My daughter was recently diagnosed with Type 1. She is very active and plays lacrosse all year long. I am looking for advice on how to manage her numbers during tournaments and long camp days/weeks. Also looking to connect her with any one that has played lacrosse (at any level) with T1D.
HI! I’m Isabella, I’m (nearly) 15 years old, I’ve had diabetes for 6.5 years, and I am on the track & field team. It’s tough managing it all, especially being newly diagnosed. You defiantly have to keep tight control - whenever it’s possible during game day & practice, she should check her bloodsugar. Also, I’d recommend stocking up on immediate sugar for lows (candy, glucose tablets, pop, etc), and recently my endocrinologist recommended protein bars before or after practice/meets. If I know that I’m going to be working out a lot, I try to keep my bloodsugar around 170-200 before and during practice/meets. When she gets a pump (or if she already has one), you should look into the Minimed 670g. It has the first closed-loop system, and I can look down at my screen and see my glucose level and if I’m trending up or down. It’s amazing, and it is extremely useful for people who participate in sports. Let me know if you need any help - even though I don’t play lacrosse, I’d love to answer whatever I can 
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Hi,
I play tennis and have to do weight lifting as part of my training for the sport so I too am active. I suggest always bringing a snack or juice and checking her blood sugar around a half an hour before she begins playing just to know where she’s at before she begins playing to know if she should bolus, etc. Hopefully that helps!!
Hi Beth,
I was diagnosed when I was an infant and played football, basketball, baseball, and ran track in highschool and went on to play football in college. Managing T1D while being an athlete is no easy task, so both you and your daughter should feel a great deal of pride for what she has already accomplished as well as what is to come.
Liquids are absorbed faster than solids so Gatorade was always a must-have on the sidelines for a rapid recovery. I would also recommend granola bars or protein bars. Protein helps blood sugars level out so I would, quite literally, eat a big spoon-full of peanut butter or two before practice and games.
I would check a couple times roughly 1.5 hours before a game/practice. I found if my blood sugar was 150 half an hour before a game, great. But not if I was 230 half an hour before that and I was dropping quickly (because I delivered too much insulin for lunch, for example). A continuous glucose monitor is a huge help with this, but certainly not necessary if you or your daughter is opposed.
If your daughter is playing year round, the heat also affects your sugar (you drop faster, more aggressively). So a summer tourney will have a different affect than fall ball.
Be cognizant of delayed lows. I would often play in a tournament/game/practice/whatever and manage sugars well through the event itself. However afterwards I would find my sugars dropped off a cliff. I found my body was more sensitive to insulin after the adrenalin wore off, so I would decrease the amount I would bolus after dinner (for example). I didn’t guess, I had help with how much to deliver/not deliver from a medical professional. I would also sometimes eat/drink something before bed to prevent that overnight low or decrease the basal I delivered throughout the night with my pump. Again the amount wasn’t random, a medical professional helped.
For week-long/days-long camps I usually could simply use the strategies listed above for days on end. It might be different for your daughter but I hope this helps.
If you have any other questions just let me know.
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