Diabetics Doing Ballet and Broadway with Katelyn Prominski Baud

[00:00:07] Rob Howe: Welcome to the Diabetics Doing Things podcast. We've been telling the amazing stories of type 1 diabetics all across the world since 2015, and we have over a thousand years of living with T1D on the podcast. The interviews range from incredible feats to everyday victories, and we celebrate them all just the same. Thanks for listening, and if you want to get involved even further, just send me an email at rob.diabeticsdoingthings.com. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Diabetics Doing Things. We are telling the amazing stories of type 1 diabetics from all across the world, and we are going to make sure to get this recording right this time. My very special guest today is Katelyn Prominski Baud, calling from New York, and these incredible storms, which I now know because we've recorded this twice, were a little bit billed higher than advertised, I suppose.

[00:01:12] Katelyn Prominski Baud: Yes, but I am excited that winter should be over shortly. I'm going to Miami in two weeks to get out of this disaster. but yesterday this second nor'easter you know one week later it was not that bad but i did

[00:01:28] Rob Howe: stay inside all day long well any excuse to stay inside all day uh yeah i have to feel guilty about it i think i took two naps also wow well you are an inspiration thank you Katelyn you're also 10 uh 10 weeks from your uh due date uh for delivery carrying your pregnancy to term so thanks so much for taking the time out in the middle of that ordeal.

[00:01:51] Katelyn Prominski Baud: Of course. You know, the baby's got to keep going with my life. I can't stop because of the baby. And that's actually, I mean, not to get all crazy philosophical right off the bat, but that's kind of like the way I feel about diabetes too, is you can't let anything stop your life.

[00:02:07] Rob Howe: Well, I think that's the best way to kick off the interview is with some philosophical musings. Of course. I think I got introduced to you obviously via Instagram. That's how I get introduced to everyone. But through a Dexcom Warrior post with much of the same sentiment of sort of not letting diabetes stop you. So why don't you kind of take us through your diagnosis story, which I know you've kind of given me the previews a little bit eventful. And then we can just dive in and talk about everything from your background to now your pregnancy and everything in between.

[00:02:45] Katelyn Prominski Baud: Yeah, cool. So I'm taking you back to fall of 2009. I was dancing with the Pennsylvania Ballet in Philadelphia at the time. And I got sick with swine flu. So I didn't realize it was swine flu at the time. You know, dancers were kind of built in this way to, you know, ignore the pain, keep going, just be, you know, beautiful, be easy, be beautiful. That's kind of, you know, what ballet is, is you never, you know, you don't show the effort, but it's, I mean, if you could see what's, you know, under our pointe shoes after Swan Lake, you know. So I, um, it's, you know, it's very, it's a very tough kind of, um, career and at sport. And so I got sick with swine flu and I was kind of like, okay, I'm sick, whatever. You know, I took, we actually were on vacation for a week. So, um, we had just finished a long program. And so, you know, I took the week off, was sick in bed and then started back work a week later and still felt like really, really weak. but you know, I had, I mean, swine flu is crazy. Um, but I had lost a lot of weight during that, you know, time off, um, fever was really, really high. And so I was just naturally weak. And also you've taken a week off of dancing. And so you're not really in shape anymore. And so I kept going. And then, you know, a couple of weeks later, I still was feeling really bad. And so I went to the doctor and they're like, well, here's a Z pack. And I was like, okay, great. Thanks. And I took that and I still just never really got back to where I was pre swine flu. So we're now, you know, into 2010, 2011. Well, actually, sorry, summer of 10, summer of 2010, I went to Europe with my boyfriend, now husband, and we were visiting his father in France. And I remember another another dance related injury I had a torn labrum in my hip and so of course you know that always bothered me but this summer it was like I'm trying to climb these mountains and it was really tough and you know we're at a higher elevation so I'm super out of breath and I'm you know really thirsty because you know we're we're exerting ourselves you know at this higher elevation hiking and all this crazy stuff and so I'm like really you're just bringing two bottles of water, seriously thinking that I could just down that immediately. And, you know, summer's going along, I remember sitting at the beach, and, you know, my hip was just terrible. And the, you know, ocean, I'm sitting in a chair, and the ocean's kind of crashing, and even just like the slight movement of that was killing my hip. And so now we are, you know, fall of 2010, this is my 2010-2011 season and I am just I'm not doing great still but of course I continue you know new season new goals dance my heart out and I'm noticing that I'm not I'm not at 100 percent you know I'm at like 50 percent or 45 percent decreasingly getting lower and lower I'm having to leave class so you start your day with a ballet class before you go into like oh is that your dog

