About Me

Most of the people reading this blog probably know me. But as this blog is shared with others there will be some that do not know me personally. So I'm going to share a little about my family & I. First let me thank each of you for reading my blog, and praying for my family & I during this time. We love the Lord, and strive each day to live our lives according to His will. We know that whatever this journey brings, He will be there for us each step of the way.

My name is Tina Harden. I'm 40yrs old. I'm married to a wonderful man, Morris. I don't know how I would get through any of this without him & our daughter. We were blessed with one precious daughter, Katie. She is 13 yrs old. She gets me through each and every day. The good Lord knew just how much I needed that sweet girl. She makes each and every hard day, worth the struggles. She knows just what to do to bring a smile to my face. We are a home schooling family, we have home schooled Kaitlyn since the beginning. Our main goal is teaching her to live her life for God, to know His Word, and academics come after our main goal. If she succeeds at our main goal, she is a SUCCESS.

I am extremely close to my family. My mom has always been my best friend, she just now shares that spot with my husband & daughter :) We lost my dad at the beginning of this year to lung cancer :(After a terrible battle of the disease. So this year has been a very emotional year. I love my granny, I love hearing her tell me stories of when she was growing up, and when she met my grandpaw. We both usually end up laughing hysterically, she was(is) a mess. My grandpaw passed away from lung cancer in 2006. The holidays are always hard without him, he always loved them & got more excited than even the kids in the family. I have a wonderful family & love them all dearly. My brother, Kevin, & his wife, Hope, blessed me with a precious little niece, Grace. She is now 3yrs old, and she keeps us laughing. She is at that fun age. Well I can't sit and name my entire family, but I'll just say I love them.

I've always had a lot of health problems. In High School I would pass out in class at times. On one occasion they checked my blood pressure, & it was through the roof. So my mom was called & we headed to the ER. I was 16yrs old and I was put on medicine for high blood pressure. The doctors were did not understand why or how someone my age had such out of control high blood pressure. At this time I was not fat, I was at a normal weight. It was also discovered that I had an abnormally high heart rate & that my heart skips beats. More things that only confused the doctors. Several test were run, unfortunately just not the right test.

Well life went on, & as I got older I got more & more strange health problems. Doctors just didn't know & couldn't explain, why? So I would be given meds, & not learn anything about why. Over the years, my health has gotten worse & worse each year. I was told at 19yrs old that I should never get pregnant. The doctor actually said, "If you ever get pregnant, just go ahead and dig a 6ft hole in your backyard, because your blood pressure is so out of control, that is where you will be.." ??? WHAT?? Needless to say at 19yrs old, this news completely sent me on a loop. The one thing I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt was that I wanted to be a mom. This hit me like a ton of bricks. It also sent me into depression. I could not see or hear a baby without losing it completely. Over time with lots of prayers & tears, I still remained very sad, but learned to deal with it much better. Then when I got older my gynecologist told me I wouldn't be able to have a child due to a problem with my ovaries, I didn't know or understand at that time he was telling me about PCOS. I'm so thankful that our dear Lord had different plans. He blessed us with our precious daughter. I actually got pregnant with her in only a few months after we were married. So God showed He was the one in control. I can not begin to express how HAPPY I was when we found out I was pregnant. I felt like I was the happiest pregnant woman ever! Even though I was on bedrest most of my pregnancy, I had a constant smile on my face. Then the day she was born, I was completely over the moon with excitement. I thank the dear Lord each and every day, for my precious BLESSING!!

For years I have stayed sick so much, it seemed as if I could get within 10 ft of someone sick I would catch whatever they had. My immune system basically didn't seem to work. But we didn't know why I stayed sick so much. More health problems would arise to go along with my bad immune system & high blood pressure, Heart problems, severe menstrual problems, severe migraines, anxiety, depression,not being able to sleep, stomach problems, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome(PCOS), lab test that would come back and point toward lupus, then lab test that were not conclusive, severe pain all over my body(muscle pain, joint pain, deep bone pain, high cholesterol, diabetes, reflux, thyroid levels up & down, a growth on my thyroid, thinning hair, increased hair growth on face, gaining weight, swollen face, the lovely "buffalo hump", kidney stones, started having problems with memory(which continues to get worse), cognitive problems (memory, speaking, forgetting words, mixing up words), acne, bruising easily, diabetes, have started having vision problems, dizziness, blacking out spells, & etc. The list seems to go on and on, problem is the doctors never put it all together. They only worked on each problem separately never looking at everything. 

I recently asked my doctor to check me for Cushing's I read something online & it was like reading something I could have wrote myself. So I told him, we started the journey of test, many, many test. Then he kept redoing test, because as he kept saying, "Cushing's is rare" & he said, "He didn't want to believe I really had Cushing's". But unfortunately, every test kept coming back the same.. BAD.. So he had to tell me that I definitely have Cushing's. Then we had to learn what the source was.. so more test. It was discovered that mine is being caused by a tumor in my brain on my pituitary. Not words you really want to hear. But I'm thankful for a diagnosis after all these years of health problems and not knowing why??? 

Cushing's is rare and causes so many health problems, if left undiagnosed or untreated it can be fatal.To learn more about this disease just click on the Cushing's tab at the top of my blog.

Now our problem is I don't have any insurance & these procedures & surgery are extremely high. We applied for financial help through the UAB, but we were denied. So now we are humbly trying to raise money to help with these medical cost.