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Podcast Episodes

The Juicebox Podcast is from the writer of the popular diabetes parenting blog Arden's Day and the award winning parenting memoir, 'Life Is Short, Laundry Is Eternal: Confessions of a Stay-At-Home Dad'. Hosted by Scott Benner, the show features intimate conversations of living and parenting with type I diabetes.

Filtering by Category: Thyroid

#438 Poop in a Group

Scott Benner

A type 1 diabetes journey

Galen is an adult type 1 who was diagnosed with diabetes as a teen.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello, everyone and welcome to Episode 438 of the Juicebox Podcast. On today's show, we're going to hear an adult father who has type one diabetes himself, look back on his younger self, his diagnosis, and how he got to where he is right now.

Hey everyone, today we're going to talk to Galen Galan is an adult who has type one diabetes is diagnosed as a teen. And things didn't go great in the beginning, but they're going better now. And this is a very retrospective look back on that time. Please remember, while you're listening, that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, please always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan for becoming bold with insulin.

You may have heard about those diabetes pro tip episodes that I have and defining diabetes episodes, if you're looking for them, and it's hard to find them in a podcast player, sometimes you can check out diabetes pro tip.com. That's my website where they're all sort of collected together. And you can get a good feeling for where they're at. Now, if you want to go back in your app after that, and listen, once you know what episode number you're looking for, it's cool. that'll definitely work. And those defining diabetes episodes, I love them. They're shorter episodes that give you a good firm grasp.

Of all the terminology that's used around diabetes, I hear very often from people who are newly diagnosed, that it all just sounds like a foreign language to them. So those defining diabetes episodes are me and Jenny Smith, talking through specific ideas, given some examples and get me out of there. So that doesn't take too long for you to grasp all the new words that exist in your life. Before we start, I just want to let you know that this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter, you can find out more about ardens meter at Contour Next one.com forward slash juicebox. I'd also like it if you check out the T one D exchange at T one d exchange.org. forward slash juice box. Last but not least, this show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries. g evoke hypo Penn. Find out more at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juice box.

Galen Hensler 2:41
I'm Galen Hensler. I am 32 years old. I've been type one diabetic for 15, almost 16 years now. So October 27, will be the day that I've had diabetes longer than I have not.

Scott Benner 2:56
I live in Boise, Idaho with my wife and two little kiddos. That's interesting, because your name makes it feel like you're from Sweden or something like

Galen Hensler 3:05
that. Yeah, yeah, I was born in Berkeley. So I think that kind of explains the beard name.

Unknown Speaker 3:14
Is there anything else you'd like to tell me about your hippie parents?

Galen Hensler 3:18
I think that covers it.

Scott Benner 3:21
Are they still with us?

Galen Hensler 3:23
Yeah, so my mom is actually a social work professor in Montana. So she teaches at the University of Montana. And then my dad is retired and living in Oregon.

Scott Benner 3:35
I just figured they were both protesting in the street somewhere right now.

Galen Hensler 3:38
Not you know. I think my mom would be. But uh, yeah, she's she's busy teaching.

Scott Benner 3:44
Oh, that's excellent. How did you end up in Iowa?

Galen Hensler 3:48
Or Idaho,

Scott Benner 3:49
Idaho. I'm sorry. Yeah, Boise, that was fine. I know, they're not both the same place. I just heard I and, you know, go ahead. I'm sorry. I don't

Galen Hensler 3:59
know. No. Um, so my wife and I actually moved out here about three years ago for the job. I guess my previous job here. So we were in Missoula, Montana. I'd been there for about 10 years doing undergrad and then graduate school. And then we both graduated I guess I graduated and looked for a job in Boise Idaho was kind of where we ended up

Scott Benner 4:24
and what function of getting us our baking potatoes are you involved in?

Galen Hensler 4:30
I you know, I am involved in the marketing of the potatoes. Are you seriously? No. No, I I do work in marketing but not not on potato

Scott Benner 4:41
chips. There's got me that's something now I listen. What else is going on? And I'd hope but

Galen Hensler 4:46
school me a little bit. Um, it's beautiful. I would say that. It's so I grew up in Salt Lake City before I moved to Montana. And it's close enough to Salt Lake City where I can go and visit Friends and family that are still there. Nice, but not so close that it's every weekend.

Scott Benner 5:07
The same thing coming at you without saying

Galen Hensler 5:11
100%. And it's like, in the middle of nowhere. So like, nobody's just gonna like pass through Boise.

Scott Benner 5:16
So I have a dream, Galen, seriously of living in the middle of nowhere. I don't know if maybe a lot of people have that feeling of like, I want to get away from everything. But I feel like if I didn't have children that I was trying to say central to as they became adults, you know, or maybe I'll get lucky, and they'll just turn out to be, you know, jackasses and I won't want to be near them very much. Yeah, that would be nice. Yeah, that would be beautiful. Because then I would totally try to mimic Harrison Ford's life. Um, you know, try to find some property that's a mile and a half from the mailbox that kind of Yep. Yeah, that's, that seems really quiet to me. I worry about wild animals. Do you want a gun? You have to shoot things ever that come at your house?

Galen Hensler 6:01
No, you know, so we're actually in the city in Boise. So it's not so horrible. I will say in Montana. My parents lived in stevensville, which is like 30 minutes outside of Montana in Missoula, on like a few acres of land, kind of in the middle of nowhere. So we did get like, wild animals rolling around. So I was never worried about it. But there was one day where I came outside, and there were a bear and a few cubs up in the tree. And that did give me a bit of a reason to leave.

Scott Benner 6:41
I would have put myself in a box and FedEx yourself out of there

Unknown Speaker 6:44
immediately. 100% would have to go. I

Scott Benner 6:46
didn't realize there was a bear here. Why didn't someone tell me and that would be the end of it. I'm sure it's not like that. I only have one experience with a bear. We were in a cabin situation out in California, at Yosemite. And we were walking across from I don't know, like a centralized eating area to back to the cabinet. And there was just a bear walking through. And I recognize that the people who work there did not seem to care and they weren't even aware of it. It was it was, you know, it was like a squirrel was walking through. I felt like you know, it's on. Yeah, and I'm like attacking my children and my wife and we stay here till the end. We'll make a run for to the car and go.

Galen Hensler 7:27
Yeah, seriously?

Scott Benner 7:28
No. Anyway. Okay, so you've, you've had type one for about half your life. Tell me about when you were diagnosed you.

Galen Hensler 7:37
So yeah, when I was diagnosed, I was just turned 16. For like, a few months before, I was just like drinking a ton going up, or like getting up in the middle of night to pee, just like all the classic symptoms. Right? My I have a stepbrother, who's 11 days younger than me. So we're super close. And he would always give me a hard time because I couldn't like see the TV. So like we'd be watching TV and I couldn't read like the score of the football game. So all of the classic symptoms. Yeah. I was playing football at the time. And I do I still credit that to basically saving my life. Or at least making sure I didn't. I was diagnosed in my blood sugar was 990. And I credit kind of football everyday with keeping that below 1000. Is it

Scott Benner 8:32
just do you think the activity was holding it back? As much as Yeah, because you were really you were running towards the I'm assuming they told you you were in DK. What was the what was the final thing that happened? couldn't lift your hands fell over what?

Galen Hensler 8:45
So I was actually on a road trip with my mom and we were driving. And I couldn't read the road signs as we passed them. So we came home and she started doing some research and I just I remember one day she picked me up from school. And I got in the car and we drove to this like urgent care I think it was Yeah, and they tested my blood sugar. I just like one of their meters there and it was air or Hi. Hi. Megan said hi. Did you

Scott Benner 9:13
actually mom I can't read the street signs.

Galen Hensler 9:17
Yeah, okay. Yep. Yeah, and she was like, like we road tripped a lot when I was growing up so like we were like really good with like we're getting in the car and we're driving to wherever going even if it's like 12 hours away and we're not stopping how many Femina went out rallies Have

Scott Benner 9:29
you been to? Just kidding I quite a few. Yeah, I was gonna say I don't have any problem with that. I just thinking maybe a little Galan has been been in a couple of seasons of people holding signs once or twice in his life.

Galen Hensler 9:43
You know, it was actually dog shows which isn't that far off. rallies, but yeah, like all over. But for the trips. This last trip I just remember we'd stop like every hour so I could be so we got home. I think my mom did some research. got into the car. And she later told me she was like, your breath smells like, like fruit, like you smelt so sweet. So I remember we went to the urgent care, blood sugar was off the charts there and they're like, you need to go to the ER. My mom was actually working at the Children's Hospital in Salt Lake. So we went there. And it was, like a few days before Halloween, and I just remember, the one thing I'll never forget is the nurse came in and was like, you know, eat whatever you want. This is last time you're gonna be able to eat without taking insulin. So, uh, yeah, I was in the hospital for a couple days and

Scott Benner 10:42
got trained and a lot of people get the the last meal. Yeah, from from medical staff. It's uh,

Unknown Speaker 10:49
it's weird. Yeah.

Scott Benner 10:51
Would you like? Would you like a horrible last meal to? Hi high anything at all you want from the hospital cafeteria? Exactly. Last free meal of your lifetime? Yep. Did you want the jello? It's not good. How did they screw the jello out? By the way? That's fascinating.

Galen Hensler 11:09
But it probably sits there for a couple weeks. Yeah, no, it's bad.

Scott Benner 11:14
What's the What's it like being 16 and suddenly having everything about your life change.

Galen Hensler 11:21
Um, it was hard. So I definitely went through a period of, I'm not diabetic. So for like six months, when I was like, regular seeing my endocrinologist, I was like, really good. And then probably around 17 and a half, like senior year of high school, I just kind of denied it. But for that, first, I would say there's a lot as crappy as diabetes is, I was lucky. Like I said, my mom worked at the hospital. She's a social worker. I said, as a social worker. I had a teacher, who I was taking a class from that was type one diabetic. Like, my endocrinologist was my best friend's uncle. So like, these weird connections, it just, it made my life easier.

Scott Benner 12:14
So a fair amount of support around you. But yeah, yeah, some point you just deny having diabetes. I wonder what that looks like? What does it look like to just say, this is not happening to me? Do you stop taking care of it?

Galen Hensler 12:25
Or Yeah, it's like stop testing, stop giving insulin. At the time, I was on multiple daily injections. And it was I would say I would like take lantis maybe. But not bossing for food. blood sugar's are running, you know, probably in the high, two hundreds, low, three hundreds. And this went on for probably at least a couple months. I'm just not, you know, it's I want to be a senior in high school. I don't want to be different. Just let

Scott Benner 13:01
it go. You just let it go to do the things who Yep, catches that. and turns it back for you? Is it yourself for people around you? How does that happen?

Galen Hensler 13:11
It was it was me and probably my mom. Like my mom, I said, was a social worker, she worked at the Children's Hospital. She's been involved in, you know, just supporting people going through tough times for her career. So

Scott Benner 13:29
it's not hidden. She's aware of your ambivalence at that point.

Galen Hensler 13:35
It took a while. I would say that,

Scott Benner 13:37
okay.

Galen Hensler 13:38
Like she was not. I was 16. So I was obviously giving myself shots, and checking blood sugar myself, like all of that. But I think eventually, it's like when your blood sugar is running it to 50 for two weeks. Like you're not functioning at 100%. And I I get really pissy when my blood sugar's high. Yeah. So I think she caught on, you know, after a while, and then when it didn't get better, she,

Scott Benner 14:05
she stepped in. It's very interesting. I mean, I know you have children who are younger, but I was just speaking about this with a friend of mine the other day, actually, Adam Needleman, who's been on the show before. And I said, it's this, you know, I was talking about my son is like, He's a good kid. And so I don't want to be up as asked all the time. Ya know, and at the same time, you're trying to stay involved, you know, so that you kind of know what's going on, but you don't feel like you're being pushy. And he doesn't feel like he needs it. But at the same time, I'm sure there's a ton about him that I don't know. And yeah, you know, like, so you're just trying to stay your interest. I mean, for me, I'm interested, right, like, and I want to be involved. I don't want him to feel like I'm pushing him or that he doesn't have a little room to figure things out on his own. And that's great in a normal scenario, but not if your blood sugar's 250 all the time, like you know, yeah, then you need somebody to go Hey, go And I was wondering, could you stop being an idiot and, you know, start listing out, but but you're not being an idiot, really, you're trying to give yourself space to do the other things that didn't feel I guess it didn't feel possible to do diabetes and live at the same time is Yeah, it's just

Galen Hensler 15:18
yeah, you know, like I said, I had a stepbrother, the same age, and we, you know, would go out and it's like, I want to be able to go like, eat dinner with friends and not have to worry about running and checking my blood sugar, or running to the bathroom and shooting up. So like, it's easier just sit there and have dinner and hang out. And yeah, ignore it.

Scott Benner 15:40
So it was the it was for you? Was it the actual process of having to test having to inject or did you not want anybody to see? Did you know, that part?

Galen Hensler 15:50
So I didn't really care about that part. Like, from as long as I remember, I've never had a problem with like, whipping out my needles and shooting myself in the arm. It's more of just taking a step back. I remember when I was diagnosis that it was a 62nd. Disease a day. So like, every day, you're dealing with it for like 60 seconds. And I remember, it became clear pretty quick that it's like, there's no way this is 60 seconds. It's like, you know, I was trying to think this morning. It's like, I'm thinking about diabetes. Like, every moment of the day, it's just checking in on how I feel checking my blood sugar, you know, am I gonna eat in a couple minutes? Am I drinking coffee, like, what is what's happening in my body. And that, I think I just got burnt out really quick of, I don't want to have to think about what my blood sugar is doing. I don't want to have to think about giving insulin. I don't want to have to count carbs. I don't have to worry about if I exercise and my blood sugar is gone, though. Like I just want to I just want to get back to normal life.

Scott Benner 16:57
Was there any feeling that you, you know, you got lied to when they said it was a 62nd disease? Was there? Like when that was told you were like, Oh, that's not bad. Like, I'll just do this thing and then I'll be okay. And then you realize that's not the case? Do you feel like there was a bait and switch? Or?

Galen Hensler 17:12
I don't, I don't really feel like there is a bait and switch. I just feel like it's, you know, I think it's something that just doctors would tell people to make it less intimidating early on.

Scott Benner 17:26
I always think they don't want you to drive off a bridge on the way home. So they're like, exactly, I'll be bad. They'll probably hear it soon. Even they'll be fine.

Galen Hensler 17:33
Yeah, within five years, you'll be cured. Don't

Scott Benner 17:35
worry about it just didn't look it Look, inject it into the banana. See how easy that was? That's what you'll remember. I had an orange to get an orange. I remember injecting

Galen Hensler 17:43
into an orange. And but yeah, it's like they they they make it seem like it's not a huge, huge deal. Checking your blood sugar takes five seconds. You know giving insulin takes 30 seconds to drop the insulin and shoot yourself in the arm. Yeah, but it's there's there's so much more to it than that, that people even without diabetes don't get you know, so doctors that are trying to explain this to people just don't really understand unless you've been through it.

Scott Benner 18:12
So did you for the lack of a better term. Did you pull it together before college? Or did this persist into college?

Galen Hensler 18:18
No, I was lucky I kind of got a group in a group before I went off to college. And I kind of bounced around between graduating high school, doing a semester in college in Logan, Utah, and then went back to Salt Lake worked full time for a bit and then my parents went to Montana. I followed them up there and started school there.

Scott Benner 18:46
You know what I'm doing right now while you're talking? Right? I'm writing down poop in a group as a possible race at the end of this story. You come out victorious. This one's going to be called Getting your poop in a group and Okay, it's your fault. Just so you know.

Unknown Speaker 19:04
I'll own it.

Scott Benner 19:05
I never heard anyone say that before. And I was my brain went poop in a group.

Unknown Speaker 19:09
Oh my God. He

Scott Benner 19:10
means together. This is fantastic. That I grabbed my pen. So thank you so much. You guys are all your worst enemies. Just so you know when you're going so true. Yeah. But but that's fantastic. Is that a colloquialism that's local to you.

Galen Hensler 19:30
No, it's me. Try not to swear so my daughter doesn't hear me and repeat it.

Scott Benner 19:34
She's gonna curse Don't worry about it. You can't Oh 100% Yeah. I Arden just asked me about Coronavirus. The other day she goes when the f are we getting out of this house? I was like is it gotten to that point yet? She's like, I really need to get out of here and I was like, Alright, well, I said, sweetie, I'm not sure what's about to happen. But we'll know. I think it's mid July or not quite mid July right now. And There's as much of me that thinks that this is about to get worse, you know? So yeah, yep. Like, oh geez, why don't we wait a little while longer? Find another corner of the house to stare at? You're gonna love it. How old are your kids?

