In today's episode, I sit down with Christel Oerum. Christel is the founder of Diabetes Strong, a diabetes resource company dedicated to providing education and support to anyone living with diabetes. Christel has lived with type 1 diabetes since 1997 and is passionate about helping others with diabetes live active, healthy lives.
Christel worked in the diabetes industry for over a decade with companies such as Novo Nordisk and Medtronic. In 2015, she decided to leave corporate America to start Diabetes Strong.
Christel is a diabetes advocate, writer, and public speaker who has worked with most major diabetes organizations and websites. Along with her professional acolytes, Christel is also an expert in exercise within insulin-dependent diabetics. Her resources include her website, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.
Join me in welcoming Christel to the show!
Christel's Resources:
Diabetes Strong Website:
Diabetes Strong YouTube Channel:
Diabetes Strong Instagram:
Diabetes Strong Facebook:
Diabetes Strong Facebook Community Group:
My Diabetes Coaching Resources:
Website: www.simplifyingdiabetes.com
Newsletter Sign Up
"More Than A1C" - My Signature Coaching Program
The Diabetes Nutrition Master Course
The 5-Pillars Of Diabetes Success Worksheet
Don't forget to check out Ancient Bliss an herbal supplement company.
Use Discount Code KEN20 for 20% off at check out.
Have a question, send me a DM or email. I'd love to connect and answer any questions you have.
You can find the show on any platform you listen to your podcasts!
Don't forget to click on that subscribe button and leave a 5-star review, so you're notified when new episode drop every week.
Questions about diabetes, don't hesitate to reach out:
Podcast Disclaimer: Nothing that you hear on The Healthy Diabetic Podcast should be considered medical advice or otherwise; please always consult your medical TEAM before making any changes to your diabetes management
In today's episode, I sit down with Christel Oerum. Christel is the founder of Diabetes Strong, a diabetes resource company dedicated to providing education and support to anyone living with diabetes. Christel has lived with type 1 diabetes since 1997 and is passionate about helping others with diabetes live active, healthy lives.
Christel worked in the diabetes industry for over a decade with companies such as Novo Nordisk and Medtronic. In 2015, she decided to leave corporate America to start Diabetes Strong.
Christel is a diabetes advocate, writer, and public speaker who has worked with most major diabetes organizations and websites. Along with her professional acolytes, Christel is also an expert in exercise within insulin-dependent diabetics. Her resources include her website, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.
Join me in welcoming Christel to the show!
Christel's Resources:
Diabetes Strong Website:
Diabetes Strong YouTube Channel:
Diabetes Strong Instagram:
Diabetes Strong Facebook:
Diabetes Strong Facebook Community Group:
My Diabetes Coaching Resources:
Website: www.simplifyingdiabetes.com
Newsletter Sign Up
"More Than A1C" - My Signature Coaching Program
The Diabetes Nutrition Master Course
The 5-Pillars Of Diabetes Success Worksheet
Don't forget to check out Ancient Bliss an herbal supplement company.
Use Discount Code KEN20 for 20% off at check out.
Have a question, send me a DM or email. I'd love to connect and answer any questions you have.
You can find the show on any platform you listen to your podcasts!
Don't forget to click on that subscribe button and leave a 5-star review, so you're notified when new episode drop every week.
Questions about diabetes, don't hesitate to reach out:
Podcast Disclaimer: Nothing that you hear on The Healthy Diabetic Podcast should be considered medical advice or otherwise; please always consult your medical TEAM before making any changes to your diabetes management
I mean, after that bonkers sensor I had that I should have taken off like two days before I actually took, I think, two days break just because I was so frustrated, and one of the realizations I did have is that, well, I don't think about my diabetes as much when I'm not wearing a CDM. In previous years we have hosted some different challenges, which was mainly just like information and weeks, two weeks, four weeks of information for our users.
Speaker 2:Welcome back everyone to the healthy diabetic podcast. I'm your host, as always, coach Ken Kenes. If you're brand new to this channel, this podcast, welcome. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to listen to this episode. This is a very long episode, a lot longer than usual, so, but I promise every second, every minute, is worth it. Before we get started, let me remind you that nothing that you hear on this podcast should be considered medical advice or otherwise. Please always consult your medical team before making any changes to your diabetes management. Okay, now that we got that out of the way, let's dive into today's guest, because I'm so pumped about this.
Speaker 2:I found Christelle. Probably I don't know maybe 10, 12 years ago if you are returning, you know, listener, you know I went through a lot of dark times at the beginning of my diagnosis. For the first three years I was in denial and part of that denial came from not having support. When I came out of denial and I really got on social media and I started looking for answers, I found diabetes strong, which is Christelle's brand, and we're going to go over diabetes strong in this episode. She's gonna talk about it. She's gonna talk about the evolution of it. It is an incredible free I want to say that free resource. Say that again it's a free resource for all diabetics. She has an incredible stuff on her website and everything about diabetes strong will be in the show notes. So Christelle is the founder of diabetes strong. She has lived to type on diabetes since 1997 and is passionate about helping others with diabetes live active, healthy lives. Christelle worked in the diabetes industry for more than a decade and, after leaving the corporate world in 2015, she decided to start diabetes strong. She's a diabetes advocate, writer and public speaker who has worked with most major diabetes organizations and websites, which is insane because there's so many great organizations out there that she pretty much has been a part of all of them. Christelle is an expert in exercise with insulin dependent diabetes and creates content on how to optimize your diabetes management on her website, instagram, facebook page and oh yeah, she has an incredible YouTube channel.
Speaker 2:So, without further ado, let's get with Christelle. I think for me that I really would love to hear your story because a lot of people know who you are. You don't have to spend tons of time. I don't want to be the dead horse with your story. I probably you probably told it a thousand times, but maybe there's some people that are our listeners on my show that might not know who you are. So if you could kind of just give a synopsis about your story, your diagnosis, your personal journey with diabetes, and then I really want to spend some time talking about diabetes strong, because I think probably a lot of my listeners don't know who you are and don't know the amazing you know content, resources that you're putting out, so I'd love to talk a little bit more in depth about that as well absolutely sure and I always approach it every time I kind of get asked to speak.
Speaker 1:I approach it as nobody knows where you are. So I'll definitely do that. That's kind of like I mean.
Speaker 2:I have no expectations whatsoever.
Speaker 1:But yeah well, my name is Christelle, so my personal journey. I was diagnosed with high one diabetes in 97, so why is that 26 years coming up more? I can't count anyway. A long time ago and back then I lived in Denmark. I am Danish born and raised. I've been in the US since 2009, so that is coming up on what? 15 years?
Speaker 1:but yeah born and raised in Denmark. I it was a diagnosis. I didn't see it coming at all. I was 19 at the time. So now you all don't know how old I am and I was just running around living my life in Denmark. You got most people graduate high school if they choose to go to high school around 19. So I graduated high school. I was saving up money to go travel the world and so do a little beer, and I was exhausted and I had a lot of classic symptoms of diabetes. I had to go to the restroom all the time, had to pee a lot, I was eating like crazy and not gaining weight. So I clearly still had an insulin production. But basically I had a family member who got concerned because I kept napping and I would also.
Speaker 1:I couldn't sit through a movie, like I remember going to the movie theater and have to go to the restroom. I'm sort of falling asleep as well. I fell asleep at work and a lot of classic symptoms and this family member was like hey, this is not normal, you go see a doctor. I went to my PCP. He gave me a lecture about living a healthy lifestyle and getting enough sleep, and then he's like yeah, are you drinking a lot of water, so he was clearly picking up on it.
Speaker 1:And then he measured my blood sugar right there in his office and he diagnosed with me with diabetes and that was, I would say it was an easy diagnosis, but I guess it was also a very traumatic diagnosis and since I had no clue, I did not know what I meant. I thought I'd been handed a death sentence. I he probably explained it all to me. I did not hear anything.
Speaker 1:I left that office thinking oh my gosh, I'm gonna die and by Tom, because Denmark we're on a bicycles all the time, so by Tom. My mom is a nurse and she could explain it to me. So I was very lucky in that sense and she and I went and saw a pediatric nurse or as a pediatric unit of Steno Diabetes Center, which is one of the best diabetes centers in Denmark. So I lucked out that was really close to where I lived and I got all the training. But basically that was my diagnosis. I had an awesome nurse who was the first one to tell me because I had that trip planned for my leap year and she's like, of course she's still going and she was. She really had, she really put me on the right track. I think I'm kind of like that's also where my mind is. But she was like you're doing everything you want, you're gonna have a great life, don't worry about it, you just need to know the ropes of this.
