Monday, October 24, 2011

Guest Post: Adam from Socks4Life

EDITED TO ADD:
**On August 23, 2012, I was sent an email and asked to 'unlink' to the links I had.  Until I hear otherwise, they will stay disabled. Thanks for your understanding with the company until they resolve their Google issues.**

A few months back I received an email from some guy from some website that was putting together something about diabetes.  I let it sit in my in box for a while then finally replied to see what it was all about.  Come to find out, Socks4Life was developing a resource guide for not only their customers, but for the population as a whole who happened upon their website.  I am proud to be included as one of the many DOC blog links on their site.  They also have other great information about diabetes.  You can check it out here.

In the back and forth emails, I 'met' and 'got to know' Adam.  He's the Outreach and Philanthropy Coordinator at Socks4Life.  He's been patient with my delayed responses...life got really busy around here a couple of months ago!  He asked if I would share about the resource page and if it would be OK for him to do a guest post.  I'm always up for sharing about people who are doing things to help out the diabetic community.

Please take a minute to check out their resource site.  And if you happen to be in the market for socks, diabetic or otherwise, they have those, too! :)

Without further ado...here's Adam's guest post:


Don’t Let Diabetes Stop you!

            During second grade, a family moved in on my street and one of their kids was Michael who happened to be my age. The first time I met him was at the bus stop for our first day of school. He was a nice kid and we quickly became friends. We would talk on the bus and play soccer during recess and after school. Over a month after we had met, we were shooting hoops in my driveway one afternoon and had a really close game going on when he suddenly said that he needed to run home for a few minutes. We were almost done with our game, but he insisted he’d only be a few minutes and he walked down the street to his home.

              He returned shortly after and we finished the game a few minutes later. At the end of the game, I asked him why he couldn’t wait a few minutes for the game to finish and that’s when I learned that he had diabetes. He showed me this gizmo looking gadget (I now know is a pump) that was clipped on the inside of his shorts. I had never really noticed the bulge on the side, but like any curious 7 year old, I asked him questions about diabetes. To this day, I’m surprised that he completely opened up about the disease and made it sound like it was no big deal. He explained to me how he tested his blood sugars, how he kept track of what he ate, etc… All of this sounded so overwhelming, but he made it seem like it was nothing at all.

            We are still friends to this day and I have never seen him let the disease get in the way of enjoying life. When I was home recently, we were playing a friendly game of football and we still tackle and drive each other into the ground. I never treated him differently with the exception of giving him a few minutes to treat a low or test his blood sugar levels. He even played on the soccer team during his sophomore and junior years at college.

            When I asked him what it was like to be the only player with diabetes on the team, and possibly at the university, he said it was shameful. Many coaches are hesitant to have a player with a disease on their team. On the other side of the coin, he spoke to many people with diabetes who don’t want to play sports due to their disease. I was shocked to hear Michael say that, considering there are several well known athletes who have type 1 diabetes. The list includes, and certainly is not limited to:
Ø  Jay Cutler: Quarterback for the Chicago Bears
Ø  Brandon Morrow: Pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays
Ø  Mark Lowe: Pitcher for the Texas Rangers
Ø  Ty Cobb: Arguably a MLB legend who set many records during his career
Ø  Chris Dudley: Played with many NBA teams

 These are just a few professional athletes with type 1 diabetes who have careers in professional sports. The point is that you should never think you can’t do anything you put your mind to, despite having the disease. Just because you have diabetes doesn’t mean you can’t be the next best quarterback in the NFL!


In the interest of full disclosure, I did receive a gift certificate for some socks from Socks4Life. But I'd totally share this resource site and let Adam guest post without it! :)

2 comments:

  1. Thanks, Adam! : ) And, Denise, you totally deserve a gift certificate! ; ) I'm missed you-it's been busy lately! : )

    ReplyDelete
  2. loved reading this! and I agree you totally deserve a gift my dear! Hope you are all doing good these days :o)

    ReplyDelete

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