Galen Hensler 20:14
I have a three year old and a one year old. Wow. Oh,

Scott Benner 20:17
yeah, that's kind of better, at least. I mean, maybe not for you and your wife as much as them. But, you know, at least they're not like, Oh, we never get out of here.

Galen Hensler 20:25
Yeah, and we were lucky. We live right behind the school. And obviously the school is out so we can go over there and walk around and play in the field and nice. Get out of the house. But yeah, it's definitely it's been. It's been a long lockdown.

Scott Benner 20:38
Yeah, no kidding. And you can't walk through a potato field because it's all lumpy. So yeah, you gotta go find somewhere else. Really? Yeah.

Galen Hensler 20:44
Yeah. It's Idaho. So it's leaving the state really to find a field. That's not

Scott Benner 20:49
I don't imagine that it's not just border to border. Just Vados? I don't know this. Bruce Willis live there. Where is he? I Oh, damn it. Am I am I I'll figure that out while you answer your next question. Are you so you're in college, you've got your stuff together. It's going pretty well, but I'm looking at your note here a little bit. Do you develop an eating disorder in college? Or how does what happened? Yeah,

Galen Hensler 21:16
so that was, that was I would say, right, when I moved to Montana, I kind of got burned out. Again, this was probably less severe.

But similar, like cutting down on insulin, and I just started basically running a lot.

Scott Benner 21:38
Okay, um,

Galen Hensler 21:40
so I would, I was down to like, 140. So I lost probably like 40 or 50 pounds. Well, I've just giving less insulin. And this was like, I wouldn't say in high school, and I got burned out. It was like basically no insulin. When I moved to Montana, it was more of I'm just going to run a lot and give insulin and try and keep my blood sugar. If I'm hitting 250 that's fine. I just wanted to stay below 250. So yeah, got it just wasn't it wasn't a healthy time.

Scott Benner 22:30
Je Volk hypo pan has no visible needle, and it's the first premixed autoinjector of glucagon for very low blood sugar in adults and kids with diabetes ages two and above. Not only is chivo hypo pen simple to administer, but it's simple to learn more about. All you have to do is go to G Volk glucagon.com, forward slash juicebox g vo shouldn't be used in patients with insulinoma or pheochromocytoma. Visit g Vogue glucagon.com slash risk.

How often do you think to yourself, hmm, my agency doesn't match what I'm getting with my blood glucose meter. The meter is telling me one thing, but then I get my agency done three months later, things aren't jiving. Or maybe you have a continuous glucose monitor. And it says one thing and the meter says another thing and that just leaves you confused. I remember this happening with my daughter. And it was not fun, just these two different numbers. And they left you feeling unsettled. But since Arden has moved to the Contour Next One blood glucose meter, I don't live through that any longer. And ardens a one sees very closely match our expectations. My point is, is that technology gets better. And you should keep up, especially when it comes to your blood glucose meter because you make so many important decisions based on that number. Head over to Contour Next one.com forward slash juice box. And you can learn all about the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. For instance, it uses test strips that offer Second Chance testing, meaning you can touch the blood not get enough, go back and get some more and still get an accurate test. Without wasting the strip. It's possible that you could be eligible for a free meter, it's possible that you could buy the meter in cash and it'd be cheaper than you buying it or another meter through your insurance. There's so much to find out and all the information you need is at Contour Next one.com forward slash juicebox. There's links in the show notes for contour for G Vogue. And for the T one D exchange because I'm going to ask you to head over there as well. P one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. If you're a caregiver, or a type one who lives in the United States, you can add very simple data to what the T one D exchange is doing. They ask you these super simple questions about life or diabetes there Not long answers, I think it must have taken me about seven minutes to do the entire thing. I did it right from my phone, you could do it from your computer. It's easy. And this information helps the T one D exchange to move things for for people living with type one. I give you all the examples all the time, but they're there, read about them at T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. You could very easily make life for other type ones and yourself much better and support the podcast. Alright, let's get back to the show.

So you were purposefully manipulating the insulin to lose weight? Yeah. Did you feel like you had a weight issue?

Galen Hensler 25:56
Yes. Um,

Unknown Speaker 25:59
yeah,

Scott Benner 26:00
we like 190. What do you five? Five?

Galen Hensler 26:01
I am six foot.

Scott Benner 26:03
How are you at? 190? That seems like a good way for me. No.

Galen Hensler 26:08
Um, it probably was right. But it was more of Yeah, it just, it was a weird period, I would say moving to Montana, not really knowing anybody not really knowing what to do with myself. This was early in my college days. So just just to get in

Scott Benner 26:29
your own head, do you think? Yeah,

Galen Hensler 26:31
yeah, definitely.

Scott Benner 26:32
That's interesting. That's really interesting. Because, you know, obviously, any kind of eating disorder is not I don't think, you know, you couldn't call it sensible. Like, you're like, Oh, I'm, I'm at the perfect weight, but I'm just gonna lose weight, you know, like, so. I mean, obviously, that's that aside, it's just interesting to hear that you were at what I would consider. I mean, a reasonable weight for your height, and especially your age. Yeah. Were you just trying to make yourself inhospitable to bear attack? Perhaps you're like, maybe if I get small enough these things? I think it's not worth the effort.

Galen Hensler 27:03
Yeah. Not worth it. If I just practice running, I can get faster than them. Just outrun the bears.

Scott Benner 27:08
Are you aware of it while it's happening? Are you like I'm manipulating my insulin? I this is not healthy.

Galen Hensler 27:13
Hold on. I think I lost you.

Scott Benner 27:16
Hello. Hello. You say goodbye. Can I say hello? Hello? Hello?

Galen Hensler 27:26
Scott. Can you hear me?

Scott Benner 27:27
I can. Can you hear me?

Unknown Speaker 27:30
Oh, no.

Unknown Speaker 27:32
This is weird.

Scott Benner 27:35
I am going to

Unknown Speaker 27:44
can you hear me?

Unknown Speaker 27:48
What?

Galen Hensler 27:52
Alright, can you hear me now?

Scott Benner 27:54
I can hear you the whole time. Can you hear me?

Galen Hensler 27:56
I can hear you now know what you do. I think vice speaker my airpots died. Oh.

Scott Benner 28:05
Yeah. And when you can't count on $240 small pieces of plastic. What do you really? I can't believe you didn't charge your air pods for this.

Galen Hensler 28:15
I you know, I did her. Eating before

Scott Benner 28:19
hurts my feelings. Just so you know.

Unknown Speaker 28:21
Oh, sorry.

Scott Benner 28:24
No, get yourself situated. And we'll go back.

Galen Hensler 28:26
Okay, I'm gonna have some other speakers. This whole work from home thing is?

Scott Benner 28:38
Yeah, my dining room looks like what I imagined Kelly's office looks like and it's not pleasant.

Galen Hensler 28:44
You know, we, uh, my wife is in graduate school right now. So we turned our walk in closet, in our apartment, into our office. And it is just hot mess.

Scott Benner 28:58
Honey, get in the closet. This is where it's gonna happen.

Unknown Speaker 29:00
Just everyday just come out of closet.

Scott Benner 29:04
It'll be an awakening for you every day. At the end of the work. You'll be like, I'm free again. By the way, Bruce Willis just recently sold his $5.5 million. Idaho ranch. It is beautiful.

Unknown Speaker 29:15
She is

Scott Benner 29:16
new. He lived in Idaho. Because I think I think dummy lives there still and that's not again, I'm not being mean. I believe that's how she wants her name pronounced. Any of you who lived through the 80s and 90s will hear that joke and no one else will understand that there was a time where Demi Moore ran around telling people Her name was to me. So I'm I'm the only one that apparently is gonna remember that but for you all people out there Enjoy your giggle. GALEN gets his headset together while and I figure out if Demi Moore lives in Idaho? Cuz I'm telling you she does who she does Are you rich Galen cuz I have houses seem very expensive.

Galen Hensler 29:55
I wish

Scott Benner 30:00
My gosh. As a matter of fact, but yeah, I can, by the way, as a matter of fact it during the beginning of COVID Bruce went to live with me and her family and I think she's

Unknown Speaker 30:15
Wait, what is this?

Scott Benner 30:17
Oh, and he got split from his current family to stay with Demi's the scary accent behind Demi Moore and Bruce Willis is COVID-19. quarantine. I'm not gonna read that. But apparently Bruce Willis got stuck quarantine with his ex wife instead of his actual life. Photos of the mirror and matching pajamas and oh, that's comfortable. Honey, I'll be honest to this crowd is over. I'm just hanging out with me. Seriously, I wish this is the first time I found myself wishing I could take a phone call to like to see if somebody goes. I remember when she wanted to be called dummy. It was hilarious. My gosh, anyway, you're good. I'm good. All right. So it's a nice interlude. I'm leaving all that in, by the way. Okay, while you could hear me, I was singing it was terrific. So when you're consciously doing that, and so you have you have the sort of, you know, intellectual, emotional, you know, ability to say, I'm doing something that's not healthy for me to get this result. Yep. I mean, that's a weird headspace to be in, is there any way you can explain how that feels?

Galen Hensler 31:32
Um, I think it's thinking long term versus thinking short term. So you know, having your blood sugar, run it to 50 isn't going to kill you tomorrow. And I knew that, and it was me thinking, Okay, I, you know, I want to lose some weight, I want to, you know, just kind of deal with a little bit of burnout right now and not think about it as much. So let me let my blood sugar run high a little bit. Yeah, knowing that it's going to take you know, I won't see the effects of this. Or the major effects. Obviously, there are some short term effects, but I'm not gonna see the effects of it for a while. So it's okay to let it happen for a bit.

Scott Benner 32:19
Did you see it? Looking back? Did you see it as a psychological issue? Like was your appearance was so important to your that the idea that this needed to happen, or you were Joe,

Galen Hensler 32:29
I don't, I don't think it was ever like, worrying about my appearance as much. Because really, I was like, I just moved to Montana, I was living basically in the middle of nowhere. Like, didn't really see anybody except my family. And then, like friends in Salt Lake who like play video games and chat. It was just more of again, just, you know, the burnout of not wanting to deal with it as much and having other I'm good,

Scott Benner 33:02
no, I was gonna say, I guess the real fear ends up being that you could get stuck in that forever. And and that burnout, because then what the high blood sugar's due to your kind of your ability to think about, yes, you could just get stuck there. Like, yeah, like any bad sci fi movie where somebody takes you to a place where you, you just have to realize you're there to get away from it. Yeah. And instead, you just give over to, you know, the good, you know, the quote, unquote, good parts of what you're saying. And you're like, um, I keep my weight down, it's fine. You know, and you can keep saying these are long, long term, like, I can stop it whenever I want. Yeah, I guess the real problem is that a lot of people can't stop it, because they're being pushed more through the psychological impact of being concerned about how they feel, or they have some actual, you know, issue. Totally where, where they feel like they don't look the way they want to, quote unquote, but you know, even if that's not true, and if they're the only one seeing it, we I guess makes it true for them. It's interesting, I didn't know we didn't really feel like we'd be talking about this. So yeah, still wrapping my head around it a little bit. But it's, I'm thinking now, this is gonna sound terrible, but I knew a kid in high school who was really heavy. And he tried and couldn't do anything about it. And you know, he eventually it was keeping in mind, it was the end of the 80s he decided that cocaine was the way to lose weight. And it worked. He was real skinny by the time Yeah, he was done, but his life for the next 15 years was a disaster. Yeah. And thinking of that group of people now. And there's no way any of them are going to listen to this podcast. I feel like I'm good here. They're all a different mass in some way or another and one of them's dead. Yeah, and and had a terrible heart attack when you know in early 40s, mid 40s And if I could describe that his life was exactly how you might imagine somebody who's you know, recreationally and consistently using cocaine through their 20s and 30s. And pulls himself together in his late 30s. Go to school, becomes an attorney is practicing, meets a woman has a baby, and drops that cheese. And so I wonder if when he was 20 if somebody would have said to him, Hey, listen, man, when you're 43, you're gonna die with a newborn? Like, you know, you're gonna go through all this. And I wonder how that would have impacted his first decision. And I? And I don't, you know, obviously, yours didn't go on very. How long did you do this for?

Galen Hensler 35:44
Probably. I would say I got insulin and eating under control within six months,

Scott Benner 35:53
okay. So you're not gonna have I mean, likely have any long term complications from it? But But what if you would have got stuck in it? Yeah. And many people do, right? Yeah. Okay. So you, you get that you put that poop back in or to a group? And Yep, your poop gets scattered a lot.

Galen Hensler 36:12
It does. Yeah.

Scott Benner 36:14
You just got to run around and like, just push it all back together again, and head off again. That's, let's find out where else you get scattered. Let's keep moving forward. When do you meet that lovely girl who you jammed into her closet.

Galen Hensler 36:29
So she was actually a student of my mom's at the university. So she was a social work major. My mom's teaching social work at the time. And we ran into each other a lot, just like around basically, my mom's office slash the social work department. And we were, you know, chat and friendly. And that went on for like, two years. And then a couple weeks before we both graduated, actually sent her a friend request on Facebook, and said, we should hang out. And literally the next day, we got coffee. And I think we hung out every day for like the next

Unknown Speaker 37:15
couple months.

Galen Hensler 37:18
And then propose, like six months later, and got married couple months after that, and been together for five years now married for over five years. Wow.

Scott Benner 37:29
When do you propose when you realize you can't believe she's still with you? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Like, well, this girl's not figuring it out.

Galen Hensler 37:37
Gotta lock it down.

Unknown Speaker 37:38
Why does she not look at me and go, what am I doing here? She's gonna figure it out. Eventually. I gotta do something.

Galen Hensler 37:44
I thought she would. But

Scott Benner 37:47
well, he she's the kind of girl who will accept a closet as an office so amenable to all kinds of things. Yes.

Galen Hensler 37:53
Yeah. No, she's great.

Scott Benner 37:54
It's funny. That's great. Good for you. I don't want to jump around too much. But have you gotten an answer? I'm looking at your notes though. Your daughter had your which daughter, the three year old?

Galen Hensler 38:06
So? Yeah, my three year old? Um, yeah. So this is kind of the ongoing story of our life. And January 2019. So last January. I was at work one day and got a call from my wife during a meeting. I thought it was weird, but I just ignored it. And then I texted her and she was like, No, something's wrong, like call me. From what I can tell. My daughter Berkeley had a hypoglycemic seizure. And my wife was there, she called 911. And then called me I started driving home. Paramedics came, paramedics did not check her blood sugar, which I find weird, took her vitals and said she was fine and left. I got home, probably about 20 minutes later. Berkeley like ran to me when I came in the door. And she just looked off. And had I not been type one obviously, I wouldn't have thought anything. Like we would have just taken her to the ER but she looked, she looked like she was low. So I checked your blood sugar. It was 41 huh? And we started giving her honey. Check your blood sugar again, probably about 10 minutes later and it was 37. So we call 911. Again, paramedics came long story short, we ended up in the ER she saw my daughter had basically was not able to like move the left side of her body and we think probably part of the seizure. Did all the scans were in the ER for a couple hours, did a bunch of scans or a bunch of tests, everything came back normal sent us to the Children's Hospital here. We were there for two nights, I think two or three nights. And basically just ran a bunch of tests. Everything came back normal.

Unknown Speaker 40:23
As it happened to me and since then.

Galen Hensler 40:26
So when we left the hospital, they basically said, like, we don't know what's going on. So my wife and I, again, kind of luck of the draw that I'm type one diabetic. I know about, you know, counting carbs and like different food groups and like, what? Like, I'm more aware of food, I would say than the normal person. Yeah. So we were checking Berkeley's blood sugar. I mean, we we kept a little log, and it was ridiculous. I think we checked her 30 times a day, at least.

I was waking up every two hours in the night to check her blood sugar. Just because we didn't we didn't know what was going on.

Scott Benner 41:12
Were you in a panic, she was just gonna die.

Galen Hensler 41:14
Yeah, 100% pressure comes from 100%. And, you know, again, it's like when my wife calls me and says Burke was having a seizure. This obviously never happened before. So it came out of the blue hit like a ton of bricks. And we did everything we could to like, make sure that didn't happen again. Pretty quickly, we realized that it seemed like dairy, made her blood sugar go down. So we would if she had yogurt or milk, her blood sugar would start to dip. And we'd have to correct. So we basically have been avoiding dairy milk. Is that working? It is?

Scott Benner 42:01
Have you gotten any kind of answer about why that?

