Diabetics Doing Candid Stories About T1D Life with Janet Dyer

[00:00:00] Rob Howe: Welcome back to the Diabetics Doing Things podcast where we're telling the amazing, untold, wacky, weird, and inspiring stories of type 1 diabetics from across the world. I'm your host, Rob Howe, and I wanted to let you know that we now have over 500 years of living with T1D on the podcast, and we're on track to be over 1,000 by the end of the summer, which is pretty exciting. I also wanted to chat about my new email series, Friday T1D Feels, where I send you a personal note, no fancy graphics or anything like that, about what I've been thinking about in the world of type 1 diabetes during that week. If you're into that, just go to diabeticsdoingthings.com and sign up. I'd also like to take a minute to talk about hashtag Coverage2Control. JDRF is raising awareness around the fact that most of us don't get to pick the insulin pumps we have, just the ones our insurance will cover. Just imagine if your cell phone was like that. Except this isn't a phone, it's what keeps us alive. So let your voice be heard and tell your insurance company that T1Ds and their doctors should decide what kind of pumps they use, not the company's. I'm looking at you, Aetna, UnitedHealthcare, Blue Cross Blue Shield. Let's get this right. Okay, enough chatter. Let's get back to the episode. hello and welcome back to another episode of diabetics doing things we're telling the amazing stories of type 1 diabetics all over the world and i'm very happy to have another international guest with me today uh calling from calgary uh is janet dyer janet thanks so much for coming on the show thank you thanks i'm happy to be here well we're happy to have you so um let's just dive right into it. For those of us who don't know you, kind of give it, tell us who you are, and how did you get ushered into this type 1 diabetic community? Well, basically, I'm a beautician, kind of a little bit of mixture of makeup artist and

[00:02:01] Janet Dyer: kind of body paint, I guess, for professional-wise. Otherwise, I'm kind of a weird creative type personality. I ended up having diabetes. There's my Southerner coming out. I ended up having diabetes when I was probably, I got diagnosed when I was just turning 16, but they said that I actually contracted was the word that the doctors gave me when I was about 12 when my dad passed away. So I'm a strange case because it kind of derived out of a weird, like a mixture of stress, bacteria, and like hormones kind of thing, because there's no one in my family that has diabetes. I'm the only one in almost four generations.

[00:02:55] Rob Howe: Really? So a long period between the time that your body came in?

[00:03:02] Janet Dyer: Yeah, it incubated, I guess, within the system until it just decided to rear up just before my 16th birthday, probably around, well, ironically, right? But probably about now because I actually was released from the hospital probably just a few days before my birthday or probably a week before my birthday. And my birthday is in 27 days.

[00:03:28] Rob Howe: Wow. So like really kind of like right before summertime.

[00:03:32] Janet Dyer: Yeah.

[00:03:33] Rob Howe: And I'm not sure.

[00:03:34] Janet Dyer: It was weird. It was weird being a 16-year-old having a birthday and not being like, do I have cake? What do I do? Like, can I have this? Can I not have this? Like I'd been so accustomed to living a completely normal life as everyone else knows it. And then all of a sudden, bam, boom, all this stuff happens within like a two and a half week period time, I guess. And that was it. My life was changed.

[00:03:59] Rob Howe: So, well, and it's, it's interesting too, right? Cause you're so used to being just like a normal kid and not even having to think about those things. Right. So, um, and I want to, I want to back up just a little bit before we kind of go into the diagnosis. So you have this terrible event in your life, right? And it causes a lot of stress. And they, um, I think there are a lot of cases now there's a lot of research around like stress and hormones causing, um, a type 1 diabetic reaction, right. With your, with your beta cells. Um, so what were you, you know, what did you feel like from that point between the time you were 12 to, you know, almost 16, you know, what kind of, did you have any symptoms? Did you feel off? Like, did you notice anything?

[00:04:44] Janet Dyer: I never had anything until literally the month of April of my 16th birthday. It was in 95 when I actually started, like, having, like, any symptoms whatsoever, which is a weird age for it to happen because it was almost three years later than when my dad had passed away. so it it wasn't something anybody was really thinking about and for all cases like for anyone in concern we kind of just thought it was just some sort of like infection or something like that so when I went to the hospital and they actually like did all the wonderful tests and they were like well actually there's a lot of glucose in your urine like what like what does this all mean and literally the next day I didn't get home and barely had a good night's sleep uh The doctor called and I was being rushed in an ambulance to the hospital in the nearest city near me. And that was the last day of my normal life before I became a type 1 diabetic. So, yeah, it's really weird how it didn't just kind of surface quickly. It just kind of took its time until it really decided just to rear.

