Rural Healthcare Nightmare #06
In this episode of DiabeticReal, host Deborah E shares the story of one (of many) events involving hospitals, this one while living in a rural town. Deborah recounts the challenge of not only having to deal with the medical issues but an unrelenting doctor who refused to listen to reason and had already been presumably involved in a questionable event involving a little boy just weeks prior to this. But, with hitting her head on the stove, it seemed best to allow the paramedics to take her to the hospital. Determination and resilience help her navigate this rural event in another eye-opening episode of DiabeticReal.
Chapters
- 00:00 Introduction; Beauty... and challenges of rural living.
- 05:33 Blood sugar dropping causes seizures, 100% unconscious.
- 06:29 Diabetes and epilepsy issues, but low blood sugar (diabetes) caused the event.
- 12:03 Initial treatment by husband, fiasco at hospital.
- 14:21 Other doctor(s) frustrated with rural doctor, Deborah takes control, leaves hospital.
- 16:23 Closing.
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Episode Credits
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00:00 - Introduction; Beauty... and challenges of rural living.
05:33 - Blood sugar dropping causes seizures, 100% unconscious.
06:29 - Diabetes and epilepsy issues, but low blood sugar (diabetes) caused the event.
12:03 - Initial treatment by husband, fiasco at hospital.
14:21 - Other doctor(s) frustrated with rural doctor, Deborah takes control, leaves hospital.
16:23 - Closing
I'm living inside of this Perfectly Wonderful World.
Deborah E:The body is sending up a flare saying, "No!
Deborah E:No!
Deborah E:Hey, I need help!
Deborah E:I'm on the edge of death!
Deborah E:If you do not help me during this diabetic low blood sugar- seizure!"
Deborah E:Get the picture?
Deborah E:The body's screaming for help.
Deborah E:It's saying, "I need sugar or I'm gonna die."
Deborah E:I mean, literally.
Michael Anderson:Join Deborah E, multi-award-winning singer, podcaster, and
Michael Anderson:speaker, who proves that being diagnosed with a life-changing illness as a child,
Michael Anderson:along with countless hospitalizations, and a family who told everyone she'd be dead
Michael Anderson:before she reached puberty, does not have to stand in the way of life well-lived.
Narrator:The DiabeticReal podcast and the content of its website are presented
Narrator:solely for educational purposes.
Narrator:And the views and opinions expressed by guests are theirs alone.
Narrator:They do not necessarily reflect that of the host of the podcast.
Narrator:The content is not intended to substitute for professional medical diagnosis of
Narrator:advice or treatment ongoing or otherwise.
Narrator:Be sure to always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified
Narrator:healthcare provider with any questions regarding your health care.
Deborah E:Well, let's see.
Deborah E:This is a story about rural doctors.
Deborah E:About little boys, or a little boy.
Deborah E:Well, you know, this story actually has a lot of moving pieces.
Deborah E:It's an easy story to tell, and yet it's a difficult story to tell.
Deborah E:So, how about I just start, and we'll see where this goes.
Deborah E:It has to do with a rural area.
Deborah E:It's a place where my husband and I moved many, many, many years ago.
Deborah E:Many decades ago, actually.
Deborah E:I think that rural areas are very beautiful, usually, uh, the place is
Deborah E:beautiful, the people are generally beautiful, as in, you know, nice
Deborah E:values, the simplistic living.
Deborah E:I like rural areas.
Deborah E:I mean, I grew up in a rural area.
Deborah E:I think they're nice places, generally speaking, and for anyone living in a
Deborah E:rural area, I mean, don't disrespect for anything that I'm about to
Deborah E:say in, in this podcast episode.
Deborah E:So, but this particular experience that I had is not really to the credit
Deborah E:of rural areas, but actually, in all fairness, it's not to the credit of one
Deborah E:particular person, and we'll get there.
Deborah E:eventually in this story, but, but it is something that, that, you know,
Deborah E:the purpose of this particular podcast episode, for those of you who may have
Deborah E:chronic illnesses or challenges or things like that, it is something to be
Deborah E:wary of and something to be aware of.
Deborah E:with your chronic illness.
Deborah E:So listen to the story and if it fits, great, you know, talk
Deborah E:it aside and be aware of it.
Deborah E:If it is something that you need to know, um, for your situation and if not, Hey,
Deborah E:just listen to the story and don't pay any attention at all as far as your own life.
