Baseball hopeful copes with Type 1

University of California pitcher Brandon Morrow is a baseball player with a future.

The junior was a Cape Cod League All-Star last summer for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, during which time he struck out 24 batters in 14.7 innings with a 1.84 ERA and three saves. He was named a third-team preseason All-American and the fifth-best professional prospect out of the Cape Cod League by Baseball America. He was drafted in the 40th round by the Anaheim Angels in the 2003 Major League Amateur Draft. He throws in the low to mid 90s. He is expected to do very well in the first round of next month’s baseball draft.

And since you’re reading this in a diabetes blog and not the sports pages, I’m sure you figured out at roughly the first sentence that Brandon Morrow has diabetes.

Brandon was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes during his senior year in high school, after losing weight drastically, drinking lots of water and craving sodas, and needing frequent trips to the bathroom. He also felt weak and dizzy. When he went to the doctor, his fasting blood sugar was 800; he was hospitalized immediately. Now he monitors his blood sugar between innings and five or six times a day on days he doesn’t pitch. His insulin is delivered by pump.

“I was probably more frightened and concerned than he was,” says his mother, Sharon. “When your children are sick, you feel guilty and wonder ‘Why did this happen to us?’ He adapted very well. I was amazed at how well he accepted the fact that he has a disease that is a lifelong disease.”

“It is really just something you learn to live with,” says Morrow.

(via Sports Illustrated and The Daily Californian)