Deborah continues with her “firsts” themes and shares the story of how the brand of Diabetic Real came to be and emerged out of something that was less than a happy situation. It became the solution to voices that needed “to be heard.” Or boobs, elderly people, and the governor’s office.

Chapters

• 00:00 Intro (and Disclaimer)
• 00:49 Deborah's Introduction
• 01:33 The Origin of the DiabeticReal Brand
• 03:14 The Boobs
• 08:10 The Governor
• 10:02 The Elderly
• 12:52 Closing (including Seaside Records)

Research Links

• Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA)
• What is an... Ombuds [or Ombudsman]?

Insulin Pump Information

The Minimed 780G System is one of the newer insulin pumps available through Medtronic. It may not be the specific pump referenced in this podcast episode, but it will at least provide an idea, especially for newbies, of what an insulin pump is and the specific brand that Deborah uses. She was one of the original Minimed insulin pump wearers.

Community

Join the DiabeticReal Podcast crew (fan club) at DiabeticReal.net. This is for ALL people, and not just diabetics. It is about the attitude of thriving and listening to our bodies, as well as living positively and encouraging each other.

Episode Credits

Perfectly Wonderful World [Episode Music]

• > available here <
• sung by Deborah E, Jazz Singer
• written by Denny Martin & Jaimee Paul
• mastered in Seaside Records Studio by Michael Anderson

For more information or questions, please feel free to contact us via DiabeticReal.show/contact. (Be sure to mention it if you are a DiabeticReal Community Member!)

© 2023-2024 Social Web Cafe (Seaside Records, part of Michael T. Anderson dba Anderson Creations)

Deborah E: 00:00:00

I'm living inside of this Perfectly Wonderful World.

Michael Anderson: 00:00:05

Join Deborah E, multi-award-winning singer, podcaster, and

Michael Anderson: 00:00:11

speaker, who proves that being diagnosed with a life-changing illness as a child,

Michael Anderson: 00:00:16

along with countless hospitalizations, and a family who told everyone she'd be dead

Michael Anderson: 00:00:22

before she reached puberty, does not have to stand in the way of life well-lived.

Narrator: 00:00:27

The DiabeticReal Podcast and the content of its websites are

Narrator: 00:00:31

presented solely for educational purposes, and the views and opinions

Narrator: 00:00:33

expressed by guests are theirs alone.

Narrator: 00:00:35

They do not necessarily reflect that of the host or the podcast.

Narrator: 00:00:38

The content is not intended to substitute for professional medical advice or

Narrator: 00:00:42

treatment, ongoing or otherwise.

Narrator: 00:00:44

Be sure to always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified

Narrator: 00:00:46

healthcare provider with any questions regarding your healthcare.

Deborah E: 00:00:49

Hi there.

Deborah E: 00:00:50

This is Deborah E coming back to you for the second episode of DiabeticReal.

Deborah E: 00:00:57

Thank you for joining us last week.

Deborah E: 00:01:00

I consider all of you a part of this, and I'd like to say "our," and include you.

Deborah E: 00:01:06

So, I feel like, to some extent, it's like we're sitting in kind of

Deborah E: 00:01:11

a fireside chat a little bit here, and I'm telling you a story of how

Deborah E: 00:01:15

everything is unfolding, and sort of the next, next story here, because,

Deborah E: 00:01:22

kind of on a, on a first, if you will.

Deborah E: 00:01:25

Last week I told you there was a story to how DiabeticReal actually

Deborah E: 00:01:31

began, and there's a story to that.

Deborah E: 00:01:33

So I thought I would share that part of it, that part of the story with

Deborah E: 00:01:37

you, where DiabeticReal unfolded.

Deborah E: 00:01:41

Now that you know the podcast exists, you might as well understand where the idea of

Deborah E: 00:01:46

DiabeticReal came from, and what inspired me to go on with that brand, if you will.

Deborah E: 00:01:53

And, you know, I call it a brand just because it's The thought

Deborah E: 00:01:58

it had to have a name, you know, everything's got to have a name.

Deborah E: 00:02:01

You can't just say "IT," and walk around like that.

Deborah E: 00:02:03

So anyway, let's, let's back up just a little bit and kind of say,

Deborah E: 00:02:10

I'm looking at my notes here and I don't normally work from notes.

Deborah E: 00:02:13

I just kind of ad lib as you could probably tell listening to me, but

Deborah E: 00:02:17

if I had to, I'm looking at going.

Deborah E: 00:02:18

Hmm, boobs, elderly people, and governor.

Deborah E: 00:02:23

Well, that's an interesting way to reference this particular episode.

Deborah E: 00:02:27

All right.

