I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes as a three year old, and have combated the auto-immune disease for a majority of my life. Diabetes is a disease in which your body is unable to produce insulin (a hormone necessary to turn food into energy) and I have to take injections to maintain my blood sugar levels. Diabetes is a scary and sometimes complex disease to manage, and it can be difficult (but not impossible!) to remain active and healthy when playing sports. Here are 12 reasons why diabetics are the most kick-ass athletes.
1. We carry enough "emergency sugar" to fuel the entire team.
This is no joke. My soccer bag weighed a solid five pounds more than it should have. Juice boxes for everyone!
2. We keep playing
Even when we've thrown up due to the four juice boxes we had to drink quickly. Just let me rinse out my mouth and I'll be solid!
3. Workout prep happens hours before the workout even begins.
Seriously. Have practice at 3:00? Better start monitoring your sugar levels at noon. There's nothing worse than feeling absolutely miserable due to a mistake in carbohydrate counting and insulin doses. Unfortunately, even with the constant monitoring, things do go wrong.
4. We are the best multi-taskers
We can do anything while running.This includes eating our fast acting sugar AND doing insulin injections. I've done an insulin injection in the middle of a half marathon. You gotta do what you gotta do!
5. We don't shy away from pain
Because nothing is quite as painful as having a pump site ripped out of your stomach in the middle of an athletic event. Oh, that blood running down my stomach? No biggie.
6. We stay hydrated
Especially when running an usually high number. Can anyone say, cottonmouth?
7. We're probably the most aggressive people on your team
And we can't help it. Sometimes high blood sugar doesn't bring out the best in our temper. It's definitely a good thing we have an athletic outlet, right?
8. We are leaders
Fortunately for us, years of meticulous testing, injections, and carbohydrate counting make us extremely responsible and dependable (a perfect trait for a team captain!), and all of that carries over to other areas of life.
9. We are always prepared
For just about any diabetic emergency out there (and any other emergency.) Remember those thousands of juice boxes I mentioned earlier? On top of that, we carry around needles, insulin, test strips, and our glucose monitoring meters. Fortunately, our bags have to be huge to fit all of our supplies, so that means we have plenty of room for just about anything else (and I mean anything).
10. We are always in shape
Well, for the most part. But because frequent exercise is necessary to controlling diabetes, we are always doing something!