Speaker 1:So within that year of my diagnosis, I traveled around India. Everything went wrong, my insulin got trashed and you know I everything went wrong. But it was a great learning experience, also in what not to do. And you know, still, even though I lost all my insulin twice. I still figured it out, even though this was back in 98 where I did not have a cell phone and I sound like I'm ancient, but you know there was. I was communicating with my diabetes nurse through facts of all things. I know. I was also in India. I mean it was, I was in places where I couldn't, just, you know, pick up the phone necessarily, and there was a time, some difference, and all that good stuff but anyway.
Speaker 1:I figured everything out and I think one thing is everything doesn't go. I think that's life right, everything is not necessarily go gonna go as planned but if you have the right mindset and the view, resourceful, for the most part you can figure things out. And the same come things comes to diabetes. Right, it's not always gonna go the way that we plan, but you know, for the most part we can figure it out. And yeah, so that was a diagnosis story.
Speaker 1:Basically for me move to the US actually I worked in the diabetes industry for quite a while, pretty much all my professional career. Yeah, and then in 2013-14, I started doing bodybuilding competitions, so I here's a lot of fun, here's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:I did not know this about you. This is great. No, I did not know this about you and I've been following you for a long time.
Speaker 1:I don't show as many of my bikini photos, just you know, because I did the bikini division, so it's a lot of sparkly bikinis and plastic heels, but that's only the stage part, this, of course, the training for it and then and all of that and I compete for about three years and it was a boatload of fun.
Speaker 1:But what I also realized is how complicated it can be to exercise, especially at that level, with an insulin-dependent diabetes. And that's what started me on the path that I'm on now with diabetes strong, because I was looking for resources. I was looking for resources on how do I manage my insulin level so don't go low every time I try to go on the treadmill or anything else. How do I manage my blood sugar so I don't go high every time I do a resistance training workout, and I had a hard time finding that. So I created it and it started out a small blog I just wrote for me and my mom, I guess and then it turned into something more and it's now diabetes strong, which is a website for people living with any type of diabetes, not just type one, and it's not just about exercise anymore.
Speaker 1:It's about all aspects of living with diabetes. And the cool thing, I think, is, first, all it's been my mission that it has to be a completely free resource, and it still is.
Speaker 1:I don't want people with diabetes having to pay to get the resources they need to be successful in their management and it is written by people who live with diabetes should also think it's pretty cool. So what we aim at we don't try to be another web MD. We try to give the resources, but also from somebody living with diabetes perspective yeah, I love that diabetes perspective thing and not just book learning or not.
Speaker 2:This is what's in the books and this is what the stats say.
Speaker 1:We're more than stats absolutely, and I don't want a doctor talking at you. I don't want you to actually have somebody. I want to be I high, right, yeah, so that's that's kind of where we're a little different and it's been my husband, I, we it's not the world we, it's my husband, I runs it. We run diabetes strong together and we left our corporate careers in 2015 and been working on diabetes strong ever since.
Speaker 2:I love it. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:I think, I like I want to take a step back in to your story because I heard you say something that I was very that's very profound and I think that a lot of us take for granted, especially those of us who were diagnosed. You know CGM technology post, and that was you being in India, your insulin failing, you, having to try to to manage and go through all this with hardly no resources at your disposal, but you still did it. And I think that's a powerful message for a lot of people, because we get so consumed about insulin pumps, cgm's and how powerful those technologies can be on our diabetes management, but we forget about the individuals that didn't have that when they first started. And I just wanted to bring that back to circle and just and like congratulate you and just like praise you for being able to figure that stuff out, because I know it's so hard for people to figure out this disease, even with all the technology at our disposal.
Speaker 1:I mean I must. So I did fairly well, I'd say. But there's no question in my mind and I can also look at my numbers and see when I then did get a CGM. I think my got my first one in 2013. Yeah, that sounds about right. 12, 13 which one.
Speaker 1:I start well, back then I worked for Mitronic so I got a Mitronic CGM because that was that just made more sense in that context. So I started out in the end light and had that and I'm not on an insulin pump, so I just had the sensor and it's even that sensor. That wasn't very good and you had the hard pooping to insert it, kind of like the the texcom T5 that I moved over to after. It's still made a huge difference because all of a sudden, you know I love that description of CGM is that whereas with a finger stick you see like individual moments in time, you don't see where you're going, you don't see where you were, you just see blip. This is where I'm at right now with a CGM you can see the whole journey and that just informs our decisions to a degree that's just unbelievably helpful so that's.
Speaker 1:I'm 100% sure that I couldn't achieve the blood sugar levels that I achieve now without a CGM. So that was my praise to CGM, but of course, yes, it can be done without. It's just way, much more, way, much more work yeah, more identification, more thinking, more like.
Speaker 2:I feel. I feel like now the technology whether you're on an insulin pump plus a CGM or just on a CGM and you're using MDI I feel like there's so much less of having to like worry about necessarily 100% what's going on. You can take your hands off the reins, sometimes at different aspects of that, and be able to live your life the way you want to live. And I remember when I first started and even in it was what 2007 is when I started at 25 and I was in three straight years of denial. I was a three, four sport athlete. Like I played every sport imaginable. I was a college athlete and going through that whole process it I had zero support whatsoever not necessary for my I have. Course, I had support for my family, but they didn't know what the heck was going on. My dad it was a researcher in gynecology. He's like dropped everything he was doing. Try to read more about type 1 diabetes. He knew about it, but not a lot about it. But what he was telling me you know it's like your parents, like it's going in one ear, not the other.
Speaker 2:And your story like touches me because, like you, I was diagnosed at my primary care physician and my sugar levels were in the 450s. Didn't feel anything. Only symptoms I had was urination and thirst. That's it. They just gave me an insulin, a 70-30 split. Actually got a 70-30 split insulin pen from them. Okay, so basic understanding of how to use it. Take this much insulin in the morning, take this much insulin at night. Here's your glucose monitor. This is how you use it. We'll see you in a couple of weeks. I wasn't sent to the hospital and I didn't get any additional education no, nothing. And it is my passion to talk about this stuff because I've talked to so many people on this show. I've talked to so many people in our community, people that had the same type of diagnosis and, unfortunately, the more and more people I talk to about that, it's more and more adults that were diagnosed later on in life that goes through that same type of diagnosis. Yep, so your story touches me because I remember it brings up vivid memories of going through that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the interesting part was I was not sent home with insulin as. I remember it, I was sent home on a Friday. Well, my PCP just said hey, you have diabetes, you need to see a specialist. And I went home and I was home all weekend and then Monday my mom and I went to the diabetes center Wow. But again, I didn't look. I was slender, but I didn't look sick. So maybe he was just like well, she clearly has an insulin production. Still, she'll be fine. I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And also it was a few days ago and kind of what I said. Also, he might have explained a whole lot of things to me. I just don't remember it and I think that's one of the. The other things is, when you get diagnosed with something like that, I think with diabetes or whatever it is, you don't listen. You hear maybe. I think there's actually statistics on how little you hear you're nothing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So the whole thing about also trying to teach people anything within the first day or maybe even the first week is, I mean, I wonder how much sticks. And we need to have continued education and we definitely need to have some sort of level of education because, as you say, you're not the only one who's got sent home told good luck, yeah, and that's just yeah, good luck.
Speaker 2:I love him. I loved him. He was an incredible, incredible general practitioner, but that's what I mean. He's a general practitioner and even at that time, the general practitioners I don't know because we're still learning so much about type one at that point like I don't know how much education they even had about type one.
Speaker 1:Very little, yeah, very little, it's a very little. Yeah right, it's totally statistically sound. No, I know even my last primary care, who I loved in the US. He was amazing, but once you know, while he'd say stuff about type one, I was like that's not true.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And at one point he just stopped because he's like this one is not going to back down, I guess. But I mean I also, if I know what I'm talking about, I'm like that's not true. He talked about how to reduce my carbs.
