TAMPA — Each day Dionne Jordan starts her day with a restock. She unzips a medicine bag, takes her morning pills and then adds more for the following week.

"So you can see this side, just how many pills there are on each day," said Jordan. 

She takes 32 pills a day. 

“I call it my chiclet box," she says with an exhausted smile. 

To get the eight morning pills down, she drinks water. She is out of breath after just explaining what each pill does. 

“Sorry guys," she said.  She sits for 15 minutes to let the medicine work through her system. 

“My body doesn’t regulate the temperature properly," she said, dabbing her forehead that has a slight shine from sweat. "Then the myasthenia gravis. It’s a neuromuscular degenerative disease.”

After her quick break, and whether she has caught her breath or not, work must begin. She walks slowly over to her home office desk and logs in in for the day. 

“I do sales, and I got furloughed a year and a half ago during the pandemic, so I lost 90% of my income," she said. But then added, "And Uber was the thing that gave me an opportunity to still pay my bills."

When the afternoon hits, she gets up from the desk and makes her way out to her car. 

"My kids hate that I go out and drive. They hate it. The only reason I say that is because I am immune compromised. And it scares them," said Jordan. 

Recently, driving Uber has been scaring Jordan too. 

"It's been tough. It’s been really tough," she said. 

The issue for the past month or so has been over masks. 

“I have been called n***** b****. I have been called just flat out n*****. I have been called just flat out b****. I have been called a liberal, that has no common sense. I have been called a sheep," said Jordan. 

Uber, and Lyft, both require riders to agree to wearing masks prior to requesting pickups. 

“I can’t even drive without agreeing to wear a mask," said Jordan. 

If a future passenger doesn't have a mask, Jordan says she provides people with one for free. But even then, Jordan said problems still pop up. 

"Three to five minutes into the ride, all of a sudden, ‘I am not wearing this mask. I am not doing this. I am not doing this s**t.’ And I am sorry for cursing but it’s intense," said Jordan. 

Just this past weekend, Jordan's Uber camera captured ride after ride where people were not wearing their masks properly or not at all. 

After one big confrontation with several passengers, she had to stop driving for the night. 

“I drove to the end of the block and I couldn’t drive anymore, because I was so shaken up and I was so upset," Jordan said with tears in her eyes. "All I could think is this guy just called me names, he cussed at me. He yelled at me, he refused to get out of my car. I am a woman, and there are five guys and one girl in my car, and now I have to experience the trauma of being called names, of being treated poorly, of being talked to poorly, because of a mask? And all I am asking you to do is protect me, like I am protecting you.”

Jordan said she has lost eight friends to COVID and COVID complications in the past two years. She is worried, with her health issues, that she could be next. 

"Because I take immune suppressants, and I have cardiomyopathy, and I have myasthenia gravis, I always have to weight the risk and say, ‘Is the risk worth it?’” said Jordan. 

That thought and another are always with her as of late. 

”I really had to pray about it, and I had to think is this what I am supposed to be doing? Ya know, I am out here and I want to help people. I want to support other people and make sure that they get home, and make sure that their families don’t experience the same type of thing that my family experienced," said Jordan. 

Many years ago, her uncle drove drunk and severely injured the passenger in his car, and killed another driver. He served 15 years in prison for that offense. 

Hearing that story growing up is something that has always stuck with Jordan. 

"If I can just save one person, if I can keep one person, one family safe, it makes more sense for me to be out driving as long as people wear a mask," said Jordan. 

She doesn't want to stop helping others, or lose her source of income. So she wants people to know one thing. 

“I care about you. I care about your life. And just to think that this politicized mask, is causing people not to care about my life. And that makes no sense to me," said Jordan.