March 10, 2025 • 22 mins
The discourse presented in this episode of the DiabeticReal podcast compels us to confront the notion of personal responsibility concerning one’s health. Deborah articulates a critical perspective on the reliance individuals place upon medical professionals, emphasizing the imperative for patients to engage actively in their healthcare decisions. She asserts that while doctors are indeed knowledgeable, they are often overburdened, which may lead to a lack of comprehensive attention to each patient's unique medical history and needs.
“I think the only way to drive this home is to actually share a couple scenarios so that you get the idea of how serious this could get for someone if you don't pay attention...”
Deborah, 05:14
Through personal anecdotes, Deborah underscores instances where her health could have been jeopardized due to insufficient attention to her medical records and the implications of prescribed medications. This cautionary tale serves not merely as an admonition against blind trust in medical authorities but rather as a clarion call for individuals to assume an active role in their healthcare journey, conducting their own research and being acutely aware of potential contraindications inherent in their prescribed treatments. Ultimately, the episode encapsulates the necessity of empowerment in health management, urging listeners to become vigilant advocates for their well-being.
- The host emphasizes that personal health management is an individual's responsibility, which should not be overlooked.
- It is imperative to conduct thorough personal research regarding one's medical history and treatments prescribed by doctors.
- One must be cautious of medications that can provoke adverse psychological effects, including suicidal ideation, even if they seem benign.
- Communication with healthcare providers is crucial; ensure that all relevant medical history is disclosed for optimal treatment outcomes.
Chapters
- 01:55 Introduction to the DiabeticReal and Medical Disclaimer
- 05:12 The Importance of Personal Responsibility in Health
- 10:44 Case Study 1: Medicines that Can Affect Life Perspectives
- 12:55 Case Study 2: Medicines that Cross Blood Brain Barrier
- 17:23 Taking the Initiative to Do Your Own Research for Your Health
Episode Resources
- Update on FDA’s... report... of suicidal thoughts... in patients taking a certain type of medicines ... for type 2 diabetes [US Food and Drug Administration]
- Characteristics of compounds that cross the blood-brain barrier [BMC Neurology]
- Drug transport across the blood–brain barrier [National Library of Medicine]
- Suicidal Ideation.. as ... Events of Antidepressant Medication [National Library of Medicine]
- Asthma medication and suicidal ideation [Medical News Today]
- 11 Medications That Can Cause Depression [and Suicidal Ideation] as a Side Effect [GoodRX]
- Why Medications Can Cause Suicidal Thoughts [Alternative to...
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(04:24):
Okay, everybody, glad to haveyou here on the DiabeticReal podcast.
And I'm Deborah. Deborah E,your host and your friend. I hope
you consider me your friend.Now, if you are a regular listener,
you probably know by now Ishoot it straight. A lot of times
(04:45):
I use the phrase, well, to behonest with you, which is a silly
phrase because that is whatwe're doing, right? We're being honest.
But it, you know, after manydecades of saying that, it is a part
of how I speak. Today we'regoing to talk about something. And
(05:07):
I know that there's adisclaimer at the beginning of the
podcast because I added it andwe play it every episode. But I have
to reiterate that again, I amnot a medical doctor. I may be really
close to finishing my PhD andmaybe by the time you listen to this,
I will have it completed. Buteven with the completion of the PhD,
(05:30):
that does not make me amedical doctor and it does not make
me your medical doctor. And itdoes not give me the privilege of
giving you medical advice. Andit certainly does not give me the
privilege to have you listento any medical advice. So now that
I've repeated that to point ofad nauseam and saying, do not take
(05:51):
this as medical advice, I'llget to the point. How's that? Right.
What I wanted to share withyou is that your health is your responsibility
and you're probably going,wow, I had to listen to Deborah talk
about how I shouldn't takethis seriously. And now she states
the ever so obvious, but, yes,your health is your responsibility
(06:12):
and we need to take itseriously. I had something happen
and I realized that I wasprobably putting too much trust in
my doctor. It's not thatdoctors don't deserve the trust.
I think doctors in a general,broad sense are probably overworked.