Galen Hensler 42:04
No. Nope. And we've had, so she's had genetic tests done. Every like literally every test has come back normal. So she's been charged for, like pre markers for diabetes. Just everything seems to be normal that we've tested for.

Scott Benner 42:25
Wow. Yes. Incredibly odd. I hope you find an answer to that and share it with me, by the way.

Galen Hensler 42:30
Yeah, excuse me know me. Yeah,

Scott Benner 42:32
that's fascinating. And I know a bit about, like, seeing stuff like that. And just being perplexed by it. I, I've mentioned on the show, I think before, but my body doesn't appear to hold on to ferritin. So like, you give me a CBC, and my blood tests are all my values are perfect. I look fine, like you know, except my ferritin is 13.

Unknown Speaker 42:53
Interesting.

Scott Benner 42:54
And hold on a second. I'm sorry. And then I go get an infusion and it goes back up again. And these symptoms that I have, which are really weird, like, I think it's called paraesthesia. But I get like a little electrical feeling on the right side of my skull lesion. And if that's not painful, or anything like that, it just get like it feels like somebody like touches a nine volt battery to my tongue, but on the side of my head for a split second. When I feel that I start thinking, Okay, my father must be starting to go down, then my muscle tone goes away. Like I've changed nothing else about my life. But however, please don't get me wrong. I'm not lifting weights or anything like that. But, but my normal muscle tone begins to lessen it gets a little jelly ish. And then I start having weird reactions to things. And so what I would say to that is that you know, it, you might just say, I'm overreacting, like if you think of someone who's overreacting, but there's a fogginess that comes around it. And I just sort of something happens. And as I'm responding to it, it's usually like a more tense thing, right? Or, I don't know, you'll say something to me. And where I would not normally be flippant or dismissive. Like I just sort of em, and that if it goes into a conversation, the words coming out of my mouth don't match how I feel or what I'm thinking. It's, it's and I'm not it's not disassociated or anything like that. You understand what I mean, but it's Yeah, it's I have a hard time. Not saying, I guess the worst of all the options of what to say, Sure, I get the ferritin it all just goes away.

Galen Hensler 44:39
Interesting.

Scott Benner 44:40
And so my son's home from school, gets his, um, you know, his well visit. And, you know, the girls have hypothyroidism and, you know, with diabetes and everything, so I just say to the doctor, can I get a baseline on coal when you do his blood tests? He's like, Yeah, sure. Absolutely. So You know, everything's fine. It's thyroid level. I mean, you should see the kids like, seriously, it looks like an underwear model. You can run forever. You know what I mean? Like there's there's nothing about his life that would make you think something's wrong with him. Yeah, physically. And Adam called and we talked about it. Hold on one second, I cannot get my throat clear. It's probably Corona just stuck right there in the back. Sorry. Um, you know, if I end up with Corona, people are gonna be like, you shouldn't have joked about that. Seriously. My joking, it's not gonna stop me from getting sick or getting sick. But, but so I hear back colds blood tests are amazing. He's like, they're better than amazing. He's like, his CBC is absolutely. It's it's like everybody wants the CBC, his cholesterol, his thyroid levels are fine. Everything is good is a one C was five, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, is ferritin 20. It's incredibly low. And I'm like, Oh, my God, we there's some genetic thing, but he doesn't have any symptoms of it. So I don't know. Like, it's just a strange thing. when something like that happens to you that that then doctors go. Well, I mean, I wouldn't worry about it. If it's not causing a problem. Yeah, that's a weird answer to get,

Galen Hensler 46:13
you know, yeah. No, it really is. So

Scott Benner 46:15
is that the answer? You got? Like, don't give her milken go live your life. But how do you do that? Yeah,

Galen Hensler 46:22
I mean, that the answer that. So I mean, like, we've traveled like, we've gone down to Salt Lake. We've seen a couple doctors up here. Everybody gives the same answer. Like, everything looks good. Maybe she'll grow out of it. Right. And so it's been 18 months now. And still, you know, she got the day had a not low but you know, in the 60s and acting some dramatic? Like still happening that outgrowing it. It doesn't really give us as parents any peace of mind to be a comfort with that. Yeah, yeah, like, outgrow it when? You know, and that's not an answer. No, it's Yeah, it's like, what are we supposed to do when we send her to kindergarten? Like, just? Like, how do we deal with this throughout her life? Where it's always been? Or it's always gonna be like, Maybe, maybe not? Maybe today, she'll outgrow it? Maybe not.

Scott Benner 47:23
I wonder if her doctor couldn't prescribe a Dexcom Pro study for.

Galen Hensler 47:28
And that's. So we actually have a appointment with her endo, next week. And that's kind of what I'm trying to push for is just give us a Dexcom for her. Yeah, so we can see. Because again, it's like she's three years old. She takes a nap during the day. Sometimes she'll wake up and like below when she wakes up. And it's nice to know.

Scott Benner 47:52
Well, you might be able to find a pattern more of a pattern. Yeah, maybe finding the pattern would point to something. I wish you luck. I'm sorry. We got sidetracked on that. But that's really

Galen Hensler 48:00
No, no, you're fine. It's super. Yeah, it's definitely the case of our family of everybody's trying to figure out what's going on with poor Burke.

Scott Benner 48:09
Well, by the way, this poop in a group thing might get sent away because you're a bit of a hypocrite because you've mocked your mother in the beginning. Being from Berkeley and calling you Galen, and then you named your baby Berkeley. So yeah,

Unknown Speaker 48:21
it's true.

Scott Benner 48:22
GALEN is a hypocrite. But he's now second on my list.

Galen Hensler 48:28
That's fine. We actually Her name is actually Berkeley rose. And there's a Berkeley rose garden. So

Scott Benner 48:34
yeah, that's very nice. I'm just kidding. It's so wonderful. It's a lovely name. It really is.

Galen Hensler 48:38
It is but it's definitely for Berkeley, the city that you know, was born in and grew up in. So

Scott Benner 48:42
how is the one year old? Saskatchewan she okay. Things are good that

Galen Hensler 48:46
a one year old is actually Lincoln?

Unknown Speaker 48:49
and Nebraska.

Galen Hensler 48:51
Yeah, it not Nebraska. It just, honestly, I don't know. We just like the name Lincoln. So we ended up going with Lincoln.

Scott Benner 48:59
I'm not I'm not. I'm not breaking your balls overnight. It's fine. It's easy, like, Link? Is that a is that? Yeah. Yeah. It's not like that. Yeah. Plus, you're not matching anything with your last name. So it doesn't matter. Hey, listen, this is the point in the podcast where I tell you I don't care and it means nothing to me. But because of the podcast history. I'm remise. You've mentioned Utah a number of times any chance you're Mormon?

Galen Hensler 49:23
No, I was raised LDS. But I am not. I would say I am far removed from the church. Ah,

Scott Benner 49:30
gotcha. But you were there at one point.

Galen Hensler 49:33
I was there at one point up until I was 18.

Scott Benner 49:35
I'm counting you on the tally. Just so you know. At some point, one day, I'm getting an answer. I really am. Because this podcast is listened to everywhere. Really everywhere. And I mean, I gotta be up to 10 by now, right? Like I'm getting close. Like I there's Yeah, I don't know something's going on.

Unknown Speaker 49:56
That's weird.

Scott Benner 49:57
I need to study of diabetes and Utah. That's what I seriously. Yeah. Oh my gosh. So, you know, with all this, it's sort of happened to you and and, you know, currently with your daughter and previously with yourself. You mentioned that, you know, when we were talking, you know, through email, you mentioned that you really feel like attitude has a lot to do with diabetes. And I was wondering how that manifested for you and how you put it into practice?

Galen Hensler 50:25
Yeah, so you know, when I was going through, when I first moved to Montana was kind of going through the struggle there. Once I started getting into school, I got a job, I was kind of forced to start taking care of myself again, to basically feel normal. So when your blood sugar's around 250, you're just not feeling great. And just kind of realizing that I feel so much better when my blood sugar is controlled. And being able to, to know that there's a benefit and taking care of yourself. And I think I mentioned this in the email, but I graduated with my undergrad and then moved into law school. I got engaged, my first semester of law school, got married, my second semester of law school. And then we had Berkeley, my last year of law school. So law school was kind of a whirlwind. And I think that's where I kind of really buckled down on, on knowing that you have to put limits on everything. And what I mean by that is, law school takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. But I was also newly engaged, newly married, had a new kid. So I got in a very good habit of really looking at law school, like a job. And you know, from nine to five hours, I was working at law school, and then I would come home and hang out with my wife. And, you know, do that basically every day.

Scott Benner 52:08
And you can't do those things when your blood sugar's high, and you can't focus and all the other problems that it comes exactly,

Galen Hensler 52:15
yep, you really have to, you have to change the my mom's favorite saying is like, change the channel. So you have to, like change the channel of your mind. Like, like diabetes sucks. Like, there's no if ands or buts about that. But there's no like denying it doesn't do anything to help you. Right? I think that's kind of what I really came to. It's like, I cannot take insulin, and I can feel horrible. Or I can just it, I can just suck it up and be like, this is the hand I was dealt. It sucks. And again, I've said this a few times now, but like, I'm lucky, like, I have never had gaps in my insurance. I've always been able to get insulin like I've never felt like I was rationing insulin. Like you said, I had a great support system. My wife has been amazingly supportive. Like as, as horrible as diabetes is a lucky one. And just kind of realizing that it's, it's the hand you're dealt, and you just got to do what you like the best you can.

Scott Benner 53:23
So there's nothing to point to then you can't say that you had an epiphany or you employed a certain thing. I think that's important for people to know, like, you recognize that. And then you just consciously said, I have to change this. Yeah, right. It's not there's no, there's not a book to read, or, you know, a seminar to go to or something like that. You just you, you have to be an adult and look and say, you know, the alternative is not good. If there is going to be long term consequences. If I keep going like this and short term, I'm cheating myself out of the things I'm trying to do. totally right. So but

Galen Hensler 53:58
i think i think there's a there's a power that comes from recognizing it yourself. Versus, you know, like reading a book and changing your behavior because of a book. I think that's fleeting. I think it's, you know, you can watch an inspirational talk and you know, want to change your life, but until you like, internalize it until it's like coming from you. Yeah, it doesn't stick. And, obviously, you know, I've gone through ups and downs where I've taken better care of myself, and not so great care of myself. But at the end of the day, it's like these little periods of, of burnout. They don't last long. Because I know, you know, like, especially now having kids, it's like, I have to take care of my better care of myself. And then just knowing like, you feel so much better when you're in control. And the time it takes to be in control is worth worth taking that time. So I'm not sitting there worrying about, you know what my blood sugar is doing.

Scott Benner 54:57
Well, I think that you by about it like this. I think that's as helpful as anything because you're a person that did it. Like, it's easy to, like, it's easy to say, you know, oh, I read a book, this guy has all these ideas or there's quotes or inspiration that's bold. That's not somebody that did it. That's somebody who's saying it like you did it. And just because you can't exactly quantify how you did, it doesn't mean that that's, that's not inspirational. I mean, just the idea that it can be done, I think is is really more important than anything else. And I have to tell you that while I don't have type one, obviously, the idea of burnout seems reductive to me. Like it seems like an oversimplification of something. And I don't know what it is, but I keep hoping that through these conversations, we're gonna find out. Yeah, you know what I mean? Because, I mean, I don't have, again, I don't have to take insulin, right. I don't have that pressure, that stress in my life, but my life has not been particularly terrific. Along the way, you know, at every step. And there's something about that persistence, that I know I have that persistence, like, I don't give up. Yeah. And and I don't know why that is. And I mean, like, emotionally physically, if things don't look good, I am internally hopeful person. Yeah. And, and I don't know why. But if that's not your case, if you're more pessimistic, and it's funny, I'm incredibly pessimistic about most things, but not the big things. Sure. It's, it's strange, like on on a low level, like, you know, I see something happened, oh, my God, this is gonna go to hell. You know, like, like, I don't see anyone. I don't see any way this is gonna work out. But, but I think overall, it can work out. Yeah. And so the moment might be bad, but I don't think that the journey is a failure. Sure. And I don't know how to tell you that either. Like, I don't know why I felt like that most of my life, other than to say that, you know, knowing you're adopted early on, is it's a little rough to hear, like somebody had you and when whatever. Like, that's, that's hard. But then you meet a family who cares about you? You're like, oh, okay, well, that's good. And then that family gets divorced. And you're like, Oh, well, that's bad. You know, like, and it's just, you know, and then, and then I didn't really have like, stick to itiveness in school. So I had no prospects, like, yeah, coming out of high school. But, and I took a job that was terrible. I worked in a sheetmetal shop for like, six years. And every day I was there, I was being paid nothing. I was killing myself physically. And it did not seem to be a pathway to anything except showing back up the next day and doing it again. And, and it was horrible. Because I felt like, I felt like a, like, I wanted to write a book, I felt like I had all these ideas of things I wanted to do, I'd sit around with guys, they were all lovely. I want to say seriously, that a lot of my life lessons came from those men that I worked with, they all had something about them. Because you don't have a father. There's no way to know how to be a sense. So what I would do is I would look at the people around me. And I would pick out what I thought were their just their best traits. And I'd pay attention to them. There was one gentleman who was just incredibly honest. And there was a guy there who worked really hard. And there was a guy there who had an incredible sense of humor, like I did, and he wasn't afraid for people to see it. And you know, and like, they all had these different kind of bits about them. So being there was an incredible part of my life like to see all of that. And I would just sort of like, I used to joke that like being adopted, it's great, because you it's not even a joke like because you get to decide who you are. No one really tells you who you are, you know? Yeah. So you get the look and you go, you know, this guy over here. He's an earnest, son of a bitch. I like how earnest he is. Yep. Maybe that's a good thing. Instead of watching your parents and just soaking up whatever it is they put out into the world, you know? Yeah. But, but and so maybe that built into it. And that's a long way of saying that not everybody gets to have that experience. So when some other person has, you know, oh, my parents got divorced. They don't go, I bet you we can get through this. Some of them just go well, that's the end. Yeah, you know, and then that it blankets them for a long time. So I don't know the difference between someone like you, and someone who still has that is living with an eating disorder that yeah, that never breaks free of it. Or who doesn't realize I can't do this with my blood sugar because I'm trying to have a family and I love these people and I want to be an attorney. By the way, how the hell did you go from being an attorney to marketing?

Galen Hensler 59:45
I got like halfway through law school and realized I didn't want to be a lawyer. But at that point, you can't drop out of law school you're halfway through so I just stuck it out. And actually got an MBA while I was finishing law school.

Scott Benner 59:58
Yeah, moved into marketing. There you go. See? Yeah, so you just never you never took the bar. Is that how that works?

Galen Hensler 1:00:02
never took the bar. But graduated law school just

Scott Benner 1:00:05
Yeah, you're just like whatever.

Galen Hensler 1:00:06
Yeah, pretty much. It's a good fallback option, like in five years if I'm like, Oh, yeah, I want to be a lawyer now. Yeah. I am one step closer, I guess. But you're not.

Scott Benner 1:00:15
Yeah, yeah. No, no, I understand. I just told that. I just told a story on the podcast recently, I had a counselor in school who's like, I think you'd be a great attorney. And I was like, oh, then I'd be an attorney. Yeah,

Galen Hensler 1:00:24
yeah, exactly. I was like, I like my wife. And I like my kids. I want to hang out with them. So

Scott Benner 1:00:29
yeah, I just couldn't imagine doing it every day. Like, I love the talking, and the rationalizing, and the arguing, but the writing wouldn't be for me, like I that would throw me off,

Unknown Speaker 1:00:39
I think.

Galen Hensler 1:00:40
Yeah. And, you know, I want to actually touch on something that you were just saying, getting back to being able to like, pick and choose, you're saying, Yeah, people around you. And I think one thing that, like, helped me through loss was i'm just i'm very logical, and very black and white. I don't swing high or swing low, usually. And so knowing that about myself, and being able to look at having type one, and dealing with this for 15 years, there's just been so many points in my life, where I'm able to see like, it sucks to have type one, like I've said, Everybody knows that. Yeah. But I think when you get past that hump of like, this sucks. And you can start looking when possible at points in your life, where it's like, okay, it sucks to have type one. But when I was diagnosed, I was in the Children's Hospital. And there were kids, you know, one, two years old, they were having to get their fingers poked. And I know this now having to do it to my daughter, but it's like, they don't understand what's going on. They're just getting poked by their parents. But it's like I was old enough to at least know what was going on. So even though it sucked. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. The context was available, at least Yeah, and going throughout my life and seeing that. It's, it's giving me an outlook of, oh, man, like, I'm so lucky that I was raised in a house where I was able to have the support system where I had insurance, you know, where I had the financial ability, like, pay for these things. Even now, it's like, I'm lucky enough to have a have a great job, to be able to get supplies and everything to keep me healthy. It changes your outlook. So it's like as shitty as diabetes is, when you're able to take a step back and kind of change your channel and adjust your view.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:46
It it.

