Wellness with Vanda
A women's health podcast where we'll be talking about hormones, mindset, motherhood, & everything in between. The host, Vanda, is a functional medicine nurse coach that helps women overcome hormone imbalance so that they can achieve optimal wellness. In her private practice she specializes in HTMA testing and DUTCH testing. Throughout this podcast she shares tips for boosting energy naturally, improve mood, recover from mom burnout, ways to increase fertility, ways to improve sleep quality, tips for pregnancy, tips for navigating postpartum and the fourth trimester, and more!
Wellness with Vanda
Monitoring Wellness: My Journey with a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM)
This week I'm sharing about my person experience wearing a CGM. From how I got it to what it taught me, I'm talking about it all! Plus I'll share a useful resource if you too are interested in wearing a CGM.
But wait, there's more than just sugar stories! For those eager to dive into their own health odysseys, I've got news: HTMA testing is making a comeback, with very limited spots, so be sure and get on the waitlist!
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Hey guys, welcome back to the 11th episode of the podcast. Today I'm going to be talking a little bit about wearing a CGM, a continuous glucose monitor, because I just wrapped up doing that again and I want to share about it while it's fresh on my mind, because I typically get a lot of questions about it when I do it. But first, personal updates. I jinxed myself last week when I shared with you guys that Hollis was sleeping through the night again, because we've had multiple days again this week that he has not been sleeping through the night. But we did go back to the doctor yesterday and it looks like his ear infection is trying to get cleared up. I think he just has some fluid left on his ears and hopefully we will be now moving forward on the mend.
Speaker 1:If you have never taken your three children, your three young children all three of my children are six and younger currently If you've never taken all three of them to the doctor at the same time, I highly recommend it as your workout. My husband even went with us and it was still like an Olympic sport to keep everyone entertained not falling off the bench, not falling off the rolling chair, not running out in the hallway quiet enough once the doctor came in that we could all actually have a conversation and still hear. It was interesting. But that's what happens when they all have birthdays that fall around the same time and need follow-ups and in a world of working and having to take time away from work to go to these appointments, it's easier to do that together on one day than it is three separate times. So anyway, that's what we did and I otherwise, today I'm doing lots of laundry because we are expecting this Arctic blast, which will be here in fully present when this episode drops next Tuesday. I'm recording this on Friday and over the weekend it's going to get very chilly, it might snow. They're telling us, with these winds to wow. I don't know what. I just even tried to say to anticipate potential I think I was combining all that together potential electricity outages, which for us, could also set us up for a water outage. And if you've ever been through that and you weren't prepared, as in like you hadn't caught your laundry up and you just like had thought ahead about things like that, then you know that that's a lesson learned the hard way and you do better next time. So today I'm trying to get all the laundry and the house done which I had been neglecting for the past like week. So there's quite a bit of it. So I've just been like cycling get one load done, put another in.
Speaker 1:Anyway, all right, let's talk about this CGM, and I'll first kind of share a little bit about, like why I did this, why I did it in the past, because this is not my first time doing this. I want to share with you guys how I even got the CGM. But let's first start off with what a CGM is. So a CGM is a continuous glucose monitor. So basically, this is continually, over 24 hour periods of time, checking your blood sugar and charting it for you. It shows up in an app that you can get on your phone. The information itself is very easy to like, look at, understand and digest.
Speaker 1:So it's a small device that you put on the back of your arm. So there are different types of these. Some of them go on your abdomen or can be put on other parts of your body. I have always, when I've done this, used the Libre's, which go on the back of your arm, and that's really the only place I think that they recommend that you place it, and it's nice there, especially this time of year. This is the first time I'm doing one in winter, but it's really nice in winter to put it there because it's hidden and you're not typically wearing like short sleeve shirts or tank tops. So literally I had it on for two weeks and I'm not sure that anybody even knew that it was there Not that I really care about that. Anyway, there's no shame in wearing it.
Speaker 1:I wore one in the summer and it's funny. People will ask you. They're like are you diabetic? What is that thing on your arm? And I don't care, but I can see where for some people that would be like either, probably aggravating if you have to wear one all the time and people are continually asking you what is that? What's that for? Are you diabetic? But anyway.
