#ToolsofType1s - 028 - Miracle Monrova

[00:00:00] Rob Howe: It's currently May 2019, so it's getting to be summertime. You're getting out there, you're more active, or maybe you're just active all the time and it feels better because it's warm outside and it's not cold when you have to go to the gym. But you also want to get the most life out of your sensors because, let's face it, they're expensive. So you need to try SkinGrip Adhesive Patches. They're water-resistant, latex-free, and hypoallergenic, which is great because if you've worn other tapes, you know how irritating they can be on your skin. Skin Grip set out to fix all that. They have patches designed for Dexcom, Medtronic, Freestyle Libre, Omnipod, and various other patches for pump infusion sets. You can check them all out at theskingrip.com. We know there are tons of tape options out there, and you need to pick the one that's best suited for your active lifestyle. And you can save money. Listeners of this podcast can get 15% off their order if they use code DDT for diabetics doing things. Nice. If you order from theskingrip.com, that's T-H-E skingrip.com. 15% off your order if you use code DDT. Tools of Type 1's podcast. I have committed to making this platform accessible to as many diverse voices as I can. Miracle Monrova, her tool, fearlessness. And I want you guys to really enjoy this amazing episode from an incredibly powerful voice, Miracle Monrova.

[00:01:21] Miracle Monrova: Well, I am Miracle Monrova. I'm a drag queen. Scriven Bernard is my host body. I'm just over two years old, as it turns out. And the host body was putting on a show, an LGBT show at the theater that he performs and teaches at. And they needed a host for the show. So some brilliant mind threw a dress on him. and he was standing backstage and somebody said, what is your name? And I shoved him out of the way and I jumped into the spotlight as I do and I said, I'm Miracle and I'm here to stay. And that's when I was born. I have been diabetic my entire life, so just over two years. The host body has been diabetic for 21 years, but I haven't been around all that time, so I don't care. I currently host LGBT shows at Dallas Comedy House and I do other small draggy things here and there and oh I watch lots of dance mom shows and scream at the tv whenever they all get excited if you haven't seen a dance mom show you should watch it they're they're they're wonderful they're great they're they're the most dramatic things on television the dance moms are crazy they're just like me I love them uh it's just like when you enroll your kid in soccer because you don't care about soccer, but you want to watch the moms and the refs get in fights. It's fantastic. So watch Dance Mom shows and enroll your kids in soccer. Joan Rivers is my role model, and she's a goddess. No one asked that question, but I wanted to say it. It's important to me. I know Rob through the host body. I'm pretty sure that I'm the only person in any room who is actually taller than Rob. For those of you who haven't met him, he's approximately, I don't know, somewhere between six and seven feet tall. And me, when I have my hair and shoes on, I am 17 and a half feet tall, probably. My goal personally is to bring drag and diabetes together and serve as an advocate in as many of those worlds as I possibly can. I want to be the queen of as many things as possible. So if you pass me, bow. That's the correct response. What is your tool of type ones?

[00:03:33] Rob Howe: and what's the one thing that a person living with T1D could learn from you or your experience?

[00:03:39] Miracle Monrova: Be fearless. Tell people you have diabetes. Own it. It's a part of you. Tell them you have it. You shouldn't care what they think. You should care about living your life and living your truth. If you have a doc, like a doctor that you don't like, you kick them out. You fire them. You get a different doctor. You have to stick up for you. So if at any point in your journey you run into something that's troubling or hard, you are the one that is responsible for sticking up for yourself. Now, that doesn't mean you can't have help. I personally don't accept help because I don't need it. I'm good enough. But you can stick up for you. Be fearless in doing so. Live your life and

[00:04:16] Rob Howe: don't be ashamed of any part of you. What is the simplest thing you've done that has helped you with the management of your type 1 diabetes? Where did you learn it or who showed it to you?

[00:04:26] Miracle Monrova: I'm actually going to agree with the host body on this one. Continuous glucose monitoring is a complete life changer and I wouldn't go anywhere without it. The CGM, in addition to being a wonderful fashion statement, being a weird medical laboratory thing hanging on your arm when you're trying to look beautiful in a show, is also incredibly useful. So definitely get one. No, but for real. It's a fantastic tool. Get it. You should have it. Even if you're not diabetic, get one. It's fun. You can just play with it. I don't know what not diabetics do in their regular

[00:04:58] Rob Howe: lives but get a cgm and play with it what failures or apparent failures with t1d have made you better at living the rest of your life or made you more well-rounded as a person i have never failed once in my entire life next question what unusual or absurd opinion or approach regarding your diabetes