Speaker 1:At one point I'm like no, you know you got. You're confusing things here, but I think that's kind of deviating from my story. But I think that's why we see so many people getting misdiagnosed as type two is because the doctors don't know. And again, I was explaining to a friend the other day and she's like well, you know, it's mainly kids that get diagnosed right, and I mean it's called juvenile diabetes, so no wonder that people get confused.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Well, but now we've got a lot to make the distinction.
Speaker 1:We do, but the question is do they know?
Speaker 2:Yeah right.
Speaker 1:But I mean that's Right.
Speaker 2:Well, I feel like a lot is super new. Though that's a new term, I like maybe what in the last year or two years that's been a new term. A little longer than that A little longer than that. I feel like I just started hearing it a couple of years ago, because even before that, though, wasn't it? It was kind of like 1.5, right.
Speaker 1:That's the same, yeah. 1.5 line, yeah, yeah. And then they changed it to name to LADA. So I mean it's been a I don't know how long it's been recognized.
Speaker 2:I know that we've talked about it on Diabetes Strong for a while, but You've talked about like the actual name of LADA for a while. Yeah, what is?
Speaker 1:that type of diabetes.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, but I mean that was also. That's one of some of the things that we've also tried to do on Diabetes. Strong has also been trying to bring awareness to certain things, so we've, for some, been talking. We don't. That's not the majority of our content. The majority of our content is for the majority of people, right, but there's also some parts of the content that we really need to get out there talking about LADA, talking about Dibulinia, talking about some of the things that impacts people living with diabetes but is not necessarily talked about.
Speaker 2:Burnout is another good one, so but it does require that people go out and look for the information.
Speaker 1:They're not going to say anything.
Speaker 2:That's an interesting thing, because I don't think You're absolutely right. I don't think burnout and the stages even of burnout are talked about enough. I'd love to, if you could. Could you just talk to us about that, about burnout, what your thoughts are about that, what you guys have up on the site? Do you guys have a lot of stuff up on the site about burnout? What's your thoughts there?
Speaker 1:I'll try so. Mental health is not my core, but I'll try.
Speaker 1:So it's one of those things. So for some we had in previous years we have hosted some different challenges, which was mainly just like information two weeks, four weeks of information for our users. So we haven't done one in a long time, so I shouldn't advertise that as if we are. But anyway, one of the themes were mental health burnout. Specifically, we had a diabetes psychologist on there who came and he did like a talk and what I heard people say was oh my gosh, it is so nice to have words for what I'm feeling.
Speaker 1:Because a lot of people just know that they're in a rut, they know that they don't necessarily want to measure their blood sugar, they know that they don't want to take their insulin or they're just very fed up, frustrated. All these components of diabetes burnout, but they haven't had. They haven't been able to put words on it or know that. Hey, this is actually something that other people go through as well.
Speaker 1:But again, it's hard because if you don't know what you don't know, then it's hard to go look for the resources right, but one of the things that we've focused on, tried to focus on, is having a mental health component on diabetes strong as well. When we've been able to, we've had mental health professionals write those, because I think that's needed to try and also touch on some of the small, not small things, some of the subcomponents of diabetes burnout, for example. Are you yeah, are you depressed? That can also fall under it, but it's not just being depressed, it's depressed in the diabetes context. See, I'm not sure I'm explaining this very well, but it's, it's.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I totally understand what you're saying because it's for me, going through denial for three years. I totally get what you're saying because it's this thought process of not just being depressed, but where is the root cause of that depression? Is it because you don't want to wear devices anymore, because diabetes? You just haven't been able to figure it out Like.
Speaker 2:So there's so many different layers to this and I do think that it's such a powerful thing and I'm so glad that you guys are speaking to it and having these professionals on, because it is something that I feel like all of us go through at some point and even the thought process of going through burnout like oh man, like even last month I was having such a hard time with like sites being bad, you know, having like bad sites, like the insulin not working the way it's supposed to, my DEXCOM being off by almost 60 milligrams per deciliter sometimes, and going to the going through your checklist of should I take this off? Do I give it another five hours? Like, do I calibrate it? Like there's so many things and I was just like so frustrated. I was like man, I should do what Matt's trying to talk about doing, which is go back onto NDI for a couple months, like just like I'm done Right, so like these are like things that we constantly think about and I'm so glad and so happy that you guys are talking about this stuff on your site and having these people that are professionals that are way smarter than us talking about it. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:It's. It's interesting. I went to this conference on one point diabetes conference and they asked how many of you here in the room and I think they've been like 40 people there have experienced burnout. All but two people raised their hands.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And, to your point, there's different levels of it, right, but diabetes is hard, man, it's, it's I, I, whatever they, and that's kind of back to the point is he's sending you home after your diagnosis and like, hey, good luck, that's an assumption of hey, it's just about taking one shot, or, you know, exercising or whatever, and then you're fine. But it's so much more than that. So that's another thing, that's really one of the things that I I talk a lot about.
Speaker 1:And that's why I what I do a lot about on on YouTube as well is kind of like basic. I don't even want to call it basic because there's nothing basic about diabetes, but it's different components of diabetes and how do you tackle it. So kind of also back to what we talked about. You might have learned all these things when you're just diagnosed, but how much of it do you remember? How long ago was it? You know, were you?
Speaker 1:able to take it in. So I think it's really important that we continue to educate ourselves and that includes me as well. You know and go out and find the resources that can help us tackle different things. So, anything from you know. How do I use my technology optimally, how do I you know? When do I change my CDM?
Speaker 1:I just posted about that on Instagram not that long ago because I made the mistake of wearing it two days too long. Like I want to rip out my hair because it was so inaccurate and it kept a lot and it wouldn't, let me calibrate, and it was just not good. When I finally called Daxcombe, they were like you should take this off now. We'll send you a new one because this is clearly not reliable. Like yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:She probably done that two days ago.
Speaker 2:Exactly that's how I always feel. It's like man, there's so many things that go through, there's so many stories. I tell myself in my head, oh man, this thing is expensive. Yeah, Like this is expensive Even in. It's such a stupid thing to think about because Daxcombe like we're both using Daxcombe and Daxcombe is such an amazing company that they don't question you at all. It's like they ask you their standard questions. You can call them or even do it from the app, and they send you a brand new one. So why would you keep wearing?
Speaker 1:it, I know.
Speaker 2:Like it's not working, just don't wear it. But I do the same thing and, like last month, when I had the most trouble with my blood sugars in terms of the inaccuracy of these numbers, I wore the damn thing two times for 20 days straight with inaccurate numbers, when I should have just taken both of them off and just started over. Yeah, like, so, yeah, 100%. It's like these things that we con, these stories that we constantly tell ourselves, and it's like it's so crazy that we do it, even though it's like just practice what you preach, just tell you know it's just hate other people. You know, just do what you'd say every day to other people.
Speaker 1:Well, it's always easy. It's like do what I say, not what I do yeah.
Speaker 2:Easier said than done. Exactly, oh, driving crazy. Well, I'm glad I'm not alone in these craziness. Go through every single day when we don't do what we say, tell other people to do. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think back to the being expensive. It is expensive, right, but to your point, they also replace it. I find it harder with, for example, with insulin. I don't know if you ever like suspected your insulin of having gone bad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a couple of times not very often because it's like one of my last steps on my list that I look at. But yes, 100% I have.
Speaker 1:So we need to talk more about that, because that's actually something I'm going to interview. Please, please, what did you say?
Speaker 2:It was really really good.
Speaker 1:I love that. I love the list of things that you go through. So that means that you and I'm going to let you tell me what it is, obviously, but you have a list of you have some steps you go through whenever things are not quite working out right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, I do. So the first thing that I'm doing is I'm trying to reflect on what the numbers have been right, because for me, most of the time, it's because it's usually because of some type of an accuracy of the DEXCOM. So I'm usually trying to calibrate. So I'm calibrating, because I'm on the G6 and I'm on the Omnipod. I'm calibrating a couple of times to see if I can bring it back to where it's supposed to be. A lot of times that'll work. But the funny thing is, when you have a bad site, a lot of times it'll come back to where it's supposed to be. Then three hours later it's going to be off again. So I've had that happen before.
