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- [00:00]
A
Hello friends and welcome back to another episode of the Juice Box Podcast.
- [00:14]
B
I am Linda Carrier and I live in North Carolina. I'm a long distance runner and a type 1 diabetic for 49 years.
- [00:26]
A
Hey, do you need support? I have some stuff for you. It's all free. Juicebox podcast.com click on support in the menu. Let's see what you get there. A1C and blood glucose calculator. People love that. That's actually, I think the most popular page on the website some months. A list of great endocrinologists from listeners that's from all over the country. There's a link to the private Facebook group to the Circle community and we have a fantastic thing there, American Sign Language. There's a great sign language interpreter who did the entire Bold Beginning series in as. So if you know anybody who would benefit from that, please send them that way. Just go to juiceboxpodcast.com and click on support. While you're there, check out the guides like the Pre Bolusing Guide, Fat and Protein Insulin calculator. Oh gosh. Thyroid GLP Caregiver Burnout. You should go to the website, click around a little bit on those menus. It really. There's a lot more there than you think. Nothing you hear on the Juice Box Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan. Today's podcast episode is sponsored by Medtronic Diabetes, who is making life with diabetes easier with the MiniMed 780G system and their new sensor options which include the Instinct sensor made by Abbott. Would you like to unleash the full potential of the MiniMed 780G system? You can do that at my link medtronicdiabetes.com Juicebox Today's episode is also sponsored by the Contour Next Gen blood glucose meter. Learn more and get started today@contornext.com juicebox.
- [02:05]
B
I am Linda Carrier and I live in North Carolina. I'm a long distance runner and a type 1 diabetic for 49 years.
- [02:16]
A
And Linda, is it true you're here to give me advice on where to move into my retirement? Because North Carolina is on the short list.
- [02:22]
B
It is, it should be. And yeah. Cause I actually live in Pinehurst, which is the, you know, golfing capital of the world, pretty much in the US and we moved there because we retired and it is perfect. It's a small little town and just beautiful and you can pretty much golf year round and you know, and there's.
- [02:41]
A
So many Golf courses, the humidity and the hurricanes. This is what my biggest concerns.
- [02:46]
B
All right, well, I can tell you in Pinehurst because it's probably, probably an hour and a half, two hours from the coast. So when there's hurricanes that come through, it'll get a little windy and dump a little bit more rain. But you don't have the damage like you see in news. I will say the humidity, which I moved from Seattle, so they don't know the definition of humidity there and lived there for almost 30 years, but moved to Pinehurst, North Carolina. And the humidity, especially in like July and August is bad. So you just, you just basically learned, you know, if you're going to go golf, you golf early in the morning or later in the afternoon. And then, you know, I mean, they just go in air conditioning during the.
- [03:33]
A
Aren't you super active with running, though? How often do you run?
- [03:37]
B
I run almost every day. Running in the humidity is hard. Yeah, is really hard. And so I was running outdoors a lot and you'd have to carry multiple bottles of water, so a lot. Sometimes I would, I would call my husband, right. And I would say, I'm over here. Can you bring another, you know, another bottle of water? Because you can only carry so much. But then I, you know, I started running a little bit later in the morning because I took a part time job working on a golf course. By the time I'd get home, there was too much traffic. And we don't really have sidewalks here. And the Pinehurst.
- [04:10]
A
Okay.
- [04:11]
B
You know, Southern Pines kind of area. Not a lot of sidewalks. So you're running on the road and with that kind of traffic, especially with the retirement community, you know, you don't want target for them.
- [04:21]
A
Like you got a lot of geezers out here. They're going to pick you off. You got to be careful.
- [04:25]
B
Exactly. Because they can't see me. Right. I was like, oh my God, I'm not paying attention. Whatever. A slow movement. Right. Slow reaction time. So. So I started running on a treadmill, but I run in a, in a garage. So I've got multiple fans blown.
- [04:39]
A
Oh my gosh. You are committed to this. Okay. All right, let's find out more about all this. You just talked me out of North Carolina, but I appreciate it now, although I'm not running anywhere, if I'm being honest. But still. You were diagnosed with type one at what age?
- [04:53]
B
I was 14.
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A
No kidding. How do you remember the year or how long ago that was?
- [04:58]
B
That was 49 years ago.
- [05:00]
A
49 years.
- [05:01]
B
And so I was 14 just had now hit in 49 years, actually, because it was middle of November. I can't remember the exact date, but I. For some reason, I think it was November 14th. My sister had been diagnosed seven years earlier when she was eight.
- [05:14]
A
Really?
- [05:15]
B
So, yeah, so I knew, you know, kind of we. We knew the signs, you know, so when I see in the signs, I. I was diagnosed earlier than she was, obviously, but, like five years later, my brother was diagnosed, so.
- [05:27]
A
Whoa. How many. Hold on. How many brothers and sisters do you have?
- [05:30]
B
I have seven or. I have six. There's seven of us kids and so.
- [05:35]
A
Or three for six. Wow. Half of you. Oh, let me ask you, is there other autoimmune in your family? Your mom, your dad, grandmothers, grandfathers? I'm looking for celiac, anything like that. Hypothyroidism.
- [05:48]
B
Yeah, nothing in. In the, like, my parents family that we know of. However, the nieces and nephews now have. I have a niece and a nephew who have celiac, and. Yeah. So I think, you know, it's all kind of somehow related.
- [06:05]
A
Yeah. Like the vitilago, eczema, anything like.
- [06:10]
B
Nope.
- [06:11]
A
No. Wow, that's bizarre.
- [06:13]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The doctors for a while there thought it was some, you know, something to do with a, you know, hereditary type thing, but they started then. Even in my neighborhood, we had a couple kids come down with it. So over the years, so we lived in a very Catholic community, and so there were a lot of families with, you know, kids. You know, the. Probably the number of kids were somewhere between five and nine, you know, per family. So we had a big, huge, you know, neighborhood of children.
- [06:40]
A
Linda. A lot of Irish, English backgrounds.
- [06:42]
B
Yes, Irish, English. Yep, yep.
- [06:44]
A
Okay. All right. I see a lot of autoimmune running in the Irish and English backgrounds when I talk to people. That's interesting. I once interviewed a woman who grew up near a dump and, like, everybody on the street had diabetes.
- [06:56]
B
Oh. See, they were saying they thought it could be environmental as well. A combination.
- [07:01]
A
Isn't that really something?
- [07:02]
B
Huh?
- [07:02]
A
Well. And your brother and sister are still with us. Doing well, or how's it going for them?
- [07:07]
B
My brother's doing well. My sister ended up with cancer when she was 42, and she died within 10 months of being diagnosed. So. And that, you know, that was so, so hard. You know, when you think about. You're only. You're not only dealing with type 1 diabetes, but then, you know, with a cancer and what it does, the chemo and radiation and all that stuff that does to you, you know, it's and hard to manage her diabetes, even while she was on a pump, but still extremely hard. And this was, you know, 20 years ago. I just thought, you know, that's. That seems so unfair, right, that you.
- [07:42]
A
Have, you know, I remember being incredibly upset when my daughter got a thyroid diagnosis on top of her type one diagnosis.
- [07:50]
B
Yeah.
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A
Just feeling like having, hey, you feel like that coyote when the, the boulder falls on him and then the, and then the roadrunner runs by and picks at your face a little bit. You're like, it's not enough. You know what I mean? So, oh, my gosh. What were expectations for you when you were diagnosed? Like, I've, you know, I mean, you say 49 years ago.
- [08:08]
B
Yes. 49 or. Yeah, 49 years ago.
- [08:10]
A
Like 75. 76.
- [08:12]
B
Yes.
- [08:13]
A
Oh, the bicentennial. Like, I've had people, women especially, by the way, diagnosed a long time ago, tell me that their doctors. One woman was told by her doctor to drop out of college and go home. Was she wasn't going to live long enough to need her degree and no man would want her, so she should go off and live her life. Actual direction from a physician. So I'm wondering in that time period, what was the messaging to you?
