Results of my 15 month checkup in Minneapolis

These are pictures I took on my phone while I was on my customary walk along the Mississippi River after my checkup.  For October, the weather was nice.

The results are back from my visit and look good.

The CBC was typical.  WBC was 2.5,  Hemoglobin was 11.4 which is a little low.
Blood chemistry tests were normal with the albumin at 3.6 and total protein at 6.5, both of which are just a bit low.


My A1c which is the 3 month overall average measure of blood sugar was 5.6   Normal is 4-6.


Fasting glucose was 97  and C-peptide was 1.23


Post-prandial (90 min. after meal) glucose was 171  and C-peptide was 4.96

The only thing that worried me was that despite my best efforts, I have lost another pound.  I discussed this with Dr. Bellin.  She didn't seem worried and we wondered if maybe this is just my new weight.  I knew it was typical to lose some weight right after the transplant, but I didn't expect to keep losing.  I know that I lost some during the CMV experience, but I expected to gain that back.  I guess I will just stop worrying about it and just buy some new clothes.  I am also planning on polling the other islet cell patients that I communicate with and see how their weight is behaving.

In the last week, I have visited my retina specialist and been told that my cotton-wool spot is gone, and had my CMV titer measured and it was negative,  So that experience seems to be behind me now.  I will continue to have my CMV measured every 2 months for awhile, just to be sure.

First Post-transplant cold

It turns out that I did not have to worry about all of those diseased people on the airplanes or of not having my H1N1 vaccine in time after all.  I got a cold from the very person who I was risking the flights to go see.  I got a cold from my beloved son.  When we first got there, he was sneezing and tired.  Before we left, Heather was sneezing.  A few days after we got home, both Gary and I began sneezing.  I would say that is reliable enough data to point out the source.  It was actually very interesting to be able to have such a direct comparison between Gary and my immune systems.  His symptoms hit about one day before mine and peaked earlier.  Mine dragged on for about 2-3 days past his.  So all in all, I was pleased with my own immune response.  It was just a little worse than Gary's, in time and the same in severity of the illness.  I was worried that I might run a fever and then have to worry about H1N1, but that never happened and I avoided anything with a fever suppressor that might mask the presence of one.

I went to work, but babied myself as much as possible.  It is almost like being pregnant, worrying about taking care of the islet cells.  I would hate to lose them because of an illness.

My blood sugars shifted upward during the cold, but are coming back down now.

I was able to get my H1N1 shot yesterday, so I am all set with that.

My coworkers and I were the H1N1 virus for our halloween.  We work in the microbiology Department.  We won for best group costumes.  I can't believe that I  finally got them to dress as pigs!