(06:35):
I mean, if you're abillionaire and you can pay doctors
for their time and compensatethem, and if you have a doctor that
really cares and they willgive their devoted time and attention
to your health and ignoreevery time their phone goes off.
So, for example, if you'reElon Musk, and by the way, I happen
(06:55):
to like X, formerly known asTwitter. So if you're Elon Musk and
you can pay your doctor forhis time and pay your doctor to ignore
everything else coming in onthe phone, including any notifications
from X, and only give devotedtime to your patient, then maybe
(07:20):
you will get the attention.But see, then you're still depending
on the doctor to knoweverything and to have researched
everything to have thedoctor's team research everything
to know everything abouteverything and to an exponential
level so that you don'taccidentally die. Have I got your
attention? All right. I don'tlike sharing personal information
(07:43):
about myself, but I think theonly way to drive this home is to
actually share a couplescenarios so that you get the idea
of how serious this could getfor someone if you don't pay attention.
Ultimately, you do have to doyour own research and that includes
things like googling theoutcome and you have to be aware
of your own medical historyand contraindicators and things like
(08:06):
that. Yes, big words likethat. You have to know how to do
the research for yourself. AndI'm not talking about just the basic
medical history like oh mymama had great aunt and great uncle
who had this particular thingwrong with them. I mean, yes, that
information is important,true. But you have to know what impacts
you in the here and now andnot just how to fill out a medical
(08:29):
record when you go to thedoctor. I am convinced that they
don't really take that intoconsideration. I think those records
and files are there forliability issues. Yes. But based
on my experiences, I don'treally think it gets used as far
as. Look, I'm a softwaredeveloper. You guys know that if
you've been listening to thispodcast, and I'm an expert at searching
(08:52):
databases, actually setting updatabases so that they cross index
other tables and, and findinformation. And I know that the
information that I haveentered into medical records when
I go to the Dr. Is not indexedto a level that things are found
about my medical history. SoI'm pretty convinced that that's
(09:12):
not necessarily a standardpractice for doctor's offices. It
should be. Oh, it definitelyshould be. could save some lives
if it was. But I know in myparticular situation it was not.
And I'm not picking on theparticular doctor. I had two incidences
and it will make things alittle bit clearer. So you can apply
when I share my information,which again, I don't like to share
(09:34):
personal information, but itwill make it a little clearer if
you can apply it to your ownsituation and see what works. So
while it's true that yes, thisinformation should be able to be
searchable automatically withall our AI and everything searchable
automatically and red flaggedin, in medical systems, I have not
(09:55):
seen that happen. So you haveto be responsible for your information.
So I had two situations thatcould have been, and I'm not over
exaggerating, could have beendeadly. To me, it was the same Doctor
and it's not his fault, ofcourse, I'm not going to name names,
it's not his fault. But ithappened to be that he prescribed
(10:16):
two different medicines andthey did similar things. But these
two medicines, although theyworked for what he prescribed them
for, they caused two differentissues for me. Ultimately, I ended
up using something that wascompletely natural and didn't cause
any issue. But anyway, so thefirst one caused suicidal thinking.
(10:41):
Now, for me personally, I havelearned over time that if a medicine
has a suicidal ideation risk,in other words, even if it's a small
matter, if it has a 2% risk or99% risk, if there is any risk whatsoever
that a medicine has thatpotential that it will cause suicidal
(11:04):
ideation, there's somethingthat it will trigger in my brain.
Now, I'm not suicidal. So allthese little questionnaires, I go
to a doctor, it doesn't matterwhat doctor it is or who they're
affiliated with, whatever. Youget these questions that say, have
you had suicidal thinking inthe past two weeks? Have you been
depressed? Have you been. Imean, it's like it takes 15 minutes
(11:24):
just to fill out thatquestionnaire. And I'm convinced
that that's for liability. Sothat if you off yourself, God forbid
that the legal liabilityaspect is covered. Now, I think it's
really important if you arehaving any kind of psychological
issue or if you need acounselor, definitely seek someone
out. So I'm all for that. Butthere's two different things going
(11:48):
on here. There's thepsychological aspect where you need
help, you need a counselor,you need a psychologist. That's the
kind of thing that I went toschool for for psychology and PhD
for psychology. Again,different topic, not going there
right now. If you need help,you definitely need to seek help
for that. But what I'm talkingabout here is medicine that will
(12:09):
trigger someone thinking aboutsuicide when they're not suicidal.
