Deborah D. - Non Participant

Good morning.

Good morning.

Could you please state your name?

Yes, I'm Deborah Davidson.

Okay. Would you mind telling me a little bit about yourself?

Well, I'm Deborah Davidson. I was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, and I ended up in Milwaukee. I got five kids. I don't know, I like watching my baby, watching the grandkids, helping out with my kids and stuff. I like to cook. Pretty much a simple person, laid back home body. I'm not married, but, you know, I don't know.

What side of town of Milwaukee did you move to when you got here?

I moved on 39th in Vienna.

Oh, okay.

39Th in Vienna, over there by my sister.

And how long have you been staying over there?

Ooh, I've been over there. I stayed over there for about five years.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay. What are some of your interests in kind of hobbies and things like that?

Well, I love to cook. I sell dinners sometime. I love to do things with the children. I love to go to church. And that's pretty much my favorite thing to do, is I love to cook. I used to love to do hair, but my hands is kind of messed up now, so I don't do that no more. But cooking is a very big hobby of mine. I love to cook, whatever it is, outside, inside.

Okay. How do you typically spend your day?

Babysitting? Yeah, I get up, take my little medicine, my blood pressure medicine or whatever. And my daughter has to be to work at seven, so I usually get off like six and go over there. My grandbaby had to be at the bus stop at like, 650, so I prepare. Once I get over there, I prepare for him to go to the bus stop. Then I spend the day with the baby. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. And you talked about your routines and habits?

Yeah.

What do you do kind of after you babysit? So you stop babysitting at about 03:00 what are your plans after that?

After that, I may sit around and talk with her. Then I go home and I sit up and probably watch me some lifetime, you know, give me something to eat and just sit around and watch tv.

Just kind of relax?

Yep, just relax.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. How do you manage your health and wellness as you age?

That's a good one. I try to. I stay, like, maybe three blocks from the store. I walk. I try to drink as much water as I can because I have a high blood pressure. Pressure. I just try to stay as active as I can. Sometimes when I clean, that's why when I clean, I clean the windows with, like, vinegar and water.

I try to make sure. I use my arms, and, you know, when I sweep, I use my arms and try to drink as much water as I can, which I love my pepsis. But overall, I take my blood pressure medicine, and I try to be as active as I can. Like I said, I walk to the store, and it's like three blocks there and three blocks back. I make sure I take my medicine. I try to have as much stress as I can, but that ain't all that good. But overall, yeah, that's what I do. Follow my doctor's order.

I'm under the doctor's care because of my blood pressure, so I have to see him every month.

Okay.

Cause I take three blood pressure pills, and he got me under doctor's care every month, I'm in for a blood pressure check.

How has that changed your life when you were diagnosed with high blood pressure and having to take those three pills?

I hate it. It's like, I hate taking those pills sometimes. I take them every other day, but my blood pressure run kind of high. So I don't know. I have to try to drink as much water as I can. No, not too much alcohol. Well, I don't drink alcohol anyway, but that's it. I just do what the doctor tell me to do.

I try to eat a lot of fruits because that blood pressure really ain't no joke. A lot of foods you can't eat. And if you do eat the food, you could get sick from it. You're going to see the swelling. Yeah. You don't get headaches, and that's pretty much it.

Yeah. And how does that kind of change your day once you start feeling those symptoms?

It just. Sometimes it just makes me lazy. Yeah, I just don't feel like doing nothing. Like yesterday, I pretty much laid around. Cause I knew it was kind of up a little bit. I was having, like, headaches, lightheadedness. And I live alone sometimes or my 30, 70 or come over there with me, but most of the time I lay around, I won't do too much. I'll try to watch what I eat that day because I do love fried food, and that's my biggest problem.

Fried food and Pepsi's is my biggest problem.

Growing up. How did your upbringing shape your health, your diethyde, your nutrition, your activity level? How did that shape that?

It didn't do good because my family, my dad was a cooker. He cooked a lot of pork. My mom cooked a lot of pork everywhere I went, you know, we ate a lot of fried food. That's why we got high blood pressure today. And, like, when I go to my daughter's house, they don't eat no pork. They try to take the pork out of their diet. Instead of drinking a lot of sodas, they drink a lot of water with me. It messed me up.

