TYPE 1 LIFE

I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes a month before my 27th birthday which is pretty old in age diagnosis. Some children get it as young as 3 years old but at almost 27 years old, it was rare. This all came about when my Hubster Zack & I decided to take a trip to Las Vegas as we were promoting his Printing & Embroidery business in 2011 & after much debauchery of late nights, drinking, no sleep & eating all the wrong foods we got back home to Arizona & I found it hard to look at the television or images in general. The real kicker came when I started to vomit everything I ate & in 3 days lost 15 lbs.

My extremely worried husband took me to a random doctors office & after checking me out (with no blood test) told me I had a “cold” & prescribed me sugary syrup cough medications. BIG MISTAKE! After taking the prescribed medications I disintegrated further becoming disorientated & my Zack & mum-in-law Kris, carried me to the hospital. The doctors & nurse did some blood tests & said a normal person’s blood sugar should be between 80-120 mg/dl, mine was tested at 1200 mg\dl. Firstly I was diagnosed as a Type 1 Diabectic (basically my God given pancreas stopped working) secondly I was entering a Diabectic coma, and lastly a couple more days going untreated & I would have been dead. I was in the I.C.U for 3 days & the hospital for 5 more days after that…it’s a miracle I’m alive today.

Now, I celebrate T1 and include my insulin pump in almost every photoshoot! Living with Type 1 is a part of who I am and I strive to inspire others like me to live with exuberance in the face of hardship. I also work with diabetic brands and foundations such as Myabetic and JDRF. I recently hosted a charity event with Gorjana at Scottsdale Quarter where I had 150+ personal guests in attendance and 19% of the proceeds (almost $600) were donated to JDRF. I am a rep for Myabetic so check out my favorite pieces below! Plus a couple other accessory favorites.