Now, someone could argue,well, you must be suicidal or it
wouldn't trigger that. No, no,no, no. There's actually where medicine
will trigger that. If someonedoesn't believe that that exists,
they haven't experienced it.It actually does trigger that even
in people that are notsuicidal at all. And I am not suicidal.
(12:34):
But if I'm given medicine thatcan cause that suicidal thinking,
it will cause me to have thatthinking. It's the strangest thing.
So when I have had that andall of a sudden it's like, where
are these thoughts comingfrom? It's the oddest thing. I will
pull up the bottle, I'll goGoogle it. And it's like, sure enough,
it has that. So, you know,this is on my record. I have let
(12:57):
doctors know, do not give memedicine that causes suicidal ideation.
But the databases are notcross indexed. It should flag it.
Do not give this womananything that causes that. And when
I've taken it, I have to keepreminding myself, it's the medicine
that causes it. It's themedicine that causes it. It's the
medicine that causes it. Evenafter I had this issue and I met
(13:18):
with a doctor, I mentioned it,I said, this medicine causes suicidal
ideation. And he was like, andby the way, he's an excellent doctor.
Excellent doctor. And it didwork for what he prescribed it for.
But I mentioned it to him andhe's like, oh, it does. I was like,
well, you don't know this. Andyou're prescribing it to somebody
who has issues with anymedicine that causes suicidal ideation.
(13:41):
You know, it's like right awayit's off the list. I'm not taking
it. I can't risk that. So ifyou are someone who is going through
a period of your life wheremaybe depression is something you're
struggling with, do not take amedicine that causes suicidal ideation.
It could really wreak havoc onyour life. And if all of a sudden
(14:02):
you're having thoughts ofsuicide and you've never had that
before, but you just started amedicine, Google that and see if
that's the type of medicinethat causes that. Because it might
not be you, it might be themedicine. Now, as I've mentioned
before, not only do I havetype 1 diabetes, but I also have
epilepsy, something I learnedjust in the last few years, because
(14:23):
type 1 diabetes can also causeseizures. So I am not new to seizures,
but I am new to thatdiagnosis. But the diagnosis, it
doesn't really matter. Youknow, six of one, half dozen of another.
My neurologist is exceptional.But when you're going to the doctor
for something else and you'rebeing prescribed another medicine
for another ailment, it's notlike your neurologist is sitting
(14:44):
next to you. Now you couldcall up the other doctor and say,
hey, I'm going to prescribethis. Is this safe? Sometimes it
gets tricky because maybe onedoctor is exceptional in one area,
but maybe they don't knowabout medicines in another area.
You're starting to play tag orWhere's Waldo as far as who you're
talking to. So yes, talk toyour doctor rather than just listening
(15:05):
to me in a podcast. But itdoes get a little tricky. So I took
this other medicine and I'mreally in tune with when I'm feeling
seizure prone. And I've goneseveral years not feeling seizure
prone. Yay, we're doing reallywell. And all of a sudden I'm feeling
seizure prone. And it's like,what is going on? Am I stressing
(15:26):
myself out? Am I not sleepingenough? You know, I'm going through
this checklist in my mindbecause part of this podcast, DiabeticReal,
is about listening to yourbody, what is going on, and really
listening to what your body istrying to say. So I'm going through
a checklist and trying to makesure that I'm listening to my body.
(15:46):
And it dawns on me. The onlything that's different is I'm taking
this new medicine. Well, longstory short, I figured out that this
medicine is crossing this.What is it called? This brain barrier.
See, I'm not an expert, I'mnot a medical doctor, but it's. I
cross referenced with thedoctor later, I said something. It's
crossing this brain barrier.It's called the brain blood barrier.
(16:11):
And I think that would be awhole other episode to explain that.