Galen Hensler 1:02:48
For me, at least, it's made me a lot more compassionate. It's given me a lot of just ability to see like, people aren't as lucky as I am. And what can we be doing to basically help those people that, you know, can't afford insulin or are unable to get their insulin or, you know, can't afford their supplies?

Scott Benner 1:03:09
Did other people's situations that were worse off than yours give you the feeling like you can't waste the opportunity that you have to do better with the tools you have? Did you so not thought

Galen Hensler 1:03:20
not just with diabetes? I would say almost not necessarily with diabetes. It's just kind of, you know, hippie, parents. Social Work, mother. Yeah. It's that it's been instilled in me for a long time. GALEN, there are starving kids somewhere your beans. like pretty much. I mean, it's basically like you're given this opportunity. You were like, I wrote my law school. Like application essay. I'm basically like, I'm an upper middle class white male, like I'm starting, like a step away from the finish line. And it would be a disservice to me and everybody else if I didn't try and do as much as I can, right?

Scott Benner 1:04:01
So half assed your way through them exactly. Like I did it. Yeah.

Galen Hensler 1:04:04
Yeah. And diabetes, I would say, gives all of that an extra layer of like, you know, people starting off like, there's there's still things that people deal with. So like, how can we just like what can I be doing to help people?

Scott Benner 1:04:24
Not here? Well, that's a good message, man. It really is. Wow, that was a lot. I didn't expect all that. Good for you. Nice. Well done. Thanks for having a great microphone. So actually, your microphones so great, that are at times when you're quiet. I feel like I can hear a one year old and a three year old trying to kill each other is that Yeah,

Galen Hensler 1:04:41
you probably could. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:04:46
I feel like the one year old was yelling, your blood sugar's low. Get away from me. Don't pass out on me. I see all this. Yeah.

Galen Hensler 1:04:54
Oh, my gosh. That's why I'm in the closet.

Scott Benner 1:04:57
Are you in the closet office right now?

Unknown Speaker 1:04:59
Yep. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:05:02
well, things have fallen apart. I haven't. Seriously, I don't know when we're going back to work. I'm starting to think like, it's not gonna happen this year. Just you know, I'm

Galen Hensler 1:05:11
feeling the same way. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:05:13
I don't know if I I don't know if this will come out months from now. I'll think I'll listen and think, Wow, it was right. Or I was I hope I was wrong. But yeah, I just saw some things. recently that made me feel like there's no way this is gonna go away. Right now. It's just people have gone back out. And there's just I don't know, like if if being distant and covering your faces is truly important than what I saw is troubling. So yeah. So we'll see what happens. I don't know. It's just it seems, it seems to me like I'm not as hopeful as I was. Maybe four weeks ago, four weeks, guys, like this is turning. I can see it turning. Yeah, I'm like, Oh, well, maybe not. I guess we all had to get back to five below. Very important. cozy. Yeah, we needed a squishy ball. And now everybody's gonna think again. Anyway, just you know. Anyway, fingers crossed. And hopefully I'll go back and listen to this and be like, I was really wrong. And our lives are all normal couple

Galen Hensler 1:06:11
weeks now.

Scott Benner 1:06:14
We'll see. Again, not. Thank you very much for doing this. Isn't it funny? I just did exactly what I said it was going to do in the short term. I'm not hopeful in the long term. I'm very hopeful. I'm like, this is a disaster, but it'll be okay. Eventually, eventually.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:29
Fingers crossed.

Scott Benner 1:06:30
Would you hang out for a second? I just want to say goodbye to you like a real person. Of course. Thanks. Thanks for doing this.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:36
Yeah, thanks for having me.

Scott Benner 1:06:45
A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, g Vogue glucagon. Find out more about chivo kebo pen at GE Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. you spell that GVOKEGL Uc ag o n.com. forward slash juice box. Hey, really consider going to T one d exchange.org. forward slash juice box and adding your voice. And of course Thanks so much to the Contour Next One blood glucose meter for being a longtime sponsor. Check them out at Contour Next one.com forward slash juice box.


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#437 Breana Bright Eyes

Scott Benner

20 year old Breana is in the Dexcom commercial with Nick Jonas

Breana Raquel has had type 1 diabetes for two years. Learn more about Breana here and find out about getting your own Dexcom G6 here.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon MusicGoogle Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio PublicAmazon Alexa or their favorite podcast app.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT


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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello everyone and welcome to Episode 437 of the Juicebox Podcast on today's show, Brianna Raquel Briana is 20 years old. She's had Type One Diabetes for two years. And just recently, she made a commercial with Nick Jonas for Dexcom

a few days ago, I found out that Nick Jonas had made a commercial for Dexcom that was gonna air on the big game. I don't know why the NFL doesn't let you say the words Boland super together but they don't. Anyway, I found out about this looked into it really cool. I was able to get some images and video which I shared back on Juicebox Podcast calm. And as I was making my way through everything, I found myself thinking, who's this girl with the sparkly eyes. And I asked around and found out that Brianna has type one diabetes. She's a user of Dexcom. And they reached out to her to be in this commercial. So I said, Can I get her on the show? That sounds like fun. And so here she is, and fun it was. Please remember while you're listening that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan, or becoming bold with insulin.

Juicebox Podcast is sponsored proudly by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter, the Omnipod tubeless insulin pump g vo hypo pen touched by type one, the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. And of course don't forget to check out T one d exchange.org. When you support the sponsors you're supporting the show and keeping it free. If you're looking for that Dexcom g six, head to dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. Would you like the most accurate, easy to use and delightful little blood glucose meter that I've ever seen pardon us? If you do that puts you at Contour Next one.com forward slash juicebox. To get a free no obligation demo of the Omnipod tubeless insulin pump, all you have to do is go to my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. If you'd like to check out the glucagon that my daughter carries, it's at G Volk glucagon.com forward slash juice box. And of course touched by type one is my favorite diabetes organization. They're on Facebook and Instagram. And it touched by type one.org. There are links to all the sponsors right there in the show notes of your podcast player and at Juicebox podcast.com. I appreciate it when you support the sponsors. Also, before we get started with Breanna Brown, his website is Brianna raquel.com breanaraquel.com. She's also on all the things tick gram ins the stuff, the whole thing.

Breana Raquel 3:17
My name is Breana Raquel, I grew up in a small town in Maryland. I am a singer and an actor. I've been in LA for about five years now and I I also do real estate as like a little side thing, but, ya know, my lifelong dream has been has to be an entertainer. So I don't know, I guess I would just live in the dream working hard and like trying to make it. You know that big break?

Scott Benner 3:44
Yeah, I understand. I have a side hustle too. I take care of what my wife tells me to do. So

Unknown Speaker 3:50
yeah, that is a job. Yeah, sure.

Scott Benner 3:52
It really is today, she's told me that I'm taking my daughter to get her nails done when I'm done with this. Oh, okay. As you can imagine as much important work. Yeah, it's my dream for this afternoon when I was making my, my vision board today, which by the way, I don't have. I definitely said go to the nail salon with Arden. Yeah, so I get you with Maryland and five years. How old are you?

Unknown Speaker 4:17
I'm 20. Wow.

Scott Benner 4:18
Okay, so did you and your whole family move out when you were 15? No, actually,

Breana Raquel 4:23
my parents stayed on the east coast. I moved out with my older sister. Wow.

Scott Benner 4:27
That's crazy. She's still there. Yeah,

Breana Raquel 4:29
she actually leaves in two weeks, though. So sad. But you know, it's time. It's been five years.

Scott Benner 4:36
So how old were you when you're diagnosed with type one?

Unknown Speaker 4:40
I was 18. Okay,

Scott Benner 4:42
I'm doing my math right now. So that was like two years ago. Yeah,

Breana Raquel 4:46
yeah. November 3 is my two year anniversary.

Scott Benner 4:49
Would you mind Tell me a little bit about being diagnosed and how it went?

Unknown Speaker 4:52
Yeah, of course.

Unknown Speaker 4:53
Um,

Breana Raquel 4:54
so I actually thought that nothing was wrong. I'm the type of person that's like, Oh my god, you're amazing. things up, don't go on webcam D, you're gonna just see something you don't want to see. And of course I did. And I was like diabetes Like what? But what? Now I remember that three nights before I was like on Web MD, after I told myself not to. And I was like, there's no way. My mom actually has a thyroid disease. And so when I was losing a bunch of weight, I thought it was that in so I went to go get my bloodwork done. I had a bunch of people telling me I was getting kind of skinny. And it was true. When I weighed myself I was 87 pounds. So my sugar was pretty high. And it was like in a span of one month that I just dropped the weight, like so fast. And I just remember waking up like, three times a night having to use the bathroom and I was drinking everything under the sun. Like I was just so thirsty, nothing could quench my thirst. And all my friends were like, oh, wow, you're hungry, huh? And I was like, Girl, yes. But I didn't realize that that was a symptom. And I was just like, you know, I'm

Unknown Speaker 6:07
a growing girl. I need some food.

Breana Raquel 6:10
But yeah, all of those symptoms. I typed into Web MD and they were like diabetes, and I was like, Okay,

Scott Benner 6:17
well, you know, there's that that magical thought that you're eating whatever you want and losing weight. You found the

Breana Raquel 6:22
exact I was like, This is great. You guys must be jealous. I was eating anything under the sun. And I was like, I don't gain weight.

Scott Benner 6:31
Well, I normally I say stay off the internet and and don't look for stuff there. But once in a while, you know, for stuff like this. It works out. Hey, your mom hypo thyroidism hyper, um,

Unknown Speaker 6:43
she had

Breana Raquel 6:44
hyper and then when she went to the military, they actually I think they either removed it or they gave her some sort of medicine to help levels stuff out. Not sure she was really young. So she was like a military just take care of it.

Scott Benner 6:58
She had the scar

Breana Raquel 7:00
on her. Oh, no, she doesn't. She doesn't. So I'm thinking maybe it was just medicine?

Scott Benner 7:05
Yeah, I think I actually don't know that. There's some radiation thing they do. And oh, by the way, this is in the weeds. But I think that if you're hyper sometimes they're also people who bounce back and forth between hypo and hyper and then they hit it with some radiation to kind of calm it down a little bit. So she takes like Synthroid or some sort of a hormone every day. Yeah. So when you first started having symptoms, that's where your head went.

Breana Raquel 7:28
Yeah, cuz I was just really, really skinny. And that's what she was telling me when she was younger. She was like, 100 pounds and like, five, two, and so just very petite and small and stuff. And I was like, Well, you know what I mean? This could be the same. You have it, maybe I do, too. So

Scott Benner 7:43
So we, when you're 18, and you're living in another town with your sister, and you think you have diabetes, what's your next step?

Unknown Speaker 7:53
Like, is there an answer for that? But what is the next step?

Scott Benner 7:57
What did you do? Did you like did you just run outside and scream? Or did you go to urgent care? did you how did you handle? Actually, my

Breana Raquel 8:04
grandpa was in town and I was on the way to go get some waffles when I got the call from blood lab results. And they were like, I'm your sugar is really high.

Unknown Speaker 8:15
I suggest going to the ER.

Breana Raquel 8:17
I was in such a pissy mood to I was like, Are you kidding me? I want waffles. I'm starving. This is a waste of time. And yeah, it was it was pretty crazy. The nurse she was like, yep, this for the rest of your life. And I was like,

Scott Benner 8:32
so you went to the you went to the emergency room then when you got the phone? And then that is also the time when you found out you did not have a superpower where you could go eat those waffles and not

Breana Raquel 8:43
crush you. And I found out this is gonna be for the rest of my life. Yeah, always remember that nurse said that.

Scott Benner 8:49
And and so you're at the ER, I've talked to a ton of people who are diagnosed. That's not a great setup, right? Would they? Did they give you any insulin? Or did they send you to a general practitioner to go talk to somebody else about it.

Breana Raquel 9:01
So they took me to the ICU informing on an insulin drip, and I was in the hospital for I think, two and a half days, they wouldn't let me eat solid food for like the first night. And then they were putting me on the insulin drip and they would wake me up every four hours to come draw blood. I had bruises all over my arms. And when the veins in my arms wouldn't work anymore, it was my hand. So that was pretty. And then they will call you up every two hours to come prick my finger. So it was a night

Scott Benner 9:35
and you're in LA primarily to be an actress or to sing or what is it you're doing. They're

Breana Raquel 9:40
a little bit of both their their careers that are kind of on and off sometimes. And so when one slows down and pick up the other

Scott Benner 9:47
and vice versa. That's amazing. What what what kind of acting do you do?

Breana Raquel 9:52
theatrical more. theatrical is film and television. Not to be confused with like theater and stuff although I would do musical theater That'd be fun. But mostly film and television.

Scott Benner 10:02
Gotcha. Have I seen you in anything? I mean, not that you know what i watch, but

Unknown Speaker 10:07
I don't know. Do you watch SEAL team? Sure. Like, we're like

Scott Benner 10:11
that big handsome guys are running around and doing like military stuff.

Breana Raquel 10:15
Yeah. David Briana stars in that.

Unknown Speaker 10:19
Yeah, I played

Breana Raquel 10:21
with her name in the show. I'm like thinking of all the different characters. Now. I think her name is Emma in the show, right?

Scott Benner 10:27
That's amazing.

Breana Raquel 10:28
What was her? I was her best friend. Yeah. So yeah, if you see, I don't want to give any spoilers in case no one's seen anything, that's fine. Don't do a few episodes of that. And then I did a guest star role was pretty fun criminal minds. That's cool.

Scott Benner 10:45
I have I have 111 specific and only one experience. So when the iPhone first came out, which I'm gonna guess came out when you were like seven years old. They did this thing where they rounded up a handful of people who had stories about getting an iPhone, and they brought them all out to LA and they filmed these commercials with them. And the day that the iPhone came out, and I had it, I was getting it all set up on my computer. I was amazed. I know, this is gonna sound so silly to you because you're younger. But I was amazed that my pictures were on my phone. Right? Like That was amazing to me. And I stopped my wife as she left the house to go to work. And I was like, Look, you have to see this. And she's like, I have to go. And I'm like, No, you really have to see I have a magic thing in my hand, right? Look at this. And so I'm showing it to her. She pauses for a minute or two and looks goes out, gets in her car drives away. And as she drives away, and gets to the end of our driveway, this giant tree falls across the road, like just down the street from our house. And so I was like I saved you from being crushed by a tree by showing you my iPhone, right? So I told my buddy this story, and I'm sure I did a better job of telling it to him. He's like, you should send that to Apple. So I wrote it down. I sent it to Apple. and a month later, I was in LA like on the soundstage making this commercial. And I had such a heady experience that I have to ask you about. I was thirsty As I stood in front of the camera, and I said, Hey, can I get a bottle of water? And I heard a voice over a radio say the talent needs water. And I was like, Am I the talent. And then it goes through all the the different walkie talkies in the place. And then this harried 18 year old girl ran at me with a bottle of water. And I was like, I feel so special. And this has got to be why Britney Spears is crazy. But like it is just such an odd feeling to like watch everybody brings something to you.

Breana Raquel 12:44
Yeah, I kind of like when you're on a set. I think all the crew members especially like directors and producers and stuff know that like, they don't have a show without the actors performance. So they're like treat them like royalty, because I've had people like what are your food preferences?

Unknown Speaker 13:03
Are you vegetarian? Are

Unknown Speaker 13:05
you vegan?

Unknown Speaker 13:06
Or I'll be like,

Breana Raquel 13:07
I'm kind of thirsty. And then magically water appears.

Unknown Speaker 13:11
It's It's weird. Yeah, for almost

Scott Benner 13:12
a week, I thought I was handsome. I was very confusing. at home. My, my ad never made it to air. And yet I was still paid for it. And I was fascinated by how much money I made to basically do something no one ever saw. It was really crazy. But you now have a you see my ham fisted segue? You? You obviously have made an ad. And it's going to be in a much bigger light than than mine ever would have been. So how do you end up in a Dexcom commercial on? Are we allowed to say the way people I don't know. It's been a while you were filming? The commercial for the big game? Was there bowls of food around?

