A Day in the Life of Craig

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Welcome to the first episode of The 3s. This is a new show by Beta Cell, where we aim to sort of have a conversation with all the type threes in our lives. If you don't know what a type three is, it's what we call a person who's affected by type one, but doesn't have type one themselves.

So the best example is a parent of a child with type one. Even though they don't have type one, there's so much about type one that affects your life, that it's obviously going to affect the people around you. So your parent, waking up in the middle of night, to check your blood sugar, or a spouse who has to wake you up when your Dexcom goes off and you sleep through it. We all know these types of people, because we have people in our lives who don't have type one.

And so for a while, I've been thinking that most of the time when we're talking about type one, we're talking to other people with type one, whether that's Instagram, Facebook, or even on Beta Cell, is a conversation between people with type one, talking about how much it sucks, talking about what we do well, what we don't do well. But I thought it'd be interesting to see exactly how it's affecting people with type three, and also let them ask questions to us that they might not do normally.

I can't think of a time when I've sat down with someone who doesn't have type one in my life and just talked about diabetes. So for this first episode, I thought I would talk to one of my closest friends without type one: my coworker, Venus.

Craig: We've known each other for 11, 12 years, something like that?

Venus: About that.

Craig: And I've talked about this before, I don't think I've ever mentioned you by name, that I like never told people I worked with that I had type one. For a while, right? And I remember the one day when I had my Omnipod on my arm, and you saw it and you asked me what it was. And I told you it was a pedometer, because I didn't want to say what it was.

Venus: Mhm.

Craig: Do you remember that?

Venus: I don't. [laughs]

Craig: So that was a really significant moment for me, but not for you.

Venus: I remember asking you, but I don't remember you telling me it was a pedometer. And I couldn't imagine myself actually believing you, but okay. [laughs]

Craig: [laughs] Because you're just really trusting. And then, do you remember when I told you?

Venus: I do, I do remember. I remember you telling me you had something big to tell me. And then -

Craig: What did you think I was going to say?

Venus: I don't know. But then the - the unveiling was - wasn't as shocking to me as I think it was for you.

Craig: Because you had said that I, you thought something was up because I was like, going to the doctor more than a person how - however old I was -

Venus: Right.

Craig: mid-20s, healthy -

Venus: Right.

Craig: Should be going.

Venus: Of course, I always thought the worst case scenario every time, that you had much more serious terminal diseases [laughs]. Because you were going to the doctor so much. I always assume the worst case. But when you told me, I actually - it was actually more of a relief than anything else.

Craig: And you have a family history of type two, but not type one.

Venus: Correct.

Craig: So did you know much about type one, probably?

Venus: I knew nothing about type one. And I actually didn't know that much about type two either, until I started learning about type one, and then started to see that there were a lot of similarities in the way my blood sugars work, I guess?

Craig: And then - And then over the years, you've learned much more than you'd ever want to know.

Venus: [laughs] Well I definitely feel that I'm much more educated about type one than the normal person. And I seem to bring it up a lot more to people that I talk to who don't know, assuming that they would know, and they always look at me with a blank look, and I have to explain to them the difference between the two. And then they still look a little confused. That's what I noticed a lot more, but I do feel that I try to educate people. One, because I just, you know, have an interest in my own history of type two, but then knowing more about type one, I feel the need to educate other people, I guess. [laughs]

Craig: That's funny, because that's what people with type one feel like; they always have to explain to other people what it is. And then even then, do they ever really, like, get it?

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: So about a year ago, a little under a year ago, you went for an annual checkup. Right?

Venus: Right.

Craig: The doctor. And your A1C came out, like, a little high, right?

Venus: 5.8.

Craig: 5.8, which is in the, like, the prediabetes -

Venus: Correct.

Craig: - category? Um, do you remember what that, what you first thought when you saw that?

Venus: I was really shocked. And my doctor, you know, I was on the phone with my doctor, and he was going down the list of things. You know, all my numbers and everything looked good. And he's like, "I do want to talk to you about your slightly high A1C." And, um, and that was a moment of truth for me, I guess from that point on. Because I always knew I had a family history of type two, but since I live a pretty relatively health - healthy lifestyle, I was shocked that I was already borderline high at my age.

Craig: And that - and you don't just live, like, subjectively a healthy lifestyle, like. Oh, I'll weigh in, knowing your lifestyle you eat really healthy. You exercise more than anyone I know. And I guess, you know, I had known that type two had more of a genetic component than people think. And I think when I - when you got that slightly high A1C, I was like, "Oh, well, obviously, that's the case, because you're doing everything by the book," like, no doctor would look at you and say, "Oh, she probably is going to get type two."

