I was 10 years old when my life changed forever! Something I never saw coming happened to me. I remember becoming violently ill, slowly but surely. It began with multiple trips to the restroom in elementary school and a constant urge to drink water or just be in water. My teacher Ms. Rodriguez, constantly questioned why I always had to disrupt the class by leaving to urinate. I promised her I genuinely had to pee! (I did not blame her because I was a social butterfly at that time (lol). The trips to the restroom turned into constant vomiting, excruciating stomach pains that felt like someone was stabbing me in my side, and extreme weight loss within a month. After a trip to my primary physician, my dad asked for a blood test to be given to me but was refused. I remember my dad arguing with that doctor.
The doctor insisted that I just had a stomach flu and prescribed me medication. I was okay for a few days thereafter but then all of the symptoms came back. My dad refused to believe the diagnosis and took me to the emergency room where they frantically hooked me on IVs and transferred me to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at a Children’s Hospital in South Florida where we lived at the time. My parents were told that I could have slipped into a coma within 24 hours had I not come at that exact moment. Within a few days, I was officially diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.
After the diagnosis, my father and this physician exchanged a few words as he refused to give me a blood test when asked for one. ***The complications black women face in health care in this country is a topic for another day and one that needs to be discussed on global platforms in order for changes to be made. We are not super humans and feel pain just as much as the next person.***
My name is Lina Kazi, I am a Type 1 Diabetic living in Washington, DC. Advocate, Entrepreneur, Influencer, Fake IG Model (haha), and young Professional, this is how I define myself.
Full disclosure, it was not until I hit my teens that I realized the impact Diabetes will have on me – financially, physically, mentally and emotionally for the rest of my life. When I was diagnosed, I genuinely thought there would be a cure within my lifetime! I wholeheartedly believed I would be cured at some point and held unto that glimmer of hope for as long as I could! As I approached my teen years… the faith I had in that dream slowly began to fade and eventually, I accepted that I most likely will not see a cure. When I was 14, I unexpectedly lost my father. My dad or as I would call him “papa” was in the medical field, thus whenever it came to ANYTHING diabetes related, he was there for me – he assisted me in carb counting, defended me if I would forget low blood sugar snacks at home, constantly advocated on my behalf as a child to doctors, read me scientific articles on the latest medical updates for diabetes, checked on me in the middle of the night for low blood sugars, and all of the great things dads do for their kids. Adjusting to life without my dad was the second life changing event that occurred within my life. Although my dad was not a diabetic, he still had medical knowledge and was overall empathetic to the battle I fought every day.
For many years, I didn’t talk too much about diabetes. My culture teaches us that speaking on whatever we suffer from is “taboo” – but as the years go by, the internet has grown and its connected us in ways I am sure we all never thought would be possible. Because of social media by way of the internet, I have met other diabetics that truly “get it”. As the internet grows, we have been able to change laws and speak on the insulin crisis in America, we share stories, we educate individuals all over the world who for so long believed in the Diabetes stereotypes, and we have a genuine community. At the age of 14 when I lost my father, I never thought I would find anyone who “got it” again.
On the bright side of my story, my close friend who had moved away a year prior to my diagnosis, ended up in the same Children’s Hospital as me and we spent a month together as roomies adjusting to our new lives. My entire 5th grade class and Ms. Rodriguez came to visit me while I was in the hospital and most of my classmates were so excited to see my friend that they had not seen because she moved away from our elementary school!
Type 1 Diabetes has been a journey. I have ups and downs several times a day but this is the hand I have been dealt with. With this hand I will continue to fight this battle, grow closer to the people that “get it/me”, educate, and advocate for T1D. T1D has taught me patience, kindness, empathy, sympathy, resilience, and I have to add that I am now a mathematician when counting carbs. Although there has not been a cure, technology has come so far to make life easier for us with the help of Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) and pumps. We still have a long way to go with the insulin crisis at an all time high, but with all of us interconnected and advocating, I know things will change for the better within my lifetime.
May my first love, my dad “papa” Rest in Peace. I love you and I will never forget you.
Lina Kazi
