“Blood Sugar Sisters”: The Parallel Paths of Ellenbeck and Herrmann

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So began the parallel paths of Ellenbeck and Herrmann more than a decade ago. Despite the distance between Ellenbeck – a native of Rancho Bernardo – and Herrmann – from Boulder – their identical diagnoses were similarly life-changing. 

As the young girls grappled with their new realities, they started to learn along with their families how they could manage their newfound diseases. Ellenbeck went to nearby Rady’s Children’s Hospital, while Herrmann visited the Barbara Davis Center in Denver. 

Today, they still recall the unfamiliar experiences as they began to discover more about diabetes.

“When I first went to Rady’s, they wanted me to fast to see if my blood sugar would come down by itself and to see how much insulin was still running through my system,” Ellenbeck remembered. “During that, they taught me about why I was fasting, how to use syringes, how to have a one-to-one carb ratio, and all about counting carbs. There was even a little Pink Panther book that told you where you're supposed to put the shots in and all the other basics.”

For Herrmann, it was a similar rush of information as she spent three eight-hour days with her family at the Barbara Davis Center.

“I was in what’s called the ‘honeymoon phase’ and I was still producing some insulin, but not as much as an average person, so they put me on injections of insulin,” Herrmann recounted. “There was a certain amount of units based on my blood sugar right before I ate.

“They taught my parents how to give injections and taught me how to prick my own finger and test my blood sugar on the meter… It was a huge change and I was scared, but with me being so young, most of it was on my parents at the time.”

Herrmann’s parents worked hard to learn the intricate process of managing their child’s type 1 diabetes. Since Herrmann was active in basketball and soccer, her parents had to be particularly careful helping her on game days.

“Balancing diabetes with sports was probably the hardest part because if your blood sugar is too low or too high, it’ll affect you when you’re playing,” Herrmann explained. “My dad was always like, ‘You’re going to eat this at this time, and you’re going to put in this much insulin for your soccer game at noon.’” 

For Ellenbeck and her family, it was also a major adjustment managing her diabetes. However, her family was not completely outside of their area of expertise. Much of Ellenbeck’s family was involved in the medical field, as her mother and grandma both worked as nurses, while her grandpa was a doctor in the Army.

“I was living with my grandparents and my mom at the time, and my grandpa was staying at home,” Ellenbeck shared. “He really helped me. He would tell me how many carbs were in each of the foods he made me for lunch and then he would tell me how much insulin I should put in. I really appreciated him doing that for me when I was little.”

Like Herrmann, Ellenbeck was playing soccer at the time. It wasn’t until fifth grade, two years after her diagnosis, that she discovered her passion for basketball.

“My mom forced me to play and was like, ‘You’re going to like it!’” Ellenbeck laughed. “I ended up loving it, obviously.

“I just love the community around basketball and my first rec team was coached by my stepdad, so that was the first thing that we ever had together. I feel like that made me closer to him and it made me closer to the team.”

Herrmann was also instantly hooked when she first started playing basketball, enjoying the strong community aspect like Ellenbeck did.

“I remember scoring my first basket when I was around 8 years old,” Herrmann recalled. “Having the crowd cheer for you, even though it’s not that serious since it was just a little rec team, is a feeling I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

“The biggest thing for me though is the people. Growing up in Colorado, I was able to meet so many other girls my age through basketball who also went on to play college basketball.”

Neither Ellenbeck nor Herrmann let diabetes stop their desire to pursue basketball. However, it was not without its challenges. For Herrmann, a frightening incident took place when she was in junior high school.

“I played in a game and my stomach really started hurting and I didn’t know why,” Herrmann remembered. “I played through it, and then it turned out that I was in diabetic ketoacidosis. At the time, I thought, ‘Oh I just have a little stomachache, so I’ll be fine,’ but I ended up in the hospital overnight with an insulin drip on the IV.”

Similarly, Ellenbeck has encountered scares of her own. One close call occurred when her basketball team was competing in Dominguez Hills during her junior year at La Jolla Country Day.

“My blood sugar was super high and I broke a vial of insulin,” Ellenbeck explained. “When we were at the tournament, my blood sugar was probably like 500. I played in the game, thinking that was going to bring my blood sugar down, because the nearest hospital was probably half an hour away.

“Then on our way home from the tournament, I felt super nauseous. I threw up outside of the car and we had to stop at Camp Pendleton to get a shot from the emergency room.”

Ellenbeck believes that she has gained better control over her diabetes since the incident. One reason for the improvement was her experience navigating the transition from high school to UC San Diego in 2018.

“Freshman year was a total adjustment for me, especially because diabetes is affected a lot by hormones, stress, and change in environment,” Ellenbeck said. “I had an appointment with my diabetes doctor and she said we’d have to take it day by day. 

“My blood sugars were starting to trend differently, so when that happens you have to fast for a little bit and recognize what you need to change, whether that’s how much insulin you’re getting an hour or how much insulin you’re getting at mealtime. After that first initial adjustment, it’s been great.”

While Ellenbeck was in the midst of her freshman year playing basketball for the Tritons, high school senior Herrmann was in the process of choosing her future college. Herrmann began researching the academics and athletics of UC San Diego. 

