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The Vets First podcast is a research-based podcast that focuses on the VA healthcare system and its patients. Instead of being just another research podcast, the Vets First podcast was created with a primary focus on the Veterans and their stories. The hosts, Levi Sowers PhD, and Brandon Rea work to bridge the gap between the state-of-the-art research being performed at Veterans Affairs and the Veterans themselves in an easy-to-understand manner. Importantly, Levi and Brandon want to assist researchers around the country to better understand the needs of Veterans. In this podcast you will hear interviews from Veterans with specific conditions and then hear from VA funded researchers who are studying those very topics as well as other highlighted services the VA provides.
The Department of Veterans Affairs does not endorse or officially sanction any entities that may be discussed in this podcast, nor any media, products or services they may provide.
Announcer: Welcome to the Vets First Podcast, a research-based conversation centered around the VA health care system, its services, and patients. From Iowa city, Iowa, here's your hosts: Dr. Levi Sowers and Brandon Rea.
Levi Sowers: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Vets First Podcast. My name is Levi and I have Brandon with me as usual.
Brandon Rea: Hello.
Levi Sowers: And today with us, we have Loretta Phillips, who is an Army veteran. She served from 1989 to 96 and is from Lancaster, South Carolina. Thank you for joining us, Loretta. Now, welcome to the podcast. So I really appreciate you being here.
Loretta Phillips: I thank you for the honor.
Levi Sowers: Loretta, tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from?
Loretta Phillips: I'm from a town right after South Carolina and between Columbia, South Carolina, and Charlotte, North Carolina.
Levi Sowers: Oh, very nice. Very nice. Yeah. So you grew up there. Can you tell us what drew you to the service? How did you get involved with military?
Loretta Phillips: Well, I've had- I took four years of ROTC when I was in high school, so I always knew I would join the Army. I just had to do it in my own time. So I graduated in 81, but didn't join until 89.
Levi Sowers: Oh, nice. So you what? Like what led you to that? Why? Why were you curious about the military? You said you did ROTC, but.
Loretta Phillips: You wouldn't believe it. But jobs were hard to find back then. Yeah. One of the jobs I had was working at a chicken plant. So the farms out of Monroe, North Carolina. And every day I went into a smell that came out smelling like chicken. And I just couldn't see myself doing that for the rest of my life. So that is what pushed me to go on and join the Army. So like I said, I always knew I would be.
Levi Sowers: Mm hmm. Yeah.
Loretta Phillips: With me coming out of this smell like chicken.
Levi Sowers: Well, it's a thing. It's hard to figure out what you want to do, but it's really easy figuring out what you don't want to do. Yeah.
Loretta Phillips: Exactly.
Levi Sowers: Yeah. All right, so tell us a little more. You joined the Army. What was your kind of experience early on? Just kind of.
Loretta Phillips: I taught basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in February. And if you know anything about New Jersey, snow was all the way up to your knees.
Levi Sowers: Mm hmm.
Loretta Phillips: So that was the coldest time I ever spent outside. I just kept falling asleep and my- they were always telling us if you get sleepy, go stand. Look at the wall. Mm hmm. A little hard here that I just kept falling asleep, so it made me stand up and hold my eyes like this thing. You believe I still fell asleep, So.
Levi Sowers: So after you got out of boot camp, where were you stationed?
Loretta Phillips: I was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. My first duty station was at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and my MOS was 88 Mike, I was a truck driver. Mm hmm. So I learned an awful lot about grease fittings, maintenance on my vehicle. And I won a couple awards also.
Levi Sowers: Oh, very nice.
Brandon Rea: And I was gonna make a comment about the snow. Might be a little nicer there, huh? So. So did you. What? What rank did you achieve while you were in the military?
Loretta Phillips: Well, I made it five in less than three years.
Levi Sowers: Wow. Nice.
Loretta Phillips: And I served seven years. So by the time I got left, Fort Leonard Wood, I went to Germany, and I got promoted in Germany. And from Germany. I love Germany driving on that autobahn. I love it. I got to travel, go to different places, and the most fun I had was convoying. During work hours, the most fun time during work hours was convoying.
Levi Sowers: Yeah.