[00:06:02] Rob Howe: Yeah, it's very interesting. I think, you know, most people will have like a typical type 1 diagnosis if there even is such a thing, right? Where, you know, you have that moment very similar to like how you notice really like the month before and then with no, you know, trace back to where it may come from or it may run in their family or something like that. So I know for me, example, like I got I got the flu shortly before and the doctors guessed. I mean, they didn't really know for sure, but very similar. I don't have it in my family. No one's ever been diagnosed with it as far back as we can go. And so they said, well, maybe the stress from the flu caused the autoimmune reaction, which caused your beta cells to respond and destroy themselves. So, you know, something very similar to you. But there's so much research now that shows that, you know, you're from the initial response. So, you know, back before when you were younger, sometimes it takes a long time for all those beta cells to die out.

[00:07:03] Janet Dyer: It's so funny because I grew up in a place where everyone, almost everywhere, had type 2 diabetes. So type 1 wasn't something that I knew about. Like, I never really met another type 1 until I moved away to actually encounter somebody that was like, wow, you're like me? Because, like, everyone was just, where I grew up, it was all about, like, well, you didn't eat well, so this is what happened. So, I mean, even to find someone who could even answer, like, questions, like, really, like, to my satisfaction, I guess, wasn't until I went to, like, a bigger city to actually learn about that. So I think it's also kind of hard when you're in that kind of small kind of mentality that I didn't realize there was so many more of us out there and like all the strange things and like everything that like happens. It was just like finally in the last little like couple, like 10, maybe 15 years, it's so nice to like to hear other people and hear their stories and their struggles and to finally know that like I wasn't this weird like freak of nature that the doctors made me out to see. Like every time I went to the hospital, they all gathered around me and like made these like incredible notes and stuff. And I was just like, I'm not that different. Like I don't I don't understand.

[00:08:17] Rob Howe: Right now. And I think that's like, you know, diabetes isn't unique to a particular location. Right. So, you know, I've talked to people who were in rural areas of Texas. and, you know, so I, and I think where it's maybe less common or there's less, you know, there's not an endocrinologist, for example. Yeah. And, you know, the general practitioner has limited experience, maybe just from medical school. So, you know, you, you mentioned that the ambulance picked you up and took you to the nearest town. Well, it's city. City, city, sorry. Yeah. So how, how far away was that? About an hour. Wow. So you took an hour ambulance ride. yeah and and i think that's um you know it's important it's important for us now especially in the age of now with social media right like which is how um you know we got in touch with each other obviously but it's a lot more connected and there's a lot more awareness i think um you know when you're first getting diagnosed you know you mentioned it was i believe 1995 is when you were diagnosed? Yes. So, you know, back then there was no, you know, you couldn't go onto a search engine and search data. I just got diagnosed with diabetes. What do I do? Um, and I think now, you know, there's so much more information. There's so many great organizations. And then there's also just people out there who are type 1 and being living very open. So it's much, there's much more awareness and education. And I think more, you know,

[00:09:46] Janet Dyer: when people get diagnosed now, we totally, it was like, it was like, I felt chained when I was first diagnosed that was I never wanted to tell anybody about it I never wanted to talk about it I didn't want to tell my parents like how to help deal with me because I was so like it was almost like I was ashamed to have this thing because everyone would always be like constantly criticizing me and critiquing and it would just felt like yeah you know like it's so much nicer now that we have like those like options where you can just like enter into a search bar like, you know, help for this. And boom, there's all kinds of sources and people and opinions and thoughts. And it's just, it's so much wonderful because when I was younger, we just, we didn't

[00:10:28] Rob Howe: have that kind of support and community. Well, and I think, you know, that's, it's, it's good that we're, you know, at that place where, you know, now we can, right. There's so many more resources, but, um, also there's a lot of feelings like, um, where, you know, you've, you might've gotten, you might've given up on connecting with other diabetics, right? Because they were either hard to find, or you maybe didn't have a good experience, um, with them at first, or didn't think that there was anybody like you, especially in those areas. Um, so, you know, you mentioned and, and in your, in your Instagram bio, it says type 1 diabetic or T1D. Um, has that always been, you know, since you were diagnosed, has that always been something you identify with,

