Cooking Insulin in the Microwave - For Real? #04

Deborah E: 00:00:00

I'm living inside of this perfectly wonderful world.

Deborah E: 00:00:05

We're past the point of just simply ER.

Deborah E: 00:00:09

It's ICU.

Deborah E: 00:00:11

So I was, and I was going, by this point I was going in and out of consciousness.

Deborah E: 00:00:16

It was not good.

Deborah E: 00:00:17

I was very fortunate that I had a loving husband that was looking out for me.

Deborah E: 00:00:22

I was no longer able to advocate for myself because I was in

Deborah E: 00:00:26

and out of consciousness.

Michael Anderson: 00:00:28

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

Michael Anderson: 00:00:32

speaker, who proves that being diagnosed

Michael Anderson: 00:00:35

with a life-changing illness

Michael Anderson: 00:00:36

as a child, along with countless hospitalizations, and a

Michael Anderson: 00:00:40

family who told everyone she'd be dead before she reached puberty does not have

Michael Anderson: 00:00:46

to stand in the way of life well-lived.

Narrator: 00:00:48

The DiabeticReal Podcast and the content of its websites are presented

Narrator: 00:00:52

solely for educational purposes, and the views and opinions expressed by guests

Narrator: 00:00:54

are there as all they do not necessarily reflect that of the host of the podcast,

Narrator: 00:00:59

the content is not intended to substitute professional medical diagnosis, advice,

Narrator: 00:01:02

or treatment ongoing or otherwise.

Narrator: 00:01:05

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

Narrator: 00:01:07

healthcare provider with any questions regarding your healthcare.

Deborah E: 00:01:11

Okay, cooking insulin in the microwave, for real?

Deborah E: 00:01:16

Yeah, I know.

Deborah E: 00:01:17

I couldn't resist as far as the title of this podcast, but the title came to

Deborah E: 00:01:22

me because, well, you know, it's a true story and, um, there's a lot of things

Deborah E: 00:01:27

that a lot of stories and true stories I might have, uh, that I have to share

Deborah E: 00:01:32

with you, but this one came to me today.

Deborah E: 00:01:35

I was having my nails done and I was chatting with Tim and nice,

Deborah E: 00:01:40

bright Barbie pink nails, by the way, we were sitting there.

Deborah E: 00:01:43

He just looked at me.

Deborah E: 00:01:44

He goes, seriously, for real.

Deborah E: 00:01:46

And I said, well, I wasn't the one cooking my insulin.

Deborah E: 00:01:48

I wouldn't be that crazy.

Deborah E: 00:01:49

I mean, why?

Deborah E: 00:01:50

Okay, I will say that when I was young, and I would carry my insulin

Deborah E: 00:01:54

with me because, hey, wasn't when I wasn't feeling well, I wanted to take

Deborah E: 00:01:58

insulin so that I would feel better.

Deborah E: 00:02:00

And I realized that in the hot desert in California, the sun gets to the

Deborah E: 00:02:05

insulin and it breaks down the insulin and then the insulin doesn't work.

Deborah E: 00:02:09

Because, well, it gets cooked.

Deborah E: 00:02:12

So I knew that it's better if you keep the insulin at a nice temperature.

Deborah E: 00:02:18

Don't freeze it.

Deborah E: 00:02:19

Don't have it too cold, but definitely don't have it out in the hot sun.

Deborah E: 00:02:24

Don't have it in the desert.

Deborah E: 00:02:26

And yeah, uh, no duh.

Deborah E: 00:02:28

Don't cook it in the microwave.

Deborah E: 00:02:30

Don't cook it in the oven.

Deborah E: 00:02:31

Don't, I mean, come on, this is common sense.

Deborah E: 00:02:33

Don't cook your insulin.

Deborah E: 00:02:35

So, anyway.

Deborah E: 00:02:35

So, of course, I wasn't cooking it in the microwave.

Deborah E: 00:02:37

But, anyway.

Deborah E: 00:02:39

So, it turns out that somebody did cook my insulin.

Deborah E: 00:02:45

But I didn't know that.

