Howdy, my name is Debra Axon, and I was an Uber and taxi cab driver in small town Coffeyville Kansas about 6 years ago. One day, my bank called me to come pick up an old man and take him to pay his electric bill. This old man was Don Hohler, who later became one of my favorite regular customers. He had a wife and they had their adult with special needs daughter living in their home. She slept on their couch and paid rent to her parents. She also became one of my regular customers. I helped her, and lots of my other clients, get a free government cell phone. I even gave her family clothes and shoes to wear and brought food to them every month.
I took her out for her birthday celebration to the casinos down in Oklahoma. She won a coffee pot. Her parents kicked her out and didn't even let her have her prize. So you know who she called? Me, the Uber lady. She wanted to just live with me. She slept on my oversized recliner the first night, then I convinced my dad to let her stay at his house and she would pay rent to stay in my mom's old bedroom. She helped clean up their house, so they were happy to have her stay with them.
My brother, Preston, refused to let her have her seizure alert German Shepherd dog, Precious, even though he had a doberman, which is a similar size dog. So I had to set up for her dog to be in a kennel in my house and tie her out to be outside up to 1 hour at a time, 2 or 3 times each day, as that is as long as the city allows dogs on a chain or rope tied outside. Her poor dog was literally on her death bed when I picked her up. Nobody told me how much food or water to give her 34 pound, black dog, Precious. I just figured a 32 oz cup of food and twice that much water daily. Her dog gained weight and became more healthy. Donita gave Precious a heart pill every month to try to keep her dog alive.
I had a job offer in my email and I needed to relocate to Wichita KS to accept it. My brother and Donita no longer got along well, so she just walked to my house, straight down Central. I had to move her back into my house, then figure out what to do. I brought Donita with me to get an apartment in Wichita, and then had to go back to Coffeyville , and come back in a few days, as in once the apartment was ready for us to move into it.
We got a nice 2 bed 2 bath place that had a dog park. We set up a fenced in area in our dining room for her dog. Then we got another service dog, as Precious wasn't expected to live much longer. Bradley is a white German Shepherd husky mix and he came pre-trained as a diabetic service dog. I switched over to driving for Lyft. I really enjoy long drives and the airport lights, so I took a pre-ordered trip. While I was gone, our neighbors called the office to complain about Precious barking. This dog was so quiet most of the time. But her seizure alert barking is what they were complaining about. Donita didn't answer the door. So the office called me to find out if Donita was OK. Nope, she was on the floor of the living room in a diabetic low seizure. I called 911. Ambulance and firetruck paramedics came and brought her back to being functional. I made her a sandwich and gave her regular soda pop. That was scary for me.
My roommate Donita wanted KFC, so I went to pick it up. There I met a GrubHub delivery driver. She told me all about it and I signed up. About a month later, I became a GrubHub delivery driver.
But every time Donita had a seizure, that dog barked, like crazy, non-stop. The drama was just too much from our neighbors, so we looked for a place to move into. We bought a house and everything was great. Then there was a mouse invasion that destroyed practically everything of mine, and most of her stuff as well. Once our house was almost paid off, we found a rental house up the street. I asked our new landlord if we could work a deal with him. He could buy our house and we get a year rent free to take time to find our next house to buy. We closed the deal I paid off all of my credit cards and debts. The money is gone now.
My Jeep got repoed the first night in our new place. And the 1999 Town and Country that I bought is now out of order, so I have no transportation right now. I replaced the alternator, battery and a few other parts.
Saving Donita's life is a daily thing. She has crazy highs over 400 and dangerous lows below 40...as in daily multiple times. So saving her life usually looks like giving her regular soda pop, candy, chicken or some cinnamon treat.
Donita is fragile diabetic type 1 and has seizures. She has been wearing a Dexcom patch to keep track of her glucose level for several years now. I set it to 90 low alert and 200 high alert. We hope not to have to call 911 quite so often.
I did GrubHub delivery driving for about 4 years, but I lost my job due to identity theft and the Driver's License place didn't enter my new information into the computer. The police kept on pulling me over as well. Guess what? The registration of my vehicle was nowhere to be found, even though I paid it and I had the paperwork to prove it.
The morning after this past Christmas, I thought Donita was going to die. I had to go to the restroom, so I checked up on her. She was below 40 for several hours. I had no choice but to call 911, as she was unresponsive. They came and gave her an IV and I fixed her something to eat.
In the morning, she came to me saying to get the black thing out of her eye. There was nothing in her eyes. This is when she lost her eyesight. I literally had to get her dressed, guide her everywhere and fix all of her food. Then she convinced her doctor to prescribe the Gvoke for me to use next time she is dangerously low and unresponsive. But the pharmacy didn't get it ready for pickup quick enough, so she had yet another very dangerously low episode where I had to call 911. And she again had yet another low 41 right in the Walmart pharmacy department. She has since then had 3 surgeries to try to restore her vision. More eye surgeries are planned every 3 months.
And I desperately need a mostly seated job that will allow me to bring along my special needs roommate. I am physically disabled and completely deaf in my right ear, so this really limits what I can do. Look us up. We are public figures on Facebook Meta.
Debra Axon
Donita Hohler
Paramedics
