinematic scene is really impressive, and it's very difficult. You know, not your average, not every average Joe, can go out there with a camera and just, you know, film something. But for the first time, I was able to kind of see the world through like a more universal lens, that that was not just me. There's a you feel a sense of connection with anything and everything that's around you. And if I had never taken psychedelics before, I don't think I would have experienced that kind of connection. Like fungus is a mycelium, right? Have you ever seen like, the way that fungus grows? It's like a network of web that kind of stretches, and I'm not going to be completely accurate with this, but that mycelium web basically encompasses the whole world, like it's fully connected with each other, all around the world, just about so it's this. Amazing, like, sense of connection with not only just the people, but like, with the air you breathe, with the birds that are singing, with everything, you kind of get a sense of, I am that also,
Scott Benner 45:13
okay, all right. So you see the world differently, but you didn't have like, it's not like you were depressed before and not after, or anxious you have, like, social anxiety, and it's gone now, or anything like that.
Jordon 45:25
Myself. No, I was, the main reason that I use psychedelics is to continue to work towards full empathy and just, you know, like, this is so hippie, but, like, just love,
Scott Benner 45:38
okay, have any trips until you get there, you think,
Jordon 45:41
yeah, I'm working on it, yeah.
Scott Benner 45:43
How many has it been? Have you lost count? Oh, for sure. Okay, for sure. 50 more or less. No, probably
Jordon 45:50
less. I probably, you know, 20 to 30 times with different substances. Is
Scott Benner 45:55
it cumulative for you? Like, the way you are able to connect with the world, like, does it get greater every time, or does it move? Or do you feel like that? It happens and then it regresses, and then you have to bring it back again?
Jordon 46:10
No, I feel of strong connection to each journey. And every time I go back into it, it's like I'm back into a not so familiar, but familiar space that I'm still trying to figure out how to navigate. It's like a world. You know, it's a world, and the better you are at understanding this world, the more that you get out of it. Like the guy who created the mouse, the computer mouse, I think he was on LSD when he created that. So I'm like, maybe I could find a lesson like that.
Scott Benner 46:43
Okay, if I told you you could live in only one world. Which one would you pick?
Jordon 46:48
Oh, this one for sure. Okay. However, I will tell you that if I'm on my dying bed, like if I'm in hospice and they start to take out all my medications, I'm my wife, knows she can. I would like to have some LSD in that saline drip as I drift off into the next world.
Scott Benner 47:03
Okay, does your wife do any of this stuff? Yes, okay, that's part of the way you connected.
Jordon 47:11
It's a part of the way that we have continued to connect. It's this world. So she's from Ireland, and they're very Catholic over there, and she moving here, kind of opened her eyes in a lot of good ways and a lot of bad ways. You know, America is just very different and very chaotic compared to a lot of other places, and she had a difficult time with that. So she has found psychedelic use to kind of open her eyes up to that a little bit and to to kind of try to get a sense of what's going what, what is actually going on in the world. But no, she does. She does participate as well. She She's more reverent towards it than I am.
Scott Benner 47:57
Talking about it like it's a spiritual experience. Absolutely, you're talking about it like it's more of a chemical experience. Yes, okay, interesting. And let's see, is it dangerous for people who are listening? Are there dangerous? Like, could you go on and not come back? You
Jordon 48:14
know, I listened to a couple people talk about psychedelics recently, and they always seem to start off their conversations with the risks, and they always say that there are no real risks, like in terms of dying or in terms of getting stuck with these psychedelics. And they always start off their conversations like that, because it's always a question that people have in their mind. So I should have started off with that. I actually intended to, but thanks for bringing it up. No, it is dangerous thing, and it's not one thing that you're going to want to go back to the next day. You know, I'm going to have my experience. I'm going to think about my experience for six more months before I'm even going to want to consider it. You know, it's not something that is really prone to addiction. It has no addicting properties. Okay,
Scott Benner 49:00
it doesn't feel addictive to you. How about do you feel addicted to weed?
Jordon 49:06
I don't. I could stop and I could be fine. I just choose to keep going back to it.
Scott Benner 49:13
So you've never had a bad trip. Like, where, like, you get, like, super anxious, paranoid, like, the hallucinations frighten you, or anything like that.