Breana Raquel 14:04
Okay, so on a set there is a place called crafty. And that's the nickname it's called craft services. It basically you go and they have all kinds of snacks and drinks and with COVID it was very safe. So everything was packaged individually and someone handed it to you behind like a little screen and yeah

Scott Benner 14:27
COVID is ruining my way of getting you to say balls that I get asked if it was a super experience for you. And now we have to say the big game instead. Nevermind, it's fine. COVID ruins everything.

Unknown Speaker 14:38
I was thinking I was like

Unknown Speaker 14:41
I was thinking very literally. Yeah,

Scott Benner 14:43
well, that's fine. So how does this happen for you? So you're a Dexcom user? Is that right? Yeah. And you were trying out to be in a commercials or something or they found you How did this happen?

Breana Raquel 14:56
So I've done a few things in the past. With Dexcom I was I hosted a little like guests who event with Derek feller for children or diabetes like a couple months ago and stuff. So I've done some PR stuff. And I've been familiar with them for a while. And so they reached out, they called me and it's like, we're thinking of doing this, would you be interested? And I was like, 100%? Yes, I would.

Scott Benner 15:22
100% Hey, not to get too far off track, but I've interviewed dark twice. Is he as tall as I think he is.

Breana Raquel 15:29
I actually haven't seen him in person. But I will say he is attractive.

Scott Benner 15:36
He told me that he has to lie about his height and make himself shorter, which he's probably the only person in in California doing that, I would imagine.

Unknown Speaker 15:45
Yeah, I don't have that problem.

Scott Benner 15:47
So okay, so So they said, Dexcom just reached to you. Yeah.

Breana Raquel 15:52
What did they say when they called you? They're like, we know with everything going on, and may not be something you might be up for. But we thought of you. You're in LA, and you're an actor. Would you want to do this Dexcom commercial? And I was like, without knowing a lot of the information. I was like, Yes. Yeah.

Scott Benner 16:13
We have done the same thing. Where does it get filmed that

Breana Raquel 16:17
it was actually at the new stadium? The LA Rams one. Okay,

Scott Benner 16:21
that was that's one thing I kept wondering was like, they're not gonna take them all because the Super Bowls in Florida this year, I believe. So they're not gonna take them all the way there. And then, but you were clearly in a stadium for like the stills and everything. So I

Breana Raquel 16:34
know, it was really cool. That's always the first time I've seen it, too. And I was like, wow, this is what they've been working on.

Scott Benner 16:40
How long is the shoot? How long does it take? Um,

Breana Raquel 16:44
let's see my call time was nine or 10. I left around five, maybe six. I mean, it's some commercials. They vary. I I've had some commercials where they were like, strict 14 hour day. And then some commercials where I left after an hour of doing my scene was like, Alright, bye. But for Dexcom I think it was. I think it was like a normal eight or nine hours a day. Wow.

Scott Benner 17:07
Did you get the COVID test before you went? Yes, we

Unknown Speaker 17:10
all did I go on your nose? Yes.

Unknown Speaker 17:13
I take that as a yes. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 17:15
I know. It makes me shiver.

Scott Benner 17:18
And you get there. Do you meet Nick Jonas?

Breana Raquel 17:22
You know, we made eye contact once. That was enough for me. I saw him walk by and I was like, wow, you have no idea that I watched you on Disney Channel when I was eight years old.

Unknown Speaker 17:36
And I think if you'd have gotten face to face with them, you would have said that?

Breana Raquel 17:41
No, no, I definitely would have like winning actor mode and like, wow, sorry, Nick, right?

Unknown Speaker 17:48
No, I'm kidding. inside my heart would have been like doo doo doo doo doo doo.

Scott Benner 17:52
That's amazing. So you are. So I've seen the ad. And it's interesting. What they What did they do to your eyes, like your eyes look like they're bright, or sunny.

Breana Raquel 18:02
So the art department actually made these like LED strip lash type of things. And they were connected to a battery pack. And so the battery pack was in my hair that you couldn't see and then it was

Unknown Speaker 18:16
sorry about that. You're fine.

Breana Raquel 18:18
So the battery pack was in my hair and then it connected all the way and she had to use regular strip lash glue to glue it on my eye. It was so heavy the first time she put it on I couldn't open it.

Scott Benner 18:30
So basically, you're telling your friends look when you're watching the Super Bowl if you're seeing some blinking eyelashes. This is me. That's me. Are you are you in any of this? like are they gonna do a still campaign behind it or anything like that? Are you Do you know what?

Breana Raquel 18:46
Yeah, they have a few really cool stills that I saw of like me showing off my decks calm and like my numbers and stuff. And they have a really cool behind the scenes like interview. They actually recorded my reaction of them telling me that Nick was going to be in it on a zoom call and so you'll see they put it on their Instagram today. Excellent. Yeah, it was pretty. Pretty cute.

Scott Benner 19:07
I can imagine I but um, I mean, I don't think I'm this type and he's not really mine. But I think I think I'd still get a little fluttery if I saw him he's fluttery handsome boy so so you're there you do your part he does his part. I imagine people don't understand that. Not everybody might understand that you might not even intersect with each other and me doing things off in different places. Is it something that well, I guess Is it is it The kind of day that impacts your blood sugar's like it. Do you have to plan differently or not? Particularly I guess you're accustomed to it. Um,

Breana Raquel 19:44
ya know, I've I've been on set multiple times like with it and stuff and I've never really had to adjust too much. Ya know, and they with Dexcom being Dexcom they had like really good options. That were safe. That was like, Oh, yes, carrots. Thank you. Well,

Scott Benner 20:04
how do you crafty? So how do you handle your insulin? Are you do you use it? injections? Are you in a pen? Do you have a pump?

Breana Raquel 20:10
I actually am using Omnipod. So I know it's my favorite little combo cuz it's wireless. And so if I have to shoot or I'm doing anything like physical, I don't have to worry, I'm a klutz, right? I don't have to worry about pulling it out or hurting or anything like that. So

Scott Benner 20:27
I use, my daughter has been using Omni pod since she was four, and she's six. So for a very long time. So I love your choice. I think that's terrific. So you don't so you just it's your regular life, right? Like it's you. You have your basal rates set up in a way that everything works for you. And are you super active on a set? Or is that a lot of sitting around? What's it like?

Breana Raquel 20:51
So it's yes and no. So they'll give you a call time and it's like, go go, go, go Go your hair, your makeup, your wardrobe, you're figuring it out. For some projects, they might have you come down, and they'll run through whatever you're doing and stuff. And then you sit there until they're actually ready for you. And that could be a couple hours. So it's like Hurry up to sit down a lot of the time. I don't

Scott Benner 21:13
want to switch to I don't want to give you a whiplash by switching gears so hard. But I am really wondering if you're willing to talk about it, like what was it? What was that like trying to figure out diabetes, kind of on your own without like a parent around you.

Breana Raquel 21:28
My mom actually came out both my parents came out for like the first two weeks ish. It was really hard, especially being the age that I was like kind of a I grew up with my sister. And so it was like, for every one in my family to know what's going on inside my body with the share. feature. It was, it was weird. And he was I know is out of control. Like I didn't know everything there was to know about it. And so it was really hard in the honeymoon phase was just so unpredictable. And I just always felt like it was my fault. And I hear and it's they call it the lonely disease and stuff, which I get. And I have a great support system. But it was I kind of do feel like an outsider. And so emotionally, it was harder than actually learning how to deal with my sugar.

Scott Benner 22:23
Yeah. How long did your honeymoon last for?

Unknown Speaker 22:27
Oh, I'm good. two, maybe

Unknown Speaker 22:32
three months. And

Unknown Speaker 22:33
then after that, I was like, Yeah, no,

Unknown Speaker 22:35
she said she's not coming back. Well, bu is no,

Scott Benner 22:38
it's crazy. Because you can figure something out say like, Alright, well this meals definitely three units and you give yourself a raise and all of a sudden your your pancreas is like, you know what? I'm here today, I'll help out. And then you get super low when you're eating and how long have you had Dexcom

Breana Raquel 22:56
I got Dexcom honestly, like, a month after I was diagnosed because I was like little fingers candlelit. I don't know how these people do it. And Dexcom g six, like, made my life much easier.

Scott Benner 23:11
It makes my life super easy. I mean, I've been able to my daughter and I together have been able to figure out almost all of the foods that she wants to eat because of being able to look the next comment figure out like, Okay, this is when the insulin hits this is when the food hits. You know, like, you know, you have like, sometimes you have protein and later in the day it comes back and gets you and tries

Unknown Speaker 23:31
timing of things.

Scott Benner 23:32
Yeah, it's just it's absolutely, like it's simple to to get lost in the idea that you're here talking about being in the commercial for Dexcom. So it feels like you know, somebody's just saying that but it really did change. It really did change everything about my daughter's life. For the better honestly. That's very cool. Okay, so what's next? Are you like, Do you have something coming up that you can tell people about or is there somewhere somebody could go to find out more about you?

Breana Raquel 23:58
Oh, yeah, you guys can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, tik tok and Ah, I'm in that age group. So yes, tik tok. At Briana Raquel. I'm pretty active on there and stuff. Um, I don't have any like super cool projects. Next in line, but I'm auditioning every day and I was getting in the studio, but with COVID it's making life hard. Still.

Scott Benner 24:24
Can I ask you what it's like? How are you auditioning in a COVID world? is it happening online? Are you doing it in person? Um, so

Breana Raquel 24:32
we have these things called self tapes and you have like a little backdrop you get someone to read with and then you just put it on tape and you send it into casting.

Scott Benner 24:39
Wow. Is it exhausting? It feels a little exhausting when you decide to describe it.

Breana Raquel 24:45
Yeah, kinda because it's like, when you go in the room. It's like you have one opportunity and then then it's done. But there's room to second guess and be like, Oh, I don't know. Maybe just one more. One time, and then it can be like a three hour long taping session. And yeah, so it. It's difficult sometimes I have

Scott Benner 25:08
to listen, I want to give you a lot of credit not that you need me to. But to make a decision like that when you're 15 to go try something like this. It's literally across the country. Yeah, just to give something that's different and exciting a try. Is that is really a laudable It's, um, it's amazing, honestly, that you were able to do that.

Unknown Speaker 25:26
Thank you.

Breana Raquel 25:27
Thank you. Yeah. Well, I honestly could not have done it without my family, like my sister volunteered to come out with me. And my parents have enough faith in me that they were like, okay, that's what you want to do. Go do it.

Scott Benner 25:41
That's really amazing. And seriously, we're not, we're not saying enough about you being diagnosed with type one, you know, a couple of years into that experience. And to learn about it, get it all straight, stick it out and keep doing what you're doing is really cool. It really is. You know, of course, that makes you feel good. No, it really is somebody breaking into your house.

Unknown Speaker 26:02
You know, that would be the trash.

Unknown Speaker 26:05
Yep.

Scott Benner 26:06
I when I sat down, listen, you're lucky when I sat down, I could hear the snow melting off of my roof. And I was like,

Breana Raquel 26:12
Oh, my gosh, snow. Yeah, my parents are getting snow on the East Coast right now. And I'm like, 70 degrees.

Scott Benner 26:18
Okay, that does seem to be the good part about California for sure. I would definitely like it to be warm. Is there anything you want to talk about that I didn't hit?

Unknown Speaker 26:27
Um,

Unknown Speaker 26:27
I think we had

Breana Raquel 26:30
a pretty good conversation. I mean, I'm, I'm super excited for this commercial to come out. Like I told all my family members about it, you better recognize my eyes. But ya know, I'm just super grateful to have the opportunity. And that Dexcom does more than just make my life a little easier. They're really great people. And they work super hard for the diabetic community and stuff. And so I'm just happy to be part,

Scott Benner 26:59
I have to tell you, I tell people all the time that I you need people like this, doing things like this. And it's just you have no idea. Like you've only had diabetes for a couple of years. But I've had people on that have had it for 1020 3040 years in the technology that exists now. Like, you know, it's weird to say, but you got diagnosed with Type One Diabetes at the absolute best time. Ever. Yeah. You know,

Breana Raquel 27:23
yeah, no doubt that I'm like, if I was diagnosed when so many people were dead, I don't. Oh, my God, it's, I can't imagine the hardships. Also, you're

Scott Benner 27:31
incredibly mature. And not for your age, but just in general, because I think I'd be spending every second I had just calling anybody I knew I'd be like, yeah, I'm gonna be in a Super Bowl ad this week.

Breana Raquel 27:43
Yeah, it's it's pretty funny. And when my cousin's found out about Nick Jonas, Mimi, and and they were pretty jealous. I would imagine

Scott Benner 27:51
I listen. I see some, some middle aged moms who seem pretty excited about it to hilarious Yeah, well, seriously Brown. I really appreciate you doing this. I wish you a ton of success. And I will look for your bright eyes on Sunday.

Breana Raquel 28:06
Thank you. Yeah, of course. Thanks for talking to me.

Unknown Speaker 28:09
Of course. Have a great day. You too. Take care. Bye.

Scott Benner 28:27
Huge thanks to Brianna. We did this at the last minute and I really appreciate it. Check her out at Brianna. Raquel, calm, or wherever you get your social medias. Thanks also to all the sponsors. There were no ads in this episode today. But I still like to thank them remind you there they're Dexcom on the pod the Contour Next One blood glucose meter, g Volk hypo pen touched by type one. And of course don't forget to visit T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. Once again, you can find those links in the podcast player. There's a little show notes in there you'll find them and they're at Juicebox Podcast calm. I appreciate it when you click the links. Enjoy the big game. Enjoy cm Brianna's bright eyes. And I know how many of you are interested in seeing that Nick Jonas boy, so if you can't catch the game live, I've got those pictures and video at Juicebox Podcast comm if you're still here, I want to remind you that you can support Type One Diabetes Research and the Juicebox Podcast by supporting the T one D exchange. The T one D exchange is looking for type one adults and caregivers who are us residents to participate in a quick survey that can be completed in just a few minutes from your phone or computer. After you finish the questions which are very simple and only took me a few minutes. You'll be contacted annually to update your information and to be asked further questions if questions exist. This is 100% anonymous, completely HIPAA compliant and does not require that you ever see a doctor or go to a remote site. And yet you're supporting Type One Diabetes Research past participants helped to bring increased coverage for test strips, Medicare coverage for CGM, and they helped to change the ADA guidelines for pediatric a one Siegel's. That stuff is really exciting. And it's the hard work that we don't see that's done behind the scenes to help people with type one diabetes, and this is your chance to help out. T1dexchange.org/juicebox.

Nick Jonas Dexcom G6 Commercial Learn more about the Dexcom G6 at http://bit.ly/DexAdCheck out the Juicebox Podcast at JuiceboxPodcast.com


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#436 Eighteen and Honest

Scott Benner

Type one as a Teen

Meredith is 18 years old and very honest about her type 1 diabetes. Also, Scott chokes on Iced Tea.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon MusicGoogle Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio PublicAmazon Alexa or their favorite podcast app.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT


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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, welcome to Episode 436 of the Juicebox Podcast on the show today 18 year old Meredith will tell us what it's like to be diagnosed at 12 years old.

Well, just before I started doing this, I watched a video of Arden unboxing her on the pod as it came in the mail for the very first time in 2009. And now mauled, like, squishy inside, and I can't think so. This is Meredith. She's cool. She's 18 she was diagnosed when she was 12. Please don't forget while you're listening that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. And also, I'd like to suggest not watching videos of your cheese. Look at me. Don't watch videos of your five year old getting excited about an insulin pump, because it'll make you weird inside. Listen, I'm not a fan of giving away something that's going to happen on the episode, but just trust me. Meredith is going to talk about her endocrinologist. And she let's just say young people really are honest. And leave it at that. What else Oh, check the podcast out on Instagram at Juicebox Podcast on Facebook at bold with insulin and the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast, type one diabetes.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the dexcom g6 continuous glucose monitor. Learn more right now at dexcom.com/juice box. And guess what? This Sunday, there'll be a football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And at some point during that football game, there's going to be a commercial with a type one you might know his name is Nick Jonas, and he's going to be showing you his Dexcom gs six. It's a pretty cool little spot. I've actually seen it already. And if you'd like to see it, it's available right now at Juicebox Podcast comm you scroll to the top you'll see Dexcom I don't know if I'm allowed to say the SB word. But big game ad. You can watch it now. I also have behind the scenes images and video of the day that they made the commercial. So you know if there's any people out there that want pictures of Nick Jonas, their Juicebox Podcast calm might be a couple of you. And what else? Oh yeah, the Omni pod the Omni pod tubeless insulin pump, you get a free, no obligation demo of the Omni pod to boost insulin pump sent to your home right now. Go to my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. They'll send you that nonfunctioning pod, you can try it on and wear it and see what you think. And no episode would be complete without mentioning touched by type one. Touched by type one.org is where you're going to go. But right now there's another reason to go there besides the fact that it's just a really great place. That reason is if you go to programs and click on upcoming events, you'll see that on February 26, there's going to be a bowl with insulin live talk hosted by some guy named Scott at 7pm. Eastern time, you can register there, it's absolutely free. I think there's already like 120 people registered but I think it caps out at 300. So get going touched by type one.org. Now that all that's covered, let's hear from Meredith.