But there are certain drugsthat can cross the brain blood barrier,
and I'm learning this byactually googling it. Even as I go
through this episode. Mostdrugs cannot. And as soon as I saw
that, I thought about it. It'slike if I'm having seizures. And
(16:34):
what I do know about seizures,as far as my experience of decades
of having seizures, is thatit's kind of like I know computers,
as I said, software developerhere, I know that when I'm having
a seizure, it's kind of likewhen a computer freezes up, a computer
is saying, hey, I'm havingissues here. Can't describe it. Lock
up and the computerautomatically reboots. That's what
(16:55):
it's like as far as when I'mhaving a seizure, my whole system
locks up and it rebootsitself. And the seizure itself is
somewhat benign. But where theproblem occurs is whatever I fall
on or whatever as I'munconscious. Well, I went to the
doctor and I said, it seems tome that whatever this drug is, is
causing something where mybody, my brain, not my body, my brain
(17:19):
seems like it's locking up,ready to crash. I haven't had a seizure,
but it's the same feeling Iget right before a seizure. Is there
something to do with a bloodbrain barrier? He says, yeah, yeah,
this drug actually crosses theblood brain barrier. I thought, whoa,
whoa, okay, that would explainwhy I've been having this seizure
(17:42):
prone feeling when I take thisparticular drug and it takes about
a week after I take just onedose of this particular drug that
he prescribed, it takes oneweek for it to get out of my system.
I had been walking aroundagain, like back when I was having
one to two, sometimes threeseizures a month, up to 120 seizures
(18:06):
in that period of time. I waswalking around on edge. Not on edge,
like I said, but back duringthat time of having so many seizures
because constantly I wasfeeling like I was about to go back
into a seizure. Hey, I wasenjoying the time not having a seizure
over the past three years orso. I mean, that's nice. I gotta
(18:27):
say, I'm prepared because I'mused to seizures. What can you say
as having epilepsy? But it'snice not to have seizures. So I mentioned
that. And I'm thinking tomyself, again, I don't want to criticize
the doctor. I realize he'soverworked and he wasn't thinking
about this. But I went intothis situation, I did not hide the
(18:48):
fact that I have epilepsy andI was given a drug that crosses the
blood brain barrier. Maybe I'mthinking too simply here, but don't
give that to someone who hasseizures. At least talk to the patient
about it. That there may be apotential, that there may be issues.
(19:10):
Now, maybe he could havemissed the first one. Maybe he didn't
know that I was prone toissues as far as the suicidal ideation.
But I thought in both of thosecases it should have been flagged
because I gave all theinformation in my health history.
Well, anyway, I'm not here tolay blame anywhere. I'm just here
(19:31):
to state that in my opinion.Again, not a doctor. Talk to your
doctor, in my opinion, beforeyou put anything in your mouth. As
far as medicine, it wouldn'thurt for you to Google it. I say
Google, but whatever it is, sodo your own research and see what
you're consuming. As far asmedicine or taking. As far as medicine
(19:53):
or medical procedure, whateveryou are doing or allowing to be done
to your body, double check it,even if you have to get a second
opinion from another doctor tomake sure that whatever is happening
is copacetic with your bodyand that you will have a positive
outcome that won't end up witha bunch of people mourning your passing.
(20:19):
So just my opinion. And that'spart of what's kept me here on earth.
That and loving husband,people who care and paying attention
to my body, which I hope forall of you that you listen to your
body and that you stick aroundwith all of us. And this is Deborah
coming to you fromDiabeticReal. And see you in the
(20:41):
next episode of DiabeticReal.
Okay, everybody, glad to haveyou here on the DiabeticReal podcast.
And I'm Deborah. Deborah E,your host and your friend. I hope
you consider me your friend.Now, if you are a regular listener,
you probably know by now Ishoot it straight. A lot of times
(04:45):
I use the phrase, well, to behonest with you, which is a silly
phrase because that is whatwe're doing, right? We're being honest.
But it, you know, after manydecades of saying that, it is a part
of how I speak. Today we'regoing to talk about something. And
(05:07):
I know that there's adisclaimer at the beginning of the
podcast because I added it andwe play it every episode. But I have
to reiterate that again, I amnot a medical doctor. I may be really
close to finishing my PhD andmaybe by the time you listen to this,
I will have it completed. Buteven with the completion of the PhD,
(05:30):
that does not make me amedical doctor and it does not make
me your medical doctor. And itdoes not give me the privilege of
giving you medical advice. Andit certainly does not give me the
privilege to have you listento any medical advice. So now that
I've repeated that to point ofad nauseam and saying, do not take
(05:51):
this as medical advice, I'llget to the point. How's that? Right.