[00:06:14] Rob Howe: yeah he is the worst but he's very cute he's very cute

[00:06:20] Katelyn Prominski Baud: so you have noises too coming from your apartment um so i you know i noticed that i'm having you start you do class at the beginning of the day an hour and a half class and then you go into rehearsal for about six hours and then you know sometimes you have a show that night and i remember I'm having to leave class, you know, in the middle of it to use the restroom. I remember I was just starving all the time. I was eating tons and tons of food. I was always exhausted. I remember this one woman whom I had known her for 10 years. She'd known me when I was a student. She comes to set a ballet on us and she's like, are you eating? And she singled me out in front of the entire company because I had lost so much weight. And she didn't believe that I was eating. And I always I've never, you know, luckily, never had an eating disorder going through this. But I was eating tons of food at the time. In fact, I would, I'm sitting here, people are noticing that I'm not, they're calling me too skinny, they're noticing I'm losing weight, I'm eating, I would stop at Dunkin Donuts and get two donuts a day, eat my fat pills to try and gain weight, and it wasn't working. And so I, and I'm still just struggling with my body. Injuries are just rampant. And I get this, it's gross, but I get a soft corn on my toe and it doesn't heal. And a soft corn is just this kind of, you know, I get them because I would get them because I had a bone spur in my toe but I um usually you know it would heal after a while but this one would never heal and so I remember I was rehearsing a ballet and I was rehearsing in one sock I should have been in pointe shoes I was rehearsing in one sock and one ballet slipper because I couldn't even get the ballet slipper on because I was in so much pain and so it came time it was like two days before the show and we're you know doing dress rehearsal and I remember having to borrow a friend's pointe shoe her foot was like a size larger you know a size and a width larger than mine so I had one of her pointe shoes on one of my feet and my regular pointe shoe on the other one I remember I would have to chew gum to which you do not chew gum in ballet I had to chew gum to have enough saliva because I kept having dry mouth. And that was me getting through this performance. And after this performance, I was like, I can't do this anymore. I need to have surgery on my toe because I need to get this bone spur removed so my toe will heal. And so now this is spring of 2011 and I get surgery. After surgery, I remember the doctor, you know, two weeks, three weeks later you go back in for checkups and he's like you don't have diabetes do you and I was like no of course I don't um and I'd known this doctor you know he'd been my childhood podiatrist as if you know any child has a podiatrist right such a normal thing ridiculous that sounds um and so I was like no you're crazy of course I don't he's like okay you know just taking a long time to heal and I was like all right whatever and I remember I was dancing again that fall So that was in, I remember my surgery was like in May or so. And I had taken the summer off. And then that fall, I was dancing. And I was like, it just feels like there's glass in my foot. Oh, and by the way, with that, before the surgery, I had this crazy staph infection that wouldn't go away. Oh, my goodness. So during that period of 2010, 2011, I always had some kind of crazy infection. I remember I got this sinus infection once. on an, I was on an airplane and just not to be gross, but the colors, I've never seen any, the body produced colors like that. And it was just insane. Just everything, full blown infections all the time. And so here we are fall of 2011. And I think my staph infection is back in my foot because my foot still hadn't healed. You know, what is that? May, June, July, August, September, October, you know, five months later, my toes still hadn't healed after this surgery. And I stopped dancing. I'm like, I can't, I can't keep up with this. I can't do this anymore. And so, um, I had was speaking to a friend of mine. This is kind of like the short version, but I was speaking with a friend of mine and, um, she was like, I think, you know, I was telling her all my symptoms. She's not a doctor. She's a brilliant human being. Um, Um, but she, um, she's a social worker, but she, and now she works at NIH, but she, um, I'm telling her my symptoms and she's like, I think you have diabetes. And I was like, well, you know, I think you're insane. Of course I don't. And she's like, no, no, no. I think you do. And so at this point I was about to same boyfriend. Now husband is on, um, a tour of the United States on, on a show called Billy Elliot. Um, cause he, my husband is also a dancer. and so at that point you know when I had stopped dancing because I was in so much pain I was like well I guess I'm just going to go to school and live on the road with him so we can be together you know and I would just go to school online and you know work on getting my degree because I started I was a professional dancer right out of high school so I'm sitting here thinking you know I'm going to do that but I'm about I'm going to go I'm going to leave and go and do that and And she goes, before you leave on tour, go to the doctor one more time. Try and get this figured out. And so I went to a doctor and I said, I need you to give me a full blood panel. My friend thinks I have diabetes. And the doctor looks at me and she goes, well, is your friend a doctor? And I said, no. So she then also thinks we're both crazy. And she ends up giving me this full blood panel. And I remember a week later I got the results. And they were like, yeah, your thyroid is out of whack. So we need you to come and see an endocrinologist. And your blood sugar is a little bit high. And so this was, I was like, okay, fine. This was a week before we were leaving on tour. I got the last appointment out, you know, that I could Friday the 13th because we were leaving on Monday, whatever. Oh, my goodness. 15th. So I go to the doctor on Friday the 13th. And I walk into this endocrinologist's office. and they go so you're here for your thyroid and I go no or no they go you're here for diabetes I go no no I'm here for my thyroid I just ruined my joke they go you're here for diabetes and no I'm here for my thyroid and they're like okay okay and they're all kind of looking at me like because they're looking at my charts and seeing my numbers and so I go sit down in the doctor's office and I wait for her to come in and she goes you know we're just gonna take your blood sugar just because And I was like, okay, whatever. And she did. And it was 600. And so she was like, okay, so it looks like you have diabetes. And I was like, what do you mean it looks like? I'm a very black and white person. There's no gray area with me. I was like, what do you mean it looks like I have diabetes? And she goes, well, if your blood sugar is over 120, you have diabetes. And I was like, oh, my God. So at that point, I was like, this is insane. She's like, we're going to need to take you down to the emergency room. And I'm sitting here thinking, I have a car in the garage. I have I've I'm leaving on Monday. I don't have time to have diabetes. And sure enough, she took me downstairs. They walked me down to the emergency room and I sat in the emergency room for the next. I don't know, six hours waiting for my blood sugar to come down. And I don't think anybody there realized I didn't know I had diabetes. And so they let me go home. And that is my crazy diagnosis story. I was 28 when I was diagnosed.

[00:14:37] Rob Howe: That, the length of that story, first of all.

[00:14:41] Katelyn Prominski Baud: That was the short version.

[00:14:42] Rob Howe: Well, I mean, I guess not the actual, not the time that it took you to tell me. But the length from which, like, you started noticing symptoms. Yeah. Also, like, had surgery, first of all. And I know there's a big issue right now that a lot of type 1 advocacy programs are fighting for, which is, like, blood sugar monitoring during surgery.

[00:15:07] Katelyn Prominski Baud: Yeah, which isn't 100% necessary. Oh, absolutely. I've had surgery since. I had my other foot done. I've had surgery since. And I am, like, well, I'm also a crazy person about my blood sugar. But like just the fact of going under, you never know what's going to happen.

[00:15:26] Rob Howe: Oh, man. You know? I like hindsight's 20-20. I had bone spurs removed from both of my ankles in the winter of 2016. And I think I checked my blood sugar before and I made sure to tell them that I had diabetes. But, you know, they didn't have a CGM on me during surgery. Yeah. They weren't pricking my finger while I was under. And, you know, I didn't think about it then, but I'm not a doctor. You know, I'd never had surgery before. So it's one of those things where, man, you know, they could, they should have checked. They should see. Oh, 100%.