Deborah E: 00:02:47

Because I would have stopped them.

Deborah E: 00:02:50

I ended up in ICU.

Deborah E: 00:02:53

This was many years ago.

Deborah E: 00:02:55

And I was getting sicker and sicker.

Deborah E: 00:02:58

And I had, you know, this story for another time.

Deborah E: 00:03:02

Forgive me, you'll get sick of hearing that.

Deborah E: 00:03:04

But I will tell you the stories.

Deborah E: 00:03:06

I will get there.

Deborah E: 00:03:07

I have so many different stories to share with you, so I will

Deborah E: 00:03:10

definitely share them with you.

Deborah E: 00:03:12

And I knew what it was to have high blood sugar.

Deborah E: 00:03:16

I knew what it was to almost die from high blood sugar.

Deborah E: 00:03:20

And that is definitely a story that you'll want to hear.

Deborah E: 00:03:24

Um, I knew what it was to be sick.

Deborah E: 00:03:28

I knew what it was to ask for help when you're getting very close

Deborah E: 00:03:33

to the end of your life because the blood sugar is too high.

Deborah E: 00:03:37

You're in diabetic ketoacidosis.

Deborah E: 00:03:40

And Insulin is not working.

Deborah E: 00:03:43

For whatever reason, your body has gone too far, and you need

Deborah E: 00:03:47

the help of medical professionals.

Deborah E: 00:03:50

So, I went to the hospital.

Deborah E: 00:03:52

They're looking at going, what on earth?

Deborah E: 00:03:54

This is going wrong.

Deborah E: 00:03:56

I mean, this, this is like, we need IV.

Deborah E: 00:03:58

We need insulin going into this woman's body.

Deborah E: 00:04:02

We're past the point of just simply ER.

Deborah E: 00:04:04

It's ICU.

Deborah E: 00:04:07

So I was, and I was going, by this point I was going in and out of consciousness.

Deborah E: 00:04:11

It was not good.

Deborah E: 00:04:13

I was very fortunate that I had a loving husband that was looking out for me.

Deborah E: 00:04:18

I was no longer able to advocate for myself because I was in

Deborah E: 00:04:22

and out of consciousness.

Deborah E: 00:04:24

The The hospital had a lab, as most hospitals do.

Deborah E: 00:04:28

It was a, it was a fair sized hospital in a fair sized city.

Deborah E: 00:04:32

It was actually, um, this hospital was in the Phoenix area.

Deborah E: 00:04:36

And, uh, the hospital thought this was so strange.

Deborah E: 00:04:40

I mean, they said, hey, is she taking her insulin?

Deborah E: 00:04:41

And my husband's like, of course she's taking her insulin.

Deborah E: 00:04:44

She wasn't feeling well.

Deborah E: 00:04:45

I mean, when, when her blood sugar is that high, of course she's taking her insulin.

Deborah E: 00:04:50

They said, we gotta check this out.

Deborah E: 00:04:53

And they said, when it wasn't working, did she take insulin from a fresh bottle?

Deborah E: 00:04:59

And it's like, yes, she has had diabetes for decades.

Deborah E: 00:05:03

And that's one of the things you do.

Deborah E: 00:05:04

You know, if you take insulin and it's not working, go take insulin

Deborah E: 00:05:09

from a fresh bottle of insulin.

Deborah E: 00:05:12

Because it could be that the bottle you're using might have gone bad.

Deborah E: 00:05:17

It might have somehow been exposed to the sun for some reason,

Deborah E: 00:05:20

or have gotten hot somehow.

Deborah E: 00:05:22

And so, Get a fresh bottle.

Deborah E: 00:05:25

We'd done that.

Deborah E: 00:05:26

And that wasn't working.

Deborah E: 00:05:28

So the hospital said, you know what?

Deborah E: 00:05:30

Bring in all of your bottles of insulin.

Deborah E: 00:05:35

Well, at this point, I was already in ICU.

Deborah E: 00:05:38

The doctors were taking care of me.

Deborah E: 00:05:40

The nurses were taking care of me.

Deborah E: 00:05:41

So, I was being taken care of.