Loretta Phillips: And it was.
Levi Sowers: Well, sorry. My apologies.
Loretta Phillips: I was sent There was this one called Convoy. I went on and I kept telling them, Don't leave me. My truck would only go 58 miles an hour. The trucks in front of the truck in front of me, we got stopped at a stoplight and I missed the light. I had to stop. So they just kept going. So I'm riding around trying to find the place where we're supposed to meet up. It was in Hosenfeld, Germany. I was stationed in Mannheim, but the place we were going to was in Hosenfeld. A fielding point. And I ended up I don't know how I made it. By the grace of God, I made it to the fielding before they got there.
Levi Sowers: Oh, wow.
Loretta Phillips: That's all sitting there waiting on the way back. I said the same thing. Don't leave me. But we got stuck in this little town and they left me. And if it wasn't for the Germans, this German guy was trying to help me get back to normal. But we couldn't understand each other. But he finally pointed it out on the map, and I was able to figure it out. And made it back a second time. And made it back to the country before they had.
Levi Sowers: That's awesome. Oh, that is cool.
Loretta Phillips: Mm hmm.
Levi Sowers: All right. So tell us a little bit about your vision. When did you first starting noticing differences? Like anything you want to share? Like, how did your vision related stuff kind of come about?
Loretta Phillips: Well, it was gradual, as if I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant and I was in harmony when I got pregnant and came back to the States and my daughter and had gestational diabetes and after I had the baby end up getting out, everything they say was fine. I wasn't diabetic or anything, but four months after I got out, I was at work one night and my vision, I couldn't see anything. I was just mumbling through everything. I couldn't read, I couldn't see where I was going. And I end up leaving and going to the V.A. hospital in Columbia, South Carolina. And they're the ones who diagnosed me with full blown diabetes. Hmm. But no beginning. And it was just full blown.
Levi Sowers: So. So did it. Come on pretty quick? It is what it might be after having gestational diabetes, your chances of having diabetes is very high.
Loretta Phillips: Mm hmm.
Levi Sowers: So did you like what- can I ask what it was like that first time you had problems? Your vision? Like what- can you describe that a little bit?
Loretta Phillips: It was very scary because I couldn't see where I was going and I was at work. And if, you know, I worked in a warehouse and I was riding on pallet jacks and I couldn't really see where I was going. I actually had to ask the manager, you know, where I was and what was that? You know what I'm what am I reading? What is this? So that told me and I had to go get some help. So I got to work. Or it may have gone down because the next day I was able to drive to the V.A. hospital in Columbia, and that's where I was diagnosed with diabetes, full blown.
Levi Sowers: So was it like a blurry vision or was it just like darkness or can you describe that a little bit?
Loretta Phillips: It was blurry.
Levi Sowers: Blurry. And did it fluctuate a little bit, like you start to drive the next day? So it got clear.
Loretta Phillips: It cleared up, but I didn't realize what I was doing to myself. You know, I would eat anything I wanted to eat, but I didn't realize that was what was causing the blurriness. And there's you have a lot of thirst and a lot of blurry beginning. And I didn't realize that's what was causing it. But later on, to skip forward a little bit, I was in South Carolina right before I moved to Georgia. I was seeing our doctor in Rockville, South Carolina, which is where I raised my daughter. He did a test on my eyes and he told me they told me he said that. So you see something? You see something. He saw something in my eyes. And he said, if I don't, you don't get this blood sugar under control. Then you're going to end up losing your sight. Because he saw something in my eyes when he took the pictures of my eyes and said that if there was blood in my eyes and he told me if the blood touched the retina, I would not be able to see, I would lose my sight. Mm hmm. But to back up a little bit when I got after I found out that I had been from the VA, I was seeing a civilian doctor at the same time. He's the one who actually put me on the medication. Mm hmm. Because I never heard from the VA again to the ATO. They told me at the emergency room the doctor would be getting in touch with me to, you know, schedule appointments for my diabetes. But I never heard from them, so I.
Levi Sowers: I'm sorry. Go ahead.
