Forestburg High School girls’ basketball player MaKayla Mason was preparing for a family vacation, but what she ended up with was a different type of extended stay.
Mason said she felt tired during Forestburg’s 2014 track and field season. She said she was irritable all the time, and she also was quite thirsty.
“I was grumpy all the time, and I drank a lot of water,” Mason said. “I remember losing 20-25 pounds. I didn’t feel good.
“I was, first, like okay, what’s going on?” Mason continued. “I needed answers.”
Bags were packed for a family trip to Port Aransas, located in southern Texas.
Instead, Mason went for a check-up at a clinic in Boyd, and it was there she was told to go to Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth.
During a June night, Dr. Michael Willcutts officially diagnosed Mason with Type I diabetes, commonly referred to a juvenile diabetes.
“I was lucky,” said Mason, who received medical treatment at the right time, and it very well could have saved her life.
At the time of her diagnosis, Mason’s blood sugar count was nearly six times more than the normal of 100 mg/DL. She said she remembers seeing other diabetes patients with counts at more than 1,000. Read more in the Jan. 30 Bowie News.

Editor’s Note: The Storm Center column is the expressed written views of sports editor Eric Viccaro and not The Bowie News.

Forestburg’s MaKayla Mason has battled Type I diabetes to become one of the top basketball players in the county. (News photo by Eric Viccaro)