Speaker 2:So I had this whole checklist of like. I'm looking at the number, I'm looking at the trends, I'm going to figure out what's going on based off of the trends. Is this number not working the way it's supposed to? Or am I getting a low blood sugar or a high blood sugar because of something that's happened three hours, two hours, an hour before, either from food, exercise, whatever it is? So I'm looking at those trends. Then the next thing I'm going to do is go through and take off my insulin pump, so I always change my insulin pump before I change my DEXCOM or change the sensor, because I'm always under the impression that it's the insulin not the sensor. I don't know why. That's just part of the process of what I go through. So I'm always changing the insulin first. If that still isn't working, then I'm going to go back to the DEXCOM and probably go back through the same thought process I went last time in terms of the checklist, and the DEXCOM comes last.
Speaker 1:Do you ever do a manual injection?
Speaker 2:A manual injection. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I do yes, 100%, I would probably say an MDI injection. A manual injection is probably third on that list before I change out the DEXCOM. If, for some reason, I change out the insulin pod or pump and it's not working the way it's supposed to, I'll rip it off and try to correct that high blood sugar or whatever it is with an MDI and see if that works, because a lot of times it is that for me it is the pump, because I've used my stomach way too much and I have a lot of hard time with sites on my stomach, which is why I liked going and moving into the omni pod, because I use my triceps and my arms a lot more than I ever did before. Now I started using my upper glutes and my low back, and those work really well too. They're saving my stomach, they're saving me from using my stomach, but I have a whole system for my stomach as well. I have 40 different sites on my stomach as well.
Speaker 1:Anything below the neck.
Speaker 2:That's kind of my checklist of what I go through and it doesn't work every single time, but for the most part it works. I usually get to step three before I have to change out the DEXCOM. The last couple months when I've had some really crazy numbers on the DEXCOM, that was probably one of the first times that I had to get to that step to actually correct everything. That's my whole process of going through and trying to figure out why these blood sugars are not acting the way they're supposed to be acting. So I'm a big person about trends and like looking at what's happened in the past, what could potentially happen in the future, what's happened. You know two, three, four, you know days before, what's happened the last time this, this situation actually happened. What? What was the situation? What actually happened last time? Um yeah, so I'm a big trends person.
Speaker 1:It's about to say that. That's how you learn your trends.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah, yeah, yeah, I used to have this little like booklet.
Speaker 1:That would do it and have a little pic lit on it, and it wasn't larger than like my hand, but I would write down. So that was specifically for workouts. I'd be like, okay, it's.
Speaker 2:Monday morning.
Speaker 1:This is what I'm eating, this is what my blood sugars, this is. Also. I don't think I was wearing my CDM like consistently. That was in light. Sometimes it was a little funky, but I would write down, you know, time of day, type of exercise, blood sugar, food, insulin on board, and then I would calculate the insulin board, which is actually. It's not super hard so you can do that, but for me that was a kind of the key things to take down in time of day carbohydrates I'll be type of exercise. So that was and that was super effective. I'm a little booklet. Then I could go back say, okay, what did I do yesterday, what am I doing today? And then you know what works, what doesn't work. And I find that my, at least in my perspective, is if you keep things fairly stable, so if you remove as many variables as possible, try to do the same things, maybe for a week. After three to five days you can see patterns, even if you don't use the CDM, mm-hmm. But it does require you know you to be a little.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the CG. Not having the CGM is just I, I I can't believe I ever Lived with this condition without having that number in front of me. It just, it makes me be able to react so much faster or even be proactive so much faster. Yeah, um, based off of what the number says, what the arrows are telling me and then what I know what the, what I did, you know, hour two, three hours before. It's just, it's helped me so much with my own personal management style being able to have that number and it almost to an extent that it makes me I know I can do it, just because I know diabetes and I know what my system does and I know, I know how to do it.
Speaker 2:If someone told me, okay, you can't ever wear a CGM, ever again, I'd be really upset, but I'd figure it out.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I mean, after that bonkers sensor I had, that I should have taken off like two days before. I actually took, I think, two days break just because I was so frustrated. And One of the realizations I did have is that, well, I don't Think about my diabetes as much when I'm not wearing a CDM and because I have the knowledge from wearing a CDM for so long, I kind of know what to expect. So I didn't find that my blood sugars were crazy. I Didn't find that had a whole lot of low blood. I did measure my blood sugar is quite a bit. So back to when I before CDM, I was measuring 10 12 times a day and I did go back to that Frequency because I don't think you can, I don't think you can manage insulin dependent diabetes well without that many checkpoints. But it was, it was kind of nice and then I put it on and like I'm never taking it off again.
Speaker 2:I, I just okay, like I wanted.
Speaker 2:I wanted to take a step, because you're talking about Two separate things that I think are really important to talk about, and you have a lot of experience with both, and that is having a CGM, but also being very, very good with diabetes, very successful with diabetes in your management.
Speaker 2:Not having a CGM and and you said something that I want the listeners to recognize, especially those listeners that are not using a CGM, and this even goes for our pre-diabetics and type 2 diabetics and that is being able to test yourself more than two or three times a day, being able to test yourself and prick your finger and being able to figure out what that blood sugar actually is, more than just when you're actually Consuming food. Because that's in my experience, that's what we're being told is I'll just check your sugar blood sugars half hour before your, before you eat, and an hour or so, two hours after you eat, and that's it, and so many people that I talked to that are not on a CGM Prick their finger once, twice, maybe three times a day, and and what you said is like that's not enough is a hundred percent Correct, I believe, because you you don't have enough data in front of you to be able to proactively make decisions Of what potentially could happen or what is happening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then it comes down to costs as well. So I do want to add actually that I got myself a cheap meter from CVS pharmacy. This is not a plot for CVS. You can get anywhere, I think, 50 strips for 10 or 12 bucks.
Speaker 1:So it's in a more affordable range and it works fine. You don't have to go out and and get the most expensive meter in the market. So I just want to put that out there. I mean, for if you, if you, manage with insulin, you definitely need to measure before, after meals and in between. I Think, if you said, this is just my opinion, I'm not a CDC yes, whatever it's called now diabetes educator but in my opinion, if you, for example, have do not manage with with insulin, the goal is to figure out how your body reacts to different foods, different stimuli, to you know, exercise. So that means you might not have to take as many blood sugar tests Consistently for the rest of your life, but you have to do it in periods of time to figure out what works and what doesn't work.
Speaker 1:So you can implement that on your life and then you can take a break and just do measurements here and there. But yeah, I'm definitely with you, if you don't measure, you don't know what's going on. I think this whole notion that well I'm, that you can feel whether or not your blood sugars are high I, most people can't, I Mean most people or if you're consistently high, then that's gonna become your new normal. You're just gonna run around with a blood sugar or, let's say, 160, and feel fine, but you're not. So I think you can't trust you. You can't trust your body. Signal signals necessarily, at least not with everything so that's my two cents.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I, I think it's. It's an interesting. And I would wonder too, because this is self diagnosed for me, but I, I believe that I'm hyper and hypo glycemic, unaware. Okay, I Don't feel anything if I'm high like 200, 300. I could probably 400, 450. I don't feel anything, yeah, but the same goes for lows and I like find it as like as a blessing and a curse.
Speaker 2:Hmm because I don't feel anything hardly ever if I'm under 60. I don't really feel anything under 65 sometimes, but there are sometimes and I feel like a little bit low when I'm 70, but I hundred percent will feel something if I'm under 55 or 50. My example is this past two months when I've had issues with the CGM, with the dexcom. I was wearing it and it said I was what it said. I was 119. No, I was like I think I was like 109, which is a small trending arrow down. I Was like that doesn't sound. I just don't. I feel I feel somewhat low. I was 46, trending down. Yeah Well, it's like you, this is like and I just did an episode a Couple of weeks ago on should you trust your CGM numbers? It's just because I went through that process Well and understanding that it's still important to look and try to understand what your body signals are. And For those of us who don't feel highs or lows, that becomes very difficult unless we're in the severe of Both, both ends.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so I think that's an important piece to bring up too is, like you know, we we talk about you can't you can't necessarily always, maybe trust your feelings, but I think that understanding the feeling sometimes is an important piece because it can give you insight to what potentially could be going on based off of what your CGM says. And the other thing I like about the concept of being able to be Intuned and insightful in your feelings Is now I have a feeling, I have a CGM reading. Do I trust it? Because at the end of the day, they're not always trustworthy.
Speaker 1:But that's not the full equation, though, right, because then you say well, what do you then? Then, I go measure my blood sugar to a finger stick and there you have, like the triangle. True.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm so glad that you brought that up, because I did not add that in there, that, yes, you do. You do you trust the number? If you don't, now you go do a finger stick.
