New member of family

On Saturday, we went to my sisters house to meet her newly adopted daughter from China.  She is such a cutie and seems so happy and well adjusted.  I am including a few pictures here.

It took my sister and her family 3 long years of waiting for this to happen and we are all so pleased for them that she is finally here.  The wait  culminated in a trip to China to pick her up.  The whole family went and I  know it was an experience that they will always treasure.

Her other kids are just gorgeous too !)

Data from 75 day visit

These graphs are here to represent my pre and post-transplant blood sugars.

These smaller graphs are from my dexcom continuous glucose monitor that I wore before my transplant.  You can tell when I eat each meal or snack. This was my best effort at control.  Even with being on an insulin pump, taking a second blood sugar lowering medicine, symlin, and wearing a continuous monitor, this was the best I could  manage. I could just never get my drugs and my food responses to peak at the same time.  Its hard to see on the graphs, but the range for these days was from about 55 to 330. These were typical  days, not the best  or the worst.

This larger graph is from the

 continuous glucose monitor that I started at my Day 75 visit to U of M and wore for about 4 days .  Each colored line represents a different day.  When I eat, the lines go up, but they always come back down to the baseline level.  The range was between about 70 and 180.  This is close to what a nondiabetic person might show.  

The comparison of these graphs best illustrates what I have been saying for most of  this blog.  This is why I feel so much better all of the time.  It is not just the highs and the lows that make you physically uncomfortable, but the rapid changes between.  I was rarely in the normal range for any period of time; I only passed through between the highs and lows.  This plays havoc on your brain, eyes, kidney, heart, and probably other organs that don't have direct sensory input. 

And that is all I have  to say right now.

Day 120 in Minneapolis

I had my 120 day visit at the DIIT clinic on monday.  Gary and I tried to make a vacation out of the trip and ended up having a very nice weekend. We left early on Sat morning  and stayed in Baraboo, WI.  We took a hike through some rocks along a lake and had a nice supper out.  The next morning we explored what used to be Delton lake.  It was a man-made lake that washed through its border and ended up in the Wisconsin river.  It was quite a sight.  Then we took a long vertical hike in a state park in Minnesota.  We are still sore from that.  We had a nice visit and dinner with our friends in Minneapolis and spent the night at their house again as we did during my summer visits.  It was all just great.

My visit was great too.  I got to see all of the lab results from my 75 day visit which I am going to attempt to illustrate here.  I also learned that my lipid panel was back to normal, thanks to the lipitor.  My total  cholesterol went from 221 to 186.  My LDL went from 127 to 83.  

My fasting glucose was 90, but my 2 hour post-prandial was 189.  I was again told not to worry about that.  I understand now that even nondiabetic people can have elevated glucose values at 2 hours.  It is more important that they come back down in a timely manner.

My rapammune level was lower than it should be, so I am taking 5 pills/day again now.

Day 110

I have been a bit concerned about some higher than usual post meal blood sugar readings. Every once in awhile, I will have one that is about 160-180 at two hours after I eat a meal.  But I had three in  a row that were about 155 and it just got me worried.  So I called Val at U. of Minn. and she talked to Dr Bellin about this.  The result was that I should not worry unless I get some over 180.  Since then, it hasn't happened again.  I know that this will eventually happen, but I sure hope my transplant lasts longer than this.  From all of my reading about results of other transplant patients, it should last longer.  You just never really know for sure.  You can't compare between the different protocols.  I just have to hope that I was lucky enough to be put into into a successful one. The other reason that I was worried, was that I had decreased one of my immunosuppressants and I was afraid that my wicked immune system was attacking the islet cells.  I am relieved to be wrong.

Day 100

It has been over 3 months now since my transplant, and it still seems very surreal.  I am beginning to fold up the diabetes camp.  I have put away my pump and my glucose monitor and even sold my leftover sensors from the  monitor.  I have given away all of the other supplies that I can.  I have a lot  more drawer space now.

The warm days of fall are almost over and I am still trying to make the best of each one.  I hate to see winter arrive, knowing that I will be cooped up inside or cold while I  am outside.  Now that I feel so much better, it really feels like a waste to not be able to enjoy my long walks and bike rides as much.

The good news is  that I  do  feel so much better than before my transplant.  I still get excited each time I test my blood sugar and see such nice normal numbers.  I can put off eating if I need to. I am not getting those awful headaches.  

My sister Liz is in China now.  She is adopting a baby girl and is there to  pick her up. We are all very excited for her and her family.