Loretta Phillips: So I ended up going to a civilian doctor. And the one thing that I tell people is and never say I did not know this could happen. So he literally sat down in front of me and he said, Mr. Coleman, I was hoping at the time, you can lose your sight. You can lose your kidney, you can lose a limb and you can die. Those are all the effects of diabetes. So I could never sit down and say honestly that I did not know. So I'm known from day one now knowing and telling are two different things.
Levi Sowers: Yeah.
Loretta Phillips: I suffer from a lot of- I suffer from big depression. Yeah, that being so I didn't have it in me to care whether I live or die. But when I did start caring, that's when the damage was already done. My agency was at a 15 and I had to get it down.
Levi Sowers: That was like my dad. He had uncontrolled diabetes for a long time and a young medical student. He'd been to the doctor so many times for all these problems he was having, and they never thought to check his blood sugar. And finally this medical student checked it. Who is a1 c was over 15, which is super high. And that means you've been carrying like a 500 blood sugar around. And that's really bad for you. You're basically like cooking your nerves, you know, at that point. And, you know, to some extent, your the, the, the, the retina in your eyes, bunch of nerve sensory nerves. Right? You're literally like cooking. That's kind of how I describe it. That's interesting to hear your story like that. So if I may ask a serious you were saying you were suffering from depression and it sounds like you've been able to work with that. Can you describe that a little bit more?
Loretta Phillips: Yes, I do suffer from depression. And I also I realize I suffer from PTSD at that time. Also, when I got out, I didn't do any of that. I just knew that it was hard for me to function each day. It was a struggle.
Levi Sowers: Yeah.
Loretta Phillips: And most people don't believe this, but I had my daughter. She was a baby. When I woke up, she was a teenager and my depression was. eah, it was like a fog for a long time. Yes. So all that had an effect on my diabetes, all that once it was at 15, it was so bad that my civilian doctors tried to set up an appointment with the nephrologist for me. They wouldn't even see me.
Levi Sowers: Oh, geez.
Loretta Phillips: I could not get they would not do an appointment with me because they I guess they felt like I was going to die anyway.
Levi Sowers: So what made you change, if I can ask you that?
Loretta Phillips: I mean, I think I lost my job in 2012 and it's not Madara. My house and my car, but 2014 I was homeless and I came to Georgia and the first place I went was Fort McPherson. And I saw the doctors opening it because I was in the homeless program and they put me on medicine. I saw this retinal specialist because one day I was standing out of my face and the sun was shining so beautiful. And one of the house managers, because I lived in a transition house at the time, one of the house managers called me and told me some bills that hit me upset and I got so upset my blood pressure must have shot up very high because I was standing outside on the sidewalk and I saw blood in both eyes and to see the blood. But if you look at me, you can't see it yet. And I saw blood in both my eyes and I was standing up there, just pray and Lord, please don't take my sight. So even though I don't have my sight today, I'm very, very grateful. He did not take out of my sight my daughter. He didn't give out. He gave me what I asked for and is a lord. Make my sight 20, 20. No, Take my sight. So he didn't say here. After that I had numerous surgeries and was on all kinds of pain medicine. My eyes bleeding a lot. But unbeknownst to me, the pain medicine that was on was actually causing the bleeding and the doctor didn't know what. I didn't know what. So only thing that was amiss, this and we're going to do laser surgery. So I'm like, okay, yes, you can do a just stop the bleeding. Let them do numerous laser surgeries on my eyes so now I can barely see out of my right, out of my left. I can't see it all. Diabetes. It does damage, does a lot of damage. Both my eyes detached. I've had them have them reattach. So they did something that they put a balloon with some oil in my mouth. And it made the eyes reattach. So now I can see a little bit out of the right eye in the balloon is down out of that, but the balloon is still in the left because all our tissue I was told that it wouldn't do any good to take the balloon out. It wouldn't make a difference. So I'm an alien.
Levi Sowers: So it was so you I know you said you went initially to the civilian doctor. Has all your medical care been through the civilian sector? Has any of it been through the VA?
Loretta Phillips: Still sent through the VA since 2014? It was constantly. But around Fort Jackson. And they said they don't. The earliest records they have of me is 2005. Having problems. Having vision problems, the eye socket vision problems. And well, I don't think- in 2005, I had just started working again. So that's why I was going to the VA. I wasn't working to do my medical treatments.