What I wanted to share withyou is that your health is your responsibility
and you're probably going,wow, I had to listen to Deborah talk
about how I shouldn't takethis seriously. And now she states
the ever so obvious, but, yes,your health is your responsibility
(06:12):
and we need to take itseriously. I had something happen
and I realized that I wasprobably putting too much trust in
my doctor. It's not thatdoctors don't deserve the trust.
I think doctors in a general,broad sense are probably overworked.
(06:35):
I mean, if you're abillionaire and you can pay doctors
for their time and compensatethem, and if you have a doctor that
really cares and they willgive their devoted time and attention
to your health and ignoreevery time their phone goes off.
So, for example, if you'reElon Musk, and by the way, I happen
(06:55):
to like X, formerly known asTwitter. So if you're Elon Musk and
you can pay your doctor forhis time and pay your doctor to ignore
everything else coming in onthe phone, including any notifications
from X, and only give devotedtime to your patient, then maybe
(07:20):
you will get the attention.But see, then you're still depending
on the doctor to knoweverything and to have researched
everything to have thedoctor's team research everything
to know everything abouteverything and to an exponential
level so that you don'taccidentally die. Have I got your
attention? All right. I don'tlike sharing personal information
(07:43):
about myself, but I think theonly way to drive this home is to
actually share a couplescenarios so that you get the idea
of how serious this could getfor someone if you don't pay attention.
Ultimately, you do have to doyour own research and that includes
things like googling theoutcome and you have to be aware
of your own medical historyand contraindicators and things like
(08:06):
that. Yes, big words likethat. You have to know how to do
the research for yourself. AndI'm not talking about just the basic
medical history like oh mymama had great aunt and great uncle
who had this particular thingwrong with them. I mean, yes, that
information is important,true. But you have to know what impacts
you in the here and now andnot just how to fill out a medical
(08:29):
record when you go to thedoctor. I am convinced that they
don't really take that intoconsideration. I think those records
and files are there forliability issues. Yes. But based
on my experiences, I don'treally think it gets used as far
as. Look, I'm a softwaredeveloper. You guys know that if
you've been listening to thispodcast, and I'm an expert at searching
(08:52):
databases, actually setting updatabases so that they cross index
other tables and, and findinformation. And I know that the
information that I haveentered into medical records when
I go to the Dr. Is not indexedto a level that things are found
about my medical history. SoI'm pretty convinced that that's
(09:12):
not necessarily a standardpractice for doctor's offices. It
should be. Oh, it definitelyshould be. could save some lives
if it was. But I know in myparticular situation it was not.
And I'm not picking on theparticular doctor. I had two incidences
and it will make things alittle bit clearer. So you can apply
when I share my information,which again, I don't like to share
(09:34):
personal information, but itwill make it a little clearer if
you can apply it to your ownsituation and see what works. So
while it's true that yes, thisinformation should be able to be
searchable automatically withall our AI and everything searchable
automatically and red flaggedin, in medical systems, I have not
(09:55):
seen that happen. So you haveto be responsible for your information.
So I had two situations thatcould have been, and I'm not over
exaggerating, could have beendeadly. To me, it was the same Doctor
and it's not his fault, ofcourse, I'm not going to name names,
it's not his fault. But ithappened to be that he prescribed
(10:16):
two different medicines andthey did similar things. But these
two medicines, although theyworked for what he prescribed them
for, they caused two differentissues for me. Ultimately, I ended
up using something that wascompletely natural and didn't cause
any issue. But anyway, so thefirst one caused suicidal thinking.
(10:41):
Now, for me personally, I havelearned over time that if a medicine
has a suicidal ideation risk,in other words, even if it's a small
matter, if it has a 2% risk or99% risk, if there is any risk whatsoever
that a medicine has thatpotential that it will cause suicidal
(11:04):
ideation, there's somethingthat it will trigger in my brain.