Meredith 3:40
My name is Meredith. I have type one diabetes. I was diagnosed a couple weeks before my 12th birthday. And I'm 18 now I've had diabetes for almost seven years. Wow. Okay.

Scott Benner 3:56
Was there any type one in your family?

Meredith 4:00
There was absolutely no type one in my family. My mom's father had type two, I believe, um, but no, um, no history of type one. Okay.

Scott Benner 4:19
How about other endocrine issues, people have hypothyroidism or celiac or anything like that.

Meredith 4:26
Oh, so it's interesting. Actually, my mom and my dad when they got married, they had they always had trouble getting pregnant. They had a they were pregnant before me. And they lost the baby and they could not get pregnant again. So they had an egg donor, which is where I came from. Oh, and so we don't so I can't actually say that. I there's no type one has Cuz you don't know. Yeah, exactly.

Scott Benner 5:02
You're sort of like pseudo adopted almost. Because, yeah, the idea came from somewhere else, right? Yes. Yeah. It's like your dad had a torrid relationship with someone else's egg. And your mom brought you into the world. I love it. That's excellent. Okay. Okay, so we don't know that for certain. And so you're kind of the first of your first of your coming, honestly.

Unknown Speaker 5:25
Yeah.

Scott Benner 5:26
Yeah. Good for you. Alright. 12 years old, probably a great time to get type one diabetes. Right.

Meredith 5:33
You know, I think, you know, listening to the other other people on the show, talk about their experiences, I have felt very, I've come to feel very fortunate for the timing of my diagnosis. Because I was, I was old enough to was old enough to understand what I had to do. I was able to do self injections, and understand that I had to do this. I didn't necessarily understand why, or why this was happening, or what it meant. Um, but, but I knew what I that I had to do it. Well,

Scott Benner 6:20
that's interesting. How much do you remember about that time? Like, if I asked you a question, what do you think you'd have good recollection about it?

Meredith 6:27
I, I don't know. It's pretty. It's kind of, it's kind of fuzzy. So it was a while ago?

Scott Benner 6:36
Well, I'm gonna try and then we'll see what happens. Okay. Okay. So it's, you said something that made me consider that when you're explaining something to a child, there's function and reason, right? And that they can understand the function. But maybe the reason would be difficult to completely grasp. Grasp. So you you're aware, like you understood that your pancreas didn't work right.

Unknown Speaker 7:03
Kind of time.

Scott Benner 7:04
I think this thing is, I'm telling you, I don't think most kids understand exactly what's happening to them, I think. Yeah, I think they get the part where it's, hey, we went to the doctor, right? Yeah. So something was wrong. And then the doctor said, to take the shots when I ate. Because if I don't, my blood, sugar gets high and I don't feel good. Like, I think that ends up being, you know, maybe what happens. I play I'll tell you, it'd be interesting to grab a couple of kids and have them tell everybody like what it is cuz the some of them might just be like, I mean, I don't know. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. The doctor told my mom, my mom cried, and now we do this.

Meredith 7:43
It was funny when I was was it wasn't funny. But when I was diagnosed, it was I had the the common symptoms, I was extremely thirsty. I had lost a little bit of weight. And so I told my parents one night at dinner, and I said, Hey, guys, this is this has been happening. Seems kind of weird. Probably nothing. But my dad went on his computer looked it up. It said, he said, Oh, this looks like it could be juvenile diabetes. We should probably get it checked out. And we're like, I guess Okay, probably nothing but Sure. So that night, we went to the, my pediatrics here. And they took my sugar, and it just said, Hi. So it was like probably over 600 or something. 600 700. And this was, this was, I think it was a Sunday night because it was the night before. We were supposed to go on my sixth grade camping trip. Our school does a whole sixth grade camping trip for a whole week. And I was so pumped to go on this camping trip with all my friends for a week. And we told the doctor and we asked, my mom asked if I could still go and she said the doctor said No. She said, I'm gonna send you home tonight, pack some clothes. And then first thing in the morning, go to the hospital. And I remember at that point, I started crying. Because I don't I don't know. I think it was it was probably mostly because of the campaign. But I remember realizing that this was I knew that it was something that I was always gonna have. Um, I just didn't really know what it was.

Scott Benner 9:49
But it sounds to like that idea of like, Look, you're gonna go home and gather some clothing up and then go back to the hospital. Sounds pretty serious. Yeah, obviously because it But yeah, I'm just trying to imagine being 12 and thinking, I'm going camping with friends, and then you know, my school and then learning that this is what's gonna happen instead. Yeah, that sucks. Did you ever get to go camping?

Meredith 10:14
I'm not, not with my sixth grade class. And still, they went without

Unknown Speaker 10:19
you.

Unknown Speaker 10:20
They did go without me. Well, it was it was the whole school. I mean, the whole

Scott Benner 10:25
they could have waited a couple of days, don't you think? about where in the country? Are you just loosely.

Meredith 10:30
So I'm a I'm near Washington DC. Okay. Yeah. All right. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 10:37
Yeah, they could have waited because went home and waited for Meredith to come back from the hospital. Although you probably were you would you have been in any shape to go away. afterwards. Or so I guess my question really is is that how specifically do you under Did you understand diabetes then versus how you understand it now?

Unknown Speaker 10:57
Oh, gosh, completely different. completely different.

Unknown Speaker 11:00
You said? Yeah. That's

Scott Benner 11:02
very nice. Meredith it You said Oh, gosh. No, seriously, like, you just made this one up. I was like, like it. By the way. You're like, you're like to me, you're like five years old. You understand that? Right? Like, I'm, I'm in this weird space right now. I'm like, Don't say anything stupid. Don't be like inappropriate. mirdif is like basically a child. And then you said, Gosh, and now I feel all like, I don't know. I just made me feel good. I was like, there's some joy in the world. It's coming through Meredith. No. So what was your understanding of type one? Like in the beginning? And

Meredith 11:37
um, well, I guess I just knew that I had to check blood sugar's give insulin, because my body didn't make any myself.

Unknown Speaker 11:50
Talking. Oh, my God.

Unknown Speaker 11:57
Is everything okay?

Unknown Speaker 11:59
Hold on a second. Probably.

Unknown Speaker 12:07
No, I'm laughing and joking. Give me a second. Oh, wow.

Scott Benner 12:12
literally never happened before. Give me just one more minute. Oh, my God. Okay. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 12:20
Wow,

Scott Benner 12:21
my eyes are tearing Hold on a sec. I took a drink. They don't know how to describe my tongue did not do any of the things that was supposed

Unknown Speaker 12:31
liquid just like, crashed into the back of my throat. Oh, for a second. I thought I'm gonna be okay. And then I was.

Scott Benner 12:40
My eyes teared up. And I thought I thought wow, is this how I'm gonna die like with Meredith like trying to figure out where in the country I live calling 911? Like, I'm recording a podcast with a guy and I think he's dying. I don't know. Where is that? Oh my god. I'm so sorry. Hold on one second.

Unknown Speaker 13:01
Wow. Wow. Yeah.

Meredith 13:03
Take your Take your time over there.

Scott Benner 13:05
I'm leaving that all in? That's hilarious. So sorry. Okay. Anyway, you were 12 and you put up your understanding of diabetes. Oh, I'm gonna move that drink a little farther away from me. So don't touch it again.

Unknown Speaker 13:18
Yeah. Wow.

Scott Benner 13:19
Has that ever happened to you?

Meredith 13:22
Um, certainly goes down the wrong pipe every now and then

Scott Benner 13:25
is that Yeah, I

Unknown Speaker 13:25
don't think that's a technical term. But I'm gonna, I'm gonna say that that's what just happened to me. So I think that what might be I see in my lungs, right.

Scott Benner 13:37
Wouldn't it be fun if I drowned?

Unknown Speaker 13:39
Oh,

Scott Benner 13:40
I mean, funny. inject, like, you know, like, not nice. Yeah. Not personally, like, you know, like, my family would be sad and everything and I'm probably

Unknown Speaker 13:49
radically.

Scott Benner 13:50
Yeah, you know what, good point. You think maybe they just be like, well, there's so much more free space in this house. Now that that kind of stuff is gone, you know? Okay, I think I'm okay. So you're 12 years old. They give you needles a pump, which again?

Meredith 14:04
Um, so first off, they we just did we did a injections. They didn't want me to have a pump yet. But it was it was the pens like the human log pens and the Lantus pens. Not a not syringes, which was nice. Um, and yeah, they just said, taught me everything. I had to know in those couple days there at the hospital. And I knew going home okay. I have to

Scott Benner 14:41
I can't believe this. All right, we're gonna get off this question might be making me cough but I need one good cleansing cough. So give me a half a second.

Unknown Speaker 14:48
Yes, yes.

Unknown Speaker 14:51
Wow.

Scott Benner 14:54
This could be Corona. Maybe Hold on a second. I think a little iced tea just came out of my ear. Is that possible? Is everything connected like that? It's not. I guess it is right ears, eyes, nose, throat. Why else would they do that? Alright, hold on a second. I'm literally gonna stop the recording for a second. Yes. I turned the recording back on. Meredith is now like, I'm never getting old if this is what happens because the guy can't seem to drink anything. It's really, really really is the first time I swear to you. I don't know exactly. This might be like my 400th recording. Nothing like that's ever happened before. And every time I sort of take a deep breath, I'm like, oh my god. Am I gonna cough again? I really do think I'm drowning. I probably need CPR. I wish there was like a lifeguard here. Are you okay? Are you ever been a lifeguard?

Unknown Speaker 15:47
I have not. I have not been a lifeguard. Oh, I was

Scott Benner 15:49
thinking maybe you could talk me through my own CPR if that if it came to that at any point?

Meredith 15:54
I do you know, CPR? Seriously? I am. I'm actually I took a nursing class, senior year of high school.

Scott Benner 16:04
Well, alright, if that comes in handy. I let me describe the things I have in the room that I can work with. I have a death scare. And case you need to direct me to one of the things. All right. All right, so you're managing with pens when you're 12, Dexcom CGM, anything like that.

Meredith 16:24
The first so the first six months, no tech, no advanced technology, just just my glucose meter and the pens. But I knew that I wanted to get the Omni pod. But they said you need to wait six months, at least just so you get the hang of things. And I thought, okay, whatever. So we waited six months. Um, and I thought, well, three months in I really had the hang of this, but

Scott Benner 16:56
Okay, I've got it now. Do I need to do it again? Please. And so you just kind of persevered with the six months you didn't press them at all?

Unknown Speaker 17:04
No, we didn't.

Scott Benner 17:06
Okay, um, alright. So six months later, you go right to it to the pump. Was it? Like what was the draw to the pump for you?

Meredith 17:14
I really wanted the Omni pod because I knew. So when I was younger, when I was first diagnosed, I was still I guess I was kind of the sounds bad, but I was kind of ashamed of it. And I felt embarrassed.

Scott Benner 17:31
I guess that doesn't sound bad. I mean, if I understand how you feel, I feel good. I'm sorry. I just don't feel bad, please.

Unknown Speaker 17:40
Well, don't anymore.

Scott Benner 17:42
Did you actually feel bad? Or do you just think it sounds bad? Like at the time, were you like, I'm ashamed? I shouldn't feel ashamed.

Meredith 17:50
Yes. Yeah. I wanted to keep my diabetes as hidden as I could from people. And so with the Omni pod, I could just like, as you know, I could just wear under my clothing and be done with it. But um, I think I think at that point, I also got the the libri glucose monitor.

Unknown Speaker 18:15
Five years ago.

Unknown Speaker 18:18
It was it not around five years ago,

Scott Benner 18:19
trying to wonder like that, but but I my first thought was is isn't it interesting that the Omni pod really is the only pump where it can address a need of or desire, I guess of being private or not? It doesn't matter. Like you could wear it, you know, out there people can see it or hide it. And it really does help you in either way.

Oh, listen, if the Omni pod is gonna get brought up like that, right, as the ads are supposed to go in, where else am I supposed to put the ad for the Omni pod? This place makes sense. So if you want to get a free, no obligation demo of the Omni pod tubeless insulin pump, all you need to do is go to my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box there you'll fill in a tiny bit of information about yourself. And then next thing you know, right there in your mailbox will be an omni pod demo. It's nonfunctioning so you don't have to worry about any of that stuff. But you can just wear it and see what you think. Take your time, take a bath, go for a walk. Do a jumping jack. crawl into your bed get a dust bunny, do all the things you do but do it with the Omni pod on see what you think. If you like it, you get back on the pod and say Yo I'm gonna keep going and they're like Ray right on. And if you don't want to, it's no big deal. No pressure, no obligation. Miami pod.com forward slash juicebox. Check out the insulin pump that Arden has been wearing as we heard at the beginning of the episode since 2009. She's had an omni pod on every day since 2009. It's amazing. Just been such a wonderful addition to Arden's life with type Diabetes, we just switched her pod this afternoon took like, I mean, honestly, I'm pretty good at it. And so is Arden. So I mean three minutes to change the thing, top the bottom, right back to life. While you're out there looking around for ways that improve your diabetes situation, check out the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. If you want to get a look at that Nick Jonas fellow, were in the Dexcom. Don't forget that big football game this Sunday between the chiefs and the Buccaneers, because you're gonna see good old Nicky boy on there, you're actually gonna see a couple of other people in the ad. One of them is a person named Brianna brown as an actress and a singer she was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes 2018 at the age of 18. She's been on television shows like SEAL Team criminal minds and coming up soon, we'll be right here on the Juicebox Podcast. So if you want to see that Dexcom ad, like I said, it's right there at Juicebox. Podcast calm right now you can actually see the ad and click right through and check out more about the Dexcom where you can watch it during that football game this Sunday, one way or the other. Head over to dexcom.com Ford slash juicebox. To learn about the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor, no more finger sticks, see your blood sugars in real time, share them with up to 10 loved ones. The app works with Android and iPhone, there is very little about this that you shouldn't be excited about. Last but not least, touched by type one.org. Go there, then click programs then go to upcoming events. And you can come see me give my bold with insulin talk February 26th 7pm. Eastern time you have to register now it's 100%. Free. This is you know, the kind of stuff that touched by type one does for people that it supports. And I just thought it would be nice to support them a little more myself. So hopefully I'll see you there. Otherwise, if you're tired of my stuff, you know, and you're like, oh, Scott, I can't take any more you I understand, check out touch by type one on Facebook, Instagram. And of course, at touched by type one. org. There are links to all of the sponsors right there in the show notes of your podcast player, and at Juicebox Podcast comm if you can't remember how to type in all the words that I've just told you.

I'm gonna find out when the libri came out while you're talking. But

Meredith 22:51
maybe I remember. I don't know exactly when I got the lead, right. But I got the Libra and was using it with the Omni pod for a while. Okay. Yeah, yeah. And I love the Omni pod. It was awesome. And I have that for. So then I had the Omni pod for the next six years. And I am so last winter. I thought I would like to I just kind of wanted to switch things up. Okay, I wanted a new poem. And I just finished my senior year of high school. I'm going up to college this fall. And I knew that I wanted a new pump. And I wanted time to learn how to use it and get completely adjusted to it before I go to school. Right. And so about six months ago, seven months ago, I got the Tucson.

Scott Benner 23:54
Now you've changed for a reason, or would you call this just sort of a? I don't want to I'm not I don't want to be reductive about your age. But is it just sort of a youthful? Like, let's try something different now? Or was it like I have a real reason I want to change?

Meredith 24:08
I think I think I was just kind of I was at a point with my diabetes, where I was just getting I was just getting tired of just tired of doing the daily things with it. And I guess I thought maybe I thought a new pump would kind of

Scott Benner 24:33
just refresh the situation.

Meredith 24:35
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Unknown Speaker 24:37
Did it work? Are you refreshed?

Meredith 24:39
I am very refreshed. I love it.

Unknown Speaker 24:41
I really like it for you. That's excellent.

Meredith 24:44
Yeah, so since I got the T slim I've also been using the the Dexcom g six.