[00:15:58] Katelyn Prominski Baud: And it totally stresses me out because, you know, the night before surgery, you're not supposed to eat, you know, after midnight or whatever. And I'm like, well, what if I wake up with a low, you know, which just, and then it's all ruined. Then I can't have the surgery. My surgery, subsequent surgeries after I've had a Dexcom, I feel like I've worn it for some surgeries and I haven't worn it for others just because if you go into some kind of shock and I'm totally going to butcher this but if you go into some sort of shock and they have to shock you back into existence I think you can get burned from your cgm I'm sure because it's like some sort of metal yeah something like that so I don't think that they always like you to wear And usually the amount of time that you're actually under, it's not that long. Right. You know, it's like maximum, I mean, depending on what they're doing. Obviously it can go longer if you're having like a heart surgery, but it'll be like 40 minutes.

[00:17:06] Rob Howe: Well, I do want to focus on a couple of things too. Yes. You are a professional dancer and have been, you know, effectively your entire life. Yes. Obviously, you know, training from a very young age. and as an athlete you are very in tune with your own body so i want to go back to that first season back from when you were really feeling ill for or not yourself and you said you know hey i'm feeling 40 50 percent what what were the you know i you know i don't i'm trying to remember my own time I remember feeling really weak and really, you know, having a tough time, you know, absorbing nutrients. And I was peeing all the time. Oh, yeah. But, you know, and feeling tired. But I caught mine relatively early. Yeah. By comparison to some of the people that I've talked with. And so for you, you know, you were saying, you know, you're eating much more. Stopping at Dunkin' Donuts on the way home. So that's shooting your blood sugar up again. Yeah. what noticeable things and like how did you what did he come in and out of it were they um you know over that amount of time just like the stress on your body must have been insane

[00:18:18] Katelyn Prominski Baud: i think i was once i mean after i read a lot um you know uh of dka stories you know Beyond Type 1 does all these awesome articles i mean they're they're crazy articles that they're posting the real life articles. And I think I was one step from DKA. I think the fact that I was exercising so much, because now I know, you know, what happens when my body exercises, but I think that I was eating so much, my blood sugar was going through the roof and then I was exercising and then that would drop me later. So I, to this day, I think that's the only thing that kept me alive was dancing. Because it would naturally drop my blood sugar.

[00:19:06] Rob Howe: Because, right, you're in the honeymoon phase. You're still making some insulin.

[00:19:10] Katelyn Prominski Baud: I think my honeymoon phase ended, I feel like it ended kind of that summer when I was in Europe. After I got sick that fall, and then I went to Europe, I think that was the ending of my honeymoon phase. Because that's when I started. That's when the thirst started. That's when the hunger started.

[00:19:29] Rob Howe: But even then, like a year and a half, right, before you got any insulin?

[00:19:34] Katelyn Prominski Baud: Yeah, I was diagnosed 2000. Oh, and then after I was diagnosed January 13, 2012.

[00:19:41] Rob Howe: Wow.

[00:19:42] Katelyn Prominski Baud: And that right at the minute I got on insulin, every single problem I had went away. My foot healed. My infections went away. I started gaining. I mean, it was a lot of weight at first, but I started gaining weight again. Thankfully, everything has regulated now. But I started gaining weight again. And I was able to use my brain because even my brain stopped working before I was diagnosed. I remember being out at parties with my boyfriend. And I didn't want him to leave me because I couldn't get the words to talk to these people, to anybody. Even people that I knew well. I knew what my brain wanted to say. but I couldn't get the words out of my mouth. And that was really crazy.

[00:20:31] Rob Howe: Well, and I mean, knowing now and reading those same sort of Beyond Type 1 articles about the effects of prolonged high blood sugar on your body and on your organs, you know, your body was effectively just defending itself by shutting those down.

[00:20:47] Katelyn Prominski Baud: Mm-hmm. I couldn't go downstairs, which I now realize is this lower leg weakness that happens when your blood sugar is so hot. I remember being on stage. One of my last performances, I was doing this ballet that I have done my entire 10 year career. I even did it in school. It's a very hard ballet. You're on stage for 26 minutes. It's eight girls. And you're on stage the entire time that starts out like nice. And then it gets really slow and a lot of standing and then really fast at the end. And I remember thinking, what if I have to go to the bathroom while I'm on stage what if I forget this I didn't trust my body I didn't I didn't trust that I would get through the steps I didn't trust that I could perform and being in that sort of state was a terrible feeling because you don't want to have all these thoughts in the back of your mind when you're performing you want to think about one thing and that's your performance and worrying that you're going to have to leave the stage because you have to urinate is like and that was that was a do or die situation if i did not get to the path or it was like austin powers when austin powers wakes up from that nap you know and he goes to the bathroom for literally 10 minutes

[00:22:02] Rob Howe: that's what it was like five times an hour for me well and i imagine like you know your your your outfits and your like wardrobe for dance is not that easy to get in and out of to use the

[00:22:15] Katelyn Prominski Baud: restroom no no no no no and then you also you can't you know you've got you can't be like oh excuse me, ballet master, I need to go to the bathroom. Can we please stop rehearsal? You're not going to be that. You get a break every five minutes, every hour. But during a show, you don't necessarily get those. You get different kinds of breaks. But I could not. That was a luxury. I could not afford to lose. And I remember. Oh, go ahead. Oh, I was going to say,

[00:22:43] Rob Howe: this is nothing like being on stage. But I remember two or three days before I was diagnosed, I went and saw The Aviator with my friend, and it's a long movie. It is. And I had my typical go-to at the time is a large Coke and a large popcorn at the movie theater, which, as I now know, is just a tremendous amount of sugar and carbs. So as I'm ingesting that and watching this movie, which is like three hours long, I probably went to the restroom 25 times.

[00:23:10] Katelyn Prominski Baud: Oh, my God. I don't doubt it.