Speaker 1:So how I went about getting mine I've done this two different ways. I found very first time I did it. I did it through a wellness center and they were running a blood sugar boot camp and you paid this price and you're getting your. Cgm was part of that price. They shipped it to you and you wore it for the two weeks. It's good for 14 days. So you wore it for the 14 days and they kind of like walked you through what you were seeing and educating you about blood sugar, and that was all fine and well, but for the price point of it was either right at or right over $400.
Speaker 1:Like this is not something that I can do routinely or even like once a year. Like that's a pretty decent expense when I'm not diabetic and when I'm just doing it to like learn more about my body and where I'm at with my blood sugar. Because I think I have shared with you guys before, I've had trouble with my blood sugar and in my last pregnancy I did not get diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I never had to take any medicine or anything, but I did spend several weeks checking my blood sugars. With both my pregnancies I've had to have the three hour glucose test instead of just the one hour, and type two diabetes has kind of been a problem on one side of my family and it's like something that I absolutely want to avoid. So I've always, just in the past few years, been very proactive in trying to educate myself on what my blood sugar levels are and what things that I can do to positively impact my levels, because it is something that, yes, there are some generalities to it, but it's also very individualized in how you as an individual respond to certain types of foods, and as you learn those things about yourself, it's easier to make better choices.
Speaker 1:So I went a different route this time to obtain my CGM and I'm recording this in January I did this for the first time back in the summer. This is gonna make more sense when I tell you like the company I use. So I went through a company called Tastermonial. If you Google them, I'm sure that you can find them, and what you're doing on their site is you're paying. It's a small fee. I think mine was like $40. And you can choose which package you want to purchase. But what you're really purchasing is for a doctor that works on their team to write you a prescription for the CGM and then you choose where you want that CGM to go. So for myself, I'm trying to remember now the exact package that I picked.
Speaker 1:I think I did two sensors at a time, which is a month supply with three refills, because I was like that will give me, or maybe it was with two refills, it was a three month total supply. But then I think, you know, and I think that was like $40, I wish I had pulled this up before I started recording, but I didn't, and I'm sure their prices have changed anyway and they'll change in the future. So you need to check for yourself anyway. But then I think you could get like what would be a six month supply subscription prescription not subscription prescription for like 60 bucks so, but all that money is going towards is just getting the prescription. So, anyway, you fill out their forms, they ask you questions about your health it's nothing that's like super hard or in depth, it's just like minimal information and then, once they obtain all of that from you, they have their provider look it over. If they feel comfortable writing the prescription, they do, and they send it to the pharmacy of your choice. So you can send it to literally any pharmacy. They have some that they recommend because of the pricing and they will even tell you some guesstimate prices for your CGM.
Speaker 1:I chose to have mine sent to my local private pharmacy that I use all the time anyway, and originally I thought I could use something called a good RX card. If you don't know what that is, you should check it out anyway, regardless of this conversation, because it is like a. It's a free program and you can use it to purchase prescription drugs if you don't have health insurance, or you can use it in place of health insurance if you have it, and sometimes the prices that it gets you is cheaper than what you would have to pay if you use your insurance, which doesn't make any sense. And it would be a whole other gripe conversation from me for a different day. But we're not going there today.
Speaker 1:That's just that was my plan. I was gonna because I knew my insurance wasn't gonna cover it because I don't have a diagnosis for them to cover it. So I thought I'll just use a good RX card. I got on the good RX website. It was telling me it was gonna be like between $150, $180. I was like that's fine For a full month compared to the 400 I had paid before for just a two week thing. I was happy with that Still an expense, but I was like it's worth it. Well, after the fact found out that my local private pharmacy can't accept those good RX cards, however, they have a cash price program, so I paid a cash price for it and got my sensors so two of them in one month supply for about $150 to $160. I can't remember the exact amount, but again, I was very pleased with that and that felt very affordable to me compared to what I had paid in the past.
Speaker 1:So that is how I went about getting the CGM in the first place. I think that there's this perception that it's like impossible to get these, and I mean even like a year ago it was a lot harder to get them than it is now. But they're very much being seen now as a wellness tool and not just something reserved for chronic disease. And there are other programs out there where you can get a CGM Nutriscence I think that's the name of it now Second, guessing myself, but I think that's the name of their program. But again, it was expensive. It was gonna be like $400 something and I was like no, I can't do that. So I was looking for a cheaper way to go about it when I found Taster-Amonial and I was like, yes, this is perfect.
