Meet our T1D Champion, Gia Petriniotis! Gia was diagnosed with T1D at 7 years old. Read Gia’s full story, written through the eyes of her mom, Maria Madonis, below!

“Gia has spent more than half her life living and thriving with Type One Diabetes. She is also an honor-role sophomore who serves as the Communications Manager on the Student Council. She’s been named Captain of her school’s volleyball team, 3 years in a row and just recently, made the girls JV basketball team, in spite of making over 180 health-related decisions, daily. She’s played travel club volleyball since she was 12 and has competed at Nationals in Orlando, FL, twice. Her love for sports extends to photography and her older brother’s hockey and basketball team in-game action pics are featured on their websites and social media pages. She makes it all seem easy and rarely complains about everything “extra” that is needed to manage her often misunderstood auto-immune disease. The reality is that managing T1D can be challenging at best, overwhelming at its worst, which is why Gia is honored to be a Youth Ambassador for Breakthrough T1D and takes her role to heart, organizing multiple events at school and in her community, raising awareness and funds for a cure.

If you ask Gia, she doesn’t really remember what life was like before being diagnosed with T1D, 3 days before her 7th birthday. Looking back at the summer before she went into DKA and ended up in the emergency room, there were subtle signs that seemed unrelated. We can say that now, only because we know what to look for, and have spent countless hours with her endocrinology team and researching on the internet. At the time, however, with no history of Type 1 or any type of Diabetes in our circle of family and friends, we simply didn’t connect the dots and continued on with life, completely unaware that her life and all of ours, would be forever changed.

We noticed she’d been drinking more water but it was late summer in North Carolina and still super hot, so kids were encouraged to stay hydrated at school. Consequently, or so we thought, she was getting up at night to use the bathroom. We tried to limit her water intake in the evenings before bedtime. She had started to lose some weight, but we’d been actively trying to get her BMI in line, at her pediatrician’s recommendation. She’d also had a growth spurt. We were spending sunny days swimming or biking and our evenings taking long walks after dinner. We had even signed her and her brother up for Tae Kwon Do lessons. At some point, we noticed her breath smelled a little fruity and her urine was sometimes bubbly and while it struck us as odd, we had no clue these were actual symptoms. It was so easy to dismiss these seemingly random insignificant things and instead made notes to discuss at her annual doctor’s visit, completely unaware that something was seriously wrong with her health.

In late September 2016, on the last day of our family holiday in the Bahamas, Gia became agitated and cranky and complained she was too tired to walk while we were out souvenir shopping. Usually, a happy and energetic child, this was completely out of character for her, so we carried her back to the hotel and she took a nap. Gia seemed to wake up feeling fine and refreshed and we went to dinner. However, the following morning before checking out of the hotel, Gia complained of a tummy ache. She insisted she wasn’t hungry and didn’t want any breakfast and after barely nibbling on a muffin and drinking some juice, she threw up. She seemed to recover and we headed to the airport where she had a light lunch. She slept the entire flight and her breathing was labored, her little chest rising and falling slowly. We landed and everyone tried to convince us she was tired from the trip and all she needed was a good night’s rest. She threw up again and complained of a sore throat, before drifting off to sleep. We stayed up all night watching her, thinking maybe she had the flu or strep, taking her temperature to make sure she didn’t have a fever. We agreed to take her to a minute clinic as soon as she woke up so we could get her on the road to recovery before going back to school.

The doctor who examined Gia at the clinic and asked about her symptoms, very quickly ruled out the flu and strep throat. Instead, he insisted we go straight to the pediatric hospital and advised them to expect us so we could very easily and quickly be admitted. We have no doubt the doctor at the clinic anticipated a T1D diagnosis, based on the leading questions we were being asked, but most likely decided to defer confirmation to the doctors and staff at he hospital, where Gia would spend the next 3 days fighting to get her BG back within range, while we struggled to figure out our “new normal.”

She was released from the hospital in time for us to celebrate her birthday at home, surrounded by the love and support of family and friends. Without a doubt, the next 18 months were a complete blur of learning how to ride the waves of highs and lows, finger pokes, insulin injections, battling it out with insurance, guestimating carb counts, weighing everything she ingested, educating ourselves and her school staff. With no nurse on staff, we were blessed with such amazing support as I traveled multiple times a day between work and her school any time she needed to poke or take insulin until she could get on a dexcom and pump. It took days, weeks, months for her not to cry and cringe at every finger poke and injection and insertion. Eight years later, the needles don’t scare her but she never really did get used to the smell of insulin or alcohol wipes.

Today, Gia is a vivacious and vibrant, amazing young woman full of hopes and dreams. She sees herself studying interior architecture at UTK in a few years, eventually restoring beautiful old buildings, preserving their history with a modern twist. Living with a chronic illness like T1D is full-time job that has forced her to grow up fast so she’s more mature and responsible than most, simply because she can’t afford not to be aware and alert at all times. It has also taught her to be resilient, compassionate, caring, and patient with herself and others. She more than manages her diabetes care on her own, changing sites, dosing for her meals, correcting and adapting for her activities. At 15 years young, she does it all except dealing with insurance and placing orders for her supplies, which we hope one day will be a thing of the past because Gia is also full of hopes and dreams for a cure and a world where Type One is Type None.”