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11-24-2018 23:58 - permalink
etherea

Just checking on you as I haven't seen you around lately. Hope you're doing well--miss your posts.
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About Me

About Hearts Jounrey

Biography

I am a IT professional who has a passion for music, writing, medicine, exercising, animals, and helping others.

My favorite quote is:

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.

Your Location

California

Your experiences with diabetes

Diabetes has reset my priorities from being someone who was a carefree and an undisciplined tiger pup to a life of becoming much more disciplined and pro active about my health and managing this insidious disease.

I was diagnosed with type 1 on Sept 12 1977 while in college and in 6 years developed hypoglycemic unawareness episodes which led to some paramedic assistance, seizures & ER trips. Then in 2001 I required open heart surgery to bypass 3 main coronary arteries due to diabetes for 24 yrs and elevated lipids. While I was very active, my A1C levels were usually 7.0 to 7.3. In looking back these levels were to high.

I then had two organ pancreas transplants to attempt to become insulin independent. The first time I was called for a pancreas at Univ of Minn on June 7 2001 and 6 days after the transplant, I lost the pancreas due to a blood clot. The organ was removed and I went back on insulin. On June 27 2004 at Univ of Calif San Fransisco, I had another pancreas and this one lasted 11 years until last June 10 2015.

In Feb 2008 I was diagnosed with cancer and had surgery to remove tumor but 6 months later the cancer recurred but this time it was stage 3b and I required 2 months of chemotherapy which included 3 chemo meds totaling 39 individual infusions.

And this past June 2015, I lost my transplanted pancreas from 2004 due to autoimmunity recurrence.

Today I am on insulin again and am looking into the chances of receiving approval for an islet cell transplant.

I get my A1c's checked every 2 months and in the last 2 & half years (Feb 2016 to July 2018) my a1c's have been between 5.0 to 5.5. I lost my transplanted pancreas in june 2015 and at that time my A1c was 7.0.

Over the years I have supported and mentored others with diabetes beginning in 2001 on different diabetes forums. I also spent 5 years on cancer support forums supporting cancer survivors and learning what I can from listening and communicating with others.

I currently have excellent control of my diabetes but it took me 8 months of daily adjustments from last summer (2015) when I lost the transplanted pancreas to reach my goals. I do extensive research on diabetes, treatments, causes, complications, transplants, trial based studies, and medicine in general.

Diabetes Types

1

Diagnosis Year

1977

Height

5'8"

Weight

151 pds

Gender

Male
Signature
Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes Sept 12 1977
Developed Hypoglycemic Unawareness Dec 83
8 grandmal seizures requiring paramedics + ER
Dx heart disease in 2000; triple bypass surgery
2 pancreas organ transplants 2001+2004 at Univ Minn & Univ Calif San Francisco med ctr
Dx with cancer twice 2007 & 2008, stage 2 & 3
Lost 2 transplanted pancreas; 6/2001 & 6/2015
Longtime advocate & member of diabetes & cancer support forums for 15 yrs. A1c 5.0