Venus: Right? I mean, he reassured me that I had nothing to worry about. I could, you know, probably just, don't drink smoothies, maybe watch my dessert intake, things like that. But for me, it was a bigger deal, because everyone on my mom's side is either insulin based or on pills, and I could see my future down the line. And I didn't want to, you know, I didn't want that to be me. So here we are. [laughs]

Craig: You came back, and I gave you a spare meter of mine.

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: And you started testing... a couple times a day.

Venus: Correct.

Craig: Um.

Venus: It's not fun. [laughs]

Craig: You still, like, I don't know what the word is - hesitate before you, like, click down the -

Venus: Right.

Craig: - lancet. Um, were there anything - like, just sort of testing yourself, like, periodically? Were there things that you found? Like, that shocked you? I wouldn't say - it's not necessarily shocking? Well, actually, the first shock was the - the time we had the frappuccino.

Venus: Right. [laughs]

Craig: Oh, yeah.

Venus: I think that was the first eye opener, official eye opener, since I started using the meter. And ever since that one time a year ago, I have not had another frappuccino since. Since, you know, we tested, and my blood sugar spiked, and then we - and that was with getting it with less sugar, right?

Craig: Yeah. You got less pumps of - whatever.

Venus: Correct. And then that's when you went on the detective work to find out what was in a frappuccino. [laughs]

Craig: Yeah, yeah. Because we tried to figure out if you could still get skinny frappuccinos, because that was on the menu, and we realized that wasn't possible anymore.

Venus: Right. So I mean, it was shocking because I had already ordered it with less, quote unquote "sugar," but yet my blood sugar went through the roof -

Craig: Yeah.

Venus: - soon after, only to find out that there's hidden sugars in all the components of the frappuccino.

Craig: Exactly. Yeah, like the the thing that makes it a frappuccino is just, like, sugar, and -

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: - more sugar. Um. So things were going like, pretty well, I guess, right? Or pretty -

Venus: I guess? I mean -

Craig: You made - you made subtle adjustments, right? Like the frappuccino.

Venus: Yeah, yeah. In my head, you know, I mean, I - I don't test as - as much as I probably should. But at that point, I thought, "Okay. A few times a day was good." But I don't think it really gave me as much information as - as I hoped.

Craig: Yeah. So, about a month ago, my Dexcom G6 came in the mail. And I was still wearing my G5, I still had a bunch of G5 supplies. And I asked you if you want to wear the G6, and I was like, I wasn't really sure what you would say. [laughs] Because I mean, you - you see it, it's like this big thing on your arm.

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: It goes in with, like, this big needle. It's kind of like a scary thing. But you, you didn't hesitate or like, yeah.

Venus: No, it was an exciting opportunity for me. I was, you know, really happy to try it.

Craig: Because you just wanted to see the information?

Venus: Well, both. I mean, I wanted a day in the life of Craig. [laughs] And then also, I thought it would be really - give me some good data about my day to day life and my lifestyle and, you know, decisions that I think are good, might not necessarily be as good as I, you know, thought.

Craig: So what was it like, putting it on?

Venus: I wasn't -

Craig: You were nervous.

Venus: I was nervous. Just because -

Craig: It's a big thing.

Venus: Yeah. And I wasn't sure how it was going to feel, like, you know, because it's inserted, like, what is that? Subcutaneously?

Craig: Yeah.

Venus: Um, and how it was going to feel flush to the skin at all times. And so, I don't know, I did have my reservations. But I was more excited about what I was going to learn than the actual moment. And then when you put it on, I think I was more startled by the sound than the actual pain. I didn't really feel pain the first time.

Craig: Yeah. Because I'd said I was gonna do it on three, and I was like, "One, two," like a doctor.

Venus: Yeah. [laughs]

Craig: So, your two hour warm up happens, and bam, now you've got your blood sugar every five minutes.

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: Like, what was that like?

Venus: Oh, it felt like data overload at first, because you know, it updates every five minutes.

Craig: Yeah.

Venus: And just to, you know, have that much data right at your fingertips was overwhelming, but exciting.

Craig: And I think people would be interested to know what, because obviously a person with type one has a lot of variability. Right? I take a little too much insulin, I eat a little too much, eat too little, exercise too much. What is a person without type one? What does that chart look like?

Venus: I mean, in theory, you would think it's pretty steady. Right?

Craig: Yeah, you would think that it'd be flat, like -

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: - all the time.

Venus: Yeah. It wasn't like that at all. I had ups and downs all day, all night.

Craig: Were - Was it when you eat? Exercise?

Venus: Yeah, I mean, sometimes it would be when I would eat certain things. Sometimes it would be when I exercise. Exercise that I thought would make me low, like running, would actually spike my blood sugar up, many of, you know, most of the times. Weights, of course.

Craig: And pretty quickly, too.

Venus: Very quickly. And then -

Craig: Like, we did, like, 10 minutes on the stairs once, and -

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: - it went up like 20, 30 points, or something like that.

