Age: 39 Year Diagnosed: 1998 Location: Scottsdale, Az
“Diabetes is not pretty. It is not an easy disease to manage, but it is treatable and you CAN live with it. ‘Either you will take shots before you leave here, or you will die.’ That's what the nurses told me at the hospital when I was diagnosed. I was in ICU for 3 days and a regular room for 2 more days after that. When I asked the nurses when I could go home, they told me I would have learn how to give myself shots and I would have to do for this for rest of my life. No one in my family had it at the time and I had to battle through learning how to survive with this new disease and new life change, and I was about to graduate high school. I lost all the friends I did have because they didn't understand what I was going through. I've always been embarrassed, self conscious, and vulnerable when discussing this auto-immune illness around others who don't understand it. I hate this disease and I would give anything to live a normal life without worrying about high and low blood sugars 24/7. Diabetes has taken over my life. I feel I am always one step behind everyone because of this burden. I've always hid it from people until just recently after I had my 2nd child. I saw a pregnant woman on my feed with an insulin pump and I clicked on the hashtag and fell into a wonderful community of diabetics that I never knew existed. I will never be happy about what I've been given, but seeing that there are others out there making it and they are just like me, has given me new life. I am so incredibly grateful to have met Laura and hear her story and inspire me to share mine. In her words, ‘My whole goal is to share the TRUE side of this disease and not (no pun intended) "sugar coat".’ So, thank you Laura for the push.”