Speaker 1:And sometimes you do too, because I've done finger six when like I don't trust that either, and then I go wash my hands again and you know I do another friggin stag and like okay, you know where we add in the landscape, because I do think, I think it's an important input, all three of them. You know how do. I feel, what does my CGM say? What does my you know my meter say? 100% and then you have to, you go from there. Yeah, and I don't.
Speaker 2:I mean they go through a checklist.
Speaker 1:Exactly, I will say with the checklist as well. You might want to add one thing. I'm just gonna throw that out there back to the checklist, so before you take out your pump. So actually, what, what, what us I was also thinking about is that if you do a manual injection and you see your blood sugar is coming down, then it's probably your pump. That's the issue, you know assuming that your CGM is right, and then you want to take off that pump and get on a new one mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Just because if it's insulin and the pump that's bad, then yeah continuing to do like a bull's-ass where they won't really do anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how do you?
Speaker 1:how much do you love your omni pod I?
Speaker 2:Love it. I never thought I would because I was on. I was on tandem for so long and I love tandem. I still do that and I still have a whole entire box of tandem supplies that I need to, I need to give to somebody and but the omni pod, just I don't know what it is, I can't put a Feeling on it, it's just I feel. I feel like the algorithm is better and maybe just because it's newer. But I also have done had conversations on this show that unfortunately weren't able to release with. So what one of the technicians or one of the individuals that was part of control IQ from the very beginning of its inception and Understanding what the OS of that actually is and what it's looking for, I understand it and I just feel like the Algorithm at least for me personally, from the out, from the omni pod, works a little bit better. It seems like it's a little bit easier. But again, that's just me, like I'm not even stating About either of these algorithms whatsoever. So please don't think that I do, it's just. I like it, I like, I like the flexibility of not having the cord. I feel like the flexibility of not having the cord gives me the Option to have more sites that I typically wouldn't use if I had the cord yeah, because I'm not is now.
Speaker 2:I've been on all three pumps. I was on Medtronic first, with their CG. I'm at the very inception of when I started pump therapy Probably what that was 2012, no, 2010, yeah, some somewhere around there. I started on Medtronic Uh-huh, and was not there their pump, their CG, and which I didn't like, but I know it's. It's the first generation of that technology.
Speaker 2:You know, the very first generation of that technology. So we can't we can't sit there and say it's terror, it was terrible, it was first-generation, first generation sucks, let's be honest. But then I went on tandem and then I got on dexcom G5 and then I went to the juice mix and then what I've been on on the pot, I think for almost a year and a half, two years, and I mean I love it. But there's times when I feel like how this omnipot is not working. I've done omnipon, omnipod breaks and went back to tandem because I have just so many, so many supplies and Remembered like, oh man, this is a good algorithm, I really like this thing, like I'm gonna just stick to this for a couple more weeks, and so I go back and forth.
Speaker 1:See, that's what I love. What I love about this is that we have options and you are hybrid closed loop Option and I choose MDI. Right, I use multiple daily injections. I use insulin pens. I have tried to pump. It was not for me, for me.
Speaker 2:It was more work man.
Speaker 1:I had a lot of low blood sugars and it couldn't keep up. And I don't think it's the pumps, actually I was. I was doing dy looping.
Speaker 2:Did I say that right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, did yourself looping and it was just. I think the algorithm was brilliant, it just I don't think the insulin is smart enough just yet.
Speaker 2:It's not yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in the sense that it lasts a long time in the body and once it's injected, it's injected and you can't pull it again. So I just found that I was. I had to like do manual overrides all the time. I had to. You know, do tip basal all the time or discontinue, and it just yeah too much work for me.
Speaker 2:It's interesting. It's interesting because I go back and forth, because people ask me all the time I was like well, do you use? Do you use automated mode? So are you on closed loop or do you use manual? And my answer to them is I use both.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there's situations where I don't want to use automated mode. The situation where it's like I'm in, I got these sticky blood sugars. I feel like it's automated mode. I get myself on off automated mode, let my let myself deal with the, the corrections, let myself like, let me deal with the corrections of bringing this back down and putting myself back in range, and then I feel better about it. And then maybe later I'll go on automated, automated mode. And yes, that's not what automated mode is for. It works the best when you stay on it for forever and for a long time and let it work, Because it's self learning supposedly. But I don't, I don't care what the technology is, as long as it works for you. That is my biggest. That's my biggest thing. Love that If it works for you, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2:It doesn't matter if you're on MDI, it doesn't matter if you're on Omnipod, medtronic, the EverSense, dexcom, I don't care what it is. What works for me is not going to work for everyone else Absolutely. And that is my number one message, because it doesn't matter who we are as individuals male, female, age, it doesn't matter the. Our only job as a diabetic, our only job, is to figure out what works for you. That is your only job and however that works, yeah, it doesn't matter how that works. That's my message to every single person. That is the heart of everything that. Simplifying life with diabetes is what the healthy diabetic podcast is, my coaching programs. That is the heart of what I am trying to do for every single person is all about Is allow them and give them tools, just like Diabetes Strong is. Give them tools to figure out what works for them. Yep, 100%.
Speaker 1:And I love that, I should really love that Somebody reached out through the website and was a little confused Say you don't give definitive guidance here, you don't? You say there's a lot of different things. What is best? And my answer was yes. Just see a lot of different options here, because we at Diabetes Strong don't believe there's one way of being successful in managing your blood sugar.
Speaker 2:We believe there's a lot of different ways.
Speaker 1:So what we do is we give you resources to explore different ways of doing this and then figure out what works best for you and what we're also. What works best for you now is not necessarily what's going to work best for you later in life.
Speaker 1:So I'm not going to say I'm never going to use an insulin pump. I'm just saying that as it is right now. I'm doing really well, you know, with MDI. I'm happy, it works for me and my lifestyle. You know Endo was like why would you want to? You know, mess with it. Like I don't, it's all good.
Speaker 2:But that? But that means you have a good endo. Oh yeah, she's awesome, yeah, so I think because I think that is the other thing that I think people miss is that our endos tell us one thing and we think we have to blindly follow that, and that's not the case. What your endos job is to do is to give you, just like we're doing here in this in this episode, is to give you tools to figure out what works for you. Ultimately, if you really think about what they're trying to do, that's what they're trying to do. They're trying to keep you in range with what they know best and what their education and their experiences.
Speaker 2:And right now, because technology is so incredible, everyone we're trying to get everyone on on pumps and CGMs, which we we know because we have an amazing individual right here in front of us everybody. That is not the case. We don't have to be on a pump. We can be on NDI and have amazing blood sugars and and do amazing things and live the life that we want to live. So it's just, I think that's amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, it is one of those things. Again, I like you. You know, I talked to a lot of people in the diabetes community and one of the things that often here is that people come to me. They like wow, you're using MDI and you're doing well. My doctor is telling me that you can only achieve really stable numbers if you're on an insulin pump and like well, that's not true. I will say that if you choose MDI, you have to accept and be willing to give yourself injections whenever needed. So if somebody comes to me and say, hey, I don't want to give that many injections, I maybe only want to. You know, I don't want, I don't want to do injections or I'll only do two or three a day, I'm like okay, then maybe MDI is not for you.
Speaker 1:Maybe you want to put on an insulin pump and it's going to do that A lot of it for you. I mean, of course, it's not completely off. Hands, hands off.
Speaker 1:That's the other way around, hands off. But it's a different type of I guess also person that will do well with one type versus the other. For me, you know, it means I don't have rapid acting insulin going 24 seven as you do on an insulin pump, meaning I don't go low as much as when I was using an insulin pump and I don't care how many injections I need to take, I really don't. I'll microdose whenever I need to if I feel like my blood sugars are trending upwards, and it's. It works for me.
Speaker 2:I think there there's another question up, because we're getting into this MDI thing. I just think this is super fascinating because I haven't done it for so long the the things that I read, the things that I hear, even from my own endo or from the endos that I've had in the past. Even is the ratio for basal and bolus insulin should be higher, or the, the bayless, how much basal insulin you take per day should be higher than the bolus that you take, and I've always wondered is that, is that true? Is that is that true for MDI? Because you're only taking really one set of dosages every single day, whether it's split, whether it's, you're taking it all once, one time a day for your basal, whatever basal that you're on. Do you find that to still be the case?