- [08:37]
B
Yeah, so the messaging to me was we wouldn't live long. Right. But it was more about not being active. Right. Because I was very active. I was a kind of a little hyper kid. And as soon as I was diagnosed, my parents and the doctor and everybody was like, okay, you cannot continue to play baseball and softball. And, you know, you should, you should learn to love reading more, you know, be like your older sister and just, or your younger sister and, you know, learn to, you know, paint and draw and, and read, you know, and, and, and, but, you know, even when, when I got diagnosed, I actually looked that up. And I remember as a, as a kid, when my sister was diagnosed, I was seven, so it was probably when I was eight or nine, I heard, overheard my parents talking about how sad they were that she wouldn't probably live much into her, you know, adult years right after teenage years, because she was kind of a brittle diabetic. And so she was DKA when they were able to identify that she had diabetes, like hours away from going into a coma, you know, so she already had some, some issues there. But when I got diagnosed, I decided to, you know, back in the day, you know, look at the encyclopedias, you know, and, and try and do some research to find out, like, how long do people actually live with type 1 diabetes? And I couldn't find anybody who had had it past 20 years. I thought, oh, okay. You know, for someone who's 14, you know, 20 years seemed like, you know, I'd be, like, old by the time I died, you know, 34. I remember dating my husband and. And when he asked me to marry him, you know, I basically told him, I said, you know, I'm probably going to be dead before I'm 34, so, you know, if you're okay with that, you know, that's. That's good. And he was like, as much time as I've got with you, that's that. I'll take it, you know, and. And here I am now, you know, 63, you know, and it's like a.
- [10:26]
A
Young woman in love and. And thought you weren't going to live much longer.
- [10:29]
B
Right.
- [10:30]
A
Was there any, I don't know, evidence in your life that was pointing towards this, or was it just the fact that your parents were worried that your sister would pass and that you couldn't find record of somebody living very long with Type one? Was that all?
- [10:44]
B
Yeah, the latter. There was nothing. I was not. I wasn't having any issues. I didn't, you know, I wasn't losing any toes or fingers, and my diabetes was in control, but I couldn't find anybody. Then I thought, well, eventually you'll just die, you know, And I wasn't sure, but it was like, somehow they just don't live after 20 years.
- [11:02]
A
Can I ask you, did that put you in a mindset of yolo? You know what I mean? Like, you only live once. Let's go. Or did it put. It didn't. It didn't make you sad. It made you, like, let's go for it, right?
- [11:15]
B
Absolutely. Yeah. It didn't make me sad. I think it's mainly because, you know, everybody dies. But I knew that, and it was just more about, what can I get done before I die? You know, what can I do, what I'm gonna live. You know, I want to leave something behind. I want to make sure that, you know, I get. I. I don't leave any. You know, I'm not. I don't have any regrets. Yeah, right. I was most worried about is. Is dying with. With regrets of not doing something. And so, yeah, so that. That's how I. I pretty much approached it.
- [11:42]
A
You know, I think that's wonderful, by the way. And. And I'm wondering, like, does that fit the rest of your personality or was it something you adopted when you were faced with this? Does that make sense? Like, were you like a glasses, half full person before this blay?
- [11:58]
B
Yeah, I'm trying to think what it was like before I was 14.
- [12:01]
A
Yeah, it's a long time ago. If you don't have a. If you don't have a quick answer for it, you probably don't remember. And I'm taking my experience on, trying to remember what happened last week, so. But I just, I was wondering, like, if it, if it shifted you or if you were that person. I try to figure that out when I talk to people all the time. Because you do. You do speak to people who have your attitude and you speak to people who are, you know, struggling and have trouble finding a happy attitude. And I'm always wondering if it's nature, nurture, decision, like, or somewhere in between, but it's okay if you don't know.
- [12:33]
B
Yeah, I think I've always been like that. But, you know, I'd have to probably.
- [12:37]
A
You know, really think about.
- [12:38]
B
Yeah. Somebody. I have no idea. But I. I think so. I don't think it actually really changed much. I mean, I. I will say that there are things that happened in, in my life, in our life, my husband, life that has reconfirmed, you know, that life is short and you just have to really, you know, live your life to the fullest, you know, with his best friend dying at a very young age and, you know, and just even with my sister passing away and she had some regrets, you know, you just kind of confirms and it's like, yeah, I always have that right. It's like, because, I mean, life gets in the way and you're working and you're doing stuff and, you know, and then you're, you know, when you get opportunities, I, I always do the best that I can to, you know, grab every opportunity that's presented in front of me. Yeah, because I think, you know, it's like you only live once and, you.
- [13:24]
A
Know, it's like, I feel like wasted time is maybe the biggest sin you can commit.
- [13:28]
B
Yes.
- [13:29]
A
Yeah. Really, really something. Okay, so what was management like back then? You know, 14 years old. Were you, like, shooting insulin once a day? Unlike other systems that will wait until your blood sugar is 180 before delivering corrections, the MiniMed 780G system is the only system with meal detection technology that automatically detects rising sugar levels and delivers more insulin as needed to help keep your sugar levels in range. And even if you're not a perfect carb counter. Today's episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes and their MiniMed 780G system, which gives you real choices because the MiniMed 780G system works with the Instinct sensor made by Abbott as well as the Simplera Sync and Guardian 4 sensors, giving you options. The Instinct sensor is the longest wear Sensor yet, lasting 15 days and designed exclusively for the Mini Med 780G. And don't forget Medtronic Diabetes makes technology accessible for you with comprehensive insurance support programs to help you with your out of pocket costs. We're switching from other pump and CGM systems. Learn more and get started today with my link medtronicdiabetes.com juicebox contournext.com 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. Smart Light provides a simple understanding of your blood glucose levels. And of course with Second Chance sampling technology, you can save money with 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. Contour next.com 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 juicebox Head over there. Now get the same accurate and reliable meter that we use.
- [15:57]
B
Yeah, so I actually gave two shots a day mixing insulin like regular and NPH in a syringe in the morning and at night. And then what was hard for me is because I'm not much of a, of an eater or a foodie and and it's very hard when you're giving a couple shots a day. And you know in Islam back then, you know like with the long acting and short acting it peaks at certain times. So you pretty quickly learn that when you're given your shot before school that you definitely have to have something, you know, you have to eat something around like 10am So I have a couple grapes or whatever and then you'd have to have lunch at noon because your sugars would drop, you know, your glucose, you know, just Drop. And so you had to be on this like regimented schedule of eating something at 3 o', clock, dinner at 5 o', clock, you know, just. And, and I hate, I am not as like that tight of a schedule person. And so if I had to say anything I hated about it, it was that it was, it was always having to, you know, just like, no, you had to, even if you're not hungry, you know, my mom's pushing the peanut butter sandwich in front of my face. I'm like, I'm not even hungry, you know, and it's like, eat. And you knew you had to because you're, you know, your sugars were dropping. I did that until we got married and moved to Sweden. So I lived in Sweden for two years. And there the doctors were just trying out the novo pen where you got rid of the actual. I mean, I still had to do one long acting. So I'd have a, you know, an injection I'd have to do in the morning. But then I used this novo pen, which is just regular insulin. And you can, you know, just give it when you're eating, you know, so it was like, that was so freeing. I remember, like, this is like heaven sent, you know, I was. That was the best thing ever, you know. And I did that for a couple years until I moved to Seattle. So after Sweden, I was mid-20s, 26, 27, something like at 28 when we moved to Seattle. And it was there that I got an endocrinologist who was an actual type 1 diabetic and started showing me the insulin pump and, and how it's different and all about it. And at that same time, my sister had just gone on to the insulin pump and she was using the medtronic one and so was he. And so I was like, huh. So I started asking her all kinds of questions, you know, because who not to ask your doctor and your sister who were on it, you know, what the pros and cons were. So that's kind of where I started it. Yeah.
