Episode 65: Breaking Needles with Evita

On this episode we will hear from Evita. Evita was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes in 1995 at 14 years old and has been living with T1D for 29 years. She is a mother of 3 and is a RN for almost 20 years, and works with people

with chronic disease management and case management and is currently on a track towards her doctorate.

At the age of 12 her father passed, and her family moved from Florida to Virginia. This was such a pivotal moment in young Evita's life. Experiencing

the events of trauma did lead up to her diagnosis.

Being a teenager with Type One Diabetes was the worse for Evita. She didn't want to give herself insulin and was a bit rebellious. Her mom would give her injections. At the time she was on NPH and Regular insulin.

Even in the hospital when they were training her on injecting an orange, she insisted her mom do it. Her mom broke all the needles she was given, hence Breaking Needles!

She remembers coming home from the hospital and getting a lot of attention and her cousin saying to her he wishes he had diabetes because she was getting all the attention. All she could say was,

you don't want this; you don't want this at all.

Evita has been able to pilot some programs in her career as an RN including one that helped reduce a1c's by strictly engaging in community and peer support.

Going into her junior year of high school Evita found out she was pregnant with her oldest daughter, now 26. She talks about those rebellious years, dealing with diabetes and how hard it was in labor.

What keeps Evita motivated even on days of burnout or when she doesn't want to do diabetes, are a reminder to herself, if you want to keep living and feeling ok that you have to do it!

On the day Evita is cured from Type One Diabetes she said the first thing she will do is run a mile and then go to Disney!! On that day we're going to Disney!!

Thank you, Evita,

Follow Evita on Instagram @_eeeevieee_