[00:11:12] Janet Dyer: or has it been more recently no no um at first I like I said I like I I would hide it as well as I could like I wouldn't even if I got a job I would tell my manager my boss and that was it I didn't want it to ever have people change the way that they treated me I never wanted to be like a special case in any like I just wanted to just kind of just blend in to the background and just kind of do do what I need to do and kind of like move on but then as like I mean as a young kid you don't really know what like what lies out in like the real world because school and like life is like pretty like kind of like a little bit more sheltered until you get out there and have to face like all kinds of interesting conflicts and interactions and I wouldn't say until I maybe hit about like 30 yeah maybe about 30 ish is when I really was like okay this is this is something that I need to not like have it wear me that I'm wearing it for so long I didn't I identified with it kind of being like this like attachment to me it was like this thing that I wasn't super proud of to have and eventually it just got to the point where I think and through like personal struggles and just life experiences and everything that it just became to the point where just like my height I just learned to embrace it and that's just that's just part of who I am and some people are really wonderful at trying to understand and some people just don't get it and that's that's totally cool as long as we can you know all kind of try to get along and yeah but it's not something I was really ever very willing to come forward with because I was so afraid of what were people going to say was I going to have to explain a bunch of things like it just there's so much and I think that it's like that everywhere but there's so much kind of like well you're not supposed to have that well what are you doing with that well and then in some cases there's people who straight up were like so what are you shooting there like can I buy some from you and I'm like really are you retarded you can't you what what what time and space would you ever see me injecting something into my body

[00:13:30] Rob Howe: and be like yeah i think i can get high off of that right i think and i mean that is i think is like an extreme example right like very oh i would hope so right and and i think like but it stems from something um that real like true lack of awareness right so yeah um even me personally i I never wanted it to slow me down or people to treat me different because of it. So I think I would get defensive a lot because of that, even when people were just being curious. And I think caused myself a lot more like I was pretty wound up about it sometimes.

[00:14:05] Janet Dyer: It's hard not to be, though, because it's so personal for you, you know?

[00:14:10] Rob Howe: Well, it is, because I think anytime you hear like disease, right, you think something's wrong with me. and you know you mentioned that you sort of accepted it along with your height and I'm not sure how tall you are but you know part like part of being and growing up like becoming comfortable with yourself and I'm finding and I see sort of a common theme among type ones especially more recently is that as they begin to you know grow as a person and sort of grow up and say, Hey, I am who I am. Like I am where I am and that's okay. Um, then they start to say, Oh yeah, well, there's also all these people out there who have the same disease as me. And if I could help one of them, I'm happy to. Um, so that's, that's, that's exactly it. Because when

[00:14:59] Janet Dyer: I turned 30, I also started, um, doing reflexology and I'd been a makeup artist and like an esthetician most of my life. But that, that pivotal point, cause a lot of stuff happened to me personally and like I guess you could say professionally at that age so coming into a space where it brought an ease of accepting things it brought a clarity of instead of asking these stupid why questions because what it's like a little kid right why why why well there's you can't always ask answer the whys but if you can quiet that and just bring some sort of like centeredness and that was the key to so many things was that finding just a time to breathe because you always feel like there's a bazillion things you need to be worried about or thinking about and just having that that connection for me to something that just made me feel more comfortable and being more aware just really helped to change a lot of my perspective towards how I felt about my, well, and now I call it my, like, it's my illness. It's just, it's something that affects me, but it's not in control of me anymore.

[00:16:13] Rob Howe: Right. And I think it's so easy to get caught up on the number.

[00:16:19] Janet Dyer: Yeah.

[00:16:20] Rob Howe: Right. Like you, um, you're so busy, you know, because you check your blood sugar four or five times a day, right. If you're, or, you know, maybe more, maybe less. And you see that number on there and then you're like reactive to it and you're in it's easy to become like a slave to it right so yeah I guess how did you you know how did that change in perception and that change in in the way that you looked at your illness how did that change you know what the way that you treated or the way that you you know approached every day well I mean I think it's something

[00:16:57] Janet Dyer: that you always kind of like struggle with anyway at least I mean I'm I'm 37 and I still have a hard time with it like I mean like change is a hard thing like you have to adjust to it but I think that like for the most part it just like I said though I had three major three major years in my life where I really had to sit down and everything basically fell apart and I had to start over so in terms of that I'm the type of mentality that if I'm going to do something then okay we're we're starting all over like if one thing's done then everything needs to kind of be renovated so I just kind of I took everything that I learned and all these like for for me personally at least having like the new plethora of options of how to how to manage just my my mental state because for me that was one thing that I struggled with the most was when I got mentally stressed out without it when I'm sure you know even that as soon as that happens you're just like it's like oh how did it go like 10 points in like 20 minutes like what the hell like oh yeah I got stressed out like just simple things that used to like really like you said like wind you up and just like kind and get those like emotions going just started to not be what they were I just things don't affect me and I and I hate that answer because I hate telling other people that because I'm like because that makes me feel completely helpless that I can't help them but it just was something that I needed to wrap my head around that okay so this is this we would breathe we do this I can just like literally just kind of like take the power and like the awareness of all the focus and just kind of like break it up and okay so this is what we can do about this and this is what we can't and really just i know it sounds cheesy but that's that's the best way i can describe it

