Freedom: How I Beat Diabetes

It is a dream of every 16 year old in America to finally get their drivers license. That little plastic ID signifies freedom: something every kid at that age longs for. Finally, we are able to break free of the ridiculous rules of our parents and we can make our own decisions. It is a huge step toward being an adult and getting to that next portion of life that has been a part of our fantasies and aspirations for at least a year or two.

On my 16^th birthday I woke up at least two hours before the DMV even opened and was ready to roll out the door 15 minutes later, despite the fact that it was only a ten-minute drive to the final destination. Eventually we got there and my name went on the waiting list. Soon enough my name was called and then all of the nerves set in. At that point, I was probably a nervous wreck and shaking because I simply could not fail the test. Failing would be the end of me after waiting so long to earn the freedom of driving. It’s all-good though because I passed on my first attempt! When they handed me my brand new license, with the really awkward portrait of myself, I felt like a new man. Life was great! Now I could do what I wanted and no one could stop me. I was ready to take over the world.

How Low Can You Go?

Around ‘99/2000, word got out around Chicagoland that Six Flag Great America was about to open a new roller coaster. The Raging Bull was going to change the way that thrill seekers experienced roller coaster with its “hyper-twister” steel construction and steep drops of over 200 vertical feet. It is an awesome coaster.

Interestingly enough, if you take a look at the profile of that roller coaster (the 2D image that simply shows elevation change) and you compare it to the graph of blood sugars from a person with diabetes, they will look shockingly similar. The difference is that when you view the roller coaster’s profile, the higher the peaks and the lower the valleys, the better. The thrill from rolling over an edge and dropping a few hundred feet in seconds is amazing, especially if you are an adrenaline junkie. With the diabetes, that’s not the case. Those rapid changes just make you feel like crap.

The Most Intense Journey of My Life

Diabetes is a lot like the weather. It’s not always going to be 75 and sunny regardless of how great the climate is, just like you won’t have perfect blood sugars all the time regardless of the quality of your overall control.  With the seemingly infinite number of things that can affect blood sugar, you are bound to have high and low readings occasionally but if I have learned anything from living with the disease for the past 11 years, it is to accept the highs and the lows but also look at them and try to diagnose why they occurred. Hopefully, through that diagnosis, I can prevent a similar situation from occurring again.

Life on the Go

Quite a lot has happened since USPRO Nationals. I’m pretty sure my excitement for the rest of the season is the only thing keeping me going at this point since I should be dead tired. In the seven weeks since Greenville, I have raced in Washington D.C., Augusta, GA, and Boise, ID, and spent four straight weeks away from my place in Suwanee, GA but I am loving every minute of it. I have visited friends in Virginia, spent time with family in Colorado, went to the Children With Diabetes conference in Orlando, spent time in Montana and Idaho, and I am now on my slow return to the dirty South. So much has happened in all of this travel that I highly doubt I will get to everything here, but I will definitely hit the highlights.

USPRO National Championships

It's time for the USA Professional National Championships in Greenville, SC again. It is an event that brings the best riders in the country and tons of awesome fans to the city in South Carolina. The past few years it has been in September and has sort of marked the end of the season in the states.  The change in date this year will make nationals more in line with the world calendar but could also change the dynamics of the race a bit.