Scott Benner 24:49
Nice. Are you using control iQ?

Unknown Speaker 24:52
Uh huh. Yep. Nice.

Scott Benner 24:53
So it is that's the full algorithm, right? Like it's shutting off basil. If you're getting low and things like that. Yeah. How's it going for you?

Meredith 25:02
It's going pretty, it's going pretty well. I think it's really cool.

Scott Benner 25:07
Where's the keeping your agency?

Meredith 25:10
So before? I've been listening to the podcast for maybe nine months, um, maybe maybe six months ago, maybe not. But um, before the podcast, my blood sugar or my agencies were consistently in the eights consistently, low mid eights, okay. 8.5 or something. And since I've been listening to the podcast, my blood I mean, my agency's been between 5.9 and 6.0. Wow,

Unknown Speaker 25:47
congratulate Yes. Yes, amazing. Can I take credit for that?

Unknown Speaker 25:52
You sure can.

Scott Benner 25:53
I did it. Meet the guy who can't drink iced tea figured out how to make Meredith more healthy through the internet. Excellent. Good for me. There's something I'm good at again. Because really, this has been a low first 20 minutes for me not being able to breathe and drink at the same time. Well, no, I'm really glad. Can you tell me what about the podcast helped you?

Meredith 26:15
Um, so it was a funny story that my endocrinologist actually recommended the podcast to me as it should be good. And I don't she and I, I don't love her.

Unknown Speaker 26:30
Go ahead. Why, why

Meredith 26:33
I just, I just feel like it's, it's, I feel like it's, it's a main problem. But I would prefer my endocrinologist to have type one or know somebody who has like a close family member or a relative that has type one. I just feel like, I want somebody who can relate to me.

Scott Benner 26:56
Okay, so it's not that she smells weird, or says offensive things or just abandoned her job. It's just that you really would like you would you think it would be better if you sat in a room with a person who wasn't philosophizing about it, but understood it.

Meredith 27:11
I also feel like at times she can be very condescending.

Scott Benner 27:14
Oh, it isn't about her a little bit. Gotcha. All right. Yeah.

Meredith 27:17
That's why I'm super excited to go to school and find an adult endocrinologist because I've been sucking pediatrics forever.

Scott Benner 27:28
Interesting. So was the if we can go down this road for a second. The condescending Oh my god, hold on some iced tea came back. The condescending nature of her tone? Is it tone? Or is it real word? Is it words? Is it like this?

Meredith 27:46
It's not words, just tone facial expressions to Mm hmm. Okay, so

Scott Benner 27:53
has that been going on the entire time since you were younger? Or is it more recently?

Meredith 27:59
Um, several, several years? A few years. Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay.

Scott Benner 28:03
So you and her not going to be besties. If this if things get sideways here with this Corona, we have to hand it to the hills. You're not going with her. I understand that now. But so she turns to you. D, she tells you about the podcast out of like, what's your sense? Was it just like, this girl's a one season the eighth? It's never moving? I might as well tell her about this. Like, was this like a last ditch effort thing?

Meredith 28:26
I think that's exactly what she told me. I think she she told me like, Hey, have you considered or you should listen to this podcast? And me not loving her. I just said yeah, okay, whatever, didn't listen to it at all. And then our next meeting, she mentioned it again. And she said, I really think you should listen to it. And I'm like, Okay, fine. Whatever. So I did. And I thought, Wow, this is amazing. I'm glad.

Scott Benner 28:57
And let me say this. You might not like her. I think she's terrific.

Unknown Speaker 29:03
She recommended the podcast.

Scott Benner 29:04
I mean, I only have one thing to judge her on. But I mean, for what I have so far, she really is the best. And she's never been condescending. I wonder. I wonder if she hears this because she's going to hear it. And I wonder, I wonder if she thinks Hmm, I don't think I'm condescending at all order. She thinks. Yeah, I am like that. That's so interesting. And by the way, if she's hearing this and you want to be on the podcast and tell me please reach out I would love to have you on.

Meredith 29:29
I think I think she knows that. I don't love going to see her. Interesting. Yeah,

Scott Benner 29:35
no, it's super interesting. I wonder and listen on a serious note, like personalities and vibes that people give off. You know, it doesn't make her a bad person or you want like, you know, you could probably put her in a room with somebody different and they probably just think she's terrific. And you know, vice versa. You might get into a room with another doctor one day or nurse practitioner, whatever and just be like this is more comfortable for me like who knows why people like each other. Don't you know?

Meredith 29:59
Yeah. I completely respect her and everything that she does for me. She's I think she's a great doctor is just that she and I don't get along that great. Yeah,

Scott Benner 30:10
that kidding? You're not going to arrive together anytime soon I see what's going on, although at a rave, you might get along really well, who knows? I'm not saying anything about how you kids handle yourselves when you're out. But a lot of that stuff makes you happier. So although we don't go out anywhere anymore, so it doesn't really matter. does it know? How, um, has anything about what you and I are going to talk about today changed, because when I got your note, it was really just before COVID-19. And you were like, I have to tell you something. And I like I don't want to ruin it here in the email. And like, and I'm going to school to be a nurse. Right? Is that right? Is that your goal?

Meredith 30:51
Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm going into nursing school.

Scott Benner 30:53
Okay. So what does that mean? As an incoming freshman, are you just sitting at home taking classes online right now?

Meredith 30:59
So I'm actually going, I'm going to school. I'm going to school in Pennsylvania.

Unknown Speaker 31:05
Okay.

Meredith 31:07
They're still having all freshmen come to school if they want to. A lot of kids are choosing to stay home, right? And about half my classes are in person, half are online. So hey, Oh, am I also good?

Scott Benner 31:23
No, I was gonna say my son goes to college in Pennsylvania, and I'll bleep this out for you. But where are you going? Cuz his school is not coming back.

Unknown Speaker 31:30
I'm going to

Scott Benner 31:33
Okay, all right. Interesting. Like I said, I'll bleep that out for you. But I be at his school. They were like, We're going it's coming. You're gonna come back. It was all like exciting. And they were gonna quarantine them for like two weeks in their dorm. I said, No, it's not gonna work. And then, and then they were gonna take two classes virtually from their dorm and two classes in person. And I was like, that seems silly, but okay. And then pretty

Unknown Speaker 31:59
much what we're doing.

Scott Benner 32:00
Yeah. And then all of a sudden, right before that it was time to commit to coming back. They said, Forget it. Just Everybody stay home.

Unknown Speaker 32:08
Well, she had a smaller, lighter school. It's a smaller school.

Scott Benner 32:11
There's probably 25 or 2600 students on campus. Oh, wow. Total? Yeah. So they just, I think they felt like they had restrictions in place for safety. And they couldn't figure out how to implement them all, I think, partly, you know, in a cost effective way. And partly Yeah, just in like they did like they did like an online meeting. And they were describing having to like, tent urinals. And I was like, wait, what are we doing now? I was like, maybe not like, stop if that's the Yeah, I think they were going to the level of, I don't know, just right out to the end. And I guess they decided they just couldn't do it. So I don't know. He's really disappointed. And so he stayed home. He's gonna basically go to colleges bedroom. Yeah. They're, they're not putting the price down, by the way still cost the same. So of course, yay. For us. Price. Yeah. Anyway, they said it's gonna be much better than in the spring when Corona hit. And I was like, yeah, better be.

Unknown Speaker 33:18
Yeah, better. Me. Yeah,

Scott Benner 33:20
no kidding. Are you so what's it like thinking about? Well, I guess no, no, let me go back for a second, before I ask you that. You find the podcast, eight and a half, to where you're at now is a huge difference. How's that impacted your, like, how you feel your health in general?

Meredith 33:39
Um, physically, I, physically I feel not no difference really. Before my before my agency was where it is. Now, when I was back in the 80s. I would feel I would feel low, around 9080. And I thought, Gosh, I don't want to feel I don't I hate feeling low. So. So I would keep my blood sugar above 90 and 80. Right. Um, but then I told my endocrinologist and she said, That's because it's just been high for so long.

Scott Benner 34:18
She said, just Meredith you know why this is?

Unknown Speaker 34:22
Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Benner 34:24
Because you don't listen to me.

Unknown Speaker 34:27
Basically.

Scott Benner 34:31
I'm just teasing her but I'm imagining her listening being like cut me a break here. Meanwhile, no one knows who you are. Chill out. Don't worry about it, take it as constructive criticism or just that. You know, you and Meredith don't vibe for some reason. But but so that's the only difference really like so you don't feel like more energetic or have you made your body was really accustomed to being higher, I guess.

Meredith 34:56
I think it was. I mean, even Though it was getting my agency down was, it was a pretty, pretty quick turnaround, I'd say. Um, I mean, I just didn't, I didn't really notice anything. any significant differences. I do feel mentally I feel. I feel very happy and proud that I was able to do this myself. Yeah, you should keep it here.

Scott Benner 35:25
Well, that's a great accomplishment, especially at your age, and especially because it sounds like you did it. Like through a podcast, which is, you know, feels like it's alone. You don't know alone, you know, it's like, you hear me say something, you still have to go figure out how to put it into practice, if that's what you want to do. Although it's not like it's advice or anything like that. It's just me talking about how we do things here, but you understand? clarity. I hear pride, like mentally like you feel prideful. Do you have any more? Like, is it easier to do homework? Or like, like, I don't know, like, I'm, I'm kind of mesmerized that you don't feel any differently?

Meredith 36:03
Yeah, you know, I just, I honestly, I, I don't, I don't really notice anything I am putting in a lot more. I'm still putting in a lot of effort. And it is, it takes it takes time out of my day. But completely worth it. 100%

Scott Benner 36:29
How long until you didn't feel low at 80 and 90, after you started making the changes.

Meredith 36:34
I say maybe a week or so we're gonna have How bad

Scott Benner 36:40
was it like that, like now correlated to now like that, that feeling comes at what number now?

Meredith 36:46
Now that feeling comes? Maybe once I get down once I go below 70? I'll start to feel sorry, to feel a little low. And that's like shakiness. Right?

Scott Benner 37:04
Yeah, you would have felt like that prior like, 90. Right? That's interesting. Okay, so what are the changes you made? I mean, this is just Pre-Bolus thing. And

Meredith 37:15
what is this? Yeah, well, so it's, it's funny when I was at, at the endocrinologist for years, I had no idea about the concept of Pre-Bolus. Seeing, I just just, I just didn't, didn't know that was a thing until a diabetes educator at the practice that I go to who I love. She's awesome. She told me, the doctor. She said, she suggested Pre-Bolus thing and said, Hey, you should try doing that. She suggested 15 minutes. And this was a couple years ago. Okay. Um, and I thought, okay, I'll try doing 1520 minutes before I eat. So I do that. And it was, it was better. But still not fantastic. Looking back. And then listening to people on the podcast, some people would say, a half hour up to 40 minutes people saying, and so now I always try and Pre-Bolus 3035 minutes. And that's, that's the perfect timing for me. I just just had to practice and try

Scott Benner 38:24
it really can be different for different people. Yes. You know, and, and, and to be clearer to about different for different people. It's also different for different situations, like if you're a person who runs like a heavier basil rate, just as the idea of like, Look, I'm eating all day long. So I keep my basil heavier. And, you know, if you're, if you're that person running a heavy base, all right, and then suddenly don't eat as much one day, you'll see that you're low. And you can't stop it, right? Like it just keep getting low. So if you're a heavier Basal rate person, it's possible that your Pre-Bolus is won't need as much time if you're a person who's running real strictly in the 80s and 90s. It's possible that you might think, Oh, well, that must mean I would need less Pre-Bolus time, it might not necessarily be true. Like you might have just figured out a way with a very minimal amount of basal insulin to keep your blood sugar nice and stable. And maybe you're I don't know, maybe you don't eat as carb heavy meals. So you know, there's just there's so many different perspectives and realities in there and things that could possibly happen that you do just have to figure it out for yourself. And it's really cool that you did that. What is your parents? What are your parents, your parents still together and all that?

Unknown Speaker 39:37
Yeah, yeah. What

Scott Benner 39:38
do they think of all this? And are you being kidnapped right now? I mean, I can't pitch about making noise as I've coughed into the microphone for half an hour. But are you okay?

Meredith 39:49
Yes, my mom's upstairs. She's working from home now. Right. Um, she so my mom has always been very involved. She It's funny, she, she wants to be involved. She cares so much about me and my diabetes. But at the same time, I'm, I'm an only child. So I've always felt like I've had I've always felt very independent, kind of, had this mentality of I can do this, I can do this myself. And so like my mom tries to help. But it's not always the right thing like, like, I'll tell her. If she's making dinner, I'll say, Hey, can you let me know? When there's dinners? Like when there's about a half hour until we're going to eat so I can Pre-Bolus? And she says, Sure, whatever. And then she just forgets. And then I asked her, like, Hey, what do you think dinner's gonna be ready? She's like, Oh, 1015 minutes. I'm like, Okay, thank you.

Scott Benner 41:04
Too late. Do you talk to her in the tone? When I say?

Meredith 41:08
No, I just let it go. Okay. Um, um, and then my dad, on the other hand, he, he. He's never been super involved. Just Just because my mom and I are a lot closer than my dad and I. But I'm, like, I don't think my dad would know how to change a pump at all. Okay, my mom, probably, it would take her a little while, but she she'd be able to do it. Um,

Scott Benner 41:41
well, you know, let me just say for a second, I think this is interesting, because you're describing them as being very interested in wanting to help and everything. And I think there's a difference between wanting to and knowing how to yet and feeling the importance of like, the timing thing is a good example around meals. And you know, if you've lived these first six or seven years, not really thinking about this. And like you said, you didn't, you know, you're a one seevis hire, but other than that, it doesn't seem like your, your life was impacted in ways that made it obvious to you that you should be, you know, doing something differently than your mom, probably just this. I mean, I if I got your mom on here, right before you found the podcast and said, hey, how does mirdif through with their blood sugars and their diabetes? I think she'd say she does great. Everything's fine,

Meredith 42:28
don't ya? Right? She would, she would? Not so much anymore. But when I was at school, she would text me or text me when I got home from school and say, Hey, I was how are your blood sugar's today? And they'd be like, between 150 and 220. And I'd say they're fine. She say, Okay, well, that's it. This is fine. So we go.

Scott Benner 42:54
But it's funny, because when you when when I hear it from, from a different perspective, like to me that sounds like, like she's okay with numbers that are that are higher than you know, she would want them to be but did she even know that? They shouldn't be that high?

Meredith 43:10
No. Yeah, gotcha. We just yeah. Huh. She would also just just take my word, just trust me that I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Trying

Scott Benner 43:24
Yeah, you wouldn't like living here, man, if I wouldn't trust you at all. I mean, like, I would trust you in like, the big sense of it. Like, I love you know, if you were my kid, I'd be like, Oh, I love Meredith and I trust her. But on the one though, on the micro, I just be like, Nah, that's a kid right there. That thing's stupid, don't know anything, and it's probably lying. That's what I would think. So I was lying to my parents constantly when I was your age, about everything. Like things that just, there's a story I'm thinking of right now. mirdif I can't tell you but just trust me. I think when that naked girl ran out of my bedroom, my mom was really, really surprised. That is what I'm gonna say. Okay. And so, point is kids, you know, don't see things as as important as they may be, or don't want the interaction like right the the friction with their parents. And maybe two if you have this feeling, and you'll tell me that your mom's happy with how it's going. You don't want to be the one to tell her it's not going well either. Right?

Unknown Speaker 44:22
Yeah,

Scott Benner 44:22
yeah, it sucks. You know, how bad does it suck being in that situation?

Unknown Speaker 44:29
It's,

Meredith 44:31
I mean, I know that she because I know that she cares. And she, she manages all of my medication and supplies, and I'll tell her like, Hey, I'm running low on the cartridge or we need to get more vials of insulin and she'll order them for me in which I really, really appreciate Yeah, but at the same time, I'm I'm looking forward to leaving home and going to school, just so I can do it all myself for you.