Deborah E: 00:05:45

So my husband went home, and he brought in all of the bottles of insulin that we had.

Deborah E: 00:05:52

And I don't know, ten bottles, whatever it was.

Deborah E: 00:05:55

You know, good chunk.

Deborah E: 00:05:58

The bottles were from different lots.

Deborah E: 00:06:01

So it's not like somehow in the manufacturing of the

Deborah E: 00:06:04

bottles, there was a bad lot.

Deborah E: 00:06:06

There wasn't anything that we could go after Eli Lilly and,

Deborah E: 00:06:10

and say, hey, you messed up.

Deborah E: 00:06:13

And they, they took it to the lab and they studied it and they said, you know what?

Deborah E: 00:06:19

We know what's wrong.

Deborah E: 00:06:21

My husband's what?

Deborah E: 00:06:22

How do you know what's wrong?

Deborah E: 00:06:24

I mean these are, you told me these bottles are from different,

Deborah E: 00:06:27

lots are from different batches.

Deborah E: 00:06:29

What's wrong?

Deborah E: 00:06:30

And they said, see this little, now I can't remember because

Deborah E: 00:06:32

of course I was unconscious.

Deborah E: 00:06:34

So now at this point, I'm telling you what I understand from, from what

Deborah E: 00:06:38

my husband told me, but there's some kind of little red dot or something

Deborah E: 00:06:41

that, that pops when you put.

Deborah E: 00:06:44

insulin in the microwave and cook it, it pops like this little red dot thing.

Deborah E: 00:06:51

And it's, it's in there specifically so you can tell when

Deborah E: 00:06:55

it's cooked in the microwave.

Deborah E: 00:06:56

Because you see, if you cook it, if you cook a bottle of insulin in the microwave

Deborah E: 00:07:01

too long, the thing basically blows up.

Deborah E: 00:07:05

I mean, and that's what I had heard.

Deborah E: 00:07:07

It's like, why would you put insulin in the microwave?

Deborah E: 00:07:10

It's got metal in this bottle, and it's gonna cause a problem for the

Deborah E: 00:07:13

microwave, let alone the bottle.

Deborah E: 00:07:14

I mean that, that, oh, and of course the insulin.

Deborah E: 00:07:17

I mean, that's just, that is three times not something that you want to do.

Deborah E: 00:07:24

And you'd probably injure the human being putting it in there.

Deborah E: 00:07:27

But, I guess it turns out you can put a bottle of insulin in the microwave

Deborah E: 00:07:33

and cook it for a small amount of time.

Deborah E: 00:07:36

And all it will do is damage the insulin, but the bottle won't blow

Deborah E: 00:07:41

up and the microwave won't blow up.

Deborah E: 00:07:45

And this is why they put this little mechanism in the bottle that will

Deborah E: 00:07:51

turn it red so that people can tell that that bottle of insulin has

Deborah E: 00:07:58

been tampered with so that they know that that insulin is bad.

Deborah E: 00:08:03

It's an easy way to tell without having to take the insulin into the

Deborah E: 00:08:05

lab and actually test the insulin.

Deborah E: 00:08:07

It's an easy way to tell that the insulin has been tampered with and has

Deborah E: 00:08:12

been put in the microwave and cooked.

Deborah E: 00:08:14

And it's because there have been nefarious people out there that have tried to

Deborah E: 00:08:19

harm diabetics by cooking insulin.

Deborah E: 00:08:23

Go figure.

Deborah E: 00:08:24

You have nefarious criminal minds out there that try to harm diabetics.

Deborah E: 00:08:31

And so Eli Lilly and other companies have figured out a way to be able to

Deborah E: 00:08:38

demonstrate whether or not a bottle of insulin has been tampered with or not.

Deborah E: 00:08:43

Well, it turns out every single one of my bottles of insulin had been microwaved.

Deborah E: 00:08:54

Now the question is, at that point, who had cooked my insulin?

Deborah E: 00:08:59

Well, I mean, the other question is, who would want to, who wanted me dead?

Deborah E: 00:09:02

Because, I mean, you, you don't cook insulin to get your jollies.