Speaker 1:The only thing that I will say about my experience working with Taster-Amonial to get the prescription is that there were some hiccups along the way. So, like I said, you fill out the information, they send it over to their doctor Once, their doctor actually writes the prescription and sends it to your pharmacy. You're supposed to be notified and I wasn't. So I just kept thinking that we were still in limbo and that the prescription hadn't been written yet. And they tell you a certain I think it's 48 hours, maybe three business days, I'm not sure. It's like your prescription will be reviewed and written by this time period and like we had reached that time period and I was kind of like well, you know what the heck is going on. I haven't heard anything, had to reach out to them and come to find out everything was fine and they had sent it to the pharmacy like two days ago and nobody had notified me. So I was a little irritated about that. But that's, you know, like small hiccup type thing that hopefully they got the kinks worked out since then and it's fine.
Speaker 1:So I guess I should share a little bit more about why I got so interested in blood sugar and why I felt like I needed to even do this or why you might be interested in it. So several years ago, like 11, 12 years ago, I started having debilitating migraines and in our hunt to try to track down why that was happening, my blood sugar came into question. Then I had to go for a five hour glucose test. I felt terrible through the whole thing. Thank goodness we figured out that that wasn't related to the migraines, but in that study it did show. My results showed that I was like in a pre-diabetic state and kind of headed towards type 2 diabetes, and at that time I was still very early on in nursing school.
Speaker 1:I knew very little about nutrition, like only the things you can think that they've taught you in, like your high school health class, which is not much, and, let's be honest, how much of us were really paying attention to that stuff anyway. So I just didn't have a whole lot of knowledge about blood sugar control, nutrition, how you should eat, how you should put a meal together, nothing Like. I'm not saying that I was super duper unhealthy I've never been super duper unhealthy but I just didn't have the knowledge that I have now so fast forward 2020, after I had had Kenley when I joined metabolism makeover. That's an online course program and it is about fat loss, but the main thing that they're teaching in this program is about blood sugar control, and so that was the first time that I was learning about how fiber affects your blood sugar and how carbs affect your blood sugar and really like digging deep into just the foundations of trying to eat in a way that supports blood sugar. And that got me really curious and I'm very data driven. So I was like I'm doing these things, that I'm being taught and I feel better, but I wonder what my actual numbers are. And I even went as far as buying a meter like a regular just finger stick meter over the counter and I would spot check my blood sugar every once in a while.
Speaker 1:But once people were talking more about continuous glucose monitors, I was like I want one. I want to see what my blood sugar is doing in the middle of the night when I'm not awake to prick my finger. I want to see what it's doing five minutes after I eat, 10 minutes after I eat, an hour after I eat. I want to poke my finger to get all of these numbers. So that S sparked my interest in getting one. Then, of course, I had never acted on it. I got pregnant with Hollis. I didn't want to. I wasn't really interested in doing one. While I was pregnant. I questioned it when they were questioning if I had gestational diabetes and I just kept being told oh, your insurance isn't gonna cover that, which, in hindsight, they could have still wrote the prescription and I could have paid the cash price and had one, but whatever. So it was after that that it was probably February or March of last year when I did that very first boot camp.
Speaker 1:At the time I was still breastfeeding and I felt like that was having an impact on my blood sugar because I was having to eat more frequently than like what I normally do right now because I was hungry. The more frequently that you eat, the more snacks and stuff you're having, the more fluctuations you have in your blood sugar. I'm not saying that what I learned at that time wasn't valuable. It was. I had very specific data to back up the fact that things like having fiber at the meal really made a difference in my blood sugar. Or if I was eating a low fiber meal, if I would supplement with fiber, like fiber gummies before I started my meal, then my blood sugar control was better and I kind of did some experiments with myself like what if I eat this type of meal? What if I eat this type of meal? I could see where. If there were times when Hollis was sleeping through the night then, and there were times that he was still waking up quite a bit throughout the night. I saw that if I did not get solid sleep and I had interrupted sleep, then my blood sugar control the next day was worse, and it's just very informative.
