making it 1st Team All Dade (the best players based
on position in the county), and ended up being
recognized as the All Dade All Star for defensive
players from divisions 1A-3A. I accomplished all
this just based off the fact that I wouldn’t quit, I
would not let the reason that I was diabetic hold me
back from what I wanted to accomplish. I continued
to persist and pushed myself to do better, I would
put up more weight in the weight room, run longer,
run faster and just constantly strive for perfection in
my technique as a defensive end/outside linebacker.
That all ended when I entered college though, I
didn’t end up going to any of the Ivy League schools
that had offered me scholarships to play, because
while I was doing so well on the field, my diabetes
was out of control off the field. My blood sugars
were constantly shooting up extremely high and
coming down so low that I would go into a state of
shock. Most times this would occur in the middle
of the night, I would awake in a daze, my bed
drenched with sweat, my family hovering over me
with about four to five EMTs in my room trying to
get my blood sugars back to normal. This happened
so often, that we actually became friends with those
same EMTs. It didn’t stop there though; I once had
to be hospitalized for the reason that I ended up
with a blood glucose level of 760 when a normal
range is 70-120. I had reached a state of diabetic
ketoacidosis. This basically means that there is no
insulin running through your system to normalize
your blood sugars and instead your body resorts
to breaking down fat and distributing this through
your system. This results in your body releasing
ketones, which is acidic and wreaks havoc on your
body from the inside out. If not treated, it will lead
to death.
Fast forward a couple years and I finally got
my diabetes under control with the help of my
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