Jordon 49:22
I mean, sometimes they are frightening. I wouldn't consider it a bad trip. You know, it's all kind of relative in terms of what you take away from it. Some people meet demons and then come out and, you know, swear, Jesus killed these demons and they're now Christian for life. That's a bad trip for them, and Jesus saved them from that. However, that's what they took from it. I wouldn't consider that a bad trip. They're now happy, sure. Now I'm just going
Scott Benner 49:46
to jump in here and say that the internet says that prolonged or heavy use of LSD can result in cognitive impairments, mood instability and persistent hallucinations, making it difficult for individuals to function in normal daily life. It also says that. A predisposition to mental health conditions like schizophrenia, bipolar, if you have those, LSD can exasperate, exacerbate these conditions or trigger latent psychosis. So absolutely,
Jordon 50:10
that's why I highly recommend finding somebody who takes this very seriously. They do kind of screen for these things that you're speaking of I just want
Scott Benner 50:21
to say that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise. Always consult a physician, or at least find Laura before making any changes to your health care plan. Like, like, I'm just talking to you about your experience. And I think everyone, I hope adults, understand I'm like you are not telling people like you should do this thing like you just, you know, sharing your experience
Jordon 50:39
Absolutely and you know that I would kind of shy away from talking about this if I felt that I would be judged negatively in any way, and if they do, then that's probably something that psychedelics could help with.
Scott Benner 50:53
Listen, I know people who are voracious for this kind of thing to be taken more seriously by the health community, that they would love to try some of this stuff to get past some significant trauma they've had in their life. There's, uh, studies going on at Hopkins, right about this, I think where they're helping, trying to help soldiers get through I, you know, things, and I'm for whatever helps people like you know, if something helps you, I think it's awesome if you if smoking every day makes you feel like you're a better person, or you're experiencing life in a way that it's more, you know, conducive to how you feel, then I think you should smoke every day. And if you don't, then I don't think you should. I'm not for telling people what to do that. That's for certain. So
Jordon 51:37
one thing that I struggle with in some of these journeys of mine is who keeps telling us what to do. That's just this loop that I keep getting stuck in. Is like, why are we doing the things that we're doing? Like, who's telling us this? You know, I'm in control of this right
Scott Benner 51:53
now. There's no hard and fast rules about most things. And, you know, we do things because it's how they've been done prior, and because they morphed with the times, right? Like things change as they go. But I hear this morning, somebody said something they use the phrase the squeaky wheel gets the grease. And I thought that's so funny, because if that idea would have been originated, like, 10 years ago. Instead of whenever originated, it might be more like the squeaky computer fan gets the graphite and, like, you see, do you see what I'm saying? Like, so, like, you know, at some point there's wagon wheels and they squeak, and somebody smears some grease on them, they don't squeak anymore. And then one day, somebody complains about something, and makes that leap in their head and goes, Oh, the squeaky wheel gets the grease right, like they got what they wanted because they complained. But if that would have happened for the first time, like I said 10 years ago, it would have been, it wouldn't have been about wheels and grease, it would have been about something else. And so I guess my point is, maybe I should do some LSD before I try to talk about this. But no.
Jordon 53:02
And I mean, I knew that coming on to this, that I would be talking to someone who is not had the experience, and that's okay. I'm not the best person to kind of, you know, speak to the benefits of it. I'm just simply a person who has experienced benefits from it.
Scott Benner 53:16
Yeah, you don't need to be the one who ascribes the reason why. You can just say, I do it, and this is how it works out for me. Yeah,
Jordon 53:23
I do it. I'm a normal dude and I'm a really good person. That's kind of the taboo that needs to be broken.
Scott Benner 53:29
Oh, I understand what you're saying. Yeah. I was just saying, like, back to your original point of, like, why do we do what we do? Like, who says what's right and what's wrong? I think things just get set and then they morph slowly over time, right? And and there will be another saying for the squeaky wheel gets the grease one day there sure will. There will be another saying for that. It'll mean the same thing. And no one alive at that point will have ever heard the squeaky wheel gets the grease, yep. And so we set things up, and then they morph slowly, but in the end, if you wanted to run around and say, you know, use another euphemism for that, you could. We see language change all the time, you know, just for that, like people you know, they, they have different ways of talking. They they ascribe those words to scenarios. Who says that? You know me saying lit, which is not a thing I would say, but like, would is any different bad or worse than somebody else saying that was cool. And so who tells us what to do? I think the ether does. Do. You know what I mean? Like, it's like, the more things that people agree with then we say, well, that's the norm. That's
Jordon 54:43
kind of the connectivity that I seek when I'm in my psychedelic state.