Venus: Right, right. It was just, like, basic running, not even at a super fast pace, just at a very steady pace, would make my blood sugar go up.

Craig: Yeah.

Venus: More surprisingly, I was high when I would be sleeping.

Craig: Hmm.

Venus: Higher than my average numbers -

Craig: Yeah.

Venus: - during the day, I mean.

Craig: And so we started doing some like, detective work, right?

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: We started, like, trying different things. Um, and we had - you would like, would eat different things at night and see. Was there? What was the - was there one moment that was like, or one meal that was just like, "Oh, wow, that was bad"?

Venus: Well, there were a couple of meals. [laughs] But by far, I think for me the most shocking - well, I don't know if it's shocking, but the worst meal that affected my blood sugar the longest was when I had McDonald's, a Big Mac and fries. [laughs]

Craig: And you went - you had it for dinner.

Venus: I had it for dinner. And mind you, I didn't even eat all three of the breads -

Craig: Of the Big Mac, yeah.

Venus: - of the Big Mac, because, you know, how it has the three, three layers.

Craig: And you had, like, a small fry equivalent.

Venus: I had an equivalent to probably an order of small fries. And my blood sugars were up and down pretty high for two das. Which was shocking.

Craig: Yeah, that it would last that -

Venus: That long.

Craig: - just like, mess your body up -

Venus: Correct.

Craig: - that long. Um, so I remember that week, we were, we, like, every day, we would look at, like, your average blood sugar for, like, the previous day, in, like, the Clarity app, and we would compare it to, like, an A1C chart and be like, "Okay, what would your A1C be?" And it was higher than we thought it would be, like, we were pretty - I don't know, you seemed kind of nervous that your blood sugar just seems - like, you'd eat the fries at night, and you would just be like, 130 all night.

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: As opposed to being, like, during the day, when you were like, 95, you know, 80s and 90s -

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: - during the day?

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: Um, and then we put a second sensor on you, after the first 10 days. And everything was different. And I guess we decided that that was because it was your time of the month, like right in between, right?

Venus: Mm hmm.

Craig: And it was interesting that you could eat, like, the same foods one week, and then the next week, like before and after. And it was completely different.

Venus: Well, I was too scared to try the McDonald's experiment again. But correct. I wasn't staying - my blood sugars weren't staying consistently high through the night. So we would, I would eat the same similar foods and say, like, I would have rice noodles, which I also determined was very bad for my blood sugar [laughs], at very low quantities, which I thought were, you know, a few bites, would still spike my blood sugar, still spike my blood sugar, the second time around.

Craig: Yeah.

Venus: However, my night levels weren't as high. I came down much faster. And I didn't spike as high - I mean, as, I don't know about fast. I was still pretty fast, but I came down much faster.

Craig: It was faster.

Venus: Yeah. And my numbers were - my numbers at night were a lot steadier, I think.

Craig: And I remember, like, every day, your average blood sugar for like, the two weeks, would like slowly come down. Like -

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: - the further we got away from that first week.

Venus: Yeah. That first, the first 10 days, I was really confused. Well, what will, you know, how my blood sugar was being affected by all these foods. But then the second time around, when we would try various things? I wouldn't - what I thought would happen didn't happen, especially at night. So that was shocking.

Craig: It was almost like you were cured.

Venus: Yeah, but the exercise was, was still the same in terms of bringing up my blood sugar.

Craig: Yeah.

Venus: But I would come down much sooner.

Craig: The exercise would almost make you higher than the food.

Venus: Exactly. To the point where sometimes I would be scared, like, "Oh, should I, you know, exercise?" Because I realized that, not exercising, I have excellent blood sugars. I became obsessed with the numbers.

Craig: Yeah.

Venus: With the data. [laughs]

Craig: And it was funny to me because, like, within the first, like, one or two days, like you were just sending me, like, screenshots of, like, your Dexcom, like "Look what it's doing now, look what it's doing now!" Which is what people with type one do all the time, like all my type one friends, we send each other screenshots of our blood sugars. "Oh, look at how great this night was," or "Look at how bad that meal was."

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: And it was interesting to me how, almost like, universal that, like, you just like picked up the lingo, and the - I don't know, the - the different things you would do.

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: Which was not something I'd ever, like, told you. Like, I'd never sent you screenshots of my blood sugar before -

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: - for you to know, like, that's something people do.

Venus: Yeah, like I'd send -

Craig: You just started doing it.

Venus: Yeah, I mean, just to see the differences in the first half, and the second half. We were determined to figure out what was going on. We're doing like, what was the determining factor that -

Craig: Well, I kept wanting you to eat sugar and sugary things.

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: I wanted you to have another frappuccino -

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: - just to see what would happen. And you were pretty adamant against it.