It messed me. My big brother, my big sister up. The way we ate, how they dealing with the same stuff. They got the diabetes. My brother is, I'm 55, my sister, 56, my brother, 57, he's had a toe amputated. And they working on another one. His diet is bad. We like fried chicken, ribs, greens, just tacos, lasagna.

Stuff we wasn't supposed to have. We didn't grow up on those. You know how some people may put a lot of fruits, put a lot of greenery in their diet? We didn't have a lot of that. You know, we ate a lot of beans, we ate a lot of, like, KFC and, you know, stuff like that. We just didn't eat healthy, and we paying for that now. Like, I got high blood pressure. My brother has. My little brother's the ones under me have high blood pressure.

My big sister, she takes the insulin, she has to shoot herself every day. And my brother, like I said, he lives in Vegas. But, you know, we keep in touch with a close family and the diabetes is running. Him and his wife have it.

Oh, wow.

Yes. It's due to the way we was eating. And I don't care. Well, it's hard to change it. Like, my doctor tell me, I want to see more greenery. I want to see more water. I don't want you on the Pepsi's at all. I want you totally off the grease.

But when you was raised up as a kid, sometimes in the morning we might have chicken wings and fries for breakfast.

Right?

Yeah. You know, so, yeah.

Okay. Okay. Can you describe any challenges you face in maintaining your health and how you overcome them? So what are some challenges you face over time?

Sometimes you can wake up and be feeling like you don't even want to take a shower. You know, I got a PCW worker. But sometimes you don't have the energy when that blood pressure is really up, you know, especially if you live alone. You just gotta. Sometimes I might just take a wash up, you know what I'm saying? Or I sit up for about 30 minutes before I get my day started. Cause I have sciatica also. And with me having these, it just makes it harder. Yeah, it's harder.

It's just sometimes it's harder just to. And then, you know, my blood pressure peel make me use the bathroom a lot, so that breaks my sleep. It interferes with your sleep? It interferes with a lot of stuff. Yeah, especially the medicine. Sometimes you don't even be sexually active because, you know, it took so many of those pills. It's just you lose interest in a lot of stuff. A lot of stuff that you find yourself loving to do. Sometimes you'll just lose interest.

You take those pills so much, you just like, I'm tired of taking these pills. I'm tired of going to the doctor. Every time I look around, it's something else, you know? Like, they got me on three blood pressure pills. Why do I have to take three blood pressure pills and a cholesterol pills when y'all could just get me on a pill that I don't have to take all of this, you know, and that's bad on your kidneys, you know, the pills. Taking so many pills and you ain't gonna drink enough water, that leads to kidney failure, you know, your kidneys. Yeah. So, yeah, that's why I have to be checked once a month, get my kidneys checked, you know, my liver and, you know, things like that.

Do you feel like all of this takes a toll on your mental health?

Yeah.

Yeah. In what way?

It kind of depresses you. I think mental health, depression is a part of mental health. I think it is. Cause, yes, I wanna do too much. You see, your friends, I got a lot of friends that smaller than me, and I mean, they older than me, but they're not taking high blood pressure pills. They don't take diabetic pills, and I mean, I don't even drink. They drink. They still drink.

And they not having the health problems that I'm having, you know, socially. Sometimes you just don't want to be bothered. People come over. Sometimes you don't even answer the phone. You just let the phone ring because, you know, you done been up using the bathroom, you done took this medicine, and sometimes it's okay, sometimes it's not. So it's a head of this.

Yeah, that's understandable. In terms of diet, exercise, and mental health, what strategies do you use and that you find most effective for staying healthy? What strategies do you use? Like, for me, I use phone reminders. I have my alarm go off to tell me, okay, you need to drink some water or you need to eat. Do you have any strategies like that?

No, I probably need that only with my planner, with my medicine. But I buy a case of water. Cause I know I need it, but I'm a soda person. I'm just hard headed. I'm hard headed, but I need as much water. It's the key to drinking enough water is you can't leave them sodas and that juice and all that sugar alone. Cause they go, do not cause you to be a diabetic. High blood pressure.

Even if you drink a lot, that's what it's gonna do. Yeah, that's what it does.

You said you have a planner?

Yep. You know, I take Sunday from Sunday with my medicines and I buy like a case of water. It sits in the living room. When I get up they go, my little case of water right there. So I know I gotta drink at least a bottle of water with my blood pressure medicine. So that's one of the things I make sure I got my water. And I like boiled eggs, so I try to cut down on the grease sometimes. And when I was dieting, I boiled everything, I boiled my sausage, I boiled my eggs.

