Hannah Mayo texts her mother every morning, like clockwork, when she wakes up. "Good Morning" or "GM" the message reads.
It isn't merely a friendly salutation to start the day.
"It's proof of life," Heather Mayo, Hannah's mother, explains.
The Texas A&M softball player was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as well as a thyroid condition and celiac disease when she was 14. She has lived with everything that comes with that ever since.
But the redshirt freshman pitcher has never let her diagnosis interfere with her goals and dreams despite the daily challenges.
"It's tough enough managing school and workouts and all of that, and then throw on top of that the challenges she has with her health," A&M softball coach Jo Evans said. "I don't know a lot of people who have the mental toughness and the fortitude to do what she's doing."
Hannah, 20, hasn't known any different the past six years. She uses an insulin pump to keep her blood glucose levels under control. She eats gluten-free to control her celiac. She takes a prescription drug for her hypothyroidism. Still, some days are worse than others.
That's her life. That's her reality.
Every single day.
For the rest of her life.
"I don't get the option of giving up or taking a day off," Hannah said. "Every morning, regardless of how diligent I am and how much time I take to prepare, sometimes it just goes out of whack without rhyme or reason. It's just something I have to watch closely and adjust quickly and move on. Some days I feel better than others.
"Chronic diseases don't go away, so I know that every day for the rest of my life it's going to be there. I feel like it's made me very tough. I very much appreciate that it's given me that."
BAD NEWS COME IN THREES
Heather Mayo was a college softball pitcher at Tarleton State. She began teaching her daughter to pitch when Hannah was 4. Hannah was a natural.
It wasn't too many years later that Hannah began thinking about a college career.
But as an eighth grader on a select team, Hannah had just finished playing a tournament when she fell ill. She had all the symptoms of the flu.
"Hannah was never a sick kid," Heather said. "Like the whole family would get sick, and Hannah was fine. We thought she had a great immune system. They put her on steroids, which was actually a blessing because it increased her blood sugar even more, which made it come to life that she had something else going on."
Hannah had lost weight. She had frequent urination. She had increased thirst. She had unusual fatigue. In other words, she had symptoms of diabetes. But it wasn't until Hannah returned to school a week later and complained of blurred vision that everything began to come into focus.
The eye doctor tested Hannah's blood sugar.
She immediately was admitted to Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi, where a battery of tests uncovered all the bad news: Type 1 diabetes, whereby the pancreas can't produce insulin; Hashimoto's disease, an autoimmune disease that damages the thyroid gland; and celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder in which gluten can damage the small intestine.
"It was a lot to take in," Hannah said. "My uncle was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 19. There was always a poster in my grandparents' pantry that had signs and symptoms, and I never really understood what it was."
"It happened so quickly; it definitely was a lot to take in."
Hannah's biggest fear was that her athletic career was over, and it didn't help that a nurse at the hospital told Hannah just that.
"I will never forget that nurse's face; I'll never forget her name," Heather said. "She said the absolute worst thing she could have said at that time to a kid who spent every minute of her life playing softball. That was the first thing out of Hannah's mouth, 'Can I keep playing softball?'
"To be told no, it was hard to hear, and it scared us."
Hannah began an online search for softball players with diabetes. She found a pitcher from a small school in California. It offered a sliver of hope.
Maybe? Possibly?
ONE IN A MILLION
According to the American Diabetes Association, 1.25 million people in the U.S. have Type 1 diabetes. That accounts for 5 percent of all diagnosed cases of diabetes a year.
Mayo has an insulin pump, which delivers rapid- or short-acting insulin 24 hours a day through a catheter surgically implanted under the skin. She disconnects it when she plays.
It took "a while" before Hannah realized her dreams of playing softball at a high level weren't over. Still, she wondered whether anyone would recruit her.
Hannah initially didn't want college coaches to know her condition, fearful that it would scare them off. It didn't.
The Corpus Christi Carroll pitcher earned all-state honors in 2014 and 2015 and was All-South Texas MVP in 2017. She had offers and committed to A&M as a sophomore.
Evans, who has coached at A&M for 23 years after 11 years elsewhere, had never previously coached a player with Type 1 diabetes.
"I continue to be impressed with Hannah with her resiliency, with her mental toughness," Evans said. "It's not easy. There are constantly peaks and valleys in her blood sugar and then how her body responds to that. Anybody else would get an energy bar or boost, and you're good to go. For Hannah, it doesn't work that way. She really has to plan things out well ahead to make sure that her body is exactly ready to go. I really admire her. I also admire and respect her parents, especially her mom, for being there for Hannah and helping her understand the challenges and knowing she's going to be OK. She can do it."
Heather worries about Hannah every second of every day.
Four months before Hannah left for College Station, Hannah twice had incidents where she became unresponsive. She had another after pitching her first full game at A&M where Heather, who was staying with her that night, couldn't wake her.
"That's been the biggest thing is just the fear," Heather said. "I know the first year, especially, we both had a tough time. She was scared to sleep. She'd let it run higher than she should have because she didn't want to get low."
Hannah, who redshirted as a freshman and has a 3-0 record in 13 appearances this season, still is figuring things out. She relies on her teammates, her roommate, her coaches, the team nutritionist and the team athletic trainer as well as her mother for help.
"Sometimes it feels like so much, like I'm working three full-time jobs with the softball, my health and school," Hannah said. "I think my sixth-year anniversary came at kind of a good time. If I have a bad outing, I look back to when I didn't think I was going to be able to play again let alone play for Texas A&M in the SEC. It's just understanding the patience you have to have."
"Yeah, I'm proud of myself. It's been a long road already, and it's only been six years. But I think I'm equipped to deal with it for the rest of my life."