Now, I'm not suicidal. So allthese little questionnaires, I go
to a doctor, it doesn't matterwhat doctor it is or who they're
affiliated with, whatever. Youget these questions that say, have
you had suicidal thinking inthe past two weeks? Have you been
depressed? Have you been. Imean, it's like it takes 15 minutes
(11:24):
just to fill out thatquestionnaire. And I'm convinced
that that's for liability. Sothat if you off yourself, God forbid
that the legal liabilityaspect is covered. Now, I think it's
really important if you arehaving any kind of psychological
issue or if you need acounselor, definitely seek someone
out. So I'm all for that. Butthere's two different things going
(11:48):
on here. There's thepsychological aspect where you need
help, you need a counselor,you need a psychologist. That's the
kind of thing that I went toschool for for psychology and PhD
for psychology. Again,different topic, not going there
right now. If you need help,you definitely need to seek help
for that. But what I'm talkingabout here is medicine that will
(12:09):
trigger someone thinking aboutsuicide when they're not suicidal.
Now, someone could argue,well, you must be suicidal or it
wouldn't trigger that. No, no,no, no. There's actually where medicine
will trigger that. If someonedoesn't believe that that exists,
they haven't experienced it.It actually does trigger that even
in people that are notsuicidal at all. And I am not suicidal.
(12:34):
But if I'm given medicine thatcan cause that suicidal thinking,
it will cause me to have thatthinking. It's the strangest thing.
So when I have had that andall of a sudden it's like, where
are these thoughts comingfrom? It's the oddest thing. I will
pull up the bottle, I'll goGoogle it. And it's like, sure enough,
it has that. So, you know,this is on my record. I have let
(12:57):
doctors know, do not give memedicine that causes suicidal ideation.
But the databases are notcross indexed. It should flag it.
Do not give this womananything that causes that. And when
I've taken it, I have to keepreminding myself, it's the medicine
that causes it. It's themedicine that causes it. It's the
medicine that causes it. Evenafter I had this issue and I met
(13:18):
with a doctor, I mentioned it,I said, this medicine causes suicidal
ideation. And he was like, andby the way, he's an excellent doctor.
Excellent doctor. And it didwork for what he prescribed it for.
But I mentioned it to him andhe's like, oh, it does. I was like,
well, you don't know this. Andyou're prescribing it to somebody
who has issues with anymedicine that causes suicidal ideation.
(13:41):
You know, it's like right awayit's off the list. I'm not taking
it. I can't risk that. So ifyou are someone who is going through
a period of your life wheremaybe depression is something you're
struggling with, do not take amedicine that causes suicidal ideation.
It could really wreak havoc onyour life. And if all of a sudden
(14:02):
you're having thoughts ofsuicide and you've never had that
before, but you just started amedicine, Google that and see if
that's the type of medicinethat causes that. Because it might
not be you, it might be themedicine. Now, as I've mentioned
before, not only do I havetype 1 diabetes, but I also have
epilepsy, something I learnedjust in the last few years, because
(14:23):
type 1 diabetes can also causeseizures. So I am not new to seizures,
but I am new to thatdiagnosis. But the diagnosis, it
doesn't really matter. Youknow, six of one, half dozen of another.
My neurologist is exceptional.But when you're going to the doctor
for something else and you'rebeing prescribed another medicine
for another ailment, it's notlike your neurologist is sitting
(14:44):
next to you. Now you couldcall up the other doctor and say,
hey, I'm going to prescribethis. Is this safe? Sometimes it
gets tricky because maybe onedoctor is exceptional in one area,
but maybe they don't knowabout medicines in another area.
You're starting to play tag orWhere's Waldo as far as who you're
talking to. So yes, talk toyour doctor rather than just listening
(15:05):
to me in a podcast. But itdoes get a little tricky. So I took
this other medicine and I'mreally in tune with when I'm feeling
seizure prone. And I've goneseveral years not feeling seizure
prone. Yay, we're doing reallywell. And all of a sudden I'm feeling
seizure prone. And it's like,what is going on? Am I stressing
(15:26):
myself out? Am I not sleepingenough? You know, I'm going through
this checklist in my mindbecause part of this podcast, DiabeticReal,
is about listening to yourbody, what is going on, and really
listening to what your body istrying to say. So I'm going through
a checklist and trying to makesure that I'm listening to my body.