Venus: I was. I already knew what was gonna happen. So I didn't really need to test, but. [laughs] No, I definitely felt that during the time that I had it on, I could really relate to what you go through every day. Just having a sensor on, like, you know, the second half it - I don't know how, how it was put on, but it hurt more. I remember how I was complaining to you every day that I could feel, like, shit like sharp pains, and, um.

Craig: Oh, like sleeping on it?

Venus: Sleeping on it would make it worse, and.

Craig: People ever asked you what it was?

Venus: Yeah, yeah, I did have a few people actually ask me, um, at the gym, on the train. Randomly, I think, I don't remember, I told you that someone outside of work had asked.

Craig: Yeah.

Venus: So, yeah.

Craig: Um, and related to that, that, like, empathy you said, um, besides just the physical, like, what else? I dunno. Do you feel like you have some insight into the, you know -

Venus: Well, yeah.

Craig: - as your 20 days as type one?

Venus: Yeah, I mean. Like, I told you once I did that, it was like, "Okay, I have all these numbers, I'm up, I'm down." But you know, usually everything worked itself out. My, my, it made me realize what type ones go through every day because sometimes - it doesn't work out itself. You know, you have to measure your insulin, you have to count your carbs, like your whole life depends on these numbers and the data that you're getting. So I really, that really pounded it home for me. I mean, I've known you for so long, and I've seen it and I always understand like, "Okay, this is what you have to do." But I actually really made that connection once I saw the numbers and realized - Oh, that one day, remember when I went low?

Craig: Yeah.

Venus: And you thought I was being psychosomatic, but I actually was going low for some random reason. I think -

Craig: I thought the sensor was just like -

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: - giving you bad readings.

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: Because there's no way you would go low. Like why would you go low?

Venus: But I had - we had tested on, with the meter.

Craig: Yeah.

Venus: And I was going low.

Craig: Yeah. And then - and you're waiting for the train?

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: And you felt -

Venus: I felt ill.

Craig: Yeah.

Venus: I felt - I had this, like, really fatigued, and the - all of a sudden, I had that bad headache. And I just wanted to lay down, and then I had my bar. [laughs]

Craig: You just happen to have an RX bar with you.

Venus: Yeah, I happened to have a bar that I keep in my bag for you. [laughs]

Craig: Aww. Because I go low so much.

Venus: Because you go low sometimes, so then I end up eating the bar I had for you. [laughs] But yeah, it just made me realize, like, the amount of work that goes into having type one, um.

Craig: Well, even the amount of work you put into trying to keep your blood sugars okay.

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: Knowing that it was going to be okay.

Venus: Yeah. I mean, yeah, I could have, you know, french fries, potato chips, cake, whatever. And it'll, you know, ultimately work itself out. But after seeing the data and having to, you know, see what that does to your body, like, oh, it's too much work, like, no, I don't want to do that to myself. Let me just eat the low carb, healthy option or like, healthy carbs instead.

Craig: Yeah.

Venus: It really put things into perspective, actually.

Craig: So you think in the end, like we, we did this experiment to, like, see what different foods did to you, figure out your blood sugars, but really, like, I feel like, what you came away with, was just this understanding of type one, of just diabetes in a way that you never did -

Venus: Yeah.

Craig: - before? And probably that you didn't think you would?

Venus: I definitely didn't think so. I mean, I thought it would be, you know, an interesting experiment, I thought I would learn more about myself. And the things that I eat. What I actually, not only learned about how carbs affect my body, but actually how, like, so many things about what type ones go through, not only with food, but with just the day to day, monitoring of everything, and just having this device on your body. And, you know, how -

Craig: It changes so much -

Venus: - it changes.

Craig: - just knowing that you have that information all the time.

Venus: Yeah. And, you know, when, when the experiment was over, and I was like, just the little things, like showering or putting lotion on my arm, I would still go around the movements like going around the monitor, even though it wasn't there anymore, because I was so used to having it for 20 days, that it felt like part of me already.

Craig: Yeah.

Venus: So when I had to give it up, I was a little sad. And I felt like I was missing something. But, you know, I don't - Definitely, I don't miss the. It was nice because I had the choice.

Craig: Yeah.

Venus: I know it would be much different if I had to have it every day of my life. If my life depended on it.

That's it for our first episode of The 3s. The 3s is a production of Beta Cell, and it's hosted and edited by me, Craig Stubing. Subscribe to Beta Cell wherever you listen to podcasts to get the 3s, Beta Cell, and Out of Range downloaded automatically onto your phone every week. If you love what we're doing here, you can support us on Patreon, and we'll send you some swag as a thank you. Visit betacellpodcast.com/supporters for more information and to see a list of all the people who are supporting Beta Cell now. If you have a type three in your life that you want to talk to, send me a message at Craig at betacellpodcast.com. And I'll send you a microphone, and we'll get you recorded enough. I'm Craig Stubing, and this is The 3s.