“I really enjoyed chemistry, and I saw that UC San Diego was top-five or so in the nation,” Herrmann shared. “Then I saw that the basketball team was going to be Division I, so I reached out to [Head Coach] Heidi [VanDerveer] about coming to the Elite Camp and she said sure.

“She took me on a little tour of the campus right before the camp, and I showed up in the gym and I told my dad, ‘I want to go here.’ I just knew. I knew even before the basketball part started, but then that further proved it. I just loved it here.”

To no one’s surprise, when Herrmann received her admission offer from UC San Diego, she accepted. She wrapped up her senior year at Monarch High School and traveled to La Jolla, ready to begin her four years at UC San Diego.

During move-in day, Herrmann helped out her new teammate Ellenbeck as the sophomore unpacked boxes with her mom in her new dorm room. The day is one that Ellenbeck will never forget thanks to a surprising interaction with Herrmann.

“My mom handed Emerson the juice boxes and she said, ‘These are Kendal’s low snacks,’” Ellenbeck recounted. “Emerson was like, ‘Kendal, you have diabetes?’ and I said yeah and then she was like, ‘Oh my gosh, so do I.’

“It was a moment of realization. I'd never known anybody personally in the basketball community who had diabetes and it was just that much more special that she had it too, and that basically sealed our friendship from day one.”

The epiphany was unforgettable for Herrmann too, as she realized Ellenbeck could relate to the challenges of diabetes. 

“Finding out on that very first day was crazy,” Herrmann said, reflecting back on the memory. “I automatically thought, ‘Oh my gosh, someone who understands me.’”

Since then, the pair’s friendship has continued to thrive both on and off the basketball court. When they aren’t busy at basketball practice, Ellenbeck and Herrmann often study together and enjoy going to the beach together.

“I call her my blood sugar sister,” Ellenbeck laughed. “We go through a lot together. We’re basically the same major since she’s in the process of switching to biology, so we have all these classes together. When we say that we’re sisters, it really does feel like that because we have so much in common.”

Herrmann echoed Ellenbeck’s sentiments. 

“Kendal is one of my closest friends on the team,” Herrmann shared. “She’s one of the happiest people I’ve ever met, and she’s someone I look up to, even though we’re almost the same age. She has great grades and helps me understand [organic chemistry] and my other classes since she’s a biology major.”

Ellenbeck and Herrmann understand each other’s daily maintenance required to manage their diabetes. Because of their activeness as student-athletes, they maintain strict routines on practice days and game days to ensure they can perform to the best of their abilities in a safe manner. 

During the current quarter, the Tritons practice in the afternoons in preparation for their upcoming season. After a morning of carefully-timed meals, Ellenbeck and Herrmann make sure to monitor their blood sugar throughout practice.

“Every time we get a water break during practice, I can check my blood sugar from my phone since it’s connected to a continuous glucose monitor, which is a device that’s attached to me at all times,” Herrmann explained.

Of course, if Ellenbeck’s or Herrmann’s blood sugar dips low during practice, they always have each other’s backs.

“Emerson and I always have Capri Suns and fruit snacks on us,” Ellenbeck said. “If one of us forgets it, the other has it.”

For both Ellenbeck and Herrmann, diabetes has not only impacted their daily lives, but has played a role in their futures as well. As Herrmann begins to consider her post-college career plans, one possible route could take her to a nearby company whose product helps her manage her diabetes.

“I’m not exactly sure what I want to do yet, but Dexcom, who makes my continuous glucose monitor, is located about 10 minutes from UC San Diego,” Herrmann explained. “With me being a user of the product and having the disease, I feel like working there would be pretty cool. I feel like I'm knowledgeable on what they could do to improve it or changes they can make because I'm the one who uses it… I've also considered going into medicinal development, maybe specifically insulin.”

Ellenbeck also plans to pursue a career in the STEM field, as she is currently on the pre-medical track at UC San Diego. She has known since she was just 8 years old that she was passionate about math and science. 

“My grandpa taught me math in kindergarten and from there, I knew I wanted to be a STEM major all the way from third grade on,” Ellenbeck recalled. “I just knew that math and science were the things that I wanted to go into when I was older. What drew me more to it was that it was something that connected me and my grandpa when I was so little. 

“Now as I'm older, it's something that still drives me. After he passed away in 2013, the reminder of him still drives me to do what I'm doing.”

While Ellenbeck’s grandpa was the main catalyst for her career plans, she feels that her experiences with diabetes also fostered her interest in science.

“It taught me a lot about the body and even in classes now, when we have talks about diabetes, I know exactly what they’re talking about,” Ellenbeck shared. “I know it so well that it’s easy for me to teach it, and when I was little, teaching other people about it was really fascinating to me.

“It played a big role in my wanting to dig further if someone had a question that I didn’t know the answer to. I feel like me being investigative and always wanting to find an answer was influenced by my diabetes.”

While career plans brew in the back of their minds, Ellenbeck and Herrmann are also focused on balancing their academics and basketball. The Tritons will continue their busy practice schedule throughout November and December as they get ready for the fast-approaching season, which will be their first in Division I and the Big West Conference.

As Ellenbeck and Herrmann prepare for the upcoming season and plan out their future paths, one thing is clear. No matter what happens, the blood sugar sisters are friends for life.

About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program begins a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 37 have garnered prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions. For more information on the Tritons, visit UCSDtritons.com or follow UC San Diego Athletics on social media @UCSDtritons