ChronicdiseasechallengesExpressforward

Team hosts special diabetes awareness game on Friday

MARIO BARTEL mbartel@tricitynews.com

If you happen to spy

Coquitlam Express forward

Mateo Dixon checking his phone on the players bench during a game, he’s not calling his family back in Toronto about his latest goal, or texting his buddies

He’s checking the level of his blood sugars

Dixon has Type 1 diabetes

Diagnosed when he was 13 years old, Dixon says he hasn’t let the autoimmune disease hold him back from attaining his athletic goals

In fact, having Type 1 may have even accelerated his development as a hockey player

Now 20 and in his final season of junior hockey, Dixon is having a career year He’s scored 46 points in 52 games

Not that his journey through the sport has been easy

When your pancreas is working as it should, you don’t think about it

The elongated gland that sits in your upper abdomen tucked behind your stomach magically produces the enzymes that help you digest food and the hormones that keep the amount of sugars in your blood on an even keel

But when your pancreas suddenly stops functioning, you can’t not think about it

While the days of restrictive diets for people living with diabetes are long gone, every time Dixon eats or reaches for a bottle of energy drink after a shift on the ice, he has to make a mental calculation about the amount of carbohydrates he’s ingesting

He also has to check his blood sugar levels with an app on his phone that’s connected to a sensor plugged into his body, then determine the dose of insulin a small pump he wears 24/7 injects into his body to offset that sugar boost

Not Exact

It’s not always an exact science

Exercise, stress, anxiety and excitement can throw even the most precise calculation out of whack

Overshoot your insulin dose and your blood sugars can drop, sapping you of energy, depleting your ability to focus or make quick decisions

Underestimate, and your soaring blood sugars can make you nauseous and tired, and bring on a pounding headache

Neither outcome is ideal for a high-performance athlete who has to be at the top of his game and ready at any moment to jump on the ice

Dixon said his disease has brought on no shortage of aggravations

“It can be so random” he said “So many micro things can affect it”

But, Dixon added, living with Type 1 has also put him more in tune with his body

He said he’s hyper-aware of everything he eats and drinks and the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle to better manage his blood sugars

His off-ice training regimen doesn’t just get him ready for the rigours of the hockey season, it also helps smooth out the effects of the highs and lows he’ll inevitably endure

Express coach Patrick Sexton said Dixon’s maturity is beyond his years

“He has a sense of responsibility,” he said “He knows exactly how he’s feeling and how to address the situation”

Sexton said he’s played with teammates who have Type 1, like Luke Kunin who’s now a defenceman for the NHL’s San Jose Sharks

But this is his first experience coaching a young athlete with the disease

Communication

He said it’s important to maintain open lines of communication so he can understand why Dixon might not be able to immediately take a shift because he’s dealing with a low, or why he’s looking at his phone and wolfing down a candy bar on the bench instead of manning the power play on the ice

“My job is to support him,” Sexton said Dixon said one of diabetes’ biggest challenges is it invisibility

The advent of technology, like the small insulin pump see NOT LIMITING, page 38