[00:19:00] Rob Howe: well it's just a little i think certainly we've all heard like you can only control what you can control right um but that doesn't make it any easier for us to actually apply so i think it's Exactly. Cheesy things have their, uh, have their place. I think, you know, if it's a little bit corny at times, like, um, it's probably, it probably got that way because you haven't maybe applied it to, you know, actually work for you. So I'm a, I'm a big believer in, you know, breaking things down and solving the problem. Um, and also like really look at what's causing the problem. Like if you're, if you're stressed out, it may be not that you're stressed out that particular moment but you know what's really causing your stress like are you sleeping enough are you is it because you maybe you're going out and partying and you're not getting enough sleep and that makes you late well that work or whatever the case may be exactly and so you got to see how

[00:19:50] Janet Dyer: the whole thing fits together yeah what what the small details are that are making the big picture and really like what you have in that because that's just it i mean like we feel like we always don't have control right but really really we do because you always have a choice you do

[00:20:07] Rob Howe: Except the choice isn't always so cut and dry and it's not always easy. Exactly.

[00:20:11] Janet Dyer: Exactly. It can't always be easy because, I mean, that's life, right?

[00:20:18] Rob Howe: So I want to focus on this for a little bit because I think this is really great. As you're making those changes in your life and you're kind of coming into that self-acceptance and you're fixing those things that you're starting over, what were some of the hard choices you had to make as a diabetic?

[00:20:36] Janet Dyer: I don't know man everything felt hard like everything just I ever since this like kind of like came into my life or came into me um it just it it's it's always there like it's like it's like if I had like like a pet or like a like an inner child who is always like attached to my side that's literally even like even today even when I go up this morning like every choice that I have it's like I kind of check with it and be like are you cool with this like just so that we can both kind of reside in the same kind of being so I mean it's it's I would say at that point though it was more like again it was just kind of like a level of stress because I was in a place where it was physical and mental abuse daily. And it kind of was like, okay, well, nothing I'm doing is really working, so let's try to do something else. So then I went from being in one chaotic state to legitimately jumping into another chaotic state because now I'm trying to do everything back over, everything from learning how to cook for myself, shop for myself for better food because, I mean, yeah, you know crazy adjustment has to happen so I mean I moved to another city I like tried to get reacquainted with like the path that I believe that I needed to be on so like bringing into like coming into new people and trying to like explain I'm kind of like because I got to the point where I when I would meet people I'd not like not be like super like in your face about it but I would like casually mention it throughout like conversation like oh yeah like this is something that I am or that affects me in kind of ways just because I wanted people to kind of know beforehand because at that point I was really not handling stress very well because I was so up and down so I mean I just learned to have a little bit more patience with myself because I think that's the hardest thing in any life regardless of what you're like suffering and or not suffering from is just trying to not be so hard on yourself because you you you know that you have these levels that you want to attain and you want to achieve and you want to be this person you want to be this health and you want to live this long but like really you just need to worry about the here and the now and what's going to get you through to the next point and then from there on because trying sometimes to look too big is almost like suffocating, at least for somebody of kind of my personality. Like it was just like it was so overwhelming after all the change I'd been through and all the realizations that I had made. It was just, yeah.

[00:23:37] Rob Howe: And I think it's easy to be, especially I think your personality is similar to mine in that you want to jump all in. you learn something new or you make a decision and you want to jump all into it right away. Yeah. And I think it's it's important to learn to soften that, soften those edges a bit because, you know, you're going to that those things are still going to be there just like applying that effort. So it's exactly it's like a sort of softer focus and just aware that everything's there. But understanding that, you know, it's going to only going to move exactly. It's not being so

[00:24:12] Janet Dyer: rigid it's exactly like that like some one of my close friends had said it like you really need to be more like a tree and I was like what it's like you know you need to kind of just like be able to bend and like sway and like take things with how it goes because the more that you fight things the harder it's always gonna be and regardless if it's that's my sugars or if that's my work life or like whatever personal struggles you're going through the more that you fight something I feel like it just it makes it worse like when I was in counseling the first thing that she did was she put her hand up to mine I'm doing it like you can see it so it's kind of funny we put we put our hands up against each other and she's like what do you feel and I said I feel resistance and she drops her hand and she said what do you feel now and I said I don't feel any resistance and she said exactly that persistence is resistance until you can accept something you cannot change it and And I was like, whoa, that's like it changed my life.

