#1843 Two Fancy Pill Boxes - Part 2

Welcome back, friends, to another episode of the Juicebox podcast. Hi, my name is Suzanne, and I have been a type 1 diabetic for 51 years. I feel like I was diagnosed in the dark ages. This is part two of a two-part episode. Go look at the title. If you don't recognize it, you haven't heard part one yet. It's probably the episode right before this in your podcast player. The podcast contains so many different series and collections of information that it can be difficult to find them in your traditional podcast app sometimes. That's why they're also collected at juiceboxpodcast.com. Go up to the top. There's a menu right there. Click on Series. Defining Diabetes. Bold Beginnings. The Pro Tips Series. Small Sips. Omnipod 5. Ask Scott and Jenny, mental wellness, fat and protein, defining thyroid, after dark, diabetes variables, grand rounds, cold wind, pregnancy, type 2 diabetes, GLP meds, the math behind diabetes, diabetes myths, and so much more. You have to go check it out. It's all there. I'm waiting for you. And it's absolutely free. Juiceboxpodcast.com. 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. This episode is sponsored by ABLE Now, tax-advantaged savings accounts for eligible individuals with disabilities. If you or your child lives with diabetes, you may qualify for an ABLE account because of ongoing medical needs, and many people in the diabetes community do. With ABLE Now, you can save for future expenses without affecting eligibility for certain disability benefits, such as Medicaid. Learn more and check your eligibility at ablenow.com. You spell that A-B-L-E-N-O-W dot com. Today's episode is also sponsored by the Contour Next Gen Blood Glucose Meter. This is the meter that my daughter has on her person right now. It is incredibly accurate and waiting for you at ContourNext.com slash juice box. Why does that matter? I don't know if it does. I don't know if it does. I also am a bit scared, full disclosure. of how my body will respond. Um, I have not been in a crisis knock on wood here since the first diagnosis in that whole, like I was in a crisis when I went into the hospital both times, right? Both hospitals. Yeah. So I don't know how I respond. I worry about, um, although I know there are things you can do, but I worry about the gastro effects because, you know, with diarrhea and vomiting, then it becomes a whole nother game with the Addisons and the steroids. The most significant danger GLP medications commonly cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, especially when first starting or increasing the dose for someone with Addisons, vomiting or severe diarrhea is dangerous because it can prevent the absorption of your daily oral steroids. If your body doesn't absorb these hormones, you could rapidly trigger a life-threatening adrenal crisis oh so you're worried it oh so you don't know how you're gonna like take to them i would yeah listen i am not the right person to ask about this but you love them i have used them used them took it yesterday i i hugged the pen when i was done with it and um before i threw it in the trash i said thank you i whispered in a tear i mean maybe you could get the endo to help you like like micro dose it at first to try i think it's a not now um i think i'm also still getting used to this you know um i have look i'm not one to try to have i have never been one to have my diabetes stop me from something addison's i kind of feel like it's a whole another game i've decided like i'm not going back to paddle because if i fall and break a bone for example, I've got to have that emergency injection. And then I've got to explain to everybody, like if I fall, I have to have this emergency injection. And let's not forget, it's not like an EpiPen. You've got to mix it, take it. It's like old days of glucagon. You have to explain this better. Those like your sick day rules, right? For Addison's? Yes. Sick day rules for Addison's. So if you break a bone, you fall, you do something like that, which is why I'm not going up my paddle and I'm not going to go skiing. Like my family just went skiing this couple of weekends ago. And I'm like, nope, I'm not doing it. No, I went, but I didn't ski. I worked out in the gym and did other things. If something like that were to happen, you have to have this emergency injection because normally your body would produce all of this cortisol to deal with the stress of that injury to allow for you to heal and just deal with what's going on. I would not have that extra cortisol. So you have to take this emergency injection of liquid cortisone. Okay. To prevent a crisis. Also. Then that changes your steroids, right? So, well, it changes the steroids. Would you need more steroids if you had to take the emergency injection? Yeah. So the cortisol is the steroid emergency injection. It's the same thing. Depending on, like, if I'm in the hospital, say, you would I'd be on a higher dose of steroids and then I'd have to taper down like after an injection most likely you know there's so many variables so you take them orally usually but in a sick day crisis it would be an injection no no in a sick day crisis I would up my dose but in an emergency situation like a broken bone you have to have that injection that is the injection okay yeah or if it's a sick day and I cannot keep the pills down I would have to do the emergency injection and then go to the ER. And has that happened yet? Knock on wood. No, you are coasting now as far as a person with all your issues could coast. And you're very scared to upset the apple cart. Yeah. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense to me, by the way. I'm even like, so this is, I don't know, this is kind of silly, but like, I think my biggest fear with the Addisons is like a car accident. Oh, right. Cause if I'm in a car accident, I have to have that injection. Are you still in the city? No. No, you're out. Okay. Yeah. Connecticut suburbs. Yeah. So people in Connecticut really can't drive. So that might be a problem. Not drive. Yeah. Yeah. Horrible. Well, it's because they lived in Manhattan their whole lives. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Then they bought a car. They make mass holes look good now. It's so bad. We had to go to Boston recently and Arden goes, why are we not driving? And I was like, I do not want to drive through Connecticut and Massachusetts. Yeah. It's horrible. Yeah. It's bad. So, you know, in many ways, it's I would say I'm not fearful of the diabetes. I'm more fearful of the Addison's. And I don't know if that's because it's all new or I mean, I think they're legitimate, quite frankly, legitimate reasons to be fearful of it. Yeah. Also, your doctor knows you and no one else. So like you will be doing a little bit of an experiment together. Also, let me just say the people in Massachusetts. I don't think you're mass holes. I love you. And thank you for listening. please don't unsubscribe. Yes. We have great friends from Massachusetts. I agree. Oh, it's just, it's just so cold there. Other than that, it's, it's fine. And it might snow here today. You know what? It was 82 degrees yesterday. And then my, and Arden comes home and she goes, did you hear it might snow today? And I went, why are we not moving? Why will no one listen to me when I tell you to move South? I'm, can I tell you something? I am, I just said yes to doing a one day speaking event in Atlanta for Touched by Type one in April. And I would normally just jump on the plane. And because I live, I mean, I live in central Jersey. I could actually, despite the news that came out of Trenton the other day, I could jump on one of those quick Trenton flights to go right to Atlanta, right? And drive 15 minutes from my house, get on a plane, land in Atlanta, come home, 20 bucks to park, be home 15 minutes after the plane lands. Like, so, so I'm like, maybe I'll do that. But then I thought maybe I'll drive. And I still sound crazy at first because maybe I'll take a couple days on the way home and go through some of the parts of the South that I keep trying to tell my wife we should move to for weather and tax purposes. Maybe I'm going to do that to see if it's just something I'm saying out loud that I don't mean. Like, do you know what I mean? Like, I just, I want to, I want to. What parts of the South would you want to drive through? I grew up in Southern Virginia. I've been looking at houses east of Nashville. Oh. Yeah, because of the Tennessee. That's not on your way to Atlanta, by the way. Well, no, I could leave Atlanta. I could drive south about three and a half hours. Or north and end up in Nashville. Yeah, that's a detour. And then maybe go home through the, maybe I'll do the mountain. Instead of going all the way back to 95, maybe I'll go up through the other pathway up north. Okay. But my point is, is that I don't know if you know there's no income tax in Tennessee. I did not know that. Yeah, but now you know, and you're thinking, where, Scott? I'll meet you. We'll take a look around. Just tell my husband he'll be there. She's never going to let me move. She hasn't let me do one thing I wanted to do since I met her. So I don't know why I think this is going to work out. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, yeah, yeah. Maybe a condo. Yeah. Why do we both have to go? We've been married 30 years. Right. we talk about this stuff often too and you know the bottom line is for us because of me is health care you want to stay close to health care i know it is one of the it is one of the thoughts all the vanderbilt's down there they must know what they're doing right they have to know what they're doing yeah so yeah you know i feel very fortunate to have the doctors that i have because it's not like this everywhere no no for sure you could be i listen i talked to plenty of people who never get answers about anything. And for the struggle you're having, who knows how much less it is because of, you know, of the health care you have access to. Absolutely. Yeah. No, I take your point. I really do. I the problem here is, is that I'm not wealthy because I would just live there part, you know, enough days for tax reasons and then come back here for other stuff. But right. I really don't want I do hate the cold. I want to say that I'm very upset by the cold. And I just you know the last two days walking outside was such a joy the last two days so nice yeah yeah so while the piles of snow are melting are there not other people who enjoy that more frequently is what i'm saying and couldn't i be one of them please right right kelly's gonna say no she's gonna say the kids are here we don't know what arden's doing yet we can't move away yeah i'll be like just make them they don't have money like we'll just force them to come with us yeah yeah they can follow you they have no choices is what i'm saying they're still relying on you strong arm them i mean it wouldn't be that big of a deal they'd get over it eventually yeah i don't know and you have the beauty if you can work from wherever you are it doesn't matter where i'm at as long as the internet's good i'm rock solid yeah yeah yeah she seems to think her business her job would like her to be at work and i'm like can't we i'm sure we could work it out yeah yeah so i I don't know. By the way, I'm not getting enough credit for this episode. What no one knows but me is that I think I've said this once. I'll say it one more time just so it kind of covers. My original chameleon died recently, like a few months ago. Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. She was lovely. And she lived there a reasonable time and did okay. But she left me with a bunch of space. And I did replace her. Not replace her, but I got something different. But I didn't get a chameleon this time. I got a tree monitor and she is running around in there like a crackhead. Did you say tree monitor? Yeah, it's a yellow tree monitor. I going to Google this Oh geez You know what Okay go ahead I wish I had a camera to see them Yellow tree monitor Google that You going to get an image It either going to horrify you or delight you It depends on how you feel Oh, kind of cute. Quince monitor. She's like, no, not quince. No, why did it come up quince monitor? Those are big. That I couldn't do. This one's smaller. Okay. All right. But anyway, she has what they call the poop zoomies. So she's gone to the bathroom. So she's just thrilled. I most people know what I'm probably have this my dogs yeah yeah and she is just like diving around and taking laps and running up and down and flopping on the ground and then running up the wall like she's just all she's like a crackhead right now that's so cute so anyway she's it's been in the corner of my I'm trying not to look so that I can keep talking to you I had to drug drug my dogs for this today you had to drug your you know what I was literally thinking about drugging them, but I gave them some CBD treats and I shut them in the basement. You know what I've been wondering the whole time you're talking? Did Jackie get a bonus? Jackie's my life. I call her my lifesaver. I mean, honestly, like the dog sitter took you to the hospital. Yeah. Look, Jackie's amazing. She also, Scott, stayed with me to like one something in the morning and I was like, Jackie, you got to go home. Well, and home was to my house. Jackie, listen, you got to go take care of the dogs. Okay. As I told you earlier, ABLE Now is sponsoring this episode. ABLE Now, of course, tax-advantaged ABLE accounts for eligible individuals with disabilities. If you or your child lives with diabetes, you may qualify for an ABLE account because of ongoing medical needs. Many people in the diabetes community do. With ABLE Now, you can save for future expenses without affecting eligibility for certain disability benefits such as Medicaid. And thanks to updates to federal law, ABLE accounts are now available to more people than ever before. That means more individuals and families can use AbleNow to save and invest. Funds in an AbleNow account can be used for a wide range of everyday needs, including education, transportation, healthcare, assistive technology, and more. There's no enrollment fee, and you can open an AbleNow account with a small initial contribution and build from there. Learn more and check your eligibility at ablenow.com. That's ablenow.com. A-B-L-E-N-O-W.com. Contournext.com slash juicebox. That's the link you'll use to find out more about the Contour Next Gen Blood Glucose Meter. When you get there, there's a little bit at the top. You can click right on blood glucose monitoring. I'll do it with you. Go to meters. Click on any of the meters. I'll click on the next gen. And you're going to get more information. It's easy to use and highly accurate. SmartLight provides a simple understanding of your blood glucose levels. And of course, with second chance sampling technology, you can save money with fewer wasted test strips. As if all that wasn't enough, the Contour Next Gen also has a compatible app for an easy way to share and see your blood glucose results. ContourNext.com slash juicebox. And if you scroll down at that link, you're going to see things like a buy now button. You could register your meter after you purchase it. Or what is this? Download a coupon. Oh, receive a free Contour Next Gen blood glucose meter. Do tell. ContourNext.com slash juice box. Head over there now. Get the same accurate and reliable meter that we use. Jackie's amazing. I love her. And, you know, we have started this great friendship because of our diabetes. It's tied us together and obviously the love of our dogs, my dogs. But I live in this great area and yet there is such a lack of a diabetic community. It is shocking. And so I feel like Jackie and I have this great bond with the diabetes and the fact that I call her my lifesaver now. It's just the fact that we can talk to each other about things that are working, things that are not working, and introduce each other to new things. Like I told her about the Glow Glucose Gummies. Oh, those are good. Or like, I'm even, those are great. And I even gave her some of my G6 transmitters that I don't need anymore. You know, I'm like, here, take these. You know, I turned down a speaking engagement in your area recently because it just wasn't deep enough. Like the- I don't get it. The topic they wanted was so surface. I was like, I'm not driving all the way up there for that. Who was going to do it? Who was going to do it? I don't want to say, but like, I don't want to, I don't want to bad mouth anybody, but I got, I mean, they invited me, but then the topic they wanted was just so, it felt surfacy. So I pushed and pushed back. I offered back. I said, why don't you let me do something more like this? And I think the person calling me wanted to, but I don't think it worked out with their scheduling or how much time they had in their space and stuff like that. So maybe they'll try again next year. I hope so. I don't get it. This is a suburb of New York City, right? I'm in Connecticut, right? Suburb of New York City. And there have to be a ton of other diabetics. and there is no that I have found like I've tried to google this there is no support group here I just to me it makes no sense yeah well I mean people don't what I've learned doing what I do is that if there's not an appetite for something then doing it is it's expensive and and it ends up feeling like a waste of time yeah I just closed down a social media thing I was doing that I think is fantastic circle yeah I think it's absolutely fantastic it just didn't catch on with people so I'm like, okay, fair enough. Like, I'm not going to beat my head against this wall. Like I'll close it up. I'll save the money and I'll put the effort somewhere else, you know, but everything, everything doesn't always work. No, but Facebook works for, I think it's great. Yeah. No, it's awesome. It's funny. I was looking today. I started getting myself worked up this morning and I realized if I was a different kind of, I can't believe I'm going to say content creator, but if I was a different kind of content creator, I would definitely rant and rave about this. I feel like the diabetes space online is starting to get oversaturated. That worries me because I think that ends up pushing people away. When you have too much, when there's too much, I think it becomes noisy and then people just kind of run. I'm watching big organizations put up their social media, like stuff I like, you know, not only do I agree with, but like I'm supportive of like this one