During joint workouts last summer, Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks coach and 19-year NFL veteran signal-caller Wade Wilson huddled with Cutler to give his fellow Type 1 diabetic advice.

“I told him it’s not a big deal if you take care of yourself,” Wilson, who played 14 seasons after being diagnosed as insulin dependent in 1986, said last summer. “You have to go about your business of diabetes just like you do your football job. If he can go out and handle that, it should be no problem for him.”

Thanks to synthetic insulin and a drastic change in diet, Cutler’s blood sugars are down, his weight and spirits are up and his frozen rope throws are back.

Cutler won’t wear his $5,000-plus insulin pump during games for fear he would get hit in his abdomen, crushing the contraption and maybe sending an overdose of the hormone into his belly. He often wears a glucometer on his left arm that provides constant blood sugar readings. Occasionally, he comes to the sideline for finger pricks to test his blood sugars. High-fructose energy drinks are on hand if he needs them.

“We’re extremely careful. We’re extremely aware of it during games, during warmups,” Cutler said. “That first quarter, we check it a lot and just make sure I’m at a healthy number, I’m not too high, I’m not too low. I think there was one instance in the preseason in pregame when I got down (too low) and we got it up pretty quick. But once that first quarter is over, I kind of plateau there and I know I’m good the rest of the game.”

Cutler said he looks back in amazement at what was happening to him last year, when he was losing even his desire to compete.

“This time last year I was losing two, three pounds a week,” Cutler said. “I kind of just wanted the season to be over. I couldn’t stay awake, I had to go to the bathroom all the time. I was waking up six, seven times a night and just kind of I wanted the season to be over and see what was wrong with me.

“I was ready to get back to the person and the player I was before all this happened.”

Also on NBCSports.com   Rosenthal: Steelers’ struggles could sink their playoff hopes Circling the Bases: Handicapping the Halladay race College football: What were Yale coaches thinking? Opinion: So far, Nowitzki is NBA’s MVP  |  Fan Ranker Twitter: Follow us @nbc_sports

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