Jennifer on Royal Arches Route in Yosemite
My wife would not be alive today but for the tremendous innovation and resources available in our health care system. She is one of the few insulin-dependent (Type I) diabetics in the world who have actually had their condition cured in a sense, though more accurately described as “corrected,” since she must continue to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of her life. This is her story in her own words:
I was diagnosed with diabetes in 1977 and suffered severe complications including diabetic retinopathy (which can lead to blindness), loss of kidney function, nerve damage, and most debilitating: episodes of low blood sugar. By 2000 my body began losing the ability to recognize the signs of low blood sugar/hypoglycemia and coincidentally that same year there was a breakthrough on a new treatment for diabetes: islet cell transplantation. (Islet cells make up 2% of the pancreas and their purpose is to produce insulin and trigger the release of glucagon.)
Clinical trials for islet cell transplantation began in 9 centers around the world in 2001. Two years later, through the advocacy of my incredible endocrinologist Dr. Frances Broyles, I was accepted into a research protocol testing a new immunosuppression drug combination at The Diabetes Institute in Minneapolis . In 2005 I was privileged to receive islet cells transplanted from the pancreases of two deceased organ donors. The islets now produce insulin and regulate my blood sugar on their own so I no longer need to take insulin shots or use an insulin pump, and best of all do not experience debilitating hypoglycemic episodes.
Jennifer and I recently completed a long rock climb in Yosemite National Park that would have been too risky for her before her transplant. Check out our trip report and route description of the Royal Arches route here.