Scott Benner 54:47
Yeah, and I'm going to tell you that I don't think there's any such thing as normal. I think there's just what more people are comfortable doing, which I guess means normal, but it doesn't make it abnormal. If you're not. Doing those things for sure. In my opinion, just because you're not following the crowd doesn't make you a criminal or or abnormal or something
Jordon 55:08
like that. Yeah, and a lot of people who didn't follow the crowd are the ones who changed the course of the world forever. Yeah,
Scott Benner 55:15
listen, it's up to you, right? Do what you're gonna do. Maybe you'll invent a mouse, although that's been done already, Jordan, so we're gonna need you to do you to do something else. If you know, you imagine, you imagine, if you wake up one day and you're just like, I've got it. You designed something we already have. And you're like, I figured it out. What do you do for a living? You said you're in a car a lot.
Jordon 55:34
Well, I work in theater. I work in live entertainment and theater, in a professional theater, okay, I'm a production manager, so I'm more administrative, but I do a lot of stuff. Okay,
Scott Benner 55:45
I wasn't sure if that was a side gig or if that was your actual work. So, okay, awesome. So, I mean, I assume that, like, this kind of, like, looseness is valuable in your job.
Jordon 55:57
Absolutely, absolutely, there's not many tight asses who do very well in this field. You're
Scott Benner 56:04
telling me, it's possible there was some weed in the room when they somebody said one day, like, I think we could turn Lion King into a stage play.
Jordon 56:10
Absolutely without a doubt. That
Scott Benner 56:14
makes sense to me. How do you manage your diabetes? You still use an injections? Or do you have a pump? Or what do you do?
Jordon 56:19
Yeah, I was on MDI for my first year and a half, or, you know, year and couple months, and I just upgraded to the tandem Moby about, oh, wow, uh, six weeks ago. How are you finding it? I love it. I absolutely love it. It was another one of those experiences where I put it on and I was like, whoa. This is a new a new part. This is a new me. This is, it was very, very overwhelming, but I love it so much. What has it brought to you? It has brought me the freedom to eat, more intuitively, without having to give myself injections. I was I understood diabetes. I like to say, I think I understood it very quickly, thanks to a lot of the amazing resources, like the Juicebox Podcast that are out there, and I got my a 1c under control very quickly, and I did very well. MDI, and I was kind of hesitant to actually move on to a pump, because I was very comfortable in my new setting, but I found I was able to replicate my numbers within the first two weeks. So it was absolutely amazing. How's
Scott Benner 57:22
your standard deviation? Like, where do you what's the range you shoot for? Under 30? Your standard deviation is under 30. That's what
Jordon 57:29
I shoot for. I think, right? I mean, I'm actually experiencing my first bout of potentially battling an illness, and all of my numbers right now, my basal rate is usually, like, around point six, 5.7 right now, it's two, and I'm holding steady so
Scott Benner 57:44
but wow, look at you being able to pivot like that. What gave you the courage to go from point six five to two?
Jordon 57:50
Because I was looking at my tandem source reports, and I noticed that while my basal insulin was like 15 units a day, my Bolus insulin was like 40. So I go, This isn't right. I'm Bolus saying to correct for the incorrect basal. So I just yoked it up. I was like, either I'm gonna go low and have to treat it, or this is exactly what I need. And it happened to be exactly
Scott Benner 58:16
what I needed. And you think this is during an illness that
Jordon 58:19
I went up to the mountains, to high altitude. I think I'm dealing with some allergies. I was kind of dealing with some sinus pressure. I'm feeling a lot better today, but there were three days where my insulin needs i i average like 3025, 30 units of insulin a day at this point, but I was averaging 55 to 60 over the last three days. So okay, but yeah, I pulled up. My standard deviation is over the last 90 days, is 34
Scott Benner 58:46
and this is in a very short time you haven't had a pump for long. Is that right? Correct? Wow. I think, generally speaking, elevation seems to make people more insulin sensitive. So probably not wrong for you to assume you're, you're battling some sort of an illness. It just needed some more insulin, and you'll just pivot back when that, when that need goes away, absolutely. Hey, look at you, man. Good for you. That's That's awesome. What was your last day? 1c, if you don't mind, yeah,
Jordon 59:13
I just got it a couple weeks ago. Is a 6.2
Scott Benner 59:16
No. Good for you. Look at you. You're doing terrific. That's awesome. What is diabetes education look like for an adult in your area, like, what were you told and how much was was from them, and how much did you have to figure out
Jordon 59:29
on your own? By the time I got my second confirmed high, A, 1c, I was, I was, I already knew I was diabetic at that point, I didn't need the antibodies tests to prove it, even though they came later. So I just started soaking in all of the information I could before I even met any doctor to talk about diabetes. I read the whole book, Think like a pancreas, cover to cover. I took notes. I figured out my own ratios prior to getting insulin given to me. So I would say the education. Patient was rather piss poor, and brunt of it was done through myself.
