# Playing ball with low blood sugar



## Matt Cycle (Jul 9, 2019)

I was an athlete, and then diabetes made me weak.

I was diagnosed at 15, and though I continued to play sports for years afterwards, I never acknowledged this weakness. My coaches saw it, my family saw it, and eventually I saw it: for me, diabetes was bleeding sports of their joy. I didn’t admit it to myself at first — that I was weaker — and that was my mistake. If you admit the weakness you can deal with it. If you don’t, you declare a cold war on your own body.

There are some professional athletes with Type 1 diabetes, people who drag the added weight of their disease behind them. NFL quarterback Jay Cutler and NBA draft bust Adam Morrison are among the most famous. Their success tells us that diabetes doesn’t erect an insurmountable barrier against the dream of becoming a pro athlete. Which is encouraging. You can still be almost anything as a diabetic (excluding pilot and truck driver). But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Cutler and Morrison had to stare at their disadvantages without blinking, and then work harder than everyone else.

When I was 15, in my sophomore year of high school, I played three sports: football, basketball, and baseball, and I took great joy in them. Then I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. After my diagnosis in the fall of that year, everything got harder. I had to guard against low bloodsugars, carrying ungainly bottles of glucose tablets with me everywhere: a slight dip in bloodsugar could knock me out of a game for half an hour. I had to defend myself from high bloodsugars, which sap energy and morale.

https://beyondtype1.org/playing-ball-with-low-blood-sugar/

Felt a bit sad reading this article but can understand where the author is coming from.  I always say you can do what you want with T1 and you can but it's just so much harder than those without it.  Team sports which he is talking about are especially difficult as others are relying on you.  I have the utmost respect for those with T1 who make it in professional sport.


----------



## Lizzzie (Jul 28, 2019)

Yes.  Right now i want to run but i cant ecen get my levels high enough to get started in time.  See where youre coming from.


----------