Levi Sowers: Yeah. So, how do you feel the VA has been with vision treatment since 2014?
Loretta Phillips: I can only speak for myself. That's wonderful. Yeah. I thought it was kind of concerned because I didn't have any family members coming in to help me at the time I started seeing him. He's very concerned about that, but I told him I was okay. You know, I can I can do this because like I said, I get mad at nobody because I've known since day one, mad upset about anything in reference to my eyes because I've announced that they want and like I used to tell my daughter, all your actions have consequences and these are the consequences of my.
Levi Sowers: MM So could you talk a little bit about what that transition from being, you know, to having good vision, to not so good vision to having very low vision. What was that like for you and how did you navigate that?
Loretta Phillips: When I found out, as it like I said, is that I kept having the bleeding in my eyes. So I was running back and forth to the doctor about every day, just about but different. I didn't realize I was so sick. I didn't have so many issues. When I moved to Georgia, I didn't realize it, so I had a whole page of appointments every week. I mean, I'm sorry, every month I had a whole page of appointments and gradually I saw a difference in my eyes as the vision started going away. It started by me not being able to see faces. And it was scary, very scary, because I didn't know how I would live, what our what I would be like or what it would be like to not to be able to see. I gave my phone away. I gave my computer away. I didn't know I would be able to use them for surgery. Um, my doctor told me he's one of the doctor from Emory University, works at the VA also. And he referred me to a place called the Blind Rehab Center.
Levi Sowers: Yeah.
Loretta Phillips: It's called the Southeastern Conference for the Blind. But, I mean, I'm for the visually impaired in Birmingham, Alabama, And that's where I went to learn how to survive and to live with blindness, because I. I was all set up in a house. I was going nowhere. I was afraid to leave the house and be out after dark. Mm. I was afraid. It's a very scary feeling.
Levi Sowers: Yeah. So was that, is that part of the is that part of the VA, that blind rehab center.
Loretta Phillips: Yes, it is.
Levi Sowers: Yeah.
Loretta Phillips: You go down there now there's a three week visit that you go down and you do the training, they do orientation, the mobility with you, they do communications desk, the telephone, the computers and anything this computerized, they work with you on that and they do activities of daily living to show you how to go in the kitchen and use the stove without burning yourself. And fortunately, my stove is gas and there's is electric.
Brandon Rea: A little easier when there's not open flame versus
[Laughter]
Brandon Rea: So are you a member of the Blind Veterans Association?
Loretta Phillips: Yes, sir, I am.
Levi Sowers: How did you meet them or how did that come to be?
Loretta Phillips: At the Blind Rehab Center. Oh, and at the time, regional president, bless his soul, he’s passed now. But he's the one who got me into and this was in 2015. I married my husband. They are two oh, I met him first and he talked to me about the Blind Veterans Association and they encouraged me to become a member. So he got me on one of our monthly- it must be a conference call. He bamboozled me into being the secretary. 2017, I was the secretary of the Atlanta chapter.
Brandon Rea: You know, Loretta, I'm getting married here. I'm getting married here soon. And I'm having some reflection on things that I've gotten moved into. I hear. I hear you're a little tired of that. I think it's a little dog. Yeah.
Loretta Phillips: I go, Oh, please.
Levi Sowers: No, no, no, no, no. I think it's great. I have two German shepherds at home and they regularly interrupt my interviews. So I think it's quite endearing and wonderful.
Brandon Rea: Yeah, I have a little corgi and he sounds the alarm at any noise. It's great. As I say with air quotes. “Great.” Depending on the hour of the day.
Loretta Phillips: She's a Chihuahua and pug mix.
Levi Sowers: Oh nice! So how able are you to get around now? And what was that like? So you were really scared and you went to blind rehab. You come out. Is it- did you feel freed a little bit by that or?
Loretta Phillips: When I got to VA rehab, of course. No. You've never been somewhere- been in a place and you're afraid you don't know what to expect. When I got there, they were wonderful and they treat you like you're part of their family. So I got- I had a chance to meet different people. I can say.
