Page 24 - Shalom Toronto Lifestyle Passover 2020

Climbing for Diabetes
Woman living with diabetes facing a new uphill battle
by Kathy Yanchus, reprinted from The Oakville Beaver, May 22, 2019
Sigal Matasaro, who has Type 1 diabetes, is celebrating her upcoming 50th birthday by going on an extreme adventure, climbing a mountain in the Rockies to raise funds for diabetes. Here you can see her FreeStyle Libre on her arm that monitors her blood sugar level. She has been biking to help build up her cardio endurance.
Sigal Matasaro views community service as a “key element in her future.
Overwhelmed with her life as a new mother in an unfamiliar country, struggling with English and trying to get pregnant again via fertility drug injections, she admits she didn’t take the time to pay attention to her own body.
“I didn’t understand for a long time how I should live with Type 1 diabetes,” she said.
I believe that each person should leave the world a little better than how they found it,” said Oakville’s Matasaro. “Meaning never comes
f“ rom what you get; it comes from what you give. There is
Photo:Nikki Wesley/Torstar
nothing greater to centre our focus in this world than beginning to understand just how much we have to be grateful for.”
And Matasaro, who immigrated to Canada from Haifa, Israel in 2003, is extremely thankful for her blessings, not the least of which was surviving an episode of diabetic ketoacidosis eight years ago, a very serious complication of the disease.
While pregnant with her son, she was originally diagnosed with gestational diabetes after experiencing dry mouth, fatigue and frequent urination. Following delivery, her doctor said everything was back to normal and she was diabetes-free.
Shortly after arriving in Edmonton, however, she was hospitalized with extreme abdominal pain and diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) at the age of 33.
“I had so many questions running through my head. Why me? What does it mean? Will I be able to raise my only son with the diabetes complications?”
She didn’t grasp the importance of daily exercise or healthy eating and continued to live in a state of denial until her time spent in the ICU with diabetic ketoacidosis, she said.
“I knew that I had to go through all the lessons to become the person I am today.”
She is now part of a local diabetic support group and will celebrate her 50th birthday this year by paying back to the T1D community, participating in an I Challenge Diabetes (ICD) Assiniboine Extreme Adventure, hiking the peaks and valleys of Mount Assiniboine in B.C. between June 29 and July 8.
“I chose to join Extreme Assiniboine Mountain climbing since after living with T1D for the last 16 years, I am climbing virtual mental mountains from the moment I wake up until I go to sleep and I wanted to try and show myself that I can climb a real, physical mountain dealing with the high blood sugars and the low blood sugars.”
Living with T1D requires patience, determination, challenges, risk, unforeseen obstacles and the ability to keep yourself balanced mentally and physically, just like mountain climbing, said Matasaro.
Page 24 SHALOM TORONTO Passover 2020