(15:46):
And it dawns on me. The onlything that's different is I'm taking
this new medicine. Well, longstory short, I figured out that this
medicine is crossing this.What is it called? This brain barrier.
See, I'm not an expert, I'mnot a medical doctor, but it's. I
cross referenced with thedoctor later, I said something. It's
crossing this brain barrier.It's called the brain blood barrier.
(16:11):
And I think that would be awhole other episode to explain that.
But there are certain drugsthat can cross the brain blood barrier,
and I'm learning this byactually googling it. Even as I go
through this episode. Mostdrugs cannot. And as soon as I saw
that, I thought about it. It'slike if I'm having seizures. And
(16:34):
what I do know about seizures,as far as my experience of decades
of having seizures, is thatit's kind of like I know computers,
as I said, software developerhere, I know that when I'm having
a seizure, it's kind of likewhen a computer freezes up, a computer
is saying, hey, I'm havingissues here. Can't describe it. Lock
up and the computerautomatically reboots. That's what
(16:55):
it's like as far as when I'mhaving a seizure, my whole system
locks up and it rebootsitself. And the seizure itself is
somewhat benign. But where theproblem occurs is whatever I fall
on or whatever as I'munconscious. Well, I went to the
doctor and I said, it seems tome that whatever this drug is, is
causing something where mybody, my brain, not my body, my brain
(17:19):
seems like it's locking up,ready to crash. I haven't had a seizure,
but it's the same feeling Iget right before a seizure. Is there
something to do with a bloodbrain barrier? He says, yeah, yeah,
this drug actually crosses theblood brain barrier. I thought, whoa,
whoa, okay, that would explainwhy I've been having this seizure
(17:42):
prone feeling when I take thisparticular drug and it takes about
a week after I take just onedose of this particular drug that
he prescribed, it takes oneweek for it to get out of my system.
I had been walking aroundagain, like back when I was having
one to two, sometimes threeseizures a month, up to 120 seizures
(18:06):
in that period of time. I waswalking around on edge. Not on edge,
like I said, but back duringthat time of having so many seizures
because constantly I wasfeeling like I was about to go back
into a seizure. Hey, I wasenjoying the time not having a seizure
over the past three years orso. I mean, that's nice. I gotta
(18:27):
say, I'm prepared because I'mused to seizures. What can you say
as having epilepsy? But it'snice not to have seizures. So I mentioned
that. And I'm thinking tomyself, again, I don't want to criticize
the doctor. I realize he'soverworked and he wasn't thinking
about this. But I went intothis situation, I did not hide the
(18:48):
fact that I have epilepsy andI was given a drug that crosses the
blood brain barrier. Maybe I'mthinking too simply here, but don't
give that to someone who hasseizures. At least talk to the patient
about it. That there may be apotential, that there may be issues.
(19:10):
Now, maybe he could havemissed the first one. Maybe he didn't
know that I was prone toissues as far as the suicidal ideation.
But I thought in both of thosecases it should have been flagged
because I gave all theinformation in my health history.
Well, anyway, I'm not here tolay blame anywhere. I'm just here
(19:31):
to state that in my opinion.Again, not a doctor. Talk to your
doctor, in my opinion, beforeyou put anything in your mouth. As
far as medicine, it wouldn'thurt for you to Google it. I say
Google, but whatever it is, sodo your own research and see what
you're consuming. As far asmedicine or taking. As far as medicine
(19:53):
or medical procedure, whateveryou are doing or allowing to be done
to your body, double check it,even if you have to get a second
opinion from another doctor tomake sure that whatever is happening
is copacetic with your bodyand that you will have a positive
outcome that won't end up witha bunch of people mourning your passing.
(20:19):
So just my opinion. And that'spart of what's kept me here on earth.
That and loving husband,people who care and paying attention
to my body, which I hope forall of you that you listen to your
body and that you stick aroundwith all of us. And this is Deborah
coming to you fromDiabeticReal. And see you in the
(20:41):
next episode of DiabeticReal.
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