Kiley Rose, pitcher for So Cal Athletics Marinakis was diagnosed with diabetes this year during high school season. She gives us her firsthand experience dealing with Type 1 diabetes.


(Toya Carter-Williams)

On Wednesday, May 4, 2016, my life changed. After school that day I had a doctor's appointment, and I went to it with no worries, not expecting anything crazy to happen. Boy was I wrong. That was the day I found out that I had Type 1 diabetes. I had to be admitted to Rady Children's Hospital right away and I stayed there for three days.

For a couple months before this event, I had been drinking, eating, and peeing nonstop. I was very sluggish and tired all of the time, and my performance in softball was not up to par. My parents and I rationalized everything that was going on. The drinking, it was hot, I was always working out. The eating -- the same (working out). The peeing -- a result of drinking excessively.

The one thing I really couldn't understand was why I wasn't playing well or feeling like myself. I was so frustrated it would make me cry. My parents began to notice all of my weird behavior more and more, and after I took a trip to Tennessee with my dad and finished 4 water bottles in under an hour. My parents decided it was time for a trip to the doctor's.

Turns out my blood sugar was over 600 on the verge of diabetic shock. I went home to pack for the hospital and let all of my friends know.

They were all very shocked, and it was even weirder because we had joked about the reason why I peed so much was because I had diabetes . . . we were never being serious. I told my high school coach and it all clicked why I was so tired, not performing and sluggish.

When I got home to pack, my boyfriend at the time came over and he was so upset he started crying, which of course made me cry. But that was also a very happy day because he asked me to prom! He knew exactly how to put a smile on my face.

When I was in the hospital, so many of my friends and family visited me, including my coach and many of my teammates. It was my turn in the pitching rotation to throw.  The team won clinching the league title. Coach and several teammates gave me a signed game ball from the team. To this day I feel so blessed to have so many people that love and care about me.

In the beginning, diabetes was very hard to grasp, and it was scary knowing my whole life was changing. But I got the hang of it and I'm living my life a normal, happy teenage girl. I feel so much more like me again, and all of my friends and family noticed once I got diagnosed that I was myself again. I started performing well again in softball, having my energy, eating, drinking and peeing less.

Diabetes makes me special, and it's a part of me. Another thing that actually helped me and made the whole process easier was that 2 of my friends have Type 1 diabetes and they really taught me a lot.

Kiley Rose

If you have any questions for Kiley, you can tweet her @_kileyrose