Meet Tina

Read Tina’s bio here

My real name is Christina, I also go by Tina, I am trying to go back to just Tina so as not to confuse people. I am 36 years old and I grew up in Flushing, Queens. I am the oldest of three children and I come from a single parent household. My Mom is an awesome, brave and super strong woman. Her health is very bad and I worry about her a lot. She is my inspiration.  I have a sister (Shannon) and brother (Peter). They are 7 and 10 years younger than me. I cannot tell you how unbelievable these two people are. I love them with all of my heart and soul. The nice part is, I really like them. If they were  not related to me, I would still want to be friends with them.

I had a pretty hard time while growing up. Things took a turn for the better though, when I turned 20. I was working, going to school and had just met this awesome guy, Greg. He and I became friends before we dated which I think made our relationship much stronger. This guy was so great. He was kind, generous and brilliant. Things were really looking up. I felt like I had paid my dues and could count on blue skies ahead.

Then 9 months after meeting Greg, 1 week after turning 21, I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. I felt like I was sucker punched. My diagnosis is a whole story unto itself, which I will save for another Monday. I really got a lot of wonderful presents that year, this was however, was not one of them.

So now I have this “chronic Illness”. They tell me to eat right exercise and I will be fine. What a load of crap. I was working two jobs and going to college. I couldn’t control my sugars for anything. Keep in mind that this was before carb counting became standard.

I was a mess. I was constantly having lows because I was so terrified to go over 150. Of course this brought on Hypoglycemia Unawareness. I was left feeling like a mess physically and a failure mentally.

Over the years I had a few periods of “screw this disease”. Where I figured it was going to kill me anyway. I would always bounce back. Usually I would come to my senses on my own and sometimes it was from the pleas of my family and friends. Still, it only takes an unknown number of highs and lows to bring on complications. Oh and let’s not forget “luck”, as I am convinced sometimes you just luck out. So as a result, I have accumulated quite a few complications from my diabetes, Gastroparesis and Human Anti-Insulin Antibodies are the worst ones. I could write for hours about these complications alone. I won’t bore you though, don’t worry.

I cannot tell you how many support groups I went to, only to find all type 2′s. I got involved with JDF (at the time they hadn’t yet added the R), thinking they would be able to steer me in the right direction. Unfortunately the only adults I found were parents of children with type 1.

Two years ago I was lucky enough to find a type 1 diabetic community on Myspace. Some really awesome people came into my life as a result. One of them was Stacey Divone. Not only can I thank her becoming such a great friend, but it is she who steered me towards The Young Women with Diabetes Support Group. By now hopefully you know that ACT 1 was formed as a result of this group.

I hope that I live to see a cure. While I am waiting though, I remain an “Adult Coping w/ Type 1″.