[00:25:12] Rob Howe: Yeah. And I think like at that moment, you were ready for that. Oh, yeah.

[00:25:17] Janet Dyer: You need to be able to hear it because if you're not ready to hear it, it's not going to happen.

[00:25:21] Rob Howe: Right. And I think that's, you know, that's true. Like some people might be listening and be like, if somebody told me be like a tree, I would be I would look at them and say, you know, what do you mean? so I think it all depends on you know your willingness and um who it's coming from too yeah oh absolutely and also I think like ability to be in that moment like like you said you're you were saying who who it is matters so you're in that moment in therapy or in counseling where you're looking to make a change right so yeah in a different scenario that you know in that context is really what matters.

[00:26:00] Janet Dyer: Oh, totally. Because I mean, I've been in a different place and I've heard people say things like that. And it was just like the offense that I felt was like, and I mean, obviously there's no offense intended by said person, usually, generally. Sometimes people are assholes. So I mean, there can be those people. But for the most part, I feel like when people are trying to offer advice, they are coming from a good intention. They're trying to be like, you know this is how I care so I'm trying to show you that but just because of of the I mean again like personal struggles whatever you're kind of like the mental battle is that you're like you don't want to hear that because you're like well what do you mean like that's that's that's total crap like that doesn't make any sense to me it doesn't apply to me in any way and it's not until you're in like because I mean my I have I call him my soul brother because I'm a I'm an only child so I don't actually have other siblings but um he's the closest thing to my brother and I always we always have that conversation and it's just like you just you need to just you know

[00:27:02] Rob Howe: you need to just let go so after that moment right where like persistence is resistance she drops the hand things kind of fall into focus for you how did that change uh I mean even your just day-to-day or the way you looked at your numbers the way you had the conversation with uh your you know inner child or pet that you can carry on your pet diabetes

[00:27:27] Janet Dyer: Well, you start talking to them with a lot more kindness, I would say. Instead of it being that battle again, it's a little bit more like a parental kind of conversation. like so what did you learn in school today kind of thing like so what are we gonna do with like with this like it's not it wasn't so much like trying to get like an upper ground it was just

[00:27:54] Rob Howe: trying to coexist and really just learning it and isn't that so counter it was it was right

[00:28:02] Janet Dyer: uh to well and trying to and i know well that's that's just it like i i think there's i i don't know like you guys are different with like your whole medical system and stuff like that because up here we're way different but I mean even in terms of of having like oh I'm hopefully I don't get in trouble for that but like quote-unquote free health care as a type 1 diabetic nothing nothing is ever really free especially your life support so I mean there's been times in my life where I have completely struggled like saving each like amount like each little drop that I had just because I know it was going to count trying to make sure that I use my needles a bazillion times over because I can't afford to buy new ones like there's there's so many struggles within that and within trying to like just know that you can't do what you need to do to get yourself to like a good point so you have no other choice than to try to find alternatives so you learn how to like not obviously like not irresponsibly but like you learn to find ways of like of of being creative and being like okay so if this is what happens when I get really stressed out my sugar goes really high and I don't want that to happen so now what do I do for next time this happens and for me I guess and much like you like to break it down into really kind of like okay these are the possible scenarios this is what I'm going to try next time and eventually you get a method that does work I mean it's it's not easy but I mean And again, nothing is going to be really easy. If it's super easy, I think it was too good to be true and it's probably not real.

[00:29:41] Rob Howe: Right. And like another corny saying, because we have a million of them, like, you know, nothing easy is ever worth it, right? It's never. Exactly. Exactly. So I want to talk a little bit about the like dispelling some health care myths, because I think a lot of people in the U.S. especially not necessarily diabetics, it's just general people would be like yeah oh canada socialized health care free health care everything so