Deborah E: 00:02:28

So I was staying with my sister.

Deborah E: 00:02:32

And for any of you wondering if you're checking details and it's

Deborah E: 00:02:37

like, Hmm, who's Deborah E's sister?

Deborah E: 00:02:40

Actually, she is my former My former husband's sister, but I call her sister.

Deborah E: 00:02:46

And isn't it about who, you know, who's dear to our hearts?

Deborah E: 00:02:50

So as far as I'm concerned, this beautiful woman, she is my sister.

Deborah E: 00:02:54

But I have such wonderful people in my life and people that I love

Deborah E: 00:02:57

and people that are dear to me and take such good care of me.

Deborah E: 00:03:01

And you'll hear about some of these people and some of the stories that I tell as

Deborah E: 00:03:05

we go through this DiabeticReal podcast.

Deborah E: 00:03:09

So we have some interesting ones coming up for you.

Deborah E: 00:03:12

in the future.

Deborah E: 00:03:14

So I'm staying with my sister and I thought I'll just go for a walk.

Deborah E: 00:03:19

You know, walking's good.

Deborah E: 00:03:20

That's great exercise, right?

Deborah E: 00:03:21

And this is Southern California.

Deborah E: 00:03:23

I'm out there and man, it's beautiful.

Deborah E: 00:03:25

I'm looking around taking in the scenery and I'm thinking it is a bit warm.

Deborah E: 00:03:30

Now, here's the thing, and Not trying to fault, this isn't about gender or

Deborah E: 00:03:34

anything, but you could wear a nice sundress and be really comfortable and

Deborah E: 00:03:40

[it] doesn't matter what gender you are.

Deborah E: 00:03:41

Hey guys, do you want to wear a sundress?

Deborah E: 00:03:43

Go for it.

Deborah E: 00:03:44

Even my husband has said It's sad if guys are just forced to not wear

Deborah E: 00:03:49

dresses because dresses look like they might be comfortable, right?

Deborah E: 00:03:52

But there's this little little problem if you're a diabetic and you're wearing

Deborah E: 00:03:56

an insulin pump And for those of you who are not familiar with an insulin

Deborah E: 00:04:01

pump, It's a little device that actually holds the insulin and at some point

Deborah E: 00:04:06

I'll get into more Detail and explain insulin pump in a little bit more detail,

Deborah E: 00:04:11

but it is a device It's not like it's something imaginary or out of Star Trek

Deborah E: 00:04:16

It actually has to clip on to something or you can put it in your purse or you

Deborah E: 00:04:20

know There's there's different ways to handle it but my particular insulin

Deborah E: 00:04:23

pump clips on to something and the advantage that Not just men, but the

Deborah E: 00:04:30

men oftentimes are wearing pants, right?

Deborah E: 00:04:32

So they're gonna have something maybe a belt or at least pants

Deborah E: 00:04:35

that you can clip An insulin pump to and of course women too.

Deborah E: 00:04:39

You might be wearing jeans or even shorts or anything You can, you can clip the

Deborah E: 00:04:44

insulin pump to but if you're wearing a sundress and you're in Southern California

Deborah E: 00:04:48

and you're just having you know, you're walking Well, you shouldn't walk barefoot.

Deborah E: 00:04:51

Of course, somebody would say you're a diabetic.

Deborah E: 00:04:53

You shouldn't walk barefoot but anyway, you don't have anything to

Deborah E: 00:04:56

clip it to so What do you clip it to?

Deborah E: 00:04:59

Anyone have the answer to that one?

Deborah E: 00:05:02

You clip it to your bra.

Deborah E: 00:05:05

Well, the thing is, then it wants to tip.

Deborah E: 00:05:08

You, I'm not saying go bend over, but if you happen to bend over

Deborah E: 00:05:13

and pick a flower or something.

Deborah E: 00:05:15

The insulin pump wants to go for a trip to the ground.

Deborah E: 00:05:20

So what do you do?

Deborah E: 00:05:22

You clip it to the bra facing towards the body.

Deborah E: 00:05:26

Because that is going to have the insulin pump be nice and snug.

Deborah E: 00:05:30

And it's not going anywhere.

Deborah E: 00:05:31

But here's the thing that you don't think of.

Deborah E: 00:05:34

If you are perspiring a little too much, that means that the insulin pump is

Deborah E: 00:05:40

actually taking in that perspiration.

Deborah E: 00:05:44

And of all the things going through my head, I wasn't sitting here going through

Deborah E: 00:05:49

this, if then statement programmer or not.