Good Morning and good morning and good morning. . . .
It isn't merely a friendly salutation to start the day.
"It's proof of life," Heather Mayo, Hannah's mother, explains.
The Texas A&M softball player was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as well as a thyroid condition and celiac disease when she was 14. She has lived with everything that comes with that ever since.
But the redshirt freshman pitcher has never let her diagnosis interfere with her goals and dreams despite the daily challenges.
"It's tough enough managing school and workouts and all of that, and then throw on top of that the challenges she has with her health," A&M softball coach Jo Evans said. "I don't know a lot of people who have the mental toughness and the fortitude to do what she's doing."
Hannah, 20, hasn't known any different the past six years. She uses an insulin pump to keep her blood glucose levels under control. She eats gluten-free to control her celiac. She takes a prescription drug for her hypothyroidism. Still, some days are worse than others.
That's her life. That's her reality.
Every single day.
For the rest of her life.
"I don't get the option of giving up or taking a day off," Hannah said. "Every morning, regardless of how diligent I am and how much time I take to prepare, sometimes it just goes out of whack without rhyme or reason. It's just something I have to watch closely and adjust quickly and move on. Some days I feel better than others.
"Chronic diseases don't go away, so I know that every day for the rest of my life it's going to be there. I feel like it's made me very tough. I very much appreciate that it's given me that."
BAD NEWS COME IN THREES
Heather Mayo was a college softball pitcher at Tarleton State. She began teaching her daughter to pitch when Hannah was 4. Hannah was a natural.
It wasn't too many years later that Hannah began thinking about a college career.
But as an eighth grader on a select team, Hannah had just finished playing a tournament when she fell ill. She had all the symptoms of the flu.
"Hannah was never a sick kid," Heather said. "Like the whole family would get sick, and Hannah was fine. We thought she had a great immune system. They put her on steroids, which was actually a blessing because it increased her blood sugar even more, which made it come to life that she had something else going on."
Hannah had lost weight. She had frequent urination. She had increased thirst. She had unusual fatigue. In other words, she had symptoms of diabetes. But it wasn't until Hannah returned to school a week later and complained of blurred vision that everything began to come into focus.
The eye doctor tested Hannah's blood sugar.
She immediately was admitted to Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi, where a battery of tests uncovered all the bad news: Type 1 diabetes, whereby the pancreas can't produce insulin; Hashimoto's disease, an autoimmune disease that damages the thyroid gland; and celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder in which gluten can damage the small intestine.
"It was a lot to take in," Hannah said. "My uncle was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 19. There was always a poster in my grandparents' pantry that had signs and symptoms, and I never really understood what it was."
"It happened so quickly; it definitely was a lot to take in."
Hannah's biggest fear was that her athletic career was over, and it didn't help that a nurse at the hospital told Hannah just that.
"I will never forget that nurse's face; I'll never forget her name," Heather said. "She said the absolute worst thing she could have said at that time to a kid who spent every minute of her life playing softball. That was the first thing out of Hannah's mouth, 'Can I keep playing softball?'
"To be told no, it was hard to hear, and it scared us."
Hannah began an online search for softball players with diabetes. She found a pitcher from a small school in California. It offered a sliver of hope.
Maybe? Possibly?
ONE IN A MILLION
According to the American Diabetes Association, 1.25 million people in the U.S. have Type 1 diabetes. That accounts for 5 percent of all diagnosed cases of diabetes a year.
Mayo has an insulin pump, which delivers rapid- or short-acting insulin 24 hours a day through a catheter surgically implanted under the skin. She disconnects it when she plays.
It took "a while" before Hannah realized her dreams of playing softball at a high level weren't over. Still, she wondered whether anyone would recruit her.
Hannah initially didn't want college coaches to know her condition, fearful that it would scare them off. It didn't.
The Corpus Christi Carroll pitcher earned all-state honors in 2014 and 2015 and was All-South Texas MVP in 2017. She had offers and committed to A&M as a sophomore.
Evans, who has coached at A&M for 23 years after 11 years elsewhere, had never previously coached a player with Type 1 diabetes.
"I continue to be impressed with Hannah with her resiliency, with her mental toughness," Evans said. "It's not easy. There are constantly peaks and valleys in her blood sugar and then how her body responds to that. Anybody else would get an energy bar or boost, and you're good to go. For Hannah, it doesn't work that way. She really has to plan things out well ahead to make sure that her body is exactly ready to go. I really admire her. I also admire and respect her parents, especially her mom, for being there for Hannah and helping her understand the challenges and knowing she's going to be OK. She can do it."
Heather worries about Hannah every second of every day.
Four months before Hannah left for College Station, Hannah twice had incidents where she became unresponsive. She had another after pitching her first full game at A&M where Heather, who was staying with her that night, couldn't wake her.
"That's been the biggest thing is just the fear," Heather said. "I know the first year, especially, we both had a tough time. She was scared to sleep. She'd let it run higher than she should have because she didn't want to get low."
Hannah, who redshirted as a freshman and has a 3-0 record in 13 appearances this season, still is figuring things out. She relies on her teammates, her roommate, her coaches, the team nutritionist and the team athletic trainer as well as her mother for help.
"Sometimes it feels like so much, like I'm working three full-time jobs with the softball, my health and school," Hannah said. "I think my sixth-year anniversary came at kind of a good time. If I have a bad outing, I look back to when I didn't think I was going to be able to play again let alone play for Texas A&M in the SEC. It's just understanding the patience you have to have."
"Yeah, I'm proud of myself. It's been a long road already, and it's only been six years. But I think I'm equipped to deal with it for the rest of my life."
Good Morning and good morning and good morning. . . .