Hello, and thank you for stopping by. I was sitting here on the beautiful Sunday and not really having the best of days. But then I went inside to take my medicine and I was reminded of just how fortunate I really am. I was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. For those that are not familiar with the types of diabetes mine is considered type 1. Type 1 diabetes is the result of the human immune system mistaking the body’s beta cells. So basically my body attacked the cell making insulin in my body. Insulin is what is used by your body to help regulate your blood sugar. The type I have is genetic and nothing I could have done would have prevented me from stopping it. The other form of diabetes is type 2. This is the more common of the two. And there is no one reason why a person gets it. Sometimes it happens in old age. More often then not you see it in overweight individual or those with poor diets.
I was eight years old when I found out that I was diabetic. I was very active in sports and out of nowhere I was struggling to play baseball. I was lethargic and very tired and thirst all the time. This continued for about a week until I was taken to the emergency room. They tested my blood sugar and it was over five hundred. Which is extremely dangerous and could result in serious complications. The normal range is between eighty and one hundred and twenty. I was immediately seen by a endocrinologists. This is a doctor who specializes in dealing with people who have diabetes. After around three weeks I was released from the hospital and able to go home. The reason for the long stay was to be sure I was able to administer my own shots of insulin. And also being taught the proper diet I would need to follow to stay in the best health I could.
I was very lucky as I had a great support system and the school I went to were very accommodating and made sure I was able to take part in special parties and lunches. Things were pretty normal for the next few years. Then as I hit my teen years and I was able to drive and started my first job I began to run into problems. Now with my me having a job and being on the go sometimes stopping to eat and take my insulin was difficult as a teenager. I was not lucky enough to have the insulin pump back then like they do now. So I tried to maintain my diet and follow my meds the best I could. Things were pretty uneventful for a long time.
Fast forward many years and I am now thirty-two. My wife and I are laying in bed after we had a long day at work. We fall asleep with the television on. I awake with the worse pain in my lower back towards my left flank. I go sit out in the living room and see if it is a muscle spasm or I do not really know what it could be at this point. After two hours the pain has not gone away and I go to the emergency room. They do the normal take urine and blood as well as various scans. After a few hours come back and they tell me from the numbers on my lab work they can tell my kidneys are shutting down. So that night I am admitted to the hospital. I am there for two weeks and see a Nephrologist. This being a doctor who specializes in kidney issues. He tells me that my kidney is functioning at 18%. That is low enough to be considered chronic kidney disease. Basically that just means lasting damage to the kidneys that may worsen. I am given a kidney friendly diet to follow and I am to follow with the Nephrologist.
My kidney is functioning just enough that I do not have to do hemo dialysis. However my doctor wants me to have a Peritoneal dialysis port put in. Hemo dialysis is done in centers and it basically cleans your blood of toxins that your kidneys normally would. Usually this requires you to go three times a week and each treatment is four or more hours. The peritoneal one can be done in your home. And uses your peritoneum. Which is in your abdomen and is the membrane which fluid and substances are exchanged with the blood. So what happens here is you hook up to a machine at night and it puts around two liters of fluid into your peritoneum and catches all the toxins. So when the fluid is drained out of you the toxins are all taken out as well.
I was lucky enough to just have the port in and not have to do the at home dialysis for several months. And then I hit a point where I was not feeling that great and it was time to start treatment at home. During those several months I began working to get on the transplant list. This was a very difficult process as it required numerous test and scans that I did not even know existed. And then after you complete all this it is taken in front of a board that either approves you or denies you being put on the list. Once I was approved I had to go to several different classes at the hospital that would be doing the transplant. I got to me the team who would be there and given a basic idea of what to expect.
So now I am on the list doing treatment at home waiting to get the phone call. In my case I was getting both a kidney and pancreas. The pancreas is the organ that wasn't working and the reason I was diabetic in the first place. Sadly this meant that it could not come from a live donor. However the one thing going for me is that I was 32 years old and in good health other then my kidney issues. And getting two organs from the same donor always speeds up your wait. One evening I get a call and I am told to immediately get to the hospital they have a donor. The hospital is two hours away. My wife an I grabbed the bags we had pack for this very situation and we left. Calling family and friends on the way there. When I arrived I was told by the team that they were sorry. But in the testing they do once the organs are out of the donor they were found to be not worthy of transplanting.
So back home we drive. Calling everyone and letting them know it was a false alarm. So I go back to my normal life and wait. Two months later I get a voicemail. And I was like weird I never heard the phone ring. It is the hospital and here we go again. This time we get there it are told we have the green light. I am taken to a room and change and say goodbye to my wife and my parents who drove as fast as possible to be there before I went under. The give me some oxygen and I am out. I wake up in the ICU. The operation took just over 14 hours. After two days I was moved up to a regular room. I stayed in the hospital for ten days so they could keep a close eye on me. I was released but had to stay within fifteen minutes of the hospital. This is their protocol in case you experience reject of the transplanted organs. As well as you having to have blood work done every other day for a month to monitor what is going on.
So the first three weeks everything is great and I feel like a new person. All of a sudden I get massive sweats and a high fever. I was told by the doctors to look out for tis so I immediately went to the hospital that did the transplant. I ended up in the hospital for a month as they tried to figure out what is wrong. As all my tests were coming back clean and the new organs were functioning as they were meant to. Finally they came to the conclusion it was and anomaly and gave me a large dose of steroids which broke the fever and all was well. I stayed close to the hospital for two more weeks and was given the all clear to return home and only have to have my testing done once a week. This was a lot of driving but meant I was home.
Fast-forward ten years and here I am telling your my story. Now I take immunosuppressants to keep my organs from rejecting. However I no longer need to take insulin due to the transplanted pancreas. For the most part during those ten years things have been great. Only one major incident. But I am very lucky. Are there side effect from the medicines I take of course. But it is better then the alternative. Sadly three months after we returned home my wife wanted a divorce. The whole process was too much for her. I hold no grudge however as her insurance at the time was fantastic and saved us so much money.
If you have stuck around this far thank you for reading this. And if you have any questions or are somebody who is dealing with diabetes or chronic kidney disease please feel free to reach out to me. I am always here to listen.
The thumbnail was made using canva.com
The beautiful dividers where given to me by Pixie Post
To learn more about juvenile diabetes check out Juvenile Diabetes Foundation
And if you are suffering form chronic kidney disease please check out The American Kidney Fund