[00:05:18] Miracle Monrova: do you have i don't know so much that this is absurd or unusual but it's fun so when people will walk up to me they'll say things like should you be eating that or they'll snatch a snickers bar out of my hands like they own my body and my favorite thing in the entire world to do is just get sassy and mean with them and pretend to worship their all-knowing diabetes expert grandmother or the wikipedia article they read or whatever so i i get a little mean with that and i do i i hurt people i'm not proud of that but it is fun in the moment what's your favorite thing what gets you to smile or laugh almost every time? That's easy. It's getting sassy and mean and pretending to worship someone's all-knowing diabetes expert grandmother. In the last five years, what new

[00:06:04] Rob Howe: adjustment to your lifestyle has improved your life with diabetes the most? Hands down, it's putting my pump in my bra. What challenges related to T1D did you encounter or have to overcome while

[00:06:15] Miracle Monrova: you were doing your thing? The host body already talked about the performance, but you do have to prepare for that. Any time you're doing a show, you have to stabilize your blood sugars beforehand because you don't want that sneaking up on you and making you look like an idiot. It's your job to make everyone else look like an idiot. But also the aesthetic. Drag queens are supposed to be beautiful because society has so many standards for so many different things. But here I have this sensor thingy hanging off my arm and I look like I'm fresh out of a lab experiment in Pasadena. I don't know where they do lab experiments. I'm assuming it's Pasadena. But either way, you're supposed to look wonderful and you've got tubes hanging out and things flying around and your pump flies out of your bra and flops around in the air and people are like, what in the world is happening? Is she a robot? And I'm like, possibly, but it's hard. What I do instead of worrying about it is just embrace it. I leave my tubes hanging out. I let everyone see them. I show them to the entire world and I leave my sensor on my arm and I wear it proudly like a badge of honor it's like in the boy scouts or the scouts or whatever they're called now you should get a diabetes badge while you're listening to this episode let me ask you a

[00:07:29] Rob Howe: question do you know how much sensor tape you have left because if you're like me you'll need to order it last minute so with plenty of tape options out there pick the one that sponsors this podcast, Skin Grip. Order from theskingrip.com. That's T-H-E, skingrip.com, and get 15% off your order if you use code DDT for diabetics doing things. What bad advice regarding diabetes do

[00:07:50] Miracle Monrova: you see or hear that you'd like to address? Oh, this one's easy. It's sugar-free food. Do not, under any circumstances, eat sugar-free food. That crap gives you diarrhea, and it's horrible for your brain. I'm pretty sure it gives you brain worms. I don't know how science works, but don't eat it. It's bad for you. When they tell you only consume one chocolate turtle at a time, that's a sign. Don't eat more than one chocolate turtle. If you're going to eat sugar, eat sugar. Just count it. Be smart about it. Have normal food that we know is not cancerous and whatever

[00:08:25] Rob Howe: aspartame is. What priority are you focusing on in your own life currently? This can be diabetes

[00:08:31] Miracle Monrova: related or not. I'm trying to build my brand and expand my name more. Like I said, I'm trying to also be the queen of everything, so I will take over the earth, and any of you that are subscribing to this project or podcast will survive when my revolution comes. Who is someone that you look up

[00:08:49] Rob Howe: to, and what have they taught you? How do you apply that to your life? Oh my god, can I say

[00:08:54] Miracle Monrova: myself on this one? I definitely look up to myself. I'm an inspiration, especially to young people. A A little girl walked up to me recently and said, I want to be like you because you do whatever you want in front of whoever you want. And of course, there's caveats and rules to that. But she's right. I'm fearless. I do my thing. And I inspire people to do their own thing, whatever that is, whether you're trying to cross-dress or whether you are just trying to, like, excel at a sport or however that works. or if you're just trying to ask somebody out on a date, do your thing. Be good at your thing. And I'm great at inspiring people to do that.

[00:09:36] Rob Howe: What are you most hopeful for? This can be diabetes related or not.

[00:09:40] Miracle Monrova: Well, first and foremost, I'm most hopeful that the person I last lent my boobs to will give them back because they're my best ones and I'm going to need them for my next show. But secondly, I'm most hopeful that diabetes access and education can become even more widespread than it is. And that includes like third world countries and whatnot, where insulin is very hard to get a hold of. Or even, you know, we think of it as like, oh, the third world. It's also here in the States. There's lots of people that can't get access to supplies and insulin. And there's all sorts of nonprofits popping up that can help with that. But education is another problem too. You can walk around and find people that have never known to look into whether they have diabetes because they just don't know anything about it. or people spouting myths and things about it all the time. So I think it's incredibly important that that all become more available to people and more comprehensive as resources.

[00:10:34] Rob Howe: What advice would you give someone who has T1D and is trying to pursue a career in your line of work?