Scott Benner 1:00:04
Okay, how did you find the podcast then? I
Jordon 1:00:07
can't quite remember, but during the first few days of acceptance, I was wildly searching through Facebook, through Google, through anything that had to do with type one diabetes, and I think I kept seeing this pop Juicebox pop up and think like a pancreas pop up. So those were my first two resources that I went to. They turned out to be pretty supreme,
Scott Benner 1:00:33
excellent. I'm glad they were helpful for
Jordon 1:00:34
you. What actually got me into your podcast was, well, I went to Tik Tok, first and foremost, to kind of figure out what was going on, because I also had these chronic hives all my life. Get this, I've had chronic hives all my life, all my life, since I was a kid, since I was a child, since being on insulin, I have not had one flare up.
Scott Benner 1:00:54
Hmm, interesting. Do you have your thyroid check? Too perfect. Thyroids
Jordon 1:00:58
like right in the middle on the you know,
Scott Benner 1:01:01
tell me your TSH, do you know it?
Jordon 1:01:03
I think I have my test results right here. Let's see I did, but it logged me out of my health portal here. But I did make sure I didn't get them checked at first, but the second time I, you know, my first indo follow up six months after diagnosis, I made sure that they checked my thyroids, because I hear it all the time on this podcast, good,
Scott Benner 1:01:21
good, good. Do you have any indicators for hypothyroidism, like low energy, digestive issues, skin, hair, nails, like hair falling out, dry skin? I did, but
Jordon 1:01:34
I think I could connect a lot of that stuff to to the diabetes, the high blood sugar, yeah, but my, TSH, I got it checked in March this year. It was a one.
Scott Benner 1:01:44
Oh, man, look at you. Oh, good. That's awesome. Yeah, that's beautiful. So you had a lot of symptoms that could have been a number of different things, but taking the insulin, getting yourself under control, all that stuff went away. Everything went
Jordon 1:01:57
away. I mean, I cannot begin to tell you how good I feel. I felt, I feel better than I've ever felt in my entire life. Yeah,
Scott Benner 1:02:04
that's excellent, man. I'm happy for you. That's what. That's really awesome. Is there anything we didn't talk about that you wanted to because I went by your list, but I don't know if you even knew what the list was.
Jordon 1:02:12
Yeah, I have no idea what the list was. But, I mean, I think we pretty much talked about, talked about everything. Can
Scott Benner 1:02:19
I ask? Is there any auto immune on your wife in your wife's family, because a lot of that stuff can run around in Ireland,
Jordon 1:02:25
yeah, her mom has, oh, gosh, I know what it is. I just can't think of it. Where you have the rat, the rash, psoriasis,
Scott Benner 1:02:33
okay, is that auto immune? I believe it is. Yeah. And
Jordon 1:02:37
I think she has arthritis as well, some some form of arthritis. But
Scott Benner 1:02:41
okay, do you guys talk about having kids prior
Jordon 1:02:44
to my diagnosis, prior to the pandemic, I had already taken care of that, and we decided long ago we will not have kids.
Scott Benner 1:02:51
And this, you took it. How'd you take care of it? What'd you do?
Jordon 1:02:56
I went to doctor snips a lot.
Scott Benner 1:03:00
Wow. So you guys got together and said, no kids, and we're gonna make sure it doesn't happen. I mean, absolutely I want to say, I don't I don't care. Like, you understand sound like it's not a judgment, but I'm interested to know, like, what made you say, I don't want to have children and and how the hell did you find a girl who agreed with you first?
