On Valentine’s day 2017, Gina woke up on a tiny Caribbean Island of Nicaragua with what looked like white horizontal lines running through her right eye. She was having an unexplained Optic Neuritis attack that damaged her visual field of her right eye. From 2017 to 2023 she continued to have five more attacks while every doctor she could access was unable to find the source. She even went to a Shaman in Peru. After four spinal taps and extensive testing, she remains undiagnosed. According to The Mayo, 1 of 30 known documented patients in the world who present the way she does. No, she does not buy a lot of lottery tickets, but she knows she is pretty special,…but not in a cool way.

In 2021, Gina, along with advertising agency Little & Company, published the book Blowing Up about life in isolation with her inflatable friend Rafael. $5 of the sale of each book went towards credible organizations that provide patent support as well as research Optic Neuritis. It was a turning point in her advertising career where for the first time she was able to produce her own creative project where she had previously done that for her clients.

Gina became passionate about sharing her story to help other patients in their journeys with invisible diseases and disabilities. She also creates art to illustrate what is like to live with a unique vision impairment and as an undiagnosed patient with an invisible disease. In 2024, Gina held her first self driven and funded exhibit to show others what is to live with difficulties others can’t see called Welcome to the Party. She was happy not only with the success of the show, but also the compassionate responses people and how it opened their eyes to invisible issues, but the difficulty in navigating the medical system when you are undiagnosed.

Gina realized she often used art to process, storytell, and to soothe her through many a crisis. For a long time she did not know what she was doing or what to call it. She decided to be come a Patient Advocate Artist to help others using creative outlets. To talk to her about it or support her by buying or commissioning art email her.