Speaker 1:Funny to say that because back in the day I was told it had to be 50-50. I find that for me my basal is way higher than my, my boluses. So my rapid act I take way more long-acting insulin than I take rapid acting insulin. But that's also directly correlated with how many carbohydrates you eat. Yeah, so I think if you eat a diet that's really, really high in carbohydrates and still high in fat and proteins, et cetera, then your need for rapid acting insulin is higher. Yeah, where?
Speaker 1:I eat I don't follow a specific diet because that doesn't work for me. I do like moderate to sometimes high carbs sometimes low carb. You know, I eat fairly fairly varied diet. But for the most part I think I am. Maybe one third is rapid acting Okay. So that's around my split, sort of an average. I would have to go look at my analytics, but I think that's about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, cause I know for me like I take anywhere from.
Speaker 2:I think the total insulin that I'm taking a day with both from the pump is just about between 35 to 40 units per day.
Speaker 2:And I also want to preface this because I just actually talked to Matt about this on our weekly IG live today about the difference between the difference between how much you're taking and what your variations are, and how your management style during the week compared to the weekends, is it different? Do you take more? Like because I know for me, like I take more insulin on the weekends because I'm eating differently, my schedule is different, like I'm not on the gym for training people, I'm not taking training coaching calls, I'm not doing the podcast on the weekend. So, like the variation of what I'm doing, you know, weekdays compared to weekends is totally different. So I always think about that and even when I go back and look at trends of my pump that there tends to be more corrections, more. It tends to probably steer more to 50% on the weekends between basal and bolus than it does during the week, where during the weekdays it's close to like I mean again I'd have to go look too but it's close to probably a third of bolus compared to basal myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's one of the things you know. I always say I actually I don't think it's super important how much insulin you take. I think it's more important that you're managing your blood sugars.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so because, some people are going to be like. Well, we also have different lifestyles and all of that. But it's interesting what you say, because I have that curve as well, in the sense that I'm a very active woman, I mean, I don't think that's a secret. So I a lot of the bulk of my resistance training. So I do resistance training and cardio, but the bulk of my resistance training is earlier in the week. So that means my insulin sensitivity kind of get wrapped up that in the early in the start of the week and then it goes up and up and up and then I do a little bit more cardio activities. Just because I take some classes that just happen to be end of week, they impact my insulin sensitivity differently. So basically I end up having a week where my insulin sensitivity goes through the roof.
Speaker 1:So that means I need weight, less insulin for everything Early on the week and then it kind of like slows off and then, as of Sunday, it's really sad because that's also my rest day, and then the week starts over and we kind of wrap it up again, and I think that's also actually that's also probably why a lot of people get frustrated with exercise and one of the reasons why I get exes frustrated with exercise and diabetes management because you have to think about these things, you have to think about when I do these different activities. Well then, my needs are going to change. I'm going to need less insulin midweek for me, a little bit more end of week, and then we start over and then, if I move things around yeah.
Speaker 2:Then it's interesting because you look at your routines too, because it's all about what your routines are Absolutely. And for me, I know I look at my trending routines and what's going on. How much insulin did I have to take in this specific scenario? That doesn't necessarily always happen all the time. Yeah, so I can try to replicate it. I'm trying to replicate, I'm always trying to replicate things as much as possible, because that just makes things easier For me.
Speaker 2:I don't know about you, but for me, I hate counting carbs. I've never wanted to do it. I've never been great at it. Of course I know how to do it, but so I have regimented myself to basically eating the same things all week long, not because I feel like I have to, but because I want to, because those foods are good, I really like those foods. So from experimentation and failure, I've figured out okay, well, that's what I'm eating, that's going to be 30 carbs, this is going to be 10. This is going to be 15. Okay, cool, that's how many carbs I'm going to take now and put into my pump.
Speaker 2:And that's become really successful with doing that. Other people can't do that. They have to understand. They got to weigh their food and they got to count up every single little carb and they got to be right on right to it those type A people and that works too that also works. So it's all about how you want to live your life and what you typically want to do. I think that those of you that are really successful on MDI I applaud you so much because it's one less device you have to worry about.
Speaker 1:True, I will not have a pump failure. I should add that I use a smart pen. I use the in pen from Atronic.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I was going to ask yeah, okay, Absolutely brilliant.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm not affiliated with them. I would love for them to pay me every time I advertise this product because I think it's brilliant.
Speaker 2:But they don't, unfortunately.
Speaker 1:But it's basically an insulin pompadis without the tubing. It has a bolus calculator, keeps track of IOB, it does the calculations for me. It's reporting. It's absolutely brilliant. Again in pen I-N-P-E-N. If anyone wants to go look that up and don't get a heart attack when you see the price online. If you do not have insurance, they can also help you out, because last year my insurance wouldn't cover it. They helped me out and it was $30.
Speaker 2:Your insurance wouldn't cover it. That's crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, like you could do, pre-fill pens. Yeah, good luck.
Speaker 2:Have fun.
Speaker 1:So I mean again then Atronic stepped up and they're like, okay then-.
Speaker 2:We'll take care of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I think the price online is listed as $800 or something ridiculous.
Speaker 2:Per pen or per Per pen? Is that for five pens? My God.
Speaker 1:Which I guess nobody pays that right. That's just-.
Speaker 2:It's like the old days now. I like to say the old days because it should have been old days for like 20 years ago, but the old days were a vial of insulin at least where I'm from was like $350 just for one vial of insulin at the pharmacy. And it's like my God and those feel Now that I'm only paying $35 to $40 for a whole pack of them. It just feels like that was ancient times or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, unfortunately we still have some folks who have to pay an arm and a leg, but for the most part. But now we're going into luxury, but for the most part. You know, I think most states now has a $35 cut off, which makes me happy yeah. And my insurance is like getting around to not Last year was a little rough, but they're getting better this year, yeah.
Speaker 2:Do you have private insurance? Now I do, because you're self-employed.
Speaker 1:Self-employed, yeah, so I used to buy it through the exchange when I lived in California and that was amazing. Healthcare in California is just great. Then I moved to Florida. Healthcare in California is in Florida. Sorry, it's not great. That's just in my experience at least. It's way more expensive and it's not great yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm on the exchange myself and it's so expensive it's insane. Thank God that I'm an entrepreneur and I can get some really good subsidies and some really good lots of help with it. I mean, and I would say I have a decent plan too. I have a plan through medical mutual. I mean, I've had great experience with that company and haven't had any issues, but it's still not cheap insurance. Oh yeah, in Florida. No, not at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what can you do? Not much yeah.
Speaker 1:So, but that's also one of the things that I've been focused on the last few years, also for the YouTube channel is you know I've done content on how to choose the right insurance for you. It's the right insurance for you. It's not necessarily going to be the right for me, but I feel like I see a lot of people choosing really high deductible plans, so meaning that they have to pay six, eight, nine thousand before the insurance starts to pay anything. If you have chronic conditions, for the most part that's not the best financial choice. So trying to explain some of those things also talk about copay cards. Everybody should be using copay cards. Unless you pay $30 for prescription, then it's probably not going to do a whole lot for you, but stuff like that. You know, even Dexcom has a copay card now.
Speaker 1:So if people's insurance won't cover Dexcom. You can buy it out of pocket. It's a hundred. It's still expensive, but it's a hundred and eighty bucks a month.
Speaker 2:So with the with Dexcom's card.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I don't work with good Rx either. I should also be paid by them. I need to reach out to all these companies.
Speaker 2:I can hear that but good, rx is a really good place to find your cool cards.
Speaker 2:I've got. You know when, when my insurance lapsed because my my wife used to be an RN at at Ohio State. She was an RN there for 10 years. Then we had kids and she decided to stay home, my insurance lapsed and I didn't have any other option to get unneeded insulin. So there I mean thank God the pharmacies. And I would say this also is like, if you're in a bind, ask your pharmacist, your local pharmacist, because they will help you with in whatever way they came, with getting good Rx, with getting these coupons, what I mean. My pharmacist like looked at four different types of discounted companies and good Rx ended up being the cheapest. It was still like a hundred and fifty two hundred bucks, but for my insulin. But still that would have been better than paying seven eight hundred dollars, I was getting 90 days worth of supplies.