[00:23:12] Rob Howe: And we were sitting in the middle, like the middle center of the theater. So not convenient to get up and down. I just remember hating the movie so much because I was like, oh, this movie sucks. This movie is terrible because I have to get up every four minutes to go pee. And every time like I would and I'm not sure if you had this sensation, but I would pee more than I've ever peed like Austin Powers style. Yeah. And then I'd immediately be the most thirsty I've ever been in my entire life.

[00:23:38] Katelyn Prominski Baud: A hundred percent. And could chug.

[00:23:40] Rob Howe: Like I was I remember being like astounded at the amount of water I could chug. And I'm a big person. Yeah. I imagine you're probably not a very large person because you're, because you're a dancer. Well,

[00:23:50] Katelyn Prominski Baud: I'm tall though. I'm five nine. Okay. So you're,

[00:23:53] Rob Howe: yeah. So you could, you could drink some water. I'm sure in those times, right? I felt like a camel.

[00:23:59] Katelyn Prominski Baud: Oh yeah. I remember waking up in the middle. I had to sleep with a huge liter of water next to my bed and I would wake up and drink half of it at, at a, that was like a single serving.

[00:24:10] Rob Howe: Yeah. You know,

[00:24:11] Katelyn Prominski Baud: just like one gulp would be half the liter.

[00:24:14] Rob Howe: Well, and now i i know as well uh as type 1 diabetics we don't make leptin which is like a hormone that i and i'm probably butchering this i'm sure some twitter doctor is gonna yell at me how do you spell that l-e-f-t-i-n l-e-p-t-i-n i believe oh leptin yeah and i and again i'm not a doctor and i don't claim to be but uh the way it was explained to me is like that's the hormone that tells you when you're full and type 1 diabetics don't make that so uh that's interesting does the insulin

[00:24:47] Katelyn Prominski Baud: make us make that does the insulin is that like a stand in for it uh i don't i don't know exactly

[00:24:54] Rob Howe: how it works but i just i think it's part it's very similar to thyroid which i want to ask you about as well i have because i also have hypothyroidism yes and uh and they are often associated type 1 and hypothyroidism often go hand in hand because the endocrine system is or so out of whack that it's fascinating.

[00:25:13] Katelyn Prominski Baud: I've never heard that, but I will say, because I was used to eating such large meals every hour when I got on insulin, I became a huge gum addict, and I'm no longer such a gum addict, but I needed to keep, I needed my mouth. It's like a person who smokes, and they need to have something to do with their mouth, I guess. Like the oral fixation, right? Yeah, I started chewing a ton of gum because all I wanted, I just wanted to keep feeding myself. But I had no barometer for being full before I was diagnosed whatsoever. I just ate, ate, ate. I remember after that first foot surgery I had, I remember my mother was taking care of me and she was so frustrated because I couldn't walk around. I couldn't make anything. I couldn't get anything for myself. She was so frustrated by having to she's like I'd make you a huge meal and then I'd finish cleaning everything up and you'd need another one and she put a giant you know those big family-sized coolers from the 70s she put one right next to the couch because she's like I cannot keep up with you needing all of these beverages and so she just put a cooler of you know probably Gatorade and water and who knows what else next to the couch because I just could not get enough fluids. It was insane.

[00:26:35] Rob Howe: So but that leptin, I'm gonna look that up. Yeah, I would look it up. I haven't because I just took it. I was like, you know what, that sounds right. This checks out by my, you know, whatever Twitter barometer of medical knowledge. Yeah. So yeah, definitely check it out. Because I think it's kind of interesting. And I definitely have noticed it before. It's like, okay, yeah, that makes sense. I feel like I can eat pretty much whatever I want. And it doesn't really tell me my body doesn't really tell me one way or another if I'm full. So anyway, back to the topic. So now you've after years have finally, your foot is healing, you're feeling much better. You're and that was one of the things that I remember about the hospital as well. As soon as I got insulin, I was like, Oh, that was what was wrong with me for sure. So much better. What What were the next few weeks like? How did you get back into, did you immediately go back into your performance? No. How did that work?

[00:27:30] Katelyn Prominski Baud: No, no. So it took me about five months to get back, and I kind of switched a bit. I had to learn what a carb was. I didn't know what a carb was. It took about, I'm from D.C., and so I was in D.C. at the time, and I took about two to three weeks to figure. I obviously I couldn't go back on tour that Monday. I took about two to three weeks to kind of get myself under control, you know, go visit the doctors, go to a nutritionist, kind of figure all that stuff out. And then I went back on tour. And then it I was still, you know, I mean, at first I had no, I don't know if the doctors told me wrong, or if I understood dosing myself incorrectly. Oh, by the way, I had to learn how to give insulin shots. After I got out of the ER, a doctor called me and they're like, well, you know, go get one of those glucose meters at the drugstore. Do you know how to test your own blood sugar? And I was like, yeah, it's been done about 10 times to me today. I think I can figure it out. And she goes, if you're not, she gave me kind of said, if you're over 250 or whatever for, you know, two or three readings, you're going to have to get on insulin. And so you're either going to have to come back to the hospital, or we can give you to talk to you, talk you through it over the phone. And so I went over to my obviously that happened by the next morning. And I went over to my uncle's house. And he taught me in my kid in his kitchen how to give myself insulin shots off of whatever kind of chart they had given me. But I didn't I don't think I understood that, you know, you're supposed to count the carbs for the meal that you were supposed that you were about to eat, not what necessarily what your blood sugar was, you know, it's just all kind of a disaster. So it took me about, you know, a couple of months to get all of that under control while I was living on tour. And then I realized somewhere in those five months that I did still want to dance again. And I did because right, right before I stopped right before I got diagnosed, the joy of dance had left, because I was in so much pain all the time. And I was like, I can't do this. It's way too hard for me now. I can't do this anymore. I feel terrible. But once I started getting better, I was with the insulin and getting everything regulated. I was like, you know what? I do want to still dance. I really, really do. So I took into account my age, my injuries, because I still had the torn hip. I was recovering from my foot surgery. And I decided that I wanted to move into the Broadway musical theater style of dancing. And so I'd keep up with my ballet. And luckily, I moved to New York. And within that first year, I booked a show. And it was the lead ballet dancer in Flashdance the musical. And so I was still using my ballet training. And at that point, ballet kind of had like a huge boom on Broadway. So kind of got in at a good time and have managed to stay in the field all these years later. So it's tons of fun and I love it. And I still get to perform and it kind of extends your career.