thing I'm thinking of. I would never out them. But like, if this really well conceived piece of social media they put up, it's got two likes and after seven days, no one sees this. And there's a, another thing they couldn't possibly have better production value in these videos they're making and 1400 views on Instagram, which means like five people might've looked at it. You know what I mean? And it's just, there's an oversaturation, like everybody, I think you're all doing the wrong thing. but God bless you. You're going to do it. I know you are, but like they're chasing social media trends, but trying to adapt it to diabetes. I don't think anybody cares. It doesn't touch me. I live in a bubble as far as that stuff goes, like the way the podcast operates, but I feel bad because there's so much desire to do something. And I just feel like they're, they're putting all that effort into the, like, it would be much better to just start a, like a, like a group in Connecticut for people to get together and talk once a month. It would be much less expensive. It wouldn't look exciting because, you know, maybe 30 people would show up, but those 30 people would really be helped by that. And, you know, I don't know, like I'm, I sound like an old man who's like saying, get off your lawn. I want you off my lawn now. You're making the same mistake that the blogging world made like 15 years ago. They're oversaturating it. They're going to kill it. And they spent money to figure that out. Oh, a lot. I mean, there's a ton of, like, don't get me wrong. Some of it works. You have to boost it. You have to like, it's got to be paid stuff, like stuff like that. Like just generically, like nothing works anymore. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I don't even think of my social media as social media. I think of it as a way to just connect with people who listen to me, who are looking to like interact on those. Like, I'm not trying to grow on Instagram or something like that. I couldn't maybe possibly care less. I don't know. Like, there's just so much effort and money being put into this stuff. And I think it's because they're all afraid not to be doing it. Like they, it's like, it's like FOMO. Like they really feel like, well, what if we, I think they should all just stop. Yeah. I don't think, I don't think it's doing anywhere else. Yeah. I don't think it's doing anything. It looks like something. It's great to go on LinkedIn and pat each other on the back all the time. Say, look at all the stuff we're doing. I'm like, Hey, you guys are the only ones that say it, but God bless you. It's shiny. It looks great. Now I'm wondering what you're, I'd be happy to tell you once we're not recording, but I just, I'm not going to cross my feet. I don't want, I don't want people to like, like I'm listen, they should, you know, that's what they want to do. They should do it. I just think if you were, if you consulted with me and said, what should I do? I would say I would definitely not spend all that money on making that fancy video that four people looked at, you know? So, and by the way, I'm going to guess you're two of them. So if not four, so COVID out at everybody, right? Right. Because everyone tried to pivot digital during COVID. And like, I have said this before, so I'll say it again. Like I knew what was going to happen back when the JDRF tried to go live on Facebook and like 11 people were watching and I, and I was one of them and I was just going, Oh my God, there's only 11 people watching this. So like, I wasn't watching it for the content. I was watching it because it seemed like a, it seemed like a car wreck to me. And then, then suddenly all these institutions that would like, they, they looked big online because they have so many followers. Like you don't realize they're historical followers. You know what I mean? Like, Oh, we have, I have a hundred thousand people follow me. Like, no, you don't. You know what I mean? Like you've collected a hundred thousand people over the last 15 years. They're not following you. You're posted 20 likes. There's, there's 20 people following you. Yeah. Yeah. Like that's why I'm, I'm super proud of the, of our Facebook group because it does like clockwork between 90s, the low number up to 160 is the high number daily new posts that's amazing yeah and then likes it a combined collection of likes comments hearts like that between eight and nine thousand a day i'm so bad i never i i i skipped the likes and the hearts and all that even put put that into context yeah right like most people don't like heart and comment and yet and it's not that i dislike it. I just don't remember to like it. Well, you don't need like I'm saying like, but they'll look at all that happens. Like 8000 a day is you're a normal person. Like you don't know about this. But trust me, I get on a phone call with the right person. They they're like, oh, my God, how do you do this? And I'm like, I just let people talk and treat them like adults. I was like and I don't I don't push crappy social media like trends at them and tell them to be upset about the islet cell problem. And like, I just let them like stop, stop, like just stop using social media around diabetes, like social media. The only thing that works is outrage. I almost said something I don't want to say here. Skin and outrage is the only thing that works. And, and you're chasing that some of you, it's just, I mean, it's just, I am not a big fan of soliciting, you know, people in bikinis to show you their devices. And, but I know that's the only thing that works. Go ahead and look at any company's social media. The ones where you see more skin get better likes. So interesting. Yeah. Like, and so. Sad statement. Yeah. And, and it just, it's what it is, right? Or you, you know, the influencers around diabetes who are more popular are generally female They generally younger and they burn out like incredibly quickly like so whoever it a weird concept to me like it influences with the diabetes yeah i mean i don have a problem with it i'm just saying like what i'm telling you is that the people looking they don't care about the diabetes piece yeah they found you because you have diabetes