Speaker 1:I think the other thing that I found really surprising and this is this only happens in the U? S, but if you actually go into good Rx and you look up whatever thing that you're looking for let's say Dexcom T seven, t six and you look up in your area, you'll see that the price will differ depending on which pharmacy you choose. So, that's another thing to to keep in mind.
Speaker 2:So again, trying to provide as many resources as possible. I honestly didn't even think of that. That's a perfect one. I love that you brought that up, so I'm sure that one little piece of content will save so many people, so that's good. If you guys don't listen. Hopefully you made it this far into this. If you, if you just take away that one piece that she just said, you're, you're in a good spot, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:But it's it's it's important. I mean, what did you say? That you didn't have insurance? You didn't have. You know you didn't have other options. What do you do? Well, you, you need insulin, type one or, you know, completely insulin dependent type two, for that matter. You need insulin. So it's not, it's not going to cut it to just say, hey, I'm just going to see how, how, how I'll do. You can always go to the emergency room as well. Believe that is an option. Oh yeah, if you completely run out of insulin.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't even think about that and I've been told that before and I didn't even think about it. It's just it's. It's interesting, the things that we don't think about. When we weren't in never put in that situation, If I've, if I was put in that situation, I had to go to the ER to get insulin. Now, Okay, and now I know that I can, that that is an option for me. So I just I think that's an interesting thing, because there's things that I don't think about. And then I see people like yourself posting about stuff. I'm like, oh shit, I didn't even think about that. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, that's the beauty of self media Really. I love that we connect, because it's also back to the whole thing about I don't know what I don't know, so I don't necessarily know to go look for information. But on social media it's kind of like thrown at me. If I'm interested in diabetes, obviously it's going to show me diabetes content and there's some really cool tips and tricks out there. And sometimes it's not just tips and tricks, sometimes it's like way deeper than that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, 100%. I have two more questions for you as we, as we close up here. Okay, my first one is because we're talking about you talked about the N10, which I think is an incredible technology that I need to try at some point.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:The other one that I'm very fascinated with and I had. I had Ginger on a while back, ginger Vieira, and she is almost 100%. I don't want to say 100%, but she uses a Fressa and I'm I wonder if you've ever tried it. If you have, what do you think of it?
Speaker 1:I use it. It's part of my diabetes toolbox.
Speaker 2:Oh nice, here we go. I don't use it for everything. Okay.
Speaker 1:So a Fressa is an inhaled insulin. It just it works a little differently than injected rapid acting insulin. It hits you way faster and it's way it's out of the system way faster. But it also means that if I have what I call for, some sticky high, you know those blood sugars that just don't come down and you're like if you end up wanting to like rage bowl this.
Speaker 2:About your head, yeah.
Speaker 1:Exactly. A Fressa will fix that in 10 minutes. It's amazing. It has some downsides as well. The downsides for me is that there's only set doses and it's set at a level where I often need less. So it's set at a minimum dose of four of Fressa, which is equivalent to about 2.6 units of injected insulin. Often I need less than 2.6, often I need one unit or I need half a unit because my in-pen can also do that.
Speaker 1:So for those situations a fresco won't work for me. Also, for example, if I have a higher blood sugar, if I want to use a combination of exercise and insulin to get that blood sugar down, I would not do necessarily do a fresco because it will hit me like a hammer. So again, I can minimum take 2.6. My blood sugars are really so high that I need 2.6 plus exercise to get my blood sugars down, if that makes sense. But for higher card things, I love it. For immediate corrections, I love it. I would not be without it. My insulin, my insurance does not cover it. So we're back to that again.
Speaker 2:I guess insurance thing, Mike, come on Florida, what the hell.
Speaker 1:But a fresco which is manufactured by Mankind has a really, really excellent program back to the copay cards. So for people whose insurance won't cover it, you just you call them up, you have to go run through like two hoops and then they will sell it to you for $99 a month or per prescription. So there are options.
Speaker 2:That's amazing, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:That's way better than the $1,200 list price.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and I think that it's incredible that these companies, too, are trying to help us out by going on these subscription models that can keep the cost down, and that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not even a subscription model. I don't have to. I don't have to, oh, okay.
Speaker 2:Since.
Speaker 1:I don't use it every day. I just I maybe pick up two, three prescriptions a year.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I know Ginger loves it for pretty much everything.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I had a long conversation with her and it was my first real conversation about it. Like I had a really good coffee meeting with my the Efreza rep here in my city and she was telling me about it and that was like really my first thought of, like my first really you know connection and meeting and thought process about it. And then I got to spend some time to talk to Ginger and she was just raving about and telling me. I'm like tell me more, tell me more, tell me more.
Speaker 1:Or I also have quite a few YouTube videos on it. But anyway, what I want to say is I think again. I think it's brilliant. I don't think from immediately, it's not for everything, but there's a lot of people, that's the only thing that they use.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I do find it kind of funny that they say it's discreet. Trust me, sitting on, for example, a completely quiet flight and then inhaling is not discreet at all. People think you're vaping or something like that, but I don't care. I just want to point that out.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I feel like diabetes is not discreet. You know you got your, whether you're on MDI or you got your insulin pot. I mean, I guess, I guess maybe the omni pods may be a little bit more discreet, but you're pulling out a wired thing pushing on some buttons. That's not discreet.
Speaker 1:I think it's all starting at the wrong idea. I can see that. But, I think it's a brilliant part to have, as, again, I call it my diabetes toolkit. I have my in-pen, I have my aphrazi, I have my long-acting insulin and it's just, it works for me, this combo.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, I feel like I could talk to you forever, girl. Okay, okay, sorry. Two more questions and I'll let you get out of here. Everyone loves to hear this. What do you love to treat loaves with?
Speaker 1:I am a no candy girl. I have no self-control around candy, I know this about myself, so I use glucose taps. They're very easy to dose, I don't overeat on them, it's portable. I have this little case. I'm now going to do another product clock Again somebody I don't work with.
Speaker 2:These products that are listening to this right now. You got to call her and say come on, this is your blade.
Speaker 1:But there's this. It's a guy who lives with diabetes and he's just. I think he's making these like small plastic cases at home in his garage. It's called taps to go the number two and it's just a small case. I can hold four taps. It's flat, I can put it in my back pocket, I can bring it with me. That means it's small, it's compact. I never leave my house without my emergency glucose because it's not bulky, it doesn't take up a whole you know suitcase, so to say it's not a juice box, it doesn't go bad or end up in my purse somewhere. It's just convenient and I guess, really boring, say what.
Speaker 2:No, I said that, you said the juice box, and I said or or like you break it and it goes it, and it gets everywhere.
Speaker 1:I like half banana and then you have, like this squish banana in the bottom of your mouth.
Speaker 2:Oh, no, okay, so you like glucose?
Speaker 1:I wouldn't say I like them, but I find them to be the most practical up.
Speaker 2:That's your preferred method.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's a good way to say it, but I do have extreme dislike for the yellow ones.
Speaker 2:So there's that.
Speaker 1:It has to be raspberry, strawberry or the marshmallow chocolate ones are good as well.
Speaker 2:Hmm, interesting, I haven't had glucose tabs in so long Like I do I have. I have two strategies for lows and a strategy and a B strategy. My A strategy is is typically fruit, because I'm I'm a coach, like I'm a health coach, like I am personal trainer, strength coach, Like I love.
Speaker 2:I want quality out of everything that it goes to my mouth. So my first low treatment is as long as it's not like super severe, and I need to act right now, I can give it 10, 15, 20 minutes or whatever. To come back up, I'm trying to do fruit, I love fruit, I love doing low treatments with fruit and I have my B strategy. In the situation where I was 46 and I felt like crap and it needs to be taken care of, right now I don't care what I need, like if I need a juice box, if I need whatever, it is like I'm grabbing whatever I can find to bring this thing up to keep myself safe.
Speaker 2:So that that's kind of my thought process in terms of how I treat my lows and like I think that the A treatment and low treatment for me makes a lot of sense because of what my values are. My food values are like what, how I want to live my life. But I love hearing other people's thought processes because, like when people talk about glucose tabs because I haven't done it forever, I think like oh, that's a glucose tabs, no one does that anymore, like what? But then I hear these amazing stories about how it works and like how people use them and like it's so easy and like I'm just like man, maybe I should just go back to these glucose tabs again.
