7/21/10 Two year post islet cell transplant visit

Wednesday, 7/21/10 was the second anniversary of my islet cell transplant.  We drove to Minneapolis for my 2 year check up at the clinic.  We were also celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary, so we combined two very big milestones into a weeklong celebration.  We left on Saturday armed with kayaks, bikes, golf clubs, and blood sugar logs.  We came home on Wednesday tired, but happy.

We stayed the first two nights in Wisconsin and spent most of those first days doing our outdoor activities.  We are really enjoying our kayaks and looked like quite a site, with our blue and orange kayaks strapped to our roof.  We drove to Minn. on Monday and were invited to dinner by Camille, the woman who saw me through my JDRF Promise meeting with Rep. Latta.  We had a wonderful time and meal and enjoyed meeting some friends of theirs. Her husband was also a transplant recipient. We talked about my experience and even made a video of my talking about my experience and the Promise campaign.  I'll post it here.  It is really strange to see myself, but it is for a great cause.  I'm lucky to be in the position to be able to tell a story that is so compelling.  Mine is the video on the bottom of the page.

Tuesday was my visit to the clinic.  I'm still not sure why, but my blood sugar was 146 on awaking.  The highest fasting ever.  It went up to 185 an hour later and then back down to 123.  That has never happened before.  I feel more excited than nervous when I'm there.

The testing for this visit consisted of a mixed meal test and a glomerular filtration rate test to measure kidney function, as well as the routine tests.  Dr. Bellin came in to do my checkup and answer any questions.  I had very few this time.  I always enjoy spending time with Janet as she gets caught up with all of the documentation and gives me my cognitive testing (aka  the apple, table, penny test).  My two year gift to the staff this year was window clings in the same design as the t-shirts from last year.

Here are most of my lab results.  I'll post the rest when I get them.


Chemistry tests.  All normal except
Cholesterol 202   But HDL is 95 which makes that OK
AST  46  normal is 0-45


Creatinine 0.80 for comparison
The Glomerular Filtration Rate result was 76   Normal is >60


For the CBC
WBC is 2.4  Absolute neutrophils is 2.0
Hemoglobin 11.9. 

Prograf was ? which is within range.


Rapamune was ? 
I have decreased my dose from 6 to 5 pills/day.


CMV test was negative, so no more Valcyte.

A1c is 6.4  which is up from 6.2 on the 21 mos. visit. (Normal is 4-6.)  I am hoping it will come down again, but if it stays steady, that will be OK too.

Before breakfast:                 blood sugar is 123          C-peptide is 1.34

After breakfast (90 min.)      blood sugar is ?              C-peptide is 2.43


After my checkup, we kayaked on Lake Harriet which happens to be where my Mom grew up.  It was in a very pretty setting and there were many other people out enjoying the day sailing on the lake or running/walking around it.  We had a race which left me sore for the whole next day.


After our kayaking, we met another Minn.  islet cell transplant recipient, Dave, and his wife for dinner.  We had fun sharing our experiences and it was very interesting hearing stories from the spouses' perspectives.


Here is a summer picture of the Miss. River where I always take my walk.  The one on the right is an area outside the hospital where Gary and I spent a lot of time during the week of my transplant.