[00:30:06] Janet Dyer: i mean what's it like for a type 1 i i do not want to like canada is like i absolutely love love love this country i think we are so blessed to live where we do and i can say that because i am half american my my mom came from the states um my dad was from montreal it's funny that you mention it because he's actually from Montreal earlier we had talked about that um but um like I think for a normal average person who doesn't have any kind of like say health ailments like a type 1 diabetic does the health system is fabulous because I mean you go into the doctor you do what you need to do you walk out with a prescription and then that's the only time when you really have to worry per se is when you have to like pay for something and in those terms I I mean, we have great pharmacies because a lot of them have super generic options, which are super cheap. Same thing, just not same brand name. So you can get what you need to for a really good price. And that's it. You walk out, you feel better. Everything's great. But when it comes to, I've always, and again, I don't know very many Canadians that have type 1 diabetes. But the few that I do, like two of them are on a pump and it's way different. and I can't afford to be on a pump. Like that's straight up, that is beyond my tax bracket. Like that's like a dream kind of thing. Like so I think that they're probably a little bit more better off in that term just because they come from like parents who have a lot of income and they can help them kind of like when they're younger to do those kind of things. So that once they're older, it's a little bit more accessible. Whereas someone who has been from like a very, very poverty stricken kind of like family to like a single parent income to then just being a single person trying to like go through kind of life. Like it's it's not that easy, like trying to like just because I have a prescription for something doesn't mean that I'm not going to pay a whole bunch for it. and I mean granted like in this like I can't say that because I read about what's going on in the states with insulin and it breaks my heart because at least I can still I can still honestly afford my insulin I don't like when I was like when I was jobless and struggling yeah it was really really scary but I still there was still people who if you if I went to them and said like I need help they would give me help like here's a couple like here's some pen um vials here's some here's some needles like and I even know I have a girlfriend who would like bring me like little baggies of like oh I got some like some new needles for you like yay so there's always like kind of like little like little surprises and like there's always going to be like a really cool person like a pharmacy who's like I see you're struggling like here like here's some of our testers like like test like demo kind of things like this box is what we use for educating so here's a couple needles like just to get you through the day until you can get more whatever but like my insulin without having like coverage from like a secondary or like um like supplemental health care is still like incredibly incredibly expensive because where I was living in the province where I was it was based on your income and the more money you made the less the more you had to pay and the less that you made, the less you have to pay. So when I was doing hardly nothing there, it was great because my income was super cheap or my insulin part of me is super cheap. But then once I started living and making a job or having a job and trying to like support myself, the cost of my insulin would go up and I'd actually get, I'd have to have my mom help me pay for it because it's still not cheap. Like no matter where you are, you guys, I'm sorry, but like, I don't know what it's going to take for people to see that we need this to live, that this is our lifeline, that we shouldn't be made to pay that much for something that keeps us alive 24-7. I don't think they understand how much it means to us and to have to be that scared that like, do I have enough for the rest of this month? Do I have enough for tomorrow? It's really not that, unless you have people, a lot of people I know are in marriages, or in like families still that like their parents cover them up until a certain age and it's way easier for them but for a single person like myself and the beautiful big city

[00:34:43] Rob Howe: that I'm in like it's it's it's not easy well and I think you know there that your story is the sad part of all of it is that your story is not it's not like one in a million you know exactly Exactly. Exactly. And that's not to take away from the struggle, but I think it's like the awareness of the situation is very low. Exactly. It's what connects us again. Again, exactly. And I think I was one of my really close friends who was actually on the podcast in one of the first episodes, switch jobs. And, you know, when you switch jobs, you switch insurance. And, you know, she was having a conversation, you know, early on with, I guess, really like three months into the job. So, you know, she had been there for a while, So any reserves of medicine that she had saved, you know, were pretty much gone at this point. Yeah. And she had to borrow a vial of insulin from me. And because her insurance kept saying that, like, oh, well, we're going to get to it. And then they wouldn't call her back and they wouldn't approve the insulin. And they're like, well, you don't need it. And the person on the other end of the phone, it's not necessarily their fault. They don't know any better. But the problem is that there's no education. And, you know, you look at diabetes on a page and you don't distinguish between type 1 or type 2. The treatment is so different. And, you know, even now I'm going through an insurance thing right now where certain type 1 treatments like pens, for example, are covered by some insurances and some and then others don't cover just vials of insulin that I use because I have a pump. so um you know just looking and working your way through that um it's it's um it's not easy and so and i think there needs to be a bigger awareness about it because there's a lot of people you know uh in the u.s like 1.25 million people and 40,000 new people diagnosed every year and how many more in canada uk new zealand all over the world i know that there's this great organization called T1 International, who their founder, Elizabeth Rowley, actually came on the podcast as well. They're fighting for global insulin reform. And I think that's something, your story especially, I'm going to link you guys up after we get done with the interview, because I think your story is very, very powerful. And they're trying to raise awareness for people, for example, in Syria and other war-torn nations where people are dying from type 1, but they're getting classified as war deaths. So I can't that that breaks my heart to even think about that. That's terrible. And there's no way to to count them, you know, and so, you know, they're trying to to help that voice and help that that person, that type 1 who walks through. There's a kind of a viral post that they put up. There's like a guy walks 30 miles through a minefield just to get his insulin so um you know are there's a lot of people all over the world who and even in like ethiopia for example where every like the best care is like expired insulin and maybe one test a month um you know just having to go off of feeling and i think um that's why those stories are important and um so you should definitely tell yours i think it's really really powerful