Loretta Phillips: I met my husband there. I got a chance to meet other people there, too. Yeah, And they taught me all kinds of things. The orientation and mobility, I think, was very important because it taught me how to go outside by myself and walk up and down the sidewalk. We walked the neighborhoods, we went to bookstores, we went to the mall. We caught the busses. They teach you all of that in mobility. And once that came from the blind rehab center, you couldn't tell me. You couldn't tell me I couldn’t do what I wanted to do.
[laughter]
Loretta Phillips: Because that's the first thing they stressed is that you can still do what you did before. You just have to do it a different way.
Levi Sowers: Yeah, Yeah.
Loretta Phillips: So I'm able to use my computer. I stay on my phone and I have other devices that they've given me also that I love to use.
Brandon Rea: So that's, that's awesome. Loretta is there. So I think other veterans like you that have experienced visual loss and you were able to come to the blind rehab center and if any veterans is listening to this episode and is looking to get connected with something like that, do you have any suggestions from your experiences?
Loretta Phillips: Contact your low vision VIST coordinator. I don't know what VIST means, but they are a low vision department in either their retinal specialist or VIST coordinator. Can we refer them to the blind, one of the blind rehab centers? And I believe last I checked, we had 13 of them around, but I think we had at least 13 around the country.
Levi Sowers: Yeah.
Loretta Phillips: Oh-
Levi Sowers: Well, go ahead.
Loretta Phillips: I was going to say, let me tell you this, since he bamboozled me into becoming the secretary-
Levi Sowers: Tom, Tom did this to you?
Brandon Rea: No, her husband!
Levi Sowers: Oh, your husband.
[laughter]
Loretta Phillips: No, no. Dessie, Dessie Downs, the first one.
Levi Sowers: Okay. Yeah, yeah.
Loretta Phillips: Now, as of April the 30th, I was voted in as the chapter president.
Levi Sowers: Oh congratulations, that’s cool.
Brandon Rea: Very nice! at least you're being bamboozled upward, right?
Levi Sowers: That's fantastic. Oh, so what is it like? What has it been like to connect with other veterans with low vision?
Loretta Phillips: I believe it's been wonderful because when I left South Carolina, my vision, I was losing my vision, but I didn't realize I was losing my vision. But when I got door to door, I was at the hospital so much and I ran into so many veterans. And when I went to, they told me exactly what to do, how to do it and when to do it. And that's what I did. So when I went to the blind rehab center, it was a relief to know that there are other people out there like me who have lost their vision. Not to say that I'm glad they were there, but I'm saying that it makes a difference when you have that camaraderie with someone and they know how you feel. Now, I've run into several veterans since I've been out of the blind rehab centers that haven't had a chance to go. And the first thing I tell them is contact your VIST coordinator, contact your retinal specialist. They're the ones who do the referrals.
Levi Sowers: Yeah, Yeah, that's that's really a good piece of advice. You know, another question that I think is an important question to ask for for someone like you is that when you lost your visit, you managed to find where you needed to go to do it. What aspects of that are also mental? So you have the physical aspects of learning how to navigate things, but like coming to grips with the fact that you lost your vision. Can you, could you talk about that a little bit if you're if you're willing?
Loretta Phillips: It really wasn't that hard for me because I started losing my vision, I immediately accepted it. And that's the key factor right there, is you have to accept it and be willing to make the changes that it's going to take. But it's not easy. Once- once you lose your vision, it's not easy.
Levi Sowers: Yeah.
Loretta Phillips: Mentally, for me, I would say I was fine. Well, I will say I was fine, but every once in a while I'll struggle, like if I need to do something and I can't get anybody to help me, then I feel better.
Levi Sowers: Yeah.
Loretta Phillips: Or if I do want to go somewhere, I just get up and go. They have a transportation system here, Commander, and I'm on a paratransit van, so all I do is call them, give them the address of what? Where I want to go and what time to pick me up. And I do that. They pick me up and bring me back home to pick me up and bring them home. Yeah, but veterans don't know about it or they're not sure how to get involved with it.
Levi Sowers: Yeah.
Loretta Phillips: I don't remember who told me about it, but all I know is I'm very grateful for them.
