{"id":22826,"date":"2011-12-13T09:02:33","date_gmt":"2011-12-13T14:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22826"},"modified":"2016-01-07T06:53:55","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T11:53:55","slug":"my-pas-de-deux-with-diabetes-the-triumphant-story-of-a-diabetic-ballerina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22826","title":{"rendered":"My Pas de Deux with Diabetes: The Triumphant Story of a Diabetic Ballerina"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Catherine_Reflection\"<\/a>This afternoon I visited my local pharmacy to pick up some Apidra for my insulin pump. As I waited amidst the Christmas decorations listening to festive music, I couldn\u2019t help but notice the shelves and shelves of diabetes related gadgets, gizmos, and glucose tablets.\u00a0 I think we all feel nostalgic around Christmastime but I am feeling extra nostalgic because this time last year my life changed forever. \u00a0I was finishing my classes for my degree in dance at the University of Alabama, rehearsing for one of my favorite performances, drinking bottles and bottles of Gatorade and making many trips to the bathroom.\u00a0 It was the beginning of my dance with diabetes.<\/p>\n

I didn’t understand what was happening to me.\u00a0\u00a0I was exhausted and figured I was pushing myself too hard.\u00a0 I developed what my doctors thought was the flu so I kept trying to work through it.\u00a0 I eventually became so weak that I was unable to walk across the stage to collect my diploma on graduation day.\u00a0\u00a0During Christmas break, I went home to Canada, where I’m originally from.\u00a0Everything was a struggle for me.\u00a0 I continued to drink more and more and my body felt like it was falling apart.\u00a0 This wasn’t me.\u00a0\u00a0I’d been a die hard ballerina since I was four-years-old.\u00a0\u00a0And now all my muscles’ strength that I had taken for granted had diminished.\u00a0\u00a0I felt dizzy and spaced out.\u00a0 I ate Capt\u2019n\u2019Crunch every day and lost weight.\u00a0When I visited my doctor in Canada she suspected diabetes and she gave me some supplies to start testing my blood sugar and told me to have this taken care of once I was back in the States.\u00a0 I found out that my blood sugar was shooting over 200mg\/dl after almost every meal.\u00a0\u00a0As soon as I returned to the States to begin my very first job dancing at the Montgomery Ballet, I found an endocrinologist.<\/p>\n

I was officially diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in January 2011.\u00a0\u00a0I was 23.\u00a0 I started my treatment with Apidra and Lantus insulin pens.\u00a0 I attended education seminars and tried to read every book on diabetes so I could take good care of myself, but I still felt in the dark.\u00a0\u00a0I had new challenges while dancing in my very first company, and I had the new challenge of diabetes.\u00a0\u00a0Either one on its own would have been difficult, and the combination was overwhelming.<\/p>\n

I arrived at the Montgomery Ballet with no strength or technique left, my hands filled with testing supplies and a little yellow booklet to write down my numbers and adjust my insulin. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Our days began with a two hour ballet class in the morning, thirty minutes for lunch and then four hours of rehearsals.\u00a0 The trainees and apprentices also had an additional ballet class in the evening.\u00a0 This schedule lasted six days a week.\u00a0 We were all very, very tired and the months of having untreated diabetes had left me weak.\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes I wanted to just sit down and cry.\u00a0 Sometimes I did.\u00a0 I desperately wanted to show the artistic director how smart of a dancer I was but instead I would experience a low or high that would throw me off my game.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"Red\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I began to feel as though I had nothing to offer the company.\u00a0 I hid my supplies in the corner of the locker rooms and tested when nobody was around.\u00a0\u00a0I noticed that the stress of a ballet class sent my blood sugar to 250mg\/dl and after class and I would shout a swear word or two.\u00a0 I was frightened of being labeled the sick dancer and of not be given roles that were challenging.\u00a0 And then my fears came true.\u00a0\u00a0One of these lows was so severe that I sprained my ankle badly enough to require surgery.\u00a0\u00a0That ended my time with the Montgomery Ballet.<\/p>\n

My surgery was at the end of August 2011 and I spent the entire fall getting back into the shape I was in before my injuries and more importantly, before my diagnosis.\u00a0 I threw myself into physical therapy, cycling, ballet class, pilates, running and floor barre to pull myself together.\u00a0 And, luckily for me, life took a turn for the better.\u00a0 Very soon after I finished dancing at the Montgomery Ballet I was given the wonderful opportunity to dance with a new company in Birmingham Alabama called Arova Contemporary Ballet.\u00a0 I was given the rank of a soloist and they wanted me to start dancing as soon as possible.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t believe it.\u00a0 It was the dream job I’d been waiting for.\u00a0 I have just started rehearsals with them and every day seems like an experiment.\u00a0 Now my days are still filled with daily ballet classes and rehearsals as well as conditioning to keep me from getting any more pesky injuries.\u00a0 I make sure that I eat a combination of carbohydrates, proteins and fats to help me get through rehearsals.\u00a0\u00a0Despite all of the attention I’m giving my blood sugar, it’s still unpredictable. Sometimes it will rise after a hard ballet class and other times it will drop.\u00a0 Sometimes it will even drop to 40mg\/dl without any warning.\u00a0\u00a0There is no consistency and for a ballet dancer this is infuriating.\u00a0\u00a0Additionally, performing brings other complications to my diabetes management since my adrenaline increases my blood sugar, but then the physical activity increases my insulin action,\u00a0\u00a0thus dropping me like a stone as soon as I go off stage.<\/p>\n