[00:30:56] Rob Howe: Well, and like what a lesson too, just of like, and I think as people with type 1 diabetes, we get better at adjusting on the fly, maybe because our entire life is that basically you just have to take take whatever your reading is and and sort of keep living your life no matter no matter how many times you bang against the wall so yeah I knew I was at the

[00:31:20] Katelyn Prominski Baud: end with my age you know I was 28 and I if I needed if I would if I were to go back into a ballet company I would have 100% had to have my hip done because actually um before I had my first foot surgery, I was going to have my hip done. And then the foot surgery kind of took precedence because I couldn't wear shoes. And so I was like, so I decided to do the foot first. And so I realized, you know, at 28, if I get my hip done, if that's going to take me out for a year, then I'm gonna have to get back in shape. That's going to take another, you know, six months to a year, I'm going to be 30 by the time I get back. And that to me, I was just like, that's the And that's the end of my career anyways. Ballet dancers, your career is so short that it just, it didn't make sense. But if I moved into Broadway, I wouldn't really have to get my hip done because you're not contorting yourself into those perfect positions all day long. And it's a little more free. Even the ballet dancing was a little more free. And so I was like, I can do this without getting my hip done. And I still have not gotten my hip done all these years later because it's not a problem anymore.

[00:32:31] Rob Howe: and I think too like and now you know you're a Broadway you're on Broadway and you know how many

[00:32:38] Katelyn Prominski Baud: how many musicals did you do you know from then till now um well I toured with Flashdance for almost a year about a year it was a year um I did a show called Dirty Dancing for about two years over about a three-year time. And then I've done a bunch of regional shows. I did a, I guess I've done like six shows since 2013 or so. Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty good. So yeah. Yeah. This is kind of the longest break that I've had. I was performing at the beginning of my pregnancy. I was doing a show just outside of New York. um and so I stopped around Thanksgiving and I think that's you know that obviously where I was

[00:33:30] Rob Howe: kind of going with the the conversation and a great transition is like you non-stop performing and touring you know up until you know really recently Thanksgiving uh yeah and now you are you know 10 weeks from your your due date due time yeah and you know really like the beginning of a new journey. So from one journey to another, from life without diabetes as a dancer to life with diabetes and then life on Broadway and in these musicals and performing to now, you know, an entire new chapter about to open. And also like living with type 1 and being pregnant is a

[00:34:11] Katelyn Prominski Baud: journey in and of itself. What does that mean like? It's been entirely crazy. I mean, being pregnant, I was so fearful of getting my blood sugar down and not having high blood sugars. I didn't want to screw anything up for the baby. You know, if I have a high blood sugar myself, that's one level of guilt. But if I have high blood sugars for the baby and cause it to have congenital heart defects, like that's an entire other story. And so I was super freaked out about that. Um, when I was originally diagnosed with diabetes, you know, in 2012, my A1C was over 13, it was 13.8. And before I got pregnant, I got a very concert and I whittled it down, you know, over the year, for sure, over the years, I've whittled it down. And always kind of when I was performing kind of lived in the sevens. Because you have, you know, your adrenaline goes up and you want to make sure your blood sugar is high enough because you're always going to have a drop later and just kind of maintaining. So it was a little bit higher. And then when I got pregnant, it was 5.8. I go to a very conservative office in New York, which I absolutely love. And now I'm down to 5.3. So I'm feeling pretty good about myself. But it's all just because of my team. If I had to do this by myself without, you know, having a pump, having an Omnipod, having a Dexcom, I don't know what I would do. Even with the Dexcom, I check my blood sugar about 15 times a day because I just want to make sure my numbers are good. And because I'm still active, you know, I'm still exercising, living, you have to stay active in New York. There's no other way, except if there's an or Eastern town, um, then you can take two naps, but you know, I'm still running around all the time and having my doctor's office. I mean, they're pretty much managing my numbers entirely by themselves. Of course I'm tinkering around too, but they are making all of my changes every week. You know, I send my numbers in, they look at my Dexcom, um, 24 seven, you know, I've had them call me one morning and they're like, Hey, what happened last night. I'm like, Oh, no. But it's been really amazing. And performing too, with type 1 diabetes, I mean, has been crazy. Talk about that a little bit. I think, you know,

[00:36:51] Rob Howe: you mentioned you're testing 15 times a day now. Is that a normal thing for you? Or is that just

[00:36:56] Katelyn Prominski Baud: because of the pregnancy? That's just because of the pregnancy before I just have my Dexcom and rely on my Dexcom, which I don't I don't mean to brush it off like that, because it's an absolutely amazing tool that allows me to perform because before I had it was a nightmare trying to perform because I performed for probably two years, two years before I had a Dexcom and, um, I was very against medical devices, which I don't know why I was for so long. Um, and it's, it has saved my life on multiple occasions um as the Dexcom in particular because of you know the the trend arrows that it has you know if we were on a two-show day um I always drop after my show about 100 points and so if I didn't have a Dexcom I wouldn't a really understand that know that because you know you're kind of here I feel like just testing your blood sugar is is kind of a shot in the dark because you have no idea where you're going where you've been or where you know what what's happening where you're trending if you're going up or you're going down but because of Dexcom you have your trend arrows so after Dexcom you know I would see the trend arrows and I could stop the lows before I felt them but before if I did a matinee I would get some food and then I would get you know ready for the next show by the time I was getting ready for the next show, you know, be 15 minutes, I was putting my wig on, you know, I needed to, I'll be warmed up, I would be shaking on the floor sweating, because I would be in the 50s. Because I wouldn't have caught that low. And so that has been the biggest game changer for me. And it has been so helpful, because, you know, when I go on stage, I give it to either my dresser, or the stage manager, and they'll sit there and watch it, you know, if I'm having a scary situation, they'll sit there and watch it uh there have been some times you know where i've been either really low or high or you know who knows what and um they've always been so amazing at watching my numbers and holding you know a fruit strip or glucose or you know ah there we go sorry

[00:39:18] Rob Howe: i've got a screamer we got the pump we were talking about this before my pump Your pod is dying and is empty and my Medtronic 670 has been buzzing at me for the last few minutes because I have like 10 units left and it thinks that that's a major crisis for me.