Levi Sowers: Is that something that's local to you, or is that a nationwide-
Loretta Phillips: Local transportation. The transportation system here in Georgia. But if I wanted to ride the train or a big bus, I can do that, also.
Levi Sowers: Interesting. So I have a couple other interesting questions. I'm really curious to know. You're now involved with the Blind Veterans Association and you've been through the VA system quite a bit, really through your vision. What role do you think research plays in this? And, you know, VA does a lot of research on Veterans Vision loss. We're part of the Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Visual Loss here in Iowa. What role do you think research plays and do you think it's important?
Loretta Phillips: Research is very important.
Levi Sowers: Yes.
Loretta Phillips: We have like the devices that we have. You ever heard of something called the Orcam?
Levi Sowers: No, no.
Loretta Phillips: Okay. It's a little camera, but go with the glasses. It's about minus my point. A finger and it sits on the glasses. And every so often it's upgraded. When I first got one, it had wires on it. Now the one I have now is completely wireless. So for people to go in and develop something like that and and how do you say- try to experiment with people? I know it takes a lot of research and I appreciate yeah, I believe research is very important. Now, in your business. In your business, are you researching the eyes?
Levi Sowers: For us, I don't study diabetic retinopathy in particular. We study photophobia in my lab, which is sensitivity to light. So we do have several people here who work on that sort of thing. And we're actually going to be interviewing Dr. Randy Kardon, who was a neuro ophthalmologist here, who works with patients who have diabetic retinopathy.
Brandon Rea: With our vision center here, we have many researchers who kind of cover a wide range of topics that we have people here researching glaucoma. We have people who are researching TBI, TBI induced headache spread rate amongst us, trying to do our part and the ways that we can.
Loretta Phillips: Right.
Levi Sowers: Yeah, I'm always, you know, I'm just always curious to hear what veterans think of research in the VA and what that role may or may not mean in their lives. I think it's important for researchers to understand that.
Brandon Rea: And we're trying to put your job of communicating research. Which led to Levi and I awkwardly getting on a podcast and pretending like we know what we're doing.
Levi Sowers: Yeah, we’re just- as Brandon likes to say, we're just failing upward, Loretta.
[laughter]
Loretta Phillips: I was online looking at diabetic retinopathy and I saw that if you had diabetes 20 years or more, you risk losing your sight, the risk is higher.
Levi Sowers: Yeah. You know, one thing we like to do for these episodes is on the front end, we look up a bunch of information about the said topic, and we'll be including some of that. So if you have any information you want to send us, that'd be really helpful in any way.
Loretta Phillips: Okay!
Levi Sowers: Loretta, the last question I really like to ask people is, what do you like to do for fun? You're a pretty interesting human being. You've gone through a lot. You've come out the other side, and I'm really curious to know what you do for fun?
Loretta Phillips: Okay, that's that's easy. As you know, I'm a member of the Blind Veterans Association.
Levi Sowers: Yeah.
Loretta Phillips: They have these outings that our people have grants for. I’m gonna tell you about the last one I went to. I went to Crested Butte, Colorado, and I went on this adaptive sports event, and we went, we did rope climb - three different levels of rock climbing.
Levi Sowers: That's cool.
Loretta Phillips: We did, uh, what is that? When you jump off the thing, Something I always wanted to do. Zip line.
Levi Sowers: Oh, yeah, Yeah. Mm. That's awesome.
Loretta Phillips: We went zip lining.
Levi Sowers: I've never been zip lining either!
Brandon Rea: No, I thought for a second you were going to say bungee jumping or parachuting, and I was about to bow out- I’d have to bow out of both of those.
Loretta Phillips: Personally, I would love to do it- to find some group that does that- parachuting - I would love to jump out of a plane.
Brandon Rea: I'm sure I'd love it after I get out of the plane. But you know that first step off might be a little hard.
Loretta Phillips: Push me off.
[laughter]
Brandon Rea: All right. I got no choice but to love it.
Loretta Phillips: Well, when we went ziplining, I didn't know we really had to climb that tree to get up that high. Excuse me. I didn't know that, but my legs were so weak that they literally had to force me up there- force me to the top. So I got up there and the instructor said, “Oh, you can jump now.” I'm like, “Oh, no.” I sat down, pulled off and just started screaming. And so the next adventure we had was a walking tour through the town of Crested Butte. It's a small town, but you can really walk. And we went shopping and the next event was going to be bike- not bike riding…what is it? What are those bikes now? The two person bikes.