[00:38:08] Janet Dyer: well like you said it's it I think everything kind of has a time and a place and it's just like with acceptance as well right that there comes a time and a place where just everything just clicks in for you and I believe at my age because I'm not I'm not necessarily getting any younger I mean with age does come a little bit of of I'd like to say wisdom I know I'm not like academically smart but I have some life skills I'd like to think but I think just after seeing so many things and being through so many things you just kind of like just like just like those people are coping where they are and just like we're coping with our first world kind of like struggles which are still very real and like scary all the same like we just trying to just accept that and like trying to find that patience within ourself to be like okay so how am I going to get through this today and how am I still going to have like the strength to

[00:39:06] Rob Howe: survive tomorrow right because that inner child that pet's not going anywhere well exactly because

[00:39:12] Janet Dyer: no matter what you do you can never go back to that that time in that place before like well I mean obviously if you're like older like how like how we were but like if you're born with it like that's something different but like to go back to that point in your life where you're like this is when I didn't have it and I was completely normal like there's this wonderful post that I had read by this 16 year old girl who um she put into words the feelings of like trying to accept that because I always struggled with even the label of like it was like my demon because it literally felt like when it when things happened I left and it came in and it made me somebody I I didn't like no matter what kind of situation, whether that's like a low or a high or stress or whatever the situation was, feeling like I left myself and let something else come in was like one of my biggest triggers where it was like, hey, we need to do something now. because feeling that that disconnect from from what I know and from like my my body and like my source of grounding like sorry I'm sounding like a hippie now because I I believe in some kind of alternative things compared to like organized kind of thinking but I just I like to feel in my body and I like to feel not necessarily in control but aware of what's going on and that always made me feel like I wasn't the one who could have that so that was just that was my triggering point of like okay now we're gonna break it down now we're gonna do this so I mean what whatever kind of method we have to go through unfortunately can take some time but I think once we finally get to it you get to that place where you can you can be honest about it and you can talk about the good and the bad equally because I think for a lot of us we were again that that feeling of when you're young like you even even when you're like talking to other diabetics or other people like you want to seem like I've got this together like don't worry about that like no don't worry I'm in control you're not like I mean even when you're in a vehicle you're not actually in control because other factors can happen and completely stare you off so I mean it's it you know like uh I don't know I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself

[00:41:28] Rob Howe: there no I think I think um and I think everybody who is a type 1 is going to be like raising the roof when they hear that because it's very that's one of the things that's hardest to explain to people who are not type 1 um who are not who are not you know doctors i think maybe understand it but yeah people don't understand like oh you like what do you mean it's it like varies don't you

[00:41:50] Janet Dyer: don't you got no see i was actually my i had one of the most amazing diabetes nurses and she told me that there was a i'm not gonna say where wherever because that's not cool but there was a legitimate like fancy doctor with all kinds of credentials and everything who asked her so how do you tell the difference between a type 1 and a type 2 and she looked at him and she was like you're you're joking right and he was like no you can't physically tell them apart and she was like still waiting for the punch line and no he was legitimately serious like there are some people that just even if you're in a medical profession you don't they don't have the desire to try to understand like the woman that that that changed my life took tests herself she took shots of saline to know what it was like to take her needles she lived like us so she could understand us there's not enough people in the world that have that much empathy or compassion to try to like because a lot of people don't get it that we are we are we are special like we're not we're not like everybody else as much as we want to be like everybody else we are this select little group that has been chosen to have the patience and to have the compassion and to have help the awareness of you know this is who we are and this is what we do and like we really need you guys to understand and like maybe not cut so many jokes about us because you know what if you have that big mac meal supersize you probably won't get the diabetes that i have but you might get some health problems like that doesn't make it any more funnier to me right no i and i think

[00:43:23] Rob Howe: Like, you know, it's a daily battle, right? Like it's just you got to keep living. You got to keep, you know, processing it your own way. And there are going to be people who don't understand. And there are going to be people who are, you know, misinformed or will ask the same questions. And I think, you know, those are the things when, you know, you talked about kind of first world problems. Like first world diabetic problems is, you know, whenever someone says, you know, how many times have you read on Instagram in the last month? Like, oh, quote, you don't look like you have diabetes. Right. Like so. And I mean, and so there's so there's so much and there's so much to react to and respond to. But, you know, I like to look at us when you were talking about, you know, we are this special group of people. Yeah, I think, you know, we're a lot of like we were all very different and some of us are really young and we're all little like data scientists. that put like data into action. And some of us are robots, you know? So it's just this very cool group of people who you instantly have something in common with. And I think for me, getting to know and getting to have conversations with other type ones has been, you know, super rewarding for me because it was something that I didn't know how much I needed. Yeah. And so, you know, I would always encourage and I do all the time, anyone to get involved with any type of community,