Jordon 1:03:19
Like, I'm a very progressive person. Scott, if you have maybe assume that, but I it's really not my
Scott Benner 1:03:26
choice. You know, the lady said she didn't want to do it. Yeah, if
Jordon 1:03:30
she didn't want to have a kid, then it was definitely her prerogative to not have a kid. I was not convinced one way or the other, that being a parent was a good idea or a bad idea, but our lifestyles were not really conducive to bringing in a child. I work in theater entertainment. We haven't lived in the same actually, we live here in this city for three years now, and that's the longest we've spent in one city in the last 10 years, really. So just our lifestyles really weren't conducive, and we're just not really fans of the state of the world. It's a little too chaotic and a little too polarized to bring a child into it.
Scott Benner 1:04:05
Okay? You've got that vibe, and you're just like, um, we're not going to do this thing, yep.
Jordon 1:04:09
So now we got to figure out what we're going to create, you know, as a couple throughout our journey. But it's definitely not going to be a child.
Scott Benner 1:04:17
Okay, what do you think it'll be? This is interesting. What could it possibly be that's
Jordon 1:04:21
what we're struggling to figure out, that's what we're that's what we're working to figure out. And that's, you know, some in a way, that's kind of what the medicine is, kind of helping us figure out as well. Okay,
Scott Benner 1:04:32
I see. So you're doing a little some people say it's like little trolls or l like, Have you ever seen a troll? Have you ever done that one? Yeah,
Jordon 1:04:39
let's take it back. So good. I did my largest mushroom journey, leading right the week before my diagnosis. And during that journey was the first time I was ever approached by actual, like physical entities, like I saw gods, we'll call them, or spirits or deities, I don't even know, but the first one was like a VERY END. Angelic figure, and my wife tells me about this journey, and she says that I was laying on the floor, I was curled in the fetal position, probably in DKA already, in this incredible Ego Death journey that I'm in. But I met this first God, and he told me that everything was going to be okay. He's like, just like, it's okay, calm down. You are fine. You are well, taken care of. That was interrupted by a second spirit. We'll call this one a spirit, because he was showing me how he was in charge of creating all of the sounds of the universe. And he was kind of orchestrating, like the birds chirping and harmony and all of these beautiful, beautiful just overwhelmed with these beautiful sounds. And then finally, I was interrupted by this last guy who is, like, a little more shadowy, you know, film noir esque kind of guy, and said that it's I'd still be able to eat all the chocolate I wanted to. So these are the three people that I met and taking that and looking at it through the lens of a now newly diagnosed type one diabetic. I took those lessons. The first one being I could still do whatever I want. Absolutely, diabetes is not going to stop me from doing anything. In fact, it's only going to lead to me being able to do more. I think. Secondly, the noises, I think that was just, you know, part of the journey. But the third one telling me I was still allowed to eat chocolate, and then, you know, hearing podcast or hearing other influencers who are just talking about managing your insulin levels and still being able to eat intuitively. And they were all just really important lessons that I have still held on to. Here I am talking about a year and a half later. I still think about it, and I still hold on to those things, because I honestly think I was, like, a couple days away from dying, like, in all honesty,
Scott Benner 1:06:49
I mean, you could have been it certainly. I mean, it was a long time, and a high blood sugar and a significant, you know, a 1c and it wasn't touching you, meaning, like, it wasn't like, I mean, you're losing your legs, but if you would have just kept pushing through it, you could have went over. There's no doubt it could have happened that way. Yeah, so
Jordon 1:07:07
you know, and you ask, is there a difference between the journeys prior to diagnosis and post diagnosis? Well, I didn't meet people like this. I didn't meet gods. I didn't meet, you know, other figures, they were more just like you're in this world, figure out what the lessons are. This was like, cut, dry, plain, simple, like they were telling me, hey dude, there's something going on. But they weren't being negative about it. They were giving me permission to keep going. It's an
Scott Benner 1:07:33
interesting perspective. It really is. I think we should probably end on the fact that you and I have a lot of similar tattoos. Oh my gosh, that's right, yes, yeah. How old are you? I'm 37 now. Okay, you're 37 I'm 53 but do you on someplace on your body? Have Calvin and Hobbs? Calvin being space man spiff, yes, I absolutely do. I do too. Do you have the time machine? I don't have the time machine I got you there. Do you have Stupendous Man? I do have Stupendous Man. All right, I have that. Do you have Calvin as a giant when he's doing his homework? No, I have that one. And I have the cover of the, I think, probably the most famous book, which now I'm gonna like struggle for the name of, but where he or Calvin and Hobbs look very devious on the front of it. Oh yeah, next to each other. I have those as well, but yours are in black and white. Yours are cool. Mine
Jordon 1:08:27
are all black and white. And I actually want to do one more Calvin and Hobbs themes tattoo. And you know, the drawing of Calvin and Hobbes speeding down the hill in a wagon? Yeah, of course. Yeah. I want to replace the wagon with a unicorn, and I want to have Calvin and Hobbes riding a unicorn over my back as my kind of respect to type one diabetes.