Levi Sowers: Oh, tandem bikes.
Loretta Phillips: Tandem bikes, yes. We're doing tandem bikes.
Levi Sowers: And we interviewed a veteran who had a TBI related vision loss and he goes on tandem bikes all the time. Yeah, it was thought to be a tandem bike riding on gravel roads. He loves it.
Loretta Phillips: Oh, I don't blame him. I've been wanting to try that. But I'm waiting on the person here in Georgia to send out the emails later, letting us know that, you know, we can sign up for tandem bikes again. The last adventure was paddleboarding, kayaking or paddle boarding- that was the last adventure for that week. But before I went on, I went kayaking and can't swim a leg.
[laughter]
Brandon Rea: So you’ve got the motivation to stay in the kayak!
Loretta Phillips: I know! But the wind started to rumble, on a two hour ride, and the wind started blowing. And next thing I know, I'm holding my arms out in front of me, trying to stop myself from going in the water and everybody kept saying only thing they heard me yell was, Buddha, “bahamut, or whatever. I said Oh, you’re all lying, the only thing I did yell was, “Jesus.”
[laughter]
Loretta Phillips: And that was it! I fell in sixty feet of water, but they really told me the water was really 300 feet. So if I found that out I probably would’ve panicked!
Brandon Rea: But the good thing they played it down.
Loretta Phillips: Yeah.
Levi Sowers: So it sounds like it sounds like you like to be outside.
Loretta Phillips: I do. And on that trip, I also got to go swim with the dolphins.
Brandon Rea: Oh, that'd be cool.
Loretta Phillips: Yeah, the blind Veterans Association, we have a lot of they have a lot of things that they sponsor. We just had our state convention here in Atlanta on April 8th and 9th, and that was fun. That's where everybody across the state come up, meet up. And we have classes on different products that's being offered through the VA now and we have different speakers coming. And maybe you guys can come and speak sometime.
Levi Sowers: Yeah, I'd love to come speak. We gave a little bit of a talk or a short talk last year to the National Meeting, the zoom.
Loretta Phillips: Oh yes. That's coming up in August.
Levi Sowers: Yeah.
Loretta Phillips: And it's going to be in D.C..
Levi Sowers: I forget how we actually got connected with Tom. Was it through Randy Kardon?
Brandon Rea: I think it was through Randy. Tom and Randy know each other.
Levi Sowers: Yeah.
Brandon Rea: So- and Tom's been great to interact with the but now it's- I do- I feel like COVID'S put everything into like a blur in terms of times remembering stuff.
Loretta Phillips: And things are slowly opening back.
Levi Sowers: Yeah, the only thing that good from the podcast perspective is that it really broadened our horizons with interviewing people like you who's in Georgia right now. And we're having a great discussion about.
Brandon Rea: Yeah, yeah, we got familiar with Zoom thanks to COVID, you know, out of necessity and it's, it's really handy.
Loretta Phillips: I think a lot of people be.
Brandon Rea: Yeah I know whether they like it or not.
[laughter]
Levi Sowers: Right. I really want to thank you for coming on our episode today. It's been a treat to talk to you. And we're really thankful that you were able to join us. And, you know, we look forward to maybe having another discussion with you at some other point - that would be great.
Loretta Phillips: Well, I hope this podcast, this broadcast is able to help someone over not just veterans, but especially the blind veterans.
Levi Sowers: Yeah, this full season is going to be on vision related issues of veterans. So we're excited about it.
Loretta Phillips: Well, thank you all for inviting me. I appreciate it. And I'm honored.
Brandon Rea: Well, thank you very much, Loretta.
Levi Sowers: Thanks, Loretta. We'll see you later.
Loretta Phillips: You're welcome. Have a blessed day.
Levi Sowers: You too!
Brandon Rea: You too!
Announcer: This concludes today's Vets First Podcast. For questions or comments relating to the program, please direct email correspondence to vetsfirstpodcast@gmail.com. Thanks for listening!