Deborah E: 00:09:07

Well, it certainly wasn't my husband, because there's easier ways to kill me.

Deborah E: 00:09:11

And besides that, we've been married another 20 years past that.

Deborah E: 00:09:14

I'm still alive, and we love each other dearly.

Deborah E: 00:09:17

But anyway, it wasn't my husband.

Deborah E: 00:09:19

Um, it wasn't our kids, because it's not like a one-year-old.

Deborah E: 00:09:23

I was gonna toddle over there.

Deborah E: 00:09:24

She barely could walk, let alone, the microwave was above the stove,

Deborah E: 00:09:29

and it's not like she could climb up there, or push the buttons on

Deborah E: 00:09:34

one of those, you know, touchscreen kind of things on the microwave.

Deborah E: 00:09:37

She couldn't open the door on the microwave.

Deborah E: 00:09:38

I mean, how, how can a kid even use the microwave?

Deborah E: 00:09:43

She'd never use the microwave.

Deborah E: 00:09:44

Besides that, A child of one is going to end up blowing up the microwave

Deborah E: 00:09:49

before she's able to figure out how many minutes to do it to tamper with

Deborah E: 00:09:54

the insulin without blowing herself up.

Deborah E: 00:09:58

So, it's not the child doing it.

Deborah E: 00:10:01

It's not the husband doing it.

Deborah E: 00:10:02

I'm certainly not going to cook my insulin.

Deborah E: 00:10:04

Do you know how painful it is to die from diabetic ketoacidosis?

Deborah E: 00:10:10

I'd been there before.

Deborah E: 00:10:12

I'd be further ahead to ask somebody for a gun and shoot my head.

Deborah E: 00:10:15

I mean, come on.

Deborah E: 00:10:16

I'm not suicidal.

Deborah E: 00:10:18

But still, that is a painful way to die.

Deborah E: 00:10:21

To die from diabetic ketoacidosis.

Deborah E: 00:10:24

I'm not going to sit there and cook my insulin.

Deborah E: 00:10:27

But, there had been two people in her house.

Deborah E: 00:10:33

Actually three, if you want to count my friend's baby.

Deborah E: 00:10:36

But, we're talking toddler here.

Deborah E: 00:10:39

And it's not like a toddler did it.

Deborah E: 00:10:41

So, she's out of the running.

Deborah E: 00:10:44

But, that was my trusted friend.

Deborah E: 00:10:46

There was no reason that I had not to trust this friend or her husband.

Deborah E: 00:10:51

I'm just telling the story as it is.

Deborah E: 00:10:53

I certainly do not mean any ill harm against her, but it happens

Deborah E: 00:10:58

to be that friend and her husband.

Deborah E: 00:11:00

So this friend and her husband had been at our house, and it just so

Deborah E: 00:11:05

happens we were headed out to church with our kids, and it was like, hey,

Deborah E: 00:11:11

uh, are you going to church with us?

Deborah E: 00:11:13

No?

Deborah E: 00:11:14

Okay, well, what are we doing?

Deborah E: 00:11:18

And they just wanted to hang around, and we were thinking,

Deborah E: 00:11:20

you're acting a little bit peculiar.

Deborah E: 00:11:23

We're not just gonna leave you.

Deborah E: 00:11:26

At our house, we were trying to figure out what they were doing, and

Deborah E: 00:11:28

they were being very, very strange.

Deborah E: 00:11:31

So it was like, alright, either you go home, or you come to church

Deborah E: 00:11:35

with us, but we're not leaving you in our house unattended.

Deborah E: 00:11:38

We just knew that the vibe was off.

Deborah E: 00:11:41

We weren't going to leave them in our house unattended.

Deborah E: 00:11:43

Now normally, family, friends, people you trust, you can leave them in your house,

Deborah E: 00:11:48

but we knew something was off, so we We didn't want to leave them unattended, but

Deborah E: 00:11:52

we left them unattended enough to go pack our kids in the car and ready for church.

Deborah E: 00:11:57

And that seems to be the window when the insulin was cooked.

