Some progress

Yesterday I had an appt with Dr. Khan, who is the GI associated with the Pancreatic Center at UMC in Tucson.  (Click HERE for a link to the center's website.) To our surprise (Lew and my mom went with me), Dr. Rilo also came in.  Dr. Rilo is the transplant surgeon who would perform the TP-IAT (Total Pancreatectomy with Islet Auto Transplant). You can read the details of the surgery if you click on the "Islet Cell Transplant" on the website.  Basically, they would remove my pancreas, then they separate out the islet cells (which are the cells that produce insulin) and inject the islets back into my liver, where they will live and hopefully start producing insulin from my liver so I won't be diabetic, or at least less extreme. Anyway, the appointment was really fantastic.  Brianna, one of the med students, set me up with a CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitor), which is like a little button on my side that records my blood sugar every 5 minutes.  She "installed" by injecting a small needle with a catheter into my side, then pulled the needle out, so kind of like a little IV.  It will record data for 5 days.  After 5 days, I send it back to them and they can download all the data to a computer.  This lets Dr. Rilo know how my blood sugars fluctuate throughout the day so he can get a better look at how my islets are working right now.  (The more islets they can harvest, the better, but there's really no way to know how many islets they can harvest until the surgery, but they can get a better idea of how my islets act by monitoring my blood sugars now.) I also have to test my blood sugar 4 times a day with one of those handheld meters like diabetics use.  I will send the meter back to them at the end of the 5 days, too.  Here is a photo of the CGM - ignore the buddha belly...Lew told me to suck in my gut when he took the picture, but I WAS sucking in my gut, sigh...

After Brianna left, Drs. Khan and Rilo spent 2-3 hours with us. Of course the medical discussion was great, but best of all was to hear them say that I'm not just a crazy, drug-addicted hypochondriac! It felt like they really KNEW how much pain I'm in and they wanted to help me. 

So, they are going to run a couple more tests, but think that this surgery is probably the right thing for me.  Dr. Khan is going to perform an EGD, which is basically an Upper GI endoscopy.  They are also going to order another MRI - they've been developing some new algorhythms to better view not only the pancreas, but other organs like the liver where my islets will be living.  And I think they're also going to run more bloodwork.  They said they are going to try to expedite everything so I can get into surgery as soon as possible.  The long pole will be the insurance approval, so that is being started right now.  It's still likely at least a month out.  I will still go out for my consult in MN at the beginning of Feb and will make a final decision from there.