Speaker 1:Well, I also think there's a difference, though, because what you're talking about for your two strategies is so when I talk about treating a low, I talk about 70 below being at 70 or below, or ask if I'm a part of that, then it's not really treating a low, is catching a potential low, which, for something like that, I'd probably go for real food.
Speaker 2:Gotcha.
Speaker 1:Real food right. So whereas my, my perspective on it is that if it's below 70, then it's technically, not technically reality. It's we go into emergency medical, emergency land and that just needs to get mixed like this.
Speaker 1:I don't know I'm never going to take a chocolate or something like that, because it's fat in it. It's going to take too long to raise plot triggers and I think my point about having candies around is that they will be gone by the time. I actually have a low blood sugar, because I'll be slacking on them and I don't want to do that and you know that's.
Speaker 2:You know that's a barrier for you. That's perfect, that's awesome. So, yeah, I love that. I think that's great Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah 100% on board with you with that one. Food is so good. It's just not cool. And like I've like really been diving into like nutrition and I've talked to so many nutritionists on this show and like I have a really good friend it's a type one that's a dietitian here in my city that I do a lot of stuff with, have a lot of good conversations with, and I just get so frustrated with what's in our food in America and like how it's being processed and how like sick it's making us.
Speaker 2:And it's just I've created this like warped I don't want to say warped, but I created this like persona in my head that I have to like be a food detective Every time I go into the grocery store and buy food and like look at food because the quality, because quality is such a value that I have for myself and it's it's a. It just makes me really upset sometimes when I talk to people and try to educate people and it's like I know this is so hard. I just I saw like three different posts before I got on with you about like three different perspectives on the same exact topic and I'm like what are we supposed to believe?
Speaker 2:Come on, what's going on here? Like so it is. It's food is so good, but it's also so hard to understand what's good and what's not good.
Speaker 1:I think that's a great point and it's complex.
Speaker 2:It's so complex More complex than the average person really wants to admit, cares to admit or really knows. It's so complex. I was just having a really good conversation with my wife, cause we're both healthy, like we're just, we're both foodie healthy people and we both have been diving into this food label thing and we I've got a really good friend that has a local supplement company and he just came out with protein bars and I asked him about his bars because it has says it has natural flavors in it and till recently I have thought in my head that like, oh, natural flavors is like a red flag when that's not really the case. You know, you have to figure out or try to understand where natural flavors are actually coming from. And I asked him about well, what, what is this natural flavor ingredient? What is it making? What's making you have to put natural flavors in here?
Speaker 2:His response to me is like there are no natural flavors. It's because it has vanilla extract and the FDA requires me to put. But it requires me to put natural flavors in here. I'm like wait what? That doesn't make sense, like doesn't make sense at all. So it's like you have to like go through all of these like hoops, to like figure out what's actually. What are you actually eating and is it going to be good for you? Is it not going to be good for you? Is it going to inflame you? Is it going to make you sick, is it? It's so complex, it's so crazy, so crazy.
Speaker 1:You see fruits.
Speaker 2:So just see fruits. There you go, there you go, here you go, just see fruits. Okay, last question what? What are one to three things that you think that every diabetic should know? What are three things that you kind of look at with your management style, with you being a diabetic, things that you talk about on, on diabetes strong, what are kind of one to three things that you think that a person could take away today and like put them into action now.
Speaker 1:When it comes to blood sugar management.
Speaker 2:Blood sugar management, anything with diabetes, whatever you think, it's a lot of things.
Speaker 1:I think one of the first things is you need to learn you. So you need to learn how different things impact you and at different times, and all that and that's a lot of detective work. But a notebook you get really far with a notebook and just like start writing things down and start looking for trends. So to know you, you also have to understand some of the underlying things that goes on. You have to understand how does insulin work For?
Speaker 1:example you have to understand that the second you inject insulin is not going to start lowering blood sugars. It takes time, depending on which type of insulin you use. So that's probably going to be some people go like what. So when you inject it it's not going to hit the bloodstream for 15, about 15 minutes. Most of them are the rapid acting insulin peaks in an hour, an hour and a half. So when you start to then put that in to your knowledge about you, then you can also start to match your food choices with how insulin works and start you know leveling out your blood sugars.
Speaker 1:And then there's also other factors. Just because we are into exercise, let's talk about that for a second. You know understanding how different types of exercise impact your blood sugars. Some might push your blood sugars up, Some might, you know, make them drop. Some might make them drop in the morning or in the evening let's say that but not in the morning. So again, starting to learn all the nuances about you and how the different things that you do impact your blood sugars, I think there's a lot of power in that 100%. And yeah.
Speaker 1:And know that it's hard. You know that, we all know that it's hard, but know that we the rest of us know it's hard as well. You're not alone in this.
Speaker 2:I love that. I think that last one is a very powerful thing because I, coming from someone that felt so isolated and alone when I first started, knowing that I that the community now is here, there's free resources, there's resources, there's just there's so many resources out there that that we have the ability to get information. I always say, like, for me, if I need an answer to something, I'm not going to my, my chart, my doctor first, I'm going to the community first because I know I can get an answer right now where my doctor might you know he might take 24 or 48 hours to get back to me, depending on what his schedule is, what who's reading that message? Like if he has to actually give me the answer, if someone else can give me the answer, like I can go on social media, facebook group, whatever it is, make a post, ask a question and get a response right now.
Speaker 2:That's so powerful. Absolutely, I can go on Diabetes Strong and get the answer right now too.
Speaker 1:Exactly, or you can go to our Facebook group. We actually have a pretty big Facebook group, oh there you go.
Speaker 2:See, this is the next part. So if, if people want to connect with you, people want to go to Diabetes Strong, talk about these resources that you have and where people can find your, your information.
Speaker 1:Sure, yeah, I mean, the main side is DiabetesStrongcom, which is the website you can go search. We have everything, articles, we even have recipes, so there's a lot of resources there and, again, it's for all types of diabetes. You can also find us on Facebook. There's a Facebook page where I post daily and then we have a closed Facebook group. So that means that if you post in that group, it's not going to be sent out to your friends and family unless they also in the group. So that's a closed Facebook group with 20 something thousand people who just support each other.
Speaker 2:I love that.
Speaker 1:And then we of course have Instagram. That's where we were talking. So Instagram is DiabetesStrong. Underscore IT stands for Instagram I G. Somebody else had taken diabetes strong before I got there.
Speaker 2:And that's funny. That's funny because, like, I feel like every time I put a hashtag, like I'm always trying to do diabetes strong, and then I like, I like, forget, like, oh yeah, there, she is right there, the hashtag. You have a hashtag diabetes strong underscore IG, like, and it has a crap load of views like so many. It's awesome, thank you, yeah.
Speaker 1:Instagram. Oh, and then, of course, you too. I'm spending a lot of time, Are you?
Speaker 2:guys on Tik Tok.
Speaker 1:I have opened a Tik Tok account, but have not posted anything.
Speaker 2:Gotcha.
Speaker 1:Right now I'm just watching other people stuff. It's a lot of fun, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, talk is a lot of fun and very addictive.
Speaker 1:It's a bit of a time thief, for sure.
Speaker 2:I need to figure out how to take the meta information that's scheduled for these posts and like get them over to be scheduled on Tik Tok too. I haven't figured that out yet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I don't know. I'm part of the meta universe, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, but there has to be like a schedule or something on Tik Tok where you can just like make posts and like schedule them.
Speaker 1:Try to check out later. This is a totally different conversation, but latercom they might be able to do that.
Speaker 2:Oh, interesting See, I just learned so much new stuff. Well, this has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you so much for giving us your expertise, your knowledge, talking about your company. If you are listening to this, if you've made it in it's almost an hour and 30 and if you've made it this far, please, please, please, send her a message. Please, please, please, go to the website, go join the Facebook group. I have been following her for years. I don't even know when the heck I started following her, but she just has so much information, talks about so many great things, that you will be remissed if you do not follow her and go communicate with her and just even just watch what she's doing in YouTube or watch what she's got on YouTube. It's incredible. So thank you again for coming on. This has been fabulous. I'm so glad I finally got to connect with you and actually meet you and have a great conversation with you. This has just. This has been great.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been awesome, yeah, 100%.
Speaker 2:Thank you everybody for listening and, yeah, I will see everyone next time.