I lost like 80 pounds when I gained it back.

Wow.

I stopped, I was riding my bike this like in my middle forties, like 46, 47. I was riding my bike, I took sodas all the way out, I took sugar, I just was eating like, I boiled everything I ate. I took out the salt for the misses dash and I know how to be healthy, but it's a discipline too, you know, it take a lot of discipline. But I was eating yogurts, I took the chips out for the yogurt, I took the grapefruits, took the candies, the chocolates and everything out. It was just, I lost 80 pounds that year. What happened? I stopped working. You got to, once you start a diet, you really got to stick to it. I used to then believe it when people say if you lose all that weight and you stop doing one thing that you was doing, you gonna gain it back.

I stopped riding the bike, I stopped diagining, I stopped walking, I stopped with the water, I started back with the gyros and the soda. Before you know it, I was at 280 again and I had got down to like 214. But gotta remember, I wasn't using grease, I wasn't using butter, I wasn't using salt. I mean, when I tell you I boiled my chicken and I did portions, it's like the little plate that I had is like for portion. I had me like a scoop of this. I didn't do, I didn't do too much, too much, you know, like french fries, I didn't do, I just did, you know like cans and like corn in the can, I would warm it up, boil my food. And you got to get used to that taste, too, because you ain't going to have all that salt. You ain't going to have that butter, you ain't going to have that garlic, you ain't going to have them flavors.

You're going to have to get used to that. Misses datch. And I was working out every night. Me and my guy would get on the floor, we'd work out. He was a bike rider. So I used to ride my bike, and when I stopped exercising, I stopped riding that bike. I just stopped drinking water. I was like, well, one pepsi ain't going to hurt me.

Versus the man that I got back to start spiraling, man. I had started loving oranges was good in the middle of the night. Grapefruits was good in the middle of the night. Because in the middle of the night is when I eat and drink. Literally, I wake up one or 02:00 once I can't go back to sleep. There go. Cause when you're on water pills, you ain't gonna sleep. Well, my mom died in her sleep at 49.

But the eating habits again, my granny cooked the way my mama cooked. And my mom had a heart attack at first, and then she had a stroke. And all the grandkids was in the bed with her when she passed. But she used to tell us, please, y'all. Y'all don't want to be no diabetic. That changes your life. Y'all don't want that high blood pressure. Certain stuff you can do, you know, your stress level.

You got to try to make sure you not arguing a lot. And that's just a lot.

Yeah, yeah. Okay.

Cause the stress level get up there, it's over, right? My dad died at 78, but before he died, he had a leg amputated from the diabetes. My granddad went blind from the diabetes. My dad, mama died from the diabetes. It's the way they cooked, the way they cook. They use the white salt, you know, the onions, the real butter. You know, you have to change that.

Yeah. Wow. It sounds like diabetes. Really?

It's bad. My family. My sister got to get her eyes. My sister, 56, every so often, she got to go get her eyes dilated. That's how I started with daddy. Michael lost his toe. That's how I started with daddy. First it was toes, and then it was the leg.

The knee was gone. He was down to here when he passed. He had one of those fake legs, you know?

Oh, yeah.

Cause he was a garbage man. In Vegas, he had a good job, so they put the leg on him and he could still walk. But my family, I'd be so scared. I'm 55, I didn't even think I was gonna make it. Cause my mom died at 49 from stress. You know, brothers running in and out of jail, you know, that was worrying her. She's a single parent. Everything is coming her way.

That's what they. When you're a single parent and you got multiple kids, you go here and in here. You go here and in there. You try to stretch these meals, you gonna get the chicken in the front, you know, just a lot goes along with. Especially if you're not working, if you own the. And my mom wasn't working, she was on disability. So, yeah, with the stress and the way she ate and lived her life, that's why she made it to live, to only be 49.

Wow, that's unfortunate. I'm sorry to hear that. Yeah, we're gonna switch it up a little bit and talk about staying informed and engaged.

Okay.

Okay. With all of the information that's available out here, how do you stay informed about the world around you?

On Facebook. The Internet. Yes. That's how I heard about this program, through the.

So you're big on social media.