[00:39:36] Katelyn Prominski Baud: It's totally not. That can get you a lot. I really like to empty my pod before. I love it when you get to that extra eight hours in and you still have a little bit of insulin. But I do try and use it all up. So having a Dexcom has been invaluable because I would not be able to – you're just able to manage healthier numbers while doing what you love, plus you don't have to worry about it.

[00:40:05] Rob Howe: Why do you think – because you mentioned something at the beginning of the conversation about a Dexcom and kind of fighting technology. Why do you think that that was? Because I was very similar. I only started CGM in the fall. No way! 2017 yeah i never had one um stop it because when did you get diagnosed oh 2005 like i've had like 13 years yeah so i i tried i had a medtronic cgm i got trained on one in 2010 maybe and it was like the early n light very like not and even medtronic will admit this like it wasn't great tech and it was it huge it was huge it was huge and it kind of didn't attach right and it fell off literally I remember because I was playing pro basketball at the time and like really training very hard so you are very big I am big yeah yeah I'm like I'm like 6'6 right now and I'm in decent shape I'm like 220 so at the time I was like probably 230 and like in really good shape and like I'm a very rough basketball player so I was like I am skeptical that this is gonna stay on yeah and And within 10 minutes of like a very low intensity workout, it fell off. And I was like, okay, well, I give up on CGM. And so it was years. And really a guest on this podcast, Christine Fallibel, who is out of Colorado, was like, yeah, yeah, you don't have a Dexcom? Like you don't have a CGM? I said, no. And she's like, well, we got to fix that. Let's fix that right now. And so she got me connected with Dexcom and I got on it. That's awesome. uh now i'm using it now because i'm out of uh guardian sensors for my 670 but um i've now i'm now on cgm and i was like i didn't realize what i was missing i got to see now just like with you and your performances i get to see what my bloodshickers did on a chart during a basketball game and i like i wanted to cry afterwards i was so happy because i always wondered i always felt like i knew and like you said like you know you were coming down after a performance and i knew I was going to go up during a game and then come down, but I got to see it on a chart and I was

[00:42:10] Katelyn Prominski Baud: like, wow, I'm right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right about something. I didn't want one for the same reasons. So, you know, I didn't want to be a robot. You know, here I am like 28 years old. I had, you know, of course I had my boyfriend, but I didn't want to be a robot. First of all, second of all I thought that I was managing it fine on my own which I wasn't third of all I with dancing with ballet you know your costumes like sometimes it's just a leotard you always have a guy's hands on you you know if you're doing partnering work you know around your waist if you're doing turns that's they're lifting you from your waist you know your hips or and and I couldn't have it showing under costumes. And so that was the biggest thing that that's why I was like, Oh, it's just it's not going to work for my lifestyle. And I was very like, closed minded about it. But then I realized I could hide it places. And I realized that it stayed on and I have never knocked one off. I have run into walls. I have done crazy partnering. I have never knocked it off. And it's the most people, guys that I'm dancing with, they don't even know, unless I tell them, they don't know I have anything on either, which is the crazy thing. And it's the thing that I tell people now being, you know, I've been on this pump for a year on a pump for this pump on a pump for a year. And I always tell people, I still stand by it that the first thing you need when you're when I talk to new families that they're just diagnosed, the first thing you need is a Dexcom or a continuous glucose monitor, because it just gives you, you know, a whole span of information that you're missing. Because if you see that you're 180, like you have no idea if you're two arrows up, go on your way to, you know, 230, you have no idea, or you're two arrows down, you know, you just don't know. And so I just feel like that's the number one thing that you

[00:44:26] Rob Howe: need. Well, and I think too, like whether it's a Dexcom clarity report, or if you're on a, you know, Medtronic CGM, or a Freestyle Libre, and you're looking at time and range, like A1C is a flawed, like is a flawed measurement. It doesn't, it's just an average, it doesn't show full time. So being able to look at all of your data in a report that's very neatly organized and shows you a lot of different things also provides you with insights.

[00:44:56] Katelyn Prominski Baud: Oh, yeah. It gives you all sorts of clues as to how you should tinker your dosing.

[00:45:03] Rob Howe: It's so helpful. And I think to me, like the first fears and those sort of lies that we built up for ourselves in our head just because of a lack of information or just lack of interest, you know, really can prohibit us from finding something that's really valuable. And, you know, that's the case with most things in life. I think we always we build them up in our head and we come up with preconceived notions about things for whatever reason. And it prevents us from having, you know, access to things that we need. And, you know, to me, looking at those numbers across the entire full day and being able to say, hey, I am validated in how I feel with this. And, oh, hey, you know what? I am 180, but I am one arrow down and I'm on my way back. It's like, you know, if I looked at this, I might give myself insulin. If I looked at this on a meter. Right. Right. And I would crash low afterwards.

[00:45:54] Katelyn Prominski Baud: And then you could be in a scary situation.

[00:45:56] Rob Howe: Right.

