On Monday I had what is known as a glucose tolerance test. You have a blood test and then you drink a small cup of glucose solution and two hours later you have another blood test. Today I saw the diabetes specialist for the results and got the news I'd been hoping for - I no longer have diabetes.
I'm writing this blog because I knew I'd get questions and they've already started. You can't cure diabetes, it's not something you can take antibiotics for and after a few weeks it goes away. It's usually a life long condition but can be managed with a variety of drugs and informed choices about food and drink.
By way of background I had type 2 diabetes and it was what is known as NODAT - Now Onset Diabetes After Transplant. It is incredibly common to get diabetes after any kind of organ transplant. The anti-rejection drugs and steroids artificially push blood sugar levels up as well as causing rapid weight gain. Personally, I put on 3 stone in 4 months.
I started to get symptoms at the beginning of March last year, around 8 months after my transplant. Routine transplant blood tests showed that my blood sugars were exceptionally high. I was referred to the diabetes nurse at my local GP surgery and was closely monitored for a fortnight because the healthy range of blood sugar should be between 5 and 7 whereas mine was between 26 and 33. Very scary indeed. With the help of medication I was able to bring it down to safe levels but it meant a daily cocktail of 2 tablets, Metformin and Gliclazide and 2 injections, Insulin and Victoza. It took a few weeks to mix the perfect cocktail, a few times I'd have cold sweats and shaky hands. In the space of 3 weeks my sugars had gone from 33 to 3.
Over the next few months with the help of the renal doctors my transplant medication was reduced. I was weaned off of steroids and finally came off them in July. That made a phenomenal difference and I was able to decrease my dosage of Insulin.
I lost the 3 stone I'd gained after the transplant, coming off the steroids really helped this, and as the dosage of the other transplant medications were reduced, I was able to gradually drop the diabetes medication. First I stopped taking the Gliclazide, then I stopped the Insulin, then the Victoza and finally the Metformin. I haven't taken any medication for diabetes since November and my blood sugar averages a healthy 5.6 reading even on Christmas Day after champagne and orange juice for breakfast, a huge roast dinner and mountains of chocolate.
It's not unusual for a transplant patient to be able to get rid of their diabetes as long as they do what the doctors tell them, which is exactly what I did. It's taken almost a year but I've followed all their instructions and the hard work has paid off. There is no guarantee that I won't get it again in the future but my doctor says that I keep on doing what I'm doing then I've got no reason to be worried. I'll have another glucose tolerance test in 6 months time just to see how everything is and I've got a diabetic eye test in a few weeks time just to check whether any damage has been caused but other than that I can forget all about it. No medication, no sugar level tests in the morning and after meals and no more worrying. Huzzah!
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