Sleep doesn’t come easily for Shelomi Sanders. When the day ends, her body keeps demanding attention. Her blood sugar can spike when she needs it to fall or dip when she needs it to hold steady, turning an ordinary night into hours of checking and waiting. That was the reality behind her November 2 Instagram story.
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Shelomi, the youngest daughter of Deion Sanders, opened up about the parts of living with Type 1 diabetes that rarely make it into public conversations.
“Nobody sees the hard days,” she wrote in an Instagram story. “Nobody sees what we go through every waking and sleeping moment. There’s so much about T1D that’s misunderstood. So much that we handle behind closed doors that y’all couldn’t even imagine.”
For Deion’s youngest child, the post was a reminder that a condition diagnosed when she was 13 still shapes nearly every part of her life a decade later. And while she has continued to pursue basketball, the demands of Type 1 diabetes do not disappear when she steps onto the court.
Shelomi’s diagnosis came during a period when she was spending plenty of time working out with her father. At first, the changes in her body did not raise an alarm. She was losing weight, feeling unusually thirsty, and sleeping more than usual.
Her family initially thought some of it might be connected to her exercise routine. Speaking to USA Today Sports on October 17, Shelomi described the frightening turn her illness took. She was also unusually thirsty and sleepy.
Her mother, Pilar, had begun to worry, and things soon reached the point where Shelomi needed to be rushed to the hospital. Her father initially suggested she take NyQuil to feel better, but she couldn’t keep it down and was taken to the emergency room. There, the doctors discovered that her blood sugar was dangerously high.
“It was a tough time because I was young and people aren’t really educated on diabetes,” Shelomi said to USA Today.
The diagnosis was not something she had expected to deal with as a young athlete. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition in which the immune system attacks the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.
The body then produces little or no insulin, leaving people dependent on insulin treatment to regulate their blood glucose. Unfortunately, it currently has no known cure.
People with Type 1 diabetes can lead full lives, but managing it requires daily attention and a treatment plan developed with medical professionals. And that’s the part others often don’t understand about the diagnosis.
“Sleepless nights, the highs that won’t go low and the lows that won’t go high,” Shelomi described her condition on her story. “The exhaustion, mentally and physically. I can go on and on.”
Despite the health struggles, Shelomi has continued playing basketball. Her athletic career has taken her through Jackson State, Colorado, and Alabama A&M, and she is now listed on the 2026-27 roster at Colorado State University Pueblo as a senior guard.
She played two seasons at Alabama A&M, appearing in 41 games. During the 2025-26 season, she appeared in 15 games and scored 18 points. Playing competitive basketball with Type 1 diabetes requires planning beyond the usual preparation for a game.
Thankfully, her family has been a big part of the journey. She has spoken about how her parents and siblings stood by her. In order to normalize it, they have also found ways to tease her about living with the condition, something she appears to take in stride.
In her USA Today Sports interview, Shelomi recalled that her brother Shilo Sanders calls her pancreas “pancakes.” Shedeur Sanders, meanwhile, used to ask her to check his sugar levels as a joke when he claimed he was not feeling well.
There is affection in those stories, but Shelomi also made clear that her family understands the seriousness of the condition.
“They’ve been super-duper supportive, ever since the jump,” she added.
The support has also extended beyond her immediate family. Shelomi has become part of Dexcom U, an NIL program involving 27 college athletes who live with diabetes. That gives her a platform to raise awareness and share her own experiences.
“This month is about bringing awareness,” Shelomi wrote on her IG story. “But also recognizing the strength it takes to battle this every single day.”
There is no finish line where the condition stops requiring attention. She has to manage it through every season, every workout, and every ordinary night.
Her closing words, “The sun will rise,” offered a little perspective after she described how draining those nights can be. The next morning still comes, and so does the routine. Shelomi keeps checking, planning, and playing.