Deborah E:But let's, uh, move forward.
Deborah E:So anyway, it's another one of those situations, another
Deborah E:case where I almost died.
Deborah E:And no, I'm not just saying that, uh, You know, as we learned last
Deborah E:episode, it's not just, I'm not just saying that to get attention because
Deborah E:I definitely don't need the attention.
Deborah E:I don't want the attention, I don't need the attention, and I'm
Deborah E:not doing it to get attention.
Deborah E:It really is a situation where it is a close call.
Deborah E:But anyway, no, seriously, I almost died because of the rural
Deborah E:component of where we lived.
Deborah E:And I say that a lot as far as almost dying because it's true.
Deborah E:A lot.
Deborah E:So, let's set the stage so we understand the situation.
Deborah E:We'd purchased some land way out west in Minnesota.
Deborah E:Part of it was an inheritance from family.
Deborah E:We'd scraped up money.
Deborah E:We were a young family, small kids.
Deborah E:We worked hard to pull it all together, all those earnings.
Deborah E:We worked with the county and purchased a modular home that was repossessed,
Deborah E:you know, kind of like a car.
Deborah E:That's how it works with, with modular homes.
Deborah E:And we worked with the state to file special paperwork to
Deborah E:get the land and so forth.
Deborah E:So we were really excited, you know, I mean, this was, we, you know, crossed
Deborah E:all our T's, dotted all our I's.
Deborah E:We worked really hard to make this work.
Deborah E:And this was like our dream home at this point.
Deborah E:It was Minnesota.
Deborah E:It was You know, Minnesota is a land of 10, 000 lakes, true,
Deborah E:but this was our little lake.
Deborah E:We now had eight acres of beautiful, peaceful, lush land in rural
Deborah E:Minnesota, starting our life together, uncomplicated, just our little
Deborah E:fairy tale, our fairy tale marriage.
Deborah E:It was like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but this was the just right part.
Deborah E:It wasn't too hot.
Deborah E:It wasn't too cold.
Deborah E:It was just right.
Deborah E:Now for the event, the medical event.
Deborah E:As you know, listening to this podcast, I have diabetes, type 1 diabetes,
Deborah E:and I have that fun, yeah, that fun type 1 type, that type 1 type.
Deborah E:Boy, that's a tongue twister if you say that too many times in a row.
Deborah E:Not all type 1 diabetes or diabetics have the Kind that have the seizures, but it
Deborah E:seems that I'm blessed with that one.
Deborah E:I have the type that yes, if the blood sugar drops too low, I actually
Deborah E:have a seizure and I have the ability to have the tonic-clonic seizures.
Deborah E:Now, What that means is, you know, we refer to the tonic-clonic seizures.
Deborah E:I'm able to go completely unconscious.
Deborah E:There are several different types of seizures.
Deborah E:For instance, partial seizures.
Deborah E:That's where you sort of daze out.
Deborah E:Like you're starting, you're, you know, staring out into space.
Deborah E:And then there's tonic-clonic, tonic-clonic.
Deborah E:And that's when you're a hundred percent unconscious.
Deborah E:And because of that, your body just, for instance, just drops on the floor.
Deborah E:Or wherever you are.
Deborah E:Because You have no awareness, because you're unconscious, and
Deborah E:you're not aware of your surroundings.
Deborah E:You can't hold yourself up if you're completely unconscious, so you just
Deborah E:literally Of course, there's many other kinds of seizures as well, but
Deborah E:that's, that's a topic for another time.
Deborah E:Now, it just so happens, I'm also epileptic.
Deborah E:Let's not go there right now because that will only confuse matters as
Deborah E:far as what we're discussing today.
Deborah E:So, in other words, not only am I blessed with type 1 diabetes,
Deborah E:but I'm blessed with epilepsy.
Deborah E:Isn't that special?
Deborah E:That is so special.
Deborah E:But at this time in my life, when this event occurred, when we
Deborah E:lived in rural Minnesota, I did not know that I was epileptic.
Deborah E:And actually, in this situation, it was the diabetes that was causing the seizure.
Deborah E:And not the epilepsy.
Deborah E:So, whether I had known or not, it didn't matter because it was the low
Deborah E:blood sugar that caused the seizure.
Deborah E:So, again, it doesn't matter that we know we're epileptic, we don't
Deborah E:know we're epileptic, any of that.
Deborah E:So, for the story, we're just going to set that one aside.