they're clicking or scrolling because you're pretty or you're attractive or you're handsome or whatever you are like you You know what I mean? That's it. Like, it's a real, I don't know. Arden and I just did some social media for Omnipod. It's going to be out pretty soon. And I'm wondering if anybody will even look at it because it's just me talking or Arden's doing pod fill examples, like how to fill a pod. But I don't think anybody will care. I think people will. Well, maybe. People will. I have no idea. But my point is that Arden's dressed and filling a pod. So I'm not sure how that's going to go. Yeah, no, I was happy about it. I don't know where any of this goes. So it's still like, it's cure, outrage, skin, and then strife. I just think I'm too old for all that other stuff. Like, I would really be interested to see how you fill the cartridge. Yeah, no, right. But once. I have no idea. But here's the point about it being social media and like all this money that goes into it. You'd be interested in it once. You'd look and go, oh, wow, look at that. Watch it for 60 seconds. And you'd never think about it again. And you certainly wouldn't head back to see if they were doing it again next week. I'd forget to like it. Yeah, you'd forget to like it. And that would make those people so sad who worked so hard on it. Right. I mean, if you stop and look at the things that attract people over and over again, they eventually it burns out. And I'm just saying I'm shooting a flare up in the air. And I'm telling you all, don't burn this out because you'll lose all these people. they'll be gone. And I could use any number of, you know, other, I don't know, here, I'll do this one. During COVID, people started keeping, this is going to sound crazy because this is not when I started doing it, but like during COVID, people started keeping reptiles much more than they used to. It was a thing you could do in your home. They could be shipped to you. You could bring like, Like, you know, the cage could be shipped to you. The animal could be shipped to you. And reptile YouTubers blew up. People YouTubing about their bearded dragon or something like that. These people were doing half a million views on a YouTube. They were like, oh, my God, this is a job. They were quitting their jobs, like, you know, doing this whole thing. It's all gone now. Like, it's just all gone. You burned everyone out. Like you showed them too many goddamn reptile videos and they went, they were like, uncle, I'm done. I don't care anymore. Leave me alone. And now there's, you know, one or two remain behind. If you're listening right now, you know, like there's a, there's a channel called snake discovery. Like people like that one. It, it, it held up. There is a guy doing these big videos that were super power, like popular forever. He's hundreds of thousands of likes or views on everyone. Now he does more like 40, 50,000 views. Oh, wow. And do I blame people for seeing success and wanting to be a part of it? I don't. I think that's the natural way things work. But when everyone rushes in, you saturate the market. And then once you saturate it, then you make people sick of it. And then when they get sick of it, they're gone and you will never get them back. And only a couple people will remain on top. And that's happening in diabetes right now, I think. Which is too bad. Yeah, it's too bad. So anyway, I watched it happen with blogging. They oversaturated it and it collapsed. I pivoted out of blogging fast enough to do this. I don't seem to be getting any, I don't want to say this the wrong way. I think there are people doing cool stuff. I don't dislike them at all, but they're not competing with me on downloads is probably the nicest way to say it. I do think I'm in a bubble, but eventually this bubble will burst too. It's just not going to burst because so many people got into it. It's going to burst because I screw it up or I run out of things to say or whatever happens. I think you feel a huge need. You know, think about me here in this, you know, highly populated area. There is no community. No, no, no. And you get to tell your story today about stuff that, like, I guarantee you that countless people listened today and went, oh, God, do I have Addison's? That all sounds very familiar. You know what I mean? But it's going to happen. Like, that's how people find out about stuff, you know? But people should be aware, you know? like i was i mean i think that's part of the reason why i wanted to come on here you know i had no clue about essence other than the fact that jfk had had it you know did he really yeah i didn't know that yeah yeah okay and that was like one of my attitudes in the hospital i was like well if he can handle the cuban missile crisis i think i can handle this i can get coffee and take my dogs for a walk for sure exactly exactly right well yeah yeah well i really i want to make sure we didn't like, I know I chatted too much at the end there, but Susan, did we, did we miss anything or did you get everything out? You were hoping to say, no, I was going to say, it's funny. You always ask about autoimmune history. Oh, I didn't do that. Hey, Suzanne, is there any other auto immune in your family? Like, I don't know, like brothers, sisters, sisters, uncles, all the way down the line. Funny. You should ask, ask that Scott. So my grandmother's sister was a type one diabetic. Okay. And that's all that I thought there was in our family. And then right after the Addison's diagnosis, I was trying to find like paperwork from, I knew I had a few pieces of paperwork from when I was younger, you know, that my parents somehow randomly given me a few of these pieces of paper about my care. And by the way, we had done genetic counseling when we were married to see about having kids. And I didn't know any of this information except for my grandmother's sister is a type one diabetic. But on my dad's side, there was hypothyroidism and then rheumatoid arthritis on both sides of the family. Oh. And I had no clue. You don't have RA though? No, not yet. You probably would know by now, I would imagine. I would probably know by now. Yeah. Well. Yeah. Funny how these things come to light