- [18:33]
A
Before we jump into that, I'm going to ask a deeper question. I'm sorry if this isn't what you were expecting today, but do you think that because by nature you didn't like the scheduling and you know, it was, it was harder for you to eat when you didn't want to, etc. Can I ask you, did you find yourself looking for control in other aspects of life to make up for being out of control in that situation, or was that never an issue for you?
- [18:55]
B
I don't know. Probably because that's. I think that's typical, you know, when you feel you can't control one thing, you try and control something that's. That you can't control. So I probably did. I was running at the time a lot, and so that probably was where I could control, you know, what I did and how I did it. Even though it wasn't, you know, still, you know, what they would recommend. And I think maybe with some schooling and stuff, maybe, probably. I don't know if I can think to one specific thing, but I know I do. When I can't control anything, I do tend to grab control of something else.
- [19:32]
A
Yeah, I mean, everybody does. I was just wondering if, like. Like, if you recognize because you're. You're. You're not an older person, but you're, you know, you're an older person, and you probably had some, like, moments to, you know, where you've looked back and. And tried to apply some hindsight to your life. And I was just wondering, like, is the running a thing you could control or. You sounded passionate about the idea of not liking being on that schedule because, you know, I know other people have had diabetes. Time, you know, distances as you have. Some of them loved that scheduling. It fed right into their personality. And others, no. You know, so I'm just very interested by all that.
- [20:06]
B
Yeah. No, I hated it. I hated it. And I. And it. Probably because I've been running since I was a kid, you know, like five, six, seven years old. And. And I probably did more of that. And I do know that when I can't control something, I do tend to look for something I can better control. So just so that you did an.
- [20:27]
A
Insulin pump end up helping you with that?
- [20:30]
B
It did. Oh, my gosh. Yes. That was like. That was like heaven sent, too, I thought, because even with the, you know, the novo pen thing I used, you still had the daily injection in the morning with your lung acting, and then you had the multiple, you know, so if you ate two times a day, you had at least two more shots you're giving. So you had, like, you're still stabbing yourself three times a day at a minimum. And with the insulin pump, you know, you apply it once every three days. You know, at the time I, you know, started it with them, I think it was a paradigm pump. And I thought, oh, my gosh, this is even. This is even more free. I'm like, this is awesome. You know, but you had the other challenges of. And the thing I was concerned about was, like, what do you do with it, you know, it's the size of a pager. You know, how do you, how do you run with this thing? Where do you put it when you have a dress on? What's. When I'm doing any kind of other sports, you know, or when I'm showering or when I'm sleeping. You know, what, what happens to this thing? How do you, you can't really disconnect from it. So, you know, that's why I use my doctor and my, my sister, you know, like, how do you, you know, even relations with your husband. What do you do with this thing? Yeah, you know, it's like, you know, and so that's, that's a quick solution, right? You mean people had all kinds of things and you know, nowadays there's all kinds of tools and websites and all kinds of stuff about, you know, like almost like garter belt type stuff that you can put the pump in your, you know, something around your thigh so that doesn't show on your, or pocket near a bra. There's all kinds of things that they didn't have 25 years ago.
- [21:59]
A
Right, right. Hey, at what point in this process do you realize you're not going to die when you're 34?
- [22:05]
B
When I hit 34.
- [22:06]
A
Really? So you got that pump and then you lived another almost decade thinking, well, it's easier and that's awesome, but I'm still out of here soon, right? Exactly.
- [22:16]
B
And we're, we celebrated when it was my 34th. I'm like, I am still alive, you know, so.
- [22:21]
A
Linda, let me stop you for a second. Did you feel like you were an egg timer? Because, I mean, was your health really poor? Like, is there anything. No, there was nothing leading you to the idea that you were going to expire. You just thought like, like a light switch is going to flip and you're gonna, and fall over. Like, what, what did you expect? I guess I'm asking.
- [22:38]
B
I kind of did. I kind of felt like. Well, I actually thought, you know, that something would happen because my, my dad told me. I remember him talking to both my sister and me about it. So I was probably right. Newly diagnosed and Kelly had had it for seven years or so. And so I remember him telling us because I had a lot of questions I was asking, like, you know what, you know, why, why do people die from this? How's this work? You know, so I was doing a lot of research and, and just trying to verify what I was understanding. And he told me that the, the long term effects of having type 1 diabetes is what kills you. And he said it was the, the wide variances of high blood sugars to low blood sugars or just your body always, you know, you get sick and your blood sugars are up and your, you know, your glucose levels were up and, you know, it was that constant up and down, you know, in the, the, like climbing mountains, you know, the variability. Yeah. He says not wears, he says not just wears on your body. It wears on every organ you have every, you know, your brain, your liver, your kidneys, your, you know, everything. And so in my head, you know, maybe not the brightest person, but I thought, oh, eventually, you know, like an organ fails and then you just die.
- [23:53]
A
Yeah.
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B
And so I wasn't sure, right. I was like, I'm not sure what it is. And I did know, you know, I've obviously was doing some of this research, but I didn't know that that's usually the cause of like kidney failure and, you know, people losing their, you know, their, their toes or their legs, you know, because of that poor control. And so I was one thing I had absolutely. And that's, you know, if you want to know about what I was going to control if I couldn't control my eating, was that control the, you know, like what my blood sugars were. And so I was a little, you know, type A personality type with making sure that they weren't right, swinging. Right. I mean, they're always swing, but not wildly.
- [24:30]
A
And so did you open your eyes on the morning of your 34th birthday and think, huh, okay, yeah, I did pretty much.
- [24:39]
B
Well, maybe I need a first one living past 20 years.
- [24:42]
A
I made it. I'm going to be in an encyclopedia one day.
- [24:44]
B
Exactly.
- [24:45]
A
But then does that go away? Do you give it away like, oh, I guess I'm okay, or is it a continuing learning experience? You're using a pump now. You have better control, you have less variability. Do you just think, well, maybe the damage that I've been worried isn't accumulating as quickly or isn't accumulating at all. Where did it put your mindset then?
- [25:04]
B
It put my mindset at that. I, I think I'm living on borrowed time. And as much as I can do to continue to live on this borrowed time, you know, I'll do. And I do think that in my own personal opinion, I think that as long as I control my glucose levels, you know, and just making sure that they're not wildly swinging, I think I get extra time. And so it's like my, my reward, you know, so I just kind of. That's how I look at it. I just always think I'm living on borrowed time. And so if I am, then that's allowing me to. To do things and, you know, and doing some of the things I want to do, like, you know, bungee jumping in, you know, New Zealand a few years back, and I'm, like, loving every minute of it, and I'm like, okay, I could die if these things came off. But I'm like, I'm on borrowed time. Awesome. You know, so.
- [25:55]
A
Oh, it's free. You find it freeing?
- [25:59]
B
Yeah, I do, actually. Yeah.
- [26:00]
A
How about that? That's really interesting. Was your husband bummed when you didn't die? Did he think, like, he's like, oh, I thought I wasn't gonna have to be married to this lady forever. Or did he seem happy, too?
- [26:09]
B
I know. I think. I think he's happy that I'm still around.
- [26:12]
A
Yeah, I imagine. Tell me about a 1Cs on a pump in the early days, how things have changed, moving forward. When did you find a cgm? Like, how have you. Because you're a person who's coming along with technology, which I think is important. So how are you finding yourself staying connected with these changes that are being made? And when do you decide? Okay, I'm going to try another thing. How do you open yourself up to that?