[00:45:57] Katelyn Prominski Baud: it's just with a disease that there's just it's it has a mind of its own it does whatever it wants to do you can feel like you're doing everything right and it's still wrong this is like the one thing that is it's like it'll hold your hands through almost because it gives you the information it is now and i think and it allows you to not worry it allows you to live your life and not be like oh what are my numbers or where am i going it's just like you look and you're done you're like okay that's what's up you know it just takes so much stress out of it well and i think knowledge

[00:46:36] Rob Howe: is power whether that's and i mean you can echo that a million times over throughout your entire crazy diagnosis right if you had just known if someone had just recognized that luckily you had a perceptive friend who's not even a doctor she's just a knowledgeable person yeah a true woman of

[00:46:54] Katelyn Prominski Baud: the world and just knows her shit on international women's day exactly exactly on international women's

[00:47:00] Rob Howe: day yeah you know fine get you a woman for a woman friend who knows about chronic illnesses and can diagnose you on the spot i know right um and i think she's a good one to have and i think you know, that just goes to show like all, all to, to sort of put a bow on this conversation here is information that, you know, we, we just don't know what we don't know. Uh, and anything that's going to give you insight into what that is, whether that's your blood sugar throughout a performance and having a team of people there to monitor you, whether it's your parents during a sporting event or it's your stage manager during a performance, um, or, or anywhere in between or your partner while you're traveling on the road and then, you know, or something like that. I think all of those things can help you adjust with life with type 1. And like you said earlier, Beyond Type 1's doing a great job right now, raising awareness on DKA. And for you, you know, during your diagnosis, you know, before you recognizing the symptoms of DKA, diabetic like ketoacidosis, of fatigue and increased, you know, increased thirst, dehydration, sore feet and lower leg weakness, healing, you know, your injuries on your body, not healing very fast. Those were things that you may not have noticed because of the life you were living, a very healthy, active life. And as a dancer, you know, those are things that can just happen and are normal things. But altogether, they can add up to, you know, the sum of those parts is often deadly.

[00:48:34] Katelyn Prominski Baud: Oh, absolutely. And I think if I had gotten to the point where I started, you know, if I had started vomiting, I still probably would have brushed that off, you know, which is like a major sign of DKA. I would have entirely just been like, eh, must have eaten something weird, you know, just because I have that bizarre mindset where I just try and ignore all sorts of problems And so I think, you know, right now, especially during flu season, that this is a really big thing that people need to live with. Like people should not be dying from type 1 diabetes.

[00:49:09] Rob Howe: No.

[00:49:10] Katelyn Prominski Baud: From undiagnosed type 1 diabetes. They shouldn't. And, you know, we can get that kind of information out there to doctors' offices. It doesn't matter if they are seemingly healthy, if it doesn't run in the family. You know, it doesn't matter if they don't fit the necessary profile for type 1 diabetes, because I don't think that there is a profile for type 1 diabetes. But the fact that I was performing at such a high level, it would have never even been a possibility that diabetes is an issue. You know, and I had gone to doctor's offices and I was like, I'm eating tons of food. I'm always starving. And I'm afraid I'm not going to wake up the next morning because my weight is so low. they were like well you should feel lucky that you can eat whatever you want and not gain weight i'm like no that's not it but okay we're gonna continue on you know because you know you're a

[00:50:03] Rob Howe: doctor and i guess whatever you tell me you're telling me nothing's wrong nothing's wrong but what um something was wrong do you do you have anybody else in your family there's no one else in your family with type 1 no genetic no not at all same here no only one no yeah

[00:50:18] Katelyn Prominski Baud: We're the chosen ones.

[00:50:20] Rob Howe: That's right. I always ask this question on my podcast. It's a question I ask all my guests, and I'm really excited to kind of hear your answer. A, because I know the context will be familiar to you because I know you've traveled a lot. So you've got to imagine that you're in an airport, and they're going to close the door to your gate very soon. You've got about 30 seconds, but you bump into somebody who's either been recently diagnosed or is struggling with their type 1, and whatever's on the other end of the flight, you can't miss it. But in that 30 seconds, what's the one thing that you tell them?

[00:50:54] Katelyn Prominski Baud: Oh my God. First I hug them, probably cry and tell them that they need a Dexcom or they need a continuous glucose monitor and to call me.

[00:51:06] Rob Howe: Yeah. I mean, and that's, that's first of all, we all,

[00:51:11] Katelyn Prominski Baud: we all have to say you're going to be okay. Get a continuous glucose monitor.

[00:51:17] Rob Howe: well and i think too you know that's in some ways we we all absorb information differently right we and that moment for that person to hear that because if you had told me to get a continuous glucose monitor a year ago i would have been like and now it's okay i don't need it

[00:51:35] Katelyn Prominski Baud: i'm okay no it's the one thing you do need right the one thing you need in this crazy journey it's the one thing you need. And, you know, teaching, you know, being on tour, I get the opportunity to teach at a bunch of studios all around the country, you know, going in for master classes. And I remember one master class I went in, I was in Kansas, I think it was Kansas. And I went in and I saw a girl and I could see the outline of her Dexcom under her leotard. And I saw she had like a little pouch and I was like no no it wasn't it wasn't the I didn't see the outline of her Dexcom I saw oh wait I have two entirely different stories I'm getting confused here one I saw so a lot of people if they have a little tubed pump they wear those little satchels around the waist and so I saw her wearing that and I said are we part of the same team after the class I you know I let everybody go and I said are we part of the same team do you have type 1 diabetes and we both just tears are streaming down our face. And I'm hugging this strange girl who is, I don't know, 12 or 14. And I told her to get a Dexcom. And it's just, you meet this. And then the other girl, she had an Omnipod. I was running an audition in Massachusetts a couple in January. And she had an Omnipod on. And I just kind of pulled up my arm and showed her my Omnipod. And I was like, look. and it's just it's like you're this special tribe of people that you know exactly it's an entire stranger but you know exactly what that person goes through on a day-to-day basis and it just it's amazing how that kind of connection happens and you you know you're brought together with that person but if I were in an airport I would say that's what I would say and that you'll be okay