Speaker 1:It's a really great way to learn more about you specifically and your body and I do recommend anybody to do it if they have the interest, because it's so informative and you can learn so much. It does get a little annoying, to be honest. It's really exciting those first few days and even in that first week to check your blood sugar all the time and see what it is, but then by the end of the two weeks you're kind of over it and you're very thankful that you don't have to do this all the time to live. It really gives me a deep appreciation. Is it the right word Empathy, I guess maybe is a better word for people that are diabetic and depend on these CGMs and like insulin and insulin pumps and things to literally live. It makes me very thankful to have the health that I do have and it motivates me to avoid getting to that point with type 2 diabetes that I would need to either wear one of these all the time or check my blood sugar all the time or give myself insulin. So, yeah, I'm trying to think of some of like what my biggest takeaways were this time. When I did it, I don't know that I had any new aha moments so much, as it just reinforced kind of what I already knew, which was that my blood sugar control is better the following day if I am consistent with taking my MagSue that night, which is a MagNZM Glacinate supplement which helps shuttle insulin into the cells, when I'm taking my pickleball drink daily, which is high in potassium. That also helps my blood sugar control because potassium helps shuttle insulin inside the cells.
Speaker 1:Stress definitely impacts my blood sugar negatively. It makes it go higher and I think I mean I think that was the biggest. I mean some of things are obvious, like if I had straight-up candy, like straight-up sugar, then yeah, my blood sugar was gonna spike. One of the big things that I did notice this time my blood sugar control was better this time than last time. I did not have as many like really high events as I did last time, and I don't know if you guys know this or not, but I just finished up a gut protocol. I've been working on that. It was like three months long and I felt like hypothesis in my mind was I felt like my blood sugar had improved overall since I did that gut protocol and I think that that really it really showed that to be true. Yeah, so I don't know, that's kind of all that I had that I wanted to share about that.
Speaker 1:It's, the application of the sensor itself is no big deal. It stings a little bit but then it goes away and you don't even feel that it's there. You pay no attention to it. People get kind of freaked out because you're like putting a needle in your arm. It's not really, it's so minor that you don't even pay attention to it. It's like pushing a button. It's like this little plastic thing and you just kind of like push the button and it goes in and then it like it does it all itself and then you're done. It's really cool. I'm sure you can YouTube a video of somebody applying one to see that.
Speaker 1:But if you guys have questions about CGMs blood sugar control you know how I went about getting it. If you want me to send you the link to that taste ceremonial site, just, I'm sure you can just Google it. You'll find it no problem. But if you want me to send you well, I know most most knocked up my microphone, sorry guys If you want me to send you the link, I'm happy to do that. So, yeah, I, like I said, I would recommend it for anybody that is curious about their blood sugar control or feels like their blood sugar might be a problem for them, because it will be very informational for you.
Speaker 1:So for today's mindset minute, actually, I want to tell you something else first. So in the fall of last year I closed my package for HTMA only testing and I said I'm not taking any more clients right now for just HTMA testing. I don't know how long this will last, but anyway, I closed the doors and they've been closed ever since. I have not offered that package in a long time and what I can share with you guys is that I will be offering that again soon, but in a very limited capacity, very limited number of spots. So there is a waitlist to get on if you want first dibs at snagging one of those spots. So if getting your mineral status evaluated, getting an HTMA test, is on your radar, you want to jump on that waitlist so that you get first dibs because, like I said, there will be limited number of spots and they will probably sell out, so waitlist people are going to get priority, okay, and that waitlist link can be found on my Instagram profile and also on my website.
Speaker 1:So mindset minute for today is a journal prompt reflection that I had shared with my VIP clients. I shared journal resources, journal prompts with them as one of their resources from our mindset module. So I pulled this one out because I think it's something that we do not think of very often about ourselves, and it is important for us to think about this and acknowledge this about ourselves. So today's mindset minute is for you to think about what the last thing you did was that made you feel proud of yourself, not of anyone else, and I'm going to give the caveat that this can't be a work related success. This needs to be something in your personal life that you did that made you proud of yourself. So think on that and I will talk to you guys next week.