Yes. Learn a lot. That's how a lot of stuff get took care through the Internet. Yeah. Me and my sister, we find out everything. I find out something I share with her, she'll find out something, she'll share with me. That's how we was. See, we big on the blood pressure and the things that, the tips that give you, you know, how you have stroke symptoms, and she'll look on Facebook and they might have something wherever.

Five things to show you that your kidneys are in danger. You ever, you know, when you go to those. Those sites, they could tell you, you know, about your five reason, five signs that you're going to have a stroke or a heart attack. And, you know, she might see something on the Internet and she'll send it to me. My friend in Vegas might see something concerning health and she'll send it to me. She's 65, so that's what we do. We really stay in tune with the Internet.

Yeah. And it's a lot of information sharing.

A lot. Yes. And what people don't know, if you put that stuff on the Internet and older people like me, they're going to look at it, they're going to read it, and if it's helpful, they going to help their family with it. That's what I do.

Is Facebook your primary source? Yes. Or do you, like, how do you kind of double check the credibility of the information that you are receiving?

I will go and ask. Well, I ask my sister a lot. And I don't know, sometimes we just take them at their word.

Yeah. Okay.

Cause if I say something, I'm gonna do something. I'm gonna give it all I got to make sure I do it. And a lot of times the information we get, is it be true. The only thing I haven't messed with was the stimulants. I just don't believe in that, you know, feeling off of that stimulus thing. Cause they got it on the Internet where you can get the stimulants now.

Really?

Yes. You could get up to, you, one of them say you could get up to 6201, of them say you could get up to 1400. But now. So that's why I say the Internet again. Social Security says no. If you're on ssi ssa or whatever, they're not giving out no extra money. See, a lot of people already got the checks, but I was telling them, y'all better go on to that website under Social Security. It's on there.

You're gonna see it. They say, we're not doing none of that. It's so many scams out here.

Yeah, yeah. How important is it for you to keep up with current events, specifically in the city and then even nationwide?

I'm nosy. I like to know what's going on. So a lot of stuff I just wanna know. Even if I'm not gonna be involved with it, I can tell somebody else. Like when they have the school fairs and the kids go back to school, even though I don't have school aged kids. I got grandkids, I got friends. They got grandkids, friends who got kids. And we find out a lot of stuff from the Internet and we pass it on.

Yeah. Do you follow any, like, local news sources? Yeah, yeah. Like TMJ four.

WTMJ four?

Yeah, yeah. Okay, what about, like, national news, like worldwide? Yeah.

As if I can't sleep at night and it's all white.

How do you feel about using technology to access news and information? Do you find it easy or challenging?

Sometimes I find it challenging. So a lot of this stuff, they done changed around. They could have just left it the same.

What do you mean?

Like when they came out with those iPhones and these Android phones. I'm 55 and I'm just getting the hang of it. You know, we just, you know, look on the dudes that see something happening or call 411 and get a phone number or address, you just gotta do a lot. Now I got a tablet, and I had to wait on my son, my 37 year old, he helps me out a lot, so he helped me out with a lot of stuff. Good.

Now we're going to talk about interest in evidence based programs. So you remember we were talking about the diabetes care and fall prevention and stuff like that. Have you ever participated in any structured programs or classes focused on health and wellness?

No, I probably signed up unsigned up for them and lost interest.

Okay, why did you lose interest?

I don't know. I'd be willing to do it, and then I just lose interest. I don't know. Because I was in a program over here somewhere. It was, a lot of seniors are going into seniors and they tell you about. It's good to have somebody living with you or something, you know, in case you fall at night. Cause I done failed before with the sciatica, my right leg, I have to be very careful. I have a cane, but then I got it set up in my house.

As soon as I get up, I set up for a little mini, and then I got this stand right here that I lean on. And then I got it set up where in my house even. I got it set up where I got stuff I can hold on to if I feel I'm kind of weak or I get up. Sometimes I get up and I be real dizzy, I have to sit down again. So, you know, I try to keep everything right there, even though I don't use my cane the way I supposed to when I'm at home. I be serious with it.

Yeah.

Because I can fall. I had a friend to fall about a month ago. You know, she stayed on that floor, and she a little lady. She stayed on that floor till the next day, till her kids came in there to help her up.

Jeez.

And she didn't even know. She. She didn't even know she was out that long.

Wow.

Yes. So we just tried to do the best we can. And she got a dog and a cat. She got a big dog. Nothing. Nobody could do. I calls her all the time. Cause we got the buddy system, too.