Deborah E:Confused yet?
Deborah E:Alright.
Deborah E:How about we look at it from the body's point of view?
Deborah E:Okay?
Deborah E:So, we're going to look at it from the body.
Deborah E:When the blood sugar drops to, let's say 16.
Deborah E:Yes, that did happen to me one time actually, but I'll save that
Deborah E:for, you got it, another time.
Deborah E:Well, when type 1 diabetic body has a blood sugar that drops to,
Deborah E:say, 16, what do you think happens?
Deborah E:You got it, death.
Deborah E:When it goes past that point, it simply has gone too far, too low, and
Deborah E:there's no lower, and the body dies.
Deborah E:In the case of a type 1 diabetic that can have seizures, it is like a warning
Deborah E:mechanism that goes off before death.
Deborah E:The body is sending up a flare saying, "No!
Deborah E:No!
Deborah E:Hey, I need help!
Deborah E:I'm on the edge of death!
Deborah E:If you do not help me during this diabetic low blood sugar seizure!"
Deborah E:Get the picture?
Deborah E:The body is screaming for help but saying, "I need sugar or I'm gonna die.
Deborah E:I mean, literally!"
Deborah E:Yeah, the body is screaming for help, and that's what that seizure is.
Deborah E:So, regardless of epilepsy that day, that event, my blood sugar was low.
Deborah E:I needed help, as in, I needed sugar.
Deborah E:And my body was screaming out, sending up flares, asking for
Deborah E:help, in the form of sugar.
Deborah E:In other words, my body was screaming, I am type 1 diabetic
Deborah E:and I need help, please help me.
Deborah E:It didn't matter if I had blonde hair and was wearing a pink dress,
Deborah E:or if I had epilepsy, because that was not the issue at hand.
Deborah E:See what I mean?
Deborah E:Front and center.
Deborah E:Diabetic in need.
Deborah E:Okay, so the curtain parts.
Deborah E:We're at our house in the woods, by the lake.
Deborah E:I'm getting ready for church.
Deborah E:I go into a seizure, unconscious, from low blood sugar, as I just described here.
Deborah E:I even hit a head on the stove, and by the way, I dent the handle of the stove.
Deborah E:Yeah, ouch.
Deborah E:Ouch, big ouch, but I didn't feel it because of course I'm unconscious.
Deborah E:My husband calls the ambulance and pretty much he calls the ambulance
Deborah E:because he's worried about my head that head injury, you know I mean he can
Deborah E:treat the seizure you can treat the low blood sugar, but he's pretty he's
Deborah E:worried about this head injury now I mean you dent the stove with your head.
Deborah E:That's it's a little bit concerning anyway, so Now, let's pause for a moment
Deborah E:and let's talk about this hospital, right?
Deborah E:The ambulance is on the way out to pick me up, but let's, let's talk
Deborah E:about the hospital where they're headed once they pick me up.
Deborah E:It was a very tiny hospital.
Deborah E:It was smaller than many clinics in other city, in other cities.
Deborah E:The really sad issue was not the size, but something more than that.
Deborah E:A week or so before, maybe a few weeks, there had been a little boy who had
Deborah E:fallen between the bleachers at a sporting event at the local high school.
Deborah E:He was only four years old.
Deborah E:Sure, he hurt himself, but not to a point where it should have been more than a
Deborah E:night in the hospital and then go home.
Deborah E:This little boy never did get to go home with his family.
Deborah E:What was supposed to be some basic bruises ended up being a head injury
Deborah E:that killed him in that same hospital.
Deborah E:They did not examine him as thoroughly as they should have,
Deborah E:and this poor little child died.
Deborah E:Yes, that never should have happened.
Deborah E:It was in the news.
Deborah E:It was, it was awful.
Deborah E:It just, it should not have happened.
Deborah E:So now we come back to my situation as a type 1 diabetic.
Deborah E:Obviously, my husband Let the paramedics know that I was a type one diabetic.
Deborah E:And fortunately, the initial treatment was for that in the ambulance.
Deborah E:Or I wouldn't be here talking to you right now on the podcast.
Deborah E:But the actual initial treatment was, well, actually
Deborah E:it wasn't by the paramedics.
Deborah E:It was by my husband before the paramedics got there.
Deborah E:And as I said, the real reason for the ambulance was because I
Deborah E:hit my head in the head injury.
Deborah E:But It became a fiasco by the time I got to the hospital.