- [26:36]
B
I guess I kind of worked in technology too, so. So I understand a lot of the technology and I'm. I like to embrace it, but I'm not one that will be the first one in front of the bus. Right. I'm like, I will wait for that bus to pass a couple times and make sure it's not too close to the curb and, you know, whatever that might be. Right. I let other people try it first because it's something that, you know, that. That needs to work. Well, I will look at, like. So when I got the pump, you know, that first one didn't have a cgm, obviously. So you're still, you know, checking your. Your glucose levels and. And then managing it like you should. And being a type A personality type, you know, I was. I was really controlling it. I will say, when I started upgrading, because I've always been on the Medtronic pump. Very loyal. I loved everything about it. And so I like it. You know, if it's not broken, why. Why change? But I do look at the different ones, like, the ones that are, you know, it doesn't have the tubing or the, you know, three days on your arm and, you know, that kind of stuff. I do look at all that stuff, and I. I make the decision based on if it would work for my lifestyle, you know, and how much insulin I take and that kind of stuff. And so for right now, I've. I've stayed with the Medtronic pump and the. With the tube and all that. I will say that as the CGM started coming out, I did go with the cgm, the early one, and that had a long needle. Needle, and so. And I'm on the thin side. And so it was really hard to find a place that you could put it that wasn't into a. You know, like into a muscle or through blood vessels. And, you know, just. So I didn't use it as much, but I did like the technology of it. And then as soon as it started changing where it was easier to insert, easier to use, I embraced it fully. And then as soon as it started getting into where it was the. With a loop technology, right where it. Feedback to the pump, I'm like, oh, yeah, give me this. Right? So, I mean, you've still always being a control freak or type 8 personality. I always will check my, you know, my blood sugar, you know, once a week now. Used to do it, like, every day, but the technology has. Has allowed me to stop, you know, poking my fingers four times a day. This technology I'm on right now, it checks it every five minutes.
- [28:54]
A
Yeah.
- [28:55]
B
So I don't go low anymore at night. Where? At the. In the past, even on the older pumps, my husband would wake up in the middle of night and just check my chest or my back to see if I was sweating, and it would wake me up and say, you need to. To drink some juice. As soon as I got this pump, he even told me, he's like, oh, my gosh. You know, it's. It's so freeing for him. Yeah, I know. It's working. He says, even if I do wake up and I put my hand on you, you're not, you know, you're not a sweat ball. And. And then it, you know, if my blood sugars do drop, you know, it'll. It has this alarm that would wake up the neighbors. I rarely even have that anymore. I mean, rarely. Rarely, rarely.
- [29:31]
A
No, I know. Linda, Give me a second. So do you think that you were low a lot while you were sleeping?
- [29:37]
B
Absolutely.
- [29:38]
A
You were okay.
- [29:39]
B
Yeah. And that's usually when I dropped. Was at night. And no matter what I did to change, you know, to try and get it so I didn't drop at night. I always Dropped at night. And I don't know what that is, but it's. It was just me.
- [29:53]
A
When you watch those algorithms really work, to me, that's when my understanding, like, I don't know, like, scaled up like I used to. So my daughter's 21, right. And she was diagnosed when she was 2. And I think I figured out about the time when she started using a cgm. And I started realizing, like, what I was seeing happen and how the insulin was impacting her and how some foods would impact differently than others, and started getting a bigger picture. I started acting like an algorithm, almost texting her, being like, hey, can you do a temp basal decrease here? Let's do a 50% decrease for two hours. Let's do a 20% increase for 30 minutes. Bolus again, like we were doing all that. And then I did that for years. Kept her A1C very nicely in the low sixes. Then she got on an algorithm and I could see it working in front of me, and I was like, oh, my God, that thing's doing what I was doing.
- [30:47]
B
Right? Exactly.
- [30:48]
A
And then I was like, oh, I'm going to sleep. And then I slow. And then the sleep came back, which is what you're talking about too, is awesome. Like, just any regaining of sleep is just really incredible. And so I was like, wow, that's the thing I've been doing for all these years. It's doing it automatically now.
- [31:05]
B
Yep. And we love that. I. I love it. My husband loves it, you love it, Your daughter loves it. It's amazing.
- [31:11]
A
Well, she does. She didn't grow up when you grew up. She doesn't even know she loves it.
- [31:15]
B
Right.
- [31:15]
A
Just trust me, if somebody took it from her, she'd be like, hey, whoa, what's going on? But she doesn't know it's her normal. And so that's interesting for you because you live through other normals to get to this one.
- [31:25]
B
And this normal is, and I'll tell people all the time, especially for newly diagnosed people, this is almost for me, at least, from knowing what I was like, you know, what I was going through at the age of 14 to where I'm at today is like, I feel like a non diabetic 99% of the time because I don't even think about it. I mean, it's hooked to me, right? So I know it's there. My old pump I used to call Chatty Cathy, because always beep at me, beep, beep. You know, calibrate. Have you, you know, your blood Sugar's up, your blood sugar's low. You know, how would you. Haven't touched me in two hours or whatever, you know, my gosh, Chatty Cathy here. Taking it out and doing, you know, and hitting the buttons and doing that. This one, I rarely ever have to do that. Right. It's like, you know, because it keeps everything pretty normal for me, you know, except for when I'm eating, obviously. You have to, you know, give some, some insulin, you know, bolus, but, but I rarely. It's like, it's almost like being a non diabetic again. It's kind of weird.
- [32:23]
A
So let me ask you, I mean medtronics come out with. I mean, you're still with Medtronic pump, right?
- [32:28]
B
Yes, yes.
- [32:29]
A
So what do you use? The 780G?
- [32:31]
B
Yep, 780G with a G4 sensor.
- [32:34]
A
Okay. And now they've got new sensors coming. Will you try different sensors?
- [32:39]
B
I probably will, but right now I have no concerns with the G4. It works for me. I know there's some people that it doesn't and I don't know, I don't know why. I mean, we're all different, right? So it works for me. I rarely have. The only time I ever have an issue is if I hit into a, like a muscle or a get a bleeder. I rarely ever get, I think maybe once or twice if that I've ever had it where it just has changed sensor.
- [33:06]
A
Okay.
- [33:07]
B
Very, very rarely. And so it works for me. I do like the newer sensors in that it lasts longer, you know, so they're. This one lasts for me at least it always lasts to seven days or six and a half days sometimes depending on. I'll change it, you know, depending on the timing, but always lasts the amount of days. But the 15 day I was always, you know, I'm always like, oh, I.
- [33:29]
A
Don'T sound bad, right? Yeah, yeah, I imagine you'll change if, if you want to change and if you have something that's working for you, then that's perfect too. What about like, if they were to come out with other pumps, you know, would you be interested in a version that looks different than the pump you have now or you're pretty happy where you are?
- [33:48]
B
Like there's a couple things I always, I put on my wish list. If I, you know, if I ran the world, I would love this pump to be thinner, smaller, or any pump to be thinner and smaller. Now my brother had, had changed a couple years ago to a different pump and his is thinner and smaller, but he's been having a lot of issues with it, but. And I, I don't have any issues with mine. And it's, you know, size of a, like a pager, if anybody even really knows what a pager is anymore. But, you know, so it's not that big, but I would love to have something that's a little bit lighter and smaller, maybe thinner. It doesn't have to even be like too much smaller, but it'd be good if it was thinner. Right. Because then you worry about it showing through your pants pocket or your, your bra, you know, or wherever. And I would love to be able to, I think, with the technology. I, and I know it's. I know it's coming eventually, but I would love to be able to turn off or be able to release an alarm, give a bolus or your phone or something instead of having to reach into, you know, because when you're at a dinner party as a woman and I'm, you know, I've got my pump tucked into my bra, you know, in the front of my dress that has a high neck, you know, I have to almost go into the, you know, go into the bathroom, right. To reach under and try and grab my pump and, you know, and bolas for the dinner we're going to have. Right. And tuck it back in and, you know, and, and, and I would love to be able to just sit like normal people and just be able to, you know, to do what I needed to do. Right.