[00:44:46] Janet Dyer: whether online or in person yeah especially for the communication and the dialogue because really like I find some like some people are a little bit more like private about it and that almost like puts me off because I'm like well why do you not want it because it takes me back to that place where I was where it was like why do you not want to talk about it like I don't you know it's like we need to talk about it even if you're even if it's your bad or even if it's your good we still need to talk about it because that's exactly why everything in this world is shifting now like the more that you talk about things you bring it to light and you take that kind of like that weird kind of darkness away from it and it's it's not so bad to like have out there anymore you know

[00:45:32] Rob Howe: it's not you know it's not so bad um kind of as we sort of wind down the interview which has been fantastic I think is is uh you know really an amazing conversation um and you may have already covered this a bit but um if you had one thing to say to someone who was just diagnosed with diabetes whether they were like you and I when we were teenagers or someone who doesn't remember life without it um what would you say what would be your what would be your one piece of advice

[00:46:07] Janet Dyer: well first I'd offer them a hug because as humans we need at least seven to eight hugs a week in order to maintain some clarity in our lives um and then after that I just I think it's really good for us to know that we're not alone and if you need help to ask because there's always someone out there willing to help you just have to ask for it never be too proud to not ask for help oh that's so true in the type

[00:46:41] Rob Howe: one community as well everyone's so willing to help um you know there's all those facebook groups with helping out with insulin and medicine and there's just yeah especially facebook groups

[00:46:52] Janet Dyer: there's so many there's so many groups that i'm i'm in or that i've i kind of like facebook stock And I love that when something generally, generally people are really good with like offering support and like, like, cause I mean on regular threads, you kind of see a lot of people kind of tearing each other down a little bit. so I appreciate that the other diabetics that we're trying to kind of like boost each other up because it's a lot like women and not to negate men because y'all are awesome too but we really like we have to stick up for each other and we have to be there for each other as both men and women and type 1 diabetics because if we don't then nobody else will and until we do then people don't know to do that right because we we have to kind of train them to do that so we need to keep that up we need to keep up those amazing Facebook groups and and even the Instagram groups and all the on like the social media is really like the wonderful place where you can find almost anything that you need to know like from from an experienced kind of like person like I mean obviously we're not we're not nurses and doctors so we can't help with like major things but at least we can provide like a sounding board or like well I did this or I tried this yeah it's it's been um the coolest

[00:48:04] Rob Howe: thing to see and be a part of um and you know just to see like you said it almost feels like foreign when you see so many people like liking each other and responding to each other and

[00:48:15] Janet Dyer: helping each other on the internet because well totally because I mean I look at these other things and people are just nasty and I'm like that just really did you really need to say that whereas like at least on like these forums that we have like there's people who are like you know like even just being super honest about what's going on in their lives and like talking about alternative methods that we're using to try and to cope with either like pain or management or whatever that is and i'm so grateful for that because we again like this weird stigma of things needs to not happen like we can't judge people because the more that you judge the more you're going to get judged back totally agree at least i mean that's we try i mean we're humans right

[00:48:59] Rob Howe: Right. We're doing our best.

[00:49:02] Janet Dyer: Exactly.

[00:49:03] Rob Howe: Well, Janet, thank you so much for coming on the show. I'm really glad, you know, this interview was like over a year in the making. And I think, you know, really. Good things take time, right? They do, right? Sometimes you just got to put something in the oven and like go incremental progress, right? We're just like one step at a time.

[00:49:21] Janet Dyer: Exactly.

[00:49:21] Rob Howe: So, well, thank you so much for coming on the show. So if anybody wants to get in touch with you on social media or online, where can they find you?

[00:49:32] Janet Dyer: Well, you probably can't find me on Facebook because my settings are pretty locked up because it's pretty much only people that I actually meet in real life. But if you want to stalk my Facebook, I have – or not Facebook. My gosh. Not even thinking clearly anymore now. So my Instagram is at Red Siren and that's R-E-D-S-Y-R-E-N. I pretty much try to explain my personality through it. I don't always really necessarily talk particularly about diabetes, but I have a very weird little mind. So if you want to be entertained, I can definitely do that. and my business page is jmd beauty services and that's where you can find all the fun stuff that i i do with my free time that helps me be a better person and a better diabetic

[00:50:26] Rob Howe: thanks for listening to diabetics doing things subscribe to our newsletter for weekly emails and behind the scenes content and if you or someone you know has an amazing story to share send an email to rob at diabeticsdoingthings.com