Dominic Verrastro

Hey, my name is Dominic Verrastro, and I am a sophomore on the Baseball team at the University of Pittsburgh, who has type 1 diabetes. Growing up, baseball was always my go to sport and was also a huge part of my life as it always brought me joy because it would help me escape reality for a bit. My position was always catcher when I was younger but as I got older, I learned how to play every position and I would strive to be the best at every position. As time went on, I slowly started to be a Pitcher my freshman year at my previous school. At first, I did not know how to “pitch,” all I knew was to throw the ball as hard and as accurate as I can. After finishing my first year at my juco, I noticed I was losing hair from my head and had no idea why. I let it go for months because I just thought I had bad genetics; little did I know that it was because I was a diabetic. After letting my hair go for months, I decided to go to a Dermatologist to see what was wrong. The Doctor pulled hair from my head to get testing done and everything came back normal... I was so confused. November came around and I started to notice that I have been losing weight and I could not help it. I started to track my macros and I made sure I was eating more than ever, but the weight was still dropping, I had no idea why. December rolls around and I was still down in my weight, I was starting to get scared. I then noticed that I was drinking water nonstop because my mouth was always dry, it got to a point where I would wake up 5-6 times in the middle of the night to drink water and to use the bathroom. One morning I remember going on my phone and looking up my symptoms to try to see what was wrong with me, and I remember seeing “Diabetes” and thinking to myself, “There’s no way, I would’ve got diagnosed years ago, not when I’m 19.” So, I went to CVS and bought medicine for dry mouth because I convinced myself that I did not have diabetes. None of the medicine worked. So, on January 13, 2020 I woke up feeling awful. I was throwing up my dinner from the night before and I was throwing up the water I would drink that day. I knew something was wrong. I called my mom to get a doctor's appointment for me and when she called my doctor and told my symptoms, the doctor told me to go to the ER as I was showing symptoms of Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA). (DKA happens when one's body produces elevated levels of blood acids called Ketones, Ketone's form when your body is not making enough or no insulin at all.) So, I immediately went to the ER with my father, and I was admitted into the Intensive care unit for 3 days. I was woken up every 2 hours to get blood work done and I just thought my life and my baseball career was over. I finally get out of the Hospital after 3 long days, and everything just felt so weird. I realized that my whole life must change, and it must change now. Being an athlete my whole life, I knew how to adapt and overcome the bumps in my life. I knew how to manage changes, I knew how to switch positions in baseball, so I knew I can learn how to manage my diabetes. I did so much research on foods and how to count carbs and honestly, getting diagnosed with T1D just made me a better and stronger person. It taught me that anything can happen at any time and it also taught me that I am mentally stronger than what I thought in the past. T1D was a blessing in disguise, it made me an overall better person. I am not embarrassed to tell anyone that I am a diabetic, I love letting people know that I am. I do not think anyone out there should be scared to show who they really are, whether it is having diabetes or not. Learn to love yourself and embrace who you are. Show people who you are, life will be so much better that way. Be you and do not be scared. You have one life... enjoy it.