Deborah E:The doctor in the ER at the hospital, if you could call it an ER, swore up and
Deborah E:down that this was an epileptic seizure.
Deborah E:Now, I may have found out since then that I have epilepsy, but the point
Deborah E:is, as I said earlier, the event at the moment was a diabetic seizure
Deborah E:because of the low blood sugar.
Deborah E:And I know, we don't have to repeat that again, but it's a low blood sugar.
Deborah E:And a bigger point it was.
Deborah E:I didn't know this doctor from Adam, which means he didn't know me and
Deborah E:he didn't have my medical records.
Deborah E:Remember, we just moved here to a dream house in this particular area.
Deborah E:We'd just gotten there.
Deborah E:The doctors that I had were in another area.
Deborah E:With all the fun times with my diabetes, I'd had the pleasure
Deborah E:of knowing several medical staff in a city about 40 miles away.
Deborah E:The city was St.
Deborah E:Cloud, Minnesota.
Deborah E:It was a fair- sized city.
Deborah E:It wasn't Minneapolis.
Deborah E:It wasn't St.
Deborah E:Paul.
Deborah E:But it wasn't as rural as the little place where I was now.
Deborah E:The key thing was that there were Doctors in St.
Deborah E:Cloud who had my medical records and who knew me, they
Deborah E:could look up my information.
Deborah E:So, my husband begged the doctor in a small rural hospital to treat
Deborah E:me according to my type 1 diabetes.
Deborah E:And this doctor that we did not know, Refused.
Deborah E:I was like, who gives him the right?
Deborah E:My husband was finally able to convince him to call over
Deborah E:to the medical staff in St.
Deborah E:Cloud.
Deborah E:Now it gets interesting.
Deborah E:Everyone in this little hospital in this little rural town in
Deborah E:Minnesota could literally, and I mean literally, hear The doctor from St.
Deborah E:Cloud, screaming over the phone at the rural doctor, She is type 1 diabetic!
Deborah E:I dare say the doctor in St.
Deborah E:Cloud was even more frustrated than we were.
Deborah E:Fortunately, the beauty of type 1 diabetes is that once you get enough
Deborah E:sugar in the system, and especially once my brain cells came back online
Deborah E:with having had this disease almost all my life, Things start to balance.
Deborah E:I start to get involved in my own self care.
Deborah E:I don't tend to like others caring for me, especially when they would
Deborah E:rather argue with me about what disease I have or do not have, than
Deborah E:to treat me for the disease I have.
Deborah E:Or do not have.
Deborah E:And the beauty about being the patient is you can do this thing
Deborah E:called AMA, against medical advice.
Deborah E:Oh, I'm not here to say that I recommend it.
Deborah E:But versus being the next statistic, like that poor, dear, precious little
Deborah E:four-year-old boy that week before, no.
Deborah E:I decided to simply walk out of the hospital with my husband.
Deborah E:My blood sugar had adequately risen so that I was safe.
Deborah E:It seemed that if I had a concussion from hitting my head on the stove, I was okay.
Deborah E:So it was definitely time to leave that little hospital.
Deborah E:And sadly, even though we loved our little lake, We loved our little home.
Deborah E:Shortly thereafter, we left that little rural town and we moved
Deborah E:somewhere where people would listen when I said, I am a type 1 diabetic.
Deborah E:And you've been listening to DiabeticReal, and I'm your host, Deborah E.
Michael Anderson:Thank you for listening to this episode of DiabeticReal.
Michael Anderson:For more information about this podcast, as well as links and fun
Michael Anderson:stuff related to DiabeticReal, visit us on our website at diabeticreal.
Michael Anderson:com.
Michael Anderson:Now we'll listen as Deborah E.
Michael Anderson:herself.
Michael Anderson:sings one of her favorite songs.
Michael Anderson:The song is called Perfectly Wonderful World, written by Denny Martin
Michael Anderson:and Jaimee Paul, engineered by me, of course, your host, Michael, in
Michael Anderson:our Seaside Records studio here in lovely Los Angeles, California.
Michael Anderson:It was on the number one ReverbNation charts for over a
Michael Anderson:year and still charts very well.
Michael Anderson:So, have a pleasant moment and listen to Perfectly Wonderful World.
Deborah E:Yes, I'm living inside of this Perfectly Wonderful World.
Deborah E:Oh.
Deborah E:Mmm.
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