- [35:12]
A
Yeah. Make some quiet adjustments. It's funny, I thought you were gonna, like, say, oh, I, you know, I hope, I hope Medtronic makes a patch pump or something like that. But that's not really your. It's more functional stuff for you.
- [35:21]
B
It's more functional stuff. Yeah, that's. That's more important to me than, than, yeah, like the patch pump. I mean, that'd be awesome. But, you know, but if I still had to, you know, I don't know, wherever you put your patch pump, you know, if I had to, like, go around and roll up my sleeve to be able to do something, I don't.
- [35:38]
A
Think you'd have to at that point. No, but I do. I am picturing you reaching down the top of your sweater, like, rooting around at dinner while everybody's looking at you. So, I mean, I take your point. I kind of want to, like, ping pong a little bit over to all this running. You do, because now we have, like, a really good idea of where you started and where you, you know, where you've gotten to as far as how you manage. But you've also talked about being low a lot overnight back in the day and everything. But you've been running through that whole thing.
- [36:06]
B
Yes.
- [36:07]
A
I guess I'm really interested to know what you figured out in the beginning and how it's changed over time.
- [36:14]
B
So at the beginning, so I've been running as a kid and then I didn't stop running even as after I got diagnosed. I started probably running more when I was in my probably early, late 20s, early 30s, and running my like first half marathon, that kind of stuff. And so I wasn't on a pump until I was getting ready to run my first marathon. So when I was just doing insulin injections, I would usually if I just went out for a six mile run, I didn't think anything about it. I would just take some candies with me and just go. But I had no idea what my blood sugars were. You know, I knew what they were before I started, but I didn't know, you know, during the run if there was any kind of issues. And so. But I always had something with me. I was more worried about it being low than I was about it being high. So I always carried some kind of, you know, like skittles or something with me.
- [37:03]
A
Yeah.
- [37:04]
B
You know, and I, I would have a couple issues, you know, with running, you know, like a half marathon. I quickly learned that you expend a lot of this energy and you're burning your sugars and that kind of stuff. And so I'd eat right after. It'd be great. But within the next 12 hours or 24 hours, my blood sugars would drop a lot. And then I didn't really notice. I didn't really know that why that was happening other than, you know, I thought, well, maybe it's because I've, you know, exercising a little bit longer. But I'm thinking, what spent 20 hours, why is my blood sugar still low? And apparently, you know, I was talking to my endocrinologist, which is very important for anybody who's a type 1 diabetic. Get a good endocrinologist and trust that person and make sure that they know about the technology. But, you know, I had an endocrinologist and they were telling me that that's, you know, you're still burning, you know, 2012 to 24 hours after the fact. And so I had to make sure I was eating a little bit more, maybe pasta or something, you know, eight hours later, you know, just get something in you so that it's it's balancing it out. And so it kind of put me a little bit back to, like, you know, when I was giving individual injections, you know, back when I was 14 and have to stick to that schedule, I was like, oh, this kind of sucks. Well, then I went on the pump, and that was very freeing. And then, you know, then you could see, you know, it would. It would drop, and I could adjust it, you know, so I'd give half the amount of insulin for the next 24 hours. So I would put it at 50%. And then all of a sudden, that was great, you know, and then go back and put it back to normal, you know. So, you know, the doctor, my endocrinologist at the time was the one that was, like, messing around with that and making sure I could do that. So I didn't change it. I didn't change anything while I was running, but I changed it afterwards because usually where I had my issues, and then obviously, when I get on this, you know, 780G, you know, with the G4, you know, sensor, I now can run a marathon where all I do during the whole race is I will take. At the water stops, I'll drink, like, I'll take, you know, they have Dixie cups of, like, Gatorade or Powerade or whatever and water. And so I will pour a little bit of the water, pour the Gatorade or Powerade, whatever, in it. I'll take a sip of that and, you know, like, whatever it is, 2 ounces and keep going. And so at every water stop, that's all I would do is take a little bit of that Gatorade with some water, just water it down a little bit. And. And I almost always will end the race at, you know, about 110, 112, something like that. Right. And. And then even after the race, the pump, because it's looking at you every five minutes. Right. It'll just adjust automatically so I don't have to, you know, make any. For me, at least I don't have to make any adjustments to the pump even 24 hours after the race.
- [39:47]
A
Well, it's doing it then. Yeah. And. And. But do you find yourself getting low 20, you know, in the hours after the race?
- [39:54]
B
Not usually.
- [39:55]
A
Not usually. And how many. And. And I guess this is the part that'll freak people out. Tell people how old you are again.
- [40:00]
B
I am 63 years old.
- [40:02]
A
How many of these marathons have you run?
- [40:05]
B
I am running. Well, I have run 95, so I'm running my 96th on Sunday.
- [40:11]
A
Wow. Can I tell you my running story?
- [40:14]
B
Yes.
- [40:14]
A
I was going into the grocery store yesterday, and these two older people were walking out. It was a windy day, and they pulled out their turkey, and the receipt blew away. And the old man yelled, damn it. And I said, do you need that? He said, yeah. And I ran it down, and I got it for him. That was it. That's as much as I've run in the last six months. I just want you to say. And I was pretty proud of myself, honestly, because I didn't pull anything. You were doing it a little differently, by the way. They were grateful for that receipt. I wonder what they wanted the receipt for. They were so upset. Maybe it had, like, a coupon for a free. It's around Thanksgiving. Is there, like a free bird coupon on there or something? I don't know exactly. Anyway, this is not the point, Linda, but I got that thing. No problem. Now you. You're doing it differently. You are. I mean, there are you traveling the country and doing this. Is this, like, a thing? Explain to me what you're doing here.
- [41:00]
B
So I've been running marathons for 25, 27 years. Something like that. When I ran my first one, I was just, like, shocked. That kind of like, you know, when I hit 34 or whatever, shocked that I was still alive. I was like, oh, it didn't kill me on I'm still alive. Okay, let's see if that was just a fluke. And so I started running. I ran another one, like, a year later. But I really like that distance. And so as I continue to run, I probably run one a year. You know, I was working, going to school, that kind of stuff. And so as I continued, you know, just running, social media started. And as soon as I got onto any of the social media sites, you know, it could be Facebook or Instagram or, you know, X or Twitter or whatever it is. That's when you. That's when I started seeing things like the world marathon majors, where you could run Chicago and New York and Boston and London and Berlin and Tokyo and now Sydney. And I thought, oh, that'd be really cool. And so I thought, okay, go. I'm going to see if I can do that. And so I finished all those in 2015. I'm still running marathons. And then I, you know, I obviously was trying to qualify for Boston. That's how I got, like, qualified for Boston three times. And one of those was for the world marathon majors. And then I continued, you know, you still see these social media stuff, and Then I see, you know, I'm learning more about ultramarathons. And I thought, oh, this is really cool. Yeah, people run 50 miles and 100 miles and even longer and. And, you know, even multiple day, you know, stages of races. And so I decided when it was my 50th birthday, I wanted to run a 50 miler. So that month of my 50th birthday, I ran a 50 mile race in Washington state. One of the. What was that one called? Mount Si Marathon. So I did that, and it didn't kill me. I thought, that's great. And then I saw in, gosh, 2017. 20. No, 2015. I saw. Might have been on Instagram, but it was the World Marathon Challenge. And this is running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. And it was the first time in 2015. And I followed it for that entire week of these people going from one continent to the next. And, you know, it was like, you go to bed and they've already got one done, and then you wake up and they've run another one. And, you know, I thought, my God, this is fantastic. So I followed him. And then the next year they were doing it again. And I remember telling my husband, like, wow, this must be a thing. He retired in 2017. And I was telling him, he's. I was like, oh, my God, they're doing it again in 2017. And he said, he goes, why don't you go ahead and sign up and see if you can do that? So I. I did. I applied and they basically said, oh, you're a type 1 diabetic. Get approval from your doctor. In the meantime, we're moving from Seattle to Pinehurst, North Carolina. So I had to. Had to get a new doctor, new endocrinologist. And so when I met with her and told her kind of who I was and what I do, and, you know, and she's like, yeah, we don't usually deal with extreme athletes. I'm like, I'm not extreme. I'm like, I just. I just like to run. But she's like, oh, no, you're. You kind of do extreme stuff. And so. But she didn't run screaming from the room. So she's like, all right, let's see what we can do if you're going to do this. And so we did everything that we needed to do and got accepted to run this race. And so I did it in 2019 and ran seven marathons, seven continents, seven days. And some of the things, you know, when running that you have to worry about, like, you know, you're in Antarctica. You know, I don't want my pump to freeze. You know what, I'm in Antarctica and need it for the next six days. So, you know, you had to, you know, figure out how to work around some of those challenges. And then, you know, within six hours or whatever, we're in Cape Town, South Africa, and It's, you know, 100% humidity and 92 degrees. You're like, okay, I don't want the pump to overheat either. Right. So, you know, she had those kinds of challenges along with running. But I've always been kind of into this running. And then along the way through all of this, I saw where they do this, run a marathon in all 50 states. So while I was running other marathons, training and doing whatever, I was checking off the states. So I travel around the country in US Right? In different states and checking off those states. So I just finished that 50 state marathon in Twin Cities, Minnesota, sponsored by Medtronic. It's a marathon sponsored by Medtronic. And I thought, what better way to finish, you know, this 50 states, wearing the Medtronic pump, running a race sponsored by Medtronic. Right. I thought, oh, God, just going to do that. And so it worked out perfectly. And so I. I just finished that. And so I just look. I always look for challenges.