Scott Benner 1:08:47
Listen, if you get that, I want to say it, I'm reaching out
Jordon 1:08:51
to tattoo artists, and no one responds back. I'm like, I think I'm going to have to figure out someone to draw this for me before I go to them, but I'm definitely going to do it. I
Scott Benner 1:09:00
have to tell you, I'm looking at mine right now. Tattoos are crazy. Like, in my first one that I've gotta probably got when I was, like, 20, there's no color left in Hobbes at all. He is basically just black and white, though all the orange is gone, although, like, the white in his belly is gone, like it's still some color in the bushes and Calvin's hair and a little bit of red in his shirt. But I stay alive long enough, this is going to be black and white too, I guess. Yep, that's interesting the first
Jordon 1:09:28
So, speaking of illegal things in Dubai, tattooing is also illegal. But for my birthday one year, my wife found a Russian tattoo guy who tattoos out of his house, like we walked into his house and went into his, you know, where the breakfast nook would be, and it's a tattoo studio. And in the living room, his child, like six year old child's playing Mario Kart, and I'm sitting back there getting tattooed by some dude with, you know, all this Russia propaganda around his house. And, you know, I'm he's tattooing cat. Alvin and Hobbs. He'd never heard of him. He's like, Oh, this is funny tattoo.
Scott Benner 1:10:04
You're like, whatever. Jordan, you're something, man, that's awesome. I'm just, I'm looking now I might have to have this thing recolored like you're talking. I'm like, maybe I should do something with this is the guy that did these. Is still my guy? Still alive, still kicking?
Jordon 1:10:19
Is he still tattooing? Yeah, he is, all right. When'd you get
Scott Benner 1:10:24
yours? I got my first tattoo, which is the Calvin and Hobbes on the side of my leg. I think I was 20, which would make that that tattoo is older than me, 33 years ago, the first one. Okay, yeah, let me give my guy a shout out here. Hold a second. I've never done that before. I don't know if he still calls it what he calls it, let me say if he's changed the name of the place or not. I'll look real quick. Tattoo Odyssey, yeah, he's on Castor Avenue in Philadelphia. Get a guy's name. Guy's name is Gill. I wonder how old he was when he did that. He's still there. That's awesome. Yeah, Gill's tattoo Odyssey, if you're, if you're in the Philly area, you want to check it out. I would imagine there's a picture of my leg in a book somewhere up on a wall, or something like that.
Jordon 1:11:08
Oh, and I know you wanted to close on the tattoo, but I there. So I most I just recently posted a like, I don't know, commentary on one of your podcasts that you did where the nurse gave that poor girl 150 units of insulin, and I posted it on tick tock. And I tried to get a lot, tried to get people to go to Juicebox, but Jesus Christ, it must have hit the algorithm in a weird way, and these nurses just went wild on this post. It kind of went a little viral.
Scott Benner 1:11:39
What happened there? Because I saw that, and I appreciate by the way, Jordan, God, love you. I appreciate it. In your first video, you never say the words juice box podcast, you say diabetes podcast. Broke my heart, but
Jordon 1:11:50
I did tag you in the comments, though I know broke my heart. I'm sorry.
Scott Benner 1:11:57
I said to somebody. I was like, hey, something with Juicebox finally went viral, but he didn't mention the name,
Jordon 1:12:02
oh yeah. I figured type one diabetes would be a much more like, Oh
Scott Benner 1:12:08
no, you did that. Listen, I'm not busting your balls like it was just fun. It was funny from my side. I was like, oh, somebody finally blew something up with with a story from the podcast in it, but he never said Juicebox in the audio. But man, that thing got you a couple 100,000 views, right? I think
Jordon 1:12:22
it's like, 400,000 get this. They give you metrics, and like, people have spent 4000 hours of real time watching that video. Isn't that crazy, it's wild. And just the amount of nurses who are coming in and validating that experience, like, oh yeah, this happened. And it's like, Oh, my God. So
Scott Benner 1:12:41
you're getting a lot of nurses that come in and go, you we don't know what we're doing. Is that what's happening,
Jordon 1:12:46
pretty much, is how it happened. Yeah? Great. That's uplifting.