Deborah E: 00:05:52

With my software development experience, I wasn't thinking about the insulin

Deborah E: 00:05:56

pump taking in sweat until I returned home and a few weeks later, the

Deborah E: 00:06:05

insulin pump, that by this point was no longer under warranty, went kaput.

Deborah E: 00:06:12

It did not work.

Deborah E: 00:06:15

Long story short on that one.

Deborah E: 00:06:18

It was because of the perspiration had damaged the pump.

Deborah E: 00:06:23

I didn't have, you know, under, if I had had medical

Deborah E: 00:06:28

insurance, it's not about blame.

Deborah E: 00:06:31

It just would have, I would have had.

Deborah E: 00:06:34

An insulin pump wouldn't have been a problem, but I think insulin

Deborah E: 00:06:38

pumps, so they were only, I don't know, $12,000 or so, and I didn't

Deborah E: 00:06:42

have $12,000 sitting around.

Deborah E: 00:06:45

Sometime I'll tell you the story of, of, uh, why I was not insured at the point

Deborah E: 00:06:49

there, and why I didn't have $12,000 just laying around at that point there, but I

Deborah E: 00:06:55

didn't, and at some point, too, there's more to that and why I wouldn't have been

Deborah E: 00:07:01

able to survive without an insulin pump.

Deborah E: 00:07:04

Anyway, so we were stuck.

Deborah E: 00:07:06

No insulin pump, no insurance to cover the insulin pump, regardless of blame.

Deborah E: 00:07:10

So, for the point of the story, just to make it simpler, we'll just say

Deborah E: 00:07:14

there's no blame, even though we all know that, yeah, perspiration, whatever.

Deborah E: 00:07:18

Point is, I had no way to cover this insulin pump.

Deborah E: 00:07:23

I was looking at a very short life without any way of getting insulin into my body.

Deborah E: 00:07:32

So, we tried different arrangements, we tried to, you know, we, what are

Deborah E: 00:07:37

they called, ombudsman, um, called all different options to try to get some

Deborah E: 00:07:43

kind of solution for this insulin pump.

Deborah E: 00:07:46

And I think it was only, um, oh, I don't know, something minor,

Deborah E: 00:07:50

like a few weeks past coverage.

Deborah E: 00:07:53

Um, not under warranty anymore.

Deborah E: 00:07:55

And I wasn't that, it's not like I was, you know, 20 years.

Deborah E: 00:07:59

Well, yeah, like it'd be 20 years, but it wasn't that far off of warranty.

Deborah E: 00:08:04

It wasn't that far, um, as far as not having medical insurance.

Deborah E: 00:08:08

So.

Deborah E: 00:08:10

Finally, I thought, you know what?

Deborah E: 00:08:12

I'm just gonna call the governor.

Deborah E: 00:08:14

I mean, what else do you do, right?

Deborah E: 00:08:15

Just call the governor.

Deborah E: 00:08:17

So I call up the governor of the state and I say, you know, and I'm not

Deborah E: 00:08:22

sure who I was talking to, but I did actually get to the governor's office.

Deborah E: 00:08:26

So, yeah, I know.

Deborah E: 00:08:28

It's probably secretary or an aid, I don't, whoever it was, I got that far

Deborah E: 00:08:32

and I said, here's the deal, okay?

Deborah E: 00:08:35

We're looking at death.

Deborah E: 00:08:36

Alright, we don't have enough money to pay for the burial, so basically I'm

Deborah E: 00:08:41

gonna be sitting at, at the curb, I'm just gonna pretty much keel over and

Deborah E: 00:08:45

die, so you'll have to actually pay for the burial, let's see, how much does

Deborah E: 00:08:48

that cost, oh and, oh wait, I won't die right away, it's actually, and I

Deborah E: 00:08:53

had been sick enough, so I know how it goes as far as when a diabetic dies.

Deborah E: 00:08:56

It takes a few days, as far as diabetic ketoacidosis and the whole thing.

Deborah E: 00:09:00

So I'll get really sick, and that means you have to send out an ambulance, let's

Deborah E: 00:09:04

see how much does that cost, and then I'll actually go to ICU before I die.

Deborah E: 00:09:07

So I don't know, what is that, $100,000 per day or so forth?

Deborah E: 00:09:11

So we'll say it probably takes me about three days to die, so that's $300,000,

Deborah E: 00:09:15

and since we don't have the money to cover it, that would be the state covering it.

Deborah E: 00:09:18

So at least $300,000 there, and they'll try to keep me alive, but I won't

Deborah E: 00:09:22

make it, so then I'll die, and then the state will have to pay for my,

Deborah E: 00:09:25

my death and I'll have to go through probate and we'll have, and I was adding

Deborah E: 00:09:29

up all these and they took it down.