- [45:43]
A
And so, yeah, I'm struck by how different people are. Because you found these people, this group of people online. You're like, this is inspirational. I would have turned to somebody and said, I found a group of crazy people online. They're running all over the place. But you were like, no, no, these are my people, by the way, 50 states. What's the time frame? How many years did it take you to run 50 different marathons in 50 different states?
- [46:05]
B
Oh, gosh. Well, I didn't. I really wasn't paying any attention to it. So I had run years. I've been running, like, I ran, like, Seattle, like, I don't know, eight times because I lived there, right. So in Portland, like, a couple times. Because I really wasn't really thinking about the 50 states until probably it might have been around in 2015. So I had to go back.
- [46:24]
A
You've been focused on this for a decade. I can't. I can't. How you. Why are you a special person? This is now my new question, Linda. Like, how did you focus on that for a decade? How do you decide to go? Did your husband go with you? Seven continents? Seven days. Seven days. Like, were you just like, I've talked to somebody who's done this. This before. Like, you're on a plane, you land, you run, you get back on a plane, you land just like that, Right?
- [46:48]
B
Yeah, you do. And. And I've done it three times. Actually. I'm not.
- [46:51]
A
Wait, stop. No, Linda, stop. You've done seven continents in seven days. Three times.
- [46:56]
B
Yes.
- [46:57]
A
All right, I'm gonna ask a different question. What's wrong with you? Tell everybody right now.
- [47:04]
B
I know my husband. All he keeps saying is, you're not normal. Well, yeah, like, no, it's. It's fun. And it's. He did go with me the third time, so. Because he. You know, he. He looks at me as, like, somebody with type 1 diabetes, and he understands that, but he also sees me. I'm always running. And he's. He told me after watching this, the World Marathon Challenge the third time, and he was watching all of us run this thing, he goes, wow, I didn't realize how hard it was. He goes, you always make things look so easy. You're like, I'm going for a 20 miler. I go, okay, I'll see you. I'll see you in a little bit. And he goes and does his thing, and he's like. And then you're done, and we go and get something to eat, and then we go about our day and play golf or whatever.
- [47:49]
A
Yeah.
- [47:49]
B
He goes, I didn't realize how hard that was.
- [47:51]
A
And did you guys have kids?
- [47:53]
B
No. And that's why we do some of this stuff.
- [47:56]
A
Oh. I was gonna say because, like, where are you getting all this money from? My kids are sucking me dry. Was that on purpose? Was that I'm gonna be dead soon, I don't want to have children thing?
- [48:05]
B
I don't know. It was more about a little bit of it was Right. Because I really worried about having kids and leaving them, you know, and having my husband to raise them. And so that did play into a lot of it. And then we both had jobs where he traveled a ton for his job. I mean, he could be. He worked for Boeing, so he could be gone months at a time. And I thought, man, if I died, we would have those children.
- [48:30]
A
So many of your decisions are made around whether or not you expire out of nowhere. I mean, it sounds like you're incredibly healthy. Do you have any complications?
- [48:38]
B
No, I've not had any. Even my eye doctor's like, she. Every time I see her, she's like, it's amazing. I can't even tell you're a diabetic.
- [48:45]
A
With your eye you're running so far, probably the diabetes can't catch up to you to grab on, I would imagine.
- [48:49]
B
I tell people I'm running away from it. I know.
- [48:53]
A
Well, that's, Isn't it exciting, though, to know that there's a generation of kids right now that are going to get diagnosed at 14 who will never be told your life is going to be shorter.
- [49:03]
B
Right.
- [49:03]
A
Who won't be told you can't run, you know, who are never gonna have the fears and the concerns that you grew up with.
- [49:09]
B
Right? Yes, I, I know. It's, it's amazing. And, and I was talking to a, a kid and I want to say he was like maybe 20. He was diagnosed, I think he said, when he was 2, 18 months, 2 years. And he, he also has the same kind of outlook that I do. And he goes, you know what? He goes, the difference between you and me, he says, is that he goes. And what I see with other people who have been diagnosed, you know, like maybe in their teens or even their 20s, you know, later in life, he says most of them mourn their prior life. He goes, I see that a lot. They all mourn what it was like before they had diabetes. Diabetes. And he says, I don't know any different. So this is my. He goes, so this. He goes, so I have nothing to mourn. He goes, do you find that? And I'm like, no, I, I don't. You know, it's like, I've seen it.
- [50:01]
A
Go all different ways, Linda. Like, I really have. Like, I, I take this point. I've recorded like over 2, 000 times with people with type 1 diabetes. And we'll, and I'll probably do another 250 recordings in 20, 26 and the year after and over. By the time I get done doing this, I'll probably have recorded with like 3, 000 different people.
- [50:19]
B
Wow.
- [50:19]
A
I do find that people take their situation then look at the opposite and then make a decision. Oh, that must be why I'm this way. But that I've talked to people who are in that exact same situation who have the exact opposite takeaway. So I, I don't know. I think it's so personal and you don't even realize why you feel the way you feel sometimes. That makes sense.
- [50:40]
B
Yeah. Yeah, I absolutely agree with you. Yeah.
- [50:43]
A
It's not a crazy way to start your decision making process. Like, my daughter's too, she doesn't remember not having diabetes, but she is also not thrilled about it, you know, like, she's not running around Going like, no big deal. There are places in her life that it really impacts her and it's. And it's difficult, and there are parts of it that she just skates through. I don't know. And if she was a slightly different person, if that was my son and not my daughter, he's got a different personality. He would. He'd intersect with it differently, too.
- [51:10]
B
That's true. That's very true. Except my brother, he. He was in denial for the first, probably five, six, seven years. Like, he just thought he was. Didn't need insulin, he wouldn't get it. I'm like, what are you doing? You know, until his. Until he started having his retinas detached and then he realized, oh, figure it out then.
- [51:27]
A
Yeah, yeah, I bet. Real quick.
- [51:29]
B
Yeah.
- [51:29]
A
So what was he doing? Giving himself basil and no bolusing.
- [51:33]
B
Yeah. He was doing any of it? No.