Deborah E: 00:12:03

Now that's just by process of elimination.

Deborah E: 00:12:06

Those were the only adults in the house.

Deborah E: 00:12:08

The FBI warranted that that's who cooked the insulin.

Deborah E: 00:12:12

But, of course, as you know, the law I cannot just assume that that's who

Deborah E: 00:12:19

did it, because maybe, you know, the neighbor snuck in the house in the middle

Deborah E: 00:12:23

of the night and did it or something.

Deborah E: 00:12:24

I mean, you can't prove that some other person didn't do it.

Deborah E: 00:12:27

Of course, we know no one else was in her house, but

Deborah E: 00:12:33

because we didn't actually see this person cook it, she wasn't put in jail.

Deborah E: 00:12:40

But the FBI said stay away from her because that actually was not the

Deborah E: 00:12:45

only time that that an attempt was made on my life The FBI came to me.

Deborah E: 00:12:51

Oh, yeah.

Deborah E: 00:12:51

Did I mention the FBI?

Deborah E: 00:12:53

Oh, yeah the hospital actually run they ran the tests on the insulin and then they

Deborah E: 00:12:58

called the FBI and the FBI came and talked to Us and they said yeah, by the way This

Deborah E: 00:13:04

isn't the only time that an attempt has been made on your life and this friend of

Deborah E: 00:13:08

yours is actually involved And all that.

Deborah E: 00:13:12

And, uh, you should probably stay away.

Deborah E: 00:13:19

Yeah, so, uh, it's a little tricky to absolutely prove unless we saw them, but

Deborah E: 00:13:27

considering there were three attempts by, uh, this person on my life, and my

Deborah E: 00:13:35

husband's, um, but mostly on my life.

Deborah E: 00:13:39

The FBI just said, stay away from her, because we have evidence that

Deborah E: 00:13:46

she has made attempts on your life.

Deborah E: 00:13:47

So, they actually offered us WITSEC.

Deborah E: 00:13:52

That was kind of interesting, but we didn't want WITSEC.

Deborah E: 00:13:55

So, It was, uh, put to us to just simply make sure that we stayed away

Deborah E: 00:14:01

from her and so that's what we did.

Deborah E: 00:14:03

Yeah, I told you at the beginning of this series that we had some

Deborah E: 00:14:07

interesting, uh, autobiographical stories, like five books worth each.

Deborah E: 00:14:14

So anyway, um, yes, cooking insulin in the microwave

Deborah E: 00:14:24

and, uh, fortunately, That hospital saw me through it, and I did not die

Deborah E: 00:14:30

of diabetic ketoacidosis that day.

Deborah E: 00:14:34

I lived through that one.

Deborah E: 00:14:36

So, you never know, even though you think that somebody is your friend,

Deborah E: 00:14:44

or you think that because someone is related to you, that you're safe.

Deborah E: 00:14:49

Make sure you always keep a keen eye on your surroundings

Deborah E: 00:14:53

to make sure you stay safe.

Deborah E: 00:14:57

And keep those that love you, close.

Deborah E: 00:15:02

Because they're pretty special.

Deborah E: 00:15:06

This is Deborah E signing off on DiabeticReal.

Michael Anderson: 00:15:12

Thank you for listening to this episode of DiabeticReal.

Michael Anderson: 00:15:16

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

Michael Anderson: 00:15:21

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

Michael Anderson: 00:15:26

com.

Michael Anderson: 00:15:27

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

Michael Anderson: 00:15:33

The song is called Perfectly Wonderful World, written by Denny Martin

Michael Anderson: 00:15:37

and Jaimee Paul, engineered by me, of course, your host, Michael, in

Michael Anderson: 00:15:44

our Seaside Records studio here in lovely Los Angeles, California.

Michael Anderson: 00:15:49

It was on the number one ReverbNation charts for over a

Michael Anderson: 00:15:53

year and still charts very well.

Michael Anderson: 00:15:55

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

Deborah E: 00:16:01

Yes, I'm living inside of this perfectly wonderful world.

Deborah E: 00:16:11

Oh.

Deborah E: 00:16:17

Mmm.