[00:53:25] Rob Howe: I love it I and I think you know those moments where we encounter another type 1 in the wild and we you know hey we're on the same team uh i never i never really subscribed this is new for me uh subscribe to like a pump bump or you know which i don't know what's a pump no i don't know what you're talking about so like you know younger kids or you know teens they'll like bump their pumps together there's like uh it's kind of like a fist bump but with pumps and i you know and that's cute and it's kind of corny and everything but i didn't realize how powerful it was until I went to St. Louis a couple weeks ago I was speaking at a JDRF event there and I really I was talking to these little children and I didn't really know what to say to them very much because you know at some point it's just like I wanted to I gave them a big hug and we took a picture and and then I was like you know what I can do I can do a pump bump I can tell them about it and like the the look on their face just to know that somebody else had a pump I wanted to crawl under a table and just cry because I I don't know I didn't I didn't know how important that was until until I got to see it for myself because and there goes your pot again yeah I didn't uh I didn't need that when I was 16 I don't I didn't think or I thought I didn't um and I made it fine without it but yeah having that there and knowing that it's an option and seeing somebody who And for me now, I look at people who are in their 70s and they've had type 1 for 50 plus years. And they're okay. They're fine. And I think now, just 13 years in, I've got a CGM. I've got a hybrid closed loop pump. I've got all the resources that I need. I've got great insulin.

[00:55:11] Katelyn Prominski Baud: Yeah. Your insulin journey, though, your month-long challenge was amazing.

[00:55:18] Rob Howe: that would follow oh thank you that was awesome it was i'm so glad i'm not it's i'm so glad it's over to be honest with you because it was uh and i cheated i had a dexcom so like i could cheat with it but like the the quality of insulin you know from when that insulin was released in the 70s to today is incredible and i think talking with those people who had to deal with that and to them you know in the 70s when it came out that was like a huge innovation um and seeing how that you know You know, they're still doing what they want to do. They don't have any complications. And that gave me so much encouragement for people like us who are in the first phase of our life with type 1. And, you know, as we get to 20 years, as we get to 40 years, I felt more and more hope for what we're going to deal with along the way. Yeah.

[00:56:09] Katelyn Prominski Baud: I definitely think we're looking at not having to manage this in the next 10. And I mean, I'm not a doctor. I don't have the research. But we will have a cure or a reasonable solution in our lifetime, for sure.

[00:56:26] Rob Howe: Absolutely. And, you know, I'm looking forward to that day where we can all just take that extra thinking off our plate.

[00:56:34] Katelyn Prominski Baud: Yeah. Yeah. And that's also what these tools help you do. You know, if you want to be, you know, resistant to them. I've spoken with a couple, you know, kids who are in college and, you know, they're just not into it. It just makes everything so much better being on a pump and having a continuous glucose monitor. It just takes so much of the stress out of it. Plus, you're going to start managing your diabetes better. Plus, you're going to start feeling better, you know, and that's what this is all about is being feeling the best that you can and not letting. I mean, that's kind of what I go by. I don't like letting diabetes get in my way. And if you can have these tools, make it happen.

[00:57:17] Rob Howe: Well, and I understand those young kids. Like I didn't want to pump initially because a pump wasn't sexy to me. I understand not wanting to have an extra device on you. But you're right. It makes just things a lot easier. And you know what? A CGM, any of the CGMs that I've tried, and they're even getting better, none of them have been inconvenient to wear.

[00:57:37] Katelyn Prominski Baud: No. Oh, no.

[00:57:38] Rob Howe: And now, you know, Athleta the other day came out with that ad with the girl with the Dexcom. Oh, wasn't that wonderful?

[00:57:44] Katelyn Prominski Baud: Wasn't that great? I loved it. I saw that. I actually saw it in an email my mom had sent me. She goes, look, this girl's wearing a continuous glucose monitor. It's like, oh, my God. And then they came out with the whole thing. It just seemed so normal.

[00:57:55] Rob Howe: I loved it.

[00:57:56] Katelyn Prominski Baud: I know. And it is normal. And you know what? If you're worried about wearing one, you know, if you're younger, if you're in college or whatnot, teenager, and you're worried about wearing one about what other people are going to think, get new friends. I mean, I know that's a very horrible thing to say, but the people that love you and care about you won't care about it. They'll think it's cool, and they'll be happy that, you know, you have something that's helping to save your life, and you're not going to have to experience those lows or those highs. You know, once I remember, you know, the first two shows I did, I didn't have one. and then when I got one all those people I had done those shows with were like thank god you got one because you know it just takes so much stress out of it yes it does Katelyn, thanks so much for

[00:58:47] Rob Howe: taking the time to chat with us today that was awesome breath of fresh air you are an awesome person and I uh you know appreciate everything that you kind of opened up with us today thank

[00:58:58] Katelyn Prominski Baud: Thank you so much. It was awesome talking to you too.

[00:59:00] Rob Howe: And also, best of luck on the home stretch of your pregnancy. Oh my gosh, thank you. You and your husband welcome your new addition to the family.

[00:59:09] Katelyn Prominski Baud: Thank you so much. We're excited. We're really excited.

[00:59:13] Rob Howe: For people who want to get in touch with you online, what is the best way for them to do that?

[00:59:17] Katelyn Prominski Baud: Yes, I live on Instagram and my handle tag username is Katelyn Baud, K-A-T-E-L-Y-N-B-A-U-D on Instagram.

[00:59:32] Rob Howe: Awesome. Well, we will for sure include a link to your profiles in the show notes. But for those people who listen just via apps instead of coming from Instagram or the website, that's a great way for them to just type that in and follow you and find out.

[00:59:46] Katelyn Prominski Baud: because I think we all the easiest yeah it's the easiest way for that I get information out get information in you know before it was kind of Twitter but now I just it's for me Instagram is it's you is the fastest way for me to respond to somebody and I love responding you know talking to people about their questions and everything especially with dancing because it's not an easy

[01:00:08] Rob Howe: thing to manage with diabetes well I uh any any dancers that I come across that are looking for advice I will for sure point them in any direction so I'm super glad we got to meet you

[01:00:18] Katelyn Prominski Baud: cannot wait thank you so much