- [51:34]
A
Oh, was he. Did he have LADA maybe back then and they didn't know it? Was he, like, a slow onset?
- [51:40]
B
No, he was diagnosed pretty early. My. My parents, because they were, you know, that seven kids, so it was three of us, right, that had it, but at the time was just two of us. But after. After my sister was diagnosed, my mom used to. Because back in the day, you didn't have like a little machine that you could poke your own finger and put blood on a, you know, stick and within, you know, 20 seconds, whatever. You used to have to pee in a cup, use an eyedropper, put a tablet in the. In the eyedropper, put so many drops of urine on it, and it would turn a different color. You would compare that to the scale on the back of this bottle that the tablets came in to see kind of what your range was. But it could be like 60 to 200, you know, 201 to 400, you know, so you never really knew what you were in. But my mom would have us. She would do that about once a month with all of us kids. So we knew my mom would know pretty quickly because. And then she obviously recognized the signs, which I think today, when you hear these kids that are dying because the parents don't know or the. Or the doctors even do not know the signs of type 1 diabetes. And that with all the available, you know, information and the tools that we use for that kind of stuff, for someone to not be aware of the signs of that is just baffling to me. And I think as a group, and I keep trying to do this too, is try to bring awareness, because not just within my, you know, My immediate friends and family, because I think they pretty much know. But, you know, we've got to expand it out even further because it's, you know, when they're thinking their kid is, you know, wow, you know, might be because it's hot out, they're really thirsty now. But then because they're drinking a lot now, they're paying a lot, you know, it's like, you know, just know the signs, you know, But. But he knew we caught him early, but he just was in denial. And so my parents would make him give his insulin injections because he was still on injections at the time too. If he could get away with not doing it and he'd fake it, he would. And I don't know if he was because he was afraid of needles. I think it was just in denial. It was the most bizarre thing. I was like, wow, you got two sisters with it and are dealing with it and you, like, are acting like it didn't pertain to you.
- [54:00]
A
One of my bigger takeaways is that, you know, sometimes people get labeled as non compliant. I don't think people are non compliant. I just think that. But I think it just. Everyone's personality is different, their struggles are different and they react to things differently. I don't think anybody doesn't want to be healthy. I just think there are a lot of other implications and reasons why we act the way we act. And I don't know that we can always take credit for them. Like, I don't know that you can take credit for being like a runner who's doing all the things you're doing any more than your brother could be at fault for what he did. You know what I mean? Yeah. And it's why, I'm sorry, it's why it's nice that this technology exists. Right. Because no matter what side of the spectrum you're on at this point, we can slap a CGM and a pump on you. You can live a nice long life, right? You know, a healthy life, a life free of complications, and then you can decide how much effort you're going to put into it after that.
- [54:59]
B
Right.
- [54:59]
A
But just having the gear on really, I mean, it just propels you into a different world that did not exist when you were diagnosed. It.
- [55:07]
B
Right, yeah, that's exactly true. Yeah. Because, I mean, you take a kid now that's diagnosed and, and he's like my brother, right? You put a pump on him and a cgm. I mean, I don't even have to. Some of these people don't Even give a bolus when they're eating. Right. Because a pump will make up for a lot of it. Right. So you're not, you're not gonna, you.
- [55:25]
A
Could end up easily in it with an A1C in the sevens and, and not be that engaged, honestly.
- [55:30]
B
Exactly.
- [55:31]
A
I mean, I'd be better for you if you were pre bolting your meals and, and doing all your things. Like, I'm not saying otherwise, but I'm saying that given, you know, given due respect to the fact that there are a lot of different people with a lot of different struggles and a lot of different brains and this technology is life changing for an entire worldwide community of people living with type 1 diabetes.
- [55:53]
B
Absolutely. Yeah, I just, yeah, it just is. I'm thankful, right? I just, every day it's like, I'm thankful and I, and I'm kind of excited about what's coming up. Right. What new things can people think about? Because Even, you know, 20 years ago, I never would have thought that the pump of the CGM and that it would be in this closed loop system that, you know, could almost make it feel like you weren't even a diabetic anymore. Right. I just never even, I've never even. It didn't cross my mind. And now you got it, you know, it's like, what else can they do?
- [56:22]
A
Expectations, Linda. And I know not a lot about much, but my expectations are that with the help of coders and AI, that they're going to find better and better ways to make these algorithms work and that, you know, outcomes can get better, you know, moving forward and probably more quickly than you imagine right now too. Like, you, you've really lived like your, your lifespan. Like, you're, I don't know how much older than me. I'm 54. Right, but you've lived through such a shift in technology in your life and not just through medical stuff. Right? Like, you're young enough now to like, still look up and say like, hey, this AI thing's crazy.
- [57:01]
B
Right?
- [57:01]
A
Right. And it, and you live through the Internet, you know how hard it is to tell people that, like, I didn't have the Internet for a big chunk of my life. You know, you try to explain that world to them. Or I just got interviewed the other day by a college student who was like, you know, tell me about your media consumption when you were younger. I was like, media consumption? I was like, my friend. It was abc, CBS and NBC. And if I wanted to consume it, I sat in front of it when they told me it was On. And that was that. And he's like, well, what if you want to watch it again? I was like, like, I don't know. Like, that didn't happen. Yeah. And I told him, I said, you know, I can sing the ma. The Mounds Almond Joy song from the commercial, because every year in October, I made sure to sit in front of my television to watch the Charlie Brown Halloween special.
- [57:43]
B
Yes.
- [57:43]
A
And that company always bought an ad on it. And so, like, that's how I know that mounts, you know, mounds. Don't, you know, that whole thing? And like. And I was like. But then that's it. Like, I was like, you know, you saw a movie in a theater, and if you missed it, it was gone. You never saw it, Right?
- [57:58]
B
Exactly. Yeah.
- [57:59]
A
The way things have changed now, like, that. The way it's going to apply to this stuff, I think is going to be insane. Like, I think. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know that you're not going to live in a world you. Even though you died 30 years ago, Linda, I don't know that you're not going to get to live in a world. My daughter's definitely going to get to live in a world.
- [58:19]
B
Absolutely.
- [58:20]
A
Where she's going to open up her phone one day and say, hey, I'm having pizza. But it's a Pizza Hut. Not at Domino's. Don't forget. Pizza Hut hits us differently. And it's already going to be 10 steps ahead of her because it's going to have location on and know where she's at.
- [58:33]
B
Yeah.
- [58:34]
A
Like, I don't think that's crazy. So I agree.
- [58:37]
B
I totally agree with you. And I also think that, you know, it's like, you know, you talk about how we. How we learn things and, you know, and like, the social media type stuff, you know, I was talking about earlier, I'll tell you one of the things that I have, really, because I'm a medtronic ambassador.
- [58:53]
A
Yeah.
- [58:54]
B
And one of the things that we get together with some of these other people who have type 1 diabetes, the things that you can learn from these other ambassadors and other type 1 diabetics that I never even would have thought of. Right. So I was just over in the New York City Marathon, and we're supporting a couple of these runners that were type one diabetics. And the majority of them were running their marathon for the first time. And one of them, I was talking to her, and she's like, she puts her pump, you know, in the back of her, like, her, like, sports bra Somewhere in the back. And I'm thinking, how do you do that? Right? And how do you, you know, it's like what, you know, and we're all like turn, you know, talking about the different patches you wear to cover your CGM when it's really hot and sweaty. And you know, there's so many things that, you know, as the technology changes that I haven't yet. Like a lot of these were using some of the new sensors and I had, you know, obviously I'm waiting for them to try them out first.
- [59:50]
A
Yeah, I heard you say that earlier. Yeah, yeah, I know.