Scott Benner 45:07
That's excellent. Well, I think too, it's a good example if I diagnose your mom's situation a little bit to have, like, she's managing and controlling the things that she can control. Yeah. And that makes her feel good. It should, you know, she's, she's involved, and she's helping, I'm sure there are plenty kids whose parents are just like, I don't know, get this stuff. Ask the doctor, you know, lead me out of this. You'd be surprised as you get older, Meredith and you meet more and more people that are there are many, many different levels of parental interest that adults take on some, some people really just are like, Alright, look, you're alive. And I fed you. So you know, yeah, leave me alone, all the way up to people who are just up your butt constantly. And that's not good. Either. There's a middle in there somewhere. It sounds like your mom does a really good job with the things that she understands. And there was stuff that she didn't understand that you didn't understand either that I saved you with with the podcast, I

Unknown Speaker 46:00
see exactly what

Scott Benner 46:02
I'm getting. And by the way, I love having younger people on because you're so freaking honest. While you're talking about this, I can sometimes hear adults think like, they can hear their voice. They're like, I don't want to say that about my husband. I'm like, I wish they would. But I'm not trying to get anybody divorced or anything. But you're, you know, you're just This is great. Your generation is terrific. You're aware that what you said about your doctor is not great. And you don't care, right?

Meredith 46:29
Yeah, look, he listens to it.

Scott Benner 46:31
I know. I love that about you guys. This is the best generation ever. You guys are gonna be probably either the ruination of the world or the saving of it. I can't I don't mean to try to stay alive long enough to find out. One way or the other. I think it's really cool. How you're thinking about this. So Ooh, little light flicker here? Are you're in the path of the storm as well, aren't you?

Meredith 46:54
Oh, yes, it has been pouring here.

Scott Benner 46:56
Yeah, I can't believe my light. If I go away, the power went out just so you know. Oh, I just like save the recording. I was like, ooh, let me double check that this is saved. Yeah, I don't know. That's really cool. I think that attitude is gonna help you with this. Now, keep in mind, too, that attitude that I just sort of described about, you know, younger people in this time, this, you could make a different decision and ignore your diabetes, and that attitude would hurt you. But but it's helping you because you've decided to do something better. I'm interested in what moves you in that direction. Where you like, if you didn't, if you didn't feel poorly? Why are you Why did you want to do better?

Unknown Speaker 47:40
So

Meredith 47:43
I think, I think so. Okay. I have been with I've been dating this boy for about a year and a half. Um, and he has the past six months, he has become incredibly involved with my diabetes. And I was talking with my dad last night, and I said that he I think he knows how to manage it better than my mom does now at this point. Um, and how did

Scott Benner 48:27
he learn that from you? Or did he listen to the podcast?

Meredith 48:30
No, he, he knows I listened to the podcast after I listened to an episode. I'll describe it very vividly to him. Right. We're saying

Scott Benner 48:42
this is a good podcast, by the way. But but I get your point, like you're recounting it really, when you stop and think about it. You're an 18 year old talking to your boyfriend about what a 49 year old guy saying about type one diabetes in a podcast. He's probably like, Oh my god, this is boring. What are we doing? But it sounds like no, it sounds like he's he's interested, huh?

Meredith 49:03
He is interested in murder. Yeah, he we're going to different schools. But we are everything's, everything's great. And I think I think I, at some point, I realized that if, if I want to, if when I'm older if I want to have family and travel and and do things and be healthy. With him, I need to get on top of this. I need to get on top of my diabetes now.

Scott Benner 49:48
So this boy, this boy made you realize that there's a future and inside of that future, you may really want to be actively involved in making it better for everybody, not just yourself. Like, whatever your unit Feels like if it ends up being him, and you or another guy and you or you and kids or whatever, but you just want to do your best, right? Yeah. Wow. Jeez, he must be really cute.

Unknown Speaker 50:13
He's the best.

Scott Benner 50:14
Yeah, that's excellent. Where'd you meet him? Like, you know? Not exactly.

Unknown Speaker 50:18
We met at school. Gotcha. Yeah.

Scott Benner 50:20
How far away? Is he gonna be when he's in college versus you?

Meredith 50:24
So our schools are gonna be about eight and a half hours apart.

Scott Benner 50:28
That's pretty far. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Is that by plane or car?

Meredith 50:33
That is by color? Oh,

Scott Benner 50:36
do you already have some wacky idea of how you're gonna meet up on like, weekends or something like that?

Meredith 50:41
No, I mean, this semester, I don't think we'll even be able to leave campus.

Scott Benner 50:46
Yeah, I don't think so either.

Unknown Speaker 50:47
Yeah, well, the

Scott Benner 50:48
video thing you got. So you know, let's walk down a strange road for a second. Because you are in a different generation. Like, you're comfortable seeing people through a screen, right? Yeah, like, that seems like a relationship. Like you understand to like, somebody my age that doesn't feel like a relationship. Right? Yeah. Right. So you feel like you can keep it alive that way until you see each other in person?

Meredith 51:12
Oh, I have absolutely no doubt that everything's gonna be fine.

Scott Benner 51:16
That's really lovely. Good for you. Huh? There's other questions I have. I'm thinking around them right now. Give me a second. Let's let's go to this for a second. So you're gonna go are you going to be a nursing student?

Meredith 51:32
Yeah, I'm going directly into the School of Nursing.

Scott Benner 51:36
When did you make that decision?

Meredith 51:39
So another story. Um, when I was, I was 1313. Through 14, I had, I had an eating disorder. Okay. And I was diagnosed, I had lost a lot of weight. And so ultimately, I went into a hospital to gain the weight back and just kind of go through rehab and get myself back on the right track. So I was I was in this hospital for seven weeks. And with about, there were about nine other patients there with me. We're on the, on the eating disorder for and I'm obviously surrounded by the same like the same six nurses were there throughout the every day. Okay. And they were like the other, the few other people who were there and the other nurses were the only people that I talked to for those seven weeks. And towards the end of it, and once I got out, I realized, wow, I could not have done this I could not have recovered without the nurses. I really don't think I could have gotcha. And so that's when I thought I I would really, really love to just give back on all of the good that I have received from them.

Scott Benner 53:29
You just try to try to do it for other people what they did for you. Exactly a two things. One is silly, but say okay, to my Instagram requests before my before I fill up, I only have two slots open. I'm allowed to all the ones I've requested, whoever the first two, that request, I'm going to hit my limit again, that I have to wait for more people to get kicked off of Instagram to follow more people. Okay, by the way, a lot of people get kicked off Instagram. I don't understand why exactly. But Mmm hmm. So what precipitates your eating disorder? Were you limiting food so you wouldn't have to take insulin? Or was it something else?

Meredith 54:08
I was, um,

Scott Benner 54:12
are you limiting his weight? What were you doing?

Meredith 54:15
I was I think it was. I don't know what precipitated the eating disorder. I think I honestly think diabetes played a role in it. Just because it's so diabetes is so food centered. Yeah. And food. It certainly doesn't have to be but unfortunately it can be food, regulating and restricting. Like people saying people who don't understand it would say, understand diabetes would say, Oh, you you should not be eating that right or you. You can't have you can't eat this or you should

Scott Benner 54:57
and that kind of get your head a little bit. Yeah, I

Meredith 55:00
think so. Especially at a young age. I was 13. Um, yeah. So unfortunately, it just kind of blew out of proportion. And then at that point I was not, I was not really eating for a while. And so I would, I would take less insulin that I that I needed to, to avoid going low. Because I didn't want to have to eat if I was low.

Scott Benner 55:32
Yeah, not here. So it just steamrolls to you. And then before you know it, it's just a way of life. And you're just doing right. By the way, that boy is very cute. I would fall in love with him. You are in love with him too, aren't you? I can see it in the picture.

Unknown Speaker 55:49
Hey, I am Yeah,

Scott Benner 55:51
he is too. You can tell. Good for you. That's lovely. All right. So you got it all set up you you've is there maintenance for the eating disorder? Like, like, these are things you have to do to avoid slipping back into it or things you look forward to kind of let you know, oh, I'm thinking like this again? Or what? What's it like after you? Yeah.

Meredith 56:15
You know, that was that was for It's been four years now. And I do notice thoughts, unhealthy thoughts pop into my head on occasion. And I just know that I have to whenever that happens, I just kind of pause and I think okay, this is this is a distorted thinking right now. And I just have to step away and just realize, I cannot go back to this. Can

Scott Benner 56:52
you give me an example of a thought that you recognize as not being valuable for you?

Unknown Speaker 56:58
I'm

Meredith 57:00
like, Huh, like, say one night I buy pizza this tonight and I had I ate a lot of pizza. And Saturday morning or the next the next morning. I wake up and I think I ate so much pizza last night. I shouldn't eat today or special need this morning when I think well, that helps. me eating pizza last night has absolutely no. no connection to today. New Day. I need food, obviously. Yeah,

Scott Benner 57:34
I gotcha. Okay. Did you do that by yourself? Or is that something your family gets involved in when it's happening?

Meredith 57:41
Oh, that's myself.

Scott Benner 57:43
Yeah. We'll see. You end up at a center. Were you there for long?

Meredith 57:48
Yeah. So I was I was at the I was in the the hospital. I was in the hospital when I was 1314. For I was in there for seven weeks. It was some people some people were there 24 hours a day. But I would I slept at home. So my parents would drive me there on their way to work. We'd I'd get there at seven in the morning. Stay there and then leave at eight in the evening. So I eat all eat all my meals there with everybody counseling

Scott Benner 58:21
and group work and stuff like Yeah,

Meredith 58:23
yep. And we did. We did group therapies and counseling there as well.

Scott Benner 58:30
Gotcha. Well, congratulations. That sounds like a pretty big hill to climb at a young age. So yeah, good for you. Are you doing all right, aren't you things are going okay. You're gonna you? You think you're gonna be alright with all the sciences and everything?

Meredith 58:46
Oh, yes. You're good. Yeah, I am slowly. I'm leaving this this semester is I have to take chemistry. I have a lab and lecture. I have a four hour chemistry lab. Monday mornings.

Unknown Speaker 59:03
Which seems that? No.

Meredith 59:07
Yeah, not too. I'm not too psyched about that. It will be okay.

Scott Benner 59:10
Good for you. All right. I think you could do it. I mean, I think you could obviously do it. It's just it's, it's well, you don't I mean, it's it's the desire and it sounds like you have all that. What do I want to know? I'll do it. So wait, did you tell me the thing that in the email you said you weren't gonna tell me in the email or if we not gotten to that yet?

Meredith 59:29
Um, I just kind of forget. Yeah, I kind of forget exactly this a long time ago.

Scott Benner 59:36
Let's see if I can figure it out. Hold on.

Unknown Speaker 59:39
Oh, but I feel pretty good about everything we've talked about.

Scott Benner 59:43
Good. Good. Um, give me one second. I I have a new advertiser coming on and they just sent the contract over. That was nice, fun, said Little good news in the morning, hold on a second. The adult stuff about the podcast is my least favorite stuff about having The podcast, it's just I don't know. You said, I'm an 18 year old student entering nursing school next year, and type one diabetic. I've been listening to a podcast for a while now initially resisting it when my endocrinologist recommended, I'd love to speak with you, blah, blah, blah, about how my closest friends my family are helping. I'm trying to keep this concise. I don't want to spill the beans via email. So we got to everything. It's not like there's not like you're not gonna hang up, like in a few minutes and be like, Oh my god, I can't believe I didn't tell him that I was abducted by aliens. And they're the ones that helped me with the diabetes, like nothing like that. Right? Yeah. Excellent. So we're doing Okay, then. Excellent. Very nice. I want to know about you said you were hiding. In the past, you were trying to stay really private about your diabetes? And was that from close friends to?

Meredith 1:00:57
Um, I told when I was first diagnosed, I told my, a few of my closest friends. Um, but that was it. And then when I got back to school in sixth grade, it was, it was weird, because everybody. Nobody had seen me for a weaker or two. And so they were kind of wondering what everybody was wondering what had happened. But I wasn't comfortable at that point, saying that I was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes, just because I was I was afraid of what people would think.

Scott Benner 1:01:34
Yeah. How about the eating disorder thing? Was that something? Can I mean, it's not it's a long time that you can't hide that from people. Right? The idea that you're gone that long?

Meredith 1:01:44
Yeah. So I, because I was in the hospital for seven weeks. It was it was through it was August through bleeding into the beginning of the school year. So I entered. Oh, and it was freshman year of high school. So I entered High School, about a month and a half late. And so obviously, kids asked me, What the heck was going on. And so at that point, I just, I don't even remember what I said. But I did not tell people that I was in the hospital for an eating disorder, that's for sure.

Scott Benner 1:02:20
You should have told them that your egg donor was a princess and you were in Europe meeting her? That's what I would have said.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:26
Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:02:27
I found out that the lady that donated the egg to me, did people know that about you? By the way?

Meredith 1:02:33
No, just my parents, my boyfriend, my best friend. And then I've asked, my mom and I have talked about it a few times. And I don't think she has told. I don't even know if my mom's sister knows.

Scott Benner 1:02:53
Wow. Yeah. You really shouldn't be on this podcast. I don't think. Yeah, someone's gonna find out. But it's it's really interesting. It's funny because I'm adopted. Right? So I grew up, but and the people in my home, we're not, you know, you're technically related to me. And even today, as my father has been passed for quite some time now in my mom's in her mid 70s. I don't think of them as like adopted parents. They just feel like my parents to me. But I have always wondered if I feel different to them than my brothers do to them? And I don't I don't think that I don't think but I mean, I wonder, you know, and my mom is not the kind of person who I'd think I'd get a straight answer out of, I think she'd be like, No, of course not. I love all the same. And while I don't doubt that, and I don't know that I even care, to be perfectly honest. I just as an adult, like, I wonder, you know, like, it's a very interesting thing that you know, your mom carried you obviously, and she's taking care of you and everything. Like how much does that matter or not matter to people? I bet you It varies from person to person to how much they are impacted by it.

Meredith 1:04:11
And it's it's funny, so my mom and I share no genetic information, but it's funny. How many people tell us that we look so much alike.

Scott Benner 1:04:23
It's funny. It's so amazing. Oh, people will tell me all the time how much I look like my dad. No way. Like look at you guys look exactly the same. Like Yep, exactly the same. You figured it out? Yeah. The spitting image of each other. Now it's just, you know, you do take on? I don't know. There's although I have to say like, there's personality, things about like my fat like my mom and dad that I watched come out of my brothers. It didn't have never come from me. And now do you have more mannerisms? like your dad and your mom or do you not notice?

Meredith 1:04:58
Oh, I think I honestly think I'm more like my mom just because she and I are so close.

Scott Benner 1:05:04
Yeah. I understand. Do you think she tried extra hard?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:10
Um, no, no,

Scott Benner 1:05:12
my dad's mom did my grandmother. I always noticed she was trying to make sure I didn't feel different.

Meredith 1:05:19
Oh, wow. And then did that did that make you feel different than I think

Scott Benner 1:05:23
it made everyone else? Like, why is Graham so much nicer to Scott than she is to everybody else? And not nicer. But she was just she was so focused on me not feeling like an outsider, which was beautiful, by the way in which a lovely thing to do. Yeah. And I liked it. But I don't I don't know that my cousin's didn't feel a little like, Oh, that's interesting. Like, we found him somewhere, and she's nicer to him than us. Like, I don't know if that ever happened. And by found I mean, it was in hospital, but still technically found. And so I just wonder, like, I don't care enough to ask anybody, but it's interesting. I've watched it happen. Over the years. It sounds like you guys have really great relationships. That's who you know, you did say you didn't feel as close with your dad, as you do with your mom. Is that is that an indication that you're not close with your dad? Or that you're just super close with your mom?

Meredith 1:06:14
No, my dad and I are still. We still have a great relationship. Um, but my mom, I think, I think it's just because I'm my mom's only child. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:06:29
Your dad just sort of a classic boy is he just sort of like, goes to work? Does boys stop

Unknown Speaker 1:06:34
Dad? Yeah, he's

Scott Benner 1:06:36
that guy with the makes the money and brings it home, drops in the middle of the table cries a little bit and goes to bed, that kind of thing. And then I hear you, I. It's interesting. All right. So all right. So is there anything we haven't talked about that you want to talk about?

Unknown Speaker 1:06:53
I think we have covered a lot.

Scott Benner 1:06:55
I do too. I think it's possible. You're gonna call me like three weeks and be like, please don't ever let anyone hear this. But

Meredith 1:07:02
no, I knew I wanted to be I wanted to be 100% honest and super clear.

Scott Benner 1:07:07
I think you took care of that you really did. I am going to say goodbye and thank you very much for doing this. I don't usually find myself doing this. But first, I'd like to thank Meredith endocrinologist wherever she is for suggesting the Juicebox Podcast and I hope that this was valuable for you. I really didn't know this was gonna go this way. I'd like to thank also the Omni pod tubeless insulin pump get your free no obligation demo of the Omni pod at my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. The Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor you should learn more and you can@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox Don't forget that commercial coming up on the big game. And of course, I'll be supporting touched by type one.org on February 26. But you can support them every day at touchedbytype1.org


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