[00:10:39] Miracle Monrova: Look, the diabetes isn't your problem if you can't do makeup, so you have to learn that first. You have to learn drag. If you can't do drag, you can't do this. It doesn't matter what your diabetes says. But when I get ready for a show, so as a drag queen, I walk through the entire thing. When I'm going to leave my apartment, I aim my head. I walk from the bottom of my toes to the top of my head. And I walk through the experience I'm going to have. So, for example, I think, oh, I'm going to need shoes for my feet. I'm going to need tape for the shoes and the cushions and the things that go in the shoes so that I don't die from walking in the shoes. Then I'm going to need hose for my legs. and then I creep on up and I find all the other pieces I'm going to need until I get to my wig. Then I walk through the show and I go, cool, we're going to get there and this is going to happen. I'm going to talk to this person. I'm going to get to this part of the show. What am I going to need for all these pieces? All I do is add diabetes into that. So as I'm going through all of that and walking through the experience briefly, it only takes about like a minute or two, then I just go, cool, what am I going to need to consider with diabetes? And I just plan ahead and I think, cool, I'm going to need to make sure to eat it this time. I'm going to need to make sure to give this amount of insulin. I'm going to need to make sure to blah, blah, blah, which is a plan I've worked out with my doctor. I say that because everyone should do that. I do my own thing. But you should absolutely just think through what you're going to accomplish and figure out how to factor diabetes into it.

[00:12:02] Rob Howe: What's the one facet or trait that you think makes you uniquely you?

[00:12:06] Miracle Monrova: Fearlessness. I fear nothing. I'm a man in a dress. I sassed a TSA agent at the airport earlier and I don't regret it and he didn't entirely know what to do. You have to live your life and I do that. I love who I am. I am who I want to be and I'm continuing to be even more of that. I don't let anyone, I don't let any disease stand in my way. It doesn't matter. I go through life and I am just fearless about it and part of it is not caring what other people think. Especially with diabetes, people will look at you and go, oh, you have a weird disease I'm going to judge you for. And you look at them and just go, no. And we'll say whatever you want to say to them.

[00:12:49] Rob Howe: Plug yourself. Tell us where we can find you in the Diabetes Online community.

[00:12:53] Miracle Monrova: You can find me performing in the show Let's Get Busy Tonight at Dallas Comedy House in Dallas, Texas. You can go to DallasComedyHouse.com to see when that show pops up. I believe the next one will be in January or February. You can also follow my social media for other stuff. On Facebook, I am Miracle Monrova. That's the word miracle, and that's the word Monrova. Monrova is M-O-N-R-O-V-A. And on Instagram, I am a Type 1 Miracle with a 1, the number. The host body also has accounts. The most interesting one is Instagram. Don't worry about the others. But that one is Scriv Forever, S-C-R-I-V, Forever. I don't think he knows how to use his Twitter, nor do I. I don't even know how to log in, but I think I have one. If you can find it, send it to me.

[00:13:44] Rob Howe: Where do you get plugged into the T1D community the most?

[00:13:48] Miracle Monrova: I talk about diabetes all the time, and I show it off. I mentioned earlier that I don't hide my sensor. I don't hide my tubes. It makes people want to talk about it. Yeah, every once in a while, someone has a weird opinion about it, and they go, oh, crazy, you have a tube sticking out. That's the worst thing a person can do. But most of the time it makes people go, oh, tell me about this thing. And then it's a moment for me to educate and I get to talk to them until they die because I talk for too long. When I post, I hashtag everything that I can think of. Any word that has to do with diabetes, I throw it in there. I'm like, diabetes, Medtronic, insulin, failed pancreas. I throw them all in there and just hope something sticks. Oh, I'm sorry. I got distracted. I was thinking about myself. But yeah, like I said, I have, I leave my sensor on my arm just kind of hanging out so that everybody can see it. And the only problem is that the peasants and poor people and whatnot will just walk up and touch it like it's theirs. And like, you know, I just casually have some random object just taped to my arm that isn't embedded in my skin but whatever that's something that we deal with people don't understand they're all done well this has been lovely thank you all for having me and uh everyone go and be fabulous and watch dance mom shows i think that's the most critical takeaway from this is watch dance mom shows i don't think there's enough people watching dance mom shows but anyway be you live your truth

[00:15:17] Rob Howe: and have a great night thank you for listening to the tools of type ones podcast on diabetics doing things. I'm Rob Howe, and every Tuesday and Thursday in 2019, we are posting the next Tools of Type 1 episode. So follow us on Instagram, hashtag Tools of Type 1s, or just on Diabetics Doing Things. We will post those regularly every Tuesday, every Thursday. My favorite type 1s are answering the questions I want to know the answers to. And hopefully, you'll learn a few things as well. If you like this episode, be sure to review us on iTunes. And if you didn't like it, go ahead and let me know that too. I want to know. All the feedback is good to me. Thanks again for your time. I value that more than anything you could possibly give me. Thanks so much. Bye-bye.