- [59:52]
B
And I'll, I'll use them, you know, but I'm like, I'll let you try them out first. But I started asking you start asking the questions, what do you like about it? What don't you like about it? What do you do? You know, how does it, how does it do, and how do you, you know, when you're running, what do you do? And you know, but you learn so much from people that are in the community as well. Yeah, you know, not just that. And I think companies like Medtronic, right, they also get that feedback and they could, they use it, I think, you know, to, to make it better and easier for, for all of us. And, and that I'm also very appreciative of. And you get a lot of, you know, you get surveys from all kinds of people, you know, even beyond type one. You know, what's, what works for you, what doesn't work for you. You know, Medtronic, I mean different, different people. And I think it's all about, you know, trying to get the technology to do as much for you, you know, so you do live a hassle free, you know, worry free life that I think we all deserve. Right. And just, yeah, you know, as we, you know, got diagnosed with this disease, you know, doesn't mean our life ends, it doesn't mean we have to stop doing anything. Right. But if anything we could do to, to share, you know, what we know, what works for us that might work for one, somebody else and they can use that then to maybe create, you know, newer technology that could make it easier, you know, I mean if you're, you know, if you got a lot of, you know, technicians or you know, software engineers that are men that aren't type diabetic, type 1 diabetics, they're creating these devices to, you know, better control our blood sugars. But it's, you know, it doesn't fit in a tight fitting dress, you know.
- [61:21]
A
Or it doesn't think. Or if it didn't think about the fluctuations from hormones from your cycle or whatever.
- [61:27]
B
Exactly.
- [61:27]
A
And Linda, you're, you're preaching to the choir. I have a. I have a private Facebook group for the podcast that has 76, 000 active members in it.
- [61:37]
B
Oh my gosh. Wow.
- [61:38]
A
It does 120 to 160 new posts every day and 8,000 likes and comments every 24 hours.
- [61:45]
B
Oh my God.
- [61:46]
A
To say that I believe that community and the connection to other people is maybe half of it might be an understatement. I think from my, from my point of view, you need good tools, good direction.
- [61:59]
B
Yeah.
- [62:00]
A
You need the, the ability to make changes to your settings on your own and the confidence that comes with it. And then you need the understanding and connection of other people who understand your situation. That is really most of this thing. If you have those things, you are way, way ahead. You're almost golden.
- [62:19]
B
Yeah, I agree.
- [62:21]
A
I believe that a million percent.
- [62:23]
B
Yeah, I agree.
- [62:24]
A
Lynn, is there anything I have not asked you that I should have? Anything that you were going to hang up and go, I cannot believe we didn't talk. Talk about. I mean, have you been to the moon? I mean, you have seven continents, seven days, three times. Are you going to do it again? Are you going to give up? Like, at what, at what age do you go, hey, you know what? I'm done with this?
- [62:44]
B
No, I can't imagine. I've always told my husband, if I end up like, you know, having a heart attack on a, on a race and I'm a few meters from the, you know, the finish line, drag my ass across there and put on me, you know, bury me with it. But, but no, I'm not, I'm not giving up. And I think, you know, I think it's one of the reasons why I'm in such good control is because I am very active, always have been, you know, so I didn't stop once I got diagnosed.
- [63:10]
A
Yeah.
- [63:11]
B
And then, you know, and I think it's important. And then, you know, I'm going to, you know, after. I'm right now trying to run 100 marathons, so I'm only a couple away, but I'm going to finish. And I'm trying to finish my hundredth running the Sydney Marathon in August next year. And then I'm. I just saw a new race that was called the deepest marathon in the world, and it's in some kind of mine in Sweden. And so I was like, I might have to check that One out.
- [63:44]
A
I'm not going to bother asking you what your favorite Netflix series is because I don't think you watch television.
- [63:49]
B
Yeah, I don't. I don't watch the. Rarely watch tv, but. Yeah, but it's like, like, you know, so I'm going to just be over the next, you know, after I'm done with 100. I'll probably look for things that are a little bit, you know.
- [64:01]
A
Yeah.
- [64:01]
B
Unique, you know, like, I do want to run North Pole, so I'm going to probably do North Pole, probably do this deepest marathon. I want to definitely do Athens, Greece, because that's where it all started. So I haven't done.
- [64:11]
A
Does it go through the ruins and everything in Athens?
- [64:14]
B
I don't know where I have. I've not actually looked at the route, but they say it's supposedly the. The first. The route that actually started the whole marathon.
- [64:22]
A
So your life is way better than mine. Let me just say now to Medtronic, if they need somebody to do a podcast with you after you've run one of these, like on location, I think I should be asked. There's a couple of play. Not. Not. Did you say Antarctica? Not there. But you have a. You have a great life. This is really awesome. Good for you for making that life for yourself after somebody told you you weren't going to have one. Really wonderful, really, really lovely.
- [64:42]
B
But I know I'm like, I wasn't gonna live this woe with me and I'm gonna die in a couple years. I'm like, nope, I'm gonna enjoy every minute. I'm on it. Right?
- [64:50]
A
So that's beautiful. It really is. Linda, I appreciate you taking the time spending. No.
- [64:54]
B
Thank you for asking.
- [64:55]
A
No, it was a pleasure. You're just delightful.
- [64:59]
B
Oh, thank you. You are too.
- [65:00]
A
Oh, I didn't have to say that, but it's true. Hold on one second for me. Thank you.
- [65:05]
B
Okay.
- [65:13]
A
I'd like to remind you again about the mini Med 780G automated insulin delivery system, which of course, course anticipates, adjusts and corrects every 5 minutes, 24 7. It works around the clock so you can focus on what matters. The Juicebox community knows the importance of using technology to simplify managing diabetes. To learn more about how you can spend less time and effort managing your diabetes, Visit my link medtronicdiabetes.com Juicebox 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@contornext.com 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 to Listening in right now and links@juicebox podcast.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 bit a little 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, oh, I'll probably send you a Christmas card. Would you like a Christmas card? If you're looking for community around type 1 diabetes, check out the Juice Box Podcast. Private Facebook group juice box podcast type 1 diabetes but everybody is welcome. Type 1 type 2 gestational loved ones it doesn't matter to me. If you're impacted by diabetes and you're looking for support, comfort or community, check out Juice Box podcast type 1 diabetes on Facebook. Oh my, did I get lucky. The Celebrity Cruise Line reached out to me and said, how would you like to come on a cruise before your Juice cruise so you can get a real good look at the celebrity beyond cruise ship and share some video with your listeners? I said thank you. So that's where I might be right now, if it's December, may actually find the date for you. Not 100% sure. I think I'm going in December right before Christmas, you know, like, I don't know, like the third or fourth week of December. I'm sorry, I know this isn't much of an ad, but if you want to see video from me on the cruise ship, my wife and I are going to head out and really check it out to see what it's all about to grab some great video from for you. Get it up on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook so you can see what you'd be getting if you came along on Juice Cruise 2026, which of course leaves from Miami on June 21, 2026. We're going to be going to Cococay in the Bahamas, San Juan, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts and Nevis. Do not miss it. It's a great opportunity to meet other people living with type 1 diabetes to form friendships, to learn things and just swap stories. It's a relaxing vacation with a bunch of people who get what your life is like. And trust me, there's a lot of value in that. Juiceboxpodcast.com JuiceCruise come check it out and go find my socials to see what that ship looks like. There's also a video at my link that's kind of a ship tour for the celebrity beyond. And let me tell you something, if this ship is a tenth as nice as this video is, I am in for a great time and so are you. Juiceboxpodcast.com JuiceCruise Come along if you're living with type 1 diabetes, the after Dark collection from the Juice Box Podcast is the only place to hear the stories that no one else talks about, from drugs to depression, self harm, trauma, addiction and so much more. Go to juiceboxpodcast.com up in the menu and click on After Dark. There you'll see a full list of all of the After Dark episodes. Have a podcast? Want it to sound fantastic? Wrongwayrecording.com.