NASHUA – Amy Dichard found herself checking her phone often at games during Bishop Guertin’s girls soccer championship season.

No, not because she was expecting an important call, text or email. Instead, she was checking the health of two specific Cardinals on the field.

You see her twin daughters, goalie Ashlyn and defender Alyson Guerrette, are Type 1 diabetics and through the magic of technology, through an app on her phone she is able to monitor their blood sugar levels. And that’s the same as their older sister, Kyleigh, a senior on the Cardinals softball team.

The sophomores also play basketball for the Cards, although Alyson suffered a knee injury in the Cards soccer title win over Bedford and will miss the next nine months of competition.

As an auto immune disease, diabetes can be hereditary. Kyleigh was afflicted with it, Ashlyn was diagnosed with the disease when she was age 2; Alyson was 13.

Thus, every Thanksgiving brings a special feeling for Dichard and her family, especially since November is National Diabetes Month, when efforts are made to bring attention to the disease.

And young athletes shouldn’t be hesitant to pursue their goals.

“They shouldn’t be discouraged,” Ashlyn Guerrette said. “My community, my family, my doctors, that’s what’s gotten me through. Without my family, without my doctors, the technology, there’s no way I could manage them (sports and the disease) both.”

“It’s a lifetime disease, there’s no getting out of it,” Alyson Guerrette said. “Just stay on top of it is the most important thing, especially as an athlete, because if you’re not on top of it, your performance will change because of it. If you’re having a bad day (controlling the blood sugar levels), your performance will not be as good as it could be.”

Both have seen that happen. During games, Alyson said, if she’s having low level issues, “I’ll miscalculate every pass. And when we’re high, we’ll get dehydrated. It’s frustrating because there’s stuff you can do to help it (during breaks), but in the moment you just have to do your best to work with it.”

Ashlyn has had the same experience during club soccer. At a low blood sugar level, she found herself in goal not being able to read the situation as quickly as she normally could have.

These are just instances that all three girls have learned to adjust with.

“For me as an athlete, I grew up with it, and have worked through it, so the hardest thing is to make my coaches know, and so if I have to take a time out or sit out for a second, they know why so that I’m not just sitting out.”

Young athletes should just “get some time to get used to (the disease), it’s a new thing, a new challenge to overcome. But once you get a routine and know what you’re doing, it’s (manageable).”

Ashlyn says that “Diabetes has good and bad days.” The bad days are when there are fluctuating blood sugars and most of the time its diet related – or if there’s a malfunction in the technology.

“We’re able to use the being active as a way to control the diabetes,” Dichard said. “We’re able to control their blood sugar when being active, and in sports that can range anywhere from basketball, soccer, and softball.

“It really is kind of a full time job to manage the blood sugar, in order to establish performance and be able to continue to play long-term. But we approach it as this isn’t going to hold you back … When they find another student who is diagnosed at a young age, they want to share – you can do anything you set your mind to.”

Being identical twins, when Alyson was diagnosed much later, she pretty much knew the routine. “She had been living it with her twin,” Dichard said.

As insulin-dependent diabetics, the girls wear a wireless insulin management system, changed every three days, and also a continuous glucose monitoring system that allows their blood sugar levels to go directly to their phones and Dichard’s as well. If it goes under or over a certain number, it sets off an alarm.

“They do a really good job managing it, especially for teenagers,” Dichard said, noting she checks the levels especially during halftime of soccer games and quarter breaks in basketball.

“They don’t have to prick their fingers as much with the technology advancements,” Dichard said, noting they test their levels anywhere from one to three times a day, especially before sports.

The twins have been playing sports all their lives, beginning in the youth programs in Nashua for soccer and hoop, Both would like to play soccer at a high level after high school.

Meanwhile, they continue to master regulating the diabetes.

“It starts with education, really understanding diets and what food does for your body,” Dichard said, noting that pre-game they have to have the right protein and carbs going into the game, and post-game eat several carbs to make up for the insulin their body burns during the game. “It’s really about education.”

During games all three may have low blood sugar due to the exertion of game activity, so they have juice or snacks or glucose tablets with them to offset that when necessary.

“They’re very well known on their team for being the kids with lots extra snacks,” Dichard said with a chuckle.

“You have to be able to look at labels, look at carbs,” Ashlyn said. “You can pretty much eat everything but things with high sugars you tend to stay away from.”

Some days Ashlyn said she will get super tired after a day when the blood sugar was hard to handle.

“It takes a lot out of you, if the blood sugars are way up then dropping,” she said. “Some days I feel like I have a of energy, and some days I don’t.”

She looks at the diabetes as “just an extra step.”

•••

Discovery

Alyson Guerrette was sitting at dinner one night when she was 13 and was having several glasses of water, and said she had filled her water bottle eight times that day. That was the tipoff she had the disease.

“She knew what was happening in that moment,” Dichard said. “She had seen what her sisters had dealt with so she knew what to expect.”

“I feel like I knew it would eventually happen over time because both my sisters had it and I was like waiting for it,” she said. “Overall it wasn’t that hard to come to terms with. I grew up with them having it, and I already knew a lot about it.”

As a seventh grader dealing with the diabetes for the first time, she tried to be independent, but was grateful for her family and the medical support. “You take their advice and go along with it,” she said. “They’re just there to help every step of the way, which is honestly a blessing.”

“Everyone’s different,” Ashyln said. “It’s hard, but it’s manageable. It’s good (for people) to know, because everyone has a different story and everyone should be able to share their story.”

Dichard said that the more that professional athletes come forward and discuss their diabetes and the regimen that goes with it, the more it helps with the awareness.

“Yes, I have this disease, but it’s not going to limit me or stop me from achieving,” Dichard said is the message they are delivering.

She lost two aunts from the disease and going back to that time “it was a bit of a dire situation, there wasn’t a lot of awareness or technology. But in the last 13 years, since Ashlyn was diagnosed, there’s been so many advancements. I feel really good where the awareness is headed.”

But there still has to be awareness with active teenagers in social circles, “and you never know, it could happen to anyone.”

The fact that all three girls share the same affliction has made them closer.

“We all know what we’re going through, the responsibilities we have, and has made it easier to talk to each other,” Ashlyn said.

But Dichard is especially thankful that the disease hasn’t overly adversely impacted her daughters’ lives and athletic goals.

“Super grateful for just how mature they are, and how they handle these types of things, and also thankful for how they’re surrounded by such a great community, and people who are willing to support them.

“I’m also thankful for the advancements in technology and where I see this progressing in the future. I just hope we can bring more awareness to it and keep that awareness moving in the right direction so someday there can be a cure. That’s all of our hope.”

Meanwhile, Dichard and the girls say they are there to help others, including but not limited to young athletes learning to cope with the disease.

“We’re here if anyone’s new at it or going through it,” Ashlyn said. “Just being a teenager going through high school with it, it’s not easy. There’s good and bad days. We’re here to help.”

“We’re keeping open conversation,”Alyson said. “I’m thankful for my friends and my family. Friends are honestly really important because they’re there to support you, not judge you or whatever for having it. Friends and family that understand what we’re going through.”

In a lot of ways, the Guerrette sisters are champions of a another battle.

Newsletter