later on. How about your kids? Are they showing signs of anything? Knock on wood, they're fine. My daughter would like to do the trial net study. I just need her to be home long enough to get the blood work done. My son has no interest. He's younger. He's still in high school. He has no interest in doing that. But I would like for her to do that. She came to you or you went to her? You know, when I was doing one of these studies at the hospital that I go to in the city, they were actually offering it. And she was definitely younger then. And she didn't want to do it. And then when the whole Addison's thing came up, I brought it up again. And she's like, oh, yeah, I totally want to do that. so and of course my son is like no okay um but i think she will do it and find out yeah i think it's important to know listen if it's the thing she wants to know she should definitely do it it's easy it's easy enough to accomplish you know i consider i have a brother also and he's totally normal i kind of consider us medical orphans now um i wish there were you know so many questions i wish i had asked but yeah oh now there's nobody to ask yeah now there's nobody ask yeah yeah your brother's totally normal is that what you said yep totally normal in fact that was almost a direct quote from one of these like forms from like i think it was like duke university or somewhere like that you know brother's normal brother's normal brother's normal girl seems to be an issue girl's an issue but brother's normal hey through all this i'm sorry to ask you this but like through your life like menstruation all that never a problem yeah that's an interesting question I did have heavy periods. I did have heavy periods. My mom had endometriosis. So I, you know, I don't know if there's a connection there, but I did have some heavy periods. Yeah. And then I would try, you know, certain kinds of birth control will help with that also. Yeah. That's what they, a lot of girls fight against that now. They don't want to do it. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Arden's been offered and she's like, I just, I didn't like how it felt and I don't want to do it. So my daughter fights with that. Yeah. What makes you, what made you ask that? I'm curious. I just think that a lot of women in and around autoimmune seem to have heavy periods and troubles menstruating. Like, I don't know enough to say it out loud, but I just, a lot of my job is weird. And I hear people, you know, who are in a bucket basically. And they say a lot of things that are similar. That's the same way I feel about like anxiety and people with autoimmune seems to be just like rampant. I went through that phase for a couple of years where everybody had like a bipolar uncle. I was like, this is like, you know, this is like, how many people are going to say this to me? You know what I mean? There's a lot of correlations with diabetes that are not considered complications. I just think it's autoimmune in general and inflammation and stuff like that. Right. Inflammation. Like they consider the trigger fingers to not be a complication, but more of a correlation. I was once told by a doctor. Is that called dupagers something? think there's so many different things yeah i thought dupuytren's contracture was something else but maybe that is a trigger finger i know i've had trigger releases i don't know which fingers anymore it's hard to tell the carpal tunnel on both hands and then i've had also something called decker veins what's that and i might be mispronouncing that so that was when i had my daughter literally picking her up that that action of holding a baby and picking her up was so painful and gone to see an ortho who was like oh you'll be fine you know once your daughter starts walking and she was a baby because you won't have to pick her up anymore okay right like i'm like i'm picking up this child for a very long time and i had seen someone this was a local orthopedist. And I went back to my doctor in the city who had done my surgeries. And he was like, oh, you've got, I think it's called Decovian, something like that. Cannot pronounce it, as I said. And he's like, nope, this is what you have. And I was like, can you fix it? And he's like, well, it's another surgery, very similar to carpal tunnel. And I was like, okay, you need to do both hands, like at once, like take care of both hands. Okay. Did they do that? They usually won't do that they usually won't do that and i convinced them to do it i just yeah i have to tell you the world confuses the hell out of me sometimes hey it hurts when i pick my kid up don't worry she'll start walking why what kind of an answer is that what a jerk and oh i tell everyone locally like don't go see him like horrible horrible bedside manner what a jerk and i end up having like bilateral surgery to fix it. Right. And I did it. I insisted upon it bilateral, like to do it all at once because I could get help from my parents to come up for like six weeks to help me because I wasn't going to be able to lift up my child and a husband commuting to the city. So we were helpless. I couldn't have someone come up for 12 weeks for two different surgeries. I couldn't even talk my dentist into doing a cavity on two sides of my mouth at the same time. Oh, he's like, you're going to bite your tongue off. I'm like, what if I promise not to? Yeah, I don't know if I do that. I have to be honest. That would leave me out. I'd be like, look, I'll just, can I just put something in my mouth for an hour or two after I leave to make sure I don't bite my tongue off? Like I'll, like, I don't. Yeah, what would you, I mean, yeah, yeah. Give me a tongue depressor. Don't eat, don't eat. Yeah, like what? He's like, no, you might bite your tongue off. Like, oh my God, like, don't you think if I bit my tongue off, I deserve it? Do you know what I mean? Like you don think that the thing I could focus on for 90 minutes hey Scott don bite your tongue off Right What if I put it on a sticky and held it in my hand And so but then I got to go back twice I think he's just looking for money. Well, yeah. He's getting ready to retire. Yeah. You know what I mean? You don't pay for it. Probably make a little pile here at the end. I know what's going on. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just kidding. I'm sure it's, it sounds pretty unsafe to numb both sides of a purse, but, but I've tried like to get them to do it and they've been like, no. So that's why I was interested that they would do both your hands. Because, I mean, how did you wipe? Like, wasn't there a lot going on there? My mom had to help me. I mean, I was like an infant again. Yeah. To lay on your back and pull your legs up. I mean, I think like to a certain extent of, you know, I could, like it wasn't that long till I could do that. But I couldn't. Wiping's different from picking up a child, Scott. You know, but yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. Kind of funny. Your life is interesting. I appreciate you sharing it with me. Thank you. Seriously. Yeah, no, this was really fun. I mean. I'm just living it. I'm just living it. And that's all I can do, right? I mean, there doesn't seem to be a lot of other options as far as I can tell. No. No. You got to take what you're given. And I think you have to make the most of it, you know, and make the best of it. It's not perfect. You know, like, I am not a perfect diabetic right now at all. I can just keep working on it and trying. Yeah. I'm still proud of where my A1C is. I think despite everything, I'm in a good, I'm actually in a very good place. I just think I could do better. That's all. Well, what would, I mean, give me, give me two minutes. What, what would that look like? What would you have to do? I really suck at pre-bullying at dinnertime. Okay. That's hard for me only because I'm cooking and making dinner and, you know, we don't try to eat healthy and, you know, make dinner and things like that. So it's always, it's a little bit of a mess, right? Like trying to cook dinner, eat dinner on the table. like last night I was trying to be so good in pre-bolus and I'm on the tandem pump and I don't know what I did. I didn't click or press the button to go ahead and make it start the bolus. And I sit down to dinner and I'm like, are you kidding me? Like, yeah, stuff like that will sometimes happen or more often than not. I find dinner time for some reason is, is a mess, not just because of that, but also just with my insulin absorption and maybe the steroids. I just struggle. I go higher later at dinner. So I'm trying to do a lot of prolonged bolusing or stretch that bolus out. I'm pretty good in the morning. Maybe a magnet on your refrigerator that says pre-bolus. Yeah. I gave all mine away or I would give you one. I need something. Yeah. I don't know how. It's one of those things. It's hard. Yeah. If you don't have somebody helping. Like last night, I was cooking last night. And I texted Arden, bolus now. She was like eight feet from me. But she was sitting at the table in the kitchen. She'll respond better to a text, right? She was studying for her French homework. And so like in my mind, I was like, it's ridiculous now that I think back on it. Like I didn't want to bother her, but also she needed a bolus. And so like, I thought maybe it'll just pop up in front of her and she'll just, you know, keep moving and go. Instead she turns on, she looks at me, she goes, I'm right here. I was like, that's usually my line. And I was like, but you know, But she's got somebody to help her remember sometimes. And I'll tell you, I know it seems simple, but I have spoken to so many people. Remembering to pre-boules the meal is really difficult. It's huge. It's huge. And it makes such a difference. Huge impact, right? And I think sometimes I don't give myself enough insulin at dinner too, but that's a separate issue. You're miscounting carbs or you're trying to... No, you know what I think it is, Scott? It's the magic of fat and protein. oh you're getting a rise later yeah yeah yeah i haven't figured that out yet that's yeah i haven't quite mastered that there's not a lot i still find it confusing despite listening to the podcast i still find it a little complicated but um bolus for your carbs wait 45 minutes and bolus for the fat yeah okay and and if and and still do that on top of my i forget what tandem calls it i still sometimes speak medtronic from years ago dual wave square or whatever they used to call it. Extended bolus. That's what it is on tandem. Yeah. I mean, you could give yourself an extended bolus on tandem. Just do that instead. I do. But you know what? I still think I need that bump. I think you're absolutely right. I think I need that bump later. Yeah. I think that's what I'm missing, actually. There's a little estimator on my website if you want to look at it. I know. Awesome. Have you tried it? Yeah. I actually. Good. Yes. But again, the whole dinnertime chaos. Yeah. Yeah. Well, figure them out ahead of time. That's not crazy, right? Like what if you spent 15 minutes thinking about five meals that you know you're going to have this week and do the carbs and the fat and the protein for them and then write them down on a piece of paper. Then when you go to ECO, this is how I'm going to bowl this for it. And then maybe you'll just become calm. I don't know. I'm just spitballing. That's a great idea. You make it. Yeah, no, that's a really simple solution. Yeah. I mean, just, you know what they said when they made those sneakers for Michael Jordan. Just do it. Just do it. Yeah, exactly. Just do it. Yeah, no, that's a good, that's good. By the way, your episode is called Fancy Pillbox. Oh, I wish I could show it to you. I actually have two fancy pillboxes too, by the way. Do you really? I do because I carry pills. I have like this really nice one that I spent way too much money on, but I was like, hey, I just got Addison's, like I'm getting all this stuff. And so I've got like, you know, these Etsy bags to keep my steroid injection stuff in it. And so I have this like super fancy pill box to go in that bag to carry pills in addition to the injectable. And then I've got my awesome Amazon one that has like separated four times a day. Yeah. You girls are fantastic. I got Addison's. Oh, I can buy a bag. Well, no, it wasn't quite like that. Let me just be honest. It was. You were in the doctor's office. Like, does this come with something I have to carry? Because I need a bag. No, I promise it wasn't quite like that. But I did have to get like two customizable bags to say like steroid dependent. You know, it's got my husband's number on it. And now I think I want to get a seatbelt cover. Okay. Because again, that's my biggest fear is being in a car accident. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, the seatbelt cover. Makes sense. What I hear from EMT, though, is they don't know if the person driving the car is the person the CPAL cover was put on for. Are you kidding me? Well, then they would look at my wrist. They would look at something. Hopefully. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hopefully. Hopefully they're not idiots. Well, I don't know, though. But imagine you're not, you know, people drive other people's cars. Imagine if you if your husband drives your car, he drives into a wall. He's unconscious. And they are like, oh, this guy's, you know, got Addison's. It wouldn't be on the seatbelt. Say, I'm going to have to take it with me. Why don't you just tattoo it on your forehead? Yeah, yeah. I'm going to have to carry one more thing now, right? Also, I've had EMTs tell me tattoos are not a valuable way to do a medical alert. Yeah, I don't want a tattoo. It's necklace or bracelets. Yeah, I don't want a tattoo. Because I'm afraid when I get older, it's going to get all wrinkled and nasty. It's definitely going to happen. Yeah. Yeah, I don't want a tattoo. Yeah, okay. Well, listen, you were able to stay on long enough to get a two-part episode. Oh, really? Yeah, I think so. Time-wise. I can't do an hour and a half in a while. I hope this is helpful to someone. Well, first of all, it's going to be helpful. You're entertaining. I was fantastic today. You were great. I've been good. As always. Can I just say, I'll say something that'll sound ridiculous. I've already pompously told people to stay off of social media. Just let me do it, which is not what I meant, but I'm imagining someone's going to hear it that way. But I listened to an episode of the podcast today, which I don't do all the time. called school ties when it came out like yesterday or today or something. Okay. And I was listening to it and I have to tell you, I was excellent. No, no. I like listen to it. I was like, this is really listen and think you're not. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes. Yeah. Sometimes I'm tired or I just the wrong, like I'll listen back sometimes and somebody will say something. And as a, as the person listening, I'll go, Oh, this is the follow-up question. And then that's not the one I asked. And I think you blew it. Like that was such a good opportunity to say this and you didn't do it. That's hindsight. That's hindsight. Yeah, a little bit. But I don't know. There's just there's something about that person. That woman and I got along well. Her attitude and mind meshed well. I thought your attitude and mind meshed well, too. There's sometimes I feel like I'm fighting. There's a vibe. Yeah, yeah. There's sometimes I think they're great episodes, but there isn't a vibe. And then it feels more interviewee. And this feels more conversational. Yeah. Like so. But you said it will. You said it would. Well, yeah. I could tell anyway. Thank you. You were fantastic. I really do appreciate this. I wish you nothing but luck. I don't know a ton about Addison's other than what I've heard through, you know, a friend and a couple of people I've seen online. And I know it's a it's a bit of a slog. So I wish you nothing but the best. And thank you. Yeah, you're very welcome. Hold on one second for me. I'll tell you about all those people who I wouldn't name on the podcast. Thanks. A huge thanks to today's sponsor, AbleNow. AbleNow offers tax-advantaged ABLE accounts for eligible individuals with disabilities. If you or your child lives with diabetes, you may qualify because of ongoing medical needs. With AbleNow, you can save for a wide range of disability-related expenses without affecting eligibility for certain disability benefits such as Medicaid. And thanks to recent federal law updates, more people are eligible than ever before. Learn more and check your eligibility at ablenow.com. You spell that A-B-L-E-N-O-W.com. There's links in the show notes and links at juiceboxpodcast.com. I'd like to thank the blood glucose meter that my daughter carries, the Contour Next Gen blood glucose meter. Learn more and get started today at contournext.com slash juicebox. And don't forget, you may be paying more through your insurance right now for the meter you have than you would pay for the Contour Next Gen in cash. There are links in the show notes of the audio app you're listening in right now and links at juiceboxpodcast.com to Contour and all of the sponsors. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of the Juice Box Podcast. If you're not already subscribed or following the podcast in your favorite audio app, like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, please do that now. Seriously, just to hit follow or subscribe will really help the show. If you go a little further in Apple Podcasts and set it up so that it downloads all new episodes, I'll be your best friend. And if you leave a five-star review, ooh, I'll probably send you a Christmas card. Would you like a Christmas card? If this is your first time listening to the Juicebox Podcast and you'd like to hear more, download Apple Podcasts or Spotify, really any audio app at all. Look for the Juicebox Podcast and follow or subscribe. We put out new content every day that you'll enjoy. Want to learn more about your diabetes management? Go to juiceboxpodcast.com up in the menu and look for Bold Beginnings, the Diabetes Pro Tip Series, and much more. This podcast is full of collections and series of information that will help you to live better with insulin. If you're looking for community around type 1 diabetes, check out the Juicebox Podcast private Facebook group, Juicebox Podcast Type 1 Diabetes. but everybody is welcome. Type 1, type 2, gestational, loved ones, it doesn't matter to me. 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