Scott Benner 1:12:50
Yeah, no, I appreciate listen, I first of all, it's very nice of you to, you know, mention the podcast at all on your channel. I appreciate that, right? Probably tagged
Jordon 1:12:58
you in like 50 comments that day. So sorry about that.
Scott Benner 1:13:03
No, no, don't be sorry. It was, it was, it was awesome, like I popped on and I was like, oh, what's happening here? We can tell people, what are you you're at. Kiss me. I'm Irish.
Jordon 1:13:11
Kiss me. Hi, rish. Oh, my, oh, that's
Scott Benner 1:13:15
my B without my glasses. Kiss me. I'm H, I G, H, rich, alright, yes. H, Joe, Mo, t1, day
Jordon 1:13:23
high, like, uh, hyper, glycemic, yeah. What made you start with the tick tock? Well, I was doing tick tock before, and I don't have a big following. It's kind of just therapeutic, like, just like a, like a video diary of my life through the years. Yeah? But I did go to Tik Tok when I was figuring out what was wrong with me, and it was the first time that I felt a sense of community on that app. And since then, I've dedicated my whole entire account to type one diabetes awareness, especially adult diabetes awareness, especially dudes with diabetes as adults? Yeah, I just don't think there's enough out there.
Scott Benner 1:14:04
And you're positive on it too. I like that. I've seen some people try to do the thing where you you sort of take whatever trend on tick tock is, you know, and try to adapt it to diabetes. Or, you know, do the complaining thing, where you jump on and you bitch about somebody to try to get the number up or something like that. But you're just really positive. It's excellent. Yeah.
Jordon 1:14:22
I mean, as weird as it sounds, I have such profound respect for type one diabetes as a disease that I struggled with understanding how serious it was. And I think a lot of men, especially with the egos that we walk around with, don't really pay it the respect, it's it deserves. Like diabetes saved my life. Diabetes gave me another chance at life. If I were not type one diabetic, I would not be here anymore. That person is gone, right? So it is a positive thing in my life. It's an annoying little thing, like, I wish I could have positivity without it, but it is. It's something that saved my life. So
Scott Benner 1:15:00
Well, I'm glad you're feeling better and you're putting your effort out there the way you are. I appreciate it. Should I call this episode ego death? What should I call it? You
Jordon 1:15:07
could call it ego death. You could call it whatever you want. Your names are rather Great. Oh,
Scott Benner 1:15:14
I appreciate that. All right, man. I thank you for your time very much, and if you hold on for a second, I'll tell you a couple things when we're done, but I really do appreciate this. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:15:23
Cool. Thanks. Yep,
Scott Benner 1:15:32
the podcast episode that you just enjoyed was sponsored by ever since CGM. They make the ever since 365 that thing lasts a whole year. One insertion every year. Come on. You probably feel like I'm messing with you, but I'm not. Ever since cgm.com/juicebox thanks for tuning in today, and thanks to Medtronic diabetes for sponsoring this episode. We've been talking about Medtronic mini med 780 G system today, an automated insulin delivery system that helps make diabetes management easier day and night, whether it's their meal detection technology or the Medtronic extended infusion set, it all comes together to simplify life with diabetes. Go find out more at my link, Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. If you're not already subscribed or following the podcast in your favorite audio app, like Spotify or Apple podcasts, please do that now. Seriously, just to hit follow or subscribe will really help the show. If you go a little further in Apple podcasts and set it up so that it downloads all new episodes, I'll be your best friend, and if you leave a five star review, ooh, I'll probably send you a Christmas card. Would you like a Christmas card if you or 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 CD CES, 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, or you can go to Juicebox podcast.com and click on bold beginnings in the menu, the episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrongway recording.com you.
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#1463 Small Sips: Low Before High
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Preventing highs is easier than correcting them—catching small dips early leads to better control.
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Please support the sponsors
The Juicebox Podcast is a free show, but if you'd like to support the podcast directly, you can make a gift here. Recent donations were used to pay for podcast hosting fees. Thank you to all who have sent 5, 10 and 20 dollars!