Back in the Game
How Daniel Joslin Beat Diabetes
Daniel Joslin was 11 years old when his health took a turn. It was summer, and Daniel was spending time on the beaches of Lake Tahoe, where his family lives, playing lacrosse, and riding his bike. But he had this unquenchable thirst for chocolate milk. And he constantly had to pee. And all those scrapes and bruises from the bike park just wouldn’t heal.
On his 12th birthday, a sudden spike in symptoms led Daniel’s parents to call an ambulance. He was rushed to a small community hospital in Truckee where he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D). In critical condition, Daniel was transferred to a hospital in Reno, where he was stabilized and monitored for several days.
At the time of his diagnosis, Daniel was a blossoming athlete. He was competing nationally at ski cross, loving lacrosse, and eagerly anticipating the leap to high school sports. As a registered nurse, Daniel’s mom, Colleen, knew that her son would need the best care possible to pursue his passion for athletics while managing a T1D diagnosis.
Despite the geographic distance, she reached out to UCSF’s Madison Clinic for Pediatric Diabetes, a center of excellence designed exclusively for the treatment of children and young adults with diabetes. The clinic brings together under one roof the dedicated services of physicians, clinical psychologists, nurses, diabetes educators, social workers, dieticians, and administrative staff, with the goal of providing the best possible care and support for children with diabetes and their families.
It was 2020, the height of the pandemic, so Daniel began his care virtually. Over regular telemedicine appointments, the Joslins were coached on how to administer medications and perform regular assessments. Daniel was outfitted with the latest glucose monitoring technology, so his parents and San Francisco-based endocrinologist could monitor his levels continuously and keep his health on track. And perhaps most importantly to Daniel, the team came up with a formula to get him back in the game.
“I had to put everything on hold that first summer, and that was a big hit,” Daniel recalls. “I knew I had to get back to it. The Madison Clinic took me seriously and they trained me. As I got more experience with my treatment, I got better and better, and I was able to get back to sports. I just had to change how I did things.”
Colleen says it was like having a sports medicine consult. Daniel shared everything with his Madison Clinic team – the sports he wanted to play, his practice and game schedules, and how he felt during events. Like on the football field – he felt great at first, but after making a tackle, his energy would crash. His care team came up with a plan that incorporated everything – his nutrition, weekly energy needs, and the demands and rhythms of each sport.
It worked. A few years into treatment, Daniel was back to lacrosse and ski jumping and leading his football and basketball squads to winning seasons as team captain. As a senior, he earned multiple first team all-league honors in both sports.
Today, Daniel is playing college football at Chapman University and credits the Madison Clinic with preparing him for this new chapter in his life. “I need to be disciplined, to take everything into account, but they trained me to do that. And I know I can always text them if I need anything.”