Deborah E: 00:09:31

And you know what?

Deborah E: 00:09:31

I had that insulin pump within a week, somehow, even the $300,000

Deborah E: 00:09:35

for ICU, $12,000 just that didn't, it was like, "No problem.

Deborah E: 00:09:40

Your insulin pump is just covered."

Deborah E: 00:09:42

You put it into financials and all of a sudden.

Deborah E: 00:09:46

Not a problem, and the insulin pump is covered.

Deborah E: 00:09:49

Now, I'm not saying go manipulate people, I don't even know if the tactics were

Deborah E: 00:09:53

correct, but it's just, again, some of these are topics for a future podcast,

Deborah E: 00:09:58

but I sat down and I thought, you know, there are probably some elderly people

Deborah E: 00:10:07

sitting here that are really, really sick.

Deborah E: 00:10:12

They're much sicker than I am.

Deborah E: 00:10:16

They're not doing well.

Deborah E: 00:10:18

They don't have anyone.

Deborah E: 00:10:20

Maybe, maybe their loved ones have passed.

Deborah E: 00:10:23

Maybe their loved ones aren't talking to them.

Deborah E: 00:10:26

Maybe they don't have anyone.

Deborah E: 00:10:30

And who do they call?

Deborah E: 00:10:33

Who, I mean, I'm almost, literally I'm almost crying thinking about it.

Deborah E: 00:10:38

But who do they call to help them?

Deborah E: 00:10:43

Are they going to call the governor?

Deborah E: 00:10:46

Are they going to think of all these financials to argue with the aid in

Deborah E: 00:10:49

the governor's office to help them?

Deborah E: 00:10:52

Who is going to help them to stay alive?

Deborah E: 00:10:58

Did they do anything?

Deborah E: 00:11:00

Did they rob a bank?

Deborah E: 00:11:02

Did they murder anyone?

Deborah E: 00:11:04

Did they do anything to deserve dying alone in pain?

Deborah E: 00:11:09

And by the way, diabetic ketoacidosis.

Deborah E: 00:11:14

I don't wish that on anyone.

Deborah E: 00:11:17

I would rather have a bullet in the head.

Deborah E: 00:11:19

It is one of the most painful experiences ever.

Deborah E: 00:11:25

I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Deborah E: 00:11:28

And as I sat there, you know, before that experience, it's not that I was

Deborah E: 00:11:33

suicidal or anything, but I thought maybe it would just be better to die.

Deborah E: 00:11:37

Because fighting this and fighting this, because so many times I had

Deborah E: 00:11:42

been uninsured, and fighting the process when I was trying to get

Deborah E: 00:11:46

a job and I couldn't get a job.

Deborah E: 00:11:48

And just simply fighting to try to have the means to even get the insulin

Deborah E: 00:11:56

was so difficult that I thought, wouldn't it just be easier if I

Deborah E: 00:11:59

just simply didn't exist anymore?

Deborah E: 00:12:04

But when I went through that, I thought, wait a minute, what about all

Deborah E: 00:12:08

these people who don't have anyone?

Deborah E: 00:12:12

How are they going to survive?

Deborah E: 00:12:16

And that, my dear friends, is why and where DiabeticReal came from and was born.

Deborah E: 00:12:28

Because somebody has to be the voice of those who have no voice.

Deborah E: 00:12:38

And there you have it.

Deborah E: 00:12:43

Thank you for tuning in.

Deborah E: 00:12:45

This is Deborah, Deborah E from DiabeticReal.

Michael Anderson: 00:12:49

Thank you for listening to this episode of DiabeticReal.

Michael Anderson: 00:12:53

For more information about this podcast, as well as links and fun

Michael Anderson: 00:12:57

stuff related to DiabeticReal, visit us at our website at diabeticreal.

Michael Anderson: 00:13:03

com.

Michael Anderson: 00:13:04

Now we'll listen as Deborah E herself sings one of her favorite songs.

Michael Anderson: 00:13:09

Song is called Perfectly Wonderful World, written by Denny Martin and

Michael Anderson: 00:13:14

Jaimee Paul, engineered by me, of course,

Michael Anderson: 00:13:18

your host, Michael, in our Seaside Records Studio here in

Michael Anderson: 00:13:22

lovely Los Angeles, California.

Michael Anderson: 00:13:25

It was on the number one ReverbNation charts for over a

Michael Anderson: 00:13:29

year and still charts very well.

Michael Anderson: 00:13:31

So, have a pleasant moment and listen to Perfectly Wonderful World.

Deborah E: 00:13:37

Yes, I'm living inside of this Perfectly Wonderful World.

Deborah E: 00:13:43

Oh.