\"Catherine\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Although in many ways dancing makes the struggle for stable blood sugar harder than normal,\u00a0\u00a0my dance career is part of my soul.\u00a0\u00a0Ballet was almost cut from my life when I was diagnosed.\u00a0 I was scared that I wouldn\u2019t be able to get my body strong enough to get back into company life.\u00a0 Somehow I decided that diabetes wasn\u2019t going to stop me.\u00a0 I am too stubborn to give something up that I have devoted my whole life to and I am very glad I didn\u2019t.\u00a0 I believe that my struggles with diabetes have made me even more tenacious with ballet.<\/p>\n

I am happy to say that while my blood sugar swings up and down, my life is balance.\u00a0 My new ballet company is a warm welcoming family that accepts me, my dancing and my diabetes.\u00a0 It has a more supportive atmosphere than other companies.\u00a0 I am no longer the sick dancer.\u00a0 I’m just a dancer who beeps once in a while in rehearsal.\u00a0 I wear my\u00a0\u00a0Dexcom around my waist in class, check the numbers frequently and even stop mid- class to test my blood sugar.\u00a0 No one bats an eyelash.\u00a0 Many company members ask me about it and I try my best to explain how diabetes is a difficult disease despite the fact that I make it look easy.\u00a0 I tell them it is like ballet.\u00a0 A performance may look effortless on stage, but we all know it how much work it takes to get there.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am no longer the sick dancer. I’m just a dancer who beeps once in a while in rehearsal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":22852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1432,1434],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nMy Pas de Deux with Diabetes: The Triumphant Story of a Diabetic Ballerina<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in January 2011. I started my treatment with Apidra and Lantus insulin pens. I tried to read every book on diabetes so I could take care of myself, but still felt in the dark...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22826\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Catherine Vancak\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22826\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22826\",\"name\":\"My Pas de Deux with Diabetes: The Triumphant Story of a Diabetic Ballerina\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22826#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22826#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Red2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-13T14:02:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-01-07T11:53:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/d3ccf92ead77a37a2784cd051f9f4969\"},\"description\":\"I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in January 2011. I started my treatment with Apidra and Lantus insulin pens. I tried to read every book on diabetes so I could take care of myself, but still felt in the dark...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22826#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22826\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22826#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Red2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Red2.jpg\",\"width\":550,\"height\":367,\"caption\":\"Red\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22826#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"My Pas de Deux with Diabetes: The Triumphant Story of a Diabetic Ballerina\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/\",\"name\":\"ASweetLife\",\"description\":\"The Diabetes Magazine\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/d3ccf92ead77a37a2784cd051f9f4969\",\"name\":\"Catherine Vancak\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/49e6768eca5b57934297d55a29949361?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/49e6768eca5b57934297d55a29949361?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Catherine Vancak\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?author=88\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"My Pas de Deux with Diabetes: The Triumphant Story of a Diabetic Ballerina","description":"I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in January 2011. I started my treatment with Apidra and Lantus insulin pens. I tried to read every book on diabetes so I could take care of myself, but still felt in the dark...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22826","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Catherine Vancak","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22826","url":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22826","name":"My Pas de Deux with Diabetes: The Triumphant Story of a Diabetic Ballerina","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22826#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22826#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Red2.jpg","datePublished":"2011-12-13T14:02:33+00:00","dateModified":"2016-01-07T11:53:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/d3ccf92ead77a37a2784cd051f9f4969"},"description":"I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in January 2011. I started my treatment with Apidra and Lantus insulin pens. I tried to read every book on diabetes so I could take care of myself, but still felt in the dark...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22826#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22826"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22826#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Red2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Red2.jpg","width":550,"height":367,"caption":"Red"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22826#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"My Pas de Deux with Diabetes: The Triumphant Story of a Diabetic Ballerina"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/","name":"ASweetLife","description":"The Diabetes Magazine","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/d3ccf92ead77a37a2784cd051f9f4969","name":"Catherine Vancak","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/49e6768eca5b57934297d55a29949361?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/49e6768eca5b57934297d55a29949361?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Catherine Vancak"},"url":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?author=88"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22826"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}