We all call and check on one another. Cause we know what times we early risers sometimes. Now, if we stay up late at night watching tv, we probably get up kind of late. But she gonna call me. I'm calling her. She gonna call me at a certain time. Something wrong. If I don't call her at a certain time, something could be wrong.

And, you know, it's like a group of us have the buddy system. My sister, I call her my sister, but she's just my friend. She has diabetes really bad, and she got back problems. Cause her breasts was really big, like a 54 double d. But she lost so much weight, and her husband passed. And what she do? She go out of her way to have water, to have a slice of fruit. She take the edges off of her bread, you know, because she got to have bread. But I see it's working for her, too.

She lost a lot of weight, too, doing that. But, yeah, we got the buddy system. We check in on each other. That's important, though, especially if you live by yourself, because, like I say, I live alone. So, yeah, that's pretty much what I do.

Okay. Evidence based programs can offer structured ways to improve health and wellness over an eight week period. So it's about eight weeks. What are your initial thoughts on joining such a program? Knowing that that commitment is there? That eight week commitment is there?

I just think with the right support, I think I could do it, because I have joined little programs like that was in them for a while and got to the end where I could have got my certificate, and I stopped. One thing about me, I lose interest fast. But I notice if I got a little support, like, it's a lot of ladies up in there, and I'm friends with them, and I ain't worried about transportation. I think I could do that, do some stuff like that.

So transportation would be a barrier for you?

That's it right there? Yeah, it's transportation.

What would make you disinterested in participating in a program like that?

Nothing, if I could. Like, if I had transportation. And I always like to learn something new. That's probably just the transportation and the length of the time, how long it is, like.

So that was kind of turn you off if it was too long.

Yeah, I don't want it to be too long. Maybe. I probably could sit, like, maybe an hour. Cause when I had joined this program down the streets. This is a program down the streets. Cause I used to be. I used to be an addict back in the day, but, man, I used to have to be at that program all day. But I wanted to get myself back off of those, you know, those pills that the doctor put me on.

I wanted to get off of them. And I had a lot of support, and it helped me a lot. But when I. When I. The transportation van went out of service, then I stopped going. I had met a lot of older peoples, they had a lot of stuff going on. They was inviting me to the high rise building in there. They got workouts.

They got a lot of stuff for people my age do. They got a library? You could get on the computer? They show you how to get on the computer. You know, they always giving you stuff, you know, stuff that got to do with diabetes and high blood pressure and stuff. Yeah. And I liked it that. But when my transportation ran out, I stopped doing a lot of that, and I just got back into babysitting with the help of the kids out.

Yeah. Yeah. My last question, or set of questions for you here is this. Understanding that these programs require weekly commitment. What barriers, other than transportation, could make participation difficult for you?

That's it.

That's it. So you feel like with babysitting your grandkids, you feel like you can maneuver around that man?

Yes. I probably would let her get somebody else right. You know, because if I just really had something to do and could get out, I would do that. I would help my daughter, but she got that mean man there, too. But, you know, but for doing something for me, that's going to help Deborah. Because I can handle communities. Yeah, I can. I'm telling you, that's how I lost all that weight.

My doctor was so impressed with me, and I did it.

It is impressive.

I could do it. I did it.

And you could do it again.

Cause I got depressed when I lost all that weight. It's like I had a. I don't know, I think I really. I think I was disappointed. Cause I quit and I could have kept going. I quit. I just quit. I.

I just wanted to start eating some more good stuff. Cause I got tired of. I got tired of not having nothing good, you know, I wanted gyro again.

It's all about balance. You can still have those things sometimes, but, you know, it's all about moderation and, you know, but then it does become a slippery slope sometimes. So I'm just watching out for that.

Yeah, but with the. With the support I was having. Support to my church was supporting me and stuff, and I could do it as long as the biggest thing with that commitment. With that commitment comes discipline. And you real lot of people say, I don't need them. I don't need that help. You need that support. Yeah, because some days you don't want to stop, you ain't gonna want to do it.

But then you got this person telling you, look, you don't went this far. You can do it just one more day. Just drop you know, that's it. I think a lot of us just be needing support.

Yeah.

That's all. We could do a lot of stuff just need support.

Yeah. Well, I think that is a good note to end on, Ms. Deborah, I appreciate you talking to me today. And, yeah, we're going to end it now.

Okay. All.